I put the seed in the pot yesterday. This little girl went out at night. The wood chips are there to cover the substrate that would otherwise be directly exposed to the sun. We are currently having a heat wave with a UV index of 10-12. I don't want the water to evaporate or the sun to burn the substrate. Chips are a great alternative. Even in full sun the soil does not dry out and remains relatively cool. Once the seed came out of the ground I delicately placed small chips of wood all around the stem so that the sun did not attack the root. The substrate used is a mixture of old substrate from last year at 2/3 and a Coco all mix from BIOBIZZ at 1/3. The pot used is a 20 liter smart air pot.