Howard's Hunt for Headstash

[Howard.Crane]

Welcome! I’m happy to have so many peeps showing up, does my heart (and ego) good

I make sure my coco is well rinsed after a couple of very bad experiences with trusting a good brand (Canna) and convincing myself I didn’t have to to that every time. I got away with not rinsing it every time, until the time I didn’t.

One time I didn’t rinse my coco, I lost every seedling of a strain that is very near and dear to me and cannot be replaced. Lucky for me I still had two seeds in reserve, and they turned out to be a male and a female, and I was able to make F2 seeds to hunt through.

I charge my coco with full strength nutes, which for me is Jack’s 3-2-1 these days, but in the past was pretty much any decent nutes that had proper Magnesium levels.

Other than that, I just baby them until they’re ready for transplant and make sure they’re not over watered (until I get impatient, lol).

I never, ever, let coco dry out fully. I will wait to water young seedlings until the cup/container is lighter, but absolutely never wait until it’s dry. I would rather water it until 100% runoff than have it dry out.

I’ll try to be better at documenting this stuff. It would probably help me improve, instead of winging it all the time, haha.

[MidwestMover]

@Howard.Crane

full strength nutes,

Do you know the ppm or EC
EC.

@Howard.Crane

baby them until they’re ready for transplant a

Same ppm or EC

@Howard.Crane

ast time I didn’t rinse my coco, I lost every seedling

Thanks for that. I wasn’t gonna rinse it but I’ll take the extra time to do so.

Thanks!

[Howard.Crane]

Ha. I was trying not to specify the EC because I’m nervous that what works for me will not work for someone else, and I’d hate for someone to fry their plants because their humidity or water source or temps or something else I didn’t think of is different, and had some effect I hadn’t considered , and I’d never do this in any medium but coco, but…

What I do, and again this is just me and there’s probably seventeen very good reasons everyone else doesn’t do this, is feed plants at 1.4 EC from literally day one.

I don’t know why this works for me and nobody else does it, but I will take just-popped seeds from the paper towel and water them in at that strength. The Orange Goji in the first post have never gotten anything less than that from the day I put them in coco until yesterday.

If I ever saw a serious issue developing I would immediately flush the containers with a weaker solution and reevaluate my thinking and reconsider the life choices that brought me to this unfortunate point, but with a very small number of exceptions (like Haze and other picky ass sativa strains, and anything with Blueberry in it) that’s my general approach.

I spend a whole lot of time communing with my plants, so hopefully if it starts going sideways I can notice before it progresses too much. And if a strain is known to be sensitive I would probably start at half strength and increase gradually.

I’m nervous even writing that. I’m sure some people are going to be shaking their heads when reading it, lol.

YMMV, TANSTAAFL, etc.

IMO, you can’t go wrong starting at half strength and increasing as the plants show you they’re able to take it.

[Heritagefarms]

I actualy find that using a light nutrient mix can benefit older seeds when sprouting depending on the strength or weakness of your planting medium. I like to start seeds in rapid rooters that are soaked with a nice light organic liquid fertilizer. Coco perlite and worm castings are another great starting medium when mixed in even proportions.

[Howard.Crane]

I agree. Can’t say enough good stuff about worm castings, either. I don’t use them anymore because I’m not growing in soil, but when I was growing organic in soil I also had my own worm bins for making a steady supply. Really good stuff, and really helps get seeds off on the right foot.

[Howard.Crane]

The cups were feeling pretty light this morning right when the lights turned on, so they got bottom-fed. I last watered them night before last, so they’re noticeably starting to drink more. I could probably get away with doing it every day now, but I’m gonna wait a bit longer.

As soon as I see that they have enough roots to hold together during transplant I will be moving them into their final containers. I don’t want them too root bound in the cups, but I also want to be able to transplant them as “plugs” that just go into a ready-made hole in the new containers.

(Note: my TDS meter uses the .500 scale, so EC = 1.478 right now, probably because I left the lid off of the rez for a couple days and had some evaporation)

I should set up a wicking system for seedlings… Might work on that before I start the next batch

[beacher]

They look great, looking forward to seeing you run this strain it’s become legendary around here. I’ve got some seeds of it I’ll probably be starting in the new year.

Also I’m jealous of your cool multicolored Solo cups haha

[Meesh]

Have you used fabric pots before or just not the 1 gallon size? I love them but only as their final pot. It hurts me every time I’ve had to transplant from them and rip the roots outta the bottom. lol

[MichiGreen]

@Meesh

Have you used fabric pots before or just not the 1 gallon size? I love them but only as their final pot. It hurts me every time I’ve had to transplant from them and rip the roots outta the bottom. lol

I agree… love fabric pots, but only use as the final pot since they’re difficult to transplant from…
less trauma on the plant to use a plastic pot until the final transplant…

[Howard.Crane]

@Meesh

Have you used fabric pots before or just not the 1 gallon size? I love them but only as their final pot. It hurts me every time I’ve had to transplant from them and rip the roots outta the bottom. lol

Until now I’ve only used the 1gal size once, and I had a pretty good experience. Previously I have used the two and three gallon sizes for a few years now.

