All of the seeds are fully germinated and sprouted. I've moved my T5 FL as close to the sprouts as possible (about 1 inch away). There are some very interesting results worth mentioning:

Afghani: This strain is down right amazing! The afghani seeds were the first to germinate and the first to sprout. It's now clear to me why this is highly recommended for newbs. The two sprouts I have are showing the most strength by having the thickest stems and hearty "true" leaves.


Tutti-Fruity: To be honest, I really don't know the proper spelling of this strain. These sprouts are the second best compared to the Afghani. They are showing strength with slightly slower growth and slightly slimmer stems. Overall, I am impressed with this strain so far.


XXX-420: I stated earlier that I was skeptical about this strain; I was right to assume so. This strain is by far the weakest. I was told by the owners of Ontario seed bank that this strain is great for new growers; I disagree. The germination was slow and one of the seeds as you'll recall just cracked open yesterday, unlike the others who all germinated at the same time. Second, the sprouts that have opened are disappointing. They look very weak and fragile. The stems are so small that it is having a hard time holding up the leaves. All things considered, I could care less about this strain because I have two other awesome ones!

The fluorescent bulb has had an affect on the sprouts because I've seen three of the strongest start to reach for the light. I am planning on having a week or two of this light then I will place it under my 400w HID MH bulb.

Humidity became a concern today when I found the RH% below 50! I'm not surprised its dry, I'm just surprised at how dry it is. The ironic thing is that I care more for my plans living environment than my own . To help solve this dilemma I wanted to purchase a humidifier, only to find out the cost can be upwards of $100. Instead I bought the cheapest thing I could get: a 4L warm-mist vaporizer from Canadian Tire for $17. After running the vaporizer for 1 hour, my RH (relative humidity) went up to 80% !!! I discovered I should put this on a timer to help conserve the water supply and to maintain a somewhat constant humidity.

Remember the seed that didn't germinate until day 3? It turns out that it sprouted and it was looking very weak. I also noticed the root wasn't taking hold inside the grow cube. No doubt this was part of the reason why the growth had been stunted. I felt the best thing to do was to place the small sprout into a 4" pot of moist soilless soil (Miracle Grow). I'll know by tomorrow if it helped.

Stress: I remember reading somewhere (probably in a cannabis magazine) that if a plant is exposed to stress during the early stages of growth, it will most likely turn into a male. I'm not sure if this is true since you're likely to get a 50/50 chance of getting a male from a seed. However, if this is true, then I believe the two sprouts of XXX-420 will be males based on the trials they've had already, and its only day 4!

In my last update I mentioned I was going to start germinating 6 more seeds. I decided against it as I want to devote most of my attention to this "test" batch. I'm hoping that if there are any lessons to be learned from this test batch, that I will be able to resolve the issues before continuing with the other seeds.

My exhaust fan has been on for about 1-2 hours a day. At the time, it's only manually triggered because it only goes on during excessive heat/humidity build up. Once I have the sprouts under the HID, I will put the fan on a thermostat.

Last night I had come up with an idea of how to solve my issue with the plastic. As stated before my platform is extended 2' outside the closet which means there is no isolation of air, and no way to isolate the light. My idea was to use some form of a curtin rod to attach my black/white poly plastic to and pull it across like a shower curtin. My only concern bout this is at the top of the ceiling there will be a small gap for the track/slider. This may cause light from my bedroom to leak into the grow room. I'm not sure if its anything to be concerned about since my bedroom light is a 25w CFL. The amount of light that comes out of it, is so dim its like a 40w incandescent bulb. Could someone please let me know if this amount of indirect light could affect my flowering plants in the future? Also, I still haven't figured out how I am going to manage plants in flowering and vegging at the same time... Please feel free to reply or message me.