Dancing with Mephisto

Week 3 saw stable and steady growth and I am pleased with how things are proceeding so far. As an update to the EC spike mentioned in the last update, which saw peak outflow at ~ 700ppm, I definitely started to notice the leaves on the bigger girl (#2) start to get a bit of a sandpapery texture which prompted me to increase the amount of solution given at each fertigation and lower the overall salinity of that inflow solution. As one might expect, this quickly saw the outflow EC drop to levels more appropriate for this stage of growth. I admit I am still trying to find the sweet spot for autoflowers. Things are now stable in the 400-550ppm range and the leaves are taking on a more fleshy/waxy texture so I'm not too worried; I'll just need to be mindful as I seem to err on the high end of fertigation solution EC and it has been determinantal to my garden in the past. I am still benefitting greatly from a deluge of 0 EC rainwater in my locale which has been a tremendous help getting things in control while allowing me to maintain a decent strength nutrient solution. Unfortunately, the remainder of my 24 carat beans did not germinate which, while they have never failed me in the past, has me calling into question my methods (starting 1.25cm deep in rapid rooter and keeping covered and moist in a ~25C environment). I will also note that the beans themselves were very small and a bit on the puny side. That said, 2 of those 5 were freebies so I consider it to be 2 out of 3 success rate for my 24 carat run. I will also point out that I purchased another 3 pack which came with 5 and they tossed in a 5 pack of Northern Cheese Haze so Mephisto more than made up for the loss. I started one of those NCH beans to fill the third spot in the tent and will make a separate diary for that grow as I learned my lesson about mixed strain diaries the first time around… Last thing worth mentioning is that I have added a thin layer of hydroton pellets covering the coco to slow evaporation and ward off a few fungus gnats I saw knocking around. To be safe I gave the girls two doses of Gnatrol because fungus gnats are the bane of my existence. That's it for now. Let me know if you have questions or thoughts in the comments section!