EvilStinkbomb's - Organic Northern Lights Autoflower! - Journal

[EvilStinkbomb]

Hi everyone!

So this is going to be my first grow; i'm really excited and would like to share my first growing experience with the rest of the cannabis community. I'm going to be growing the well-known strain Northern Lights. These are going to be autoflowering feminized seeds. I purchased my seeds from herbiesheadshop 2 days ago; they arrived this morning (Would definitely recommend them!). I'm going to be updating every few weeks or so at the different stages of my plants life...

Germination
Seedling
(It's an Autoflower so it skips vegetation stage)
Pre-Flowering
Flowering
Maturity
Harvest
Drying/Curing

Germination
So I've just placed my seeds into a damp piece of kitchen roll, and then placed the kitchen roll into a sandwich bag for germination! They are currently in a room with humidity 53% and temperature of 16°C.
When these seeds root's break through tomorrow or a few days after, I will be putting them into 5 liter pots. This is my first grow so I've went with a cheap lighting system; I'll be using;
"45Watt LED Grow Light Hydroponic Plant Veg Flower Indoor Full Spectrum Panel Lamp"

The light schedule that I have decided to go with is 18/6; the reason I went with this schedule is because I've read about how Autoflower's don't depend on light as much as Photoperiod plants do. This should give my plants some time to rest and replenish their energy.

Nutrients
I'm going to be using "Tomato Plant Food" and "Baby Bio For Herbs" for my plants extra nutrients. I'll be using the "Baby Bio For Herbs" for the growth stage; and then the "Tomato Plant Food" for the Flowering stage to help my bud development.

Any opinions on my lighting and/or nutrients would be really appreciated.

OK so here's a quick update about my grow;

I decided to take a picture of my starting grow box; I say "starting" because it's only temporary for around a week or so until I can get my final grow box made. Also I need to get a cover for the front of my box to contain much needed heat for my plant.

Grow Box

I also took a picture of my seed that is currently germinating; the temperature was fine, but the humidity was a bit low. Obviously the humidity within the sandwich bag will be higher, but i'm still a bit concerned about my seed. My seed's been in there for around 20 hours, so I expect a root to break through either later on today or early tomorrow morning!

Germinating Seed

My light was supposed to arrive yesterday but it still hasn't been delivered. I've contacted the owner of the light to get the situation resolved; hopefully it'll arrive in a few days so I can get this grow started!

As I said before I'll keep updating my grow every few weeks or so.

- EvilStinkbomb

 

[Emilya Green]

Hi ESB... I have been thinking about popping a NL on my next round, so I will be watching your grow to see how it does for you and what she looks like. Looks like you have a great start! Good luck!

 

[EvilStinkbomb]

Thanks Emilya!

This is my first ever grow so I really appreciate having an experienced growers help.

Q - How long do seeds usually take to germinate? I've had mine in my hot press for around 2 days now and still nothing, am I doing everything right?

I've got 2 more NL seeds just incase this one doesn't germinate properly.

- EvilStinkbomb

 

[Emilya Green]

Thanks Emilya!

This is my first ever grow so I really appreciate having an experienced growers help.

Q - How long do seeds usually take to germinate? I've had mine in my hot press for around 2 days now and still nothing, am I doing everything right?

I've got 2 more NL seeds just incase this one doesn't germinate properly.

- EvilStinkbomb

2-3 days usually... I just plant mine 1/2" down in a solo cup, pointy end up.

 

[EvilStinkbomb]

2-3 days usually... I just plant mine 1/2" down in a solo cup, pointy end up.

My seed's root just broke through! Going to plant it into it's pot tomorrow!

I'll add pictures later

- EvilStinkbomb

 

[EvilStinkbomb]

*Update*

OK, so I've just placed my germinated seed into it's home for the next 9-12 weeks. This is going to be an organic grow so of course I'm using organic soil. The pot size is 5 liters which I think is a good sized pot for my first grow.

I'm going to be using collected rain water throughout my grow; I live in a hard water area so this was my best option.

Decided not to take any pictures yet because the plant hasn't developed and broke through the surface of the soil yet. Hopefully if things go to plan it should break through within 2-3 days.

