Advice on best time to start germination

Outdoor The Basics
#1

Hi all! This is my first post and my first grow :relaxed:
I live in USDA Grow Zone 8b, and here in Western WA we are apparently having a cold/wet April and May. I’m still new at raised bed gardening but have a few seasons under my belt, but kinda impulsively I decided to grow the weeds this year to go along with my expansive garden hobby I have cultivated. I also have a pretty expensive med use cost problem with buying recreationally, so that just needed to be solved anyways.
My plan for everything (veg, herbs, flowers, mmj) was to start them indoors and move them outdoor in the morning to the cold frame until no longer needed. And back inside at night until no longer needed. This was my great new plan for the season.
Unfortunately, the weather is not as per usual and it’s still going to be below 60 during the days and below 50 at nights, for what I expect will be 2-3 more weeks.
I have a ghetto little light/heat indoor germinating greenhouse thing I have set up. Things have been in there 1-2 weeks and then they transition to the cold frame, it seemed to work well for many seeds (squash, cucumber, tomato, etc) that I’ve started over the past 6 weeks. However as I rotate crops and the sun doesn’t come out, they are getting sad this week. (South facing garden with pretty much full sun)
Which is why I came here, I just germinated my weed seeds. They are due within the next 24 hrs to go in my little germ station for 1-2 weeks, or however long they will fit in the solo cup, and then potted-up to 5g and/or 10 gal fabric bags and into the cold frame, the great outdoors and indoors when below 50.
This is what has me panicking, should I have waited two more weeks to germ? Until outside is more prime? I’m not going to plant my tomatoes or peppers or squashes yet, so why would I set a weed plant out? Right?
I have 8- blueberry autoflower seeds. Picked for climate and short grow season. I have germinated two and did already plan to germ another two in a month. But I hope this first crop isn’t a loss because of the extra cold weather we’re having or that if I wait too late in the season for the second.
I guess I’m hoping for input for some veteran PNW growers about working with outdoor seasons, especially our currently challenging season. My awkward little setup but it maintains about 73 f with 50% humidity

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*This whole gardening season is a large experiment as a new stay at home mom who apparently needed a hobby and gardening has taken over my brain. I am hoping to ease financial burden with anything I can grow for our use but I’ve never done this scale before (never had the time previously tho). So not a lot is riding on it, but I’d be much happier if it wasn’t a total failure. :smile:

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#2

Update:
So weather still sucks here in PNW. Some days there is literally no sun.
Have two small plants (blueberry Autoflower) doing well in my indoor make-shift greenhouse/growhouse (which I have now added foil to the outsides) and I just planted three more germinated seeds. The plants are almost 4 weeks old and will soon be too tall for the indoor greenhouse. They will also need to be uppotted soon and that won’t fit indoor.
Hopefully having 3-4 weeks between seeds will give me a better feel of the length of grow season… which is significantly shorter this year apparently. more protected outdoor life.
I have invested in a small cheap greenhouse and as soon as I pot them they will be going out there to live a slightly

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#3

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Last year I grew pot for the first time ever. I knew nothing and it showed. I just put seeds the ground. It did not turn out well.
I’ve had 3 grows since, all indoor in a nice grow room I built.
Early this Spring, I germinated 4 autos and got the them started in the tent. I x planted them into 2 gal bags each and moved them out to my veggie garden. Why waste electricity when I have lots of free sunlight.
I keep my plants in a wagon. I wheel then either into shade or the carport, depending on the threat.
I’m in the north Georgia mountains and we get pop-up hail and thunder storms with little warning.
I’m using pre-mix soil. Mix-A-Soil was one of the best investments I made. No more neuts! A major variable gone.
Tent growing is great but a big sky gives big returns.
One thing that might help is one of those little green houses. We used a 4x4 for the seedlings into we were sure we were part hard frost.

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#4

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They are starting to bud up nice. The wagon idea is a game changer. Normally, you surrender a lot of control when you grow outdoors and are at the mercy of the Gods.
I’ve put them in the carport during storms and heatwaves, put them on the porch while the japanese Beatles were out. I also move them during the day to get optimum daylight.
A mobile garden is the best of all worlds.

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#5

The cart is a great idea! I don’t have room in my garden for a cart, so I just have to lift them in and out of the greenhouse. Oh well. Today was one of those “I don’t feel like moving them around” days though. :slightly_frowning_face:

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#6

You got that packed in there. I have one of those mini-greenhouses too. We used it a lot in the spring.

#7

My small 0.25 acres has the house in the middle, and the south side is fully tree lined, so only that strip in the backyard gets the most sun, it’s not even full sun. Next year I’ll be working on gardening in the north strip of the front yard.
The greenhouses were a last minute decision because Mother Nature has not been on our side here in PNW, it’s currently like late spring weather despite being past the solstice.
I have a second batch of blueberry that I just transplanted out their solo cups, I did those at three weeks old, I’d say they are 7-10 days ahead in growth compared to the first batch (4 weeks between each) probably because it was still like winter here when I started the first.

