250W CMH, Northern Lights, Organic way

Hi folks,

This is my first journal but my 4th grow. Before i was experimenting difficult sativas but i failed a lot so i just choosed Northern Lights this time.

Setup
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Light: 250W CMH Philips retrowhite
Strain: Nirvana Northern Lights
Medium: BioBizz All-mix
Nutes: BioBizz Grow, Bloom, Topmax /// EM-BIO (to pimp my soil with mycro brothas)
Pots: 4x10L, 1x8L
Box: 75x75x180cm

They are around 40 days old today. The reason they are so small cause they were stunted for like 2 weeks in the beginning. While they were in small pots i ph downed the water with nitric acid which seemed to kill all bacteria in soil so my girls started yellowing. I transplanted them and i dont bother with ph since then. Tapwater ph is around 7.6 without nutes but it seems fine, soil buffers ph pretty nice. Im about to switch them to 12/12 in the next days but i want to find out first whats wrong with the smallest NL u can see below.

Anyway, let me show my babies:

40 Days (Veg)





Not sure whats wrong with her. She is the only one who is smaller then her sisters and still showing slight yellowing. It looks like N def so i gave her 1ml/L BioBizz Grow 2 days ago. If she doesnt get better i try some epsom salt via foilar spray. Whats your opinion about her?

hey bud ,subbed.I'm going to do northern lights for my next grow ,i'm trying to decide between nirvana or white label.So very interested in this man.

I grow with biobizz to man .All mix ,grow ,bloom ,topmax and bioheaven..

i think that is a defficincy of some sort..do you use the bioheaven? Its expensive but it really does work..u should go to an online hydro shop and read about it..your plants look real nice though man. ..you should also use the biobizz feed chart...no shame in it ,its never let me down.

keep it up

yo man, ive also subbed cause im gonna be doing NL for my first grow

Day 53 ( day 8 in Flo )

Alright, im a little bit pissed now cause the same symptoms starting to appear like with my previous grows. Their roots r absorbing water very slowly (one in the 8L pot is totally wet for 5 days now...) and they are stunted in growth and they r also starting to yellow from the bottom. It looks like N def but i gave them 1ml Grow and 1ml bloom last time so i dont think thats the case. Otherwise they would absorb water anyway arent they?

Lets check the current environment:

Temp: 24°C (day) / 19°C (night)
Humidity: 40-45%

Seems fine to me..

Maybe one thing.. I currently don't have any space to place my fan inside the box to circulate the air but i have a powerful extractor fan which is ON 24/7.

Water PH: Im using tapwater, untouched ph is around 7.7 and it goes down to 7 after i added the nutes. Ofc i let it sit for 48 hours before i use.


Last 2 times i had this problem, i couldnt stop it and i had a ridiculous yield at the end what i cant afford this time. I was happy this round cause in the beginning i realised i killed all the bacteria in the soil with PH Down (nitric acid) before. But it seems thats not the only problem in my garden cause i dont use it anymore. Please help, i think its still the right time to save them!

Pics:



This one is also might suffering in MG def

Nice grow google! looks like youve got some lovely ladies coming along, sorry to hear youre running into a couple issues.

My first thought would have been that your root base may be too cold but your temps seem fine..

My only suggestion to definitely rule out this possibility would be to raise your pots on small plastic blocks to move the away from the floor surface and help insulate them.

Another thing might be bad drainage/over watering. if the pots are filling with water and the roots are sitting in it for too long that can damage them, good rule of thumb would be only water when the top 3 inches of the soil is dry - test with finger or else get a hydrometer to check. One option if your pots dont have drainage holes maybe drill one and add a drainage dish so the water can drain out and be reabsorbed as needed.

In term of nutes the chances are the nute levels are too high as opposed to too low, I'd also suggest buying a soil ec pen to check your nute levels if you've got some spare cash.

If thats not an option (or even if it is) I'd try to figure out a method to increase airflow around the plants - you dont need much, a 6" clip fan would do the trick... you also mentioned you had an extractor on 24/7.. what kind of air intake have you got set up? Make sure your allowing in as much as your fanning out or youll deplete CO2 resulting in blah science blah etc - this is a fairly minor effect as air will flow in slowly unless your space is air tight, its just not optimal. Id maintain the ph youve got going - perhaps lower to 6.5ph with a couple drops of vinegar or fresh lemon/orange juice - and reduce nutrients back to 0.5ml or 0.25ml (perhaps even no nutes) for a couple days/when you next water and see what happens with uptake.

