The future is slow in coming

[wygram]

I'm going to first ask a question and then eventually when I have more time write up the set-up. I started these mothers-to-be in soil, but after reading about the benefits of coco I can't help but have a desire to transplant them from the soil medium into coco. The growth benefits and the apparent easy all seem like positives. Will the stress of having their roots exposed, at least partially, when the soil is removed (by dunking in water) have a drastic negative impact? Some slowdown is expected and acceptable when doing something so stressful, but it can't set them back too much can it?

I almost know my own answer, the temptation is just very strong.

Day 1 - Oct 30 (about 5 days from seed)

 

[DirtDoctor]

you know the answer leave those little girls alone!


you can try coco next time, or with the cuttings you eventually take off those moms

 

[EddieShoestring]

but it can't set them back too much can it?

in a word-No
you may want to let them grow a little and become a bit more established but then it will be fine. Coco is a fantastic medium for rooting-one of the things that really turned me on to it was the fact that plants rarely show signs of shock, or even slowed growth, after transplant.
Coincidentally i've just done the same thing this morning


two of the three plants in the bowl were rooted in those 1inch spongy peat cubes-then grown on in Biobizz Allmix. The roots were showing at the bottom of the pots. I let them bob about a bit in the bowl trying to get most of the dirt off-then dumped them into 6"pots with 1/3pearlite and 2/3Biobizz Coco.
The other plant is in pearlite-that came out and has gone in the coco mix too.


cheers
eddie

 

[wygram]

Thanks for making me think clearly! It's just that after reading all the good things that people here have say about coco as a medium I can't wait to see it at work.

I'm going to turn this into my own diary. Every other time I forgot what day things were at so it might be nice to know this time. It doesn't really matter though, since trichs tell the whole story.

The Setup:
The genetics of the seeds are all over the place. Two bag seeds. One MMM#2 freebie and one Nirvana Papaya or Master Kush. It's harder this way to know which one I should expect to be heavy or light eaters, but that can all be sorted out during the first run.

400 watt Ceramic Metal Halide (CMH) - for now it's an upgraded HPS, at least according to HTGSupply. I highly recommend them for anything you need, answered my questions and shipped very quickly.
http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=61699&highlight=cmh
After reading the above thread and some others, I am sold on the benefits of the CMH even for flowering.

Under this I'm thinking about putting 6 clones. Is this number too small for a 400? I figure they will just get nice and fat with the light not being spread too thin. These will be flowered in Cocogro Boss 8" bags. These results sold me on the pre-filled coco bags. I haven't decided yet on what to veg them in. It seems to me that starting clones in small 1.5" cubes of rockwool and then straight to the coco when roots pop out is the best method. One week (under CFLs) in the cube to show roots and another week (CMH) of veg to get settled in the coco bag, then hit the lights. However I have wondered if I should get bigger 3" rockwool cubes or the "massive" 4" cocotek cubes to veg in. Both seem a little too big for a week of root starting. Please comment on these ideas.

I already fed the soil seedlings once with an EC 0.5 solution at about 6.5 pH (mostly BioBizz Root Juice and some Alg-a-mic and Bio-Grow) and they haven't shown signs of not liking it. This is the most important thing you should read. I know I didn't exactly adhere to not fertilizing seedlings that are less than 10-14 days, but they seem happy about it. I have nearly the full line of BioBizz nutrients: RootJuice, Grow, Alg-a-mic, Bloom and TopMax, I haven't seen enough reviews of BioHeaven to warrant dropping that much cash on it. These all go into a mix of tap water and Brita filtered tap, which gives me an EC ~0.35 (the city report says pH 7.6). The nutes themselves lower the pH to 6.5 which is fine for soil, but later when I make the jump to coco I have some Technaflora pH down. Nitric acid seems like the best thing to get as the water is "moderately hard," 113 ppm of calcium.

I anyone has something to add, please do so.

 

[EddieShoestring]

Hi

It seems to me that starting clones in small 1.5" cubes of rockwool and then straight to the coco when roots pop out is the best method

yes

if its your first run with coco then it would be best to get a coco specific nute-i've wondered about using BioGrow/Bloom on coco-i'm guessing it would be ok but best to keep things as straightfoward as poss with a new medium. I've not tried Alg-a-mic but RootJuice works extremely well with coir.

cheers for the link to MandalaMikes nute thread-i've read a bit of it-it seems sound for the most part, particularly for soil grows. The handwatering sticky in this section is worth a read

here are those transplanted cuts 36H after going into the coco

eddie

 

[wygram]

Day 28









Explanation for this one can be found here.