A few ideas for you: -I used to grow microgreens, and if I needed to get the seeds to soak faster, I would do the first soak with warm water, about 80 degrees F. I learned this from a professional microgreens grower. Also, always rinse the seeds very well before you begin. -I have heard clackamas coot say that ful-power (fulvic acid) will aid in germination. It acts as a catalyst for the seed's own catalytic enzymes. He was recommending it to help germinate very old cannabis seeds, or just to have more consistent germination. -A while ago I saw a product that guaranteed successful germination even of very old, poorly cared for seeds. It was basically an overpriced kit, and the active ingredients were some kind of sugar, maybe dextrose, and powdered oxygen. What OS is suggesting you do, with the in/out technique, will accomplish the same thing in terms of adding the oxygen, as would bubbling with an air stone. hth toaster
The soak / rest technique I mentioned is used by the producers of malted barley and corn for beer or liquor. I also saw the same tech on a DIY moonshine article on how to malt corn. I like the idea of using fulpower, but damn, its expensive to use for sprouting seeds for teas. cheers os
Ex 3, Amnesia XXL auto got the chop, at 84 days, today. This is 3rd one of these Amnesia XXL I have grown and the only one that turned out to yield well. (The previous grows were recycled and no till, one each.) She is a monster. Makes me happy to have this turn out well. There is just such a feeling of satisfaction knowing that the soil in the mix, was leaves 18 months ago. I consider this real handcrafted from scratch soil. A little more nutrients and a little cycling time and she would have finished a lot greener. She really used up everything she had stored in the leaves. This was also a no perlite grow, aeration was mostly bark nuggets and some rice hulls. No peat, no perlite, the no p's mix. I plan to leave this pot mulched and moist for the summer to function as a worm bin, we will see what she looks like in the fall when I change gears again. I will be real curios to see how the bark nuggets look. I will also have enough worms in this thing to start something or another, to be announced at a later time. On to some pics. Here is a shot of the Amnesia XXL auto. Amnesia XXL auto 84 days by Organic sinse posted May 7, 2018 at 8:42 PM She is 4 foot tall and almost 3 foot diameter. There is a lot of plant there. After trimming most of the bigger fan leaves you get a better view. Amnesia XXL auto 84 days after fan leaf trim by Organic sinse posted May 7, 2018 at 8:42 PM This is a better angle, its hard to really show how much plant is there. There is a tomato cage in there, but its not visible. I stood up on a chair to try and get a shot from above, still trying to show the shear mass. Amnesia XXL auto 84 days diagonal from above by Organic sinse posted May 7, 2018 at 8:42 PM This thing smells incredible and has a blue hue to her, just like the Blue Amnesia I posted yesterday. This thing just has so many tall branches. Not big buds, just lots and lots of medium buds. Sinse is gonna be way over trimming by the end of next week. Cheers os
It depends on what you add for food. My rule of thumb is that when you can't recognize any food its could be considered done. By basically using soil or compost and adding the normal no till amendments, it can be done at any time really. With what I was discussing in the post above, I am relying on just leaves and the roots in soil as a food source. It really doesn't matter in that situation. If I dump out the pot and find root material, I actually will put that into my next pot of soil mix. I like to think that there is dormant mycorrihazae clinging to the root still, and that it would help inoculate the next pot, as soon as new roots reach the old roots. I may be wrong, bu there is no harm in it. This was probably a poor answer. If I was starting a new static bin, and was going to be using conventional food, like banana peels, the best way is to start with shallow bedding, and add to it every so often. This helps ensure the bottom is done, and not just the top. I am going to call on @wetdog, to help me answer this one. He has great incites on this stuff. cheers os
OS, would you still use your seed starter if you were growing photoperiod plants? Do you ever grow them? Sorry if you touch on this earlier in the thread, it's a fair bit to go through. I'm considering switching due to high temperature issues on my current auto grow, figured the longer lights out times would help.
