First of all, I would like to thank HOL for providing me with the opportunity to test the Live Fire seeds, and apologize for taking so long to get started. Despite a bit of a rocky start, I am very excited and have some pretty high hopes.

There are a few threads out there that discuss the Live Fire a bit, and I saw several comments about possibly hard shells and recommendations to scruff the seeds before germinating. Probably due to sheer stubbornness and wanting to just do things the way I always do, I did not heed the recommendations and put five seeds directly into soil and five into Rapid Rooters.

Of the seeds that went into soil, three came up just fine within a week. One just sprouted like a freaking champ, standing tall and proud almost immediately and even now is the largest of the bunch. The other two were slow to shed the seed shell, so I assisted them by wetting the shell and gently removing it with my fingernail. I probably didn't need to do that, but it seemed like it would be helpful.

Of the five that went into Rapid Rooter plugs, all five sprouted tails within a few days, but in the end I lost all five due to damping off. I've never used RR before, and was not aware of just how sponge-like they were and how much water they retain, and it's my opinion that I really screwed up there. I'm kind of bummed, because if I'd just put them into soil like the others or followed recommendations I'd read elsewhere, I'd have more plants to play with on this run. Live and learn, I guess.

So I'll have three Live Fire on this run, and will grow out the rest on the next run.

Obligatory pics, explanations follow:

Last week I noticed some fungus gnats on the yellow indicator cards I keep in the cabinet, as well as a few poking around in the soil, so I hit them with a dose of predatory nematodes. This involves mixing the nematode substrate with water and dousing the soil, which the plants are clearly a bit young for, and they don't seem to have enjoyed being flooded very much, but I was more confident doing that than using something like Spinosad at this tender young age.

Despite that, they are growing fast. The stems look great and I have every expectation that they will do well in the long run. Sorry about only having close-up pics, when I was snapping pics I wanted to look very closely at leaf color and condition, so those are the only pics I have at the moment. I'll get better ones of the full plants soon.

Right now they are in a 24"x24" cabinet with 2x45W plus 2x65W CFL, and will be moved as soon as possible into a 36"x36" tent with a 600W MH that I'm currently setting up.

They will be grown out in 3-gallon Smart Pots with organic amended soil and living mulch, with only water given as much as possible. I also have CalMg for when it's needed, which I am hoping will be the only addition I need to make.

subbed my friend.... yeah rrs can be a major help or a major pain in the a**. i learned to start them in the rr's just until they are up and running, i also use the foam insert tray in my threads, they let the tips only touch water, so it has to wick up the water, less soaked! also forms roots really quick with the tray. i transplant to soil or hydro as soon as they are up and opened with the primary leaves just starting to elongate!

Too bad about the RRs for sure...

Tagged up for the ride and excited to see what these 3 do for ya

[redspaghetti]

mugenbao is in the house its time for lol
sorry to hear bout the rr brotha, cant wait to see how those 3 will turn out

ill watch from, back here
cheers

Just out of curiosity, I checked on the roots of the largest of the three last night before bed, and was impressed and surprised to see that it is past time for a transplant. It's not quite fully rootbound, but there is an impressive amount of root coverage.

The other two are surely not too far behind, but I think I'll give them a couple more days.

I'll transplant the one today into a 3-gallon Smart Pot that's been set aside for it, and will try to grab some snapshots of the roots. I'm happy and excited to be transplanting them, but I'm also feeling a little rushed. I thought surely I'd have a few more days, and my new tent is not fully set up yet. I won't even get my new 600W until tomorrow, but everything else is good to go if I use the 400W in the interim.


.

[festivus]

Very cool mugenbao!! Let's hope all 3 are girls!!!

I'll be happy if even two are girls, I don't mind having a male around to keep pollen from

If the biggest and fastest-growing plant isn't a male I'll be completely ecstatic, though my experience is usually different. Even so, I'm powerfully curious about this strain so even a single female will be good news as far as I'm concerned.

[lil~greensprout]

Hey Mugenbao, I was read'n your opening post and think'n that, I had the same
problems with the RR's and I thought the same exact thing, "too wet", but then I used
the sink`em in a cup method and had much better success, so I got to think'n again...
I know dangerous right ? and I just don't know how much wetter they can get than the
bottom of a full cup of water... so , Either way though I'm glad your gear is up
now and hopefully they'll all be girls for ya bro, best of luck with your grow, Sprout !


Sub'd, I'll be sitting over by jonny, smoke'n something funny , peace

Good point, sprout. I wonder if the difference is whether whatever causes damping off (supposedly fungal in nature) requires a substrate to live on, which it doesn't have in a cup of water. Just thinking myself, lol.

I guess I learned something valuable from the experience, and still think I might like RR for taking cuttings, but I may try the cup of water method next time to see how I like it compared to my usual "straight in dirt" routine

I do like the idea that you could see whether it's popped a tail earlier, that's appealing to me.

[redspaghetti]

The thing about RR is that you gotta keep em moist all the time, not to wet and not to dry, once the tails start to come out, thats when you have to keep an eye on it and make sure its moist at all time.

What also will help is keeping the rh high, best to use a humid tent or a clear cup over em , this will even give you a better chance. I took the easy route now a day
just soak em and once they sunk, throw em down to coco, whoever doesnt come up meaning they dont want to come out and play , all fair in games

cheers