Oni's 2nd grow. Lessons learned

[anon86068642]

I haven’t been in there in about 4 hours and since I last checked it’s sprouted and seems healthy to me. One of the leaves are bigger than the other, but otherwise looks very healthy. I do see a purple stem, but IDK if it’s normal and if I see it purple out as soon as it can I’ll be happy LoL.
The day I sowed the seed I had watered with 1g megacrop and a tablespoon of black strap molasses. No water since then. I did a lift test today and it still needs time before I water again.

I’m still waiting on making the box later once I can grab it. I’m currently saving my money for my license.

Thank you for the auto seeds @ReikoX
While I’m stuck small scale I’ll need a quick grow to keep me on my toes.

[cannabissequoia]

@OniTenshu

I did a lift test today and it still needs time before I water again.

It may take up to a week to need any with that little seedling, IME. but you can spike your LITFA & give micro amounts to the seedling if the top dries faster than the remainder. Your’re also safe to transplant into a smaller quicker drying pot/cup if that’s what you’re after. Get air to the bottom of the pot by raising it of it’s saucer or floor/whatever.

[anon86068642]

It seems to drain better than most pots I’ve used over the years tbh. If I add 20oz of water to the pot it flows into the saucer. I don’t have my fabric pots yet, but next seed I sprout I’m using the nursery bags I’ll be ordering. A lot stuff happened this last couple weeks to make it annoying to order anything. I’ll get that solved soon if it kills me.

[anon86068642]

I also have some liquid nutrients, pH up and down, and a pH pen

On another note right before bed last night I checked the spot where the auto sprouted today and it has a layer of mycorrhizae popping out.
At least it’s good to know my microbe health in there is doing well. Also I didn’t have to add any myco either.

[anon86068642]

I had to water again as the soil was coming off the sides of the pot. Nothing interesting today.
I tested the runoff and I’m looking at 6-6.5 pH. My pen says 6.5-6.8 and the chemical test says 6-6.5.
I mixed in a mix of 2g megacrop, 1/2 teaspoon(2.12g) grow big, 1 tablespoon(14g) of big bloom, 18g black strap molasses, and 30g raw sugar to 2 gallons of water. I watered using 30oz of water only. Half became runoff. I neglected to test it before I added it to the soil, but I will from now on to 6.8.

No sign of issues, but I made sure to keep the concentration of nutrients down.

[anon86068642]

I cranked the heat to 75 yesterday as it was getting a bit chilly in the grow room. Now it’s regulating heat better in there properly feeling warm when I’m in there even with the heat off all night as a test. It’s 57-60 everywhere else in the house, but a nice comfortable 70f in the grow room.

Still no change in growth. I’m chocking that down to it being cold in there for too long.

[anon86068642]

My suspicion seems to have been correct. Once I got it warmer I see stronger growth and the oregano just popped up too while I was checking the topsoil. I see springtails popping up this time instead of fungus gnats.
I’ll have to find out if these particular ones are a pest or beneficial. They were in the last grow too, but I never saw them doing anything bad. Just enjoying the soil until they hop around. I saw some in the fly traps, but past a very short flight they don’t appear to be easily able to fly.

Tldr: springtails are very common rn with the gnats not around anymore. Gnats visit from outside, but I kill them or they won’t land on my soil. They’ll hover and fly away.

On a note about the seedling it’s growing the 2nd set of true leaves now. It started this morning, but I wasn’t sure if it was the 1st set growing more or not. Not it’s noticable that it’s a separate set of leaves. That one leaf being longer than the other is bothering me. I feel like death the kid and his obsession with symmetry rn​:joy:

Edit: I mistook something else for springtails. They almost resemble a mosquito 2 fungus gnats in length with a earwigs tail end and wings as long as it’s entire body length head and all.

I’m struggling to find them in a pest database. I’ll try and get pics if I find any more. I’ve been killing them on sight.

[anon86068642]

It might be a mayfly. That’s the closest I can find to what I saw. It was all black and the wing shape was skinnier than what I see for mayfly pics. Closer to a gnat or mosquito wings.

