Plant seeds indoors for 2022 outdoors.

[Creeperpark]

IN the old days when I could see, I would fill up about 100 dixie cups with a high EC organic soil using the SureFire seed starting method. I would grow them for 4 weeks under an 18 hr. photoperiod indoors and flip to 12 on the fifth week to trigger flowering. When the plants started flowering, I removed all the fast flowering males and only took out females to the grow plots. March 15 is when I would plant the flowering plants and by the end of May, I had boo coo amount of Spring flowers. The plants had Summer indoors and when I planted them in early Spring they thought it was Fall going into Winter. Also, by May I would plant all my Fall seedlings that were started on a 12/12 for Fall harvest in Oct. IN the third photo you can see Fall plants with Spring flowering plants.

 

[Creeperpark]

Spring Flowers in the old days.

 

[Creeperpark]

Like I said above, one of the major drawbacks of using black plastic pots outdoors is heat can be a problem. It can be cool in the shade but in full Sun exposure the pots can get so hot they burn out the water in a day. Not only that but the Sun cooks the roots and raises the ppm too fast for the plant to transpire. In the greenhouse, it's not that much a problem but outdoors it is. I deal with the Sun's heat by using shade clothe and 5-gallon buckets together to block the Sun's heat. Using this method the pots stay as cool as being in the shade. When it's hot in the evening, the pots feel cool like being in a greenhouse. .

 

[Creeperpark]

Free lighting, all you can use, yours for the taking. These are outdoor plants because it's early Spring here with cold nights and warm days. The seasonal timing matters a lot because it can be matched with Fall temps and fool the plant into thinking its Fall instead of Spring. One of the plants is turning dark from cool night time temps. These plants are getting a very low ppm of nutrients with rainwater. "289 ppm only"

 

[Creeperpark]

Another good thing about growing Spring flowers is with the cool nights the insects are never a problem. I'm hitting the 80s in the daytime and upper 50s to low 60s at night. Here are the plants sleeping in the barn during the nighttime. These plants are starting to smell quite a bit in the barn at night. I'm surprised I have smells at 30 days into flowering. These plants are only getting 280 ppm with cal-mag total mixed with rainwater. I'm allowing discharge every other fertiagation, I'm holding one time and releasing discharge on the next.

 

[Creeperpark]

These plants are in the full flowering mode, so I'm upping the bloom and dropping grow completely at this stage. Only using 296 ppm total or (0.3 EC) in rainwater counting cal-mag. It's interesting how a plant will spend energy-storing nutrients in the leaves. Every leaf is loaded with emergency food for survival and water and will slowly give it up in flowering. The bottom oldest leaves will go first and then in the order they were born they will fall off. Watching these plants drop leaves slowly by holding the nutrients very slowly, will be a game of timing. I have about 45 days to go and still have in the end, a couple of weeks of "water only" for a fade.

 

[Creeperpark]

I will speed the flowering up by holding the water just a little and causing an early leaf drop. The plant will use the water in the leaves out of desperation and then drop what's left of the leaf. As the oldest leaves drop, the plant will go into a defensive survival mode and start pumping out the resin to save the empty calyx. By the time the plant yellows to perfection the flowering time should be up. Using this method for speed flowering will limit yield but give super potent buds earlier.

 

[Creeperpark]

Here are some photos just starting leaf drop to show what I'm talking about.

 

[44:86N]

Very cool early season strategy for low latitude growers, Creeperpark!

My Friesland Indicas are doing well. I have a nice batch of clones for later (males and females), and the plants from seed are approaching the 4th week in the flowering room. 5 females out of 12 seeds, though 1 male was very distorted, and 1 male was a total wimp. I have 1 super nice early male, with large flowers, 1 later male with long narrow flowers, and 1 shorter, bushy male.

There are 3 females I really like, 2 have narrow flower structures, and one looks like it will be similar to the pics on Kwik Seeds website, big old pop sickle sticks. The 2 narrow flowered females are very resinous, and were showing some nice frosty trichomes by the beginning of the 3rd week flowering. Smells like flowery motor oil right now, with a greasy feel.

Really looking forward to letting these plants jam it out in the SUN!!!

 

[44:86N]

Though indoor, here's a few pics of the Frieslands.

More seed sowing with the next new moon.

 

[Swamp Thang]

My Zamaldelica, Malawi, and Golden Tiger plants that I intend to use as multi-year mother plants for clones are all doing well under 16/8 lighting, but I'm still getting miserable results taking clones thus far. Topped the plants repeatedly and tried cloning them first with my bubble cloner that did work at a point, but then stopped working due to the dreaded grey slime syndrome that wouldn't stop despite multiple sterilizations with bleach and sunlight.

Next, I tried simply placing cuttings in ground-up worm castings, and that has been marginally successful resulting in 7 clones that appear to have taken root out of a total 20 cuttings I planted that way. So I went back to using the bubble cloner in a window sill where the air circulation is better, but still using a small fluorescent light to stretch the lighting hours to 16 per day. No root nubs yet at day 5, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed in the hopes that the action kicks off soon, given that all but a couple of the cuttings' leaves still look healthy. Cloning is an art that I have yet to master, to put it mildly.

 

[Creeperpark]

My Zamaldelica, Malawi, and Golden Tiger plants that I intend to use as multi-year mother plants for clones are all doing well under 16/8 lighting, but I'm still getting miserable results taking clones thus far. Topped the plants repeatedly and tried cloning them first with my bubble cloner that did work at a point, but then stopped working due to the dreaded grey slime syndrome that wouldn't stop despite multiple sterilizations with bleach and sunlight.

