Hey guys, I've been a long time lurker and now I need help. I'm working on my first grow, but I feel defeated before I've even started. Being an avid smoker, and recreational cannabis being legal in Maine now, I thought I would try my hand at a personal closet grow. I picked up a 2x2x4 grow tent, a 300w LED, fox farms soil, nutes, ducts, the whole nine yards. I received my seeds on Monday and immediately used the paper towel method to begin germination. After 2 days, tap roots began to show so I thought they would be ready to plant. My first grave error I made was thinking that transplanting a new seedling would be too stressful for it, so I decided to plant the seeds in their final pots. I quickly realized this wasn't going to work, as it was impossible to keep moisture in the soil without overwatering, and the humidity not rising above 50% was an indication of that. None the less I tried for a couple more days, spraying the soil several times a day to keep it damp but not saturated, but got nothing. I grew impatient and gently pushed the soil aside, and saw that there wasn't even any new growth of the taproot. Discouraged, I was about to toss them when my roommate suggested I put them back in the paper towel. I thought for sure this was going to be a futile effort, but what do I have to lose right? Planning for my next attempt, I 3d printed some seedling pots with false bottoms for easy transplanting, and made some DIY humidity domes with the bottoms of clear plastic soda bottles. I poked a few holes around the perimeter of the bottle for a little ventilation. I checked on my seedlings that I had put in the paper towel for 24 hours, and to my surprise the taproots had almost doubled in size! With new and rekindled excitement, I took the makeshift humidity dome I had planned to use for my next attempt and popped them in to damp soil in my seedling planter. After initially putting them in, I haven't directly watered them. I mist down the insides of their little domes, I gently mist the soil in the pot and around it, and then put the cover back on. When I rewater to keep humidity up, I mist the inside of the dome and pour ph'ed water around the perimeter of the dome, in hopes the water will seem down beside the pot, and evaporate up into the dome. All of this happened yesterday, but today there's still absolutely nothing. I've got my 300w LED on 24/7 in case one sprouts while I'm sleeping, but I feel like I'm back to square one. Surely they would have came through by now? Am I being too impatient? I thought I would have pretty green little sprouts by now when I first planted them, but all I've reaped is anxiety and frustration. I'd appreciate the help guys. In case you were wondering, I'm using Fox Farm Ocean Forest with no additives or nutrients, and water PH'ed to 6.5. Thanks again!
Way too impatient brother. Give it a week from today and you will have a plant. Don't disturb the soil to look at the seed. Just keep it warm and moist. Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk
This is my first foray into horticulture ever, so I never know what to expect. I thought I was a patient person, but I'm quickly learning I'm much more of a basketcase. Thanks for the kind words!
Chill,, you know what to do but your timing is poop you will kick yourself come grow 2 but hey I know how you feel I've grown 42 years and still curse the slow MFer's ...lol good luck
Right now the seedlings are in 50mm germination cups with false bottoms that I can just slide up and over, and those are nested in the middle of 3g fabric pots. Anything bigger and I wouldn't have space in my tiny tent.
so is the smaller 50 mm pot inside of soil inside the 3g fabric pot? so when they get big enough you plan to remove the smaller pot in the middle by just lifting it up out of the soil around the plant? just wanna make sure im picturing this right hahah first time grower too
Hahah yep. They're pretty much tapered cylinders with an unattached bottom lid. I take some soil and water, mix it until it's damp but not saturated, can barely hold it's shaped when clumped. Plop it down into my little planter, drop the seed in, take the bottom off and plop it in the middle of the pot.
lol I think of it like building a sandcastle. You get the sand with a perfect amount of water in it and put it in a bucket, when you slide it out of the bucket, it stays and holds its shape. I'm doing the same thing but my sandcastle has a weed plant growing out of the top lol
She hasn't moved much and is super tiny. All the leaves are curling under, not sure if that's bad or not. Sorry about crap photo quality, taken with a cheap amazon tablet
Be VERY careful using humidity domes with seedlings....the tips can promptly rot off with too high of humidity...You want the seedlings to go right to work, so its best to, and un-necessary, to have them in a dome It ALWAYS best to start seeds under a flourescent and allow the seedling to get a few nodes and develope some decent roots...THEN plug it into their permanent home....They get off to a much better start....Its EASY to get anxious and push them too much....I will ALWAYS have my seedlings/cuttings well rooted and usually thru their 1st topping (I run multiple tops), before I plant into the main garden....seedling are delicate the 1st few days, and need to be treated as such...after a week to 10 days they are off to the races...Paper towel them and plant when they are actually starting to throw the seed husk...the husk will be split way open then...Then plant the tap root with the seed husk at the mediums surface...Within a day or 2 they are up a half inch (or more) and the husk is off....I been doing seeds like that for 38 yrs and they ALWAYS start off well...In fact, I just started some new strains a few days ago....S. Cali OG kush, Cherry Bomb and Atomic...Started 12 and had 11 successful...One of the atomics cracked with an 1/8th inch tap root and promptly STUNTED...NOT ALL seeds are good seeds either...But you should get about a 90% success rate using the paper towel method IF your seeds came from a reputable supplier...Y.T....quick edit..added pic of last crop to add a little credibility to my post..mostly THC Bombs
Here's my baby at 3 days old! I had a feeling the other seed was a lost cause, and I was right. I found her a couple days later, taproot shriveled up and dead. So now I'm putting all my eggs in this basket. It looks a little funky under the LED, but in natural light she looks perky and bright green. She's slowly but surely reaching her second set of fan leaves out. She's in her final pot, with no humidity dome, and I've got my watering down pat. Twice a day with 50ml, in a tight little circle 1-2 inches out from the seedling. She really seems to be enjoying it. I'll continue to give you guys updates!
Happy little girl for 3 days old... she should take right off if the pH stays fairly stable and your monitor the moisture levels....hard to tell with LED's, but is that the Veg spectrum on that one?....I am a creature of habit, and been using HID Lights since they made them for growing.....DONT feed her anything for at least 2 full weeks....the soil should provide enuf nutes for a new seedling...Then let her tell you when she gets hungry....That is a soil mix, right?....I been starting a bunch of seedlings and have 6 more on the way...have Kush Bomb, Cherry Bomb, Atomic, BlueBerry, Peyote Cookies and Peyote Critical (both the Peyote Purple crosses are 2017 limited release by Barney's Farm)....Have mothers of White widow, Cheese candy, Incredible Bulk and Bubble Bomb.....Bubble Bomb is my current favorite, but that could EASILY change with some of these new genetics...ALL OF THEM stay in my nursery under a 4ft flourescent fixture, till they get AT LEAST 4-5 nodes and topped once...THEN I chose who makes the cut to go under the 1k light.... Keep that girl happy, looking forward to seeing her struggle to hold up some giant, sticky buds....
Day 21! I made an attempt at topping after the 5th node, but sliced into one of the side nodes as I was cutting the terminal bud. She was stressed for a day or two but is recovering nicely, albeit a little bit lopsided. How many tops do you think will come out of this?
UPDATE: Slight problem. I noticed some yellowing and rusty looking spots on two of the older leaves. I got sick of looking at them after a while I pulled them off to take a picture. Now this is starting to happen to the set of leaves in the canopy. Any idea what's going on?