New Grower Two Tangerine Dream in a tent

Trucking along. All the girls got their first topping last night. Will need some food / water today. Light is at 21" temps 72-78, rh hovering around 39%. Previous grow maintained these temps / humidity throughout, hoping I can bring humidity up a bit.
Before:


After:

Phone has been on the fritz, havent been able to save photos... went away for 2days (did a heavy feed / water before leaving) and I think the girls are ready for me to do some LST and turn on the autopots. Pretty exciting times around here

Thoughts on starting the autopots? This look about right?

Autopots are on. Put in 3gal at 6.5ph in for the first round. Ppm's are a little crazy because as usual I got overexcited with light intensity with a new Marshydro192 and started suffering a bit of mag def on early growth. AN CalMag at full dose is nearly 500ppm on its own, so with 1/2 strength Grow & Micro, and 1/5 strength Bloom, its now at about 950ppm (way too high in my mind but we'll see over the next few days)...

On to the update... Day 24..

TD2 is still trying to be difficult. She's the one who couldn't break out of her shell, and now her topping is clearly a true FIM. lots of leaf tucking, and tied her down to force lateral growth, she's spreading out nicely.



TD1 recovered from the topping well too. Opened up the middle and tucked a bunch of leaves.


Group Shot


SSH is hanging around too. Topped, and recovered and in a corner (I swear, I'm not intentionally being mean. She's a bit slower so far than the other two but that's intentional. She's a photo who will be part of some later experimentation. She's in a 2gal felt pot, hand feeding (basically the same as the others but not in an autopot)


Still battling low humidity in the 35-38 range. Hasn't been too much of an issue and I know it's from my oversized fan. Already at the lowest setting, but still moving too much air. Even with a humidifier, I can't crack 50%, maybe I should just worry less about it.

Happy growing y'all

Day 34 update...

Autopots are kinda crazy. I put in 10L @ 6.2, and by the end of the week it was 7.4. Now I know a lot of the autopots folks over in the communal grow tend to set and forget / ignore, but to me this rise seems excessive. I'm using AN 3Part PH Perfect, at about 50% micro and grow, and 25% Bloom. Calmag is going in at full strength. Total is about 900ppm + 150ppm base aged tap water. Ph adjusted to 6.2

As usual, daytime ~76, nights are a chilly 67ish. Humidity is up to about 51% now and have both the inkbird humidistat and temp controller on the way.

I've also been doing some pretty aggressive LST since the beginning. TD1 is putting out tons of shoots and the topping was very successful. TD2 is still about a day behind but I wouldn't even consider that an issue now. Her FIM was/is a resounding success.

Not normally a fan of leaf removal, but these little bushes have needed it. Noticed that within a couple hrs of a branch's leaf coming off, the stem is significantly thicker / stronger. Maybe it's just my imagination but it surely doesn't seem to be slowing anything down.

All that said, the girls are doing great!

Pigskinfantasy said:

Nice training job, yourself, Jrok! You will be getting lots of tops and an even canopy on both plants. Looking good, man! Now, just sit back and let them compete for dominance. I would continue removing large fans than may be keeping potential secondary shoots from doing their thing. But I am a defoliation supporter!

Click to expand...

Thanks @Pigskin! Training and observing the response is for sure one of my favourite parts. I've never had much of an issue with doing bonsai on photos, but have been leery just how far to go with these autos. They're just plants tho, right? I'm starting to feel like long as they're otherwise healthy, it's not going to do any harm.

TD1 - underbrush


SSH - Bonsai


Noticed some preflowers/sex showing too, but they're still very much vegging.

On that note, does anyone have historical Tangerine Dream grow data? Wondering how much stretch I should expect and a general idea of timing (wk 5-6, 7-8) for tangerine dream? Sure, they're from Growers Choice so it's a genetic dice roll, but thoughts / ideas would be greatly appreciated!

Things are moving quickly! Been defoliating for a few days now, they just won't quit crowding! And to be honest, I'm a little lost on an overall plan for either of these - I guess it'll mostly depend on when the stretch starts. Training so far has kept them nearly flat (now 7" above medium), and preflowers are showing all over TD1, with TD2 close behind. I picked up some chain link fencing to build screens, but haven't decided on one per plant VS a big one for the whole tent. I'm running autopots, so they're not moving around a ton, and the mars reflector192 is great for the 3x3 but 3x4 might be pushing it, especially if I fill the screen...

Still using the 'room divider'.. The tent is a 3x4x6 'lodge'.



Thoughts, comments, and concerns always welcome! Happy growing everyone!