Northern Light

Started paper germination Friday evening, put in soil Monday midday. Could see it about to break though the dirt Tuesday evening, and by Wednesday morning it stood 1.5cm tall, and I turned on the light. In my first grow I used a 277watt led panel with both bloom and vegetation switches. So about 150watt just for vegetation. To save on power consumption the first few weeks, I am using a new 26watt led for when the plant is very young. We are experiencing an unusual warm summer, and I am using outdoor air to cool my grow room. Because of this, I can not lower the temperature of my grow room any more. The description of Northern Lights mention that it prefers warm climates, and as such I feel there is no reason to buy an AC. By the time the plant is ready to flower, the outdoor temperature should be more reasonable.

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Transplanted to final container: a 5 gallon pot. On my first grow, my plants were root bound before I transplanted. This time, I might have transplanted a bit early, and the dirt almost broke apart.

I topped my plant at the end of week 3. The new growth show some deformity, and holes. I have looked all over the plant, but I can find no sign of caterpillars or spider mites. From some googling, this is a problem that other people have also seen. Some threads mention this happened when they had irregular light schedules. Due to some work being done in my apartment, I have been turning off all power to my grow room. This of course has been messing with the light schedule. Going forward, I will turn off ventilation and lights on the devices, so I do not mess with the timer.

First grow: Special Queen #1 from Royal Queen Seeds. Seedling pot > 3 Gallon pot > 5 Gallon pot 150watt LED (from the start). Second grow: Northern Lights from Royal Queen Seeds Seedling pot > 5 Gallon pot 26watt LED (first 3 weeks), then 150watt LED. The northern light is not even reaching the edge of the pot yet. By this same time on my first grow, my plants covered the entire pot surface and they were a lot busier. Of course it was a different strain, so it is not possible to do an accurate comparison now. But as I do not plan to grow the same strain again for a while, comparisons will have to be between strains. I believe I kept the 26watt LED on for to long, but I just felt to much light were lost on dead space using my larger square panel. The 4-way plant method went really well on my first grow (on two plants). I am finding the growth of my northern lights to be a lot more sporadic.

The Scrog Line is for support.

My plant reached the first position of the net, going to use it to get the 4 main stems into position before raising the net another 10cm. When the plant reach 30cm I plan to switch to 12/12.

Overall, the plant looks healthy. I see a few leaves with deformities or slight decoloration around the edges of the leaves. But I am talking about maybe 1 or 2 leaves on a fan leave, and maybe 2 or 3 fan leaves in total. Watering: This has been based on multiple factors. I have been poking my finger in the dirt, I use a dirt moisture meter and I pay attention to the overall look of the plant. My latest watering was done Friday evening, with 7L (20% runoff). I think I am going to switch to 12/12 this Wednesday. I will lower the net down 5cm if needed for guidence.

This marks the first week of 12/12. Last watering was Wednesday ( first day of week 9), where I used 8L, with 2L run off ( gonna go with a little less next time). I saw some roots very close to the top of the soil. This made me a little worried about my plant being root bound.. So I cut up the side of my bucket to try and have a look. It didn't appear to be root bound. And it is not like the plant has stopped growing. The first pictures are from Wednesday, where as the next ones show the middle branches having grown some where around 10cm in 4 days.

Second week of 12/12. Last week I had two watering. 8L on Wednesday, then 7L on Tuesday. This week I had just one. 8L on Sunday. The growth has slowed down now, first week of 12/12 saw a growth of 20cm to the top. This week there has only been a growth of 5cm, and as such I am not going to update with new images until the next week. I moved the net down 10 cm. The last picture therefore wrong look like the plant grew 15cm this week.

Flowering has started..

Watering 8L every 5 days. I would love to give some better close ups.. But as this is a rather tight closet, getting anything worth saving is hard. The 28c is Room temp, measured above the canopy. The temp are around 25C below the canopy. Since the flip to 12/12 a lot of the lower leaves have turned light green / yellow. When this happens, the leaves will snap off at a light touch. Whenever I plugged off a leaf from the bottom of the plant; I would also remove the bud sites. This has by now left me with the lollipop seen on picture 3. Just read the guide book for my nutrients.. And apparently lower leaves turning yellow is a defiency.. Which I should probably have fixed weeks ago.. I increased the nutrients for this week with 1ml of part A.

The bottom leaves are still going yellow, as such I have increased the amount of Power House Part A to 5ml/L. This product contains magnesium, which I believe is the deficiency that is happening.

Lower leaves still going yellow, so I am keeping the increased amount of Power House Part A. This is the fourth week of flower, and according to my nutrients guide I should start providing Bud Explosion doing watering. The top sugar leaves of the two middle branches look as if the crystals are melting, as such I have moved the light up an additional 5cm.

As can be seen on the close up of the fan leaves, my plant now appear to be experiencing some nutrient burn. So this week I will flush with plain water, and return to the recommended nutrient amount from next week.

My plant is showing increasing signs of a problem. Sadly, it could be one of several things or a combination. The problem could be either pH fluctuations (unlikly) , copper deficiency (unlikly), phosphorus defiency, light burn or nutrient burn. I flushed last Sunday, and I am decreasing the amount of big plant science part A. Also increasing the light distance to 30cm. Several branches are falling over, keeping them upright with crude ties. The sugar leaves on the top has mostly Amber crystals, the lower sugar leaves has only a few Amber crystals. Looking directly at hairs / calyx it is only showing signs of a few Amber crystals. Honostly have a hard time seeing it with 60x scope, pictures is a no go.

Last week with nutrients. Based upon the white buds at the top of the plant, I believe I can say that the problem I was seeing was light burn. As I am more keen to believe those white buds to be bleached tips rather than be "hash tips".

Week 8. No nutrients. Crystal's on sugar leaves are mostly Amber. Crystals on calyx is cloudy with some Amber. While this is the last week. I have a pretty full week days, so I won't be harvesting until the next weekend.

Just waiting for it to cure for a while before I review taste and effect. Dried for 4 days, 23C, 40RH. Buds on smaller branches crumble. Jared in 1L jars, with 8g boveda packs. After a few hours, most jars (all but the ones containing popcorn buds) was showing 70RH. After about a week, with burping for about 30min each day, the RH is at 62. I am now just opening every second day to shake about and smell for mold. New Year Update: If you noticed a change in the dry bud weight and wattage, here is the reason: The buds has been curing for a month, and I just bought a new precision scale (The kitchen one I was using, is absolut shit). So I wanted to weigh everything again now. Similarly, I just bought an enegy meter so I was able to check the actual power draw from my lamps, rather than using the minimum wattage as listed on the light. I have no idea how to describe the smell.. And neither can i really distinguise what is in the taste. The effect is quite potent though.