Tangerine Dream Auto

First week in the new tent and it's all fantastic. Everything so far has been at least a day faster than my tent less grow so here's hoping the trend stays. The 3rd seed hasn't quite popped fully yet but she'll be in and ready to go in the next 2 days. No names have been picked yet but I'm open to suggestions on a theme 😁 The little one broke ground today so all 3 are taking ti their new home and working away at getting big and strong. Looking for a low maintenance (I know I'll forget) home method of upping the humidity in there a bit for veg.

Coming into week 2 I got a little concerned the light was too close to the girls as I was seeing a bit of yellowing on the leaves so I've raised it up a good bit. I've also made up a big batch of pH controlled nutes and kept it in a dark cool cupboard to ward off any growth. My tap water comes in around pH 7.5 but luckily the canna nutes to my spec brings it down to a perfect pH 5.6 - 5.8 If you've got slightly alkaline water this'll take out the need for some of the checks but it's still wise to keep the levels measured. Also I'm taking a Simpsons theme for the naming. Meet Marge, Lisa and Maggie. Day 12 and Lisa's recovered from the yellowing, she's not been too badly affected but there's an obvious slightly slower growth. Somehow Maggie caught up with the others and looks like she'd sprouted the same day instead of 3 apart. The new lights are hella strong so I'll need to make sure LST is kept up on once we're into week 3 to avoid the height getting out of control and growing too close to the lights. Also the pH balancing has been a godsend, already noticing a massive difference between the two grows.

So here we are in week 3 and we're hitting some stride. All three have shot up with some really nice leaf development. Lisa is a little shorter than the others but isn't showing any signs of stunting. They all had developed enough that I could start tying them down but I've been a little more aggressive than the last grow. I've learned they're resilient enough to take a slightly heavier hand without snapping the stems or damaging leaves. I'm also tempted to try topping for the first time with this grow but I'll see how well they take to the LST before I branch out further. Also trying to make sure I don't overwater this time, they take a feed roughly every 2.5 days so I'll take these times as the opportunity to re-tie them. They've taken well to the training as you can see. A few more days and I'll try topping them and see how they cope during week 4. Update - They're healthy and strong so I just went ahead with the topping along with today's feed. Lisa was a bit more of a FIM so we'll see how that turns out soon hopefully.

A few days into week 4 and they're all still responding to the LST every few days and seem to be bouncing back well from the topping with a couple of new shoots each but they're a little small to get a good pic of yet. They've also picked up a temp roommate from my NLA grow, Scullys now in with the kids to get a bit more light. Here's hoping they get a few lessons on how to fatten up well. Update - It's safe to say I'm astounded. Literal growth explosion across the board (not completely unexpected tho). I was right that I thought I'd FIMmed instead of topping Lisa and Maggie but after seeing the results I'll be FIMming from here onwards. Marge has sprouted off two shoots from the top SITE but Lisa and Maggie both have about 4 or 5 in development. I've stopped LST for a week to get a bit more height so I can get down and defoliate a little, by then I'll have the benefit that they'll be tall enough for me to use the outside of the smartpots to tie them down. I honestly couldn't be happier, they all look fantastic, night and day to all previous, issue plagued grows.

As you can see all three girls are responding very well to both topping and defoliation, barely taking a day to recover before they fire into growth overdrive. I defoliated the lower leaves on all three so now all shoots are meeting at a fairly level canopy. I'm considering Fimming again once I get a look at development tomorrow or Friday. Just sneaking this last one in before the flower cycles due to start. Update - 9/6 FIMmed all three girls today, each with about 3 - 4 FIMs. I'll take a pic of the FIM sites and update on Sunday with a growth report. Update - 12/6 Well as you can see there's been another growth explosion in response to the fimming with all three coming together to form a nice dense canopy. There's a little unwanted leaf growing further down and a couple of bud sites but I'll be defoliating them at the start of next week to give the girls a bit more focus up top. We should be seeing signs of preflower showing soon so I'd rather be done stressing them out too much by that point. That said they've literally bou ced back from any high stress within a few hours as long as they've been well fed around the same time.

