Wanna see Northern Lights [Hydro/Soil-hybrid]

Good start in the first week, maybe a bit stretchier than I like but that alright she wont have to share the tiny light for much longer. Was kept with a humidity dome made from a plastic bottle in my room. The cheap 15W LED she currently has to share with a few clones is good for now. 😅DayNight Cycle is also a bit whacky for now since the LED has a weird timer, so I switch the light on after I get up and tell it to turn off in 4hrs when I go to sleep. Was contemplating just doing 24h of light but I fear triggering flower when putting her under the big lights with 18/6 or 16/8 later. This one will later go into a large balcony planter, that has a water reservoir below a perforeated floor, which makes me believe I can try some Hybrid Soil/Hydroponic stuff with it. Had some flowers in there last summer and their roots where everywhere down there. The big plan is to veg her until my tent is empty in about 55-65 days, move her there and then switch to flower after about 2 weeks. This will give me 8-10 weeks of veg, 👉most of which will be under a underpowered 15W LED though. I want to attempt a bit light mainline on this plant so that it may fill half my tent so a 60x30cm space while at the same time also trying to shape a plant that actually uses the availably height in my small tent. Two plants of not yet determined strain in 8L pots will join her at some point to take up the other half of the tent.

Was transplanted into the large planter(7-9L of soil, about 13cm deep, the 4L water reservoir filled to a quarter below) on Day 8, the humidity dome was opened on day 7 and removed on day 10. Growth after transplant was a little slow, probably due to low temperatures. The soil in the planter was a 50/50 mixture of LightMix and cheap gardening soil and has already been used to grow a colorful bunch of flowers last year. I only added a bit of Worm Castings (~ a tablespoon/L of soil), Goanokalong(NPK:1-15-1) (~ a teaspoon/L of soil), a pinch of Dynomyco and about 25% new LightMix and a few handful of perlite. Since the planter was used for all kinds of flowers (lobularia, cantaurea cyanus, borage etc.) last summer a lot of seeds remained in the soil and started to germinate over the past few days. All those little seedlings were pulled from the earth and thrown in a blender with a bit of water. This localy sourced sprout tea hopefully boosts the Nothern Lights a bit in its growth. I also see a lot of living things crawl around in the soil, as seen above I had some spider climb the Northern Lights. I anticipated the risks of reusing the soil thats been outdoors for a year but I hope there is nothing eating my plant. Looking good so far. Just happy to see something thats not an annoying fungus gnat for once.

Growth is slowly taking up pace. I guess next week she will be large enough to top her. Other than that nothing much to report this week.

Topped on D27. Moved into a DIY spaceblanket/cardboard growbox for better climate and light. Got an easy +1.5°C and +5%rh on average through this simple build. No fans, box always open on one side. The box also sits on top of a 40cm subwoofer that runs the bassiest stoner rock 👽 and and even fuzzier doom metal 😈 for an average of 4hours a day to please my ears 😑 and vibrate those roots 😵 Also did a lot of testing with an Apera pH60 this week and put a lot of the nutrients+tapwater+citric acid solution into the reservoir and a bit on the soil. Also I now know how much citric acid I need to bring the pH of my tapwater to 6.5, more than I previously used as my tapwater starts out at 7.5

Started the mainlining process on the uppermost tops. The branches from the node below will be topped to create 4 central tops and the 2 lowest branches will be cut for clones later. Strong visible growth now. Looks different every day.

Was happy to spot some roots in the reservoir. That they made it here, 30cm from the plants stem, shows that the hydro seems to work somewhat.👍 By the end of the week I switched the 15wLED to a far stronger Greenception GCx2 Solo that previously did most of the work in my tent. It will be set to 50%, enough considering the 20h schedule. Growth so far has been ok, so doubling up to 30 watts should suffice. Have at least another 2 weeks until I can move this one into the tent, plenty of time to develop and top the mainline. Though there is not much else to do after turning the lowest pair of branches into clones, which will serve as a backup for this pheno just in case. 👉For my modified Mainline: The lower pair of branches is topped once and will be used to fill out the area above the stem. The upper pair is pulled apart and then topped to create 4 mains. This should create a shape to perfectly fill half of my 60x60 tent, if necessary enforced by putting my ScroG-Net in.😉

Growth continues strong. Stripped a few fan leaves here an there. After reading that citric acid may not be a good choice for pH adjusting water in a reservoir I drained all the water and replaced it with nutrient solution that was adjusted with acetic acid. Just trying to be careful. My Hesi TNT complex isnt exactly meant for hydro as well but so far seems to work. I always put about a fourth of the solution into the soil, everything else goes into the reservoir. Topped the upper mains ( to create the final 4 mains ) as well as the already once topped lower branches. They were growing upward too fast so I decided to go for 8 smaller stalks to fill out the middle once stretch happens. At the end of this week it looks like it will take another 10 days before I can move this one into the tent. Lots of time to recover from topping and string up those mains.

