What a week! This plant has been THIRSTY! She has been drinking about a gallon a day, demanding nearly daily refilling of the base reservoir. We have continued the trend of increasing nutes with each watering, now reaching 15 mL/gal of both Athena Blended Base A and Base B. I will continue to increase nutrients as long as the small yellow tips do not expand any further.
We have also since moved the plant to a new 4x4 tent for flowering. This was necessary, as the height of this plant (now surpassing 50 inches tall!), which we elected not to top, was reaching too close to the light, causing concerns for light burn and other issues. However, this does come with risks: a new tent is a new environment and there are concerns that the plant may not be able to handle it. The best way to avoid this is to run your new tent empty for a while to get an idea of the environmental conditions, to ensure you’re not taking a plant from let’s say VPD of 1.1 conditions to 2.5 (which may feel excessively dramatic, but is not entirely unheard of). Ensuring the environment is as similar as possible is essentially to reducing unnecessary stress of the plant.
This new tent also addresses a minor issue of the smaller 2x4 tent: humidity. These thirsty plants are transpiring a lot, giving off so much humidity that the lower half of the tent was staying too humid for ideal conditions. Mold prevention is essential throughout flower (though, admittedly is more important in mid to late flower).
Flower development continues, with pistils growing across the plant. Trichomes are visible across sugar leaves and the plant has already started producing a noticeable weed smell. No particularly clear notes, yet. But this is great to see continued development.
In order to increase airflow and light reaching lower nodes, we committed to a moderate defoliation of the plant. This is the only real stress we have placed this plant under, but she has bounced back immediately and is showing no signs of slowing down.