Some beginner questions!

[Derka]

Hiya!

So my first attempt failed horribly, my poor Genvieve suffered a most ignoble death due to the flood waters actually floating her cabinet.

Focusing on the negative is no way to achieve a positive outcome, so I've been gathering resources and taking a long hard look at many of the grow journals here on ICMAG. I've read that out of X amount of seeds, there will only be a few that show good genetics, and be of the appropriate sex, and suitable candidates for cloning. I have a bag full of pure strain double dutch, the gent that passed them to me stated they were all from one of the amsterdam seed banks, not entirely sure which one. Anywho, he fertilized several clones after hearing about my disaster, and passed me a bag full of seeds to start anew with.

So my questions are!

So, I have several hundred seeds.. what is my next step? Should I go ahead and order a jiffy seedling starter set, or can I get by doing vermicilite in small plastic cups?

Start 10, 20, 30? I am doing this for personal, but I'd like to iron out the chance of starting with poor genetics from the jump.

What about the water bottle ice tube tray, could this be packed with vermic and used?

I've also gotten contradicting reports about soaking the seeds, some people to do it, others say not.. any opinions?

 

[FreezerBoy]

Appearance and smoke are two different things. Some of the smelliest, stickiest, stinkiest weed can be worthless as smoke, you wont know until you light it up.

Do you have space for 30 plants?

 

[Derka]

Only if I did a sog would I be able to handle that many, however since I'm starting from seed I'm expecting a 80-90% kill off rate. The kill off includes poor genetics, stunted growth, males.. Ideally I'd like to come out with 3-4 females.

From those 3-4 plants I'd choose the best one, pull a clone right before putting them into flowering, and keep the clone as a mother.

Is this a viable strategy I guess was the rambling point of my earlier post, and if so, what is the best method to pursue it.

 

[old toby]

if you grow out that seed pack. out of ten with average skill,, you get 3-4 girls. i plant seed in beer cups. then cover with shrink wrap. yes poke holes for drainage! when they come out of the soil,put under lights.

 

[Dimebagg]

since youre growing for personal consumption, I think 30 plants is just too many to start with. Id say start with 10 if your really gung-ho about finding "the one". But keep in mind that those plants will have to grow significantly before showing its true traits as a keeper. Remember that looks and body structure arent everything, the high is whats most important. I'd even like to make 2 full and separate harvests before I judge whether a plant is a keeper. That would give me a 2nd chance to grow out a plant after I learned her likes and dislike, and give me a chance to grow her to further potential to make sure I didnt mis-feed, not train enough, harvest early/late, etc.

So for me, after chopping out males, I'd need space for the remaining females (potentially 10 plants) to grow out for at least 4 months.

Also, Ive seen a thread around here where someone used one of those bottle-ice cube trays as a cloner. Its a pretty good idea for you soil growers if you ask me. Id start your seedling out in SOLO cups though.

Also, I know theres alot of people agianst it, but I always have better luck germing my seeds in a moist paper towel, inside a ziplock bag. Alot of people soak their seeds in a shallow water dish, but I personally have lots too many expensive seeds with that method, while getting nearly 100% results with moist paper towels. The next guy will probably have opposite results, but hey, if youve got a whole bag full of seeds, try both and see what works for you.

Whats your cab setup look like? Have you checked out the micro grows section to get some ideas?

 

[Derka]

Thank you for the responses.

I previously had a hastily done pc case, however when the wrath of the gods hit my area, and the sump pump failed, my dear lady and case were submerged for several hours in backed up sump gray water. The case was stripped and disposed of with the rest of the trash.

I've since acquired a metal cabinet, a stanley blower, and materials for a diy carbon scrubber. I am debating methods of cutting the metal cabinet, and I am trying to figure out a better method of light proofing then weather stripping. The foam seems to tear free after closing the doors once or twice. I also picked up some white elastomeric roof paint for the inside.

Lighting is proving to be a difficult choice. I've got two 150 watt multi tap ballasts sitting, a s51 ballast, and several 2x55 watt pl kits from ahsupply. Tentatively I've got a few designs for horizontal 400 watt cmh or 400 hps with supplemental 6500k pl lighting hung vertically, or a horizontal 2x150 hps hurricane cool tube with supplemental pl lighting.

I really like dwc, and I used lucas formula for my last grow.. however I was constantly battling ph problems, had numerous lockouts, and despite exceptional growth the leaves were constantly falling off or growing brittle. I like the idea of lucas formula, however I am a bit skeptical of a 1 bottle solution for nute. That being stated, I believe my larger problem was using a 1 quart swc/dwc container, the idea with the cabinet is that I can copy Pipedream's cabinet, or utilize 3 gallon square buckets.

So obviously I don't need to start that many seeds, I'll plan to start 10 and see what I get out of it. I'm guessing the cabinet will be able to house 4-5 plants a time.