First grow, Northern Lights Auto

Hi there, noob grower & new member to the site. Looking for any advice and tips that can be given under my circumstances.

I've currently had 3 NL Auto plants in soil growing for around about the 3 week mark. I started them in the sunlight until around the 10day mark after sprouting, then moving them to a small boxed location where i'm using a 125w Cool White CFL with reflector I had lying around. When I first started the grow it was mainly for the experience curve side of things, and to understand how the growth works/problem solving with issues the plants may have, nor was it planned so I didn't have the setup planned prior to growth.

I also have a 125w Warm White CFL available to use soon and was thinking about swapping to that CFL instead. Currently there is no space for both the lights. I've used canna terra flores nutes for the first time yesterday and have pk13-14 for the last 2 weeks before harvest + flush. Unfortunately i do not have the details of the soil used as it was just an organic soil i had in my garden.

The plants currently sit about 2-3 inches below the light due to adjustment issues but as of tonight I will have them at about 1-2 inches away.

The NL is about 15cm tall, the stem is still fairly small but standing sturdy so far, now under the lighting it's seeing a better rate of growth than what the weather was providing but it still seems almost quite small and slow progressing compared to other growers on the site, not much growing has achieved in the last 5 days.

Any ideas or tips on how to improve my growth without spending little to any money at this time would be more than appreciated. Unfortunately i can't provide pics at this time. Thankyou.

to understand how the growth works/problem solving with issues the plants may have

Click to expand...

Thats what you do before you even buy the seeds.... And months at that...

When I first started the grow it was mainly for the experience curve side of things

Click to expand...

Best way to waste money and time, thats a different way of saying "I know im going to fail but what the hell"

now under the lighting it's seeing a better rate of growth than what the weather was providing but it still seems almost quite small and slow progressing compared to other growers on the site,

Click to expand...

If your new and unexperienced as you say you are, then NEVER compare your plants to ones posted.

nor was it planned so I didn't have the setup planned prior to growth

Click to expand...

Wasn't planned? Pretty sure you plan it when you order seeds mate............................................................

Your answering all your questions yourself, your just not seeing it.... Lets keep going....

I was gonna keep going but this is pointless. look man you shouldn't of waited to learn by hands on experience thats a huge mistake. you didnt even mention nothing about PH and w/o PH most likely the plants you growing now wont make it to harvest. I dont say this often but you seriously failed this round. You can keep growing those and hope for the best but you need to stop asking questions and start reading as much as you possibly can. Thats the best advice anybody on here will give ya. Of course they can tell you what to do to act as a "band aid" of sorts. But if you do that your gonna need a shit load of band aids man. Dont take any to offense to the above, ya did this on your own. now its time to learn and this site is a great place for that..

Jeffdogg said:

Thats what you do before you even buy the seeds.... And months at that...



Best way to waste money and time, thats a different way of saying "I know im going to fail but what the hell"



If your new and unexperienced as you say you are, then NEVER compare your plants to ones posted.



Wasn't planned? Pretty sure you plan it when you order seeds mate............................................................

Your answering all your questions yourself, your just not seeing it.... Lets keep going....

I was gonna keep going but this is pointless. look man you shouldn't of waited to learn by hands on experience thats a huge mistake. you didnt even mention nothing about PH and w/o PH most likely the plants you growing now wont make it to harvest. I dont say this often but you seriously failed this round. You can keep growing those and hope for the best but you need to stop asking questions and start reading as much as you possibly can. Thats the best advice anybody on here will give ya. Of course they can tell you what to do to act as a "band aid" of sorts. But if you do that your gonna need a shit load of band aids man. Dont take any to offense to the above, ya did this on your own. now its time to learn and this site is a great place for that..

Click to expand...

Firstly, I was a bit short as I was unsure how to structure the beginning and where to start on questions really, but thankyou as you've mentioned a few things I can respond and maybe you could shed some more light on growing the plant from this point.

I have a ph tester, and the soil is currently reading a ph of 6.5. All water I've used has been distilled and i'm pretty sure i'm doing well so far in regards to feeding, they look healthy.

Wasn't planned? Pretty sure you plan it when you order seeds mate............................................................

Click to expand...

Best way to waste money and time, thats a different way of saying "I know im going to fail but what the hell"

Click to expand...

I was given the seeds from a friend who said it would be better to give them a try with all the stuff I had already, which were the CFL's I had in my warehouse, and also the nutrients left over from someone else's grow. Believe it or not I did do some reading on how to grow the plants, but I have a basic knowledge of the correct steps to take.

One thing I'm unsure of is whether to use the cool white cfl for now or use the warm white because it's an autoflower? Any ideas? Currently I'm in the process of providing another bulb to the grow allowing for both the 125w cfl's I have at my disposal. I also understand your point that I may have rushed into it slightly but that's because until this point I've utilized everything I have, none of which costed any money. I've learned quite a few things I didn't quite understand at first but i'm still learning. I'll be happy so long as i've learnt enough this time round to move forward next time with some experience behind me and some more confidence to spend the cash to increase my growth.

Thankyou for your constructive critism, and if i was short I apologise.

Maybe also another thing to add would be, is adding the canna terra flores at this stage too soon? I used about 1/3 the stated amount on the first feed and am yet to feed again, haven't noticed a major difference so far but more leaves have shown at the top and they're getting stronger, whether the nutrients have helped much I can't see yet.

