VictorFlorez
Member
Firstly, I am trying to grow in coco coir using Hy-Gen 2 part Coco nutrients https://www.hygen.com.au/product_cat/nutrients/ and additives https://www.hygen.com.au/product_cat/additives/ with my own various additives, most of which I'm not using yet.
Exactly one week ago, I germinated with plain tap water in jiffy pellets, 10 feminized seeds, 5 different strains, with a 9/10 success rate. I like those numbers from frozen seeds, but I think in the future I'll plant directly in coco filled solo cups, with a small amount of perlite (yuck), as the hygen coco is fine like dust and gets soggy. Also, the lack of immediate nutrients and the extra handling involved with the jiffy pellets seemed counterproductive. I didn't feed the seedlings until I transplanted them into solo cups with coco + a little perlite, once they had their first set of true leaves.
2x Afghan Kush, 2x Jack Herer, 2x Blueberry, 2x White Widow, 1x Alaskan Purple.
Around 4 days ago, I mixed up my first ~5L or so of full strength nutrient water in a 12L bucket for the seedlings, my plan was to water this down each time I take some out to feed them, but I decided to water down the entire amount with a mix of tap, spring, and distilled water to get the numbers close to where I wanted them. ~0.8 EC, ~6.2-6.4 pH. Making about 10L total to begin with. (Why use 3 different types of water? Tap: alkaline, high EC. Spring: acidic, low EC. Distilled: neutral pH, no EC.)
I added under 1/8 tsp ascorbic acid / vitamin C powder to dechlorinate, 15mL A and 15mL B "Cocogrow", 10mL "Budlink" (silica), 15mL "Omegazyme" (sea kelp + trace elements), 5mL "HumiBoosta" (humic, fulvic acids, and trace elements), a very light peppering of spirulina powder, and a dash of Great White mycorrhizae. I have also added an air pump + bubbling stone. As I check the numbers before each fertigation, the pH tends to climb a tiny bit, if it rises above 6.4, I add a tiny sprinkle of citric acid and stir it up, until the levels are where I like them before I water the babies.
So today when I pulled the air stone out of the bucket, I noticed the tubing and the walls of the buckets are... a little bit slippery, slimy I guess you could say, but not dramatically. The colour of the water is less clear too, ever so slightly cloudy. I gave it a smell, but it smells clean, so I sort of dismissed it as maybe due to the Great White inoculates and hopefully nothing to worry about. I'm curious if anyone has feedback about this. The water is well oxygenated, and 4 days doesn't seem long enough for any real problems to be cropping up yet. Though just to be safe, I'll empty, clean out, and refill the res tomorrow or the day after- this time with much less to avoid wasting nutes. And possibly skip the Great white, and instead add it directly to feeds that I suck out of the res, to use immediately.
So far the seedlings seem to be doing alright, although they could be doing better imo. 2 out of the 9 are showing obvious signs of issues, while a couple of others are showing subtle signs of what could be minor issues. White Widow #1 had burned tips and dark green new leaves, and Blueberry #2 appeared to have not developed any true leaves even by the time all the rest were on their 2nd set! So I think it's likely that Bl#2 may have also experienced nute burn. Yesterday, I decided to water all the others @ 0.8 as usual, but dilute the last of the daily feed to 0.4-0.6 for the WW#1 & Bl#2. Today the WW#1 is looking better, and the Bl#2 now appears to be starting to grow some very tiny true leaves. I will continue to feed them at 1/2-2/3 strength until they ask for more.
I originally had them all on a heating mat separated by foam blocks from the day of planting. They are currently under 2 CFL 23w "cool white" globes, 18/6. Temps in the room fluctuate from 22C min to 26C max, usually staying around 23C. RH fluctuates from 60%-75%, usually staying at around 67%. Today I have turned off the heating mat and added a fan, pointed away at the tent wall to give them a very gentle breeze.
