Oh boy, here we go.....my 1st grow in nearly 30 years

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Harpua88

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What the heck is this? Who are these evil people? Terpenes for your weed?

Yeah I know, I'm a few days behind where I should be, and some seedlings have stretched too much. I've found that as long as they stay on track, maybe with some support for a few extra days........once the fan gets on them, sprinkle some extra soil.....they do fine. A few got their domes back just to make sure, and with the sun coming in through all the windows, I might as well just wait foŕ the electrician to do his thing Monday -Tuesday (today is Saturday), I'll have the fire suppression tanks, I can permanent put up both lights (with their pulleys) and start with 1 light at 20%.

Today is day 14 since seeds popped. I'm considering 12 gallon pots indeed of 10 gallon. I want them to have plenty of root space.I'll buy like, 20 of those roller platforms too. I'm looking at pots that are more wide tha tall to maximize vertical space. In the next few days I'll tske count of which ones didn't make it (every cup is numbered). I hope to switch to flower March 15th but they may need longer than that.

Oh, the cuttings.......I've been lucky enough to acquire some Divine Banana. My 1st attempt ever at working with cuttings. It's as good a time as any to tackle this, and hopefully 1 will go outside this spring. If I don’t kill them. :(. I'm not using sny rooting formula or anything, just fluffy wet soil snd a makeshift humid dome.....

I'll get there, and tighten my game. This is why this 1st run is about shaking the rust off and working through the mistakes......

 
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Harpua88

Harpua88

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Fire suppression tanks. They're small......probably the size of a very thick cell phone. No wonder people put them in/on their car engines......but how much is really needed? It's under pressure, there's plenty of foam or whatever it is to put out a fire probably 2ft x 2ft. And these things will pop way before it gets that big.
 
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oldmanmurph

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It's kind of like I need to do the reverse of what I most want to grow. First if all I need the practice. I'm proficient at it, but it's been avwhile. I'm not going to start with rare Thai, or finicky ones, or DJ Short stuff.......I want to start mostly with building blocks, and work my way up and into more intriguing atrains and crosses.
Big bud is really a nice starting point - I myself lost my original big bud a long time ago - finding an older one has been difficult
 
Harpua88

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Just checking in, I'll get a couple of pictures in soon, like I said, pictures of various seedling stages is not exactly exciting. I said from the very beginning that I'll be making plenty of mistakes and shaking a lot of rust off........so far nothing groundbreaking but I've definitely done a few things to slow myself down. Some of it is out of my control, I could have simply waited until March 10th to start when everything was 100% on point, but I wanted to get going already. And this is why I'm running mostly "practice seeds" this first round, and not the better, more difficult, sativas and heirlooms varieties yet......it's also why I started a lot of seeds. Twice as many as I'll probably run after things get rolling.

Because of that, it's time to say goodbye to probably 30 or more weak, stunted, deformed, genetically inferior.......gone. It's one thing to be 10+ days behind, smaller than they should be because of various mistakes I've made, or circumstances beyond my control.......temps a good 8-10 degrees below where they should be....but there's no accounting for half of these except for bad genetics, weak seeds, immature.....and I knew it when I got them, I knew they weren't big and dark and strong. I've already given my own bad reviews for a few, but tomorrow when I can pinpoint which ones are truly garbage seeds, I'll have a few more choice words..... ;)

Other than that, other than being aboout a week+ slower/smaller than they should be, I'm on solid track. The fire suppression tanks will be installed soon, then the lights put permanently in place (on pulleys), and we'll keep rolling along.
 
Harpua88

Harpua88

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Before I post a picture of my seedlings that now qualify for senior citizen discounts..... ;)

Fun
 
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Harpua88

Harpua88

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By the way, that other thread is friggin' hilarious. I think this is THC Farmer, not ammose...ual farmer.... ;)
 
Harpua88

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Did I post this in the wrong spot?

Anyway, poor things. Like 25 days old. They should be twice the size. :(. All good. Once I transplant and put the 2 big lights up and get the temp up from the 60s to 70s......I have to wait for the electrician to finish next week. Then they'll take off.....

Other pics of water line in the closet, 5 Divine Banana cuttings that I'm shocked are actually making it, these cool little grow light/lamps, and a small mist heater.

There's a few really small ones.....those are the dang freebie Autos. Figures.

Down to 40. Will reduce to 30 that will go into full veg when the big lights finally get up.
 
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Harpua88

Harpua88

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Getting ready for transplanting in a vouple of weeks........I bought 20 of these 11-gallon pots. They're rubber, strong but light weight, and they have handles. But i also got these wheely roller platforms. I don't know if 11 gallons per pot is enough to let them finish around 4ft tall each. I'll have to judge as things develop for this first run. It seems right but we'll see. 6' x 12' closet, the ceiling is about 8feet high.......the light boards are pretty thin but they'll need some space above so if they hang 7 feet up and with the pots the plants finish at 5 feet, that means 2 feet of space from the tops........this is given no bending at all and I'm sure I'll do some bending. Maybe short Indicas I'll leave alone but prune sativas and hybrids according to their stretch potential. I'll learn a lot more during this first run. There's some nice variety, even if I get one decent skunk, a blueberry, a white widow, a mazar, one or two of the strawberry widow x Indicas I made this summer, and the divine banana cuttings, I'm hoping one of these toad kill skunks will be a female.......we'll see.
 
