2/18: 4 weeks since we planted them. Some of the new nodes since topping are starting to come in. Also finally got to doing some lst. First time, so I didn't rlly know what I was doing all that much, but my main goal was to pull branches outward and have more light reaching all the nodes. I should definitely have topped and done LST earlier, but oh well, now I know for next time. I also removed some of the new fan leaves that were covering the new nodes. My roommate wanted to experiment with the smallest one so removed some of its big fan leaves. I don't really think that was the right call, but whatever we'll see what happens. Would also have loved to try mainlining but its also pretty late for that. It would have slowed down veg quite a bit too, and since we have to go home from college in early may, they have to be harvested by then. Gonna water later this afternoon as well.
2/19: Watered them last night. 0.75 gallons each. 4 tsp grow big, 6 tsp big bloom, 1.5 tsp calimagic per 2 gallons. I'm not sure why I didn't realize earlier I can just partially tuck the higher fan leaves under the lower nodes coming in. It makes the plant look droopy since big leaves are tucked, but I feel like it helps the lower nodes receive light and catch up, while being able to keep the fan leaves without cutting them. The small plant has 10 main nodes, and the rest have between 12-14, with many smaller additional nodes coming in under. I'm not sure how much I should try to grow these smaller nodes on the lower branches, or if I should just snip them off. Main focus right now is to get the nodes at similar hight and horizontal grow.
2/23: Watered this morning. Should have watered last night but my roommates were asleep and I was a bit too lazy to do it myself (took me an hour last time to do it all myself). I think I'm gonna start filling up a 5 gallon bucket instead of the 2 gallon one I was using, since I won't have to spend as much time refilling the water, nutrients, and get correct ph. Nutes doseage was 3 tsp grow big, 6 tsp big bloom, 2 tsp calimagic per 2 gallons. Roughly 0.8 gallons each plant. Ran out of big bloom for a few of the plants, but I don't think that should cause any big issues. Me and my roommate were debating if we should feed them nutes this water, or do straight water and calmag. Ended up feeding them since I didn't think we already have much salt buildup, but I think we will do a straight water and calmag flush next time. I also remembered we have a TDS meter, so I used it for the first time. Water in was about 750 or so ppm, and runoff was about 1350. I think thats kinda high for runoff, but like I said we will flush next time, and plants look healthy for the most part. Will definitely look more into that starting now. Also, the ph meter I had previously bought is complete garbage, so I had only been setting ph to around 6.2-6.5 with one of those visual mixing solution kit. I'd been doing this before mixing nutrients, and hoping that they don't throw the ph values off too much. I know this is pretty reckless and stupid, but it seems to somehow be working for now. I think it's probably a better idea we get a working ph meter so we can make sure levels are good after mixing in nutrients, but I'm feeling a bit lazy and frugal to buy a meter, so we'll see. Overall, plants look fairly healthy. They were a bit droopy today because I think I waited a bit too long before watering them, but oh well. One of the two plants that is a leggier and less bushy phenotype is turning pretty yellow however. I'm assuming it's a nitrogen deficiency but I'm not certain. Seems to have gotten a bit worse the last few days, but I'm hoping things will sort themselves out. Might also just up the doseage for grow big, which contains more nitrogen than big bloom. On a few of the other plants, the older and lower fan leaves also seemed to have some spotting resulting from calcium deficiency. Newer leaves all seem fine, and with the recentish addition of calmagic, I'm hoping this won't be an issue going forward. Have also been snipping very small nodes that are coming in on the lower branches. Not snipping them all, just trying to predict which ones have a chance at reaching quality light and developing into good colas. Anything I think will turn into larf im just snipping.
Looking back on the last few weeks, there are a lot of things I have learned that I hope to carry over to our next grow next year. I should have started lst and topping sooner, I understand how much and often to water them much better now, and there are a plethora of other small things that I have learned. I wish I didn't cut corners on some small things and overall was a bit more attentive to details, but for how well it seems to be going, I really can't complain. I'm incredibly stoked about how this is going, and I still can't believe I'm growing these plants with my roommates in our garage as a college student.