💎 Black Diamond Auto by Zamnesia – Pheno A Week 8 | She's Everywhere Welcome back to another chapter of the 8×8 Adventure! And this week, I have to admit something... I have absolutely no idea where this girl is going. And I love it. 😂💚 Black Diamond Pheno A has officially reached the point where I stop trying to predict what she's going to become and simply enjoy watching her do it. Every week I think I've figured out her structure. Then she does something else. This week? She's building main-cola-sized flowers everywhere. Not just one dominant central cola. Not a huge top surrounded by little side flowers. I'm talking about substantial flowering structures developing all the way down the plant, with some of the lower flowers already starting to resemble little baseballs. And the craziest part? There is almost no popcorn. She's simply turning branch after branch into proper flowering sites. This Black Diamond is something special. 🌱 The 12/12 From Seed Adventure For anyone discovering this diary for the first time, welcome to the 8×8 Adventure. Every plant in this project is being grown under a 12 hours on / 12 hours off light schedule from seed. There is no traditional vegetative period. No extended growth phase. No special treatment for individual phenotypes. Every plant receives the same environment, the same lighting strategy, the same feeding philosophy and the same general care. The genetics are the variable. And that's exactly what makes this experiment so fascinating. When twelve plants are given essentially the same conditions and one of them decides to become a completely different creature... that's the phenotype talking. And Black Diamond Pheno A certainly has something to say. 💎 She's Building Colas Everywhere Last week I described this plant as tall, elegant and balanced. This week? I'm starting to think "balanced" isn't quite enough anymore. At 169 cm, she has developed an incredible vertical structure with flowering sites distributed throughout the plant. But what really catches my attention is the consistency of flower development. Normally, when looking at a plant this size, you expect the hierarchy to be obvious: One main cola. A few strong secondary branches. Then progressively smaller flowers as you move down the plant. Black Diamond Pheno A seems to have decided that hierarchy is optional. Her central cola is still the largest and most obvious flower. Of course it is. But the secondary branches are not behaving like secondary flowers anymore. They're becoming colas in their own right. And even further down the plant, I'm seeing flowers developing with enough volume that calling them "lower buds" almost feels unfair. They're becoming little towers. Some are already approaching baseball-sized proportions. And there is remarkably little popcorn hiding underneath. That is what has me so excited. 🍃 Still Untouched Perhaps the most interesting part of this whole story is what hasn't happened. I haven't topped her. I haven't HST'd her. I haven't performed aggressive defoliation. I haven't stripped the interior. I haven't tried to force her into a particular shape. The only intervention has been the occasional leaf tuck when a large fan leaf was blocking a developing flower. That's it. And now I'm looking at this plant thinking... Maybe she never needed me to shape her in the first place. 😂 This is one of those grows that reminds you that sometimes genetics already have a plan. Our job isn't always to create the structure. Sometimes it's simply to provide the environment and get out of the way. ☀️ She's Eating Every Photon She Can Find And this girl certainly isn't wasting the light. Top canopy? She's using it. Inner canopy? She's using it. Lower canopy? Apparently she wants that too. And now that the Lumiflora under-canopy lighting has joined the party, I'm extremely curious to see how far this phenotype can push flower development throughout the entire vertical structure. The whole idea behind the under-canopy lighting was to give those normally shaded areas access to additional usable light. And Black Diamond Pheno A seems to have plenty of flowering real estate available to take advantage of it. She's capturing photons from above. She's capturing photons from between the branches. She's capturing photons from underneath. At this point I'm almost convinced she's going around the room looking for the last photon that hasn't been claimed yet. 😂💚 💡 Lumiflora Under-Canopy Lighting This is now becoming a particularly interesting part of the experiment. The top of the plant is obviously receiving plenty of light from the main fixtures. But look at the structure of this girl. There are flowers developing everywhere. That makes light distribution throughout the canopy increasingly important. The under-canopy lighting isn't intended to replace the primary fixtures. It's simply another layer of light reaching areas that would naturally receive less. And this is exactly the kind of plant where I want to observe the result. Will the lower flowers continue developing with impressive density? Will the middle of the plant continue filling out? Will the overall flower distribution become more uniform? We're going to find out. I'm not expecting miracles. I'm expecting observation. And that's one of the reasons this project is so much fun. 