Nirvana Northern Lights Grow

Northern Lights Grow Diary

Strain: Northern Lights (pure Indica 88,89 & 90)
Breeder: Nirvana
Species: Cannabis, Indica
Grow Start Date: 17-02-09

Aims: To cultivate three mature female Indica plants for purely personal use. To learn more about the correct growth of sinsemelia crops. To relieve the organised crime fraternity of my money by self-sufficiency and disassociation.
I am allowing about three months for this grow. I expect to be harvesting my three girls by 17th May 2009.

10 seeds à 8 germinateà 4 females à kill least vigorous female\s to obtain 3 vigorous female Indica plants.
There will be a 6 week curing period after harvest.

Day 1 17th February 2009 Germination

I received the said seeds today (10). I have chosen to germinate the seeds slightly differently to previous grows. I am using kitchen towel, dampened and placed inside a plastic envelope which will not be sealed. This will allow some circulation of air without causing excessive evaporation and also effectively reduce the chances of damaging the seeds through drying out.

Garden Setup:

My Garden, which is a cupboard, is:- 3.8ft long, 2.1ft in wide and 8.5 ft Height
The total floor area is:- 7.98ft2
Light Setup:- (Vegetative Growth) 4 x MH 70w + 5 18w CFL’s
(Vegetative Growth 2) 400w MH + 5 18w CFL’2
(Flowering) 400w HPS + 400w MH + 5 18w CFL’s
Growing Medium:- Westland Multi-Purpose Compost with added John Innis
Perlite (30% of total medium)
Fertilisers Bought:- (Vegetative Growth) Chempak High N Feed (No. 2)
(Flowering) Chempak Low N Feed (NO.8)

Edited by Budbaron, 24 April 2009 - 07:38 PM.

Day 2 18th February 2009 Germination

Today 4 out of the 10 germinated. I have placed them in small pots of compost only.

Day 3 19th February 2009 Germination

By today 9 out of 10 have germinated. I have paced those in pots and moved the pots into the grow space. I have put the 4 x 70w MH lights on. I’m hoping that the lights will protect the plants from getting too cold at this stage; the seedlings have not sprouted through the mediums surface. This means that photosynthesis has not started yet. I will be using a 24\0 light regime for vegetative growth.



Day 4 20th February 2009 Seedling

As it stands I have almost given up on the last un-germinated seed. I have met my one of my aims which was to successfully germinate at least 8\10 of the seeds; I got 9\10.

Two or three of the potted seedlings have already sprouted through the surface of the growing medium, with the shell still covering the cotyledons.

It’s possible there may be an upgrade to 400w MH on the cards.

Day 5 21st February 2009 Seedling

Today all nine of the seedlings have erupted through the surface. Most had already lost the shell which covers the cotyledons. A few I helped off carefully by hand.

The stems are green with obvious purple hues; they seem relatively thick to the other plants I have grown. I have previously grown Indica\Sativa and Sativa\Indica crosses so a pure strain will teach me much.
Some of the plant’s cotyledons are purple underneath.

I have tested the 400w MH light, it is very bright. I am awaiting an electrical inspection before connecting the lights and hanging them for growing use. I will have the whole electrical system in my cupboard checked at the same time. All my electrical work is done by a qualified electrical tester and inspector.

Day 6 22nd February 2009 Seedling

Suspiciously, all of the purple coloration I observed yesterday has gone. They are all green now.

Day 8 24th February 2009 Vegetative

The new 400w MH light was inspected yesterday. It’s electrically safe. I have mounted the light way above the plants. The light will be difficult to raise or lower so I will raise or lower the level of the plants instead. All of the plants are similar; they are the same height, same relative size and with no genetic defects showing at this time.

It has only been about 3-4 hours and the MH light switched itself off. I have an idea that the gear tray (ballast, igniter ect.) got to hot and cut out. I am thinking about re-mounting the light so that the gear tray is not in such close proximity to the bulb.

