Very First Grow - One Small Step

03/07/2021 (Day 15): The two Jelly Banana plants I thought were going to die from my man-handling during transplant, much to my surprise, seem to be growing the strongest out of the group. 03/09/2021 (Day 17): Raised the grow lights up to 27” above the tops of the plants. I suspect they are struggling a little with temperatures and possibly some minor light stress. Some of the blades on the leaves are curled upward. But most of them are curled downward (pretty sure I overwatered the plants last night by accident). As expected, the 50/50 mix of Fox Farm Happy Frog and Ocean Forest is a little too “hot” for how young these plants are. There are, what appears to be, minor symptoms of nutrient toxicity/deficiency. According to what I've read, the plants should only show these signs until they mature a little more (1-2 weeks) and are able to handle the levels of nutrients in the soil. Also noted that my ppm in the runoff is over 1000, which confirms the soil being too rich. I don't believe it's a salt buildup after 3 waterings. I think my mistake for this first transplant was planting directly from a starter cell into a 1 gallon pot. Next time I will use a Solo cup for seedlings instead so the plants can establish a stronger root system. Using soil in starter cells seems inefficient. If I use starter cells again in the future I'll be using Rapid Rooters. 03/12/2021 (Day 20): 5 of the 6 plants are looking good after this watering. The Gorilla Cookies #1 is the runt of the bunch. It’s got the slowest growth and the first set of true leaves are starting to yellow up with grey/light brown spots (starting from the tip moving inward). My guess is stress from being in the hot 50/50 soil mix and daytime temperatures of 80℉+. Evaporative air cooler has been ordered to help with this. 03/13/2021 (Day 21): Holy Cow, despite the temperatures, the 2 Jelly Banana plants have exploded with growth since comparing them to the photos taken from day 17. Overall, I'm still struggling to keep temperatures down. Honeywell Evaporative Air Cooler is on it's way. Hoping within the next 7 days it will arrive because I need to get the temperatures under control ASAP. The average temperatures during the "Day" cycle is starting to rise, hanging around between 81-84℉, and I think its stressing my plants out. As a temporary solution, I'll be purchasing large quantities of ice and storing it in a 5 gallon bucket with my intake ducting attached to the top. This is the best idea I have as of right now. Next week I will be topping and LSTing the Jelly Banana plants. The upper fan leaves are starting to block out light to the lower growth coming in.