Thanks man, I’m losing my mind from all the reading lately. Too much reading contradictory opinions online and too little putting things in practice on my own and forming my own opinions :).
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in the end with everything it is what works for you
in your setup
over time we get it dialed in 
well sometimes
all the best
Dequilo
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A week since the last update, time to show my progress again, if you can call it that… the poor tortured thing of a seedling is still strugling, but I am losing patience with it. I wonder if it got topped somehow while I was trying to “help” it or if it mutated due to all the stress. But however you turn it, if this wasn’t the sole living thing in my tent, I’d have gotten rid of it a while ago. Afterall, this is an 18 days old plant at this point 
.
My last sprouting run produced zero viable plants again. After 10 days in the propagator, not a single seedling made it out of pellets:
I opened them a bit to peek inside. None of Shiva X C99 managed to break the shell, while most of Pure Gooeys show a small taproot. I re-buried these and will let them try a bit longer:
As you can imagine, I am pretty frustrated and discouraged at this point. The Covid shipping situation is not helping at all, my ACE Seeds order is lost somewhere in the galaxy and I have little hope it will ever make it. I resorted to checking my local grow stores for seeds and let me tell you, the selection here is pretty poor. Mostly commercial Spanish and Dutch producers that make seeds by the kilo with few things that would interest me.
In the end, I settled for a 2-pack of TH Seeds French Cookies. Not crazy about this strain, but I am looking forward to working with fresh seeds again. At this point, I’d be happy to grow tomatoes . They’ve been soaking for a few hours now, I will put them in pellets before I hit the sack. Hoping to dream of healthy green seedlings .
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I leave mine in 24 hours in water on top if my fridge, puts out just enough heat.
At the end if 24 hrs I like to give them a little push to the bottom, if they stay sunk onto the next stage.
On one plate is
a couple layers of paper towels, seeds then another couple sheets of paper towels, white paper towels no print.
Wet down the papertowels pour off excess water, put other plate on top.
Into the gallon zip lock back to the top of the fridge.
Next morning you’ll have tapper, if fresh good viable seed, you could even have a seedling at that point, I do quite a bit.
If so very gentley bury seedling upto cottolydon.
If just nice long tails I use a pencil to.poke a hole in the dirt and bury seed about a 1/4" deep.
You’ll have seedlings, lots will counterdict this method but I’ve been doing the same thing for over 40 some years.
Everybody has ideas and opinions but this never fails.
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Yes brother, I’ve been doing pretty much exactly what you describe since I germinated my first seed. Soak, paper towel, plant. Simple, effective, damn near 100% success.
I’ve been experimenting with other methods for the past month or so, since I’ve been having terrible luck with my seed collection. I’m giving these peat pellets a try now, will see how they do. The real test will be these fresh beans, I have no doubt they will break the surface tomorrow at the latest.
This must be the longest journal with no actual growing on canna boards ever… 
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I know you guys were starting to have doubts 
, but… both French Cookies are up! Buffering some coco atm, they will be transplanted later today.
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Ok, been a while since my last post. The seedlings are doing fine, not stellar, there is definitely room for improvement. But since this is my first time growing in coco I wasn’t expecting perfection. All in all, I kinda like coco, but find all the mixing, PHing, ECing, measuring, double measuring, triple measuring (you get the idea) kind of tiring. Especially mixing nutrients in 1 liter quantities is providing to be finicky and imprecise with my equipment. I hope that once they grow up and I can actually start mixing a reservoir-sized batch the workload will decrease a little.
I wasn’t 100% on fertigation frequency for the seedlings. All my soil-based instincts were telling me to let them almost dry out. But on the other hand, instructions I read about growing in coco, and especially the Coco for Canna website tried to convince me to water daily. So after the first few days, I decided to stick to instructions and have been watering them daily. So here they both are, exactly a week since sprouting and a little droopy from waking up + being watered.
The Cookie #2 has been experiencing some leaf droopines the past 3 days. Again, my instincts tell me to let it dry out, but I’ve been sticking to my instructions and fertigatig to runoff daily, relying on coco+perlite’s ability to hold air at saturation point. I haven’t really worked up the courage to water them twice per day at this point, although Coco for Canna advises it from the 3rd day of transplant onward.
