Help needed with first grow!

[DrumBoy420]

Hey all,

Nice to meet you! I'm new to growing and have an indoor set up in my garden shed and would like some advice on my first grow.
My set up is a 600w HPS light, using 12L fabric pots with a mix of BioBizz all mix (about 3/4) and then 1/4 biobizz light mix.

I pre-germinated 4 seeds (Auto northern lights - Dr Ray) in water and then a wet paper towel and then 3 of them developed taproots and the 4th one cracked but didn't show any root. 

So after about 4/5 days of monitoring them and keeping them damp, I moved them to the soil (even the one that didn't show taproot).

I have my light on about 250W for 18/6 cycle and the light is quite high up and no where near the pots.

It's been 6 days and the seedlings haven't broken the surface yet...when should I start intervening or give up with the seeds?

I've been careful with watering, I soaked the soil about 24 hours before I planted and since then, I've been spraying them 1/2 times a day to make the soil damp and to ensure the humidity stays above 50% RH. But not soaking them at all.

Not sure whats going wrong here or if I'm overwatering or just have dud seeds.

Temp in the room has been fine when the light is on but I have noticed it going down to about 15Cish when the light is off, but I heard this isn't too much of a problem?

Any help/tips would be great for this noob!


Thanks in advance  

 

Edited June 1, 2023 by DrumBoy420
Missed info!

[DrumBoy420]

Ah okay, that might be why then, they need that little bit more heat. Any recommendations on heat matts?

Oh really? I thought autos where the easiest for first timers!

Thanks for your help mate  

[disco survivor]

I'm new to cannabis but I would class myself as an experienced hobby grower of fruit and veg. I've just had 100% germination success with my first cannabis seeds which developed tap roots within 24 hrs and broke through the soil once planted in 2 days. I've always used the same method for seeds, even some very difficult to germinate chilli varieties:

 

Water, oxygen and warmth are key. I know placing seeds into a glass of water works for some but I would never do this (unless you have a species of plant that's natural germination cycle involves some form of journey through a body of water - I can only think of tropical vines and palm trees that do this)

I use the following method in most cases:

damp but not soaking cotton wool balls - 1 cannabis seed per cotton ball. Place the cannabis seed in the centre of the damp cotton ball (do not squash the cotton ball). Unlike kitchen paper, cotton wool balls retain their structure, allowing the seeds 360 degree access to oxygen 

Place the cotton balls in a re-seal sandwich bag and trap a little air in the bag before sealing.

Place the sandwich bag on a microfibre cloth and place both onto a seed heat mat or in a heated propagator (my preferred method)

Place in a dark cupboard or cover with a towel

Check after 24 hrs. I never let the tap root get more than 1.5cm long if I can help it.

Fill the growing pot with medium (don't pack down) and water. Leave for 15 minutes before planting to allow the water to disperse.

Place the germinated seed into a pot just under 1cm down (the seed body, not the tap root). If the tap root is 1.5cm long, the hole for the seed needs to be just under 2.5cm deep - always point the tap root down into the hole (if you can).

Cover lightly with growing medium.

[the punter]

I don't know anything about growing fruit and veg but i'm going to start learning how to grow house plants. When it comes to canna seeds though, I just plant the seed as it is in compost and they rarely fail. Keeping things as simple as I can gets me better results.

[disco survivor]

3 hours ago, DrumBoy420 said:

Ah okay, that might be why then, they need that little bit more heat. Any recommendations on heat matts?

Oh really? I thought autos where the easiest for first timers!

Thanks for your help mate  

Heated propagators are now cheap as it's the end of the season. Wilko (if you're in the UK) has a couple on offer. They are basically heat mats with the added bonus of a vented lid

[DrumBoy420]

35 minutes ago, disco survivor said:

I'm new to cannabis but I would class myself as an experienced hobby grower of fruit and veg. I've just had 100% germination success with my first cannabis seeds which developed tap roots within 24 hrs and broke through the soil once planted in 2 days. I've always used the same method for seeds, even some very difficult to germinate chilli varieties:

 

Water, oxygen and warmth are key. I know placing seeds into a glass of water works for some but I would never do this (unless you have a species of plant that's natural germination cycle involves some form of journey through a body of water - I can only think of tropical vines and palm trees that do this)

I use the following method in most cases:

damp but not soaking cotton wool balls - 1 cannabis seed per cotton ball. Place the cannabis seed in the centre of the damp cotton ball (do not squash the cotton ball). Unlike kitchen paper, cotton wool balls retain their structure, allowing the seeds 360 degree access to oxygen 

Place the cotton balls in a re-seal sandwich bag and trap a little air in the bag before sealing.

