StuG's 00 Seeds Bank Northern Lights

19/04 Seeds have sprouted overnight so, here we are at day 1. Nothing much to write about yet. Never sure quite when veg starts but hey, AFAIK as soon as they're up and off, that's the start of the diary? 20/04 A bit concerned about one of the three plants as the seed shell seems welded to the stem. Yikes! Will try a bit of persuasive maneuvering if it doesn't fall free in the next day or so. Other than that, lights (TS1000) are on, fan is on low and the girls are about 3CM tall and seemingly happy, apart from helmet head.

Day 20, almost the end of week three. Not been updating much because... well... seedlings are hardly interesting but hey, here we are at almost 3 weeks old. So, from the start of week one (proper week one) the girls just got the heels on and went about rooting the first pots out, and then, started to gain some growth. Transferred into 1L pots with White Shark mycorrhizae from their initial 0.25L pots on day 18, again, potted into BioBizz AllMix.

Day 21 (from their emergence from the substrate) Potted up again. The mycorrhizae added to pot 2 seemed to send the girls mad, and they outgrew the last pots in 9 days! So into the AirPots we go. 9L pots, that is. Out of the 5 runs I've done now, 4 have been done with these and, aside of the slightly tricky watering (they piss water out through the holes if you go too fast) and substrate loss (your substrate pissed out of the holes if you let your wet/dry cycles too extreme) they are rather excellent. Potted up from 1L pots again into BioBizz AllMix with mycorrhizae added during potting. I pre-wetted the AllMix using a 50/50 combo of BioBizz Grow and FishMix. Not that it needs it, but they way I saw it is that the previous pots had likely been depleted of nutrients by the seedlings and I wanted them to get something chewy to grow in to. The TS1000 is at full whack, the circ fans are on and the extraction has been started too. Q: I want to top the girls; looking at my pics, do you think they're ready? I thought maybe another few days to get over transplant shock first, and let them stretch a little, and then top them. Is that OK? Day 23 (from their emergence from the substrate) I've now topped all three plants (2 days after the final pot transfer). I have started tucking leaves too, as these girls are W I D E bodied! Pics added for day 25 showing the recovery from topping. First time using Plant Success' 'Great White' Mycorrhizae and these girls are showiing more growth than any of the previous 4 runs I've completed, including 2 runs of autos. I really think it's down to the Mycorrhizae. Day 25, I also added 2 cuttings given to me by a friend. He tells me it's Cheese. I don't know any more than that, One is poorly, the other has rocketed since transplanting her from rockwool cubes into AllMix with Mycorrhizae. The healthier one has gone between the 3 Northern Lights and... like the line from Jaws, "we're going to need a bigger tent" so, I bought a 120CM x 120CM X 200CM but will keep them under the TS1000 for now until I can afford the TS3000. Unless Mars Hydro are reading this and want to sponsor the grow? ;-)

End of week four now, something like day 34 from seed, I believe. More vegging so not much of an update really. I'm running FishMix and Grow at a 50/50 rate of 1ml/L with the occasional Great White mycorrhizae as solution, and I've done that twice in all. The topping went well, started some LST and LOADS of tucking, and a bit of defoliation. It's all in the pictures. The idea with this run was to grow these really squat and without doubt, they really are! The main stem is incredibly strong and the internode spacing very short. The girls are only 21CM tall at the mo but they'll obviously stretch again soon enough but for now it's well in check. I will veg these for another week to 2 weeks to get a bit more even canopy with the LST, perhaps top again, and am then looking to flip them. Not sure about scrog netting but it's at the back of my mind to try it, as I have a net. I'll update again next week, and thanks for reading.

Day 37. Another boring week, but that's good though right? No problems to report! A bit of defoliation yesterday and some LST to bring the canopy level again, since the topping on day 22. I removed the ties that brought the lower nodes out and replaced them on the two that followed following topping and the result seems OK from what I can tell. No noticeable deficiencies yet - seems the Fish-Mix and Grow combo along with occasional White Shark is doing the job. Looking to flip next week now the girls seem mature so, I've plenty of room for the stretch but will continue tucking and LST and will likely perform a bit more defoliation when we're a couple of weeks or so into flowering, so yeah, the next update will be the last report on veg and then the fun begins! Thanks for reading.

