A bit hard to tell with the color of the counter, but each champagne glass has a seed in it. I’m not sure what to grow first so I’ve selected 4 strains that sounded interesting. Maybe once I know more about what I like/don’t like it will be easier to have only 2 strains growing. But for now, I just want to grow everything! These seeds were scuffed in some 320 grit sandpaper, about 6 shakes each, then dropped in water (6.5 ph) for 3 hours and transplanted into a ziplock bag with a damp paper towel in it. I placed my seed on the bottom of the towel in the plastic bag so when the tail appears it won’t try to grow into the towel. Assuming gravity will make it want to grow downward. Plus it seems to give me good visibility to check on progress without having to open the bag. I placed the ziplocks on my 3D printer bed and set the bed temp to 30°c. I put an empty file folder on top of them to help block the light when the tails do appear. It’s been 24 hours so far and no tails yet.

36 hours into the germination and I have my first tail! Lilac Diesel wins the race for the first germinated seed in my group.  The tail is still quite short (1-2 mm) but is definitely looking strong. 

Bed Temp: 30°c

• Lilac Diesel - Radicle after 36 hours
• Critical Cure - No radicle yet
• Chocolope - No radicle yet
• Booberry Cookie - No radicle yet

60 hours into germination and we have another tail emerging! Do you guys/gals move the seeds over to seedling pots as soon as the tails emerge or try to move the group at the same time to keep everything as close to sync as possible?

Bed Temp: 30°c

• Lilac Diesel - Radicle after 36 hours
• Critical Cure - No radicle yet
• Chocolope - Radicle after 60 hours
• Booberry Cookie - No radicle yet...but maybe starting to split...maybe

I am also starting to wonder if/when I should cut over to Coco. I wonder IF I should because it might be more of a shock to the plant going from Happy Frog which has nutes in it over to something that is constantly flushed and has nothing amended to it. Am I just creating a junky tree that needs nutes at all times and here I am putting it somewhere with no nutes unless I mix it in the water and the soil has no ability to retain it. Seems more like an intervention than a transplant. Am I better to just stick with soil so the cadence of feed and water stays the same and I don't introduce too much for my first grow? IDK, but I do have 2 Cu.ft. of Happy Frog. 

Assuming we stay the course, I am wondering WHEN to cut over as far as which pot size to make the transition to coco. I have the seedling tray, the 4"x4" square container, 1 gal fabric pot, and 5 gal fabric pot. Maybe the 1 gal pots are all Happy Frog, then the 5 gal pots are coco with the center 1 gal of the bucket still being Happy Frog from the transplant. 

I do know I definitely do not want to be shaking root balls or shocking the plant more than I have to. I also don't want to transplant too early. My hope for the smaller buckets is to keep a nice tight root ball so the canopy does the same and stays nice and tight and I avoid too much stretch going on above ground as the roots explore what they have available. 

Shout out to @JordanJ on the website for posting detailed instructions on what I was missing in posting photos; you rock! Now I can slap in some photos to help visually describe any blunder I might make. 

Got my humidity dome in my tent all setup and ready for the seedlings. We are sitting at the following average conditions with 15 hrs light (setting =1) and 9 hours dark (setting =0):

• Temperature    - 82.2 F
• Humidity           - 95.5 %
• VPD                    - 0.17 kPa

My plan for planting the seeds is directly into the seedling tray with Happy Frog / Perlite mix (80/20). Let them relax there until I start seeing some roots come out the bottom of the tray, then move over to the 4"x4" square pot.

Question:

When you have some seeds germinating early, do you move them to soil early? Or is it better to move everything at the same time? 

The tail on my Lilac Diesel is getting long and I don't want it to be too long. It's probably 1 cm right now

Just shy of 72 hours of germination at 30 c. We definitely have a 2nd tail poking directly out of the tip of the seed. straight like an arrow. But no tails elsewhere. I had to dig out my jeweler's loop, but confirmed what I thought was a split on the Booberry Cookie was actually just a line on the seed. More like a design from nature than a seam, but what do I know? 

