First time grower with 10 "Last seeds on Earth" advise?

[RalphStanley]

Hi Everyone,

I have never grown anything, and I am living in an area outside the US where seeds are very hard to come by. I managed to get a package of 10 white widow seeds two years ago which have been stored in the package they came in and in an envelope in a metal cabinet in a room which is kept at 20-25 deg C year round.

I have lurked on here quite a bit particularly the DrBud type grows so I have some theoretical knowledge.

Now, most grows are focused on getting maximum yield, but for me I want to maximize the probability of not screwing up the point that I am left with 0 seeds and 0 healthy moms. I know that beginners are almost certain to make mistakes; so I would like advice for what my plan should be so that when I do make mistakes it won't be game over.

Here are the conditions for my grow:

*I will be using a wardrobe cabinet which is 33" wide, 22" deep, and 76" tall it has a built in center divider splitting the width to 17.7" and 14.5" sections.

* I will use CFLs for lighting as no HIDs are readily available.

* I will use a soil medium. I have no preference on synthetic vs organic fertilizing.

I have started designing the layout of the cabinet and can share those plans later.

So, what I'm looking for is advice on how to plan the grow to maximize the chance of successfully having future generations. I also welcome comments as to what are the most common beginner mistakes that would terminate the grow.

 

[dlusion]

You'll need to watch out for a few things in a soil grow, here's a small list:

• Humidity
• Mold/mildew
• Do not over-water. Stick your finger about an inch down into the soil to check for dampness, if it's damp don't water it.
• Stay away from purchasing nutrients in a suspicious manner, should you make the purchase locally. They're for your tomato plant.
• Don't use clear containers that would let light hit the roots. This will damage or kill your plants.
• Don't use 'time release' nutes of any sort.
• Paint the interior of your cabinet flat white, this helps with recycling/reflecting light. White paint > Foil of any sort.
• Bugs (more common than you'd think)
• pH (get a testing kit. it's not 'necessary', but if anything goes wrong you'll be glad you bought it.)
• Air circulation
• Distance between plants and CFL's should always be ~1", raise or lower the plant or lights accordingly.
• Smell! Don't get busted by smell, make or purchase an air scrubber.

LOOSE LIPS SINK SHIPS. Apart from ICMag, do not advertise your grow. Do not post incriminating pictures. Do not post your real name, address, face, or anything that can trace back to you. Make sure you get rid of any EXIF data left in images you've taken. Everything you post here should be hypothetical.


Anyway, I hope to see your new cabinet soon! Cheers and good luck!

 

[foomar]

Storage temp was high but at least cosistant so may not get good germination , suggest practice first on tomato seeds once or twice
Scuff the widow when ready and be ready to help seed leaves out of the husk with tweezers on wet tissue , into soil as soon as properly split and should be fine from then on.

 

[theratings]

Plan on designing a mother plant area, like a small cabinet. They're easy to cool and light with fluorescents.

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

IMO, most common beginner mistakes:
Incorrect pH
Too much water
Over fert

If you're doing soil, check the runoff pH from a sample. In potting soil, you'll need a pH of around 6.5 to 6.8 with 6.8 being the best. Most potting soils are a little hot for mj and you'll need to add dolomitic lime for pH buffer. How much lime will depend on how hot the soil is but the general rule of thumb is 1 tblsp lime per gallon of soil. Correctly limed soil keeps you from having to dial in the pH of every single water or feed.

Potting soil is one of the easier methods to grow pot, IMO. A typical newby error with soil involves watering too much. The roots have to get oxygen and can only do this when the soil is drying out. The easiest way to prevent over watering is to pick up the pot. A moist pot will be heavy and a dry pot will be light. (Familiarize yourself with the weights of your own dry and wet pots.) Potted plants like to almost dry out, then get a good drench. A small amount of runoff tells you the soil is saturated. This runoff comes in handy to occasionally measure the runoff pH. One ingredient you'll surely need is perlite. It keeps the soil from packing and allows roots to grow. Otherwise potting soil will get too packed/compressed in the pot.

Organic soils are easy in that you can mix dry ferts with soil and water with plain h20 for the entire grow. Chem ferts are easy in that you can grow in un-ferted commercial potting mix and just follow the application instructions on the label. When using chem ferts, always apply 1/2 strength according to the label and work from there or they might burn (over fert) your plants. Pot usually requires more calcium and magnesium than found in typical garden ferts. A Cal/Mag supplement may be necessary if using Miracle Grow, Shultz, Peters etc.

You have a good strain for beginners. The above info if too brief to make you a care free gardener. But if you get the above dialed in, those plants will grow themselves. After all, it's a weed.

So get your pH correct before planting, don't water too much and don't over fert. These three things will go a long way to a successful grow. In the meantime, read every thread you possibly can with similar grow mediums, ferts, setups etc. You'll learn something new every day you read, I promise.

