Old fart newbie

[lobosolo]

Hi my name is Dan, and at 64 I'm an old fart. This intro will probably be long and rambling but as my wife used to say I'm old now and don't give a rats ass what people think, read it or not.
My last real exposure to pot was back in the late '70's in Panama. All we got was dirt weed, No red or gold, and the bag was 1/2 seed. Anyway I got in a parachute accident and crushed a couple of lower vertebra. The doc's said fuse the spine or suffer back pain later in life. Well i got it now. With the news from Colorado and Oregon I decided to look at it instead of the endless pills. My wife is gone now (God I miss her) and I live off early Social Security so I said what the hell? Did several month's of research,bought a few books, did more research and started to gather equipment. I decided I was going to grow indoors. Got a tent,fan,filter and LED lights. 1-100W and 2- 400W full spectrum. Got a few seeds and a hydroponic DWC system. The seeds were 5 WW fem plus 5 free for buying the 420 book. They actually looked as bad as the trash seeds from the Panama time.
Anyway got all the stuff (CO2) later, and decided to start germinating the seeds while I got the tent set up. I tossed three seeds in a glass of water to soak and they floated. Great these were trash, so I dumped the other seven in and tried to get any of them to sink and re-hydrate. Finally they sunk and I left them for six hours and then was going to paper towel them. Imagine my surprise when I came back and several had already split and showing the tip of a root. So no towel went straight into rockwool cube and on to a heating pad.
Yada, yada, yada! After twelve hours I'm already looking for the sprouts. just like a teenager. Lord help me, I still have seedling, vegetative, flowering, harvest, trim, dry and cure to wait through. I saw a tutorial on another site where a duffus wanted to know what his dope was like so he took a torch out to the field and torched a bud until it smoked. I felt that way now and I haven't got green yet, LOL.
So will post as I go and possibly get pictures. Promise not to be as long winded. Thanks to all. Dan

 

[Flexa]

Welcome, seems like you've had some life experiences!
sorry for your loss, Hopefully your new little hobby will distract you.
Best of luck with your grow!

 

[dustypropcrop]

Alright auld sausage,welcome to this wonderful site. I only joined a few days ago and already feel like I know a bit more than I thought I did.ha. I'm currently waiting for my seeds to sprout.I've soaked them over night(only 1 sank)and planted them the smorning.I'm expecting them to take a day or 2 possibly more.fingers crossed. Anyways,good luck with yours.

 

[Mike Wright]

Hi Dan! Thanks for joining us at the number one site for promoting cannabis awareness to end prohibition

Thanks also for the great intro, growing is a fantastic hobby, really gives you something to look forward too

Be sure to check out New Member Start Links as they really are quite helpful. Any questions post 'em up in FAQs or in one of the other forums that fits the topic.

There's a thread with a self-proclaimed bunch of old farts out there somewhere, sounds like you might fit right in, they'll probably find you soon enough

 

[Pittbull72]

to 420 Mag!

 

[budnoob2]

Welcome lobosolo - If you're into making medicine for yourself I've got some useful links in my signature below

 

[lobosolo]

Well I must say that these seeds have surprised me. I have had 90% germination. I think one died from damping off, me bad. but the other 8 have so far survived. Not the best seedling I have ever seen but still, at least their trying. Sorry I haven't got a camera to document this yet but will soon. Thanks for listening, LOL. Dan

 

[lobosolo]

Well got up this morning and found five more plants toppled over. The stem had shrunken at almost the emergence point. I felt the rockwool cubes and they don't feel very damp but it sure looks like damp off to me. I continue on the best I can but sh t it looks bad so far. Thanks, Dan.

 

[lobosolo]

Just found the other plants toppled over, picked up a cube and squeezed it to determine how moist it was. Dry!!! I am a mass child murderer. I think I will try soil to get the next few seeds up. Damn it I thought I was doing well and then screwed the pooch. Dan.

 

[dustypropcrop]

Alright there dan,how goes it? I've not long started my first grow and I Just put my seeds straight into soil after soaking them in water overnight(12 hrs).as I live in the uk,I went to my local B n Q and got john innes number 1 potting soil and a bag of perlite.roughly about 70% and 30% perlite mixed together,watered and planted my seeds.out of 7 seeds(6 skunk #1 &1 special kush) only 2 never sprouted but on the plus side,I've managed to sprout a set of twins!

