breaking the cherry. 1st attempt at germ/growing/everything, send us love

gday mates

this will be my first attempt at growing, and i'll be trying to maintain balance and doit right the first time -i've done lotsa research and now it's time to get going....

i'm optimistic

12/6/07----Day 1
Planted first round of seeds in AM, 10 satori and 10 hashberry. Planted in small propagation tray with foxfarm light warrior medium. For now the project has started in the bathroom (brand new, sterilized, plastic wrap around toilet just to be sure), but will move to the closet once the time is right. I got 2 small fluorescent lights hanging about 18 inches away from the tray, with only 1 on for now, the other one to come on when seedlings get over an inch. The temp. has been between 75 & 80*F and humdity around 34-39%, with a small air purifier blowing in and the normal bathroom vent fan pulling some out. Watering with pH balanced Fiji water, keeping medium moist, trying not to soak it totally as per directions on Mandala's website. Chanted a couple of mantras trying to call the ladies to life, we'll see... Now, we wait...
12/8/07
Day 2...Continued to monitor water & temp, trying to stay right in the middle of too wet and too dry. Saw what looks like 1 possible early bird. Soil looked a little tight, tried to gently make a little ventilation in them.
Day 3
Was right about the possible early bird, and he/she has a few accomplices. Only thing is, I know it's early, but they're all on the two rows closest to me which i kinda jostled around a bit to loosen up the soil- the ones in the back(satori) look like the soil is a little more firm & compacted, and no signs of sproutage up there, if I don't see anything by tomorrow afternoon up there i'll try and loosen it up by hand a little to speed things along. Other than that, super psyked about the early germination, my first time ever. Sending them all of my love every time I water. Hoping to see some major activity tomorrow. ~50 hours for germination, that's supposed to be really good I think, super fast. The early birds are all hashberry, so far so good on that strain...
Day 4 (TODAY)
Wow, check this out. About 5 hashberry above the surface with cute little greenage after 72 hours. Not a sign of any satori babies yet, may take a couple of days longer i'm thinkin... Lightly loosened up the dirt a bit, didn't hurt the hashberris so why not eh?

some pics...

Wow, I will certainly be following this one, I am looking to start some satori myself.

Who did you get the seeds thru, if you don't mind my askin?

mandalaseeds.com

here is the temporary setup for the seedlings, that's a heating pad underneath... Now there are 36 in total, right? and i have the fluorescents almost 2 feet above the tray, been on steadily since day 1....
here you should be able to see all the new seedlings.... one of them was growing down to the side, tried to help it but i think i fucked it up.
here's a close up of the bottom center 6, i can see them all now, as of day 4. beautiful...

Exciting day! 10/10 with the hasberry seeds (~96 hours right now since planting), although one can't seem to pop the surface and another is struggling, o well they should come around but even if not 8/10 is good i think for my first attempt at germinating anything. some of the hashberries are shooting up fast, maybe almost 2 inches already for a few of them. also, the first two satori's showed their heads, i can see some green on one of them, but the Satori is taking its time, should be a few more above ground by tonight. we've been singing to them and trying to keep the soil moist and not too tight, but that's about it. oh yeah, i've had the light on continuously since planting, dunno if i should or not but i turned it off for about 6 hours last night, and this morning is when i saw the first satoris pop up... ill turn it off again tonight i think...

here you can see the superstars...


here's another shot... i've not been able to resist using an ever so slight nudge to drop the shells off, this is kinda my first experimental batch so i'm just kind of feeling things out for now....
im still super optimistic



and heres the two satori seedlings i can see so far...
stay tuned, this garden may get out of control. after i have these going, i have some feminized white widow and white rhino, along with more satori to go down, and since its my first time im sure i could use some input as things get moving. peace

nice grow ill be watchin this

Good job, I really like the fox farm products and use the light warrior myself before moving into bigger pots with ocean forest.

Gotta follow this one!

Get the light right down onto those seedlings. If you can put the four fingers of your hand between the light and the seedlings, it is just about right. Can you put your thermometer right next to the grow tray?

Light is food - don't make the seedlings go too far for food.

made some minor adjustments, as per the advice of my grandpappy. thanks peepaw

Closer...
YouTube - Get Down On It - Kool & the Gang

Here, take a look at how close the lights are in this pic.

https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/30116-been-long-time-coming-been-44.html#post399571

The light is the real bright white in the left hand of the pic. You can see it is like 3 fingers from the bud.

More pictures, please

begginer's luck i guess... but every seed has germinated, except one, maybe two ( i can see something underneath the soil, i think...) just like Mandala said on their website. All of the hashberries came up within 3 days, and the satoris are officially topside as of this morning, 5 days...nice.
added another fluorescent light and lowered them (EVEN CLOSER)... 3 lights now a few centimeters above the seedlings... setting up the veg room now, ill move the tray there soon i think, under the bigger lights. Now just hoping for big strong Amazon style ladies....

moved the temp sensor right on the tray too

absolutely fabulous, but they dont have to stretch now with the extra light and the closer setup... the satoris should b lookin good by tomorrow...

Right on! Looking good now.

Nice reflector, is it chrome? Looks killer

What is the temp readings?

some more pics



the veg room (almost)


close up

temp has been between 76*F - 84*... When it was above 80 for the first time (last night) i had an oscillating fan on them most of the night and although the temp stayed under control, the humidity was at 2% this morning, it had been at 30-40% continuosly before, don't know if that really matters.... I also still have the heating pad underneath the tray wondering when i should get rid of that... Temp is 77-80*F right now, and i think that's an accurate reading with the sensors right on the tray. All seems well except the puzzling massive drop in humidity which is now at around 5%.

I'd go ahead and remove the heating pad_heat from the bottom will accelerate the evaporation of the moisture.

How often do you water? What tells you when to water?

Of course the closer proximity of the lights to the plants will also cause evaporation, but I'm trying to understand why your % is so low.

But then again, look at the plants and what do they tell you? As I look at the images, I don't see them exhibiting any signs of drought. Soil looks like it is not over-watered.

I have a fan on my plants from day 1, it is connected to the timer. Lights come on-fan comes on, lights go off-fan goes off.

Then, be patient, until tomorrow to see how that affects the readings.

Plants look good, so there is no reason to freak.