SEEDLING PROPAGATION & VEGETATIVE GROWTH

All Omuerta Genetix seeds are bred Probiotically; and so they have an extra vigor in their growth. Think of the seeds as preloaded for the first days of life.  There are many methods to providing nutrient content to your plants, whether its Hydroponic pre mixed, Organic steeped teas and True Living Organics; where the soil is preloaded with time released components as well as balancers and micronutrients. For the purpose of this article we will concentrate on nutrients that are added by the grower as the plant grows, not by the TLO style as that is a whole different article to come in time… let’s get the basics covered first.

If you have followed along with the Seedling Germination 101 article, we left off at placing the seed taproot downwards ¼” under the loose soil or into the cube. We have made sure our lights are far enough away from the seeds to not burn the tender sprouts that emerge, and close enough so that the seedlings aren’t stretching for the light and forming elongated nodal (branching / flowering bracts) spacing. Lighting produces photosynthesis in plants which is used to produce energy for cell elongation and splitting. The longer the hours of light, the more energy can be utilized to grow these plants into beasts. We suggest a lighting period of 18 hours on and 6 hrs off as a regular healthy cycle but growing for production you can keep a 24 hour lighting period and suspend the plants in vegetative state forever. I feel that nature gives a dark period for a reason, to let the plant heal and rest.

A little hint here… Seeds started under the same wattage as you intend to flower under WILL produce bigger better flowers.  If starting seeds under a 1000 watt HPS or MH make sure the light is at least 3 ½ to 4 feet away from the sproutsfor the first few weeks of life, until seedlings toughen up and produce true leaves as plants.  If you are using fluorescent lights or the popular T5 lights, you will want to place the lights within 4-5” from the tops of the soil line or cubes.

No nutrients should be used at this point, even if a neutral soilless medium is used; Omuerta Genetix seeds are preloaded to come out of the medium ready to take off.  After the first 5 days above the soil line the seedlings should have opened their cotylons (seed busters) and put out a set of single blade leaves. It is now you can add ¼ strength of the nutrients of your choice. We don’t want to burn the seedlings at this stage and so a quarter strength is all you need, more is not better. Raise the lights if using fluorescents keeping that 3-4” gap between the seedlings and the bulbs. This will start forcing the plant to produce bigger leaves and shorter intermodal spaces. This will in turn benefit you when we get to pruning for vegetative growth.

Continue to feed once a week and with a Ph of 5.5-6 for both nutrients and just for hydration. You will be feeding once a week and each time you can step up the strength of the feed by ¼ so that by end of month 1 you will transplant the seedling andbe at full strength feedings with a transplanted plant in vegetative stage now past the delicate seedling phase.

 It is now you will want to number your plants and label all your strains pots to keep track of your seedlings for sexing and preflowering, You may have stickers on each pot or a tag zip tied to the stalk with each seedlings strain and number (i.e.: Firecreek#1, Firecreek#2, etc.)  This will make identifying that one plant that stands out amongst the rest for what you are personally looking for. Our seeds are not made for the “one and done” grow. We put love and effort into making strains or preserving strains to the best quality and highest standards, our own as growers.  Omuerta Genetix stands by the fact you will have a tough time deciding which plant you will want to keep as a mother for future source of cuttings, so we strongly advise cloning each seedling and flowering a batch off every number before you choose your mother if seeds are a first cross (F1).  An F1 seeds will throw many phenotypes or variations.  Some from its mother, some from its father and varying ratio of both parents. These phenotypes will be very similar due to our quality control and the ways we match lineages with DNA familiar to what we are attempting to cross.  Still each seed will hold a slightly different blueprint until bred out a few more times for dominant or recessive traits that the breeder wants to strengthen in the next generation. But let’s get back to general beginner lessons as we have to walk before we start to run.

  At this stage you should be concerned with lighting as the plants will be getting bigger and require more space to grow into. Once you have a build up of branches and flowering sites (at least 5), you can pinch the top (or terminal growth node) and force the plant to start concentrating on the side branches. This is the way to get a bush or banzai plant. Also called super cropping or guerilla growing, plants can be tied down and trained to grow wide to allow more flower tops, also called LST or light stress training. Great for growers that want to run one strain and keep their plant counts in flowering plants, or have multi strain gardens. I have kept healthy mother plants for 2 years before starting new plants from cuttings off the same plant.  You will need to spread light evenly over the canopy so that all your plants will receive the same benefits and a proper mother can be chosen if you want to continue the cultivar you are keeping now.   Some plants will naturally show their sex with age and by month 2 you should have a fairly decent idea of what are your males and females are. You can cut a clipping off each one and drop it in a glass of water under 12/12 lighting period to force the sex within a week, remember to number these to coincide with your plants tagged numbers.  Now you can cull the males and concentrate on your females. We have always received very good feedback about our ratios for females to males in every pack of Omuerta Genetix seeds.

  Continue to feed as normal and water as normal, a calendar or white board is a great addition to any grow room for notes and reminders. As the plants grow they will consume more nutrients and water, airflow and temperature is key here to allow the plants a healthy stress free environment to uptake their food and do what they do.