02.06.2021 - Day 43 from seed. Flipped the girls last night at start of week 7. The LST has got me as level a canopy as I wanted now and the plant was developing bud sites and is very strong. They're all within 30mm of each other which is the best I have managed so far, this being my 6th grow. Something I don't think I thought of before was when to start feeding bloom supplements but I fed the girls with Grow, Fish-Mix and Bloom last night and added a small amount of calmag and White Shark, too. Just to kick 'em off as well as possible. Not much else to report really - these have been super-stable in veg and easy to grow... so far!! Oh, and there is something else - something I thought was my fault but over the last 3 grows I've come to believe that there's little to nothing I can do about it and that is poxy gnats! For the first 3 runs, I had them in the soil and whilst they did not attack roots and the infestation was minimal, it was a nuisance all the same with the things buzzing around. I use the sticky tape fly catchers and they work brilliantly - 2 of them in the tent and plenty of dry cycles seems to keep them in check and, when the soil is dry I rake it quite deeply with my fingers to get them to fly out. Never spotted any larvae though, thinking about it, but anyway, where was I... oh yeah, so, I ALWAYS sterilise the tent between grows, clean all the fans, the light, wash the filter sleeve etc. etc. etc but I still get fucking gnats, and it dawned on me that only time I did not get them is when I ran out of All-Mix and used Miracle Grow for a couple of Bubba Kush plants. No gnats. So, this grow, I'm back to All-Mix, have filters over the intake, had a sterilised tent to start with and gnats within 4 or 5 days. It HAS to be the BioBizz All-Mix. I hear it's sterilised so, perhaps it's due to storage, but OK, I bought 6 bags from 3 different sellers. Still gnats, in all of the grows using it. No idea why I'm writing this on flowering week 1 and not directly to BioBizz, but I will, so what's others experiences with this medium? I really am not an over-watering person, and if anything keep them on the dry side unless just after watering which is every two days. This grow is now at 7 weeks and I have counted ~65 gnat bodies on the traps so far. I need a lie down Day 44 - 2nd full day of flowering: Just LOOK at that stretch over 24 hours from pic 2 to pic 4! I am rotating plants and positions so the pictures will never be of the same pot/rotation twice unless by pure chance. But yeah, go girls - reach for the lights! :D

Start of week 7 - 2nd week of flowering, or, if you want to be as confused as me, day 49 or day 8 of flower!! Phew... Again, super stress-free week, a lot of flowering stretch over the last couple of days too. My hygrometer was at canopy level a week ago and it's now buried; the girls have added 100mm of height so quickly. Still managing quite a lot of tucking and a bit of defoliation. Next week, or the end of next week, I will likely do some serious defoliation, that being the last until harvest. Thanks for reading!

Week 3 of flower. Day 59 from seed. Week 8 of the grow. Another relatively straightforward week. Girls seem happy. I've been adding CalMag and White Shark once every 4 feeds so, about every 9 days or so, trying to be pro-active rather than reactive during this phase of flowering. There are no discolouration to any leave or stem so, I think this approach seems to be working well for this strain. Also, I'm using a more holistic approach to the White Shark and CalMag, so whilst it's there it's not in any great quantity. I think we've topped out on the stretch phase. Yesterday, as it was week 3 of flower, I did a bit of radical defoliation. No more now - just leaf tucking as required. Watering has been as ever with me, rainwater. I don't worry or care about PH - I am a dirt grower, but for my own record it comes out of the bucket at 6.6 and is buffered by the soil. I did a test on run-off for my own amusement and we were at 6.2. Temps are OK but humidity is high generally at the mo, with 65% outside the tent and 62% inside. I am not worried yet - I have two fans running, and the extraction too, of course. Smell is starting to come on now... yay for the start of terps! Thanks for visiting, looking at the pics and reading my clearly very noob drivel!

Week 4 of flower and it's much the same as my last update which was a bit late (usually update on a Monday as that's the start date from seed). Nevertheless, I have no gnats. I repeat - I HAVE NO FUCKING GNATS for a change! I used a few perilously dry cycles and 3 sticky traps but I am on top of them now. Bastard fucking things. So what's new, you didn't ask? Well, a good amount of filling out and a teeny bit more stretch. I thought they'd finished but no, they've grown about 20mm more in height. Hopefully that's it now. Feeds are the same - taking on between 4 and 5 litres every 48 hours. Upped the bloom and Topmax to 3ml/L and using the Grow and Fish Mix at a 50/50 ratio to make 1.2ml/L combined. White Shark and CalMag are given once every 8 or 9 days, or every 4th or 5th feed. They're looking healthy, starting to smell nice too. They've really been a very very easy grow to date. I hope I don't regret saying that! Thanks for reading!!

Week 5 of flower starts today and it's much the same as my last update apart from the blooms filling out and the smell getting quite impressive. Trichs are appearing nicely and all seems OK still. Feeds are still the same - taking on between 4 and 5 litres every 48 hours. White Shark and CalMag was given last night, just to supplement the regular feed. Again, I take the holistic approach with those two, just topping them up a little as what I noticed from earlier runs when I started was that I was always reacting to these things, well, the CalMag at least so, rather than be reactive I'm being proactive and adding a little once a week. Seems to be working as I have not yet had any of the deficiency issues so far. That said it's still early days so, we'll see. Thanks for reading!

