Edited 5/28, the night before harvest.

Thanks gaiusmarius for all your help and patience.

End of edit


Hey folks, I put these seeds in the towels just over 72 hours ago and the tap roots showed 24hrs later. Now they're through the top of the coco and I was wondering what to do now. Anything but wait?

I pH'd my distilled water and moistened the towels. I put 5 White Widow, 5 Aurora Indica, and 5 bag seed between three separate sets of towels and 24 hours later 3 of the White Widow had tap roots about 3/8 of an inch long and 2 of the Aurora Indica had roots about 1/4 inch long. Still waiting on the others from those two groups. The bag seed isn't doing much but who knows?

I had my rock wool cubes out and ready to use and got to thinking why I should use rock wool when I had Canna coco that is equally as good a medium for sprouting. So I dropped the seeds into holes I'd made in the center of the Solo cups I'd chopped down, covered the holes with a couple of pinches of coco, lightly pressed it down and misted it with more pH'd water. Must have worked OK cause they're looking kinda happy now. I know I am.

I don't think I should add anything should I? I have misted them about 4 or 5 times since they started breaking through and I placed the dome lid back on the propagation tray to keep the humidity level up. I lowered my 200W CFL down to within about 6" of the top of the dome. I had a heat mat under the prop tray with a temp control hooked up to it and had it set on 75 degrees while I was trying to pop the beans but turned it off after I put the containers with the seeds in them into the tray. Didn't want to turn the roots on the new seedlings to mush with too much heat. The light seems to be providing all the heat I need right now. I still have the unsprouted seeds in a plate covered with foil in the prop tray to continue the sprouting process for the other seeds. What else should I do if anything roght now?

I know some on here have had trouble with putting their new seedlings under a dome, but I don't see the harm as long as I don't get it so close as to raise the temp under the dome too high. Am I right. If I remember correctly, I shouldn't give nutes right now, should I?

I'm including pics to show the setup.


The plate with the seeds is in the background, the three White Widow just underneath that, and the 2 Aurora Indica are closest to the camera. The Aurora Indica haven't broken through yet but their roots were shorter so I expect them any time.


























This is the third White Widow and it is barely poking through.

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help out.

Ya got it going on mojo...good job.

DO keep misting them and keep the coco moist, but not too moist so the roots develop. After they get above ground, I give mine a light watering every other day, and may cut that back to every 3rd day, as long as the coco stays moist you should be good. DON'T let the coco dry out. When ya transplant them, try to get a 50/50 mix of coco and perlite.

Remember, coco is a soiless medium, so ya have to add nutes sooner than you would if you were in dirt. Ya don't need any yet, but I started mine off on MILD nutes as soon as the first true leaves developed. When ya see the cotyledons(sp?) leaves starting to yellow, the seedling has used up it's stored food and is looking for some more. Like I said, start them off on VERY mild nutes. I used 1/4 strength the first time, and even that was a little strong for some of them

While I'm thinking about it, if you're starting the seeds in that dome, then covering the plate with foil inside the dome may be unnecessary. Beware dampening off.

Hope somebody with more experience coco wise comes along and helps out, I'm just getting into the coco craze myself, so take my advice with a grain of salt please.

[gaiusmarius]

yeah seedlings in coco, need pretty much what they need in earth, nothing lol. at this point you have done great. but like was said don't over do the misting. also the dome is no longer needed, in fact you want the seedlings to get accustomed to the normal air conditions. with a seedling, you want to water ever few days, even if it is coco, lol. you want it to make those roots spread out looking for food. i normally use plain phed water till the first serrated leaves show, then i add rhizotonic to the phed water and use that for one or two waterings depending how fast they develops. once the real 3 pointed leaves show up, you add 1 ml per lt. coco a+b and from there work your way up slowly as the plants needs it. only start daily waterings, once the plants have established a healthy root system. you will notice the plants stem get thick and the leaves get big and wide with lots of fingers, with a rich green color on the older fan leaves and a lighter some times almost yellow color in the center of the top growing tip.

Thanks for the help guys.

oldpeculiar, I'm going straight Canna nutes. I have on hand Coco A+B, Rhizotonic, PK 13/14, and Cannzyme. I intend to feed light when I start. I saw others giving 2-2.5mL per liter of the A+B but I thought I would go lighter than that - the whole easier to add more than to fix a problem thing I guess. Rather err on the side of conservatism - always good, even in politics, lol. Ooops, that's another issue, lol.

