Flying High With Hawk - 2024 Grow Journal

[Hawk518]

Monday, 3/16/24

And so it begins…
Season 2 of Hawk’s Outdoor Adventures.
Please follow along. Any / all help is greatly appreciated!

I’m a newbie living in N. VA. This year I’m going to grow 4 plants. Two Photo Fems and two Auto Fems. One photo will be planted into the ground. The other 3 will be planted in fabric grow pots. The Photo will get a 20 gallon and the two Autos will get either 7 or 10 gallon fabric grow pots.

Hawk's Outdoor Grow Journal – 2024​

Strains:
4 Kingdoms – Feminized – Photo - Sativa
Short Nepali – Feminized – Auto - Hybrid
Blueberry Glue – Feminized – Auto - Hybrid
CBD Critical Mass – Feminized – Photo - Indica leaning Hybrid

Indoor / Outdoor:
Will start indoors and then move them Outdoors. Three will be planted in soil in fabric grow pots and one will be planted in the ground.

Current Stage:
Started germination on 3/18/24. Placed two in cups of water and the other two on wet paper towels. Planning on putting them into rockwool cubes once they have tap roots.


All seeds were won from The Vault.
Thank you @The Vault !!

 

[InTheShed]

Congrats on the new journal! Can't wait to see some outside beauties.

 

[Melville Hobbes]

Looks like a good selection.

 

[Bill284]

Bring on summer
Great start Buddy


Stay safe
Bill284

 

[Hawk518]

3/19/24 - FINALLY pulled the trigger and bought a Vivosun 48″ x 48″ x 80″ Grow Tent and a Vivosun VS4000 Full Spectrum LED Grow Light Board 400W. Probably way more than I need, but I figure at some point in the near future, I'm going to want to grow four plants during the winter season.

As soon as the seeds become seedlings, I'll place them in the tent.

 

[Hawk518]

3/20/24
Placed the two seeds in cups onto wet paper towels. The Short Nepali and 4Kingdom seeds have tiny tap roots visible.


3/21/24
Placed the two seeds without tap roots on a heating mat. Hopefully, this will help them pop.

 

[Hawk518]

3/22/24
The Short Nepali and 4Kingdom seeds have tap roots big enough to plant in the rockwool cubes. The other two are still on the heating mat at 72 degrees. The CBD Critical Mass is just starting to crack open. Still nothing from the Blueberry Glue auto. Will plant at least the SN and 4K in the cubes tomorrow morning.

Q: Once the autos have established roots in the rockwool cubes, should they get planted in a 7 or 10 gallon fabric grow pot? They’ll start out in a tent before being moved outside.

The 3rd picture is the CBD Critical Mass seed.

 

[InTheShed]

Q: Once the autos have established roots in the rockwool cubes, should they get planted in a 7 or 10 gallon fabric grow pot? They’ll start out in a tent before being moved outside.

I would think a 7 gallon pot would get you to the end of an auto's life, but if you're growing in LOS then you can't go wrong with 10 gallons.

 

[Hawk518]

3/23/24
Broke off 4 rockwool cubes and soaked them in distilled water. Three of the seeds have decent sized taproots. The Blueberry Glue auto still hasn’t cracked open. Planted the 4 seeds in the rockwool cubes and placed them in a humidity dome tray. Added more distilled water to the tray. Placed the seedling tray on a heating mat set to 78 degrees. Is 78 a good temp or should I be making it warmer? Misted the humidity dome top and covered the seeds. Put my temporary LED lights just above the seeds and set it to an 18/6 light cycle. Will transfer the heating mat and humidity dome into a 4x4 tent w. a real LED light on Tuesday when my new equipment arrives.

Have I forgotten anything else that I need to do? At what point do I give up on the seed that hasn’t popped and start up a new one? Luckily, I have a couple more seeds of the Blueberry Glue auto strain that I could try...

 

[InTheShed]

78° should be fine. I try to keep mine at 80, but I'm sure it's 78 some of the time!

In terms of the unsplit one, I'd give it a week before digging around to see what's going on.

 

[Hawk518]

3/24/24
Seeds planted in rockwool cubes for less than 24 hours and already two of the seedlings have broken thru the surface. Wow – didn’t expect it so quickly! I’m beginning to think that I’m going to have to start germinating another Blueberry Glue seed. If this doesn’t pop, it will be the first time I’ve had a dud seed. I’m still hoping, but it isn’t looking promising…

 

[InTheShed]

Worst thing that happens is you end up with two!

 

[Hawk518]

3/26/24
Nothing new to report. Still have two seedlings that haven’t broken the surface yet. If the Blueberry Glue doesn’t show something by tomorrow, I’m starting up another seed.

The Vivosun 4x4 grow tent and the 400W Vivosun LED light arrived today.

 

[Hawk518]

3/27/24
The 4Kingdoms seedling has broken the surface. Still nothing from the Blueberry Glue, so dropped another seed into a shot glass of water.

 

[Hawk518]

3/28/24
Watered the rockwool cubes. Still nothing from the Blueberry Glue seed.

Placed Blueberry Glue seed #2 on a wet paper towel. Really hope this one pops!

 

[Hawk518]

3/30/24
Blueberry Glue seed #2 has finally popped and has a small taproot. Will keep it in the damp paper towels til taproot is longer and then plant it in one of the rockwool cubes.

Had hoped to set up the tent / light today, but tweaked my back. If I still can't move tomorrow, I'm going to ask my wife set it up for me.

 

[InTheShed]

I hope your back and the seed are 100% by tomorrow!

 

[Hawk518]

3/31/24
Blueberry Glue seed #2 has a taproot long enough to plant in the rockwool cube.

Opened the slots a little on the humidity dome. Not sure when to remove the humidity dome.

Tried to help my wife set up the grow tent – but who am I kidding, she did 90% of the work. Added a bit of growth hormone to the rockwool cube and planted BBG#2. Examined BBG#1 – still not popped. Tried making a tiny cut to the seed to crack the shell so that the tap root might start up. May have killed it, but nothing was happening otherwise. Noticed that the seed shell was stuck on the CBD Critical Mass, so removed it. Placed the heating matt and the humidity dome in the tent. Set the light at 24” above the dome and at 50%. The light is on an 18/6 hour schedule. No air filtration in the tent at the moment. No need since seedlings are in the dome.

Debating trying to sell my new Spider Farmer 6” fan / carbon filter and buying the same thing from Vivosun. That way I can put the entire system on a smart controller which would then run the light, fan, filter and whatever else I might buy. Crazy??

 

[Hawk518]

Some newbie questions since this is the first time I’m using a tent and a real LED light. I’ve got seedlings in a humidity dome. Started germinating on 3/18. My 400w LED light is 24 inches above and dimmed to 50%. What temp / humidity is best for seedlings? When I checked online, I’ve seen quite a range. Also, at what point do you take the humidity dome off?

 

[Melville Hobbes]

What temp / humidity is best for seedlings? When I checked online, I’ve seen quite a range. Also, at what point do you take the humidity dome off?

It varies a bit. I've found that as long as they're kept in a reasonable veg range they do fine.
Mine usually stay in a 24-26⁰C range for lights on, and 18-20⁰C lights off indoors. I haven't monitored humidity until fairly recently, but I think the consensus is ~60% is good for seedlings. Mine rarely gets above 40% when I'm starting seeds, and they do fine.
I'd take the dome off as soon as they're above ground unless one of them has a helmet head.