Flowering – Day 21 | End of Week 3 Day 21 since the flip to 12/12, and today was finally cleanup day! The stretch is already over. There was barely any vertical growth during the last week, and the girls have clearly started focusing on flower development. Honestly, I think they’re looking pretty far along for just day 21. The buds are already forming nicely! Today I gave both plants a proper cleanup underneath, removing weak branches, lower shoots and anything that wasn’t getting enough light. I actually left quite a bit more on the plants than I normally would. Since this run is going to be washed, I’m not really worried about perfect-looking buds or bag appeal. This time it’s all about biomass, so even the smaller flowers are welcome. Right after the defoliation, I also switched off the AutoPot system for a little controlled dryback. I’ll leave it off for up to 48 hours, depending on how quickly the pots use up the remaining water. This is something I’ve had good experiences with back when I was hand watering. I used to time my defoliation so the next watering would be about two days later, instead of watering right after cutting everything back. The plants always seemed to handle it better that way. The idea isn’t to stress the plants or let the soil dry out. With BioTabs, I want to keep the microbial life happy and active. It’s more about giving the root zone a little breathing room after removing so much leaf mass, especially now that the plants temporarily need less water. With 20L AutoPot FlexiPots and a 50/50 mix of Lightmix and perlite, the substrate is already pretty well aerated. This short break is just my way of managing moisture and keeping the roots healthy. I’m not trying to push yield through crop steering here. Apart from that, everything is going really well. The plants are looking super healthy, the leaf color is great, and the flowers are developing faster than I expected. The BioTabs setup is doing its job, and I’m really happy with how things are going. Three weeks into 12/12 and we’re already looking good. Now it’s time to let the girls do their thing and stack some flowers! 🌱