[PTM Grow #1] Bag seed bonanza

[PuffTheMagic]

This is my first grow since early college years. Have been collecting seeds from random bag I've purchased over the years. I didn't label any of them, stored them mixed together so I have no clue what I have. I'm gonna pop a lot of seeds and hopefully find a few winners. Most are from within the last year but some might be a few years old. Anyway, I figured I would use these seeds to get my grow space dialed in and all my beginner mistakes out of the way before investing in some quality genetics. I've got a 5x5 tent with a SF4000 light.

I started by sorting my seeds into 3 piles: immature, old mature, young mature. I assumed all the seeds with spots and stripes were younger but I realize they could just be handled less or different strains.


I picked out 16 of the young/mature seeds and soaked them in water. This was 9/1/2020.


Day 4 they all had popped nice tap roots to I placed them into rapid rooters and by day 5 all but 4 popped the surface.


Day 6 all the seedlings were showing their cotyledons so I moved them into little solo cup sized fabric pots with some preblended coco/perlite. Little did I know this would be the start of some early issues.

I didn't buffer this coco so despite adding some CalMag to my waterings, I still ended up getting a calcium deficiency in a few plants a week later... However, my lights were also WAY too close at this point and that caused some issues as well.

Day 9 all the seedlings were showing their second set of seeds but as you can see the leaves are starting to get a little light in color.


I flushed all the plants with a good dose of CalMag and added humidity control to the grow space this day. Also started some more seeds.


Day 14...

 

[PuffTheMagic]

Day 16, some issues are starting to become more evident. Oh, I started more seeds.


Day 17, the plants got their first partial nutrient feeding. Going with Canna Coco, just gave them a little A and B today.

A close-up of some the earlier mentioned calcium issues (I think).

This little guy has looked really nice from the moment it popped out of the ground, I am keeping a close eye on this one.

I transplanted the initial 12 plants into 3 gallon smart pots. This time I made sure coco was high quality, I rinsed out all the small peat and added bunch of perlite. I also soaked the coco in 150% strength CalMag for 12h. Despite this mix draining well, I should have let this dry out more, it was too moist for the plants at this stage. I think I slowed them down a little but not sure.

 

[PuffTheMagic]

Day 20, I've started paying attention to VPD and maintaining a nice 81F/76RH. Trying to get my coco dried out before I give them their first full feeding. I also started using a light meter to get an estimate of the PAR (using LUX * .0185 as estimate). I've got things positioned so that the older plants are getting ~350-450par and the younger plants ~200par. To do this I had to raise the SF4000 pretty high up. I guess this is a good this as the plants will have a chance to grow into the light. Also, I've seen you want about 2x the CO2 as PAR and I am only seeing 600-800ppm CO2 right now so I am not sure the plants can utilize much more light.

The 12 older plants got micro-topped. They look like they have recovered from their earlier nutrient issues. They are still pretty short despite being at 4-5 nodes already. I am not sure if this is because they are old bag seeds, stunted from issues, or related too much light (24/0 schedule). Soil is drying out slower though now that the lights are father away and the humidity is higher.


Day 21, plants are short but have lots of branches. Too short to really start doing LST but I used some bamboo skewers to get some light on those lower branches.

Here is a closeup of that one plant I have been specifically tracking. Still looking really nice. Actually a few of the younger ones are really taking off.


This brings this journal up to date with the current calendar.

 

[Swampthing3]

Aww dang what happened to this thread/grow I love watching bagseed grows