Vortex Drops A One-Off Coco Run With Auto Lemon Drop & Sweet Tooth

[multiVortex]

Had some freebie seeds on a recent order from True North. So, in the true spirit of waste not, want not, I'm going to do a one-off run off two autos while I finish up the new RDWC build and wait out that photo period grow. So this should be cured and ready around the 3rd-ish week of December, give or take, while the big grow won't be ready to use for a couple months after that.

So why not give some free autos their day in court?

Here we go.


Strains:
Auto Lemon Drop
Sweet Tooth Auto


Setup:
- 24x48x60 tent
- 365w (from the wall) Blurple LED
- Promix HP
- 5gal fabric smart pots (Gro Pro 5gal, w/ handles)
- 18" saucers
- 16" risers


Nutrients:
- Advanced Nutrients Sensi Coco Grow (both A&B, Grow and Bloom)
- Advanced Nutrients Big Bud Coco
- Advanced Nutrients Bud Candy


Watering:
Water/nutes to be delivered by an auto watering system. 15 gal res with a small pump, 1/2in flex tube runs out with 1/4in runs to drippers.

Pump will be on a timer that can do up to 3 cycles per day, with a 1sec minimum for each cycle. While the seeds sprout, I'll be checking out the pump setup to see how much it will push out and dial that in. The drips are adjustable so between the pump adjustment and the dripper adjustment it shouldn't be too terrible. Not like it will be using a ton of water initially anyway.

Seeds will hit the water, then into a rapid rooter. RR will be put into my cloner/sprouter dome, with a heat mat underneath of it. For the first bit while they sprout, will use a 2-bulb T-5 shop light.


Seeds hit the water tomorrow: 10/2/19

 

[multiVortex]

Wed, 10/2/19:

Outside conditions:
- High: 85
- Low: 57 (tonight)
- Dew Point: 71 +/-


Seeds hit water at 2pm local. 5:30pm, still floating. Like watching paint dry.

Have rapid rooters, jiffy peat pellets, and rockwool available to sprout. Will be using either a rapid rooter or jiffy pellet. Undecided for now.

- Sprout dome setup is ready.
- 12"x24" heat mat is underneath and ready.
- Shop Light set for 6" above dome, pulled up out of the way for now.

Considering setting under the blurple instead, with just veg switch on at 24" above. Toe-may-toe, toe-mah-toe... whatev.

Mixed up a half gallon of water with very, very light nutes (like 1/10th strength), and a tick of rooting hormone. Will use that to hydrate the rapid rooter (or jiffy pellet), and for humidity in the dome.

Seems like everything is ready and in place for when the seeds sink. Probably should have dunked them this morning, but it is what it is.


Also moved the small tent (2x4x5) into place in the basement, and currently thinking over ventilation options. Since there will be two tents running at once before long, I think I will run a separate 4" filter/fan combo on the smaller tent, and run that into a Y. The bigger tent will run into the other branch of the Y, and then the combined line will vent out.

Filter -> Fan -> Y -> Exhaust Line, of course.

Need to get a second hygrometer, but may just move it from the big to little now and then to check. Undecided since two tents running grows at one time won't be very often at all. Guess at some point I may have some type of mother bonsai tent going, so maybe it won't go to waste.

 

[multiVortex]

Wed, 10/2/19 - Part Deux:


Seeds bottomed out by 9:30pm. 1/4” deep into peat pellets which were expanded as mentioned above.

Seed mat set to maintain temp of 80F.

Pellets inside a bio paper pot for added stability.

Pellets into the sprout box, onto the mat.

Used the blurple on the veg setting @ 28” from the floor.

Remembered why I have grow glasses.

Just zipped up before pic, temp inside stabilized at 77.3F shortly thereafter.

 

[multiVortex]

Thur, 10/3/19:

With all vents closed and an ambient temp outside the tent of 70F, inside creeped up to and ended up at 80F over night. Seems to be the stable area and has been there most of the night.