Bed Temp: 30°c

• Lilac Diesel - Radicle after 36 hours (1 cm long currently)
• Critical Cure - No radicle yet
• Chocolope - Radicle after 60 hours (3 mm long currently)
• Booberry Cookie - No radicle yet

We had an awesome thunderstorm last night. I made sure to set out some buckets and collected about 8 gals of water. This should be much better than my city water which is testing somewhere at 8+ in ph. I have a 50 gal drum I was going to place under a downspout but haven't had a chance to modify the gutter downspout to be about 5' shorter.

Here are some of the drip rings I printed. They are the ones from GrowTek before they closed up shop. If anyone is interested in the STL Mesh file, message me and I will email it over to you. I printed some solo drippers,  7" rings (which should be good enough to get through veg), and then I will increase to 8" rings or maybe 10". I still need to check out how wide these 5 gal buckets are to know for sure how much to scale it.

96 hours into germination. Short entry tonight, no new "tails" to tell, and maybe a watched pot doesn't boil after all. It was starting to look like my paper towels were drying up a bit so a added a bit (5 ml split between 3 bags) of fresh rainwater (76 °f). Seems like it was needed as it was all absorbed into the towel and no excess in the bag. This might be what was slowing down some of the seeds from splitting:

Bed Temp: 30°c

• Lilac Diesel - Radicle after 36 hours (1 cm long currently)
• Critical Cure - No radicle yet
• Chocolope - Radicle after 60 hours (3 mm long currently)
• Booberry Cookie - No radicle yet

Here is a picture of how I repurposed my printer bed into a warming plate for germination. I usually keep a file folder over them to help protect the root from any light:

At the sage advice from @farroutman2003, @luckyduck, & @aotearoa-n-z-n I decided to drop the 2 seeds showing their root (Lilac Diesel & Chocolope) into their home for the next few weeks and keep my Critical Cure and Booberry Cookie on the warming bed.

Bed Temp: 30°c

• Critical Cure - No radicle yet
• Booberry Cookie - No radicle yet

I did make a few changes from the original plans I had based on some comments and some of the other suggested threads I have been reading. Instead of a straight Happy Frog (amended), I have decided to mix it 50/50 with Royal Gold Tupur (70/30 coco perlite blend) to make a nice light mix for these seedlings.

I also decided to skip the seedling tray and go straight to the 4"x4" pot. I watered the soil down real nice with some of the rainwater I captured a couple of days ago (6.0 ph) and let it sit in my humidity dome and come up to temp. After 12 hours I made the drop.

Humidity Dome (daily avg: Temp 78.4°f, Humidity 97.4%, VPD 0.09 kPa)

• Chocolope - Radicle 3 mm long 
• Lilac Diesel - Radicle 1 cm long 

I added a bit more water on top and set my lights to run on a 19/5 cycle....which I am thinking I will dial back to 18/6 when things go to veg. All and all, a very fun night in the tent. Thanks again for all the advice.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed for more tails to pop soon since I was really wanting to taste the Booberry Cookie and Critical Cure the most.

156 hours into germination. Well, there was nothing exciting to post about yesterday, but today is a different story!

We got 2 seedlings, no helmet heads, and 2 new tails on my germinating seeds. Well, not big tails, just little tips of tails poking out, but that's all I need! I'm going to drop them in the HF/Coco mix with their sisters and hope for the best. 

5-7 days is pretty typical for germination from what I have been reading, but yesterday I did modify my germination pouch (ziplock bag, wet paper towel, & seed on bottom) so there was a wet towel on both sides of the seed instead of just on one side like for Chocolope and Lilac Diesel. I also lowered my bed temp from 30°c to 25°c. Not sure if that helped a bit, or if it was inevitable for day 7 to just be the day, but I'll take it!

Bed Temp: 25°c

• Critical Cure - Tiny radicle poking from the tip of seed (1 mm maybe)
• Booberry Cookie - Tiny radicle poking from the tip of seed (1 mm maybe)

Time to move these babies over with their sisters and let the fun begin!