After much effort the MH light has been re-mounted, from its original box. It’s much more open now so I don’t expect to have any further trouble with heat. Except maybe too much heat in the grow room.

The electrics are now due another inspection, top priority.




Day 9 25th February 2009 Vegetative

Today it has become clear that one of the plants is not growing as well as the other eight. It’s much smaller in terms of leaves and one of the leaves look brown at the tip. Also it looks like the primary growing tip has gone mouldy. I’m hoping not. I will keep an eye on this plant and may remove it from the garden. There is no point in growing a slack plant. I have also acquired the 400w HPS system for flowering.

Day 14 2nd March 2009 Vegetative

It has been a few day since my last entry. There has been much activity; I think I put the plants too close to the new MH light. The plants started to go yellow so I feed them with some Chempak No. 2; very little though. I moved them to a better distance from the light and the green is coming back to them I think. A couple of the plants are really weak, they look small with poor leaf growth, some necrosis. A few of the better looking plants have a couple of necrotic patches which I think I caused by leaving large globules of water on the leaf tops. I think the light and water hurt those leaves by magnified diffraction. Seven plants have relatively large green stalks, plenty enough to support at least 2 times their current height and size. There is still much growth to go but the characteristic fat Indic leaves are more than showing.
Whilst watering the garden today I noticed the first smell of cannabis. When the stems are touched them most beautiful smell is released.
The plants are really short. No more than 3.5 inches high. Internode spacing; there is no spacing as of yet.

Some Pics for you all

Day 16 4th March 2009 Vegetative

The plants have not grown vertically still. They are bushing out though. The stalks are so big that an outer layer of stem is in the process of shedding. Just like a snake, its madness. I’m thinking that I need to increase the humidity in my grow room; I think that because the humidity is very low there is too much evapo-transpiration taking place. Causing the dry and necrotic patches between the veins on some of the leaves.

I’m not particularly happy with this grow so far. The plants just don’t look like well grown specimens. I may need to rethink my approach on the next grow.
Add Perlite to the first potting mix, keep humidity high, keep the plants at a good distance from the lights, know about the compost I’m using. There is so much more.

Depending on the next few weeks I will decide if this grow is worth the effort or whether I should start a new grow. This will depend on the vigerosity of the plants and the accomplishment of the three female plants.

I killed the smallest plant. It was really unwell and not worth the effort; 8 plants left now.

Day 18 6th March 2009 Vegetative

Reviewing the photos from yesterday and the day previous it is clear that growth has accelerated. The plants are still not growing much vertically although a small amount of vertical growth has taken place. Internode lengths, at the moment, of about 1cm. There is still much visible necrosis on the lower leaves of some of the plants. I don’t think it affects the new growth. I may have over fertilised some (with the 25-15-15 chempak No. 2) and so I have given those plants lots of water in an attempt to flush them in a relatively soft manor. I feel it’s now time to decide whether I should flower the plants as soon as they are mature or if I should wait it out and let them vegetate to increase potential bud sites. Although not being an expert I may end up killing the plants if I take the latter option due to nutrient deficiencies .

Day 20 8th March 2009 Vegetative

I checked the grow room today two plants had slack fan leaves. They had dropped down into the pots in fact. The drooping leaves, on inspection, looked like they had be painted with a transparent gloss varnish. I gave all the plants water and an hour later the two plants had fully recovered. Holding their leaves spread out and pert. The glossiness had almost disappeared too after this short time. The largest plant is 10cm high, although five of the plants are this same height. The three smaller plants are all around 8cm. All but one of the plants, tall or short, are on their fifth nodes. The other has only 4.

