Trainwreck in the making
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What a beautiful bonsai like plant!
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Day 34
Trimmed up the lower layers again leaving only the top set of leaves on each of the main branches. Already seeing the upward growth of the branches extended laterally by the trellis. Growth is happening in real time now with daily visible changes!
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Yes each of those lateral branches will start to turn upward now, but with much better spacing. Keep at that pruning! @I_like_plants recommended I prune back all but the top 3 sets of leaves on each branch and it worked really! Really well. So far we have not seen signs of pruning stress in bloom.
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We love to see the teamwork! @HenHennesy @pdxbloom
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Thank you @HenHennesy
Trimmed up the lower levels and installed the trellis. The side branches are in-between squares so its pushing the branches laterally but assumed that’s the intent. Let me know if you have any other great advice.
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@pdxbloom, the trainwreck is looking good! You're right in thinking you can prune the underlayer of weak growth, take it off! I put a blue line around the smaller weak growth near the base you can easily remove without shocking the plant below. You could possibly even get more aggressive, but that is a good place to start for now.
I also think you are ready or nearly ready to start training some of the 6 branches out horizontally. You can use the trellis which I found to be very easy and effective, or you can individually pull the branches away from the center with twine. You'll still want the main stem going straight up but you can pull the other 4 or 5 branches out away from the main stem to give them more room and light, and ultimately a bigger harvest!
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Been a while since the last post. Had a PPM sensor calibration issue we were working through. Not sure the impact on the plant but I am adding a few days to the current “transition to bloom” stage.
Day 30
Just performed another trim. Now I have 6 branches that I am working with. After checking out Buckeye Betty I think there is an opportunity to prune the under layer. Trying to find the right balance to not shock the plant. Interested to hear thoughts from the forum.
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From what I’ve seen so far, the more you prune, the more you get! Well done!
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You topped it perfectly! Don't feel bad about it, you are making your plant stronger, and you'll see with frequent pruning your plant actually really likes it. After you have topped it 2-4 times or so and starts to get a little height you should think about training the plant as well to really make use of the horizontal space.
Looking great!!
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@pdxbloom This is great (and where I went awry with my grow) -- I'd be interested in pics of your future prunings as well!
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Day 20 - My first topping of the plant. Followed all the great content in the forum to reduce my sets down to three to promote a wider growth pattern. Really nice to see the smaller less mature leaves underneath the cut ready for action.
Being a newbie, cutting the plant felt wrong but assume that feeling goes away really quickly as it seems like a reoccurring activity in the life of the plant. :)
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Day 18
Leaves are filling in nicely now. Just transition to stage 3.
Post water change, the PH dropped to 5.3 with a target at 5.7 (range 5.5-5.9). Then over the next 5 hours the PH dropped steadily to 4.9 triggering multiple alerts along the way down on PH being too low. I went through the troubleshooting help but it didn’t seem to rectify the problem. An hour later, I went through the PH menus on the Bloom and found a way to test the PH up pump. Essentially the test provides a dose which was exactly what I needed to get back into the range. While I am sure that was not what the test design was for so is there a need to have a manual dosing option?
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Day 15. Filling out nicely over the last two days. Nutrients PPM in the range with adding a couple of gallons of water every morning.
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Looking good! I have found two ways to control ppm creep as plants get big. 1) add water daily (1/4 to 1/2 gallon a day as plans get bigger), 2) decrease light intensity. You only want to do this as plants get big, but it slows respiration. Since ppm is spiking as plants use more water than nutrient, lowering lights will balance that. But right now let it love the light
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@HenHennesy thanks for the advice. Adding a gallon of water every hour to prevent a PH spike. Nutrients PPM coming down as expected.
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@pdxbloom, you should go ahead and dilute with a little water manually if your ppm is too high. I don't think there is a way for the Bloom to remove nutrients or add water without your help. As a note, when your plant gets a lot larger you may need to do this more frequently. I've found adding water about every 2 days has been necessary for mine 60-70 days into the grow.
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Day 13 and the leaves are taking shape with new ones emerging.
Nutrients are still above the range and have been high since the stage change. Debating on diluting the water manually to get it back to 600 target range. Thoughts?
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Give us a side picture?
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Any concerns that the seedling is off center?
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Day 10 of stage 2.
Removed the “weaker” seedling following some of the other bloomers on the site. (Thanks gr0w3r)
Nutrients are hovering at 700+ with the target set to 600 at the start of stage 2. Assume that the lower volume of water in the reservoir is making it a little difficult to stabilize just 24 hours after the stage change.
