Starting My First Indoor Grow - Part 1 - Germinating Experiments

Hello All

I have a bagfull of some local seeds that I got for free, I tried to germinate them using different techniques.

1. Potting Soil - Planted 5 seeds directly in small germinating pots, using potting soil from a local garden shop. Nothing branded available here unfortunately. It contains some bone meal, organic manure, neem cake powder and some soil. I basically dug a hole about one inch deep using a pencil, placed the seed in it, covered it with soil and watered it. It has been 4 days, so far nothing out of any of the pots. I think I overwatered it on the second day, must have drowned the seeds for sure since water was flowing out from the bottom of the pots. Also, its starting to get cold here, night time temprature is around 10 degrees. My gardener tells me it will probably take 10-15 days to germinate because of the cold, we will see!!

2. Wet Paper Towel method: I couldn't find any paper towel around the house, so I use a normal towel instead. Soaked it in water, put the seeds in, and placed the tower inside a tupperware box. Again, nothing for about 4 days. Again, I think I used too much water. I will give it 3 more days, and if nothing happens then I will start all over again, with proper paper towels this time, not so wet.

3. Now I have also recieved seeds that I ordered from the internet, and I have pretty much completely set up my grow room. So with these seeds, today morning I kept them under a wet towel for a few hours. Then I carefully put them under soil, about half an inch deep. I covered it with lose soil, and poured a little less than a cup of water right on top of where I planted the seed, just to make sure the soil around it is moist. To counter the cold at night, I am going to place the pots on top of a Rubber Hot Water Bottle like the one in the pic below. The pots are now mildly warm, I hope it will be better for the seeds and increase the chances of them
germinating. Thats one Sweet Tai and one AK48 in the two pots. Both feminised. I hope I see some green soon.
View attachment 2417201

Root Shooters. Put the seed in the hole, place in seedling dome on a heated mat. Works every time and in 2 days in nearly every case, never had one go over 4 days without sprouting.

hotrodharley said:

Root Shooters. Put the seed in the hole, place in seedling dome on a heated mat. Works every time and in 2 days in nearly every case, never had one go over 4 days without sprouting.

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Same thing I do bro. Rapid rooters all the way.

I also clone with rapid rooters.

nothing of that sort is available over here man...no growshops around..nothing! ordering online is an option but i just cant wait now...i hope i see some leaves soon!

Well this hobby is a big waiting game

I"d say keep doing what your doing and hope for the best but in the meantime why don't you order some stuff online that way you will have it for next go around.

The best way that works for me is to use solo cups and poke holes in the bottom and on the side close to the bottom.. bottom for water drainage and watering and sides for some air to get in. Make sure you have good draining soil (perlite and other mediums that do the same). I set the cups in a saucer and warm the bottom up. I then fill the saucer to cover the bottom allowing water to absorb into the cup. I also use a clear cup on top for a 'humid dome' until the sprouts are taller and have true leaves. I will take the dome off once they are looking sturdy. I will then keep water in the saucer and add more once the water appears to be absorbed. I let the top dry out a bit and will water lightly when drying out too much... Mostly the soil will absorb enough through the bottom to keep the soil nice and moist. Once the true leaves are there I will expose to MH or proper color cfl allowing the leaves to grow using up the seed leaves nutrients.. then it is up to the girls to tell me what they need (mostly nitrogen in veg). Try and simulate nature as in spring the ground is damp and water under neath allowing the roots to 'search' for water. This also helps (bottom watering) so as the soil will not separate from the sides causing them to 'circle' the sides. I used netty pots before and could tell as the roots would come out of the sides... so using the cup method for the first time I will keep an eye for slow growth which is a sign of out growing the medium. I changed to cups as I did not want to put the netty pot in the first transplant medium which may cause poor root growth (though it works ok). Once their roots develop nicely she will take off and grow quickly (given proper feeding as they are a 'weed'). I hope this helps but I am sure that it is not the best method.. just trying to simulate nature as much as possible.

alright guys, took your advice and ordered the heat mat type germination station and root shooters type of thing from ebay

