Heady's Hideaway - Growing in a Legal State

Alright all. So I have been active for about a month. I started a few threads to catalog my work, but it's too difficult to update each thread. So I'm creating this as a catch all thread for stuff I work on.

Just a warning, I'll be hopping all over just based on the nature of my work. In here you'll see my garden, my client builds, my friends' or associates' gardens. You'll pretty much see anything I feel is worth a picture or fills in an experience.

So sit back, spark up, and enjoy the views.

Copied from my other threads to consolidate.

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. 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 package arrived today.


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



Freebie: Promo pack of Starbud for Hortilab. Just one bean.



This Killawatt was a Freebie. Pretty pumped to check this one out. Here it is taking a soak.



Here the seven seeds are soaking in the kitchen.


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!

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 $3.



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.

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.

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.

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.

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.


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.

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!

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.

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 coming 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.

I haven't thrown in the towel on this Starbud yet. Nothing has progressed since it was pulled out of the paper towel. So, I've decided to throw it back in a paper towel container to see I can wake it up.


Back to the paper towel and distilled water.


You can see the tail hasn't progressed much.


I'm going to turn off the lights for a little to see if 6 hours off will help this tail grow.


Here's hoping it'll turn around HortiLab. Any tips would be appreciated.

Update: Well the Starbud root has stalled and is now in its own container germinating again. Crossing my fingers on this one. I really wanted to see it go.

HDF and Killawatt are doing well. HDF is crushing it really. Super impressed how this batch of seeds has taken off.

I had the humidity dome completely sealed these past two days. I noticed quite a bit of water was collecting on the leafs. So I cracked the vents 1/4 of the way and monitored it for a day. I woke up this morning and it still appeared humid enough to have some serious condensation on the leafs. So I opened them up half way and will monitor them today.


I'm opening these vents up, because, IMO, you want it humid in there but not so humid and stuffy that the plant material becomes super soft and just breaks apart. It's a tough line to find with these domes. I've noticed each brand of dome is different due to the different venting methods. So you have to stay on top of what's happening inside the dome each day.

I saw a few leafs growing on these seedlings! That's good progress in 48 hours. This is the HDF.


These are gradually becoming plants. I love it! Cracking seeds is a fun experience.


UPDATE: Not too much progress. I should probably dial these updates back a bit so you guys don't have to look through 100 pics of the same thing. Checked in on Starbud and it looked like a little growth occurred, or maybe that was just wishful thinking. The Seedlings are looking strong. They're getting nice color and perking up to the T5's. I'm running 24 hour lights just to maintain a solid temp. I opened the humitidy vents 1/2 way and there was a lot of water loss to the environment. I refilled the tray with 500ml of pH adjusted water again.

Propping up the HDF seedling that grew sideways. This was due to a massive tail. Color is coming into the stem, so I think it will be able to hold itself up in a few days.



Seedlings reaching for the sky.

I hadn't really been taking temps right on the plant, but rather around them.

Here are the seedlings today. Those first set of leafs are stretching to the light.


Here is Starbud's temp. Disregard that Max temp, because that was from a temp/canopy distance test I was running on the 600w's earlier.


This is the temp in the humidity dome.


Than for checking in.

Well, nothing happening with StarBud. Throwing in the towel. That's a shame, I was excited to try this one. Maybe next time HortiLab.


On a bright note, these seedlings at gradually progressing. I Start throwing in 3 eye drops of GH Rapid Start per 500 mL of water. They're using about 250 mL every 2 to 3 days.


That HDF with the messed up stem isn't gaining any stiffness in the stock, so I have to keep it supported until it takes off. That one will probably die or at least be a very slow plant.

Also, humidity was getting a little low with the humidity vents 1/2 open, so I scaled it back to 1/4 open and they seem to be doing better.

Alright so these seedling are pretty much rooted out. As time moves on they'll get in the garden, but I'm going to switch gears. Here are the final pics.




Note: this was taken from a different thread and consolidated here. So thanks for any comments in the previous thread and subs. I hope you guys will find this thread more interesting since it will have diversity.

I thought I'd talk a little about my favorite way to clone. I love building cloning racks, because clones don't need much light and this setup is a great space saver.

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.

