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I tried using the Grow Journal feature, but I really just prefer a linear thread, so I'm going to move my first grow stuff here.
Lights: Mars-Hydro SP3000 (300 watts, Dr. Coco sold me on this)
Tent: 2x4x6
Air Movement: AC Infinity Cloudline T4 (passive intake, AC infinity carbon filter), two Hurricane clip-on fans
Soil: 4:1 Fox Farm Ocean Forest / Fox Farm Light Warrior
Pots: Two 5-gallon cloth pots, one 3-gallon cloth pot
Nutes/additives: Just Fish Sh!t to start, will consider adding FF nutes after three or four weeks
Water: I'm starting with bottled purified water, but I want to transition to filtered tap water, see below
Strains: Vision Seeds White Widow autofem / Seedsman Purple Punch autofem
I'd planned on starting with two plants: Vision Seeds' White Widow and Fast Buds Northern Lights. I figured it made sense to start with classics. Unfortunately my Fast Buds are lost in the mail, so I'm substituting Purple Punch from a few freebies I got. I later decided to go with three plants, as I mention below.
Saturday, April 3
So much second guessing! I had originally planned to just germinate my seeds in the soil, but because my Fast Buds didn't come and I'm planting a freebie, I thought it would be better to germinate in paper towels just to make sure they pop. I soaked one Vision White Widow and one Seedsman Purple Punch overnight in cups of distilled water.
I've been reading some of @Mcdee's, @WildBill's and @TekkoN's posts and I'm now inspired to record my misadventures here on AFN.
Sunday, April 4
It's funny -- there are so many videos about how to germinate seeds in paper towels, and none of them seem take the same approach. Maybe that just means they pretty much all work. I went with this one, but later in the day, after watching some others, I decided my paper towels were too wet. I swapped them out for less-wet paper towels, and I think it was the right thing to do. I'm germing them in a closet and the conditions are in the image below.
Monday, April 5
No movement on the seeds. I'm second guessing the idea of closing the bag on the germinating seeds, as I don't really see that in other places than in this video, so now I've unsealed it. The baggie is still puffed up though. I've probably fucked with them too much. I'm leaving them alone now, will just check in on them every 12 hours and hope they pop.
I've decided to grow three plants instead of two -- I feel like my 2 x 4 x 6 and SP3000 can accommodate comfortably -- and for the third, I'm doing it in a 3-gallon cloth pot instead of a 5-gallon like the others. So for this grow I'll hopefully have:
Purple Punch (Seedsman): germinated in paper towels, 5 gallon cloth pot
Purple Punch (Seedsman): germinated in soil, 3 gallon cloth pot
White Widow (Vision Seeds): germinated in paper towels, 5 gallon cloth pot
If both PPs are successful, I'll probably try to let one them go a bit longer to have a higher percentage of amber trikes so I can really test the difference. I like a good night-cap bud.
I've watered the 3-gallon pot with purified water to runoff, let it settle for a few hours, and now I have a bean in the soil. Same mix as the others: About 4:1 FFOF and FFLW, with a cup or so of Light Warrior in the top center for the seed to germ in.
I really want to be able to use my tap water for this grow. Maybe eventually I'll try RO, but I've maxed out my budget at this point. I believe I would be okay if I leave it out for a day or two to dechlorinate and then PH it down. I'd love any feedback on this water report from my utility board. Can I get by with a TDS PPM of 205? Anything you'd be worried about (other than the accuracy of the report)?
I've decided to just use my SP3000 lights as Mars Hydro suggests. Some guy online suggests 100% at 36", but MH says to germ at 30% 12"-18", so I've got the lights at about 14" above the soil and 30% and will see how things go.
Today I added some risers to get the pots off of the concrete floor and give them some air underneath. I have the 3-gallon pot at the same height as the bigger ones. I also added a Hurricane fan to get air moving, and I've figured out the Cloudline T4 inline fan. I read where some dude somewhere said cloth pots should really be elevated above the tray so that when watering to runoff, the bag doesn't reabsorb the water. He said it's waste and should be removed. I assume that is not the case now, before the plants are growing, but I'd love to get some feedback on whether y'all do this or not at any stage in your grows.
Here are my current conditions. My Cloudline probe and my Govee hydrometer are within a point of each other in both metrics, so i feel confident I know my tent conditions. I feel pretty good about them, and my basement stays remarkably consistent from season to season. I'm going to shoot for 78 degrees and 60-70% humidity during the seedling stage, and I think I can swing it with periodic use of my humidifier and that Cloudline keeping it in check. I've seen a lot of differing opinions on humidity range during the seedling stage, but I'll give this a go and adjust if it seems necessary.
One last thing. I currently have my extraction going into my basement where my tent is located. It's a really big basement (like 25' X 50', totally open with no walls, air conditioned), so i don't feel like it would really be recycling extracted air too badly, but I'm still planning on building a window insert to extract it outside to a window that is not visible from outside of my privacy fence. Would you do this, or not bother, given the size of the space?
Anyway, I'm in a prohibition state and have nobody to talk to about this -- my wife is tired of hearing about it, I think -- so hopefully some of y'all will chip in some advice for this genuine newb along the way. More posts to come....
