Fleaz'z Grow Blog: First Grow!

Hello, I'm new here!

I'm going to preface this with me being completely new to growing plants in general. I got my seeds in from victory seeds last Saturday and sowed them in that afternoon. I got 3 varieties: Virginia Gold, TN90, and Meechurinski.
I am in Colorado (5b) so it is a bit colder at night still but we had a warm week (93F as I'm writing this) so I set the dome in a south facing window during the day and the dome got really warm, they all seemed to germinate well, first sprouts showed on Tuesday with them filling in throughout the week. I had some basil and tomato seeds in the dome and I think I may have been spraying water at to much of an angle because some tobacco sprouted in those pots as well lol. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about that because idk if my varieties got mixed. Kept the dome on until Friday morning. I'm not sure if it was overwatered, too humid or was too cold at night but they are kinda purple (photos look a bit greener), could also be from all the light, very sunny and not too much cloud coverage throughout the day. I got a grow light and now using that to hopefully expedite the process so they can be as large as possible before transplanting outside. If you guys have any tips or tricks for a first time grower, please let me know!

First grow! Exciting! I’d say try to make sure you avoid using the seedlings in positions where you are unsure if it’s one variety or the other, will perhaps save you trouble in the future. They look slightly tall which would indicate a lack of light so i wouldn’t worry about too much light, rather make sure they don’t lack it! Good luck! Will be fun to follow. What sort of space do you plan to grow in outside?

Tutu said:

First grow! Exciting! I’d say try to make sure you avoid using the seedlings in positions where you are unsure if it’s one variety or the other, will perhaps save you trouble in the future. They look slightly tall which would indicate a lack of light so i wouldn’t worry about too much light, rather make sure they don’t lack it! Good luck! Will be fun to follow. What sort of space do you plan to grow in outside?

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The light situation is good to hear. I got a 20w light so I'm going to max it out and lower it a bit. I've been reading on here to do 16 on 8 off so ill probably get that started tomorrow morning.
I have a small south facing backyard with some raised planters. I'm not sure if I'm going to use them or get some buckets I can move around. I've also debated just planting them in my backyard to replace the grass but I'm renting so I don't want my landlord to come over and freak with how big the can get, BUUUUT the grass was mostly dead back there when I moved in so I don't think he would care a whole lot haha. Some prime real estate is up against a fence but then the plants would be shaded in the afternoon. I got close to 2 months until my last frost date so I have some time to figure it out

Welcome to the forum. Be sure to read the New Growers' FAQ, linked in the menu bar. You may wish to scan through the topics in our Index of Key Forum Threads, also linked in the menu bar.

Feel free to introduce yourself in the Introduce Yourself forum.

I would suggest that your artificial lighting cycle follow that of the sun, to minimize the chance of early blossom formation when they go outside. To the plants, an increasing dark period signals the end of the summer.

Bob

EDIT: Add variety labels to your cells.

Nice! I'd say best would even be to try out all different options. You've got three varieties on your hands so you might as well try to get each one going in each of the spots you describe. If you need recommendations on the buckets then let me know. It's quite important to have good drainage in case of heavy rainfall and to get a the right soil mixture. The deeper the better, width is less important. Fun things to plan for those stages while the little ones are still tiny!

deluxestogie said:

Welcome to the forum. Be sure to read the New Growers' FAQ, linked in the menu bar. You may wish to scan through the topics in our Index of Key Forum Threads, also linked in the menu bar.

Feel free to introduce yourself in the Introduce Yourself forum.

I would suggest that your artificial lighting cycle follow that of the sun, to minimize the chance of early blossom formation when they go outside. To the plants, an increasing dark period signals the end of the summer.

Bob

EDIT: Add variety labels to your cells.

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Thanks for the welcome! I will poke around the key threads. The variety labels are on the side of the green tub, put them on there so the labels don't disintegrate with the pot. With my location only getting ~12 hours of sun would you suggest I keep my lights at 12 on 12 off, even at this early of a stage?

