Doopie's Coco LED & CFL - Blue Mystic - 1st Time - Grow

[doopie]

So I'm growing for the first time. I was originally considering growing DWC, but as a beginner I opted in the end to try Coco (mixed with perlite).

I got 5 feminized Blue Mystic Seeds from Nirvana. I decided to grow 4 of them and germinate them in rockwool cubes.

Because I didnt have the PH equipment yet, I planted one seed in a tap water soaked cube. The others got planted 4 days later in PH 6 soaked rockwool cubes.

I first put them under a 62W CFL (6500K), which stopped working (gotta return it) and now Ive been using a 102W LED.

I'm growing in a closet, for which I still have to get the mylar reflectors...



I think I kept the rockwool cubes too moist, because that the seedling leafs are so curled up, what do you think?

This is from two days ago:

^The first one I planted (on 15/7/).

^the second biggest one

 

[doopie]

Re: doopie's Coco LED & CFL *Blue Mystic* -1st time- grow

So yesterday I transfered two of them with their rockwool cubes into coco, because their roots were already growing out of the other side of the cubes.

This is what they look like now:


This is the "first one" (the one that got planted 4 days earlier). I know she's very stretchy, I kept the light too far away in the beginning. The leafs are still curled up. Do you think she'll be fine though?

This is the other one that already had a root coming out, so she got transferred as well:

And here are the two other ones that are still in the propagator:

And one last photo to show how close the LED is to them. Too close/far?

(the fan on the left is temporary)

 

[doopie]

Re: doopie's Coco LED & CFL *Blue Mystic* -1st time- grow

Looked at some other grow journals of the same strain and it seems like they are growing very slowly.

Any thoughts?

 

[KingJohnC]

Re: doopie's Coco LED & CFL *Blue Mystic* -1st time- grow

subscribed. the rockwool was probably too wet for them, what are your temperatures like?

 

[doopie]

Re: doopie's Coco LED & CFL *Blue Mystic* -1st time- grow

Thanks!

I don't have a thermometer yet (ordered it online...). Do you think they might be too hot?

I tried a few times resting my hand at various spots and seeing if it was too hot, but it's just warm... I'd estimate between 75-80 F.

 

[KingJohnC]

Re: doopie's Coco LED & CFL *Blue Mystic* -1st time- grow

i think the humidity dome in your photograph is keeping things too humid for seeds, humidity should not be forming on the dome it needs adjustable vents.

 

[doopie]

Re: doopie's Coco LED & CFL *Blue Mystic* -1st time- grow

Okay,I just left the humidity dome a bit open now, so they can breath.

Here are another 2 photos of the oldest seedling. Doesn't look very healthy

Also the growth is very slow no?

 

[KingJohnC]

Re: doopie's Coco LED & CFL *Blue Mystic* -1st time- grow

its hard to judge the growth rate of a seedling, just watch the true leaves are growing.

 

[runewulfsong]

Re: doopie's Coco LED & CFL *Blue Mystic* -1st time- grow

What KingJohnC said... and yep, I'd say the rockwool was too wet as well... also, you asked about light distance in Kool's journal, here's the response I posted there:

doopie, depends on the LED... some will crisp your plants if too close, others have to be real close. I'll be starting up LED next month in the closet myself and running the HPS in the tent... Usually though, your LED should have recommended heights and coverage area... those are good places to start with... start at the high end on height and lower a couple inches daily until you're at the minimum height or until your plants leaves start bleaching out... if they start bleaching, move the light back up a bit. That's what I understand from watching all the LED grows, asking a million questions and doing research on LED growing of non-cannabis plants as well.

If you can post the LED specs or the brand/model it would help, but guessing from that pic that looks like the light is within 6 inches and the light *appears* to be a 3w chip based light, the light is probably way too close for seedlings... should be somewhere between 12 - 24 inches from what I've seen with most 3w LED based units. Decent LEDS are NOT like CFL/T5/Fluro... LED is directional, so the light doesn't fade out anywhere near as quickly... also, the light penetrate the canopy much, much better... So check the LED specs first, as I'm pretty sure except for the cheapie flat cardboard/plastic 12-14w units, you need more distance.

 

[doopie]

Re: doopie's Coco LED & CFL *Blue Mystic* -1st time- grow

Runewulfsong, thanks a lot! I think you're right. They did start getting bleached, so I moved it further up now.

I'll try to look for more specifications tomorrow.

Another question: as the 2nd set of leaves is sloooowly showing up, should I start giving nutes? Especially since it's coco that doesn't have any...

 

[runewulfsong]

Re: doopie's Coco LED & CFL *Blue Mystic* -1st time- grow

No nutes, not yet... you'll fry it, lol... just plain water PH'd to 5.8 - 6.3 range, give or take... I'd make sure there's a little calmag if you have it as that seems to be an issue with coco, but not always... everyone swears by adding a couple drops of superthrive when watering as well, I can't say as I don't have any yet, but I will be getting a bottle in the next month or 2.