Remember that BioBizz All-mix is a nutrient heavy soil, you could grow your plants to maturity without adding any nutes whatsoever.. also remember that reducing nutes may effect water ph so make sure you account for that.

Hope everything works out. looking forward to some epic pics
Panda

Have you tried flushing the soii? Thats my first guess, if the roots have salts built up on the soil it would reduce your nute uptake and make your plants ugly.
And ph is important you should keep that in check, ive nearly killed a few plants out of carelessness. Subbed , good luck i hope this helps

BlazedUpPanda said:

My only suggestion to definitely rule out this possibility would be to raise your pots on small plastic blocks to move the away from the floor surface and help insulate them.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip! Yesterday i put them on a chair so they get more light and heat. I think now i can check out the Light intensity/Temp related stress.

BlazedUpPanda said:

Another thing might be bad drainage/over watering. if the pots are filling with water and the roots are sitting in it for too long that can damage them, good rule of thumb would be only water when the top 3 inches of the soil is dry - test with finger or else get a hydrometer to check.

Click to expand...

Pots are fine, i bought them in a growshop and got many holes on the bottom and big holes on the 4 corners. I always wait the soil to dry but im concerned mb i wait for too long cause water runs over the soil immediately even after the first 100ml so mb water isnt absorbed evenly in the soil. I have a weird feeling even if they are still wet on the surface they might be dry on the bottom so its showing underwatering symptoms. I say this cause one in the 8L was watered 7 days ago and still totally wet but if put my finger from the bottom of the pot i feel the soil is almost bone dry.

BlazedUpPanda said:

In term of nutes the chances are the nute levels are too high as opposed to too low, I'd also suggest buying a soil ec pen to check your nute levels if you've got some spare cash.

If thats not an option (or even if it is) I'd try to figure out a method to increase airflow around the plants - you dont need much, a 6" clip fan would do the trick... you also mentioned you had an extractor on 24/7.. what kind of air intake have you got set up? Make sure your allowing in as much as your fanning out or youll deplete CO2 resulting in blah science blah etc - this is a fairly minor effect as air will flow in slowly unless your space is air tight, its just not optimal. Id maintain the ph youve got going - perhaps lower to 6.5ph with a couple drops of vinegar or fresh lemon/orange juice - and reduce nutrients back to 0.5ml or 0.25ml (perhaps even no nutes) for a couple days/when you next water and see what happens with uptake.

Click to expand...

Ive put a big ass tower fan in a corner faced to the wall so it doesnt shock them by direct airflow to the leafs but they get decent airflow. I connected it to the light switch so its ON only when light is ON. About the ec pen and nutes: These are advertised as 100% Bio and that means ec pens wont show any accurate readings. As i heard its really hard to overdose them if a gardener use the BioBizz feeding chart.

BlazedUpPanda said:

Remember that BioBizz All-mix is a nutrient heavy soil, you could grow your plants to maturity without adding any nutes whatsoever.. also remember that reducing nutes may effect water ph so make sure you account for that.

Click to expand...

Next time i will ph my water with lemon juice cause my tapwater ph is ~7.7-7.9 without adding anything to it. It shouldnt be a problem tho, cause Organic soil should buffer the ph itself.

Filtered said:

Have you tried flushing the soii? Thats my first guess, if the roots have salts built up on the soil it would reduce your nute uptake and make your plants ugly.
And ph is important you should keep that in check, ive nearly killed a few plants out of carelessness. Subbed , good luck i hope this helps

Click to expand...

Mate flushing an organic soil would be the end of this grow. When doing organic u have to watch out for the bacteria in the medium. They are already showing def unfortunately so thats not an option for me. As i said earlier soil should buffer the ph. Lot of organic veterans are saying there is no need to adjust the ph when u do organic.



Anyway, it seems i fail big time cause one of my plant is already drooping. She is the one in the 8L pot and i watered her a week ago last time and the soil is still wet on the top. What the heck can cause that harm to a plant... She is not absorbing water at all...

Pics coming in the evening. Thanks for reading and your advices. You help me a lot to check out possible mistakes and common problems but im still clueless...

