Laid down 18 total seeds. 
6 - Free the Duke.  6 - Gas Pump. 6 - Gaslight. 

Free the Duke - 6 of 6 germinated 

Gas Pump - 5 of 6 germinated 

Gaslight - 6 of 6 germinated

17 of 18 total germinated thus far. 

Germinated seeds are now going into a 50/50 coco and peat (pro-mix) blend. All germinated seeds will be planted into solo cups tonight and placed under a Gavita Pro 1000.
I plan to keep 1 or 2 of each strain back in solo cups for the solo cup challenge. The rest will be transplanted into 7” x 7” white square plastic pots. 

Light cycle: 20 hr on / 4 hr off   *lights on during night hrs

Current Grow Room Temp: 77.1 degrees (79 high & 70 low in past 24hrs) 

Attached are photos of germination and the 50/50 coco and peat mix (orange tote). 

*Grow Note: Double up on paper plate on bottom layer next time or better yet, do your dishes and use a dinner plate

I mixed Recharge (5ml) & Fish Sh!t (10ml) into 3 gal of water. Ph lowered to 5.7 w/ Advanced Nutrients PH-Down. 

After solo cups were topped off with 50/50 soil mix, I tapped a 1/4” hole with a chop stick into the middle of the top surface of the soil and then lightly dusted holes with Great White Mycorrhizae. I like to do this with germinated seeds, to assist in the initial microbial colonization on the radicle root. 

Radicle going into dusted hole in soil. 

Standing by for surface breakage 🤙🏻

Seed shells are starting to break the surface and lift out. Within the 24hrs, half of germinated seeds planted are starting to rise up! 

Grow Room Temp: 77.1 degrees

Grow Room Humidity: 26%

*No water added. Still moist and heavy at lift 

Standing by for shells to shed and cotyledons to open and soak up some light. 🌱💡

The last Gas Pump seed has germinated and was transplanted yesterday. 

Seed Germination Rate: 18 of 18 (100%)

All solo cups now have seedlings standing. 50% still shedding shells and 50% shells shedded. 

Grow Room Temp: 78.5 degrees

Grow Room Humidity: 30%

*Splashed half of solo cups with a Recharge & Fish Sh!t mix (mix rate posted on Day 2). Ph lowered to 5.7

All cotyledons are open and being penetrated with light. First true leaves are beginning to form. 
I’ve adjusted my Gavita Pro 1000 HPS output power wattage from 750 (w) to 1000 (w). I wanted to see how the seedlings would do under the HPS at 750. In the past I have germinated seedlings under LEDs and T5s, so this is my first time propagating seedlings under HPS. 
Yesterday I noticed some stretching and moved the seedlings closer to the light (42” to 36”) Today seedling height remains stable and first true leaves are forming.  

Grow Room Temp: 74 degrees 

Humidity: 34% 

Pictured Gas Pump seedling #4

All seedlings planted are still alive and growing. Some extra stretch did occur on about 50%. I think it was my initial distance from the light. 32 inches from the light seems to be the sweet spot. 

Still no nutrients added. Continuing with Recharge and Fish Sh!t with a ph of 5.7. I plan to start early veg feed next watering.

PPM will be somewhere between 250-300 during early veg feeding. Feeding schedule will be most likely: FEED, FEED, WATER & BENEFICIALS 
*This is my first time growing these strains so I want to feel them out and then make adjustments to feeding schedule. 

So far I’ve been managing the tall ones with plant tags. Really looking forward to stems hardening. I have to adjust a couple of seedlings from falling over at times but overall most are starting to maintain stance.

I just watered them with Recharge and Fish Sh!t. Some appear over watered, but by morning (running lights at night) they are perked up.
Light schedule is: On @ 7:15pm, Off @ 3:15pm. 20hrs on, 4hrs off. 

Grow Room Temp: 71.9 degrees

Grow Room Humidity: 46% (rained recently) 

GROW BABY GROW!

After looking through a friend’s shipping container I managed to score a small humidifier!

