Green Thumbs Missing

Sooo hi and welcome to my little diary that I am still getting used to keeping! Long story short - this is my very first grow, I have no clue how to handle plants and I have had a TERRIBLE history with keeping them. I -AM- the guy who cannot stop overwatering. I kept trying though and for the very first time in my life I am enthralled at the prospects of REALLY giving plants this kind of close attention. Naturally my week has been FULL with learnings, mistakes, midnight plant operations and the very first clear signs that starting over, from what I could gather from autos, was the correct decision. This blog will highlight my mistakes so you can do better at your first try! SOIL: I decided to go hard on living soil (unfortunately I had to mix 2 kinds as one of them was high quality but extremely inconsistent in levels), mix that up with Perlite and Vermiculite as recommended by Fastbuds in generous amounts and finally I decided to build a little shaft of starter soil mixed with Perlite;, as I have learned that autos like to grow deep first. I wanted to plant the seeds directly into the final pots because I had time to spare for minute attention, but also was afraid of transplanting several times for my first grow. I DO NOT KNOW WHAT PLANTS DO. Mistakes: I COMPLETELY and UTTERLY overwatered my 10 gallon pots because I was under the impression, that SOIL would transpire water through my special cloth containers. This turned out to be Newbie Nonsense. The Soil retained all the water and each time I tried to keep it "fresh", I made absolutely sure that my airy and breathable foundation became a cement-clay like wet mass. Obviously, with containers this large it was very hard to notice and after the seeds germinated I additionally planted them WAY too deep. My plan was 2cm after 12 hours of germination, but I think the G.Strawberry got 6cm and the G.Cookies fell about 36 kilometers down into the dark void. Strawberry Gorilla remained superior and blossomed slowly and with clear marks, withstanding the hellish trap I had set for it. The leaves didn't look "the right color". The palette was broken, the embryonic leaves were hanging in despair, and around the edges of them over a couple of days there was a creeping dark sickness spreading that slowly decayed the leaves. I was so glad the plant broke free, but, in terms of autos time schedule, I had already failed. NOW I slowly started to realize what the problem may have been. Gorilla Cookies remained under the earth for 6 straight days and quite frankly, I was ANXIOUS all the time. At some point, I convinced myself to make a decision. Here was my rationale: EITHER I dig around carefully and find a dead seed, OR I find remnants of a plant trying to get the fuck out in ANY state. Bottom line, not going digging only made sense if the plant was gonna appear the 7th day by itself, and I had given up hope. At 2:30 am, I decided to not only dig out G.Cookies, I decided to dig out both plants, give the soil a STRONG mix, prepare a new shaft with dry starter soil and plenty of perlite, water that LIGHTLY with my PH'd dechlorinated water and cross my fingers. I dug out G.Cookies with a tiny needle, brushing and breaking away soil almost in tears, not hoping to find anything. I was sure I was violating every botanical rule and I was ready to expose roots, stress them, help them out and see if they would EVER forgive me. And BOOM: Here it was. A long pale green shaft that came out of the soil vertically and went STRAIGHT BACK DOWN. I also saw some tiny white larva rushing over the roots in great speed. For a moment I was sure this monster was eating the roots, but then it came to my mind that I was using LIVING SOIL that even contained some larva to treat gnat problems. The embryonic leaves were still stuck to the shaft and were barely green. I sprayed away the dirt with a mister and cleaned the plant with a q-tip to remove the moisture as well. I was sure, this plant was going to die. AND I WAS WRONG! Just a few hours later this plant went completely errect, leaves into the sun and everything. The roots were breathing. This entire operation was not only a well needed relief for my babies, they DIRECTLY told me how things are supposed to work out from now on. I had the right plan, but the wrong execution. And I was now both scared for the next pitfalls and also optimistic that I COULD turn the tide for my plants. Inaction is important, letting things go that are not turning out so well is often better than chaining action after action with an organism I don't understand. If it were possible, we would micro-manage plants via an app all day, paying no respect for the plants insane ability to adapt to nearly any situation and survive. The genome of plants I heard is at least about 10 times more complex than human DNA. It has been mentioned that this is likely due to the plants having to have a plan for every issue without being able to run away. If they freeze, they have to react. If it gets wet, they have to withstand. I understood that CRITICAL ACTION is just as important as WAITING. But here is the thing. I learned that autos follow their own time schedule and obviously, every misstep means less chances for the plants to truely shine. I can't kill these absolute hero plants but I am not expecting a meaningful harvest from them. This is why I decided to germinate both Strawberry Gorilla and Gorilla Cookies again and count my losses. I bought 2 seeds of each in case they or I would fail, but as it turned out, my second germination was another 100% success for both seeds and my adjusted strategy (will upload photos) would end up surpising me with 2 VERY EARLY visible, cute Tokens of returned love at my very birthday. They were doing SPECTACULAR and with only 1-2 weeks of experience, I was able to tell with no doubt on my mind. Thanks for joining me on week one, stay tuned for more photos of the things I described for week 2 and, well fuck, THANK YOU ALL for creating an industry that allows me to out of the blue invest into my debt-collecting weed problem with market ready products, guides, information, information, information. I love plants now. I will not allow PH 8 water for plants anymore.