3rd auto attempt-NL and PE

Hey everyone! Like the title says, this is my 3 attempt at growing some autos. My first grow was 1 each of a PE from Barney's and NL from Nirvana, it got me right at 4oz dry under CFLs, in MG potting mix/Perlite/DG seed starter in 1.5 gallon pots. My second grow is a NL auto from Nirvana, same soil, same pot, CFLs with a 150 W hps, and is about 3 weeks from harvest, so I decided to go ahead and pop the beans in the soil for grow #3.

They are in 2 gallon buckets.

Currently under CFLs to start them out.

Soil mix is about 1/3-1/3-1/3 MG potting mix, MG Perlite and Dollar General Seedling starter. Also, in the middle of the buckets, I took a solo cup and made a hole that I filled in with a mix of about 90% seed starter/10% Potting mix.

My plans are to get a 3'x4'x6' box built this week that I will be moving them into. I want to actually give these ladies some room. So far, I've been pretty successful growing in a pantry, under smallish lights and I want to up the ante a bit. I'm just going to frame out a box with some 2x4's and close it in with some plywood and paint the inside flat white.

I plan on ordering one of the 600W hps cool tubes, probably the apollo one that is on Amazon that can be adjusted. I also plan on installing some side fixtures for some CFL side lighting. I figure 600W up top with a couple hundred actual watts of CFL on the sides, should give me some pretty nice results with 3 plants. I plan on using the box for 4 plants at a time in the future.

I'll leave them under the CFLs for a couple of weeks.

Nothing to really see, just buckets of dirt, but I still took some pics for posterity. The pic with 2 buckets in the shelf has a PE on the left and the NL on the right. The bucket on the floor with the CFLs clamped on is the second NL. If for some reason, I don't get my light in by the time I harvest my other lady(Violet), I'll move 2 plants under the 150W hps with CFL supplementing and Leave one under a buttload of CFLs until I get my new box ready for em.

Finally! They have popped up through the dirt. After about 6 days, the seeds weren't showing, so I very, VERY carefully pulled back some dirt and saw that they weren't even germinated. I've never had this problem before, so I was worried the seeds just weren't viable. But, not being one to give up, I decided that maybe, hopefully, it just wasn't warm enough for them to germ.

So, I did the 'ol paper towel method. I put them in paper towels, soaked them and then put them under a heating pad, after a couple days, taproots showed! So, instead of putting them back into the pots, I put them in solo cups and made sure the soil was good and moist, then put a ziploc bag over the cups and put under the lights.

I made sure to mist the soil a couple times a day and also sprayed some up in the bag, to keep it really good and wet and I just now got home from work and took a peek, and they are starting to push through the soil. So, hopefully, they will get on their way to reachin' for the sky soon. I'm going to leave them in the solo cups until I have at least 1 set of leaves, past the cotyledons.

I have a hot water heater in my closet I put 2 squares of paper towel down *fold it twice* wet it down and put it on a plate then put the seeds between the center fold and put plastic wrap over it leaving a small gap for air and put it in my closet....works every time

My problem is, my house is really old. No central heat, I heat with a Kerosene heater, and my water heater is actually under my house, in the crawlspace. 2 weeks ago, when we got down to single digits, my water heater actually froze up. I had left my cold water faucets dripping, didn't think about the hot water. Fortunately, it thawed and didn't explode on me.

This winter, I've struggled to keep my cabinet above 55, even with the 150 watt hps and about 200 watts of CFLs. I'll be glad when I get my new box built and get my 600w hps in. I'll have to worry about keeping it cooled instead of it being too cold.

Just saw this thread. You don't fck around much.

Count me in.

Thanks! Gonna put in some OT at work the next couple of weeks. Got a seed order I want to place, these are my last 3 store bought seeds and I'd like to go ahead and start 4 more plants within the next month. Also, gonna be ordering me a 600 watt HPS cool tube and going to try and get some bigger, better quality. A buddy of mine is bringing me a bag of random seeds from weed he's bought over the past couple of years. I'm going to use them to experiment with some growing techniques. I just can't bring myself to try to much out of the norm with bought seeds.

I'm going to run one cabinet with a bunch of cut 2L soda bottles and flip em 12/12 at about 6 inches and try to get a bunch of single cola plants, gonna pop a few more and try some heavy LST. Just gonna try to learn all I can with the bag seeds and then apply them to other grows. I'll certainly start threads on those in the right forum area.

But, in the meantime, I'm going to keep growin autos for main growing purposes, planning on getting some super auto lemon haze, blueberry and white widow on my next order.

Be sure to try some other growing medium.
Try something black. They have a good smell

Props to you and good luck on your experiments. I like the way you think.