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

[trailanimal]

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

Early Top Tao (Photo, Reg) - Day 7

Some morning photos, family shot, and individual portraits.

View attachment 707689

View attachment 707690

View attachment 707692 View attachment 707693

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

enjoy your prep outing

 

[Exotic Flower]

enjoy your prep outing

Have put the coco brick chunks into an old potting mix bags with water, letting it expand.
Will add the other stuff and mix it in house side later today. Two bag, about 15 L each, total.
Then at site just a quick dig, pour bag in, a quick mix around, and get out of there.
But the weather is really pretty crappy... have to find the ideal time, best just after dusk...

 

[Exotic Flower]

Ganja Ninja level 7

Haha!!! So I set the alarm nice and early this morning.
Woke up, thought it's too cold, and still too dark.
Then realized better get in action before the ideal time period slips by...
So, did my super morning workout -- carrying about 20 kg of coco mix to the site.
Details of the mix below...

Jeeezzzzz, am I going to feel that tomorrow morning... arms almost dropped off...
Managed to find a better small spade which helped a lot.
Here's the site, in the pre-dawn light:

These are the far corner of a bunch of mountain jungle cut raised beds,
that are usually untended, and lots of big weeds and stuff grow through into small trees.
Holes dug into the far shorter raised bed.
You can see that there is even the sprinkler system there.
Just borrowing a couple of square feet of this farm....

And, digging down making 3 nice 10 L = 2.5 gal holes, the soil looks like this:

Maybe the "dark yellow" isn't so obvious, but that's the soil.
Pulled a few big rocks out in the process.

Didn't get any more photos after the coco mix was added
- dirty and cold hands, and need for speed.................................
Then ninja it on back home.

The Coco Mix:

Coco brick - about 1 kg = 2.2 lb.
With water made about 18 L = 4.5 gal coco mix.
Water crystals - about 50 g, which will hold about 5 L = 1.5 gal of water.
Local organic fert mix pellets - 50 g = 2oz. It's NPK 3.5.4.
Fine dolomite lime - about 50 g.

Mixed it in big potting mix bags, placed in a big bucket, rather than mix in a solid container like a buck.
Mixed it all up, stirred it in, grabbed a couple of handfuls and squeezed into a shot glass, for TDS and pH test.
TDS = 250 ppm, so about EC 0.5.
pH = about 6.5. I use pH test strips, rather than a digital meter.

Sounds about right.

Day 8

Haha, no photos yet. May add later.
When I got home gave the tent plants, including the three Early Top Tao, a good neem spray down, including soil.
This time I put my neem oil bottle in a nice warm place, when warm it mixed into the water so much better.
And sprayed so much better, too.
So, neem trick == use it warm!!

Then raised the three little babies up closer to the Mars Ref 192, now about 45cm = 18".

 

[trailanimal]

raised beds and soil already dug! An abandoned garden?

 

[Exotic Flower]

raised beds and soil already dug! An abandoned garden?

It was made a couple of years ago in this place, by the grounds staff.
But it's largely overgrown now, seldom tended.
I'm keeping a very close eye on what work they are doing.
It's really quite a big area, maybe 100' x 120', on terraced valley wall.
After it was dug out, raised beds in all, they planted some small shrubs there
but then most died and they just became overgrown.
This area was tidied by them a few months ago, and they planted some veges.
My guess is that they will maybe come back later to pick the veges,
but otherwise not regularly come in here at all.
The edges all around this are already slowly being reclaimed by the jungle,
and that edge is where I'm hoping to plant.
Valley wall faces direct south, but is open east through west, about 90% full day sun line.

You may think far too risky, but if you were reading my last grow journal you may recall,
I returned once from a couple of days out, at about day 35 of some autos in this same area.
The scrub area around them had been gone through to clear out the drainage system for the annual monsoons,
so two of the plants had been moved a couple of feet out of the way when they were clearing.
There are just so many plants in various pots peppered all around this area,
and, the locals don't actually seem to know what this plant is, or care.
They just have to survive there for maybe 2+ months.

Yeah, it's a risk, but let's see. Less work for me, and pre-tilled raised beds with full sun?
Who's going to turn that down?!?!!?!

 

[Exotic Flower]

Day 9 - 3 X Early Top Tao (seedlings in tent)

Family shot
They are look very similar in growth progress so far. Nice.
Haven't numbered or named them yet. Should I?

