Hello everyone and welcome back to my diary.
Tomorrow marks the end of the fourth week of growth for Titan F1.
I don't think the plant is ready to flower yet and I think it needs at least another week to grow. Only time will tell if I'm right or not.
This week has been quiet, but we have two important updates.
1) At the beginning of the week, I gave it some care and removed a few leaves that I thought were unnecessary. A bit of defoliation. Like 6/7 leaves removed.
2) Today, it had some more maintenance, this time more intensive.
I removed two excess leaves and applied the LST technique for the first time.
Honestly, I enjoyed modifying the pot to accommodate the holes where the string would be attached.
To tell the truth, this low-cost adventure is becoming interesting, and I am having a lot of fun doing it and experimenting.
To tell the truth, my LST seems a bit aggressive and excessive, but we'll see in the next few days how the plant decides to respond and react to the LST. Maybe it will die, hahaha.
During this week, and reading other diaries for comparison, I determined that my plant is NOT drinking enough water.
The problem arises because I am unable to determine how much water is left in the soil/pot.
So today I decided to use a little cunning and weigh the pot when it was completely dry and then again after I watered it.
I watered it with about 1050/1100 ml of water mixed with its weekly dose of nutrients.
This time there was excess water, resulting in excess dripping.
In the final weighing after watering and after the excess water had drained away, the final weight increased by about 720/730 grams. The water I added was around 1050 grams. So 75% of the water remained in the soil. Dry it was 4400 grams, wet it reached 5120 grams. I don't know if this is good or not, I hope the plant is doing well.
In the meantime, I have ordered a device that allows me to check several parameters in the soil, such as moisture, acidity and other things that are important to us growers. I feel like a child at Christmas :).
I also bought a pH meter for the water, as mine broke and I had to buy another one, and I haven't been able to check the acidity levels for the last two waterings. I hope it doesn't bother the plant too much and that it continues to grow.
I've deduced that it drinks little because I'm forced to water it practically once a week. I expected it to consume more water, especially in its current pre-flowering phase.
The new device on its way will help me keep all the parameters under control: the soil, the plant, the temperature, the water levels, the humidity and a few other things I can't remember.
Everything should be ready next week.
The lamp is on full power all the time, at 100% with a 24/0 cycle, 7 days a week.
The plant has reached 20 centimetres in height. I wonder if this LST will keep it small. I have some space issues, so I can't let it grow too tall, which is why I'm using LST.
Otherwise, everything seems to be going well, I hope I'll be able to smoke this one.
Thanks everyone, see you next week with new updates, who knows, maybe it will start flowering :)