I’m posting the following journey undertaken by my friend Theodore Complete on their behalf.

Tent-Venture - S02E04

Day 29 (2/26)

Manifold trim day! It’s bushy as heck right now.

I topped above the 3rd node on the shoot and removed the second node as well as the fan leaves from the base. I think it looks good.

Day 30 (2/27)

Looks like it bounced back well.

Day 31 (2/28)

Forgot to take my phone with me when I checked in.

Day 32 (3/1)

I did some additional tying down. I’m going to cut down a tomato cage to use for training, but not quite yet.

Day 33 (3/2)

I forgot to take another photo!

Day 34 (3/3)

I put a tomato cage ring in so that I can train the plant outwardly a bit more. The smaller diameter ring will force the shoots to grow out and up, which in theory should give them lots of space to grow.

Day 35 (3/4)

The adjustment to the training ring is going well. There is still a shoot or two that I have to coax under for a bit.

I’ve just been using tap water in the humidifier and it’s left a white mineral powder on things in the tent. I may need to switch to distilled for that, but I’m not sure it’s really hurting anything. I turned it off though, I think the transpiration of the plant will be plenty at this point to keep humidity steady. If it feels dry it should drink more water, at least I hope it would.

Day 36 (3/5)

I’m still waiting on the branch in the lower left of the image to grow a bit more, it’s not quite making it under the ring so I keep adjusting it. I’ve been considering when to flip to flower. I did 55 days of vegetative growth last time which may have been a bit long, but I’m closing in on that timeframe now and I think I want some more restorative growth after the topping and training.

It’s interesting to compare this to my previous grows at 35 days. Here’s the Euphoria CBD I named Sadie:

The pot is the same size in both photos - it’s actually the exact same fabric pot. I had been over-feeding, over-applying nutrients, and generally fucking up that grow by this point in retrospect. The deep green really shows the over abundance of nitrogen. I also had less of a handle on dealing with fungus gnats as evidenced by the diatomaceous earth. At the time I was proud of the improvement of Sadie over the Cheese Autoflower I named Delilah.

Here’s Delilah at 35 days, already starting a stunted flowering period due to genetics and general mismanagement on my part.

And finally, here is the space bucket fiasco grow at 35 days. This was in a 1.5 gallon pot if I recall. Barely a seedling.

This grow I focused on making sure the soil was in good order, the conditions were dialled in from the start, the watering system was set up, and the water is just distilled. The only fertilization added has been the top dressing just under the drip emitters. This seems to be a good combination along with the Mars Hydro TS1000. The distilled water hasn’t been that costly so far at around a dollar for 4 L. I think I’ll complete the grow with it for consistency, and see what happens if I use tapwater on the next one while keeping other factors consistent. The water is super hard here so I expect some differences.

Day 37 (3/6)

Still looking good. Going through more water as well, so I guess it’s the response I expected to turning off the humidifier.

I did a little manicure trimming of the undercarriage to get some air flow. Then I put a spoon of the top dressing under the drip emitter and spritzed with water to keep it in one spot.

Day 38 (3/7)

It’s going through about a litre per day and the passive humidity is around 40-50% without the humidifier on. It seems like I could probably have turned off the humidifier even earlier, I’ll remember that for the next grow.

Day 39 (3/8)

I removed the last of the stick-based restraints and all training is happening via the ring. It’s still sucking down a litre every day too.

Emboldened by the progress and the rapid regrowth, I got a little more aggressive with my defoliation strategy:

In theory this will spurn more vertical growth but time will tell as in all things.

Day 40 (3/9)

I seem to have pissed it off and it’s coming back with enough vigor to fight me. The resiliency of this plant amazes me. So does it’s thirst, which maybe linked to the stress response from all the cutting. It’s drinking over a L per day now, and doesn’t seem to be slowing down. The 55 day veg may not be entirely necessary, but damn it may just make a monster.

Day 41 (3/10)

I’m going to use this same training process in the future for sure. This thing is a beast. It’s pretty cool how it twists to cover the center mass with leaves to take full advantage of the light (or to hide its shame?).

I added a spoon of dry amendment under each drip emitter again today.

Day 42 (3/11)

I’m getting to the point where I need to flip to flower sooner than later. I installed the window vent today.

I purchased a backdraft blocking vent and installed it in a piece of 3/8 plywood that I cut to the size of the window frame. It was a fancier vent than the base model, and I painted the wood white to match.

On the inside I attached rigid insulation and then gap sealed with spray foam. It’s ugly but it works. I then added a second backdraft damper to the connection to help seal out cold air in the winter. It’s not bad now but it gets into the sub-30 C range in the dead of winter.

If I eventually take this out it will mean taking a putty knife to the foam to chisel off, but that’s a problem for future-me.