Lola's Indoor Soil Northern Lights Auto Fem Journal, First Grow

[LolaM420]

Good evening/morning/afternoon,

I've been reading on here for a while and thought I'd finally post a journal. This is my very first grow ever.

10/9 Ordered 3 Northern Lights Auto Fem seeds from Ilovetogrowmarijuana.
10/17 seeds arrived and I immediately soaked 2 of them in water. Kept one set aside in case there were problems with these.)
10/18 planted into peat pods.
10/26 Seeds both sprouted and stems were about 3 inches tall with 2 sets of 2 leaves each.see pic
11/3 Grew outside until this date. Nice green color, everything fine, turnd cold brought inside. see pic
11/8 had brought in a put under a grow lightbulb from Lowes. Leaves started turning yellow and dying. see pic
11/15 Planted in Kelloggs Premium Plus Organic Soil from Home Depot.

Fast forward to 12/21 every set of leaves that grew turned yellow and died!

A friend talked me through a lot of the problems I was having.
1) Nutrient lock from using tap water - ph too high
2) Lights too hot (got up to 102 degrees under the lamp!)
3) Needed fan.
4) Purchased LED lights.

1/4 Awesome growth in 2 weeks time! I think I'm finally on the right track. see last pic.
1/5 Signs it is a girl! Yeah. I paid for Auto Fem seeds but with all the problems I had getting started I was worried .

Medium: Kelloggs Premium Plus Organic Soil from Home Depot
Lights: Erlight 45 W LED Lights & 90 W Phillips Grow Light - LED light from Amazon
Location: Indoor in a Tent lined with Mylar and black outside from Amazon
Currently: Vegetative stage with signs of being female!

 

[weblock420]

Keen to see how they go on Lola, I'll pull up a front row seat!

Best of luck with your autos .️


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[LolaM420]

Re: Lola's Indoor Soil Northern Lights AutoFem Journal First Grow-gnats!

Help! Fungus gnats have returned. I suspect they are from the larvae. I'm thinking about putting hydrogen peroxide through again. It worked last time but I don't want to continue fighting these things. Anyone with any real solutions?

Hello!

Strain: Norther Lights autofem indica
Veggie Stage approx day 78. (had a very rough start, got most stuff cleared up now)
Indoor in 3 gal pots Kelloggs Organic Plus Soil
2 x 2 x 4 Tent
2 Plants
Small fan
1 Ehrlight 45 W 165 LLED Lights with Blue & Red
1 120 watt Phillips GRow Light from Lowes
Room Temp: 76-80 during day and 64 at night
RH of Room 45%
Any Pests ?
How often are you watering? twice a week
General Hydroponics Micro Bloom & Macro

I'm attaching 2 pictures of the plant. One is exactly a week ago and then the other is today! Holy cow went from 2 inch spread to 6 inch spread in a week. So I do finally have the chemicals, ph, temp and lights right but I'm seeing flying gnats. I had gotten rid of them with Sevin Dust, Hyrogen Peroxide and the DE on top of soil but they are back. I'm guessing the larvae in the ground hatched! Help I don't want to eat my roots considering I FINALLY got this thing going.

Thanks,
Lola

 

[David Bowman]

Hope all is well in your world.

Is this grow still alive?

We would love to be updated with some pictures and info.

How about posting a 420 Strain Review?

If you need any help with posting photos, please read our Photo Gallery Tutorial.

I am moving this to Abandoned Journals until we get updates.

Sending you lots of love and positive energy.

 

[LolaM420]

I've updated my journal. Everything is growing real well right now. This was 2 days ago .

 

[LolaM420]

2.10.17 update.

I switched the lighting to 12/12 on Jan 17th. It started budding a few days later. I also planted my final 3rd seed I had purchased. Its been growing in 12/12 since seed. It started budding 2 days ago. It's much smaller than the other 2 plants but growing. It's the one in the black pot.

