Damn, that's a sweet light- 480 watts should crank out some real beauties!
420 Magazine's Official Girl Scout Cookies Comparative Grow By Beez0404
- Thread starter beez0404
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- #42
@Carcass I know right! I thought it would be a nice light but had no clue it would be that nice. Crazy but I'm really anxious to see the temp in the tent with the driver located outside of the tent. So nice of them to send the extra cord to enable me/you/us to choose where to locate it.
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- #43
Well here we go! The grow has officially begun. Six Girl Scout Cookies seeds from @Weed Seeds Express have been thoroughly scarified and placed into hempy/perlite solo cups to germinate. Some of you might be thinking to yourself "what? hempy solo cup? What the heck is that"? Well I'm here to tell you about this amazing method of germinating your seeds. I learned this about 2.5 years ago from a member of 420 Magazine. At the time she swore by it and years later I do too. But I don't want to get ahead of myself here. I want to do this in a manner that is as informative as possible. I want to start with the seeds. Now I will say this, the GSC seeds I received are a bit lighter in color then seeds I would typically germinate and that's okay as long as they sprout and I'm hopeful they will. I chose what I felt was the nicest 6 seeds I had and will be selecting the four (4) healthiest and best looking plants to make the final cut to continue into the grow. Here are the six seeds chosen for the project.
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- #44
Prior to planting the seeds into the hempy solo cups I scarify the heck out of them to remove any resins that might prevent the seeds from absorbing moisture or opening when the time comes. Below is a picture of a small Nexium plastic bottle which is filled about halfway with white beach sand. I drop the seeds inside, put on the lid and shake shake shake till my arm hurts. I find the better I scarify them the better the seeds sprout.
And finally here is a photo of the six seeds after being scarified. They are now ready to be planted into the perlite cups.
And finally here is a photo of the six seeds after being scarified. They are now ready to be planted into the perlite cups.
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- #45
If you think you might like to try the hempy solo cup germination method the list of needed items is a short one.
You will need red solo cups, clear solo, perlite and magic marker. I use a seedling heating mat and believe it's really helpful but if you can locate another area that is nice and warm to start these it would work okay I'm sure. To start you need to prep your red solo cups by putting a small hole approximately 1 inch up from the bottom of the cup. I make my holes 5/16" in size but you can go a little bigger or a little smaller if you choose. The way I make my holes is by heating up a fired shell casing and then melting the hole in the plastic. You'll end up with something like this.
You will need red solo cups, clear solo, perlite and magic marker. I use a seedling heating mat and believe it's really helpful but if you can locate another area that is nice and warm to start these it would work okay I'm sure. To start you need to prep your red solo cups by putting a small hole approximately 1 inch up from the bottom of the cup. I make my holes 5/16" in size but you can go a little bigger or a little smaller if you choose. The way I make my holes is by heating up a fired shell casing and then melting the hole in the plastic. You'll end up with something like this.
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- #46
At this point I want to share with you why this is my go to method of germinating seeds. To me it just makes really good sense. For a seed to germinate it needs moisture and oxygen. I used to dunk my seeds into a glass of water for 24 hours or so and when they sunk put them between two sheets of paper towels that were soaked with water. This was then put into a baggie and set on top of my (at the time) cable TV box to keep them warm. The problem with this method (and I know I know it does work) in my opinion is that the seeds don't get enough oxygen and can sometimes be too wet. So think about how the hempy solo cup method works. First you put the reservoir holes in the bottom of the solo cups. That's right the area below the hole is the reservoir. The perlite has the ability to draw the water upward in a wicking fashion keeping it moist but not soaking wet. And there is no standing water except in the reservoir. So the perlite has air flowing between each piece making oxygen readily available to the seeds. Once the holes are made you're ready to go and here is how I do it.
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- #47
Moving on, I soak the perlite the night prior to planting the seeds. I have a regular nutrient product I mix with water and use to soak the perlite. As I am using the @Prescription Blend nutrient line for this grow I had to do some figuring and came up with this. I started with 1/2 cup (118ml) of water. To that I added 10 ml of Kelp-Ful, 5 ml of Core B and 5 ml of Core B and stirred it up very well. I then poured the mix across the top of the perlite slowly trying to wet as much of it as possible. Watch the hole and as soon as you see runoff from the reservoir stop, it's filled. I did this to all three cups and then let them sit overnight. The perlite does actually wick up the water and absorb it. Today I tip each cup to pour just a tiny bit out basically so I don't spill any. In the photo above you can see there are two holes. These are right about 1/4 inch deep and these are where you plant the seeds. It is important to get the seeds laying on their sides instead of with one end or the other pointing down. As they make their way to the surface orienting your seeds sideways gives them more friction to help remove the shell casing and membrane. So put your seeds one in each hole and gently pack the perlite down. Three cups with two seeds in each.
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- #48
The cups are then placed on to the heat mat. To help keep the humidity up and trap some warmth in the cups I mist the inside of the clear solo cups and flip them over and use them like domes. If they are really close in size at the top and hard to get to stay in place you can use a piece of scotch or other form of tape.
