Outdoor 3 x Early Top Tao (Photo, Reg) - Maria's Early Spring Games

[islandgrower]

Fly traps work too I think

"carpe diem"

 

[trailanimal]

3 x Early Top Tao (Photo, Reg)
- Maria's Early Spring Games​

Over here in this thread, I mentioned my latest seed order coming through, and my plans for the coming spring. In the order were a few freebies from Seed City, one of them the surprise freebie 3 x Early Top Tao.
View attachment 702609 View attachment 702610
The three seeds look fairly good. A little bit light, not too dark. But not having seen this strain before, don't know if that's just how the seeds from this strain are. I'm very confident they'll pop though. Have seen much lighter / weaker seeds sprout and grow many times.

So did a bit of research on Seed Finder:

Top Tao Seeds - Early Top Tao
Early Top Tao has twice succeeded in competitions of Cannabiscup in the outdoor category. After many years of selection of the fastest maturing plants, the fixed strain Top Tao labeled "Early" - early ripening.
It is a plant extremely resistant to mold, pests, disease and the cold autumn of the Central European climate. It produces an amazing number of branches when you cut the central bud.
The stem and branches are very strong and resistant to wind storms! Huge leaves create a large surface for the absorption of sunlight.
This plant will certainly mature in the gardens of Central and Northern Europe.
The incredible amount of resin and the fruitand flower fragrance cause energizing, sometimes psychedelic high.
Genetics: Early Tao x Oldschool Bohemia

Height: 2 - 2,5 m
Genetics: Indica / Sativa
Cannabinoid: medium and more
Harvest: August / September
Flowering time indoor: 6-7 weeks

User-Generated Strain-Profile

Known Phenotypes: » new » none up to now (homogenous??)

For this strain we got input by 1 user(s). Here a short overview:

Harvest Time Outdoor: Middle of September +/- 1 Week in CmShα climates.
Strength / Lasting Effect: The weed affects middle-high to high.
Yield / Quantity Outdoor: The crop of this strain is high.
General Impression Outdoor: is all together a quite good strain.
Votings of our users: Early Top Tao gets 7.00 of 10 possible Points in the average!​

Which all looks pretty darn awesome to me!! That review is from climate zone CmShα,
"warm temperate, micro- to mesotherm and semi-humid climates (maritime),"
which is pretty much the same as me here.

So, dropped the three seeds just about an hour ago:
View attachment 702611

I'll sow them into individual small pots once they germ, maybe 0.4L or 1.0L pots.
Once they get a little size over maybe 3-4 weeks, re-pot when needed,
and see where I can put them outside.
From the description above, almost def top them (at least once, maybe twice if big enough).

They are reg photo plants, so I figure that 4 weeks vege,
then outside will be about late March, so 12/12 hr light cycle.
They are short flowering, so even if they take 60 days,
that is still just end of May, and daylight is just 13/11 hr or so.

In the meantime, some cool photos of my lemon mint pot, four plants from seed, LSTed and topped once each, which was out on the balcony for a month over winter with nobody but mother Gaia to look after them.

View attachment 702612
This isn't the best shot of them, actually. Much fatter and wider than this pic shows, almost 3' across!

Love and hugs,
MJS

cheers Maria, that strain does seem good, cheers for freebies too. Do you make tea with the LM?

 

[trailanimal]

Less than 36 hrs after dropping, all three have popped, and the roots are growing nicely:
View attachment 703616

So, planted them into their new homes, these three little pots, each about 0.75 L = 0.25 Gal or so.
View attachment 703618

I know that looks like a lot of perlite and vermiculite, but it's not that much really.
It just tends to float up to the surface when I was doing the light flushing to bring the TDS down yesterday.

They have been there since last nice.
They're sitting in the window, so have a bit of sun and warmth.
About 20C, just right!
Maybe they'll be above ground by Monday!
Here's hoping................

they're ALIVE!

 

[trailanimal]

@912GreenSkell -- question for you! Or anyone else.... @Habitual ?

