Seedlings: To Nute, or Not To Nute, that is the question. :)

Thanks again for the info. :smile:
As an update, I just noticed that the biggest of the three, slight longer stem and larger leaves, but just cotelydons and the first two regular leaves, upon inspection, has a root growing about an eith of an inch out of the Jiffy Pellet. I she ready to be moved into the larger grow medium?

Thanks again. :smile:

I myself never feed my seeding in till they have sprouted 5 or 6 true sets of leaves.

Will

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That’s right, but you can pot them up.

My one consideration waws that, since coco / perlite has no nutrients, if there would be enough left over from germination / seedling stage in Jiffy Pellets, or if the transfer to coco will create a nutrient deficient medium.

The coco I will be using is Black Gold Just Coir.

Will putting them in peat pots allow me to just transfer them directly into the coco, or do the peat pots need to be removed?

I’m going to try these products of his. .maybe it will help with those critters spider mites.

B Safe
Will

Update

Today I transfered the three seedlings from their initial Jiffy Pellets into peat pots filled with Black Gold pure Coir and some perlite. After doing a good bit of reading, I removed the mesh from the Jiffy Pellets prior to placing them in the new medium; however, I did not disturb their actual pellet. I think this was a good thing, as one of the seedlings actually had a good deal of roots that were not able to penetrate the mesh.

Now that they are in the coco / perlite, I ensured that the soil was moist; however, took the “less is more” approach, and only added water for the moment. They still have their cotyledons, and I have read that they will gather some nutes from themselves for a little while longer. I also didn’t want to introduce too many changes at once.

They are now transplanted, have bigger homes and are back under the T5. I’ll take a look at them tonight, prior to lights out, and see how they are handling the transition. It is my understanding that I also have to make sure that the coco doesn’t dry out too much. I hope this is a correct assumption.

With the next watering, I will introduce a very mild mix of the Liquid Karma and CalMag+. I only plan on using 1/3 of what the container suggests.

Any advice is welcomed and always appreciated. (Now I’m going to be worrying through the night about their well-being. :slight_smile: )

I look forward to seeing your results. :slight_smile:

I recommend starting with Liquid Karma, but mix it as suggested. It is mild. Mix it at 1 TBS. per gallon. If you dilute Liquid Karma, you may as well not use it.

Clamg; Use the lower suggested measure. Can’t remember if it is 3ml, or 5ml. per gallon

@latewood, in checking the suggested levels, CalMag+ for seedlings is 2ml, and the Liquid Karma suggests 5 - 10 ml, so I guess I should start with the 10 ml, as that is 2/3 tbs.

One question I should know, but don’t, is: Do I Ph my water before or after adding the nutes?

**One added worry, is when I just checked in on them, to see how they are doing in the transplant, I noticed that there was a very small winged insect in the tent, by the area where water run-off collects in the tray. I’m inside and not using soil, so I’m not sure what it could be. Hopefully an errant mosquito searching out some humidity. Humidity, btw, is at ~57%.

Thanks again for all of the help. :smile:

Fungus gnats can lay their eggs and have their larva grow in almost anything, and to them coco coir or peat is not really any different than soil. I’ve even seen them have surviving larva with absolutely no soil in an improperly maintained DWC hydro with clay pellets. As long as water is pooling and stagnating with enough wet decomposing material, fungus gnats can thrive. They look the most similar to mosquitoes out of the common pests in most indoor gardens.

Here is a link with tons of good info on different ways to identify if it is indeed fungus gnats or something else as well as various treatments. This person was adamant it couldn’t be fungus gnats, I believe because they were also using the clay hydroton and had no soil, as well as for other possible reasons, but it did turn out to be fungus gnats after all:

~MacG

@MacGyverStoner, thanks for the advice. So far, I’ve only seen one; however, the conditions here, (sub-tropical - tropical), sound like the kind of environment they like. I’ll make sure to stay on top of it.

You can PH before or after. I PH before, and adjust if necessary before I feed the plants.

Get some yellow sticky traps for the fly. If you develop a group of flies, then use “DE”

@latewood, thx for the advise. I will be introducing the CalMag+ and Liquid Karma on their next watering. I think I’ll do a pre and post Ph test, as I am curious how the nutes will change the water.

Thanks again.

**Update - While it is still way too soon, imho, to notice if it is helping or causing detriment, I am on day 2 of adding CalMag+, 2ml/g, and Liquid Karma, 10ml/g to distilled water. The solution gives me a pH reading of 6.0, which I believe is within the good range for coco / perlite.

