Bluesunshine's Northern Lights In Soil Jan 2020

[Bluesunshine]

So it was almost midnight on the 31st of December and somehow the planets had not aligned in the last few months to spur me into starting some seeds and a whole new year was about to begin.
I had to start the new year off afresh and get some seeds going. Anyway the moment was almost upon me so I rushed to the cupboard and got to plates soaked a bit of tissue in carbon filtered water and through a complicated system of mathematics eventually managed to decided the correct number of seeds was 8,,, I might be completely wrong on the number but it seemed correct at the time.
Then to only decision was finding a place of safety to keep them,, which turned out to be a little corner cabinet that belonged to my grandfather it is so high up it almost touches the ceiling and is protected by a stone gargoyle,, perfect!



I looked at them excitedly the next morning,, I was not surprised to find:
1 that they were still there
2 they looked just like they did when I put them there 10 hours before.

So I kept the tissue moist for a few day and eventually had a root out of the 8 seeds.
I wanted to start washing out buckets filling them with soil and putting them in but having read a few grow journals the condenses seemed to be tiny pot spoonful of fine soil and a spray bottle of water.
I went round to the local garden center and got the smallest available pots. There just happens to be a huge bag of Peat Moss lying unopened in the garden and a bag of worm-cast in my kitchen,, don't ask me why a bag of worm-cast has been living in my kitchen for a few weeks,, it seemed the right place to put it when I brought it in and it's still there.
I wasn't sure if I should put some into the peat-moss pondered about it for a while and thought "Oh go on and after careful consideration chucked about 20% on top of a bucket of peat-moss and mixed it through filled the little pots and got the seedlings in and at a bright window.
The next day we had seed leaves so I got them into a big plastic box with a 2 ft square 40w 4000k LED ceiling panel plonked on top the type that goes on a suspended ceiling in an office.
I was afraid of the LED light somehow being to strong for seedlings so I kept it about 12 inches from the seedlings.

In 24 hours they looked rather lanky, so I decided to leave them for another day.
By this morning they were decidedly leggy.

 

[Bluesunshine]

Over the course of the day I came to the decision that they were not getting enough light so moved them up quite close and things seemed to go OK. Now something had to be done on the beanstalk looks. I slipped out and got bigger pots.
I then transplanted the seedlings into the larger pots. Well what I actually did was press out the whole content of the pot and as carefully as possible place it at the bottom of the larger pot and gently back fill the new pot till there was only about an inch of stalk showing above the soil.


One of the little mites is rather poorly, she had totally keeled over earlier.. top left.
I have her little head propped up on a little bit of metal but my gut feeling is she is to far gone but well give her a chance.

The top of the plants is now only a few inches from the lights by a cleaver use of 6 rather heavy encyclopedias placed in the bottom of the box. I was rather puzzled as to why I was unable to slide the box under the table when I was finished but there ya go!

 

[Southerncough]

You're on your way!

 

[Bluesunshine]

You're on your way!

At Last Southern,, At Last!

 

[Bluesunshine]

We had a death this morning,,, really I think the death was a few days ago but with the cost of Sensi's I was not going to give up that easily.
Now we have an uneven number of 7 and I don't like uneven numbers in a tent.
I am toying with topping them at a later stage and perhaps I could get some of the tops to root bring them along for a few weeks and just stick them in with the others that will be a few weeks in flower by then and see what happens.
Or maybe just try and divide up what I have as best I can.

 

[Bluesunshine]

I ordered up some Ecoworm Soil Extract a few days ago,, one for flowers and one for vegetables. I'm not one to follow fashion or trend so tend to avoid big brand labels this stuff is supposed to be be Organic and I assume still has some life left in it,,, but I may be wrong,, It may be boiled to all's no more like the rest,, hopefully it will at least have less chemical.
For the next grow I will be cooking up some organic soil,,I feel in the pit of my stomach it's the only way for me.

One the plant side of things we have definite progress with the others this morning.
I decided to leave the lights on 24hrs and I have moved them to about 5 or 6 inches from the LED panel. I don't see any stretching,,that seems to have stopped, and for the first there is really progress on the normal leaves,, I'll try and get a picture later!

 

[Southerncough]

Here's my northen lights baby. She's been vegging a while and quadline training her. She's gotta wait a few weeks for a spot to open up in the bloom room.

 

[Bluesunshine]

Here's my northen lights baby. She's been vegging a while and quadline training her. She's gotta wait a few weeks for a spot to open up in the bloom room.

All nice and open Southern,, what date did you start her and what light was she under?
I'll be interested to see how she time progresses,, I will give me an idea of when to flip.

 

[Southerncough]

It's probably been two months from seed. Fortunately still have a big jar of northern lights in the cupboard to hold over so i dont have to rush her.
She's sitting under some cheap T-5 Style LEDs from home depot. I keep a bunch around and should probably put a real light in there, but these have worked pretty well at keeping the girls in veg without much heat

 

[Bluesunshine]

On my virtual wanderings today I came upon a crowd that grow giant vegetables they had various things on offer I ordered some of there Cal-Mag as I'm sure I will need some of that. Some of there Mycorrhizal and a box of there Frass. I was going to get some of there compost tea but with the soil extract and having a bag of wormcast (still sitting in my kitchen) decided it might be superfluous.

