Radogast's First Indoor Seed Grow - In Search of Mothers

Under advice from a physician, I have answered the call of the "seed siren". :)

My first grow is from seeds. Following above from Jorge Cervantes "Medical Marijuana Bible" I set up a flowering room described below.

To begin, Five each White Widow/Hawaiian Skunk/Carmelicious were placed on a seed heating mat under a moisture dome. - Bad choice!

Combining a seed heating mat with a moisture dome achieving 92 degrees high temperature at the top of the soil while I was away at work. My 'dry run' with an unplanted seed tray had been only 73 degrees — proving that a dry run, where the soil is literally dry, is a very bad approximation of watered soil !!

I also forgot to soak the seeds :(

Sprout count 4/5 WW, 0/5 HwS, 3/5 CAR.

Still, two weeks later I have 4 White Widow and 3 Carmelicious seedlings, 3-4" tall with 2-3 sets of true leaves.


This is a Doctor certified, state legal medical grow.

Seedling/Clone/Veg rack
6' x 3' utility rack with 150W T-5 flourescent light fixed 14 inches above the top shelf and a second 150W T-5 flourescent light adjustable to 36 inches above the bottom shelf.
Each shelf holds three standard sized (21"x11") seed trays.
Arround the rack, I added a big clear plastic bag from a king-sized mattress and a cool mist humidifier. In my unheated basement, with outside temperatures in the 30s, I am maintaining 69(day) and 55(night) with humidity of 55-65.

Flowering Room
4' x 8' rigid foam insulation stud walls, 6 mil white inside/black outside mold resistant ceiling and wall liner with 4' x 8' x 0.5' plastic tub floor. Light insulated wood frame door for entry.
Two exterior mounted Nanolux 600W HPS, 6" fan cooled enclosed hoods - adjustable to 6'6".
Leaky wall ambient air intake, thermo-controlled 440 cfm 6" Can-Fan rigid ducted exhaust.
Before plants, 78-80F (day) and 60-65F (night) with 'spilled water' humidity of 40-50%.
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This is my Seedling/Clone/Veg rack.

Since it is a few weeks before the last frost of spring, I am starting herb and vegetable seeds in both upper and lower racks alongside our Amsterdam babies.

I have had the storage rack for years. All the trays, soil, lights, etc. are new.


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I don't know how to post a "signature" yet.

This is a state legal medical grow.

There are details in the photos that I hope you can view.
 
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I built a flowering room in the basement with wood stud walls, 5/4" 4×8' Styrofoam insulation panels, and standard 20 amp 120v home wiring, circuit breaker, and outlets. I built only two walls in the corner of a concrete wall basement.

The walls and ceiling were lined with a 10x25' sheet of 6 mil plastic that is black on the side facing the walls and ceiling and white on the side facing into the grow room. It is supposed to have some form of anti-fungal coating.

The floor is a 8 inch deep tub of black plastic measuring 4×8'. It's sort of a cross better a Seedling tray and a pickup truck liner.
 
600w Nanolux ballasts are small, fan cooled, digitally adjustable to 50%, 75% and 100%.

I mounted them outside the door and remotely both to reduce heat in the flowing room and to have an audio (fan noise)and visual (green lights) indicator of when the room is active and healthy for the plants to enter.

Flowering room uses a pair of Sunleaves Sunspot 6 hoods with 600w HPS bulbs included in the price of 600w Nanolux digital ballasts.
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17 days since sprouting: Repotting Day

Though seedlings were not yet root bound, they were a bit stressed over watering? After moving under the Flowing room lights, it was a dreary day outside, and I wanted to begin fertilizing, so why not combine the shock of fertilizer with Repotting today rather than next weekend when they might be root bound and it might be a better day for outdoor gardening.

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State legal personal medical grow
 
25 data since seeds are planted in soil.

I've filled the Seedling/Veg rack with garden herbs and vegetables, so the Amsterdam babies are vegging in the flowering room.
They take up less than half of the floor space. The girls look lonely in there :(

Still chilly in the basement. Daytime 71-74 degrees 37% humidity. 24 hour low temp 58 degrees. 24 hour Max humidity of 58%.
Running 14 hours daylight and low P fertilizer to encourage female plants.

1 gallon pots should hold me for a couple more weeks.

My general plan is no fmt, lst, or other fancy super crop tricks.

- - -
Sticker shock pricing 3 gallon plastic pots. I am reconsidering "Smart Pots."

I need suggestions for how to pot mother plants. Size? Soil or double potted with roots extending into water?
Can a larger mother live in a bedroom next to a window, or does she need supplemental light? .

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Man with the temps you got I would be trying to get hands on anything purple lol. Your temps are great. One way to tell is look at your plants and see if they have red lines on all the stems and they fan leaf stems. If they are green you are all good. I did a video showing my big bud plant that is next to my door and gets cold. You can see the red from that. I do not see any on your pics so you all good. Very nice looking grow. Happy Growing
 
They are looking a little over watered. How often do you water and whats your normal temp?
 
Hey Radogast!

Off to a great start! Excited to follow along on this journey!

How do you decide when it's time to water?

When I started I would check the soil and if the first 1.5" is bone dry I'll water, if it's got even a whisper of dampness I wait another day. Lately, I just look at the leaves of the plant and when it starts to look a little sad and I think it needs water, I'll wait a day and then water. Letting the soil dry out a little forces the roots to grow downward searching for the water they know is just a little lower. It also get's oxygen to the roots which they love. When I water I water heavily and then let them dry out. With the soil I currently use, I water once a week.

That's what I think I know on the subject. Hope it's helpful!

Happy growing!
 
Thanks Sweetleaf!

I was looking at them last night and seeing more yellow leaves and sticking my finger in the soil and trying to resist watering.
And I did! I held firm against that whispering voice saying "Water them. Water them"

It was a real struggle not to water.
I finally convinced myself that
A) They have grown about 1/2 inch 24 hours.
B) The leaves are not droopy
C) yellow leaves are usually too much water
D) the ground feels a little moist
means ...
= Don't water dumb ass !!!
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so then I stuck a SoilMaster probe to confirm and raised the lights 2 clicks.

Thanks for the support. I don't want to drown my Amsterdam girls.
 
Been there, but you should let them dry out almost too much once, and see how well they respond to drying out. I think they really do like it some.

Good job on staying strong! The best advise I was given on this forum was "Keep your damn hands off them" A lot of new growers kill their plants with kindness.

Check this guy out Light Addict's Fluxing Central - Featuring The Original Flux Journal He'll teach you how to be very kind and a little mean at the same time :) He's also an amazing dude and very helpful to those in need!

Stay strong, your doing great :)
 
Re: Fluxing

My goals are:

A) 2 mother plants, one each of the two strains (White Widow & Carmelicious)
Each happy mother will be donating 1 or 2 clones a week to a continuous Veg and flower in order to yield about 2 harvests a week.

B) Grow the remaining girls to produce one big Cola each.
I'm not going for highest yield or lowest grow (I have more than 6 feet under the lights.)
The big Cola is so that I can present them as gift-sized first fruits of the harvest.

- - -
I plan to do fluxing and/or lst with the clones.
My assumption was I didn't want to go wide and low when looking for low activity mothers or big colas.

Sound right?
 
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