This was a week with lots of changes happening. The sprouts have become the beginnings of seedlings and overall look good and healthy, not growing quite as fast as I would like but their beginning environment was pretty slapped together and far less than optimal. I figured if I was going to put time into this as well as the basic costs I might as well spend some $$ to get some far more capable equipment (still low cost) and make things much easier overall.
EQUIPMENT ADDITIONS:
Moved to 4'x3'x72" Vivosun tent on day 8- sprouting/early seedling stage I just had a small closet area set up with lights/foil so this change not only lets me start to control the environment but also is a more usable arrangement that will help to make growing that much easier
Added Honeywell warm mist humidifier on day 8 - run on high with lights on is holding humidity in the tent to 70%. It's winter and without the humidifier I was lucky if I could get things to 35% RH so this is working perfect. On low setting RH can be easily kept to 55/65% depending on ambient RH
Added 10" table fan on low during lights on. Want to replace this with a smaller clip on fan but it's working for now fine. Set to blow between the tops of the seedlings and the new Phlizon light.
Added 4" exhaust fan in ceiling of tent during lights on.
Added Phlizon 1000w COB led on day 13 and removed CFLs/frankencob
Other additions: Vivosun PH tester, soil testing kit (ph/NPK tests)
GROW NOTES:
Day 8 light schedule 16hrs 11am-3am (better hydro rates)
Watering with well water (slightly alkaline I think) - have now starting testing and PH is 7.38
Staked up plants after addition of table fan to give support to stems which were not stretched but looked thin/weak. I removed stakes after a couple days and then only staked individual plants as needed for a day or two to give me peace of mind.
Plizon light added on day 13 set to 30" height with VEG/BLOOM on STRONGER off.
Made a soil mix in preparation for transplanting out of solo cups into final containers. This is not ideal to make a mix so shortly before actual use but it's better than nothing and the plan was to finish week three with transplanting into the soil so at least I was trying to have the soil mix gel a tiny bit before use.
The mix is below but I would not suggest my untested mix/ability as a guide for others.
4 bags Promix Organic soil 28.3 litre bags = 113 litres
7 litres earthworm castings
13 litres perlite (combinations of 8 litres Miracle Grow enriched .04-.01-.06 and 5 litres unenriched perlite)
2 1/2 cups organic hen manure 5-3-2
4 party cups or agricultural limestone (TOO MUCH!!)
1 party cup wood ash (TOO MUCH - will not use again!)
NOTE- Originally I was only planning on making enough soil mix for 2x5 gallon pots and mixed half quantities of the ingredients list together. I did a soil test on this first smaller batch and had a ph of 9.4!!! The limestone and the wood ash had turned the mix highly alkaline and I figure I had unusable mix so I got the same quantity again of ingredients but added no limestone or wood ash. This tested to PH 6 so I mixed the two batches together slowly, checking ph as I blended and now test at just barely acidic at 6.8 overall. Time will tell if this batch has issues but at least it solved my initial concern and gave me more than enough soil to transplant more of the seedlings than only 2 into final containers. I won't be keeping more than 4 adults (more likely only 2) given my grow space but these are un-feminised mystery seeds and if I have a 50/50 ratio males to females then I will have 4 females to further winnow down to the final finishers as they show development. Nutrient test on the soil mix showed high nitrogen, low/medium Phosphorus, medium Potash.
@1stmanny, my result was 10 seedlings from non-feminized seed of which 5 ended up male and 5 ended up female. I culled the males and gave away a female plant to a friend so I am currently flowering four females. I hope to update my grow diary soon with the 3-4 weeks since my last online update...lots of good stuff has been going on, just not able to update the diary for another week or so.
Hope you have a bountiful harvest!