Ocean Grown

OG referring to our location being 6 miles from the Pacific coast in sunny SoCal. I’ll be growing both indoors and outdoors this cycle. Two cultivars: Skywalker OG from Original Harvest Seeds and Blackberry Bubble from Dutchman Seeds. All seeds were feminized.
This is today at the end of day 7. I direct sow in seed starting soil (Jiffy and G&B 1:1) in this 6 pack tray. I water with distilled from a sport top bottle. I put them under two, 24w T5s. This setup is usually good for the first week.

 

I planted 3 of each cultivar, but one of the SWOGs didn't shed her helmet soon enough and didn't make it. The plan is to take the shortest of each cultivar to grow indoors under LEDs and the tallest of each cultivar to grow outdoors under the sun. The 3rd Blackberry Bubble will also finish outdoors.

 

I keep them on a 24/0 light cycle for the first two weeks. They also go outside in full sun for 1-4 hours every day during this period.

 

Just before dusk today they got up potted into 4 inch nursery pots. I used Recipe 420 bag soil for the bottom half, backfill, and top dressing. I filled the watering can from the rain barrel and watered them in. The watering can was rough on one of them, so it got a temporary stabilizer.

 

All but one of each cultivar will be grown outside in their forever homes. They all get started here under the T5s, though. I do let them get a little stretch on the first day they come up, but they're 1-2 inches away from the T5s since day 2.

 

Your babies look amazing.

I don't use a fan in the sprouting station since they are outside daily. They start their hardening off process on day 2. It's been cloudy all week here, except yesterday. Even yesterday, I only put them inside from noon until 2, then back inside before dark for the night.

 

They were praying under the lights this morning. That tells me that they adjusted to their new pots just fine. So, I brought them outside and gave them a foliar feeding of this stuff (half dose).

 

Heavy marine layer this morning with little to no breeze.

 

I appreciate the feedback.

The thin stems are an issue that should have been avoided. I only turn one light on until all the seeds sprout. Some don't sprout until the following day, so the early ones can get a little leggy. I hope I don't lose several plants over it.

The grow medium is in fact store bought bagged potting soil. I don't think that it's very hot. It's no FFOF. The fish emulsion is definitely weak stuff (2-2-2). I mix up a teaspoon in a quart of water and my plants get a few sprays from a spray bottle. The rest goes to the outdoor veggies. I'm not sure that it does anything really, other than introduce a little biology into the mix.

The grow medium is straight out of the bag and into the pot. I normally add 20% rice hulls, which I should have done, but I'm out. I will have to take care to not over water them. The seed starting mix I used is pretty damn sandy. Too sandy for my liking. I'm still in the experimenting phase with this soil. Forty percent aeration seems high to me, but I could try it in one of the BBBs at the next up pot.

 

I guess not. Cuz I'm confused by the, "What soil?" question.

Either way, nice looking hoop house operation you got there. Light years beyond me. I got my hands full with half a dozen sprouts.

 

Heavy marine layer and cool temps this morning gave way to warm sunshine with a nice breeze this afternoon

One of the little ladies still has a gangster lean. The other is tall and proud now. Gave them a few ounces each of distilled this morning.

 

Day 16
It’s warm and on the dry side. The top leaves are praying. The first set of “true” leaves on all the seedlings have a wavy appearance to them. One of the Blueberry Bubbles has some burnt leaf tips going on. She has the biggest leaf spread, so maybe her roots are reaching further. It does look like the bag soil I used in these pots was too “hot” for the seedlings. With the newer growth looking better, I’m hoping that they have worked through most of that stress.

I was camping last week in the high desert. I didn’t trust my kid to water them correctly, so I took them with me. I guess they lost their “ocean grown” status for the week. They were outside during daylight hours and inside under 2 four foot T5s at night. They were probably about a foot away from the lights. It was fairly windy most days. I ended up having to shore up the stems of all the plants on one particularly windy day. A less than ideal situation, and I would not recommend it.

I’ll probably transplant them into their final pots next weekend. I’ll give them a few days to recover from last weeks stress.

 

Day 22

All the plants have leaves wider than their pots at this point. Time for an up pot. Their first set of true leaves never recovered. I’ll trim them and the seed leaves when they get transplanted.

 

Apparently this site doesn't like any of my photos, lol. Keeping a journal here is going to be challenging.