As a general rule, no nutes until they're 21 - 35 days old or so (depends on strain)... you'll notice that the growth seems to be lightening and also, the juvenile cotaldyn leaves will wither and shrivel... that's when you start using nutes at low strength, about 1/4 unless you're following the guide here, which breaks it down for you based on certain brands. Some folks start 1/4 nutes after a couple weeks, but my girls crisped a bit at 4 weeks.

I didn't start feeding until they went into their hempys... just water with a little B1 vitamin disolved in each gallon. I probably should have started at about week 3 1/2 - 4 myself, but they've recovered well enough now and are doing well in their hempys. I did start feeding the seed to flower ones I did when they were put into flower while not quite done with the seedling stage... they didn't burn as I diluted the nutes the other flowering plants were getting, but it did slow the shedding of the cotaldyn leaves, the little xmas tree/pop sickle in my journal now still has the edges of it's cotaldyn leaves and it's half way through flower, lol.

Hope this helps, there are a lot of good folks around here and a few coco specific threads, BID has a couple and he's going crazy with his coco, basically doing coco based high brix mineralized organics, which is cool... he can definitely help you with coco issues, look him up, BigIrishDoode

 

[doopie]

Re: doopie's Coco LED & CFL *Blue Mystic* -1st time- grow

Hmm before Monday I won't have access to neither, not calmag nor Superthrive. Do you think they're essential?

The seedlings are still not really doing better and barely growing at all

I moved the LED 15-16 inch higher from the plants. Also, I equipped the cabinet with mylar. Holy moly did that make it brighter!

What can I do?

^Seedling 1 (the oldest one).
Looks kinda dead almost

The 2nd one, growing soooooo slow.

 

[runewulfsong]

Re: doopie's Coco LED & CFL *Blue Mystic* -1st time- grow

I would stop by BigIrishDoode's journal and Jon705's journal... BID is a coco guru and Jon has been using LED for quite some time... CalMag will be necessary long run, superthrive I can't say as I can't get any until next month, but a lot of long time growers swear by it, but essential, no... helpful, very.

Lift the pots and make sure they're not sitting in water that way any extra moisture can drain... and they're plants, sometimes they have amazingly fast, noticable changes, however generally it takes them a bit to show a lot of things... see how it looks after another day of not watering it...

but stay away from nutes right now, they're too small, they'll literally burn to death.

 

[doopie]

Re: doopie's Coco LED & CFL *Blue Mystic* -1st time- grow

I transplanted the 3rd and 4th to coco, because they had tiny roots showing at the bottom.

^Shortly before transplant

Considering they were planted 10 days ago and sprouted 6-7 days ago, they are very small no?


And finally what the setup looks like now:

 

[doopie]

Re: doopie's Coco LED & CFL *Blue Mystic* -1st time- grow

I would stop by BigIrishDoode's journal and Jon705's journal... BID is a coco guru and Jon has been using LED for quite some time... CalMag will be necessary long run, superthrive I can't say as I can't get any until next month, but a lot of long time growers swear by it, but essential, no... helpful, very.

Lift the pots and make sure they're not sitting in water that way any extra moisture can drain... and they're plants, sometimes they have amazingly fast, noticable changes, however generally it takes them a bit to show a lot of things... see how it looks after another day of not watering it...

but stay away from nutes right now, they're too small, they'll literally burn to death.

Thanks
Ill make sure to check out their journals.

 

[doopie]

Re: doopie's Coco LED & CFL *Blue Mystic* -1st time- grow

Okay, so again a little update. First of all, I think they're all doing much better. I think it was really the overwatering that was the problem... Theyre still growing a bit slow, at least compared to what I saw in other journals.

Seedling 1 - Day 14 (since seed was planted)

Still hasn't fully recovered from the overwatering...

Seedling 2 - Day 11 (since seed was planted)
So I felt like experimenting (thats usually not a good idea) and decided to move this one outside my window 3 days ago.
I think the photo speaks for itself, nothing like the sun itself

Seedling 3 & 4 - Day 11 (since seed was planted)

(Sorry for the bad lighting in the last one)

Seedling 5 - Day 3 (since seed was planted)
Seedling 5? Yep thats right, they got a new sister. I wasn't sure if No.1 was gonna survive, so I planted the last seed I had, 3 days ago. This time I germinated it in a cup with water and then planted it straight into coco. And also put it in front of my window.

For some weird reason, it has only one cotyledon?!

 

[KingJohnC]

seeds coming up with only 1 cotyledon happens sometimes, i have not observed a problem though.

 

[doopie]

Yea after that I also searched for it and it seems to happen quite often. Some of the posts said, that it will slow down growth though. So we will see...

 

[stealthgrow]

Hi Doopie
Off to a slow start. I would agree about the overwatering for sure. I had a little of the same problem at first with my girls but seems to be better now. Our plants are within a couple of days old of each other, at the 11 day mark they are pretty much the same size. We should compare notes at the end, soil vs hydro.
Good luck. I'll be watching, and if you have any questions just ask.

 

[doopie]

Thanks for stopping by stealthgrow.
Mine are also not soil but coco, but it's definitely very interesting to compare.

By the way, is it possible that Blue Mystic have a very slow growth during the seedling phase?

Also in your journal, when I look at the growth your Master Kush and White Widow had within 4 days, it seems like the Blue Mystic takes forever?