🥒 Project Blue Tent – Week 7 Pickle Lemon Haze F1 – Pheno A (Folder 14A) Hello everyone, and welcome back to another chapter of Project Blue Tent! 💙🌱 If you're discovering this diary for the first time, welcome aboard! Project Blue Tent follows four individual plants, each documented in its own dedicated diary from seed to harvest. All four plants share the same environment, lighting, irrigation system, nutrition and training strategy. By keeping as many variables identical as possible, we can observe something particularly interesting: How much personality can an individual phenotype still show when everything around it remains the same? Every plant has the same opportunity. Every plant receives the same care. Yet somehow... They still manage to tell their own story. Today we're checking in with Pickle Lemon Haze F1 – Plant A. And this week marks a pretty important moment in her story. The canopy is full. The structure is ready. And we're preparing for the final step before flowering. ──────────────────────── 🌱 Week Seven – From Building to Preparing For the last several weeks, the entire focus has been on building the canopy. We topped. We trained. We installed the SCROG. We guided branches through the screen. And slowly, square by square, the empty spaces disappeared. Now the Blue Tent has reached the point where the plants have essentially done their job. Looking from above, the canopy is remarkably even. All four sisters are sitting at approximately 60 cm, and because the SCROG net was lowered and tightened earlier in the grow, the majority of the new growth has been directed horizontally rather than vertically. That was the objective. Not taller plants. More usable canopy. And Plant A has done an exceptional job filling her allocated space. Her foliage is rich green, her branches are strong, and the amount of healthy growth packed into that screen is impressive. But there comes a point where adding more foliage isn't necessarily the goal anymore. Now we need to prepare what we've built. ──────────────────────── 🕸️ The SCROG – Mission Accomplished The SCROG has been one of the most important techniques we've used during this vegetative cycle. For anyone unfamiliar with it, SCROG means Screen of Green. Instead of allowing the plant to develop a few dominant vertical branches, we repeatedly guide the growing shoots underneath a horizontal screen. As each branch moves through the screen, we can distribute the future flowering sites across a much larger area. The result we're looking for is a relatively even canopy rather than several tall branches competing with one another. And this isn't something that happens in one afternoon. It's a process. A little tuck here. Another branch redirected there. A few minutes of observation every day. Eventually, the plant does most of the work itself. This week, looking across the Blue Tent, that process has reached its goal. The screen is effectively filled. And that means it's time for the next stage. ──────────────────────── ✂️ Defoliation – Cleaning the Canopy Before Flower This week's main event is defoliation. And because this technique is sometimes misunderstood, I want to explain exactly what we're doing and, perhaps more importantly, what we're not doing. Defoliation is not simply removing leaves because we don't like seeing them. Leaves are essential to the plant. They're responsible for capturing light and supporting photosynthesis, so removing them unnecessarily doesn't automatically make a plant healthier. The objective here is different. After weeks of vigorous vegetative growth and SCROG training, the interior of the canopy has become extremely dense. Leaves overlap. Branches cross through one another. Lower sections become increasingly shaded. Air movement through the middle of the plant becomes more difficult. And some foliage is simply contributing less to the productive upper canopy. So we're performing a deliberate cleanup. Removing selected leaves. Opening congested areas. Improving visibility. Creating more space between branches. And preparing the structure for the very different demands of flowering. The goal isn't: "Remove as many leaves as possible." The goal is: "Remove what isn't helping the structure we're trying to build." ──────────────────────── 🌬️ Why Defoliate Now? The timing is just as important as the technique. A significant defoliation is a form of stress. Even a perfectly healthy plant needs time to respond after losing a meaningful amount of foliage. That's why we're doing this while the plants are still in vegetative growth rather than waiting until we're well into flowering. Right now they're running 18/6. They're actively growing. They're not yet trying to produce flowers. So if the plants need a little time to rebuild their balance after the cleanup, we have that time. The sequence we're following is very intentional: Build the plant. Fill the screen. Clean the canopy. Allow recovery. Then flip. I would much rather have the plants enter flowering already recovered from this work than perform a major cleanup while they're simultaneously dealing with the transition into flower. Once the lights are flipped, the priorities change. The plant will begin redirecting its energy toward reproductive growth, and I want that transition to happen with a clean, well-organised canopy rather than asking her to recover from major training at the same time. ──────────────────────── 🧠 Defoliation Isn't a Magic Trick Another thing worth mentioning is that defoliation isn't some magical technique that automatically produces bigger flowers. It's a canopy-management tool. We're trying to improve the relationship between: 🌱 Growing sites 💡 Light distribution 🌬️ Air movement 🍃 Leaf density ? Plant structure The upper canopy is already receiving strong light. The problem we're addressing is congestion. When four vigorous plants share a 100 × 100 × 200 cm space, the interior can become incredibly dense. By selectively removing some unnecessary foliage, we're opening pathways through that structure. Better airflow. Better visibility. Less congestion. And a cleaner starting point for flowering. It's about managing the environment that exists inside the canopy, not simply making the plants look prettier. Although... I have to admit... They do look pretty spectacular after the cleanup. 