Lights: Mars-Hydro SP3000 (300 watts, Dr. Coco sold me on this)
Tent: 2x4x6
Air Movement: AC Infinity Cloudline T4 (passive intake, AC infinity carbon filter), two Hurricane clip-on fans
Soil: 4:1 Fox Farm Ocean Forest / Fox Farm Light Warrior
Pots: Two 5-gallon cloth pots, one 3-gallon cloth pot
Nutes/additives: Just Fish Sh!t to start, will consider adding FF nutes after three or four weeks
Water: I'm starting with bottled purified water, but I want to transition to filtered tap water, see below
Strains: Vision Seeds White Widow autofem / Seedsman Purple Punch autofem
I'd planned on starting with two plants: Vision Seeds' White Widow and Fast Buds Northern Lights. I figured it made sense to start with classics. Unfortunately my Fast Buds are lost in the mail, so I'm substituting Purple Punch from a few freebies I got. I later decided to go with three plants, as I mention below.
Saturday, April 3
So much second guessing! I had originally planned to just germinate my seeds in the soil, but because my Fast Buds didn't come and I'm planting a freebie, I thought it would be better to germinate in paper towels just to make sure they pop. I soaked one Vision White Widow and one Seedsman Purple Punch overnight in cups of distilled water.
I've been reading some of @Mcdee's, @WildBill's and @TekkoN's posts and I'm now inspired to record my misadventures here on AFN.
Sunday, April 4
It's funny -- there are so many videos about how to germinate seeds in paper towels, and none of them seem take the same approach. Maybe that just means they pretty much all work. I went with this one, but later in the day, after watching some others, I decided my paper towels were too wet. I swapped them out for less-wet paper towels, and I think it was the right thing to do. I'm germing them in a closet and the conditions are in the image below.
Monday, April 5
No movement on the seeds. I'm second guessing the idea of closing the bag on the germinating seeds, as I don't really see that in other places than in this video, so now I've unsealed it. The baggie is still puffed up though. I've probably fucked with them too much. I'm leaving them alone now, will just check in on them every 12 hours and hope they pop.
I've decided to grow three plants instead of two -- I feel like my 2 x 4 x 6 and SP3000 can accommodate comfortably -- and for the third, I'm doing it in a 3-gallon cloth pot instead of a 5-gallon like the others. So for this grow I'll hopefully have:
Purple Punch (Seedsman): germinated in paper towels, 5 gallon cloth pot
Purple Punch (Seedsman): germinated in soil, 3 gallon cloth pot
White Widow (Vision Seeds): germinated in paper towels, 5 gallon cloth pot
If both PPs are successful, I'll probably try to let one them go a bit longer to have a higher percentage of amber trikes so I can really test the difference. I like a good night-cap bud.
I've watered the 3-gallon pot with purified water to runoff, let it settle for a few hours, and now I have a bean in the soil. Same mix as the others: About 4:1 FFOF and FFLW, with a cup or so of Light Warrior in the top center for the seed to germ in.
I really want to be able to use my tap water for this grow. Maybe eventually I'll try RO, but I've maxed out my budget at this point. I believe I would be okay if I leave it out for a day or two to dechlorinate and then PH it down. I'd love any feedback on this water report from my utility board. Can I get by with a TDS PPM of 205? Anything you'd be worried about (other than the accuracy of the report)?
I've decided to just use my SP3000 lights as Mars Hydro suggests. Some guy online suggests 100% at 36", but MH says to germ at 30% 12"-18", so I've got the lights at about 14" above the soil and 30% and will see how things go.
Today I added some risers to get the pots off of the concrete floor and give them some air underneath. I have the 3-gallon pot at the same height as the bigger ones. I also added a Hurricane fan to get air moving, and I've figured out the Cloudline T4 inline fan. I read where some dude somewhere said cloth pots should really be elevated above the tray so that when watering to runoff, the bag doesn't reabsorb the water. He said it's waste and should be removed. I assume that is not the case now, before the plants are growing, but I'd love to get some feedback on whether y'all do this or not at any stage in your grows.
Here are my current conditions. My Cloudline probe and my Govee hydrometer are within a point of each other in both metrics, so i feel confident I know my tent conditions. I feel pretty good about them, and my basement stays remarkably consistent from season to season. I'm going to shoot for 78 degrees and 60-70% humidity during the seedling stage, and I think I can swing it with periodic use of my humidifier and that Cloudline keeping it in check. I've seen a lot of differing opinions on humidity range during the seedling stage, but I'll give this a go and adjust if it seems necessary.
One last thing. I currently have my extraction going into my basement where my tent is located. It's a really big basement (like 25' X 50', totally open with no walls, air conditioned), so i don't feel like it would really be recycling extracted air too badly, but I'm still planning on building a window insert to extract it outside to a window that is not visible from outside of my privacy fence. Would you do this, or not bother, given the size of the space?
Anyway, I'm in a prohibition state and have nobody to talk to about this -- my wife is tired of hearing about it, I think -- so hopefully some of y'all will chip in some advice for this genuine newb along the way. More posts to come....