[anon86068642]

Time for some pics I guess I don’t think I’ve bothered, but with everything I planted popping up and a little fungi patch that decided to use the UV light side that was dry and I gave it a mini mulch pile on top and now it’s spreading Mico around the area. I gave the pot about 30ml water 1ml at a time until the soil was properly covered on the very top layer as it’s been a little while since I watered and all the seedlings at once ime like a decent amount of nutrients. Not too much as seedlings, but slightly higher than the soil baseline seems to be best.

I just added the water before the pictures, so it’s more moist than it is as I type this. Drainage is really good, but the soil has a small water retaining nature I’d like to be less.

[anon86068642]

It’s taking some time to dry out fully, but the cilantro is popping up all over the pot now. Just 1 oregano popped up and no garlic chive to my knowledge has germinated, but I think the pot is full now anyways. Once they establish the soil will dry faster. I did a lift test and it’s halfway dry now.

The 2nd true leaves are big enough to take a pic of them now, but took 3 days to get here.

[anon86068642]

I tested my runoff at a neutral 7 exactly, so I watered with a gallon of 6 pH water after to drop the runoff pH down to 6.5-6.8. As a bonus the soil is now evenly hydrated and doesn’t look hydrophobic still. I let all the runoff drain until it stopped and put everything back in place.

I’ll keep an eye on it, but so far I’m already seeing a color improvement in the seedlings that were showing purple base stems now turning a shade of green. A few cilantro seedlings appear to be yellowing, but the rest of the plants are doing well in response.

The weight of the pot is actually lower than it was before I watered today.

If I screwed up with this can someone tell me? I’m trying to get the soil pH towards the ideal range for nutrient uptake.
I know that 6.3 pH water seems to be the ideal for everything, but is soil pH different?

[anon86068642]

I don’t see a single issue from this at all. In fact I see the new growth in the picture noticably bigger than the picture I took now. I’ll give it a bit longer before I take another pic if it’ll continue this pace

[99PerCent]

@OniTenshu

but is soil pH different?

Yes. In soil the are more able to absorb what they need at around 6.7 or 6.8.

Also, the measure of the run off is interesting information as it eventually will tell you what the plant is discharging, but the actual soil reading and then the in-going water, etc. is a critical number. If you are driving this soil down toward 6.3, you will probably hurt the plants by locking out nutrients from the other side.

[anon86068642]

I just compared pics and it’s not bigger. It’s just more noticable now.

The soil looks much better without moist spots and dry spots. It’s actually drying now. IDK why it would feel lighter when it was just watered, but I’m just glad the moisture is more even now across the soil.

I have noticed the soil regulates itself around 6.8-7 pH. It was at 6.5-6.8 last week, so I’ll just let the bacteria do their thing again.
This let me quantify how much water is too much and past 20oz it’ll change the pH of the runoff down a point. So far the runoff would climb to 6.8 even if I left it alone though. My tap water is at 7 today, so worst case scenario I could flush it again. I’d rather just follow helpful advice from here. I mostly flushed all that water to get the soil back to proper hydration and the rest was thought about after. Something I had remembered from last grow was after it became hydrophobic it had to be drenched to come back to normal. Somehow it makes it lighter too. Idk why.

[anon86068642]

Should I pH my water to 6.7-6.8? If that’s the ideal range, then wouldn’t the water going in be better if it’s unchanged?

[99PerCent]

Firstly, what does the soil read currently? This will tell us what we might do next.

Also, if you have saturated the soil, best let it drain for a day, the sprouts look like they will be OK for another day or so.

Test it a couple of times over the next day or so. I expect it might drift upward over time, but if you have achieved 6.3, the plants will begin to starve as soon as the cotyleydon are finished.

Let’s start with where we are and see what we need to do.

[anon86068642]

I will thank you! Sorry about that. I should rephrase the title as I meant that as a combination of things I’ve learned and yet to.
I don’t see anything wrong yet, but if it does happen I really have to practice litfa most after a holiday

[99PerCent]

Post the soil pH when you get the chance.

[anon86068642]

I will. I’ll take a sample. How do I test the soil pH specifically? My pH pen is for liquids only and the chemical test is too.

[99PerCent]

If the soil is saturated, take a small amount in your hand, squeeze a sufficient amount out to test.
Lemme see a pic of that pen too.