Holy smoly newautoflower man. You got your game on. Smoking deal on the autopot kit. That is a great price. And you got all the other accessories too. And your water should be OK.
From all the things I learned you want to get a fast solid start. And to me the key to a great start is perfect moisture in a good environment/medium. Even if its your first grow in a while, you might need to work out some kinks to get the start right. If you can avoid some errors there from getting some advice, that would be a good thing. Even though you have to learn from your mistakes, if you can prevent mistakes and you know why and how to prevent them, then that is a good as making the mistakes IMO. So I'll pass some stuff on that I think is important enough and worth posting about in a public forum. I learned all I know pretty from slowandeasy on AFN. He's very good an very helpful and generous. You might want to shoot him a PM with some general questions. A year from now you'll probably have a full inbox with content from Slow.
The paper towel germination method is the best method for a newbie. Once you're seasoned maybe you can just germ in the final container. or you might try plugs one day. But to start with its good to use the moist papers. That way you can see the tap root develop instead of it being below ground. Check out Mephistos site and the grow guide and the section on germination. Do that as best you can. I use a heat mat instead of the router box for heat. The short of it is, just moisten the towels. Don't soak them or you'll drown the seeds or it will be really slow to germ. And spray mist them like a little bit once a day to make sure they don't dry out. And keep your heat at 25C right at the seed. Use a digital infrared thermometer to check the temp. after 2 days, 3 tops, you'll have tap roots and its time to move on. It took me months to get this simple thing working right. Its funny, but not funny!
Next phase is all from Slow and it works great and is good for newbies i think. I'll try to be brief too.
Get the 16 oz solo cups and put holes in the bottom for feeding and drainage. I like to use a seedling tray as a cup holder so I don't accidentally spill a solo cup. I cut holes in the plastic dome.
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OMG you have a wealth of knowledge …thank you so much …. If you take this off will I be able to find it again? Yes I got an excellent deal on the autopot system.... I agree I have lots to learn again …. .. just to let you know add an "wo" infront of man .. LOL I am a female just like all my plants will be .. LOL
Load the cups up with 100% coco. Pre charge your coco a couple of days ahead with 1/4 strength grow nutes and water. Don't soak them. This is where everyone fails almost because they over water the seedlings. I did it many times. I would precharge that solo cup 1 day in advance with maybe 3 ounces of feed water. Weigh that cup now so you know how much it weight when just perfectly moist. This is your baseline of how moist to be over the next 10 days.
Put a seed hole in the top of the solo cup with coco about 1/4 inch and drop the seed in with the tap root down. Cover it lightly with coco. Put a clear cup over it as a moisture dome.
Now you are going day to day. What I do is weigh the cups to see how much water is in them multiple times per day. People may not agree with this, but buy a cheap 10 buck moisture meter with the skinny probe and use that as a gauge for how moist the cups are. Between weighing them and metering them you get a good sense. You want the meter to be in the middle for moist. And let it shift to the left as it dries and then add water when it starts to get in the red dry zone. I use the 10 buck meter every day throughout the grow now. Its not 100 percent accurate, but its roughly right and helps you understand. I found the solo cups of coco when moist are about 250 grams. And when they get to the dry point, they are around 220 grams. I'm OCD and anal and I find the meter and weighing saves my ass from over watering.
On roughly the second day to water you want to dunk the bottom of the cup in feed water. Don't top water the cups. Bottom watering promotes the tap root to go down. It also helps prevent over watering. I usually dunk for about 1.5 to 2 seconds and put the cups about 2-3 inches down in the solution, then pull it up.
Between the environment, the moisture domes, your watering, you'll be able to get some solid seedlings that will be the base of the rest of your grow. And what you did about preventing over watering will become a good practice for you all the time. You will be able to read the coco moisture visually, digitally, physically.
man, that is about it. Sorry for rambling on. But there is a lot to know. Couple more pics of the first 10 days.
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...we have all done it