I'd left the girls to their own devices for a few days to soak up the last feed. Going back in today I was hit with a wall of dank stink so I started checking everyone over and right enough Marge has pistils popping up all over. No sign on the other girls quite yet but they're all a little behind schedule as it is. Maggie's 2-3 days behind the rest but they've also all had to recover from defoliation and fimming. I've stopped all training for the time being but once there's a bit more of a level canopy I'll be getting the net in there to separate app the colas out to a nice SoG. Update Day 38 - The itch to interfere was strong today so I went ahead and set up the trellis that came with the grow kit. The one Mars Hydro supplied doesn't quite fit as snug as I'd like so I reduced the area a bit and just tied it off with string. If anything I've added it this early to spread out the shoots as low stressy as possible and to give a good idea of any height progress. I'll be leaving them alone largely til Sunday so we'll see how they get on. Update Day 40 - Lisa's now in preflower as well but I couldn't get a good close look at Maggie before their night cycle kicked in. There's an elegance to managing the Scrog height when one plants a little behind but even if I lost Maggie at this point I think the yields would still be amazing.

Maggie's now finally joined the collective in preflower and seems to be slightly catching up in height. The others are well into a good old stretch bringing their own issues with the canopy management. I don't want to move the trellis too much til Maggie joins the tall club but there's not much I can do other than spread them as much as I can. Ideally I'd be defoliating the dominant colas to slow them down a bit but from what I've read it's not a good idea to stress and Auto in pre. They're all much thirstier now and I'm addicted to that sweet stink bursting out every time I open the tent. All of the training techniques used til now are likely going to become my standard as the girls have all responded ridiculously well to all the stress. Towards the end of the week/start of week 8 I'll be looking at defoliating a bit to free up some space on the canopy and slow down the big stems a bit. Some time I'll be looking at adding the PK to the nute mix but I'll be waiting til I'm 1000% sure they're ready for it.

The first issue has popped where I noticed some brown spotting on some of the leaves. Given the timing/symptom, I thought it most likely they've burned through the P from the basic nutes and were begging for more. I've added the PK nutes into the mix at roughly half the dose as I've done with the Canna A & B but went a little over as there's a really high density of bud sites. I checked in after quiet time a few hours later and saw a swell on the main Colas immediately. I'll probably be keeping them on this mix right up til harvest but will be watching out for any more spotting. Update day 53 - No more spotting showing so its seeming I diagnosed the problem right! They've all launched into heavy pistil production but no obvious signs of trichomes yet. Still an amazing smell coming off them and plenty of big healthy Colas. Marge doesn't seem to be stretching as much as the other two but I can't tell a cause for certain so I'll just carry on as usual and keep a close eye for any other signs.

I've been away for a few days and came back to a very happy trio. Trichomes are in full production and the buds are starting to merge. Marge seems to have been stunted by something, possibly me reacting to the phosphorus deficiency a day late (she was a day ahead of the other 2 from the start) so I'm not seeing as much of a stretch as I should but its also really bushy in there so it's likely she's choked out a bit. Marge has fewer main colas than the others so I'm not too worried, she'll still flower nicely. I'm giving them an extra hour in the dark as I noticed they do develop faster during down time and I added a bit more coir to the top to help water retention a bit. They're looking/smelling amazing with some beautiful purple tipped sugarleaf coming in but easily have a few more weeks to go. Update Day 59 - Research is telling me Marge has a calcium deficiency as the spots are still appearing and all 3 are getting some brittle branches. I've got some CalMag coming tomorrow and will update the results by the end of the week. Update Day 60 - CalMag arrived today, added to the nute mix at half strength and took out the trellis. Its very crowded so I may stick to doing 2 plants at a time for the next grow. Next update on day 62 to see the effects.

The CalMag seems to be bolstering across the board. There's no new spots on Marge and she's well into bud production with the rest. There's also some amazing purple tipped sugarleaf sprouting. I'm guessing I'll be in for another 2 weeks of nutes then a week to flush then we should be sitting pretty 🤞🤞 I heard stressing the girls out a bit before harvest throws the terpenes into high production so since Marge and Lisa are a bit barren I've gone a lollipopped them a good bit to focus their energies a bit better. Marge is way further along with a load of pistils turning amber so I'll be looking to flush her first and see how we go.

I started a flush cycle on Marge with her ripening a bit faster she should be ready to chop by Sunday. I hit her with 6.5 water at the start of the week and she just fattened up. Lisa and Maggie have a good week of growth and a bit of drought before they get flushed, plus it'll give me the time to prep up some fresh pH water.

I took down Marge nearly 2 weeks ago and dried her out. It was a bit early for her as the smoke hasn't been all that strong but it's pleasant enough and getting the job done. Lisa and Maggie however were night and day. The extra grow and ripening time made all the difference. I got just over and ounce from Marge but the other 2 are fairly dense so a good bit of drying is coming first. I'll sample some of Lisa and Maggie before and after curing. I've got a feeling it's knock my on my arse 😅

They were super easy to grow but took ill very quickly and didn't bounce back all that well but no great impact on the harvest, I'm still really happy with what's on the scales and I learned plenty from this round.