I purchased Robert’s White Widow (fem), 10 seeds - I was initially concerned because the seeds are kind of whitish green (not like the darn striped ones most people claim to be “viable”), but I figured I’d give it a try anyway.
So far, I’ve taken 3 seeds and put them in a small glass of tap water. I placed a solo cup over the glass and put the glass on a heat source. Waiting to see what happens, it’s only been a couple of hours.
I’m installing a grow tent inside a storage shed in my bedroom, the tent is 3’x2’x5’ and it’s got mylar on the inside, openings for the inline fan (which I also purchased, with carbon filter) and I also bought the appropriate high sodium lights, as recommended in some book I’ve been reading.
Naturally, my first step is to get one or two of these little ladies to germinate. If I should get lucky and see a sprout out of one of these seeds, any advice on how to proceed? Are the ones that sink to the bottom the only viable ones? I plan to plant in soil. I purchased (so far) I small bag of miracle-gro soil for seedlings and a some small planters (I have larger ones for after, should I succeed).
I live in a small apartment, I intend to keep this small - just for me. Advise me, please?
Sounds good to me so far. Lights - don’t use monster lights on the seeds/seedlings.
After they’ve soaked, put them into the soil, 1/4 inch or less from the top. Dampen the soil around them and you should see them push up in a few days to a few weeks. Only dampen the soil during this time, don’t flood it. We use a spray bottle. Continue using the spray bottle for a while after they start to grow. But be careful, I’ve knocked them over before. No nutes till you transplant. I transplant when I’m 3 internodes high. (temperature makes a difference, I like my seedlings to wake up to a nice 70ish degree (F) “afternoon.”
The grow bible will give you all the basics. The people on here who are way better at this than I am can fill in the blanks.
Sinking or floating has very little with viability. Often sinking means the shell has cracked. Yes put them in the starter soil/medium as soon as they crack.
Our seeds have near 100% germination success when given the correct environment.
The most common thing it seems that kills the seeds before they get a chance to sprout is over watering and then they drown. Something to keep in mind is that cannabis roots and seeds need a lot of oxygen to stay healthy and they do well in very aerated soils, not unlike cactus. This is why misting the soil is such a good way to keep the soil moist around the seedling, the misting itself adds a lot of oxygen to the water. Just be sure you are not keeping the soil so saturated the seeds drowns.
And yeah, the high pressure sodium might be a bit much for the little seedlings, Fluorescent lights, CFLs or T5s and even maybe T8s might be a better alternative for early vegetative lighting and then slowly intensify the lighting with the HPS. But good choice overall with the HPS
What watt lights did you buy? You can use a Hu\ugh Pressure Sodium lamp from start to finish, but you need to be aware of the distance from the plant to the lamp. Too close, and you can fry them. All good advice above. Happy Growing
thanks for all the great advice! I have a CFL light for the seedlings, I believe it’s 60 watt. Was going to wait on the HPS lights until later…I’ll keep everyone posted. The learning experience is pretty fun lol.
Welcome Wicked!! As the Aussies say, “Good on ya mate”!! I have a small space too. 2.5 squared x 5. Just for me as well. Great to see you here! Good luck!
so update: I got 4 sprouted seedlings out of the 5 I started (still waiting on #5 to pop, I believe she will). The paper towel method for germination was really great, worked like a charm!
Right now, I have these little seedlings in red solo cups. How long do they they in there and - when it’s time to move them, what’s the best way to do it? I was going to use either 2 or 5 gallon buckets. I want to move them as little as possible, that’s why I figured once they’ve begun the vegetative state I’d just pop them in their final resting place.
Your reasoning is sound. You can grow them in the solo cups until they are pretty much root bound. This will give you a large healthy root zone when you transfer them to the larger container. If you are going all the way to a 5 gallon, you might want an interval between to develop your root zone better. The roots tend to grow mostly straight down towards where the water accumulates, not using much of the available soil to the sides of the plant. Allowing the roots to become slightly root bound they use much more of the soil to the sides, as well as when watering in larger containers, to carefully slowly water from the top, allowing all the top soil to get its fill instead of all the water just running to and sitting at the bottom.