 

[Bluesunshine]

It's probably been two months from seed. Fortunately still have a big jar of northern lights in the cupboard to hold over so i dont have to rush her.
She's sitting under some cheap T-5 Style LEDs from home depot. I keep a bunch around and should probably put a real light in there, but these have worked pretty well at keeping the girls in veg without much heat

Heat is not a big problem in this part of the world at present in fact I have two air cooled shades that I plan to vent into the room and it will act as supplementary heat for the house.

I was thinking about veg lights earlier, I know I can't keep them under a 40W 4000K LED panel for ever.
The other lights I have are really all for flower:
2x 315w Phillips 3100K CMH and a couple of R-Spec boards to sit between the two CMH.
I had an adjustable ballast lying there so I ordered up a 250W Metal H lamp,, hopefully that should surfice to a time when I can just stick them under the CMH and flip them at a later date.
I read somewhere that vegging plants seem to do very well under 3100K CMH.

 

[shottafire]

Nice start blue.

 

[Southerncough]

Heat is not a big problem in this part of the world at present in fact I have two air cooled shades that I plan to vent into the room and it will act as supplementary heat for the house.

I was thinking about veg lights earlier, I know I can't keep them under a 40W 4000K LED panel for ever.
The other lights I have are really all for flower:
2x 315w Phillips 3100K CMH and a couple of R-Spec boards to sit between the two CMH.
I had an adjustable ballast lying there so I ordered up a 250W Metal H lamp,, hopefully that should surfice to a time when I can just stick them under the CMH and flip them at a later date.
I read somewhere that vegging plants seem to do very well under 3100K CMH.

Might do too well vegging under a 315!
Might have some monsters going into bloom.
My veg tent is 2x3 which is divided into a 2x2 area and a 1x2 area with a shelf if that makes sense?
So the area with shelves has 2x25 watt lights tied up. And the 2x2 area has 3 hanging on yoyos

 

[Bluesunshine]

Nice start blue.

Thank you for the vote of confidence Shottafire,,, to be honest I'm a little disappointed at loosing one.
My only consolation is not loosing more,, I could have lost the lot of them,, thankfully my gut feeling was right my actions carefully executed and seem to have been appropriate going by how they are looking. I'll take some pictures tomorrow as they are so small and I still need a magnifying glass to see them,,, but through that magnifying glass the seed leaves seem to be getting a little lighter in colour,, I'm not sure if it is the seed-leaves starting to go but I imagine that to be the case.

 

[Bluesunshine]

Might do too well vegging under a 315!
Might have some monsters going into bloom.
My veg tent is 2x3 which is divided into a 2x2 area and a 1x2 area with a shelf if that makes sense?
So the area with shelves has 2x25 watt lights tied up. And the 2x2 area has 3 hanging on yoyos

The only thing CMH lamps are very expensive and I have just forked out for two philips 3100K bulbs ,, which here cost me the equivalent of about $260. I was thinking of throwing them under the MH for a few weeks,,,, but I may try the MH for a week or 10 days and then just chuck a 3100K CMH in and see how things go. I'm all for experimenting,,it the only way I learn,, I've always been that way,, even with cooking I don't think I have ever followed a recipy to the letter.

 

[shottafire]

I’m running a 315 cmh in veg right now and I’m loving the light.

 

[Southerncough]

Here's some pics kind of showing how they're set up in veg...

 

[Bluesunshine]

I’m running a 315 cmh in veg right now and I’m loving the light.

Do the kids love the light as much as you?
Have you seen any marked improvements since starting to use the CHM for veg?
What in the colour temp of the CHM lamp your using?
What sort of area are you covering with a single 315 and at what height from the plants?
I know,, so many questions,, I feel like a professional interrogator at this stage !

 

[Bluesunshine]

Here's some pics kind of showing how they're set up in veg...

Southern, when you said T5 I imagined florescent but those look like LED tubes,, I haven't seen anything like that before.

 

[cr8grow]

Do the kids love the light as much as you?
Have you seen any marked improvements since starting to use the CHM for veg?
What in the colour temp of the CHM lamp your using?
What sort of area are you covering with a single 315 and at what height from the plants?
I know,, so many questions,, I feel like a professional interrogator at this stage !

Im a new grower...first grow was going fine until recently. I vegged under cmh 315w 4200k and the plants did great. I was told by the grow shop the 4200k could be used for the entire grow. Then started reading around the 3100k has a redder spectrum and will build flowers faster. So I bought the 3100k and swapped out early in flower. Im no expert but do love the light and most people on threads here agree. Hopefully I can work through my nute/deficiency issues and bring this first grow to harvest in a month or so. I intent to start my next grow again with the 4200k all the way through stretch this time and then finish with the 3100k. Good luck on your grow!