Frustratingly, with some of the seedlings, I am having minor issues of what I believe to be a mix of overfeeding, possible underfeeding, lack of light, and possible light burn. Many of the seedlings appear to have stretched, even though the CFL's are only 2in away. Despite this, some of the seedlings look as if they are also getting too much light. I decided against trying 24/0 to reduce stretch.
It's possible that a chinese blurple I was using earlier together with the CFL's, may have contributed to the stretching. It has a "Veg" blue light switch and a "Bloom" red light switch, but the blue light just stopped working, so it was on red/bloom only for a while. I recently read that the far-red LED's can sometimes cause stretching... I had it a few feet away from the seedlings while keeping the CFLs close, as I don't know how intense the blurple light really is, I just thought the extra spectrum combined with the CFLs might be handy. I have since turned it off, around day 5, it's too dodgy.
One seedling, Afghan Kush #2, was particularly leggy and also lime / yellow coloured, especially on the new 2nd set of new leaves which also appear thin atm, although they might have to grow out more before I can tell. I believe this could be due to either nitrogen deficiency, or heat/light stress from being too close to the CFLs. So around 7 hours ago, I added a tiny extra sprinkle of spirulina powder to AfK#2's feed, without raising EC, and placed her slightly further away from the light, even though she is quite stretched. Right now, she looks a little less yellow, so I guess she must have been nitrogen hungry and too close to the bulb, hopefully I did the right thing and I don't get too much more stretch. Aside from WW#1 and Bl#2, another seedling is showing signs of possible overfeeding, Jack Herer #2, with one tiny leaf tip burn, yet bizarrely also looking quite limey/light green and nitrogen hungry. I'm not sure what to do about this, other than continue with feeding at the same rate/ratios and hope Ja#2 simply adjusts to it. Keeping all of these girls happy is proving quite challenging.
Anyway, thanks for reading, if you're still here by this point, you have a better attention span than I do! . If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, I'd love to hear them. Apologies for not uploading pictures, I'm paranoid about using this smart phone to record and take pictures. I'm currently digging through boxes looking for my old non-smart digital camera so I can share photos.
Exactly one week ago, I germinated with plain tap water in jiffy pellets, 10 feminized seeds, 5 different strains, with a 9/10 success rate. I like those numbers from frozen seeds, but I think in the future I'll plant directly in coco filled solo cups, with a small amount of perlite (yuck), as the hygen coco is fine like dust and gets soggy. Also, the lack of immediate nutrients and the extra handling involved with the jiffy pellets seemed counterproductive. I didn't feed the seedlings until I transplanted them into solo cups with coco + a little perlite, once they had their first set of true leaves.
2x Afghan Kush, 2x Jack Herer, 2x Blueberry, 2x White Widow, 1x Alaskan Purple.
Around 4 days ago, I mixed up my first ~5L or so of full strength nutrient water in a 12L bucket for the seedlings, my plan was to water this down each time I take some out to feed them, but I decided to water down the entire amount with a mix of tap, spring, and distilled water to get the numbers close to where I wanted them. ~0.8 EC, ~6.2-6.4 pH. Making about 10L total to begin with. (Why use 3 different types of water? Tap: alkaline, high EC. Spring: acidic, low EC. Distilled: neutral pH, no EC.)
I added under 1/8 tsp ascorbic acid / vitamin C powder to dechlorinate, 15mL A and 15mL B "Cocogrow", 10mL "Budlink" (silica), 15mL "Omegazyme" (sea kelp + trace elements), 5mL "HumiBoosta" (humic, fulvic acids, and trace elements), a very light peppering of spirulina powder, and a dash of Great White mycorrhizae. I have also added an air pump + bubbling stone. As I check the numbers before each fertigation, the pH tends to climb a tiny bit, if it rises above 6.4, I add a tiny sprinkle of citric acid and stir it up, until the levels are where I like them before I water the babies.
