Day 14-21 (May 14th - May 21st)
(Day 14) Transplant went well. Iโll wait a few days for recovery then start to harden them off. Theyโve been acclimated to the sun pretty well so far from the window but the cold night temps will be stressful.
(Day 16) Itโs going to be nice out tonight so Iโm going to leave the girls outside.
(Day 19) Iโve been leaving the plants out all day for the last 3 days and theyโre looking great. Better than my tomatoes anyway. Stems look like theyโre thickening up too.
Iโm going to start the autoflowers for this season. Iโm soaking them in shot glasses this time. Iโm sick of direct sowing and losing plants. I find the soak + paper towel method is by far the most efficient and quick too. I donโt think Iโve ever had a seed not germinate using that method. Direct sowing seems to kill about 1 in 8 of my seedlings. So Iโm going to wait until the tap root is about an inch long and will bury them flat, a half inch deep directly into my raised beds/containers. I will keep them moist by hand once or twice a day until theyโre looking established.
(Day 20) Just had a big rain storm and I let them take it on the chin until it got worse. All seem fine and better for it.
(Day 21) All auto flower seeds are just barely poking out. Tomorrow or the next day Iโm going to sow all of the grapefruits and g33โs directly into the raised bed. Iโm worried that the soil mix in the beds is too strong for such a young plant and I donโt want to risk killing all of them at once. Even promix alone can be hot for seedlings. Pests and cold weather are another two things to worry about outside too. The beds were amended with quarter strength feedings of 4-4-4 Gaia Green all purpose, 3-2-4 insect frass, 1-0-3 kelp meal, 3-0-3 alfalfa meal, glacial rock dust, rock dust blend and oyster shell flour. I mix the amendments into the compost and then mix the compost with the promix directly in the raised bed by hand.
Iโm just going to dig out a hole in the bed and fill it with pure promix so it doesnโt get any early nute burn. The dr seedsman and exodus cheese are being directly sowed into 3 gallon fabric pots with a pure promix divot in the middle.
A friend of mine just gifted me some Thugpug genetics โMeatbreathโ bagseed from an amazing cut. This is definitely worth growing this summer so Iโm gonna pop them and get them into solo cups ASAP.