Northern Light Finally Picked 18th Week

[Hash Hound]

Well I have been posting my progress in a few threads, like the Hempy, OC+, DOC's and a few others as I have started my learning venture.
I will try to recap my grow in a start to finish abbreviated thread here.

Started mid August If I remember with 5 NL regs. 0 sprouts.
Started the other 5 NL regs and all 5 sprouted. Ended up with 3 males 1 hermie and 1 unbelievable female pheno.

hempy style, 4gal buckets, mostly perlite with very light magikmoss mixed in, OC+/DM red 50/50. 400w MH conversion for veg, 400w HPS for flower. 2 weeks into flower we LSTed her. And of course lots of advice from Doc and all his compadres.

this is the one surviving lady

 

[Hash Hound]

Re: Nirvana Northern Light finally picked 18th wk

7 few weeks in flowering she looked like this

sticky, but no smell in the room unless you touched her

8 weeks in thought she would go 1 or 2 more,,,,wrong

 

[Hash Hound]

Re: Nirvana Northern Light finally picked 18th wk

this shows effect of the LST on the main top, (which ended up breaking off)

12 weeks flowering, no amber, tris still clear and some fox tailing starting. Massive side bud, might end up in a bud of the month contest
And not many big leaves left on the plant

newer green shoots, she didnt want to stop growing

 

[Hash Hound]

Re: Nirvana Northern Light finally picked 18th wk

14 weeks in and shes looking frostier every day

17weeks in and going to give her one more week till new seeds sprout.
(nirvana 1 super skunk and 1 papaya and Barneys Farm 1 vanilla kush)

2 lower buds picked to sample. This plant had no major leaves for the last 8 or 9 weeks of growth. Just small bud leaves supporting her. She would only need to hang 2 days and be dry enough to smoke. Go figure. ( Low humidity in forced air furnace house running a lot for cold winter)

 

[Hash Hound]

Re: Nirvana Northern Light finally picked 18th wk

Picked about 8 lower branches at wk 17, and the rest of the uppers yesterday.

lot of pics here, hope you don't get bored.
These are the upper branches
The bud front and center was the 3rd from the top and weighed 6oz wet.

lot of nice frosty tips

2nd from the top was about 5 oz wet, both those big buds about 16 inches long and 10 wide at the fatest part

 

[Hash Hound]

Re: Nirvana Northern Light finally picked 18th wk

this is from right below where the main stem snapped when we did the LST

another tasty looking bud

these are those two big buds

lot of different colors on the buds

 

[Hash Hound]

Smoke report

Now for the preliminary smoke report.

Branches picked last week are dry enough to smoke already. About 30% amber. Never really got milky. Either clear or clear with amber heads. No smell while growing or when harvested.

I usually only take 2 hits of what ever I smoke. I am not a big consumer.
Well 2 hits of this really gets me zoned.
It comes on strong within a minute or less, sort of a soaring high that seems to send my brain in many different directions. Sort of scrambles the brain for a good 15-20 minutes. Then it levels off to not a couch lock, but a very nice relaxing happy high. Most everyone I have turned on to a bud has liked it.

Now my partner is a different story. He smokes huge amounts of weed and has been for nearly 40 yrs. He just finished going through an ounce of some sort of California medical kush like stuff that has him not thinking the NL is that great yet. He gives it a C.
I told him after he finishes up the grade A hes been smoking, he will appreciate the NL more.

Both of us were wanting and expecting a more stone couch lock body effect. He has very bad back and so do I along with anxiety and other ailments that come with age I guess.

So time will tell what the final high is like from the frostier upper buds that are drying now.

Observation: Plant seems like it was a mostly from the Thai sativa side of the NL since it took 18 weeks to finish flowering.

Things I would have done different:
Started the LST earlier before flowering began, or had done scrog.
Added more OC+/DM red to the mix before hand had I known it was going to take so long to finish.
And because of that I should have supplemented with some flowering nutes. We just kept thinking one more week, so why add more ferts.

This plant turned out awesome for the first attempt at "connoisseur seed growing". We are real pleased.

I can't imagine how much better it would have turned out had it had some big leaves to support growth more and been fertilized on a regular basis.

 

[Tmac12]

Re: Nirvana Northern Light finally picked 18th wk

Awesome harvest Hash! Congrats!

 

[Silent Bob]

Re: Nirvana Northern Light finally picked 18th wk

Nice work.

 

[Dexter4Morgan]

Re: Nirvana Northern Light finally picked 18th wk

how much OC+/DM Red did you start with and what size were the pots ?

They look great

 

[Doc Bud]

Re: Nirvana Northern Light finally picked 18th wk

I think it looks amazing, and that you'll only improve on your grows in the future!

As far as seeds go....I'm starting to get skeptical about seed banks....I've had "femmed" seeds that were male, and other interesting experiences.

Maybe try to get a few clones of really good genetics and try those sometime in the future.

But I love the hempy/CRF simplicity! Did you say this was your first grow? Well, you kicked ass even if it wasn't!

 

[Hash Hound]

Re: Nirvana Northern Light finally picked 18th wk

@ Dexter
used the recommended dose tbsp per gal in 4 gal square buckets in hempy.
Would have used more had I known the high temps would use up all the nutes. Top dressed it with two more scoops at the 10th week but still grew 8 more weeks. We kept thinking any day now it will be done. So we didn't want to add more.

@ Doc
First grow was bag seed, then the NL hempy. Can't get clones around here.

 

[Lucky man]

Re: Nirvana Northern Light finally picked 18th wk

Hope my 1st grow of the NL is as good as yours!

 

[Hash Hound]

I hope so too Lucky Man. Mine turned out to be some sort of freak pheno towards the thai sativa side i guess, since it took so long to finish. But it was worth the wait.

 

[Hash Hound]

A few choice buds

Here are a few choice buds ready to smoke

 

[G-Dog]

Wow it is hard to believe that you waited this one out like that. I know a guy that gave up on a Jack Herer that he thought took too long. Sativa leaning pheno is a pretty accurate assessment. Closeups of some of the buds show sat leaning characteristics. Interesting grow.

 

[Hash Hound]

TY G-Dog

Ya it was a long wait, but worth it. I smoke very little, and their is a lot of stuff around right now, so didn't have to chop her out of necessity for smoke.

 

[Hash Hound]

Smoke up date;

The smoke is excellent. Smooth neutral taste. Except for the tips of the tops, almost hash like taste.

Burns well, but just a tad to fast. This stuff dried hanging for 2 days and was smoke-able. Put it in a large metal tin and cured nice.

Originally it scrambled my brain for the first 15-20 min. Now it is a more even high. Still comes on fast, but is a more mellow relaxing high from beginning to end.

And my partner is well pleased too. He ran out of that Calif medical stuff and now he appreciates the Northern Light more.

Starting our next grow: soil and 12/12 from start.
Nirvana seeds (direct from Nirvana), 1 Super Skunk, 1 Papaya. Seeds came up in 2 days. and they are looking excellent.
Barneys Farm, Vanilla Kush 2 seeds sprouted and died 1 no sprout, and one that is 2 weeks old now and looks like the same day it sprouted, no growth! All other freebies that were shipped with the Barneys are doing the same thing. Maybe the postal system zapped them or something. I have written to Barneys for some input.

 

[Tmac12]

Sounds like you did it right!!

 

[McCrackin]

Let the cure get set in and re-report. Everything looked so good, 18 weeks leaves the leaves all yellow? It looked to me that the final had yellowed pretty good.