Heavy Duty Fruity, Killawatt, Starbud

[Headys]

Hello IC, new poster here.

Being that this is my first post, I'll give a little interlude:

I've only grown from clones. Clones are everywhere in our state, so this was my first purchase. Why would i go through the hassle? Well some people aren't being honest about their clones around here. Aside from getting completely incorrect strains, we ran into untruthful people stating they did not have pests or mold. We would run the clones in a test room, like a fish tank owner. Sure enough, people are selling bugged clones and its prevalent. Further it wasn't just craigslist sellers, dispensaries were just as bad. So if you're in Colorado, keep your eyes peeled for that. bugged home grows are good for the retail marijuana industry.

We've been running a few good strains for a while now, but I thought it was time to switch things up. This is the safe route to add genetics to our operations. So I pulled the trigger and purchased some seeds from a *seedbank*. Two weeks later and they have arrived.

For this Grow Diary, I'm going to focus on how these seeds go.
- Heavy Duty Fruity from TH Seeds (x5)
- Killawatt (fem) from Seedism Seeds (x1)
- Starbud (fem) from Hortilab (x1)


I realize I'm not cracking a bunch of seeds this run, but I'm inexperienced with germination. So I'd rather play it safe. If i completely screw up the germination, I have some other strains to test out. Crossing my fingers it goes smoothly though.




The setup:
I'll be running hydro top feed trays with GH three part nutrients and a few supplements. Depending on what tray is open when these girls are ready they will either run on
- 4x8 with 2 1000w Blackbuster 8's in 8x8 rockwool cubes, or
- 3x6 with 2 600w Blockbuster 6's in 8x8 rockwool cubes.

Germinating the seeds in a cup of distilled water, then moving to rockwool in a humidity dome. Under 2x two foot T5's and a heat mat.

Thanks for tuning in. I'm new, so hoepfully I don't max out my picture limit before I hit 1000 posts. I'll try to be concise with my updates for future readers.

- HEADYs

 

[Headys]

Alright first post on this one.

The package arrived today from Attitude Seed Bank.

5 pack of Heavy Duty Fruity (HDF) from TH Seeds.

Promo pack of Starbud for Hortilab. Just one bean.

*seedbank* includes UFOs based on how much you order. This Killawatt was one of the UFO. Pretty pumped to check this one out. Here it is taking a soak.

Here the seven seeds are soaking in the kitchen.

 

[unregistered190]

Cool, I will be hanging around watching the show. Nice start w/ pictures and details!

 

[Kindest]

 

[ssq.talker]

 

[Headys]

3 of 7 Cracked

3 of 7 Cracked

Wow, these beans have been soaking for under 24 hours on this heat mat in a cabinet. The Starbud, the Killa-Watt, and one Heavy Duty Fruity cracked. So that's already great news!

I've been building out a new room. I need to get this thing finished. I love the work motivation these ladies can get you in. I don't think I have ever worked so hard for a lady.

 

[Headys]

24 hours of soak, 6/7 Seeds cracked

24 hours of soak, 6/7 Seeds cracked

Oh man, just wrote a detailed update and I got logged out. Probably for the best, I was probably too wordy.

So as of tonight, 24 hours of soak, 6/7 Seeds cracked. The seed that has not cracked is one Heavy Duty Fruity The roots are just barely sticking out of their shells. So I decided to throw them in damp paper towels and containers on a heat mat. I've read this is great for getting that root out of the shell. I used distilled water for this stage.

These Glad containers were cheap and are proving useful. 8 for $2.

I began soaking my rockwool starter plugs in 5.5 pH adjusted RO water. The RO system I am using is a Hydrologic Sealth RO 200.

I'm using a BlueLab combo meter for my pH tests. I used to use a cheaper Hanna and I enjoyed that too. I just got this pricey piece of equipment at a killer price.

I mentioned that I've been building out a new room. I just got this water filtration system setup. Hydrologic Stealth RO 200

50 gallon trash can with float valve turn off. This baby has two wheels as well, in case I need to move it when its full.

Thanks for tuning in. If you have any tips, please feel free to share. This is uncharted water for me. I was a cloner guy.

-HEADYs

 

[turpek2]

Interesting, i ill follow

 

[FRIENDinDEED]

you doin fine brotha, you may even be able to teach a thing or two to these clowns around here! lol

 

[Headys]

7/7 Seeds Cracked after 24 hours Soak and 48 Hours in Paper Towels and a container, Planting them in Rockwool soaked for 24 hours in pH 5.5 adjusted RO water.

