Fanleaf Tries For A TLO, True Living Organics, Grow With 6 Plants

Todays update
they are still looking pretty much okay and are taking nicely to the training. I am starting to see many new shoots trying to work their way up since I have opened up the center of the canopy and pulled the dominant tops down and to the sides. They are all getting close to needing a good watering finally and if you look at the plant in the rear left corner you can see that one is ready for water at any time but I'm going to let it go at least another day.
If everything goes as planned, probably next week I will be putting them in their final flowering container and let them get used to it for a week or so before kicking them into flower.
I want to let some of the new shoots get up there with the rest of the canopy before we start stretching.
So, just so we are all on the same page I am continuing to train them at the same time I am trying to get them as healthy as they can get before we kick them into flower in an estimated 2 - 3 weeks but probably closer to 2.
The thing that kills me is that we are just 2 days shy of 8 weeks since they popped up from soil. Usually by now my plants would be twice this big. They were stunted for a good week and a half or even two weeks but by 8 weeks, I Normally have monsters headed into flower. I'm not complaining, they were stunted so it's a matter of fixing the issue that made them stop growing for a while. I think I know how to fix it so it dont happen with my particular setup so we will see if I'm correct with the autoflower experiment underway.
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Now, for the 1/2 TLO autos...
other than the fact that one of the seedlings looks to have a slight deformity at this point they are looking absolutely fantastic and everyday I see huge changes. Heck, just look at the picture comparing today's picture with the one I put up yesterday! Very rapid progress so far. You will see the one with the deformity in the following pictures.
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Man Fan, what you gonna do then? My organic grow is really slow as well. I'm pretty sure it was my novice mistake of waiting roo long to up pot. They are in their final 7 gallon pots as of last night, but all the research I've been doing suggests they should already be halfway through flower. They still need to get a bit bigger before I flip them. I am setting up a hydro system and I'm gonna use regular nutes. I wanna compare the two. I gotta get some reserves built up though. Buying it is killing me. Too spendy!
 
Hey Fanleaf, when my soil gets a little "hydrophobic" like yours i usually just add a little bit of aloe flakes to my water and that stuff just soaks in so nice! The edges, everything. A quarter teaspoon per gallon of water so a little bit of the stuff goes a long way. Check out Buildasoil or any search should bring it up. Just thought id mention. Im really diggin your grow. Im out. Spark.
 
Big Sparks said:
Hey Fanleaf, when my soil gets a little "hydrophobic" like yours i usually just add a little bit of aloe flakes to my water and that stuff just soaks in so nice! The edges, everything. A quarter teaspoon per gallon of water so a little bit of the stuff goes a long way. Check out Buildasoil or any search should bring it up. Just thought id mention. Im really diggin your grow. Im out. Spark.
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Thanks Sparks! I will get some on the way asap to try it out. Watering the straight TLO soil is an absolute PITA! On another note, I just collected a bunch of fresh earthworm leachate from my worm bin 5 minutes ago too. With that, I plant to dilute well and give the TLO soil that the auto experiment are in a small dose with thier next watering. Not only am I hoping it will supercharge the numbers of microbes in that soil mix but any analysis I have found done on leachate shows to have quite good macro and micro nutrient amounts as well. It may not look like much in the water bottle but this stuff seems soooo rich that it will need to be highly diluted. From what I have read even diluting it up to 20:1 it still looks like a cup of coffee. We will see!
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fanleaf said:
Thanks Sparks! I will get some on the way asap to try it out. Watering the straight TLO soil is an absolute PITA! On another note, I just collected a bunch of fresh earthworm leachate from my worm bin 5 minutes ago too. With that, I plant to dilute well and give the TLO soil that the auto experiment are in a small dose with thier next watering. Not only am I hoping it will supercharge the numbers of microbes in that soil mix but any analysis I have found done on leachate shows to have quite good macro and micro nutrient amounts as well. It may not look like much in the water bottle but this stuff seems soooo rich that it will need to be highly diluted. From what I have read even diluting it up to 20:1 it still looks like a cup of coffee. We will see!
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Damn. That is dark. Looks like when i add liquid seaweed to mine. Should be fine as long as you start out giving low doses, and see how they react. They dont look like they need much of anything. But do your thing homie. Shits lookin ridiculously good! Much props.
 
