Monkey's 2nd go - Nirvana's "Northern Light" - Autoflowering & Feminized - 400w HPS

Howdy folks. It's been a few months since my last entry, mostly 'cause I've been too stoned on the AK-48 from my last grow, which was... well, heavy.

Hopefully success is a common theme in my closet as we're starting back up today with Nirvana's Northern Light (I guess they removed the common plural on Lights to set theirs apart from other strains [like with AK-48], but I have a feeling the genetics are similar). I picked up their new(ish) autoflowering feminized strain because the 4 foot monsters I grew last time taught me to try and stay small.

They came in the mail today cleverly packed. Nirvana knows their stealth shipping.
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Nice water, clean cup, cool dark drawer. Enjoy the cool spell while it lasts, the HPS is less forgiving.

Into the drink they go.

All floaters. Nice Good luck girls.
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Once they've sprouted they'll be heading into...


Probably just 1.5 gallon square fiber pots this time. I had so much trouble containing plants in 3 gallon pots last time.

Organic as always. They'll get some bat guano later.

Hope you join me for the ride. I'm looking forward to seeing how autoflowers are to grow. Thanks for stopping by!

Alright so here's a quick pop in with some additional infos regarding lighting and electricity.

I've decided to go with an 18/6 lighting schedule straight through the entire grow. Research dictates that autoflowers will do much better under this lighting regime (edit: as opposed to longer dark cycles) because well, obviously a flowering response independent of photo-period is going to be unaffected by the light regime; what's left is yield. Let's not forget the golden rule: light in -> yield out.

I gave thought to some other lighting schedules but after doing some math it works out that this is the biggest bang for my buck when it comes to electricity costs in my area. A 400 watt HPS bulb running for 18 hours a day for 30 days accumulates to about 216 kilowatt hours, which, where I am, will end up costing about 15 dollars a month (Canada gouges for it's electricity, for sure. I know a few of you folks down south are enjoying much lower rates... or maybe I'm wrong). Maybe if someone is reading this from the states they wouldn't mind posting what their kilowatt hour costs them, I'm quite curious. Mine averages out to around 7 cents if I play the peak rate's tune. How does that compare to yours?

But still, not so bad considering what comes out of 45 bucks in soil and fertilizer, 40 dollars in seeds and 35 or so dollars worth of electricity across the span of the entire grow. I'll take that cost for a turnout of 12 or so ounces of weed any day, if this ends up going nearly as well as last time (I hear Northern Lights is a fat girl). Buying the lighting equipment, mylar, as well as all of the other growing equipment I ended up buying made my last grow exponentially more expensive.

Boy, isn't it nice to grow your own medicine? I bet pharmaceuticals adding up to half the medicinal effectiveness of 10 or so ounces of weed would run someone 3000% to 5000% of that on the streets =] Happy tidings for a hurting monkey.

Anyway I thought that information might be moderately useful to someone or another. I like to blurb in here when I feel like talking so I don't have to remember it all for next time.

Take care and happy thc farming.

Monkey,
Do you think it was wise to post how they stealth shipped? Now they know what to look for. Anyway...
I have 4 Nirvana NL's and one bag seed under a 400w CMH right now. They are about a foot and a half tall and loaded with lower branching. In Hempys with Osmocote/Dynamite ferts. I cant wait to see them start to flower. Going to switch to 12/12 400 w HPS tonight. First non bag seed grow.
Have you grown NL's before? I'm hoping for some real good stoner/relaxing smoke.

Hash Hound said:

Monkey,
Do you think it was wise to post how they stealth shipped? Now they know what to look for. Anyway...
I have 4 Nirvana NL's and one bag seed under a 400w CMH right now. They are about a foot and a half tall and loaded with lower branching. In Hempys with Osmocote/Dynamite ferts. I cant wait to see them start to flower. Going to switch to 12/12 400 w HPS tonight. First non bag seed grow.
Have you grown NL's before? I'm hoping for some real good stoner/relaxing smoke.

