Apple Strudel Round 2

Prilyfe13 01/02/2026 So round 2. If you want to see what happened in round 1 I have a diary for it. It was a fail. Anyway, this round will be different. Before I had the light too high, then I had the light too low. This time around it will be perfect lighting. I'll be using rock wool. After she sinks to the bottom of her cup. This round will be Advanced Nutrients again. But this time I'm prepared with lots of frozen water bottles. I'll have to use them until I get my water chiller. That might take a couple months and I'll have to wait to set it up for after the run. Unless it's super easy, then I'll just do it. But the frozen water bottles work. Not constantly mind you, but they still work. I want constant flow. Starting off with the Germination System. I'll start the light at 30% and bump it up to 60% when I see a first true leaf coming in. Last run, was a nightmare. The lights in the Germination System weren't bright enough and she got super leggy and ended up falling over, but not so much. Just grew sideways I guess. And I just discovered algae on it, so bye bye. Anyway, so our plan of action this run is to ensure ample light but not too much. Keep the water clean and temperature controlled. Ensure proper nutrient uptake at all times. That means, following the instructions at all times.its not hard though. The "pH perfect" really only works when there's the right amount of nutes in the water and how hard the water is. I have also discovered the nutrients stink like 3 day old puss when the water gets too warm. Gross. So when reading how to use a rock wool cube, it says, there needs to be a mild solution for the plants to drink from. So I have an extremely mild solution ready for the tray. My concern is air flow. I can make a small breeze, but what I can't do is oxygenate the water. It would be cool to be able to do that though. No idea how I could. Just a little air hose stuffed in the bottom of the center? Lol. I'll provide pics every other day so I don't have like 40 per week. Lol I set up the initial 5 and now it's gonna be like this. Pic when she pops, pic when she breaks surface and then a pic when her leaves start to grow. Then a final pic with her first set of true leaves. Then that's the end of the Germination stage. It seems to be a week. And as long as I don't Fuck Up, everything should be good. Ok that's it. Toddles for now. Update: So when I was messing around with the tray and cell tray, I was trying to figure out a way to use the cells so I have space for the roots to grow. Unfortunately, the Rock Wool Cubes are too big to fit in the cell, so I'm gonna have to use the tray with a little bit of water. I'm wondering though, where does the root go if there's no dark area. Do I cover the rest of the tray with something? I don't know, so I'm gonna wing it and as soon as I see root peeking out from under the cube, I'm planting her immediately. Right into the hydroton. I've also learned that the rock wool needs to be covered by the pebbles as well. Honestly thought it, but don't really know it. 01/03/2026 She sunk! So now she's going into rock wool cube while she germinates and then grows to a little baby seedling. I'm only going to have her in there until the roots start searching beyond the cube. There will be light there so I want to get her in the pellets and in the tent as soon as possible. I have the tent and system all set up already. Just waiting for the Hydroton to finish drying and it'll be all set. I have the light set to a DLI of 16 mol. Temp and humidity will be set to 75° and 75% for the first few days. That's if I can keep the humidity up that high with the temp. 01/04/2026 So the tray was bone dry this morning. It's ok though, the cube was still moist. All set now. The tray now has water in it again. So last run, I had a plant suffer from an a fungal infection from dampening off. It survived, but was definitely stunted. It was because the drip ring was sitting on the top layer of the medium and wasn't buried enough. So it splashed the stem causing the issue. This run, I cut the drip ring a little bit to make it smaller. Now it fits about an inch under the top of the pebbles. I don't have water on the system yet, so I can't tell how well it works. My problem is that there might not be enough power coming through the air lines. Sure the air pump does a great job with the air stones, but it kinda sputters with the drip ring. Not sure what happened. We'll see how it goes in about a week. 01/05/2026 The tray was dry again this morning. I'm not exactly sure how to keep it wet. I know this system isn't designed for just a bottom tray. It needs the cell tray on top so the water won't evaporate so quickly and so there's a dark place for the roots to go. But! I would need to fill it up nearly all the way to . I really want to put the tray in and just fill the whole bottom with water so it works like a hydroponic system. Alas, I don't think that will work. I'd have to fill the tray to the top with water just to meet up with the cube on top. In this case, I plan on putting the plant in the main tent as early as possible. Before the tap root starts to hit the air or the light. Either way, unless I decide to buy a different Germination System, this is what we are doing. Lol The cube was still wet so it's all good. So far the only thing the water is really doing is keeping the humidity up. Hopefully it's not drowning the seed. It shouldn't though. The cube isn't saturated and dripping or anything. Just wet. Like it should be. Unless! The heat from the heat mat is transferring too much to the cube. I doubt that though. The Apple Strudel in running with this one has already popped and is in the process of breaking surface. But she isn't green. Very white. Kind of concerned. To be honest, I don't think I covered that one enough with the top of the rock wool. Update: I decided to add the cell tray and filled up the water level with the bottom of the cube. It should work wonders and now I can leave her in there for a few extra days. Or at least until the lights aren't powerful enough to handle the plant. Update Number Two: She has broken surface. Well kinda. The middle of her stem has broken surface. But it's kinda like brown. But still shiny and new. We'll see what happens. 01/06/2026 Our baby has broken surface and is now standing straight up. Can't say so about the other plant I'm growing. It's a bit behind. Anyway, so I am going to increase the light intensity everyday for the next week. Maybe less time. Last run I tried with this strain took a whole lotta light. Enough to stretch too fast and needed to be put in the main tent early. I was starting out at 10% power but I decided 3 was the way to go. Then I'll increase the light intensity from 3 on. It'll be at level 10 in 7 days. That's the goal. If she acts like the last one, she will be needing more light by day 7. If not earlier. Probably earlier. It's been an hour and the first thing she did was lean to one of the lights. Reason being is the plant tag was too tall and blocking out the other light in the Germination System, so I took the tag out. It was really quick too. She was standing straight up when I woke up and within the hour she was leaning toward the one light. 