Fleaz said:

12 on 12 off

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Yup. It's the equinox. Growing them bigger in their tiny pots won't mean much if they stop growing a few weeks after you put them out.

Bob

Funny update:
I believe the seedlings I posted previously were just clovers or something in the potting mix because I have new sprouts with pointier leaves. Like I said, I'm new to all this! Slightly embarrassing but this solves my variety spreading to other pots dilemma. Putting my actual seedlings sprouting at ~8 days. I also returned the 20w walmart light and got another one on amazon that is 70w for the same price. Rigged a shoe stand as a light fixture and 3D printed some hooks to relocate the crossbar to the top center. Works good so far.

I'm curious about the source of your soil.

Bob

deluxestogie said:

I'm curious about the source of your soil.

Bob

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Back to the Roots Organic Potting Mix with some of what appears to be local topsoil out of one of the backyard planters.

Fleaz said:

local topsoil out of one of the backyard planters

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That, of course, is your source of mystery seeds.

Bob

Fleaz said:

I'm not sure if it was overwatered, too humid or was too cold at night but they are kinda purple

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When growing cacti from seed, purple skin coloration of cacti seedlings is often an indicator of too much light. This isn't saying that the same would be true with tobacco; idk if it is. One of the reasons the cacti seedlings get purple looking from too much light is because they back off their chlorophyl production since they don't need so much chlorophyl to produce the amount of energy they need. And chlorophyl is what makes plants green. So, we dim the lights a bit and the cacti green up. That's also a general rule of thumb cactus growers do when growing cacti inside to estimate the adequacy of the light. If a few seedlings are purple but most a green, you could grow the cacti into adulthood with the light you are providing. Iow, you're doing good. Again, idk if this applies to tobacco but its something to consider.

StoneCarver said:

Again, idk if this applies to tobacco but its something to consider.

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So far as I know, from 17 years of starting tobacco, it does not apply.

Bob

EDIT: I should also add that I use the sun as my light source.

A little update, I went to visit family for easter for 5 days so I transplanted a few before I left into some jiffy seed starting mix and a deeper cup so they can retain water while I was gone. I flooded the rest in the natural cells from my previous photos, all of the tobacco survived. The ones in the cups are getting bigger pretty quickly and I transplanted a few more into cups when I returned from my trip. I think they are doing well so far, I also put a cup of each variety in a south facing window to see if those grow better than the artificial light and I've had to transplant Virginias twice bc they keep dying so too much light for those lol. The ones in the small natural cells made basically no progress so I'm just keeping them alive at this point as a backup if these larger ones die. I wanted to plant 3 of each variety outside so I should be covered and have a few backups as long as most of these stay alive.

When do you guys start adding fertilizer?

I started adding fertilizer (9-9-9 NPK fish emulsion) about 1 week after the 1st true leaves started growing. I mixed a teaspoon (~5 mL) in 1/2 gallon of water.

You can wait until they show signs of needing a boost - variegated leaves and wimpy looking - but a little boost will help them get ready for a May/June planting.

For seedlings, I incorporate fertilizer into the soil mix in the form of compost.

After transplanting outdoors, I'll use some miracle grow when watering. I water till the plants get established and really start growing.

Hello! The weather has been all over the place here in Northern Colorado as most of this week was in the mid 80s but it snowed last Friday. All my plants from the first transplant are growing exponentially. The roots are sticking out of the bottoms of the the 16 oz cups (doubled with a rock between for bottom watering) they seems to be happy. I have added some vigoro tomato and vegetable 18-18-21 at ~1/4 strength. The meech is growing the fastest, I put a few in individual cups probably a week ago and moved 2 of the bigger ones to the south facing windows to see if they will grow faster, first day in the sun those got droopy. The tomatoes are growing differently in the two locations but both look healthy. Everything seems to be chugging along. I'm starting to formulate a plan for planting outside now. The spot that I was planning on using for tobacco in the planter against the fence was going to replace some "dead" plants, they have returned, seems to be raspberries. I attached a layout that I want to use for the planter, I would do 2 of each variety. Is it bad to put different varieties next to each other like this? I will probably do some in large buckets too.