Doug's Varin - First Grow

12/22/22 - 12/23/22 I started the seeds with 1 day soaking in a glass of water and then 1 day in a paper towel and zip lock bag. 12/24/22: Today I added them to starter pots with the same soil mix that will be used in their next and final 5gal bag. I added a little myco bliss to the seed area before placing it in all 6 plants. I used a water mist bottle to moisten the soil with water ph'ed to roughly 6.6. I misted the inside of humidity domes for each plant. I placed them in the grow tent slightly elevated off the floor. The light is set to 20% power and about 3' above the soil level. I am hoping that all 6 plants make it through the seedling stage. If so, I will pick only the 4 strongest looking plants at that point to be moved to 5gal bags and start veg. This is my first grow and I am just trying to put things together based on what I have learned by combing through every grow video I could find on YouTube. My grow tent that sits in an unfinished basement that is the entire size of my house. It is currently very cold outside and so I am having a hard time keeping the temperature at an ideal level. I have ordered a space heater to help with this through the harder part of the winter. Should have it in a couple of days. Hopefully the seeds survive in the less than ideal conditions until I can get it heated. It is also very dry in my basement and the humidity level in my house is 24%. And so I have a humidifier running outside of the tent that is misting towards an intake duct. I also have a 5 gal water just inside of the tent that is being aerated with a stone air pump, bothtohave chlorine free water ready and to try to help build humidity. This is helping but is still not getting the humidity to an ideal range of 40-70%. Although close. So I need to look into how to better this problem. 12/25/22: Happy Christmas. No new activity today. No plants have sprouted yet. 12/26/22: 4 of the 6 have sprouted. That's 2 days after planting in initial pots and having paper towel germinated. I expect the other two to sprout tomorrow. Or so I am hoping. I've put a humidifier inside of the tent and it is doing a fine job maintaining humidity in the mid 50%. I am still sitting at temperatures between 64-67 F. I am really looking forward to getting my infrared space heater so that I stop worrying about being able to maintain ideal temperatures. 12/27/22: All seeds have successfully sprouted into a seedling! I'm very excited with the results of each so far. #1 and #6 appear to be the two strongest at the moment. I added an AC Infinity gremination/seedling hot pad under the plants today. Hoping this helps with the root build up. 12/28/22: I've decided to go ahead and remove the humidity domes as I seem to be able to maintain good levels of humidity in the tent. I'll try to keep it around 70% for the first couple days with a plan to bring it closer to mid 50s over the next few days. I watered with a mist bottle today. I added some cal-mag, liquid seaweed, and 1.5 tsp/gal of Fox Farms Big Bloom to the spray. Ph'ed at around 6.4 and made in distilled water. Plant #3 started its growth side ways, before correcting and growing up. This caused it to lay over a lot. I have tried to help this with a plant tie. 12/29/22: I got my space heater and it is awesome! It doesn't hurt the humidity and heats the air up just fine around the tent. I am now maintaining around 72°f with 60% humidity. #3 is lagging behind the others a lot. I am still not sure it is going to bounce back from its issues. I decided to take the humidity domes off of all but #3 today. I saw a nat jumping around in the tent today. Creeped me out. Hopefully this is not the first sign of what will be an insect problem. 12/30/22: Each plant showed some clear progress today. Some have started to grow their second set of leaves. No new sitings of Nats or any other insect. #3 is still struggling. #6 is looking like the strongest plant to this point. I've noticed some stretching, and so I have increased the light to %30. 12/31/22: I am having problems today. Maintaining an ideal humidity has been annoying. Currently, I cannot keep the humidity above about 35% without my humidifier inside the tent, but also cannot keep from getting greater than 70% even on its lowest setting withi it in the tent. I have a new humidifier on order that should help regulate itself. I think I should have it in 4 days or so. Until then I'll keep trying to balance it the best can. #1 has had the best leaf growth of the bunch, but also already has some slight discoloration and browning at the tips of the leaves. #3 is still struggling a lot. It cannot stand up without support, and what's worse is I think I see what appears to be a mold spot on it already. I may end up shutting down #3 before it even has a chance to shine. Still seems to be some stretching happening and so I have brought the light to around 20 inches from the plants and turned it to 40%. I watered each with a mist bottle with just plain water that has been aerated and PHed to around 5.8.