starting to search for parents

[wutwut]

hey, i am growing in 4x4 tent with 600w hps. i use soil for medium. i have 25 regular seeds those i want to germinate. the idea is to try to find keeper parents from them to future crossing, but first i have some questions about that.

- what kind size of pots do you recommend to use? maybe 1 gallon plastic ones or 1.5 gallon fabric pots? i'm afraid of if they dry too fast in them. / but now i think if there are males like 30% of them (tropical sativa), i can maybe choose bigger pots because they are going to be separated.

- how long time is good idea to veg them? 2 weeks?

- is it possible to take clones from sog plants? it's really important because re-vegging is not always so easy.

i wish to know all tips about this kind of growing. this is my first time to grow big amounts of plants and looking for both males and females.

 

[Creeperpark]

I would start in solo cups or Dixie cups for germination. Allow the plants to get about 4 leaf nodes and then transplant into 1 gallon pots. You can veg in the gallon pots until the roots fill up the container. When they start getting root bound in the one gallon pots, transplant your plants in to the last largest container. You will need a light for starting your plants that is not a 600 watt HPS. High pressure sodium lamps are not suited for starting seeds or small plants. Use a 4ft florescent with 4 bulbs to start your seeds in solo cups. Save the HPS for larger plant growth growth and flowering. Good luck. Choose the best plants you like with the fastest growth for parents. .

 

[swapmeet]

I would start in solo cups or Dixie cups for germination. Allow the plants to get about 4 leaf nodes and then transplant into 1 gallon pots. You can veg in the gallon pots until the roots fill up the container. When they start getting root bound in the one gallon pots, transplant your plants in to the last largest container. You will need a light for starting your plants that is not a 600 watt HPS. High pressure sodium lamps are not suited for starting seeds or small plants. Use a 4ft florescent with 4 bulbs to start your seeds in solo cups. Save the HPS for larger plant growth growth and flowering. Good luck. Choose the best plants you like with the fastest growth for parents. .

This is right. HPS is good to flower with. Not so good with seedlings unless it is way above them, and still not ideal. A shoplight is beautiful. Since I am running a good amount of plants in soil and they are seedlings right now, feel free to drop by my diary. I will help you along in any way I can.

https://www.icmag.com/forum/marijuan...er-search-2021

 

[PolyChucker]

Personally I start seeds in paper towels, move to 2” pots after root tip is out, then to solo cups, then to standard nursery pots which are like 1.2 gal or something. Some people think getting a little rootbound is good for them, so when you transplant the roots blast out into their new medium, gives them a little boost maybe.
Plants will be visibly “sad” if roots are actually coming out of the holes in the bottom of the pot and are exposed - seems like they are sensitive to that.
The easy method to know when to repot is when the leaves are spread wider than the rim of the pot - then you should pick them up and look at the bottom and that’s when you will see little roots tips at the edge of the drain holes. That means you don’t have much time until the roots tips are exposed and the plant might get a limp quality to the leaves. You want leaves horizontal or upward to know they are happy.

I veg until preflower, about 8 weeks - so you know the genders of the plants and see what’s growing best and also get a good idea of structure. I am working with hybrids and they’re usually about 2ft tall at this point and I don’t have problems with stretch but for sativas you might want to do 24hr for 1mo and then flip to 12/12

 

[PolyChucker]

Forgot to say that I usually use plastic pots but I have 15 gal fabric totes and they seem superior to plastic.
-hard to overwater with that much drainage
-great airflow to the roots
-resistant to algae as it needs water pockets which sometimes form between the dirt and the side of the plastic pot because of water tension I guess - when plants stall in growth sometimes it’s because there’s a lot of algae around the sides. I started out with buckets from the hardware store with holes drilled in the bottom and algae around the root ball was pretty common.
I still use plastic pots for up to about 5 gal size because I have a bunch of them but the plants seem to get a boost when I move them into fabric totes

 

[wutwut]

thanks for replies. i will follow some of your informations but i already bought 2 gal fabric pots. the seeds are germinated already and next i am going to sow them in to 0.13 gal plastic pots. i keep them like that until leaves are wider than the pots. still if you have any tips to share - i'm reading.

 

[Creeperpark]

You will not be able to get very many large plants into a 4x4 grow space. There are two grow methods you can choose from. Using small containers and feeding them as needed is one way. You will need a trellis using this method to keep the plants from falling over.

 

[Creeperpark]

The other method is to locate 4 to 6 fine mothers or the best female plants you can find. Take those and run them under a 18 hr light cycle and up pot until you hit the largest container you can manage. Veg 30 to 40 days then switch to 12/12 and flower for 60 days. Here's a 90 to 120 day large container grow. Good luck