#8

Here’s new pics.
Batch 1 (plants #1&2) in 5 and 7 gallons. Now about 20” tall & 8 weeks
Batch 2- (plants #3/4/5) in 3 and 10 gallon. About 8” tall & 4 weeks.

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#9

I’m on an 18 acre hill. My garden gets full sun.

Last year, I had 17 plants in a raised bed. My first grow. Did not go well. I did not know what I was doing.
I grow strictly in bags and use Mix-A-Soil with rain water. I’m doing autos now.
I will start some photos soon but will probably flip them in the tent in the fall. It’s hard to flip under the sky here. Too much sun.

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#10

I like the wagon idea. Next spring, gonna use it. :+1:

#11

@NottwoodFarms
It is the worst summer ever. I am near seattle. Halfway between seattle and snohomish. I totally know what you mean. The rain I can take. But the cold temps are craziness. My furnace was cycling on the solstice. More 40s at night to 50 degree highs. This is the first time I worry the whole season will be a bust.

#12

Well, as much as I can tell for this being my first, they seem to be doing well, despite the weather. they are taking longer than the predicted window of their profile, maybe that is because of the weather. It said 8-10 weeks pop to harvest and we are at 10 weeks today and they must have 2-ish weeks left to go. Plant #2 is further along than #1and will be done on the earlier end of that, she has been working on buds for over two weeks now. I noticed pistils on both on Solstice.
They both are over 3 feet tall too. #1 is putting all her energy to growing 1.5" a day and bushing out. #2 is like skinny and lanky looking and using all her energy to bud.
it doesn’t want me to upload pics, but I have them updated in the Diary

#13

I’m running blueberry auto as well. I’ve been running a handful of crops of blueberry auto for over a year now. The most mature of my plants is almost ready to chop at 73 or 74 days. You can chop sooner, but you end up shortchanging yield. Unless half or more of the trichomes are amber, or it stops drinking, let ‘em go.
I’m smoking blueberry auto harvested at 10-11 weeks right now. That nine weeks bit is overly optimistic. One goal is to provide ideal conditions so they fatten and run maybe 12-13 weeks before croaking off.

74 days ish

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#14

What size pots? I found blueberry auto wanted to stretch like crazy, wasting energy, in bigger pots. I’ve run em in fives or sevens, and ended up with forty inch plants tied to the corner posts in my tent to keep them out of the light as they grew right past it. Tying them only helped a little. Once freed they went nuts. What helps is smaller pots and tying them down during three to six weeks or so. Three gallon felt pots, my tallest is 23 inches at 74 days. The short, fat one is 17.5 in.

#15

wow. those are massive buds, I hope we get close to that! You’re indoors though, and I’m outdoors so that factors a little difference.

#16

I just updated the Diary today.

NottBerry Farms by darlingnikki138 | Homegrown Diaries

I have #1 & 2 @ 11 weeks old in 5g & 7g. #2 in 7g has stopped growing up over the past week and is 34", #1 in the 5g is still going and is 45" :open_mouth: today.
I then have #3 and #4 in 3g and #5 in 10g- they are 7 weeks old and were all about 24" on Monday. I bought them outside about 10 days sooner than the first two. So we will see how that plays

#17

Yeah, the 17.5” plant is my “fat bottom girl” that survived a rough transplant that seemed to trigger early maturation. The other two, also in threes, had a somewhat easier transplanting. Number one was the strongest coming out of transplant, and is the biggest at 23.5 inches at 74 days. I did tie them to the pot rim during weeks three through five, to stimulate secondary colas, but I’ve done that before and had em stretch anyway. I believe it’s the pots… think of a natural bonsai, growing on a rock ledge, in only a tiny amount of soil….!
This one probably has the longest to go, despite sprouting the same day.
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#18

wow, the colas are so much more dense! I really hope we can get thiccythick in the next week.
& I just took the measuring tape to #3/4/5 and they’re all ~30" now. LOLz

but what I’m hearing- with regards to LST- you tie down the single stem to the side of the pot and that will stimulate another stem to grow?

#19

@Noddykitty have you seen any more imporvement since the weather finally took an upswing? I’ve been wondering if they are taking longer (like everything else) because there wasn’t enough warm and sun in the beginning :thinking:

#20

Another funny note from my diary -I’m growing in the Seattle suburbs (like @Noddykitty, I believe) but I have a quiet exposed backyard with chainlink (whole property .25 acre corner lot) and one of the reasons I picked blueberry was because they said they generally stayed under 30". My tomato camouflage isn’t growing! My sunflowers are barley knee high & this 45" plant top is popping up above everything! LOL
Devil, save me from what’s gonna happen in the damn 10g pot! LOL!

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