At what point do you start "aging" seedling life?
- Thread starter Durkee13
- Start date
Attikus112
Well-Known Member
i generally start counting from the day i transfer my germinated seeds from paper towels to medium (this is normally the day the tap root emerges) but that's mainly out of convenience as my growth chamber keeps count of the elapsed days for me. I don't think there's a right or wrong answer though. The quoted days on strain descriptions don't seem to be all that accurate or meaningful so counting days is really only useful for taking notes. As long as I do it consistently then i'll know how long it took the next time around. I guess with that being said, i would assume most people count from the day the seedling emerges.
AmmonKirby
Member
once photosynthesis can start your into seedling stage,
cotyledons can photosynthesis (once green), for me i count first day with no seedhull
cotyledons can photosynthesis (once green), for me i count first day with no seedhull
Yes, that's basically what I do. I just seen a post somewhere with pics of a plant a guy was growing claiming it was 2 weeks old, and based on my "aging" process (when plant breaks soil surface) his plants looked like 3-4 days old! So immediately I was confused!
Thanks for clearing that up!
Attikus112
Well-Known Member
I could see that being confusing but it only seems significant when your at a stage where days matter. Day 2 vs 9 makes a difference but 30 vs 37 probably doesn't.
LinguaPeel
Well-Known Member
What purpose does counting serve? You flip when you need to flip.
I dont know what "flipping" is, i like to count for various reasons, main one is, I just got started in this, so i obviously need a reference as to when to start nutes, when to top, hell, when to start flower stage, etc. Im very analytical in things I do...so i plan to learn to grow in the same way. Once I take general and basic imput from others, read a few articles here and there and bring a seed all the way to harvest, organically that is, then I will have a fundamental basis and understanding of what the hell im doing and what is going on both inside as well as outside the plant im growing. And if the bud is good, taste good and is moderately potent, only then will I start trying nutes, flushing, fine trimming, LST and HST and all the other cool custom shit you can do with growing this fine plant.
And that all starts with "counting"!
Gentlemencorpse
Well-Known Member
I dont know what "flipping" is, i like to count for various reasons, main one is, I just got started in this, so i obviously need a reference as to when to start nutes, when to top, hell, when to start flower stage, etc. Im very analytical in things I do...so i plan to learn to grow in the same way. Once I take general and basic imput from others, read a few articles here and there and bring a seed all the way to harvest, organically that is, then I will have a fundamental basis and understanding of what the hell im doing and what is going on both inside as well as outside the plant im growing. And if the bud is good, taste good and is moderately potent, only then will I start trying nutes, flushing, fine trimming, LST and HST and all the other cool custom shit you can do with growing this fine plant.
And that all starts with "counting"!
So I'm often similar in that I like to be analytical about things, but when it comes to growing that's often not the best method because plants don't give a crap about analytics.
The underground nature of growing cannabis means that there is no formalized meaning for many things, such as aging a plant in days. I personally count from the day it first opens it's cotyledon leaves for overall life span, and from the day I flip for flowering time, but that's just for personal reference. It's meaningless in the grand scheme of things. Flip by the way is the day you change to a 12/12 light cycle to induce flowering in photoperiod plants.
So my advice is track the age of your plant however you want, just be consistent from grow to grow, and understand that it's unreliable to go off other growers timelines without confirming how they count.
Also, it's important to learn the plants growth cycles and understand they don't go by days, they follow genetic triggers. You don't switch to flowering when the plant is X days old, you switch when the plant is about half your target size because most plants stretch by at least 50%. Likewise, you don't harvest at day Y, you harvest when the plant is ready, when the hairs have changed and drawn in or the trichs have changed to the appropriate mix of cloudy and amber.
Edit: forgot to mention nutes. You don't feed based off the age of the plant, you feed when it needs food. That will vary based off your medium, the strain, and the nutes you use
Thats one hell of a productive bit of advice...thats what im talkin about!
"Flip by the way is the day you change to a 12/12 light cycle to induce flowering in photoperiod plants."
Thank you for that update!
"... learn the plants growth cycles">>that's hitting the nail on the head for me. I figure Id grow organically, see what a "normal" Cannabis plant looks like throughout those cycles. As a reference to what improvement looks like and be able to measure how much improvement based on straight organic. Its just fun for me man, it really is....so far anyway