You can bet that I’m watching this one with parental interest!
-Grouchy
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MW and MW.
All of the others have popped except one HF. One of the HF that did pop isn’t doing much, still hasn’t spread the cotys, fingers crossed for that one.
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Couple observations with the MegaCrop. First, smells like cotton
candy haha. Second, does not drop my ph like crazy, which the Maxibloom did. At the seedling rate of 2grams per gallon my ph dropped from 6.5 to 6.1, 5 drops of ph down dropped it to 5.8. Never had to use ph down before, had to go out and buy a quart, which will last me the rest of my life it seems. If I mix it at the veg rate(4grams per gallon) it comes out to 5.8 with no other ph adjustment, it’s a beautiful thing.
Plants look happy too, always a plus haha. The plants in the seed starter are lighter than the plants in coco, probably should have started feeding all of them right from the get go.
Had to put a little heater in there already. Was low 60’s at night, low 70’s day, now 72 is the low at night, 82 high during the day. Around 50%rh.
Will pop some pics up this evening.
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Hay @potpotpot you got the MC 1 part, right? Does it have a bunch of balls, or is it homogeneous? Just curious, I’ve got to order a bag soon, and I’m not sure if I want 2 part or one?
I tried weighing, but too much faffing for me! What ec are you getting on your mix?
I found full strength veg grub works well after a seedlings gets 3x sets of true leaves.
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Yeah, I grabbed the 1 part. Less moving parts the better haha. Two parts is more opportunity for “oh fuck, what’d I just add?” Haha. It is a grey powder with little balls mixed through. I forget what the EC change was off hand, but it was slightly higher than what the calculator on their website predicted(I’m actually using ppm so I can keep a bit closer eye on any changes I make). Not a surprise with the harbor freight scale I’m using haha. Yeah, I’ll just start rolling into increased feed, once they put a few leaves on.
Edit for spelling.
I hear ya. Sounds like they haven’t changed the 1 part from what I’ve got, so I can probably still figure it out!
ec seems so much easier to talk about. There’s only one scale. Are you using the .5 or .7 scale for ppms?
I love HF, cheap shit for cheap. A nickle weighs 5g 
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I’m using the .5 scale.
Their calculator wants a 277 ppm(.55 ec) increase over the base. I ended up with around 320 ppm rise(.65 ec). If my meter read to second decimal place for EC I would probably use continue to use it(that is what I had been using before this… most of the time anyway haha.), but it doesn’t and I like to see the small shifts right now while I’m figuring things out.
Harbor Freight is a deal with the devil haha. For some things I will cave and grab an el cheapo tool, but most of the time now I go slightly higher quality haha. It was easier to justify years ago when they were really cheap, now they’re approaching “real tool” prices, so I end up with Husky stuff. My rule of thumb for Harbor Freight is “If your life or your living depends on it, but it elsewhere.” haha. And since if I don’t need it to live or make a living I tend to go without, or ghetto fab something, I end up there less and less.
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I was gonna chuck the HF that hasn’t broken the soil yet, but I poked around in there, and the seed has definitely cracked, and it seems anchored pretty firmly, so I stopped touching and put the soil back. The waiting continues. The one good looking HF continues to… look good haha. The LBF are looking good too, I mean for plants with a couple leaves anyway.
The Mexican Widow and Maui Wowie are growing faster than the others, should have jumped in with both feet on the other beans and gone right into coco, instead of the coco based seedling mix. Live and learn haha.
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I like the holes in the sides of the solos, gonna start doing that, too.
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Yeah, normally when I have plants in solos I just snip the seam at the bottom in a few places. But the longer the plants are in there, and the more dense the rootball gets, the harder it is to water without over saturating them. I considered going to really small bags for seedlings. But I saw someone else here pepper their solos with holes, and decided to go that way instead. I did some on the HF and LBF cups too, but not as dramatically. It was Pigeonman who I copied, he used a normal round tip iron and really uniformly peppered the cups. I only had a big ass soldering gun handy that I was willing to wreck the tip on, so I just went in lines so I didn’t get fucking carpal tunnel haha. I’m gonna have to swing by the good will and look for a $1 soldering iron. I described them as being like air pots, but shittier haha. “Errrr, pots?” The other folks doing it are calling them speedholes, and they got there first so I guess they’re speed holes haha.
I’m excited to throw some pepper seeds in some come spring, hopefully I can keep them happier for longer in smaller pots this way, and start even more haha.
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Yeah, I always put drainage holes in the bottoms of my solos, but I’ve never thought about doing it on the sides like that. Makes sense, though. I don’t think I’d do quite that many haha, nor would I do it so uniformly, but it’s a good idea, anyway. I may even do the “side holes” thing on my little three-inch “starter” pots.
Probably just use a knife, though. I dunno about no soldering iron haha…
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Any time I’ve used a knife, or tried to poke holes the damn cup splits. I’ve had luck using a lighter to melt holes in them, but fuck it up and you’re holding a rapidly burning piece of styrene, probably in your house haha.
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Everybody still alive. Mixing up a batch of MC at 3 grams per gallon, which is between the seedling and veg dose, will offer to all but the little probably gonna die ones.
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Once my seedlings get 3 sets of true leaves, I get them on a regular veg feed. 1.3ec.
We call them “cain’t get rights” LOL!
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HF and LBF still with us.
The “can’t get rights” continue. But one has new growth, so I have to keep it haha.
The MW and MW.
Gonna drop 1 hour of light tonight. Unless I forget and do it tomorrow.
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Maybe it’s because they’re so deep down in those solos? I’ve seen tons of people do that, with the cups only filled like halfway or even a third of the way with soil, but I never understood why exactly they did it. How come you don’t just fill the cups up all the way?
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That’s a good question, idk really. In my mind it was to give them some protection from the fans, maybe help keep a bit of humidity around the young plants. Idk why though, because this is definitely not a dry time of year. Flashbacks to sad winter seedlings and overcompensating I guess. If you notice though, I cut down the other HF and LBF cups today right before I took those pics. So yeah, I’ll probably cut those down too haha.
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Yeah, right after I posted that, I thought,”Maybe it’s because it keeps humidity levels higher…” Like you could mist the inside of the cups and I’m sure the humidity levels would be higher than if they were growing at the top of the cups or whatever.
Still, I dunno. I figure just plant them haha. They’re either gonna grow or they’re not gonna grow.
Not criticizing at all haha, I was just wondering.
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Yeah, I hear you on that. Drop them and watch them go! Or not haha.
Another contributing factor, now that I’ve had time to mull it over, was space for the seed to pop without hitting the plastic wrap I had over the cups to keep them moist. When I popped the MWs, I found my seltzer bottle “humidity domes”, so I filled right up close to the top. Not that my seedlings ever stretch enough for that to matter haha.
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