Hey everyone, I'm new to this forum. But not new to growing. I had an very successful indoors grow back in 2003 with a 400w HPS. Haven't touched growing since then. I've decided I want to grow outdoors now. Have a great, discreet spot picked out that gets lots of sun. I will be getting my seeds in the mail in the next few days hopefully. All feminized autoflowers (I want to get multiple 8-week harvests in this summer). But this weekend I'm going out of town for a week. I am impatient and want to germinate the seeds and get them going a little while I'm gone, since I dont want to waste any time in getting them started as the summer is fast approaching. So here's what I'm thinking of doing before I leave: the day before I leave, soak them in water for 24 hours. The morning that I leave for a week, I'll plant them directly into soil in 20oz party cups and put them under some bushes outdoors, out of direct sunlight (and later down the line I'll transplant them into the ground in the sun). I'll have the soil pretty wet (but obviously not swimming in water), especially the bottom portion of the cup, and I'm not going to cut holes in the bottom so as to not let the water drain. This will ensure that there will be enough water in the soil for the one week that I'll be gone, and that it doesn't dry out. Further, I'm going to cover the cups with a 1 gallon clear juice bottle. Going to cut the top off the clear juice bottles, cut a few holes in it to allow some air flow, and place it upside down on the cups. This will create a mini greenhouse: keep the moisture in, keep the temperature up at night, and keep away any animals that wanna eat my soon-to-sprout seedlings. I actually have this concept going under some bushes right now, and I put a digital thermometer in the the juice bottle (see attached pic) that records the humidity/temperature highs and lows. Looks like the lowest dropped to 59 deg F last night, the high was about 85 deg F yesterday during the day, and humidity remained a constant at 75-85%-ish. So far on the weather forecast it looks like for the week that I'm gone (next week), the temps will be around 50-low and 80-high, with some rain here and there (which is good since any water that falls through the holes in my mini-greenhouse and into the cup will be helpful to keep them from drying out). So hopefully by the time I return in a week, the seeds will have germinated, sprouted, and seedlings will be growing some. And then I can start tending to them much better. Sorry about the long post. What do you all think?
You dont really gotta worry bout it drying out to fast, ive had mine in a party cup for almost a week now and there still enuf water in em to keep em alive ( and the cups have holes i cut on the bottom )
So here's a pic of the finished setup of the mini greenhouses. Basically I cut the top off the bottles, put everything in, then taped the top back together. Here's my pseudo-scientific thinking: I put some polished stones around the cup to first of all weigh the bottle down so it doesnt fall over with heavy wind, and the stones also retain a lot of heat. When I picked 'em up at the store, they were sitting outdoors in the shade and they were pretty warm, so I thought perfect! I put a bunch of fresh grass and leaves in there too, so as they decompose (probably pretty quick), they release lots of carbon dioxide and also heat up and keep the inside of the bottle warm during the night, and lastly help retain lots of moisture so keep the himidity up. I cut holes on the bottom of the cup, but I didn't cut holes in the bottom of the bottle, since I want to leave a tiny 1/2inch layer of water at the bottom of the bottle to keep things moist (the cup won't be sitting in this layer of water though, it's elevated within the bottle). There are tiny holes throughout the center of the bottle though, but none towards the top, since I don't want the warm air inside to escape (hot air rises, cold air sinks) especially at night. Temperatures will actually be dropping down to 45-ish at night the week I'm gone so hopefully this setup will retain enough heat in the mini greenhouse, and enough humidity, and keep the soil pretty moist for the seedlings, and allow enough light in. I'm going to be putting these in a pretty shaded area under a bush, and the sun barely hits under there. When I get back in a week and a day, I'll hopefully find some germinated/sprouted seedlings and tend to them. Thoughts?
Personally, I think what you did is kinda cool (have never seen that done before). I don't think that it will be a problem as far as the plants germinating and sprouting out of the cups. As far as water goes it should rain and the plants will be able to survive. I have heard of people just taking seeds, planting them in a patch & coming back 3-4 months later to a bunch of almost finished plants. If you think about it nature takes its natural course! Regardless, you will be coming back to tend to them anyways to make sure they grow properly.