Tangerine Dream Auto 2

👉Germination graduated to seedling and by mid week the seedling graduated to early growth. I was probably a little early switching to the week one "early growth" on the General Hydroponics Drain to Waist Feed chart. I gave to the center part of the plant at only 75% full strength. The tips showed it was too soon and too strong and the tips were burnt by the morning. I reduced the fertigation fluid to much lower at that next event and have slowly increased it till I am now in the mid range of the target EC on the chart. I use the full line of GHE Flora series and mix with .003EC RO water made at a medical facility, transported home in two 6 gallon sterile water carriers.

👉Days 15 - 20. I love this stage! Ok...I love all the stages...but the vegetative stage is awesome in its own way...every time I check on the plant, noticeable growth has happened! The plant had more than doubled in just a few days and its just getting started! Its stayed short as a seedling, and now its main stalk is getting stout and it had formed a couple of branch nodes which should start reaching out towards the lights soon. 👉I started the light at 100w for the seedling stage. This week I increased the wattage of the Mars Hydro TS1000 to 125w on day 16, then up to 140w on day 17. The light remains at 24" above. I will increase it to just under max wattage during the next week. Temperature in the tent remained at 73F most of the time, as long as the outdoor temps were colder than 50F. At 50 the HVAC stops running the heat and the tent reached a max of 77F on day when the temps outside reached 65. I was monitoring the tent via the Weird Jimmy Memorial Grow Cam on my cell phone while at work. I asked my wife, (who works from home) to switch on the a/c. Set to 68, the room returned to 73. At night the temps were in the mid to low 30s most of the time, and the overnight tent temperature is about 67. I have the exhaust on a timer and it shuts off during lights off to be more efficient. Once the plant starts giving off a strong enough aroma that my wife notices it in the mornings, I will leave the exhaust fan running 24/7. So for now the exhaust fan is just venting away heat and keeping the air fresh. I have the 12" oscillating fan and run it on low. It moves the air great around the tent. I placed a framed screen in front of the fan to lessen the wind stress. Ive been using the wind defusing screen since the last grow, and it definitely helps reduce the wind stress on the closest leaves, while allowing good circulation around the tent and the plant. 👉Using the "Early Growth" recipe for nutrient solution on the GHE drain to waste feed chart for the Flora Series of nutrients, I have been mixing about maximum recommended. When measuring my solution for each fertigation event, I lower the EC by adding low EC solution with just Cal mag, ArmorSi and Rapid Start. I have been gradually increasing it, but don't need to push it because the plant is only in the 1 Gallon pot and doesn't need to get massive. I gave it a full low EC fertigation today (Day 21) followed by a low volume, full 1.32EC fertigation. This was to 'rinse' the media and keep the EC run off within +30EC of the max EC inflow. I will do this method of rinsing the media as needed, up to 3x a week if needed.

👉The plant has taken off and is looking good. Its not looking great however, some clawing and deepening of the leaf color with a bit of 'scrunchiness" to its texture. Should indicate Nitrogen excess. Can be exacerbated by other issues, but Im just going to try and keep the tent environment as good as I can, and try to address the N excess by lowering the EC target to the low end of the target range on week 3 of the GHE drain to waist feed chart. Humidity is low, temps are a tad on the cool side at mid to low 60s. I added a humidifier to the room. Its on the outside of the tent and there is a vent to a few inches above and it brings it in the tent. This only raised the humidity about 4-5% max (averaging 40%). Ive done a high volume/low EC irrigation, and extened the fertigation event intervals a couple of times. 👉Ive seen the roots start poking out of the cloth pot, and have seen the roots start going across the top of the media. The stems are sturdy and thick and the secondary branches are about to peek out for under the top fan leaves. When those 2ndary sites get close I will tuck to help them absorb some direct light.

