First grow - Here's my setup and plan! Feedback wanted

[Apexsmoker420]

First off let me say thank you to all tips, replies, and checking out this thread!

Strain: White Widow 12x

Indoor grow

Tent: 6.5"x6.5"x6.5"
Media: soil (FF ocean forest 50%, perlite 25%, vermiculite 25%)

Nutes: GH Floral series
PH up and down
2 0z Superthrive
GH CaliMagic

Lighting: 2x 600w air cooled digital dimming MH bulbs for Veg and HPS bulbs for flower
2x 400w CFL for germination and seedling stage

Ventilation: 440cfm 6" fan with carbon filter

Controls: Autopilot Master digital timer


So my plan is to Germinate 4 seeds using cup of water method, 4 seeds planted directly into soil, 4 seeds into a Propagation kit. My reasoning for different method is purely experimental.

Cup of water method: I'm going to place 4 seeds in a cup of distilled water mixed with rapid start. then cover.
Once seeds sprout they will be place 1/2" deep in solo cup of media in 24 hours place
under CFL lighting
Direct Plant: seeds planted 1/2" deep in solo cup of media mix with rooting hormone and superthrive added. Cups
then placed under CFL lighting
Propagation kit: soak the cubes in distilled water with rapid start added for and hour. 45 min after cubes are
soaking place seeds in cup of distilled water with rapid start added. Gently squeeze excess water
out then place seeds in cubes place cover on and heat mat under. Place under CFL in 24-36 hours
In a week or so seedling get transplanted into soil.

CFL lighting will be 18/6

after two weeks Solo cups will be transplanted into 3 gal prune fabric pots. Then I will Feed/Water/Feed according to GH Nute tables.
I will be training and topping when time comes
also all water will be Ph'ed to 5.8-6.2


Once again thank you for reading and any and all tips, hints, ideas are always welcome.

 

[Scientific]

Hi AS -- Looks like a carefully worked out plan. Reading it, I came up with just a few comments.

Soil: 50% drainage/aeration material strikes me, personally, as excessive--that's more than is needed for drainage and oxygen exchange and starts to look more like a coco coir grow (i.e. non-nutritive matrix for roots with hydroponic solution adding nutes periodically). Nothing wrong with that (I love coco!), but if you're thinking soil, I would think that just 20 or 30% perlite should be plenty. That way you actually have significant amounts of soil.

Superthrive: Personally, I'm skeptical of the value of giving plants vitamins. (FloraSeries and CALiMAGic are great.) Hey, since you're experimentally minded, maybe give it to half the plants and not the others and then post results?

Experimenting with germination methods: All for experimentation!

Propagation kit: If the "cubes" are rock wool, scrap that plan and use Rapid Rooters instead. (RR very popular for a reason.) Rock wool is old technology that has glass fibers that are bad to breathe. You say you're going to "squeeze" excess H2O: If you are using rock wool, never squeeze it, just shake it or whatever to get rid of excess water (which you must do with RW lest you drown the seedling). Squeezing, I understand, damages the rock wool by compressing it in a bad way that it does not recover from. (But again, RW=bad. )

Distilled water: Not necessary for seeds. Neither is peroxide, chlorine, or any other treatments.

Solo cups for 2 weeks: Common, but a bad idea because people leave plants in them too long. If you must use solo cups, use clear ones so you can see when the tap root hits the bottom and starts circling. The tap root will do this very quickly. A 2" tall seedling can have a 6" long root. As soon as the tap root starts circling, you have a non ideal grow. Solo cups have a big following, as if they have some majikal properteez, but when that tap root hits plastic, it's non ideal. Either get it out of the cup fast or skip that step. (Minority opinion, but I think I'm right. At the very least, DON'T HAVE A 2 WEEK OLD PLANT IN A SOLO CUP WITH ROOTS CIRCLING THE BOTTOM.)

Water: I didn't see anything about what your water looks like, hard or soft, how many PPM. If you're not using reverse osmosis water, you should know the characteristics of your water. Really important.

Power Tools: You should have a pH meter (and know how to use it, maintain it, and calibrate it), pH 7.0 calibration solution, and a PPM meter and track and record pH and PPM of fluids entering and exiting--very useful info.

My .03. Good luck and have fun!

 

[KevinL]

What's up, sounds like you got a great plan! Smart thinking to try different germ methods to see what fits you, good luck. I'm sure you'll kill it

 

[Apexsmoker420]

Hi AS -- Looks like a carefully worked out plan. Reading it, I came up with just a few comments.

Soil: 50% drainage/aeration material strikes me, personally, as excessive--that's more than is needed for drainage and oxygen exchange and starts to look more like a coco coir grow. Nothing wrong with that, but if you're thinking soil, I would think that just 20 or 30% perlite should be plenty. That way you actually have significant amounts of soil.

