Few questions about the state of my roots

[Sw91]

I started some seeds under a cfl in 500ml pots. took about 5 days for them to need watering again. Did so and had lovely white roots. So I potted up to 2litre pots and kept the plants under cfl to save on the electric. I waited a few days until the pots was a little lighter then watered again. This is how my roots was looking…

by now the plants was starting to stretch as the cfl isn’t powerful. So. Switched over to 400w hps and flicked the fans on. Now I have not been letting the coco get bone dry. Not once seen a plant go droopy from under watering. However the look of the roots now make me think that’s what’s happened? A different plant but all the roots look the same, from thick and white to thin and less happy looking. Here are the roots after switching on the hps and fan on…

Now I am thinking I have been letting the coco get to dry between waterings? The reason for that is probably because last time I was advised water daily regardless of weight. I did so from day one and ended up losing a plant to over watering. Plus what was left had really bad roots tbh. As shown here..

Now here is what I’m questioning. The cfl was keeping the coco wet longer and clearly had better roots for it. Yet when I watered daily under hps regardless of weight the roots wasn’t the best looking either?
Now I’m thinking it could be I need to find the happy medium? Watering it daily before rooted was no good. That’s why the roots was looking so poor. And currently been letting the pots get as light as they are and the roots seem to look less happy?
The cfl was keeping the coco wet longer so not going too dry. and was staying wet without me watering daily like I did past.

My coco since checking the roots feels like it has lost some of its fluffiness to it? Could that be from taking the coco out the potto check the roots then dumping it back in when wet? Could the extra wet weight have caused the coco to become more compact. Deffo feels more compact than when a mate gave me some clones in the past which grew well.

 

[hawkman]

Nice --do you use anything special for rooting ?

 

[Sw91]

Nice? Haha the roots have got worse looking. I use canna rhizo but that’s it.

i think my answer will be when I put plants under the hps water them sooner than I have been. I can’t have been over watering so the only alternative is under watering.
the coco has deffo got a little more compact too. When I took the coco out the pot wet to check. I tapped the pot on the floor to get it fitted back in there pot nice and snug. That’s probably pressed with the coco down due to the extra weight.

would love some other opinions on if my thinking is making sense? I’m gonna pot everything up loosening the coco a little And into fluffy coco again. Then use the Wilma system as I’ve always had good roots with that. but one plant I’m gonna put into the 3litre and hand water. Just for my own sake of trying to get things right.