Thinking about after a month or so, putting them outside. Which option best:
1. Putting them straight into the local soil only.
2. Putting them in a hole filled with potting mix, surrounded by local soil.
3. Putting them in a *sleeved hole with potting mix, surrounded by local soil.
4. Putting them in a buried pot filled with potting mix only.

* Sleeved - I dig the whole, put in a a plastic pot with the bottom cut out.
That way the local soil won't straight away leak into my good soil,
but the roots can grow down into the local soil.

I think [HASHTAG]#1[/HASHTAG] would be the worst option, lazy but poor soil.
[HASHTAG]#4[/HASHTAG] would ensure quality soil, but then have pot size restriction.
[HASHTAG]#2[/HASHTAG] and [HASHTAG]#3[/HASHTAG] allow some good soil plus unrestricted size.
But think that [HASHTAG]#3[/HASHTAG] will allow the best of both worlds.

What do you think?
I recall you having some pots with holes so the roots could grow out
when you transplanted them. I think this is a good idea. Hence [HASHTAG]#3[/HASHTAG].

and if you mix the potting soil with native for you backfill might speed transition

 

[trailanimal]

Have you done any PH testing of the local soil? I have a couple of more things to look out for. Grab a handull of local soil and firmly form a ball that's slightly larger than golf ball. The use your finger and push it into the ball to the center point. Does the dirt break apart or does your finger simply leave a hole? If it breaks apart you have a nice soil consistency. If not you might want to amend the soil with something to break up its consistency like perlite or leaf compost.
I personally like option 2 for photos. The insta-transplant pots(sleeved) work well but I use them for autos as even a slight dirt shift can effect them greatly, rather than photos as photos are no problem to transplant and a slight setback on a photo is gernerally a small thing. Another reason I wouldn't use insta pots on my photos as the stalks get so big they would fill the entire pot with stalk and would not be able to get them out of the ground(the pots), plus potentially cutting off circulation
August 18th Blueberry Trunk(post storm damage)
View attachment 704791

from a magic forest I'm sure

 

[trailanimal]

Yeah.... bugs... Have some little gnat things in tent now.
They fly around, but can't see what harm they are doing.
Neem didn't see to affect them much, but need another spray or two.

Next worry: once the 3 and 5 and then 7 pointer leaves appear,
how to prevent house mate from identifying them?
Little bit of paranoia, helps keep security tight.

fairy mint, from a place far away

 

[trailanimal]

the babies are reaching for glory!

 

[Exotic Flower]

cheers Maria, that strain does seem good, cheers for freebies too. Do you make tea with the LM?

They seem pretty healthy and happy so far.
Rubbing those little leaves gives a nice scent, too.

Yes, I do make lemon mint tea.
It is florescent yellow green in color.
I am now curing some leaves that turned purple, looks funky.

Thanks for coming by for the fun, and the "like bomb"!
Please share your experience, I'm happy to learn.

 

[Exotic Flower]

fairy mint, from a place far away

Oh yeah, perfect!! I'm going to sow more mints, or move some outdoor mints back into the tent, for cover....

 

[Exotic Flower]

the babies are reaching for glory!

Yes the are!!! Today's photos below:

Early Top Tao (Photo, Reg) - Day 7

Some morning photos, family shot, and individual portraits.

Sorry about the usual LED red and purple glow.
And this is just the "vege" switch, without the "bloom" lights on.

They are really looking great, and all going at a very similar pace up to this point.
Can't quite see yet how many points the second set of true leaves will have, hope they're alll 3 pointers.

Wanted to do outdoor soil prep this weekend, but the weather out there is really crap.
The 5kg coco brick I purchased locally is supposed to expand out to 50-60 L.
Which is probably much more than I want at this point.
So I used a sharp object to literally split about 25% off the brick as a couple of slabs.
Once the weather's a little better, I'll water these to expand to maybe 15 L,
then add maybe 15L of the other local mix from last year (coco + peat + mushroom casings),
plus some dolomite lime, water crystals, and some slow release organic fert,
bag them up into maybe three bags of 10 L each,
and go fill three nice holes in nature's garden.
They'll get to sit for 2-3 weeks in the rain and wind, to get some life into them before transplanting.


Love and hugs,
MJS