Low and Slow messes around with some little funkers!

Just updating from my hand-written journal:

1/15 ALF seeds dropped in water, tap-roots visible within 24 hours on both.
1/18&19 both sprouts broke the soil after planting directly in final containers and mulching the top with moist vermiculite

They had a bit of a slow start, I think because this coco I'm using is a bit wonky, it's not my regular brand and I've seen some pH problems on all the plants I've put in it. Things seemed to get on-track after giving everyone a big flushing drink until the runoff was clear and the same color as the water going in. For some reason, this coco runs off rusty with TONS of fines in it for the first few feeds, so I think if I'm going to use the rest of this batch, I'm going to have to really flush it out with the hose outside before I charge the medium and plant. It might be salt, it might be some garbage they put in as a buffer, but once the medium is thoroughly saturated with my nute solution it seems not to matter.

This is mostly a journal about the autoflowers, but my strategy for training photoperiods is to grow them unmolested until 9 nodes. Assuming they look healthy, I cut off the bottom 2 nodes which never seem to produce anything good, then top the plant to leave 3 nodes remaining. The goal is 6 tops growing straight up like a menorah, I'll use plant wire to tie down the upper branches to try to keep all the tops at the same height so I can slam the lights down to minimum.

After a couple of days to scar over the cuts, I go back and remove every petiole from the plant, leaving only the node sites. This really seems to supercharge the branching in coco since the medium retains water so well, there's rarely any shock from doing so, and the next morning I almost always come back to the tent to find the top set of leaves fully branched out and praying.

Feeding all plants in veg as follows:

1G Tap water, left to stand 24hrs
2ml Micro, 3ml Grow, 1ml Bloom, .3ml pH down until I get "thirsty urine" color with my pH drops.