Big shout out to knowledgequest for uploading the original thread which can be viewed here:

https://www.planetganja.com/highsocie...ad.php?t=10758

I also want to thank 3LB three_little_birds , where ever they are, for giving us the ultimate organic threads,. also I want to thank 3BM for all the work hes putting in over here in the organic soil forums, im sure the 3LB would be proud

On with the show,

Growing LUI w/ the 3LB - From seed to weed!

Twas 10 days before Xmas, and there at the nest . . .
Not a creature was stirring, not one single pest . . .
The fluoros were hung over the seed beds with care . . .
In hopes that sweet seedlings soon would be there . . .

Back in October the birdies had cried . . .
Where can we find LUI’s we’ve looked and we’ve tried . . .
Then ~RC~ himself answered one fateful day . . .
I’ll get those seeds for you through Heaven’s Stairway . . .

Then Poppy and ~RC~ packed those lil seeds with care . . .
And within a fortnight the 3LB’s order was there . . .
A loud shout of hooray was heard through the nest . . .
Then birdies were plotting which start date was best . . .

Tonight those little seeds are nestled in right . . .
Packed tightly in moist earth they’ll sleep through the night . . .
But soon they will grow up to be big and strong . . .
And their sweet buds will be smoked in the 3LB’s bong . . .
So the story continues of those LUI seeds . . .
And the three little birds, and their growing deeds . . .

when it comes to organic soil alternatives, there should be plenty of
options. generally we look for something called "organic" and then start
reading the labels to see what's actually in the soil. we avoid soils with
chemical fertilizers and chemical wetting agents but don't have any special
preferences beyond that. when we see a decent soil on sale we tend to buy 10 bags and ask questions later. for that very reason there are several bags of FoxFarm OceanForest here at the nest as well as a couple more bags of that GardenSafe soil. there's a bunch of bagged mushroom compost. a few bags of composted humus and manure. a full bale and a half bale of plain peat. and also a bag of earthworm castings still hanging around from before we decided to raise our own worms. about peat pellets. we've tried those ourselves in the past and were generally disappointed with the results. they seem convenient and look simple to use but they always caused us more trouble than they were worth.

it all begins with a seed. one of the most important factors in growing good
cannabis is the genetics you start with. when choosing seed. a new grower
should consider their gardening skills and physical abilities and how that
might effect their strain choice. they should also consider the specifics of
that particular strain and think of how it will meet their personal needs.
good strain information can be found using the search feature here at CW to
look at what folks have said a particular plant. the overgrow strainbase and
heatherbud's wonderful cannagenetics.com site can also provide information
provided by real life growers on specific strains. for this thread the three
little birds will be growing Legend's Ultimate Indica. often known as LUI.
the seeds were produced by Breeder Steve of Spice of Life Seeds and
purchased through ~RC~ and the friendly folks at Heaven's Stairway. btw - we do want to offer accolades to Spice of Life Seeds for choosing to sell their breeding efforts in 15 seed packs! we greatly appreciate the breeders who follow this practice! We actually prefer to start with at least 30 seeds when trying a new strain, so the 15 count packs are a great convenience. Kudos!

LUI was chosen for a number of reasons. primarily for it's medicinal use at
the nest. it's just one strain we've tried in our search for the ultimate
herb to alleviate pain and insomnia. LUI has a reputation as being good for
pain relief so it was worth a try at the nest. LUI is billed as 100% Indica
and that usually indicates a heavier more sedative or "body stone". many
recreational users may find this effect boring and prefer the more soaring
high of a sativa or sativa dominant hybrid. however a heavy effect is just
what tthe doctor ordered for medicine at the bird's nest. Indica's are
generally easy to grow indoors compared to sativas. overall, they tend to
stretch less and feature quicker finishing times. all of which makes for an
easier grow for some medical users with physical disabilities. For all of
those reasons the LUI is a good prospect for our garden. and as an additiona
benefit. lots of folks at CW have experience growing it our already. so it
also happens to make a great example of what the 3LB can do in our organic
garden. in the end it all starts with a single seed. an investement in good
genetics is almost always handsomely rewarded!