I didn't do any lst on the plant. On the 2 I have growing well in curious if I should be pulling the smaller buds off. I now have small buds in between every branch! Im also considering keeping it alive after harvest. I

s that possible with auto fem seeds?

 

[dauzer]

Looking good Lola, ill jump in for the ride

Are you foliar feeding ?? I can see some water on the fan leaves in some of the photos. How far are the plants from the LEDs ? You can get those pretty close without too many issues as they give off very little heat. They might stretch if the light is too high.

With autos its ok to leave them on 18/6 from seed to harvest. 12/12 will take take longer to finish but produce bigger yields. There is a good blog on lighting schedules for auto flowers from one of the guys on the forum.

Auto flowering schedules

 

[LolaM420]

Thanks I'll check out the blog. I nearly killed my plants. They were 2 months old and still only had 2 small leaves. I went to the 12/12 on recommendation of someone that had not ever grown autos. But all of his other advice worked so I listened. I just raised the lights last week. The plants had started to touch them.

Do you know if it's possible to keep growing the plant or return to veg after harvest on AutoFem? Also should I be pulling off the small new buds in the bottom so the top ones get big?

Fyi I've got 2 hot lights in the tent on the sides and the led on the top.

Yes I sometimes spray water on the plants. I had very low humidity 25%, today . Anytime it gets before 35% I spray water on the plants.
Thanks.
Lola

 

[dauzer]

Have you any recent pictures ? Were you able to check the pH of the water your using ? You can have the autos under 12/12 throughout its cycle. The blog goes into detail so you can decide which best suits you. I don't think its possible to re veg an autoflower, its basically in the flower period as soon as its germinated. They don't have a veg period but most people use veg lighting in the first 2 weeks to allow for strong early growth before they're put under HIDs or intense lighting.

 

[dauzer]

You should try and keep those lights as low as possible. A rule of thumb, put the back of your hand under the bulb, if its uncomfortable for you its too hot for the plants. That way you can get a rough idea of how low you can go. You should also try to get a fan blowing over the tops of the plant so there is no heat build up and good air movement.

 

[LolaM420]

The 3 pics in my reply were taken for the reply. That's exactly where they are right now. I started them with a house plant light. They never took off. I bought the tent and the led light and now 6weeks later in full of buds! Thanks for answering the veg question.

I have 2 fans going blowing up from the bottom and keep the tent open during the day to keep the temp under 80. one of the lights gets hot .
Lola

 

[LolaM420]

Question... I'm getting new tiny buds popping up. Should I be plucking those off so the others get bigger?

 

[dauzer]

Question... I'm getting new tiny buds popping up. Should I be plucking those off so the others get bigger?

No your best to leave them as they are now at this stage. The plant is starting to flower so if you pull any of the bud sites the plant might go into shock and slow growth. I wouldn't say they have long left so best to let them produce what ever they can.

If your going again with autos you could try a scrog style grow so the smaller branches will get more direct light which will result in bigger yields. There is a few different techniques you could look into for the next time and put this down to a learning experience . I remember when I started my first grow, 2 died and 2 produced barely a quarter each. The next grow they all survived and my yields increased. Practice makes perfect as they say .


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[dauzer]

2.10.17 update.

I switched the lighting to 12/12 on Jan 17th. It started budding a few days later. I also planted my final 3rd seed I had purchased. Its been growing in 12/12 since seed. It started budding 2 days ago. It's much smaller than the other 2 plants but growing. It's the one in the black pot.

I didn't do any lst on the plant. On the 2 I have growing well in curious if I should be pulling the smaller buds off. I now have small buds in between every branch! Im also considering keeping it alive after harvest. I

s that possible with auto fem seeds?

Do you have any photos of lights and where they are positioned over the plants. To me it looks as though they are stretching for the light. If the lights are too high they will grow tall and buds won't full develop.

