Yea i had a feeling it may be too much. I just popped a seedling with a mix of %60 coco and %40 vermiculite. Hope that is a better starting mix as it is already planted. U can actually see it in the pictures. It has been maybe 2 1/2 days above ground so seems small but hopefully it picks up. I will have to look at trying to make a mox like u suggested.
now you went the complete opposite haha
yeah but in your coco mix you gotta feed with waterings after it shows its first set of true leaves so keep that in mind. other than that yeah wait for it to get light and saturate and wait for it to get light again.
i am a little confused. I thought cannabis seedlings do not need nutrients until approximately 2 weeks in? I did not think of adding castings and think that would have been a good idea. The one problem i have is mypromixhp is full of perlite and seems like it doesn’t drain well (smart pots) and it stays wet and compacts for some reason which i find really weird as people say it is so good. I always have problems with the plants in the promix but last grow used some %60 coco and %40 vermiculite and it grew like crazy and stayed fluffy the whole grow. When i watered the mix fluffed went back down and would fluff again next watering. With promix it drains slow pools at the top for a bit and compacts (but seemed to get better with vermiculite) and same with sunshine mix 4 and i have mo idea what i am doing wrong that would cause these issues. I an definitely not overwatering when i do those plants maybe it is the underwatering?
thats the difference between coco and peat and with vermiculite the actual properties of peat doesnt change but vermiculite soaks up the excess water probably and thats why it feels like its better but peat on its own holds high amounts of water so vermiculite is not needed perlite/pumice/scorcia would be better. as for not feeding the seedlings, ewc is a very gentle fertilizer and it’ll not burn when mixed in soil and it’ll provide a wide range of nutrients when plants need it. coco and perlite mix doesnt have any nutrients so you should feed after first true leaves which in fact takes between 1-2 weeks anyway so yeah it can go without nutes for a couple of weeks but after that you gotta feed. that was my point
than you guys very much for the quick response. I just want to clarify that when using peat moss it was promix hp which seems to have a lot of perlite but the soil compacted and caused issues due to not drying out. It would take 7 days to dry out but the top would get dry and crusty. I think it has something to do with my watering or maybe a bad bail but same thing with sunshine mix 4 so i think that would be unlikely. The compacting seemed to get worse when i added gaia green dry amendments to my next grows. When i top dressed it woukd not soak into the medium but float on top and create a rock hard crust. I used their premixed all purpose and power bloomthats the difference between coco and peat and with vermiculite the actual properties of peat doesnt change but vermiculite soaks up the excess water probably and thats why it feels like its better but peat on its own holds high amounts of water so vermiculite is not needed perlite/pumice/scorcia would be better. as for not feeding the seedlings, ewc is a very gentle fertilizer and it’ll not burn when mixed in soil and it’ll provide a wide range of nutrients when plants need it. coco and perlite mix doesnt have any nutrients so you should feed after first true leaves which in fact takes between 1-2 weeks anyway so yeah it can go without nutes for a couple of weeks but after that you gotta feed. that was my point
mulch my man mulching will prevent most of that crusty tops and when you top dress scratch it in work it in a little bit you can disturb the surface roots a bit its not a big deal it’ll grow back
that ones torched
could be much better but not the worst i’ve seen
yea. I think i may need some mulch. I feel like the top drying out quick is causing me problems.
in your opinion, what are some good mulch options for the OP and others interested?
you know whats available to you is fine right? pasteurized hay would be good if you have an active soil fauna with composters like worms or completely synthetic weed covers with pinhole sized holes would work well to. i’ve seen that in the lettuce growing thread. that guy was using it to cover his pure vermiculite trays he uses to germinate lettuce seeds. also there are coir discs but they’re usually a bit thin so 2 of them stacked together would be even better. also there are fabric disc similar to coir ones but havent used them before so cant comment on those.
