Seraphis's Northern Lights - 2016 - My 1st Grow

[Seraphis]

Hello all and well met!

I'm waiting on the parts for my first grow and wanted to get started on a journal to help track my progress and hopefully get some pointers along the way.

I ordered some feminized auto flowering Vision Northern Lights and Vision Blueberry seeds from Herbies on February 27th. I plan to start out with Northern Lights to help me get a feel for the process because I've read that it's supposed to be a more forgiving plant and is good for noobs like me.

I'm looking forward to sharing some pics and stories over the next several months, but in the meantime here's what I've got on the way.

Grow Tent

I was going to just set aside some space in my basement and DIY an enclosure, but I got lazy and ended up buying a grow tent

It's 2x2x4 and I'm hoping it will be plenty of space for my single/double plant grows.​

Number of Plants

1​

What strain is it?

Vision Northern Lights​

! Vision Northern Lights Auto Autoflowering Feminised Seeds - Herbies Seeds​

Is it Indica, Sativa or Hybrid? What percentages?

Mostly Indica x Ruderalis​

Is it in Veg or Flower stage?

Still waiting on seeds to arrive.​

Indoor or outdoor?

Indoor​

Soil or Hydro?

Soil​

If soil... what is in your mix?

FoxFarm Happy Frog Organic Potting Soil

I plan on doing a Perlite/Soil mix. I've read 25-30% Perlite will help so I'm going to give that a shot.​

If soil... What size pot?

3-Gallon Smart Pot

Size of light?

CFLs 4x2700 & 4x5000
Shop Utilitech 4-Pack 23-Watt (100W Equivalent) ,5,000K Medium (E-26) Base Daylight Decorative CFL Bulbs ENERGY STAR at Lowes.com
Shop SYLVANIA 4-Pack 23-Watt (100W Equivalent) 2,700K Spiral Medium Base (E-26) Soft White CFL Bulb at Lowes.com

I'm a little nervous about the CFLs, but I'm not ready to drop a few more hundred bucks on the project. If things go well enough I will upgrade the lights later but now just isn't a good time. In the meantime I will have to deal with smaller yields.
​

Is it aircooled?

Waiting on tent and temps to get a plan together for this.​

Temp of Room/cab?

Waiting on tent and temp/humidity sensor.

RH of Room/cab?

Waiting on tent.​

PH of media or res?

Waiting on tent.​

Any Pests ?

Hopefully not.​

How often are you watering?

Haven't started grow yet.​

Type and strength of ferts used?

Will be using very small doses of Fox Farm Liquid Nutrient Soil Trio

 

[Nismo12]

Good luck with your first grow and welcome to ! Just do all of your homework and listen to what the pros here have to say, it helps. Trust me. CFL and in a small space...can't wait.

 

[Stinky Snid]

Hey seraphis, glad you gave us some background info before you get started. Thanks for deciding to join us here at the best growers community on the Web.

KiG cheers

 

[Seraphis]

My tent showed up four days ahead of schedule and was quick and painless to get set up.

I decided to throw 6 CFLs in there to see what the temp and humidity will be like without anything growing while I wait on the seeds. I've been reading journals of people having temperature issues with similar setups so I'm sure I will be tackling that at some point.

I'm heading out today to pick up a small fan and extraction fan for the carbon scrubber I'm in the middle of building. After reading the article here on ventilation, I'm pretty sure everything will be fine when it's all set up.

Ambient Room Info
Humidity
High: 79%
Low: 39%

Temp
High: 64F
Low: 52F

Sorry there aren't any photos, but I still need to do some research on exif data. I'm sure you're all aware of it but just in case:

"When you take a picture with your digital camera, it stores all sorts of information, called EXIF (Exchangable Image File) data, in the photo's file. This includes things like type of camera, shutter speed, or the date the photo was taken. However, many new cameras—especially the cameras built into iPhone and Android phones—will also store your GPS location by default, which could easily lead someone to your home address or phone number."

 

[Heraldo]

Didn't know about that EXIF stuff. Pretty freaky. Maybe you can get around it screencapping and saving it on paint? If not, I'm going back to polaroids...
Hope we get to see your grow soon.

 

[SolMJ]

Hey seraphis, be careful because once you start growing you'll NEVER stop

By the way regarding photo's taken from smartphones simply remove the metadata before uploading, this takes away all personal info that comes with the photo. Download a free metadata app for this. In any case I think this forum removes all this info before saving but to be sure do it yourself each time. Nobody cares for a few plants anyway.

