Milkyway F1 + Critical Automatic

tjaym 🚀 Week 1: Germination & The First Warmth (Milkyway F1 & Critical Auto) Introduction Welcome to my new grow diary! Today marks the official start of an exciting new journey. For this run, I am popping two absolute top-tier strains: the cosmic Milkyway F1 and the reliable classic Zamnesia Critical Auto. The main goal for this cycle is maximizing seedling vitality right from day one. The Setup & Method To give these seeds the best possible start, I am using the Cannakan. This setup ensures a perfect, stable humidity dome effect. Since the nights can still get chilly, the Cannakan is placed directly onto its matching Heatmat. A constant, gentle root-zone warmth is the ultimate key to a fast and successful germination rate. Current Status Seeds: 2x Milkyway F1 (Royal Queen Seeds) 2x Critical Auto (Zamnesia) Method: Cannakan microclimate + Heatmat Temperature: Steady around 35°C Humidity: 90%+ (inside the Cannakan) The seeds are tucked in nice and warm. Now it is just a game of patience—monitoring the temps and waiting for those first taproots to break through. Fingers crossed for a 100% germination rate! 🌱 Day 2: Soil Preparation & Warming Up the Pots The Process While the seeds are doing their thing on the heatmat, it is time to prep their future home. Today was all about getting the growing medium ready. I mixed and hydrated my soil inside a large mortar tub, using good old-fashioned muscle-power to blend it thoroughly by hand. I brought the soil to perfect field capacity—meaning it is moist enough to squeeze a few drops of water out, but not overly saturated or muddy. This ensures ideal oxygen levels for the young roots later on. The Setup Pots: 15-liter square fabric/geotextile pots. Benefits: Fabric pots offer excellent drainage and automatic air-pruning for a massive root system. Environment: The filled pots are now placed inside the grow tent with the doors fully zipped shut. Why now? Placing the pots in the closed tent ahead of time allows the soil to warm up gradually to the ambient room temperature. Planting delicate seedlings into cold soil can shock them and stall growth. By the time the seeds sprout, their medium will be nice, cozy, and ready to go! 🚀 Day 3: The Big Move – Planting & Root Inoculation The Process Today was moving day! The seeds showed beautiful progress, so it was time to get them into their final 15-liter fabric pots. To give them the ultimate head start, I used a precise planting method to maximize root contact with beneficial fungi: The Inoculation: I scooped out a small handful of the warmed-up Plagron Lightmix to create a nice planting hole. I sprinkled a generous pinch of Mycorrhiza directly into the bottom of the hole before lightly covering it back up. The Planting: I gently pressed a small hole, placed the sprouted seeds carefully inside, and closed the soil over them. Moisture & Microclimate: I gave the topsoil a very light watering just to settle the medium around the seeds. To lock in that crucial early-stage humidity, I placed a clear plastic cup over each seedling site to act as a mini humidity dome. Tent Layout & Organization To keep track of my genetics easily during this multi-strain run, I have set up a strict layout in the grow tent: 🌌 Left Side: 2x Milkyway F1 ⚡ Right Side: 2x Zamnesia Critical Auto Current Environment The tent remains fully zipped up to maintain a stable environment. The combination of pre-warmed soil, localized moisture, and the plastic cups creates the absolute perfect microclimate for these babies to break through the surface. The waiting game for the first green leaves officially begins! 🌱 Day 5: Sprout Alert & The Great VPD Battle The Sprouted Seedlings Two days have passed since planting, and we officially have liftoff! The seedlings are just starting to push their tiny heads above the Plagron Lightmix surface. They are still safely tucked away under their clear plastic cups, which are doing an amazing job keeping that immediate microclimate ultra-humid and warm. The Environment: Battling the Weather & VPD While the seeds were doing their work underground, I was putting in some serious work outside the tent. The unpredictable weather over the past 48 hours made environmental management a real challenge. My target for this early seedling stage was a soft, low VPD of around 0.6 kPa to prevent any moisture stress on the unrooted sprouts. However, nature had other plans. Due to the shifting outdoor weather conditions, my tent environment fluctuated, forcing my VPD up into the 0.8 kPa to 1.1 kPa range. The Impact: A VPD around 1.0 kPa is a bit too intense for brand-new sprouts, as it causes them to transpire faster than their tiny, developing roots can absorb water. The Savior: This is exactly why those plastic humidity cups were a lifesaver! While the overall tent air was drier and drove the VPD up, the microclimate inside the domes remained near 100% relative humidity, keeping the babies perfectly protected from drying out. Current Setup & Next Steps 🌌 Left Side: Milkyway F1 – Sprouting beautifully. ⚡ Right Side: Critical Auto – Showing green. Plan: I am keeping the domes on for now until the root systems develop a bit more and the ambient tent VPD stabilizes closer to my target. The battle with mother nature continues, but the girls are winning! 🛠️ Climate Control Adjustments: Tuning the VPD & Humidifier Hacks Dialing in the VPD To fight back against the high VPD and bring it closer to my 0.6 kPa target, I had to make some tactical adjustments to my ventilation and equipment today. The Airflow: I dialed the extraction fan down to a steady 25%. If left on auto-pilot, the temperature lately would cause the fan to ramp up to 100% (as it is outside of my requested tempratures), instantly sucking out all the hard-earned humidity. I did the exact same with the internal circulation fan to keep a gentle, non-aggressive breeze. The Moisture: To actively drive the humidity up, I fired up my Spider Farmer Cool Mist Humidifier. It is an absolute beast of a machine and incredibly effective at raising the RH (Relative Humidity) exactly when you need it. The Humidifier Workaround 💧 While the Spider Farmer humidifier is amazing, it does have one small quirk: occasionally, heavy condensation builds up inside the misting hose, causing stray water droplets to drip from the nozzle. I noticed the topsoil directly underneath the hose got a bit wetter than I liked. To prevent over-saturating the light-mix around the delicate seedlings, I shifted the hose position slightly so any potential drips fall safely away from the plant sites. Current Outlook With the humidifier running and the extraction choked back to 25%, the tent environment is softening up beautifully. The seedlings are enjoying their cozy, humid paradise under the cups while their roots start exploring that fresh Plagron Lightmix.