Musky's twenty twelve

Siliman · Feb 5, 2012

muskymojo said:
...I do things a bit differently than most. I use 2 cell trays for every 1 tray I grow, for a few reasons. I start out with a tray filled with starter mix under a dome for germinating. The other tray is under lights with no dome. Every day, I cut out the individual cells that have sprouted and place them in the tray under the lights. This way the sprouts get air and light as soon as they break the surface, and the ones that haven't popped yet stay moist and warm under the dome....

This sounds fantastic! I can save a lot of space in the germ area by moving individual sprouted cells to the lighted area. I already cut my 72-cell germinating tray into 6 smaller squares of 9 each for ease of handling and move as a group, so it would be easy to cut out the ones to move. This will be really good when there are certain stragglers I don't want to give up on and just leave them in the warmer germ area.

Question: do you pre-cut each cell right after filling with medium, or do you wait until one germinates and then do the cutting? I assume you use an 'uncut' tray underneath the cut cells to hold them in place?

muskymojo · Feb 5, 2012

I cut them as I go, but you could do either. Yes, I use an uncut tray to hold the individual ones.

Siliman · Feb 5, 2012

Thank you MM! That's a nice idea I can really use for the rest of the germination season.... :cool:

Pr0digal_son · Feb 6, 2012

Babies are looking healthy. You have some pretty creative tricks. I am far from creating my own techniques...just trying to keep them alive currently.

Justaguy · Feb 6, 2012

That is the same reason I germ in loose soil and then move sprouts to the cells

3/5King · Feb 11, 2012

Awesome setup Mojo. Germ rates are great! I love the little Purple Bhut, among the greenery. Good idea with the trays. what do you do for humidity levels after they have sprouted and are out from the greenhouse??

PaulG · Feb 11, 2012

Great setup and production. I love the portable cell idea. Very creative!
What do you do to wake up your overwinters?

muskymojo · Feb 11, 2012

3/5King said:
Awesome setup Mojo. Germ rates are great! I love the little Purple Bhut, among the greenery. Good idea with the trays. what do you do for humidity levels after they have sprouted and are out from the greenhouse??

Thanks 3/5! I don't do anything for humidity levels. I'm just starting plants in there. They will all be going outside as soon as weather permits.

PaulG said:
Great setup and production. I love the portable cell idea. Very creative!
What do you do to wake up your overwinters?

Thank you! I just gave them some food and light, which they have had very little of since I pulled them out of the ground and cut them back.

S.S.Tupperware · Feb 11, 2012

There lookin good, when can ya put them out...

MGOLD86 · Feb 14, 2012

Hey Musky,

How many watts are your CFLs and at what distance do you keep them? Thinking about adding some grow space and figured they may work the best.

muskymojo · Feb 16, 2012

S.S.Tupperware said:
There lookin good, when can ya put them out...

Thanks. Our last frost date is May 21, but I'm hoping to get them in my greenhouse at least a month before that.

MGOLD86 said:
Hey Musky,

How many watts are your CFLs and at what distance do you keep them? Thinking about adding some grow space and figured they may work the best.

They are 27 watt 5000k (best deal I could find). About 1 foot from the plants. It seems like plenty of light. Nothing is "leggy", but I would like to mix in some other colors when I pot up and need to expand. This is my first time using CFLs, so I don't know much about them really.

S.S.Tupperware · Feb 16, 2012

Man 3 m0nths...I would be dying... I guess I'll have to send ya some fresh pods to hold ya over...

muskymojo · Feb 17, 2012

S.S.Tupperware said:
Man 3 m0nths...I would be dying... I guess I'll have to send ya some fresh pods to hold ya over...

Wow, that's a very generous offer! :drooling:

I have all kinds of superhot powder if you wanted to do a trade.

muskymojo · Feb 17, 2012

Quick update:

Things are coming along good for the most part.

