💚 Amnesia Haze Auto by Zamnesia – Pheno B Week 8 | Small Pot, Big Appetite Welcome back to another chapter of the 8×8 Adventure! Sometimes a phenotype doesn't need to be the biggest plant in the room to become one of the most interesting. And this little lady is becoming exactly that. Last week I was already talking about how difficult it was becoming to believe that this plant was growing in only 11 litres of soil. Well... This week she's making that even harder to believe. She is lush. She is vigorous. She is flowering beautifully. And she's drinking and feeding like she has absolutely no idea that she's supposed to be the girl living in the smallest pot in the room. 😂 So this week, I think Pheno B deserves the spotlight. Let's talk about her. 🌱 The 12/12 From Seed Adventure If you're joining this diary for the first time, welcome to the 8×8 Adventure. Every plant in this room has been grown under a 12 hours on / 12 hours off light schedule from seed germination. There is no traditional vegetative period. Instead, every phenotype has been given the same environment and allowed to reveal its natural architecture from the beginning. That makes comparisons incredibly interesting. Same room. Same light schedule. Same environmental conditions. Same general feeding strategy. Same grower. But completely different personalities. And Pheno B has developed into one of the most fascinating examples of that genetic individuality. ? The Smallest Pot in the Room There are 12 different genetics growing together in this room. Almost all of them are sitting comfortably in 15-litre pots. Pheno B? She's the exception. She's growing in only 11 litres of soil. Originally, this was simply another little experiment. I wanted to see how far I could push a smaller root volume while maintaining proper nutrition and environmental control. And honestly... She's making me rethink some assumptions. Because the limitation I'm seeing isn't that she's struggling. It's actually the opposite. She's drinking like crazy. Her smaller substrate volume means I have to pay much closer attention to moisture levels and irrigation frequency. There are times when she needs watering twice in the same day because she's drying back so quickly. That tells me something important. She's not behaving like a plant sitting in a small container waiting for the next irrigation. She's behaving more like a plant with a very active root system that is continuously demanding water and nutrients. And that's exactly why having proper substrate monitoring becomes so valuable. 📡 Watching the Root Zone in Real Time This is where the TrolMaster WCS-2 substrate sensor has become one of my favourite tools for this particular experiment. Instead of guessing what's happening inside the pot, I can actually monitor the root-zone conditions. Moisture. Temperature. And substrate EC. At the moment, the substrate EC is reading approximately: 0.91 mS/cm And that number is fascinating considering the strength of the irrigation. I'm feeding around 2.0 EC, yet the substrate is sitting considerably lower. To me, that's a very interesting indication of how actively this plant is taking up what I'm giving her. She's not simply sitting there accumulating nutrients. She's using them. And when I look at the plant itself... It makes perfect sense. 🌿 A Plant With a Big Appetite This phenotype is absolutely lush. The foliage is vibrant and vigorous, the structure remains beautifully balanced, and the plant continues pushing new flowering growth throughout the canopy. There is no obvious sign that the smaller container is holding her back. In fact, one of the biggest challenges I'm having with this plant is simply keeping up with her demand for water. That's quite a funny problem to have when your experiment was supposed to test whether a smaller pot might become the limiting factor. Instead, Pheno B seems to be saying: "Give me more." 😂 And I'm listening. 🌸 Flower Development Is Moving Forward The flowering sites are continuing to develop beautifully. The white pistils remain abundant across the plant, and the developing flowers are becoming increasingly defined. The structure is particularly pleasing to look at. She has enough spacing between the branches to maintain airflow and light penetration, while still producing a very respectable number of flowering sites. The central growth remains strong, but the secondary branches aren't being left behind. That's something I really appreciate about this phenotype. She doesn't look like she's trying to become one giant cola. Instead, she's building a balanced architecture where the entire plant contributes. And now that we're moving deeper into flower, that structure should become increasingly interesting as the flowers begin to swell. ✂️ Still No Defoliation And yes... I still haven't defoliated her. And I'm completely comfortable with that decision. Looking at the plant, I simply don't feel she needs it yet. The foliage is healthy. The plant is actively flowering. The canopy isn't showing signs that demand an aggressive intervention. And perhaps most importantly, I don't want to remove healthy leaves simply because we're accustomed to seeing defoliation performed at a particular stage of flower. Every plant gets evaluated individually. Pheno B is telling me that she still wants those leaves. So for now... She keeps them. A little leaf positioning when necessary is enough. I'm much more interested in watching how she naturally manages her canopy than forcing her into a particular shape. Sometimes the best training technique is knowing when not to train. 💧 Feeding Strategy The nutritional program continues supporting this extremely hungry phenotype. Current feeding includes: Plagron Terra Bloom — 2.2 ml/L Plagron Power Buds — 1 ml/L Plagron Green Sensation — 1 ml/L Plagron Sugar Royal — 1 ml/L Plagron pH Plus / Lemon Kick — as required for pH adjustment The irrigation is running at approximately 2.0 EC, while the substrate sensor is currently showing around 0.91 mS/cm. And once again... She's eating. A lot. That's probably one of the most interesting characteristics of this phenotype so far. She may be the smallest pot in the room, but she's certainly not the smallest appetite. 