Greenlizard
Well-Known Member
Well here goes nothing...
I have decided to grow for the first time in order to reduce cost for my wife, and I's meds. So far all I have done is spent a lot more money LOL.
Here is the rundown of my setup. I purchased a tent kit from a local shop as well as a bunch more stuff that didn't come with the kit.
4x4x6.5 Tent.
4" exhaust fan with charcoal filter.
315 watt MH fixture for flowering.
Lighting for seedlings, clones, and veg: Two 48" SunBlaster T5 HO fixtures. 6,400K. 54 Watts each.
Nutri-Plus starter kit, as well as base nutrients, and Super Thrive.
PH tester, and PPM tester. PH up - PH down, calibration fluid for PH meter, and storage solution.
Humidity domes. Large and Small.
Jiffy pucks.
Soil: Sunshine Mix 4 Professional Growing Mix.
Heating pad.
Can't think of anything else right now...
My temps are: 71 degrees lights off, and 77 degrees lights on.
So...
A little insight to my experience with growing things. I am very new to growing things on land. Sounds weird right? Well that's because all my experience is from growing Coral collected from all over the world at home in reef tanks. I picked up the aquarium hobby when I was a teenager and it quickly snowballed into a passion once I discovered marine aquaria (Salt water fish tanks). I quickly advanced into corals forcing me to learn about lighting and additives. I am able to cross reference many things so far from my past experience with growing cannabis believe it or not. I am already familiar to Metal Halide lighting, the delicate nature of mixing supplements, and additives. etc...
Even cloning is somewhat in my resume due to what we call "Fragging". It's pretty much the same thing. You cut a chunk of coral off and stick it to a rock... "Boom" more coral. I was always told that I should apply my skill set to growing cannabis but always shied away for some reason.
Well here I am. Out of the Reef business and into the Reefer business I guess you could say LOL.
I am starting from seed. I choose Crop King Seeds for the simplicity of obtaining them from a local head shop. Also I have read good reviews.
I originally purchased a pack of Purple Kush, and a pack of Blue Cookies. Well my results and first experience was not so great. My lack of experience outweighed my new found wisdom I had been collecting and I ended up wasting a bunch of seeds. I followed the instructions from Crop King exactly but there are other factors that you just can't learn from reading such as how wet is wet, what is damp, and how soil packs itself and forms a firm crust over your seeds after the first watering resulting in your seeds not able to break the surface. This resulted in the tap roots rotting and dying.
However... I did get lucky and found a Purple Kush fully sprouted inside my paper towel. After only 24 hours in the paper towel after a 18 hour water submersion the seed germinated, sprouted, shed it's shell, and formed it's fist false leaves. It was long and straight and with delicate care I planted it in the soil. It has done well so far. This was my first taste of success and it was a great feeling.
The Blue Cookies only successfully germinated 2 out of 5 seeds and those two did not come up through the soil after planting. I believe this was due to a few factors. One being that when I planted the seed with it's exposed tap root it may have gone too deep. Once I put the seedling into the damp soil I lightly watered and this seemed to "drag down" the seed resulting in a slightly deeper planting than intended. I did not "pack" or "push" down the soil on top of the seeds but the surface seemed to form a crust or dense surface making it hard for the seed to pop up.
I lost all of my Blue Cookies and the rest of my Purple Kush seeds by the end of my first venture. After speaking with Crop King Seeds trying to trouble shoot my situation they requested my address and sent me two replacement packages. I was very impressed with this.
In the meantime my impatient desire for results took over and the very next day I went back to my local head shop and purchased another package of Crop King Seeds but ended up buying White Cookies. My germination process was still by the book as per CKS but my luck had not changed and at this point I had not figured out where I was going wrong. I was so discouraged. At this time my replacement seeds were in the mail and already being satisfied with CKS sending me replacements for my first two packages I didn't want to push my luck and call back regarding my loss with the White Cookies even though I only got 3 seeds to germinate in the paper towel out of 5.
So at this point I sit with a 3 week old Purple Kush doing well and two new packs of seeds arrived in the mail from CKS. To my surprise I didn't receive Blue Cookies but instead they sent me Hash Plant seeds along with more of the Purple Kush. I wasn't disappointed but I didn't know anything about the Hash Plant strain.
The definition of stupidity is continuing to do the same thing over and over expecting a different result. With that being said I decided to try a different method. I picked up a small humidity dome with a dozen Jiffy pucks included. I also picked up a heating mat.
I took one Purple Kush seed, and one Hash Plant seed and put them into small glasses of bottled water. 24 hours later they still didn't appear to be cracked open but I didn't want to leave them in the water any longer than that.
I then placed them "pointy end down" into my prepared Jiffy pucks. I only put them in about 1/4" deep and gently pinched the surface closed just enough to block out the light from the seed. I then placed the lid on and put the dome on the heating pad. 24 hours later I could see the surface of the Jiffy pucks raised slightly. This got me excited to say the least. 8 more hours and "POP", I had seedlings! They have stretched a couple inches and shed their shell. They are on day 3 now and doing well. I think tomorrow I will plant the Jiffy pucks into solo cups and place them in my larger humidity dome for a week or so.
Last night I started the water soak method on two more seeds. I will plant them into Jiffy pucks when I get home from work today. I now feel much better about this and believe I am on my way.
My concern is that my older Purple Kush is about two weeks ahead of these new seedlings. Can I play catch up within the vegetating stage so that I can have them all go into the tent for flowering at the same time? I would expect the one plant will be larger than the others but other than that will there be any other issues with having plants with a few weeks between age?