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Maybe you are right, however I know Nirvana varies their stealth shipping constantly to avoid this problem. I'll remove that picture though just for courtesy's sake and to avoid any potential degradation of Nirvana's services. Thanks for pointing that out. This is only my second time around and my first grow was Nirvana's AK-48, so no I haven't, but I know you can expect exactly what you're looking for from northern lights are it's a heavily if not pure indica strain, loaded with all the goodies you look for in a heavy, relaxing body stone. You're going to be pleased with Nirvana's smoke I think. They may not be sensi seeds but I feel they're heavily under rated a lot of the time.

Monkey,
Good idea to remove the pic. Nirvana is a good company. I had germination problems and they made good on their seeds for me.
I have always grown from bag seed. With good/very good results.
Usually the smoke we get around here is good, but not great. On a very rare occasion something exceptional may come around. Something they called Kyber came around once that was outstanding. I think they just made the name up. Kyber pass is between Afghanastan and Pakistan in the Hindu Kush region, but it was not a knock out Indica couch lock stoner buzz, but rather a very cerebral Sativa high.
I smoke very little, so 2 tokes of what ever is around does the trick. But, I can't wait to try some connoisseur type bud.

Today, the 4 beans that have sprouted so far were planted in pots under the HPS. One of them grew a 1 inch taproot in the 2 days it was in the water. The grow closet needs to be vacuumed out but here's a snap of what it looks like. Not much has changed from last time. Hopefully we'll see some action soon, and also some activity from the 5th bean.

My good camera is lent out for the day so the picture quality is far below par, and I couldn't get my spare to focus close enough to show you the sprouted beans. Tomorrow if the 5th bean sprouts I'll take a picture of that before I plant it.

One more thing - I still need to buy a 5th 1.5 gallon pot, so that smaller green pot you see will be temporary till we're rootbound.



Hey that almost looks like metal halide light doesn't it? What a crappy camera Don't trust electronics from hong kong.

Signs of life from the 5th seed, here's a picture this time, a bit fuzzy 'cause I zoomed it right in to make it larger and the camera didn't want to focus on the seed, but instead what was behind it.



She joined her sisters in her own pot under the HPS. I'll be updating once they break the soil

i'm waiting for nirvana to get their autos straightened out so I can start my blue mystic babies. I'm using a hydro six site setup under 400w hps. How close do you keep your lights to the seedlings? I don't have much space that's why I'm growing autos so having a separate place for seedlings isn't feasible. I'm using a tent (36x20x32) by the way.

monkster said:

i'm waiting for nirvana to get their autos straightened out so I can start my blue mystic babies. I'm using a hydro six site setup under 400w hps. How close do you keep your lights to the seedlings? I don't have much space that's why I'm growing autos so having a separate place for seedlings isn't feasible. I'm using a tent (36x20x32) by the way.

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From what I've heard Nirvana has their auto strains on lock, they've been breeding and selling their own variant of lowryder for some years. Right now my HPS is about 5 feet away from the soil - I might lower it when they've grown out a little, but with high intensity lights and mylar coated walls it's important to remember that little light is lost over the distance and it's very easy to burn your plants. Pretty much all of the light is trapped in the room.

However this is a learning experience for me with an autoflowering strain so my outlook on that might change as I observe the plant's growing patterns. Northern lights should be short and stocky so if I see stretching I'll know they're some light hungry little girls and the light will come down.

Whats up Monkey. Thought I would stop in to drop some info. The Nirvana AF seeds have been pulled from the shelf and they are not selling them anymore. Most the the AF seeds a brand new, and they are not working as AF. They grow huge, I have an eight weeks plant thats three feet tall and still has not flowered. They take for ever to flower, and fail to AF. They yeild about one eigth of a normal plant. In short, they are fucked up. If you want to grow those out, make sure to put them in 12/12 when you think they are big enough. In summary, they get four feet tall, take about month longer, and yeild about 1/2 oz per plant. They suck. Best bet is to throw those seeds out and get Nirvana to send you some new seeds that are not AF. Check out my grow journal if you want the low down. Or got Nirvana site, they have a posting now about the AF.

