April 28, 2024 Day 8
Transplant day so first day of the veg/seedling stage. Roots were showing through the plugs and needed to be planted. They went into soil. Bio365 BIOFLOWER. It's supposed to be comparable to Sohum Living Soil which is what I normally use. We will see how it does I guess.
3 of the 4 babies are about 3 inches tall and the 4th is 2 inches. I'll have to keep an eye on that one. I don't want any runts that can't keep up. It will just get cannibalized. So I may end up with 3 instead of 4 plants. We will see how the next week goes.
The environment is going to change slightly until I tweak it back into place. The water on the bottom of the tray will certainly get mostly absorbed by the containers, but there will still be enough to keep the temp and humidity in the area I want it.
The light intensity also changed. Due to the height of the nursery bags, each plant gained about 4" in height. The light was left alone with the extension already in place. I can't get a good DLI measurement. I'll have to come up with something. Anyway, that's it for the day.
Germination Center Environment:
Temp: 78.7°
RH: 82.2%
VPD: 0.60 kPa
April 29, 2024
All 4 seedlings are stretching nicely. The light seems to be on point for them their leaves have flattened out and look great. Good color too.
They got a misting this morning. And will get another 250 ml tomorrow. Only plain water from here to mid veg if not early flower. We shall see how things go with them. They seem to be doing fine with the new soil. I'll keep an eye over the next few days to see how it goes. The plain water should be good. Although, I'm not sure what it means, but the soil is not a fertilizer. I wonder if that means I need to add nutrients at some point. We'll see how it goes. If all goes as it should, I won't need nutrients until week 4 at the earliest.
The lighting is staying the same now. The plants seem to be quite happy with the intensity. In a couple days, I think I'll have to increase the light power to 90%. But not for a couple of days.
The Germination Center hydrometer needs a battery, so I'm kind of blind with the environmental readings. The humidity seems fine as there is condensation on the walls. Temp seems alright as well. It should still be around 80°.
Update: I increased the light power to 70% and dropped the heat mat temp down. The seedlings were all reaching a bit more than I like. They are already pretty stretchy, so I gotta control it. I also put in a different hydrometer for the time being. There's no VPD reading, so we will have to work without it for now. Also no daily average readings. That's a shame.
Germination Center Environment:
Temp: 80.3°
RH: 84.2%
VPD: unknown
April 30, 2024
All 4 ladies look great and are reaching a bit, so I increased the light power to help prevent stretching too much. They are developing really fast though. I will most likely be planting them in their final containers in a week or less.
The environment is pretty good with a temp of 78° and humidity at 83%. Still no VPD yet. But I don't really need it.
Germination Center Environment:
Temp 78°
RH: 83%
VPD: unknown
May 1, 2024
All 4 ladies have started spreading their leaves and rapidly. They will definitely be out of the Germination Center in about a week. Hopefully a week and a half, but I highly doubt it.
They are also the same height with the exception of that last one that wasn't really coming out of the soil easily. 🤔. I wonder if I should keep it. Let's see how things go in the next week. Maybe I'll be surprised.
They also got 250 ml of water poured into the tray so the plants can suck it all up. The top soil is still moist, so no sense in top watering. I'm mostly using the tray to keep humidity up. It works wonders. I also shouldn't have to do anymore bottom tray watering for a few days.
The lights are now set to 80% power and I think the seedlings are liking it. No more hard reaching, and the leaf growth. It just shows healthy plants.
The environment is still great at 78° and a humidity of 84%. I plan on keeping it there until the plants get too big for the Germination Center, then I'll do my best to drop it so 70% for the first week of actual veg and then down to 60% for the second week on through week 4 of veg. Then I plan to drop it down to 55% and another 5% every week until harvest.
