Week one of vegetative growth for Pineapple Upside Down – Round 2, from Humboldt Seed Company.
I’ll be straight: the start wasn’t smooth, again.
Even keeping things “simple,” I managed to stress the seedling early on.
The initial mix was tap water with a very light dose of CalMag and a bit of Voodoo Juice, with pH sitting around 5.8–5.9.
The coco pellet was fully hydrated, but the plant clearly didn’t like something.
It looked like early burn or a harsh reaction, which is frustrating because the input level was low.
At that point, the likely causes were pretty classic:
maybe the feed was still too rich for a newborn,
maybe the dome ran too warm,
or maybe the seedling just hates my “light touch” and wants even less.
So I did the smartest thing: I stopped guessing and reset.
I rehydrated the coco pellet again using only RO water.
I dropped EC down to 0.4 and kept it minimal, using just a small amount of FormuleX.
No CalMag, no extras, just a clean baseline.
Since that change, things look more encouraging.
I can see two new pairs of leaves coming in, and that’s the sign I wanted.
The seedling is around 5 cm tall right now, and I’ve kept humidity high in the mini greenhouse to support rooting and recovery.
The goal for next week is simple: clean new growth.
If the new leaves stay healthy, I’ll know the issue was the early mix and not something deeper.
And yeah—seedling starts are still my weak spot.
I’m clearly making mistakes somewhere in that “first 10 days” window, and I need to tighten the process until it’s repeatable.
For now: stable environment, minimal inputs, and steady observation.
See you next week.