Humidity Dome (daily avg: Temp 75.8°f, Humidity 100%, VPD 0.00 kPa, Light cycle: 19:5)

• Chocolope - Popped!
• Lilac Diesel - Popped!

We also got a touch more rain last night so I put out one more bucket and collected a bit. I think it is time to start lining out my automated watering. I have my pump and aerator already on order from the AC store. The estimated delivery is Monday, so just in time. I did finally find a use for some of those old t-shirts my wife has been threatening to throw out..... 

...uhhhh just saved us $5 in cheesecloth dear 😏 

With my printer bed free from germination I can get back to printing little tags for these seedlings and other useless things I think are fun. LOL. Great way to start the weekend

The cotyledons are looking much more healthy today now that they have been above ground for 24 hours and soaking in some sweet LED light. Chocolope really shot up today and took the lead as the tallest plant. No movement on the Booberry cookie or Critical Cure, but I am betting tomorrow will be the day. 

Humidity Dome (daily avg: Temp 80.6°f, Humidity 99.7%, VPD 0.02 kPa, Light cycle: 19:5)

• Chocolope - 1.25" tall
• Lilac Diesel - 0.25" tall
• Critical Cure - Not popped yet
• Booberry Cookie - Not popped yet

Eyoooo lookie what popped up around noon today!

I must have just caught the Critical Cure coming up. It did have a bit of helmet head going on but gently plucked it off. It responded well and really shot up. Now all 4 ladies are up, hopefully developing a strong root system, and ready to grow! I have still yet to water them, but the humidity is high and things look nice and moist. 

I did swing by our local grow supply store and picked up some surgical-grade water lines to make my automated watering system. So far I have:

• 5' of 1/2" line
• 12' of 1/4" line
• 20 gal plastic reservoir full of rainwater
• AC Infinity Air Pump - 45 GPH with 2 aerating stones 
• AC Infinity Water Pump - 211 GPH capacity
• Lots of GrowTek drip rings

Need:

• Ball Valve shutoff (4)
• 1/4" 90° elbow (4)
• 1/4" quick disconnects (4)
• Line splitter 4:1 (1/4":1/2") <-- I am not sure if these exist, but if anything I think I can 3d print one.
  • Is the pressure more equally displaced doing a 4:1 split? I see a lot of 2:1 splitter, maybe 3 of those would be the same as the 4:1

Daily measurments: Humidity Dome (daily avg: Temp 81.7°f, Humidity 99.6%, VPD 0.02 kPa, Light cycle: 19:5)

• Chocolope - 1.50" tall
• Lilac Diesel - 0.50" tall
• Critical Cure - 1.00" tall
• Booberry Cookie - 0.75" tall

Ended up working all morning and until 10p, so I didn't get much time to stare at my seedlings. I did go to take the daily height measurements and noticed there was something that looked like browning/wilting/nute burn of the cotyledon on my Critical Cure.

My brother has some insights on successful grows and was able to tell me there was more than just a shell that can get stuck on a plant with helmet head. I had no idea there was a membrane too. Once I removed it there was a nice green leaf under it. Phew 🧐 

Things look a little sad in there today, just kind of droopy. I wonder if there is too much light at 19:5 or if the temp is too much. Maybe too wet and I should crack open the vents on my humidity dome. 

Daily measurements: Humidity Dome (daily avg: Temp 81.0°f, Humidity 99.9%, VPD 0.00 kPa, Light cycle: 19:5)

• Chocolope - 1.75" tall
• Lilac Diesel - 0.50" tall (no growth)
• Critical Cure - 1.25" tall
• Booberry Cookie - 1.50" tall

I think since things looked a little sad I am going to change the light cycle back to 18:6 and crack open one of the vents to lower the humidity. Hopefully this isn't too soon.

Happy Friday the 13th Growmies! I got my good scare this morning when I checked my plants and saw some burn on the tips!

Ok, that was overly dramatic. Not so much scary, but a mild "crap what did I do". I guess the HF was a little too ammended. Maybe next time I will do 25/75 Happy Frog/Tuper. The other crazy thing is how wet this media is staying for 50/50. I've only watered once and not sure it needed it. I did drop the humidity over the last 2 days from 100% to 70% by kicking the humidity dome lid cockeyed to let some more air in.

