Hi all,
I’m in USDA zone 7b. I have five 5-gallon grow bags and I made a soil mix of coir, perlite, worm castings and bagged “compost” from the big-box home-improvement store. Its a bit light on the worm castings, and about even between the other three.
I should have auto-flowering seeds arriving tomorrow, selected for “continental” outdoor climate, and I was hoping I could direct-sow them in each grow bag, in the basement under T5 6000k flourescent fixtures, then move them outside.
I also have a couple spots in the garden that I am going to try direct-seeding one or two seeds.
Would these approaches be advisable, or should I soak / sprout the seeds ahead of time and then plant them (direct outside and grow-bags)? Or should I soak / sprout, then put into smaller pots, then into the grow bags as they get bigger?
I know that’s a lot of questions. Thanks in advance for your advice.
I would at least start in solo cups
Should I use heat mats like I do for tomatoes?
I germed my seeds in cup o ro water w peroxide then when they crack did the papertowel method with the plastic plate on heat mat then when get a tail planted in coco and jacks 321 in solo cup til ready for transplant. I hept cups on heat mat with botton of clear solo cup as dome until they break thru then removed lids and when 1st set of true leaves form i turned off the mat.
I tagged you in my grow so you can see. Im totally new to this so dont take what i do as the rule. Ill watch what your going to do as im wanting to put some outside this summer which i thought would be soon but its snowing right now 
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Thanks, that’s good info. Basically what I do for tomatoes and peppers minus the seed soaking beforehand. USPS is slow so I didn’t get my seeds today which was expected eta. Wouldn’t that have been cool to get them on 4-20 hahah.
Here’s where I will sprout my seeds if they ever get here. Once they sprout I will remove the dome, turn off the heating mat, and lower the lights closer to the plants. Then I will transplant some to 5-gallon grow bags, and some directly into a raised bed system I have with automatic irrigation. Some of the grow bags I’ll have on the patio, some I will grow in the basement.
I have four of those lighting fixtures. 2’ long, 4 bulbs. Right now they have 6200k bulbs, later I’ll switch them to 2700k bulbs. For the grow bags in the basement, I will probably hang the lights in a vertical orientation, to sort of surround the plants, if that makes sense. suspend them each from one end, in other words. four lights, one N, one S, one E and one W.
Like pictured above, seedling germinator provides new seeds happy welcome.
My recent experience with direct “BROADCAST” seeding was a disaster.
Seeds lost. Seedlings did not survive struggles avoided with indoor nursery.
stem rot was due to morning, rain, dew, or low-level fog. $10.00 a seed, OUCH.
Saving grace, dome over seedling mat may become happy home for my clone experiments.
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[quote=“Allinherhead, post:4, topic:65926”]
I tagged you in my grow so you can see. Im totally new
[/quote], same true for me
How is that done?
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Lol a year later. How is what done 
?
How is “someone tagged in grow” I am unfamiliar with how that is done. Just asking,Thanks
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I germinated northern lights auto and then put her in a 5 gallon bucket 50/50 coco perlite mix this is my first grow but I started thinking like maybe I should’ve started in a smaller pot so I start to search for the little seedling and I couldn’t find it now I’m just sitting here hoping for the best I could use any advise atm and thanks to whoever took the time to read this
Wow got busy and didnt see this. A little late but to tag just put @ in front of name such as @ deepdiverdave
@Allinherhead Yes, thank you. No worries, amazing what i have learned from this forum since discovering and joining. I can’t believe, my outdoor plants look picture perfect and then along came DDD. The fence is only 6 feet high and the new neighbors are active yard dwellers with hot tub. So my plants do not get above 5 feet tall. Training and knife choices. Since Sept arrived, the flower trigger has been engaged. Beautiful, today. Thank you for your reply and how is your grow?
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Perpetual grow now for me. Some outside some in. I will share some pics later. Im away from the house now.
You got that right. Same here,
I have MY home grown 2022 seeds (WW,SSH,&?), from indoor plants, previously, and then the boys did the outdoor girls. ILGM Maui seeds arrived for fall planting. Happy Days are here again.
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Afraid the PNW wind or rain comming will cause trouble. But, seeds growing in flower pods, so all good.
Some evening pics of outdoor aurora indica. They were clones i didnt need so stuck them outside mid to late summer. Didnt know if they would make it although small theyre doin ok. Caterpillars and bud rot killed several. Usually here outside st louis i run autos early summer to harvest in front of the humidity. Next summer im starting early with photos and autos maybe get a second batch of autos late summer. Some indoor pics tomorrow its lights off right now.
Awesome, I got neighbors on other side of fence. Plants need height reductions, regularily.
Yup. same here.
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Happily our closest neighbor as 1/4 mile away. What area are you in if you dont wanna say thats cool
Mt Baker is North and Rainer is South, equal distance for a great swimmer like Ted Ericksen.
We grew up watching Ted swim 8 hours straight on Saturdays, in a Chicago Public Park Indoor/Outdoor swimming pool (West Pullman Park Pool, 12300 So Stewart, 60628).
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