This is a basic step by step of what Im doing.
Step 1. Prepare the soil.
3 parts
gaia green living soil 1 part worm castings.
Pre amended with a 50/50 ratio of
gaia green all purpose and power bloom at the recommended dose.
6" diameter and 6" deep center gets a recommended dose of mycorrhizal inoculum mixed in.
Step 2. Germinate the seed.
I float my seeds in a cup of water until they have a tap at least a 1/4".
Once it has a tap root I finish the soil. Completely saturating the pot from top to bottom.
Place seed tap down with a touch
mykos in the hole Carefully cover with no more than 1/2" of soil.
Add a few drops water on the location being careful not to disturb the seed.
Place a humidity dome over until the sprout emerges then remove.
Step 3. Control your environment.
Monitor your Ph, temp, RH, and PPFD.
Try to maintain optimal VPD and DLI
Step 5. Watering.
Once the sprout emerges let the soil dry back until the pot is light and the top 1" to 1 1/2" is dry.
Use this dry back and guage of when to water the whole life of the plant.
Ive given a 1/2 gal of dechlorinated tap water at 6.2-6.8ph since that first dry back as a sprout.
Every other watering or so Ill give the trays 4-6 cups to absorb from the bottom.
Keeping the whole pot somewhere between wet and moist for the first 3 weeks. A balancing act of keeping it wet but allowing enough dryback for oxygen
Around week 2 I give them 1/2 gal of Recharge on the top and 1/2 in the trays.
As the plant gets older I'll increase the amount of water. The idea is to water everyday or other day.
Step 6. LST and defoliation.
Start as early as the plant lets you.
Keep the branches growing horizontal and evenly spread out.
Remove as little of the leaves as possible.
I usually only remove the leaves on the top of the branches growing towards the center of the canopy.
Any leaves that can be tucked under or behind that new growth needs to be done every day if not multiple times a day.
The goal is for all new growth to have direct exposure to the lights.
Continue LST into the "stretch" using your judgement when enough is enough.
Step 7. Top dress early flower.
Using a mix of 70/30 power bloom to all purpose at the recommended dose. To that ill add an equal amount of worm castings.
The mixture gets spread around the pot evenly and then mixed into the top few inches of the soil by hand.
I use Recharge to water it in. Using the same 1/2 and 1/2 method.
Step 8. Continue watering until harvest.