Well I let them soak for 48 hours in a paper towel. I didn't bother checking on them at all. I regret that and you will see why:

Pulling the seeds out 48 hours after putting them in:

Oh snap, Killawatt has one hell of a tail! This is going to get interesting.

I sanitized some tweezers with clorox bleach wipes. I let the tweezers air dry. I used the tweezers to spread open the rockwool holes. Again, I've never germinated from seed, so I'm hoping the tail isn't too long and the air doesn't get in there and kill these roots.

Well, I couldn't get the seed down far enough without cracking the root. So I just plugged a piece of rockwool on top of it. I tried not to pack it too tightly. I don't want to make it too hard of a challenge to break out of the cube.

I'm really upset that I didn't plant these yesterday or just right out of the cup. Dealing with these long roots is tough. I blame the Brazil v. Germany soccer game for that laziness. A few pints to the wind and I knew I shouldn't mess with them yesterday. Well, nothing is perfect.

...that was Killawatt.

- HEADYs

 

[Headys]

And the planting continues. Here is Starbud:

Not too long of a tail. This could work out better than expected.

I planted the same way as the post above.

- HEADYs

 

[Headys]

And the planting continues. Here is Heavy Duty Fruity:

If you remember, one of these had not cracked when I put them in the paper towels and the roots were barely poking out for all the others. I was a bit concerned about this batch because they were moving slowly.

Dang, these things grew like crazy these past 48 hours. Maybe inch long tails. Some of the shells have already popped off them. This is going to get ugly.

Planted and Labeled. One tail was so long, I cracked it planting. Damn shame. Shows what one lazy day can do to you. Well at least it wasn't one of the strains that only had one seed. Out of the 5 HDF, three had already lost their shells. There was a little hint of yellow at the top where the shell typically would be. Lesson learned. Paper towel method is super productive. 24 Hours is all you need after a soak.

There is a little pH adjusted water in the bottom of the tray from the soak. I'll add more pH water after the humidity starts kicking in and sucking up what's laying around.

The way these plants are moving, I'll probably put them under lights by tomorrow. All of the blockbuster 6" hoods and inline phresh filter for the room arrived at the local grow store. So that's the project tonight. And setting up an area to crack seeds.

Hope you enjoyed the update. I'm a little ticked about going lazy yesterday. Cracking a root is never good. We'll see how that plant handles it. So looking back, its a good learning lesson. Next time: soak and move to the rockwool right away.

- HEADYs

 

[Headys]

Thanks for following!

Thanks for following!

you doin fine brotha, you may even be able to teach a thing or two to these clowns around here! lol

Thanks for the kind encouragement FRIENDinDEED!

If any of you have dealt with long roots like this and have any tips, please share. That was a pain.

- HEADYs

 

[AlbertMarkovski]

Subbed. Looking good so far!

 

[FRIENDinDEED]

I was gonna ask you anyway so im really glad you threw some pics up of how you set your seeds up after the soak. I especially like those lil containers.

im always looking for a better way to pop seeds

 

[Headys]

Hey thanks for the Subs all. It's nice to know I have a couple of you watching. It's keeping me honest about taking pics. I almost spaced it today.

Well things are moving! Heavy Duty Fruity is growing like crazy. Starbud has not made it out of the rockwool. Every other plant is coming out of the rockwool. 6/7 so far.

So, I left the plants in darkness for 24 hours after the transplant into rockwool. One HDF shot out of the rockwool about 2-3 inches. All the leaves coming out are yellow where the seed used to be. I'm guessing that is a lack of light and they'll perk up within a couple days. At least I hope. Patience. Note: the plant that had a cracked root is looking good. It is the one with the HDF label in its cube. Starbud had the smallest root and it reflects that progress right now. It has not poked out of the rockwool. So 6/7 are outside of rockwool.

I still have not added any additional water. The plants are not drinking anything really yet. So the only water in the tray is the RO water that was pH adjusted to 5.5 for the rockwool soak. I used 1000ml total for the 7 rockwool cubes. I'm in Colorado with no humidity. The heat mats work so well for creating humidity. In 10 minutes I can't even see in the dome. I think they're worth the $20. Currently, I have the vents completely closed on the humidity dome. I'll start opening these up as the plants and keep you posted on my method. I think this is the hardest part to dial in on humidity domes.

