Day 1: 5/3/22 : Seedstockers Rucu Cucu Autoflowering variety
@Seedstockers-Mark - We have liftoff!
Very quick germination and sprout! Nothing this AM but by 7:15pm a nice baby has emerged.
I am using 1.5gallon airpots with Cyco Pearl Coco Coir
Airpots have a lot of holes in the bottom. I line them with a single layer of unbleached #2 cone coffee filters. Just separate them at the seam until you have two "halves". I find three of these "halves" tuck into the bottom quite nicely. Drainage is not an issue and roots can and do poke through them with ease. It just helps contain the loose coco until things get settled.
Once I see the sprout I prepare the coco. It comes prebuffered but I find the runoff to be in the 700ppm range which I think is too strong for seedlings.
Jacks 3-2-1 seedling mix:
Jacks make a "clone" product that can also be used for seedlings. They advise 2.5g per gallon of water. I add a silica supplement as it raises the pH nicely. I am using DynaGro Protekt as I can get it locally but use what you like and adjust as needed. Silica needs to be added first. I repeat, if you are using silica it has to be added first.
Silica first. You will probably need to play with how much silica you use to get the pH where you want it. 1ml tends to get mine right around 6.0 +- 0.1-ish , it took some test runs to nail down. Worst case you have to use pH up/down at the end. Silica is great to use and if you get it right, no pH adjustment needed!
1ml Protekt silica
2.5g "clone
1 Gallon distilled/purified drinking/reverse osmosis water
Stir - let it sit. I let mine rest for 30min to stabilize the mix
Final numbers: 5.9pH/351ppm (test, test, test. Confirm your numbers)
I split up the gallon into 1L batches and pour through slowly. I catch the runoff and test the numbers.
Input numbers: 5.9pH/351ppm
1litre: 0ml out
2nd : 648ml out @ 6.0pH/521ppm
3rd: 738ml out @ 6.1pH/458ppm
last 800ml in : 756ml out @ 6.3pH/403ppm
I would have liked to get the ppm count into the 250-300 range but input was 350 and out was ~400. Good enough. You can see the coco dust in the runoff. Another decent reason to flush a bit through first.
Once thoroughly soaked, I make a little hole with a shotglass, perfect size, and pop in the jiffy pellet with my nice seedling!
I am using 9" Hydro Halos. I do hand water but its far easier to attach a nice section of 1/2" hose and a funnel to the Halo. Watering into that is much easier on an old man. No bending down or reaching around stems/leaves/ etc. You can see how nicely the 9" Halo sits in a 1.5G airpot.
Nice little plant eh? Popped it's shell no issue and the root was already out the bottom of the pellet.
And here is the temporary setup to get it acclimated and started before jumping into the main tent. Just a 25W grow bulb in a standard metal work lamp housing. 20/4 light schedule but only getting 12hr this first session, ease it in. Plastic cup to keep the humidity up for now. I learned about the "desk lamp" start from
@Ronin and have used it with success since. He used root riots, I use jiffy pellets. Use what you can find or like. Thread here:
Thanks for reading and I hope to put on a good show for everyone!
