Gorilla & Northern Lights

CaduCCCP Record of August 26, 2025 - I have already germinated the Gorilla Auto and included it in the grow. I tried to germinate two seeds of the Gorilla Auto, but I only succeeded with one. The cotyledons of the Gorilla Auto appeared on August 23, 2025. The two Northern Lights Auto and the Gorilla Auto were transplanted into larger pots, where they will stay until the end of germination.

CaduCCCP Photos from the beginning and end of the third week of flowering, respectively September 1st and September 6th, 2025. I started applying LST on the Northern Lights and the Gorilla. I notice a Nitrogen deficiency in the Northern Lights and I'm increasing the ppm.

CaduCCCP Records from September 8 and 10, 2025. I keep the LST close to the ground, considering the height limitation of my grow. I start applying defoliation on the Northern Lights to let light in for the lower leaves. The nitrogen deficiency I had noticed in them has been resolved, as the new leaves have stopped growing yellow.

CaduCCCP Records from September 16, 2025. The Northern Lights give me a lot of trouble with defoliation, as they have a high concentration of leaves very close to each other. The Gorilla doesn't require such intense defoliation anymore.

CaduCCCP The first 4 records are from September 22nd and the others from September 24th, 2025. Between the 5th and 6th week, the Gorilla and the Northern Light on the left entered flowering. I believe the Northern Light on the right is also transitioning from vegetation to flowering. So, I performed a more intense defoliation, removing the "little popcorns" and lower leaves so that the plants can concentrate light and energy on the upper branches and buds, aiming for maximum productivity. As they are entering flowering, I’m adding MKP fertilizer (0.25g/L) to the solution, and gradually decreasing the Calcium Nitrate (0.60g/L). I also notice the presence of small winged insects that appear to be psyllids or leafhoppers (?) I'm not sure, but they don't seem to be causing any damage. In any case, I set up a yellow trap for control. I raised the Quantum Board a bit since the light intensity was already exceeding 1,000 ppfd.

CaduCCCP Records from October 1, 2025. The flowering of the Northern Lights on the right apparently hasn't started yet. On the other hand, the Northern Lights on the left and the Gorilla have experienced a growth boost, already in the stretching phase. I reduced the Calcium Nitrate to 0.6g/L and increased the MKP to 0.75g/L, keeping Plant Prod at 1.15g/L and Magnesium Sulfate at 0.5g/L, which will remain at the same levels from start to finish of the grow. I'm starting to lower the humidity a bit. I raised the Quantum Board slightly to maintain the distance and avoid light stress, to approximately 35cm from the top buds. The plants seem to be happy with the light intensity, considering the position of the new leaves pointing upwards, a phenomenon known as “praying leaves,” which indicates they are receiving the ideal amount of light without signs of stress or excess. PPFD maintained at approximately 1000 umol/m²s. Apparently, the population growth of the leafhoppers has been contained and hasn't become a problem. I maintain the protocol of first taking a photo of the entire grow, followed by three records of each of the plants, with one photo from above, one zoomed in on a top bud, and one from below, always in this order: Northern Lights on the right - Northern Lights on the left and Gorilla.

CaduCCCP Records from October 9, 2025. Moving into the 3rd week since the Gorilla and one of the Northern Lights entered flowering, and only this week the other Northern Lights is showing its first pistils, lagging a bit behind the others. Since I spent the whole week without doing any defoliation, today’s was heavier. I decided to switch the order of the pots to make watering and maintenance easier, placing the Gorilla more in front and the two Northern Lights behind. The Gorilla is fattening up a lot, I’m happy with the results that are being shown. Faith and forward!

CaduCCCP Records from October 17, 2025. Progress in flowering. The NL 1 has finally finished its stretching, it was almost out of vertical space in the grow. The tips of the Gorilla are getting a bit burnt, I'm going to lower the PPM to 900 and reduce the calcium nitrate even more.

