SamDo Hello everyone,
welcome back for a brand new grow journal on the Pineapple from Humboldt.
This time, the idea is simple:
we’re taking everything that went wrong in the previous run,
and we’re fixing it—properly.
The main focus for this cycle is the very start of the plant’s life.
Seedling and early development were clearly the weak point last time,
so this run is all about dialing that in and giving the plant the cleanest possible launch.
For germination, I decided to go with cotton pads.
Makeup cotton disks, specifically.
They were soaked in a nutrient solution prepared according to the Athena feeding chart:
Bloom A and Bloom B,
a small amount of Cleanse,
and Balance to properly stabilize the solution.
I set the EC at 0.8
and the pH at 5.6.
That EC is slightly below Athena’s recommendation, which is closer to 1.0,
but I intentionally chose to underfeed at this stage to keep things gentle and controlled.
The seed has now been germinating for a little over 24 hours,
and it will reach the 48-hour mark tomorrow.
Everything is sitting inside a mini greenhouse with a heating mat.
On the photo you can see 26°C,
but the actual setting is 23°C,
so the temperature is stabilizing as intended.
In parallel, I also prepared the coco pellet that will receive the seed once it has sprouted.
That pellet was pre-soaked in the exact same nutrient solution used for the cotton pads,
to ensure a smooth and consistent transition for the seedling.
For this run, I’m sticking with the same system as before: Autopots.
The substrate mix will be coco and perlite,
with roughly 55% perlite and 45% coco this time,
to improve aeration compared to the previous cycle.
Another major change is the lighting strategy.
This entire grow will be done under full spectrum 3500K.
Last cycle, I ran 5000K for veg and then switched to 3500K for flower,
and that transition clearly caused metabolic stress.
This time, we’re keeping it consistent from start to finish.
Once the seed is up, light intensity will be set around 100 PPFD,
just to provide a soft, safe environment for early growth.
Nutrients will remain 100% Athena throughout the cycle,
with a controlled, slightly underdosed approach at the beginning.
Humidity will be kept as high as possible during early stages,
which is why I installed a dome directly on the Autopot.
That’s it for now.
The plan is set, the mistakes are corrected,
and everything is in place for a cleaner, healthier run.
We’ll be back once the seed has germinated
and has been transplanted into the coco pellet.
See you right after germination.
Peace.