Also oldpeculiar, unless advised against it, I don't plan to mix My coco coir with anything. I intend to go with my straight Canna brand Coco Coir. I've got the Canna nutes so I wanted to try to grow it without anything added. The coco drains so well and provides so much room for O2 that I don't think I want to mess with it. I've got an open mind though and there are surely more people hear with a lot more experience at this than I (doesn't take much, hehe) so I'm willing to change. I know the perlite would probably help me by holding onto the water longer and that's worth considering with the price of these nutes. Speaking of nutes, I would also like to know if the 1 liter sizes of the Canna nutes is going to be enough to see me through this grow or if I should get some more coming.

gaiusmarius, glad you showed up, was hoping you would. I saw in another thread "seedling feeding regime" (think he meant to use regimen unless of course he's starting a new system of govt centered around pot, which would be kickass!) . In that thread, bongoman said he was going to do the following:

[[[[These new sprouts are getting:

1mL/L of A & B
4mL/L of Rhizotonic
0 Cannazym

Once I get a couple of sets of leaves, I move to this mix:

2.5mL/L A & B
2mL/L of Rhizo
2.5mL/L of Cannazym

Does this sound a reasonable plan for seedlings in Coco? Is it too much of a jump from 1ml to 2.5ml do you think?]]]]

gm, in that thread, you OK'd his recipe. Does this still hold true? I know, in order not to hurt someone's feelings, I will sometimes approve of somone's plans they've made as long as they not going to hurt themselves in the process. Sort of used the same philosophy raising my two daughters, lol. But since I'm starting with a clean slate and very few preconceived ideas, you're free to steer me as much as you're willing. I don't mind admitting ignorance, it's easier to do than admit stupidity. Ignorance is fixable with education and constructive criticism but stupidity is forever, lol.

I finally went to bed 5 hours ago and left the dome cover off thinking my mistings needed to be evaporated a little. Woke up, came back to the thread and according to what you had written, I guessed right. One of the Aurora Indica's is now trying to poke through and the other should be not far behind.



I'll check my seeds in the plate in a few minutes to see if any of the other seeds have decided to heed the call of their sisters (positive thinking, lol) to join the party. Just checked and not much more yet. One more of the White Widow seeds has split and I can sort of see a little root in the seam. The same for one of the Aurora Indicas. The bag seed looks like it has some white ooze coming out of it about the color of the chemicals that leak out of an old flashlight battery.

Temp in the room is 68.2




And the temp in the tray under the 200W CFL is about 76.




As you can see, the humidity is at about 50% and I think I need more. According to what I've read, I need to try for high humidity levels at the beginning of veg and step it down as I go into flowering and through harvest. This afternoon I plan to go get a humidifier.

One more thing, when I transplant, what is the harm in transplanting directly into my 5gal pots instead of going 3gal and then 5 gal. I know it takes less water to water a 3gal but it seems the root growth would be less hindered in the 5gal and doing this would also eliminate the stress to the plants that transplanting heaps on them. Just wondering.

Pics from post at 5AM









Pics from 10:30 AM






They're growing like weeds, lol. Old joke, I'm sure.

Thanks again

mojo

Feel stupid asking this but I know smoking cigarettes is bad for my health - is it bad for their health? I know when I'm growing tomatoes the plants can get a tobacco virus from the smoke. How about these plants?

mojo

[Gantz]

well nicotine and tar tend to stick to almost anything...so no it's not good for your plants either

[bongoman]

You don't have to worry about hurting my feeling! LOL.

If the truth hurts, then give it to me straight!

I've realised that I've been watering my sprouts too often - I need to pull way back and wait before starting daily watering.

Good luck with this grow - I hope you keep posting as it progresses. Would be good to follow this one.

bongoman, dude, I wasn't trying to hurt your feelings, lol. I don't know shit about what I'm doing here. I just keep stabbing in the dark and so far I haven't drawn any blood, hehe. Seems like some common sense mixed with a lot luck and a big helping of other people's knowledge just might get me through this.

Later
mojo

[gaiusmarius]

as the old saying goes, there is more then one way to skin a cat, same applies to growing pot.

weather you start with just rhizotonic for one or two waterings before you go to A+B, or start them together will not be the deciding factor if they live or not. some people like to use the nutes at full strength when flowering, so they start with half strength (2ml per lt) while i never uses the canna coco at full strength. hence i star with 1ml per lt which gives me ec 0.8 and slowly move up as the plants needs increase. in fact if you have a ec meter just start the plants at ec 1.0 when the first real cannabis leaf appears. before that rhizotonic is enough.

which ever you chose to do, you just have to be consistent, always working the same way and the plants will adapt to make the best of the situation. as long as the differences are small things like ec levels with in reason that plant can always adapt.

one more thing, at this early stage, you can reuse the nutrient solution that runs off no problem. this will save you on rhizotonic too, which isn't cheap.

Would someone mind telling me what sort of light cycle I need to be using during the seedling stage. I've been going 24/0. Are they going to blow up?