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Pandor said:
When you say you start them out under full lights, you mean after a few days for germination, right?

And opinions on using 18 or 24 hrs of light?

Thank you

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Shroomofdoom said:
Once they pop outta the shell, I plant em and put em right under light. Now Im no pro or anything but its worked perfect for me. I've had seeds pop and probably 36 hours later little seedlings pokin out. Good luck! Take pics and stuff, keep us posted.

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maryanne3087 said:

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Pandor said:
When you say you start them out under full lights, you mean after a few days for germination, right?

And opinions on using 18 or 24 hrs of light?

Thank you

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My coco plugs go under the lights, the seeds don't sprout all at once so I suppose I could leave the light off until the first sprout emerges but after that they need light. I plant 72 + seeds at a time so I don't really have the patience to wait for a sprout to emerge, nor do I have patience for pregermination methods.

BTW I hang my lights high like 4ft above the seedlings but it's all relative to how cool your room is or more importantly how cool the temperature is at the seedling's canopy or the temp right at the seedlings foliage however you want to think of it.

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Pandor said:
Thanks so much Magash, maryanne3087, and everyone.

I'm on a second read of "The Bible" by Cervantes, I've read 2 other books, and I watch videos all the time, but you guys really help the most. Simple questions like the one about the dome are not addressed there. I really appreciate your input.

White Rhino and one Church went in today.

Thanks again. Going to start a grow log as soon as I have more pictures.

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maryanne3087 said:

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Pandor said:
Thanks so much Magash, maryanne3087, and everyone.

I'm on a second read of "The Bible" by Cervantes, I've read 2 other books, and I watch videos all the time, but you guys really help the most. Simple questions like the one about the dome are not addressed there. I really appreciate your input.

White Rhino and one Church went in today.

Thanks again. Going to start a grow log as soon as I have more pictures.

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Reading Marijuana Horticulture Grower Bible by Jorge Cervantes without having prior experience could put you back more than it puts you forward. There's a lot of inaccurate information in the  book, most of the inaccuracies aren't things that would ruin a grow but I don't think it's good to learn things that aren't factual.

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maryanne3087 said:
A fan is more to move air/co2 around the leaves so the leaves have a fresh supply of co2. There is benefit from strengthening stems but indoors it's minimal since we pack our plants together fairly tight and they won't be moving around once they put on a certain amount of weight.

So to answer your question better, so long as the leaves are moving from the fan that's enough in room circulation. You also want to have fresh air coming into your room I change the volume of air in my room every minute along with having 5 circulation fans in my 12x12' room which I rearrange as I see fit.

The distance you put your plants from the light is to preventing burning from heat. CFLs are not very hot at all, they create more heat than HPS bulbs per watt but CFLS are generally low wattage and their shape seems to let them shed heat well. I don't personally use CFLs at all but I do use florescent lights (tube) now and then for seedlings and I keep them less than 3 inches away. If you see burning of the foliage you know you're too close, unless you turn your plant into a crispy turd it will just set you back a bit while your plant recovers but won't ruin your grow. That is so long as your plant is able to recover from the damage.

Don't be scared to experiment. It's less dangerous than reading Jorge Cervantes.

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What does he say that is wrong?

I've never read that one and haven't heard that before but I'm not surprised. I do like Ed Rosnethals new book (cause he gives STS mixes and I haven't seen another book do that) but I don't care for him much after getting to know him. I like Greg Greens new book also.

I have looked over one of Cervantes books and saw a picture of light warrior growing medium by Fox Farm described as organic potting soil when it's a soil less mix and thought that was a little sloppy.

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anything below 65 should be avoided, anything above 85 should be avoided.

Ideal temps are in the mid to high 70's with the lights on, high 60's to low 70's with the lights off.

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I tried to take a picture, this is what I got.



As you can see, this is just the very first little root, and I am only slightly concerned about the color (which you can not see all that well).

I am am trying to get a jump ahead of what may cause future problems. Since I have moved them all so close to the light, the temp is fine, but the pellets are drying out FAST. I water them 3x per day. When I water them, at first some water does not absorb and goes off to the side and bottom.

Is the bottom of the tray really necessary? I was thinking about taking it out of there so the excess water would not pool. Or maybe even taking out of their holders and letting the whole pellet sit out and I could just spray the whole thing.

Or am I making a big deal about nothing?

I've been very nervous since I read this in top post listed below.

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Crusty Ass Bastard said:

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lampshadehelmet said:
A word of caution on germinating seeds... having extra rapid rooter plugs sitting around I decided to use them rather than throw them out(used to clone in them switched to aero).

The seeds failed miserably at pushing their way out of the plugs and most coiled up into a ball of tap root and died without ever emerging. The ones that did break surface ended up dying as well due to the root not being able to grow properly.

This was a fresh bag of plugs and I have used them to clone before, but suggest never attempting to germinate in them. I managed to save a few by ripping them out of the plugs and placing in dirt.

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I agree, plugs are more difficult to grow seeds in because they get waterlogged so easily. I think coda uses them and I know a couple other experienced growers that do, but for a newbie starting out they should be avoided.

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I use solo plastic cups with a soilless mix like peat, verm and perlite.

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Pandor said:
But the roots that are shooting out of the bottom look a little wilted.
Is this a cause for concern?

Approximately how long until I need to transplant?

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maryanne3087 said:

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Pandor said:
But the roots that are shooting out of the bottom look a little wilted.
Is this a cause for concern?

