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Day 1:
Had one SLH not come up, found it with a strong tap root but stuck under its own seed coat. I wet the seed coat and gently pried it off, let it set another 2 days, no action on it. So I pulled it and germinated another. So one of my plants will be a few days behind the others.
Coco coir was bought pre ph balanced and buffered. Initial soak I did with RO water at 20ppm. Since then I’ve been watering sporadically with 1/4 and 1/2 strength of the nutrients H&G recommends.
Light is 18” from canopy and set at dimmest level. Getting a little over 200ppfd and 12-14 DLI. Which they say is plenty for a seedling.
Plants are on a 18/6 cycle and will be for their lifetimes (auto flower)
Day 4:
New growth is slow as expected. Going to keep encouraging root growth and not shallow water these. I’ll check tomorrow but these pots are still plenty heavy with water. Been trying to keep a VPD around 0.8-0.9. Have not increased brightness on the light or lowered. Still at 200ppfd and 13ish DLI.
Thinking I’ll increase the brightness by 50ppfd in the next few days.
Day 6
Increased brightness by 50ppfd to around 250ppfd and a DLI of about 16. Plants didn’t seem to mind at all.
I tried to germinate another SLH and the seed cracked with a taproot exposed after 12hours in a glass of water, moved to paper towel method and I haven’t seen any growth since. Giving it a couple more days until I give up and just make it a 3 plant grow.
Haven’t watered since probably day 3. I initially soaked the coir and its holding that water very well. When it hit vegetative stage or it’s first fan leaves I’ll plan to deep water with nutrients so that it doesn’t have any deficiency. But for now it’s happy and I’ll keep it that way.
Gave in and watered day 6 pm. 300ml at half strength.
Just trying not to be impatient. I know big growth is coming. Slightly concerned about the splotchy color on the SLH but not going to worry about it right now.
Day 8 - Listened to a bunch of podcasts and got over my fear of watering coco too much.
Watered with .7 ec, ~ 500ppm or 2/3 strength of the above nutrient schedule. Each plant got .25gal or about 1000ml. Should probably ramp up my light intensity as well. Currently at 300ppfd. Will likely raise that to 400ppfd.
Day 9 - changed my schedule to fertigate often (HFF). Using half strength recommended. Plants don’t seem to mind. Now at 400ppfd. Feeding at .75 ec. Used a dose of calmag in this last reservoir. H&G shouldn’t need it.. but my trust of the coco is low at the moment. Better safe.
Watering 400ml each day and wasting about 30%. Runoff is consistently higher ph and lower ec. Which is weird because I should be seeing higher ec? It’s possible that since I initially soaked the coco in RO that I’m seeing that low ec water come out. Either way, plants are happy, I’m happy.
Day 12.. been feeding at 3/4 strength recommended. Plants are loving life and I’m happy about that. Watering about 300-500ml. Getting plenty of run off. Run off EC is around .4 on bby, and .6 on SLH. SLH is definitely outpacing the BBY. But that’s expected. The two BBY plants are different.. one is excited for life the other is a little lazy. Gave the lazy one a little extra watering to make sure it’s not a ph/salinity issue. See if she perks up.
Auto pilot this week. Had a deficiency problem which I correctly diagnosed as a cal mag deficiency. I guess the coco I bought wasn’t as buffered as I thought so I will be buffering all of the coco I grow in from now on.
JSFG
