Question- Need to start indoors then move outdoors

Trying to get a couple plants started. Can only start indoors but have to move outside to a spot I found. Will germinate and start indoor and have limited amount of sun available. They will likely be placed in window seal or on patio but either way only getting about 4 hours of sunlight a day to start.

1) Is that enough to get them started?

2) How long do I need to wait before I move them outside or how old do they really need to be?

3) At one point I will be gone for 7 days and they will sit in a spot where they are getting only ambient room light. Will this hurt them?

4) Are cats attracted to the smell of the plant so that they naturally try to eat them?

Thanks. I have some seed from Amsterdam and am really just trying to get them started and do not want to wait til June to start germinating.

4 hours is not enough time, why not just start them from seed outside? As long as the spot you found gets enough sunlight you will be fine. If you look at my grow journal, in my signature, theres a picture of my seedling I started outdoors, and its growing fine. 7 days away is a long time, you will need to get some sort of water retaining substance such as vermiculite to add to your soil. I dont think cats are attracted to the smell, I have two, and neither seem to bother them. Ambient room light is not good enough at all, they will die if you leave them 7 days with only that.

My suggestions. Germinate them. Get some soilless mix, add perlite, and vermiculite which you can get at home depot, or lowes, or walmart. Mix that together. Then plant the germinated seed in there, outdoors in the spot you found. When you are gone for 7 days, think of some kind of drip watering system like a gallon of milk upside down with a small hole in the lid or something. If you have a close friend that you trust, you might get him to water it for you. If you have any doubts about telling this friend, then dont. Only if you have someone you really trust. Good luck : )

I can germinate over the next few days and go ahead and plant outside.

Part of my problem and an issue I was going to ask about is water... I cannot go out and water the plants very often. I was hoping to water once a month. That probably sounds crazy, huh? The southern state I live in is 9" behind on rainfall this year so there isn't much water in the ground. I am hoping for a decent amount of rainfall to come. But for safety I cannot go to this spot often.

Are the young plants going to need water at least every few days until they are a couple feet tall?

Also, the spot I found gives the plants around 7-8 hours direct sunlight every day. Is that even too little sunlight to produce a decent plant with good resin/thc levels?

I'm probably going to dig a hole for each plant and was thinking about making the holes 18" wide and at least 24" deep. Is that enough?

Also, how much perlite, and vermiculite do I add to the soil?

Its not really an exact amount, for your situation I would add more Vermiculite then perlite. Perlite helps drain water, and for your leaving the plant without water for a month idea, I dont htink you want to drain much water. The perlite also offers good oxygen however. I would use about 2x as much vermiculite as you do perlite for your situation. But I would wait till some rain comes, becuase if it dosnt rain for that month, your plants will deff be stressin. Unless the soil is nice and moist, or close to a water source. I would plant the day after the next time it rains. Good luck buddy : )

Thanks JITB. I'm testing a way to take a gallon of water from the store(distilled or spring?) and put a small hole in it so it drains over a few days. I will lay it on its side and hopefully create some kind of process that slowly releases the water. It's possible the dryness in the soil will pull the water out, I don't know. It's also possible it won't work and will evaporate at the surface before it penetrates to the roots. But it's worth a shot. If I can create some way like you suggested to deliver a gallon of water over a few day period plus get some help from rainfall it should work out just fine. I'm figuring I can actually get to the spot every two weeks so we'll see.

I have another spot in Florida about 10 yards from the lake bank that you would think can find water a few feet below except I dug several feet down once before and the soil was pretty dry. However, it tends to rain in this part of Florida every few afternoons during the summer. Plus, I'll still water the heck out of them every month when I'm down there. I'm getting some seeds from Holland for that spot and would love to find a strain that delivers that upbeat nonparanoid feeling instead of the stoned, stay-inside feeling most buds give.

I just started germinating some seeds I got from Amsterdam and they were tiny.. I hope they work.

On the subject of soil, what is the right soil mix to use? There is pure peat, soil mixes with peat, organic soil mixes, mixes with 3 months of fertilizer and mixes with 9 months of fertilizer. I was thinking of a mix of peat/organic, a 3 month and a 9 month. I noticed one of those mixes had a lot of nitrogen- something like .21%. Isn't that important?