POTG continued its trend as the fastest-growing plant within the tent. The fourth and fifth nodes appeared this week. All watering was completed by hand. Some leaf curling was observed, as well as browning at the tips of some of the oldest leaves. While not ideal, if the issue does not persist, it shouldn’t impact the harvest. Furthermore, I was curious whether using a soil moisture meter would help with watering. While following publicly available soil moisture percentage guidelines, the plant started to develop some signs of overwatering. Within the week, I decided that sticking with my own sense of when the plants needed to be watered was much more effective. This is a useful reminder: chasing numbers is not always optimal, because no two grow setups are the same. Ultimately, you have to listen to your plants. The fungus gnat problem has plateaued, and the neem oil application has been largely successful so far. If we were trying to maximize harvest, I would have topped this plant at this point. However, since this is a part of a genetic expansion project, allowing us to determine our favorite strains, we are more focused on healthy plants and am not intending to force this plant to undergo much, if any, stress. Topping fast-growing autoflowers can be a useful technique, but I wouldn’t advise doing so on a slower-growing variety, as the plant may not fully recover before its internal clock flips it to the flowering stage.