Mango X Tangie (Reg) - Ruby

Week 5 Vegetation - "Ruby" has brought joy to my heart as well, 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 was a little more gentle with this plant on the first round as it was shorter and less forgiving to a bend. Definitely made of for it in the recovery though, as the nodes are growing faster than the twin plant. This plants nodes are already an inch or so out, where the other plant is only just starting to push them out. My predictions seem to align with the faster growth rate of the bushier plant. Looks can be deceiving at first! 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 shooting out and reaching for the light. 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. I pulled the tie down a bit further on this one to match it with the twin plant after it had time to stretch a bit. 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 :)