4 day old seedling / lime green veins

low_and_slow said:

I would water about a cup or two, then wait a minute. You want to see a small amount of runoff, not a river, just enough to know that some amount of the water is washing away the root exudates and excess minerals that build up in containers. You should never wait until your medium is bone dry, if you let it get dry it will become hydrophobic and potentially runoff much more heavily without actually getting re-saturated. Basically just water a bit, wait, see runoff stop. Don't see runoff, water half-again as much and wait another few minutes. Some folks water, wait an hour, then finish watering until they see runoff. This gives the medium time to absorb the fertigation, then you come back and really make sure it got a little flush. Roots give off waste products that can be harmful to plant health, that's really what causes "rootbound" symptoms. It's not actually that the roots can't expand into the medium because they can fully colonize a container to the point where it's almost all roots. The real issue is that then those roots sit in their own 'piss' and get unhealthy...that doesn't happen if you water properly OR use a huge pot that gives them room to spread out.



Don't think that way, just focus on weight. Start off with a fully saturated medium, plant a seed, water it when the pot feels light. Period.



I don't know much about their fertilizer products other than to say I'm sort of a hater because of the results I'm seeing in the infirmary lately. If I were experimenting with a new nutrient lineup, I would only purchase their base fertilizer without any additional crap, too many variables to worry about without a clear reason to do so. If their base fertilizer doesn't grow healthy plants, I would move on to another product line whose base fertilizer grows healthy plants. Once you have a strategy to grow healthy plants with a base fertilizer and you feel the need to experiment, I would gradually add in one additional product at a time and gauge whether it improves plant health or not. If not, I would cut it out and go back to a base regimen.

Any fertilizer company whose base NPK products don't grow plants should be avoided.

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Tom Bombadil said:

I agree with everything you said except maybe for that ^
I was under the impression that root exudates are what keep the soil food web active and keep good levels of beneficial bacteria in the root zone. I wouldnt describe that as a bad thing or that it needs to be flushed out of the soil. With organic based nutrient programs such as the one the OP is going to be using (according to biobiz this lineup is organic) , you want as much "piss" in the rootzone as possible dont you? Maybe Im confused...?

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BoCoGrow said:

Hey jaydot, I used to grow in San Francisco like 20 years ago, but I'm only now getting back into it, and given the passage of time, and completely different setup, I consider myself to be a newbie again. I completely empathize with your situation and concern about overwatering, as I was paranoid about it, too, when I got my first grow going recently. I had 6 healthy seedlings going and I killed them all by under watering. They were stunted like yours. I was watering with a turkey baster, giving them 2 oz. at a time, right at the base of the stem. Then I moved to the small circe routine. Then death came.

My 2 cents are to definitely be diligent about watering, but don't be scared to give them a sizable dose of water at this stage. I have 2 Roc Bud Inc. seedlings going that are at day 9 after sprouting, in 3gal fabric pots with Ocean Forest soil, and I fed each of them with 6 cups of water three days ago. I let them sit for 15 minutes and then I discarded any runoff that hadn't been reabsorbed. They are thriving.

What the OGs are telling you about getting a feel for the weight of the pot is spot on. And once I got past the paranoia, I remembered that that is how I did it 20 years ago. If you want to get scientific about it, use a kitchen scale or bathroom scale and weigh a completely dry pot. Then weigh a saturated pot. Weigh between watering and you'll know where things stand.

I was pissed at myself when my first grow died, so I know how it feels. Don't be too hard on yourself, we're both learning and we'll dial things in with practice!

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Mañ'O'Green said:

Watering is not a mystery. Think about how nature does it - rain. It does not rain in a small circle of the plant! Water the entire pot of soil whenever it has lost about 50% of the maximum water weight. If you are fertilizing properly there is no need to water to run-off with Biobizz light!

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