180w LED, Northern Lights, Hydroponic, 2x2x4 grow tent

Discussion in 'Indoor Grow Journals' started by mtwtfm, Dec 8, 2015.

  1. Ok, I just started germinating my Northern Lights a couple days ago. I may have already screwed it up because the air temp got up around 99ºF. This morning I peeked at it and it looks like it has cracked, though, so I'm hoping something will have sprouted when I get home from work today. Once it's ready to move into my hydro bucket, it'll be under a 180w LED for vegging. I have an extra 150w HID lamp that I'll supplement during flowering. Here's a quick look at my set up:

     

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  2. Looks good to me, what breeder company did you buy your NL from?
     
  3. Hey all. Latest update is that the seed cracked and sprouted and I moved it into the hydro bucket and put a CFL on it. It has one set of leaves that are curling down severely, so I moved the light a couple inches up in case it was too hot, and I added some ph'd water to dilute the already diluted nutrient mix. So I hope it recovers soon.


    More pics to come...
     
  4. A guy--I went thru Nirvana for seeds and they were absolutely great!
     
  5. Holy cow. It's been a busy week. Things are going well. I think I transferred my seedling into my hydro bucket a little too soon. When I did put it in there, I had some issues with the leaves curling down, so I remixed my light nutrient solution and backed the CFL off by a couple inches. It responded well, but stretched a bit, so I lowered the light again and now things seem to be all in the right place. Here's a bunch of pics of the grow so far!
     

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  6. So things seem to be going better. The new leaves are looking very green and healthy. The growth rate seems to be slow compared to what I've read about other grows. Tonight I'm going to mix a new batch of nutes a little stronger than what I have been using, and switch over from the CFL to the 180w LED and see how it goes. I read another CFL grow that was going rather slow and folks told that grower to add more light. So that's what I'll do. We'll see how it goes!
     

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  7. UUUUUUUUUGGHH.


    My baby fell over. So the stretch from earlier bit me in the ass. Nice healthy, hefty leaves were too much for the little stem to support. So good and bad news. New leaves seem to be healthy, stem is not. So I built a little seedling stand to prop it up.


    I also switched to my 180w LED and mixed up slightly stronger nutrients. It got 6 hours of darkness overnight and 2 hours of light before I checked this morning and things did not look good--no change in the hunched over leaves, but again it had only been 2 hours. Also the leaves appeared to start curling down slightly so I raised the light about 4 inches in hopes that it will recover like the last time I raised the lights.


    More to come as it happens...I hope I didn't kill my plant!
     

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  8. Things seem to be going well now. I switched to the 180w LED and upped the nutrient content. Ever since then, growth has sped up quite a bit it seems, and it"s looking much more healthy consistently. I"m beginning to grow a little confidence that I might actually be able to do this! I"ve never grown any kind of plant ever! Next thing I will have to confront in a little bit is my first FIMing. Any advice?


    I am noticing that my tap water PH drifts up quite a bit. I don"t know if that is because the chlorine and stuff is getting aired out, or if the plant is feeding on the nutrients. Any ideas?
     

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  9. Do you have a small fan to put on them? It will help strengthen their stems if you keep them dancing :)

    Fiming is actually pretty simple. It's like topping but "missing" You can't really mess it up imo. Worst case you topped it :)

    Subbed up. Lets grow !!!
     
  10. #10 mtwtfm, Dec 22, 2015
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 22, 2015


     


  11. I don't have a fan INSIDE the tent, but I'll go grab one tonight. That's a good tip because the leaves are looking healthier and new growth looks great, but the stem seems to stay the same slim size.



    What I don't understand about FIMing is exactly what you said. To me, from what I've read about FIMing vs. topping is that topping is a cut below a set of leaves. FIMing looks like a cut above a set of leaves. So to me, you'd really have to miss by a long shot! Maybe I just have a very inflated perspective of my pruning skills! But I'll review the articles and make sure I get it as right as I can!



    PS--I'm a noob--what does "subbed up" mean? I see that everywhere on here...
     
  12. Yeah a gentle breeze will strengthen up your stem. And help keep more consistent temps etc..

    Fim stands for "fuck I missed" When topping.
    You want to top it..but miss. Does that make sense. Like you didn't get all of the node when you topped it. It will respond by shooting out a plethora of mains from there.

    Subbed up means..I subscribed to your thread. I plan on watching you grow these things :)
     
  13. My tap water pH fluctuates between 6.8 - 9.6 daily.. Tds is 40 - 50. I always thought tap water would be more consistent too for pH level.
     
  14. Things seem to be going ok. Plant looks healthy. There was one spike that was curling up for the last couple days, but now more are slowly starting to curl up, and it"s spread to another leaf. So I"m not sure what"s happening there. I backed the light off a couple inches so it"s 14 inches above. I also changed water again, so we"ll see if anything changes.


    Other than that, growth just seems to be slow over all. I"ve read other grow journals talking about insanely fast growth that they have to try and keep under control. I"m looking at my calendar and I"m not sure if I"m going to be able to get this harvested before I go on a long vacation, so we"ll see how that turns out. I was hoping to do some FIMing and maybe even fill up a ScrOG, but I don"t think I"ll have time. So we"ll see what happens.


    Biggest concern right now is the curling leaves.
     

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  15. So things are not getting better. The leaves are extremely curled and now very discolored with yellow edges. From what I've read, it could be heat, nutrients, or over watering. I don't know if you can overwater in a hydroponic system, but my plant does have quite a bit of water on the leaves typically. Could that have an effect?


    What I did do is raise the LED to 16" and added an intake fan. It seemed to help for a few minutes, but then the temperature in my tent rose back from 77º back up to 81º. At 81º that shouldn't be too hot from what I've read. It should be a perfect temperature from what I've read. Nutrients I don't know about. I did just raise the dosage from 3ml per gallon to 5ml per gallon so maybe that's too much?


    The only thing left it could be is overwatering. But again, I'm not sure if that's possible in a hydroponic system. Any ideas? I'm beginning to freak out a little...
     

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  16. What is your ph ?
     


  17. Dark yellow. So hanging around 5.8-6.0 is my estimate. I prepared my water differently this time by allowing the chlorine and stuff to evaporate off the water for about 24 hours. I've noticed the ph has not drifted nearly as much over 3 days as my water had been doing in the past. However, I was hoping for SOME drift to accommodate absorption for different nutrients. So I'll add some regular water tonight to raise the ph a little.
     
  18. With a plant this small you shouldn't have a whole lot of fluctuations in your ppm imo. I mean it ain't boss hog feeding at the trough yet.

    Maybe back down the nutrients a bit ?
     
  19. Well things look a little better…perhaps? It seems like the leaves uncurled a little, and the new growth came in pretty quickly. My tent temperature a steady 81º, so it doesn"t seem like the temperature is a factor. I didn"t change water, but I did add some untreated water just to dilute the nutrient mix I had. I am thinking that was the main cause of the problem. I also tilted the watering ring on my GH bucket so the water drips a little farther away from the plant, so the plant is a little drier regularly. I"m going to change water tonight going back to 3ml/gallon of nutrients.

    Also will probably FIM tonight or tomorrow night! Wish me luck!
     

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  20. The new growth is looking much better. Looks like you got it sorted !!
     

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