2018-1 From Seed

While technically my first MJ grow, I've been a gardener / horticulturalist (perennial, orchids, herbs - the cooking-eating kind) for the past 20 years. I've just now gotten around to growing my own meds. About the grow in general - during the spring/summer months in a vegetative stage I run a hybrid indoor/outdoor. When switching to flower - they are indoor only. In the midwest when temps are warm enough and if we actually get sun - they'll go outside during the day (about 6-8hrs) and finish off the light schedule in mini grow box (milk crate) and a medium grow box (aluminized foam board), both run CFL and when finally big enough - tent with 150W HPS increasing to 3 or 4 depending on total size. About nutrients / soil - I use a 100% sphagnum peat moss mixed generously with perlite. Since I'm carrying up and down a flight of stairs twice a day - I didn't want something that heavy. Vegetative nutrients are GrowMore (blue) - this is a brand that specializes in Orchids, is a highly concentrated powder mix, economically priced (who doesn't love that), and lasts forever. Flower nutrients are Fox Farm Big Bloom. pH down by Black Magic. About lighting / indoor setup: Outdoor Sun = Free. Indoor: increasing to 3x 150W HPS, 2x 23W 4x strip for seedling and edge augmentation, and a 7W uVA spot during flower. The tent is a 5x5, with 2.5x5 used for plants. By running lower wattage, the plants can be taller, using a calibrated android lux meter - avg lux is 50k-90k : 12" - 6", and run much closer - since outdoor full sun lux is about 120k. During flower I switch the 12/12 time to run 3pm-3am in order to toss the clones outside, although space is admittedly a huge PITA. Blue Dream by seed is a challenge - they'll germinate fine but are very fickle about orientation or just Darwin in general. Two of five did not survive this stage. Thankfully by clone - it's significantly easier. 05.14 sunny, opened the window for full sun. 60mL water bottom soak. 1st set of leaves, 3 others almost ready to sprout. 05.13 One sprouted - cotyledons still stuck together, others still seem not quite ready but poking through. Warm partly sunny, warm heat 74° 62% Added CFL to stimulate longer daylight. 40mL water top down. 05.11 40mL water added at EoD through bottom soak. On med heat most of day, cold & rainy, 77° 50%. One girl almost ready to sprout. 05.10 Reduced heat to low - 79° 61%, 'warm' at night - 71° 20mL water added at EoD 05.09 Transfer pellet - All germed, moved 1st day to avoid hurting tap, placed on med heat in pellet tray 05.08 5pm Germination started - paper towel method sandwiched between two plates. started on med heat once showing signs of pop turned to low overnight.