🌸 Flower Development Is Getting Serious The difference from last week is becoming very obvious. The flowers are no longer simply forming. They're building structure. Calyxes are stacking. Pistils are filling the flowers. Sugar leaves are becoming increasingly covered in visible resin. And the individual flowers are beginning to gain the shape and volume that tells you the real bulking phase is approaching. The central cola is beautiful. But honestly? I'm almost more interested in everything around it. Because when you look down the branches, you keep finding another flower. And another. And another. There is no obvious point where the plant suddenly says: "Okay, that's enough. Everything below this is popcorn." Instead, she just keeps producing. Cola after cola after cola. ❄️ The Frost Is Coming Along for the Ride Another thing becoming increasingly obvious in this week's photographs is the resin coverage. The sugar leaves are carrying a beautiful layer of visible trichomes, and the flowers themselves are becoming increasingly frosty. The close-up photographs really show it. We're still not at the final destination. There's plenty of flower maturation and swelling ahead. But Black Diamond is already giving us a preview of what she's capable of. And I have a feeling that once the flowers really start packing on weight, the visual difference could become spectacular. 💧 Feeding This Week The feeding program continues to support the increasingly demanding flowering phase. This week's recorded recipe: Plagron Terra Bloom — 2.2 ml/L Plagron Power Buds — 1 ml/L Plagron Green Sensation — 1 ml/L Plagron Sugar Royal — 1 ml/L Plagron pH Plus — 0.03 ml/L Plagron Lemon Kick — 0.03 ml/L The nutrient solution is being maintained around pH 6.0, with the recorded EC/TDS reading at approximately 2.0 mS/cm. Watering volume is currently around 1.3 L per plant per 24 hours. And the plant is responding beautifully. No obvious signs of nutritional stress. No dramatic deficiencies. No major environmental complaints. Just growth. Flower production. And more flower production. 🌡️ Environmental Conditions The environment remains stable and consistent, which is exactly what I want during this stage. Current conditions: 🌸 Flowering: Week 8 📏 Height: 169 cm 💡 Light schedule: 12/12 🌡️ Day temperature: 29°C 🌙 Night temperature: 25°C 💧 Relative humidity: 60% pH: 6.0 ⚡ EC: ~2.0 mS/cm 🌱 Substrate temperature: 21°C 💧 Nutrient solution temperature: 21°C 🌬️ CO₂: 639 ppm 💦 Watering: ~1.3 L/plant/24h The goal remains simple: Keep the environment stable and let the plant perform. 📸 This Week's Gallery This week's photographs might be some of my favourites of this phenotype so far. The full-plant images show just how impressive her structure has become. The close-ups tell an even better story. Everywhere you look there is another flowering site. The central cola is developing beautifully, but then you move your eyes down the plant and suddenly discover another substantial flower. And another. And another. Some of those lower flowers are already surprisingly large. The sugar leaves are carrying a beautiful layer of frost. The pistils are still predominantly fresh and white, telling us that there is plenty of development still ahead. And the most remarkable thing? This plant still hasn't been defoliated. She's lush. She's green. She's full. She's flowering everywhere. And somehow she's making it work. 🔮 Looking Ahead This is officially the part of the grow where I'm going to stop making predictions. 😂 Because every time I think I know what Black Diamond Pheno A is going to do... She proves me wrong. What I can say is that the next weeks should be fascinating. The flowers should continue swelling. The calyxes should become more pronounced. Resin production should increase. And those numerous secondary flowering structures have the potential to become some seriously impressive flowers. I'm particularly interested in watching those lower and inner flowers. Because if they continue developing at anything close to the rate we're seeing now... this plant could become an absolute monster from top to bottom. And that's without me forcing her to do it. 💎 Let Her Shine This phenotype has taught me something throughout this run. Sometimes you don't need to push a plant. You don't need to manipulate every branch. You don't need to remove every leaf. You don't need to create the structure yourself. Sometimes... you just need to give the genetics the opportunity to show you what they can do. Black Diamond Pheno A has been given that opportunity. And she's taking it. She's capturing light from the top. She's using the inner canopy. She's reaching into the lower canopy. She's taking advantage of the under-canopy lighting. She's building flowers everywhere. She's filling spaces where I expected to find popcorn. And she's doing all of this while simply being allowed to grow. At this point, I'm not trying to tell her what she should become. I'm just watching. I'm learning. And I'm enjoying the show. Because honestly... I have no idea where this girl is going. But wherever she's going... I absolutely love the direction. 💎🌱 💚 Thank You A huge thank you to everyone following another chapter of the 8×8 Adventure. Thank you to GrowDiaries for providing a place where growers can document, compare, learn and inspire one another. Thank you to Zamnesia for the Black Diamond genetics that gave us this fascinating phenotype to follow. Thank you to Plagron for the nutrition supporting the plants throughout the run. Thank you to Future of Grow LED for providing the main lighting driving this project. Thank you to Lumiflora for joining the adventure and giving us the opportunity to explore what additional under-canopy lighting can contribute to a plant with this kind of structure. And thank you to TrolMaster for helping maintain the stable environment behind the scenes. And finally, thank you to everyone reading, commenting, asking questions and following these plants week after week. Every phenotype in the 8×8 Adventure has its own personality. But Black Diamond Pheno A? She's becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. She's not making one main cola. She's making a whole collection of them. And I can't wait to see what happens next. Growers Love. 💚🌱💎