Place the sandwich bag on a microfibre cloth and place both onto a seed heat mat or in a heated propagator (my preferred method)

Place in a dark cupboard or cover with a towel

Check after 24 hrs. I never let the tap root get more than 1.5cm long if I can help it.

Fill the growing pot with medium (don't pack down) and water. Leave for 15 minutes before planting to allow the water to disperse.

Place the germinated seed into a pot just under 1cm down (the seed body, not the tap root). If the tap root is 1.5cm long, the hole for the seed needs to be just under 2.5cm deep - always point the tap root down into the hole (if you can).

Cover lightly with growing medium.

Thanks for this mate, really appreciate this advice. I just looked at my seeds and I think they're dead so I've tried to dig them out. So I will purchase some new seeds and try again! Annoying!

Regarding your method - do you stick the seeds inside the cotton wool balls or do you just place them on top?
I've found a cheap heated propagator but it seems to only go up to 20c, is that enough?

Also, once in soil - what do you do in regards to lighting? Do you wait until they've broken the surface before putting the light on?

Thanks  

 

[disco survivor]

Just now, DrumBoy420 said:

Thanks for this mate, really appreciate this advice. I just looked at my seeds and I think they're dead so I've tried to dig them out. So I will purchase some new seeds and try again! Annoying!

Regarding your method - do you stick the seeds inside the cotton wool balls or do you just place them on top?
I've found a cheap heated propagator but it seems to only go up to 20c, is that enough?

Also, once in soil - what do you do in regards to lighting? Do you wait until they've broken the surface before putting the light on?

Thanks  

 

Place the seeds in the centre of the cotton wool balls, making sure the damp surface of the cotton is in contact with the majority of the seed. I open the balls up with a pencil, place the seed in the centre and carefully close it up. 20C is more than adequate. Lighting isn't necessary until the seeds break the surface. In the old days, gardeners used to use newspaper over the seed tray to block out the light. For this first cannabis trial, I placed the germinated seeds into small plant pots and back into the heated propagator. I've now transplanted them into their growing pots. Might not be necessary for the plant pots but I wanted to carry on the heat therapy until they became viable plants. Good luck. I've started a grow diary in the Gardening - under glass section of this forum

[DrumBoy420]

Just now, disco survivor said:

Place the seeds in the centre of the cotton wool balls, making sure the damp surface of the cotton is in contact with the majority of the seed. I open the balls up with a pencil, place the seed in the centre and carefully close it up. 20C is more than adequate. Lighting isn't necessary until the seeds break the surface. In the old days, gardeners used to use newspaper over the seed tray to block out the light. For this first cannabis trial, I placed the germinated seeds into small plant pots and back into the heated propagator. I've now transplanted them into their growing pots. Might not be necessary for the plant pots but I wanted to carry on the heat therapy until they became viable plants. Good luck. I've started a grow diary in the Gardening - under glass section of this forum

 

 

Thanks mate, I've found a heated propagator for £20 from B&Q so I will go and pick that up soon!

Ah okay, that makes sense. There's a lot of stuff online about repotting and how it can stress them out while their young, not sure if I should try your method (after the cotton wool germination) or just stick them straight into the their final pot when they've germinated.

Nice one! I will keep a look out for that! Thanks again

 

[stu914]

@DrumBoy420

 

Welcome bud...

 

Have you got your shed insulated? You need to get the environment right before anything else...

Sheds can be far to hot in summer, opposite in winter, even the difference in temps and humidy between day and night will affect the plants.

Heated propagators can easily cook your seeds, better off with a heatmat and inkbird controller, costs a few quid but worth it.

Have a read of some of the diaries and you'll get an idea of what successful growers are doing.