So today when I pulled the air stone out of the bucket, I noticed the tubing and the walls of the buckets are... a little bit slippery, slimy I guess you could say, but not dramatically. The colour of the water is less clear too, ever so slightly cloudy. I gave it a smell, but it smells clean, so I sort of dismissed it as maybe due to the Great White inoculates and hopefully nothing to worry about. I'm curious if anyone has feedback about this. The water is well oxygenated, and 4 days doesn't seem long enough for any real problems to be cropping up yet. Though just to be safe, I'll empty, clean out, and refill the res tomorrow or the day after- this time with much less to avoid wasting nutes. And possibly skip the Great white, and instead add it directly to feeds that I suck out of the res, to use immediately.
So far the seedlings seem to be doing alright, although they could be doing better imo. 2 out of the 9 are showing obvious signs of issues, while a couple of others are showing subtle signs of what could be minor issues. White Widow #1 had burned tips and dark green new leaves, and Blueberry #2 appeared to have not developed any true leaves even by the time all the rest were on their 2nd set! So I think it's likely that Bl#2 may have also experienced nute burn. Yesterday, I decided to water all the others @ 0.8 as usual, but dilute the last of the daily feed to 0.4-0.6 for the WW#1 & Bl#2. Today the WW#1 is looking better, and the Bl#2 now appears to be starting to grow some very tiny true leaves. I will continue to feed them at 1/2-2/3 strength until they ask for more.
I originally had them all on a heating mat separated by foam blocks from the day of planting. They are currently under 2 CFL 23w "cool white" globes, 18/6. Temps in the room fluctuate from 22C min to 26C max, usually staying around 23C. RH fluctuates from 60%-75%, usually staying at around 67%. Today I have turned off the heating mat and added a fan, pointed away at the tent wall to give them a very gentle breeze.
Frustratingly, with some of the seedlings, I am having minor issues of what I believe to be a mix of overfeeding, possible underfeeding, lack of light, and possible light burn. Many of the seedlings appear to have stretched, even though the CFL's are only 2in away. Despite this, some of the seedlings look as if they are also getting too much light. I decided against trying 24/0 to reduce stretch.
It's possible that a chinese blurple I was using earlier together with the CFL's, may have contributed to the stretching. It has a "Veg" blue light switch and a "Bloom" red light switch, but the blue light just stopped working, so it was on red/bloom only for a while. I recently read that the far-red LED's can sometimes cause stretching... I had it a few feet away from the seedlings while keeping the CFLs close, as I don't know how intense the blurple light really is, I just thought the extra spectrum combined with the CFLs might be handy. I have since turned it off, around day 5, it's too dodgy.
One seedling, Afghan Kush #2, was particularly leggy and also lime / yellow coloured, especially on the new 2nd set of new leaves which also appear thin atm, although they might have to grow out more before I can tell. I believe this could be due to either nitrogen deficiency, or heat/light stress from being too close to the CFLs. So around 7 hours ago, I added a tiny extra sprinkle of spirulina powder to AfK#2's feed, without raising EC, and placed her slightly further away from the light, even though she is quite stretched. Right now, she looks a little less yellow, so I guess she must have been nitrogen hungry and too close to the bulb, hopefully I did the right thing and I don't get too much more stretch. Aside from WW#1 and Bl#2, another seedling is showing signs of possible overfeeding, Jack Herer #2, with one tiny leaf tip burn, yet bizarrely also looking quite limey/light green and nitrogen hungry. I'm not sure what to do about this, other than continue with feeding at the same rate/ratios and hope Ja#2 simply adjusts to it. Keeping all of these girls happy is proving quite challenging.
Anyway, thanks for reading, if you're still here by this point, you have a better attention span than I do! . If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, I'd love to hear them. Apologies for not uploading pictures, I'm paranoid about using this smart phone to record and take pictures. I'm currently digging through boxes looking for my old non-smart digital camera so I can share photos.
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