Week 4 Vegetative - "Ruby" finished last week with only 3 nodes, but grew more 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' 4th node and was well on it's way to the 5th 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 "Ruby" 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 "Ruby" 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.
I am growing the same seeds from Irvine seed company. In week 2 right now will be posting diary soon. Could not find any info on their website, this is a mango cross with tangerine right?