First NL Grow

Hello. A few have read my other post, but I decided I should probably post in this section. Pictures to follow at a later time this week. Current plants are Northern Lights.

History:
I had selected 2 mothers, grew a male out to term to collect pollen for a bit seed production. The pollen has been collected and stored.
I have 20 plants that are growing healthy that are cuttings from the two mothers.
One mother died as I was gone for a week and the watering system screwed up slightly.
The other mother is looking as if it has outgrown its container. I may take pictures if I think it can be saved.
I am replacing the two mothers with a few others.

Nutrients:
Foxfarm - Grow Big 6-4-4
Botanicare - Liquid Karma 0.1-0.1-0.5
Botanicare - Cal-Mag Plus 2-0-0
Botanicare - Sweet Citrus
Botanicare - Pro Blend Pro Soil Formula 1.5-4-5 (will be starting in a week or two! )

Lighting:
T5 Fluorescent (for vegging)
HPS 600 watt (for flowering, in the future on a rail for greater coverage)

I think that covers that. I am using the Foxfarm along with Botanicare because of some recommendations I received early on, and also because of some great deals I got. The two work together quite nicely.

I also started germinating some Papaya and Hindu Kush Sunday. A few of the Papayas showed up today.

Sounds like ya have it together. Ya can transplant the mother and take a knofe and cut in the roots to promote root growth.

Interesting. I will have to give that a try. Thank you!

I have had the plants on 24/7 light. Am I able to reduce to 18/6 gradually (cutting an hour every day, or two every other day?) over a week without causing them to flower? I would like to do this to save money and for security.

Thanks in advance for any feedback! (which is always welcome and appreciated!)

I reduced the lighting by 2 hours a couple of nights ago, and one hour last night. I am now down to 21/3.

I also took some cuttings last night. Beautiful looking all of them. 100% success rate really does seem guaranteed if directions are followed. I use a weak liquid karma solution in a glass to place the cuttings in (45 degree angle cut and peel some of the outer layer away for more root development). After taking 5-10 cuttings I use Clonex rooting gel, place the cuttings in 1.5" rockwool blocks, forcing them down slightly beyond the bottom of the hole but not through the bottom! Then I spray them a few times a day, and they never lose their vigor, and actually look better day 2 already after I cut them.

This has been a such a great experience!

Photos coming this weekend (Saturday or Sunday).

I hear ya its great hobby. Sounds like ya got your shit together. The whole secret is controling the enviroment. Heat,humity,wind,water ect,etc

Yeah. I have the watering and nutrients down. I had my window open for quite a while though to keep the temperature down, but it dropped fast the past couple of weeks and is now at just under 75C in the room so I am trying to get it up quickly now to speed up growth. Humidity is good though. After transplanting I had a week+ where I did not have wind on the plants and I now see the results. The stems are weak on some and those plants are bending over. Very early on I learned the hard lesson of heat and consequently have no white widow (was very upsetting) remaining. I also learned about the stresses of transplanting and something else recently that is eluding me now. I have 20 new cuttings now though that look fantastic still. Some are experimental as they were a result of pruning bottom branches (and some quite thin), but I expect them to root based upon how they currently appear. If they do all root, then I will slightly alter my criteria for cuttings as the literature I have read always suggested a slightly thicker stem. I think though with several sprayings a day, some good rooting gel and medium, that they should root just fine.

Speaking of, I thought maybe I should share this. I can take a picture to this weekend to show exactly what I am talking about here. I did an experiment of planting 4 quality-looking bagseed each in 3 different mediums. One was a standard peat pellet, while the other two were two different types of rockwool. The better quality rockwool showed first signs of growth, but within 2 days all 12 had germinated so I suppose they all work just fine. I still have one more type of little growth cube I want to try that I have not used succesfully yet, but the name eludes me. The hydro store guy said that they are becoming popular.

4 of my papayas are now seedlings showing some green. The HKs have not appeared at all yet, which is somewhat concerning actually, but I will give it another day or two before I assume bad seeds.

Sorry if the post became too long. Scientific mind at work so trying to include information that can be useful to others.

Information is good. I have tried plugs and so forth for starting seeds and what i learned is that its all about controlling the moisture. The peat pellets i tried seem to hold too much water at first so i went to drying them out some before planting seed in it. I now just plant in foxfarm ocean and i can control the moisture.

I have growm navarna papayas and the grew well and turned out to be purple or pink.

Ah, I see. It seems to come down to that quite often. I have experienced the molding of having too high humidity. That set back the plants a bit I would say. Glad to hear the papayas turned out good.

Things are coming along quite nicely. I am finalizing my flowering setup tomorrow so flowering will start maybe as soon as Sunday. In the meantime, here are a few pictures, and I will take more as things move along.

Will 5 gallon grow bags be large enough to sustain and maximize potential of a 2 - 2.5 feet tall plants currently in vegetative state about to be put into flowering for another ~63 days?

Can I cut off the bottom branches that get less light without causing much delay in growth? Also, can I prune towards the top, and get 2 shoots growing from where there was one before? Or should I just let them grow and see what happens and learn from that? Advice much appreciated!

skyblazer said:

Will 5 gallon grow bags be large enough to sustain and maximize potential of a 2 - 2.5 feet tall plants currently in vegetative state about to be put into flowering for another ~63 days?

Can I cut off the bottom branches that get less light without causing much delay in growth? Also, can I prune towards the top, and get 2 shoots growing from where there was one before? Or should I just let them grow and see what happens and learn from that? Advice much appreciated!

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Trim off the lower branches that are small or not getting much light. Ya can also trim off the lower growth that you will find on the branches. The juice,power and so forth will go into the buds. DO NOT TOP THOSE PLANTS! 3 gallon bags are plenty big. I will try to post a picture that shows ya how much i trim. If ya dnt trim ya get little buds all over if ya trim ya get great big top notch buds.

Here is a picture where 2 ended up in 1 pot. Ya can see how much i trimmed off. All that plant grew was top notch buds.

Thanks man. After the election crap tonight I will get to doing just that.

Botrytis wiped me out. Inadequate airflow and moisture issues. I learned a crap load though so next time!...unless there is a way to get rid of the disease.

Wow! That sucks! Starting again?

I will have to do that. First I have to get rid of stuff and clean well. I may have been able to get some papayas out before it was too late, so hopefully I can get some clones from them and at least have something to try out by beginning of april, or by 420.

Either way, I have had enough time to be depressed, so I am ready to move on and do it right this time and being much more meticulous. I see why they say it takes 3+ grows or so to figure it out. But it would have been fine if not for the inadequate airflow I think.

I think I will experiment a lot with the next attempt so I can learn as much as possible as fast as possible, and then really have it down for the following attempt after that.

The whole secret is controlling the enviroment. Its tough at times. I am suffering from too low of humidity.

Your next grow keep an eye on the temps,humidy.

Dirtyboy said:

The whole secret is controlling the enviroment. Its tough at times. I am suffering from too low of humidity.

Your next grow keep an eye on the temps,humidy.

Click to expand...

Yep, will definitely control much tighter. Thanks.