CANNASIM - NORTHERN LIGHT AUTO

So, here we go, second grow. Will be Northern Lights Auto from RQS and in a spare diary a Stress Killer Auto. SETUP: -BOSSLED LED 1800W full spectrum, real power consumption is +-250W. -Grow space 60X100X200(a simple shower box. -Fox farm trio and some other simple additives. -Grow medium is 50% peat and 50% perlite, 5 gallon fabric pots(18l).

I lowered the LED to around 45cm from the plants, I’m still getting a hang on the LED lights distance, difficult to understand how near can i get with the LED without burning the girls… The inner nodes are less spaced than with the cfls, so the plants are more compact. Also using an apollo horticulture glasses for the LED light and is insane, recommend that for those using LED lights! Water schedule is alternated - water/nutes(1l), this week they received a real feed, EC at 1.7, and the last dose of the roots enhancer(deeper underground). The stresskiller auto is developing faster. I'm having some concerns with this one i think is just too small, and developing slowly.

Girls are definitely developing well, no signs of deficiencies. Northern Lights is more compact and developing slower than the stress k, size is more or less 13cm. Lower the PH to 5.8 as i’m in soilless to see how is going to respond, can have there a little ph fluctuation issues, because part of the medium has a slight different ph as i has regulating to 6.3, but i’m confident with my choice. Using 200ml water PH 5.8, every other day, in the schedule, water with all nutes minus organic tea EC 1.8/ water + organic tea and cal mag EC .8. Fertilisers at 1/3 Strength, and the organic tea will be off next week i think, will decide as it goes.

This week the girls started pre flowering and developing many bunches, i just arranged in a way they take some light, but dint do any super lst or defoliation. The Northern Lights, is developing some kind of deficiency, looks like calcium lock, this started really early, i thought was a water drop or something like it as it was a small dot in the first set if leaves, thee lower leaves presented the signs. I did a slight flush and gave a regular dose of nutes. Had notice some salt buid up, as the first runoff was darker, lets see if taht solves the issue. Anyhow se is developing.

Hey guys, this week went nice and smooth. 
Girls are now receiving flowering nutes, and are liking, color is on point, stems are just massive. As LST goes just doing some leaf tucking, nothing more, minimal stress as possible, want the girls to develop fast fast. :) The Northern lights had catch up with the SKR and is stretching a lot, i corrected the mineral lock causing spots and now on the new growth i can ’t see anymore issues for the time! My space is becoming small for this bushy girls.

Girls are growing nicely, this week ran nice and smooth, no issues. My soil is a bit compact now, and water is not penetrating so well, so i tried to te compact the top layer and mess a bit with the textile pot, that improved a lot… Next time will ad some clay pellets, as i always do… They are in the edge of nutes and i will have to be careful next week. The cal mag is been added one a week, 2ml per l in water only day. Ec is around 2.5. The NL seams to be ok with the spotting now and growing normally to a beautiful girl, lots of colas developing, overall she is a lot more sensible to light then the SKR, an i think the LED is causing some leaf tip twist, so i gave some more distance to check if that could be the issue, from the beginning she was the more picky one, so may be bad luck on this specific seed genetics, will do my last seed on the next cycle to check if that could be it.

GENERAL COMMENT. So guys this week ran ok, i’m trying to pay attention to some details, like water temp, as the weather is cold here. The LED had a problem in one vent, so i repaired it, is nicely built inside but all the wires are tight and locked with this plastic lockers, so to have room to work you have to first take some of them out, impossible to find the vent attach, so i cutter the wire and made a connection for the new vent, avoiding to hunt the cable source and a nightmare of taking everything apart… A bit of pressure because i couldn’t screw up and loose the LED, to buy a new one would take up to 60 days… EC is at 3.1, .1 higher than i should be, pushing them a bit, can see a tip yellowing and a super slight tip burn, so my interpretation is that i have to reduce the nutes dosage a bit. Runoff is at 5.8-5.9, watering at 6.2-6.3 pin pointing at that range, no deficiencies are showing at the time. 2.5l every 1-2 days, when water only, i give 5l each to manage salt build up on the medium then it takes longer to dry out. Cal mag supp once a week, with water only, 2ml/l. They will be off this week to manage the progression of overfert. 
NORTHERN LIGHTS AUTOMATIC COMMENT. 
As far as the Northern Lights go, she is more sensible to about everything, water, nutes, light, so for now i see this phenotype i have as a sensible one, that since the beginning, so that what we have to work with… She needs less water, and too much makes her sad… So she will be on a different schedule. The number of colas is impressive, we are at 60cm hight now, and around +-25 flower spots, 2X much as her sister.