I always use seed starter when starting canna seeds. With photos you only need enough to start the seed. I like to use a mere 1"- 2" depth of seed starter, and maybe 4" diameter. hth cheers os
Time for a little update on what's happening in the green house. I have 6 autos going, all started the same time. I am only going to 'journal' one or 2 of these. When something cool and exciting happens, I will add shots from other plants. I only misted these with aloe water for the first 2 weeks. At day 15 they got a kelp tea + aloe foliar (1 T kelp per gallon of water), what was left over from the gallon of spray was used as a soil drench. I applied the drench with the mist head to really stretch it out. I snapped a couple pics at 15 days. This one is Cropical fruit auto. I have a 1 week photo a page or so back. Cropical Fruit Auto 15 days by Organic sinse posted May 10, 2018 at 1:01 PM This one Narcotic Kush auto. Narcotic Kush auto 15 days by Organic sinse posted May 10, 2018 at 1:01 PM Sticking to my general plan for autos, day 15 is usually when I begin LST. This will be the familiar tomato cage style. I may go to bigger cages than normal for these. I have a larger set that I usually use for the green house grows. The yoga (LST) begins for Miss Cropical Fruit auto. Cropical Fruit auto 15 days LST begins by Organic sinse posted May 10, 2018 at 1:04 PM After all the plants were LST'd, they all got a nice coat of Sinse mix VMC. I used a 5 gallon bucket of VMC split between the 6 plants. This was watered in with kelp tea in a mist. The idea is to gently wash the castings down thru the bark in the VMC. This makes an automatic mulch layer of bark and rice hulls. cheers I fixed the lst pic os
Cool, looks great. I've got a 15 day old at the moment too, already showing pistils just like her older siblings did around this time. PS I think you posted the same pic twice there, was curious to see the Cropical doing some yoga.
I wanted to post a pic of my other 'small' plant I am running inside. Its a Haze XXL auto at 78 days. She is a little 3 foot plant with just the nicest plump little buds. Nice fat almost round little things. Haze XXL auto 78 days and still plugging along by Organic sinse posted May 13, 2018 at 8:36 PM This one is interesting, as I am very surprised that the hairs aren't changing colors yet, the buds just keep getting fatter. Also pleased to see zero foxtailing. Damn I have had a run with that in my experimental mixes lately. This little girl still has a ways to go, at least a week, maybe 2 I just love it when they finish up so even top to bottom like this one is doing. cheers os
Here it is! 18 days now I think. I wanted to try your LST method out but am awaiting an order of wire and some tomato cages on weds, so I'm making do with string and small weights until then. And some of the other plants, which are just over 5 weeks now and starting to fatten up the buds. Interestingly (maybe) these 2 are the same strain ("purple automatic"), popped at the same time, pre-flowered at the same time, grown together in the same tent under identical conditions but only one is exhibiting purpleness. I think they also have a slightly different scent too. That's a gorgeous plant OS, such a great shape!
The 18 day old one looks right on point! Speaking of LST, I actually had to un-LST all my greenhouse plants because they are growing a little leggy and kind of unpredictable. Its a tough season for me out there due to the fact that it really hasn't been sunny more than hour here and there. I have been dealing with low heavy overcast or outright rain everyday since these 6 girls popped. We got 3.6 inches or rain the other afternoon. Talk about a gully washer backed up with a ton of williwahs. I will get my girls back on the yoga routine shortly. cheers os
I hate to change the environment that drastically twice. (once in once out) This will force them to become strong healthy plants, or die! I will be hanging a 6 pack of COB's out there tonight or tomorrow. That will help a wee bit. cheers os
I have some results from good old experimental soil #3. It was my Amnesia XXL auto from Dinafem. The soil was leafmold and bark nuggets with 1/4 cup each of crab, kelp, neem meals plus some gypsum. I usually don't repost the same pic, but since its a few pages back here it is again. For some scale of size, this is about 4' tall. Amnesia XXL auto 84 days diagonal from above by Organic sinse posted May 7, 2018 at 8:42 PM After drying and trim, she jarred in at 10 1/4 oz! The whole plant was nice small/ medium tight buds that were super uniform from cola to bottom. Not a single foxtail (thank god) and the whole thing is just frosty as hell. Excellent quality in all categories. This is my 3rd grow with this strain, and about twice the yield I have achieved from the other 2 grows. cheers os
Hey OS! Nice to meet you. Amazing work you do with autoflowers! I've only played around with 2 different strains. NYC diesel and amnesia haze both by crop king seeds. My NYC diesel only yielded 1.5 oz of super fuely and frosty bud, the amnesia haze yielded 4.5 oz of some really dank shit too but 10.25 oz damn bro that's crazy and your buds look REALLY dank! I gotta try dinafem autos! Can't wait to see what's going on in the green house!
Welcome aboard Chronickitty! I have nothing but good things to say about Dinafem and their auto line. The greenhouse action is all 'Cream of The Crop' seeds. I have never ran any of their stuff before, I hope they live up to their claims. They boast several 20-22% THC autos, with some unique heritage in their plants that I haven't really seen other places. Cheers os