Northern Lights Auto - First Grow

I decided to start in a 16 oz solo cup and transplant later on. Since this is my first grow, I wanted to avoid the beginner's mistake of over watering in the seedling stage.

Threw some strawberries in along with the NL, to soak up some of the light while I have the room. LST was started around day 11, but it wasn't too effective, as the plant was still pretty small and I didn't want to pull it down too much. The transplant on day 14 was kind of half-assed. I just cut the bottom off the solo cup and stuck it in a 3 gallon pot of the same soil mixture (~70% cheap dollar store soil and ~30% perlite).

I essentially finished the transplant from last week, by carefully cutting down the sides of the solo cup and pulling out the plastic. It surprisingly worked very smoothly, and I'm glad I didn't create too much stress. After this transplant, the growth really started to kick off. No nutrients added as of yet, but I did create a rough guideline for a feeding schedule by using Foxfarms recommended feeding schedule. I won't be using any of their products, but I could at least calculate the appropriate concentration of each nutrient by the week, and then use cheaper nutrients to create a similar product.

First week of nutrients. Unfortunately, all I had on hand at the time was Miracle Grow All Purpose water soluble plant food (24-8-16). As it isn't the time release variety, I figured it will hold me over until I can grab some more appropriate nutrients.

A friend gave me some bud booster, so I could add a little more phosphorus and potassium into it's diet. I also recently purchased a hygrometer and found my humidity was very low. Some wet sponges were placed daily by the air intake to try to up the humidity, which worked to a small extent. At this point, I became comfortable enough handling the plant and enough side stems that I could really practice LST. I know now that I should've started earlier as the stems will start getting thicker pretty soon.

After a couple weeks of checking daily for pistils, the first ones emerged on Day 38. I know that some autoflowers take longer to show their sex, but the thought of accidentally getting a photoperiod seed was on the back of my mind before this point. I can't remember the distance to the light at this time, but it was definitely too close. It took me quite some time to learn that closer to the light =/= better for the plant.

Ran into my first major problems this week. Some of the lower leaves began turning brown and brittle to the touch. Still not too sure what was causing it, but I had the suspicion of nitrogen toxicity, as the leaves started becoming dark green, with some forming a claw shape. No more miracle grow from this point on. I also threw in an irrigation line to make watering without wetting the leaves a bit easier. Surprisingly, no strong smell as of yet.

Now when I open the tent, there is a slight whiff of cannabis, but I can't smell anything when I put my nose to the bud sites. I've been easing off the nitrogen, and it seems like the clawing has gone, but the leaves are still very dark green.

I added a new phosphorous heavy nutrient this week (5-15-5), which should help me in flowering, in conjunction with the bud booster I was using previously. It does contain around 0.005% IBA, which is generally used in early growth stages, so I'm hoping it wont have a negative effect during flowering, as it is a fairly dilute dose. The progress has been slow but steady so far. It's been exciting seeing all the changes over the past few weeks, and I'm just anxious to see how the next month or so progresses.

The smell is getting stronger, but I would still describe it as weak. The lack of odour is the main thing which attracted me to this strain as my first grow, as I'm growing in an apartment :). So far, it's been very beginner friendly. It seems all vertical growth has stopped and the bud sites are slowly fattening up. At the rate it's going, I don't think the yield will be too impressive, but I'm happy to get anything out of it for my first time. I will be going on vacation in about 4 weeks, so no matter what it will need to be chopped down and dried before I leave, but I can thankfully cure on vacation. Trichomes are now a mixture of cloudy/clear and I would say ~40% of all the pistils have browned. Also, some of the lower leaves are beginning to become yellow and dry. I understand that this happens prior to harvest, but I feel this may be a nutrient deficiency as I've been only been feeding around 120 ppm of nitrogen the last few weeks and a proper harvest is still far away.

The buds are starting to put on a bit of weight. It may not look too impressive, but I couldn't be happier. Only a couple weeks left until I need to cut her down, and the excitement is setting in. Trichomes appear to mostly be cloudy now, and I've come across a few amber ones with my jewellers loupe this morning.

I'm now approaching my final week for this plant. I've been feeding or watering every 4 days with approximately 2 L. Her last feeding was on day 80, so I'll likely only need one or two more heavy waterings before I chop next weekend (on day 91 or 92). I'm hoping this will be enough to flush some of the excess nutrients away before harvest. I wish I didn't need to harvest so soon, as I would've really loved to see her continue for a few more weeks. For my next grow, I won't start until I'm sure I can see her through till the end :)

We've had a few rainy days this past week, which really shot up the humidity in the tent. At times I was looking at 60%+ RH! I'm not sure how long it takes at a sustained high humidity before things like PM or bud rot manifest themselves, so I hope that it isn't an issue. The high humidity also reduced my need for watering, as it was a solid 8 days before any water was needed. I will unfortunately be prematurely cutting her down today and will provide a final update on my harvest next week. :)

I'm very impressed with the final yield. As this was my first grow, and I made plenty of mistakes, I was hoping to get maybe ~1/2 Oz. The bud is fairly airy, but I imagine that due to harvesting early, as I really noticed a change in the bud density in the final couple weeks. I still have 4 more of these seeds, so my next grow, I'll be able to give her plenty of time to grow in those final weeks and see what difference that makes in the quality of the final product. I really want to thank this community as a whole for helping me throughout this grow. I don't think I've ever come across an online community as positive and helpful as the people here 😊. See everyone on my next grow!