Vivosun Heat Map and digital controller

Super Sprouter Deluxe Propagation Kit

Jiffy Pellets

I just took my seeds out of the fridge! 3 more days until we begin, I can't wait! I even pulled out my humidity dome and heat map out of excitement. I plan to follow the germination steps laid out by Dr. Coco. See y'all in a couple days!

The seeds were dropped at 3am PST, I planned to drop at 12am but it was my first time using this heat mat and it took quite a while to warm up the water in my plastic cups. I also started with thick, ceramic dishes that were not allowing the water to heat up at all so I switched to thin plastic cups around 1am. It took a while and some help for the seeds to sink, 1 Blueberry Kush and 2 Royal Banana never did (I put on some gloves and tried to push them down, but they'd float to the top eventually) so I figured 5 hours was enough. I scuffed with 320 grit sandpaper, 6 shakes per seed, but I suspect I may have been too gentle. I placed the seeds in paper towels within individual, sealed Pyrex containers on my heat map set to 85°F. The EC of my water seemed low at 80, but it is a gallon of 365 Spring Water from Whole Foods so maybe not. I have my Jiffey Pellets soaking alongside the Pyrex containers that are now covered with a towel. I'll check for tails in 24 hours. 

PH: 7

EC: 80

Temp: 80.6°F

What a day it's been! I've been worried about my seeds getting too cold so last night I put a tower heater at 75°F in front of my heat mat/papertowel/pyrex/towel set-up.  I checked the seeds at the 24 hour mark of them getting wet and they were looking good, barely starting to crack open.

All seemed well, I have the Vivisun Heat Mat Thermostat that was set to 85°F, its probe was reading the same, and I was monitoring it throughout the day. The thing is, I had the probe set up against the heat mat, but not under the towel that was being constantly hit with hot air. I realized this at around the 33 hour mark of the seeds getting wet, ~5pm, and I almost panicked. I placed the probe beneath the towel, in the center of the 6 pyrex contrainers, being hit by the tower heater and the number kept rising and rising until it finally stopped at 101.3°F. I wanted to throw up. 

When I popped open the pyrexes, I was relieved to see 2 Blueberry Kush root tips emerging. The third BK and 2 Royal Banana were still cracking open and there was one RB that was definitely outshining the others. I have faith that at least some of them will successfully germinate! If I did indeed fry the poor girls, I'll pop their counterparts if/when I give up on the originals. 

I figure I'll give the poor things some time before I disturb them after that traumatic experience. Probably going to check on them at the 48 hour mark, if I manage to wake up at 3am, if not then 51 hour mark.

In other news, I set up the bones of my tent! I hung the AC Infinity T6, just need to do some ducting, install the Vivosun carbon filter, hang the light, play with the timers, and make it all puuurty (cable management). Oh and throw in my self-draining saucers and auto-pumping catchments. It's a lot of work, but it's honestly so much fun. 

Wish me luck!

Well, I stayed up and there isn't much to report. There was one exciting Blueberry Kush seed that just keeps outperforming the rest!

I checked the seeds at hour 61, not 51*

I wrote a journal last night, but I must've goofed and not posted it or something. Got the AC infinity installed and the carbon filter. Has anyone tried running both from outside the tent? Will I even need to worry about the canopy getting to 6' with manifolding and supercropping? We shall see 🤷‍♂️ For now, I have both installed inside the tent with ratchet pullies. This has been a fun and challenging project already.

As for the seeds, I'm going to give them 24 hours from the last time I checked them and hopefully they'll be ready for Jiffy Pellets. I'm pulling some back-up Royal Banana out of the fridge today in case the first ones don't end up popping. 

What's up growmies! I checked my seeds at  4pm (hour 85?), the BK progressed a little but still not enough to go in Jiffy and there wasn't too much progress with the RB. 2 of the RB cracked face down and when I tried to turn them over to get a photo and there was a clear film that stuck to the paper towels and pulled from the seed. It almost looked like mucus and it did not look like a good thing. I pulled out my last 3 RB seeds from the fridge and in 3 days I'll try again. I pulled out my other 3 BK as well just in case I can't get the RB to pop.

I've been having a lot of fun installing and designing my tent! Still trying to firm up the design, but I think the way I have it staged in the photos will be the way I'll install. I may have overdone it on ordering humidity/temp gauges, I think I have a total of 6 😅 I've decided to be positive and patient! I'll post my reflections on my mistakes germinating tomorrow. I also have 2 cameras set up to track growth so I'll be sharing that in time as well!

