Now it wasn't a feminized seed just bag seed but there was a dimple in it and I've been treating her like a girl so it better be female! I decided I don't want her drinking anything I wouldn't so I've been using lemon juice for ph balancing and coffee for nutrient. Looking for suggestions of other things to use for nutrients. One idea I had was banana tea for potassium. (Coffee supposedly provides nitrogen.) And for phosphorus I'm thinking of grinding up some squash seeds and making a tea out of that. Please comment!
Here's an even better idea, how about no food at all for several weeks? Seedlings pack their own lunch and have no need of anything extra. When the cotelydons (sp?), die off that is a good indication for when to start feeding. These are the very first set of leaves. The round looking ones below the true leaves. Cd
Thanks for the reply Yes so far I've only done one feeding of 100 ppm coffee (tap was 45ppm) to help the seed pop. It was just a few tablespoons. My plan is to go with no nutrients until she asks for some.
What kind of coffee? I love me a good dark roast. All kidding aside, what Carolina Dingo said is probably your best bet - you may do more harm than good with coffee and lemon juice. You'll need to start thinking of the future pretty quick though - what will you be planting into when you transplant out of the cup? J
I was going to transplant it into perlite but my Walmart didn't have any so I suppose more rockwool. I have some clay pellets but I'm afraid they won't hold enough water. The coffee I have is Dunkin Donuts original blend. Sounds like expensive fertilizer but doesn't take much because it has to be diluted quite a bit. Parts per million. The idea is pure water would have a ppm of 0. The more that is dissolved into the water the higher the ppm gets. 100 ppm coffee tastes like water with a hint or aftertaste of coffee. A normal cup of coffee has a much higher ppm. PPM can be measure with an electronic meter or in this case taste buds would also work.
Try a properly amended living soil. If you do that, worrying about things like pH, ppm, and nutrients will be a thing of the past...
Thought I would do an update now that is has been a week. This will be a micro grow so 12/12 has started. This is how she looks now. Very pretty in my opinion. We've been giving her some pure spring water lately to be on the safe side. But in my opinion she seemed to be hungry so I made some coffee. Took some of it to make up some nutrient solution. ppm 115 Spoon fed her a few tablespoons so we'll see what happens. High hopes!
It's been another week so here is an update. Been watering here with plain spring water. Older growth is looking a bit sickly. I think too much coffee and not enough everything else.
hi, cute girl! i think there is some nute burn if you look at the tip of the leaves. you really shouldn't be giving her anything but water until at least 4th set of true leaves. whats the purpose of the trim? peace!
It's not hydro there is no reservoir but I'm sure I could add one. Yes too much coffee but I also think it needs some P and K so I got some squash seeds and white beans I'm going to try feeding her. Well I trimmed her roots so I figured I ought to trim the top too like a bonsai tree. Trying to keep her small.
You probably shouldn't have trimmed the leaves, that's probably why they don't look super green. I've never heard of using coffee and seed meal tea or any of that personally, but it seems to me that those things (namely the coffee) might create a pH problem for you eventually. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but that's just my 2 cents...
My tap water is basic anyways so I generally don't have to worry about too much acid. In fact once when I did hydro and obsessed over the ph I had to always add acid. I didn't even adjust the ph of my rockwool this time and I think it worked better. And I should probably grow this plant outside in Columbia but I have to keep it very tiny. Those where just fan leaves anyways.