Maverick’s Timber 4vs Grow Journal

Day 3 of 12:12 lighting today. Plants are already filling in nicely. Continuing to tuck and reposition the Tops so as to try to space them out as evenly as possible and allow for proper airflow and light penetration. Will likely continue to lightly defoliate as needed until the big leaf strip at Day 21.

So….been a while since I updated last. Reason is that, about 10 days into Flower I discovered that somehow I mixed up the Clones of the big female and big female from last run…and put 4 male clones into the bed.

I had put the females (which I thought were males) outside and was planning on using them for FPJ (KNF input) so, I could have potentially saved them and started over, but honestly I haven’t had much time to devote to the garden lately, so I just decided to let the males do their thing and collect a bunch of pollen to use for later breeding projects.

This was the tent yesterday. BTW, I shut off every single fan and let the wind completely die down to nothing before even opening the tent, lest I accidentally pollinate the whole neighborhood.

Next run I’m gonna run the new Cover Crop blend that I got from a buddy and eventually do an Original Skunk #1 pheno hunt. But, before I pop any of those I’m gonna do a bunch of seed popping using the Herm seeds from a couple runs back (Prayer Pupil x Skunk and PP x Mazari Sharif) till I’m 100% confident I’ve got an iron clad process down because I want to be sure that all of the Skunk seeds pop.

Harvested the pollen, chopped and mulched in the plants, Top Dressed, then watered everything in. Gonna brew a AACT in the next few days and reset the moisture level in the bed.

Once that is set I’m also gonna do some seed popping trials with the Stress seeds from a couple runs back to make sure that I have my method down before I pop the Skunk seeds that I’m gonna run next.

Got the seed sprouting experiment up and running. These are all “Stress Seeds” from a couple runs back, so figured I might as well put them to some good use.

Decided to try 3 different mediums for this trial. Straight Michigan Made Mix (M3), a 50/50 mix of M3 and Compost, and straight Compost.

None of these seeds were soaked but I did pre-moisten the mediums prior to planting the seeds into them and then very lightly water each seed with a spray bottle. I then also sprayed the inside of the dome to keep the humidity inside high.

Also, none of these plants will be kept. I may try transplanting a few just to see how easy it is to do out of the tray and how well the rootball stays in tact so I know for later.

Finally, I may or may not do more rounds of sprouting trials depending on the results. Want to be sure that I find a seed sprouting method and medium that requires minimum inputs and steps and yet still produces consistently quality results and high sprouting rates. Plus I just kind of want to sprout a crap ton of seeds to get more experience with it so that I gain confidence in my ability to sprout any seed I want to.

63 hour update.

So far the straight Compost is kicking ass! 9 out of 10 seeds are either pushing up or pushing through!

The 50/50 mix appears to be in second, and the straight M3 is in last place as of now.

86 hour update.

Looks like the M3 and 50/50 mix are gonna make a race of this competition after all!

24 hours after the last update, the M3 has made a huge comeback and now the 50/50 mix has actually taken the lead! And I’m a surprise turn of events the Compost is now in last place!

To be fair to the Compost though, when I opened up the dome today it was noticeably dry. Being my first time trying it I haven’t been watering it as much as the M3 or even 50/50 mix, so it may be operator error on my part letting it dry out a little too much and stunting some of the seeds in it.

Oh well, that’s why you do such experiments and use “throw away seeds” to do them with, right?

May wind up running the experiment 1-2 more times just to see how that might affect them before making my final judgement to rule out operator error on my part.

Day 7 of the Seed Sprouting experiment update:

Looks like the 50/50 mix has no intention of giving up the top spot in this race! All 10 (actually all 11 as I planted an extra seed in the leftover mix I had in a solo cup) seeds popped. Both the M3 and Compost only have 9 out of 10 seeds up (though, there might be some movement in the 10th cell on the M3).

If I were to stop after this single “Trial” I would call the 50/50 mix the winner. And honestly, this doesn’t surprise me too much as that mix is more or less my “base” Living Soil mix in my bed, and that has been nothing but awesome for growing plants in.

That mix also seems to have the best of both of the other mediums without the downfalls. It has the biological component, giving it an advantage over the straight M3, and it has the Peat Moss from the M3 to help it retain moisture better than the straight Compost.

But, in the interest of science, curiosity, and to rule out operator error on my part, I’m going to run the experiment again at least once, and maybe even twice if there are conflicting results between that Trial and this one.

First though, I’m gonna let these continue to grow until they are ready to transplant so I can see how easily that goes (never tried it before with soil, only Rapid Rooter cubes) and also so I can compare root development and health between the mediums.

Day 10 update:

Surprisingly, the M3 wound up catching the 50/50 mix in terms of germination rate (one of the 50/50 mix seedlings didn’t wind up making it and the same thing happened on the M3 side). But, the 50/50 mix seedlings look to be the happier and healthier group, so I’d still say that group is slightly ahead in the race.

Also looks like the Comppst is gonna top out at 5 seeds that made it. Again though, I think this was likely my fault/operator error, so I’m not ready to say that the medium was responsible for the lowgermination rate. Need to run the experiment at least one more time to see if that still holds true with better watering practices.

