Northern Lights in the South

[tricome]

High gang! Here I grow again! I pretty much have a perpetual grow going, but I like to break it up into separate journals, like chapters. This time around I'm germinating 4 Northern Lights seeds. Now I only have one NL seed left out of the 10 pack! I plan on cloning and getting a mother plant going in a DWC bucket. Also, I owe a friend a couple of NL clones.
Grow Stats
Strain: Northern Lights from seeds from Nirvana
Grow Media: Botanicare's Cocogro
Grow Space: Veg-3'w x 2'd x 6'h Flower-4'w x 2'd x 6'h
Lights: Veg-T5 & CFLs Flower-250w HPS
Nutrients: Dutch Masters Gold 2 part veg & 2 part bloom, plus CalMag (I may add other stuff later)

The beginning

 

[fluroman]

 

[tricome]

Thanx for stopping by, fluroman! Your mother ship is quite impressive!
Well, the first seed sprouted a root after just one day. On Tuesday (the 2nd day) all 4 had roots, and the first one was over 2" long. I put them in party cups in Cocogro. Yesterday I removed a couple of seed casings, and today they are up and running.

Here are some shots of the new veg room; which is really my original grow space before I started journaling. My bro had taken it over for peppers. Man, was it a mess! I've got it pretty clean and organized now.
How convenient that there's an outlet in this closet! My bro set up the power strip.

T5 in use now

150W HPS which may be used later

 

[tricome]

The seedlings are doing well and getting true leaves. I have lowered the T5 to 6" above tops.

I've been working on building a couple of aeroponic cloners. If you look in my Cripychakra journal you'll see the first cloner I made. It was just a res. with an air stone. This is the simplest aeroponic system. The air stone aerates the solution and disturbs the surface of the water, splashing and wetting the cuttings. This system was pretty successful, (3 out of 4), but I wanted to up my game.
The small black tubes are 1" pieces of 1/2" black vinyl tubing. All PVC parts are 1/2".

Small spinner

Rail with 360* sprayers

 

[PitViper]

good start

 

[tricome]

Thanx, and welcome wangotango! Good tequila! lol

 

[tricome]

Things are moving forward. The seedlings shot up, and I had to use my paper clip supports.
2 days ago

I transplanted today and fed 1/2 strength.

 

[Meduser]

 

[tricome]

and thanx for stopping by, Meduser!
Things are going smoothly. Plants are looking good and average 4" tall.

The tallest one

 

[tricome]

The kids had quite a growth spurt after I watered them 3 days ago. I topped them today.

 

[tricome]

Things are going well. The plants are 12" tall now, and finally getting branches long enough to clone. I'll be transplanting soon and cloning shortly after. When I'm sure I've eradicated the spider mites in the flower room, I'll move them in for sexing. One more week for the ones that are in there; then it's cleanout time.

 

[Tmac12]

Looking good Tricomes! Just heard about these ..

Spider Mite Predators lots of other places too, just google!

 

[tricome]

, Tmac12! Thanx for stopping by and the great link! I've been considering getting SMPs, since this looks like a recurrent problem. For now, I'm using Doktor Doom and Azamax. If they start to infest this round, I may order from that site.

I transplanted a few days ago, and watered with Superthrive and Bushmaster. I just got the Bushmaster and am trying it out. I'm hoping for good clone material.
I topped the plants again, and took very half-hearted clones from the tops late last night. I don't think they'll survive, though. I just put them in a cup of water, and when I went to put them in the cloner today, the stems had fallen out of the water. I have them in my old cloner design; cloning solution and a bubbler. I'll have to make a new one to accommodate my mini-spinner.

 

[tricome]

Oh, yeah. Here are some pics I took of the roots at transplant. Nice and healthy and white. Unlike my DWC roots.

 

[tricome]

Well, the half-ass clones didn't make it. No surprise there. I took a couple more clones on 11-21, and it looks like their ends are starting to rot. I'll be taking some more tonight, and trying different methods. One thing I really like about Kalichakra, and my Cripychakra, is that they're easy to clone. So, this NL will be more of a challenge. I'm working on building my sprayer cloner. I will also try dirt.

I moved the plants under the HPS and into 12/12 on 11-23. Here are some shots of them crowded under my little 250W.

The fading clones.

 

[tricome]

I worked in the garden yesterday, and found good news and bad news.
The bad news is that 3 out 4 plants were male.

I did keep the best male for pollen. He's in a separate closet under a CFL.

The good news is that the clones I thought were destined for death started growing roots! Also, luckily, I happened to have taken them from the only female.

I took 2 more clones from the female, and put them in my spinner cloner along with 2 male clones. The male clones are in Sure To Grow. I also put 2 more male clones in coco.
Spinner cloner

Coco males

Here is the lone lady with the 250W HPS all to herself.

 

[Hash Hound]

Looks nice Tri
Just finishing Nirvana NL from reg seeds. first 5 no sprouts at all, next 5 only one female. She is in her 9th week flowering. Turning yellow, no big leaves left, but the trichomes are about half cloudy. Will try to let her go one more week to start to go amber. I want heavy stone.
these pics from last week

 

[Tmac12]

Nice buds Hash, gonna be some extra great smoke!!

Tric congrats on the female and the clones~~ sorry bout the boys!

 

[tricome]

Wowzers! That NL is massive! Is she holding up those fat buds all by herself? Ten weeks of flowering time, huh? I'll have to keep an eye on mine and see how long she goes. I only had 2 seeds out of my 10 pack fail to germ. I'll be happy if mine is 1/3 the size of that beauty!
Thanx for stopping by and showing me the potential of these seeds, Hash Hound!

Tric congrats on the female and the clones~~ sorry bout the boys!

Thanx, Tmac12! I usually suck at cloning, and get opposite male to female ratios. However, I'm very happpy and thankful to have a female and rooted clones!

 

[Hash Hound]

Tri
They were actually tied down with wire for LST and keep wanting to turn upwards. They were not supported at all. Very strong branching. Preliminary test bud quick dry yesterday. Not much taste, but very nice mellow high. Letting her go till the tri's turn mostly amber for more of a couch lock stone, I hope.