Germination Center Environment:
Temp: 78.3°
RH: 84.5%
VPD: unknown
May 2, 2024
These Sour Diesel seedlings look phenomenal. The environment is fantastic as well. I had to increase the light to 100%. I want to see what happens. I don't think my Photone app is accurate for these lights. 60% power was showing a super high DLI of 36 mol/m²/d. The lights are only like 28 watts, so it should be at like 20 mol/m²/d at 100% power.
One thing I did notice is that all 4 plants stopped stretching and are focusing on building up those first sets of leaves. It's like the perfect height from the light and they are as tall as the extension. The extension is 4" tall, so the seedlings are as well. The actual dome is 4" tall as well, so we have a good 4" of light distance to a 28 watt light set up. I wonder if AC Infinity has the intensity specs. I may send them an email. Maybe.
Speaking of lighting, I can't speak for the intensity as my Photone app doesn't seem to work for this set up and I don't have a light distance to power reference. Or intensity reference.
The environment is spot on with a temp of 78° and the humidity around 84%. Plenty of wiggle room for night time environmental changes.
I added 250 ml of filtered water to the bottom of the tray again. The top soil is still pretty moist, so bottom it is. I'll probably do a top watering at the start of next week. That should coincide with the final transplant, so top watering will make the most sense and will be needed anyway to transplant the nursery bags.
Germination Center Environment:
Temp: 78.6°
RH: 84.3%
VPD: unknown
May 3, 2024
Not much to do for these ladies today. They have plenty of water and I'm keeping the humidity at 84%. The temp is a bit high at 81° where it should be around 78°.
I haven't quite figured out the lighting. The leaves are fine, everything looks good, but I honestly can't tell if they are stressed out or not. And if they are, is it the light or too much water or too rich of a soil? It could be any one of those factors or two maybe even all three.
There is one who's edges are curling up slightly. I'm assuming it's the soil being a bit hot. But I'm not sure. Honestly, it's been almost 3 months since I saw seedlings and I have no idea what I'm looking at. Lol. I might be overthinking things, but there is some sort of stress on at least one of the plants.
The smallest is looking good. It's just smaller than the rest. I'm still not sure what I want to do. As I said before, I'll wait for the transplant.
I'd like to run all 4 plants, but I don't think it's worth running one that will most likely get cannibalized by the rest. Just a waste of soil and nutrients. But we will see. I'll do my best to keep it in though.
Germination Center Environment:
Temp: 80°
RH: 81%
VPD: 0.65 kPa
May the 4th be with you. 2024 Star Wars all the way!
Today is the last day of week 1 of veg. All 4 plants have excellent growth and are each working on their second node. I'm still hoping I can keep them in the Germination Center for as long as I can. However, I have 2 plants that are ready for harvest. So when they come out, I should be able to put the Germination Center in the big tent. Then there is only 2 plants left to harvest and I after I can do the last transplant into their 3 gallon containers. I have the opportunity to run 5 gallons still. I have 3 yards of soil. I think it's enough for 4 plants. Definitely enough for 3. If I have to get rid of this smaller one, I'll definitely be running 5 gallon containers.
The lights are perfect at 80% power. I can only assume the DLI is around 14 mol/m²/d to 16 mol/m²/d. The plants are looking great with it. Just a slight reach and wonderful color.
The environment is quite nice indeed. The temp is hanging around 77° with the humidity still at 84%. I'll be dropping the humidity down to 75% starting next week. It'll drop down to 65% to 70% when the transplant happens.
Germination Center Environment:
Temp: 78.8°
RH: 82.7%
VPD: 0.58 kPa
@VAmulasmoke,
Thanks! It's a lot of work, but it's well worth it. The amount of times I've gone back to my other diaries for things I forgot. I'm definitely glad I do it. You should check out my other diaries. Start to finish, you get all the info about every plant.
@nonick123,
Yep, I use it. I don't know how well it works with the seedling lights though. Readings seem to be off with it. 32 mol/m²/d. Makes no sense. It should be a max of 20 mol/m²/d.