Northern Lights Auto DWC

I am mixing my nutrients following the Advanced Nutrients grow schedule. However, I am adding the nutrients to the reservoir only up to about 150ppm. Also, I started seedlings with CFL ~7 inches from plant -- am switching to LEDs from a height of about 40 inches; will bring it down to about 24 inches over the next week. For anyone interested, I have 3 ViparSpectra 300W lights and a PerfectSun MINI light (running some comparisons -- ViparSpectra seems to do great for vegetation). I am doing 5 gallon bucket DWC with a 4'x4'x6' tent. I am using air pumps that are over 950gph -- these are acting as my "chillers" since they keep the water temp right about the same temp as the basement air temp. I realized this was the cheapest way to chill my water -- just boost your air pumps!

It is now 7 days exactly since sprouting. Taproot is about 3 inches below the netpot; I lowered the water today to it's final position at 7.5" from bottom of 5 gallon bucket. I'm still adjusting light to avoid light burn, but so far it looks pretty healthy. I will start to hit with some more nutrients in the next couple of days, I think. I'll post more photos later this week. Now that the roots are appearing, my drop system should help growth.

Roots are growing quick and appearing all over the place. I have reduced my top feed to 2 minutes per every 2 hours, as the plants were dropping a bit if I exceed that. (I'm using a pump and some tubing with large holes rather than a drop system; this seems to dump a lot more water on them than they can handle if done at long intervals.) PPM is at about 400 initially, but I notice it dropping down to 300 over a day's time. I think I'm going to monitor that and feed it more towards the end of the week if drops to around 100-150ppm. This plant seems to be growing very quick. In my tent, I have four 5-gallon buckets. This plant is doing the best by far, and I'm still working out some kinks with my setup. Once I get those ironed out, I'll do more diaries. So far, I'm very happy with this Northern Lights strain. Seems like a very hardy plant that grows quick! Second week showed explosive growth from day 7 to 14. Biggest factor appears to be (1) switching from rockwool cubes to Rapid Rooters and (2) adding the drip/top feed system. Noticable increase in growth speed with these changes. Also, noticable increase in roots appearing quicker and in more locations using Rapid Rooters. I will likely never germinate in water, under my bed, on a heater, or any of those techniques again. Simplest and most effective way, I've found, is to just put the seed directly into a wet Rapid Rooter and install it into your DWC system. You should see a sprout within a week maximum. Mine appear around days 4-6. No effort, no wasted seeds. I will throw more pictures up here during the week.

Plant is growing very fast during the last week. I have a few others in the tent with this strain, and this one is the healthiest and fastest growing. It seems like it is about to transition to flowering, but I'm not seeing it completely yet. I will be watching it over the next few days to decide when to switch over to my transition/bloom nutrient mix. (I'll be following the Advanced Nutrients calculator, but adjusting PPM as necessary.) This plant was topped last week. Day 27 I took off the biggest two fan leaves nearest the top. They seemed to have been soaking up all of the light. Pictures post day 27 will reflect that, plus some LST. Pictures look darker green than the plants really are -- this is probably due to my purple-hue lights.

Plants are healthy. I'm starting some low stress training...going to try and tie down branches for a level growing field. I topped this plant minimally, but have others that are topped aggressively. I know people say not to top auto-flowers, but I see quick response. Is anyone else topping their autos?

I've topped this a couple times on the main stem. You can tell towards the center of the plant. Roots are massive already. All of the leaves look healthy; no nutrient burn. There are maybe 1 or 2 with speckles on it, likely from PH imbalance when it drank all of its nutrients earlier this past week. I have been adding about 550 ppm, but end up adding another 300-400ppm a few days later. I feel more comfortable doign this than dumping 800-900ppm, because I don't want to burn it. So, again, just monitoring PPM through the week. pH has been staying relatively stable. Water temps are maintaining between 62-71 F. I'd like it to be below 68, but the weather here is changing often and it is hard to keep my basement stabilized. I really like this strain from this seed company. This will be my third harvest, and this Northern Lights plant is BY FAR the fastest and heartiest plant I've grown. I definitely recommend growing this auto from Genehtik.

