Northern Light (Manual) - First Grow

dudegrows Excited for my first grow but concerned about messing it up so I started with Fox Farm soils. Trying to make things as easy as possible for this first grow so I can learn and improve future grows!

dudegrows Excited for my first grow but concerned about messing it up so I started with Fox Farm soils. Trying to make things as easy as possible for this first grow so I can learn and improve future grows!

dudegrows Going into week 3 I had some yellowing on the leaves. Researched it and discovered that the PH in my water was closer to 7ph, not 6.5ph like I originally though. I figured this out after taking the time to calibrate my ph tester. I then watered her with 6.3ph water and gave it a few days.

dudegrows After correcting the PH in my water she bounced back nicely. I also start introducing nutrients for the first time this week. I thought I didn't need any nutes because I'm growing in Fox Farm Ocean Forest potting soil, which is supposed to contain everything she needs, but after feeding her a little she really started taking off. For my first few feeds I mixed up a "light" version of the nutes in an old milk jug.

dudegrows Made the decision to top her this week. Since this was my first time ever topping I was a bit nervous. After double checking with a few ppl online I decided to just go for it. Topped it without trouble and saved the top in a book so I can remember my first grow. I let her recover for a few days after topping before I started low stress training. LST was a bit nerve wracking at first bc of how the plant looked when I first bent her over but she recovered within a couple of hours. I watered and fed her more nutes after LST too, which helped with recovery. This week I switched the nutes to "aggressive growth" mix which is basically triple the nutes I was feeding her last week.

dudegrows Oh man, week 6! A month ago I couldn't have imagined making it this far but here I am! I'm super excited about her growth. She's really starting to fill out now. The topping, LST and aggressive feeding have really paid off. After I got the main stem bent over I started to LST each of the branches. The first couple of days went well but on the third day I was a bit too aggressive and accidentally broke off the top two nodes! These are the ones right below where I topped the plant, the ones I wanted to grow big and strong, so this sucked. Actually just one node broke off completely. The other one was only half broken. I quickly duct taped it back into place and crossed my fingers it would survive. For the other note I decided to try and turn into a clone. I planted it some Fox Farm Happy Frog Potting Soil, watered and put it under a humidity dome. I was a bit panicked when this happend so I don't know if that was the right thing to do. I tried googling it but whatever, that’s what I did. Anyway, the node I duct taped did not survive. Bummer. BUT the other node appears to be doing just fine! It’s only been a couple of days so I’m not letting myself get too excited yet but I think I might cloned her by accident! If that is the case, I plan to grow/veg her for a few more weeks. At that point the main plant will be ready to switch to flowering. Since I only have one grow space, and no other spot to keep the clone alive, I’ll let that go into flower mode too. My hope is my main plant will produce a lot of bud and the this clone will produce a little more. Any tips/advice from the community are welcome! 😀

dudegrows She looks and smells amazing! I think I should defoliate but I'm not sure. Probably going to start flushing in the next couple of weeks. Other than that it's just feeding, watering and pulling off dead leaves .

dudegrows Colas are getting so large they started falling over! I had to rig up a last minute solution to keep them from getting damaged. Luckily I had ordered extra green wire for LST which worked great to keep the plants up! I noticed some nute burn on nearly all of the fan leaf tips. Decided to water her PH balanced H20 but no nutes until things improve. I might just start a final flush now depending on how she grows over the next couple of weeks. I'd like to chop her but I don't think she's ready, not yet. Soon though 😁

dudegrows Buds are getting heavy! Stopped feeding when I noticed nute burn on the tips of most fan leaves. Started flushing about two weeks ago. Was hoping for leaf improvements but now they're falling off. I've been told that is normal near the end, so no need to worry! Not sure when I'll harvest but thinking maybe another 2 weeks.