Hey steelwool i am also useing 20l pots i never water till run off with seedlings i just moist the top layer of soil and keep it damp till they show, then slowly give them more water, you want the roots to look for water to promote root growth, also i would not feed them with anything for a week and a half to 2 weeks after that i start at 1/4 str nutes and work my way up to half and keep it there i never give full str nutes to autoflowers, i am a believer that less is more its harder to get to much nute's out of your soil then to put them in, i used 400ppm for my first feeding at 2 weeks and 750 for the next i only feed once a week and water between each feeding here are some pics at day 30 and last 2 pics are at day 45 i think they look well thanks.
I agree with DWC on the nutes, better to play it safe and not risk stunting it, I believe the same applies to the light, wait until it has a couple sets of decent sized leaves before pounding it with too much love...
remember, the cotyledons have a good amount of what it will need to start off its life.
Agree 100% with you with the light little seedlings dont need much to get going even when watering i find just a little to soak about 4 inches down and keep working up with more everytime the roots will look for water
Nice pics dwc
However I cannot disagree more with the advice regarding nutes....
How does it make any logical sense to deny a seedling the very nutrients and support it needs to grow???
I see the standard 'no nutes for two weeks' answer all that time and can't believe this nonsense is still spouted as the gospel. I've always started nutes from the first feed at quarter strength, doubling the dose at each feed until full strength and never had any issues, just big plants
Think about it.... The key to a big plant is big roots - Agree? The first week is survival mode when the seedling is putting almost all it's energy into root production. That's why most autos (and PP plants too) don't really do a whole lot for the first week / ten days. All the action is happening underneath the soil. So what sense does it make to not encourage and support this process as much as possible?
Root stimulants like Root Juice and Superthrive both force the roots to grow and support the growing process. Therefore I consider it's use
vital from the first feed. Adding a quarter strength dose of grow nutrients to the first feed enriches the soil with nitrogen and helps give the growth up top an early boost!
During the second week, the seedling splits it's energy between growing roots and the action up top. This is when most people start to see some growth. This process needs to be supported with the addition of some grow nutrients and a root stimulant. Usually by the end of this week, you will have fed the plant three times and be up to full strength nutes.
After week two, I would consider using the root stimulant at every other feed until you see the root tails appear at the bottom of the pot. I've never grown in a 20 litre pot but I imagine with the use of the stimulant, this will happen at some stage during week three. Autos tend to respond to the root tails hitting air or curling in the pot by diverting most of it's energy back up top so using a stimulant after this point is counter productive. The plant will show sex soon after this and the root growth will slow down to a crawl. All the action moves up top and plant starts to put the massive root network you've helped create into full use
Since we're posting photos, here is my current lot at day 12/13 - 400w MH Cooltube @ 8 inches from tops....
They were fed at day 3, day 8 and day 13 (today). This was their first feed at full strength nutes so I'm expecting them to put on some serious size over the weekend
Anyway that's my take on seedlings and nutes. If you want big plants, you need to give them what they need from the get go. No offence meant to either dwc or surf - I used to follow a similar routine of no nutes for a fortnight and I still grew decent plants until one day I wondered 'what if....' That is when my opinion on when to start adding nutes changed. However only it's my opinion and what works for me... Good luck steel for whichever path you decide
Cheers,
Hardon
so lets say ading root stimulant now is too much for the plant, can it die at this stage?
