🌱 Folder 10A | Guava Auto Week 2 – Compact Beauty, Unlimited Potential Welcome back to another chapter of the 8×8 Adventure, where every plant tells its own story. This diary follows Frosted Guava Auto 10A, one of the most compact ladies in the room and, without question, one of the most beautifully structured plants we’ve seen so far. Growing under exactly the same environmental conditions as every other cultivar in this project allows us to appreciate something fascinating: genetics truly have their own personalities. While some plants race upwards searching for the light, Guava has chosen a completely different strategy. She builds. Every node arrives tightly stacked. Every branch develops with purpose. Every new leaf seems larger than the last. Rather than stretching, she is constructing the foundation of what promises to become an incredibly dense canopy. Sometimes the strongest plants aren’t the tallest ones. ⸻ 🌿 Growing Conditions As with every plant inside the 8×8 Adventure, Guava Auto benefits from a carefully controlled environment designed to provide consistency throughout every stage of development. Environmental Conditions * 🌡️ Day Temperature: 27°C * 🌙 Night Temperature: 25°C * 💧 Relative Humidity: 55% * 🌱 Root Zone Temperature: 21°C * 💦 Nutrient Solution Temperature: 20°C * ⚡ EC: 1.3 * pH: 6.0 * 💨 CO₂: 666 ppm * 💡 Light Schedule: 12/12 From Seed * ? Pot Size: 15 Litres Maintaining identical conditions across the entire room allows each phenotype to reveal its natural growth pattern without environmental variables influencing the comparison. ⸻ 🌿 Feeding Program This week Guava continued receiving the complete Plagron Terra nutrition program. Weekly Feeding * Terra Grow — 1.8 ml/L * Power Roots — 1 ml/L * Pure Zym — 1 ml/L * Sugar Royal — 1 ml/L * pH Plus — when required * Lemon Kick — when required The emphasis remains on supporting vigorous root expansion while encouraging steady vegetative growth without forcing excessive vertical stretch. Healthy roots build healthy harvests. ⸻ 🌱 Plant Development This has been one of my favourite plants to watch this week. From the very beginning she displayed extremely tight internodal spacing, giving her a naturally compact appearance. Instead of reaching upward, she concentrated on strengthening her central stem while producing large, healthy fan leaves that quickly shaded the lower growth. That was the perfect opportunity to introduce gentle leaf tucking together with a small amount of low-stress training. The transformation over only a few days was remarkable. Branches that had previously been hidden beneath the canopy suddenly found the light. The centre of the plant opened beautifully. Airflow improved. Future flowering sites became visible almost immediately. By the final photographs of the week, Guava looked like an entirely different plant. Still compact—but now balanced, open and full of potential. Her architecture is becoming exactly what you hope to see before the transition into flowering. ⸻ 🌿 Training Progress One of the biggest advantages of documenting these plants individually is seeing how small adjustments influence their development. This week wasn’t about bending the plant dramatically. It was about working with her natural shape. A few carefully positioned leaves were tucked away. The canopy opened naturally. The lower branches responded almost immediately by accelerating their growth toward the light. Nothing aggressive. Nothing forced. Just gentle guidance allowing the plant to express its own structure. Sometimes the simplest techniques produce the biggest improvements. ⸻ 📸 Behind This Week’s Photos The camera really tells the story this week. Early images highlight a beautifully thick central stem with exceptionally short internodal spacing—a strong indication of healthy growth and excellent light intensity. As the week progresses, the overhead shots begin revealing something even more exciting: symmetry. Every branch appears evenly distributed around the main stem, while the large fan leaves frame the developing centre almost perfectly. The close-up photographs of the canopy are especially rewarding. Hidden shoots are beginning to emerge from every node, quietly preparing to become future flowering branches. It’s one of those weeks where growth isn’t measured by height. It’s measured by potential. ⸻ 🌱 Looking Ahead The coming week should be very exciting for Guava Auto. With the canopy now opened through gentle LST and leaf tucking, I expect the secondary branches to accelerate rapidly and begin competing with the main stem. Rather than producing one dominant leader, she already hints at becoming a naturally bushy plant capable of supporting multiple flowering sites across an even canopy. If she continues developing at this pace, she may become one of the most productive compact plants in the entire room. She isn’t trying to be the tallest. She’s quietly preparing to become one of the fullest. ⸻ 💚 Thank You As always, thank you for taking the time to follow another chapter of this adventure. Whether you’re an experienced cultivator, someone growing their very first plant, a curious observer, a supporter, a skeptic, a silent reader, or someone who simply enjoys watching these journals unfold—you are all part of this journey. Thank you to every grower who shares knowledge, asks questions, offers advice and helps make this community stronger every single day. A heartfelt thank you to GrowDiaries for providing a platform where growers from every corner of the world can document their work, inspire one another and continue learning together. A huge thank you to Plagron for supplying the complete Terra feeding program used throughout this project. Their consistency and reliability allow each genetic to express its true potential under stable conditions. To Zamnesia and the breeders behind these incredible genetics—thank you for the years of work that make projects like this possible. Every seed carries its own character, and discovering those differences is one of the greatest joys of cultivation. And finally… Thank you to everyone who follows these diaries. The supporters. The critics. The believers. The skeptics. The friends I’ve met along the way. Every comment, every question and every conversation makes this project more meaningful. The 8×8 Adventure continues… One phenotype. One lesson. One week at a time. Growers Love 🌱💚