I'm seeing the opposite. Tropicana Cookies vegged way quicker. I know the tropicana cherry's buds are supposed to be larger compared to the tropicana cookies. Don't get me wrong the tropicana cherry still veg's plenty fine for me and if it turns out to be fire I'll be keeping it regardless of vegging speed.
Even before I had the MTN Trop, I heard that she COULD be a little bit finicky. Tbh, that was hard to believe while I was seeing pic after pic of the swoll, purple, pink, alien looking crystal coated nugs.
After getting the MTN Trop cut, and running it for a bit now, there were a few things that rang absolutely true that I had read from numerous people who had a lot of experience with it.
She absolutely CAN be a tad slow in veg, but that can be negated by keeping the medium/rootzone considerably on the drier side of the equation, going subsequently lighter on the feed strength and keeping the light intensity airing on the side of being almost not enough, lol.
If you keep her chugging right along within those parameters, she will keep up with most other varieties. I've also read from several sources that she can be difficult to clone, and lacks vigor until the cuts have a well established root mass. But I think a lot of those comments were made by people who were not keeping their mother plants in previously said parameters, and reaping the effects of the mother plant not being in her happy place.
The main thing that I have heard first-hand from people who have grown the trop cherry, is that the density of the finished flowers is on another level compared to the original MTN Trop. A bit larger as well, as you mentioned.
I whole heartily agree that the MTN Trop terps are so very special, and the flowers have insane bag appeal. But conversely, it can be a little bit disappointing when you put a beautifully grown and cured flower on the scale only to see what it weighs. I know that is most certainly not the genetics strong point, and I will definitely be keeping her around for a long time to come, but if there was one thing I could change, it would be to give the finished product a bit more density.
I grew out a tray of the Trop not too long ago, 9 cuts per 4x4, and with a bit of pruning, shaping and defoliating I pulled 24 zips/kw. That was only my second run with it, and I was actually anticipating a bit more stretch, so there was most certainly room for improvement. Imo, to get the trop to yield, you have to either pack them in pretty tight, or veg and train larger plants to have a LOT of dense, laterally trained branching before flip. As well, like most other cookie and cookie hybrids, the MTN Trop is an absolute poster child as far as strains that exponentially benefit from a heavy defoliation in early flowering.
Ht~