Noob Closet Grow - Northern Lights Auto

I realize everyone hates the first grow diaries, but here we go... Location: Somewhere in the SE US, on the hot side of the house. 2x7 Closet. Set Up: Medium - Fox Farm Ocean Forest/Mother Earth Coco Perlite - 50/50 mix Container - 7 gal fabric Exhaust - 4" inline with carbon filter exhausted into attic Conditioning - small standup AC unit for 150sf, exhausted into attic. Small humidity units as well Strain: Northern Lights Auto from ILGM (first seeds were ordered from Europe...noob mistake #1...covid) - SINGLE SEED. Nutes: Fox Farms Trio, CalMag, Fox Farms foliar Water: Aquarium pump to de-chlorinate tap water then ph adjusted Germination: I used the shot glass method, 24 hrs until seeds sink. Put in wet paper towel, inside sandwich bag, in a dark cabinet. Took about 12hrs until tap root was 1/2". Planted seed, tap root down, in medium under a Mars SP150 at 24" above soil. Moistened soil, covered with clear plastic bowl that I had drilled holes in the top for ventilation. Took two days for the girl to peak her head out. The temp was around 75, but quickly rose to 80+ in the afternoon and you could see the effect on the seedling. I pulled the trigger on a standup AC unit for the closet, but sold it to the Mrs. as a win win in the event we lost power during a hurricane... just hook it up to the generator. Of course, we'd have to sleep in the grow room :0)! Anyway, by the end of week 1, the girl was standing at about 4" but she was pretty leggy and stretching for the light. In hindsight, I should have started the light much closer for such a low watt light.

Week 2: She's still leggy. Put a fan on her to try and strengthen her, but she was too tall. Used a paperclip to keep her upright. She continues to produce nodes and leaves, although a couple are mutated. Temp this week has been in the mid to upper 70s and RH around 50%. Watering 24oz every two days, ph at 6.4-6.5...no nutes. She's small in comparison to other grows I've seen at this age.

Week 3: Increased the watering amount to 1/2gal every other day. Big container for such a small plant. Watering away from the main stalk to encourage horizontal rooting. On day 18, started some LST. She was about 6" and thin/leggy...we'll see how she responds. The second watering this week, she received 1/4 dose of nutes. I did try the Fox Farms foliar spray, but it left dried water marks on the fan leaves. Not sure if it was from the spray bottle (prior use not fully cleaned) or proximity of light to the plant. I'm not too thrilled about that. Maybe try next grow.

Week 4: The temperature where I live has really picked up and the fluctuations in the closet for both temp and humidity are really frustrating. There's no way I could grow in this closet without the AC unit. There are small swings, but it is manageable. I'm just used to my homebrew fermentation set up where you set the temp and forget about it. Anyway, on to week four. She's really starting to bush out in a more dense fashion, and at the end of the week I did some more LST. I wish I could stretch her out a little more. Early in the week, I gave her another 1/4 dose of nutes, and increased it to 1/2 dose later in the week 6.4 ph and 885 ppm. She seemed to respond well. I'm still watering 1/2 gal every other day, and nutes every other watering. I'm continuing to do a lot of leaf tucking to expose some of the future bud sites and there is noticeable signs of pre-flower. Going into week five I'll be looking doing more LST and possible light defoliation of larger fan leaves blocking light to interior bud sites. I did see small white pistils emerge on day 28, so I'll be looking to incorporate a small bloom addition to the grow nutes next week.

Saw a lot of veg growth this week. She's definitely in pre-flower. White pistils are becoming more apparent at almost every node. She responded well to the LST and I did what I thought was a major defoliation mid-week. I was actually concerned that I had taken too much, but by the sixth day this week I could hardly notice. Note to self: If I'm planning to LST, I need to plant the seed 1/3 to one side of the container so I have room to bend her and she can still grow. She currently hanging over the edge a bit and it also limits me a little bit on the LST. She was watered three times this week, still 1/2gal each. The first feeding was with 1/2 nutes (CalMag, Big Bloom, Grow Big) 6.45ph, 900ppm. The second feeding was just ph adjusted water. The last feeding this week was again 1/2 nutes as the first feeding, but I added 1/4 dose Tiger Bloom since we're definitely transitioning from veg to flower, 6.30ph, 980ppm. As we look forward to next week, I'll look to continue LST and spot defoliation and begin incorporating more bloom nutes and ease off the grow nutes. I'll also probably incorporate some black strap molasses into the mix. Until next week...

She's coming along nicely as she transitions into flower. I had a major defoliation this week and transitioned nutes from grow to bloom. Previously, I would feed nutes every other watering, but I figured she was far enough along to handle feeding every watering. Mistake! As you can see in the picture, the tips of some of the leaves are yellowing. I immediately flushed her with water 6.4ph. I'll go back to nutes every other watering. Other than that issue, looks pretty good as far as I can tell. Again, first grow.

