New Grower 1st Grow, Nirvana NL Auto, CFL, Soil

[TheGroShmo]

Hi AFN. On my first grow here and thought I'd throw up some pics and info.

2 Nirvana NorthernLights Autos
In Fox Farms Ocean Soil, 3 Gal Smartpots
125w CFL bulbs, first 4wks under 6500k, now under 2700K
Hydrofarm hood
42w CFL 2700K single bulb
4x12" Phresh filter & 6" Hyper Fan
6" clip-on fan
Dyna-Gro Grow nutrients

Started three seeds, all germed and sprouted. Named them Campy, Shimano and SRAM. Campy lasted a week and then tipped over and died. Never went past its baby leaves and the stem just shriveled and died. So I started SRAM in it's place. Shimano was planted 2/5 and SRAM went in on 2/9. First two weeks on 24/0 lighting, then switched to 20/4.

Just started to see pistils on Shimano about a week ago, so it was pretty much a solid month before it began flowering. Seems like maybe on the long side for an auto, but she's plenty bushy and hasn't had any issues. I pulled one fan leaf last night that looked bad, but it was only a 3-finger hidden under everything and had been touching the soil from the LST. No discolorations anywhere else.

SRAM has been much less vigorous the whole time. It's bushed out a bit more in the last week or ten days, but as you can see not like the other one. It's in a little less dirt, and there are a couple leaves with what look like cal-mag deficiency spots. Like a single rusty spot on 2 or 3 leaves. Haven't done anything about it yet.

Both plants got plain distilled water for the first three weeks. Then started the Grow at 1/4 bottle strength, which I think is 1/4 tsp per gallon. Been watering every other day and alternating the Grow with plain distilled. The last 4 feedings have been at half strength.

Oh man, this is long and I haven't even gotten to the pics yet.

The closet is evolving. It's lined with an emergency blanket and the "platform" the plants are in is a repurposed car windshield reflector. Temps have ranged from 65 to 85, humidity 25 to 35. The filtered air goes out a homemade duct through a crack in the door at the top corner. Temps were still sitting mid-80s so I've put anther small fan on the floor outside the door blowing in and it's now a steady 79 during lights-on. The small circulating fan inside blows from bottom-left up into the hood. Both plants shake a little. Lights are about 9" from the tops.

Seems to be going OK so far. Smells a little when I have the door open to work on them, but not much outside the closet and nothing really outside the room. ONA block helps a small bit, but I'm not sold on it really. I was hoping to have a present for myself for 4/20. Nirvana says 7-9 weeks of flower so it'll be close. If there's good development on Shimano (the bigger one) I'll probably pull something off 4/13ish, dry it and see what happens. That way I'll maybe get to see the difference in harvesting times.

Now, pics!

closet bottom


closet top


Shimano bud sites


Shimano bud site close-up


SRAM pre-flowering


Welcome all questions, comments and all that.

 

[StickMan]

Looking awesome for your first grow my friend!

I will be following your grow closely, so please keep the updates coming!

Peace.

 

[TheGroShmo]

Thanks!

Just got done with another plain watering and found a bunch more rust spot areas. The affected leaf on Shimano (bigger) was at the third node. The one with spots on SRAM is one of the baby leaves. If it's spread at all tomorrow I'm going to look into pHing first and then maybe a cal-mag supplement. Anyone have thoughts on if it could be a symptom of low light at the affected leaves? Or maybe just aging? Shimano is at day 43, SRAM at 38.

One other tidbit of info. Just got my electric bill today and I'd say all my equipment is running me about $15 a month.

 

[TheGroShmo]

Here are a couple pics from 3/19, before switching to Bloom nutrients.

The injured leaf


SRAM early flower, maybe a week in.


SRAM, the smaller one. growing slower, not as much LST. Hasn't hit an accelerated growth period like Shimano did a few weeks back. Mostly bending over the main stem, and angling the other lower branches out for more light. Top of main branch is quick to reach back toward the light after training.

 

[TheGroShmo]

3/28

3/28 pics. Shimano is in full flower. 10ish decent bud sites. What's there is solid, but nothing very big really. Maybe 1/4 inch across at the core of the most developed bud. Lots of sites, pretty much everything getting some direct light. Closest bud is about 5 inches (the ones at the corners of the hood), maybe 10 inches at the furthest, but right below the meat of the bulb.




SRAM is still smaller, I'd say at least a week behind Shimano in life stage, who knows if it will get as big. It's probably 2/3 the size, but is also in a bit less soil, maybe 25% at most. That's why I added the second bulb, to hit those lower, younger bud sites.

SRAM, 8ish bud sites. Fewer than it's partner.


I guess what I call initial flowering. White pistils along main shoots, but still looks like it's vegging a bit.