Three little babies
Taking bets on male/female ratios, provided they all get that far.
See no reason why they won't!!!

Just gently watered with just RO water this morning.

Should have taken some other shots of the herbs.
The largest of the scorpion chillis is flowering.
It's only about 9" tall, but has about 15 flower buds.
The other ones are smaller, and less flower buds.
And the strawberry is starting to flower, too.
Has about 3+ lovely little white blossoms.
Should have taken more photos.

Realized last night that the Mars Refl 192 is just on "growth" lighting,
so it's just about 200 W over the whole 1.2x1.2 (4'x4') tent.
I put the three babies up higher though, herbs below.
Still, thinking about turning on the "bloom" lighting too, give them all 400W.
Nice thing about these Mars lights, that grow (veg) and bloom switch, gives more control.

Love and hugs,
MJS

 

[trailanimal]

It was made a couple of years ago in this place, by the grounds staff.
But it's largely overgrown now, seldom tended.
I'm keeping a very close eye on what work they are doing.
It's really quite a big area, maybe 100' x 120', on terraced valley wall.
After it was dug out, raised beds in all, they planted some small shrubs there
but then most died and they just became overgrown.
This area was tidied by them a few months ago, and they planted some veges.
My guess is that they will maybe come back later to pick the veges,
but otherwise not regularly come in here at all.
The edges all around this are already slowly being reclaimed by the jungle,
and that edge is where I'm hoping to plant.
Valley wall faces direct south, but is open east through west, about 90% full day sun line.

You may think far too risky, but if you were reading my last grow journal you may recall,
I returned once from a couple of days out, at about day 35 of some autos in this same area.
The scrub area around them had been gone through to clear out the drainage system for the annual monsoons,
so two of the plants had been moved a couple of feet out of the way when they were clearing.
There are just so many plants in various pots peppered all around this area,
and, the locals don't actually seem to know what this plant is, or care.
They just have to survive there for maybe 2+ months.

Yeah, it's a risk, but let's see. Less work for me, and pre-tilled raised beds with full sun?
Who's going to turn that down?!?!!?!

risk is minimal, if "they" knew what it was, "they" probably would have smoked your last crop. As long as no one sees you with your plants, you are golden!,

 

[Exotic Flower]

risk is minimal, if "they" knew what it was, "they" probably would have smoked your last crop. As long as no one sees you with your plants, you are golden!,

Exactly! Totally freaked me out last fall, when then obviously moved the already flowering plants out of the way to clear the drainage systems, and put them back in place. So, I'm hoping that in the ground, with minimal evidence of cultivation (so have to leave it fairly natural) they'll just think it's some other wild weed popping up on the raised bed like every other wild weed that's growing out there.

I think for my 6 x Mandala Safari Mix "experimental hybrids" I'm going to use the same area, but just down a couple of terraces lower. Down there they haven't even done a tidy up this early spring, so it's messier and thus more cover. One or two places are clearer of weeds, though, so will have some space.

Just keeping an eye on it.

 

[Exotic Flower]

Day 10 - Early Top Tao

Here are the three babies, with their second set of true leaves coming out nicely, the first set still enlarging, and the tiny third set now visible in the grow tip.

Growth pace is nice, steady but not amazing. But the first two weeks are always slow.

Once they get on a bit, my present thinking is three different training regimens:
1. Totally natural, no topping, bending, LST or HST at all. Just let it do its thing.
2. FIMming, opening up the top to intensify branching, without cutting the main stem.
3. Topping, taking out the main stem and letting it branch.

Or maybe:
1. Totally natural.
2. Top once.
3. Top twice. (But this kind of assumes that they'll have enough time here under lights. Def possible.)

Then I can get a fair idea about how this strain responds to such work.
Some reviews at en.seedfinder.eu on this strain suggest it's a heavy brancher and responds well to topping, etc.

Love and hugs,
MJS

 

[Tank]

Thanks for joining us.
I give no promises on any results!
Hahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!

Get your outdoor journal ready, bro!

Woohoo another outdoor guy!! Great to meet you...I look forward to seeing your journal!!

my outdoor photo journal is up now
https://www.autoflower.org/threads/4-strain-outdoor-photoperiod-grow-summer-2017.58243/