Recipes to Germinate 300+ Seedlings in our MV1s

[Peter]

@Peter

I would recommend starting with 100 ML - likely that is plenty, I just created the second so you can increase it if necessary.

Boy was I wrong about the amount of water necessary - 100 ML was not enough! I hadn’t accounted for the fact that @cregini would have 20-40 rockwool cubes in some of his units and that he was using the wicking mat (a part of the irrigation system we’re discontinuing) which required more water. When we noticed on day 7 that the media in some of his units was almost completely dry - I created a ‘Rockwool Seedlings (78F, 240ML, 1000ML Days 1-8L)’ recipe that would increase the daily water from 100 to 240 ML daily. Furthermore, because it’s difficult to ‘overwater’ during germination - I decided to have this recipe provide 1000 ML of water (just in case) for those first 8 days.

Analysis of images / pump data from @cregini unit MV1-0056

Many of the rockwool cubes are lighter in color, indicating that they’re getting dry

After 1000ML ‘flood’ on day 8 the rockwool is saturated (darker) and there is even standing water

The 320ML of water daily has been more than enough to keep the rockwool saturated

Chart of pump actuation doses - indicating the total amount of water (in ML) added daily

|690x175](upload://rmBaTUjJD3QzVxVSAKOM4LCoxpF.png)

Analysis of MV1-0058 and MV1-0049

It looks like water is still not being added in these two units.

Is it possible that the pump tubes are installed incorrectly? See this post by @steven over the summer indicating how to check if it’s correctly connected - @Drew may have more details if you’ve got questions.

@steven

Attach the black end of the Black Tube with the Draining Guide (in the orange hole) to the front tube at the top of the box (the closest one to you). Keep pushing it on until you feel resistance.

This is an image of the black tube in the front tube.

Conclusions

• I can already see that in your tomatoes at least there are roots growing out of the rockwool
• If you intend to keep them in these systems much longer, then I would suggest you begin to add nutrients and also remove the wicking mats to prevent damaging the roots when removed later.
• I think that having the 320ML of water daily has been sufficient to keep the trays flooded - which is good because these are being transplanted into NFT/Bato Bucket systems.
• If you want to try to to use less water, feel free to switch your recipe to be the ‘Lettuce Seedlings (160ML)’ or ‘Lettuce Seedlings (240ML)’ using the Trial Manager page. I don’t think this is necessary though.
• Please go ahead and assign recipes to MV1-0049-0055 that will increase the DLI/Temp (as indicated in the spreadsheet) whenever you are able. If you don’t get a chance by end of the week I’ll go ahead and do this for you @cregini.

Screenshot of ‘Trial Manager’ page showing the three new lettuce recipes

Tomato roots