I'm doing an organic soil grow using Purple Cow Organics for the substrate. For germination and seedling phase, I'm using their Seed Starter mix. Once they are ready to focus on vegetative growth, I will transplant them into 5 gallon fabric AutoPots using Purple Cow's Indicanja soil. This is a "water only" soil that I will be attempting to use without feeding much additional nutrients, except for Bloom City Cal-Mag, since I will be using RO water.
My tent has CO2 enrichment, so I will be using ~25% higher DLI levels starting at week 2 or 3 than are typical for photoperiod grows. I will adjust as necessary based on how the plants react.
#2 and #3 emerged from soil after 2 days (August 22). #1 and 4 took two extra days to be fully emerged with open cotyledons (August 24). During germination, I had VPD set to 0.5 kPa. PPFD was 200 and DLI was around 13, with an 18 hour light cycle. CO2 levels are between 1000-1400 ppm.
I included a video showing and explaining my AutoPot and AirDome setup and my general plans for this first grow.
This is my first home grow. More than 10 years ago I attempted a legacy grow, but it had to be destroyed before we made it to flowering. So this is technically my second grow attempt, but this will be my first time growing in a real tent and not a foil lined attic with a 1000W HPS light. Since December of 2023 I've been researching and prepping to begin this grow, researching the equipment, horticulture, biology, etc.
I'm using mostly AC Infinity equipment (tent, controllers, fans, humidifier, etc.) for environmental control, Spider Farmer for lighting solutions, and AutoPot Watering Systems for automated irrigation and soil aeration. I'm a software developer by trade, so I am trying to monitor and automate as much of my grow as possible. This way, I can track my actions and results over time and incrementally improve towards a consistently high-quality grow. And remove as much potential for human error as possible.
I plan to keep the best producer of this batch as a mother. Best producer in terms of who yields and washes the best into bubble hash.
I want to thank everyone in the Sticky Dojo (you know who you are) and the IL cannabis cultivator communities who have provided advice and support up to this point. Most everything else I know, I learned from Dr. Bruce Bugbee, Ed Rosenthal, and Greg Green and from resources provided for free by LibreText's Biology library.