35$ total for the items + 35$ total shipping to my country....but i hope some of those seeds in the pots germinate before my stuff arrives

along with testing my patience...this hobby is costing me money everyday and i dont have a green leaf in sight

anyway, i am determined to smoke some home grown, besides the cynical thinking from my mates that I wont be able to grow weed indoors over here, .....there is no option but to keep trying untill I have that first joint in hand made from my own home grown MJ

How warm is it where you're storing the seeds in towels? I've never had any probs doing it and having temps around 65 - 70 degrees. So just stick them somewhere nice and warm. Check on em in 2 or 3 days. Also it's probably messing em up if you're leaving em outside in cold like that to germ in pots. I never put mine more than 1/4 inch deep in soil as well. You can just try the glass of water method too. Drop some seeds in a warm glass of water and wait. Should crack open in 1-3 days. When you see em crack just move them over to soil. I also hope you wont be leaving seedlings outside during 10 degree weather.Seedling stage is very important. They're extremely vulnerable then. To cold and anything else on the planet. I found out the hard way what one slug will do to 20 seedlings in a starter trey left outside one night lol.But yeah just make sure it's nice and warm where you put em. Not hot but warm.

day time its warm mate, around 20-25 degree c.... night time it gets aroung 8-12 degrees... pretty cold i think

I should have mentioned that I did try the glass meathod too, but the seeds just kept floating on top even after a day

I will just wait for the seed starter thing to arrive, until then i guess i just have to wait and see if any of the pots give me any luck

I dont want to experiment with the seeds I paid for but will keep trying different things with the bag seeds I got.

I thought growing indoors with hps/mh lights will be easier because its going to be winters here soon, but it never occured to me the cold weather will give me a hard time in germinating the seeds

or maybe i am just being impatient...

About trying to germinate in soil,

The one problem I have is that there is no branded soil available over here, so I will have to make do with what the garden store is selling me for soil, or make my own mix.

about the garden store soil, well i initially found that when I watered it, the first lot of watering seemed to make it really stick together, and become quite dense. I let it sit like that for two days, and then I broke it up. it becomes much better, lose, but seems to hold moisture well. I think I will try planting some new bag seeds tomorrow in this new lose version of the garden store soil.

I am also considering making my own soil mix.

Here is what I have available:

1. Organic Manure - mostly made from animal refuse
2. Cocopeat
3. Perilite
4. Neem Cake
5. Vermiculite

do you guys think I can make a good potting medium for germinating my seeds using these things?

Hey guys

An update: in total three seeds germinated.

Seed 1: This was a seed I got from a friend, it is from a plant that turned hermie. I have a bag full of these seeds and I am using them to experiment and learn. I tried the wet towel method, the cotton method, soaking in glass of water, the whole lot. I also potted 4 of these seeds in different pots using my regular home garden soil mixed with organic manure and neem cake and a bit of bone meal. I had no hopes of any of these seeds germinating, but yesterday, after about 12-14 days of being in soil, being left outside at night, no special treatment except making sure that the soil remains moist, one of the seeds popped and i could see a little plant coming out. i saw it as soon as i woke up, it must have been out in the sun for atleast 4 hours by then. looked nice, green and healthy. here is a pic:
View attachment 2422783 View attachment 2422784

Seed 2: Ordered from the internet, strain ak48, it was potted in soil as above, after 4 days of potting it, i lost patience and decided to remove the seed from my shitty soil and move it to a mixture of cocopeat/wormicompost in a seed tray and keep it inside because it was getting close to 10 degree centirgate at nights outside. as soon as i removed the soil, i saw that the seed had indeed germinated. i cursed myself and my brother who also encouraged me to dig into the pot to remove it. anyway, i did what i thought was best at the time, and as carefully as i could, i moved it to the seed tray, root facing down. it has been about 3 nights since then, and i am get to see anything further happen with it.

