Northern lights

Started these Peak Seeds Northern Lights Rey seeds on Nov 22, following the Crop King germ guidelines. I did a total of 6 seeds (1 CBDream and 5 Northern Lights) and had 100% germ rate. They were put into a mix 1:1:1 of coco sunshine #4 and perlite in a humidity dome 3 days ago. It broke ground 1 day later and had to assist the shell off one today as the membrane was a bit stuck. That particular seed was growing tap root up so I gently uncovered and replaced root down, no problem with it as of yet. Looking forward to seeing how this goes and want to do a sog from it later. Misting the cup and dome to keep humidity up.

Growth seems slow, kinda on the cool side in the tent, fixing that issue. Seedlings looks like it’s growing ok, no wilting going on, looks like maybe a touch of burn on one set of tips. One is really stunted, that was the one that the tap root grew upwards and was replanted. Trying to dry the media as much as possible to prevent root rot. Thinking about removing the dome, but not sure. It’s so hard here in the winter. RH is 28% in the house and dropping, trying to find a happy medium for it to grow quickly. Any tips would be appreciated.

Day 15: Finally got the media dried out and its Slow going but has gotten better. Got a new tent, so also having a few temp issues. I think I had/have some root issues from maybe being a tad overwatered in the beginning. Intermodal spacing is super close, so I backed the light off. Hoping to give a bit more space between. Pretty pleased with the last 5 days. I was getting a bit worried about killing them again haha.

Day 23: I’m having some humidity problems so I decided to run my humidifier. RH here is less than 30% in the house and I think it was causing other stunting. PPM of my tap water is 310, so having to source water from elsewhere too. I seem to be having problem after problem, but I’ll figure it out. I haven’t had seedlings in quite a while and I’m not great with them haha. I moved them from their solos to 2 gal pots earlier today. Roots were nice and white and built up at the bottom of the cup. Transplanted into 1:1 perlite to sunshine #4 in plastic pots with a sprinkle of mycorrhizae in the hole. With the 25% increase in RH the plant looks and fans feel smoother. I’m ready to see some real growth here soon. I messed up my wrist so I’ve been bored at home. Started a bunch of seeds as practice as they are a free pack of mixed regular seeds from PEAK seeds. Maybe get a female or 2 to add to my veg area. Having a deficiency on one of my troubled plants. Any ideas, I’m thinking Potassium deficiency?

Day 29/ day 7 in 2 gal pots: Well these are starting to get some growth going. Grew a couple inches this week in height and width, not stretching as much as I’m used to. Light is at about 24” and running 15,000 lux at the tops. Had a bit of purpling going on in stems, so I changed up my ph to 6.1 and added some extra Cal mag to make sure there’s enough floating around. Did some LST to expose lower branches. Next time I will transplant closer to surface of the pot, 1” down from lip.

Day 38: it’s hard for me to predict where I should be as far as height is concerned. With all the problems I had early on, it’s fair to say I wasted at least 10-14 due to poor conditions. As far as previous grows have gone, this is the slowest and most confusing. I have never grown a mostly Indica strain. I lower the light and they yellow and taco, I raise it an inch and they dont seem to stretch. I’m obviously doing something wrong and it’s pissing me off haha. Doing some LST trying to get lower branches out to the light and topped to promote bushiness. Thinking about upping my ballast to 75% of the 1000w and raising it to the top of the tent. Currently running 15-18,000 lumens. The Northern Skunk is growing like mad so conditions are decent. Thoughts?? Also I think NL1 is male so no pics of that one.

Day 48: Plants seem kinda short, but looking good and pure Indica. New growth looks a bit yellow. Raised up the lights to still try for some stretch before I start flowering. LST has been done and the lower growth is starting to even out with the tops. Got a new filter for the humidifier and RH increased dramatically.

Day 51: I think I figured out the problem I was having. I believe I need a new MH bulb or it’s not producing the right spectrum with the ballast turned down to 50%. I swapped it out for the HPS to get a bit of stretch and I’ve gotten what I wanted. Plants stretched 3-4 inches in 5 days. Did a bit of TYIng and defoliation, just enough to expose some shorter lower branches and transplanted into 3 gal pot. Fed according to the Botanicare feed calculator at full strength after checking the Peak Seeds site and it says this NL can handle heavy feeding. Have changed over my light timer and tonight will be Day 1 of flower at 75% of 1000 W. Very pleased with this last couple days and looking forward to flower. *Made a date error on last entry should be day 45

Day 7 of flower: Things are going good I’d say, possibly need to feed a bit heavier or add a bit of Cal mag. New growth seems a bit yellow during lights on, but lights off looks good. I bought a new HPS bulb as the one I had was 2 years old with 5 grows in it. I’m running that at 75%. Getting nice stacking, finally got the temps and humidity as consistent as I can. Starting to see the odd pistil. Hoping to get a couple more inches of stretch in the next 2 weeks or so. I was noticing little white balls in the bottom of my water pail and was told it was calcium and to dilute my ph down prior to adding it, so we’ll see what happens with that.

