Seeds sowed directly to moist Purple Cow Seed Starter Mix on August 20, 2024, at 2:30 UTC and all four cups labeled and placed in AC Infinity Propagation Kit. Photon flux at between 200-300 umol/m2/s, typically around 300. Temperatures maintained around 29c and humidity around 90%. I aimed to keep VPD low around 0.4-0.5 kPa but not going crazy trying to maintain it perfectly. Around 4 times a day I would remove the humidity dome to refresh all air in the kit, then mist the soil a little and put the dome back on.
August 22, 2024 12:00 PM:
Tent is fully ready and passing VPD control smoke testing, so I moved the propagation tray into the tent, suspended on a wire shelving unit by 4 YoYo cables. The exhaust fan is set on a cycle of 1 minute runtime at 50% power every 45 minutes to cycle fresh air. The photoperiod is 18 hours. The photon dosage is at 285 umol/m2/s as measured with Photone. Floor to light distance is 147cm. Light distance 67cm. The light is powered at 20%. Oscillation fans are at 30%. Humidifier is targeting a VPD set point of 0.6, with the goal of keeping VPD around 0.5-0.6 during germination, as temperature fluctuates with the photoperiod.
8 hours later, there were no signs of germination. 12 hours after moving to the tent, #2 and #3 have successfully emerged from the soil. #2 shows open cotyledons and a visible true leaf. #3 has not yet opened its cotyledons and no true leaves are visible yet. #1 and #4 are yet to show signs of life. I'm hoping they emerge today. I will update the success count and photos as germination progresses.
CO2 concentration during these days so far has been between 1000-1300ppm.
August 22, 2024 11:54 PM:
I can see #1 and #4 have broken out of their shells and should show above the soil in the next 12-16 hours, I think.
August 24, 2024 6:07 AM:
Night conditions: 23c / 80% RH / 0.5 VPD
CO2: 1080
Fans: 10%
#1 - Fully emerged from soil. Cotyledons unopened. Seed shell clinging onto them. Manually removed the shell, no damage done. 24c/62%
#2 - 48mm tall, soil: 24c, 57%
#3 - 35mm tall, soil: 24c, 37%
#4 - 10mm tall, soil: 23c, 56%