Starting my first grow!

[TopShelfTony]

So very recently I have moved in with my Grandparents to help around the house. (Grandpa is getting to that age.) And unfortunately my Grandmother suffered a stroke a few years back and never recovered. I recently got her to quit smoking cigs and got her back on the good ole herb. She has been doing a lot better since that transition and can sometimes complete sentences which is great progress! Problem is, bud cost money and money is tight. It's not always the best deals at the dispensaries. So I think growing would be an excellent decision. I would like to start growing outdoors with a few seeds I have been saving and Grandma is totally on board with the idea. She has grown outdoors prior to her stroke many times and has a lot of knowledge on it. However, she can't always explain everything that is on her mind now and a majority of the handwork is going to have to be done by me, the newbie. That aside though, I have some questions regarding my seeds. I don't know what strain they are. I hear that certain strains do better indoors and some do better outdoors. Will I have much trouble if I happen to have seeds that favor the indoor setting? I also don't want to plant directly into the earth. I fear that there could be gophers. Found a couple holes but have yet to ever see one. Instead, is it possible to plant in separate pots for the entire growing period? I just started germinating yesterday by the way. I plan to document everything every step of the way. Thanks in advance! :smokin:

TopShelfTony Reviewed by TopShelfTony on 03-23-2012. Starting my first grow! So very recently I have moved in with my Grandparents to help around the house. (Grandpa is getting to that age.) And unfortunately my Grandmother suffered a stroke a few years back and never recovered. I recently got her to quit smoking cigs and got her back on the good ole herb. She has been doing a lot better since that transition and can sometimes complete sentences which is great progress! Problem is, bud cost money and money is tight. It's not always the best deals at the dispensaries. So Rating: 5

[Minnesnowta]

Well I have read through your post and I think its a great thing that you're doing, so I'd be happy to help you in any way that I possibly can. So for starters... if seeds are good for growing indoors, they're great for growing outdoors. You can always grow outdoors. Also, yes it is very possible to grow in containers throughout the season. If you mean you want to grow in one container the entire time and never transplant... well then you may have some issues. However, transplanting is very simple, and healthy for your plants. You could start it in something small as a seedling then into a 1 gallon or so container for a while. Then once it fills that thing up, plant it into a 5 gallon container or something similar in size. Perhaps even larger, depends on the size of your plants and so on, just something you kinda need to feel out for yourself. But the 5 gallon should easily carry you through harvest. I've harvested plants outdoors in 3 gallon containers that have produced 6+ ounces easily each.

Good luck! And please continue to post any questions you might have, and I will respond in a timely fashion for you. I'm sure plenty of others here would be happy to contribute advice to your cause as well. My biggest piece of advice would be... just don't try to do too much. Do whatever your common sense guides you towards doing, and pay attention to you plants responses, making adjustments accordingly, and you'll be happy with the results. Too often people think that cannabis plants are unique and need ridiculous amounts of care/work, but they're very resilient and grow well on their own until people begin stressing them out too much by fixing things that aren't broken. Oh.. and have fun in the process!

[TopShelfTony]

This is great news. Thank you for being so nice and for the reply in general. My three seeds successfully germinated by the way. Though I might have broke one... :/ But I actually have more seeds just in case. Trial and error I guess. This is fun though and it actually has me interested in planting some plants other than cannabis too. I think my Grandma would love that too.
I transferred the seeds to three little cups with soil. Ever so slightly watered them. I really don't want to over saturate the soil but I don't want it dry either obviously. How should I handle this step now? It's night time now, Should I put them on the window seal? Maybe keep them under light, but not too hot of a light?

[Minnesnowta]

For watering, a good idea for seedlings and young plants is to water from the bottom, up. If you have a pot with holes in the bottom, sitting in a dish of some sort (which should be what you have) pour some ph'd water into the tray and let it soak up into the soil from the holes in the bottom of the pot. This will cause the roots to sense the higher moisture levels down lower, and encourage vigorous growth. Do this process slowly, and try to figure out exactly how much water your plant/container holds, feel free to sprinkle some on top as well. Just make sure that you don't leave any water sitting in the tray that the plant's soil can't soak up, dump out all the excess. Continue this when the top layer of soil has dried out to the touch and you shouldn't have problems with over/under watering.

As for lights, if you want to use a light indoors to help the seedlings out you should use some type of flourescent. The best ones to use would be 23W CFL (equal to 100W incandescent). Get the ones with a color temp or "Kelvin rating" of somewhere between 5000k-6500k. Those may also be labeled "Bright white, daylight", or something like that. Avoid the ones labeled "warm white, soft white" or that have a lower Kelvin rating, such as 3500k or less. If you get 16-18 hours of sunlight by keeping them in the window, then you shouldn't need to supplement with a light if you plan on moving them outdoors.

Keep me posted on how you're doing, and let me know if you have more questions!

[TopShelfTony]

Thanks again for the reply. I have since then germinated 5 more seeds with 100% success. I have one seed in a small cup by the window and 7 seeds in a rather long, yet somewhat shallow clay pot. It seemed perfect to me. I can find a tub big enough and fill it with water just a tad. This clay pot has 3 decent sized holes on the bottom. That long pot right now is currently in the backyard elevated about 10 feet. I mixed up the soil before planting and it was rather most and felt ideal to the touch. Everything sounding alright so far? Should I move the pot inside?

[TopShelfTony]

Just came home from giving a friend a ride to see my bong broken and soil on the ground. Damn house cats I swear. I don't know if I was able to save the seedling and how long it was even on the floor. Everything else is in the backyard and hopefully doing good. How many days til I should be seeing them emerge from the soil?

[THContent]

Depending on how far down you planted them, probably a little less than a weeks time before you see the sprouts coming through. As for the knocked over plant, it will probably be fine if you put it back in the soil. Remember bud, get yourself some neem oil and a hot shot pest strip and be proactive about the bug situation. Those bastards will fuck your shit up any chance they get, so take all necessary precautions.

For a timeline, just watch any grow log (with respect to the strain and genetics) that will give you a general idea of where your plants should be.

[Minnesnowta]

Typically for me, I don't do any pre-germination methods to start my seeds out. They go from dry seeds, straight into moist soil and into a humidity dome where I keep higher temps around 80-88 degrees. For me, I have almost 100% success at getting seeds to germinate in about exactly 3 days time they sprout from the soil. If you have done some germinating prior to planting them in the soil and got them to establish a tap root already, then they could be popping up from the soil that same day.

[TopShelfTony]

I have like 7 seeds outside that are showing no signs of breaking through the surface and I believe it is day 4. However the cup that used to have a germinated seed that got knocked out of a window seal by a cat broke the surface today. I actually planted that one straight into the ground cause I thought it wasn't going to make it and figured why not. It doesn't look very healthy. I wish the clouds would go away, it probably wants some good sunlight.