Eagle Scout First Time Grow

Attempting my first grow of regular Eagle Scout seeds from Green Point. Started with 4 seeds that went straight into Root Riots. 3 of 4 popped, the first seedling broke surface by the following day, the second on day 2, and the third by day 3. On day 2, I screwed with one of the seedlings trying to take the seed helmet off and broke a cotyledon. After that incident, I decided to start 2 more seeds in case the seedling with the broken cotyledon didn't make it (it's making it, slowly, but still hanging in there) and since I'm not sure of their sex yet. The subsequent 2 were soaked in water for a few hours until they sank, I put them in Root Riots and they popped the next morning. I'll be soaking my seeds next time before I put them straight into Root Riots for better consistency. I waited until I saw seedling roots hit the bottom of the Root Riot cubes then transplanted them into solo sized cups with 2 parts Ocean Forest + 1 part perlite, with a very light dusting of Great White. SO, that leaves me with 5 (or 4.5) healthy seedlings at this point, all popping within a few days of each other.

We’re just trucking along. I have all the plants now under a 600w instead of a 150w. All plants seem to be happy. Plants are starting to give off that sweet smell. Ended week 2 by brewing some compost tea and giving them a good watering. Compost Tea Ingredients (recipe based on YouTuber CALIGREEN): - 2 gallons RO water - 1 scoop blue planet Easy Weed Soluble Seaweed Supplement - 2 cups compost - 1 cup earthworm castings - 1 tablespoon molasses Aerated for 24+ hours with an aquarium pump. I FORGOT TO PH THE TEA BEFORE WATERING, but hopefully we should still be good.

We’re wrapping up week 3 and the kiddos are moving along nicely. Gave them a good watering this week with a mix of Urb at 10ml/gal, 1/2 tsp/gal dry seaweed mix and 1 tbs/gal molasses and they’re digging it. Each of the plant cups weigh around 125 grams dry and 225 grams with moist soil which means they take about 100 ml of water during each watering. They’re currently slurping up about 50ml/day so they’ll have to be transplanted next week. The humidity sucked this week. It was super dry with RH hanging around 30% so had to bring out the humidifier.

It was transfer week. Roots looked pretty decent when I pulled them out of their cups for transplant into 1 gallon fabric pots and into my grow tent. I went with 1 gallon pots since I still don’t know what sex they are. The soil I used was Fox Farm Ocean Forest, amended with earthworm castings, compost, azomite, perlite, and Dr. Earth Flower Girl. I activated the soil with a mixture of water, URB, seaweed extract and molasses. This is a different soil mix than what they’ve been in and to be honest, I think the soil was a little too hot for the plants as they look a little stressed and droopy, but I think a few adjustments will get them back on track. I added some clover seeds to the top as ground cover that should help prevent the top from drying out and to have nitrogen available for the roots. I also started doing some LST and the plants are adjusting to that nicely. Although the plants have taken a lot of stress with the transfer, hot soil and training, I think they’ll start to take off within a week or so. Positive thoughts, right??

It’s been 1 week since transfer and plants have adjusted nicely. Critical thing I learned this week is since I’m growing organically, I should be keeping my soil moist rather than letting the soil dry out. I think my plants would be a little further along if I understood this earlier. I also should have used a smaller clover as ground cover. I used crimson clover since that was all the nursery had, next time I’d go with white clover. I cut down some of the crimson since it was getting tall and used it as mulch to help keep the top soil moist. This week, I brewed a simple compost tea using a cup of earthworm castings, easy weed dry seaweed extract and a tablespoon of molasses. Plants loved it. I also topped my plants last week and started doing some LST and the plants are adjusting nicely and growing more offshoots. I picked up some pre-strung fishhooks and fishhook style earrings from WalMart for cheap and came up with a quick and easy way to LST with fabric pots (check out the pic).

Plants are looking great, although I know they could be much further along. I wish these plants would show their sex already! Taking care of plants knowing some might be male sucks. Things I learned this week: 1. Overly compacted soil leads to unhappy plants. I made the mistake of compacting the soil in my pots before I made my transfer from solo cups to fabric pots two weeks ago and the few times I watered, the plants would droop for a few days like they were the saddest plants in the world! My thought was “more soil, more nutrients” so I packed my fabric pots to the max. I probably could have used more perlite in my mix too. 2. The vivosun fabric pots from Amazon are crappy. The stitching sucks and the overall quality is poor. Because of my compacted soil issue, I decided to re-pot my plants into actual Smart Pots. These cost more, but you get what you pay for and I’m happy with them. 3. The crimson clover I was using as mulch was growing too tall so I cut them down. Replaced it with hydroton/clay pebbles to help retain moisture as well as displace water when watering from the top. I got a huge bag of these pebbles for $25 at a local shop 4. I was able to use the hydroton to create a self wicking watering system I read about on a Grass Cities forum. I filled a clear storage container with these pebbles a few inches deep, poured water into the container and the hydroton acts as a “wick” to transport water from my basin up to the pots. Just like magic! Perlite would also work, but I hated the thought of getting perlite everywhere. Now my plants drink as they please and less worrying about watering. 5. Back to point 2., the wicking system sucked with the cheap vivosun pots from Amazon since the fabric was of poor quality. I don’t know why, but the Smart Pot brand of fabric pots just worked better wicking, maybe because of the thicker fabric and the sturdier bottom of the pot. Plants are starting to dig the new system. Pics are of plants with some recent defoliation and topping.

Plants have gotten extra bushy since they were topped last week. I’ve also expanded and upgraded my “swick” (self-wicking) watering system and plants seem to like it. It’s also less work for me. I just top water with compost tea once a week. I use a surface blumat which is attached to a 7 gallon tank. The plants drink as they please and when the surface blumat senses the water in my reservoir is getting low, it refills the reservoir automatically. The blumat cost $38 but I feel it was worth it, especially for this type of organic growing where living microbes prefer the moist soil. So far, it looks like 4 of my 5 plants are showing early pre-flowers. Again, this is my first grow so if you’d like to comment with your thoughts on what sex these plants might be, that would be super helpful! Looks like I might be outgrowing this small 2x2 tent and 600 watt LED soon.