? Blueberry Muffin – Pheno B Week 8 | Lush, Green & Ready to Perform 🌿🔥 Welcome back to another week of the 8×8 Adventure! 💚🌱 If you're new to this diary, welcome! And if you've been following from the beginning, you already know that this project isn't simply about growing twelve plants. It's about watching twelve different personalities develop under the same conditions. Twelve cultivars. The same room. The same lighting. The same irrigation system. The same general feeding strategy. And yet somehow… they all tell completely different stories. Blueberry Muffin Pheno B is becoming a perfect example of that. Last week, she finally joined the flowering party. This week? OMG. She's looking absolutely lush. 🌱 A Quick Recap — How Did We Get Here? Because every phenotype has its own diary, I always want to begin with a little recap. Blueberry Muffin Pheno B has been grown from seed under a strict 12/12 light schedule, meaning she has received twelve hours of light and twelve hours of darkness from the beginning of the project. This is what we call 12/12-from-seed. Rather than giving the plants a traditional vegetative period under a longer light schedule, we're allowing them to develop under flowering photoperiod conditions from the start. And that doesn't mean every plant reacts the same way. Quite the opposite. We've seen some plants transition very quickly, while others have taken considerably longer. Pheno B was one of the slower ones. She spent a long time developing her structure before finally deciding that it was time to flower. But once she made that decision… she didn't waste any time. During the vegetative stage I deliberately kept things relatively gentle. There was no aggressive training programme. No constant manipulation. Mostly LST and gentle leaf positioning, allowing the plant to naturally develop her own structure while making small adjustments when necessary. That has given us a really interesting phenotype to observe. She's approximately the same size as her sister, but her personality is completely different. Pheno A developed a more open architecture. Pheno B? She's becoming a lush little bush. 🌿 And now we're finally getting to see what that structure can do in flower. 🌸 Flowering — She's Ready to Perform This is officially her second week of flowering development, and the transformation is becoming much more obvious. The flowering sites are clearly established now, with fresh white pistils appearing throughout the canopy. The tops are beginning to develop their own identity, and there are flowering sites distributed all across the plant. She's not stretching dramatically. She's not trying to become the tallest girl in the room. Instead, she's putting her energy into building what is already a very full structure. And that's what has me curious. Because when you look at her now, the question isn't really: "Will she flower?" That's already happening. The question is: What is she going to do with all this structure? Will she keep stacking compact flowers? Will she put on more stretch? How much will those smaller flowering sites develop? We don't know yet. And that's exactly why we're documenting it. 🌿 The Greenest Girl in the Room? One thing that immediately stands out this week is her colour. Look at this girl. She's carrying an incredibly lush green across the canopy. There are a few leaves here and there that had some imperfections or showed signs that they weren't contributing much anymore. Those are exactly the kinds of leaves we've been removing during our selective cleaning. But looking at the plant as a whole? She's looking healthy, vibrant and full of energy. And that's particularly interesting when compared with her sister. Same genetics. Same room. Same project. Different phenotype. Different expression. Pheno A has been asking for more nutrition and has been slower to regain that deeper colour. Pheno B is basically standing there saying: "I'm good. What's next?" 😂 And I absolutely love seeing that difference. ✂️ Cleaning, Lollipopping & Defoliation This week we've also continued our cleaning work around the room. And again, I want to emphasize something because this is an important part of how I'm approaching this entire project. There is no defoliation day. I don't have a calendar saying: Week 8 = everybody gets defoliated. That's not how I grow. There are twelve plants in this room, and they're twelve different personalities. So I look at the room. I look at the plants. And when one plant is telling me that it could benefit from a little cleaning… I clean that plant. Another one might be ready next week. Another one might need almost nothing. And that's perfectly fine. I'm also doing this entire project myself. So I'm not going to create artificial pressure by trying to defoliate twelve plants on the same day simply because a schedule says I should. I go with the flow. Not with pressure. For Pheno B, this meant removing selected leaves that were no longer useful, were creating unnecessary overlap, or were interfering with the developing flowering sites. We also cleaned up the lower portion of the plant with some lollipopping, removing lower growth that wasn't likely to contribute meaningfully to the main flowering structure. The objective isn't to strip the plant. It's simply to clean up the areas that don't need to be there anymore and improve the overall architecture. And I think the result is pretty clear in the photographs. She's still very leafy. She's still lush. She's still got plenty of healthy foliage. But the plant now has a cleaner lower structure and better-defined flowering areas. That's exactly what I want. ⚗️ Feeding — A Little More for Everyone The feeding programme has also been increased this week. And just like with Pheno A, this wasn't because Blueberry Muffin Pheno B suddenly demanded a huge increase. The entire room has reached a point where nutritional demand has increased naturally as flowering progresses. So we adjusted the feeding accordingly. Pheno B doesn't look hungry. Quite the opposite. She's looking fantastic. But she certainly doesn't appear to mind the increased availability either. 