 

Good Luck

 

[Clubs]

After 6 days I can't resist poking around in the soil, usually to find nothing worth keeping. 2-5 days is the winning margin for me.

[DrumBoy420]

2 hours ago, stu914 said:

@DrumBoy420

 

Welcome bud...

 

Have you got your shed insulated? You need to get the environment right before anything else...

Sheds can be far to hot in summer, opposite in winter, even the difference in temps and humidy between day and night will affect the plants.

Heated propagators can easily cook your seeds, better off with a heatmat and inkbird controller, costs a few quid but worth it.

Have a read of some of the diaries and you'll get an idea of what successful growers are doing.

 

Good Luck

 

sorry if this comes up as duplicate message, my original one didn’t post!

My wooden shed is insulted but not very well by all means. With the lights on at 250w it was around 20-26C in there. But was falling to about 16/17c when the light was off…

 

Can you recommend anything for keeping the heat up in the tent when the lights are off?

 

thank you! I will have a look through some diaries later on, realising this is much harder than I thought! got my work cut out for me I reckon! Haha

 

[DrumBoy420]

Just now, Clubs said:

After 6 days I can't resist poking around in the soil, usually to find nothing worth keeping. 2-5 days is the winning margin for me.

Yeah it’s now the 6th day after planting and when I looked in the middle of the soil I couldn’t even locate the seeds or any traces of roots etc so I’m guessing they died  

[Clubs]

Just now, DrumBoy420 said:

Yeah it’s now the 6th day after planting and when I looked in the middle of the soil I couldn’t even locate the seeds or any traces of roots etc so I’m guessing they died  

Ah, it happens. More so with the freebies that come with your order. At this time of year, all you'll need is a heat mat and Inkbird controller like Stu mentioned above. 

Had one myself a few days back. After 6 days all I found was a mushy seed and another one won't stand up, proper lazy fucker. Most decent viable autoflowering seeds are up around 3-4 days if their environment is spot on.

[DrumBoy420]

19 minutes ago, Clubs said:

Ah, it happens. More so with the freebies that come with your order. At this time of year, all you'll need is a heat mat and Inkbird controller like Stu mentioned above. 

Had one myself a few days back. After 6 days all I found was a mushy seed and another one won't stand up, proper lazy fucker. Most decent viable autoflowering seeds are up around 3-4 days if their environment is spot on.

yeah sadly these were seeds I actually bought! I think I fucked up the germination to be honest and kept them between tissues for way too long. I reckon they died before I even planted

 

Can you recommend a heat mat at all? there’s a  £15 one on Amazon I’ve seen that looks alright? and in terms of the inkbird, there seems to be quite a few models! Any specific ones I should consider mate? They do seem quite pricey though!

also, do youse the heat mat to keep the pots warm in the tent or for germination? Or both!?

I’ve got some Fast Buds ‘Big Buds’ seeds on the way so hopefully round 2 will bring me some better results!

 

 

 

cheers for your help

 

[Clubs]

47 minutes ago, DrumBoy420 said:

yeah sadly these were seeds I actually bought! I think I fucked up the germination to be honest and kept them between tissues for way too long. I reckon they died before I even planted

 

Can you recommend a heat mat at all? there’s a  £15 one on Amazon I’ve seen that looks alright? and in terms of the inkbird, there seems to be quite a few models! Any specific ones I should consider mate? They do seem quite pricey though!

also, do youse the heat mat to keep the pots warm in the tent or for germination? Or both!?

I’ve got some Fast Buds ‘Big Buds’ seeds on the way so hopefully round 2 will bring me some better results!

 

 

 

cheers for your help

 

The Inkird ITC 308S will do you, currently around £20 on Fleabay. My heat mat was bought from one of the big online retailers, can't remember which one but it's been running for over three years now. There's probably a manufacturer name on it but I can't get to it right now because it's covered in pots. I think the Rootit ones are OK but I can't complain  about my cheapo one.

It probably isn't strictly necessary at this time of year but I keep it running throughout the grow cycle, 25C for germination, 24 for seedlings then down to 23 or 22 for flowering. 

 

Stick the Inkbird probe through a hole in the bottom of the pot or whatever to ensure you're not cooking the roots at the bottom.

Edited June 1, 2023 by Clubs