02/14/2026 Honestly, I'm not sure that she is stretching. Filling out, yes. But stretching, no. Not sure what to make of this. She's only 17" tall and has been in the "pre flower" stretch for about a week. Or maybe it takes a week for the stretch to start? I don't know, but I'm not seeing any rapid growth. Like from yesterday to today, I see like a quarter inch difference in height. Not a stretch. That's like casual growing. I'm now wondering if the stretch has yet to start. So this week we are leaving it on Veg. For that reason, I'm not changing the water. Just topping it off as needed. Like today. I bet she needs a gallon. I think I'll change the water out when I start to see buds. Currently, I'm using a mix of grow and bloom nutrients while she transitions from veg to flower. I'm really hoping the stretch hasn't started yet. I've been saying it since I saw the first pistils. That was a week ago. She looks great! I don't understand where the vigor went. No signs of stress, hunger or toxicity. A perfectly healthy plant. No leaf discoloration. And still producing 7 finger leaves. Her branches are strong and most are almost caught up to the top. She's super wide and frankly, she doesn't have all that many leaves. They just got big. Maybe this lady is a 5 or 6 week veg time. But the pistils! Argh! The environment is pretty level. No issues there. We are at a nice 75° and 55%. The VPD is a bit high, but I also have the CO2 bag in the tent, so it can stand to be a bit warmer. I also think I can increase the light intensity, but I won't be doing that. Update: I raised the light to 25". It would be 24" but the Apple Strudel is 3" taller and I need to make sure I don't burn that one. So we are at 25" with a DLI of 35.6 mol. I increased the light power to 60% as well. Currently 195 watts. I also noticed the EC and TDS dropped quite a bit last night. Not sure why, but I might have to add more nutrients. It's happening with the Apple Strudel as well. Not really sure what to do besides continue adding nutrients until she levels out? But if she's taking in more nutrients than water, how do you stop that? Does it level out and she drinks the same amount she eats? 02/15/2026 Apparently I forgot to do an entry this day. Oops. I was busy. Real quick. Not much going on. 02/16/2026 Readings: pH: 6.05 EC: 800 TDS: 402 Temp: 66.2 The EC and TDS are still low, but now TDS is in the 400s, so that's good. I'm trying to figure out how to increase the dose without pumping the water out again. I'm going to have to wait until I need to top off again. So tomorrow it seems. Now just to figure out how much I need. It's 4 gallons, so what to do? I only need 50 ppm more. Maybe 500? I'm still trying to figure out how it works. Like if I add a certain amount, will the plant eat and drink the same amount based on a number? Like if the water was 500 ppm, and 2 days later when she's taken in a gallon of water, I see the EC and TDS at the same level. Or would 500 ppm still not be enough to keep up? I'm not exactly understanding what I'm experiencing here. I added a little micro to the mix too. I almost forgot about it. Just a little bit. I think it'll help with the TDS and might help the plant grow more. When I change the water out in a couple days, I'm going to be adding 1 ml per gallon to start. It should be like 7.5 or something, but I'm taking it slow. I'll add a bit more until I get to 5 or so and see how she does. I'm trying to not go over 500 ppm as this is an autoflower. She doesn't need a ton of food. Although, this particular strain is nutrient heavy. She could probably take 550 ppm. But I'm not doing that. I'll stick with 450 ppm until she hits full flower. Then I'll bump it up to 500 then 550, and if needed, 600. She also has started budding. Not too sure what that means for her growth. But I'm thinking she's not gonna grow much more. Shame that. However, the Apple Strudel is still growing. No budding, nothing. Well, she has pistils, but that's because she's transitioning to flower. She is going to finish stretching in a few days I think. Maybe longer. Hopefully a little longer to grow. Anyway, that's it for the day. 02/17/2026 Swapped the water out. Honestly forgot to write in today. So this is the next day. I swapped water and that was about it. 02/18/2026 Readings: pH: 5.90 EC: 809 TDS: 403 Temp: 65.1 We are looking pretty good. Is the EC supposed to be that low? The TDS is decent but I'd like to see it at 450 to 500. Temp looks great! I've been swapping the ice bottles out 3 times a day. 1 in the morning then afternoon and then evening. It's been working perfectly. The pH is spot on, as it should be. Her root ball is a bit small for my liking. I don't have a way of taking a picture of it without a second pair of hands. It's not too small. But definitely could be bigger. The root ball in the Apple Strudel is taking up the entire bucket. It's pretty cool. No pics of that either. As for after her defoliation, she showed zero signs of stress from it. Very happy plant. Leaves perky and happy looking. Nothing drooping. Just good happy plant. I also had to lift the light up again and drop the power down to 50%. Now she's 24" from the light and the DLI is 37 mol. It has to be that low because the apple Strudel is a bit taller and I don't want to burn her. As it is, she was showing signs of light stress already. Blue Dream, that is. But it's all fixed now. I really should be checking the light daily. I forget to. I only have a few inches to the ceiling. The environment looks great! No issues, equipment is barely running now. Perfect for this little lady. Speaking of little, I'm pretty sure that's it for the stretch now it's stacking time I guess. I'll take a total height measurement at the beginning of next week, but I'm pretty sure she's over 20" now. Maybe she'll get taller when the stacking starts. 02/19/2026 I think I forgot to mention a few days ago, she has buds now. So I'll be switching to bloom nutes coming next week. Well, 2 more days. I should have switched last week, but she didn't have buds yet. I was assuming she would stretch. Lol Apparently not. No clue what happened. Maybe not enough food. But she showed zero signs of stress. A very healthy plant. But no stretch. I'm hoping the stacks make it taller. If the stacks happen. I'm very confused with this plant. I mean, flowering as early as she did is pretty cool. But where did the stretch go? Anyway, I was considering topping off today, but she definitely doesn't need it. Maybe a half gallon. I want to try and hold off until I swap the water out. That way I'm not pulling out 4 gallons. With 1 being fresh. Nope. Not me. The environment is looking pretty good. No issues. I'm gonna drop the humidy next week to 50%. I'll leave the temp the same though. Roughly 75° I could get to 77°, but I'm not gonna bother. She also took really well to the defoliation. No stress that I can see. But she's still short! Why? Why Lord why?! Oh well. I'll just do my best to make sure she has massive rock hard buds. 02/20/2026 Last day of week 6 and last day of Veg. I probably should have started flower last week, but I wasn't thinking about it. Oh well. Now we have buds and the the start of flower. Tomorrow I'll be changing out the mix to bloom nutrients. Big bud, tasty terpenes and bringing back B-52 for the rest of the run. I'll be taking out Piranha, Tarantula, Voodoo Juice and Bud Ignitor. Currently I'm at a third dose for next week, so the week after, a half dose should be fine. Plus it was only ever nitrogen I was having a problem with and just barely. I figure if that's the only issue I've seen and it was the only issue. Although, it really wasn't an issue. The only thing I saw was dark tips. But the Apple Strudel got nitrogen toxicity from the Grow part of the nutrients. Not much else to report on. She's budding and that's what matters. Hopefully she stacks right up. I'll be very upset if this turns out to be a small budded plant. Too early to tell though. The environment is good. The water is low, but I'm swapping it out tomorrow. Hopefully I'm not causing any issues with her by waiting the extra day to fill the bucket up.