After a few half-assed attempts to get clones going with minimal work (and results), I've finally figured out a few things and decided to throw some seeds in. Started with a tray about a week ago, 2 seeds a hole, 5 holes. put em an inch or two down, kept the soil soaked with water, and whaddya know... they all showed up to play! Transplanted them to their own cups with Gardner + Bloom Blue Ribbon organic soil, and that's where they're sitting now. I've had them under 24 hour light and they're doing ok, one or two look a little weak but I'm not too concerned. Direct sun during the day, couple inches away from fluorescent grow lights at night. Thinking about giving them 20/4 for better root structure, what do you guys think? I figure I'm good on nutes for quite a while. Going to transplant once they've got 4 sets of good leaves or so, and I should be ok for another month or so at that point. I'm thinking Fox Farms Grow Big after that, Big Bloom and maybe molasses at flowering (but I've got plenty of time to decide those two) Any glaring problems you see, or does that seem like a good start? Suggestions greatly appreciated, I'm a total noob at this with just enough knowledge to get me in trouble!
They're looking great so far! For your next grow, if you choose to do it again from seeds, you start them off in the red cups or germinate them before you even put them into the dirt, skip the whole tray thing for germinating because it isn't necessary. You would have been fine with just 1 seed per hole, no need to crowd them. I suggest this because you already transplanted them once for no real reason or benefit and you risked breaking taproots and killing them before they even had a chance. 20/4 would work better for root development too, as you said you would like to do. I would like more details on your lighting. Your soil is pretty decent.
Thanks! I'll throw them in my garage when it gets dark around 8pm for some pitch black, then throw the lights on em around midnight, and pull them out in the morning. Lighting is something from my girlfriend's last grow. Fluorescent tubes, I want to say 18" each, in a 4-bulb rectangle fixture. Not sure the exact wattage, I know we have 4x2700's in there now and a set of flowering tubes waiting (red, forget the specific wavelength... 5200?)
I'll second the Start in cup, even if you must germinate them with one of the many ways. Other then that, they look happy and healthy. Good job
lookin real good, u may want to add some perlite to the soil to help keep it loose so the roots can roam more freely
thanks! there's a decent bit in this mix right now, but I think I'll add some more when I transplant to 1 gal pots
hmm... I should probably top those cups up with soil, those stalks could probably grow root the weak looking one died... hence 9 instead of 10
Been running 20/4, plants look really healthy. Sunlight during the day, plants have been turning their leaves up and loving it the last couple days! After I lose direct light outdoors, they go under lights in the garage, with 4 hrs off in the middle of the night. 4x26w 18" 6000k T5 right now, have a second ballast with 4 more for when these guys get too big for 1 light. Also have 4x26w 18" 3000k T5 to mix in for flower, but I may end up buying HID for flower and just using these bulbs for veg. If I get 3-4 big plants out of this, I think I'll put the two 4-bulb T5 setups mounted horizontally and an HPS up at the top. Leave it that way for a flower closet, and pick up an LED panel for the next set of babies.
Looking around, I'm seeing people suggest transplanting with trees even smaller than mine... think these are ready, or should I sit on them for another week or so before transplant?
Thanks. Looks like I'll put them in 2.5 gal pots (9" tall/wide), that should be plenty of root room to support a foot tall plant going into flower right? (so 2'-3' by harvest)
Update: Didn't transplant yet, no time to grab pots last night, will try tonite. Going to get 2.5-3 gal, hoping for 1+ oz/ea off whatever females I end up with. Here's a few photos, the (indica, right?) girl in the background is living outdoors 24/7 and just picking up natural light, starting to show sex but not totally dedicated to flowering yet. Daylight was within 30 minutes for June-July, but as fall approaches we're losing 2 minutes a day, should go 12/12 around the end of September so it'll be interesting to see when she decides to flower on her own. Good reference for the future, anyhow. On to the seedlings... everybody still looks healthy, I topped them up with dirt from the trough I seeded them in, was getting a little low. Might not allow the stalk to wiggle/strengthen as much, but it's not blocking any light so I figured why not. In one of the pics I showed how much a few of them are reaching their leaves, they do this at night 1" away from 4x26w t5 6000k but even more so outside. They don't look unhealthy, just hungry I guess? I know this isn't stem stretching, the t5 are right up on them and I can't really adjust the height of that big bulb in the sky, but I can't image it's hurting them. Anyways, chime in if ya got anything!
a shot of my mobile grow center, in the garage at night for now. Plants get sun during the day, when it starts going down I put them under lights except for 4 hours of total dark in the middle of the night
Thanks! I'm a little worried about the one with the leaves like tacos, I'll just wait and see what happens. Just picked up 2 bags of perlite in addition to my 1.25 cu/ft bag of blue ribbon soil, so if I'm doing my math right, that should give me just enough medium for these 8x 2.5 gal pots of 70/30 soil/perlite