Grow #1: Gelato + Unknowns

January 12, 2021 (Week 1, Day 8): Plants are looking great. Jiffy cups are still slightly moist from previous watering. No watering today. Not experiencing much stretch thanks to the light being hung at the appropriate height. My only issue is with my current humidifier, which I plan on returning for a programmable humidifier with an air hydrometer. Plants are currently drinking ~125ml of water each every two days. Will start low nutrients upon next watering. Adjusted pH, runoff sitting around pH ~6.5. Switched light schedule from 20/4 to 24/0 to avoid severe swings in tent atmospheric conditions. By evening, plants were almost completely dry. Left overnight to water in the morning with nutrients to ensure root-zone dries adequately. Average rH of 70%, average temperature of 79℉. Substrate temperature between 72-75℉. January 13, 2021 (Week 1, Day 9): First day of watering with nutrient solution. 600ml filtered water + .25ml pH Perfect Grow + .25ml pH Perfect Bloom + .50ml Cal-Mag Plus + 5 drops of pH down. Solution pH of 6.4-6.5. Watered to 10% runoff which came out to about 200ml per plant. Runoff pH of 6.44. All seems well. Very clear second node beginning in the center of each of the developing plants. New humidifier with hydrometer arrives today - hoping this addition will aid with the balance and consistency of my tent atmospherics. Average rH of 70%, average temperature of 80℉. No other new information to report. January 14, 2021 (Week 1, Day 10): After watering yesterday, Gelato 1 wilted a bit - only lasted about six hours and now it looks healthier than ever. I think the plants were adjusting to the light nutrient solution they were fed yesterday. The new humidifier with the humidistat and hydrometer arrived. It is so much better than having to dial the environment in manually. I set the humidifier for 70% rH and it has kept it within ~3% for over 18 hours now. Very happy with this purchase, and it's already saving me a lot of time. I am finally running into my first dilemma - the peat "Jiffy" pots I have used to plant these I absolutely hate. They soak up too much water out of the soil and I think it is wasting potential nutrients. I think they're going to cause me to have to water more frequently which I'd like to avoid. I was hoping they would allow the seedling roots to breathe better, but now I am regretting my decision. This morning while inspecting the plants, I noticed tiny splotches of white fuzz on the outside of the pots. It's either a type of mold (doubtful as I have 1 m/s airflow all around the seedlings), or it is little fuzzy hairs that tell the roots where to grow. In one spot on the Gelato, a root has actually broken through the side of the pot. I will definitely be ditching these pots. I am seriously considering transplanting into 5 gallon fabric pots by the end of today to avoid root-bind and other issues in these peat pots. I will not be using them again. Lesson learned. Other than that, the tent environment has completely stabilized thanks to the new humidifier - Average rH of 70% and 79℉. Will update later about transplanting to fabric pots. *Update: I've decided to bite the bullet and transplant the seedlings into their final 5 gallon fabric pots. As I suspected, taking the plants out of the peat Jiffy pots was a complete nightmare. The roots had started growing into the sides and particularly entangled the taproot into the base of the pot. Needless to say I accidentally snapped a couple of root ends while transplanting. Not the end of the world, but I would definitely not recommend using peat pots to start your seedlings. I've also changed my soil compound a bit for the large pots. I'm now running 50% Roots Organics Lush, 30% Fox Farms Happy Frog, and 20% Vermiculite. I'm hoping this combination will cool down the Roots Organic Lush which I've heard is very hot. Lush has tons of great additives (Ingredients: Earthworm castings, dolomite, limestone, phosphate rock, bat guano, langbeinite, feather meal, sulfate of potash, fishbone meal, soybean meal, fish meal, kieserite, volcanic rock dust, blood meal, crab meal, alfalfa meal, greensand, volcanic ash, kelp meal, nettle leaf and hop flowers - as well as 1.5% humic acids from Leonardite and peat moss and 0.1% Beneficial Bacteria and Mycorrhizal Fungi for soil health). Watering tomorrow morning with pH adjusted filtered water without nutrients. Will resume nutrients once the plants show they're healthy and ready to be pushed. Nothing else to report at this point. January 15, 2021 (Week 1, Day 11): The plants are looking fantastic this morning. I was expecting them to go into shock after breaking so many roots yesterday, but these girls ate their Wheaties I guess. Not even a slight droop on any plant. They seem happy and healthy in their new (gigantic) pots. There seems to be an obvious color difference between the Unknowns and Gelato - Gelato is bright neon green while the others are a duller forest green. I'm trying to spot as many differences as I can so I can hopefully I.D. the unknowns by the end of flowering. Now I get to struggle watering them for the next few weeks until I can get runoff without wasting nutrients from my soil. Today is watering day. Because I've transplanted them into these huge pots, I plan on only watering around the root-zone. With each subsequent watering, I will gradually expand the radius of my watering to promote outward root growth. Fed each plant 750ml of 6.4 pH adjusted filtered water for a total of 2.25l. Couldn't get any runoff because of how dry my new medium is after never being watered. I'll gradually increase the amount I water and try to get runoff in the next few waterings. January 16, 2021 (Week 1, Day 12): The plants grew quite a bit in the last 24 hours. They are thriving. New soil composition is holding water very well. No watering today. Tiny bit of browning on the end of the Gelato's first set of leaves. Suspect very minor nutrient shock. The Roots Organics soil is pretty hot still, so I bet I'll see some nutrient burn over the next several days while the plant gets used to the new soil. Even with the very slight burn, the Gelato took off like a rocket and the second set of leaves are emerging nicely. Both Unknown 1 and Unknown 2 look perfectly healthy without any splotching or discoloration. With the new humidifier I only check on the plants once every day now. Average of 70% rH and 81℉. January 17, 2021 (Week 1, Day 13): Another 24 hours of explosive growth. The slight nutrient burn on Gelato 1 seems to have already subsided, and the leaves have perked up even more. Today is watering day. Watered with 1000ml filtered water per plant pH adjusted to 6.5. No nutrients. Over the next few weeks I'll watch carefully to try to discern when to start adding nutrients to the soil again. Right now I know the soil is very hot, so I am hoping it has several weeks of food left before I'll need to resume nutrients. Average of 70% rH and 80℉. Nothing else to report for today. January 18, 2021 (Week 1, Day 14): Plants are looking extremely happy and healthy. All three seem to be growing rapidly. Soil is still moist this morning. Average of 70% rH and 81℉. The week after next I will move the relative humidity down as the plants approach full vegetative state. I plan to keep the humidity between ~60-65% rH and 77℉ throughout the rest of the veg stage to promote healthy transpiration and root growth to push the plants hard through flowering. I also want to avoid mold and mildew growth on the plants as they start to reach a larger size with more leaves and surface area. Super excited to see what's next for these girls!