The new replacement GC popped today, hasn't broken surface yet but there's some root out the bottom of the plug so I got her into her new mini pyramid early, it will be interesting to be able to compare its growth to the earlier one before it was apparent there was something wrong. So there's a new experiment with the plug, it can confirm the problem is the seed because no ferts are used and watering and medium and root development is identical. This time I tried a new technique always trying for minimal work with maximum result, I put the dry bean in a dry starter cube and then hydrated the cube, this held the seed in a more snug position because it swells around the seed and hugs onto it. If she emerges without problems then this will be my new method, it's just easier to drop the bean into a dry plug and position it the right way.
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Instead of plants for the big pyramid, I have decided instead to do a big pyramid using the Jedi Kush. YOLO :¬)
Unlike putting that cube into the mini pyramid which fits with a nice snug seal, the starter plug is very loose inside the large cube. Last time I used it in my hydro I fill up the space with crumbled plug but you can never get it tight, this worried me because the roots can tear. It didn't matter when I used it in my hydro but I will learn from this and take a new approach to the starting this bean.
I put the small plug inside the large cube and soaked them together to see how they swelled. I then cut some slices of small starter plug with a sharp knife and careful wetted them but tried to keep them together, like trying to slice a crumbly aged cheddar cheese. Now instead of trying to jam these pieces in, I instead lifted the small plug out and press a slice on two adjacent side of the plug and then pressed it firmly back into the big cube. There's enough friction to keep the slabs in place and now instead of being loose it snug and happy. So probably about 2 weeks from now this big cube will go atop the big pyramid.
So I have some time to set something up, gonna put the big pyramid on a cake rack sitting in a shallow tub but I'm still figuring this out in order to make it work with the minimum of work. This will be too big to take to the bathroom for a quick hose down so I'll want to try and create some sort of drain into a bucket system. When I work it out, I promise that readers of this thread will be the first to know.
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Man is the measure of all things, it has been translated from ancient Greek but that doesn't really make any sense, more accurate would be Man is the measurer of all things. I mean it's what we do, gravity waves to an accuracy of a thousandth the width of a single proton over a distance of 4kms, gravity probe B, the anomalous magnetic dipole moment. and many others.
Today I did some rough wicking measurements while preparing the mini pyramid for the new replacement GC, I weighed up 600g of water put it in a small saucepan that just fit the mini pyramid so it was only sitting in about an inch of water. It quickly sunk and took about 40 minutes until the plughole got wet
at the hour mark it had wicked all the way to the top
, at this stage I let it go a bit longer and finished it by turning it upside down. when ready I pushed the plug in
and she is now sitting in the shade
Back to the Jedi Kush, if you look closely you will see the L shaped addition to the small plug
. I didn't use the hole because it's not centred now, so I used a wooden toothpick to mash the plug around the hole and fill it in and make a new hole
then bury it
Here's a shot of the big cube on the big pyramid for size comparisons.
great job 