👉More good growth and the early flowering stage has begun with only slight issue of nitrogen excess. Also getting yellow tips when ever Ive pushed the solution strength past 1.25 EC. I stayed with the "early growth" mix a little too long last week. I made one batch of late growth and the next was the transition. My next batch will be early flowering mix. With the excess N possible issues I cut the FloraMicro 20%. The trunk has gotten thick, the secondary branches are starting to extend and the leaf production is growing great. Did some minor tucking as the secondary branches start to peek out. The run-off pH has been stable and the EC run-off has started to consistently be lower than the inflow. This means that the plant is absorbing lots of nutrients. It also means the roots have filled the pot. I will continue to do intermittent low EC irrigations to rinse the media anyway.

👉The Tangerine Dream is a dense compact little shrubbery. Its started doing its flower stretch, and thankfully its not racing towards the top of the tent. It has grown one inch taller than its tent mate in a 3 gallon pot. The plant has also had very pronounced yellow tips for the last two weeks now. It has resulted in some slight burned tips. I have reduced the inflow EC to the low roange of the recomended EC range on the General Hydroponics Drain to Waste Flora Trio feed chart. The plant is consuming nutrients as its run off has been consitently lower than the inflow. The pH of the run off has remained below 6.2. So while the bright yellow tips are telling me its maxing out on its nutrient uptake...maybe even a little too much, Im hesitant to reduce the nutrient solution strength lower than I am for fear of creating other nutrient issues. Amazingly the tips almost fully turn back green, but are leaving some dried brown. I raise the light the first week it started but it continued, then I reduce nutrient stregth, and it just continues. I will do some reading on it and maybe have to start mixing its own specific nutrient mix instead of getting the same as its tent mate (different strain). 👉Ive begun slight trimming and pruning of growth in the lowest parts and in the shadows. This has given some extra room at the base to make it easier to feed. I try to trim all the smaller interior secondary branches to reduce the amount of underdeveloped buds. I will leave the leafs on as much as I can unless the stop being a food factory or the plant is better off without it. 👉Added a new piece of equipment to the Weird Jimmy Memorial Grow Lab. A 6" inline fan with a controller that monitors the temperature in the tent and adjusts the speed of the fan based the temperature automatically. It also has a base speed that it maintains if the temperature drops below the base line temperature. So I set the base temperature at 70f and the base fan speed to 1, as the temperature increases in the tent the fan speed increases. This should save a few pennies a day on the cost of the fan and a reduction in a little of the HVAC cost because of reduced overall air being exhausted out of the house. Once the plant is in full bloom and my wife starts complaining about the stinky skunk, then I will probably have to just keep i full blast until its harvested and in jars. Just a new kewl toy for my fun hobby.

👉Everything about the plant looks great...except the brigt yellow tips. Some of the tips are turning into dried tips, But some are just growing out and the yellow fades. I have reduced the overall Nutrient strength and raised the light to 24". I have seen no change in the yellowing of tips. So I am going to increase its EC inflow even though it looks like its notrient overload. I will be giving at least one high volume/ ultra-low EC irrigation rinse of the media, possibly 2. Burned tips are not much more than an indicator and not nessessarily more that ugly. I am afraid that I could be under feeding. Im hoping the high volume/low EC irrigations will help mitigate the yellow tips. 👉At this point the pot is packed tight with roots. The surface is firm and I can pour the nutrient solution with out having to worry about creating little ruts. It does make it a slower process to ad solution and my patience will again be tested soon as the time to give 1.5L will soon be 5mins plus. The possible issues that accompany being in a small pot might be mitigated with more low EC irrigation events. The plant has been doing the flower stretch as expected and is now 22" tall. The branches and main stalk are strong and sturdy.

👉The plant seems to have stopped stretching and the buds are starting to develop. The yellow tips are not as pronounced as last week and most have just faded or left just a tiny bit of the tips 'burnt'. There are just a small number of the more obvioulsy burned tips. The high volume low EC irrigation event and the lowering of nutrient levels may have corrected the yellow tips, it also may have given a slight cal-mag deficiency. This can be seen on the large lower leaves. Its just subtle and after noticing it midway in the week I stopped diluting the solution mix with pure H2O, and returned to diluting only with Cal-Mag only pH'd solution that is .4EC. The plant is getting to the age that the larger leaves will stop being viable and fade, but I like to keep them healthy and productive as long as the plant wants it. The trunk is crooked coming out of the media because when it was young the leaves were hiding the stem and the loose coco allowed it to slightly shift without me noticing soon enough to correct it. Its not affecting anything on the plant and its strong and sturdy. I have the bamboo rods attached to the rack so I can support buds when they developed. Fortunately, since going to the Mars hydro light, my plants are very stout and no support is needed. I expect this plant to be no different, but I do hope the buds get so heavy they would require these strong branches to need support...but that's just stoner fantasy...maybe someday I will grow good big buds that Weird Jimmy would say "Ah-Hah!... Yes, yes."

