Day 36
First day of the final week of vegetation. Originally I was planning on vegging another few weeks but since the right girl already has a bigger bush than a 70s pornstar I'll flip soon, before space will be an issue. Preferably I'd veg the left girl longer as she is still lagging in size but it's too big of a mission to set up my second tent and move her over there.
Super easy day today, all I did was to give the right girl 3 liters of pH 6.1 water as well as tightening a few LST wires.
Day 37
All I did today was to tighten some LST wires, removing some more leaves down low on the plants, and watered the girls with pH 6.6 water. The left girl got around 2 liters and the right one only got a liter since she wasn't all that dry considering that she was watered yesterday. I also started brewing some compost tea to feed to the girls tomorrow. I used the same recipe as previously: worm castings, rock dust, biochar, lime, bentonite, neem meal, kelp meal, and some molasses.
Day 38
Open the tent today and was met by a surprise - one of the tops on the left girl had broken off. I tightened the LST wires yesterday and all was ok when I closed up the tent but I guess that I had tightened a bit too much so the top eventually broke. Sigh. Wasn't planning on topping again this week but yeah, gotta roll with it. Maybe I move one of the girls to the second tent after all. We'll see.
All I did in the tent today was to feed the girls some compost tea. Each girl got around 0.5-liter tea as a foliar spray and then an additional 2.5 liters in the pot. True to form I naturally forgot to pH the tea. No idea why I always seem to forget to pH my compost tea but I really should make an effort to remember it next time.
Day 39
All I did today was to give the right girl 3 liters of pH 6.6 water. She is so much bigger than the small plant so she drinks a lot more. Currently, I'm watering around 10% of the pot volume per day.
I'm pretty sure I will move out the petite girl and put her in my small drying tent and keep the right beast in my main tent as I'm kinda curious to see the yield I will get from her when she can spread out properly. I have already ordered another grow light and it should arrive tomorrow.
Day 40
Today was a busy day in the tent as one of the girls moved out to her new home. Before I go into details, I should take a step back and explain my setup.
I have this tiny tent that is 40x40x120 cm big (16x16x48 inches) that I use as a drying tent. It has a circulation fan, an extraction fan, a carbon filter, a temp/humidity monitor, and an inkbird humidity controller to control everything.
I have been considering turning it into a small grow tent to fool around and see what I can grow in such a small space. I've always been fascinated by small challenges, to see what you can accomplish within strictly set (and small!) boundaries — both in size and in budget.
I was planning on setting up this tent after the summer, but as I'm running out of space in my main tent, it seems like a good idea to do it now instead.
The only thing the tent lacks to start growing is a light, and I already have a ViparSpectra P600 light, but it is currently used for my chilis and tomatoes while they are waiting to move outside.
So I bought a new low-budget light to use with the veggies and move in the ViparSpectra light into the tent. The P600 is also a budget light, but I'm hopeful that it will still work well in such a small space. After putting in the light in the tent and measuring the PAR level, it looks like the ViparSpectra is more than up to the challenge as I had to dim the light not to fry the canopy below.
The entire build with everything in it (tent, light, fans, carbon filter, etc.) is well below 250 euros. So about half of what one of the lights in my main tent costs. lol.
Once the light was installed in the tent, it was time to move the left girl. First, I carefully removed the scrog net, and it was pretty easy as the plants hadn't grown into the net yet. The small tent has a tiny door that it was a challenge to get the girl in but with some help from my girlfriend and some brute force; the plant went in. It is very tight in there, and I will have to do some selective pruning for sure, but I'll do that over the weekend.
In the main tent, I moved the girl into the center and put back the scrog net. I will have to train her further to fill up the space entirely, so maybe I do another week of veg after all. I'll work on her over the weekend as well and see where I'm at on Monday.
I adjusted the lights to read similar PAR levels at canopy level in both tents, but once I go into flower, I'll bump up the main tent as I have CO2 in there, so the girl should be able to handle more light and heat.
Finally, I gave each girl 3 liters of pH 6.1 water.
I had to use the ultrawide lens on my phone to capture each plant in the photos. Fun to finally use that lens :)
Day 41
Today I moved the small tent back into its stealth location, another IKEA wardrobe. There's no real risk that anyone would discover my grow but I still prefer to keep everything as hidden as possible. Watered the girls, each one with 3 liters of pH 6.5 water. I also removed all LST wires from both plants but attached some new ones for the right girl. (I'm going to keep calling them left and right even though they aren't in the same tent anymore.)
Finally, I defoliated the bottom of the left girl. That's it. All in all, a really chilled day.
Day 42
Today was the last day of week 6 of vegetation. I know I said earlier this week that this would be the last week of vegetation, but I might veg the right girl another week. To give her a bit more time to fill out the tent. I'll decide that tomorrow, but in any case, I'll flip the left girl as her tent is so tiny, and I don't want her to get any larger.
The left girl is now 38 cm tall, and the right girl is 46 cm tall.
The right girl got 4 liters of pH 6.1 water today as she is sooo thirsty right now, but the left girl didn't need any today, so I left her alone.
I started brewing some compost tea (worm castings, rock dust, biochar, lime, bentonite, neem meal, kelp meal, and molasses) as I want to do one final foliar feed tomorrow before sending the girls into flower.