1 hour later again and she's leaning toward the front light. I can't tell yet, but I think she needs more light. Not much more, but some. Maybe 40%? 01/07/2026 She's getting leggy. Damnit! Same thing happened to the last one. I turned the light up to 40% now. If I see more stretching I'm turning the light up to 60%. It's not really that bright, but it works for a bit. A foreseeable problem is the height difference between this one and the Blue Dream I'm running. That one is only about an inch tall. But she went deep into her cube, so it took an extra day to pop out. It won't matter in the long run, but for now it super matters. There's a 1" difference between the 2 and in such a small space I have to be careful not to cause light stress on this little lady, but need enough light for the Blue Dream. Lest I have 2 leggy plants. As for the environment in the dome, it's around 74° and 83%. Pretty good in my opinion. The only thing I don't light is the condensation buildup on the walls. I can't really see inside too well. Well, no I can see inside, but not like straight through. I need to find empty patches of plastic. Lol. Anyway, I might have updates later on. I'm not too sure, but at the rate this plant is going, I will need to bring the light up to 60% by the end of the day. Honestly I'd have it at 60% now if not for the tiny blue dream. I need it to establish itself for a day or 2. Then we are going ham on that light. Update: She grew taller. BUT her leaves are frowning. I can't tell what's wrong, if there's something wrong. Either way, I'm not stopping this one. She will be grown to harvest. But I think she's gonna be lanky the whole run. I may have to run a trellis for which I don't want to the. I won't be able to clean the system weekly. I don't even know how I would clean it at all. I would need a bucket to hold her. I just don't know how to do that. Maybe you just don't? Or maybe the trellis can be undone and the plant can be lifted that way? Probably not. I honestly got nothin. 01/08/2026 Well, I woke up to a super model. Small body and all leg. But the leaves finally leveled out. No clue why this specific strain is giving me a hard time. Either way, I'm keeping her. I was considering popping the last seed, but I don't want to if I don't have to. The light is at 80% now. I don't expect her to stay much longer under the dome. Maybe a couple more days? She already has a decent taproot with feelers out. I want a few more roots coming from the cube. Then it will be the perfect time to transplant. Frankly I don't like waiting for roots to grow. I'm more of a fan of transplanting before the root establish totally. There's less stress doing that. But in this case she's so leggy, I don't want her to tip over. I think I'm gonna swap the water out today with a very mild nutrient solution. I only have a half gallon left so I might have to add more water to the tray as well. The goal is to introduce the nutes a little at a time. So when she gets the full dose, she'll be perfectly happy. By full dose, I mean like 2/3 normal manufacturer recommendation. The environment is perfect btw, 76° and 69%. I should be able to get it back to that with minimal effort after I swap the water out. Update: As expected I had to add some plain water to the tray. No big deal. Currently I'm filling the buckets with nutrients. It should only be a couple of days before I add her to the bucket. Maybe less. I really want to wait for the Blue Dream to be ready as well. Im guessing she'll be ready in the 2 days. Update again: The water is ready to go for the main tent. Now it's time to wait and check the pH later. I've already pHed the water, but I have a feeling that doesn't matter. It's just gonna spike. And I cannot for the life of me figure out how. Anyway, I have the water running, air stone bubbling and that's about it. I plan on turning the whole system on after I pH 1 more time. It's been a few hours and I haven't seen her stretch one bit. Her leaves are nice and flat and her stem is surprisingly strong for it being so long. I have a small computer fan blowing in through one of the side vents. It's working perfectly. A tiny breeze to make her nice and strong. Unfortunately it takes away the humidity a little bit. It's sitting at 63%. I'd like it to be around 70% to be honest. Really 75% for the Blue Dream. 01/09/2026 We have some exciting news today. Her first set of true leaves are coming in. She might be the leggiest legger of them all, but she does have a pretty strong stem for so tall. Like at the bottom of the stem, when it gets this long is stretched really thin. This one isn't. It's all the same from top to bottom. Normal size for a seedling. Anyway, that's a positive. The other positive is her tap root. It's HUGE! I really want to bring her into the tent today, but I'm going to wait for the Blue Dream to have a longer tap root and maybe the first set of true leaves. She's a day behind, so we shall see how things look tomorrow. I honestly have no problem running seedlings in their final containers, but I don't want to waste the electricity if I don't have to. I mean, I kind of am. I have the system on trying to see how long it takes to acclimate. Unfortunately the effing heater refuses to turn off for more than like 2 minutes. It's ballooning the tent. And I can't get the exhaust to level it out. Hopefully by the time I put the plants in the tent, the heater will have figured itself out. 01/10/2026 So she finally fell over today. I spritzed her with the mister and she toppled right over. So I built a little cage for her. See Picture. She also has her first set of true leaves coming in. So I'm switching to veg in a little while when I put her in the main tent. I'm thinking about waiting for the Blue Dream, but I don't think she is ready for the first set. However, I will note that the Blue Dream is remarkably short, while the Apple Strudel is the leggiest of legs. There's a good 2" difference between the two and a day. In just 7 days, that's a huge difference. I dunno. Waiting. An extra might not hurt anything, but the roots are all starting to show and I don't like transplanting exposed roots. Just seems like an excuse for stress. Ya know? Anyway, my biggest concern is nutrients. She's currently in nutrient water, and has no problems with it. However, the water in the bucket is a slightly higher dose. I'm pretty sure she can take it, it's not a lot, but it is a concern.