once you have the genetics then it comes time to plant them. at least for
most folks that is. we've heard of some folks with seed collections numbering
in the hundreds of strains. and while we have nothing against collectors. we
just hope that thier seed collection will get used to grow some great herbs.
a lil seed embryo sitting on a shelf in a jar or pack that never gets grown
is a sad waste in our opinion. our philosophy is and always has been to share
the seed and then grow great weed! anyway. as you can see from the attached
picture. fifteen standard 4 1/2" square pots sit waiting for the seeds they
will nourish. (week old clones are in background) some folks germ in paper
towels or use other similar methods. we prefer to put our seeds directly into
these planters to eliminate potential stress from handling. so the planters
you see will get theirs seeds after just a lil bit of prep work.

we get lots of questions about our soil preferences so we'd like to take a
moment to describe the soil we'll be growing the LUI seedlings in. we call
this our Wally-World soil mix since all of the ingredients can be purchased
at a Wal-Mart. as many folks are aware we re-mix and reuse our soils pretty
much endlessly. but seedlings and cuttings are the one spot in our garden
where we use a store bought soil mix. this is the exact soil mix we use these
days for all of our cuttings and seedlings and have had great success using
it. even with hard to clone strains like Herijuana we've experienced 90% +
success rates in rooting cuttings! The base is Schultz GardenSafe potting
soil which is 100% organic and even OMRI listed. OMRI is the Organic
Materials Review Institute and which certifies products manufacturers pay to
have tested and certified if they meet OMRI's organic standards. we've seen
it in aqua-green bags at many Wal-Mart's we've visited. so hopefully it's
something available pretty readily across North America. We simply mix equal
parts of perlite and vermiculite into the GardenSafe soil to get a texture
that has good aeration and still holds water to protect tender young roots.
so the standard formula is.

50% Shultz GardenSafe soil mix
25% perlite
25% vermiculite

just about any soil could be substituted here. we originally choose the
GardenSafe because of it's easy availability and because it is slightly
cheaper than FoxFarm OceanForest. the FFOF tends to be a lil "hot" in terms
of nutes. we use mushroom compost a lot as a soil base/amendment for
blooming plants but would guess it's also too hot for tender seedlings and
clones. the GardenSafe will work great & we've used an organic potting soil
called FertiLoam before and it worked great as well. organic Promix or
Sunshine Mix in the same proportions should work too. the specific soil isn't
going to matter as much as simply paying attention to purchasing a quality
soil that is organic. in the attached picture you should be able to see (if
you look closely) that most of the 4 1/2" planters have been heavily soaked
with warm tap water. normally we'd never consider using water straight from
the tap. but preparing soil for seeds is where we'd make our only exception
to that rule. we like to use warm water to get the soil heated up a lil bit
before we plant our seeds. seeds will germ faster in warm soil so this helps
give them a jump start. the little bit of chlorine that may be in some folk's
tap-water might retard potential mold on the seeds and certainly wont hurt
anything. finally we should add that underneath these planting flats are a
pair of the seedling heat matts often found in garden centers. they are
fairly expensive and not absolutely necessary and frankly they are of limited
use. as soon as the seedlings start popping their little heads above ground
we will shut them off because we don't want to "cook" any tender lil roots.
so at most they will probably only be on for two or three days. they may
contribute to a slightly faster and slightly higher germ rate so we do go
ahead an use them.

at this point. with the future home of our seeds warm and moist and all cozy
for germination. some folks would just push their lil seeds down under the
soil a bit and be done. and certainly that'll work. it may even be a lil
simplier than what we do.

the problem w/ just pushing the seed underground in at least one bird's mind
is potential problems for folks who migh have lost some feeling in ther
extremities due to various chronic illnesses. those tiny lil seeds can be
hard to feel and once fingers are wet things have a way of sticking to each
other. if a person pays $50 for a pack of seeds then each bean is $5. and
we're not wanting any potential confusion with odd seeds sticking to our
fingers. so we make lil seed holes. they are slightly smaller in diameter
than a pencil and only two or three seed lengths in depth. that is our
general rule of thumb with lil seeds. 2x or 3x the actual seed depth down
into the soil. and that works if you are pressing them into the soil our
making the little indentations like we use. in the next pic you will see the
lil holes in the center of each square planter. At this point we're ready
for those lil seeds.

15 seeds were carefully dropped into their new homes and are waiting to be
tucked in for the night. After all the seed were dropped in their soil
depressions they were gently covered by the warm moist soil. Transparent
humidity domes cover our seed beds but not too tightly. They are in place to
hold warmth and humidity to encourage germination. As soon as the plants
beging poking above the soil surface we'll lose the plastic covers and
unplug the heating mats.

