2nd Grow - Stealth Hydroponics Cabinet

I am attempting an identical grow to my first with the knowledge and experience gained during the last 3 months. I made a few adjustments to the cabinet to allow for more consistency and easier maintenance. I have a full spectrum LED over top both plants for the Veg stage this time, as I only added a second, more powerful red LED over both last time during the flowering stage. Air temp and water temp will be more in the optimal zone with the heat from the light. During this polar vortex, humidity levels are way down but should be better next week. I used bottle spring water to start, and will use carbon filtered tap water from this point on. No nutrients yet but pH'd to 5.8. The ppm of the tap water is ~200. My plan is to add 100ppm to the solution each week, starting in week 3, so by week 5, the solution will be 500ppm, week 6 - 600ppm and so on. That schedule should put me at about half of the recommended dosage (GH Maxigro & MaxiBloom) for the majority of the grow. Through 11 days since soaking the seeds and I'm already seeing improvements from the first grow. It's funny how the path these two are taking so far are nearly identical to the first grow. They are about a day faster through each phase so far, but as before, the White Widow is about a day faster. The stem growth is identical on both as well, with the WW stretching a bit and the NL staying down in. The roots are now touching the basin water, so I will keep the water level just shy of the net pots going forward. At this pace, I may be able to start some gentle LST by next week.

Day 17 since soaking the seeds and things are looking much better at this point as compared to my first grow. I introduced a very small dose of nutes (~325ppm) as I enter week 3. The humidity has been very dry as we're in the middle of winter, but all other conditions look good. The pH was a bit on the high side, but I didn't want to add any pH down directly to the basin midweek. Roots are growing fast and look very healthy. I want to give them a little more time before starting some LST. Fun seeing such fast growth!

Day 24 since soaking the seeds and this week did not go as I'd hoped. We were off to a great start with quick and healthy growth, but things haven't been great since last week's basin change. I added a very small amount of Maxigro to my tap water based solution. I thought the girls we ready for their first taste of food so I got ppm to 325 (tap alone is 157) and pH to 5.8. I moved up my lights one link of a chain (~1 inch) to maintain the 12 inch from the light. By the next morning, I noticed that growth speed halted. Leaves began to curl down, especially on the Northern Light, and the healthy green bottom leaves weren't as green as they had been. I thought maybe it was just the shock of the basin change, or maybe the 1 degree difference in solution and air temp as the heat from the light has decreased. After a couple days of these symptoms worsening, I lowered the light to the original height and topped off the solution with plain tap water. Things didn't improve, so I finally dumped the basin and replaced with plain tap water with no nutes. Growth has picked up the last two days but I am still nervous about leaf color and curling. Also fear that they will be stunted now.. It's like we lost the whole week. Now, I don't even know when to try feeding. My first thought is excess Nitrogen. Maybe go to Maxibloom now?

Day 30 since soaking the seeds. Working through some sort of deficiency. Growth has been steady, and new leaves looking healthier. I replaced the solution this week with plain pH'd tap water and made a side mixture of nutrients to ~300ppm and slowly topped off each day. That seemed to work better than replacing the whole basin with the premade solution. Slow and steady this week. The Northern Lights has been catching up to the size of the White Widow I also started LST. Going to keep these ladies as low and wide as possible. .

Day 39 since soaking the seeds. It's been a good week, with noticeable daily growth and LST'ing. The NL has a very dominate main top that has been challenging to keep low. The WW is very dense with wider leaves. I've been trying to tuck where I could to get light down lower. She is also starting to show pistils. The roots look healthy and running out of room in the basin! I've been debating whether to trim a bit, but I think I'll hold off until they stretch a bit.

Day 45 since soaking the seeds. This is the last week of veg and things have gone smoothly this week. The toughest part was trying to keep these girls low and fan leaves out of the way, but I am running out of room! The WW is very dense and the NL keeps trying to climb. I've been trying to tuck leaves where I could. I redid the LST where I could on both early in the week, and just trying to get as much light down low as I could. The WW still looks a few days ahead and is showing about half a dozen flower sites, and the NL is just showing some pistils. The pH is getting a little harder to maintain at 5.8 as the roots are taking up so much space in the basin, but we've been in the sweet spot most of the time. Will be fun to watch in the coming weeks and see how these ladies develop.