Day 21 9th March 2009 Vegetative

I have decided to number the plants from NL# 1 to NL# 8. I have numbered them according to their height, width and bushiness by eye today. NL# 1 being the tallest, widest, most bushy specimen. NL#1-NL#5 are the larger group of plants whilst NL#6-NL#8 are the smaller plants. NL#8 is the smallest least developed specimen by eye.
I also tied back a couple of medium sized fan leaves on NL#1. This has exposed two rather large secondary growing tips which are rising up from a few internodes below. I am hoping that the extra light to these areas will also stimulate further growth in these areas. I may consider it on the other plants if the same kind of situation occurs.

Day 23 11th March 2009 Vegetative

I measured NL# 1 again today. The plant is at least 15 cm high in contrast to the 10 cm I measured three days ago. That’s a 50% increase or about 16.6% vertical growth per day. Internodes between plants of up to a inch; none with more than that spacing. Yesterday I added a couple of granules of Chempak No. 2 to 1 litre of water and watered NL# 7. I did this as the plant was uniformly yellowing (chlorosis). Today some of the greenness is coming back to that plant.
I have decided to let the plants pre-flower fully before turning them to a 12\12 schedule. I expect the plants to be 1ft. and under high when I choose flower them. This will be decided when all plants are sexually mature.

I was left in wonderment by Northern Lights No. 6 today. I have never, ever seen a cannabis plant grow three leaves at one internode before. It’s a beautiful and wondrous thing really. The geometric growth on this plant is staggering and represents nature at its best; with respect to the triangular leaf growth.

I love my plants but the obvious worries come back. I worry about being caught, prison and court in general. I just can’t understand why such an amazing (I hate American Z’s like irrationali”z”e; this is not one though) plant would be outlawed. Cannabis isn’t just for bud to smoke (which is nice), but for the enjoyment of growing, for use in building materials, pharmaceuticals and clothing. To see your seed grow from a cress like looking seedling to a mature and completely conspicuous cannabis plant is so rewarding. Just the opportunity to experiment with growing this species is massively rewarding. The whole N-P-K, light pattern (photosensitivity), soil chemistry and the potential of hydrogen (Ph) thing is so interesting.
The thing that most cannabis smokers don’t get the opportunity to try are quality genetics. They don’t get the chance to taste cannabis which isn’t grown just for bud production, THC to CBD ratio or quick finishing times.

One thing I never knew before starting this grow is that the species Ruddialis, which originates from Russia, is not photosensitive. The crossings between Indica and Rudialis create healthily budding, automatically flowering hybrids. I don’t think I will bothering with an auto-flowering variety though. I’m a grower to be a cannabis connoisseur not a cost\time cutter. I spend so much on cannabis when I don’t grow my own. £70-100 per week is ridiculous; what could a criminal (not me) do with that? The weed is sub-optimal and so, so expensive. I have ambitions to grow G13 x Hash Plant next; £15 per seed.

So far I estimate that this grow has cost me £220. To break even I must cultivate at least 39g of bud. I want much more than this; more like 90g. 39g would last me about 24 days; in contrast I allowed 90 days for this grow. 90g would last me about 56 days or about two months. In fact I would need to grow at least 144g or more of cannabis to be self sufficient not considering curing times.

Day 27 15th March 2009 Vegetativeà Flowering

I have re-potted all of the plants into larger pots to allow further development of the plants rooting system.

Stupidly I forgot about the numbers on the pots and now I don’t have a clue which is which. Although NL#6 is obvious by the triangular three leaves at one node . Also NL#1 was still identifiable as it has always been the biggest plant.

I have decided to switch to 12/12 now as I’m worried about being raided. The lights will go out at 1800hrs tonight for the first time. I will be fitting the HPS system within the next few days to maximise flowering efficiency.



Day 28 16th March 2009 Flowering Day 1

Today it has become clear to me that my own blood may have grassed me up to the police. I can’t bring myself to destroy the plants after all the time, effort and money I have put into this project. I will have to wait and see as to whether this has truly happened. I will know if I get raided by the police. All I hope is that if he did tell them they don’t raid me until I have sexed all the plants and chucked all but three specimens. I, to be honest, can’t afford to be caught growing eight plants. I have no wish to cultivate eight plants. I will be growing a maximum of three cannabis Indica plants. Although I do fear being caught for more than this number of plants.