Grower love!

It's looking bleak for these little guys, I tried to give them 24 hours before checking them and the paper towels they were in dried up. I poured the condensation back on the towels and put them back on the heating pad. Some of the roots that were visible when the seeds cracked turned from white to black. I'll use different pyrex dishes and give the original seeds a couple more days to pull through.  We'll see.

Here are the things I know I could have done better:

• Placing temp probe beneath towel do that I get accurate readings
• Not overheat them by placing a tower heater in front of them when it's not necessary, especially for an extended amount of time
• Check seeds every 12 hours instead of 24 (did this a couple times)
• Scuff them a little harder. I think I was much too gentle and didn't scuff them enough. Only 3 had sunk when I placed them in pyrex dishes 
• Follow the paper towel folding instructions more closely. I had bunched up the bottom if the paper towels on some, unintentionally keeping the seeds from the warmth at the bottom of the pyrex
• Leave the seeds to germinate in the darkness of my tent, which is now set up

My clip fans for my tent and my UPS that I'll use for my light and watering timers should arrive this week. I gotta say, I do feel a bit silly having all this gear and not popping a single seed yet 😂

Grower love! 

Thank you for the encouragement, much appreciated! Also thanks for introducing me to a new song. It's Only Solutions by Journey, right?

I checked the seeds at 10am and again at 10pm. All of the papertowels were dry and all but one of the seeds looked burned. I decided to take the survivor and toss it in a jiffy pellet that has been soaking and put that into the humidity dome, under the T5 light. I don't have much faith it'll make it and in any case I'll be popping 3 more BK and RB tomorrow. If the BK under the T5 makes it by some miracle it'll be my One Cola.

Well I got rid of the 5 seeds that were still in pyrex dishes earlier today and the 1 Blueberry Kush is in a Jiffy Pellet under the T5 in a humidity dome. I scuffed 3 more Blueberry Kush and only 2 sunk after 2 hours and the 3rd still didn't sink after 4 hours. I transfered them to new pyrex dishes and coverd them with a towel and used 7 gallon fabric pots to block the light from the T5. I received advice in the chatroom today to run 4 plants of the same strain which im happy to adjust to. However if the BK seed under the T5 doesn't sprout then I'll have to pop a different strain and if all 3 of the BK that I started germinating today actually pop then I'll have to pop the Royal Banana because that's all I have. I figure if I run 1 Royal Banana, I might as well run the other 2, but this first failure with these seeds has definitely humbled me so we'll see. 

Oh and I've decided to run my ac infinity t6 and vivosun carbon filter from the outside of my tent with the sock filter inside instead of out.

YOOOOO! I cannot express the excitement I felt when I saw this absolute beast! I fell in love with growing already and I haven't even finished germinating my first seed. The other 2 aren't as vigorous so I put all 3 back for a few hours. 

Now I'm just worried about damaging the radical when I transfer it to the Jiffy! I'll check them again after maybe 8 hours. I really want to get this fast growing seed into germination media ASAP!

So I scuffed and dropped my remaining 3 Royal Banana seeds and I'm going to toss that long shot BK in the humidity dome tonight. Another Blueberry Kush seed sprouted (seriously so exciting for me) and the 3rd is going a little slower, but I'm sure they'll all be ready for the Jiffy Pellets in 12 hours. I have a 10 hour shift tomorrow so if the 3rd is still a little stunted in 12 hours (before I leave) I'll consult the chat.  I have 2 humidity domes and T5s, but only 1 mat so if I have to run both domes on different light schedules, I'll have to put a cardboard box over the 18/6 dome. The Royal Banana seeds should sink by 12am and will go into their pyrex dish (I'm going to try having them all in the same pyrex this time). I'm loving it here at CfC, the community is awesome. Grower love!

So I scuffed and dropped my remaining 3 Royal Banana seeds and I'm going to toss that long shot BK in the humidity dome tonight. Another Blueberry Kush seed sprouted (seriously so exciting for me) and the 3rd is going a little slower, but I'm sure they'll all be ready for the Jiffy Pellets in 12 hours. I have a 10 hour shift tomorrow so if the 3rd is still a little stunted in 12 hours (before I leave) I'll consult the chat.  I have 2 humidity domes and T5s, but only 1 mat so if I have to run both domes on different light schedules, I'll have to put a cardboard box over the 18/6 dome. The Royal Banana seeds should sink by 12am and will go into their pyrex dish (I'm going to try having them all in the same pyrex this time). I'm loving it here at CfC, the community is awesome. Grower love!