What light distance and height

[Beil]

Good news guys, at 2 days and 16 hours I’ve checked and the seed has broken through the surface, however it has the seed stuck on it . This is the Grandaddy purple auto I got from my first seed order, I didn’t bother with the various germination methods like paper towel and I just planted it directly in the soil. (The cbd seed that was a dud I’ve got another one going but Im doing the paper towel method this time as an experiment with that)

Do I remove the humidity dome now or no?

Re. Humidity dome... I've lost a whole years worth of seeds from damping off from over watering.. which a humidity dome would have have exacerbated and they didnt have one... basically, you may or may not need it depending on the climate where they are.... its very easy to over water in a stagnant air flow area as I found...

I know this isn't much help, but that first week was my downfall for about half a dozen plus seeds :/... and no one's advice (as they couldn't realistically see where or what i had going on with heat or air, they would have seen the substrate but at times i thought i had it not 'too' damp anyways ) would help.

If its warm where they are, keep in mind how damp the substrate is... if its dry, keep it in mind still...

*this is not expert advice in any way, shape or form... just a novice who noticed something when he killed a few seedlings*

 

[Desolate_Place]

Re. Humidity dome... I've lost a whole years worth of seeds from damping off from over watering.. which a humidity dome would have have exacerbated and they didnt have one... basically, you may or may not need it depending on the climate where they are.... its very easy to over water in a stagnant air flow area as I found...

I know this isn't much help, but that first week was my downfall for about half a dozen plus seeds :/... and no one's advice (as they couldn't realistically see where or what i had going on with heat or air, they would have seen the substrate but at times i thought i had it not 'too' damp anyways ) would help.

If its warm where they are, keep in mind how damp the substrate is... if its dry, keep it in mind still...

*this is not expert advice in any way, shape or form... just a novice who noticed something when he killed a few seedlings*

Hey I appreciate your comment, so I removed the dome yesterday and here’s it as I’m writing this, it’s day 5 now

I’m growing it in Adelaide in my cupboard grow tent. So what would you say is the best way to water them? Should I wait for the substrate to completely dry out before watering? What’s your thoughts?

 

[Beil]

You've got your seeds in bigger pots, not solo cups like i did which is probably better for damping off (I think).

As an educated guess I'd say there is more room for excess water to dissipate out away from the seedling, so that's good..
I'd say wait to see at least the top of the substrate dry out and then water, minimally after a day or so if they aren't in stupid hot temps.... this is where one needs to gauge our environment... I was in my house, it wasn't stupid hot like in a shed etc.

I was originally adding water to the solo cup almost every few days and it's wasn't drying out... at all... this was my downfall.
They were on a sheltered windowsill in the kitchen, not really much light (verandah ), lower substrate than the edge of the cup so it was like a little pool of humidity right where the stem was, still air and too much bloody water in the solution cup

Last lot of seeds I only moistened the substrate and then left them almost a week once they popped without watering and they were fine for once (I germinate in paper towel to see viability instead of waiting to see if they're duds and then pop in the cups when they have a tail).


As mentioned, I killed heaps of seeds whilst germinating, so I shouldn't really be giving 'advice'....

 

[Desolate_Place]

Are these any good to know when to water?

 

[itchybro]

probably need to find out how it works cause on the pics of the phone app it shows " Moisture 20 - 60% " that seems to be quite a range window , I've used the blumat moisture meter which can be pushed into the soil a little deeper by the looks of the holman one but that could just be the pic looking a little deceiving size wise , the blumat gives you a single measurement in millibars , lower the number the wetter the soil , v a v , high number the drier the soil

blumat is a little more pricey though
https://easyasorganics.com.au/produ...ewueXja3rm0ttgR3t4-nVBrAPf8RCUsFK3ZXyXkIamZ6K

 

[VinDeezle]

Mate, try not to overthink everything. Just keep them moist and don't overdo the light. I don't control environment at all and never have, you are already inside which is pretty much as stable as you can get. There's no need to stress. Just water when you've lost roughly 10-15% of the pots volume. This whole "overwatering" thing is blown out of proportion too as these mediums hold more than 25% air even when saturated. I leave seedlings sitting in water every day and have never had any issues with em.

I just popped seedlings in 36c plus heat and 15% humidity. No issues. Have popped them in 15c and 80% humidity, no issues. It's really not as deep as everyone wants to make it out. If you are comfortable, the plant will be.


They grow in the wild amongst storms, humidity, wind, pests. They really don't need all the fuss. Have dropped seeds in the past and Ive had em germinate in cracks of cement in 35c weather.

