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Just germinated two new seedlings. Northern Light auto which seems to be a staple in this part of the world. I haven't done anything fancy here, just wet the soil, tiny hole in the centre and dropped Wanda and Wilma into their cradles of life with a sprinkle of dirt over. They are in a tent with another plant which is 6 weeks in. This is the first time I am germinating in a growing environment ie with a light schedule. In the past I have germinated in a dark space and then re-planted, but have read that growers don't bother with that so going to give it a go for simplicity.
Day 3 - broke the surface.
Day 7 - looking strong
Watered less than 300ml each over the course of the week. Soil retains quite a bit of moisture and I have made the error of over watering in the past, so will keep in conservative.
Roll on week 2!
Not much action to report.
Watered them twice this week as the soil is drying out nicely. I previously had a humidity issue in the tent that has been resolved (80% RH down to about 60-65%).
Temps have hit 29C in there, little heat wave but not too serious.
Only given tap water at just under 7PH. Have a weird question about lowering it that seems to happen to me. I will upload a video with an explanation later this week.
I will upload a vid to better show but here goes..
I add 2L fresh water ~ 6.5PH to bottle. Add a splash of PH- then shake. I measure the solution, reads ~5PH. I pour some out, add water, clean and dry probe, shake solution and re-measure > 4PH!!? More water I add PH drops?!
Yeah, make sure you use distilled water to calibrate you PH meter. Tap, spring, or any other water source will always have varying PH levels, so likely the water you are adding is just more acidic, or your PH tester is off. The good news is that you are probably overthinking it. More likely than not, your standard tap water will be alright if you let it sit for 24 hours to get rid of any chlorine. You should only have to augment PH if you experience invest nutrient lock, and you can do so simply with lemon juice or aglime (one goes up, one goes down)
Day 20 - Both girls are looking good so far. Nothing fancy this week, plain tap water left in the tent to warm up and settle as advised before being added. Watering about every third day.
Hey!
They look a bit behind compared to most but nothing you should worry about.
To speed up the growth you need to feed them more water but only if they're asking for it.. I see you giving them 200ml, maybe up that a bit.
if they soil is drier than the last time you watered they're asking for more.. being careful not to over water and stunt them.
Good luck and happy growing!
4 weeks in.
Things seem good. Slight temp drops meant I had to re-jig some things. Trying to keep the Min temperature above 17C but noticed a low of 12C one day.
I have tried a little experiment - topped one plant. The thinking is, as I have a lot of vertical space over my grow area footprint, I want multiple main colas to grow tall and not be bushy. I know LST is easier for a noob and will probably result in better yields, but the area is small so we shall see. Starting adding nuits - DutchPro Grow. Sticking to just below the recommended dosage per Litre.
Plants might be going into flower soon, so will keep an eye out for any signs but will probably be the last time I use the 'grow' nuits.
In summery: looking healthy, maybe a little small, and experimenting with topping.
Everything was going well. Then I had an absolute nightmare. The thermostat in the heater I was using malfunctioned, and for a period of 48 hours where I didn't check the plants, the temps had soared to 48C and 30%RH. As you can see from the photos the plants took beating, but a day or so later after I cooled and watered them they have bounced back positively. For reference, the 'bad' photos were taken 24hours after I found them burnt, and were already looking better. The others were 48 hours after. That makes them at day 34 and day 35.
Hope this hasn't stunted growth too much.
Just as a note, I have moved from a small electric (cheapo) fan heater to an electric oil filled rad. A bit larger than I wanted for the small space, but the reasons where, it had a better efficiency and reliability and doesn't make any noise. Things have settled the last day or two now.
Also to note, no signs of flowering even though they should be entering pre-flower now. Might be due to the stress - any pointers here would be appreciated - but have also only used water for the last 3 days to flush the grow nuits out.
Hello
So it doesn't really look too bad. I would remove the few dry curly burnt ones and leave it. At least it'll open up some more light penetration and the leaves don't work as well when they're damaged anyways, so really they're just in the way now. It only looks like maybe 4 leaves to be removed on the one plant which shouldn't stress it negatively.
Happy growing.