Good choice of seeds by the way, I grew some auto NLs from nirvana & it was great...as you say pretty straightforward. Good to see your tent arrived 4 days ahead of schedule, it's like it's all meant to be...you're fulfilling your destiny young apprentice lol!

 

[Seraphis]

My first seed order finally arrived today and the first Northern Light seed has been planted!

 

[Seraphis]

you're fulfilling your destiny young apprentice lol!

 

[Seraphis]

Thought I would share a pic of the delivery. I'm still not sure how they managed to cram all those baggies in that little container.

I will definitely be a repeat customer at Herbies

 

[Stinky Snid]

Nice choices seraphis, glad they got to you safely. They can get pretty creative with their stealth shipping, it's great. Good luck with germination, it's only the first step in your adventure into growing some quality homegrown medicine.

KiG cheers

 

[Seraphis]

It looks like I've underestimated how much heat the CFLs and 150 HPS was going to put off. I have a 6" in-line duct fan I bought from lowes and a 9" box fan blowing up inside of the tent. I come home from work today and temps were 91F!

Off to do some research on a higher quality exhaust fans.

Funny part is, I only turned the HPS on to warm things up a bit

I just hope my little seed isn't affected and is still germinating.

 

[Seraphis]

It took her 4 days, but she's finally sprouted!

Sorry for the photo. I must have had the camera upside down trying to maneuver it in that tiny tent.

I'm going to be upgrading to a 32x32x64 tent and decided to try a Mars Hydro Reflector as well. I hope that the extra space will make fighting temperature a lot easier and I figured since I have extra room why not add a Vision Blueberry Bliss auto fem to the grow. She's germinating now.

 

[420Amard]

Subbed an along for the ride

 

[Nismo12]

It took her 4 days, but she's finally sprouted!

Sorry for the photo. I must have had the camera upside down trying to maneuver it in that tiny tent.

I'm going to be upgrading to a 32x32x64 tent and decided to try a Mars Hydro Reflector as well. I hope that the extra space will make fighting temperature a lot easier and I figured since I have extra room why not add a Vision Blueberry Bliss auto fem to the grow. She's germinating now.

Did you just drop the seed into the soil?

Also, look into 6" inline fans and carbon activated filters. I have one of those fans from Lowe's also, but mine is for the intake. Wanted a lesser rated CFM for the intake to keep the tent at a negative pressure. Just things to think about. But I have heard that northern lights is a great strain to grow for beginners. Also, I do believe that you are in good hands here on

 

[Seraphis]

The Northern Lights seed I just planted right into the final container. The Blueberry Bliss I have in wet papertowels between two plates.

I have a DIY carbon filter made and ready for the exhaust when I get it. If you look at one of the photos of the tent you can see it setting in the back right corner. Not the prettiest thing but I'm hoping it will do the job.

I have actually been looking at 6" clip on fans trying to find something that will be quiet. Do you have any recommendations?

 

[Nismo12]

I will say that an inline fan does wonders. I also have a speed controller so I can literally have it the speed I need. I treat it basically as a thermostat. Exhaust may not be the issue. It could be intake is not enough. I was doing a passive intake (no fan) and I was running upper 80's with my lights both at 600 watts. Then I got that little 6" fan from lowes and ran flexible duct work out of my closet. Just had to suck air from out of the closet and that did the trick. Dropped 13 degrees just by adjusting where I got the air from. So could be either or

 

[Mingledangle]

Awesome setup. Congrats on the sprout. I'm also doing a northern lights auto flower grow and a auto blueberry. My girls are on day 4. Can't wait to see how yours turn out. If you want I have a journal also going, but I do not know how to make it my signature.

 

[420Amard]

From my experience most of the time no matter which way you chose either the paper towel, right in soil, cup of water, any other way it all takes about the same amount of time. For me I like the paper towel method because I can watch it grow a bit more

 

[Seraphis]

Sprout Day 2

I have 2 of the CFLs about 3-4" from the sprout on each side, 2 more are 8-10" from the sprout. Because of the 2 way splitter I can't get the other two any closer. I could add a third set if you think it needs it.

I should also add that I have a Mars Hydro Reflector 48 coming tomorrow. Do you think I should start using it or stick with the CFLs?

Sorry for the fuzzy photo. I'll get the hang of these extreme close ups eventually

Temp and humidity

 

[Mingledangle]

congrats looking good. With this being my first grow I would assume the led's might be better but I'm sure the more experienced will chime in on that.