I love cloning. I just love turning what would be trash into a new life. Here in Colorado you can give clones away since anyone over 21 is rightfully entitled to have 6 plants. So I clone even when i don't personally need them. I've found that someone always has a light for them if you run a clean garden.

These girls were getting big. So They were in need of some topping and general trimming. A few could still use some work, I'll wait until I have more room in the cloning trays.


You can see that the Big Mamas are sitting there. They were soaking in pH adjusted water with the run off going into my res. I'm sure I could let them drain into the sink, but I'd rather use the water and a little pH down. Those will be the new real estate for these lady's roots.

Personally I am a huge fan of Rapid Rooters. My success rate is wonderful with them. This batch might not turn out too great because I'm headed out of town for the weekend and usually you need to keep a close eye on them the first couple days.


Humidity is key. These little girls have water and a heat mat, plus the dome. I used some Clonex gel I found laying around. I hope it wasn't expired, it didn't seem to be the same consistency I remember. Either way, these clones come from the scrap, so I'm not too worried about it. Always worth the experiment.

I just received some new genetics in soil cups. I'm not a huge fan of soil. I ran it for years and just didn't enjoy all the dirt. Don't get me wrong, I know there are pros and cons to each grow media. So don't take offense dirt churners. Just not my cup of tea for indoor grows.

Typically I would grow these plants out and clone off of them. But I have some trays to fill, so I decided to try to transplant from soil to rockwool.

So to give you and idea of what I did:
1. I let the soil dry out by not watering the plants prior to the transplant. This helps free up any bounding and weight in the soil.
2. I tip upside down (usually just slanted down and not fully upside down) and squeeze the keg cups and gently to loosen the rootball out of the cup.
3. Once the rootball is out of the container, I gently tap the soil covered rootball against my hand. This drops soil out. I can get most of the soil off the rootball with this method.
4. Usually by this step there is only small stuff that is left in the rootball, like perlite, sticks, or soil on the roots. So I take the rootball and dip it in a 5 gallon bucket filled with water. I use one hand as a brace/backing for the roots and the other to splash water into the roots like a wave. I also pull the root ball in and out of the water.
5. Once i feel like I've made the most progress I can, I put the plant in some water to soak the root ball.
6. After I've done a batch of these, I pull out some pH adjusted 4x4 rockwool cubes and some start plugs. I take the plants and gently layer the roots in the 4x4 rockwool hole. I cover the roots with pieces of the starter plugs. The end product is a plant that looks like I'd been in the rockwool the whole time.

Note: There is still a small amount of soil in the roots when I plant, but honestly it will remain contained in the cube, so I'm not concerned.

Here is the only Strawberry Kush I left in the cup in case the transplanting fails.


The two rows on the right are the finished product.


So far they look like they're taking well. But only time will tell. I'm hoping there isn't too much air where the roots are at.

Here is a close up of how the rockwool is packed over the roots.



Well I spent a long day transplanting a bunch of strains I'm bringing in house. I'm excited to run these.

The newbies are Herijuana, Golden Goat, Colorado's Glass Slipper, Sour Diesel, Strawberry Kush (Royal Dutch), Blueberry.

I'm a big fan of the top feed hydro system. I go through a lot of 1/2" tubing, but that stuff is cheap and I love how little I have to do. I'm really enjoying this more than flooding because my nutrients aren't going all over the tray, but rather directly through each rockwool cube.

Here's my water setup:

I remember when I didn't have a sink around my grow room. That will never happen again! I definitely got a workout carrying water! Haha.


Here's the general components in my water system. 55 Gal Trash cans from Home Depot, RO System, and a sink.


Here's the RO System I use. It's a Hydrologic Stealth RO 200.


Here's the float turn off valve for the water storage. This thing is wonderful. I always forget to turn off the water tot he RO System.

That water system connected. The black trash can has a pond pump that automatically shut off when the can is drained. All trays flood into this can.


Filling up the Water storage container and adjusting the water value to shut off at the proper water level.


Pumped all the water over into the nutrient res.


Time to test out the water system. These ladies are thirsty.


Good to start feeding. I set the timer to 1 minute every 3 hours. I'll have to adjust this as they grow and start drinking more.

I suggest investing in a hose. They're cheap and super easy to install.



This thing always comes in handy, like cleaning trays.