You can also put them in another cup and plant deeper,I also learned from a fellow grower to plant your seed in half a cup of dirt maybe alittle more then when they stretch just add dirt around them .I’ve also started doming them until they start some new growth, I went to Walmart and got plasric measuring cups the big 4 cup ones were $.99 and I spritz inside of them set it over the seedling and set ingrow room kinda under alittle light .Sometimes I let them sit without domes for couple hours or more but I’m really bad about remembering to water and redome before they get too dry ,did you know that smoking weed makes you forget things.
have a great day .
Yeah, these are some interesting plants: they seemed desperate for light, which I think bodes well for the later stages. I think at this point we are good, they aren’t stretching and the stems are really thickening up. At the end of the weekend I will try to remove the supports, because they need to stand on their own. I’m definitely going to incorporate the clear cup within a solo cup method in the future to keep an eye on root development.
My plan right now is to be in solo cups for 3 weeks (above ground), pot up to 5gallon bags. 7-10 days on those and then turn on water system. I’ll probably start with 4 gallons RO + Jacks, then build up the reservoir as I get more confident.
So, how does it work… I put 4 gallons in, and I don’t want to let it ever dry out. Do I just mix another 4 gallons at ph 5.8-6.0, then add it to reservoir and check overall pH and adjust as needed?
1 Like
My ph rarely fluctuates so I just add my 3 gallons of ph’d mix to the rez
Beautiful. I have a 25 gallon res, but I’ll start off very cautious. I got a pump to circulate water for when I add more than 3-5 gallons at a time, but mixing water every few days is about 10% of the work of actually watering each by hand.
Do you do any sort of maintenance/cleaning inside the reservoir during the grow?
1 Like
I call it happy plants
No real maintenance. Other than when I wasn’t mixing the silica long enough I Havnt had a problem. I don’t want to jinx myself but for this entire grow I havnt cleaned a thing. Jacks seems to run pretty clean, I have no pump in the rez
Awesome! I can’t wait to get it up and running. I’m hoping I can just do a full maintenance on the system at the end of each grow.
That works too! Reminds me of this
May 15 Update (Day 11) above ground
So, I was uh overly hopeful when I said I thought the plants would have enough water to make it to Sunday (today). I watered them Thursday and they were pretty dry today. Some drooping and very light solo cups, so I committed one of the big sins of coco, which is to not let it get too dry.
On the other hand, look at the growth compared to a couple of days ago. Beautiful color and explosive growth. I watered tonight 1050ppm, 5.8pH. Very little run-off this time at 8oz., so to me that would indicate some crazy root development (is that bro science or is it a thing?).
All in all, after their stretching issues these plants have been pretty awesome. Jacks 321 continues to be just perfect, the fact you can pump it into seedlings and they respond like this is just awesome. I don’t think I fed anything like this my first 2 grows, and I certainly wasn’t blasting and cruising like this.
For anyone reading this, I think that ppm is overstated, either my pen is messed up or what I thought was 0ppm water isn’t… either way, they are getting the Jacks 321 formula and doing great whatever the true PPM is. Hopefully, in the morning we will be back to praying toward the light.
2 Likes
That ppm is pretty close to what my meter says for a regular mix of jacks as well…
Well maybe I’m just crazy, I thought it was lower for some reason.
Actually think I can transplant this week into 5 gallon pots, but I think I need to order the spring pots from Autopot, my system came with plastic pots, and the 5 gallon fabric pots I have don’t seem to fit the trays.
Day 13 above ground, I can confidently say I’m off to the best start I’ve ever had. Everything looks just about perfect, cups feel lighter this morning after watering on Sunday, not bone dry but since this is coco I’ll water this evening with 8oz, more if I don’t get decent runoff.
I think I could transplant at any time, but I’m waiting for them to need to be watered everyday + for some spring pots to arrive from Autopot USA. Their bags are 10.5” across, the ones I have are like 12”, so they wouldn’t fit the Autopot xl trays.
Hopefully, those will arrive this week or I’ll look on Amazon for some with the same dimensions.
2 Likes
@R0ck looking good, your off to a good start. @The_Chef is also getting set to build the autopot system for his next run, I’ll be keeping an eye on both journals and also soaking up-y’all’s knowledge lol!! 
1 Like
Day 17 above ground (yesterday) 05/20/22
Plants look incredible. They are drinking 8oz. (1cup of water) in a little over a day, I went 2 days this week and they were bone dry at 48 hours, so I think it’s time to transplant.
Tonight I’ll throw them into 5 gallon pots with some Myko. My plan is to water them with about .75 gallons of Jacks 321 (or until we get some good runoff, and we will let them establish in the pots for 7-10 days before starting the Autopot system, which I still need to set up 
I’m stoked to see how fast they take off once the autopot system gets up and running
Definitely.
They seemed a little droopy this morning from being watered 2 days in a row, so I might do the transplant in the morning unless they are perky tonight.
I’m nervous about the watering system, but if things go well I think I’ll double my previous yields this time around between the light show that’s going to happen in there, Autopot, and this very positive start in Veg.
These plants should already have a great root system based on how quickly they’ve been drinking.
1 Like
Oh yeah. They’re ready for transplant, that’s for sure
Expecting some explosive growth next week from them.
Autopot guide recommends somewhere between 7-14 days to let the plants establish in the spring pots before turning water on, so I’m going to shoot for 14, which should be an initial top watering with transplant and then maybe a couple more depending on how fast they drink.
1 Like
Absolutely it is time. A rule of thumb about when to transplant is when leaves grow beyond the sides of the container, it is time to transplant. Yes the larger container with more medium can hold more water, but the underlying reason is the roots. At this point I imagine the roots are circling the bottom of the solo cups. One tries to time this in order to minimize the circling.
1 Like