Most plants are on their 8th nodes. The re-potting seems to have gone relatively well with no slack plants as a result up until this point.

I did take a quick glance at the plants today to check for flowers but I saw none. I don’t expect to see any flowers for at least a week.

Day 29 17th March 2009 Flowering Day 2

Of course I checked the plants for flowers today. I didn’t see anything that looks suspiciously like a flower except on the original NL# 1.

The 12\12 routine is going satisfactorily although I have noticed an increase of internode spacing. I get the idea that whilst the plants are in the vegetative stage of growth but under 12\12 conditions that the plants grow much more vertically; trying to find light.

Day 30 18th March 2009 Flowering Day 3

It has been 3 days since I switched the lights to the 12\12 regime. Most of the plants have very small flowers appearing; although I could only define the sex of one of the plants. This plant is a female which is evidenced by the white translucent pistils erupting from the ova flowers towards the top of the plant at about the 7th node.

Day 31 19th March 2009 Flowering Day 4

By today at least three of the plants show female flowers; one of which is the original NL# 1 (the biggest and bushiest plant). This is good news as I have, at least, achieved my aim of cultivating three female plants. It is looking like I will finish this grow in about two months from now. The three females look quite well and seem to be flourishing in their environment; although they do need re-potting into their final size pots.

I think that at least four of the other plants are male; although I will be waiting a few more days before culling any plants which show flowers which look suspiciously male.

Day 32 20th March 2009 Flowering Day 5

After sexing the plants again today I have Identified four males and three females with one plants still to be confirmed. I duly took sick satisfaction in killing the males vigorously (see 3gp video). I have also removed the 400w Metal Halide light today and replaced it with a 400w High Pressure Sodium lighting system.

I’m hoping that the HPS light will form really strong, short and bushy plants; internode lengths have increased quite a bit, some are up to 1.5 inches. The light is quite alien to me; it’s very orange in contrast to the blue-white light emitted by the MH bulbs.
I have also re-potted the three females into their final size of pot and re-arranged their fan leaves as to allow most of the light to fall on the secondary growing tips below.

I have also tied the primary growing tip of the smallest female so that it is facing just off horizontal; although in a slightly down position. I am hoping that this will increase the height of all of the secondary growing tips.
In addition to tying the tip down I also removed two fan leaves on the third node from the top to allow all the light to the bottom of this plant.

I have spent much time today thinking about a mathematical solution to the yield question. I have many books on growing cannabis and none tackles the expected yield question in a clear and unambiguous manor. I decided to analyse the data from The Big Book of Buds for Pure Indicas and Indica\Sativa hybrids with respect to yield.

In the book the yields are given in one of two formats 1. Grams Per Plant
2. Grams Per M2

I averaged the figures to get four values:

These figures do not include Sativa\Indicas hybrids

1.[FONT="] [/FONT]Average grams per plant for Indica and Indica\Sativa [FONT=Wingdings]à[/FONT] 56.5 (14 species)
2.[FONT="] [/FONT]Average grams per plant for pure Indicas [FONT=Wingdings]à[/FONT] 51 (9 species)
3.[FONT="] [/FONT]Average grams per M2 for Indica and Indica\Sativa [FONT=Wingdings]à[/FONT] 415.4 (25 species)
4.[FONT="] [/FONT]Average grams per M2 for pure Indicas [FONT=Wingdings]à[/FONT] 458.5 (17 species)

The details on this particular species, Northern Lights, show that it produces 450g per M2. It can be seen from the data above that this figure is just below the average for pure Indicas by 8.5g per M2. Taking into account the range of figures 290g M2 (310-600g M2) it is fair to say that the particular species of cannabis I am growing is average in terms of yield.

From the first set of data it is fair to assume that the yield of my species, in terms of grams per plant, is likely to be in parity or at least close to parity with the figure for the pure Indicas. This is 51g per plant.