 

[masterKahn]

If 10 seeds are all you have and might ever have I would suggest you crack all 10 seeds, flower all the females, keep clones and one male. Then make a few hundred seeds to save along with any new mothers you have. If seeds are so hard to find maybe you can spread your home-made seeds around.

And mix in a generous amount of perlite/coco/peat with your soil

 

[Melkor420]

Germing for the timid:

Germing for the timid:

I would say take each individual seed, wrap them in a paper towel, tape the paper towel shut and leave to soak in a quarter cup of water and the seed about an inch above the water line, make sure to keep water (1 seed per cup) in the cup until the seed germs (3-4 days), and you should be set!

I would also run 5 at a time to be on the safe side, and MasterKanh has a good point about making seads! this way, as long as you have bleached paper towels, you can see the progress, and check it easily. once they stick out about a 3mm tale, stick em in the ground a half inch and let em go!

 

[Anti]

If 10 seeds are all you have and might ever have I would suggest you crack all 10 seeds, flower all the females, keep clones and one male. Then make a few hundred seeds to save along with any new mothers you have. If seeds are so hard to find maybe you can spread your home-made seeds around.

And mix in a generous amount of perlite/coco/peat with your soil

I think you should listen to masterKahn, personally. Crack 'em all, use your best male to polinate one or several of your females. You'll have seeds to last a good long while and the ability to create new males if needed.

30-40%+ perlite.

 

[Anti]

Oh yeah. I had some Serious AK47 that I got back in 2004 or so. They were kept in a little wooden jewelry box in the original packaging until april 7. All my seeds sprouted with no scoring. Soaked paper coffee filters in RO water, wrang out excess, placed seeds inside, placed filters in unsealed plastic sandwich bag for about 2 days. 100% germ.

 

[I N Hail]

If beans are that hard for you to get and you have not grown before
i would suggest that you do a bag seed run FIRST.



INH

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

Germinated seeds are pretty vulnerable when transferring to soil. You might consider just planting the ungerminated seeds in moist seed starter soil. A dome over the seedling pots will keep the soil from drying out for a long time making maintenance almost nil. Once they crack the soil you can gradually moisten more and more until you're fully saturating the seedling pots. Sometimes less is more and too much water with seedlings isn't good.

 

[RalphStanley]

You'll need to watch out for a few things in a soil grow, here's a small list:

• Humidity
• Mold/mildew
• Do not over-water. Stick your finger about an inch down into the soil to check for dampness, if it's damp don't water it.
• Stay away from purchasing nutrients in a suspicious manner, should you make the purchase locally. They're for your tomato plant.
• Don't use clear containers that would let light hit the roots. This will damage or kill your plants.
• Don't use 'time release' nutes of any sort.
• Paint the interior of your cabinet flat white, this helps with recycling/reflecting light. White paint > Foil of any sort.
• Bugs (more common than you'd think)
• pH (get a testing kit. it's not 'necessary', but if anything goes wrong you'll be glad you bought it.)
• Air circulation
• Distance between plants and CFL's should always be ~1", raise or lower the plant or lights accordingly.
• Smell! Don't get busted by smell, make or purchase an air scrubber.

LOOSE LIPS SINK SHIPS. Apart from ICMag, do not advertise your grow. Do not post incriminating pictures. Do not post your real name, address, face, or anything that can trace back to you. Make sure you get rid of any EXIF data left in images you've taken. Everything you post here should be hypothetical.


Anyway, I hope to see your new cabinet soon! Cheers and good luck!

wow, thanks for all the great replies. what a kind forum, i expected to get ignored since this was my first post.

dlusion, thanks for taking the time to make a list. it's really helpful.

so far, i have already painted the interior of the cab flat white and purchased some lumber and cut shelves and chamber doors and painted them. i have a 180 cfm squirel cage fan with 4" diameter exhaust. I will use passive intakes, and I'm aware of the area formulas. My plan is to finish the cab before doing any gardening. I got some activated carbon from the pet store and will be be constructing a carbon filter. I want to test it's effectiveness before I start.

For humidity, the room is air conditioned so I assume that should help a lot with humidity issues.

Mold/mildew I assume goes hand in hand with humidity? In addition, for this I should clean the cab very well with disinfectant before start up and also clean the walls once per week throughout the grow?

For nutrients, I've done a little bit of looking around to see what's available locally. At the supermarket, I saw some Hyponex 6-10-5 liquid plant food which would be about right for flowering and will probably serve me ok for veg as well.

For bugs, what are some precautions to take? I was thinking of using hepa filters on my passive intakes. If I do should should I increase the area of my passive intakes to more than double the area of the exhaust?

As for loose lips, I use a VPN in another country to connect to the internet so that my ISP cannot see what websites I am visiting. I have no friends who are smokers so there won't be any temptation to talk about it IRL.

 

[RalphStanley]

Storage temp was high but at least cosistant so may not get good germination , suggest practice first on tomato seeds once or twice
Scuff the widow when ready and be ready to help seed leaves out of the husk with tweezers on wet tissue , into soil as soon as properly split and should be fine from then on.

good idea to practice germination with tomato seeds first. thanks.

