Hello growers,
This week marks an important step in the development of the Pineapple Upside Down from Humboldt.
The plant has now been moved into the flowering tent. The main reason for this change is simply to give the plant more space and to benefit from better environmental control. The larger tent allows improved airflow and more stable climate management, which should help the plant maintain a healthier rhythm moving forward.
Even though the light fixture changed, the spectrum remains the same. The plant is still running under a 3500K spectrum, so there should be no real shock from a lighting perspective. Light intensity has been kept around 600 PPFD, which means the plant continues growing under conditions that are very similar to what it was used to previously.
Some environmental adjustments were also made this week. The VPD has been increased slightly to around 0.8–0.9 in order to encourage stronger transpiration and improve nutrient uptake.
Last week the plant showed a small slowdown in growth and overall vigor. The leaves were slightly droopy and the plant looked a bit less energetic than usual. After reviewing the parameters, the most likely explanation was a pH drift upward toward 6.2–6.3.
While this range is not catastrophic, it can reduce the plant’s ability to absorb certain nutrients, especially nitrogen, which could explain the temporary slowdown that was observed.
The pH has now been corrected and brought back down to around 5.8, allowing it to naturally fluctuate between 5.5 and 5.9. Since this adjustment is very recent, the plant will need a few days to fully respond to the correction.
Earlier in the week, the EC had been increased to 2.0 to test the possibility of a nutrient deficiency. Toward the end of the nutrient solution cycle, the mixture was slightly diluted with osmosis water in order to rebalance the EC and avoid pushing the plant too hard.
This week was also used to work heavily on the plant’s structure.
A topping combined with a strong defoliation was performed. The canopy was opened up significantly, removing a large amount of leaf mass to improve airflow, light penetration, and overall structure. It was not a light cleanup — the plant was trimmed quite aggressively in order to reset the canopy properly.
The plant originally had four main apexes, and each of those was topped again. This now creates approximately sixteen main growth points.
With sixteen apexes, the plant structure is now approaching the intended final architecture. From this point forward, the main objective is simply to allow the plant to recover from this fairly heavy pruning session, regain strength, and stabilize before any further training.
Over the coming days and weeks, the focus will be on observing how the plant responds to the pH correction, the environmental adjustments, and the recent structural work.
For now, everything appears to be back under control.
We’ll see how she responds over the next week.
Alright growers, take care and see you next week.