👉The plants buds are starting to fill out. The leaves are starting to show signs of fading or a light cal-mag deficiency from previous week. It takes over 5 minutes to give the plant 1.5L of solution, the byproduct of the one gallon pot. I slowly ad the solution so it evenly is absorbed by the media. I delayed giving an H2O only irrigation till this morning. I delayed it because the run-off has bee in the pH range and the EC has been the same or lower at every fertigation event. I probably should do the low EC irrigations more frequently, but since I'm giving enough solution for a high run-off volume at each event, the run-off EC remains stable and in range for both pH and EC. The frost is starting to show itself and the aroma is mild and generic. The buds look like typical sativa.

👉The plant is looking great, the leaves show little sign of issues, just some slight downward curls on the leaf tips. The flowers are looking very nice and filling out nicely. The colas look long and dense. The frost is spreading. The aroma is mild and sweet. The shape of the plant is a little unusal in that it didnt spread itself out, just straight up. All my plants so far have the lower branches spreading out a little horizontally to make it more of a traingle shape. The lowest 2 branches never got very big and I believe its because the way all the branches are growing almost straight up. The branches are solid and strong. There will be no need to support the flowers. I attribute this all to the lights. Since getting the Mars Hydro light last Jan 2020 I have not had to use supports for any branches (was using a 300w blurple up till then). 👉When fertigating the plant it takes almost 10 minutes to deliver 1.5 liters. This is due to the density of the roots. I give more the the typical amount of solution and get more that 30% run-off most of the time. I haven't done an H2Only irrigation mostly because I procrastinate, but also because of time constraints due to life. But since Im giving enough solution to get as much as 50% run-off that Im not getting any nutrient accumulation and the EC of the run-off is lower than the inflow EC. The pH of the run-off is also staying within the target range as well. This tells me the media is well balanced and lots of good things are happening inside that benefits the plant. Im on week 9 of the nutrient feed chart for General Hydroponics drain to waste feed chart of the Flora series. Im guessing the plant has about 20 days left, maybe even more.

👉The plant is healthy overall, starting to show some fading of the leaves and I may get some color since its cooler at night than normal (as low as 62 in the tent). Lots of frost and the flowers are the typical sativa shape. The aroma is light and sweet. Slight leaf down curl. I have been fertigating with run-offs as high as 50+% at almost all fertigation events. It can take as long as 10 minutes to add 1.5l of solution. THis is from the root density. THe coc is still able to absorb moisture, but I believe the density is possibly holding on to more solution and may also be decreasing the available oxygen in the media. I gave an H2Only irrigation yesterday and will be giving less solution going forward. The lower run-off will result in higher EC in the run-off. I also anticipate the pH to go up. I will be giving more frequent H2Only irrigations. Each H2Only event will be followed by a small amount of nutrient solution. My next grow I may try to combat this by installing a coil of 1/4" soaker hose attached to an air pump set on a timer to inject air intermittently into the media. This is a GG4 induced idea. May require some additional research.