Got home and hooked the humidifier up, and I didn’t notice much difference in leaf droop. Seedlings were still droopy and some were beginning to turn a pale yellow, even at new growth on top. Pictured below is the current state of the seedlings. 

My rH has increased in my grow room since introducing the humidifier. Current rH is at 45%, not ideal but I’m cool with that. I then decided to get a closer look and scope out the leaves under a 30x - 60x small hand microscope. 

Under the 30x magnification on the scope all appeared ok. Under 60x magnification I found russet mites. Infestation was not at the point of colony stacking, which would resemble brown dust, but one or 2 here and there on tops and underneath leaf surface. Unfortunately I am all too familiar with this mite. I got hit by them earlier this year (Feb.) from a couple clone cuts a buddy gave me. I had never dealt with them, until about a month after receiving the clones cuts, I noticed droop and yellowing in leaves. When I looked at them under the 60x scope, I knew I had a mite, but didn’t know what type. I had clones in a dome from mothers at that time in the same room. I though it was weird a brown “dust” kept stunting my clone cuts in the dome and I was under the assumption I was dealing with a type of fungal infection. I then busted out my old grow books and grabbed ole trusty! Greg Green’s “The Cannabis Grow Bible”👍🏻👍🏻  After reading through the Problem Solver chapter on Spider Mites and researching online grow forums, I knew exactly what type of mite I was dealing with. 

Fast Forward to Current Grow>>
I had a couple mother plants in the same grow room I am doing the PTGC & Solo Cup Challenge. These mothers were used to take clones for my current outdoor crop. 

At that time I knew the mothers had been hit by russet mites, but I decided to battle them with IPM. My IPM consisted of: Pyganic + Sticky (surfactant), Venerate & Grandevo.

Pyganic for the first 2 knockouts. Day 1 & 4

Venerate applied day 7 and Grandevo applied day 11. I continued each (V + G) in separate  4 day cycles thereafter. I laid off the Pyganic once Venerate and Grandevo were applied.
The eggs hatching and next generation breeding were my biggest concern.  I also really wanted to keep those genetics and flower them out. I thought if I could take a couple small cuts off of each mother strain, I could “clean them up” easier and maybe eradicate the russet mites. BIG MISTAKE! 
My outdoor crop was planted June 25th. I was continuing IPM spray applications on my outdoor crop until Aug 1st then discontinued. Outdoor crop seems to be fine and no mites discovered while scouting. Beneficial predator insects have also been a big help. 
I made a terrible decision thinking I could keep a couple mother plants in the same grow room with my solo cups and wait it out till I moved the mothers into the flower room. I was like, “I’ll move the solos out of the grow room and spray bleach water solution where the mother plants were once they go into flower, and move the solos back in (once the room is dry) and everything should be ok”. Unfortunately that didn’t go as planned and today I chopped basically my entire crop other than the solos and outdoor. I haven’t cut the seedlings in solo cups down yet but man... I feel like it’s my only true solution to eradicating any mite that may affect my future grows. Plus I don’t really want to battle them anymore.

I’ve been on the fence about it all day, but I feel like I need to cut the seedlings down and start over. I obviously won’t make the flower flip date, but luckily I have seeds left of these strains. 
Any grower out there who has ever dealt with russet mites knows the diagnosis is bad with no true light at the end of the tunnel other than to start over. 
This is definitely a hard pill to swallow but I have no choice other than to cut all the seedlings down. It sucks but it has to happen. 
I’m going to throw the same strains (seeds) into a paper towel in a couple days. Going to spend the next couple days cleaning and sanitizing all my indoor grow rooms. 
I will still be on here and posting but unfortunately I will be further behind. Hopefully this post can be useful to other growers out there. I played with fire because I thought I could ride it out and just “keep them in check” and unfortunately I got burned. 

I’m going roll up a fat joint, strap up like Heisenberg in Breaking Bad and lay down the bleach hammer in the grow rooms tonight!
GOOD LUCK NON-TOPPERS AND ALL OTHER GROWMIES! 🌱💚✌🏻