Do you have a hydrometer to monitor humidity ? Too high or too low humidity can cause slow growth. Something I only started properly looking into with my latest grow. You can pick up cheap hydrometers on amazon.

Have you been able to check the pH of the water your using ? A lot of problem with these plants can be directly linked to pH. If it's too high the roots can't absorb the nutes which means there not getting any food or energy.


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[LolaM420]

2/11/17 pics of lights and response to questions.

I have one LED its hanging about 2 inches from the tallest plant. I have a grow light on the side of my tent probably 10 inches from closest plant. It's a hot light. I have a bright white CFL on the other side of the tent probably 6 inches from the closest plant. The lights on the side are aimed at the underside of the plants.

I have one fan on the outside blowing in and one on the inside blowing up. I have 2 different thermometers. One shows humidity which runs at 35%even lights on and 65% during the night. I do have a ph tester and adjust my water when needed. Mostly it's good with the nutes in it.

I'm attaching pics.

 

[dauzer]

Great thanks for the photos. It's all coming together in my head now lol.

Ok so the way you have everything set up looks good. That LED panel looks to be the right height above the plants. What you could try and do to keep them all level is raise any of the plants not at the same height so they all sit at the same level from the LED panel.

Do you have any extraction ? That will aid with temp and humidity. You want to try keep the humidity down to the 30% - 50% during the budding period to prevent mould and fungus.

How often are you watering / feeding ?


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[LolaM420]

I had been watering twice a week. I've had to up the feeding schedule and basically am doing it ever other day in the soil as long as it feels dry. I am also misting the buds once a day when I first turn on the lights. I'm mainly doing this because my humidity gets to 30%even if u don't. Misting I get it up to 40%.it's not really been over this unless it's cold at night. I'm growing Indoors but it's in a laundry room that has a doggy door so cool air gets in at night but not in the tent.

I'm not sure what you meant about extraction. I have two screen windows in the tent. I have a fan blowing in one window and one blowing out the other. I also currently open the tent up. But I'm about to not be able to keep the tent open any more. I may change the grow light to a second CFL to keep the heat down and keep from having to air it out. Its starting to get that distinct pit smell every so lightly. Guessing it's going to get stronger.

I really wish I had an idea how much longer my grow will have to go on. I'm hoping no now than a few more weeks before doing the flush abs then darkness. I'm also hoping to put in cool tents is at night to bring our some colors or at the end.

Any other suggestions or ideas on growth?

 

[LolaM420]

Pics taken2/12 for comparison.
One of the longest buds.

Comparison of a larger flower with a Nickle.

A pic with a bud from my plant, planted 1/17/17!!!

Lola

 

[dauzer]

Yeah they look good, really starting to develop the colas. I would avoid misting the bud sites as this could cause mould and you don't really want your buds getting sprayed as it might affect the THC production. I'm sure someone with more expertise could chime in here ?

To raise humidity you can leave a bowl of water un covered in the room or a wet towel. This with the heat of the lights will bring the humidity up. You should be aiming for the 40% mark.

Extraction for removing the air in the room. Ideally you want to replace the air in the room every few mins. A carbon filter would really help with smell but they can be expensive especially when pairing them up with an extraction fan. Autos can take anywhere from 55 days to 90 days depending on the strain and light cycle. Did you manage to read the blog on autoflowers light schedules ? That described the difference if harvest times depending on wether the autos are on 12/12, 18/6 or 24/0. You can check your strain online as well to see the flowering period and then work it out with the light schedule you have then on.

With autos there is not much else you can do. Unless you trained them from the beginning it's just a matter of holding their hand now until they finish. Nutes, light and room conditions are really the main things to keep right


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[LolaM420]

I did read the article. Very interesting. Based on his 1000 hr data I have 16 more days. I bought a mini magnifying glass thing to check on trichs. I'm not sold on only having 16 days to go. They'll be pretty small if that's the case . but for my first grow I'm very pleased where I am at right now. Thanks for the tips.

Lola