Baseline humidity is 40% currently, which I'm fine with if it stays that way as pPlant respiration will have that up a bit before long.

This is good info for me, and really a good test. Slight backstory on the general setup I'm using at the moment:

Last November I picked up some new LED lights. T5 shop light replacements, at a 5k spectrum. These were for my outdoor seedlings (toms, peppers, etc) that I sprout in Jan/Feb. No big deal. Well, things didn't go well. I lost round one, then almost lost a second one after a replant. So looking back at it all this spring, I ended up going overboard and picked up a 4x2 tent and a blurple to use for my outdoor sprouts. Plenty for that.

So, that's what I'm using on this one-off auto run. Freebie seeds, so why not give it a whirl and see how the setup runs. It will also double as my drying space, so this will be a good reference point for that.

 

[multiVortex]

Thur, 10/3/19:

Nothing going on. Still waiting for the seeds to pop. Temps inside still steady at 80F/81F.

 

[multiVortex]

Sat morning, 10/5/19:

Nothing breaking the soil yet. Temp in the dome steady at 78F-79F, tent 81F. Nice and warm for germination.

Will check again tonight.

 

[multiVortex]

Sun morning, 10/6/19:

Nothing breaking the soil yet. Temp in the dome steady at 78F-79F, tent 81F. Nice and warm for germination.

Will check again later, and once they pop the surface, I'll have more to write.

 

[multiVortex]

Mon morning, 10/7/19:

Nada. 4.5 day mark from hitting the jiffy pellets, so not quite over yet, but hope of these two popping is slowly waning.

Soaked until float turned to sink, jiffy pellets, 78F-80F temps on a heat mat, sprouting/cloning dome. I'm thinking I've either got stubborn seeds, or duds. I'll give it a few days and go from there.

 

[multiVortex]

Tues night, 10/8/19:

Nada yet. If these weren't freebies, I'd be a bit cheesed off.
Will give it a tick longer, but not expecting anything at this point. Waiting is more for "just in case they're extra slow."

 

[multiVortex]

Thurs afternoon, 10/8/19:

"That's the funny thing about hope; by design it was meant to be kicked in the nuts." -me


No sprouts 8 days later. Zero. Zip. Zilch. Longest I've seen personally has been 10 days, and that was only one time and before I had seedling heat mats, a heat sensor controller, etc. with temps in the low 70's. At 78F-80F... 5 days tops.

Thankfully I have 2 more auto seeds. Another Lemon Drop (Oasis Genetics), and a Quarter Pounder (Canuk Seeds) which are the last of the freebies from my main order for my (soon to be built) 4x4 RDWC.

So let's give it another shot, shall we?


I'm going back to what's worked for me in the past. Which I didn't stray from much, but did want to try the pre-soak water method, then into the sprouting medium. I also didn't use my wicking mat or tray. This time I will not be doing that, and instead will be sticking to the basics.

I've puffed up two jiffy 7 peat pellets, again with about 1/10th 1st week nutes. I have planted the seeds directly into the pellets. I then filled my seedling/clone dome with about 1/2" of the same 1/10 strength water, added my tray (it's elevated on legs about 1" tall), added the wicking mat, and placed the pellets directly onto the mat.

Just for shits and grins, I'm also leaving the previous two pellets on the mat as well. You never know, so we'll see. No hope there, but it isn't going to hurt anything at this point.

I will be leaving the light off for 24 hours, and will turn it back on sometime tomorrow afternoon/evening. Saturday morning at the latest.

With the light off, tent temp itself is running 71.4F, outside the tent (remember, this is a basement) is a balmy 70.1F.


Off we go again. If all goes as it should, looks like they'll be ready right about the New Year.

 

[multiVortex]

Fri afternoon, 10/9/19:

Took a peek a minute ago. Nothing yet, not that I expected it to. However, with the cold front that went through today, the ambient room temp is now 65, and without lights on the tent was 67. With the heat mat, the sprout box was 72 (and it's set to 79.)