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- #49
Put the clear cups on top of the red cups and you are finished. The average time from plant seeds to when they sprout using this method is 3-4 days. It would be really unusual to see any sprout prior to 3 days. Good healthy seeds will almost always sprout prior to 4 days. One nice thing about this method is you can use a toothpick or pair of tweezers and very gently push the perlite to the side to check on the seeds after a couple days.
In summary I have had some seeds (and still do have) that just will not sprout using the paper towel method. But they will sprout in the hempy solo cups. That's why I use the hempy cups. If this is helpful to at least one person then I feel rewarded and justified for boring ya'll with this lengthy schpeel.
We'll see where we stand in 3-4 days.
In summary I have had some seeds (and still do have) that just will not sprout using the paper towel method. But they will sprout in the hempy solo cups. That's why I use the hempy cups. If this is helpful to at least one person then I feel rewarded and justified for boring ya'll with this lengthy schpeel.
We'll see where we stand in 3-4 days.
Hi beez.
Are you planning a hempy grow for the whole thing or just for the germination part?
Are you planning a hempy grow for the whole thing or just for the germination part?
Bud Love
Well-Known Member
Brill that @beez0404Put the clear cups on top of the red cups and you are finished. The average time from plant seeds to when they sprout using this method is 3-4 days. It would be really unusual to see any sprout prior to 3 days. Good healthy seeds will almost always sprout prior to 4 days. One nice thing about this method is you can use a toothpick or pair of tweezers and very gently push the perlite to the side to check on the seeds after a couple days.
In summary I have had some seeds (and still do have) that just will not sprout using the paper towel method. But they will sprout in the hempy solo cups. That's why I use the hempy cups. If this is helpful to at least one person then I feel rewarded and justified for boring ya'll with this lengthy schpeel.
We'll see where we stand in 3-4 days.
Hope you don’t mind me stopping by.
Never knew you could do it any other way than with the paper towel.
thanks for the info
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- #52
Hey @HashGirl just to germinate the plants then they will be moved to my homemade soilless medium to veg and flower.
Great explanation on the hempy germination. 
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- #54
Thanks buddy!
Great info beez. What is your homemade soil-less medium?
....Nice...Oh yea! My FC 480 pulls 520 watts at 100% power. Careful
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- #57
@ProfessorFlora I have been wanting to learn how to grow bigger and better yielding autos and was finding they did not grow as big in my Coots organic soil. I don't know the scientific reason for it but I did prove to myself that my autos grow much bigger in Pro Mix and fed MC. But around here the Pro Mix is REALLY expensive so I started making my own version and it works really great. For me all the Pro Mix does it hold on to the moisture and makes the nutrients available to the roots. That's it, all it does. So here is my very simple recipe for soilless medium that does that same job.
I mix it up in 15 gallon batches which I do in big 40 gallon totes I buy at Wal-Mart. The ingredients list is very short.
The first ingredient is Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss. It MUST be Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss, if it's regular old peat moss it's garbage and a waste of good money. Canadian Sphagnum is so much better.
10 Gallons of Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss
Next ingredient is Perlite. I look for the medium sized perlite and get the big bags when you can find them. It's so much cheaper. I buy mine at a farm supply place that sells seeds, hay, mulch, plants....you know the kind of place I mean. Probably could find it at a plant nursery business. Might not be an item they stock to sell but maybe could get you a bag when they order for themselves. Anyway................
4.5 - 5 Gallons of medium Perlite
The third ingredient is Espoma Organic Garden Lime which I buy at Tractor Supply. I think you can probably guy it at Wal-Mart or Lowes. This helps balance the PH of the medium.
4 level cups of Organic Garden Lime
The final ingredient is mycorrhizae to greatly enhance the building of the root structure. I won't mention the brand I use because we have a sponsor who sells this same product. I did reach out to @DYNOMYCO but never heard back from them. Their product does look very good.
3 level cups of Mycorrhizae.
And that's it pretty much. I do moisten it but not soaking wet. I mix and mix and mix prior to adding water. You end up with a medium with very good aeration with the perlite. The sphagnum peat moss really holds on to the water nicely and thus holds onto the MC making it easily accessible to the roots which are prolific because of the mycorrhizae and the lime helps balance the PH.
Soilless Medium recipe for 15 Gallon batch
10 Gallons Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss
4.5 - 5 Gallons Medium perlite
4 Level Cups Organic Garden Lime
3 Level Cups Mycorrhizae
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- #58
Oy Vey
Kismet
Well-Known Member
Nice journal per usual and a reminder. Tried popping a couple of beans and forgot to precharge the medium. They sprouted but passed on to the other side.
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- #60
One of the nice things about germinating your seeds in the hempy/perlite solo cups is you can use tweezers or a toothpick or something similar to gently move the perlite away and look at the seeds. As I mentioned I started six and will be growing out the best four. I just peeked and I have four with tails and two kicked back with margaritas in their little seed hands with no tails showing.
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