Its been so long!

[stepheneking]

Hello MP members!
I am sorry that I have been away for so long! It's so great to be back! I have had a lot happen in the last year, whew! I pretty much lost it all! Very long story, that I may or may not go into all you need to know is all of my hard work that on my grows and all of my hard work making a great TLC grow space for my love and passion was taken from me swiftly pretty much over night. My plants my equipment, lost most of the crop I did manage to salvage some of my crop.
I know what your thinking and the answer is NO, it was not the LAW. Personal persons conspired against me within my own home and around my home not allowing me access after dealing with some badly needed attention to some tickets! Upon my return with access, yes my entire house, items and all aspects of my grow space had been trashed or stolen. Almost like the damn FBI had gone through my ****! More importantly my own flesh and blood allowed this to transpire under my own sanctuary!
It took a while to get back on my feet, THE FAMILY IS DOING WELL! It was not easily done having to relocate yet again and during the middle of a damn lockdown and all the covid **** going on! And to even think about getting another grow going....wow did I think about it! My therapy I had for over a year was gone! I spoke to my Girls every day! We had a connection! And they brought me peace! I missed it but have to no longer!!
Nice thing I was able to save my original tent! Hurrah! She started me off so well and I still have her! I was able to salvage her! I lost all of my lighting that wasn't easy to aquire over time and hard work! So I am starting off again from the bare minimum!

I am in a lot smaller space now! I am limited on space and will be starting this grow off soon. I had to figure out lighting yet again with limited to zero budget but had some items that I could work with.....now don't laugh at my creation. Its gotta get me through the Seedling and Veg cycle!
Here is my lighting....


I'm only pushing about 120watts but its all LED. I know I will need to get some better lights! I AM OPEN TO DONATIONS! MSG me if you have some old equipment laying around you can donate. I will pay for the shipping! I will even add it in on my journal here as I build the grow space back up!

Anyhow it was nice sharing with everyone!

 

[stepheneking]

Okay thinking of gong with Darkstar, I have a FEM seed that I have been holding onto for about a year.

I also have some Gorrilla Glue #4 I am thinking of growing.

And as a treat I am going to pull some seed from my first grow. I ended up with a good seed bank on that one but ended up using a lot of them on the grow this last year that got TAKEN from me. I still have some and was thinking of growing a couple of them....

I also have some Blue Cheese seeds and i think I have a Dark Helmet Seed as well...

Decisions Decisions.........

 

[stepheneking]

All set with getting the seeds ready to go. Got my supplies
1. Seeds
2. Smoke! and a Bowl
3. Paper Towels
4. Cut brown paper bag
5. Ziplock bags
6. Marker
7. A little prayer to bless the beginning!

Have the seeds selected and ready to go. Have the bowl packed and took a few puffs. Now I can settle in getting the seeds prepped and ready. Adding water to the folded paper towel placing seeds onto the now soaked paper towel now labeling the ziplock bag adding a touch more water into the bag . Placed the folded water soaked paper towel inside the ziplock bag and then placing the bags into the brown paper bag.

Now I took a few more tokes off of my bowl. Grabbed my cross hanging around my neck and said a little prayer to bless the seeds to a healthy, happy and plentiful life! AMEN! Im, feeling the cannabinoid connection starting!!!! I also pray for a therapeutic connecting with these plants to aid in my own body afflictions!

Process in germinating the seeds is now completed! I placed them in a drawer and will check on them tomorrow about the same time. I have seen these girls pop over night before! I believe on my first grow I had one that popped over night I was amazed!

 

[WeedHopper]

Good to see ya back. Have fun anf enjoy.

 

[user 60570]

Good luck with this cycle and here is to a happy harvest

 

[stepheneking]

Good to see ya back. Have fun and enjoy.

Thanks a bunch WeedHopper! Lots of fund and TLC!

 

[stepheneking]

Good luck with this cycle and here is to a happy harvest

Thank you, for the Happy Harvest blessing!

 

[stepheneking]

Nothing popped Yet! I did move them to a warmer place though, right on top of the fridge.

I have one seed of the Darkstar, 2 Gorilla Glue #4, and 2 of my own Fruity Pebbles from my first grow, fingers crossed!

 

[user 60570]

I finally broke down and bought a couple of heat mats for germination of seeds.....I should have bought one years ago but I am a stubborn old bass turd

 

[WeedHopper]

Never used one but thats not to say i wouldn't.

 

[Kyfarmerb]

It's always great to have any and all growing equipment on hand,u just never know when you are going to need it.
I keep,2 of everything new do I Kno I'll be alright.happy growing to all of y'all!!!

 

[stepheneking]

I finally broke down and bought a couple of heat mats for germination of seeds.....I should have bought one years ago but I am a stubborn old bass turd

I will probably end up getting one as well. I almost bought one last year for my clones. I am going to end up getting one soon, I have had many say it speeds up the process. The seeds did end up showing life after day 2 .

 

[stepheneking]

Never used one but that's not to say i wouldn't.

I have had pretty good success with paper towel brown paper bag and a warm place

 

[stepheneking]

It's always great to have any and all growing equipment on hand,u just never know when you are going to need it.
I keep,2 of everything new do I Kno I'll be alright.happy growing to all of y'all!!!

