4x4 - LEC 315 - Nirvana seeds: Aurora Indica, Bubblelicious, Blackberry, White Widow

Hello all! This is my first time using LED's and third grow overall. It's been 5 years since my last grow so I'm excited to make this change and share it here on GC! I recently moved and started some veggie seeds for a mini balcony garden and thought "why are these not weed" and here we are. I ordered seeds from Nirvana and everything arrived in 7 days to the west coast. Perfectly and discreetly packaged with a ton of freebies.





Seeds are: Bubblelicious, Blackberry, White Widow, some fem mix - Aurora Indica, Northern Lights, Short Rider auto, and like 20 freebies. Very satisfied with the shipping from Nirvana.





I decided to germ 4: Bubblelicious, Blackberry, White Widow, and Aurora Indica.





Time started: 11:00PM, 10/15/15 - Using the old school paper towel method. I put them on the router last night for a little warmth but mostly just wanted them to soak up some liquid. I transferred them to a seedling heating pad today, about an hour ago at 5:00PM. Don't mind the other veggies (and lights - I germed way more veggies than planned so had to dig up some old CFL's)! I figured they can join the party and reap some marginal benefits from this grow. The aluminum is folded over very loosely to shield light.



I'll be working on my setup as the babies germ:

4x4 tent

2xP450 Platinum LED lights

Fox Farm soil and nutes (am open to suggestions - FF is what I am used to using for all my gardening)

6" Vortex exhaust w/variable speed controller and passive intake

I'll deal with smells when smells happen

Need to figure out CO2


Thanks for reading and I'll keep things updated as much as I can! Come on babies germ.. germ!!


love&light

 

Update on the seeds - I forgot I had thrown in an extra seed for both the bub and blackberry. So 6 total.


None of the seeds had sprouted when I initially put them on, but all of them had cracked after 2 hours on the pad. Within 4 hours 4/6 sprouted. These pictures were taken about 24 hours of the seeds being on the heating pad, and about 40 hours after putting them in the





^Aurora Indica



^White Widow



^Blackberry



^Bubblelicious


The two right ones on the bub and blackberry got a slightly later start cause I threw them in 3-4 hours later. This much growth in less than 48 hours is pretty impressive to me! Will keep an eye on them for the next day and transplant into organic seed starter.

 

Hey Mim! Thanks a lot! I always like to have some variety for fun. I'm gonna order one of those lights first and then another with my next paycheck lol. Damn expensive hobbies!

 

Mini update:


^planted 10/18/15 in the evening.


^this morning, 10/21/15. As you can see, only 4 have sprouted. One each of the bub and blackberry seemed to have bad reactions to being transplanted. I'm glad I germed 2 of them each now! I threw another fresh bub and blackberry seed into some moist paper towel and back onto the heating mat.


^Aurora Indica seems to be growing the fastest. WW has a seed hat (which I'll remove later) and the bub & blackberry are both growing their first set of real leaves.

Alright back to work now.

love&light

 

A few pic updates:

^Lots of new growth in the last 2 days! White Widow is growing the tallest being a sativa. The blackberry and Aurora Indica seem to be growing along the same rates, with bub being the slowest grower so far.


^Up close shot clockwise from top left: Aurora Indica, White Widow, Blackberry, Bubblelicious. Very interesting to see the different leaf structures so early in development.

I also decided not to germ the other 2 seeds, I only have room for 4 in the tent anyway!

love&light

 

Another pic update as of this morning 10/29/15. The ladies are 8 days old from germ.



Looks like the cotyledon leaves are beginning to turn yellow as the plants feed, I'll prob start nutes in a week or week and a half. Blackberry is the only one with green cotyledon leaves at this point.





Aurora Indica flyin in the sunlight.





This one (AI) is from 2 days ago but still awesome to see the growth difference of one week.



love&light

 

Nice I checked out your pics and they look super healthy! Def gonna sub once I get on a computer. What's the tent size?

 

Update 11/3/15:

Been super busy with work then Halloween weekend but I'm back in the groove for now!

The ladies are all alive but showing slow growth (now I really understand that phrase "like watching grass grow") because I wasn't diligent about my pH. I got too excited and threw them in seed starter that was too hot and they started to show the first signs of nute lock about 3-4 days ago. No changes in environment or water. Since then I gave given them a flush and put them into FFOF. Leaves are looking a lot better and the new growth looks perfectly green again. This is my first time from seed so I'm definitely learning a lot! Now soil pH is 6.4 and I'm watering with 6.8 bottled.


