Blue's first grow: Northern Lights 400W MH/HPS

It's been a while since my last entry...man, my ladies have really been growing!

Over the weekend, I started them with the flood & drain system. Watering 5 times a day while lights are on. In the reservoir is pH ~6 solution of 75% strength Lucas formula.

Yesterday I topped each of the plants (cut new growth at main stem to encourage branching out) and they have already sprung up with new sideways growth. One of the pictures below shows the growth quite well...the third picture in this entry.

The one concern I've had is how the 1st set of leaves look. After careful consideration and review of what I've done, I determined the problem to be me misting the leaves and my light burning the leaves due to the diffusion of light through water. I know...n00b mistake. If it was a chemical burn, etc. it would follow through on my new sets of leaves...thankfully though, every set of leaves but the first set look perfect!

P.S. my iPhone's camera shutter doesn't seem to agree with my M.H. light too much..thus, the linear distortion in the pictures.

Ohhhh..eye kandy

Archminister said:

Ohhhh..eye kandy

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my phone doesn't even do them justice. the leaves, particularly the 2nd set, are BEAUTIFUL!

Today I topped up my nutrient reservoir with 3gal. of filtered water / lucas formula @ 100%. Now, my ppm is about 980. Monitoring the pH...it's a little high right now at 6.3, added some pH down and waiting for balancing to check results.
I have a few roots poking out the bottom of the pots, but it's not worrying me too much, I don't think I'll need to transplant. I'm only growing to 2.5'-3'. Flowering at 1'.

In other news, they're still looking amazing. New growth all over the place. Vibrantly green leaves. Great luck so far!

Eye candy: (excuse the weird light pattern due to my M.H. bulb and iPhone camera not liking eachother)

Nice Nice KoB!

FUCKING BEAUTIFUL! Nice job so far bro

Looking good KOB, keep it up.

Still growing like crazy. Tallest one is 9" tall. Can't wait to start flowering at 12". Very bushy. Amazing, healthy looking leaves. New growths every day.


Taken today right after a flooding of the ebb&flow table.
(Again, camera shutter causing the light shadow lines across the picture, )

All I can say is Wow! Keep up whatever it is your doing...they look amazing!

Archminister said:

All I can say is Wow! Keep up whatever it is your doing...they look amazing!

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Thank you! Beginners luck?

KindOfBlue said:

Thank you! Beginners luck?

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I would say that in any venture we take in life there is a bit of luck involved. The majority of success usually is determined before you even start. Theres an old saying "Proper preparation prevents piss poor performance" You did your homework, made a plan, the result so far is evident..lol. Nicely done!

Archminister said:

I would say that in any venture we take in life there is a bit of luck involved. The majority of success usually is determined before you even start. Theres an old saying "Proper preparation prevents piss poor performance" You did your homework, made a plan, the result so far is evident..lol. Nicely done!

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Thanks a ton! I look forward to hearing from you in the weeks coming up.

My tallest girl is 11".

I'm going to top off the reservoir and re-balance it this evening, in between floods.

I've decided that I will switch everything over to flowering after lights out tonight, rather than waiting another week or so.
HPS bulb going in, and light timer being set to 12/12. Flood timer is being modified to not flood table while lights are out.

I'll post back tomorrow with pics under new lighting

KindOfBlue said:

My tallest girl is 11".

I'm going to top off the reservoir and re-balance it this evening, in between floods.

I've decided that I will switch everything over to flowering after lights out tonight, rather than waiting another week or so.
HPS bulb going in, and light timer being set to 12/12. Flood timer is being modified to not flood table while lights are out.

I'll post back tomorrow with pics under new lighting

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And so the race is now on the back stretch..lol. Gl man. Are you going to go 24 hours of dark before he new light cycle? I read a bit about it, have no experience with it yet, and it seems to kick start the flowering by a week or so. I did it but again having to experience personally I am not sure if it is working. I pretty much am basing it on other NL grows and how long they took to flower.

Archminister said:

And so the race is now on the back stretch..lol. Gl man. Are you going to go 24 hours of dark before he new light cycle? I read a bit about it, have no experience with it yet, and it seems to kick start the flowering by a week or so. I did it but again having to experience personally I am not sure if it is working. I pretty much am basing it on other NL grows and how long they took to flower.

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From what I've read it's not really that advantageous...I was thinking about just going straight to 12/12, since they are a little shorter than I had planned to start flowering the extra day might kick its growth spurt into gear.

What all have you read about it, Archminister?

Just what I have seen browsing the forums. Its supposed to kick start the flowering process by motivating the plant to flower. Lind of like down shifting a car and hitting the gas. More initial umph than just stepping on the pedal in the same gear. Again, this is just reading for me, but there are a few posts on my thread from a few folks that say doooo itttttt..lol. Time will tell.

Swapped out the bulbs last night to my 400W HPS, and re-programmed the timers. The plants are growing fast, so I raised my light just a little bit so they wouldn't get too close.



First day under HPS

Archminister said:

Just what I have seen browsing the forums. Its supposed to kick start the flowering process by motivating the plant to flower. Lind of like down shifting a car and hitting the gas. More initial umph than just stepping on the pedal in the same gear. Again, this is just reading for me, but there are a few posts on my thread from a few folks that say doooo itttttt..lol. Time will tell.

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Let me know how it worked for you! I don't have the time this evening to do all the work I did last night..so I put it right into flowering...maybe something to try next time around to compare results! I'm 99% sure I'm just growing the same strain again, I have plenty of seeds.

Will do man.. Plants look super! Nice Job.

your already flowering thats amazing I love hydroponics