I had planned to have my Automated fertigation setup....sans the nutes.... at this point because I travel 1 week a month for work.... which is next week. But, since things are so wet I will probably just close up the lid and let it roll for a week and maybe it will finally dry out. I am looking forward to the monitoring I have with the AC Infinity UIS. 

I still printed up some micro drip rings for my 4 plants

I also set up the lines, checked for leaks, and tested the output to make dial things in. No leaks and I got the output down to a drip. Should be nice when things dry out.

I use 1/4" (ID) lines to each drip ring and 1/2" (ID) line from the pump (211 gph). I had to close the ball valves mostly to keep them under 1/2 gpm, but when I go to the 5 gal pots and the larger drip rings I will be in a good place. But, the 132 GPH pump would have been adequate with a small grow room like I have. 

Hope all of you NYGC'ers are having good luck and are ready for the weekend. I'll check back in once I'm back in town on the 22nd. 

Well fam, I am back from traveling and kind of screwed the pooch on my UIS automation. I am sure it was just a random bit of luck, but my controller had a firmware update on Monday at 2p which caused it to lose internet connectivity. It was a bit of a bummer because my dark period (6hr) runs from noon-6p so when it failed to reconnect to grab my automation, it was basically stuck in dark mode for 6 days straight 😪 

Before Trip:

7 days later:

I am not sure what the repercussions will be.... maybe just a stretched seedling? The ladies looked a little sad and really pale green (likely an outcry from the Photosynthesis/photon starvation), but I am hopeful they will be all good. Looks like my humidity stayed high the whole time I was gone due to lack of light, so my worry of burning them up while I was gone was the exact opposite of what happened.  I have a bit of green algae growing on my perlite, which I thought the 144 hours of dark might have not been optimal to thrive, but humidity wins again I suppose. 

I'm removing the lid from my humidity dome and going to let things really dry out. 

Here were the numbers for the week:

(Jan 15th - Jan 22nd)

Humidity Dome Week avg:

• Temp 65.8°f
• Humidity 91.6%
• VPD 0.20 kPa
• Light cycle: 0 hrs

Growth as of 1/22/23

• Chocolope - 3" tall (+1.25")
• Lilac Diesel - 0.75" tall (+0.25")
• Critical Cure - 2.25" tall (+1")
• Booberry Cookie - 2.50" tall (+1")

I gotta say I love all the things there are to learn about this process, but it seems to be a tough lesson each time LOL. @Berkshirebud  let me know about the Photone app on iPhone (thank you!) to find PPFD and I found I am WAY too close to these little plants. After almost a week of no light, I turned things back on, downloaded the app today, and found I am dousing these babies in anywhere from 700-800 PAR! ......and this is sitting at 10% power. So, I guess 3" above the canopy is no longer correct. I was not sure when the seedling ended, but I guess these are true leaves I should have recognized. This lady is not happy with 800 PAR:

No one is happy:

I am not sure what to do with that Lilac Diesel. It has not grown much, but I won't count it out. Looks like I will be needing that “best recovery” nomination award I heard mention elsewhere. 

I think I have some issues also fighting low temps with the snow and the cold:

Daily averages are on the low end I think

• Temp 71.7°f           (min-64°f, max-76.7°f)
• Humidity 71.5%    (min-40%, max-83.2%)
• VPD 0.76 kPa        
• Light cycle: 0 hrs

I tossed in a small Vicks humidifier (3L) but there's not a great way to control it. I set my clip fan to kick on when we reach 83°f  or 82% humidity. My inline duct fan kicks on at 90°f  or 82% humidity. I think I really need to dial these in. I run the light at night to help with the temp (~63°f  ambient) but we keep the house pretty cool anyway (63°f -67°f ).

I am going to go adjust the power up to 50% (~100w) to help with temp and find the sweet spot on height so I am getting around 400-500 PAR for the plants..... I think that would be the right PAR for where we are.