Day 53 since soaking the seeds. The WW is starting to thicken up at the bud site, appears that there are about 7. I don't know what's going on with the NL. I switched over to Maxibloom as the WW was definitely ready, and I thought for sure the NL would be right behind. It looks like pistils are just starting to appear. Wondering if this seed isn't an auto? Possible deficiency, some leaves on both plants aren't the perfect shade of green. We'll see if the bump to ~700ppm helps this week.

Day 60 since soaking the seeds. Letting them do their thing, just monitoring pH level daily and adding a drop of UP or DOWN as needed, and topping off. Have to add a cup or two of fresh water a day. Still concerned about the NL, seems like we should be further along at this point, but showing about a dozen bud sites. Hope she blossoms!

Day 67 since soaking seeds. The WW is really thickening up, and the NL is shooting pistils. Roots are looking really healthy. Did a little defoliating, mostly yellow leaves from the bottom. Another week in the books.

Day 74 since soaking the seeds. I bought a new bag of Maxibloom, it was the first time I used something other than what came with my cabinet, which was a sandwich bag labelled "Bloom". It was a light pinkish color, but didn't turn the solution a bright pink like the new stuff does. There was a noticeable pop in growth this week, so not sure if that's directly responsible to the new nutrients. Things are going pretty smoothly, just adding water and adjusting pH if needed, which is rare the last 10 days or so. Roots are looking healthy and the NL is starting to slowly fill out. Minor defoliation on both.

Day 81 since soaking the seeds. Both plants filling out nicely. The WW is very dense, can't wait to see all of the muscle under all of the leaves. The NL has about a dozen quality bud sites. If they all balloon out I will be very happy. The pH level was up a bit this week but stayed steady. Both plants seemed to like it so I didn't do any maintenance on that all week.

Day 88 since soaking the seeds. I am happy with the week's growth. Both plants are really packing on some size. The WW looks a little closer to maturity so might be a little tricky when it's time to flush. I think after this week I will go to plain distilled water and let them use all their food up. Then its christmas time!

Day 95 since soaking the seeds. The WW is ready to go and I think the NL could fatten up for at least a few more days. She's also crossing over her side and hogging the light. I'm going with plain distilled water for 2-3 days. I plan on chopping the WW then, and depending on what the NL looks like, maybe one more feed? I didn't have this problem on the first grow as they were ready for harvest at the same time, but I think the NL has more to offer and I don't want to rush it. I harvested the first grow on day 86, so this one is going a bit longer. I will need to find a new place to dry the WW since the box will still be in use. Hope the smell isn't too bad!

Day 101 since soaking the seeds. As you can see, the WW has been chopped down on day 98, after 3 days of flushing. She is currently on day 5 of the dry process. This week, I filled the basin with pH'd distilled water and have been topping off as needed. I will continue to do this until the NL is ready. All of her buds have continued to fatten up and I will let her go until most of the pistils are amber. I put the more powerful LED directly over her since chopping down the WW. I will update the harvests once I cure for a couple weeks.

This grow, the White Widow Auto was short and very dense. The buds were thick. This thing was like a head of lettuce. If I had more growing room I could have probably widened her out and defoliated a bit. Not as frosty as I expected, but has a very pleasant citrus smell. Easy grow and performed well considering I was growing a different strain in the same basin. Took 105 days from seed to jarring. Currently curing and will wait about 4 weeks to try. Can't wait! *UPDATE* It has been 5 months since I began the cure and updating my experience. This was the smaller of the two plants in my grow and I'm beginning to see that one plant always does better than the other when using the same basin. Overall, I am pleased with the strain, it's not overwhelmingly strong and effects seem to be longer lasting. But that varies with different buds from the jar. Seems like sometimes one puts me into deep thought while at other times a bud's effect is hard to even notice. But very relaxing and helps with sleep. I am excited to see how this one does when I can grow her alone.

108 days from seed to jar. Was a slow starter compared to the White Widow auto growing in same basin. Really came along in the last few weeks and yielded about 3x as much as the WW. The LST worked well. If I grew alone in this cabinet, I could have probably filled the box with nice rows of buds. Easy grow and nice yield for the small space. *UPDATE* It's been 5 months since beginning the cure. I enjoy this strain, it's a good daytime experience and just takes the edge off. Not too strong, but noticeable. Wears off a little faster than the White Widow, but with the bigger yield that's not a problem. Just reload.