I like your thought process Now that I am starting over again, ugh, I will keep that in mind. Thanks for the good growing wishes!

 

[stepheneking]

Dec 10th Update- Little delayed
Seeds popped and are ready for planting. I was a little upset though, the Feminized DarkStar seed just didn't have any energy and did not pop, I did go ahead and put it in soil. I am happy with all of the other seeds though, plenty of energy for them to work with.

Now I do plan on working with my same soil composition I used in my previous grows that worked very well for me, keeping the grow organic as I have done in the past. I decided to give this fairly new organic soil a try out, MiracleGro Performance Organics.

I have used your standard Miracle Grow on my very first grow, it wasn't the best but it worked. I didn't like the added newts that MG packs in every bag of the standard soils, it will get you through your veg stage though. For me, if memory serves me correctly, I didn't have to add newts to the soil until about a week before moving to flower or a week after, one of the two. It provided enough nutrients and food for my Girls through the veg stage, just keeping water at good PH and giving them a drink. However, the soil still had the damn little beads of food packed in the soil and just didn't work well when your starting to provide some nutrition to your girls, this can mess things up a little bit when you start your nutrition regiments. But if you are in a crunch, your standard MG potting soil will work!

I was surprised, but glad, when I opened the bag of soil to only see organic material in the soil and none of the beed MG plant food mixed throughout the mix. For the 5-6 bucks I paid for it I am happy to be starting my seedlings in this potting mix. I will be doing a transplant on these so it covers me until I have to budget in the components of my soil mixture. I generally do it in bulk to ending up with two totes full of soil ready to rock.

I added the soil mix to my RED SOLO cups and put the popped seeds under some soil, added my identification stake and then gave them a quenching drink of water.


I also had to get some type of AIR movement going in the tent. Now I originally had two 6" fans, one intake and one out, that I usually ran for this tent however, since all of my equipment was stolen I have to start off with something very small and undersized for the tent itself however, for now it serves a purpose.
I had two 12V 3" fans (Computer Fans Basically) and decided to get them mounted in the tent. I had to cover up the 6" hole cut outs I had and make a nifty holster for each fan, wired em up and it's moving some air for now. I'm still a DIY Macgyver
I figure they will last a short while until I can get a proper fan to move the AIR around. I will probably incorporate these little buggers into a second tent I am going to be working on that will be half the size of this one.

Anyhow, thought I would provide an update. Man do I miss my old setup and equipment I worked on that whole setup for a while, lots of time, money and energy lost. Oh well, movin on up! I'll get it all back, eventually!


Happy Growing! Lots of TLC for the THC!

 

[stepheneking]

December 12th Update
Well I can see a seedling I still don't see my DarkStar popping through, bummer but was worth a try. I have all but that one showing signs of energy.

Its a GIRL! LOL, lets hope... I do enjoy planting all of my own harvested seeds. I wasn't completely trying to get seedless flower, wink wink. I knew at the time I wasn't quick with the damn males from the second grow of my GG4 so I kind of knew I would have some seeds. And lets just say the FP is from my first grow...and yes, I had to fight with males. I can say I didn't end up with ton of seeds from my GG4 and FP plants....but I did have about a dozen or so from each plant. Very Healthy Seeds, every one I have germinated was a successful seedling

 

[stepheneking]

Now I think I am caught up...
My update today for the grow. I goofed and kept the light a little too high above the seedlings, I knew better damn it. The GG4 was reaching too much however, I can say that the FP seemed to stay at a pretty good height! I did make height correction on the light, now at about 4" from seedling tops and also added some just in case pipe cleaners and topped off with more soil for support the new seedlings.
Pics are before making these adjustments...



I decided I should probably get some more seeds going, grabbed some more of my old school bagweed seeds, surprise surprise, and decided to germinate in soil. I have actually held on to these seeds for about damn near 8 years. They are still packed with energy

I did however, have two Blue Cheese seeds from last year and some of my FP Mango seeds from my first grow and have them in the paper bag on top of the fridge. I am sure to get my GIRLS from this lot since I am 50/50 with non-fem seeds. My fingers are crossed!

 

[stepheneking]

After making adjustments.... I knew better with this **** lighting to keep em close! They sit about 4-5" above the seedlings.

 

[stepheneking]

Hey guys! New DIY Tent time! I still have some Panda Film to throw another tent together with two chambers to add to the grow setup! The Dims would be 2x3x5, roughly and would hold germination, propagation and Veg. I gathered up some black duct tape, fittings and pipe. And went to building..

Assembled the PVC that would be used as the frame and then cut out top and bottom pieces

Then on with the back and the sides... Be sure to run each seam with black duck tape...

Went and picked up a piece of 1/4 whiteboard and cut out corners so it would fit nicely over the supported side bar and added Velcro to help secure it. Ran black tape along he bottom of the board to attach and seal to sides.

Nice cover piece of panda with some added Velcro

I was very pleased at how the tent turned out! It took me about 5 hours with all the cutting, and sizing. Now I can move the young plants to the new tent.

I also added fan for pulling and cycling on the top chamber. I will be using the two fans that are being used on Flower tent once I have the new ones for it.

 

[giggy]

good to see you growing. sometimes you have to treat family like strangers.