Day 14: Things are looking good after the bulb change. They have grown a lot this week even though I have been defoliating quite a bit. The pheno in the back corner (#3) is quite branchy and only with topping and minor spreading in the trellis has good light penetration. While the one up front (#2) has stacked bud sites on it’s main shoots. And clogged center. Looking at it now probably should’ve removed a couple from the bottom. May look at running this round at 1000w the next few weeks to see what happens. I live in the middle of the -50 C weather last week so my air in the house is super dry, humidifier is working hard, but pretty pleased with this week overall.

Day 21: The plants are doing quite well. They seem to be progressing faster than previous times. Going to heavy defoliate at lights out. Buds are coming along nicely and there are multiple bud sites and fairly stacked.

Day 28: I watered with nutrients early last week and had runoff of 2600 ppm. I’m not 100% sure but that seems really high, there isn’t any tip burn but it looked as if it may start, just the edge of the tip was browning. Defoliated last week and plant was stressed for a couple days but had new noticeable growth overnight. Did a watering with 1 ml/gal of florokleen with 30% runoff 2 days ago.

Day 35: Growth , I think I should be further along. I may be under feeding a bit in an attempt to lower media salt levels. I’m starting to get a bit more brown tips and edges on my fan leaves and some minor yellowing. My next feeding is going to be heavier. I put up a diffuser in an attempt to get more lumens to the outer edge of the canopy. Smell is nice and light, kind of berry. The one is definitely going to have more dense buds than the other.

Day 42: Did a heavy feeding early last week to combat some yellowing that I usually get in week 5 and idk what I’m doing wrong. Idk if it’s light burn causing it or what, It has happened on every grow I’ve done. It browns on the tip then around the leaf edge. PH of run off is 5.9-6.0. If you look at my Northern Skunk diary it did it there too. It’s mostly on the taller and plants with more tops. So I’m not sure if it’s too much light or more food needed. I got a nutrient pack for next round wonder If there’s holes in my nute program. Otherwise, size is ok, smell is nice and fruity with a slight undertone of 5 spice. One up front is dense and stacked and short. One in the back is significantly taller and less dense. Similar scent on both.

Day 49: Well this week I did a flush trying to lower media salts. Had between 2100-1550 ppm in run off, I am between 750 and 950 ppm now. Still a bit high but didn’t want to get too low and F myself over the next 2-3 weeks. I totally over fed this round and stunted bad. I know I have to 2 weeks here to hopefully fatten up a bit, but I’m not counting on any scale breaking harvest. I made a diffuser out of some old 95% reflective hood tin I had kicking around. It dropped the lumens under the arc tube about 30,000 and was able to keep the light at 750w and zip tied the light to the top bar of the tent. In the pictures you don’t see that yellow line under the arc tube.....just the destruction from before. It’ll be what it’ll be and learn for next time. And starting to plan for the next round so I can be better prepared.

Day 56: I did the second flush this week. Checking every day for amber trichomes. Smell is intense when I open up the tent. Smells like berries. They haven’t put on much mass this week. I’m just going to flush one more time and get some amber trichomes and cut it down by about day 63.

Day 66: I flushed again for the last time late last week with plain phed water. Took a couple samples to test in the vape. Effects were nice on both and trichomes were almost all cloudy on approx day 58 with lone ambers scattered sparsely. This is not going to be my best run, but it is what it is. There’s always next time. Just waiting for the media to dry out and will cut them or day 70 whichever comes first. I have got to make room for the next round, running out of room in there and had to make a secondary veg space for the time being as they got too big.

Overall pleased with the effects, taste and quantity especially in the NL3. My wife loves it for her anxiety, it’s nice for an evening smoke to chill before bed. I ended up with 2 jars of NL3 and 3 of NL2, don’t know the exact weight as it’s for person use and don’t have a scale. I can see myself ditching the 2 and keeping the 2 as I have too many strains in my veg area as it is. I’m sure I’ll find something energetic and will fit my wants more, like Jack herer, Durban poison or Dutch treat cbd from Crop king.