3/25 I did a final 20oz, Grow feeding to SRAM, and a first 28oz Bloom to Shimano

3/26 I felt like I may be underwatering. Soil always seems dry at every other day, and I've never had runoff. Checked the soil, then gave a half-watering of distilled water.

3/27 Gave 30oz Bloom to Shimano, 24oz to SRAM.

3/28 No burn so far. Soil seems almost as dry as when I've been checking every other day. Depending on the soil tomorrow, I'm planning on giving at least the 30 and 24 oz. Not really training at this point, but doing some very minor adjustments to try to optimize light to bud sites.

Anyone have experience with Smartpots and watering? Do they tend to dry out? Is my amount of water on the low side? FWIW, the Smartpots are 3 gallon size, but not full of soil. Probably no more than 2 gallons for SRAM, and b/w 2 and 3 gallons for Shimano.

 

[greekgrower]

Hey brotha sweet lil setup you got there and beautiful girls
On my first grow myself and im doin alot of research.
Youre saying that you feel your dirt is dry. You are in week 3 almost 4. And you are giving your plants 24-32oz of water with nutrients? Am I understanding this correctly?

 

[yodabuds]

Doing FANTASTIC for your first grow! It's very evident you did a lot of homework for your first grow! for that.
Try taking a fork and "raking" the soil taking care to stay about an inch or so away from main stalk as you don't want to rip the roots... Also I found that a smart pot will not function properly if the soil isn't at the fabric as sometimes when they dry out they will be slightly away from the fabric wall.. You could even do this now without fear of overwatering as they are probably bone dry along the edge be sure next watering you sorta life the fabric up and "water the wall and dirt" around the edge of the pot getting it all wet.... I really hope you can make sense out of what I'm trying to describe:.. A bit too much

wishing you the best!

:Sharing One:

 

[TheGroShmo]

Thanks all for the notes. Get what you mean about the SmartPots, Yoda. I do try to water the whole pot evenly. Sometimes I get a very small amount of runoff out of the sides.

Today they got a full strength Bloom feeding; that's 1/2 tsp per gallon of the nutrients. Shimano got 32 oz and SRAM 26 oz. They weren't as dry an inch down in the soil, but pretty close. I watered this morning, which puts it about 12 hours sooner than usual.

Anyone have thoughts on my amount of water? I've read plenty of places that watering every 3-5 days can work, but I've been doing every other and they'd be bones if I went any longer. Guess I'm mostly worried about overwatering, since I'm pretty sure I killed my first seedling that way.

Pics in a few days when there's (hopefully) some more evident growth.

 

[virginia gent]

I think you are right about not enough water. I just started using air pots and I have to give them 50% more than when I used plastic bags. The three gallon pots need about two qts to get some run-off so I can test my soil. You might want to flush between veg and bloom nutes, about 3qts with the last qt some cal/mag and superthrive. Good luck and good karma.

 

[TheGroShmo]

A little update here. Both seem to be thriving. I've been pruning off most leaves that show any sickness. I've probably taken 50 leaves total. Both seem pretty bushy still.

Shimano (the older one) is filling out, getting some sugar on the leaves. Maybe 25% brown pistils. Bud sites beginning to grow together.





SRAM (the younger one in slightly less soil) is looking good too. Main branch just keeps stretching. I let this one go up more since it was behind the other and I was trying to get a relatively even canopy. Now it just keeps going up! You can see I took the top branch and bent over the top few inches. Checked it about 6 hours later and it had stood straight up at the string. Bent that newly vertical part again last night and it was straight up again this morning.

The branch just under the back left corner of the light, before training it down.


Same branch a few hours later.


These pics are about 5 days old. Since then I've done a plain watering of 40 oz (Shim) and 36 oz (SRAM), and then yesterday a 1/2tsp per gal Bloom feed, 42 oz and 38 oz respectively. SRAM leaf tips have shown what looks like a touch of burn. I did three Bloom feeds in a row at one point, so maybe too much. Am planning to alternate plain and feed from now on.

Starting to think about the flush for Shimano. Should have a loupe by the end of the day for a first look at trichomes. Roughly speaking, I'm probably at about week 5 of flower there. Nirvana claims 7-9 weeks, putting 4/20 at right about the earliest.

A couple other notes for you closet growers out there: I haven't been able to master the airflow. Blowing the filtered air out the top hasn't created enough negative pressure around the rest of the door frame to really pull anything in. I tried a couple other DIY things at the bottom to suck air in, but that crack is just not really big enough. So, I'm back to a fan on the outside of the closed door blowing in. Temps are around 82deg and humidity seems to hover around 40%. I may try blowing the filtered out the bottom, but I'm not really hopeful. FWIW, the Phresh filter is working well, almost no smell, even without much air exchange.