I think it is fair then to reduce this figure due to inexperience, unmonitored environmental conditions, lighting conditions, CO2 levels, soil growing and many other variable factors. I have set a fair figure at 25%.

My mathematically projected yield stands at 38.25g per plant not too far from my estimate eight days ago. We will see however.

The figure above is highly ambiguous too; however I feel that an ambiguous figure I figured is a fair estimate.

Day 34 22nd March 2009 Flowering Day 7

Today I checked the un-sexed plant. It has clearly male flowers so I removed and killed this specimen. There are now the correct amount of plants as set out in my aims. Each of the females is of different stature.

The smallest plant is, as I mentioned previously, tied down at the top to promote the secondary growing tips to grow further. The next plant in terms of size is a lovely looking female with many secondary growing tips rising from beneath. The final plant; originally NL#1 is still by far the biggest plant. This plant also has many secondary growing tips racing to catch up to the height of the primary growing tip.

Day 35 23rd March 2009 Flowering Day 8

I have re-numbered the plants today. NL#1 is the original NL#1 and is still the biggest and bushiest plant. NL#2 is smaller than NL#1 with NL#3 being the smallest plant on which I tied the primary growing tip down.
The plants all look fine and healthy with conspicuous pistils erupting from many ova sacks on the stems.

Day 36 24th March 2009 Flowering Day 9

I have decided to repeat the experiment I am conducting on NL#3 on NL#1. I have secured the primary growing tip in a just below horizontal position. I hope this will buy me some time as NL#1 is stretching more than I would like. The two other plants are shorter and I don’t want to have to sacrifice full light to any plant by moving the lights further away to compensate for the height of NL#1. I watered the plants with some Chempak Low Nitrogen Feed.

Day 40 25th March 2009 Flowering Day 10

I would recommend that anyone who has the space, time and money grow these spectacular plants. I spend a lot of time looking at and admiring the plants. Looking for flowers in new places.
I have observed that both NL#1 and NL#2 have female flowers on some of the bigger secondary growing tips.

I feel much happier now that I only have three plants. I just don’t see myself getting into too much trouble with this number. Although it has become clearer that on my next grow I should have less plants; maybe two as a figure after sexing. I could buy two feminised seeds to guarantee sex. I should then train the plants to grow almost horizontally and allow the secondary growing tips to bush right up. This would require a longer vegetative phase but also would result in a much larger yield.

Day 41 26th March 2009 Flowering Day 11

I released the primary growing tip of NL#1 today. It has resulted in a bushy almost one sided plant. This is of advantage as I now have two almost completely one sided plants. I have re-arranged the plants so that those two plants are on the sides and facing inwards. With the normal plant in the centre. This allows the most light to every secondary growing tip on every plant.
The three plants are well on the way to filling the available canopy space in the cupboard. It’s only NL#3 which has lots of space left.

The pots did feel quite light today but I watered them a little yesterday so I have decided to implement a dry day. I will know tomorrow if this was wise. I hope they don’t collapse like happened on Day 20.

Day 43 28th March 2009 Flowering Day 13

The plants continue to grow strongly. NL#3 shows what I think is a genetic defect. The defect is evidenced by the consistently in defective leaf growth. NL#3 is flowering however I think it to be about a week less mature in flowering than the other two plants. NL#1 and NL#2 have many more pistils. Every secondary growing tip on #1 and #2 has many pistils too.

Day 45 30th March 2009 Flowering Day 14

Obviously I have been checking the plants. NL#1 & 2 are maturing nicely. They both show pistils and bud looking formations at all growing tips. NL#3 has some pistils on most of the growing tips; although these don’t look quite as mature as the other plants.

I decided to lower NL#1 & 2 today. I moved them on to the floor and to compensate I have added the 400w Metal Halide to the grow room which means that I have a 400w HPS and a 400w MH in the cupboard. I have however left NL#3 on a stool to allow for its relatively small stature.