CaduCCCP October 25, 2025 - Entering the 10th week, the stretching of the Northern Lights that was lagging in flowering has finally finished. She ended up getting pretty close to the light, which resulted in light stress, light burn, as you can see from her leaves. I can't raise the light any higher, so I did some more LST pulling the top buds down. I'll wait to see if it was enough and if she stops showing symptoms of light burn. If it doesn't resolve, I'll lower the light intensity. The tips of the leaves on the Gorilla are also starting to show signs of overfert, which is why I decided to reduce the concentration of the nutrient solution, especially the Nitrogen.

CaduCCCP November 4, 2025 - jumping to week 12 of cultivation because I traveled for 10 days. Just before I left, I noticed that the Northern Light on the right, which started flowering later and had a longer stretch and therefore grew closer to the light, began to show what appear to be leaf burns, stress from too much light and heat. I left several bottles with solutions I prepared and asked some friends to take care of the grow daily while I was away. Unfortunately, the excess light and heat caused considerable damage to the top buds. The plants were out of my sight for a good few days. Although the taller Northern Light was the most affected, the other two also suffered damage. I reduced the light intensity on the dimmer and moved the top buds as far away from the Quantum Board as I could. I cut off the burned parts of the leaves to avoid the risk of mold. I believe it will be possible to turn the situation around and still produce great buds. The first photos are before, and the last ones are after removing the burned leaves. As a precaution, I will also lower the PPM of the mineral nutrient solutions.

CaduCCCP Records from November 11, 2025. Given the signs presented on the leaves, I concluded that it was not just light and heat stress, but a multifactorial problem due to a lockout from acidic pH. The runoff pH of the Northern Lights was around 4.8, very acidic. The acidic pH lockout prevents the plant from absorbing macronutrients, mainly Calcium and Magnesium. So, I did a flush until I noticed that the runoff pH reached 5.8. I started to increase the doses of Calcium and Magnesium in the water solution, making it more alkaline as well, adjusting the pH for now to 6.3. I believe this happened because my pH meter was quite out of whack. Let's see from now on how it behaves. The top buds of the Northern Lights, especially the one on the right that entered flowering later, still haven't developed as I would like. I wish I had noticed this problem earlier to anticipate treatment. I hope it doesn't affect the final result too much. I also noticed the presence of spider mites on some leaves. Since they are in flowering, I won't apply neem oil. I removed them by hand as much as possible, leaf by leaf where I noticed their presence, to contain the population's advance.

CaduCCCP Records from November 21, 2025. Harvest time for the Gorilla Glue and the Northern Lights that was on the left! The Gorilla yielded 435g of wet weight, after trimming the larger leaves. Unfortunately, I didn't weigh the result of the Northern Lights that was harvested. I believe I could have let it go for another couple of weeks, but I was worried about a spider mites infestation and to prevent it from spreading to the other two plants, I harvested a bit prematurely, with about 10% of the trichomes amber. I would have liked at least 20%. I put both to dry in a cabinet, and they'll stay there for about a week. I'm satisfied with the LST training applied. The main stem is quite robust, and I managed to keep the vertical growth of the plants in check, which is necessary for a reduced grow. Now, the remaining Northern Lights will be alone in the grow, and I'll take its flowering for another couple of weeks to better mature the trichomes, while battling CalMag deficiency, always adjusting the pH a little above 6 and checking the runoff, which insists on staying more acidic, below 5.5.

CaduCCCP Records from November 30, 2025, of the remaining Northern Light. Sometimes, I'm putting in the photoperiod cannabis without a defined strain that sprouted before my autos to take advantage of the space and light from the quantum board. The buds are slowly fattening up while it struggles with CalMag deficiency and pH adjustments. I also included a photo of the final weight of the Gorilla Glue and the first Northern Light harvested. Gorilla Glue: 68.7g after drying. Northern Light 1: 40.3g after drying. They are now in curing, with a Boveda 62% pack to maintain the humidity in an ideal percentage.

CaduCCCP I finally finished trimming the last plant that was left. I managed to fill 4 jars in total. I'm very satisfied with the result for my first grow with autoflowering seeds, and next time I'll know how to avoid the mistakes I made.