^this is the worst it got, lime-ish green, and it happened within 24-36 hours. Aurora Indica and the bub seemed to be the most sensitive whereas the blackberry and white widow showed less signs of nute lock (blackberry hardly yellowed at all, white widow is showing one yellowish leaf)


^this morning, looking much better in color. The first set of leaves may not recover but the new growth is looking very healthy.


^pretty sure nute lock made AI grow a bit funky

I've also decided to go with the Sun System LEC 315 CMH light rather than 2 PlatinumLED P450's. Money was a factor but I also just want to try something new. I'll add supplemental LED strips later on.

K, back to work.

Love&light

 

Yeah I thought about doing that but I've put pretty young seedlings into straight FFOF before and it was fine, so just wanted to try it out again. I have another batch of 4 started that I'll do the proper 50/50 mix with and see what the differences are in growth

 

Update 11/9/15:

The girls have been under the LEC 315 light for 4 days so far, and it seems like they're really liking it! Growth has been great, although I think they are all a bit stunted from me not giving them enough light initially.





^this morning in the tent. As you can see there's been a decent amount of growth these last few days! From the top clockwise is: Blackberry, Bubblelicious, White Widow, Aurora Indica. The other plants are tomatoes. I forgot to mention that when I moved them from the seed starter to the red cups I gave them all mycorrhizae. Roots are starting to poke out the bottom.. I'll give it another few days and then move them to 3gal pots.






Aurora Indica. She's growing but her oldest leaves are droopy too. Her first 2 sets of leaves are showing just a bit of yellowing but it can't be nitrogen deficiency this early on can it? (3 weeks). I'll keep an eye on her. Developing 5th set of leaves.






Bubblelicious. Doing very well under the 315. Initially she had some odd mutations in the lower leaves and then some twisting due to the pH of the seed starter, but all new growth after switching to FFOF is normal. She has a little stink starting too. Developing 5th set of leaves.





Blackberry. My fastest and healthiest grower! She's getting taller and taller everyday and pushing out leaves like nobody's business. She's a hybrid and it's like she's got the height of a sativa and the thickness of an Indica in the leaves. She's starting to smell too, developing her 5th set of leaves.





White Widow. Slowest grower of them all. I'm not sure what's going on with her but she seems to be stunted/growing really slowly. Her older leaves are dropping a bit but I'm not overwatering and keeping them all 24 inches from the light. Temps range from the mid 70's to low 80's with 25-40% humidity. Soil pH is 6.5 and I'm watering with distilled. Her new growth seems to be doing better, albeit slow. I assume the slow growth is due to that hot seed starter and lack of light, then my dick cat uprooted her when I left them on the balcony for some sunlight (I noticed almost right away and put her back, but still..).





Doja the dick, uprooter of young plants, first of his name. Just kidding I love my cat.. But he's a danger to grows! Cannabis leaves are his second choice behind catnip/cat grass. Last grow I did he ate 1/2 of a 5 week Diablo OG.



I also germed 4 more - another White Widow to see how she compares given better conditions, another Bubblelicious for the same reason, Northern Lights Auto, Short Ryder Auto. I haven't done any Autos so just wanted to try it out.





Bubblelicious: left side is the one I have vegging now, right side is the one I just germed. Do I see some pink/purple in this new one or is it just wishful thinking and color blindness?! Please be the pink pheno please!





Love&light

 

11/24/15 - My last post was two weeks ago! A lot of change has happened since then. Of the 4 original girls the blackberry and bub are growing the best. Aurora Indica took some damage from the first two weeks and probably won't fully recover. White widow has recovered and is now gaining more height, but still not nearly as big as she should be.

The newer 4 I germed (another WW, another bub, short rider auto, northern lights auto) are doing fantastic. It's really amazing to see how much of a difference there is. Lesson learned.. Having things right in two weeks is so crucial. It'll be interesting to compare the two white widows and two bubs.