All is looking well so far, with the three seedlings all having the second set of true leaves and working on the third. All of them are a nice shade of green, without any noticeable changes. (One thing I have nboticed is that coco / perlite seems to run through liquids pretty fast. When I water in the morning, i notice that they are ready for another watering. The folks at the local hydro store did mention that some of them water up to three times daily when using coco / perlite.)

Fingers crossed, and I will post updates / questions, as they arise.

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**Additional Update - After six days in Jiffy Pots, the root systems were all growing through the bottoms of the peat pots. I didn’t seem to have any problems with too little or too much watering, as far as I could tell.

This evening, with roots protruding from the hole at the bottom of each pot, I transplanted them into their next container. I also removed them from their peat pots, for the transplant, and noticed that a good deal of roots were circling the peat pots, as if unable to penetrate the pot itself.

The containers used for the transplant were 10 gallon Smart Pots holding a mixture of Black Gold Just Coir, along with ~30% perlite. The decision to move them directly into the 10 gallon pots was, in part, based upon a suggestion from the guy who runs the local hydro store I frequent. His reasons were that I could concentrate the water and nutrients directly around the plant itself, while leaving the larger area of coco / perlite as is, so that oxygen may remain available to the roots. As the plants grow larger, the watering will encompass more of the grow medium. This should ideally also be the last time the plants are stressed from transplanting.

Upon completion of the transplants, I gave each plant the mixture of distilled water, CalMag+, and Liqud Karma. I will also monitor the health of the plants cloely over the next couple of days, in order to see how they are coping with the move.

Additionally, I also switched the lighting over from the T5, to the platinum LED P600, running just the Veg cycle, in order to have the lighting operating at the lower wattage. The company recommended beginning this at a height of 24" to 36" from the plants. Over the next day or two, I will also closely watch the plants for signs that the lights are not too intense. I have the T5 ready on stand-by, should I notice light stress.

I am also taking photos at the beginning and ending of each day, to help me try and notice things a little better.

I’ll keep everyone updated with info as this progresses. Again, any and all suggestions are welcome. This is a new thing for me. :smile:

MacGyverStoner, good to see you are still being giving good advice. I have learned so much from your post, and others, especially on this site. I hope you will keep up the good work. It really does help lots of people, especially me. However, I have a question. For insect control I keep a fresh Hot Shot no pest strip in my grow area. I have dealt with spider mites before I started using these strips but since I started using them I do not see any evidence of any insects except we are having a lady bug infestation and they do come into the grow area but they also die. Wish I could prevent that but I suppose it is the price that I have to pay in order to rid my self of other insects. Any advice on these strips. Thanks for all of y our help. Keep it green.

I’m going to say these are probably not a good idea to use around food, or around fruiting or flowering plants intended for human consumption.

I personally have never had a problem with spider mites, and the only thing I use is food grade DE which is actually healthy for human consumption unlike the active ingredients that make those pest strips work. I can not recomend using anything on your cannabis that is toxic to humans and animals.

Happy growing,

MacG

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Good advice. The strips are gone as of today. Keepit green.

Adding an update from my last post.

The grow completed about 10 - 11 weeks into flowering, with the last week just running RO Water and Clearex.

From the three plants, one of them three grew to over 5 feet tall. I had to train it donw to stay under the light. The other two ended up gorwing to about 4 feet.

I had to fashion some different hanging options for the lights, using chain, so I could raise it to the top of the tent.

The final dried toal was ~14 ounces of bud, with another 3 three or so in trim.

I did lose 1/2 of one cola to bud rot; however, I caught it and cut it off before it spread. (Towards the end, due to a heat spell, and an AC malfunction, the humidity rose to about 70% for a couple days.) I cut the one cola, and added additional fans to lower the temp and humidity.

All in all, I would say it was a successsful grow.

I will post photos as soon as I have a few free minutes.

For my next grow, I’ve purchased some of the Autoflower seeds, (Ambesia Haze, and White Widow.) I will be growing under a new LEC 315 light that I’ve purchased, along with trying a different nute brand. (Local hydro store closed, so the other one suggested I give the Canna A&B a shot. They gave me free nutes so I could compare the results. Gotta love that. :slightly_smiling:

I’ll start a new thread when I start the auto grow. I’m still awaiting the arrival of the seeds.

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