👉Mmmhmmm...looking yummy, sweet skunky aroma and gorgeous, long sativa, colas. The colas continue to grow and look very dense. Ive removed most of the lowest, oldest leaves as they began to fade. I dont let the leaves that are done acquiesce completely before removing (no that's not the proper term but I'm stoned and don't want to look it up). Most of the leaves look like they are starting to fade. The trichomes are looking like lots of cloudy ones. I'll be watching closely now I going to harvest one nice cola when its about 50/50 clear/cloudy no amber. I did this on my first plant and the early harvested sativa was like a power packed cup of coffee! Not something I would smoke daily, but a fantastic pick me up thats faster than coffee and really happy buzz. For the rest of the plant Im looking for almost all cloudy and just a few amber. 👉I havent done as frequent of H20nly low EC irrigation's as I had planned, just one, but the run-off EC and pH have been in range and Im lazy. I am on the 10th week late bloom mix on the General Hyrdoponics Flora trio series drain to waste feed chart. I may wait another week, maybe more to change to the ripen mix, depends on the trichomes as they transition. I have reduce total inflow volume of solution, to attain 20-30% run-off. The EC hasnt skyrocketed, and the pH has remained stable as well. I have also gradually increased the EC for the inflow. Leonardo, the Weird Jimmy Memorial Grow lab overseer, says he loves watching me slave over his domain.

👉All the leaves up top are yellowing, not from a nutrient deficiency, but from cooler temps at night and moderate temps in the day. As low as 62 (average 65), high was 78 once for a couple hours (average 75). Humidity has dropped a bit to to bitter cold winter temps (sub zero for lows a couple times). Fortunately, we were spared the hardships many faced during the centurion storm. The buds are frosty and dense, with lots of cloudy trichomes on the calix's, no amber (except on sugar leaves). The buds are getting a ting of purple around the edges, most likely due to the cooler night temps. There are still a lot of white pistols. Over all the plant is doing wonderful! I am watching the trichomes daily now using various methods. I use a hand held 10x magnifier, a 40x eye loop, a USB powered microscope, and a DSL with a 50mm lens coupled with macro rings. The aroma is mellow and sweet. The aroma off my finger after touching a bud is the typical pine-sol sweet...such a fun aroma! 👉I kept with the week 10 late bloom nutrient mix using full line of General Hydroponics Flora series Drain to waste feed chart. By the end of the week the plants run-off began to change. The ph and the EC began to rise. I did a low EC irrigation followed by a low volume fertigation, but the pH never dropped as low as it did during the previous weeks. By weeks end it was averaging 6.2 in the run-off. I surmise this may be an indicator that changing to the Ripen mix near the end of the week was the right timing. This is just stoner assumption....zero research.

👉All the older leaves and leaves tangled together inside the dome have been removed. The buds are slowly ripening and the vigorous growth has subsided. Mostly red pistols and lots of cloudy trichomes. Still a lot of clears and other than at the tips of the colas, there are very few amber. I have been using a DSLR with a 55mm lens and macro rings added fro the macro shots. I also inspect the plant with the USB micro scope. Its a very low resolution camera, but its easier to do quick surveys of different areas. To get good pictures of the trichomes takes a lot of patience so I only take a few withe the usb. The DSLR is hard to move around so I just choose one cola and photograph different spots on the bud. I take a bunch of pictures at different settings. After lots of trial and error I figured out some of the settings that can give me nice pix with a wide view. I can then open them on my computer and zoom in closer to get clear details with richer colors than the USB camera. I crops some of the pictures and due slight lighting adjustments. 👉 I am trying to choose when to harvest based on the the state of the trichomes. Its very close and I just waiting for more ambers in the mid and lower areas of the colas. Just looking at the tops of the colas there are plenty of amber. But there are still a few too many clears everywhere else on the cola, so I will try to be patient and am just going to continue to fertigate and irrigate to keep the media balanced.

👉The plant is finally showing signs its time has come. Close inspections of trichomes with the DSLR on day 103 show lots fewer clear and a few ambers. The buds have a light purple tinge and the remaining leaves are faded, yet not withered. I removed all leaves that the plant was done with (starting to wither). The aroma is a nice citrusy pine. On day 104 I did trichiome inspections with the USB microscope and the results the same. The DLSR pix have a wider feils of view and the higher resolution allows to zoom in and see lots of detail. The DSLR also have richer color. Its still a pain in the ass to take these pix because of the bright lights of the grow lamp, and the small display on the camera. So I take multiple shots to get a few good ones. The focal range is very narrow so it takes a little work to focus at different levels of the area chosen. The next day I used the USB microscope. It is easier to move around the plant and get a more complete view of the plant trichome status. The pix are just as hard to capture as the DSLR as far as quality pix. The USB scope pix confirmed that the plant is ready to be harvested.