GENERAL COMMENT. WEEK 4 OF FLOWER. The week ran smooth, girls keep on growing well, my soil is becoming a bit compact, i usually use clay pellets mixed but this time i when straight with the soilless mixture, 50% Mosses and 50%p Perlite, with no organic correction so is inert, a pro is that you don’t see bugs such as gnats, till now. For the moment @B4RNS gave a nice idea on how to improve the aeration by using a knitting needle, to poke the soil, and that was easy to do, with minimal damage. Is a regular plastic pointy stick. Had putted up the lamp to around 40cm from the canopy. EC continues at 3.1, and added overdrive to the feed, lowered the B-52. Cal mag more diluted 1ml/l one time a week only. RQS NORTHERN LIGHTS AUTOMATIC COMMENT. As usual, the Pheno i have got is more sensible, have to do a second run to understand better the genetics or get a seed directly from RQS to make sure. Also with that since the beginning, spotting and ect, the girl si shooting many colas still and is crowded with bud spots, had removed some spotted leaves to be able to see if spotting is continuing. Light positioned up because this girl looked a bit stressed. As far as training i decided to super crop the top, to create a more even canopy, lst was not possible as the stem is hard as iron.

GENERAL COMMENT. WEEK 5 OF FLOWER. Ok guys, this week ran ok for one girl and less for her sister, so i will go on details individually. RQS NORTHERN LIGHTS AUTOMATIC COMMENT. As I has commenting since the beginning I think this could be a nice strain to grow with minimal water and nutes, keep that in mind when growing this strain, i learned the hard way. What happened with this girl is that salt builded up in the medium and de stabilised mainly the PH, creating a super acidic medium, thats my bad, i failed to id earlier. So back to spotting, and a bit of yellowing showing, so some deficiencies, i honestly don’t know how this is going to end. I flushed her 4 days a go with PH water to 6.5, that raised the medium runoff from 5.0 to 5.4-5.6, and flushed again with tap water, is alkaline at 8.1+, runoff is still 5.6, so that raised more concern with that input range getting so acidic runoff is bad, and in the end of flush received a dose of voodoo juice, big bloom, calmag and top candy, that are all organic at regular ph, EC at 1.8. I know the PH fluctuation can worse the scenario. I’m been apocalyptic is just that i’m feeling a bit turn down now, i was expecting this girl to run flawlessly, heads up will try my best to correct issues, just wished she was like her sister…

GENERAL COMMENT. Two different realities are populating my humble growroom, by one side we have a vibrant SKR and the other the NL that was destabilised a wile back. This two girls from RQS have lots of virtues, and shooting up many colas, and harvest is looking promising also with the lock in the NL. RQS NORTHERN LIGHTS AUTO AKA NL - COMMENT. After struggling a lot to curb her deficiencies and spotting, I could rinse off the salt buildup and raise the soil PH, flush, flush, flush little bit of voodoo juice, and only the full organic based nutes made the trick for now, so we are stable, and leaves started to look healthier, spotting stoped but is already in the majority of the leaves. EC is light at 1.1 Stoped taking the runoff since i made the medium treatment, and honestly that got on my nerves now is bulking this colas or die, finito with the over caring thing… One thing to notice is that i have to re do this strain to fully grow it and having a 100% potencial to be able to fully judge, as for now if you do this strain use less of everything, nutes, light, water, less is definitely more with this strain. Smell is the least pungent of the plants i ever done, so if you are looking for a stealth plant this is a good candidate.

GENERAL COMMENT. This week ran nicely for the two girls, of course one is going slower than the other. RQS NORTHERN LIGHTS AUTO The spotting got this girl hard, lock lock lock and stunt. She is packing the buds slowly, very slowly, patience is a key element with her now. But the good thing is that she is moving forward. I don’t expect top shelf or a huge harvest for her unfortunately. I couldn’t ID the early spotting reason, and the late spotting i attributed to salt buildup and acidic medium, but the correction was a real pain.