I setup a shelving unit I bought from Home Depot for $40. It is the smaller grey plastic version that has slits in the shelving. I attached a 1 tube 2-foot T5 fixture to the shelf after the plants with some zip-ties. This is my favorite method of cloning/seed popping. I feel like I can get some much production out of a small footprint. Eventually you will see me using every shelf here to house fresh clones. This shelving unit dimension is 36"x18". It's perfect for one heat mat per shelf. I have been using this system since I first learned to grow. I highly recommend.

Let there be light! That's pretty good in 6 days since these seeds arrived. Again thanks for tuning in and if you have any tips for this stage, I always love to learn new tricks.

Thanks,

- HEADYs

 

[Headys]

Paper Towel Method in Sealed Container

Paper Towel Method in Sealed Container

I was gonna ask you anyway so im really glad you threw some pics up of how you set your seeds up after the soak. I especially like those lil containers.

im always looking for a better way to pop seeds

Yeah, I've never used this before and they appeared to work wonderfully. I tried the paper towel on the plate method once in the past and it just dried out crazy quick. We have no humidity here. I think the containers were a great way to control it.

In terms of the paper towels themselves. For each container, I took one paper towel and folded it in half. I then folder each half up so it would fit nicely in the container. I wetted the bottom with distilled water. Then I used my fingers to squeeze out the excess water. This left the paper towel damp, but not water logged. I placed it into the container and neatly packed it in. I dropped the seed in the middle and repeated this method for the paper towel that went on top.

I was worried it would still be too much water, but it worked wonderfully.

Feel free to ask about anything and I'll be sure to respond with a detailed response like this.

- HEADYs

 

[Headys]

We have Chlorophyll!

Wow, just 6 hours after flipping on the lights. I was shocked and how quickly this changed from the pics in the previous update above. I'm learning that Seedlings are super fun to watch!

This is what the humidity dome looks like when left to its own.

This is what the humidity dome looks like after I open it up. Notice the T5 setup. So simple.

6 Hours after turning on the T5 and these seedling are starting to perk up! This was the HDF seedling that had a cracked root from transplanting.

Here they are as a group. I'm rooting for you Superbud, I believe you'll raise in 48 hours.

Sweet stuff.

- HEADYs

 

[Headys]

Taking Care of Business...Working on the hydro setup. This is how I like to do things.

Sizing up the new Blockbuster 6" Reflectors. The other hoods were used as place markers when I was setting up the eye hooks for the SunGrip Light Rachets. All the hoods will be Blockbuster 6" in this room. This reflector has a uniform square light pattern.

I do quite a bit of private grow room build outs and I'm a big fan of saving money where it makes sense. This allows me to meet tight budgets while purchasing higher quality equipment. A prefabricated table runs ~$90. An easy solution is to use 5 Gallon buckets for legs under the hydroponic trays. However, that can be a pain for the gardener. You'll get a sagging middle tray which leads to algae growth from stagnant water. Here is a solution we've been using for a while now.

This tray stand costs ~$20 to make. Straight boards are very important. I'll spend an hour searching for straight boards at Home Depot. This stand features a footprint plush with the tray's dimensions. It is on casters for easy grow room maintenance. The height of the legs are as low as possible which provides the largest vertical growing space possible. And the stands will have a tiered trellis system. I'll post a picture of this in a bit, as it doesn't make sense to build this yet.

I'm a fan of being completely safe with electricity. When I first started I was an idiot. Do NOT risk burning down your house. I have a buddy that's an electrician and always make sure I run the safe route.

Here I have a 50 AMP breaker running into an AutoPilot 8 Light Controller. This light controller is rated for a 50 amp wire.

Seriously folks, this game is about doing things the correct way. Short cuts are fine as long as they are safe. Save your money in areas that do not compromise your life or your larger financial assets. Spend the money on quality safeguards.

When you act negligent, you give all indoor gardeners a bad name (eg: Colorado Hash Explosions). Just my 2 cents.

- HEADYs

 

[Headys]

Not too much Progress: The leaves are greening nicely. They needed water today. I added 500ml to the tray. I added a second T5 to the shelf through a daisy chain.

I checked out Starbud, and it's just kind of stalled out. The root looks fine, but nothing is growing. Maybe it was too dry in there. I'm hoping the 500ml of new water will help out. Killa-Watt is looking nice. There is a little color soming into the stem.

The HDF's are looking wonderful! These are reg seeds, so I'll probably get a male or two out of these. So I'm glad they're all looking good. That cracked root didn't even phase that plant.

-HEADYs