Mango X Tangie (Reg) - Sam

Alright, here we go! Week 1 Vegetative - "Sam" was the first to pop up out of the two plants (see other Diary). This plant exhibited fast and tall growth in comparison to the twin plant. The 2 cotyledons came out with no issues, leaving the pericarp (husk) behind in the dirt! This growth rate accelerated as the week went on, and as you see in the side by side shot, it gained a noticeable height difference over the twin. I've been told this is a characteristic of male genetics some times, which has me interested to test as these are regular (non-feminized) seeds. I have both plants in a starter tray with a vented cloner dome on top, and a seedling heating mat underneath. The grow room is a little in disarray right now with my vegetable garden seedlings started as well as a few other experiments, so I have them on a short shelf under a 1000W Blurple for this stage. I find these work perfectly fine with the lower outputs for seedlings. I constantly play with the vents opening and closing to balance the humidity and soil moisture level. Have I said that I love having the time to do that now? XD By the end of this week, both seedlings had the cotyledons and first set of leaves developing.

Week 2 Vegetative - "Sam" started off the week with just the first set of leaves and the cotyledons. I started to introduce nutrients near the middle of the week the timing was right in the dry cycle. I'm always careful to avoid watering too close to the stem for safety. Throughout this grow, I'll be loosely following the foundation Nutrient Recipe found over on cocoforcannabis.com. With the plans to try this strain out in a coco medium eventually, I wanted to "bake in" this recipe from the birth of the plant to prepare the future clones for the switch. This plant remains the taller of the twins, however height matters less than actual rate of growth once I implement some LST. Throughout the week I adjust the vents as usual to balance and mimic a bright sunny and humid spring day, followed by a cooler (still warm) more dry night cycle. By the end of the week, I had trust that the seedlings were strong enough to withstand the airflow/environment of the entire grow room, so I started to leave the dome off for 12 hour periods to harden them off. "Sam" finished with 3 developed nodes, and a good 5 inches in height.

Week 3 Vegetative - "Sam" started off the week with 3 nodes that were tight in structure. I continued to fertigate with the same reduced nutrient recipe designed for the seedling stage. In reading up on Humic Acid (which is generally what the "Diamond Nectar" is), and how it aids in the binding and uptake of water/nutrients for the root system. With low impacts to water conductivity (salinity levels/EC), I take used the full recommended dose. I keep the CalMag down to the usual 1/2 strength as I'm currently growing in soil. This plant still remains the taller of the twins, however the efforts seemed to be focused on stretching the existing nodes rather than adding new ones. I find this to be typical after the 3rd-5th node as the nutrients in the plants become more mobile and dispersed. I dropped the light a bit as well by this point to both reduce the stretch and because they have enough leaves to photosynthesize the extra light I find. Just my thoughts, nothing beyond anecdotal evidence. "Sam" finished the week adding a single node totaling 4 developed nodes, and 7 inches in height.

Week 4 Vegetative - "Sam" finished last week with 4 nodes, and continued to grow rapidly throughout the week. I didn't take too many photos near the beginning of the week, as it was just more of the same. By the mid-week mark, this plant had reached its' 5th node and was well on it's way to the 6th when I decided to transplant them to their final pots. I held off a little bit, and definitely could have repotted sooner, but I wanted to get all the footage for the video that's now up on my YouTube channel for you all to see :) Not here to plug though - so anyways, I repotted "Sam" into a 3 gallon pot with some holes I had cut into the top rim from a previous grow. I'll use these holes to train the twin plants with LST via garden ties. I mixed in a light amendment of "Grow" Bat Guano (4 tsp.) and Kelp Meal (4 TBSP) for the whole pot to boost the available micro and macro nutrients. I kept it light to avoid wasting resources on the un-sexed plants. Should either of them be female, I'll increase the nutrients via fertigation instead to I don't miss out on an awesome harvest! Finally, I waited a few days for "Sam" to acclimate to the new pot and stretch the roots (I love how much quicker this step is when they aren't rootbound) before applying the first round of LST. I used standard garden twist-ties, carefully curving and bending a loop around the tip of the plant while making sure not to cut the delicate ends with the edge of the ties (the plastic is kinda sharp). I bend the top towards the outer rim, and tie off. This results in the top being slightly lower than the bend-point, and allows light to penetrate through to the now visible nodes. I'm terribly impatient, so this is my favourite part of the grow as they usually bolt from here. I also increased the nutrients in my watering solution now that they have fully recovered from the transplanting at the end of the week.