Interesting week. It seemed like as soon as she went to flower, everything stalled. No growth, not as perky, just kind of blah. I'm wondering if small waterings every other day is not the way to go, so I've moved to deeper waterings and will water when dry. I'm still not watering to runoff, because I have such a huge pot (7 gal). She didn't like the first deep watering at first, with drooping leaves about 18hrs afterwards, but she bounced back the next morning. I also added another light to the grow closet TS1000. I put her under it and move the SP150 over to the two new girls, a Gorilla Glue and a Tangerine Dream. I'll be doing diaries on them at some point. Anyway, she got one feeding of nutes this week. Big Bloom, Tiger Bloom and CalMag. I also gave her a tbls of molasses. 1,000ppm. This week she grew 4" and there are pistils everywhere and I'm starting to see some stacking. I need to start thinking of lollipopping her and some more defoliation. Need to put that energy into those bud sites. On to next Week!

She's starting to begin stacking, although bud sites haven't fully connected. She's slow growing, and clearly stunted. At the beginning of the week, after a feed, I noticed yellowing spots on some of the top leaves so I immediately flushed her thinking I had given too many nutes. Upon reflection and research, I realized she had a calcium deficiency so I fed her additional Calmag and she's seemed to stabilize. At the beginning of this grow I had read that if your growing an auto in soil, give them 50% of the recommended dose. I cut my soil 50% with Coco/Perlite, so I'm increasing the nute addition to 75% next week. I took a slurry sample to check Ph and PPM. They came back 6.58 and 257 respectively. I have the Dirty Dozen Fox Farm additive pack coming tomorrow, so well see what effect that has going forward and into the next grow. Learning a lot, but "the more you know, the less you know!" On to week nine....at this rate, I'll set a new record for length of grow for autos.

She's on pace for 100+ days before harvest. PSA!!! What ever you do, don't use the pipe cleaners that Bill Ward uses in his videos to LST your plant. My first tie down, when I initially bent her over, dug into the main stem by about one third as she grew. Certainly, it was my fault for not readjusting the tie down, but I'm wondering if this was yet another reason that she's stunted and taking so long. This week I added the Fox Farm Dirty Dozen additives to the nute line up, as well as, Holly Mackerel and Kelp Me. She got one good feeding this week. We've moved up to 1 gallon distilled twice a week, and we're on a feed, water, water cycle at 75% strength on dose recommendation. She's done stretching and the colas are slowly filling in. I've started to see trichomes on the sugar leaves at most of the bud sites, so that gives me hope. Other than the main colas around the perimeter, I can tell there's going to be a lot of popcorn and larf underneath and within the canopy. I should have trimmed this back when I had the chance. Oh, well...first time. I'll make some butter or edibles or something with that and the kief. On to week 10!

Slow going. Colas are slowly beginning to change color. Seeing some fading of white pistils to off white and orange. The bud sites are becoming more frosty. Picked up a jewler loupe so I can see the trichomes, which at this point are very clear. Pretty cool to see them up close though. I did run through and defoliate a bit this week. Took off any fan leaves that were either on the bottom of the plant or covering bud sites. On to week 11!

So this week sucked.... realized what I thought was nute deficiencies for the last five weeks due to yellowing leaves was actually nute lock. Been watering her too often and not to runoff (didn't know). I flushed her with four gallons to runoff and ph was 6.2 and ppm was 4,000+, SERIOUSLY!!!! OK, lesson learned. Going forward, I will water to runoff and check both ph and ppm. So..... she's close. Trichomes went a little cloudy, so it's a waiting game. Smells amazing! Two weeks at most. Luckily, she's already flushed. If i get one to 1.5 oz, I'll be happy.....Lot's of knowledge yielded!

The trichomes are very cloudy with some amber. Her leaves have yellowed quite a bit and she's been fading all week. It's time. I'm not expecting a good yield because of all the mistakes and learning during this first grow. I definitely know what not to do now. I'll be cutting her down today and drying her in the closet at 70 degrees and RH 50-60. I'll have to move my Gorilla Glue and Tangerine Dream into the 2x4 tent (without temp control) during this dry time. Wish me luck!

Typical first grow I'm sure. Too much attention, over water , over nute, etc... The nute lock halfway through flower, I suspect, really affected bud density. At most, my good buds are medium dense. I ended up with 2.5 oz of bud and another oz of smokeable larf, which the wife likes, plus another oz of trim for edibles/concentrates. I didn't think that I'd have that much yield with all my issues, even though it is mediocre at best. Flavor is piney, earthy with a citrus aroma. Very relaxing buzz. Wife wanted me to harvest early before too many amber trichomes, since she doesn't like couch lock. I probably could have gone another couple of weeks, which could have improved bud density. I learned a lot during this first grow. I'll definitely grow this strain again and mentally prepare myself for a long run.