Next, I tried simply placing cuttings in ground-up worm castings, and that has been marginally successful resulting in 7 clones that appear to have taken root out of a total 20 cuttings I planted that way. So I went back to using the bubble cloner in a window sill where the air circulation is better, but still using a small fluorescent light to stretch the lighting hours to 16 per day. No root nubs yet at day 5, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed in the hopes that the action kicks off soon, given that all but a couple of the cuttings' leaves still look healthy. Cloning is an art that I have yet to master, to put it mildly.

What kind of water are you using or cloning with?

 

[Creeperpark]

Though indoor, here's a few pics of the Frieslands.

More seed sowing with the next new moon.

It won't be long before these plants are finished. Hey, 44, I know you already know this, I'll tell you anyway, I use reflective blinds on all my indoor grows to catch extra light. It seems like it helps a lot and gives me about 20% to 30% more light from this 400 HPS.

 

[44:86N]

No root nubs yet at day 5, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed in the hopes that the action kicks off soon, given that all but a couple of the cuttings' leaves still look healthy. Cloning is an art that I have yet to master, to put it mildly.

Yeah. My Friesland cuttings all took around 18 to 21 days to root. I try to resist pulling them out to check on progress for at least 10 days. Just took a few more, and am giving them a 48 hour pre-soak in water with a little peroxide. Will stick them today. I use the method where the rooting container's bottom is in a little bit of water, and the cutting is just above that. Change the water daily. After 10 days or so, I try and let the water start to dry out so the soil also dries down just a bit.

Sativas have always seemed especially tough to me. Going to try some grafting later this spring.

 

[Swamp Thang]

What kind of water are you using or cloning with?

I've always used just plain tap water with no chlorine that comes out of my own water borehole since there is no pipe-borne water in my neck of the woods. Stopped dipping the cuttings in cloning gel because that only seemed to encourage the growth of grey slime. Wound up hurriedly removing the cuttings before they could root and planting them straight into worm castings because an unexpected visitor showed up who knows nothing about my gardening hobby.

So frustrating having to sneak, skulk, and hide with my grow experiments simply because this hobby is illegal. I never sell and never offer anyone my harvest, which makes this enforced secrecy all the more absurd. Boy, do I envy stoners who reside where prohibition is now history. I've no idea whether these cuttings will survive in soil without roots, but that was pretty much the only option left besides tossing them all into the compost heap in the garden

 

[Swamp Thang]

Yeah. My Friesland cuttings all took around 18 to 21 days to root. I try to resist pulling them out to check on progress for at least 10 days. Just took a few more, and am giving them a 48 hour pre-soak in water with a little peroxide. Will stick them today. I use the method where the rooting container's bottom is in a little bit of water, and the cutting is just above that. Change the water daily. After 10 days or so, I try and let the water start to dry out so the soil also dries down just a bit.

Sativas have always seemed especially tough to me. Going to try some grafting later this spring.

In my previous successes using a DIY bubble cloner, ten days was about the average time it took for a few wispy roots to make an appearance. Never knew that Sativas are harder to clone with a bubble cloner setup. I've had a really hard time with cloning in general, with way more misses than hits thus far. The science is still much like alchemy to this novice, and I truly marvel at the pictures of massive root development that others get using a setup that is pretty much identical to mine. .

 

[44:86N]

In my previous successes using a DIY bubble cloner, ten days was about the average time it took for a few wispy roots to make an appearance. Never knew that Sativas are harder to clone with a bubble cloner setup. I've had a really hard time with cloning in general, with way more misses than hits thus far. The science is still much like alchemy to this novice, and I truly marvel at the pictures of massive root development that others get using a setup that is pretty much identical to mine. .

It may simply be the plants themselves -- some seem to root much more readily than others, even from the same batch of seeds sometimes. And there always seems to be a stubborn one that refuses to root. I lost the smallest (fattest leaves, though) Friesland male twice, and now he's gone!

I know one grower who will only select plants from a batch of seeds that root quickly, because they want an efficient operation, quality of high be damned.

I should get a bubble cloner. I'm just sticking in soil and waiting it out, while trying to keep them turgid. Old school, but that's how I've always done it.

 

[44:86N]

So frustrating having to sneak, skulk, and hide with my grow experiments simply because this hobby is illegal. I never sell and never offer anyone my harvest, which makes this enforced secrecy all the more absurd. Boy, do I envy stoners who reside where prohibition is now history. I've no idea whether these cuttings will survive in soil without roots, but that was pretty much the only option left besides tossing them all into the compost heap in the garden

Yeah, that sucks. But yours' is a good policy. Loose lips, and all that. I flew that way for almost 30 years. I've thrown out whole crops twice.

Here's to your state or country legalizing soon!

 

[Creeperpark]

If you use water that has adjusting products that are derived from potassium silicate or potassium carbonate your clones can fail easily. Only pure water with a pH of 6.2 for hard to clone plants. Soak your media with pure water and don't use synthetic auxins, use natural hormonal gel for hard-to-clone plants. Next time give the stem a large amount of aloe vera gel or saliva out of your mouth. Sometimes using synthetic on top of natural hormonal will give more roots to each clone.

 

[Creeperpark]

Between the old watering times, the plants want more water but I'm waiting for 12 hrs later for each watering. After the plants just start to drupe I give them feedwater. I'm tired of messing with these plants and speeding everything up so I can get to my Fall garden planting.

It's important to know that Spring flowers never equally match Fall flowers in weight and yield. However, they do come real close to matching the Fall plant's potency. I've had some Spring flowers that were very good and were worth the trouble.