Seed 3: Ordered from the internet, strain sweet tai. It was potted in soil at the same time as the ak48. after the disaster with the ak48, I decided not to mess around with this one and let it take its time. So it has been in the soil ever since, i just take the pot indoors at night again because of the cold outside. somehow after reading up a bit, my understanding is that 10 degrees at night is too cold for the seed to germinate. can someone please correct me if I am wrong here?

Anyway, I woke up this morning and looked at the pot, and i didn;t see anything in it. Atleast I think I didn't see anything yet. After about two hours, I had a look again and saw a very pale yellow kind of growth. I dont think I would have missed it if I had seen it earlier in the morning, but maybe I was still sleepy and didn't pay attention, anyway, here is what I found:
View attachment 2422781View attachment 2422782

Does this look like it might have just popped out? Looks very pale yellow. But after keeping it in the sun for an hour, I could see a green spot on the yellow leaf.
Is this normal? or is a new germination supposed to be absolutely green from the beginning?

here is a comparison pic:
My hermie seed (at two days old) vs Sweet Tai (the day she was born)- so green vs so yellow

View attachment 2422785

what do you think guys?

Question: After you first see the plant break the surface of soil, how long before you would consider the plant to be in veg state? Are there any physical changes in the plant that indicate start of the veg period?

Also, Would be be okay to move a one day old plant under 400w Metal Hilide? Or should I leave it out in the sun for a week and then take it indoors under the MH? I am getting around 10-11 hours of sunlight these days

I have done the paper towel thing in the past but honestly its an extra step that youll damage that sprout. The rapid rooters are awesome so as long as you have a heat mat. Soil works great and still to me is my favorite way to start a strain no matter what, even though in the future they get split usually hydro and soil until I find the strain preference.

Coco is a great medium since it holds water like a sponge and is an easy for your seed to maneuver through.

All I suggest is their are many ways but personal preference plays a large roll. Also please do not over water, I have wasted money in the past over watering with soak trays, aeroponics, plugs etc and you will ruin the seeds.

kingfisher021 said:

Question: After you first see the plant break the surface of soil, how long before you would consider the plant to be in veg state? Are there any physical changes in the plant that indicate start of the veg period?

Also, Would be be okay to move a one day old plant under 400w Metal Hilide? Or should I leave it out in the sun for a week and then take it indoors under the MH? I am getting around 10-11 hours of sunlight these days

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It depends on how big you want your plant to be. One month veg would be minimum ideal. Or you can go by this rule like move to 12/12 when your plants reach the half the size you want your final plant to be. It looks good. The pale leaves happen sometimes. It happened to two of my plants once but they turned green in a day or two.

And yes you sure can keep your babies under the MH, but make sure you maintain a minimum of 3 foot distance between light and pots as they are very young.

Good luck man.

Subbed

Blackhawk149 said:

It depends on how big you want your plant to be. One month veg would be minimum ideal. Or you can go by this rule like move to 12/12 when your plants reach the half the size you want your final plant to be. It looks good. The pale leaves happen sometimes. It happened to two of my plants once but they turned green in a day or two.

And yes you sure can keep your babies under the MH, but make sure you maintain a minimum of 3 foot distance between light and pots as they are very young.

Good luck man.

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no mate I;m not talking about how long should i keem em vegging, I meant after she is born, should I consider her to be in veg state from day one? or after of two weeks of being born? I read somewhere that afert about two weeks of the plant breaking surface of the soil, the vegging period starts. is that true?

kingfisher021 said:

no mate I;m not talking about how long should i keem em vegging, I meant after she is born, should I consider her to be in veg state from day one? or after of two weeks of being born? I read somewhere that afert about two weeks of the plant breaking surface of the soil, the vegging period starts. is that true?

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You can keep them under a few CFLs for a few days but there won't be any problem even if you put them under MH on 18/6.

And have u bought any nutes yet?

Yes....I've ordered water soluble nutrients ....npk 28:11:5 and 8:25:25 for veg and flowering...a separate micro nutrient feed too....will start with the feed 3 weeks after veggein them in just soil and water

Yellow will green up in a couple of hours.....