Be sure you’re using a good pre-buffered coco, or are buffering yours! I personally like some coco and about a teaspoon of growdots in a solo cup to start seedlings, but then I also grow in coco, so that works out well for me.

You don’t need an inert media like rockwool to start seedlings. Going right into a lightly amended soil is ok. There’s nothing too ‘hot’ in your soil mix like blood meal that would harm a seedling.

Garbage genetics with no vigor is a double wammy. Autos flower based on time, not size.

Doesn’t really matter. I always keep the same lights on time so their morning watering schedule never changes.