I started the following on 2-10-12:

Chupetinho (Tonly) X4
Safi Red (HP) X4
Brazilian Starfish (MWCH) X6
Bishops Crown (KD) X6
Aji Crystal (RTF) X4
Bhut Indian Carbon (me) X4
Bhut Indian Carbon (PL) X4
Bhut Jolokia (me) X4

Purple Bhuts 29 days from seed. I love the color of these.

The overwinters are bouncing back nicely. Much better than last year. They were all bare sticks a month ago.

7 Pot Barrackpore

Dorset Naga

Bhut Indian Carbon

Another Indian Carbon

I should be potting up a couple hundred chinenses in about a week or so. I need to hang a couple more lights first, and probably build more shelves. Then it will be time for some annuums. I sure hope 4" pots will be big enough until I can get everything out to the greenhouse.

Thanks for looking, and have a great day!

Pulpiteer · Feb 17, 2012

I've seen purple bhuts starts on a few glogs here, and I had never thought about growing them until seeing those plants. They look beautiful! Such a nice color to them. I'll have to think about adding them for next year.
You said you'd add different colors in the cfl's, I've got some 6500 k's; what range do you add? I'll have to go back and review that article on light that's pinned in grow tech, but I'm curious what you're doing.

Everything looks awesome, by the way! And I should say, every time I see your profile pic I want to see the whole thing to see the size of that fish

muskymojo · Feb 17, 2012

Pulpiteer said:
I've seen purple bhuts starts on a few glogs here, and I had never thought about growing them until seeing those plants. They look beautiful! Such a nice color to them. I'll have to think about adding them for next year.
You said you'd add different colors in the cfl's, I've got some 6500 k's; what range do you add? I'll have to go back and review that article on light that's pinned in grow tech, but I'm curious what you're doing.

Everything looks awesome, by the way! And I should say, every time I see your profile pic I want to see the whole thing to see the size of that fish

Thanks! I think I'll add in a few 2700K soon. I would have liked to get 6500K instead of 5000K, but 6500K is hard to find, and a 4 pack of 27 watt 5000K was less than $10. I have 6500K and 5000K in my T8s, which seem to work good, but last year my plants seemed to want something more after a while. They kinda hit a wall until they got some actual sunlight. I'm not sure that some warmer light will help, but I guess I'll find out.
The fish is a northern pike. I want to say that one was 44". It's the only pic I could find without my ugly mug in it.

MGOLD86 · Feb 17, 2012

I just picked up the materials for the growlight at Lowe's and the bulbs were the most expensive part. 10 bucks for 2 6500K CFLs. Without em the whole setup would have cost 30 bucks.

muskymojo · Feb 24, 2012

Update time again.
I hope to get most of these potted up this weekend. Then I will be starting annuums. I found a couple ahpids on some of my overwintered plants, so they promptly got kicked out of the grow room for good. It's just not worth it for 8 plants.

This is pretty much the whole class of 2012 so far. Most of these are a bit less than 5 weeks from seed.

A different angle

And a closer look

Thanks for looking, and have a great day! :beer:

Sethsquatch · Feb 24, 2012

WOW. I just am NOT getting the types of results all of you seem to be getting with my plants. Are you using any fertilizer? What is your grow medium? Is it a specific brand of seed mix or a custom blend? How many hours of light are you giving them? Everything looks fantastic, thanks for any tips!

muskymojo · Feb 24, 2012

Sethsquatch said:
WOW. I just am NOT getting the types of results all of you seem to be getting with my plants. Are you using any fertilizer? What is your grow medium? Is it a specific brand of seed mix or a custom blend? How many hours of light are you giving them? Everything looks fantastic, thanks for any tips!

Thanks! Everything is still in Jiffy seed starting mix, but will be potted up very soon. 24/7 light from the start. I will cut it back to 18/6 in a week or so.
I'm using Alaska brand fish emulsion at about 1/4 strength for every watering. Home Depot has it for cheap.
I'm also using this stuff with it at about 1/4 strength. http://hydroharrys.com/catalog/organics-grow-pint-p-4215.html
Oh, and occasionally some epsom salt.