 

[RalphStanley]

Plan on designing a mother plant area, like a small cabinet. They're easy to cool and light with fluorescents.

I plan to use the lower right section of the cab for the veg chamber. it measures 15" wide X 18" deep X 28" tall. I can make it taller if I need to since I am not really restricted with height in this cab.

 

[RalphStanley]

IMO, most common beginner mistakes:
Incorrect pH
Too much water
Over fert

If you're doing soil, check the runoff pH from a sample. In potting soil, you'll need a pH of around 6.5 to 6.8 with 6.8 being the best. Most potting soils are a little hot for mj and you'll need to add dolomitic lime for pH buffer. How much lime will depend on how hot the soil is but the general rule of thumb is 1 tblsp lime per gallon of soil. Correctly limed soil keeps you from having to dial in the pH of every single water or feed.

Potting soil is one of the easier methods to grow pot, IMO. A typical newby error with soil involves watering too much. The roots have to get oxygen and can only do this when the soil is drying out. The easiest way to prevent over watering is to pick up the pot. A moist pot will be heavy and a dry pot will be light. (Familiarize yourself with the weights of your own dry and wet pots.) Potted plants like to almost dry out, then get a good drench. A small amount of runoff tells you the soil is saturated. This runoff comes in handy to occasionally measure the runoff pH. One ingredient you'll surely need is perlite. It keeps the soil from packing and allows roots to grow. Otherwise potting soil will get too packed/compressed in the pot.

Organic soils are easy in that you can mix dry ferts with soil and water with plain h20 for the entire grow. Chem ferts are easy in that you can grow in un-ferted commercial potting mix and just follow the application instructions on the label. When using chem ferts, always apply 1/2 strength according to the label and work from there or they might burn (over fert) your plants. Pot usually requires more calcium and magnesium than found in typical garden ferts. A Cal/Mag supplement may be necessary if using Miracle Grow, Shultz, Peters etc.

You have a good strain for beginners. The above info if too brief to make you a care free gardener. But if you get the above dialed in, those plants will grow themselves. After all, it's a weed.

So get your pH correct before planting, don't water too much and don't over fert. These three things will go a long way to a successful grow. In the meantime, read every thread you possibly can with similar grow mediums, ferts, setups etc. You'll learn something new every day you read, I promise.

Thanks DiscoBiscuit. This looks like solid advice. I will probably be using chem fert. Half strength like you said. I will look for calcium/magnesium supplements too. Using a 1/3 perlite soil mix for good drainage should help with the over watering problem. I'll also look for a pH kit.

 

[RalphStanley]

If 10 seeds are all you have and might ever have I would suggest you crack all 10 seeds, flower all the females, keep clones and one male. Then make a few hundred seeds to save along with any new mothers you have. If seeds are so hard to find maybe you can spread your home-made seeds around.

And mix in a generous amount of perlite/coco/peat with your soil

Yes I had planned to go for seeds first time through so I could relax on future grows.

If you could clarify what you mean (sorry i'm a newb), are you suggesting I flower all the females that were grown from seed? That is, say I have 8 plants make it to veg stage then put all 8 under 12/12?

 

[VerdantGreen]

i would also just plant the seeds - perhaps soak them overnight first.

organic is the most forgiving soil method imo - just use one of the tried and tested mixes in the organic forum.

remember that seeds need no fertilizing and also need to be grown in a very light mix.
easiest way to kill seedlings is in a mix too hot (rich in nutrients)
dont put them too close to the light when they are small.

good luck
V.

 

[RalphStanley]

Melkor420,

I had planned to do 5 seeds on first germination attempt and then the other 5 once I see the first 5 succeed. This is in order to make sure a screwed up germination attempt doesn't wipe me out.

 

[RalphStanley]

Oh yeah. I had some Serious AK47 that I got back in 2004 or so. They were kept in a little wooden jewelry box in the original packaging until april 7. All my seeds sprouted with no scoring. Soaked paper coffee filters in RO water, wrang out excess, placed seeds inside, placed filters in unsealed plastic sandwich bag for about 2 days. 100% germ.

Anti,

I have been following your grow with great interest. It's comforting to hear that you had some old seeds stored in similar way that sprouted.

 

[dlusion]

If you have any issues with germination, try this:


1] Get a plastic easter egg.

2] Cut up two small pieces of paper towel. You'll need enough to cover the bottom interior wall of plastic, and another slice of similar size to gently lay over the seeds.

3] Pour water on the paper towels until they can retain no more. Dump out any 'extra' water. Your towel should be somewhat soaked.

4] Close it up and let it sit in a dark environment.


In as little as a day you'll have a germ'd and ready seed. It often takes up to a few days, but I haven't had any seeds fail (yet) with this method. Remember to pick up the germ'd seed by the seed casing and do not touch the root!