😄 Our current feeding consists of: 🌱 Plagron Terra Bloom – 2.2 ml/L 🌱 Plagron Power Buds – 1 ml/L 🌱 Plagron Sugar Royal – 1 ml/L 🌱 Plagron Pure Zym – 1 ml/L With the pH adjusted to approximately 6.0. The important thing now is not to keep changing things simply because we can. We've increased the feeding. Now we watch. If she continues maintaining this beautiful colour and keeps developing normally, that's a very good sign that she's comfortable with the current strategy. If she tells us something different… we listen. That's really the philosophy behind this entire grow. 🌡️ Environment The environment remains stable, which is exactly what I want at this stage. 🌡️ Day temperature: 29°C 🌙 Night temperature: 25°C 💧 Relative humidity: 60% 🥥 Substrate temperature: 21°C 💦 Nutrient solution temperature: 24°C ⚗️ pH: 6.0 ⚡ EC: approximately 2.0 mS/cm 💨 CO₂: 693 ppm 💡 Light schedule: 12/12 💧 Watering: approximately 1.3 L/plant/24h ? Pot size: 15 litres She's continuing in the AutoPot system, giving the root zone consistent access to the nutrient solution. That consistency is particularly valuable now that the plant has moved properly into flowering. No unnecessary drama. No wild swings. Just a stable environment and a plant being allowed to do what she naturally wants to do. ? Pheno B's Personality Is Becoming Very Clear This is probably my favourite part of this week's update. Because now we're beginning to understand who she is. She's compact. She's bushy. She's extremely leafy. She's naturally vigorous. And she's carrying a beautiful green colour. She's also developing a very different structure from her sister despite being the same cultivar. And that's exactly why I wanted separate diaries for the phenotypes. Imagine if these two plants were simply documented together under one Blueberry Muffin diary. We would lose half the story. Pheno A would tell us one story. Pheno B is telling us another. Same genetics. Different expression. And now we're going to get the opportunity to see whether that difference continues all the way through flowering. 📸 Behind the Lens The camera really captured the personality of this girl this week. The close-ups show those fresh pistils emerging from the developing flowers, while the wider photographs reveal just how much plant she has packed into a relatively modest footprint. The canopy is full. The flowering sites are becoming easier to identify. And that green… wow. There are still a few older leaves that have shown some imperfections, but after the selective cleaning, the plant looks remarkably uniform. This is one of those weeks where the photographs almost tell the story before I even start writing. She's ready. Now we just have to see what she does with the opportunity. 🔮 Looking Ahead — What Do We Expect? For the coming week, I'm not expecting any miracles overnight. And I'm certainly not going to make predictions about final yield or flower size at this stage. It's still early. What I am expecting is continued flower development. I'm looking for: 🌸 Increasing flower formation 🌿 Continued healthy green growth ? More definition around the individual flowering sites 📈 Some gradual stacking and development ✂️ Further selective cleaning only where the plant actually needs it And what am I not expecting? I'm not expecting every plant in the room to behave the same way. I'm not expecting Pheno B to suddenly become Pheno A. And I'm definitely not going to force her into a schedule simply because another plant is ready for something. She has already shown us that she's perfectly capable of writing her own story. So we'll let her continue. 💚 One More Week, One More Lesson This week is another reminder of why the 8×8 Adventure has become so fascinating for me. Two Blueberry Muffins. Same environment. Same genetics. Same light. Same irrigation. Same general feeding strategy. Yet look at them. Two completely different personalities. Pheno A is the patient one, gradually finding her rhythm and demanding a little more nutrition. Pheno B is the lush one, standing there with a beautiful green canopy and looking like she's ready to perform. Neither is better. Neither is worse. They're simply different. And that's the whole point. The grower doesn't always get to decide what the plant is going to become. Sometimes our job is simply to create the conditions where the plant can show us. 💚 Thank You As always, thank you so much to everyone following the 8×8 Adventure. Every week this project becomes a little more interesting, and seeing twelve different cultivars develop under the same conditions has been an incredible learning experience. A huge thank you to GrowDiaries for providing the platform where I can document this journey, share the observations and learn alongside growers from around the world. To Zamnesia, thank you for these beautiful Blueberry Muffin genetics. Watching two different phenotypes from the same cultivar develop such different personalities has already made this one of the most interesting comparisons in the room. To Plagron, thank you for the nutrients and growing media supporting the plants throughout this journey. And to Future of Grow LED, thank you for providing the lighting that gives all twelve girls the same opportunity to show us what their genetics can do. And finally, to everyone following, commenting, asking questions, sharing experiences and simply stopping by to see how the girls are doing… thank you. 💚 This adventure wouldn't be nearly as meaningful without the community around it. So let's see what this lush little Blueberry Muffin has planned for us next. She's got the structure. She's got the colour. She's got the flowers. Now it's time to see what she can do with them. ?🌸🔥 Growers Love, my friends. See you next week. 💚🌱