Another week of flower for the Northern Lights and they are smelling great, now. Opening the tent stank the rest of the house out for 20 minutes straight - it was lovely! No dramas, no fuss, no deficiencies - seriously simple to keep up with and on top of and very much the easiest strain I've run in terms of demands, or lack of demands I guess. They have topped out at 60cm height now, too, and the canopy is low and level, with perhaps a couple of the lower branches not reaching the height of the rest but, yeah... pretty much all colas on all plants are similarly even in terms of perceived size and hopefully, weights. I'm looking forward to, and keeping my fingers crossed for, denser buds so the next week or two is when I think and hope that they pack weight into those nugs. Thanks for reading. Week 11 - Day 79: Update - just been told that family are coming to stay on the 26th of July - just 2weeks and 5 days away.... Yikes! I was hoping they would come in August so, my chop date has been set for me. I wanted these to go a bit longer - to say, 10 weeks flower and a larger number of amber trichs but I guess at least I will be somewhere nearer where I want to be than I am now (see the close-up pics just added). There's plenty of cloudy trichs but too many clear, still. A few amber here and there though so it's not too bad; I reckon 2 weeks until chop. That'll be at day 93 making a bit 13 weeks from seed. I think I'll keep the flush down to 7 days. I really wanted another week with these but given they would be relatively OK now, there are way too many young buds that simply are no-where near ready yet and I think 3 weeks would have been optimal but hey, I'll take 2 weeks with a 3 day dry period to be able to break down the grow space so our guests can sleep somewhere.

Not much to report really - I'm late posting this week and tomorrow will be the date when I should be updating, as I always posted on a Monday. I will save the update for then suffice to say that I added a few pics anyway from the last week. There is however one thing of note, and let it be a word of caution. Trusting someone to look after your plants is fraught with danger. I had to go away for four days this last week (hence no update) so I trusted someone to look after the girls. I left step by step instructions and frankly, I was pretty proud of them, and... they followed it faithfully and to the letter. Where's the problem then, you might ask. Well, for all of my step by step guide, I didn't think to tell them they needed to be there at a certain time, and in fact my lighting goes out at 8pm. I thought they would tend to them in the course of the day but nope, the next think I knew was I got a text the next morning saying "all OK, went there at about 10pm last night, but hard to see what I was watering as the lights were out". D'oh. You live and learn.

Day 92 or... week 13 in old money! The girls are super-stinky. Not having run NL before I was somewhat untrained in the shhhmelllllll of these girls but by fuck, they are super-fragrant, and it's a beautiful, floral smell emanating from the tent and, in-fact the filter is struggling a little; there's a distinctive pong on the outlet but nothing worrying. After being away for four days and entrusting watering with someone else, the girls have recovered, thankfully. I honestly thought I may be seeing signs of hemi'ing today following the last week but so far so good and fingers X'd they're going to remain stable. Also, the folks staying with me next week have now been cancelled so, I now do not have to break down the grow space early which as you can see from the close-ups, is a good thing as I reckon I have at LEAST 2 weeks on these. Those nugs are getting sooooo dense, I am glad I have extra time to fatten them up some more. As ever, thanks for reading and comments are always welcome to this noob who is still finding his roots in growing,

Week 14 or, day 98 if you prefer. I should have had to have harvested these by now as we were expecting guests for two weeks, arriving today. Not often I am pleased to NOT see family but I am because I would have to had chopped these last week in order to get them processed and everything packed away. It would have been too early, as you can see from the pics. So, what's next for the girls? Flushing, I think, although every time I think about watering only, I end up thinking "one more feed will be fine" but really, as you can see from some of the pics, at least a full week, maybe 10 days of flushing, then chop, should work out fine for harvest on or around day 105. There's some leaf discolouration occurring on one of the girls, as per pic 3 or 4. Given the veins are green and it's leaf yellowing between, it looks a bit like a Mg deficiency so I have added some Epsom Salts to plain water and given all 3 girls a bit of a boost. We'll see if that helps over the next few days but that said, we're almost done now so I am not going to worry about a minor deficiency at a week before chop. Thanks for reading/looking!

I will update during the course of the week. The pics posted are taken a few hours before chop following having removed all leave apart from some sugar leaves, ready to finish the wet trim before going to cure. I have tried both ways now and I found trimming so time consuming and frankly, not much of a difference in terms of flavours and effects so, in a couple of days, I will post the pics of the chop and the drying along with all weights, too, and round it off with all the stats that I haven't yet updated for this week of the Northern Lights. It'll all be updated over the next few days so stay tuned. Any guesses as to pre-cure "dry" weights? I've done a best guess estimate at 180g so, place your bets! I will update including on scales pics of dry bud, in a few days. 😀 *UPDATE* So the trimmed, pre-cure weight came in lower than anticipated - I got 153g of bud but only 135 of that was premium, the remainder was small buds that I separated into a B grade stash pile. I also got 17g of trim and small bud that I have not counter which has joined my 4 oz of clipping from the last 3 grows. Can I make an oil using 4 different grows? Anyhow, 135g has gone in to jars for curing so I will likely use the small stuff between now and when the good stuff has cured. I have now flipped a couple of Cheese plants that were in the garden which have now gone into the tent for a flowering run so, there will be a new diary very soon! Oh, and I fired up a smoke from the harvest and it's absolutely beautiful... so smooth already.