Things seem to be progressing well overall, buds are fattening up nicely and you can clearly see pistils gradually turning brown with more and more trichomes appearing. The smell situation is interesting: not much odor around the tent itself, but when I open it up you definitely get that classic Northern Lights smell, very piney and earthy. It's not overwhelming yet but it's there.
Now the bad news: as you can see in the photos, she's self-pollinated. I'm seeing the first seeds forming in some calyxes. I'm hoping it's just a few and won't impact the harvest too much, but in the worst case I'll just use the whole crop for hash. The hermie issue from previous weeks finally caught up with me.
Environment has been pretty stable this week. Temps sitting around 21-24°C during lights on, dropping to high teens at night (sometimes hitting 17°C). Not ideal but the NL genetics are handling it fine. Humidity has been bouncing between low 40s and mid 60s with one spike to 66%, probably from watering and humidifier refill. VPD has been in the 1.0-2.0 kPa range most of the week, which is acceptable for mid-late flower. PPFD stayed steady around 640 during lights on, and CO2 is just ambient as usual with the typical spikes here and there.
Feeding this week was a bit all over the place as I'm trying to find the right balance. On Mon 13th I gave her 1.5L with full bloom feed: Bio-Bloom, Bio-Grow, Top-Max, CalMag, SUPERthrive and Acti-Vera at pH 6.30 and EC 0.95 mS/cm going in. Runoff came out at EC 0.93 mS/cm and pH 6.11, so pretty clean. On Fri 16th I went lighter with just 1.5L of Alg-A-Mic (3 ml/L) and CalMag (0.3 ml/L) at pH 6.16 and EC 0.26 mS/cm, didn't get any runoff that time. Then today (Sun 19th) I ramped it back up with 1.5L of the full mix: Bio-Bloom (4 ml/L), Bio-Grow (4 ml/L), Top-Max (4 ml/L), CalMag (0.5 ml/L), SUPERthrive (0.27 ml/L), Acti-Vera and Alg-A-Mic at pH 6.20 and EC 1.60 mS/cm. Runoff came back at EC 1.70 mS/cm and pH 6.20, so the medium is holding a bit more salts than what I'm putting in but nothing crazy.
Visually she looks healthy apart from the seed situation. Leaves are a nice green with no signs of deficiencies or burn. The buds are stacking well and frost is definitely coming in on the sugar leaves and bud tops. Structure is still tight and compact with all the main tops sitting at roughly the same height.
Overall I'm cautiously optimistic. The hermie/seed issue is a bummer but as long as it doesn't get out of control I should still get a decent harvest. She's bulking up, staying healthy, and handling the cold temps without drama. Winter is here but she's not impressed, just keeps on growing.