Greetings everyone here in Grasscity, been lurking for awhile while in research mode but I'm ready to join the fun now haha. I've been gearing up to begin my first grow and now that it is finally officially underway I wanted a place to hang out and document it, hopefully get a little feedback and make a few new friends along the way. So thats why my opening post here is a grow journal, I plan on revisiting it regularly and updating it. From seed to harvest. I have a more detailed blog online that I am keeping where I will post more pics, but I also wanted to post here to meet some people since I constantly find myself digging thru your threads haha. As I said this will be my first grow. Well, maybe not technically, but for all intents and purposes lets just assume that it is. My initial test run involved clip lights and cree LED bulbs from Home Depot, Miracle Gro soil, Tin foil walls, and a few bag seeds lol. So yeah, this is kinda my very first "beginning to have somewhat of a clue" attempt at cannabis cultivation. I recently (and finally) obtained my medical card in my home state so I'm legal, and an old friend is in the process of adding me among his caregivers. So I can essentially grow for 2 people and the laws on what those exact amounts would be in my home state are rather murky. I've assembled a simple but (hopefully) effective room on a budget. I had an old metal industrial type storage cabinet that stands roughly 7 ft and is 24' deep. I removed all of the shelves other than the center one, creating 2 sections one on top of the other that measure around 36x24x40. I then just painted the inside flat white and attached a Mars Hydro 300w LED at the top of each section. This is basically a veg cabinet where I will start them out the first few weeks before ultimately moving them to a flowering tent. My tent is 40x40x70, and inside it is a Mars Hydro Reflector 96 LED panel. I was really on the fence about LED when I started this, but in the end it just won out because of my location etc. Obviously wanna minimize the energy usage issues, but it was just a better fit for my location cuz of heat/air circulation etc. We'll see how it goes, but I am sure as I grow as a grower I will be doing plenty of experimenting. No bag seeds this time, I ordered from Herbie's and received my first order yesterday, already have them germinating just waiting for these babies to sprout. First time I have ordered online like that, and they were quick and on point. I got some Lemon Skunk by Greenhouse, NY Diesel by Vision, Pineapple Express by Zambeza, and then I got a Bubbas Gift freebie. So if anyone has experience with any of these strains and has any pointers, I am all ears lol. To be continued...
So I immediately went into germination the afternoon that I received my beans, last Wednesday. By Friday they were all beginning to split open on show an emerging root, but I cant say that any of them ever really got to the point that they developed a long established taproot. I gave them until Saturday morning to see if they would sprout just a bit more but they stayed basically the same overnight. So I went ahead and planted them. I am curious if the cooler temps in my house because of winter may have slowed the seedlings usual progression. In the end, all of them sprouted to varying degrees, It doesnt appear as if I got any duds in the batch. But I will feel about em better when I see all of them peek their heads up outta that soil haha I sprouted 3 x Pineapple Express, 3 x Lemon Skunk, 1 x Bubbas Gift. I held back a day or 2 on my NY Diesel but started them yesterday, already one has popped so hopefully the other 2 do and I will be at 100% germination rate on this purchase. I also tried both techniques as far as wet paper towels vs submerging in a cup of water. Exact same result and length of time both ways. So hey, I'm on my way. Last night I planted into straight up Fox Farm "Happy Frog" soil and just misting the tops to keep them nice and damp but not soaked. Will update when I see signs of life lol.