230518 JSFG BBY/SLH Auto

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.