Approximately how long until I need to transplant?

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You can transplant whenever you want but I wait for my coco plugs to fill out with roots so that the bottoms have multiple roots showing and not just the tap root then I cut away the plastic as gently as possible and transplant into a larger container.

IMO, letting the roots fill up the container leads to the strongest root ball possible, as does as many transplants as possible however the more transplants you do the less efficient your crop gets in terms of labor and time and cost to an extent. So that's something to consider.

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The only thing that worries me is that you say "multiple roots showing". The roots that have grown out of the bottoms have shriveled up and died.

This morning I found one plant is leaning over and it's leaves are actually touching the dirt.

The more I read and hear about these plugs, the more I don't like my using them.

I am seriously considering going out to buy little plastic cups and transplanting these. Either in to a soil less mix, or orgainic (FF, yes I researched) soil.

If I go with the soil, should I continue to skip the nutes?
With the soiless mix, is the following picture a good nute?
This is what the guy at the store recommended.

Oh and one more question.

If you use little cups, do you make holes in the bottom?

Thanks everyone for you input on my thread. I really love this site just as much as I loved using Shroomery.

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Pandor said:

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maryanne3087 said:

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Pandor said:
But the roots that are shooting out of the bottom look a little wilted.
Is this a cause for concern?

Approximately how long until I need to transplant?

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You can transplant whenever you want but I wait for my coco plugs to fill out with roots so that the bottoms have multiple roots showing and not just the tap root then I cut away the plastic as gently as possible and transplant into a larger container.

IMO, letting the roots fill up the container leads to the strongest root ball possible, as does as many transplants as possible however the more transplants you do the less efficient your crop gets in terms of labor and time and cost to an extent. So that's something to consider.

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The only thing that worries me is that you say "multiple roots showing". The roots that have grown out of the bottoms have shriveled up and died.

This morning I found one plant is leaning over and it's leaves are actually touching the dirt.

The more I read and hear about these plugs, the more I don't like my using them.

I am seriously considering going out to buy little plastic cups and transplanting these. Either in to a soil less mix, or orgainic (FF, yes I researched) soil.

If I go with the soil, should I continue to skip the nutes?
With the soiless mix, is the following picture a good nute?
This is what the guy at the store recommended.

Oh and one more question.

If you use little cups, do you make holes in the bottom?

Thanks everyone for you input on my thread. I really love this site just as much as I loved using Shroomery.

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ChillWillis said:
pics of the plant(s) would help your cause

if you get the FF soil you won't need nutrients for a little while, but some people take the more aggressive approach and feed them within reason.
you're really only going to need to feed seedlings/young plants nutes when using a medium that doesn't contain any nutrients like hempy buckets.

no matter what you're growing in you're always going to need drainage otherwise your plants will drown or build up mold/bacteria. so yes put holes in the solo cups or whatever.

Clonex isn't really a nutrient it's made for starting clones from cuttings off of mature plants. I don't really think you'll need it for awhile.

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maryanne3087 said:
You're in luck. Insomnia strikes again, I'll be online until the medication kicks in.

If you're using RO the people you're purchasing it from should be able to tell you what PPM the water is if it's close to 0 ppm it should have a neutral pH since distilled water or pure H2O = 0 ppm and a pH of 7.

For pH you really only need to pH after you've added nutrients before adding nutrients isn't really relavent, if you're always using RO water you could probably get away with formula mixing just using the same mix each time. Checking for my reservoir is easy because I invested in a Bluelab Guardian which tells me the temp, pH, and EC/ppm/tds of the water which is handy because it can drift.

PPM is a conversion of Electric conductivity to assess the hardiness of water or the concentration of nutrients in our case. If you've got the money I'd suggest buying one of these also.

I don't know about the Clonex product, it sounds like it's for seedlings. I personally use General Hydroponics Flora series or Floranova. The Floranova is a one part nutrient and is fairly easy to use you I don't know if I will continue with the Floranova after I run out and currently I'm just trying to use it up so I switch between doses of Floranova and Flora Micro + Bloom which is a consistent mix and seems to be more pH stable. Mixing 2 bottles isn't very complicated either considering some growers mix 10 sometimes 20 different products to achieve similar or worse results. I'd suggest buying a bottle of Flora Micro and Bloom and using 6 ml micro, 9 ml bloom for full strength and clonex should do you good until you can feed this formula. I can tell you that using RO water and 6/9 formula you will be bang around the money for pH, you may even be able to get away with just buying a $10 dropper pH kit and testing it once to make sure your pH is in the right range.

Rinsing with tap water shouldn't be a worry unless you have like 1000 PPM tap water, even then it's probably loaded with calcium and Magnesium and the excess will just get flushed away when you water with your nutrients. If you buy a good brand of coco you can get away without rinsing but I never really trust it, if your coco is a bad batch which can happen with any company and the salt content is too high your roots will basically stop growing once transplanted into it and you likely won't noticed for a week or so since that's the expected time for transplant shock and then you're either set back big time or you lose your plants. Happened to a friend of mine on a rather large grow with Canna coco. Your criteria for selecting coco is texture and low salt content basically if you got that sorted you're good.

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ChillWillis said:

good post, I've always been curious about the Magash feeding regimine.
you've already convinced me to forgo my T5 veg growth and just 'bomb them' with my HPS right from seedling
any tips for the AN line?

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Not yet but I'm planning on giving the AN line a test. I just fig with so many using it mixes for them are pretty easy to come by.