Sweet Seeds Femme Fatales

Seedling Growth (update 17 January) The young superheroes are enjoying their adventure so far I have been following the feeding schedule in my introductory posts, gradually building up the feed for each plant, on day 5 to 0.8 EC, and on day 8 to 0.9 EC. The aim at this stage is to keep the coco moist but airy, so the roots can spread quickly throughout the pot and still breathe. Most of the water loss is to evaporation, the plants haven’t really started to drink at all yet. It’s been said you cannot overwater in coco, and that may possibly be true with fully rooted out plants in appropriate sized pots, but I have learnt the hard way that putting a seedling into huge final pots and keeping it saturated is not the best way to grow. So I have not been watering through, I have just been adding a little each day – maybe 200ml if it still seems damp, or more like 400-500ml if they a bit drier and lighter. On days 5 and 8 when the EC increased for each plant, I gave about 700ml (a full watering can). Today is day 8 for the older three plants. I’ve taken some pictures of them on days 5 and 8. The Cream Caramel Auto is growing just fine, producing a nice chunky flat set of first true leaves. The Ice Cool Auto is growing very well too, and is slightly larger, however it has a crinkly texture with very deep serrations and curls at the leaf edges. Of the first three, Gorilla Girl XL Auto is a little bit smaller than the others, at least so far. It’s only a small difference but she’s not quite as tall nor as wide. The Red Poison Auto is a day behind those three. I took a day 5 picture a couple of days ago, and I will try to get one of her tomorrow on day 8. She remains very pale, more yellow than green. Also I notice the interesting shape of the leaves which was hinted at right at the very start, broad and rounded. Today is day 5 for Dark Devil Auto. So far so good, not far behind the others at all. The humidifier is still doing a lot of work to keep the air moist for the seedlings. Humidity has been between 60-70% the majority of the time, with a maximum reading of 78% and minimum of 40%. Temperatures have always been between 21°C and 29°C, with the lights on I aim for 26-27°C and it is usually that or slightly below, most of the time. The timelapse camera has been taking photos of the Gorilla Girl XL Auto every ten minutes, and yesterday I took seven days worth of images and tried to make a video from them. It was difficult to process them for several reasons. Like a bad workman I will partly blame my tool, and moan about my laptop which groaned and struggled for half an hour before crashing a couple of time, sending me back to the start. Also I do not know what I am doing with video, or even what software to use. I’ve put the pictures together with Windows Video Editor, and eventually managed to export it. There’s no text or any other editing, but I did remove the dark periods. I put it on YouTube and made it visible to people with a link, so a bit of luck, this will allow you to see my first timelapse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkQgiMotsmQ I hope you managed to see it, and enjoyed it if you did. I am very pleased with the results. I moved the camera a little bit, a few times when trying to check and adjust the settings, and eventually I managed to line it up straight, but otherwise things have come out nicely I think. There’s a bit of mist from the humidifier in some of the shots which makes it flicker slightly in places, but it's not bad. I think I was very lucky with the way the plant first uncurls towards the camera at the start. I’m looking forward to adding another seven days of footage next weekend! Seedling Growth (update 21 January) The girls have continued to grow nicely and as expected, mostly. The exception is the very pale Red Poison Auto. I took a picture on day 8 when I increased her nutrients to 0.9 EC. You can see a bit more of a green tinge starting to appear in the older leaves, though the second pair of true leaves are very pale too. Yesterday was day 10 and I noticed there was some damage appearing at the edges of just one leaf. Today is day 11 for this plant, and my schedule plans an increase to 1.0 EC, however I am holding off for her for now. The damage looks no worse today, whilst the leaves have continued to expand fairly well. I will keep a close eye on it and keep it on a more relaxed feeding schedule. Unusual plants often give interesting end results. Yesterday was day 11 for the older three plants, they still seem happy and I went ahead and raised their EC. I gave them about 500ml each, which was enough to fully saturate the pots with a tiny bit of run-off. As they are so wet and still so small, I am not watering them today, I am leaving it for 48 hours. Looking back at my previous diaries these ones are doing fine, and going to start exploding with growth next week, all being well. The Gorilla Girl XL Auto remains short but the leaves are just as big as the others, so I have no concerns. As per my schedule yesterday I increased the feed for my Dark Devil Auto, from 0.8 to 0.9 EC, since it was her day 8. Again I, managed to wet the coco through, I didn't mean to, so I am leaving it to dry a little today before I water again tomorrow. On 19th January I gave all the plants a spray with Epsom salts solution, which I made by mixing 1/2 a teaspoon of it into tapwater. When I spray, the focus is on the underside of the leaves, which are better at absorption. I will do this every four or five days whilst they are in veg, until the flowers appear. The temperature got a bit warmer one day when the weather changed (it wasn't really warm, just not quite so cold!), and the tent reached a maximum of 30°C just for a moment, but most of the time it's more like 25-26°C. The lowest recorded was 21°C since my last update. I'm trying to keep the humidity a little lower than at the very start and I've turned the humidifier down, I am aiming for 50-60% now. In the past four days upper and lower readings have been 77% and 38%. Thanks for looking at my diary.