😂💙 ──────────────────────── 🌿 Pickle Lemon Haze F1 – Plant A And now, back to our girl. Plant A continues to be exactly the phenotype I thought she might become when she first started showing her personality. Vigorous. Responsive. Confident. She has consistently been one of the most energetic plants in the Blue Tent. Every time we've given her something to work with, she's responded with more growth. Topping? She recovered beautifully. SCROG? She filled it. Daily training? She simply kept producing new shoots. Her internodal spacing remains nicely compact, her stems have thickened substantially, and the foliage has developed that rich green colour we've been looking for. The most impressive part is probably how much growth she's managed to produce while still maintaining a very manageable structure. She's not simply growing wildly. She's growing usefully. And that's exactly what we want at this stage. ──────────────────────── 🥥 Feeding – No Changes Yet The nutrition remains completely unchanged. And honestly... Why change something that is working? Current feeding: • Plagron Hydro A — 1.9 ml/L • Plagron Hydro B — 1.9 ml/L • Plagron Hydro Roots — 1 ml/L Current EC: 1.92 mS/cm pH: 5.8 The plants are showing excellent colour and vigorous growth, so I'm not interested in increasing the nutrient strength simply because we're approaching flowering. Instead, we'll watch their response to this week's defoliation. If they continue consuming aggressively and maintaining that healthy green colour, we may increase the nutrition next week as flowering begins. But for now... The plants are happy. And happy plants don't need unnecessary changes. ──────────────────────── 💧 The Drip Irrigation Continues to Impress The Mars Hydro automatic drip irrigation and drainage system has also become one of those pieces of equipment that quietly proves its value every day. Each plant is receiving approximately 1.2 litres of nutrient solution per 24 hours, delivered through the individual drip system. The solution passes through the coco and the resulting runoff is automatically collected and removed. That consistency is particularly useful in a project like this. We're trying to keep four plants under almost identical conditions. Manual watering can certainly work, but maintaining exactly the same routine every day becomes increasingly difficult as plants get larger and more demanding. The automated system removes much of that variation. The roots receive a consistent supply. The plants receive the same routine. And I get to spend less time carrying water... And more time observing the plants. That's a pretty good exchange in my book. 😄 ──────────────────────── 🌡️ Blue Tent Environment The environment has remained very stable as we approach the transition into flowering. This week's average conditions were: • 🌡️ Day Temperature: 28°C • 🌙 Night Temperature: 25°C • 💧 Relative Humidity: 65% • 🥥 Substrate Temperature: 24°C • 💦 Nutrient Solution: 18°C • ⚗️ pH: 5.8 • ⚡ EC: 1.92 mS/cm • 💨 CO₂: approximately 450 ppm • 💡 Light Schedule: 18/6 • 💧 Irrigation: approximately 1.2 L/plant/24h • ? Pot Size: 8 L • 📏 Plant Height: approximately 60 cm At this point, maintaining consistency is more important than constantly chasing numbers. The plants are growing beautifully. The canopy is healthy. The irrigation is performing reliably. And the nutrition is producing exactly the response we're looking for. So for now... We observe. ──────────────────────── 🌿 Four Plants Starting to Look Like One One of my favourite things about this stage of Project Blue Tent is looking at the tent from above. It's becoming genuinely difficult to tell the four plants apart. The canopy is so even that the individual plants almost disappear into one continuous sea of green. And that's actually a fantastic result from the SCROG. We started with four individual plants. Different branches. Different growth patterns. Different personalities. Now we've shaped them into one remarkably uniform canopy. But underneath that uniformity, the individual characteristics are still there. And that's what makes documenting them separately so interesting. Plant A still has her particular way of growing. She's still one of the most vigorous. She's still incredibly responsive to training. And she's still quietly trying to occupy every available centimetre of space. ──────────────────────── 🌬️ Cleaning for the Next Chapter Once the defoliation is complete, the room should immediately feel different. More open. More breathable. Less congested. And that is exactly what we're looking for before the flip. We're not trying to make the plants small. We're not trying to weaken them. We're simply creating a cleaner structure from which the flowering cycle can begin. The canopy has been built. Now we're refining it. Then comes recovery. And after that... Flower. 🌸 ──────────────────────── 👀 Looking Ahead This is one of those weeks where the best thing we can do after the work is simply give the plants some peace. We've spent weeks manipulating their structure. Now they need time to respond. I'll be watching the new growth closely, keeping the environment stable and monitoring how quickly they recover. The nutrient recipe may increase next week depending on what the plants tell us. The irrigation will continue doing its job. And if everything looks as good as it does now... We'll be ready to flip the Blue Tent into flowering. The SCROG is full. The canopy is organised. The plants are healthy. The cleanup is done. Now we let them recover. Then... we turn the page. ──────────────────────── 💙 Thank You A huge thank you to Zamnesia for making Project Blue Tent possible and for providing these fantastic Pickle Lemon Haze F1 genetics. A heartfelt thank you to Plagron for the Premium Growbags and Hydro nutrient line that continue supporting this beautiful vegetative growth. A special thank you to Phytonaut for the LED lighting helping us maintain such a consistent and beautifully structured canopy throughout the tent. And a massive thank you to Mars Hydro for the automatic drip irrigation and drainage system, which continues making consistent irrigation so much easier. Thank you to GrowDiaries for providing a place where growers from all over the world can document their journeys, share knowledge and learn from one another. And finally... Thank you to everyone following Project Blue Tent. Whether you've been here since the beginning, just discovered this diary, leave comments every week or simply enjoy watching these plants develop... I genuinely appreciate you being here. 💙 Four sisters. One environment. One experiment. And four very different little personalities hiding underneath an increasingly uniform canopy. For Plant A, this week is about finishing what we started. The canopy is built. The cleanup is complete. Now she gets to recover. And very soon... 🌸 Flowering begins. Until next time... Growers Love, happy growing, and take care everyone! 🌱💙