Both looking healthy (from my noobie perspective) Only been adding water here as there aren't definitive signs of flowering, which should be occurring about now. Interestingly Wanda who has been topped is starting to stretch and looks more eager to grow than Wilma who is probably 5cm shorter. Hopefully this coming week the signs of flowering will be more apparent and I can start adding some Bloom nuits.
Just completed 7 weeks since germination. They look so big, strong and all round healthy. Been feeding them Bloom nuits now, averaging about 4ml per day but only watering every other day or so. They are drinking loads more. Something I haven't experienced. Normally end up over watering, but now I am worried I can't keep up!
My only major concern is they haven't started flowering. Breeder notes say 5-7 weeks so I've just cleared the upper figure of that. Not sure how normal this is or if there is something I should change.
A friend has recommended altering the light schedule from my 18/6 to 12/12. As it's getting colder I compromised with a 14/10 cycle. Ill leave it a week and see if there are any growing signs.
Onwards!
It has entered flowering mode you can see the preflowers, make sure your light is far enough away to get the best size and stretch out of your girls and keep it at 18/6 or 20/4 would be best. Make sure she gets a dry spell every now and then too. 🌱👍
Week 8 completed. Looks like it is definitely in pre-flower. More obvious signs of the bud sites. Sorry there are not many photos, was in a rush.
Need to raise the light to stretch them out further to gain better yields, will do that later in the week.
Only thing I will note is they are definitely drinking loads more. Also, need to fill the soil to the brim of the pots from now on. Someone had written online to leave them an inch or so from the top, but with the watering and over time the soil has settled to at least 2.5 inches below the top of the pot.
Is it time to defoliate or note? Asking as I have read to do a little Defol as they start to flower, not sure what is the right moment and to be honest what the right fan leaves to remove?
At the moment i will let them grow, they are so tiny that u can hurt them.
Maybe one big leaves per plant or two max with the second week to help the stem to grow
Finished week 9. Smell isn't that strong which I'm hoping isn't a bad thing. Drinking plenty and since I raised the lights, they have begun to stretch.
At this point I'm just hoping to harvest something. The bud sites are plenty. Interestingly the one which I topped, has grown better and looks like it will definitely yield more. I know LST is the choice of training for most on autos, but I don't have the time space to work on this so topping is the way to go it looks for me, but we shall see. Other than that conditions are good, plant health looks good so I am happy. Few weeks to go!
Week 10 complete. I am now certain something is wrong with Wilma. She is not flowering like Wanda. I'm going to keep going with her for a while to see if she finally blooms but at this stage I have accepted that I will only harvest 1 plant.
Still feeding bloom nuits.
I have 2 questions:
1) Any idea whats happened with the one plant that has not flowered. Interestingly it was the plant I did not top and therefor should have been quicker to flower?
2) What point do I start flushing? Not convinced that i'll be able to harvest end of week 12?
Wilma may be a photoperiod plant. It can happen, but should be a very low percent chance if from quality breeders.
10 weeks in is fairly safe to call it... it'll double in size once you give it 12 hours of darkness each day before it stops growing, so you may want to prune it back if you will have constraints due to tent or growing area in general... too tall, too wide.. larger than light coverage are all possible.
definitely don't go based on advertised flowering period... once buds look like normal buds, it'll be another 7-14 days?? You need a 30-60x magnier to see the trichomes. Flushing is an urban myth. the causalities given as to why you 'should' flush have all been proven bogus in studies. If you want to save a little mixing or money etc, that's fine too. This will depend on your prefered point in harvest window.. how much amber do you want?
so, maybe when you see ~5% amber in most locations you inspect, you can give a healthy plant water from that point on and probably be fine. If the canopy is not so strong, you may want to rethink that. Not specifically about your current plants, but in general. You are also in soil, so giving some ph'd water for upto 10-14 days will give the fade you typically see.
12 weeks in and this is taking slightly longer than I thought. I will apologise for skipping week 11 too as I have been really tied up with things. Only enough time to get a watering in every other day.
As of 15th Nov (10.5 weeks in or 9 days ago) I switched to 12/12 cycle to try and get Wilma to bloom. I have been advised that It should start to go within 2 weeks or so. I will most likely by then give up on her as she is taking space and I am trying to have a perpetual grow cycle every month or so.
