Nice coincidence on the drought timing for the FBC, but what of the effect on the other two this early in their process?
There are downsides to stressing plants, and droughting causes stress to them so I think when that occurs it is important is to support the plant while you're asking it to take the stress, to help it 'stay strong' and prevail against any bug attacks.
But in regards to timing, I see only positives. 'Traditionally' we may think that droughting has to be done for 10 days from the 7th week or whatever. But I think that is largely due to Kaplan's awesome research on droughting where he needed to find a solid schedule that he could test against controls that would be most effective to carry out and that would give a 'tight' result rather than an open to interpretation result. And he did, with a 10 day period starting from a specific time point. I forget the exact figures but it resulted in a very impressive percentage increase.
As I have mentioned before, my most impressive droughting was purely from an accidental newbie grow. I germinated a found bag seed, I think on the 5th December (very late). It grew in a 10L (2.5 gallon) ceramic pot in standard garden potting mix with a single feed of tomato fert over its life. The summer was hot and dry, the pot heated up and the plant got heat stress every day, and all through its flowering from pompoms onward, it wilted very badly every hot day. But upon harvest its bud were the stickiest. It appeared that the trichomes had melted and more had grown, leaving the bud and sugar leaves looking like they were lacquered. The sugar leaves were still green because I would water the plant every evening yet those sugar leaves were stiff with moderate trichomes growing out of a sticky 'lacquer' layer. It was simply outstanding smoke, far better than the bag of weed that I found it in. Did the trichome 'melt' and the plant generated more, I don't know, but that is how it seemed to me.
So, apologies for my long winded spiel but that's why I don't see any timing issue with the other less advanced plants. Other than if I was only growing the Frozen Black Cherry then I would go harder on it and stress it for longer. But given the early stage of the other two which are in my control, I prefer to not stress them too much at this stage.
Plus when growing outside with the desire to perform droughting, there often simply isn't the reliability of the weather to start and finish at a prescribed time point. I think you just have to work with nature and in this case, against my expectations of my first trough grow I have found that some droughting is possible.
Your photos are just stunning. The plants look very happy. It's a delight to the eyes.
Thanks Carmen! I just bumble through them and hope to get some that are acceptable. I wish I could show some pics of the sparkle coming off the buds but for that I need to be on the other side of the trough which is now 'tight' for space.
…love what you are doing…beautiful ladies…love seeing outdoor grows…would love to try one day…may try this season if I can find a good stealthy place in my yard 
…keep up the great work…I’m learning from you
that sticky icky! CL