Went ahead and flipped the lights on to warm it up a few degrees.

 

[multiVortex]

Sat late night, 10/12/19:

Conditions good. Humid, 77F in the under the dome. Noting yet.

 

[multiVortex]

Tues morning, 10/15/19:

Ain't nothin goin on but the rent. It ain't over, but it ain't lookin so good for the home team.


I have to say that thus far I'm not impressed with Canuk Seeds (Sweet Tooth, Quarter Pounder) or Oasis Genetics (Lemon Drop).

Obviously not every single seed will germinate, but out of 4 so far (two from each breeder) to be at 0% with a proven method I've used many time is a bit disappointing.

So what do ya do? Well in my case I said fuck it and picked up some strains from Fast Buds. Specifically:

- Mexican Airline
- Tangie
- Blackberry
- Six Shooter


I really wanted to hit their Blue Dream, but I have Blue Dream in a photo period that I'll be running in my 4x4 RDWC setup before too long, so I went with something else.

I used True North again, so we'll see. Main reason was they were running a "buy one get one" sale on Fast Buds seeds, so even with them charging $75 for 5 seeds (which makes it $60 after using the forum sponsor discount, but still $10 higher than most other places) the promotion made it worth it. Brought it down to $6/seed, which isn't terrible for Fast Buds. Of course I now have 40 seeds, so should be good in that department for a while.

With the recent goings on with the germination debacle, I'm a bit gun shy now. May pop 2 seeds per, and go from there on the next start. Of course it would be my luck that all 8 would pop, and then I would be trying to figure out what gets culled, and wasting seed.

Oh well, I guess. Beats the current score of ZERO.


Guessing the FB seeds will be here the first part of next week. I'll keep an eye on what's germing already, but considering it's been 4 days on the new drop and nothing going on, I have little hope anything will happen with these. If I were running cooler temps (72F-73F ish) then maybe. But temps are steady in the 77F-79F range, moisture is spot on, and the seeds should be popping in about 2 days.

I'm not overly fussed, it is what it is. I was looking forward to seeing a Super Lemon Haze auto though, but whatever.


This just gives me an excuse to stuff 4 autos into the 4x2 instead of 2 to see what happens.

Speaking of the 4x2, I may change that up a bit and upgrade from my own hand-me-down.


What? Well, you may have seen my perpetual thread, where I rambled last night about ending up with ceiling weight issues in my 4x4 tent, so the short of it is I upgraded early (was planning on after the first of the year) to a new Gorilla 4x4. Ceiling weight issue solved.

So, what am I to do with my current 4x4? I don't think I should let it go to waste, do you?

So my plan (current, subject to change) is to move auto runs into that, and use the 4x2 as a second drying space. When the original 4x4 isn't in use, I'll use that most likely, but we'll see how it goes overall. Worst case is I would have to pick up another carbon filter and a Y-duct fitting to merge the ventilation for those two tents together.

Of course I have no idea where I'm going to put a second 4x4 as the space is already close enough with just one, plus the 4x2.

So I'll need to think about all of that for a bit and see. I may be able to move one to the other end, but not sure how it would work with the storage shelves down that way. In the end I may have to just take the current 4x4 apart and keep it for a spare.

 

[Brett Blaze]

I have some Cinderella 99 and Kosher Kush waiting for the tent to be ready. I have had these seeds for about 9 months. I am planning to germinate 2 to 3 each to make sure I get a good sprout of one of each type. Can't afford any more delays.

 

[multiVortex]

I will probably drop 2 of each when they get here next week for the same reason.

Now when I light off the 4x4, I may be a bit more stingy. Then again, those are all top shelf breeders, so I'm much less worried with those seeds.


I've never really been convinced on the whole "free seed" thing being more than a way to get rid of less desirable, cheap seeds. Still a bit miffed on the lemon drop though. I love super lemon haze, and was looking forward to a sample of the auto to tide me over.