👉This Tangerine Dream was grown in a 1 gallon cloth pot in Coco coir with 20% expanded clay pebbles. I used the full line Flora Series of nutrients from General Hydroponics mixed using the Drain to Waste feed chart. I mixed the nutrients at the upper level of the recommended EC from the chart. The plant preferred the lower limits of EC towards the end of the grow. This plant was sturdy and needed no support for the branches when the buds were full. It reached its potential in it's one gallon pot, and made me grin with amazement every time I opened the tent. 👉I chose this day to harvest the based on its trichome status. Mostly cloudy, a few amber and very few clear. The lower on the plant you go the more clears and and fewer amber. I wanted this ratio for the more uppy buzz that a good sativa can give you. The plant is Sativa dominant and had all the characteristics of the typical sativa. When it began gaining height I was slightly worried it would go into a real stretch. Fortunately it was a nice modest height of 31". The branches didn't spread out and grew almost straight up making the plant a nice manageable fun factory. The branches were stiff and sturdy. I didn't have to support any of the colas. Oh...btw...I treated this plant like every plant on the planet and supplied nutrients to the plant all the way to day of harvest. I don't give a shit that every nutrient company, seed company or any grower on this site think. So please don't bother engaging me in this conversation unless you can bring real scientific research to the conversation. But I digress. 👉To harvest the plant I started at the lowest branch. I remove the large leaves, and popcorn and gave it a wet trim. The buds didn't have lots of sugar leaves so it went easy. Only needed to scrape the scissors a couple of times. I weighed and recorded each colas wet wet and put them on clothes pins with corresponding letters to the log. There was minimal larf due to the selective pruning I did both in veg and flower. I hung each cola on the rack with an oscillating floor standing fan (the kind with a narrow tall profile). I left them in the light breeze of the fan overnight and till the next evening after dinner. Then each was put inside a paper sack with the top open. after 24 hours I folded the tops closed. I would check the buds as often as I could to insure they weren't at risk for mold. My goal was to slow the drying out as slow as I dared. I would weigh the buds and compare the weight to the wet weight and see what percentage of moisture was gone. My goal was 70-75% in weight loss. When the first buds met that goal I would place them in the jars (marked with letters to correspond to the log) with a small hygrometer. The buds started going into the jars on the 5th day after harvest and all were in jars by the 6th day. I monitored each jars hygrometer. I would open the jars to release the excess humidity and eventually get the moisture level stable at 62%. The bigger the buds the longer it took. When the buds were all stable at 62% I weighed them and logged the weight. I left the colas as intact as possible and handled them as little as possible as well. Most of the stem was removed from the colas so they would fit in the jars. Lots of dense crystal coated buds of joy! I put the Queen cola in the bigger cookie jar because it will be my primary bud to consume. I also sample different buds as time passes to see what differences may be in different level buds. Usually all the colas are about the same, but the Queen is always bigger and therefor funner. I Have a Trim Tray (has a screen build in with a catch tray under), and the trim from the buds was done over the buds. When that was bone dry I ground it up with my hands and scraped it back and forth over the screen. After I thin Ive sifted enough I lift the screen tray off the catch tray and use a card and a brush to push the kief into a pile. I then load into a puck press and made a couple of coin sized pucks. 👉At 6 weeks in the jars the flavor and effects are really starting to blossom. I would test once a week with different bits around the plant starting around 3 weeks. the flavor was dull but the high was great. Each time after that I could tell subtle improvements. At 6 weeks I tested the Queen cola for first time and I was very pleased with the wonderfully tasty sweet citrus-y Tangerine Dream I labored on!. I felt as if all my work had paid off and I have scored big time! I fully expect the flavor and buzz to improve up to 6 more months (all my plants have so far). Happy feelings rush over me at first toke. The favors of sweet orange sherbet peek thru the pine-y stank of sativa. Fast head rush and a slow climbing buzz make boring things like mowing the large field behind my house way funner. It also makes sitting in my den with the lights out, except for the black lights, and real stoner music blasting on the surround sound as fun as it was when I was in college. Great sensory enhancing buzz 😉.