13 of 15 seeds planted are already above ground. strong and green and
proudly basking in the 24/7 glow of fluorescent light. that's an 87%
germ rate (so far) and it's still just 48 hours after planting so
there's still hope for the remaining pair of seeds that remain
unsprouted. Take a look at one of the sprouts.

One of the secrets to getting nice seedlings is of course genetic. good
genetics will produce stronger more vigorous plants which are easier to
grow. like anything else this is in general - there are exceptions to
every rule as certainly a 100% Sativa variety like "Haze" may be great
genetics but not so simple to grow indoors for the less experienced).
but one secret to strong healthy seedlings is to provide them with good
strong light as well. while the seedlings are young and tender too much
intense light could bake them. so extreme caution is necessary if trying
to use a HPS or MH for this job. it's much easier to use fluorescent
shoplight fixtures or similar lights. the rack holding the seedlings is
4' long and with the planting flats it's 18" deep. that area is lit by
220 watts of T-5 VHO fluorescent light. this works out to to about 36
watts per square foot. because of the high humidity domes covering the
seedlings the light above is raised higher than normal which protects
the seedlings from too much heat or too intense light. the 110 watt VHO
fluoro fixture is probably 10 inches above the seedlings right now. just
above the top of the humidity domes height. we have a seedling / cloning
cabinet which is not pictured or in use at this time but it is lit by 2
standard 4' shoplight fixtures with 2 bulbs apiece. with that cabinet
being a foot deep and just over 4' long it's lit at a similar rate. our
veg area actually has a greater capacity than we need and we choose to
germ the seeds out on the shelf to make this pictoral grow along easier
to photograph. besides a decent amount of light our seedlings also need
the correct environment to thrive. making sure they stay warm and cozy
is they key. we don't want to cross a line and make those tender lil
plant too hot or too wet either. when using our 4 1/2" square planters
in standard nursery flats the humidity domes covering the tender
seedlings do not fit tight. this is actually our preference. when
humidity domes hold excessive moisture it can cause problems for
seedlings. a common seedling problem is called "damping-off". here's a
definition of damping-off from the University of Minnesota Ag Extension
service . . ."Damping-off generally refers to sudden plant death in the
seedling stage due to the attack of fungi (see figure 1). These fungi
are soilborne and are stimulated to grow and infect the seed or seedling
by nutrients released from a germinating seed. However, seedlings may be
injured or killed by something other than fungi, for example, toxic
materials in the soil, excess or deficient soil moisture, seed defects,
temperature extremes, toxic gases in the air, etc. A correct diagnosis
is the key to effective control measures. "

https://www.extension.umn.edu/distri...ure/DG1167.html is a link to the
article where that defintion came from. the humidity domes are simply
protecting our seedlings from environmental extremes at this time.holding
in a lil heat and a lil extra humidity but not enough to get the air
inside "saturated" to where the domes fog up or hot enough to where the
seedlings could suffer from heat stress.

some stem elongation and the 1st set of full leaves developing. we'll
keep the humidity domes off for several hours to "harden off" the
seedlings but put back on before tucking them in for the night

humidity domes were taken off for good. soil surface was "cultivated"
gently with a finger.seedlings were rotated inside their flats. when
using a good organic soil it's very common for algae to grow on the soil
surface. sometimes even the white perlite will turn greenish in color
due to algae growth. the algae doesn't really hurt anything but they can
compete for nutrients so we usually just smooth the surface of our soil
mix gently with a finger. often times a peat based mix will shrink and
pull away from planter sides. roots exposed to dry air in the "side
cracks" can die back so when cultivating the soil surface we are always
careful to "fill in" by pushing some extra soil along the edges of our
lil plastic planters. the soil surface was still damp from the original
soaking so there is still no need to consider watering for several days.
cultivating the soil surface helps to level and even it and will
contribute to a more even drying of the soil as well. even with the
strong light we are using (35+ watts per sq foot) the seedlings on the
outer edges lean slightly towards the light. so to encourage straight
growth we also rotated the seedlings. moving the lil babes from the edges
into the center. the seedlings themselves show little change. perhaps
increasing slightly in size. the slightest signs of a 2nd pair of leaves
show so we'd expect to see those showing up enough for pictures tomorrow.

here's a close shot of a LUI seedling at day 4 from germination. all 13
seedlings are looking happy and healthy and a wider shot at day 4 showing
all 13 seedlings - looks like 13 will be the lucky number on this one!