New Grower Raoul-Duke's First Grow, Northern Lights Auto, LEDs, Late Start

[Raoul Duke]

Hello fellow AFNers. As you can see by the title this is my first real grow and I'm pretty excited about doing a journal even though I'm starting it a little late (better late than never). In any case, any and all tips are still welcome and maybe we can all learn something along this journey.

Before I get started I feel it's necessary to give a shout out to my gardening assistants/partners in crime/moral support:

The wife is okay too (i suppose).

So I guess I should start with my set up:

2'x2'x4' tent
4" - 175 cfm extractor fan
4" carbon filter
started with two 70 watt LEDs off amazon
now using Mars II 400 LED
Northern Lights Auto x 2 - Crop King Seeds
2 x 3 gallon pots with trays
promix bx
1 x 6" clip on fan
1 x 4" oscillating fan
hygrometer
ph tester
ec/ppm meter
botanicare pure blend base nutes
botanicare cal+mag
gh rapid start
and other assorted tools and doo-hickeys like ph down and such
also using regular tap water

Let me know if you think I forgot anything (thinking about this list hurt my brain).

Okay now that the boring stuff is out of the way, let's get you all caught up on where we're at.

Day 1 for the first Northern Lights, let's call her Lucy, was Feb 5. Her First two weeks were pretty much a nightmare. I made almost every noob mistake possible; over watering, fluctuating ph, temperatures below 16 Celsius(about 60-61 Fahrenheit), humidity above 90, and no nutes until about week 3(apparently I thought I was growing in soil? classic stoner move). Unfortunately, I don't have images from this far back but you can see from the first set of images below that after 20ish days, Lucy was not off to a good start. By the first week I had lost hope and popped the second bean in and she sprouted Feb 15. Let's call her Barbara. So Barbara had some different issues. In an attempt to counter the over-watering issues I had with Lucy, I ended under-watering Barbara for the first week or so and I was still battling temperature/humidity issues. These were all noob mistakes that I just needed to learn for myself. I'm actually quite glad I had this experience because I'll have this knowledge for future grows.

Now that I've gotten everything right where they should be the plants have taken off and doing quite well. Heat with lights on is 24-27.5 celcius(75.2-81.5 farenheit) and it never goes below 20 celcius (68 farenheit) with lights off. Humidity usually stays between 35 and 45 (been between 45 and 50 since the wife decided to turn a humidifier on the other day; still okay though).

They are now both 16-17 inches and it looks like some nice bud sites forming. Most of the calyxes have hairs growing out of them except for a few of the lower ones that were around just as both plants were recovering from their bad starts so I'm a little concerned they might be hermies but I could just be over worrying. Other than that they look good to me. Noticed small cal defs and quickly upped the calmag and havent seen any more issues.

I'd also like to add that I started using the rapid rooter after the first 2 weeks or so when I realized Lucy and Barbara weren't doing so hot. I'm not sure if it helped or whether it was the fact that I was dialing my setup in more but the plants started doing much better after. I stopped giving the rapid start once pre-flowering started at about 4 weeks.

So that's about it I think, Lucy is at 58 days from popping out of (soil) or 8 weeks and 2 days, and Barbara is 48 days or 7 weeks tomorrow.

Please, questions about my set up, any comments, and tips are welcome or just stop by to pass around a joint and maybe grab a pint.

More updates to follow.

Cheers,
Raoul-Duke

 

[Raoul Duke]

More photos. Sorry they're all over the place.

 

[Raoul Duke]

The close up of the calyxes are from Lucy about week 4. Now, at week 8, some of the older calyxes (very few) have not gotten the long white hairs. Think I'm okay? Or did they hermie? The close up near the end was taken today.

 

[NugNoob]

Hey man, first here don't mind if I pull up a comfy chair... looking mighty fine btw. Love your pics of your grow and your PICS (partners in crime!)

I am in the same boat (1 dog 1 cat) and a wife to support me. Don't worry about the noob mistakes, I made a ton as well on my first grow (they didn't do so hot lol) and I'm now going on my second. Live, experience and learn. Your plants are looking great though!

 

[iampepe]

Apparently those kittens don't like sausage.
I'm subbed in for the show

That's not a hermie, your fine bro. :smoking:

Nice setup and Good luck with your grow.

 

[Z_Burp]

Great! Fourth here and I'm along for the ride as well.
Doesn't look like nanners to me, she's just showing her girly bits. I think I see a pistil coming outta there... I don't have my glasses on, though.

This might help in the future.
Best wishes!

 

[Raoul Duke]

Hey man, first here don't mind if I pull up a comfy chair... looking mighty fine btw. Love your pics of your grow and your PICS (partners in crime!)

I am in the same boat (1 dog 1 cat) and a wife to support me. Don't worry about the noob mistakes, I made a ton as well on my first grow (they didn't do so hot lol) and I'm now going on my second. Live, experience and learn. Your plants are looking great though!

Thanks man. I really appreciate the . Please make yourself comfortable. I'll have to check out your ak-47 grow.

Apparently those kittens don't like sausage.
I'm subbed in for the show

That's not a hermie, your fine bro. :smoking:

Nice setup and Good luck with your grow.

The second you look away, the all black one will swipe them and run off. Can't trust her with anything. She probably ate someand I didn't even notice. And thanks for the reassurance. I figured I was being overworried; it's been my problem from the start. i just need to and relax. Grab a bean bag chair and get comfy.

Cheers

 

[Raoul Duke]

Great! Fourth here and I'm along for the ride as well.
Doesn't look like nanners to me, she's just showing her girly bits. I think I see a pistil coming outta there... I don't have my glasses on, though.

This might help in the future.
Best wishes!

Happy to have ya! Thanks for the image. That helps a lot. There's room over on the couch for ya. Help yourself to the goodies on the coffee table.

 

[Slater]

Hey dude looking good so far...If my laptop would let me see the pics better.
Don't worry about those noob mistakes... thinking your growing in soil is good one though...I put 2 seeds in the same plug on my first... the hazards of being a stoner.
Subbing up

 

[Raoul Duke]

Hey dude looking good so far...If my laptop would let me see the pics better.
Don't worry about those noob mistakes... thinking your growing in soil is good one though...I put 2 seeds in the same plug on my first... the hazards of being a stoner.
Subbing up

Hey man. So glad to have you here. Been following your journal a bit lately but there's so much to skim through. Anyway there's some room on the couch beside Z_bop or there's probably another bean bag chair around somewhere if you look (there's always another bean bag chair).

Cheers