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Harpua88

Harpua88

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No one likes my grow journal any more.... :(. Wait, GreenGalaxy is here....

Just kidding, and I said I wasn't gonna post 100 pictures of seedlings day after day. After this grow and I shake off the rust, things will get tighter and more focused. Still loose and fun......but the growing part will get better and tighter.....after this we'll have the summer/outdoor plants. That should be cool because I'll let a Sativa get to 15 feet, a hybrid to 10 feet, and a couple of Indicas in their full shape and glory. I'm torn. Part of me is rooting for a fall like last year where I harvested by Nov 1st. But that means another unnatural, global warming year. It means another year of a big fake ladybug swarm, and it means another hot, humid summer and fall in New York City, where it still goes to 90 in September, still hits 80 in October, and November is eerily the way September used to be..... :(

After the summer, I'll get a real indoor schedule going, with hopefully 3 full grows with full maturity from Sept 15th through June 15th.

So next up now is taking these ancient seedlings that are so old, cave men wrote on walls about how I sprouted in paper towels, and it was in the 60s........and they laughed and laughed.......as cave people do. Cave women too, they also laugh at me....

So sometime in the next week these will all be transplanted.....actually only 20 of the best ones will be transplanted, hopefully with the same full variety that I planted, including various Skunks, Blueberry, Mazar, White Widow, my Strawberry/Widow x Indica, Road Kill Skunk, these Divine Banana cuttings, and a few other interesting varieties. The electrician is coming on Monday to finish all the work, we will hang the 2 Scorpion lights, the Diablo and the Rspec, I'm ordering a UVB light to work in later this month, and 20 of these best pnes will be transplanted into the 11 gallon pots, put on saucers, then on the wheels, everything else will be moved out of the closet except for the water line, the mist heater, and a fan. Mylar will be wrapped around. 2 fire suppression tanks/balls will be placed above the lights in the ceiling below the next floor. There is already natural cooling and air flow, the basement has never gone above 69 degrees at the highest even at the end days of summer. Right now in the adjacent fun part of the basement it's 58 degrees and 25% humidity. It's like a movie theater.......with an actual movie theater......even in July and August we put on a sweatshirt to watch TV or listen to the stereo or......whatever else we do down here.... :). It can be 94 degrees for 3 days in a row in August, and it will still be 66 degrees and dry in the basement. We also have a dehumidifier that runs in the summer.

Above the closet all around the ceiling it's open.......enough to let air flow freely up and out, but not enough to let light in. I'm not worried because no other lights will be on in the boiler area anyway. When I set up the 6' x 6' seedling/veg starter area/ overflow area next year outside the closet, I'll probably have to block that side so there won't be any light leaking into the closet during flowering.

So by next week, there will be 20 11gallon pots in the otherwise empty closet, the 2 large lights will be hung, with probably 3feet of diatance to start, and at 20% power. I will probably only run the Diablo light for the first week or so, run it up to 100% over a couple of weeks or so, then add the RSpec at 40%, run that up to 100% over a couple more weeks.......then......flip.

I'm excited. :)
 
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TSD

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I'm here... but only if you follow my diaries back. 🤣 Just started my outdoor one. There's only a few folks that follow diaries, so they're usually pretty low traffic affairs. We like the juicy stuff, like watching someone crash and burn... then somehow recover with advice from the forum... or not. 🤣
 
Harpua88

Harpua88

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Oh, another thing I'll be doing......writing emails to the companies that sent me weak, light seeds, half of which ended up bizzare, stunted, weak......and I know the difference. I'm already allowing for my part in things. And really, I am not a big complainer, that's not my thing.
 
TSD

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Oh, another thing I'll be doing......writing emails to the companies that sent me weak, light seeds, half of which ended up bizzare, stunted, weak......and I know the difference. I'm already allowing for my part in things. And really, I am not a big complainer, that's not my thing.
Oh I've definitely complained over no pops. I have a few that look questionable in seed form, but ya never know!
 
Harpua88

Harpua88

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Oh I've definitely complained over no pops. I have a few that look questionable in seed form, but ya never know!
What's astounding is that I had a very high pop rate. It's the low quality of them that's upsetting, although I kind of knew it, and that's why I planted so many.......to really thin out the ones that didn't measure up. I ended up planting about 100. I'm down to 40 right now. And I'm good with that for all these reasons. This is my "burn through the lowest quality seeds from all the sub-par seed banks" run. Besides shaking the rust off. I literally haven't grown since like '94.
 
Harpua88

Harpua88

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By the way, what's Toad Kill Skunk? That can't be very good..... ;)
 
TSD

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I don't have the patience to look after 100 seedlings... or the space... or the pots and dirt... or the seeds lol.
 
Madbud

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Its a lot of compounded mistakes. Paper towels instead of soak, peat cups instead of solo cups and heat/humidity that barely keeps them alive. But they will make it eventually, especially if you get those numbers up to 80° 60%.
 
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