💙 Project Blue Tent – Week 8 Blue Waffle F1 – Pheno B (Folder 13B) Hello everyone, and welcome back to another chapter inside Project Blue Tent! 💙🌱 If you're joining us for the first time, welcome aboard. Project Blue Tent follows four individual Blue Waffle F1 plants from Zamnesia, each documented separately from seed all the way through harvest. All four sisters share the same environment, lighting, nutrition, irrigation and training techniques. The idea is simple: Keep as many variables identical as possible... And let the genetics tell the story. And although the four girls continue looking remarkably similar, each one still has her own little personality. Today we're checking in with Blue Waffle F1 – Plant B. And if you've been following her journey... You already know this girl. She's the one who had the little caterpillar adventure earlier in the grow. She's the one who bounced straight back. She's the one who has handled topping, SCROG training and defoliation without complaint. And now... She's officially in flower. 🌸 ──────────────────────── 🌸 Week Eight – Flower Has Arrived Well... The Blue Tent has officially changed gears. After seven weeks of vegetative growth, the lights are now running 12/12, and Plant B has entered the flowering phase. And judging by what she's done over the last week... She was definitely ready. The entire room has been growing incredibly quickly. We're talking about plants gaining close to 30 cm in roughly a week, while at the same time developing flowering sites, producing new growth and generally accelerating in every direction. Plant B is no exception. She's currently sitting at approximately 81 cm, compared with around 60 cm when we finished the vegetative phase. That's a serious jump. And the interesting part is that she's not simply stretching upward. She's continuing to develop. Branches are extending. Nodes are stacking. Flowering sites are becoming increasingly obvious. And the whole plant is moving with an incredible amount of energy. So now the game changes. We're no longer building the vegetative canopy. We're learning how to manage it. ──────────────────────── 🕸️ The Canopy – Still Beautifully Even One of the things I'm happiest about this week is how even the canopy remains. After weeks of topping, low-stress training and SCROG work, Plant B entered flowering with a beautifully distributed structure. There aren't huge dominant towers taking over everything around them. The growth is spread across the available space. And that's exactly what we wanted. The interesting challenge now is keeping it that way. Because these girls are moving fast. Very fast. The screen may have done its job during vegetation, but flowering stretch doesn't exactly ask for permission. It simply happens. So we're going to work with the plants rather than fight them. And that's where this week's additional training comes in. ──────────────────────── 💥 Super Cropping – Managing the Stretch This week I've also started using super cropping to help manage some of the more aggressive vertical growth. The idea is not to randomly damage the plants. It's a deliberate form of high-stress training where selected branches are gently bent and compressed, creating a temporary interruption in the dominant vertical growth pattern. The hope is to achieve a couple of things at the same time. First, it can help reduce the advantage of the tallest shoots and keep the canopy more manageable. Second, the plant responds by reinforcing the affected areas, which can ultimately contribute to stronger branches and more robust nodes. And these girls are giving me quite the demonstration. I'll super crop a branch... Come back later... And somehow she's already standing back up again. 😂 Sometimes it feels like I'm having a conversation with the plant. Me: "Stay down." Plant B: "No." 😂🌱 But that's actually encouraging. It tells me just how much energy these plants have right now. The growth is so vigorous that the branches are recovering incredibly quickly. So we're going to continue carefully managing the taller shoots and see how the plants respond over the coming weeks. ──────────────────────── 🌿 Plant B – Strength Under Pressure Plant B continues looking fantastic. Her structure remains strong, her foliage is healthy, and the colour is exactly where I want it. After everything we've asked from her during vegetation, she has transitioned into flower without showing any meaningful signs of stress. And that's something I really appreciate about this phenotype. She's cooperative. She responds. She recovers. And then she simply keeps growing. The super cropping we're doing now is another opportunity to observe that response. We're deliberately introducing a little controlled stress to encourage a more balanced structure while the plant is stretching. Will it completely stop her from getting taller? Honestly... I doubt it. 