@Big Sparks
My 200x Horticultural aloe flakes will be here day after tomorrow. Thanks again for the tip! Certainly worth a try.
 
fanleaf said:
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.
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I see your thought process. Very interesting. I see I'm going to be busy with this for a while, thanks for the insight! I guess I'll have to figure for my setup when the time comes. Maybe small containers is more mandatory than just a choice?
 
We are humming along at a decent clip now. Plants seem to be doing better and better each day.
Tonight I gave each plant a good dunk. The soil is so resistant to taking water from the top that I decided to just give each plant about 5 minutes of a good funk inside a 5 gallon bucket full of straight RO water. It only takes a few minutes with these pots to let the soil thoroughly saturate from the bottom and sides.
They are looking happier each day. I really hope the Malauwi X Panama gets over her clawing before flower time. She has been that way for a month now. She dont seem too unhappy and shes growing fine so we will let it ride. Here they are as of tonight 3 hours after the watering. They are all perky. FYI, Panama is the one in the center rear row.
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I have had single plants claw up on me in supersoil as well Fan. They grew well in spite. Glad to see them get some traction. They're booming now.
 
I would say they thoroughly enjoyed the soak they took in the RO water yesterday from the looks of them.
Training to fill the canopy will get heavier tonight. They are getting close to heading to the flowering containers. They will get transplanted next dry cycle or just before. When they get transplanted this time the bottom and top nutrient layer of the containers will be different. The Flowering spikes will be added along with the high N spikes as well.
Flowering tea recipes will be different from those used so far.

If they have a good stretch in 12/12 we may still end up with some pretty good sized girls here.

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I need to hurry and get the training taken care of. I would like the canopy completely filled and I think we can get there.
 
@Big Sparks
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I think from now on I will probably ly make this. I do have a large Harvestright Freeze dryer I paid a TON of money for. Seems a perfect use for it.
 
Good stuff! I bet the first time you use it and see how it soaks and absorbs easily into the soil when added to your watering mix you'll be like, "aaaaahhh....now i see..." lol!
I put mine in a little jar that a quarter zip came in from the dispensary. Then cut the label from the original package and use clear tape to tape it to jar. Then add a silica pack from a bottle of medicine or something. Just what i do.
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fanleaf said:
@Big Sparks
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I think from now on I will probably ly make this. I do have a large Harvestright Freeze dryer I paid a TON of money for. Seems a perfect use for it.
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So Fanleaf, have you freeze dried your bud for dry and cure?
 
stoneotter said:
So Fanleaf, have you freeze dried your bud for dry and cure?
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Yes, yes I have. I did a YouTube video on it too. Shortly thereafter I received a letter in the mail from a professor at the University of Minnesota. He wanted to talk about this and see if we could collaborate on the process and findings. I never did pursue it very far just for safety reasons.
I will say though. The bud, while perfectly dry, looked exactly like the minute you chop it from the plant. Very cool.
 
fanleaf said:
Yes, yes I have. I did a YouTube video on it too. Shortly thereafter I received a letter in the mail from a professor at the University of Minnesota. He wanted to talk about this and see if we could collaborate on the process and findings. I never did pursue it very far just for safety reasons.
I will say though. The bud, while perfectly dry, looked exactly like the minute you chop it from the plant. Very cool.
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I went to a harvest cup in Worchester MA. last Dec. Where someone was selling dehydrators lust for this. He gave me a cone joint to try. Terpene rich to say the least, extremely tasty, fast burning with a different high. I contacted him to get some of my weed cryo'd to see if I thought it a good idea to buy a machine and get into the drying business but he never set me up. His huge filled glass jar was just as if the buds were still just cut and trimmed. Fat green and beautiful. Do you prefer that method over air or fridge drying?
 
stoneotter said:
I went to a harvest cup in Worchester MA. last Dec. Where someone was selling dehydrators lust for this. He gave me a cone joint to try. Terpene rich to say the least, extremely tasty, fast burning with a different high. I contacted him to get some of my weed cryo'd to see if I thought it a good idea to buy a machine and get into the drying business but he never set me up. His huge filled glass jar was just as if the buds were still just cut and trimmed. Fat green and beautiful. Do you prefer that method over air or fridge drying?
Click to expand...
 
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