I will update with photos ASAP. Thanks for checking out my first grow.
I have decided to grow for the first time in order to reduce cost for my wife, and I's meds. So far all I have done is spent a lot more money LOL.
Here is the rundown of my setup. I purchased a tent kit from a local shop as well as a bunch more stuff that didn't come with the kit.
4x4x6.5 Tent.
4" exhaust fan with charcoal filter.
315 watt MH fixture for flowering.
Lighting for seedlings, clones, and veg: Two 48" SunBlaster T5 HO fixtures. 6,400K. 54 Watts each.
Nutri-Plus starter kit, as well as base nutrients, and Super Thrive.
PH tester, and PPM tester. PH up - PH down, calibration fluid for PH meter, and storage solution.
Humidity domes. Large and Small.
Jiffy pucks.
Soil: Sunshine Mix 4 Professional Growing Mix.
Heating pad.
Can't think of anything else right now...
My temps are: 71 degrees lights off, and 77 degrees lights on.
So...
A little insight to my experience with growing things. I am very new to growing things on land. Sounds weird right? Well that's because all my experience is from growing Coral collected from all over the world at home in reef tanks. I picked up the aquarium hobby when I was a teenager and it quickly snowballed into a passion once I discovered marine aquaria (Salt water fish tanks). I quickly advanced into corals forcing me to learn about lighting and additives. I am able to cross reference many things so far from my past experience with growing cannabis believe it or not. I am already familiar to Metal Halide lighting, the delicate nature of mixing supplements, and additives. etc...
Even cloning is somewhat in my resume due to what we call "Fragging". It's pretty much the same thing. You cut a chunk of coral off and stick it to a rock... "Boom" more coral. I was always told that I should apply my skill set to growing cannabis but always shied away for some reason.
Well here I am. Out of the Reef business and into the Reefer business I guess you could say LOL.
I am starting from seed. I choose Crop King Seeds for the simplicity of obtaining them from a local head shop. Also I have read good reviews.
I originally purchased a pack of Purple Kush, and a pack of Blue Cookies. Well my results and first experience was not so great. My lack of experience outweighed my new found wisdom I had been collecting and I ended up wasting a bunch of seeds. I followed the instructions from Crop King exactly but there are other factors that you just can't learn from reading such as how wet is wet, what is damp, and how soil packs itself and forms a firm crust over your seeds after the first watering resulting in your seeds not able to break the surface. This resulted in the tap roots rotting and dying.
However... I did get lucky and found a Purple Kush fully sprouted inside my paper towel. After only 24 hours in the paper towel after a 18 hour water submersion the seed germinated, sprouted, shed it's shell, and formed it's fist false leaves. It was long and straight and with delicate care I planted it in the soil. It has done well so far. This was my first taste of success and it was a great feeling.
The Blue Cookies only successfully germinated 2 out of 5 seeds and those two did not come up through the soil after planting. I believe this was due to a few factors. One being that when I planted the seed with it's exposed tap root it may have gone too deep. Once I put the seedling into the damp soil I lightly watered and this seemed to "drag down" the seed resulting in a slightly deeper planting than intended. I did not "pack" or "push" down the soil on top of the seeds but the surface seemed to form a crust or dense surface making it hard for the seed to pop up.
I lost all of my Blue Cookies and the rest of my Purple Kush seeds by the end of my first venture. After speaking with Crop King Seeds trying to trouble shoot my situation they requested my address and sent me two replacement packages. I was very impressed with this.
In the meantime my impatient desire for results took over and the very next day I went back to my local head shop and purchased another package of Crop King Seeds but ended up buying White Cookies. My germination process was still by the book as per CKS but my luck had not changed and at this point I had not figured out where I was going wrong. I was so discouraged. At this time my replacement seeds were in the mail and already being satisfied with CKS sending me replacements for my first two packages I didn't want to push my luck and call back regarding my loss with the White Cookies even though I only got 3 seeds to germinate in the paper towel out of 5.
So at this point I sit with a 3 week old Purple Kush doing well and two new packs of seeds arrived in the mail from CKS. To my surprise I didn't receive Blue Cookies but instead they sent me Hash Plant seeds along with more of the Purple Kush. I wasn't disappointed but I didn't know anything about the Hash Plant strain.
The definition of stupidity is continuing to do the same thing over and over expecting a different result. With that being said I decided to try a different method. I picked up a small humidity dome with a dozen Jiffy pucks included. I also picked up a heating mat.
I took one Purple Kush seed, and one Hash Plant seed and put them into small glasses of bottled water. 24 hours later they still didn't appear to be cracked open but I didn't want to leave them in the water any longer than that.
I then placed them "pointy end down" into my prepared Jiffy pucks. I only put them in about 1/4" deep and gently pinched the surface closed just enough to block out the light from the seed. I then placed the lid on and put the dome on the heating pad. 24 hours later I could see the surface of the Jiffy pucks raised slightly. This got me excited to say the least. 8 more hours and "POP", I had seedlings! They have stretched a couple inches and shed their shell. They are on day 3 now and doing well. I think tomorrow I will plant the Jiffy pucks into solo cups and place them in my larger humidity dome for a week or so.
Last night I started the water soak method on two more seeds. I will plant them into Jiffy pucks when I get home from work today. I now feel much better about this and believe I am on my way.
My concern is that my older Purple Kush is about two weeks ahead of these new seedlings. Can I play catch up within the vegetating stage so that I can have them all go into the tent for flowering at the same time? I would expect the one plant will be larger than the others but other than that will there be any other issues with having plants with a few weeks between age?
I will update with photos ASAP. Thanks for checking out my first grow.
