02/07/2026 A new week and I believe we are starting the pre-flower stretch... Maybe. I'll ve leaving the nutrients alone for some of the week. I need to make sure she's in stretch or not before I change out my nutrients. She's already got white pistils and is 14" tall. That's 5" in a week. Not too shabby. Now if we can get an inch or 2 a day from here on out, I'll be very happy. Once I know the stretch is in motion, I think that's when I start changing out the nutrients. Like bud if itor and big bud. Oh and bud factor x. These all go in on week 5. Which should be this week, BUT I started the veg cycle early. So it's really a week behind. In that regard, I should be keeping the same mix as last week. So I'll compromise and change the water out when I know we are stretching. I snipped the main stem fan leaves as well. It was definitely a good idea. Now the branches have space to grow and not be impeded by massive fan leaves bigger than my hand. I left the very top two fan leaves as I like to do. I feel like the leaves are too new to snip off. Once the node gets a little bit older, I'll snip them off as I go. Speaking of nodes, she has 8 and is working on 9. But then I think that's it. From here on out, she'll be stretching the main cola. I have to figure out a way to tie the top down so the rest of the branches can catch up. I hand bend it, but not enough. I would need to be in the tent like 4 times a day. Not that I mind, but like 4 times messing with the environment will be a pain. The heater is overheating as it is. I'm gonna have to swap it out. Not sure how it's overheating. It should be on like 4. But then again. It's 1° f outside today. Wind chill is -17° f. So maybe it's trying to compensate. But it's like 70° f in the apartment. Outdoors can't play that big of a role, surely. Anyway, on top of popping some leaves off, I cleared out the small bit of growth under the canopy. The goal for this run is to properly defoliate and prune an autoflower. Only keep the top 2/3 of the plant. It won't be very hard to be selective with this plant. Everything is so very uniform. Something that's pretty cool is all the bud clipped branches are starting to grow at the same time and seems to be the same pace. This should level out the canopy to table top flatness. The only thing that will bother me is the top. Considering the fact that I couldn't tie her down, her top buds will be bigger than the canopy buds. Which is ok, but I want a sea of buds, not a nipple. We'll see how it turns out. Maybe if I hand train the top down, for a couple days, the branches will start to catch up. So I'm still considering the trellis net. I'm not sure though. I do have an air pump specifically for this purpose, but like how the hell am I gonna clean the bucket out weekly? There's just no way. None that I can think of. I mean I could slide the roots to another bucket for the time being, but how will I remove the bucket without lifting the plant? I don't know. Well, water pump it is I guess. That's only if I use the trellis net. Very possible. However, her branches are super strong and will definitely be able to handle heavy buds. And lots of them. The environment is looking good today. Happily it's stable, it at the cost of an overheating heater. 02/08/2026 Looking good today! I believe she has started the pre -flower stretch. She sucked down a little under a gallon in 2 days. So that's good. I'll be changing the water out tomorrow for some fresh nutrients. I think I'm supposed to start the transition from grow nutes to bloom nutes as well. I can't remember if it's before or after the stretch. I'm thinking after? I need to research this. After a bit of research, it seems bloom nutes start after the stretch. So maybe I won't be changing the water after all tomorrow. Who knows. I must research more. Other than that, she is a beautiful plant. Stretching out her side branches almost enough for me to be able to bud clip them. Currently they are long and thin and already leaning out, so no sense in training them yet. I'll wait for them to start really stretching. Then I'll do some more training, maybe. We'll see. What I've done so far might be enough. The goal is to fill half the tent. Front to back. Then the other plant does the same thing and I have a full tent. They have to stay a little thin and less wide though so they don't encroach on the others space. The humidity and temp are just wrong. The AI doesn't seem to get the fact that less is more. Oh well. It's pretty decent. 02/09/2026 Omg she is looking great! 16" now and just started the stretch. Beautiful greens and super thick stem. The branches aren't as thick as the blue dream in the tent, but they are definitely thick and sturdy. A little easier to bend too. But the internodal spacing on the branches is too short to fit clips in. So I'm going to wait until the stretch really gets underway. Auxiliary branches are starting to get pretty long too. But they're already horizontal, so no sense in bending them. Well, yet anyway. They'll start lift up soon enough. I might have to raise the light soon. It's 17" from the canopy. I want it higher and brighter. I'll probably wait for 15" then raise it back up to 22" and increase the intensity to probably 6 or 7. We'll see. Currently the DLI is 38 mol. I'd say perfect for this age. Very close to 40 but not there quite yet. Perfect. The environment looks alright now. I attached the hose to the humidifier so now it's dropping from above and is much more stable. Once I lift the light up higher, I'll feel much more comfortable. The fog is really close to the light. 02/10/2026 Well today is the day. I think. So I noticed the tips of the top growth starting to turn yellow. Definitely a deficiency. I'm guessing nitrogen given the need for it during the stretch. But what I'm going to do is increase the nutrients from 2.5 ml per gallon to 1 ml per liter. There's 15 liters, so it's half of what the recommended dose is. It should be fine. Readings after water change. pH: 5.8 EC: 880 TDS: 442 Temp: 64.4° This might not be enough nutrients. But we'll see for now. 02/11/2026 So I'm pretty sure I screwed up again. The water temp was definitely higher than 70° this morning because I forgot to add an ice bottle last night. So naturally there were bubbles all over the place. Like big bubble foam. Not sure if that's good or bad. But if it's bad, that's what Hydrogaurd is for. We'll see what happens now that I got the water to cool down. On a better note, she's still growing strong. Leaves are getting bigger, she's stretching and branches are making more branches. Lol. The environment seems pretty good now. No issues with the equipment specifically the heater. I raised the light yesterday and increased the power to match. Now the DLI is at 39 mol. Just under 40. I'll bring it over 40 after the stretch. I have CO2 in the tent, so I could go up to 45 mol if not 50 mol. But I'm gonna keep it at 40, maybe a little higher. It all depends on what she wants. I can definitely increase the intensity. Just don't want to risk light stress. On a better note, I have tons of space for this plant to grow. Like a good 3 ft. of space. So she can grow a good 4 ft tall and still not take over the tent. Well, no true. If she ends up being that big she will most certainly take over the tent. Let's hope the Blue Dream can hold her own. Anyway, I don't really expect a 4 ft plant. I'll be happy with 3 ft. As long as it has colas for days, I'm happy. Plus, height doesn't really matter in tents. It's width that matters. How many tops can one make in a limited space. Spread the plant out keeping a low profile. That way all the buds get light and not a select few that would otherwise be over the canopy. For example, this plant is going to be tall with a lower canopy and one main cola. I didn't really want this structure, but I don't have any tie downs. And the top won't grow a long enough node that's thin enough to bend. So I can't even use the bud clips. And now the side branches are building a lot of nodes and none are spaced out enough to use a bud clip on. Well, it doesn't really matter anyway. All the side and auxiliary branches are growing outward and not up, Soni don't need to train those down. Honestly, this would have been the perfect opportunity to learn how to top. But that bus went by a long time ago.