 

[multiVortex]

Well, phooey. Not sure whether to close off this thread, or just roll with the punches.

Many things are different from the start. 4x2 will get nixed, and probably just be the backup dry tent now. Going to use the (now) spare 4x4 instead. About the only thing that hasn't changed from the start is this will be a secondary grow space for auto runs now and then, and still (for now, lol) in Promix HP.

Other than that, strains, nutes, lights, tent, etc are all getting rearranged/swapped/upgraded/will the madness ever stop/doubt it/changed.

More later.

 

[multiVortex]

Still not sure whether to keep this thread, or close it down and try a different one. At least for the weekend I'll use this to pre-ramble while the remaining parts for the setup upgrade arrive.

However, I have now "officially" cut off the junk seeds and shut the tent down. Off and on today as I take a break from work here and there I will start to get things rearranged. Pull out what RDWC stuff I have built and sitting in the 4x4, then get it in the current 4x2 spot. Move the 4x2 stuff onto the floor of the 4x4, and move the 4x2 to another spot out of the way for now.

Once the parts get here, I think I'll shut this one down and start a new thread. Make it more of an on-going thread so if things get off to a rocky start I won't have to keep opening/closing threads.

 

[multiVortex]

Best laid plans of mice, you know.

Time was non-existent today. Did manage to get the 4x2 moved off to the side and turn the 4x4 around 180* and slid into it's new place with 4" to spare under part of the HVAC trunk.

Unhooked the light, heat mat, and the humidifier I've been testing out. Took out everything except the light. I will probably put it back in its box, and store it in the tent. I could just leave it rigged, but I want my ratchet hangers back.

Taking apart the germination stuff, I picked through the jiffy pellets to see what happened. The short answer is nothing. Nothing happened. Seeds were still intact, no tails started, nothing. Damn the luck.


New lights for 4x4 #2 will be here Tuesday. Should be converting it over Wednesday, and dropping seeds for it by next Friday if all goes well.

This will most likely be the last update for this one. I will link to the new one when I start it, and alert a mod to move this to "completed."

 

[multiVortex]

Wasn't going to update this one again, but not 100% ready to start in on the new thread.

All the equipment to migrate from the above 4x2 to the "old"/secondary 4x4 has arrived. Lights, more fabric pots, risers, saucers, and I got 25 2' bamboo sticks on a special for $3.

I'm in the middle of putting the lights up, and have 1 of the 2 panels hung so far.


I also went ahead and expanded some peat pellets, even without the seeds yet (more on that below.) I figured I could get them expanded and under the dome and on the mat now to let the moisture balance out so they were more evenly moist than if they were freshly expanded and soaked. Also get them to a nice temp, etc.


Now for the fecking seeds.

Your item cleared United States Customs at 7:05 pm on October 17, 2019.

That was the last update, and nothing since. The post had the expected delivery as yesterday, which finally changed overnight to "delivery date unknown" overnight at some point.

10/17 the package came into the Post Office facility and was then routed to customs ("Inbound Into Customs") at 6:10pm.


Ugh...

Originating post said expected delivery today, but I'm not holding out any hope.

We will see what happens.



I did go ahead and make a backup purchase from a US-based seed bank (a few 3-seed packs), just to be on the safe side. No freebies or discount, but whatever. If they all show up, fine. They'll get popped eventually. Backup plan would be to take a gamble on the last 2 lemon drop seeds I have, along with the backup seeds (which are also fast buds).

If the original order doesn't show, we'll see how the reship goes once the 2 week wait is up.




Dear seed banks,
When shipping to customers outside of your country, maybe send things in a cool souvenir from your country/city/town. Just saying. (Plus it would be kinda cool to have something useful, too.)


Oh well, back to hanging lights.

 

[multiVortex]

See, if it was stuck in customs, OK, I get it. But it specifically says it cleared customs, and then went dark.

Ugh, I hate it when the post does this.