Crypnotic said:

Whats up Monkey. Thought I would stop in to drop some info. The Nirvana AF seeds have been pulled from the shelf and they are not selling them anymore. Most the the AF seeds a brand new, and they are not working as AF. They grow huge, I have an eight weeks plant thats three feet tall and still has not flowered. They take for ever to flower, and fail to AF. They yeild about one eigth of a normal plant. In short, they are fucked up. If you want to grow those out, make sure to put them in 12/12 when you think they are big enough. In summary, they get four feet tall, take about month longer, and yeild about 1/2 oz per plant. They suck. Best bet is to throw those seeds out and get Nirvana to send you some new seeds that are not AF. Check out my grow journal if you want the low down. Or got Nirvana site, they have a posting now about the AF.

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Well their post on the autoflowering page of their website was posted right after I purchased the seeds it seems. However it's very difficult to get anything useful from anything I'm reading. I can't have tall plants again, and I can't be wasting all that electricity right now either, so I'm going to contact them and see what they have to say about my order. They say that it was only their blue mystic strain that was effected so I'm not going to jump the gun and dig my seeds out of the soil yet. At worst I can wait and see if they autoflower, which should only take a week or two. If I contact them and they admit that I'm going to have 4 foot plants then I am going to ask them to replace these with shortryder seeds.

I have contacted Nirvana to see what they have to say. I will post back with their response.

Crypnotic said:

Bro, seems like your a little confused. It is not just the Blue Mystic that was pulled, it was all the new AF (including the NL).

Here is Alices response to my complaint:

"Thank you for your complaint. That may sound strange, but we take is very serious! The latest batches are not doing what they are supposed to be doing and I am sorry about that. At the moment we are studying all the grow reports we have received so far to see what the problem is exactly and have contacted our breeder about this problem. We might have to decide to stop selling these strains, or at least change the description in our shop. I would like to send you 2 packs of feminized seeds from a strain of your choice to compensate you for the Northern Lights. Please let me know which strain (s) you would prefer to receive.
Peace,
Alice"

Bro, you can grow those out, but be sure to set it up as a normal grow. They will get huge, take as long, and yield on eighth of of a normal grow.

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I'm not confused that's just what they said on the site - that the blue mystic encountered problems and as a result of bad response they've pulled the whole new line of autoflowering strains - not that they've found particular evidence of this strain encountering problems.

You're right, my bad. I sincerly apologize. Subbed, cant wait to see how this turns out. I'm sure this will be every bit as good as you AK grow (which I thought was very good). Happy growing my friend.

Well no it won't be if their genetics are fucked up, obviously. Can you relax? Sarcasm is never flattering. I realize that after your plants wasting all your time and money you must have a vendetta against Nirvana but hounding other people won't put them out of business. I asked for replacements if they think my seeds won't autoflower and, if and when they send them, I'll carry on being a Nirvana customer because I'm just a dunce like that.

Already!..... Your first grow was awesome... Good to see you at it again.

OGPanda said:

Already!..... Your first grow was awesome... Good to see you at it again.

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I appreciate that, thank you Good to see you too.

There we are - first to reach for the light

The other four popped up today.



We'll maybe get some photos without the orange heavy HPS beaming down next time yes? Okay, good monkey.

Hey whats up. Beans are sprouting up good. I thought I saw this in your last grow journal. You used you HPS buld (2100k, orange color) for veg and I think maybe you used you HPS conversion (4100k, blue/yellow) for flowering. Or maybe you just used the HPS bulb all the way. Best to use 4100k bulb for veg, and the 2100k for flower. Do it the way you like, I'm just trying to be helpful.

If ever these plants start to get too big and you start wondering if when they are going to flower, go ahead and put them in 12/12 and they will flower for you. Once again, just a suggestion. Hope it goes well for you.