When the seedling appears I'll add a few pictures of my progress.

- EvilStinkbomb

 

[Emilya Green]

Do you have an airpump ready to go so that you can make AACTs for your organic grow? Neglecting that step was my first mistake when I went to organic growing, and oh what a huge difference it made to be able to make a proper compost tea.

 

[EvilStinkbomb]

Do you have an airpump ready to go so that you can make AACTs for your organic grow? Neglecting that step was my first mistake when I went to organic growing, and oh what a huge difference it made to be able to make a proper compost tea.

Thanks for helping Emilya I really appreciate it.

I was thinking about using AACT Tea for my next grow. This grow will be my test run, if everything turns out right for harvest then I'll continue to grow, but if not then I'll take a break, research some more and save up money to upgrade my grow.

- EvilStinkbomb

 

[Emilya Green]

if you don't supply microlife to your organic soil, your plants will not be able to be fed. Plants don't break down the organics, the microherd does. This is why I mentioned this now, so you don't repeat the mistake that I made. I had some great soil mixed up and cooked for 3 months going into my first organic grow, and I was fine until the end of veg, because the composting had broken down enough nitrogen to get me to that point, but when the feeding needs became more complicated as flower started, I had no microlife... and my plants quickly started to starve. My plants, sitting in that wonderful SubCool super soil, had to get an emergency feeding of synthetic nutes, just to save their lives, and because I was clueless about AACT.

That all could have been avoided by brewing AACTs early on, and building up the microlife in my containers. The herd would have been munching on the organics, and all the plant's needs would have been taken care of. This now, my LSD grow, is my second attempt at organic growing, and the first time that the plants have known nothing else. It really does make a huge difference to complete the circle of life in an organic system, and without the microlife, you are not growing organically... you are growing in dead soil.

Anyway, I strongly urge you to get going with AACT now so that your test run does not end in disaster. I bought a great 796gph air pump on Amazon for $38. Best $38 I have spent in a while.

 

[EvilStinkbomb]

if you don't supply microlife to your organic soil, your plants will not be able to be fed. Plants don't break down the organics, the microherd does. This is why I mentioned this now, so you don't repeat the mistake that I made. I had some great soil mixed up and cooked for 3 months going into my first organic grow, and I was fine until the end of veg, because the composting had broken down enough nitrogen to get me to that point, but when the feeding needs became more complicated as flower started, I had no microlife... and my plants quickly started to starve. My plants, sitting in that wonderful SubCool super soil, had to get an emergency feeding of synthetic nutes, just to save their lives, and because I was clueless about AACT.

That all could have been avoided by brewing AACTs early on, and building up the microlife in my containers. The herd would have been munching on the organics, and all the plant's needs would have been taken care of. This now, my LSD grow, is my second attempt at organic growing, and the first time that the plants have known nothing else. It really does make a huge difference to complete the circle of life in an organic system, and without the microlife, you are not growing organically... you are growing in dead soil.

Anyway, I strongly urge you to get going with AACT now so that your test run does not end in disaster. I bought a great 796gph air pump on Amazon for $38. Best $38 I have spent in a while.

Thanks, I never knew AACT had such an important impact on growing organically. I'll do some research about it over the next week or so.

- EvilStinkbomb

 

[EvilStinkbomb]

if you don't supply microlife to your organic soil, your plants will not be able to be fed. Plants don't break down the organics, the microherd does. This is why I mentioned this now, so you don't repeat the mistake that I made. I had some great soil mixed up and cooked for 3 months going into my first organic grow, and I was fine until the end of veg, because the composting had broken down enough nitrogen to get me to that point, but when the feeding needs became more complicated as flower started, I had no microlife... and my plants quickly started to starve. My plants, sitting in that wonderful SubCool super soil, had to get an emergency feeding of synthetic nutes, just to save their lives, and because I was clueless about AACT.

That all could have been avoided by brewing AACTs early on, and building up the microlife in my containers. The herd would have been munching on the organics, and all the plant's needs would have been taken care of. This now, my LSD grow, is my second attempt at organic growing, and the first time that the plants have known nothing else. It really does make a huge difference to complete the circle of life in an organic system, and without the microlife, you are not growing organically... you are growing in dead soil.

