Well, I had some old bagseed I'd been hanging onto since who knows when. I can't recall how many I tried to germinate at first. I think just one and it sprouted a tap root so I put it in soil. I figured I better germinate a couple more so I went with 4 or 5 seeds. 2 sprouted tap roots. By that time the first had tried to break through the soil but didn't seem to be doing well. While I was waiting for the two new ones to break soil the first one pretty much died. I think I messed with it too much. So I figured I better germ some more. I did maybe 8 or 10. About 6 cracked and sprouted a tap root but I didn't get them into soil (actually, I was using peat pucks by that time) fast enough. Several of their tap roots kinda got stuck in the paper towel I germinated in. I freed them but damaged the tap roots in the process. Only one of those actually broke soil. Eventually I started uncovering the no-shows and found they died and had begun to rot. Tap roots are sensitive! Don't touch them or molest them in any way.
So at that point I had 3 seedlings going--two from the second germ attempt and one from the third germ attempt. They were all a couple days apart in age from breaking soil.
At that time I only had CFL's from the hardware store. I kept going back and forth with whether I wanted to pull the trigger on an HID setup. I ended up ordering even more CFL's (including a couple of big 105 watters) because I thought I'd just try my first grow without HID. But I changed my mind and only ended up using my new CFL's for about a week before I got the HID. I would have saved money had I just gone for the HID from the get-go like you did.
Early CFL setup with the very first not-quite-a-seedling that died.
Second CFL setup with the new CFL's (that I barely used) with the three survivors.
After maybe a week under the new CFL's I got the HID and was then under my 250w MH lamp (Lumatek digital ballast runs MH or HPS lamps). They vegged as seen in the .gif image. Maybe a week before I went 12/12 under the HPS I saw pre-flowers on two plants. Two females. Yay! I would have been satisfied with one.
A few days later I could barely make out pre-flowers on the third. Couldn't tell if it was male or female.
It's now shown itself to be female. 3 for 3. I'll take that, you betcha.
Early on I had trouble with the first soil I was using and trying to figure out pH. My seedlings where showing leaf damage/spotting/edge-curling and I didn't know why.
I changed up my soil and got the pH thingy sorted. Knowing how much to water took some hands-on learning too. As did judging when to transplant to larger pots. Here's one at about day 30 that is overwatered (pretty sure) AND in need of a larger pot. They kinda stalled out. As soon as I transplanted them they perked-up and took off again.
Oh yeah, I split one of their stalks nearly ALL THE WAY THROUGH when LST'ing. I almost called it dead on the spot. But a splint and some time is all it needed to make a full recovery. Kinda hard to see in the pics but that's why one of them is a bit taller with fewer tops. I had to suspend LST'ing on that one while it healed. It's the one on the far left. Not quite the nice even shape of the other two. (I had them out just now for water.)
So much to learn....but I feel like I'm on the right track now.
Speak-up if I'm flooding your thread with pictures and maybe useless info you don't need or want. I won't be offended.