😂 These girls have already shown us what they're capable of. But if we can slow down the most aggressive vertical growth, strengthen those important branching points and maintain a reasonably even canopy... I'll consider that a win. ──────────────────────── 💡 Flowering Light – Starting Strong We're also entering flowering under a fairly strong light intensity. The Blue Tent is starting flower at approximately 800 PPFD. That's intentional. These plants have spent seven weeks building a large and healthy canopy, and I want to give them plenty of light from the beginning of the flowering cycle. At the same time, I'm watching carefully for how they respond. The goal is not simply maximum intensity. It's finding the point where the plants can use the available light effectively while maintaining healthy transpiration, structure and development. And because we're already dealing with significant growth and relatively warm nights, the next couple of weeks will tell us a lot. For now... Plant B is loving it. ──────────────────────── 🌡️ Blue Tent – Flowering Conditions The environment remains remarkably consistent across the room. This week's recorded conditions were: • 🌡️ Day Temperature: 27°C • 🌙 Night Temperature: 27°C • 💧 Relative Humidity: 66% • 🥥 Substrate Temperature: 24°C • 💦 Nutrient Solution Temperature: 19.2°C • ⚗️ pH: 5.81 • ⚡ EC: 2.09 mS/cm • 💨 CO₂: approximately 666 ppm • 💡 Light Schedule: 12/12 • 💧 Irrigation: approximately 1.4 L/plant/24h • ? Pot Size: 8 L • 📏 Plant Height: approximately 81 cm The temperature situation is particularly interesting. Day and night temperatures are currently almost identical. That's something I'm keeping a close eye on because warmer nights can encourage additional stretching. And we've already seen plenty of evidence that these plants don't need much encouragement to grow. 😂 So for now, we're observing closely and managing what we can. ──────────────────────── 🥥 Feeding – Flowering Has Begun The nutritional program has also moved into the flowering recipe. Current feeding: • Plagron Hydro A — 2 ml/L • Plagron Hydro B — 2 ml/L • Plagron Hydro Roots — 1 ml/L • Plagron Power Buds — 1 ml/L • pH Plus — 0.03 ml/L • pH Min — 0.03 ml/L Current EC is approximately: 2.09 mS/cm with the nutrient solution sitting around 19.2°C and pH at approximately 5.81. The change is relatively measured. We're not throwing everything at the plants simply because flowering has started. They're already growing extremely aggressively. So the objective is to support that development without unnecessarily complicating the equation. As always... The plants get the final vote. ──────────────────────── 💧 Drip Irrigation & Automatic Drainage The irrigation system continues proving its value as these plants become larger and more demanding. Plant B is currently receiving approximately 1.4 litres per 24 hours through the automatic drip irrigation system. The drippers deliver the nutrient solution directly into the coco. The solution moves through the substrate, supplying the root zone before exiting as runoff. That runoff is collected in the trays underneath the grow bags. From there, the drainage lines carry it toward the pump, which moves the collected solution back toward the reservoir. So the irrigation and drainage systems are effectively working together as a recirculating setup. Water goes in. The coco does its job. The plant gets access to the nutrients. Runoff is collected. The drainage system removes it. The pump returns it. And the cycle continues. It's a beautifully simple system once everything is working correctly. And right now... It's working wonderfully. The plants are growing aggressively, the water demand is increasing, and the system is keeping up without turning daily irrigation into a chore. That's exactly what I wanted from it. ──────────────────────── 🌿 Seven Weeks of Vegetation – Was It Too Much? This is something I've been thinking about quite a lot this week. Seven weeks of vegetation is longer than I normally keep plants in this stage. Usually, I prefer to flip earlier. But looking at these girls now... I may have left them in vegetation a little too long. 