The more eyes/opinions the better!
It could easily be a supercrop fail. Perhaps I snapped the stem the first time but didn't realise and then when I gave it another try days later, this happened. It's definitely possible at least. To be fair, KK did say not to do it in the same place twice. I prefer this scenario over any sort of borer insect though.
I've been really lucky with the weather so far, a handful of windy days where they're by the windowsill but temps have only just started skimming
Thanks Celt!I wouldn’t rule out pest damage @InTheShed , @WreckLoose but it’s in the wrong place for corn borers. They bore in right at the nodes, between the stem and branch, but if around long enough they will bore out through the stem sometimes.
Look for little piles of crap (looks like fine sawdust) at the nodes below the damage, if there is none, you can rule out borers
Ppm in run off water is misleading due to materials washing from soil mixture.So don’t bother reading ppm of run off. I went back and read the super soil mix you have and honestly there is so much in there I’m a bit lost. Just make sure when ever you water the ph should be between 6-7 for soil.Okay, yet more mistakes to hopefully learn from.
So, when I transplanted to final 5gal fabric pots I watered to run off and the pots were completely saturated. They have taken a full two weeks to dry out enough to be watered again, I presume it's due to the colder temps (also trying to avoid overwatering).
So before watering today, I thought it would be a good idea to use my new EC meter and check the PPM of the soil. I took some soil from the very edge of the pots and added 2:1 distilled water to soil. I stirred vigorously for 10 minutes and then left to sit for 24 hours. After recalibrating my PH pen, I checked both PPM and PH. PPM was only 450 which I thought was quite low for this stage and PH was just above 7, which I thought was too high.
In a naive attempt to raise PPM and lower PH, I fed them with 800ppm at a PH of 6.1 (I read somewhere that 950 was a good PPM at this stage).
Not a clue where I went wrong but when checking the PPM and PH of the runoff, the PPM had shot up to over 2000 and the PH was up to 7.3.
I'm eager to hear any suggestions as to why I was so far off the mark and how to rectify my silly mistakes.
When you go from a small pot to a 5 gallon, there aren't roots in most of the soil, so it will take a long time to dry out. It's the roots that dry the soil, not the air. When you upcan small plants, just water an inch beyond the original rootball until the plant puts roots into the new soil.
Check the PPM or the pH? If this is coco you don't test the pH of the medium, you pH your nutes. If this is buffered peat, you don't pH your nutes, you check the pH of your medium.
I can't tell what your substrate is from reading the Spanish on the website. Is it mostly coco or mostly peat? Is there lime in it?
Runoff pH is meaningless in any medium: coco, peat, or soil.
My bad Shed, perhaps I've been lead astray from a couple of articles I read and possibly misunderstood. This one is the one I read before doing all of my (now pointless) measurements.
It's honestly quite hard to believe how bad I am at watering practices still.
The last thing I read before transplanting said to completely saturate the medium that the plant will be transplanted into and then water again once the plant is in the new pot. To be fair, when I have a peek down the gap between the soil and pot I do see some fresh new roots, hopefully that means they'll drink up and the pot will dry out a little quicker this time. 
I was trying to check both PPM and PH of the soil to get an idea of whether they need more/less nutes or if the PH is out of whack. Guess I really dropped the ball on this one.
Well that's one thing less to do.
I like the RQS site for some info, and for some info they are way off, like checking runoff pH.
Traditionally, soil has humus in it. Soilless would be peat mixes like ProMix. And the rest would be hydro like coco and DWC. Hydro nutes need to be pH'd, but soil and soilless don't.
I would check the PPM going in and water to runoff every time, once the roots fill the pot.
I've found it to be incredibly helpful and they get more in depth than some other sites do, maybe too much so in this case haha. You still hold the crown for most helpful though Shed!
Do worm castings count as humus? Because I added a good amount. I wish we got ProMix over here, I could technically get some but it would be over 100 bucks per bag.
Also, if one were to add worm castings/humus to something like ProMix, does it stop being soilless? My tap water runs at around a PH of 8+, do I still not have to worry about the PH of the nutes?I think they're getting there, I swear I'll get the hang of it one day!
Nope! Humus is really just compost from the forest floor. ProMix is sphagnum peat moss, perlite, lime (to buffer), and a wetting agent because peat tends to be hydrophobic.
You definitely are! The plants are looking great, so other than the amount of water on transplant I wouldn't change a thing. Whatever you're doing is working, so don't complicate it by looking for things to change!
Okay, now I'm confused.
So, now I'm not even sure if it's worm castings I have. It's called 'humus de lombriz' which translates to worm castings. There must be something lost in translation. That being said, I'm pretty sure it's not a soilless medium given all the compost and wormThanks Shed! I blame the TDS meter I got for Christmas, 'If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail' comes to mind haha.
I completely agree but we only have two well established brands to choose from here which are BioBizz and Plagron. I tried BioBizz the first time round and wasn't particularly impressed so I tried this Top Crop stuff, which I honestly prefer. I guess I'll go with Plagron next time and hope it's the best of the three.
For someone that tends to over water, that sounds like my kind of medium. Had no idea it was as simple as that. What's the catch? Any downsides?