I topped the blackberry and bub about 1.5 weeks ago, both responded really well and growth exploded. Then there was a slight mishap as my dick cat got in there and ate 1/2 of one of the bub's big fan leaves. Not a huge deal no but she had looked so perfect before and then Doja came along and mangled her. It was a sad day. Interestingly enough, the bub responded by pushing out one of the branches below that fan leaf to compensate for photosynthetic activity. That side now has significantly more growth than the side that wasn't touched. I'm half tempted to cut the untouched side now that the fan leaf is basically almost in the shadows!


Blackberry 1.5 weeks after being topped. She's roughly 8 inches now.


Here's the bub. You can see how the left side in the image is bigger than the right side. Also there was some weird growth when those middle fan leaves were growing. Never did figure out what happened although I reckon it could maybe be a heat stress/light burn issue. I moved the lights up after I noticed it and it stopped showing in the leaves. But if anyone knows what it is that would be helpful.


The new girls from seed 11/05. Left to right: bub, northern lights auto, white widow, short rider auto.


Only 2.5 weeks and short rider is showing her pre flowers! I've never grown autos before so it's interesting to see how fast they grow vs reg seeds. She's starting to smell like a cross between a skunk and an ashtray.


Here's everyone. I had been so busy with work I don't have time to go to the hydro store so my new 3gal pots finally arrived in the mail today, gonna be a fun night of repotting. Just topped the two on the right in the smaller pots- Aurora Indica and white widow. I think they might have a slight sulfur deficiency. I fed them iron but the light green is still there. Might wait a bit and if it doesn't get better I'll do some Epsom salt. I've been watering with distilled because the tap water where I live is some of the worst in the country.

Anyway that's that for now. Now time to start thanksgiving food prepping...

Love&light

 

Ok well I officially suck at updating this grow journal. Holidays were insane as usual and now beginning of year stuff for work has me swamped.


Good thing is I just put the girls into flower about a week ago so there wasn't too much missed.


The two autos - Northern Lights & Short Rider - both finished last week (1/15). I stopped giving them nutes a week in advance and flushed twice. Both were super easy and began flowering around 11/24 or so. The NL turned out weird and fluffy and didn't smell too strong.. Doesn't look nearly as frosty as the SR but I sampled a popcorn nug and although the flavor isn't there yet, it still packs a punch. The smell also really came out when I broke that little popcorn nug so hopefully with a little curing it'll get better! The SR turned out awesome in my opinion.. Dense and frosty nugs with great shape! Smells amazingly skunky. I haven't sampled yet.




Day 22 flower.




Day 36 flower.










These are all SR.. I didn't take many pics of the NL cause every time I looked at her I went "ugh". Also, both these were flowered under one LEC315 light, I have since added another.




This is the best I can find of NL.. Slow trich development.. Small trichs in general.


The remaining girls that just went into flower (1/11) are the Blackberry, Bubblelicious, White Widow #1, White Widow #2, and a little stumpy Aurora Indica.


Oh, I almost forgot to mention the war with spider mites about two weeks ago. I was so mad at myself for not diligently checking the plants as I usually do. It was bad on the Blackberry and the others had some here and there. I did a neem oil soak with some cayenne pepper and bathed the shit out of them. Then I spent about 8 hours literally going thru each leaf on the Blackberry, both checking/killing any mites and using a paintbrush to brush off any eggs on the underside. My wrist felt like it was gonna break from being in such a weird position turning the leaves. Why oh why did those bastards have to choose the biggest bushiest plant?! Anyway, fast forward to now and I am so glad I took the time to do that. Everything is clean again.




Progress from 12/03 - you can see the two autos on the left and right beginning to flower.




Progress from 12/11 - Short Rider on the right is, ironically, the tallest.




Blackberry on 12/12.. She was even bigger and bushier when the mites attacked... Fml.




Progress from 12/15 - things are exploding.




As of 1/15 last week.. Trained the Blackberry in the first week of Jan.




1/17 - both lights are in! Biggest one in the front is Bubblelicious.




Blackberry as of today 1/20 - should I defoliate more? I did already a bit, but she's just so damn leafy!




All the girls 1/19 - day 8 of flower.




1/20 - all those tops grew ~2-3 inches in the last week!




1/20 - and lastly, from this morning.. A Bubblelicious top doing her thing.


Ok well we're on day 9 of flower now, I will try to update weekly with pics. I am updating the Instagram frequently though - same user name.



Love&light