💡 Light, Environment & Root Zone The environmental conditions remain stable, which is exactly what I want at this stage. Current conditions: 🌱 Flowering: Week 8 📏 Height: 135 cm 💡 Light schedule: 12/12 🌡️ Day temperature: 29°C 🌙 Night temperature: 25°C 💧 Relative humidity: 60% ⚗️ pH: 6.0 ⚡ Substrate EC: 0.91 mS/cm 🌡️ Root-zone temperature: 21°C 💧 Solution temperature: 21°C 🌫️ CO₂: 639 ppm ? Pot size: 11 L 💦 Watering: approximately 1.2 L per plant per 24h, with frequency adjusted according to substrate demand 💡 Under-canopy lighting: Lumiflora 📡 Substrate monitoring: TrolMaster WCS-2 The most important part of this week's environmental story isn't necessarily a single number. It's consistency. And that consistency gives the plant the freedom to express what she's capable of genetically. 🌿 The Personality of Pheno B Every phenotype eventually develops a personality. And I think I finally know how I would describe this one. She's the quiet overachiever. She wasn't the phenotype that immediately demanded attention. She wasn't the biggest. She wasn't the fastest to announce herself. She simply kept growing. Kept building. Kept flowering. And now we're reaching the point where she's becoming impossible to ignore. The funny thing is that her biggest disadvantage on paper — the 11-litre pot — has actually become one of the most interesting things about her. Because instead of showing weakness... She's showing efficiency. 📸 This Week's Gallery Looking through this week's photographs, the first thing that stands out is just how healthy the plant looks. The leaves are beautifully developed, with strong colour and excellent structure. The macro photographs reveal flowering sites covered in fresh white pistils, with the developing flowers beginning to take shape. The full-plant photograph tells another part of the story. She's tall. She's balanced. She's branching beautifully. And when you remember that this plant is growing in only 11 litres while her sisters are sitting in 15-litre containers... It's genuinely impressive. The close-up photographs also show why I haven't felt the need to defoliate her. There is still plenty of healthy foliage contributing to the plant's energy production. For now, I'm happy to let her keep doing what she's doing. 🔬 One Small Pot, One Interesting Experiment This is becoming one of those experiments that I didn't expect to become so educational. We often associate larger containers with greater potential. And there's certainly good reason for that. More root volume can provide more buffering capacity, more available water and more room for root development. But this plant is reminding me that container size is only one part of the equation. Genetics matter. Root health matters. Irrigation strategy matters. Nutrition matters. Environment matters. And perhaps most importantly... The plant itself matters. A phenotype with an efficient, highly active root system can behave very differently from another plant sitting beside it in the exact same room. That's why I love phenotype hunting. You think you're running an experiment on one thing... And the plants teach you about five other things along the way. 🔮 Looking Ahead The next few weeks should be very exciting. We're entering the part of the cycle where the structure we've been watching develop should begin transforming into much more substantial flowers. I'll continue monitoring the substrate closely because this little 11-litre container is clearly demanding more attention than her sisters. The WCS-2 will remain an important part of that process. I'm particularly interested in continuing to watch the relationship between: irrigation EC → substrate EC → moisture depletion → plant response. And of course... I'm still not planning to defoliate simply because the calendar says I should. If she continues looking this good, I'll continue letting her tell me what she needs. 💚 Final Thoughts Pheno B started this adventure as the smaller sister. The quieter one. The phenotype living in the pot that was supposed to become the limiting factor. Eight weeks later... She's standing 135 cm tall, flowering beautifully, drinking aggressively, consuming nutrients at a serious rate, and maintaining a canopy that is still lush and healthy. She's making me water more. She's making me monitor more. She's making me pay attention. And she's making this experiment much more interesting than I expected. Sometimes the plant you expect the least from becomes the one that teaches you the most. And this little lady? She's definitely teaching me. Small pot. Big appetite. Beautiful structure. And absolutely no intention of playing small. Let's see where she takes us next. 💚 Thank You Thank you so much for following another chapter of the 8×8 Adventure. A huge thank you to: 🌱 Zamnesia — for providing the genetics and making this phenotype hunt possible. 💜 Plagron — for the nutrition supporting these plants throughout the run. 💡 Future of Grow LED — for providing the lighting driving this garden. 🌿 Lumiflora — for bringing under-canopy lighting into the experiment and giving me another variable to evaluate. 🌡️ TrolMaster — for helping me monitor and maintain the environment, and especially for giving me the tools to look deeper into what is happening inside the root zone. 🌱 GrowDiaries — for providing the platform where growers can document, compare, learn and share these experiments with one another. And finally, thank you for following, commenting, asking questions and growing alongside me. This little lady may have the smallest pot in the room... But she's proving that size isn't everything. Growers Love. 💚🌿