At this point it’s just a matter of hardening these seedlings off and letting them get big enough to transplant so I can get a look at and compare roots between the 3 groups and get an idea for how easy or difficult it is to transplant out of the tray.

Day 14 update:

The seedlings are looking happy and healthy today, but decided to leave the vents as they are for one more day. Tomorrow I’ll open them a little further and less them acclimate to that.

Looking like the 50/50 mix is still likely to be the winner of this round by the looks of things.

Day 18 update:

Starting to see some signs in the leaves that suggests some of these girls need to be transplanted, so gonna transplant a few of the biggest ones tomorrow and take a look at the roots.

Day 21 update:

Decided to transplant a seedling from the 50/50 group and also one from the straight Compost group. Neither rootball was as solid as I would have preferred, but the straight Compost one was the slightly more solid of the two.

The taproots were pretty long though, so thinking that bottom watering probably isn’t the best idea as it’s going to promote the tap roots to grow down into the bottom tray/reservoir rather than staying up in the medium looking for water. Next time through I plan to only top water them.

Seed Sprouting experiment Final update:

Today was Day 25 since these seeds went into soil (no soaking) and I decided that I had collected enough data from this little experiment to call it a rap.

So I decided to transplant a few more seedlings and also snap some pics of the root systems of the seedlings.

As predicted the 50/50 mix seedlings overall had the best root systems and best growth, which just solidifies why it’s going to be my seed sprouting medium from here on out.

Next run is going to be about how to use it best, so I’m gonna trial Soaking and Germinating before planting, Soaking and planting, and just planting straight into soil (like I did this run) to see which actually works best. Finally, I’m gonna try planting some seeds directly into the bed to see how those do.

Round 2 is underway!

Last round saw the 50/50 mix come away as the pretty clear winner (even with my operator error it was clear that the Compost would require more upkeep), so that is what I’m going to be using this round.

But, this round is going to compare 3 different germination methods:

-straight to soil/no soaking
-soaking (24 hours) to soil
-soaking (24 hours) to paper towel to soil

to see which method results in the fastest and/or highest percentage for sprouting.

Few updates to post so will make these in the timelines they occurred.

Day 2 update:

All 10 of the Soak to Soil group sunk as did all 10 of the Paper Towel group.

So, planted the Soak to Soil group into 50/50 mix and put the Paper Towel group into moistened Paper Towel, which then got put into a ziplock bag to keep the moisture high/keep it from drying out).

Will check back on the seeds in the Paper Towel in another 24 hours.

Day 3 update:

All 10 of the seeds in the Paper Towel group popped tails (some longer than others; cue Braveheart joke) and while they weren’t all 1/4” long or longer, several were and had even started to grow into the towel. So, I decided to plant them all into 50/50 mix rather than waiting till they all had 1/4” tap roots.

Part of this experiment also has to do with practicality and efficiency and to me it doesn’t make sense to do something if I have to be checking it 10x more than the other methods. Plus it’s not really a fair comparison.

Day 4 update:

As predicted, based on last Round’s results, today saw the beginnings of life in the tray.

So far the Straight to Soil group is in the lead with 10 out of 10 seeds up or at least starting to poke through the surface, the Soak to Soil is in 2nd place with 9 out of 10 seeds up, and the Paper Towel group is in 3rd place with 7 out of 10 seeds up.

Will see what tomorrow brings.

Day 5 update:

Looks like the Soak to Soil group has taken the lead! All 10 seedlings are up and have fully or partially shed their seed shells.

The Straight to Soil group and Paper Towel Group are currently tied for 2nd place with the former having all 10 seeds up, but 2 of them appear to be struggling to shed their seed shells and the later having 9 out of 10 seedlings up and fully to partially having shed their seed shells.

Looks like this might wind up being a close race!

Seed Sprouting experiment Round 2 Day 6 update:

The Soak to Soil group is still firmly in the lead with all 10 seedling up and having shed or at least partially shed their seed shells.

But, the Straight to Soil group had a couple casualties; 2 seedlings came up but were unable to shed their shells and did not make it as a result.

Which means that the Paper Towel group is now in 2nd place with 9 seedlings up and having shed their shells and a possible 10 starting to poke through the soil.

Seems that the soak is proving to have some efficacy in softening the seed shells and making it easier for seedlings to shed them.

Seed Sprouting experiment Round 2 Day 7 update (end of Week 1):

Not too much has changed since yesterday.

The Soak to Soil group is still firmly in the lead with all 10 seedlings up and growing well.

The Paper Towel group is still in 2nd with 9 out of 10 seedlings up and growing well. The 10th seedling still kinda looks like it could poke through (seeing it pushing up on the soil), but it has yet to break ground if it is going to.

And the Straight to Soil group is still in 3rd due to the 2 casualties from difficulty in shedding seed shells and so now has 8 seedlings up and growing well.

So far it seems like the Soak to Soil method offers the best compromise between the straight to soil and Paper Towel method and will probably be my method of germination going forwards.