 

[VinDeezle]

There's nothing better than learning to read the plant. Every strain and pheno is different. My parameters and methods are so far from what literature says is acceptable, yet my plants are always super happy so try not to obsess with arbitrary numbers, they don't always correlate with a happy plant.

If these plants were as picky as us indoor growers make em out to be, weed would have been eradicated from the plant pool pretty quickly, but the reality is that they are very resilient plants and pretty fuss free.

 

[John]

probably need to find out how it works cause on the pics of the phone app it shows " Moisture 20 - 60% " that seems to be quite a range window , I've used the blumat moisture meter which can be pushed into the soil a little deeper by the looks of the holman one but that could just be the pic looking a little deceiving size wise , the blumat gives you a single measurement in millibars , lower the number the wetter the soil , v a v , high number the drier the soil

blumat is a little more pricey though
https://easyasorganics.com.au/produ...ewueXja3rm0ttgR3t4-nVBrAPf8RCUsFK3ZXyXkIamZ6K

I was gonna post a thread asking folks about moisture meters - trying to reduce the guesswork i.e. stick ya finger in the pot and think hmmm, oh yeah that feels like 10-15% dry back LOL.
Interested to know if the moisture meters are doing the trick for ya in that regard

 

[benn0]

Water once a week for the first few weeks, then up to twice a week for 2 weeks then judge from there

 

[Desolate_Place]

I was gonna post a thread asking folks about moisture meters - trying to reduce the guesswork i.e. stick ya finger in the pot and think hmmm, oh yeah that feels like 10-15% dry back LOL.
Interested to know if the moisture meters are doing the trick for ya in that regard

I haven’t used it yet I’ve just been using my finger, in the 7 days of growing the plant I’ve probs done 3 light waterings as in using a mist sprayer maybe like 50-100ml max. I than let it dry out and do the finger test before I think when next water is coming. When I water I do a ring around the stem say 2 inches from it to encourage the roots to stretch

 

[Desolate_Place]

Day 7

 

[itchybro]

I was gonna post a thread asking folks about moisture meters - trying to reduce the guesswork i.e. stick ya finger in the pot and think hmmm, oh yeah that feels like 10-15% dry back LOL.
Interested to know if the moisture meters are doing the trick for ya in that regard

yep that meter works well , wait for the meter to reach a number you prefer then water , generally between 80 & 100 millibars
which could be a lower number possibly ( in this case lower means wetter ) , keep in mind when you water from the bottom the soil can get a little wetter because wicking doesn't displace air & move aggregates around as a larger amount of water all at once moving through the top soil can do

the other option is to set up a blumat system then you only need to make sure the rez is kept full

 

[VinDeezle]

I was gonna post a thread asking folks about moisture meters - trying to reduce the guesswork i.e. stick ya finger in the pot and think hmmm, oh yeah that feels like 10-15% dry back LOL.
Interested to know if the moisture meters are doing the trick for ya in that regard

There's no real need for meters, it's a pretty simple concept with only a bit elementary math needed.

A pot will hold roughly 25% air, 25% water and 50% medium when saturated. So a 10L pot will hold 2.5L air, 2.5L water and 5L organic content.

Scenario. I have a 10L pot and a 3week plant. I water on Monday to saturation and on Wednesday it takes 1L to saturate again which is 10% of the pots total volume (right in the sweet spot). Fast forward a week, plants bigger and requiring 1.5L to saturate now every second day which is 15% of the pots total volume. That's when you move to daily watering. More than 10-15% of the pots total volume in dryback is volatile to buffer, microbes and salinity (it equates to 40-60% of the pots moisture content). That means the pots EC has roughly doubled as the pot dried back.

I start in 1.5L pots, so if I have to put more than 150-200ml in every day, it's time to either water twice a day or pot up. I always choose potting up as once a day is already bad enough. That means I'm pretty much watering daily from the get-go due to evaporation. Once you get to a 10L pot you've got a 1-1.5L buffer before needing to water again, and In a 30L pot that buffer becomes 3-4.5L.

 

[VinDeezle]

If the ratios confuse people.

A pot of medium at satiration is roughly
25% air
25% water
50% medium

10-15% of the pots TOTAL volume required to saturate in a single watering is equal to 40-60% of the pots water content if that makes sense.

That's why the age old red solo cup and shot glass of water works so well to keep a steady environment over the first two weeks. A shot glass is roughly 10% of the cups volume.