DangerousD's Bubble Bucket scrog Northern Lights

they are fast bloomers, as I believe the last grow, I chopped down at day 53 from the 12/12 switch, so even less than the 8 weeks they said. I vegged them out around 7 weeks this time, and unfortunately, I didnt take many pics on my last grow between day 35-45, so it's tough to compare the maturity of these plants to those. but the pics dont do the trichomes justice, there are crystals EVERYWEHERE including on the leaves. these NL are great to grow. they seem to do well with higher PPM, as the GH expert program is at 1550, and between rez checks it has been drifting up to 1800 with no noticeable negative effects.

 

wow, I didnt really notice that bleaching. I dont look at them much with the lights off, and it's hard to see that bleaching with the lights on. I think I'm due to change the rez today anyway, and I am going to put in about 70% of recommended nutes. I figured that if every time I check the PPM (about every 12 hours) and it's going up from 1500 to 1700, that means the plants are drinking around the extra nutes in the solution, so I should back off. I have been topping off with straight distilled water to compensate. damn those recommendations from GH! haha.

I'm going to look at maybe trying some different nutes with my next grow, jock horror, or at least backing things off a bit. However, I know that a lot of those extra PPMs are coming from the additional supplements that are included in the expert program, rather than just the 3 part.

oh, and it seems that the bleaching is only on one of the plants, for the most part, which made me think it was a plant issue, rather than a nute issue, since they are all using the same rez.

we'll soon see I guess! hopefully, backing off will help, thanks for the catch ND!

 

yeah, they are resilient, although I did most of my learning on bagseed, so I never really tested that. they clone easily too

 

hmm, good question. how high off the floor will the return hoses be? I think if it's above the water line, you may have problems, but we need to verify that.

yes, . I have a pump that is pushing it to the plants and I just use gravity to return

 

pics of lights out

 

hmmm, honestly, I'm not sure if the return lines being a foot off the ground will allow the gravity to work or not. maybe try it out and see, or send a message to budslinger or post the question in the hydro forum. I'm interested to find out. my lines have to run about 2" off the floor when the leave my tent, and I was worried about that, but it's working ok, it's just that 1 foot might be over the water line and might not allow the gravity to work it's magic.

 

I just have this weird feeling that the flowers aren't as developed as they should be at this stage, there's only about 2.5 weeks left until planned harvest. of course, they will get harvested when they're ready, and not until, but it seems like my other NL plants on the last grow were bigger at this point.

anyway, not really a worry, just a slight concern. I was thinking of trying out advanced nutrients next grow, although I hate to change if the GH is working. anybody use AN before? Is it worth the extra $$$?

 

I guess I shoulda did that ND! just following the instructions on the iPhone app for GH this time vs. the instructions that came with the mutes last time, bit I don't remember where those instructions went. hmm, I backed things off to 1200 today. also, I think last grow I started counting flower time from first sign of flower vs. this time which I started at the 12/12 switch.

you might be right, I might have fed them too much. I remember my pH drifting high last grow, which probably meant my ppm was just right or a little low.

thanks for the tip!

 

also, when I had that first runt NL in the ebb flow system, which would be what I was talking about in the post you mentioned, I think I was using technaflora stuff. I didn't start GH until it came with the waterfarms. that TF stuff always ran super high ppm's, and I had to mix at 66% to get the right ppm

 

ok everyone, if you're looking for advice, it's keeping ppm's below 1000, preferably around 800 ppm. I was wondering why my plants weren't getting huge like they did last time, and naughtydread noticed that my ppm's were 2-300 higher with this grow than last and budslinger confirmed that I was too high (as far as nutes go anyway, haha). so I diluted with distilled h2o and brought it back down to 800 where it will stay for the rest of the bloom cycle (not including flush).

i just thought they weren't big enough for the time they've been in flower. I didnt notice the tips of the leaves look burned because it's tough to see under that orange HPS light, but in the dark (with a camera flash) it's fairly easy to see.

so to all you new growers that are following, keep those ppm's around 800 or less for flower! *that is using 20 ppm distilled water*

budslinger says it will make bigger yields, and ain't that what it's really all about? I'm glad the NL is a tough strain, or I might have ruined the crop. damn those GH mixing instructions! mixing at 1/2 strength from now on.