Nova's Northern Light, White Widow, Top44 Grow! (And More...)

[Nova]

So after a horribly disastrous germination issue with my last batch of beans, im back at it again with a new batch and quite a few different strains, with more to come.

With this grow i have taken every precaution, with picture documentation! Right now i have 6 Nirvana - Northen Lights in Jiffy plugs, 3 Nirvana - Top44 in germ, and 3 Nirvana - White Widow in germ.

The Northern Lights were successfully germinated and have been in jiffy plugs for 3 days now! The germ tray sits on one 17w Hydorfarm heating mat and the mat has the capability of heating it upto 10-20F hotter than the ambient air temperature, ambient air temperature is 65-75. Inside the germ tray is a modified cookie sheet cooling rack, cut to fit, to allow air to circulate around the entire plug. Right now i have a 100w CFL hanging above the germ tray to provide some light when the babies pop. My main grow lamp is a 175w Hydrofarm Metal Halide Sunburst system. When the babies pop, the CFL will be turned off and the metal halide will be turned on! The MH is off to conserve energy and lamp life. For flower, when the time comes, i have 2 400w Hydrofarm High Pressure Sodium Sunburst systems. Safety lenses and a cooling/fan system is in the process of being ordered for all 3 systems.

Pictures of the germination technique and process of the White Widow and Top44

• The beans...
  
• The tools, 1 pair of tongs, the beans, a plate, stack of paper towels...
  
• Paper towels folded into two seperate stacks, both having 16 layers of towel each.
  
• 3 beans of each new strain laid onto paper towel using tongs! Each paper towel is moist to the touch using luke-warm water!
  
  
• Paper towels with beans inside are put into their respectively labeled baggies!
  
• Baggies are sealed and air has been taken out. Both baggies are set on a plate, which has been set on a heating pad set on MEDIUM!
  
• Plate and heating pad are covered up with a towel to prevent light getting in and to lock in warmth.

Now we have some pics of the general growing area, setup, and hardware!

• Picture of the 6 Northern Lights in Jiffy Plugs. Notice cookie sheet on bottom of tray to allow air to circulate the whole area around the jiffy plug.
  
• Picture of the grow lights/lamps. Notice the 100w CFL working lamp, and right above it is the mac-daddy lamp, the 175w Hydrofarm MH Sunburst.
  

The germ and seedling phase has been moved inside to further control air temperatures, our outside air has been in the low 60's during the day and low to mid 40's at night!

Strains to come...

• Dutch Passion - Purple #1
• Nirvana - Misty

Strains arrived and set for germination, see below!​

Thanks to all who have helped me so far!

Nova

 

[Stoney Bud]

Hey Nova, everything looks good with the exception of the heating pad.

I've never used one and had perfect success. I'm afraid that with all that heat, it's going to cook your beans instead of germing them.

Good luck to you. It'll be interesting to see what results you get with the heat.

 

[Nova]

Hey Nova, everything looks good with the exception of the heating pad.

I've never used one and had perfect success. I'm afraid that with all that heat, it's going to cook your beans instead of germing them.

Good luck to you. It'll be interesting to see what results you get with the heat.

It has been crazy cold here, like around 60 during the day and low-40's at night. The heating pad was set there to provide a little more heat. I actually just lowered the heat down to low and set a towel underneath the plate! I also moved the towel from the top and set another plate on top of it instead!

Here's a pic of the newer setup...

Thanks for the advice Stoney, after reading your post i went and checked the temp of the plate and it was a little too warm than i thought it should be, so i moved some things around. Right now, my house is about 63F, which is a bit cold, so thats why i opted to put some kind of heat element on it. They will stay the way they are for 48 hours, after that i will come back and post some more results!

 

[Nova]

Picture of the thermostat in the house.....keep in mind, it is 65F with our house heater on, at night the heater is turned off, so the house will go to low 50's at night easily....

 

[Stoney Bud]

Picture of the thermostat in the house.....keep in mind, it is 65F with our house heater on, at night the heater is turned off, so the house will go to low 50's at night easily...

Man, it would cost me a fortune to do that. I keep my a/c at 78 for most of the year and when it gets cold, I keep the heat at 70.

I guess Florida has me spoiled.

The heating pad might be a good idea at that temp!

I'm looking forward to seeing your results.

 

[dsm1998gst]

good luck withthe grow

 

[Nova]

Man, it would cost me a fortune to do that. I keep my a/c at 78 for most of the year and when it gets cold, I keep the heat at 70.

I guess Florida has me spoiled.

The heating pad might be a good idea at that temp!

I'm looking forward to seeing your results.

there is a huge energy crisis where i live, so they have varying rates for different seasons and different parts of the days in those seasons. In the day during summer is gonna be the most expensive, cuz most run their ac's then. In winter and fall, which it is here right now, the most expensive time to run electrical things is in the night time, thats when most run their heaters. Im just a poor college student, so we just grab blankets and pile on some layers! It's cheaper....the children have a personal heatin system in their room tho and so do the other babies! :hubba:

 

[md.apothecary]

It's usually extremely hot here where I am, keeping A/C on at 78 during our non-winter seasons is EXPENSIVE!!! Not to mention, when it does eventually get cold here, it's a humid, rainy cold air and it's hard to keep the thermo at 68 with heater... So I will have cold temp problems in my grow area as well.

