You've gone strictly by the book so far as best you can with the 2.2 recipe. What do you feel are the strong and weak points that make you want to change it?
Well, a few things. Some could have been addressed while mixing the soil to cook but if staying by the book, some, not so much.
First, TLO seems very difficult to get water to suck down in the pots and not just spill out of the sides of the pot. Doesn't seem to matter if the soil is bone dry or damp it is by far the most water repellent soil I have dealt with no question. Even when the soil is dry it's quite heavy. This makes me worry quite a bit about soil compaction and how easy I believe it would compact as well.
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Bigger badder lights--->need more nutrients right? Well, one thing is for sure, this TLO soil is NOT short on nutrients. Seems its probably about hotter than say FFOF by not just a mile but maybe 3. You would think that powerful lights would put this available nutrition to good use but I think it has the opposite effect here. If we look at the Revs book, he grows everything with a maximum of 400 W metal halide lamps. While his system is 100% dialed in for him we all know your plants can only produce so much with smaller lights right?
The strong feeling that I am having tells me that while my lights are providing par levels exceeding a 1000w double-ended HPS this actually may be having an adverse effect by making it appear that the soil is too hot for the plants simply because the lights are pushing the plants at a faster rate then the Rev pushes. I believe pushing the plants harder with stronger lights are making the plants want to uptake more, at a faster rate than Rev and causing "hot" issues that would not show up if I were doing 1 of 2 things. Either turn the lights way down and go slow (final yield will be less) or lighten up the soil a bit (yield stays up).
I am strongly feeling that by cutting the TLO soil with half promix HP will not only slow down the possibility of soil compaction but will also keep the soil far more aerated and cuts the strength of the soil letting me put powerful lights to good use. I believe with the soil a little bit lighter I will be able to push the plants much harder, faster and bigger and eliminate the issues that are keeping the plants from processing or drinking. By pushing them hard with my lights they just don't want to drink and I believe it has to do with how hot with soil is. I believe with 400 watt lights I would be just fine and not see any issues except for the overall weight of the soil and it's tendency to be very water repellent.
I have replicated revs environment and everything. The only thing that I have done different than him is run much bigger lights. I think it is a balancing act and each grower may have some slight adjusting to do.
While the plants are looking okay right now get this...
Remember when I transplanted them into the pots they are in now? Well if you look back the plants were thoroughly watered the day before the transplant. For that reason, when they got transplanted the following day I did not want to resaturate the core of the root ball. So when I transplanted them the new soil was fairly moist already so I really did not need to water them in. Now, since the transplant into the current pots they have not yet one time needed a good full watering!
I have had to sprinkle some water on the top few inches a few times now since the transplant waiting for them to dry out the pots. They are getting there now and will need a good drench soon but at this stage in the grow they should need a good watering every 2-3 days, not 1.5 weeks. Again, I believe this is a combination of the soil with my lights.
