Holy Cow -- First Seedling

First grow, germinated using the paper towel method, and then into soil. First seedling popped up yesterday. I did a bunch of research and reading this forum before I started. Just wanted to say thanks to all the members for all the great info.

My setup:

Armoire 3' wide, 2 1/2' deep about 5' of grow height.

Germed: 1 Vanilla Kush & 1 Red Cherry Berry

Soil: Fox Farm Light Warrior for seedlings and then 1 part Light Warrior to 2 parts Ocean Forest when I replant into the larger pots

Light: Cfls 8-6500 & 4-2700 with a reflector

Really excited to watch them grow, just waiting on the Red Cherry to get going but it's only day 4 since they went in the soil.

Thanks again for all the great posts on here, it really helped

What is your Light Schedule ? and how often do you water?

I lost both of those, over watered, standard noob mistake. I restarted with a Super Silver Haze that was a freebie. I'm running a 240 LED, FFOF cut with FF Light Warrior. She is 16 days from breaking soil. Just transferred from a solo cup into a 3 gallon pot. I just switched to the LED yesterday, was under cfls. Light is 18/6 and watering about every 3 days in the solo cup, now going to be every 3 or 4 depending on how the soil is doing since she's in the larger pot. Was watering too much with the first 2.

Why such a big jump from solo to 3 gallon? You should of transplanted into a 1 gallon then 2 then 3 gallon . Well according to most ppl on here .

I'm very interested to see how the LED light works for you. Keep posting

I started late, the smallest they had was the 3 gallon, live in the northeast so it's after the summer and the garden section was slim pickings. I wanted to move up slower but that's all I could get. Plus I'm growing in an armoire setup so I don't want to go too big to save room, going to go with 2 plants next run. I'm going to stock up in the spring when they start carrying stuff again. I'll try and keep you posted.

Here's a pic of how I'm running right now.

Looks pretty cool. Do those heat up ?

The LED runs cooler than the cfls, partly because up away from the plants. So I was looking for something to add a little heat inside the cabinet, came across the Hot Rock or Heat Rock, they use those for reptile tanks I guess, it works great, I run during lights off. I get 75 f lights on and 68 f lights off. Cabinet is in a spare room that's always been a bit cold in the fall and winter. I put it on an upside down glass meatloaf pan to move it up a little bit. The rock was $18 the glass pan was $3, works good for a cheap fix.

Fish Weed said:

I started late, the smallest they had was the 3 gallon, live in the northeast so it's after the summer and the garden section was slim pickings. I wanted to move up slower but that's all I could get. Plus I'm growing in an armoire setup so I don't want to go too big to save room, going to go with 2 plants next run. I'm going to stock up in the spring when they start carrying stuff again. I'll try and keep you posted.

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I use 5 gallon buckets. Put some holes in the bottom for drainage and I'm good to go for 3 bucks. If 5 gallons are too big, Walmart has trashcans of various sizes. One thing to be careful of, if the plastic is too translucent it is best to tape some aluminum foil around the outside, to keep the roots dark.

I go from party cup to 5 gallon bucket, without intermediate transplants- less shock to the plant. Just have to be careful to not overwater.

I've heard people who move up to 5 gallon and others who step up slowly, seems people are pretty evenly split on it. I was just worried about moving up to 3 gallon because my gal wasn't doing great under the cfls, I had them close, plenty of light, she just wasn't responding well. I've had the new LED for 2 days and she seems to love it, has really perked up quick.

Hey guys,

I start pretty much everything in large final pot's now, mostly because I have been growing Automatic's lately. For Photo's I use a step up method, small, medium to large pot's. I start my seed's right in the pot now. I've been having great result's with this method. Removing germinated seed's from paper towel's can damage the fine root's that you can't see and also cause shock. Also, I've started using a seeding heat mat, I have a cool basement and it keep's my soil at around 80 degree's at light's out. The only thing with starting seed's in large pot's, you have to be super careful that you don't overwater. I water my Auto seeding's maybe once a week.

Good luck,

Sherman420