So excited to start growing!

[annie]

Welcome Annie! I see that you were well met by some good folks- ... gotta get @archie gemmill in here to, his greeting posts are pre-loaded with lots of great referral stuff! ..... Always good to see another Horti-nerd like me in this can of mixed nutes- ... especially orchids! One of my oldest hobbies, and for about 9 years, my job at a friends species specialty place,... talk about feeding the addiction- ... 3 temp regime greenhouses, 1000's of species, scouting other places and catalogs for new stuff,...''' damn good thing I never had an actual greenhouse! My collection is a shadow of it's former self now, alas, for several reasons,...but some super cool things are still with me! What kinds are you growing? ... SoCal, you may be close to some phat nurseries,... For species, it's hard to beat Andy's Orchids,... local shows are a good place to spot other interesting vendors...
I love carnivores and cacti/succulents too, but for similar reasons, I have to curb my acquisition jonesing on those as well.... ..but I have a couple things that must come home to me- LOL! I want an all red Flytrap cultivar, maybe a cool Sundew as well,....


Are you hip on how to store seeds? I'm partial to eppendorf vials View attachment 1065045.... lots of sizes, some colors; air tight! ....(Amazon them)... place them into a lightproof container (metal tins are great) and into the fridge for long term storage...

>>> Good strain choices there,... Most the breeders are reputable, but not much feedback from 00 Seeds... I have grown a mini FEx, and it's superb, nice "Sativa" type buzz, delish' aromatics.... Have a look at the featured breeders here, commercial and private/Indie, and you'll have excellent reference material to sift through for starters! There are many other lesser known breeders with fine genetics too, if not large selections,...

>>> So, not tent or indoor lighting, fully OD's? Before I had a tent, I set up a ghetto "tent" rig with some basic supplemental lighting... those extra light hours (mainly at least 18/6) do help make bigger plants and better buds, ...warmer T's day and night especially, help make for bigger plants... My ghetto rig and mainly outdoors did limit size though, and when I got a real tent, the improvement was major! .... Mind the light intensity for the seedling, no full Sun right away; I use some window screening material to cut the light down some, if you can set up a little overhead coverage,.... bring them in at night, keep them over 65F if you can, warmer if possible,... cold soil and roots means slow everything until warmed up,....
Grow as many strains as you like! You may need to tinker with feeds some during bloom, and particularly finishing, as some will be ahead of others for harvest time, but nothing complex.
Soils,... First, avoid blending coco into reg. true soils, even though coco is often a partial component of them; coco is a weird substrate, with a lot of bitchy properties that if not addressed properly, can screw with nutrient release (Ca, Mg).... Just get a bag of Roots original, or a seedling starter soil to blend into the rich final soil.... I know soils are popular, but IMO they are not what they used to be,.. OF can be poorly cooked and badly off pH that I've seen, directly, and in the Infirmary (my job here, BTW), HF is a bit better,... I hate to worry you, and know it's too late, but I must offer caution about their soils anymore ---> *( I highly recommend you get a soil pH probe/meter, like the Accurate 8 or equivalent under a different brand name, often cheaper; same unit though!... Amazon again)..... Roots Organics original is good, readily available, Royal Gold Kings Mix is excellent, but light, will need more frequent watering for OD use; Sanctuary Soils are available near you I bet, Victory Blend is the best for auto's (milder), Empire Builder is also but it pretty hot, not for seedlings... As for pH testing in-pot, that's the only good way, run-off is bollocks for accuracy,... If you test and adjust all your inputs for pH, and monitor in-pot pH, you will head off a lot of potential problems down the road! I also recommend a TDS or EC meter, and a pH meter (liquids only),... right tools for the right job, and the data that matta'! ... otherwise, this is a likely future activity!--> ...oh, and know your water quality well, pH and hardness (ppm's).....
What you can do is this trick for going into final pots right away, with mixed soil richness; this is from a tutorial I made on trauma free transplanting, but the pot set-up is the same... (link)
>>> set an identical size starter cup into your final/next step pot, and fill around it; then remove... a perfect pocket is left to fill with milder soil-

>> drainage rocks I see discouraged more and more by gardeners, forgot where I saw some good articles about this,... In fabric pots, to keep that air interface on the bottom nd hence the pruning effect, I found a <1" layer on the bottom helps,... In plastic, I use that window screen material to cover over the bigger drainage holes to keep soil in and bigger bugs out,.... textured bottom saucers are helpful too...

We have an outdoor section here if you want to start a journal there, or in New Growers....

Hey Waira its nice to meet you! I am mainly growing cymbidiums here. They are my favorite right now. I'm out in SB county so orchid culture is huge over here. We have CalOrchid, SB Orchid Estate, and so many good suppliers here. The international orchid show is around here too so its something I look forward to every year. I also enjoy carnivorous plants and have a couple pitcher plants growing around my house.

In regards to the seeds, I keep mine in an sealed airtight box with a couple silica packets thrown inside. I keep it in a dark place and haven't seem to have any problems yet.

The water quality here is atrocious. We are talking 1000 ppm of dissolved solids. (Ironically this is the highest regulations will allow I believe) If you leave a pot of tap water out and let it evaporate it will leave calcite crystals on the bottom. I have bought a water ph tester as well as a ph reagent to double check. It can be quite alkaline over here. I also already have a soil ph/moisture meter. I would like to get some nicer equipment that can last me the rest of my life. I have some ph up/down already for the tomatoes. I try to collect rainwater while I can but it usually ends up a little acidified. I do not have a EC/DS meter yet but will go find one today. I give my plants some bottled water if they look salt stressed. (they are my spoiled little babies) I looked into some equipment before to take some of it out but it was way too expensive and filters would need to be replaced too often. Reverse osmosis is a dream of mine but I cant afford it right now.

The window screen idea is genius! Shade cloth sometimes can just be a pain lol. The pots I had purchased didn't have drainage on the bottom but rather the sides, so I put rocks on the bottom because I had previous problems with my tomatoes becoming waterlogged due to an unpredictable rainstorm.

Thank you about the advice on soils. I chose OF and HF because thats what I saw popular online for cannabis. Next run I will def use one of your recommendations.

Bringing the plants indoors might be a slight issue when they are older. When they are younger it wont be a problem though. so maybe a row cover or cheap greenhouse might be in order. Currently I have my peppers under cold and snail protection from crystal geyser water bottles that I cut up into mini greenhouses. Damn those snails.

Anyways, I am sure we will be talking a lot now that I am on this forum. Thank you for all of your advice again. I will also start a grow journal soon. I am quite into macro photography so you are def in for a treat once I have flowers!