Hi Covert, the pads were definitely too wet. I became confused between presoak and germination. I will need to change that next time around. Thanks for the heads up.
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Ahhh, pre-soak, not personal (autocorrect strikes again) 
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Fixed. 
no worries. Happy growing.
Sheesh, fast little beggars aren’t they. First one has spread her wings. Second one is just peeking. The other three shouldn’t be far behind. One could be a little late as I bumped the cup and knocked it over (senior moment I guess). Not sure of any damage to her. I will post pics once all the girls are waving
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Just doing some forward planning here in case… does anyone know the planting time for photo type seeds for South Australia? Alternatively, what month should we anticipate bloom time to start? @Brandy
Turtle,
When it warms up. Temps around 20 C if possible. I wait till start of Dec’. Have those blue cups got good drainage holes?
If autos, try to start in a 3-5 gal container is how I go, or pot on from cardboard jiffy square pots.
Do some reading and stick in the middle of any extreme commentary. Lots of sunshine, protect from wildlife, min’ nutrients, best possible potting mixes and good compost if you can access it. PH your water
good luck
Hi Brandy, thanks for the advice. Wow, Dec, excellent. Yeah, one of the members picked me up on direct planting autos. Rookie error. And I have jiffy pots too😏 I have a compost tumbler that we use constantly so they will get plenty of nutrition.
I forgot the drainage holes, thanks for reminding me, I will fix that error straight away.
Regards Turtle
To turtle,
Remember that when using compost: it must be decayed - completely. Using compost that has not broken down will drain the nutrients from your potting mix, soil etc.
The compost I will use in December has not received any new material since June- July. I let the natural environment do its thing, earthworms plus turning to aid aeration and make sure everything in the mix/pile has broken down.
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Thanks for the heads up Brandy, understood. I actually stopped adding to the tumbler last month (just dumb luck) and I have started a new tub since then. I have also added a heap of work castings and worms to two tubs of good potting soil to get them doing their thang. I was planning to blend in a bag of perlite before potting. Would you recommend that or just go with the natural components?
Usually I buy best potting (Osmocote premium plus eg) mixes, then add 1/3 perlite, 1/3 compost. I go easy on any additional additives. Maybe 3% B&B. The potting mix usually has additional nutrients.
But, this year Im thinking of buying pre mixed from the Hydro stores local. Ive seen great results from others. All the work is done for you.
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Im astounded at how well my peat moss, compost, and perlite blend is working out I suspect I would’ve had even better results if I added 4 tablespoons of this at the beginning for the kelp mykos and humic acid
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Hey Brandy and everyone, I started with the premium potting mix too. My local hydro store doesn’t have any soil based mixes as I was looking for some of the super potting mix also. I will roll with what I have for this grow and keep my eyes open over the months to come. Picked up the perlite today so I will start blending and preparing the pots this weekend as all of the girls are up and about now. One isn’t looking too good as the head is still down and it has been like that for a few days so I am assuming that one has given up. Happy with 4/5 though. The snapshot below shows the change over the last few days. I put some chilli seedlings in under lights to compare against some that I have in the natural sunlight outside. The ones outside are growing much better. I wasn’t confident with the CFL (125watt) so I have switched on the LED (Last night) to see if progress improves. I have it at 50% 300mm (12 inches) above the seedlings. It’s a Mars Hydro Tsl 2000. Temp in the tent is averaging mid 20 degrees at the top. All pots are damp but not wet. More updates soon.
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I assume they’re directly under the light if so you may wanna lower the dimmer closer to 30% ,450-600 is a lil harsh for 1st week (but pretty good for week 2) also if that’s a helmet head in the back you should moisture dome it to soften the shell to help it break free, otherwise looking really good😁
Thanks for the advice. I took a bit of a guess on the setting so I will happily wind it back a tad. The helmet head at the back is the one I am concerned about. I will give a spray to try to soften it and see what happens.
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go in and remove the seed husk with tweezers and a sharp blade, like a surgical scalpel/stanley knife blade. then get it into some sunlight. no point waiting for it to die, it still has a chance.
To avoid in future: Plant seed at least 20 mm depth, cover semi-firm, when seed sprouts, as the plant pushes thru the 20 mm covering the seed husk will be left behind in the mix. I changed to this method after getting tired of having to remove the husks from planting too shallow. they are tough under the right conditions.
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Awesome, thanks for the advice. I was wondering if I could operate on it. I think that must have been the pot I knocked over. I couldn’t find the seed at the time but it must have been amongst the soil that spilt. That would explain why it ended up so shallow. I will make sure they are deeper next time as I didn’t plant them as deep as you anyway. I have a hobby scalpel here so I will try to remove the husk.
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Good luck I did surgery on my 1st girl before I realize 99% moisture naturally helped, my advice go slow and spray it 20 mins before you operate you dont wanna rip the baby leaves
Howdy from Adelaide. I decided to give the kids a day out in the sun today. The difference in growth compared to lights is truly beyond belief. I am on holidays for a few weeks so I will keep giving them a dose of sun every day until they are ready for transplanting. The husk bound seed ended up dying. The good news is that it was a foreigner, perhaps a stray chilli seed from the compost. The best news is that the herb seed came up as the other one died, quite bizarre I know. In 8 hours outside, it’s gone from breaking through to getting its first leaves. There is no true substitute for the sun I guess.
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Hi everyone, it’s been a bit over a week since the last post. The kids are growing okay, two better than the others. Three of them are yellowing at differing degrees. It surprises me that everything isn’t the same as they are under the same lights, in the same soil and share the same water. In case it is nutrient related I have added a very weak solution to the water as of last night so I will monitor that for success. Any feedback is appreciated.
The smell from these tiny plants is astonishing. I was surprised they would give off a scent so small. When I think back to my youth, I can’t imagine what our small 2 bedroom apartment must have smelled like 
We have a noxious vine here called Lantana and the smell of these plants reminds me of the smell from Lantana. The other smell it reminds me of is foxes. Definitely stinky. Can’t wait hehe.
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Hi everyone, latest update on the grow has all plants looking okay. The colour has returned since I transplanted them to overcome the PH imbalance. I was surprised at how well developed the roots were at this early stage. They had completely engulfed the inside of the cup for most plants. As a result there was very little shock time, perhaps several days only. Several plants are barrelling along at around 10mm to 20mm per day for the last few days. Average height is now approx 150mm high (6 inches). Current watering is about half a cup every 3 days (approx, on average). I am looking forward to seeing the changes over the next month.
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