Day Zero 2019 - Pretty Excited this year to be off to an early start for a change... This year its one journal. I will be running this in several phases.
Phase 1 - Autoflower - The first ones to storm the beach here will be.... on a paper towel RO start
Day 1 - Preparing for the Germ to Soil... They are germinating nicely but don't want to disturb that process with photo's.
Today I'm preparing 4" containers for planting the sprouts into some basic light soil mix for seedlings. I got this idea from one of the "how to" journals that were put together here on AFN. https://www.autoflower.org/t...ictorial-and-root-restriction-stunting.64509/ This worked really nicely on my last auto-flower grow.
Since most auto-flowers can be temperamental (personal experience transplanting) I cut out some squares on the sides of the 4" container to allow for root growth after transplanting into 5Gal Airpots. I then place that cutout container into another identical 4" pot so that the soil can be packed nicely prior to the sprout's planting. This is what it looks like.
When the weather is better I will show what the root ball looked like from the previous grow.
Day 2 - Germination is off and running. I put the dish on top of my internet switch and router since they are nice and warm. It worked famously and had complete germination in 48hr record time for me. This will probably be my new go to method "birth by internet router" ! So today I worked on planting those lil gems into the temporary 4" transplant pots I made. I found this new Jiffy Organic seedling mix that I'm using on this run. So I setup the pots and watered them overnice to let them soak in really good.
I liked the fact that it had been Ph adjusted so I soil tested the Ph before dropping the sprouts. I'm not one to believe anything I read on a label. It tested out a nice 6.8ish so I'm pretty happy with that.
So I sowed those all those girls into their temp pots. For this I take a butter knife and make a cut into the soil to drop them, then carefully slip that butter knife under the sprout slide it up on the knife blade and carefully ease it into the soil cut. Gently slide it off into the soil and cover and press the cut closed gently. I was solo today so It is hard to photo my method but there no human contact with the germinated seed.
Then onto a giant baking sheet and under the new Mars Sp200 till their ready to transplant in a few weeks.
All in all I'm pretty stoked with the progress this year. Last year it was a late start and this year and early start. I hope to have this grow done and harvested by May 1st.
Day 6 - Getting down and dirty!
Things are going well with the early start and added a light timer this week and set it up for 16hrs of light each day. Some cold temps this week even for the shed at 35-45f at night and some 60's during the daytime. Almost thought about firing up the camping heater, but decided to just bring them inside last night. I'm still tweeking my live soil tub's Ph by adding some slow release lime and also added in some additional perlite.
The soil mix for this years run is similar to the winter grow and cream mandarine live soil I used. The base mix and ratios originally came from @Green Goblin So I have him to blame for the past results and myself for tweeking it and future results... So here is what I have been cooking since November...
After testing the soil a few weeks ago it had a Ph of 4.2 so I went heavy with the lime in an effort to raise it up to around 6.5.
I will test Ph again in a couple of weeks as the lime breaks down into the soil better.
I added the Kellogg's to make the soil a little hotter than last time and it includes 10% Calcium, and I had been seeing some Ca deficiencies in my past grows.
The Kellogg's additionally has Endo & Ecto Mycorrhizae along with some other great stuff. (Plus its easy on the wallet at $7)
This is meant to be as close as possible to a water only mix and will only be adjusting if necessary or something goes terribly wrong.
The things that will be used in the watering with be Castile soap and MammothP
Warning - Don't make this mix until we see the results of my grow.
Let me fail first and fast!!
Here's a shot of the seedlings on Day 6 all lined up under the Mars SP200 (which by the way is no joke and see why they sell sunglasses)
the lighting is approx 18" above and then will be adjusted as needed.
That's the plan so wish me luck and keep me honest!
Day 16 - Back from a trip and looks like their moving right along. Adjusted the light down from 29in to 18in. Very nice being able to get these going early this way.
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. Good luck with your upcoming season mate