Anyway, I strongly urge you to get going with AACT now so that your test run does not end in disaster. I bought a great 796gph air pump on Amazon for $38. Best $38 I have spent in a while.

Emilya thanks for the new knowledge; I decided to switch to compost after doing some more research about it's benefits and simplicity. For my next grow I'm definitely going to be more prepared and buy that AACT pump that you recommended!

Q - How long do seedlings take to surface through the compost? I've only had mine planted for roughly 20 hours, but I was just curious; wanted to know from an experienced grower.

Again, thanks for the help Emilya.

- EvilStinkbomb

 

[Emilya Green]

growing in just compost? please explain further, this sounds odd to me.

 

[EvilStinkbomb]

growing in just compost? please explain further, this sounds odd to me.

I'm going to be using peat free compost; I'll be adding some pertile for drainage also. I've read somewhere that if you mix these two together that the plant will grow just fine.

Q - Is this true/false?

Q - Will the seedling get damaged?

- EvilStinkbomb

 

[Emilya Green]

it all depends on what you mean by compost... and what it is made of. Perlite is good, not just for drainage but to keep the soil from compacting and to provide little air and water pockets all through the soil. I would also mix in some good organic soil though, to provide the things that may not be in your compost... unless of course your compost is made up from a super soil mix and has everything in it. That is the problem... the word compost isnt descriptive enough. And then, we are talking about a seedling... most strong soil/compost might be too strong for a young seedling.

 

[EvilStinkbomb]

it all depends on what you mean by compost... and what it is made of. Perlite is good, not just for drainage but to keep the soil from compacting and to provide little air and water pockets all through the soil. I would also mix in some good organic soil though, to provide the things that may not be in your compost... unless of course your compost is made up from a super soil mix and has everything in it. That is the problem... the word compost isnt descriptive enough. And then, we are talking about a seedling... most strong soil/compost might be too strong for a young seedling.

Thanks Emilya for the reply,

The seedling currently has it's two starting leaves, I'll add some pictures later tonight.

Q - Would adding soil to my plant at this stage not damage and/or disturb it?

Q - When do the second set of leaves develop?

- EvilStinkbomb

 

[Emilya Green]

Thanks Emilya for the reply,

The seedling currently has it's two starting leaves, I'll add some pictures later tonight.

Q - Would adding soil to my plant at this stage not damage and/or disturb it?

Q - When do the second set of leaves develop?

- EvilStinkbomb

I did some research on your compost. You did well, and chose one of the better ones on the market but there are definitely some limitations to this mix. Here from the review that I read:

One characteristic that peat-frees made from coarse wood fibre share is that they invariably suffer from a lack of nutrients, which causes stunted growth unless given additional feeding.

For now, this will not be an issue, and all through till the end of veg you should not have any trouble with your compost mix. I would recommend getting some good organic soil to transplant into however, or at least mix the rest of your compost with. Different soils in different layers in your container will not hurt a thing, as a matter of fact it is desirable to do it this way.

You second leaves should be showing up soon, just don't overwater. Make SURE that your soil dries out all the way to the bottom before watering, weeds are deep rooters and those very deepest roots need to get oxygen once each wet/dry cycle. You can read more on my thoughts on this on my sticky thread, referenced in my signature lines.

 

[EvilStinkbomb]

You really should upload your pictures into 420's system... many people will not click on outside links for security reasons.

Thanks Emilya,

 

[Emilya Green]

looking good... and remember, compost will only get you so far, so I suggest that you look into one of the organic lines of nutes for flower... you will be just fine until then.

 

[EvilStinkbomb]

These are the nutirents that I bought during the beginning of my grow,

Q - Would these be OK for the flowering stage?

- EvilStinkbomb

 

[Emilya Green]

not really... sorry, but weeds are not vegetables. They have different needs. And that fertilizer most likely is not organic, if you were wishing to stay organic that is. If not, can you do mailorder? Jack's Classic is cheap, get the duo. Or, visit your local hydro store; they will have hundreds of things you could buy, both organic and synthetic.