😂 The structure they developed is fantastic. The canopy is full. The branches are strong. The plants are healthy. But they have also accumulated an enormous amount of growth potential. And now that flowering has started, they're showing us exactly how much energy they have stored. Close to 30 cm of growth in roughly a week is no small thing. And they're not finished. That's why I'm particularly interested in the combination of: SCROG + super cropping + strong light + careful environmental management. We're going to see whether those tools can help keep this incredible growth somewhat under control. ──────────────────────── 🌱 Plant B – The Comeback Girl There's something particularly satisfying about looking at Plant B now. A few weeks ago, she had an unexpected little visitor. One hungry caterpillar decided that one of her leaves looked like lunch. The problem was caught quickly. The caterpillar was removed. The affected area was cleaned up. The tent was inspected. And Plant B simply carried on. Now look at her. Approximately 81 cm tall. Healthy. Strong. Flowering. Producing new growth everywhere. If anything, she looks like she's trying to make up for the leaf she lost. 😂 She's definitely earned her place in this project. And I love that this diary gives us the opportunity to follow that entire story individually. ──────────────────────── 💥 Super Cropping – Let's See What Happens The next few weeks will tell us whether this additional training strategy gives us the effect I'm hoping for. The objective isn't to stop growth. That's impossible. The objective is to manage it. If a branch is becoming significantly taller than the rest of the canopy, we can intervene. If a particularly vigorous shoot needs to be brought back into balance, we can work with it. And by creating those controlled bends and reinforced points along the branches, we're hopefully building stronger plants at the same time. The fascinating thing is how quickly Plant B recovers. I'll make an adjustment... And shortly afterward... She's standing up again. It's almost as if the plant didn't get the memo. 😂 So we'll keep watching. We'll keep training where necessary. And we'll let the plant show us whether the technique is doing what we want. ──────────────────────── 🌸 Flowering Has Officially Started There is something special about this point in the project. For seven weeks we've been preparing these plants. Topping. Training. SCROG. Defoliation. Building structure. Balancing the canopy. And now... We're finally seeing the reward for all that preparation beginning to appear. The flowering sites are developing rapidly. The branches are extending. The plants are changing. And suddenly the Blue Tent doesn't look like a vegetative garden anymore. It looks like a flowering room. Plant B has an excellent starting structure. Now we get to find out what she can do with it. ──────────────────────── 👀 Looking Ahead The next couple of weeks should be extremely interesting. The main objective is now managing the stretch while allowing the plants to flower naturally. We'll continue monitoring the canopy. We'll use super cropping where necessary to manage particularly vigorous shoots. We'll keep the irrigation consistent. We'll monitor nutrition. We'll watch the environment closely. And most importantly... We'll observe. Because right now all four sisters are showing just how similar they can be. But as flowering progresses, I expect their individual personalities to become increasingly obvious. Will Plant B remain one of the more balanced girls? Will she stretch aggressively? Will the super cropping help? Will the strong flowering light keep her compact? We'll find out. For now... She's looking absolutely fantastic. ──────────────────────── 💙 Thank You A huge thank you to Zamnesia for making Project Blue Tent possible and for giving us the opportunity to explore these beautiful Blue Waffle F1 genetics phenotype by phenotype. A massive thank you to Plagron for the Premium Growbags and Hydro nutrient line supporting these plants throughout the project, and now for helping us move into the flowering phase. A special thank you to Zamnesia for the Phytonaut LED lighting that helped us build this beautiful canopy and is now providing the strong light these girls are receiving as flowering begins. And a huge thank you to Mars Hydro for the drip irrigation and automatic drainage system. The way the drippers, drainage trays, piping, pump and reservoir work together has made maintaining these four rapidly growing plants considerably easier. Thank you as well to GrowDiaries for providing a place where growers can document these journeys, exchange knowledge and follow projects like this from beginning to end. And finally... Thank you to everyone following Project Blue Tent. Plant B has come a long way. From seed... To topping. From SCROG... To defoliation. From an unexpected caterpillar visitor... To one of the fastest-growing girls in the tent. And now... Flowering. 🌸💙 The canopy is ready. The plants are healthy. The stretch has begun. And we're doing our best to keep these energetic ladies under control. Whether they listen is another question entirely. 😂 Until next week... Growers Love, happy growing, and take care everyone! 🌱💙