No complaints with this strain! It is growing so fast. I topped the main stem, and must have FIM'd it because it's split into 4. Two of those I've topped as well. I'm counting about 17 tops on this plant. It is extremely healthy and sturdy. Drinking at least a gallon of water each day currently. I'm starting nutrients at around 500 PPM and then letting it drink them for a few days. I am giving it another dose of around 400-500 PPM about 3 days later, but am basing this on the PPM drop. Once they get down between 50-100ppm, I add more of my nutrient mix. This seems to prevent nutrient burn, and the consistent supply of nutrients seems to be making my plants very happy! Weather here is warm and humid, and I'm having to wrestle a bit with the environment in my basement. It's difficult for me to keep the humidity below 60% because the windows of my house are open while it's about 75 degrees F outside. Plants are happy, though, so I'm happy :)

I think she's got 3-5 weeks left. I'm going to keep running my current nutrient mix for another 2 weeks or so, and then I'll switch from Big Bud to Overdrive. Anyone have any thoughts on that? This plant seems to be bulking up quick. The root system is MASSIVE, taking up most my bucket space. I may reduce the size of my net pots next grow to give me a little more depth available in these 5 gallon buckets. 6" net pots are nice, but they take up at least 1/3rd of the height of my bucket, so my roots get massive but then there's little room for actual water. I'm thinking they might get even bigger if I have more available space in my buckets. I'm also doing some changes to my grow tent. I moved the exhaust fan inside the tent to reduce noise, and I replaced 4 little (cheap) inline fans I had in all 4 corners (2 intake, 2 exhaust). In their place, I put 1 massive 200 CFM fan from iPower. Very nice fan! Powerful and quiet! I also used a bunch of duck tape and some heating ducts to connect a dehumidifier. It takes air out from the top of the tent, goes through the humidifier, and then blows back into the bottom of the tent. I wanted to focus on controlling my tent conditions instead of my whole basement. So far, this system is working great for humidity! It's also adding about 5 extra degrees of heat (in conjunction with the exhaust fan's heat, no doubt) -- which is welcome. My heat is now closer to 80 degrees F, which I think is ideal. The downside of this is that the extra heat buildup on the tent has increased my bucket reservoir temps. It got up to 71.6 today. Because my reservoirs are separate 5 gallon buckets, a liquid chiller wouldn't be simple or economical. I'm trying to think of ways to cool my air further instead. I might try some rubber tubes running somewhere cool. (Places engineering cap on.) For now, I'm glad it's under 72 degrees and I am also adding Hydroguard. Sensizyme should help, too.

Plant is looking super healthy. Buds are fattening up and some of the lowest leaves are starting to turn yellow. There are so many white hairs on this that I'm thinking it's got 2-3 weeks still. Lots of trichomes, and almost no smell at all. Again, I can't stress how awesome this plant has grown for me. I'm thinking of doing a scrog method in my 4'x4' tent with just this one plant in the center. I have a feeling this would take over my entire tent if I did it properly. I can DEFINITELY recommend this strain for the ease of growing.

Buds have gotten much fatter since last week. Much more trichomes showing up. Drinking at least a gallon of water a day, perhaps a bit more. Going to wait til a few more days into mid-week 11 to give it Flawless Finish as a flush. Depending on how long they go, I might go with straight RO water after that -- we'll see! I'll take any input and advice you have to give! Always open to learning new things!

I LOVE this strain! It has been so hearty all the way from seed to now. Very easy to manage, quick to grow, and very resistant to issues (I didn't pH the water for like 3 weeks -- I relied on the 'pH Perfect' technology). Props to Advanced Nutrients; even though their nutrients didn't maintain the pH near 5.8 -- my plants didn't seem to care. I admit to being lazy... usually I pH them for the first 5-6 weeks and then just get sick of watching it. I haven't seen any issues with my plants though -- so, will likely stick with Advanced Nutrients. I have the entire line of General Hydroponics, but I just can't get myself the will to want to pH my plants again every day. Anyway, great plant -- smells great. I would love to try more from the Genehtik line. Of the 4 seeds I planted, this one shot up days before the others and has just been a fast, strong grower. I'll post some more pictures during harvest. My photos are NOT doing this plant justice!! Flushing it out now for a few days.

I really liked this strain. I didn't expect it to take off as well as it did, but it had a fantastic resistance to everything thrown at it. This thing nearly took over my entire 4' x 4' tent, seriously! It was growing into my other plants at a low angle -- anywhere it could get light -- and those were massive buds! I was really happy with the yield. And growing on GrowDiaries was super helpful -- I really appreciate everyone's input as I was growing this. I learned a ton during this grow, being my 3rd, and I'm excited about my next ones! SMOKE UPDATE: 1.5 months or so after harvest, I love this strain. Added a video of me smushing it. Love the flavor of this strain above all. It’s a nice little palette cleanser. Not a super big high. But a great flavor. Nice chill. It’s probably 7/10 for strength.