A few days ago, my new seedlings popped up in the grow tent and they appear to be doing great. I think one of the most important and stressful times of any grow is the germination process and the first week or two of the plant's life.
I used to waste so many seeds trying to germinate using the paper towel and ziplock bag method. With that method, you essentially soak a paper towel with some water, put your seeds on it and fold the paper towel over the seed. Then you place it in a ziplock bag and let it sit for a couple days and when the seed pops open and the taproot is exposed, you place it in soil. I had pretty bad luck using this method and so many of my seeds never sprouted up after I would place them in soil.
I tried a few different methods after the seeds popped open, but none of them were consistent. I even bought some peat pellets and placed the seed in those and set them on a seedling heating pad, but didn't have much success with any of those tricks. I started just soaking the seeds for 24 hours or more until they cracked open and then place them directly into their 5 gallon buckets and gave them a nice watering and then leave them alone for two or three days. Ever since I started using that method, the seeds started sprouting every time.
Now I've got three different plants growing in the tent. I've got gorilla glue, northern lights and bubblegum. I am pretty excited for gorilla glue because I have never had that one. Northern Lights was the very first strain I grew and it will be nice to have more of that one. And bubblegum is just my all time favorite and I always want to have a stash of that one.
I haven't shared any pictures of Yoshi lately, but he is doing great. I think he is close to being full grown now and he is super healthy. I just gave him some crickets that were dusted with vitamins. He finished a shed yesterday and has a pretty strong appetite right now, so I will be monitoring how many crickets he eats today and adding more if needed.