Growlog: Outdoor, bagseed, scattered

I'm getting a very late start at this. I have collected some bagseed from last season and decided recently that I want to grow my own stash. Needless to say I will be running into a scenario where I cannot count any chickens before they hatch, but this should be fun none the less.

I live in the Great Lakes around the 45th Parallel. I've been delaying getting started because the weather this year has been strange to say the least. April came in with 50's and 60's, but March was full of snow. Near the beginning of april we had some cold spells which brought frost. Needless to say with the weatherman predicting a frost nearby, it seems that this week is a good time to get germinating the bagseed.

Most of this weed was nothing special to speak of. I've always tried to acquire the best stuff, and with most luck has had it, all of the NL, Blueberry and Kush that is around here is seedless. So the above brown schwag seeds will have to do for this project. I will be doing an indoor Hydro setup too, and for that I will acquire the best in seeds from a trusted supplier.

But since I'm not expecting much, there is no sense in waisting money on seeds for this.

I purchased some 6500k and 2600k CFL's from Walmart and rigged up a small cabinet to do the germination in. I am running a small fan and keeping track of the temperature/humidity of my cabinet. So far, this has ranged from 65F/55% to a high point of 78F/35%. So far, this range seems good, however with the colder weather today on this fine mothers day, things are slow.

So far, 16 seeds have cracked. There are 17 or so left, but they might not do much more than sit in the water. Once they have cracked, I have placed each seed in a small 4oz dixi cup. Each dixi cup has 12 holes poked in them for drainage and Oxygen. The seeds are placed 1/4" below the top, and each cup is watered until the water drains out the bottom. With some luck, each of the 16 seeds should bust the soil with the pod buster seeds shortly. They will be getting an initial 24 hours of light until the pod busters come up, then I will reduce that to 18/6.

I have not scouted sites yet however, unless you count scouring satellite images of my area. I plan to plant a good 12 miles from my home in an area near swamps, farm fields and state owned land. This area is well known to be home to many guerilla growers, so Helicopter flights overhead might become a problem later in the season. So far, I am looking for a few things:

1. Ease of access
2. Seclusion
3. Water supply

My plan is to follow the guidance of Mr. Barry Cooper and not plant near a stream. Farm fields may be my bag of tea.

More to follow...

G'Luck to ya... yea weather been on the cold side this year to the south of ya, so yea i bet the Great lakes area is even worse. Global warming???? I think someone made a mistake on that LOL....

Well I'm a bit concerned. I've been keeping the soil moist, and I know the seeds cracked, but nothing has shot up yet. I'm talking over 5 days of growth with nothing.

This does give me time to scout tomorrow. But I don't want to be picking a spot with nothing but empty pots.

Well 1 week, and it looks like all the seeds that cracked have no root structure at all.

Scratching plans, visiting grow shops. We'll see what comes of this. I'm already too far behind to really get things going.

I did go out today and find a nice spot to put them when the time comes. I spent a good 4 hours walking around. Probably covered 5 miles. Im tired.

2/18 Germination rate so far. My luck that one will be a male. I will be transplanting it into a bigger pot as soon as I feel the root structure is big enough.

Well with the lights going out at midnight tonight, the status is that we have 3 alive. One has sprouted its first set of real leaves, the others are still weak looking pod busting leaves. I have placed them closer to the lights so they will get warmer and open up some more.

Oh, if I didnt mention, they are under a 42w Warm White and two 24w cool white CFL bulbs.

With such a low germination rate, I would say get some new seeds. Not a very good sign this early into the season. Just my thoughts. Keep us posted. Take care and be safe.

smokybear said:

I would say get some new seeds.

Click to expand...

cant expect much from southernly imported bagseed, but! The one looks very healthy.

I'm going to kill the rest. My friend has some great seed that I'll be donating to the hydroponic setup. My plan is to now plant this one plant in the ground and see what happens.

I would definitely scrap them and get the good seeds. Cant hurt to keep the one healthy one though. Just my thoughts. Take care and be safe.

Well the healthy one has doubled in size more than a few times. Its starting to look pretty healthy! Nice big fat leaves, dark green color. Indica? Yummy.

The others do not look like they will fair so well. Im going to give them another day to get their act together and then trash them. One out of 16. Eh.. Hopefully its a she.

Killed the stragglers. Replanted the one in a larger container (1/2 Gallon) and put it right up on the lights. I also replaced my bulb setup with 4) 26w 5500k CFL's. We have doubled in size over the last two days, and the third leave shoots are starting. Slow growth, so hopefully its a winner.

How bad would it be if my temperature in the cabinet is getting to 95 degrees? Humidity is low at 35%. Obviously, these plants will have to survive that temperature at some point this year. But its really getting warm in there at the moment.

Outside temp: 57.

hey ugmj, i too live near the great lakes and know exactly what you are talking about with the weather... i was so pumped to grow this year, did a lot of research and what not, but the weather has kept me from doing anything... all the plants ive tried to grow have died because of (among other reasons) the hard cold rain and not enough sunlight. i see you are starting late and i wish you a lot of good luck (youll need it in our climate ), i personally abondoned my outdoor grow plans a few days ago, and am working on small an indoor one with cfl's and soil kinda like yours. just too many factors outdoors

Outdoors has its challenges.


I'm not sure how great a weekend it was to dig a hole in the woods, but I'll tell the story anyways.

I left around 2:30pm to dig the hole. I had a military style backpack full of a bag of soil, a pick axe and a gallon of water. I walked for a good 45 minutes before actually deciding the spot. There were so many good ones but I decided to just pick and found a nice area of dead trees that had some good growing grass. I dug a hole large enough for 12 L of the MG, and poured the water into it to prep it.

I get back to my car, not a short walk by any means. I had parked in a small parking area along side a deserted road. As I'm pulling off the side road onto the main road, I passed a LEO. He put on his breaks immediately after staring at me as I passed him. Luckily, I kept going and never saw him again. What a rush though. So this is what prohibition leads us to do.. freak out every time we see "the enemy."

The hole is dug. The plant has grown double its size every day since being transplanted. I should be able to read the pre-flower sex soon enough. Can't wait to see if I actually use this hole or not.

Juju- the wonder plant is doing okay these days. We have leaves forming at every place in it, however it is a short but bushy plant. I would say probably 5-6" tall so far (4 weeks). I have cut back lighting cycle to induce flowering. So far it looks like we have a typical female flower starting. Hooooray! Nothing male about a short bushy plant with leaves at every node and a nice little pistil coming from the second nodes.