I’ve never tried transplanting out of one, but pulling the root ball out after the plant is chopped is difficult enough to know that I never want to even try. Lately I’ve been using a butter knife to go around the inside of the fabric to cut all of the roots first, and it’s still a pain in the rear

[Howard.Crane]

@MichiGreen

@Meesh

Have you used fabric pots before or just not the 1 gallon size? I love them but only as their final pot. It hurts me every time I’ve had to transplant from them and rip the roots outta the bottom. lol

I agree… love fabric pots, but only use as the final pot since they’re difficult to transplant from…
less trauma on the plant to use a plastic pot until the final transplant…

I totally agree. I recently saw a fabric pot that’s made with a Velcro strip down the side that’s supposed to make transplanting easier, but it seems to me that it would just minimize root trauma rather than eliminate it.

Once a plant goes into a fabric pot, it’s there until chop as far as I’m concerned.

[Foreigner]

@Meesh

I love them but only as their final pot.

Agreed. I also find it difficult to get the rootball out because it never ends up quite even.

[Howard.Crane]

Some of the leaves on these are a trip. I see this kind of stuff every so often and they always grow out of it, but it’s still interesting to me.

[Meesh]

I do love them cuz they prune themselves and never get salt buildup, but before I knew better I had to do a few transplants from them and I had to cut them down the sides and peel them, even then I still had to tear the roots out of the bottom. It actually traumatized me more than the plants though.

[GramTorino]

Couldn’t help but notice your coco solo noodle grow.
(Never heard of the strain before, need to read up.)
Hope all goes well, I’ll be watchin.

[Howard.Crane]

The seedlings are getting large quickly, and have roots poking out of the drain holes in the cups, so it’s time to start getting ready ahead of time for transplant.

I’m getting the fabric pots prepped ahead of time, so that when I do the transplant I can just pull the cup out of one of the pots to leave a hole for the plant, remove a seedling from the cup its in, and put it right in the hole that’s waiting.

Then I water it in and LITFA for a few days while it gets used to the new digs.

I’m looking forward to it.

[Jetdro]

@Howard.Crane

The tailpiece serves two purposes: To drain the Perched Water Table from the main pot into a small volume of coco below the main pot, and to serve as a wick when needed (such as during the night cycle or in the event of pump failure).

Because of the tailpiece serving as a way to move the PWT to completely below the bottom of the pot, you can feed the plant as many times as you like without the main pot being overwatered. It actually works really well in practice (as those roots will testify), assuming that there is a sufficient “air gap” between the bottom of the pot and the surface of the reservoir to enable gravity to balance the capillary action of the medium.

Saturating the pot and then draining it well via the tail pipe displaces old air and draws in fresh air, and doesn’t leave the bottom roots sitting in that two inch high perched water table.

If it’s dialed in right, you will get maximum air- and water-holding ratios for your chosen medium.

I’m pretty high and exhausted, might be able to explain it better tomorrow.

Learn something new all the time, NEVER knew or heard of this, makes 100 % sense after reading your links about it.
Very interesting!!!

Different than my “zones” in the Octopot, thanks for posting that Howard, very good to know!

Confused on “tail piece”…better pic or disc??? I understand how it lowers the parched water level, but not sure of second part you mentioned??? Wicking, thought piece was a pvc tube??? Must have that wrong

[Howard.Crane]

It is a pvc tube, but it’s filled with the same media as the rest of the pot, so it has the same wicking properties as whatever you’re using (coco in my case).

The end of the tail pipe sits in the rez, so it can wick up some water when needed, but extends below the main pot in order to move the PWT below.

Battery is at 8%, hope that explanation is sufficient for now

[beacher]

I wonder how small you could make the tailpiece. Like would a length of 1" pipe work? I don’t see why not in principle, but who knows…

[vernal]

@Howard.Crane

Ha. I was trying not to specify the EC because I’m nervous that what works for me will not work for someone else, and I’d hate for someone to fry their plants because their humidity or water source or temps or something else I didn’t think of is different, and had some effect I hadn’t considered , and I’d never do this in any medium but coco, but…

What I do, and again this is just me and there’s probably seventeen very good reasons everyone else doesn’t do this, is feed plants at 1.4 EC from literally day one.

I don’t know why this works for me and nobody else does it, but I will take just-popped seeds from the paper towel and water them in at that strength. The Orange Goji in the first post have never gotten anything less than that from the day I put them in coco until yesterday.

If I ever saw a serious issue developing I would immediately flush the containers with a weaker solution and reevaluate my thinking and reconsider the life choices that brought me to this unfortunate point, but with a very small number of exceptions (like Haze and other picky ass sativa strains, and anything with Blueberry in it) that’s my general approach.

I spend a whole lot of time communing with my plants, so hopefully if it starts going sideways I can notice before it progresses too much. And if a strain is known to be sensitive I would probably start at half strength and increase gradually.

I’m nervous even writing that. I’m sure some people are going to be shaking their heads when reading it, lol.

YMMV, TANSTAAFL, etc.

IMO, you can’t go wrong starting at half strength and increasing as the plants show you they’re able to take it.

I give full strength veg nutrient solution from germination. Never been an issue.