Additionaly, some tiny rust spots have appeared on tips of #1’s new leaves. There were a few possibilities in my mind - nutrient burn, Cal deficiency or Mg deficiency. I crossed the first by measuring the runoff (1200 EC in, 1100/1200 EC out), and the last I’m kinda not sure about because there is not intervenal chlorosis. So at this point my working theory is slight calcium deficiency.
I recalibrated my Milwaukee PH meter, found it was a whopping +0.7 off the target despite being brand new, remixed a slightly stronger feed solution of 1300 EC and gave them a slightly bigger watering today. I will continue to monitor daily and if things don’t improve or the spots continue, I will implement more Calcium.
The last thing bothering me is slight upward curling of leaf edges, which looks like heat/RH stress to me. I’ve been keeping them at ~8500 lux and am afraid to increase light intensity. My RH is quite low in winter, moving from 26 to 40%, staying mostly around 35%. Placing an open saucer with water in the tent does precious little, so it looks like I’ll have to spring for a humidifier .
If anyone bothered to read this far, congratulations and thanks friend 
! Any and all suggestions are more than welcome!
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I promised not to bother everyone too much with seedling shots and so far I’m succeeding keeping it to minimum weekly updates. A lot has been happening in my little garden though, at least compared to the past month and a half of popping beans 
. Both French Cookies have been growing at a rate I haven’t seen before in soil. I guess I understand the allure of coco now… Some extra work for substantially increased veg speed. I sure hope the differences translate to flowering stage as well .
I made some quick comparison mashups. Left pics are from 16.12. and right pics are from yesterday, 22.12. So merely 6 das later:
Both plants:
French Cookies #1:
French Cookies #2:
I transplanted both of them to 3.7L containers yesterday. Looking back, I should’ve transplanted #1 straight to Autopot, but I just wasn’t completely ready. Still have some tent modifications to finish that I was procrastinating on. So I wanted to keep plants as mobile as possible. Next time, I will skip this step and go straight to Autopot. Looking at the roots, they could’ve waited a few more days in small pots, but no biggie either way.
Otherwise, I’ve kept their diet the same, increasing Masterblend concentration from 1300 EC to 1500 EC steadily. I’ve started foliar applications, first hitting them with Kelp+Yucca and then a Calcium Nitrate foliar to try and cure the twisty leaves on FC #2. I am battling low average humidity of around 30%. Hopefully I get my humidifier tomorrow.
Here’s a final pic of both plants with their new shoes back in the tent. The perspective is all screwed becuse I was trying to get the whole thing in a single photo and used panorama mode on my phone.
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The wavy leaf is from the high ph from earlier , maybe : )
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Very well could be brother, I couldn’t find much info on wavy/twisted leaves, so I based my actions on this picture from seedlings guide on Coco for Cannabis (https://www.cocoforcannabis.com/how-to-grow-cannabis-seedlings-in-coco-coir/):
To be honest FC #2 has been pissy from the start, always drooping a little, looking overwatered, twisted leaves etc. Her sister is beasting from the very start. Perhaps #2 will do better from clone, I’ll see. I wasn’t able to make her completely happy so far, Epsom foliar is next on my list of things to try.
If anyone has experience or other leads on twisty leaves please let me know! 
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Finally got around to doing some long planned work on my tent. First on the menu was installing light-proof passive air intakes from Secret Jardin. I’m a big fan of passive air intakes where feasible - less complications, less power used, less noise. The intakes on modern tents are a joke as they don’t block light at all. Like everyone grows only autos … I got 2 kits from Secret Jardin that consist of plastic frames that snap on tent poles, light baffles and collars. Separately I purchased suitable-sized bug screens. Here is what everything looks like installed:
From the inside, I taped over intake mesh with some aluminum tape. It seems to be the only thing to actually stick to tent material, I hope it stays put.
I also replaced my Hans Panel with brand new Kingbrite QB288 240W 3000K. I’m keeping lux around 20k for now so the plants get aclimated and will be raising it slowly. Really looking forward to what this light can do, so far I can say it’s refreshing to be looking at plants in normal white light compared to my old blurple.