 

[lobosolo]

Well here's an update on my first grow. Still have no pics as the digital camera I do have seems not to like close ups. Anyway I was able to salvage four of my seeds that I tried to kill, first by not watering them and then by not giving them any nutrients for the first two weeks. But they were fighters and have survived so far. They have gotten five to six nodes now, even though their only about five inches tall, so I decided to state the training phase. I have been reading about mainlining and decided to try this the first time, so I trimmed them back to the third node but haven't yet cleared all the other growth as I think they might need the extra leafage to grow the manifold for a few days yet. Anyway I must give kudo's to 420 for these seeds. I started soaking a few AK48 seeds from MJCanada and so far they haven't split yet after 36 hours. Maybe I was wrong about who's seeds were trash or not. I'm having fun so far and fidgeting on seats edge to see whats next. Good day to you all. Dan.

 

[budnoob2]

hey all, there are many methods to germinate with varying degrees of success. I'm not going to tell you what to do but happy to share what I do that has worked well for me. I don't soak in a cup of water, I just take a couple tupperware containers to make a dome and put a brand new damp sponge in the bottom container, then I put a damp (not soaking) paper towel folded on top of the sponge and put no more than a couple seeds in there (multiple setups if I need more) and then I put the cover on but leave it tilted to avoid too much moisture (just a very small amount of moisture on inside of top indicates I have more than enough moisture to germ with). I take this rig and put it on my heating rig. My heating rig consists of one of those self adhesive reptile heating pads that you'd normally stick to the bottom of a terrarium (what can I say, happened to have one laying around) that I attached to a thin glass cutting board. I just set my dome on top of that in a dark area and I've had 99% success rate so far within 24-48 hours. Once I have a 3/4 to 1 1/2 in tap root (depends on when I catch them) I throw them into my soil. I've gotten in the habit of going directly to final pot for my prized beans but still start in a 1g for other stuff. I have pics and all that crap at the beginning of my first journal.

 

[Duckster]

Hi my name is Dan, and at 64 I'm an old fart. This intro will probably be long and rambling but as my wife used to say I'm old now and don't give a rats ass what people think, read it or not.
My last real exposure to pot was back in the late '70's in Panama. All we got was dirt weed, No red or gold, and the bag was 1/2 seed. Anyway I got in a parachute accident and crushed a couple of lower vertebra. The doc's said fuse the spine or suffer back pain later in life. Well i got it now. With the news from Colorado and Oregon I decided to look at it instead of the endless pills. My wife is gone now (God I miss her) and I live off early Social Security so I said what the hell? Did several month's of research,bought a few books, did more research and started to gather equipment. I decided I was going to grow indoors. Got a tent,fan,filter and LED lights. 1-100W and 2- 400W full spectrum. Got a few seeds and a hydroponic DWC system. The seeds were 5 WW fem plus 5 free for buying the 420 book. They actually looked as bad as the trash seeds from the Panama time.
Anyway got all the stuff (CO2) later, and decided to start germinating the seeds while I got the tent set up. I tossed three seeds in a glass of water to soak and they floated. Great these were trash, so I dumped the other seven in and tried to get any of them to sink and re-hydrate. Finally they sunk and I left them for six hours and then was going to paper towel them. Imagine my surprise when I came back and several had already split and showing the tip of a root. So no towel went straight into rockwool cube and on to a heating pad.
Yada, yada, yada! After twelve hours I'm already looking for the sprouts. just like a teenager. Lord help me, I still have seedling, vegetative, flowering, harvest, trim, dry and cure to wait through. I saw a tutorial on another site where a duffus wanted to know what his dope was like so he took a torch out to the field and torched a bud until it smoked. I felt that way now and I haven't got green yet, LOL.
So will post as I go and possibly get pictures. Promise not to be as long winded. Thanks to all. Dan

From one old fart to another, welcome. Sorry for your loss. Don't know what I would do without mine. But now you have something else to put your heart into. I know it's not the same but it does have some nice rewards. Happy growing!

 

[lobosolo]

OK I mainlined the plants but left all the other growth on since I figured they needed some help. A day later all the nutrient damage I had been seeing was hidden below the nice green new growth. I hemmed and hawed about what to do now and looked up when this started, 4 wks ago. Decided that since I now had some idea (LOL) about what I was doing I would flip these poor babies and see if I could get a few buds, not much but a few grams to finish out the learning curve, and start a new grow from the correct start. Two days now on 12/12. Fingers crossed. Dan

 

[lobosolo]

my first attempt.

 

[Duckster]

They are starting to look good!

 

[lobosolo]

Thanks Duckster, Here's a few more shots I took yesterday. I have to do some trimming so the bud sites can get the light, maybe Saturday when I change nutrient reservoir. Dan.