GENERAL COMMENT. So the RQS STRESS KILLER AUTO is down. Now we have the NL to manoeuvre and try to keep her alive for the final flush. RQS NORTHERN LIGHTS AUTO COMMENT. Many but slim colas emerged, showing extreme spotting and deficiencies, but gained weight since last week and started turning purple, first time that happens. So now the final flush started and hope, afraid taste could be off, because of the problems i ran in with her, probably a good strain to considere light feeding, the smell is very gentle, a good strain to do stealth. 10-14 day to go! Yield could be amazing but will be common because of the locks, nothing out of the curve in my opinion, something to retry and correct to deal with this strain. Not turned on or off by her just feeling neutral and glad she made it. Trichomes wise she is just ready, mostly cloudy, she will finish with some amber will do a nice sleeping aid. Trim job will be a pain on this one because i will clean all the small affected spotted leaves.

GENERAL COMMENT The SKR is dry and starting the cure in jars, and the NL is done. RQS NORTHERN LIGHTS AUTO COMMENT. This is the final week, next time will be the harvest, this girl just got mature from a day to the other, lost 70% of the top bud due to rot i haven t seen. So i could get virtually 30-40% yield from this girl Without the locks or rot, anyhow still looking ok as far as harvest, quality will be a bit compromise, not the end of times though lol! 🙃👊🏻👍🏻

—GENERAL COMMENT— Wow this run was painful with this girl, had high expectations as this strain is so respected and popular, the NL auto genetics from RQS is popular as a high yielding plant. —THE GOOD— Expect zillions of towers shooting up vigorously, and catching up with whatever you have in your grow space, seriously is insane, beautiful plant, this is the good. Is a good strain for a stealth run, as the smell is very good flowery but mild and discrete, of course if you make 5 of this you need something like a carbon filter anyway, but 1-2-3 is ideal. —THE DOWNSIDES OF THIS CYCLE— Now lets speak about the downside and make some consideration about this run, so you may improve and prevent issues. One thing to note is that i’ve got what i considere a bad phenotype, showing spotting since the first leaves and very sensible to about anything, water, light, nutes, ph, and so on, so for now i considere this strain not for first timers. I fail to see a salt buildup in the medium, dropping the PH, and showing severe symptoms of Cal deficiencies since week 8, got very bad a few weeks later. I flushed when i had seen this issue but it was late, just too late. Lost 70% of my top bud due to rot to complete the issues, what in between the base of my monster prize. Autos are not something you play a lot with, you have to get it right the first time, a mistake and you start counting the losses in my case i estimate in 40% less yield, no locks and a healthy plant you can get more then 200g dry. —THE SPECTACULAR RESULTS EVEN WITH LOCKS— This girl gave me the pleasure of my best yield in a single plant yet, it is amazing. Her buds got medium and small, but heavy and dense, so smaller than the SKR cousin, but heavier. The aspect overall would be better and bigger in a flawless run. ---WET WEIGHT--- 541g ---DRY WEIGHT--- 106g ---UPDATE 2 . After harvest--- -A -Jaring After drying till the stems almost snap, in a rack, I separed the flowers, weighted and jared for cure. -B-Vape report. Vaping this herb is a delight! Awesome taste, like candy! Super sweet, and a very pleasant body high, not too overwhelming, just a good balance. Using a new vape that takes vaping to the next level, the Volcano, just insane how good this device works, little herb lots of vapor. -C-Joint smoke. Let's say that smoking is a far different experience than vaping, effects come right a way, puff puff, and you feel, vaping is more like a ritual. The smoke is soft and will be better after cure, taste is the same overall but less intense, very sweet in my opinion. -D-Bong hit. Bong hits straight, a lot stronger than the joint, still very good and enjoyable, vaping still my preferred method. -E-EFFECTS. This is an auto indica, so the genetics are mixed with ruderalis(20%), this engages a bit more CBD in the mix than the classic photoperiode NL, THC wise is around 4% less from one to the other. The effects are really good, a nice body high, a bit of brain comes along not too narcotic though, good to relax and have a good night of sleep, wouldn’t be the strain to party in my opinion, is more a smoke and chill one. Potency could be a bit higher just a bit, and would be perfect, anyhow, smoking is satisfying as well as the yield. Side effects for me are just the dryness, eye, nose and mouth, always get that plus munchies that makes you eat the hole house down, lol, even the bricks, structure, and people inside, so be prepared for that. ;) ---UPDATE 3 . Conclusion--- After the first milestone of curing smoke is getting on point and the aromas really come out in a characteristic way, candy sweet flavor is accentuated and really good, as well as a more smooth smoke/ vapor, and the effects are consolidated. I added some bud samples selected aleatory in my jar, bud structure is dense / compact and long. This concludes the diary, and comments, i may post a recap video as the SKR, in the days to come. Thanks for passing by! 🙃👍🏻 Happy growing!