1999sq' Sun Powered Greenhouse Humboldt

Welcome to my grow journal documenting this year's full season organic greenhouse grow in Humboldt County, CA. Humboldt Dreams is a permitted medical grow, a one woman operation.... Me against 1999 square feet of pure sun powered bliss. (More about the greenhouse later....) This year I will be growing Blueberry Muffin by Humboldt Seed Company, Cherry Bomb by Bomb Seeds, Night Nurse by BC Bud Depot and a local version of Jack Herer full season. I will also be running a bunch of FastBuds autos starting in May. They will get their own journal. I start seeds by placing them on a wet paper towel and wrapping them in tin foil. I place the lil tin foil packets on a heating mat. I put a pad on the heating mat to make sure it doesn't get too hot. A thin phonebook works great. Make sure not to leave the packets exposed to direct light or they will overheat. Seeds typically start to show signs of life within 24-72hrs. I try to put them in to 40 48 plugs right when they first sprout. The seeds in the second picture are a little farther along than I like. I put the plugs into a tray with a dome cover near a window with a heating pad. I put a t5 light over them for 18 hrs a day for a few weeks. I only water them with pure water until they are at least an inch tall. Sometimes taller. I wait until the stems have a little bulk to them and are not as fragile. My water is supplied by a spring. I use a digital PH meter before EVERY WATER. Springs are subject to seasonal PH fluctuations. My water tends to stay between 6.2 and 6.5 PH which is just a little on the acidic side.... which is what cannabis prefers! If your water is out of whack, you can use a PH Up or PH Down product or tweak the PH. There are also organic things you can use like lemon juice.

7 Days After Germination All seedlings thriving. Blueberry Muffin is the most vigorous strain. I keep an eye on the new sprouts. Some benefit from getting a little assistance removing their safey helmets (the seed shells) which sometimes get stuck on the new leaves or around the stem. I am keeping the plugs moist by misting with a spray bottle with pure water. In the next few days I will be starting to use an organic fertilizer at half strength. Lots of new products on the market. Will be spending some time at local grow shop.

On day 14 the roots started to show thru the bottom of the plugs so I transplanted into 2 gallon plastic grow bags. Some people like to transplant into smaller pots and keep potting up. I prefer to go right into the 2 gallons grow bags with seedlings because their growth is rapid, it takes a long time to transplant, and also because every time the plant is transplanted it gets stressed and slows growth. The key to going into a 2 gallon right away is to use the 40 48 larger plugs. These plugs act like little sponges and will pull the water to the seedling. I pre-fill all my grow bags to 3/4 full with Black Gold organic soil and then saturate the soil with water and the added root booster. I have decided to use General Organics products this year. Their product Bio Root is specifically for delicate seedlings and clones. I mix it to their specifications for a light feeding. I put the seedlings in their new pot and raised the soil level all the way up to the leaves. That thin little stem will all root out and the plant will be much more stable. Once the seedling is in place, I water it and add soil as it settles. I keep the soil level to about 1 1/2 inches from the top of the bag so they are easier to water. If I get dirt on the delicate seedlings, I spray them off with pure water in a spray bottle. I will water with Bio Root light feeding strength for the next watering and then I will water with pure water. Depending upon how they are developing I may continue Bio Root at full strength for one or two more feedings or I will be switching to General Organics Veg fertilizer. HUGE GROWTH. 5 days after transplanting the plants have grown about 2 inches. Stems are nice and thick. Watering one more time with Bio Root at heavy feeding concentrations. Impressed by Bio Root.

Plants have doubled in size in last 5 days. They are about 8" tall and the leaves span about 4". Nice healthy stems are developing. They are still inside in south facing sunroom with fluorescent lights. They are so delicate when they are this small and everything eats them. Mice, snails, moths... They will be moved to a screened in protected shelving unit outside in the next few weeks when we warm up a little and the sun comes out! (Northern Cali is having worst winter in decades and we have not seen the sun much since September. All outdoor growers I have spoken to have had seeds fail or are waiting to start them. At least the drought is over!). I switched from the Bio Root to the BioThrive Grow. This product line is organic and as most organic products tend to be, their amount of nutrients is lower. This product is 4-3-3 which is higher than most organic fertilizers, but still pretty mellow. So.... I will be watering at the light feeding usage for first feeding and then I will be mixing it at the recommended heavy feeding concentration. The product recommends using it at every feeding, but I will flush with clean water every 5th or 6th watering depending on how the plants look. Thanks to the great people at Humboldt Seed Company I have added another two strains that I am germinating now. Dream Queen and Trufullo Tree. The Humboldt Seed Company is local and most of their strains finish outdoors before the end of September which enables me to harvest three times a season without having to pull a single tarp (pulling tarps is a light dep technique to trigger plants into flowering early by shortening the hours of sun they get daily. It tricks the plants into finishing). In July the auto strains that I will plant in May will be done. (Auto strains are plants that are not dependent on light cycles to finish, they just have a definitive lifespan regardless of the time of the year or hours of sun). I put the autos in the greenhouse in bags around the full season plants that are in the ground. The autos finish just as the full season plants need all the space in the greenhouse. I simply harvest the autos and allow the full season to continue. When the full season is done, I fill up the greenhouse again with clones that I make off the full season plants. I keep the clones outside with supplemental lights, letting them flip to flowering mid September then I put them in the greenhouse after the full season are done. The clones finish by November.

Continued fantastic growth in Week 5. Plants are starting to look more like plants than sprouts! Their stems have doubled in thickness in last week and new leaves are coming on fast. All strains are growing more or less at the same rate currently and look pretty similar. Soon they should show some noticeable differences. Plants are being watered with BioThrive at the heavy feeding concentration now. This will be the plants last week inside, they will be moved to outside shelving unit with supplemental fluorescents lighting in a few days.

A bit behind on this post as the sun just came out and we are finishing new greenhouse. Pictures were taken last week on schedule tho! Plants continue to grow at a rapid pace. They are still in the sun room under lights. They are sitting in their bags on a stone tile floor that is a little cold still which I know slows their growth. Growth will pick up a lot in next few days as they are being moved to an outside screened in area. The need to continue to protect these plants was reinforced by the slug that somehow found its way into the house and ate several leaves off of one plant. Shocked it made it in the house. Perhaps on the bags of soil or firewood. We are organic, so instead of using poisons, we found the slug, killed the slug and are keeping a close eye on the plants. The outside screened in area should be mouse proof, slug proof, moth proof.... We shall see. If slugs do find their way in, we will put a ring of thick gauge copper wire around the plants on the shelf. The copper burns the slugs and should keep them away from the plants.

Week 7 and seedlings are starting to get bushy. They are outside in screened area until beginning of May. We have not seen the sun... But apparently the grey glare from the rain clouds was enough to magnify a few dozen water drops I got accidently got on a few leaves that resulted in a few brown burnt spots which you can see in the picture. I usually water in the evening as the sun is going down just as long as the humidity isn't too high. Its really important that when the sun is out the leaves are dry. That will teach me to change my routine because it's hard to get motivated later in the day with all the mud and rain.

Plants are growing despite the crap weather. Ran out of time to wait for better weather. We will be fighting the mud until greenhouse is done. The greenhouse is 96' x 20' and is 18' high. Hopefully this will be high enough... Last year the plants were close to 16' (no exaggeration). 4' up the sides of the greenhouse will be covered with metal fence to keep out the critters but maximize air flow. The ends will be covered in fencing too. There will be solar powered exhaust fans at the top of both ends and circulation fans in the middle. Hell or high water.... The greenhouse has to be done, the holes dug (with excavator) and the plants in by May 7th. Should be interesting....