Lastly, my humidifier finally came and I wasted no time putting it in action. It’s a TaoTronics unit that seems oversized for my tent. I don’t have a humidity controller so I will have to play with settings for now. Currently I am toying with an idea of connecting it to the same timer that runs my light so it will only work during the day. I’m shooting for RH around 50-60%. Anything higher isn’t possible as the tent is part of our living space (washing room).
Hoping the girls like their early christmas gifts 
.
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Details bro, im interested. Nice upgrades!
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Seems Secret Jarden finally got fed up with stupid draw-cord ventilation holes that tents have been using since forever. They came up with 2-part plastic frames that come in 160 and 250mm. You place them wherever you like on the tent. All their new tents come with these kits instead of premade holes with draw cords.
https://www.secretjardin.com/product-category/ventilation/df16-connection/
https://www.secretjardin.com/product-category/ventilation/df25-connection/
Installation is simple. One part of the frame snaps to tent poles from the inside, second parts screws to the first one from outside, creating a rigid and secure hole. Well, the hole you have to make for yourself, either with a special cutting tool or with a normal scalpel (like I did).
Now the star piece is of course the light baffle. It’s a 4-part thingy that snaps inside the hole-frame and is secured firmly from the outside with a collar. Collars are available in standard ventilation sizes, but I chose the biggest ones (150mm) because I want as much area for my intake as I can get. The baffle itself works great, no light gets through. My last touch was installing some pre-made bug/dust screens on the collars. Thinking back on it, I coul’ve just cut some black closed-cell foam and fit it inside collars. But this works just fine for now…
Honestly, I think this is the biggest advancement in tent technology since I’ve seen the first ones. Yeah, strongers poles, better zippers and thicker materials are all good. But this is a game changer. Not only the baffle, but a sturdy and rigid ventilation connetion exactly where you need it.
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BadA$$ Bro. Thanks. Looks great.
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Glad to see you fully recovered from your hiatus 
, hope your plants will reward all youri Hi-tech nvesrment and dedication with a great harvest … 
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Thanks man . What can I say, I like my toys. Hope the plants will like them too 
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You can sterilize seeds by washing them real good under the tap, then agitating them in a 20% bleach solution with 1-2 drops of Tween 20, or regular dish soap for 15-20 minutes. Rinse them 3 times in distilled water. At this point they’re supposed to go into paper towels, but next time, I’m gonna soak them in a 1:1000 mix of LABS and distilled water overnight first.
You may have seen this, but I tried it on some 7-8 year old seeds that were kept in a ziplock in a desk drawer, no tubes, no desiccant. It worked, but I’ve never tried it with really old seeds.
John at Snowhigh Seeds sent me the germination tek he uses for all his seeds.
Snowhigh Germination Tek.pdf (92.9 KB)
Pasteurizing the soil seems like an unusual step, but I guess if you’ve only got 10 seeds of a rare strain, you do what you gotta do. I have a tek I use for pasteurizing horse shit that should work just fine.
I have the exact same situation. Temps are stable, but RH is in the 20s most days. I tried reducing the airflow by turning down the fans, but started seeing some PM, so cranked them back up, and ordered a humidifier. It’s supposed to be here tomorrow.
Good luck with those seeds man. 
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Thanks for stopping by and sharing your knowledge, much appreciated. I read about the “germination bomb” but haven’t worked up the courage to try it yet. I don’t want to throw away my old beans despite the abysmal germination rates. So experimenting with them sounds like the best option…
My humidifier is working correctly, I can see the vapour being produced, but it gets sucked right up by the mixing vent + extractor. So the total effect at the canopy level isn’t great, maybe a few % RH. Nothing that can compare to some actual moisture in the air when it rains… Besides, it just gobbles RO water, easily 3-4 liters per day. Since my source of RO is either store bought or from clothes dryer, and I need it for my fertigation mix, it’s a contested commodity for me .
Guess I just need to figure out a proper/optimal way to use the humidifer in my specific situation
(tent, extractor running 24/7). Still have much to learn. Any suggestions?
If you don’t have high temperature problems I would just shut down the air extractor, I am not using mines in winter, that would raise humidity for sure …
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I could get away with that right now, but once I establish a separat veg tent, the extractor will need to run 24/7 for smell control. I hope once the plant grows a bit and I hook up the Autopot the RH will rise.
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