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

Tent-venture episode 8

Delilah - 52 days since sprout

Sadie - 35 days since sprout

Day 52 (Sunday)

The ladies continue plugging along. I’m just leaving them alone today. I may give Delilah a drink tomorrow depending on if she looks a bit droopy by then.

Day 53 (Monday)

I watered and added fertilizer and cal mag to each of the plants today. I used ‘veg’ for Sadie and ‘bloom’ for Delilah. I have some concerns about my cheap pH probe, seems to be reading all over the place even after calibration. I was double checking with pH drop solution and at one point the pen read 8 but the drops showed a bright red corresponding with 4. I may need to spend more than $20 on a technical instrument..

Day 55 (Wednesday)

I defoliated Sadie today to get some more airflow and get rid of leaves dragging on the ground and shaded out. It’ll take a little while for her to recover from this but I have lots of time since I can perpetually keep her vegetative based on light schedule alone. Hopefully this stimulates some more vertical growth. I still think I’ll follow through with a flip to flower at the end of the month but I’ve also been toying with repotting into a 7 gallon pot - decisions, decisions.

Delilah should be ready in about 2 weeks. The white splotches are diatomaceous earth that I managed to cover her in.

I got a cheap dollar store jewel loop to zoom in - it doesn’t produce great photos but my eye is a much better lens than my phone and I find it useful. From what I understand it’s chop time when either all, or some, of the little white dangly thingies (trichromes) start to turn a bit amber, or when 75% or more of the white hairs (pistils) are full of vibrant colours... or both conditions.. it’s a bit confusing.

A summation of what to look for: “As soon as 50% of the pistils are brown you should start checking on the trichomes, which are the standard method of knowing when to harvest and when around 70% of the pistils have turned brown, you should definitely check the trichomes every day.”

I’ll have to take her into less purple light for photos in the future to observe.

Day 58 (Saturday)

I haven’t spent a lot of time on the ladies other than giving Delilah a drink yesterday. Her bottom leaves are yellowing and desiccating which is natural as she sucks all her moisture back into herself to push energy at the flowers. I’ll pluck them only after they’re mostly wilted away so she pulls all the good stuff out. Some of the hairs are red but only on the very top. I think I am going to harvest in stages, taking off the top and letting the lower colas mature and fatten with added light.

Sadie doesn’t look to angry that I gave her a haircut but I expect she will still need time to heal.

A big move in automation today: I installed a blumat auto drip irrigation system today to take the guesswork out of watering. The basic idea is that as the soil dries around the ceramic carrot it opens the diaphragm to let water drip until it reaches the desired moisture level. The whole setup took about an hour but this should help me to avoid under and over watering.

The smaller carrot will go to Delilah, the larger deeper carrot to Sadie.

After Delilah is all wrapped up I will move the second carrot to Sadie as well, this will let me cover 2 soil levels and help ensured adequate moisture throughout.

I bored a hole in an old end table to prop up a small reservoir for a gravity feed. I threw a few bolts through the table to half-ass secure the pail in place. The reservoir is an old pail for salt that I washed the hell out of.

There’s a connector plug in the bottom and as I set it up I realized I had no shutoff - an oversight on my part. I’ll get that ordered but press on.

I had to fully water each plant and let them drain for about a half hour to set up. I just used tap water for the deep watering because I did not want to spend ages adjusting pitcher after pitcher, but I pH adjusted the reservoir water though. The pail comfortably held 12 litres.

The install went quickly. I fed the line through the air intake at the bottom of the tent and did the required cutting and connecting. The rigidity of the supply line made the end look a bit dumb but the head pressure from the gravity feed will have no issue with it. Starting at the last blumat in sequence, you unscrew the brown dial to let water flow through and purge air. Then gradually tighten until a single droplet holds at the end of the drip tube without falling. From there you tighten down 2 arrow notches visible on the dial.

I marked the water level to track a little bit for curiosity’s sake. I’ll have to start back over when the shutoff gets in but whatever.