I can't wait to see the white widow grow log... If it's detailed enough, I might follow it to the "T" :ignore:

 

[eyeslikedonuts]

'Sup dude :wave:. Looks like u have everything in order. a warm +rep comin your way. im pullin up a chair for this one. great start. keepin it green, e :bong2:

 

[Nova]

Received some more beans today....

• Nirvana - Misty
• Dutch Passion - Purple #1

Pictures will be posted shortly!

 

[Nova]

So here we are, the last set of the bean strains to be germinated. Like the white widow and top44 germ process, every part of the process was pictured and was done with every precaution in mind.

I hope this grow journal provides information for everyone, i know a few of you are looking at the top44, and i am very eager to see the results from all the beans i have planted/germ'd!

ON WITH THE GROW!!!!!!!!!!

1. We got the tools of the trade! 2 Ziploc baggies that are appropriately labeled, the beans, a plate, and a pair of sterile tongs to handle the seeds, 2 sets of paper towels folded
   
   
2. Paper towels were moist using luke-warm as always and 3 seeds of each strain were set on each set of towels.
   
   
3. Paper towels were folded over and slippied into their baggies and most of the air was extracted out of each baggie.
   
   
4. Baggies were put with their others sisters who are still germing! From top of plate to bottom of plate we got, White Widow, Misty, Top 44, Purple #1!
   
   
5. Top plate was then placed back on top, door was shut, and we should see some serious results in another 48 hours from the white widow and top44 beans!

Again, i cannot thank everyone enough for the help they have provided! A big thanks goes to Stoney Bud for his expertise and persistence in accomplishing this grow, and of course Dr. Chronic, for providing some excellent beans at an excellent price!


Nova

 

[Nova]

I checked on the White Widow and Top44 seeds today, its been about 3 days in the paper towels, and expected to see all the beans germ'd! However, right now only 1 White Widow beans has germ'd, the other two have cracked but no tap root showing yet. For Top44, the shells on the seeds havent even cracked, so i used the soaking method to soften them. I will keep them in the sterile shot glass for a day on the warm plate for the day so soften them up a bit and put them back into the paper towels for another try.

I did get a little anxious today and checked out Misty and what should my eyes see......3 little taproots and all are germ'd for me! Into Jiffy pellets they go!

What a birthday week i am having as i also checked out my Purple #1, and whaddya know, 3 out of 3 seeds got roots....guess what.....into the jiffy cube!

So far so good folks!

I still have no sprouts from the northern lights, but i presume it is going to take them awhile!

Pictures of the Top 44 Soak....

 

[DLtoker]

Looks like fun man! Best of luck with you on this grow! :aok:

Mind doing me a favor and having the MP server host your pictures rather than image shack? Thanks!

 

[Nova]

Looks like fun man! Best of luck with you on this grow! :aok:

Mind doing me a favor and having the MP server host your pictures rather than image shack? Thanks!

No problem! I only used imageshack cuz they resize the pics down and everything....you want me to re-up all the pics to the server?

 

[DLtoker]

Ah, that's just a waste at this point IMO... just in the future bro.

 

[Nova]

So here's the finished products so far....

From left to right.....

• 3 Dutch Passion - Purple #1
• 3 Nirvana - Misty
• 1 Nirvana - White Widow
• 6 Nirvana - Northern Lights

Strains still waiting to germ...

• Nirvana - Top 44

Will give you updates when they sprout or the Top44's crack and go into towels, whichever comes sooner!

 

[Nova]

Ah, that's just a waste at this point IMO... just in the future bro.

Too late....

 

[Nova]

So this morning i got up and checked on the 3 Top44's i had soaking, and still no cracked beans. I decided to put them back into paper towels. I also added 3 more Top44's in the hopes that one or two would germinate. So now there are 6 Top44 beans that are waiting to germ.

Also, with the remaining 2 White Widow beans, still no cracks yet. Im just gonna keep them in paper towels in hopes something happens.

Still no sprout from the beans that did germ, but its only been a day, and i really wasnt expecting a sprouts to show just yet. Just keeping this journal well documented and up to date....

Nova

 

[eyeslikedonuts]

'Sup dude :ciao: try using tweezers or a razor blade and gently crack the tip of the seed along stem and replace back in water, guarantee you'll see taproot within hours. sometimes the husks are too thick for water to penertate and trigger cell division. dont foret to add a lit'l h2o2 in the water, oxygen deprivation = dead beans.my 0.02. peace, e :bong2:

 

[bombbudpuffa]

Heres a few shots of mine. Good luck with the rest of your grow. May all your plants be ladies.