Superthrive: Personally, I'm skeptical of the value of giving plants vitamins. (FloraSeries and CALiMAGic are great.)

Experimenting with germination methods: All for experimentation!

Propagation kit: If the "cubes" are rock wool, scrap that plan and use Rapid Rooters instead. Rock wool is old technology that has glass fibers that are bad to breathe. You say you're going to "squeeze" excess H2O: If you are using rock wool, never squeeze it, just shake it or whatever to get rid of excess water (which you must do with RW lest you drown the seedling). Squeezing, I understand, damages the rock wool by compressing it in a bad way that it does not recover from. (But again, RW=bad. )

Distilled water: Not necessary for seeds. Neither is peroxide, chlorine, or any other treatments.

Solo cups for 2 weeks: Common, but a bad idea because people leave plants in them too long. If you must use solo cups, use clear ones so you can see when the tap root hits the bottom and starts circling. The tap root will do this very quickly. A 2" tall seedling can have a 6" long root. As soon as the tap root starts circling, you have a non ideal grow. Solo cups have a big following, as if they have some majikal properteez, but when that tap root hits plastic, it's non ideal. Either get it out of the cup fast or skip that step. (Minority opinion, but I think I'm right. At the very least, DON'T HAVE A 2 WEEK OLD PLANT IN A SOLO CUP WITH ROOTS CIRCLING THE BOTTOM.)

Water: I didn't see anything about what your water looks like, hard or soft, how many PPM. If you're not using reverse osmosis water, you should know the characteristics of your water. Really important.

Power Tools: You should have a pH meter (and know how to use it, maintain it, and calibrate it), pH 7.0 calibration solution, and a PPM meter and track and record pH and PPM of fluids entering and exiting--very useful info.

My .03. Good luck and have fun!

thanks for the comments definitely good stuff!

I wasn't exactly sure on the soil mixture amounts so thanks for that
the "cubes" are rapid rooters just couldn't think the name at the moment.

I'm planning on using distilled water throughout my grow. I just tested my water today my city water is 82ppm my well 76ppm as far as hard or soft, umm... I don't have a water softener . I'm leaving for a couple weeks for work tomorrow so I'm thinking when I get back I'm going to put an RO system on my well.

Also yes I do have a ppm meter and ph meter also a have a temp/humidity monitor but going to get two more.

 

[Scientific]

thanks for the comments definitely good stuff!

I wasn't exactly sure on the soil mixture amounts so thanks for that
the "cubes" are rapid rooters just couldn't think the name at the moment.

I'm planning on using distilled water throughout my grow. I just tested my water today my city water is 82ppm my well 76ppm as far as hard or soft, umm... I don't have a water softener . I'm leaving for a couple weeks for work tomorrow so I'm thinking when I get back I'm going to put an RO system on my well.

Also yes I do have a ppm meter and ph meter also a have a temp/humidity monitor but going to get two more.

Great. Glad to hear it's Rapid Rooters.

Distilled water is kind of expensive. Maybe just fill a jug with RO at WalMart? And 80ish PPM is not terrribly hard. It might even work as a Ca/Mg supplement. Or maybe mix your purified water 50/50 with tap water? Your local water utility's website might be able to tell you what's in your water as far as Ca and Mg, though after Flint they seem much more interested in reporting the poisonous stuff. Sometimes you can call and a water chemist can tell you. You're their customer, so make 'em do their job!

Good luck and have fun.

 

[Apexsmoker420]

Great. Glad to hear it's Rapid Rooters.

Distilled water is kind of expensive. Maybe just fill a jug with RO at WalMart? And 80ish PPM is not terrribly hard. It might even work as a Ca/Mg supplement. Or maybe mix your purified water 50/50 with tap water? Your local water utility's website might be able to tell you what's in your water as far as Ca and Mg, though after Flint they seem much more interested in reporting the poisonous stuff. Sometimes you can call and a water chemist can tell you. You're their customer, so make 'em do their job!

Good luck and have fun.

I'll check it out thanks for the advice

 

[TorturedSoul]

Soil: 50% drainage/aeration material strikes me, personally, as excessive

I agree. Although I'd consider vermiculite to be "anti-drainage" material, more for helping the medium retain water. Personally, I'd just leave it out and go with a 75%/25% soil/perlite mix (which is generally what I use when running soil). IF you feel that 75% Ocean Forrest is too "hot" (either for your strains in general or for them as seedlings), then grab a bag of Fox Farms' Happy Frog soil. I usually have some of each on hand, which allows me to run one, the other, or a mixture of both (again, cut 25% with perlite).

if you're thinking soil, I would think that just 20 or 30% perlite should be plenty. That way you actually have significant amounts of soil.