Day 13 in Flo

So ive been reading a lot about mysterious yellowing and other symptoms related to my babies. Its most likely a root bound what i have cause water just go through the medium, soil of the bottom is always drier than on the top, yellowing of bottom leaves, new growths are small and stunted. I also see some P def on some leaves. 2 days ago i watered them with stronger bloom nutes but without the grow cause that seems can burn them easier.

Anyway, my plan is to transplant them but first i need some advice if its too late or not. My girls are Nirvana Northern Lights which is advertised 6 weeks in flowering. Im at week 2 now and im not sure which is more harmful for them. Transplant or somehow manage till harvest with root bound.

I also have a guess why my first grow was successful with same size of pots. I used CFL that time like 100W total. My guess is since i bought the 250W CMH they grow faster so roots need more space as well. I think thats the worst stress for them and this is why i had ridiculous yield in the last few times.

Pics update:




She is the one in the 7L pot and was droopy for days. I was confused cause the top layer of the soil was very moist but it was dry on the bottom. I was like what the heck if i leave it droopy she ll die so i watered her a little bit around the stem then she woke up.




Its really hard to care with plants with root bound cause i can never now when the soil is dry enough to water. But if i can keep them healthy in root bound with more frequent watering schedule i'd prefer it over the transplant. Not sure which is more stress for them.

are you totally committed to the organic way or are you open to a simpler method?

...i personally abandoned organics for my indoor op because it is so difficult to keep a healthy balance in such a small environment.

peace, bozo

well next time i will consider growing with other method but at the moment i have to manage with organic solutions.

Day 18 in flo

So i decided to transplant them into 4 gallon pots and it was done 3 days ago. Since then they r getting better. They already stretched a bit after 2 weeks coma. They r not perfectly fine tho.. Few plants showing some kind of deficiency i guess. Purple spots started appearing on few leaves. I cant feed them yet cause the fresh soil is still wet a bit. I only watered the edges after transplant to make roots grow into the new medium.

Lets pics talk:

If you are using the biobizz range at this stage of development you should be feeding as follows..

1 ml per litre of grow

2 mls per litre of bloom

1 ml per litre of top max

3 mls per litre bioheaven .

this should fix your deficiency

hi mate, thanks for popping in.


I use those nutes except the top max and bioheaven which is a hype imho. I use molasses instead.

anyway next time i feed them with 1ml grow and 3ml bloom

hmm ,up to you bro .I swear by it.Have seen the difference between having and not having it first hand.Will prevent against cal/mag defs ,and claims to help the plant take up nutes alot better and help the plant cope with moisture stress,and i'm not going to argue with it...I am a beliver put it that way.When i use it i don't get defs when i don't i do....its their most expensive product.I even read somewhere that the rumour was they took elements out of the original grow formula in order to sell it as a different product ie heaven.

forgot to say ,apart from the minor deficiencys your plants look awsome man.I went with white labels nl for my next grow ,will throw up a diary of it ,probaly in july..

You can flush organic soil, just replace the nutrients with an organic nute line. I don't think itl harm your plants anymore than they are. Personally I think organic is nice and definitely has the best taste, but its a little overrated in my opinion. Its much more difficult and many things can go wrong. Organic is cool, but do what you gotta do to keep them alive.

Also I don't think transplanting will be a problem, just put the rootball in fresh soil and I'm sure it wouldn't mind. Just don't mess with the roots

It looks like some of your leaves are showing a zinc def.

Day 27 in Flo

Since the transplant i had to cut on of them in the smaller pot cause she was droopy and also didnt have a space for a bigger pot for her. I didnt want her to hermie cause it would ruin the crop even more. The plant with decent P def symptoms ( Purple leaves ) was fed with 3ml/L Bloom and 1ml/L Grow 2 days ago so i still hope it will get better. Can purple leaves go green again btw? Anyway little buds seems get fatter. Not as much as they should at this age but i still have hope. I also didnt use Molasses this watering thanks for the tip! Not sure i can do much with zinc def at the moment.

your issue was zinc, iron, sulfur causing related lock outs. I never used the full line of Bio Bloom products, they fall short of supplying enough of the full spectrum of nutrion IMHO. I love the bloom though.

Its weird cause ive never heard about lockout with biobizz brand. So you would flush it that late?