@bob31 - sorry, Iāve been updating over in the memberās forum more often than here (a little more consistent response there when I have questions, which is to be expected since I paid to get in there :)).
Well, reading through my journal itās obvious that I havenāt exactly loved and nurtured these two plants.
When I went away to hunt last week (fyi: saw lots of deer, but nothing mature enough to shoot - I did pass up a 2 1/2 year old 8 pointer that I normally wouldāve shot, but I was a half a mile into a swamp and didnāt feel like figuring out how I was going to get it out of there) I accidentally pinched the hose to the air stone for the GL. So when I got back, it had been oxygen starved for 6 days.
I decided today is the day to top the plants. I had intended to manifold the GL, but as of this morning it had 7 nodes out, and I just couldnāt get myself to cut it down to the 3rd node, so I topped it at the 5th (for now?). One of my headaches is how absolutely thick the branches and stems are - I am not sure I could LST the lowest colas without breaking them. In any case, those lowest branches are now even with the top of the rest of the plant, so I am going to just SCROG this plant as well. I couldnāt get myself to remove the 1st and 2nd nodes of this plant when those branches are even with the top of the rest of the plant. Hereās the GL today, after I topped it:
I also removed the two lowest fan leaves (they were pretty ugly looking) and some smaller leaves that were wilted and not looking all that great. I am going to attempt a lot more plant training this time around.
The SSH looks good - it had 6 nodes out, so I topped it at the 5th node today as well:
Here is a side by side. You can also see that I put the tops in my cloner. I havenāt ever successfully cloned anything, so weāll see if it works. If they do take root I will probably give them away.
Right now I have all atmospheric variables dialed in and the PH/nute levels are all holding steady. GL PH isnāt going down anymore - but it isnāt rising either (like I normally expect). SSH PH rises as expected. GL is holding steady ~5.8.
I want to make a point of noting that the SSH plant is a good 3-4" lower in the net pot than the GL; so take that into consideration when judging the different heights/size of the plants at this stage.