Now that it is the end of April, is it time to begin germinating seeds? If you have a basement or spare room…if you have a table with lights suspended over it…Yes. Use shop lights, the ones with two four foot long tubes in ’em. As soon as a pot-seed germinates, it can use the light. I grow totally outdoors, so I have to wait until the weather permits.

This year, becuse I’ve been germinating seeds early so that I could take pictures of them to show to you…I’ve been taking the pots out in the am, bringing them in in the evening. We now are looking at at least 2 days and three nights that these young seedlings will have to be indoors because of the weather. That is not good. But I do what I have to do.

The trouble with seeds is that it takes so long to figure out what sex they are after they germinate. The trouble with clones is that the dispensaries use the wrong light cycle. Clones that are grown with 18 hours of light will flower as soon as you put them outside. A 2 foot tall clone that blooms right away is useless to me. It’s May. There’s just over 12 hours of light in a day. It is by using the light cycle as well as using certain fertilizers that we encourage the plants to bloom.

Another thing I noticed with some clones is that some have an embolism; an air bubble…probably in the stem. The embolism won’t kill the plant but it does severally impede the growth of it. Also, clones do not have a tap root and so, don’t have the vibrancy of a seedling. Also, when you buy a clone with the light cycle it has been grown in, you are supposed to take it home, grow it inside, force it to bloom within a month. Get it in…get it out. That’s not how I do things.

The weather in Colorado has always been a difficult challenge to deal with. Our front range weather continues to be a difficult struggle. Over the past 30 years, I’ve seen bad hail storms through-out March into October. Hmm, that’s not a convenient thing for us out-doorsey types.

No matter what, if you put seed germinates or clones on a window sill behind a pane of glass, your plant will get tall and spindley, and will fall over as it grows toward the window, typically in an “s” curve. Sometimes they fall over and the stem gets crimped. More often than not… that plant won’t survive.

There are several ways to germinate a seed. One way is to put a seed half an inch down in the mud, right where you want it to grow. It may or may not germinate. It may or may not be a female.

Another way is to put seeds, spaced apart a couple inches, between damp paper towels. As soon as these germinate be ready to transplant them and be gentle with them. Another method is using Angel Hair soil in peat pots. Keep them moist. This works fine.

Another way is the “expanding pellets” method. One company sells these expand-pellets that is mostly a sawdust type material…seems to work okay. Another company sells pellets that plump up into a peat moss filled barrel. I like these, but I take the netting off before I plant the entire barrel. Sometimes the roots or even the cotglydn can get stuck in the netting.
We all know that the cancer is a painless lump or swelling buy sildenafil uk in the testicles. You have to fill up viagra no prescription australia a form with your personal details like name, address, age etc. This is in which low price medicines come in to action within very short duration so should be used by the reflux disease victims as the diagnosis with this medicament can rescue you from experiencing the shameful and embarrassing occurrence of impotency purchase cheap levitra has been manufactured by using sildenafil citrate as a key ingredient. Dogs with CDS will often begin to urinate and/or defecate viagra online without in the home.
Now we get into “the plastics”. This type becomes a humidity chamber, which is good. With this setup, I use germinating soil and poke a single seed 1/2 inch down into each depression.Within two days of germination, I gently scoop out the new seedling and put it into a large container. Sometimes I get a mold growth in these, which I scoop out and throw away.

I can let these seedlings stay put and grow in these larger, plastic pots. I could just simply put a single seed into a large plastic bucket…an actual grow container, but it takes up a lot of space and uses up a lot of soil/angel hair and each pot will weigh a lot. If we continue to have cold nights, I still have to bring ’em all in at sundown and schlep ’em all out into the morning sunlight. It depends on how cold it is going to get.

Too much rain can wash the young plants out of the containers…not enough root structure to with stand even an all day drizzle.

Night time low temps have been above 38˚ for almost a week, but the weather gal says that it’ll be getting cold for 2 or 3 days and nights. I sure do want to get moving forward on this season’s crop. But I’ve learned to respect the crazy Colorado weather. Watch the tv weather and figure out which tv station is consistently close the the reality in your neighborhood.

Those of you who have already started germinating seeds and are up-potting your youngsters into a larger “sexing container” might have to bring all your plants in for 3 nights and two days. It can still get very cold at night here on the front range, all the way into early June.

In the foothills, as on the Front Range, to expand your outdoor growing season, you’ll probably have to construct a framework, a ribcage over which to drape clear plastic or tarps. That will help hold in the warmth, kinda like a cold-frame.

A wood frame trellis can be useful in extending the growing season on both ends. May, June as well as late September and October. Even an aluminum rib-cage can be used to throw tarps up and over. A hailstorm can last from 20 minutes to 4 hours and then it clears out and we have a sunny evening. In 20 minutes a heavy rain or a hail storm can strip your plants. It would take only 2 or 3 people to quickly pull that cover over the top of the rib-cage, secure it, tie it down and save your plants.