I’m hoping that the addition of the MH light will more than compensate for the extra distance the plants are from the light.


This brings us up to date. i will update regularly. any comments welcome and sorry for the quality of the images

i killed the smallest plant today. it was becoming more and more deformed. it was also miles behind in flowering than the two other plants.

what day are the last pics from?

today the plants are 48 days old and 17 days into flowering. any comments?

I tried a northern lights grow, but had to cut it down 22 days into flowering bc of family issues, but I want to start again. I had one successful grow a year ago with Northern Lights and Mazar-I-Shariff. I used 6 42W Daylight CFLs, perlite, and miracle grow. All I used was light and water and yielded about 4 ounces total. Your plants are a lot greener than mine were. Some of my leaves were yellowing and some turned brown, but I was going on the idea that Northern Lights is a hardy plant. It still turned out better than anything I ever bought. Have you ever tried miracle grow? My guide was the Buds For Less Than $100 book. I want try another soil. but at the same time not have to worry about a bunch of additives and chemicals that I would have to add and keep track of.

i have herd a lot of critisism of MG soild so i chose not to buy that. i just got the compost with the littleist nutrients in and added everything. i have the bud for 100 book. not finnished reading it but he does get amazing results.

it is now day 50 into this grow, Day 18 into flowering. i think the bottom most growing tips are budding more than i thought they would. and so early on. each plant has about 22-25 growing tips with bud forming, none of that slow non-profuse growth. this is going to be nice i think. Anyone with any comments on the plants. any ideas of yield?

I used MG Moisture Control for a while, and it worked great... But all of my plants would have a slight taste of chlorophyll to them, even after months of curing. I'm using Fox Farm Ocean Forest now, but haven't completed my first grow with it yet, so no comparison yet.
Your plants are looking pretty good though, nice 'n healthy.
Quick question: how do you know that these plants are pure indica? The last picture in your last post almost screams out sativa... Just wondering how you came under this assumption?
Peace
DM

well I got the information about my plants from the breeder Nirvana

" [FONT="][/FONT][FONT="] Pure Indica and winner of the Indica strain 88, 89 and 1990; an absolute must for the indoor grower! Northern Lights dominated harvest festivals and many wonderful stains share its heritage. Through selective breeding we have succeeded in developing one of the most powerful plants in the world. Northern lights is highly adapted to indoor growing, compact, powerful, good yield and has exceptional resin production. Northern Lights is a most lucrative plant for the indoor grower [/FONT]"
[FONT="]
i know where your coming from though. the leaves started out very broad then since before flowering the leaves have started to look more like my old sativa plants.

any further comments welcome.
[/FONT]

I'm starting to wonder if some of the Nirvana rumors are true, then... I have been growing their Bubblelicious strain for the last year or so, and there have been 3 different phenotypes out of 6 seeds so far. I've heard that they like to sell strains that aren't really as stable as they claim to be, which isn't too far fetched. I am in no way complaining about the quality of my Bubblelicious plants because their THC production has been absolutely phenomenal (and I actually love the variety in phenos). But if anyone was looking for very stable, consistent strains, they might not be the best place to start. I have only ever ordered from Sensi Seeds before, and that was their Bubblegum strain which was absolutely incredible (and stable).
At any rate, keep up the good work and I'm sure you'll have a very nice reward at the end of the tunnel.
Peace
DM

to be honest dopey i thought it a little strande that the seeds did not have the strain name unabigeously on the packet. just a list of strains with a black mark to show they are NL.

thanks for the comments though.

plants looking nice today. any comments please. day 19 flower

Edited by Budbaron, 05 April 2009 - 11:32 AM.

A few more pictures

Today it is Day 52 of my grow. Day 20 flowering. the pictures in this post are of NL#2.

These are the pictures of NL#1 Day 52 and day 20 flowering.

Just a few more picture from today.