Hey guys was hoping you all could give me some advice,
This will be my first grow and I wanted to run through my plan so far. Please feel free to share any tweaks you would have along the way.
First, I would soak the seeds in cups of water, covering the tops to prevent moisture from escaping.
After the tail is visible (hopefully in 24-48 hours), I plan on moving them to Jiffy pellets.
From there, I was going to place my pellets in an EarlyGrow propagator where I could ensure humid temps and plant safety as they are still in their infancy.
At this point I do not have a grow light and couldn’t find any of the 36W CFL’s mentioned. So as an alternative I planned to leave my pellets outside in the EarlyGrow container and allow them to soak up as much sunlight as needed. Not sure if they should be on a specific light schedule or if too much sun is bad for freshly sprouted seeds?
Anyway, following a week or so and the sprouting of leaves, I would move the plants to their final homes: 3 gallon smart pots with 80% FFOF and 20% FFLW potting soil. I planned to structure the soil in a way where there would be a well of FFLW (which I would plant the sprouted jiffy pellets into the center of) surrounded by the FFOF, so the initial few weeks of plant growth would be using the FFLW and leave the FFOF full of nutrients for the more mature plant to enjoy.
I read adding perlite and yeast boosts the growth and strength of plant roots so I may add that as well, pending everyone’s opinions.
Not sure if the perlite, yeast and 4:1 FFOF to FFLW ratio is a viable amalgamation? I figured the Light Warrior from Fox Farms would be good for the younger plants as the Oceans Forest may be too much too quick. If that is no good, I can always mix my own soil, but if Fox Farms is a viable alternative to that then why risk it with my inexperience?
After this, I would water the plants as needed, with them getting upwards of 8-10 hours of sunlight a day.
I haven’t done much research into specific techniques or anything following the sprouting and early vegetative stages, so I’m sure there is quite a bit I’m missing. My hope is to maximize this first grow as much as possible and learn all I can so I will be able to come back to my notes and optimize it next time.
In addition I personally would put germinated seed in solo cup (slits on bottom for run off drainage) filled with ff happy frog, and when ready for final home, transplant to ff ocean forest
Use your solo cup to make perfect indention in the ocean forest soil and drop transplant straight into divot you made with solo cup
I’m a fellow Long Islander so I’m going to follow along if your putting the seedlings outside I wouldn’t put them in direct sun for a couple weeks
I’d like to suggest skipping the Jiffy pellets step and going straight into a cup or small pot with your ocean forest on bottom 2/3 and light warrior on top. Light warrior is a peat based product similar in composition to the jiffy pellets and a bit redundant. Neither provide nourishment to your plant so leaving too long in either can stall out growth.
You can start them inside but once they emerge they will benefit from more light. If your only choice is outside then keep them in the shade the first couple weeks and slowly expose them to direct sunlight for another week.
Yes a good quality full spectrum led is perfect try to get one with a dimmer if your only going to use to start seedlings you don’t need to spend a lot of $ but if your planing to use it for a complete grow in the future I would buy the best light I could afford
i ended up getting happy frog instead of light warrior as that’s all my local store had. i will skip the jiffy pellet and just use happy frog in peat pots to sprout then transplant them to their final homes once they’re a few inches tall. i figure that’d be less of a shock for them too.
thanks for your insight
yeah my biggest worry was the transplanting. i am unsure how to handle the relocation of the seedlings, i know you mentioned making an indentation in the soil with the solo cups. but how would you go about moving them out of the solo cups to their final homes?
with the peat pots i planned to peel off the sides before transplanting to final home.
so far i have 9 germinated seeds with four of them already planted in peat pots under 16/8 light. i am going to plant the rest tonight.
It’s not difficult when the plant is large enough usually when the leaves are larger than the cup you can turn the cup over and the plants will come out you mite have to squeeze the cup to loosen it look up Bill Ward on you tube he has videos
Update: 9/10 seeds have sprouted.
I have an 18 inch T5 grow light giving them light 18 hrs a day. So far so good. Only spraying them 2x daily and waiting ab 12 hrs between sprays.
I have some in peat pots and some in solo cups.
They are currently about 3-4 inches from the light as I wanted to prevent any stretching.
It seems the one sprout whose shell still hasn’t been shed is a bit stretched coming in at a little less than 3 inches. Should i be concerned about this or is it normal? How tall do seedlings usually get?
I can add some dirt to its pot or get a fan going at low intensity. All of the other sprouts are the same distance from my light but none of them are as stretched as this guy. They’ve been sprouted for about two days and I have them in happy frog soil w a little added perlite and a small amount of oceans forest at the bottom to give them a little bit of exposure.
My other question is when will i know it’s time to start getting them acclimated to being outside?
Thanks as always guys. Your input is always greatly appreciated.
I’m on roughly the same time line as you with my Sour Diesel Autos and I’m thinking I need to bring the light down as they are both getting tall, they were planted into the jiffy pellets on Friday and sprouted on Monday
So I wanted to try LST on one of mine and FIM the other based on instructions that I saw from @Nicky
Unfortunately I forgot that I should’ve done the LST before a feeding so that the stalk isn’t so stiff and to “massage” the bend area beforehand and a small crack appeared which I have wrapped up with Teflon tape as it would expand and grow with the plant (I’m assuming).
I FIMed the other after watching Nicky’s video and I think it looks correct, feel free to comment if you see this!
Hoping the LST one recovers well from the crack, other than that I think the bend looks similar to examples I’ve seen on here…