Week 5 Vegetation - "Sam" has brought joy to my heart, and responded well to the LST we started last week! Less than 12 hours after the first round, you can see the tip of the plant pointing up towards the light already! I think the part that I love about the LST technique the most stems from my sporadic and impatient mind. Seeing the plants react in as close to real time as you can usually get in gardening is just amazing. Checking in just a few hours later to see a wonderful spectacle as the once bowing tips start to "pray" towards the light in a constant battle of "Dad, stop doing that... I don't want to look at dirt all day". Additionally, the improved light penetration to the nodes seems to really surge the photosynthesis process, increasing the overall surface-area that the plant is processing the light. Exponential gain? :) Anyhow, 2 days later you can clearly note the growth rate is increasing with about an inch or so added to the tip, as well as the nodes slowly starting to push out. This causes the plant to change the balance and flow of nutrients throughout different areas of the plant as it tries to invest in the most prosperous and efficient branches. I like to think of this as guiding the blind branches towards the light in a manner that promotes an even and balanced canopy for the whole plant rather than simply the main stalk with smaller lower branches. From here on out, I don't typically measure the true "height" of the plant, as the whole goal to this training technique is to keep a lower canopy/profile that is even. Just not feasible or possible to measure the twists and turns that are to come XD **Forgot to Mention in previous week**!! NEW LIGHT When I transplanted these babies, I also took the opportunity to upgrade my lighting to an HLG 600W BSpec. This bad-boy is meant to cover up to a 7x7ft veg space, and came equipped with a dimmer (even thought the site said it wouldn't. No complaints here)! I currently have it set up to a wifi smart plug with a schedule set, but I had to place warning parameters and dim the light. After a few hours of operation, the wifi-plug will automatically shut off the light without a warning. This timeframe decreases when the light is at a higher output setting, so I'm assuming there's an internal breaker/surge-protection that's kicking it off. I'm fine with it for now as this thing is WAY too powerful for my plants at this stage. I'll have to figure something out, but I have time :)

Week 6 Vegetation - "Sam" rate of growth started to increase near the beginning of the week. With the nodes now stretching, I've started to implement tucking of the larger fan leaves under new and smaller shoots. I find this "new growth priority" method paired with LST really maximizes and speeds up the growth in comparison to an untrained plant. Merely anecdotal though! You'll notice that in the 3rd shot, the nodes stretched out in about 2 days and just ballooned! now that's what I'm talking about! nearing the middle of the week and the rate of growth is fast enough that I can't remember to take enough pictures between the new nodes. At this point I'm tucking new leaves almost daily, making paths for the light to reach new growth tips. By the end of the week, I'll need to start tying the nodes to the side before they stretch too far up. If they stretch too far before tying them, they can be a PITA to tie down later with dense foliage and such. Tying them down before they get to this point also keeps the nutrients moving to the "new side-nodes" from these branches. Eventually these will be just as thick as the original main stalk. UPDATE: As you can see with the last photos added, the branches are almost even with the original top of the plant that was tied down. I gave them a thorough fertigation the night before, and only slight folding of the leaves so I must have choked the roots a bit, but nothing long term.

This week was a fairly typical veg week, with even growth throughout all of the branches. You'll notice that I continue to tie down the top more and more throughout the week to keep the branches even. I'm starting to keep an eye out for signs of pre-flowering in hopes that I can sex them before going too far down the line. There were no significant differences between the two plants this week.

This week, the side branches continued to push on and stretch. I really am falling in love with this one, and can’t wait to start taking the clones! I’ve kept the fertigation at the same ratio, as the nutrients I cut into the medium during the transplant should still be more than available. I’m watering them once every 2-3 days to avoid choking out the roots. Both plants are relatively the same, so the notes will reflect this.