Another thing I have noticed recently is some white marks on the leaves of the plants. The only think I can deduce is that there are spider mites. The tent is outdoors in quite a rural environment. To combat this, I have sprayed some NeemOil, on some of the really bad leaves, taking care not to get any on the buds. And I have sprinkled some Diatomaceous Earth in all the pots. I also removed some clippings and soil mess from the tent to keep it as clean as possible. In addition I have ordered an oscillating fan (had a fixed one before). Hopefully all these measures will sort it.
Still watering with nuits every other day.
Onwards and upwards.
Week 13 complete and another travesty occurred. This is a lot harder than I thought. But I have been making major changes and the lesson is that when I do make the changes to be a little more careful in watching how things are going rather than leave it a day.
It's especially annoying as I think Wanda has finally started to bloom :/
The recent changes I have made have been to add a new TS1000 Marshydro and a larger oscillating fan. I got rid of my 40W LED and now using the old 600W non brand for veg and put the TS1000 over Wanda and Wilma.
In the last 24 hours (one day and one night) I registered a RH low of 30% and a temp High of 30C and RH high of 50% and low temp of 14C. So there are drastic changes over the night in temp. I may need to time the heating to go off when the lights are on to balance the temps and maybe put the fan on a timer too.
However the reason for the fan was because I had a mites issue. To resolve this (and please feel free to interject in the comments) I wanted to increase airflow, hence the new fan, I have sprinkled Diatomaceous earth around the base of the plants, and sprayed some NeemOil on the base and leaves too. I know Neem oil is not recommended for flowering plants, so have only used it on Wanda and the others that haven't flowered in the tent.
When I checked today they look to have gone mostly from Wanda and Wilma but there are some still on the other plants so will keep spraying and sprinkling to hopefully get rid.
As you can see in the photos the plants have drained considerably. I have sprayed some water on the leaves and buds and given a good drink. They are in the lords hands now.
Hopefully they will recover and we can continue onwards and upwards!
A little dawn soap in water, kills all bugs, smothers them. But I see plants that are overwatered. Let them dry an inch or 2 down between waterings. That's why there wilting your smothering your roots. Cheers
14 weeks in. All I can say is this is taking a lot longer than I thought.
I have battled some mites, overheating, underwatering, bad environment but they have come along way looking relatively ok.
I notice some nuit burn on Wilma so have been mainly feeding water this last week. And FINALLY I can say for certain that Wanda is flowering having changed to a 12/12.
Honestly no idea how much longer I have with Wilma. Just keeping an eye through the jewellers loupe for amber Trichomes but not seeing any yet.
Really hope to take something away from this long difficult grow.
Onwards and upwards.
Week 15 done - These are taking looooong.
Increased ventilation having far more consistent conditions. Thripes/mites, whatever was there have subsided but still applying Neam oil to the soil and Fossil dust too to keep them at bay.
Wanda is coming along nicely and hope her buds start fattening. Wilma is getting there, just waiting for more amber.
Looks like they are getting some nuit burn, so have switched to water for a bit.
Much happier since I have added an oscillating fan and a timer for the heater to keep the temps and humidity far more consistent.
Also they absolutely stink. Hoping thats a good sign!
Onward, upwards!
So finally came to harvest time. Took 17 weeks, although the Christmas period probably delayed that somewhat and in all fairness I was not 100% sure when to harvest.
I wanted to see some amber trichomes, but I couldn't properly see any. I did determine that they were mostly cloudy. In theory I should have just waited longer, but most of the plant had dried/died. It was starting to feel crispy to the touch no matter how much water I fed it and therefore decided just to go for it. My first attempt so wasn't going to be perfect and it was quite a rocky road throughout.
A little disappointed how little weight has been yielded but hopefully that should improve. There has been a cold snap and I struggled to maintain temps properly. I will need to insulate better.
There is one more NL to harvest, but that is a little behind as it turned out to be a photo so is probably a couple weeks from harvest.
Have put in a jar to cure with a wet q-tip as it was really feeling dry. I only hung them for 36 hours or so and the smaller stems weren't quite snapping but the buds themselves felt really crumbly and dry. Will report the smoke test in a week or so.
Any comments on how i've trimmed them, there was a lot of leaves in the buds so not sure if I have gone through it properly.
RollinRick