Growth continues well. Also both clones are showing roots at the bottom of their pots. Took about 10 days. Dipped them in clonex and put them in moist Lightmix, just added a pinch Dynomyco to the water. Final plant structure is now established. In about a week the last stretch of veg in the tent starts and then I hope to see some flowers on this one soon.

Big move into the growbox on Day 60. Finally some ventilation, better lighting and climate. Also I may finally sleep without a growlight illuminating half my room.💤😎 Canopy is developing quite well. The lower shoots are bend to get them into position and keep them low. Leaves got a little bright green after the move (especially with the dark green Gelatos for comparison). Increased the nutes and put a few handfull of AllMix and Wormcastings on top of the soil before watering. Foliage began getting a healthier darker green a few days later.👍 Needs about 0.5L each day into the reservoir, plus a little onto the soil every few days. Soil keeps easily moist with little watering thanks to the reservoir below. Expecting the switch to flower in about 10 days, depending on the two green gelatos growth. 🙏

Training shows its effects, the plant is turning into a perfectly flat canopy ready for flower. Leaves are still a little bright but extra nutrients already darkened them a bit. Only a little longer will she have to endure those 20 hours of light. Since I still have enough headroom for the plants to double in height I am testing my patience on how long I can keep them in Veg. Last 2 runs have turned out plants of just about 50cm, I'd like something bigger for once.

Only minor 'tactical' defoliation above certain nodes I want to expose. Increased nutrients + the added variety of the biobizz grow used on the soil on some days seemed to have helped the plant regain some color. She gets about 0.5L with Hesi nutes in the reservoir +.25L onto the soil every day. The soil is always nearly dry the next day. As always a few spotted and ugly leaves down low. Ive come to accept them, plucking them once most of the green has left them. Not worrying about any nutrient problems here with this hybrid hodgepodge, what can go wrong 😅 A few tablespoons of Mega Worm and teaspoons of Guanokalong Powder were worked into the topsoil on day 75, get the soil life going and get some phosphor deposited. Ready for flower!👌 Her clones are both doing fine: one outdoors seen above easily managing a few 1° C nights, though I packed some straw on sides and top of the soil for that reason. The other having a happy growtent life after being gifted to a friend. Both clones rooted very quickly (transplantable after 14 days) but then grew very slow for 3 weeks in both instances. Then they bot picked up again and are doing fine.✊ Tent smells weedy and good already, fingers get sticky when handling the leaves before flowering. Good omens🙌 After this last week of patience we will enter 12/12, see you in flower.👉

Finally after 78 days of growth I get to flower this big bushy mainline. Transition into flower and stretch came up very fast. Fastest I've seen so far. Also gradually transitioning into Hesi Bloom Complex for the reservoir and adding BioBizz Bio-Bloom for the soil. She is a really healthy dark green once again now 😍 a very hungry and productive lady. Additionaly an extra kick of Phosphorus Plus every second day this week to get her into high gear. 💪 Full steam ahead, this one will be great!😬

Going strong into flower. Medium stretch, very manageable. Smell and Trichomes coming online fast.😍 Now fully in flower feeding: transitioned to Bloom Complex, reducing Silic rock, while keeping the low dose of BioBizz for the Soil, adding Top Max from this week on. Also adding another few heaps of megaworm and some guanokalong onto the soil this weeks again.👌 The GCx4 PWR is still only running at 85% of its full 160w, but will be be increased to full till the end of this week. Thats a bright light, damn.😎 Lower humidity and higher temperatures outside improve the climate in hte growbox for now.

Great development. Good smelling too, pine and sweet lemon. Nothing out of the ordinary, but very nice and strong. Stretch sems to slow down now. Major defoliation on day 94. There still is a lot left since I am a stern believer in cutting off rather less than more. Over the next few weeks I will only take a select few leaves here and there blocking light to budsites up top and everything sickly looking down below.👍 Another few scoops of megaworm and Guanokalong added on top of the soil. No change in feeding, she looks like close to the max she can take and I already feed her a lot.

Big buds growing everywhere. Trichomes cover everything. The smell is the best "standard weed smell" I have encountered so far. Pineresin and a sweet lemon that makes your mouth water.😚 Slowly changing feeding according to schedule. GCx4 pwr is now at 100%, not ever opening the tent without sunglasses now. Close to 500 μmol/s on a third of a square meter is no joke. Never had buds this size just 4 weeks after 12/12💪 a promise of whats to come. Increased the ventilation to stay below 26°.