I grow in Tupur Royal Gold coco and I use General Hydroponics nutes. I’m a new grower also, about to harvest my 4th grow and I chose coco to start because I knew there’d be no guessing game about over/under watering, I just feed every day til it runs out the bottom. I love it. That being said, seedlings present different circumstances and the following is something I previously posted about that. I will never debate right and wrong I will only share my experiences. Maybe it can help somehow…..
I’ve gotten messages related to seedlings and early stage watering in coco so I’ll throw it out here...
I don’t transplant because my first researching found many people having great success with transplanting AND not transplanting so I decided that FOR ME it was an unnecessary step and just another thing for me to f**k up.
I germinate by dropping the seeds in some distilled water for 24 hours and then straight to their final pot. I don’t care if the bean is floating or sunk or if it’s cracked open a bit or not, in it goes. i don’t use the paper towel method because my first researching found that many people have great success both using it AND not using it so I decided that FOR ME it was an unnecessary step and just another thing for me to f**k up. If there‘s no sure sign which side the taproot will come out, I take my best guess. It’s a weed it’ll figure it out. After all the recent rain I’ve got weeds in my yard popping out through my weedproof netting so I don’t doubt it’s ability to thrive hahahaa.
Right after I drop my beans in water I soak my pots also with distilled water until a nice runoff. Before I drop the seed in the hole I sprinkle some Great White Mycorrhizae in and around the hole. Then I lightly spray the top with a spray bottle for 48-72 hours until they pop. Then I continue to spray the top for a few days. On day 3 I introduce a half dose of the week 1 nutes by fertigating the outside couple inches of the pot until a bit of runoff. I’ll wait about 15 minutes and REAL lightly fertigate a ring around the sprout. On day 5 I’ll again fertigate REAL lightly a ring around the sprout. On day 8 I’m on full dose of the week 2 nute schedule applied same as day 3.
Watering in early stages in a final container, TO ME, is pure common sense. I treat it like a sponge. Water will not just pour through in a straight line, it will absorb first. I’ve set a pot high on a table so I could watch the runoff and water from the outside 2 inches of the pot came out close to the center, so my approach is fertigating slowly from the outside edge towards the center and decreasing the input as I approach the center. And I can tell by feeling the sides and bottom of the fabric pot how much water is already in there so I act accordingly. It’s really not a complicated process lol. But my goal is to have some food ready everywhere in the pot at all times.
“Right or wrong“ approach matters none to me, it’s all about what I’M comfortable doing to produce the outstanding bud currently in my cooler. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
Bottom line is I’m not a technical guy. I don’t use pens, I test my ph with a pool kit like once a week, and the only thing digital associated with my grow now is the exhaust fan control panel. Gave up on light readings because the plants tell me everything. I probably treat it like a weed too much but there’s no arguing the consistent results. Am I losing yield. Probably, but f**k man who cares, I have a pound of fire curing and another on the way in a few weeks. And another 45 days later. And so on and so on…