Feeding

[Stevieje]

Hello community,
I have a question. My seedling is three days old. It's strain is northern lights. It just popped its pretty little head above ground. We'll, I planted two but only one has sprouted. My question is, should these seedlings be getting some type of nutrients at this stage? I've been researching in GWE guide but, I'm still not sure.

 

[Rootsruler]

No. The seed should have enough energy in it to feed itself through your first set of leaves.

I used to use the paper towel method to sprout my seeds but ever since I got my vertical germinator I've had 100% success rate.

 

[Stevieje]

Rootsruler you're the man... I germinated with the water in the glass method. My tap roots were a little more than an inch when I put them in the medium. My light is a VS1000 and I placed it approximately a foot above my container. My temperature is running around 76-78 and RH about 64. Do I need to adjust anything. I did take your advice and bought a dehumidifier. It's a small one, small enough to sit inside the tent.

 

[SoOrbudgal]

I don't feed my seedlings that young. After the first real set of leaf then i start with a 1/4 amount of recommended, gradually increasing but start very low.

 

[SoOrbudgal]

I'd never allow my seedling roots to get that long easy to damage

 

[Rootsruler]

Just gotta be gentle with them but once they're in soil I noticed they are quite vigorous growing out the tap this way. I've noticed that once your tap is in soil tap growth will slow down as it tries to establish tertiary and secondary roots. Growing out the tap will allow more secondaries to fill your medium meaning more uptake depending on how much PPFD is pulling ions through the plant. Of course this pertains to indoor gardening. You're an outdoor grower but the same still applies as far as tap root growth.

 

[Stevieje]

Thank you, you guys are awesome. I'm trying really hard to get this right.

 

[Rootsruler]

SoOrbudgal is correct. Don't feed them anything yet. Just keep the soil moist. Not wet. Moist. What kind of media are you in? What type of pot will you use for final pot? What size is your tent? Where did you place your tent? What nutrients are you thinking of using?

I always suggest tent placement inside a lung room. It makes it easier to control the environment in the tent. I would hold off on using the dehumidifier. If you're tent is in a lung room you want to dehumidify the lung room so that the air the tent is pulling from the lung room is already dehumidified. Placing the dehumidifier in the tent is going to introduce more heat and make controlling temp harder so, depending on your tent placement, you might want to return the dehumdifier if you need a larger one for the lung room.

Do you have a light meter to measure how much light your giving your plants? There are a few you can download for free. I have an android phone so I use Tent Buddy.

Your specs are good. I like to keep them in a higher humidity, like around 70% - 75%, in seedling or clone stage through early veg. Once I'm out of early veg I'll lower humidity a little to around 60% - 65%. I like to keep temps midrange, around 74* - 75*, until they get out of early veg then I will raise temp to around 80* and let them soak it in until it comes to flip. Then I'll progressively drop temp and humidity to harvest.

A few charts to help you make decisions. If you have questions ask. Only dumb question was the one that was never asked.

For light placement. Your VS1000 is 100 watts. 12" is the top graph line. 24" is 2nd from bottom.

 

[Bluey]

I just stick a dome over them and give them 100% RH. I keep it so it condensates on the inside of the dome and when that starts to disappear (dry out) I water around the outside of the dome with a foliar spray strength mix. That's always worked well for me but there are many good ways to do it.

 

[Rootsruler]

For correct pH uptake. Top chart is for soil. Bottom chart is for if you're doing hydro style growing.



If you grow in a larger room or tent then Vapor Pressure Deficit (VPD) will come into play but if it's a small tent then VPD is not so critical.



This chart gives you an idea what your plants want when so you can adjust your feed formula accordingly.



This is a Mulders Chart. It indicates how nutrient ions interact with each other in soil. Hydro interactions are different.



You can also run your light intensity schedule through Daily Light Integral(DLI) so that you have an idea how much light your plant wants at any given stage and adjust accordingly.



Some of these charts are more advanced and you may not need them but look them over to give you an idea of what does what and how. Whatever you don't understand just ask.

 

[Rootsruler]

I've found that not domeing them tends cull the weaklings and hardens them off faster. I have a mother tent so I have the luxury of running 40 clips and choosing the 6 hardiest to run in the 5 x 5. I can lose a few and not have to worry. Survival of the fittest.

 

[Bluey]

That bittom nute pH chart that shows PK not available to the plant at pH 6 to 6.5 is not quite right. This is where we pH for flower in coco and when we go into flower PK are the main nutes required. Also last time I checked Boron locked out on the high pH side in coco medium but that chart is not showing that. Something appears wrong here.

Anyone agree or disagree?

 

[Rootsruler]

Could be. It's been a while since I've run hydro.

 

[Stevieje]

Ok, I'm keeping soil moist. Media is coco coir w/perlite w/vermiculite added. I started in a 5 gal. Fabric grow bag after germination. 2×2×64 complete setup. vs1000 light and my choice of nutrients are flora trio with Cali mag. I don't know what you mean by lung room so the tent is in my computer room. I did purchase a small dehumidifier and did exactly the opposite of what you said not to do. I put it inside the tent. My light is approximately a ft from the top of my pots and it's on full blast. My temp is 73 and humidity is 65. I do not have a light meter.

 

[Rootsruler]

Lung room is the room your tent is in. The air in the lung room will be the air that is pulled into your tent by your exhaust fan through the vent flaps so your computer room is your lung room. If you have Central Air in the house then you can control the temperature in your computer room to offset the heat that your lights will be putting out and control your environmentals.

Next time plant your sprouts in a solo cup or comparable size container and let them get their roots set in the medium. I go from sprout or clone to solo to gallon pot to 5 or 7 gallon cloth pot depending on the plant count in the tent.

Do you have pH and PPM/EC meters to be able to measure your nutrients? Don't buy the cheap Amazon/Ebay meters. Buy a quality meter like BlueLab or Aptera. BlueLab sells a Growers Toolbox that has both meters and will last a long time as long as you take care of them. 1/4 strength nutes until they establish a few nodes. Coco tends to go acidic so keep an eye on your soil pH levels by testing your runoff when you water.

Next time, add some mycorrhizae into the soil to get your rhizosphere fungal network going. The first couple weeks after transplant I also water in some Voodoo Juice from AN to introduce more varieties of beneficial fungi.

Turn down your light 50% or raise the light to 24". You're going to fry your babies. I suggest you download a free light meter. Tent Buddy is what I use. It'll be the only way to know for sure how many photons are hitting your plants.

If your temp is 73 degrees then leave the dehumidifier in the tent to warm it up. You want to adjust air temps to be able to attain 75* to 77* leaf temperature but that is for later when you actually have leaves!! For now I would try and raise the temp a little higher and monitor your sprouts. I use an IR gun to measure leaf temperature that you can buy cheap at Harbour Freight or on Amazon.