2021 seedling plan

I’m growing 30 medical plants outdoor next year from seeds. I have never grown from seed personally, so I’m asking for guidance. I plan on replanting outside last week of may or first week of June since I live in Niagara peninsula.
Im going to grow seedling in basement until transplant.
How much space for 30 seedlings?
How many lights? Best lights for seedlings?
Any help is appreciated.

Ok Im gonna dive in. Anyone have any good good advice please feel free to jump in. If you move this thread to the outdoor section you might get more replies.

Depending on how big you want them to be you can start them from 2-6 weeks before you intend to transplant. If you do 2 weeks you can get away with starting them in solo cups and putting them under some CFLs or shop lights, any longer than 2 weeks your going to need bigger lights and pots. All depends on how big you want them to be, and how much work/money you want to put into them before planting. I seen your posts the other day in the 2018 Canadian outdoor strains thread, you've grown from clones and made it to harvest so all you really need is to get your seed sprouting game down. Hit the books on seed germination and my best advice would be to grab some bagseed and get to poppin some beans asap. Just start a few under a cfl or 2 for now so you can get that seed experience. Once you get the hang of it it's just a matter of timing and getting them ready to go outside.

If your trying to start in February your definitely going to need lots of light and a ton of space when they start to get big and 30 - 2 gallon nursery pots to transplant from solo cups. I would start with 40 fem seeds if you can and pick the best 30 out of the bunch around week 2 or 3, then cull the runts or gift the rest away to family and friends if they're good. Only the biggest and healthiest, most vigorous ones should make it to the garden. You could always just keep em until after transplant, that way you have backups if anything goes wrong.

The rest is pretty much just like clones, throw em in the ground and let em grow.

Hope I helped, I find myself planning next years outdoor grow already too lol it never ends....

Let me know if you have any more questions or would like more detailed info.

be careful when you "harden them off." Depending on what kind of light you grow them under, they might only be able to take 30 min of direct sunlight on the first day, so introduce them to it gradually, over the course of a week or so. I've seen people kill all their seedlings by sticking them out in the sun for a full day right off the bat.

I will take them outdoors for short period of time before transplant. Did that with clones. I was told that you don’t need expensive lights for just star. Is this true?

Freddy Hashman said:

I will take them outdoors for short period of time before transplant. Did that with clones. I was told that you don’t need expensive lights for just star. Is this true?

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Sounds good. It's true you don't really need an expensive light for seedlings, fluorescents and CFLs will be fine for the first few weeks as long as you have enough to light them all. Don't keep the light too far as you don't want them to stretch too much, but not so close as to burn them. The trickiest part I find people have trouble with, it's even happened to me before, is going from 18/6 lighting right to outside light schedule especially when its too early.
Here's a site that is great for getting a good grasp of all the different outdoor times and the daylight hours in detail

https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/@3028894

Go down the page until you see this


From there you can scroll through the whole year and see the amount of daylight hours and sunrise and sunset times. Really helpful to line up your indoor light schedule and dial it down like 30 minutes a week to get close to those times. What you dont want is to put it outside and it go into flower then back into veg. Trust me its brutal. I've had this happen before and it was the shittiest harvest, they start growing single leaves and the buds they do eventually grow are not nearly as good. Not discouraging you at all just making sure your aware of this. It can even happen to clones put out too early/ from a different light cycle indoor. I'll add more on this later, gotta make a food run lol

Gonna buy a 4 bulb 4 ft flourescent with timers and chains to adjust height. Gonna get germinated seeds started in 1 qt cups. Start early March with seeds. I can get good clones if I have problems.

Might be cheaper if you get a decent pair of led flood lights

You could grab a couple qb288 b specs, and a 260 watt driver and have some monsters when its time to put them in the sunshine

So, I was reading Dr Greenthumbs planting instructions. He says plant with taproot facing up at either 10 o’clock or 2 o’clock. Most other say taproot down. Which is right?

I would think tap root down is gonna give you your best chance at success. Seedlings are fragile enough as it is, can't see a good reason for planting tap root up.

Taproot down, especially if you're germinating in a paper towel and the taps get long. Once the taps pop out grab a chopstick, make a small hole in the soil deep enough to get the taproot and seed in nicely. Grab a pair of tweezers and very gently grab the seed and place it in the medium tap down.

Don't overthink things, direct to medium, seed on side, no dome, 78-80 deg, lights are fine for warmth. https://www.mandalaseeds.com/Guides/Germination-Guide. Touching seeds a lot esp after germination is a good way to infect them with bacteria and fungus.

Yeah keep it simple, don't go digging through the soil looking for it to see how its doing lol, its a good way to break it right off the tap.

Niagara Peninsula here too. I use a Jiffy pod mini greenhouse from Canadian Tire. You can get them in 6 or 12 pod sizes. While it might not be necessary, I scrape the sides of the seeds so a little powder comes off, then I put them in. I fold a towel and put it on a seedling heat mat and then put the greenhouse on top of that, it can cook the seeds/seedlings if it's directly on it. When the seeds sprout I take the domes off and put the whole shebang under 4 foot t5 fluorescents. I do this around May 1st, so they're a good size to be hardened off for the May 24 weekend. Solo cups or 500ml peanut butter tubs.
The light @GrassBurner suggested is good, but overkill unless you plan to grow some indoors. I gave up germinating outside the medium, too many things can go wrong.
Never plant a germinated seed tap root up unless it's already curled around the seed, and even then it has to be point down. There is some misinformation floating around (diagram and all) that seeds are genetically programmed to curl around. It's bs. They're programmed to follow gravity.
I suggest having your lights on 15/9 before transplant outside. That way they don't try to flower too early.

If you start the seeds in March you will need a lot of room. I did that for my first outdoor grow, and the girls were 2 feet tall, and I had topped them twice before I got them outside mid May. Luckily we didn't get a late frost that year.
Good luck.

Very true, start them too early and they will get huge, so think of when and how you will train them while they are still inside. A 4 ft 4 bulb t5 is great for your purposes, but you want to keep as much of the plant 2-4 inches from this light as possible, so I would top them at least and maybe do some lst depending how long you will keep them under the light.

I have a bay window facing south I was going to move them to once they get too big for lights.

I’m only starting 4 plants early. The rest I will start in March

The window will help a lot, but even when you move them to it, use the light to keep them on their 18/6 schedule.