As you can tell, I agree, lol.

Superthrive: Personally, I'm skeptical of the value of giving plants vitamins.

I once worked at a true traditional hardware store, and picked up a bottle of something or other that included a small amount of some B vitamin or other. It was in a gallon jug and cost all of $8.50 (in 2006, IIRC). How much does Superthrive cost these days?

I don't know, but I am guessing that most folks who use Superthrive don't actually need anything it provides. Whether or not it provides some sort of quantifiable (or even qualitative) benefit to the average user... Who knows, lol?

All for experimentation!

Rock wool is old technology that has glass fibers that are bad to breathe.

Not to mention (but I will ) that it also requires pre-soaking in a pH-adjusted solution for best results.

Distilled water: Not necessary for seeds. Neither is peroxide

While that is generally the case, it does provide for a little extra oxygenation of the water that the seed is soaking in, through decomposition. That might be helpful if the grower is soaking the seed until a rootlet has emerged before planting. I'm guessing here, but it seems like roots like oxygenated water better than they like poorly-oxygenated water.

Perhaps more importantly: I recently read that russet mites can actually be brought in to gardens via seeds. I'd think that dropping a seed into a cup and pouring a small amount of H₂O₂ onto it (enough to cover the seed if the cup is tilted so that it all runs to one "point" in the cup) would be likely to kill these and/or any other tiny little pests that happen to be on the outer surface of the seed. I'd guess that it would only take seconds and then, if the grower pours a moderate quantity of water into the cup, it will become dilute enough to not negatively affect germination rates.

OtOH, I went many years without adding any H₂O₂ when germinating seeds.

Solo cups have a big following, as if they have some majikal properteez

I just always assumed it was because they were cheap, as easy to find as a handful of dirt when one is standing in a freshly plowed field, and did I mention cheap, lol? 100 18-ounce cups can sometimes be found for a couple dollars.

Minority opinion, but I think I'm right.

I don't know why you'd call that a minority opinion. AfaIK, most folks around here generally think you're right .

But, seriously, yes, cannabis tends to do better in deeper containers than shallow ones - even when the total volume of each is the same. It's probably not a major issue with phototropic strains (although rootbound plants seem to "pause" a bit when up-potted), other than possibly encouraging a higher percentage of males in non-feminized seeds. But it does seem to be a factor in reduced overall size - and, therefore, yield amounts at harvest time - when growing auto-flowering plants.

Power Tools: You should have a pH meter (and know how to use it, maintain it, and calibrate it), pH 7.0 calibration solution, and a PPM meter and track and record pH and PPM of fluids entering and exiting--very useful info.

Not specifically a cannabis grower's tool, but a Dremel can occasionally be quite handy if the grower has a bit of "mad scientist" in his/her blood.

And 80ish PPM is not terrribly hard.

Wow! If my water came out of the faucet at only 80 PPM of TDS, I could actually stand to drink the stuff, lol (not really lol - mine was not far below 400 PPM last time I tested it).

I usually just use tap water. My local water department still uses chlorine instead of chloramine, so leaving it in open containers for a time gets rid of it (chlorine). And I think that there's enough Ca in it in a form that the plants can use that I can get away with using Epsom salt (magnesium sulfate) for a supplement instead of a more expensive calcium/magnesium product, and still keep healthy Ca:Mg ratios. Plus, Epsom salt can be found at any grocery store. As in all things, of course, YMMV. I am certainly no scientist.

 

[AnimaSola]

Water pH for soil should be around 6.5.

 

[Why Doe]

I have a feeling your gonna have a hard time with tempatature.

 

[Apexsmoker420]

I have a feeling your gonna have a hard time with tempatature.

Why do you say that

 

[Why Doe]

Why do you say that

Because that's a lot of light for a big tent and a lot of lighting. You need more airflow

 

[Apexsmoker420]

I’ve started added some things and changed some things my journal link should be in my signature!

 

[BluNGreen]

Good job on planning everything out and i skimmed through the other comments and just wanted to give you one more piece of advice. like Why Doe said you are going to need a bigger or additional exhaust fans, plus an intake fan would help. I run LED's and i have two exhaust and one intake +++ i have to run the AC during the hot days.

 

[OGpapa]

Good job on planning everything out and i skimmed through the other comments and just wanted to give you one more piece of advice. like Why Doe said you are going to need a bigger or additional exhaust fans, plus an intake fan would help. I run LED's and i have two exhaust and one intake +++ i have to run the AC during the hot days.

Journal is from 2017 user hasnt been around since 2o19

With luck...they may pop up!

 

[BluNGreen]

Journal is from 2017 user hasnt been around since 2o19

With luck...they may pop up!

Thanks OG, i will pay more attention.