G13 x Afghan Skunk - Let the games begin

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The seeds are bathing in the water/bleach/kelp solution and I'll put them in soil tomorrow night. I sterilized all utensils before using them, washed my hands with some soap and afterwards with alcohol gel.

The pH of our tap water was indeed off (8.2) so I adjusted it with some vinegar (added 25ml of it to a 10l bucket) and it's now at 6.0. I added 4 tsp of both bleach and liquid kelp to the vinegar water and let it rest for a few hours (closed off the bucket with a lid). Before putting the seeds in these glasses, I quickly dipped them in hydrogen peroxide, threw it in a small strainer and rinsed the seeds with tap water.

The water became less dark after a few hours, the bleach is probably responsible for it. It's hereby proven: Bleach is racist!

The smaller cups contain some of the last autoflower seeds in my seed stash. Looking fwd to tomorrow night!
 
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Just drilled holes in 18 (hard plastic) cups with a (3 mm) wood drill bit. Thanks to @Fish for suggesting this over here and to @CannaFish for confirming that this is a workable solution. It took me +/- 10 minutes to get it done, just make sure you clean the bit after each cup as the plastic will get stuck in the bit. I'll get a metal drill bit next week as these are better suited for drilling plastic.
 
Put those holes in the lower side edges all around the bottom.
You'll find holes on the direct bottom are clogged the second you put the container down on a solid surface.
Jus' tryna help.

The bottom is a bit hollow so the holes don't touch the surface immediately, there's about 2mm of space. But will try to drill some holes retroactively on the sides tomorrow.
 
Underneath you can see the beans swimming in the bleach pool. 13 of the 18 beans showed a radicle so far so these were put in premoistened cups (moistened with the bleach/kelp water solution). We'll give the other 5 another day to show some progress.

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My germination tray (left) was too small for 18 cups so I'm using a transparent Curver box for the 13 cups and will keep the 5 remaining cups moist in the germination tray until those 5 beans show their radicle. I didn't have enough plastic straws at home but will get some tomorrow and punch them through the soil until the bottom. If I want to add a small wooden stick later on, I can do so in the space of the plastic straw so I don't damage the roots.

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And after a few hours of work, we're allowed to get some of this :) According to connoisseurs, this is now the best absinthe in the world. Absinthe usually turns white or green after adding (cold) water but this one is yellow because a certain spice was added to the recipe for taste and coloring. This is amazing stuff, go check it out!

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Just drilled holes in 18 (hard plastic) cups with a (3 mm) wood drill bit. Thanks to @Fish for suggesting this over here and to @CannaFish for confirming that this is a workable solution. It took me +/- 10 minutes to get it done, just make sure you clean the bit after each cup as the plastic will get stuck in the bit. I'll get a metal drill bit next week as these are better suited for drilling plastic.
No worries High-mish, cheers!
 
16 out of the 18 beans showed a radicle by yesterday night. I dropped the remaining 2 in a cup as well and hope for the best.

In the afternoon they'll get their first 2 hours of sunlight, will post some pictures then.
 
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6 are going in the right direction, 3 are somewhere in limbo and 9 are still sleeping, somewhere in the outskirts of walhalla.
I hope and pray for 4-5 strong females to work with. Time will tell..

They're now getting 8 hours of sunlight a day on the balcony and rest of the day (+/- 16 hours) they're under some CFL's.

Btw: none of those 3 autoflower seeds germinated so I've learned another important lesson: never ever buy seeds that are in promotion. They're not worth it and there's probably a 'good reason' why they're in promotion.

 
Seems like I screwed up a bit but in the end, there may be a positive side to it as well...

Majority of the beans (16 out of 18) started germinating before they were put in dirt. About 9 started the seedling stage relatively well but then they started dying one after the other and now only 2 have survived.

This never happened before, I had +/- 70% success rate until now so this was a bit worrying to me. I've been thinking and thinking about what I may have done wrong and then I discussed my way of working (from a to z) with a friend (420-friendly but into growing) and he immediately said: "You mixed vinegar with bleach?? I believe this creates a deadly gas when being mixed." So I looked it up and it's indeed true, it creates chlorine gas. I used vinegar to lower the pH and afterwards added bleach to the mixture to increase the germination success rate. I know it sounds a bit weird that a jew is killing his seedlings with a deadly gas but seems like that's what happened. Lesson learned: go to the grow shop and buy some pH-down and going forward, it will be best to get every new concoction analyzed well (by myself and others) before using it in the garden.

On a positive note.. those 2 survivors must be really strong after having survived my mini-genocide. If they're females, even better and if they're males.. I will keep them. Maybe they'll be good for breeding one day.

I will post some pix soon.
 
I almost never regulate ph on soil. Them seeds don’t take up much nutrients so it is not that important in this stage I guess. Just germed MNS seeds in tapwater ph 8 and they germed quite fast.

Yeah, that's what I did so far and the results were relatively OK.
I'll use regular tap water with a bit of bleach and kelp next time but of course without the vinegar and quickly rinse the seeds with hydrogen peroxide beforehand.
 
Yeah, that's what I did so far and the results were relatively OK.
I'll use regular tap water with a bit of bleach and kelp next time but of course without the vinegar and quickly rinse the seeds with hydrogen peroxide beforehand.
But why would you do that? Just germ, plant, add water? :D
I understand seeds being real old may demand special care, but I bet them seeds were stored correctly and have a high germing rate.
Less is more :D on soil I would not worry too much if you don’t overwater them. If you don’t overwater them, that soil will act as tea and adjust the ph automaticly.
I bet that vinegar kills a lot of bacteria and micro-organisms too. Best pH down (imho) is based on phosphor and is beneficial for flowering plants. If you want to cheapskate I think lemonjuice would be the better choice.
 
No more bleach for you @High-mish! You mad scientist you lol! The biggest problem I see is overwatering. IMJ it is the biggest killer of seeds and plants.
Indeed, less is always more. Bleach does not increase germination rate. Bleach or hydrogen peroxide, both powerful oxidizers, can be used to reduce pathogens. Choose one or the other. Bleach is more effective against viruses. I use it to initiate my seeds bc I am concerned with HLVd. Some worry about chlorine harming plants. It is important to differentiate between chlorine and chloride. One can help in oxidation, the other, an ion can cause toxicity. After the initial sterilization use, I do not use it during seedling or plant growth as I now want to encourage microbial growth. Going forward, hydrogen peroxide would be a better option to remediate mold or pest problems. Lastly, bleach and kelp combine well as most kelp products (maxicrop) contain chlorine. A kelp mixture in plain water is a great way to start seeds. Just follow the directions on the maxicrop container. Fulvates maybe, but no vinegar!
Seeds come in a complete package with all the nutrition they need. They do not need a pH'd environment to metabolize their own endosperm. Plain tap water works fine. pH becomes a factor when the plants are larger and using fertilizers. Von Liebig's Law now comes into play.
Like @Cannalicous, I prefer pH products to contain elements the plants can use. Calcium Carbonate for up, phosphoric acid for down. I use bonemeal and silicates, specifically potassium silicate as a pH adjuster. In a word, KISS. Opinions may appear larger than they are ;).

🤙mu
 
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