The last two years, I’ve grown only from late summer through early winter, because the temperature and humidity in my grow room are easier to manage during that time of year. I live in an area that gets very hot and humid during the depths of summer, and I’m not willing to fight Mother Nature tooth and nail. I can heat my grow room pretty easily, but keeping it cool presents more of a problem.
This year, I’m getting an earlier start. The temperature and humidity are mild enough from late winter through early summer that I think I can manage to get a crop of auto-flowers through to harvest.
I received a flip of Pound Cake and a flip of Bessie Cake, both auto-flower regulars, from @Going2fast last summer. Two of each, along with one randomly-selected “mystery seed” from @Reznfingeez33, went into the incubator last Sunday.
I use the paper towel method to germinate seeds. To date, every seed I’ve ever attempted to grow has sprouted a taproot using this method. Because I keep the house in the 60s during winter, the germinating seeds need a little extra warmth. They get that from an old router, which I plug in and lay on its side in a desk drawer. On top of that, a layer of foam insulation (to keep the bottom plate from getting too hot), and a sandwich of two plates with wet paper towels and seeds soaking inside. I leave the drawer open a few inches to let out the extra heat.
Two days later:
The straggler (whose taproot is barely starting to poke free of the seed casing in the photo above) is one of the Pound Cakes. Everybody else got put into a 3-gallon container of soil that had been pre-heated to 74 degrees in the grow room. The straggler got an extra day or two in the incubator, and was put into soil mid-week. It now shares a pot with the mystery bean. The straggler hadn’t made much progress on taproot development, even with the extra time in the incubator. So that one may not survive. But they’re all in the soil now.
I’m doing a few small experiments: Two of the pots (the ones containing #1 of each strain) have speed holes burned in around their sides, in an attempt to provide more oxygen. I got that idea from one of our fellow OGers, who uses Solo cups riddled with holes. (Sorry, but I wasn’t taking notes to keep track of who that was.) These “holy” pots also contain a layer of Alaska Fish Fertilizer (5.1.1) two thirds of the way down, where the pots with the #2s do not.
Other than that, the soil is a lot like what I’ve been using: Organic potting soil amended with compost, perlite, some FoxFarms Coco Loco, worm castings and a dose of organic Bio-tone Starter Plus sprinkled in around where the seeds went it.
By the end of the week, everybody but the straggler had poked his or her head above ground. This is my first time (in the modern era) growing regular seeds. Judging by the vigor of Bessie Cake #1, I won’t be surprised if that one is a male. It was above ground only two days after hitting the soil (four days from dry seed to green sprout)!
My light is set at about 15% power, for a nice, stress-free approximation of an early spring day. ...A day that lasts for 18 hours, with a temperature ranging between 73 and 75 degrees, and humidity at a relatively dry 34% (despite the fact that we've had rain for most of this week), hence the humidity domes.
Wish me luck!