Blue's first grow: Northern Lights 400W MH/HPS

KindOfBlue

Active Member
This is a working journal of my first grow.

Northern Lights (feminized, from Nirvana seeds)

Major Equipment:
-GrowLab GL80 Enclosure
-400W switchable enclosed ballast with MH & HPS bulbs
-125W daylight CFL (for germination)
-homemade ebb & flow
 

KindOfBlue

Active Member
I am going to germinate 4 seeds in rockwool. Rockwool pre-soaked overnight in 5.5 pH water solution. Seeds inserted into cubes, then I placed the cubes on the germination tray, humidity dome on, with a heating mat under it, and my 125W CFL light directly above.

Monitoring room temp carefully. This is a basement grow, and in the winter, this particular room in my basement gets quite chilly. Before I germinated, I bought a 1500W ceramic space heater for the room. Thermostat currently set at 72F, and is maintaining temperature well.

For the next few days I am going to monitor the dampness of the rockwool carefully, along with the temperature of the room & enclosure. I can expect to see my babies pop their heads out in 3-5 days.

photo-1.jpg
 

KindOfBlue

Active Member
It has now been a day since I placed the seeds in the soaked rockwool.

Every few hours I am checking the moisture level of the cubes. So far, very easy to maintain. Using a sprayer to lightly mist the cubes and surface area of tray.

I will post back once they sprout.
 

KindOfBlue

Active Member
3 of the 4 rockwool cubes have sprouted at least a little bit. I'm hoping the 4th one will come up today. More to come later tonight.

Update:

Great growth while I was out today. I can now at least see all 4..3 of them are looking strong while the 4th is looking healthy, just a little slow. I'm expecting it to look like it's companions soon, though.

photo-2.jpg

As soon as I get a solid set of leaves on each seedling, the dome will come off and I'll drop the light even closer.
 

KindOfBlue

Active Member
4/4 now have their first baby leaves developing. 2 of the 4 have a small root already protruding from the bottom of the cube. Because of this, I placed each cube in its own solo cup, with a small layer of hydroton. 1 of the 4 has yet to shake its seed shell.

photo 1.jpg

Since the humidity dome is now removed, I have to be more concerned about adequate moisture, so I filled the solo cups with a water solution (pH'ed at a little under 6...filtered water @ 105ppm + a slight amount of B-52 supplement = ~200ppm total) just shy of the top of the hydroton. I will add more when needed. I'll transplant to my full ebb&flow system in a few days. When it goes into the ebb&flow, I'll probably give it one more cycle on the CFL and then switch over to my 400W MH.

125W CFL is now lowered about 2in. from the top of the plants.

Here's a picture of the seedling top that looks furthest along.

photo 2.jpg
 

KindOfBlue

Active Member
I switched the 125W CFL from 24/0 to 18/6, which is what I'll be using for the entirety of the veg cycle. We turn up the heat in the house at night, so my veg cycle is from 7AM-1AM, and my flower cycle will be 7AM-7PM.

Mixed up a new solution to fill the solo cups with to the desired level outlined in my previous entry.
Lucas formula, 1/2 strength, + 75% strength B-52 supplement, + distilled water. PPM is at about 600.

Code:
4mL GH Flora Micro per gal.
8mL GH Flora Bloom per gal.
7mL B-52 per gal.
Filled back up to desired level while there was still about half of the pH'ed water from yesterday in the cups, so the solution is starting off even weaker...my estimation is ~25%. I plan to keep nutrient solution added at 50% strength until I swap in my 400W MH light and transplant to the ebb&flow system. I mixed a half gallon of it to start, which should be plenty to tide me over for a while.

I'm a little concerned about the humidity levels inside the enclosure, which are hovering around 32% with CFL on. I placed a container of water under the light next to the solo cups, hopefully that will increase the humidity. Probably more-so when the 400W MH is used, because that creates a lot more heat to evaporate the water into the air.
Temp, on the other hand, is PERFECT. I have the ceramic oscillating heater outside the enclosure, about 5 feet away and pointing at it set at 70F, and the temp in the tent is holding steady at 72F.
 

xXMaslanXx

Well-Known Member
Id love to help, but it looks like you really did do your homework on this one. All I can really say right now is more pix more pix more pix :leaf:
 

KindOfBlue

Active Member
Id love to help, but it looks like you really did do your homework on this one. All I can really say right now is more pix more pix more pix :leaf:
Sure did...I put a lot of money into my setup, and I don't want it to go to waste!
When I get home from work, I'll take some pictures of my baby girls and put them up.
:leaf:
 

Legal Yooper

Well-Known Member
Greetings fellow Michigander! You surely got your shit together, My NL fems from Nirvana are in their 5th wk of veg. Amazing plants with vigorous growth and a nice smell already. I had to do some LST yesterday and they have already turned back to the light. Keep an eye on your light height as it will probably need to be raised daily. I think your funky seedling will be OK once you get it in the ebb & flo table. One of my WW kinda looked the same at first but has since bounced back. Do you know anyone who has used the Lucas formula? Been thinking of switching to it to save a lil cash on nutes.. One good thing about growin in Mi winters, No bugs! I'll be following this grow so please keep the pics coming :) Good luck and Happy Growing!
 

KindOfBlue

Active Member
Greetings fellow Michigander! You surely got your shit together, My NL fems from Nirvana are in their 5th wk of veg. Amazing plants with vigorous growth and a nice smell already. I had to do some LST yesterday and they have already turned back to the light. Keep an eye on your light height as it will probably need to be raised daily. I think your funky seedling will be OK once you get it in the ebb & flo table. One of my WW kinda looked the same at first but has since bounced back. Do you know anyone who has used the Lucas formula? Been thinking of switching to it to save a lil cash on nutes.. One good thing about growin in Mi winters, No bugs! I'll be following this grow so please keep the pics coming :) Good luck and Happy Growing!
+rep for following and living in Michigan as well!
I actually don't know anyone that's used Lucas formula, I'll definitely let you know how it goes. From what I've read on the interwebz, it seems pretty successful!
Thanks for the input on the seedling...I think it's due to me planting it in the rockwool too high up. Hopefully she'll be okay, I'll keep the journal up to date.
I'm one to be excited over growth and change...so pics will definitely keep flowing! I'm subscribing to your grow as well- looks amazing so far! I can't wait until I'm that far along :-)
Peace..stay in touch!
 

KindOfBlue

Active Member
The leaves are getting bigger. They look perfectly healthy. Still in the solo cups...planning on a transplant to the ebb&flow on Monday. I gently lifted the cubes off of the surface of the hydroton today, to check root development. All 4 are pushing strong roots out the bottom. I did this so they don't get too rooted in...I want as easy of a transplant as possible
 

KindOfBlue

Active Member
Leaves are developing good. The seedling on the top right is still looking a bit funky from the seed shell coming up with it. Transplanting tonight.

photo-3.jpg
 

KindOfBlue

Active Member
Last night, I transplanted the rockwool cubes into their full-sized pots, with hydroton. I also swapped out the 125W CFL for my 400W MH. It's about 24 inches from the plants right now, I'm trying to stress them as little as possible so I'll probably be lowering it within the next few days gradually.
I'm top watering as needed. Not really sure what to go off of for checking if watering is needed...so if I check them and the rockwool is completely dried out, I give them a good watering. I increased the ppm of nutrients to around 700ppm. I'm going to begin watering with the ebb&flow after a few days of my girls getting used to their new homes.

Pics to come tomorrow...I won't be able to make it home tonight before lights off.
 
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