Na not too soon for the nutes your doing it right by cutting it to 1/3, auto flowers dont require full strength nutes. Mind if i ask why you cant use both bulbs? The reflector really isnt needed for cfl imo, even though it is a higher wattage one. Yeah at this point prob be best to switch even though both would be ideal. When i talk its very blunt and sometimes it sounds abrasive, i usually tell someone this once a day lol so dont take it as me trying to be an ass. I didnt take it as you being short either bud its cool. Keep in mind dont feed em every time i'd say maybe once a week, then water as needed. You mentioned the PH of the soil but do you have a water tester as well?

Lots of great info on autoflowers ere

https://www.rollitup.org/auto-flowe...dvanced-autoflower-training-tips-secrets.html

Some new growers will spend a retarded amount of money on a grow setup then come on here w/o a clue what to do. But your not at much of a loss so thats good.

Ready Set grow
Vol.1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dECnYjf5ABQ
Vol.2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4cVmGCrJ6g&list=PL2BEAF25EB9A832C5


jorge cervantes ultimate grow
vol.1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-dkX6dsEHQ
vol.2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MY66GdaQb4Q
vol.3 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYxVrE6mLM4

Seemorebuds
vol.1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8rl3TyFpWk
vol.2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mgBJj8VTK0
vol.3 - will post when i find it

Watch these and you will have a better understanding of pretty much anything you might be wondering.

No problem I totally I understand, perhaps I should have put more effort into my starting text.

Great, I was worried even 1/3 at this stage might be too much. Nutes are only something I've recently heard of as I'm pretty much a grow rookie with a short time of experience and knowledge, luckily the nutes I were given (I'm told) are good for bud growth provided you don't overfeed. I read somewhere to be careful with the PK13-14 when you begin applying it and to flush it out well. Could you perhaps shed some light on the flushing process for future reference?

I use Utorrent occasionally for a range of various medias if you could provide links that would be greatly appreciated.

As for the lights when I found the reflector among the CFL's and a load of other goodies it only contained one self ballasted bulb holder, and I'm currently in the process of obtaining another bulb holder for a small fee I noticed they really weren't expensive and they seem fairly good quality. I don't have the dimensions at this time but I'll get round to posting my area dimensions tomorrow and any more info I can add, possibly photos if I can find the darn camera!

I have a cheap ph tester with 2 probes, one which measures moisture levels in the soil and the other probe just measures the ph, maybe I should test it in the water I'm using when I get the chance.

Actually my buddy tek just posted this about flushing

this is just what i do for a flush
i stick it in the shower and get another bucket and put 2-3 times the amount of water 5 gals of dirt put atleast 10 gals of water its easy
i just put a little in every 10 mins or so it doesnt have to be perfect
it depends on how much i had to feed it up until now

do you have a magnifying glass ?
the little crystals/sugars
most harvest when the sugars look about 50% brown
bright white lights help when trying to view led or really white cfl
i have a white/blue led flashlight that i use

and you could just run advanced nutrients
or another one that buffers ph for you

just FYI bottled water isnt always the best choice
it is ph'd for human consumption which from what i understand is a little different then the ph needed for cannabis


with the lights you have you could honestly probably do better in a smaller container
your plant would stay compact and your lights would be closer together


this is just my opinion
good luck with your next one cause from the pics this one looks baked

Click to expand...

Some info might not apply but good tips.

Brilliant, thanks.

Watch those vids!!

I will be starting Sensi's NL Auto and Skunk #1 auto next week and I will start a journal for you to compare to. Which breeders NL are you using?

any pics ?
and your light at 3" is just fine auto's are known for growing a inch a day sometimes and have had a few that ive seen with my own eye's grow close to 2" or just over 2" a day when you get in the 1" range your running the risk of some light bleach/burning these cfl's get a bit warm
ive had ones i just unscrewed touch my stomach with no shirt on and they give cool to the touch a whole new meaning lol

I'm also using the Sensi Seeds NL Auto, perfect. I will keep an eye on your journal. Also I'm noticing a nice change since yesterday in growth, fifth set of leaves have appeared and the 4th set of leaves are getting really wide, I think having moved the plants to about 1-2 inch from the light has helped them slightly though they seem to have benefited more but it could have been a number of reasons, I've found so far my CFL doesn't get too hot, having it on 20/4 so far has allowed it to get cool before getting too hot.

No photos just yet, once I've obtained a camera I'll upload some asap, to be honest they're looking OK so far as I can tell, only thing I've noticed is a slight upcurl in the top leaves, not sure what it might be yet or if it's an issue.

its heat when the corners curl up and the leaves taco

Is it always heat? It's not above 22 degrees Celsius in there, and I checked this morning as I left for work and there is definitely barely any heat felt with my hand within the space between the bulb and the plant, like really mild warmth to be honest.

I will do my best to get some photos, but for reference it's the tips/edges of almost all leaves except the bottom few that dont get so much light.

in the back left side middle see the corners curled up is it like that or crunchy?

Yes very similar to those, not too pronounced but a definite edge curl up. I've only noticed it this morning, one of the plants doesn't look so bad as the other but it doesnt look too severe, it kind of looks like that's how they're opening out. It's only been a small duration of days since I gave the plants nutrients, could it be signs of overfeeding? Thanks, for your help so far.

could you please post more pics of your NL Auto by sensi? I havent seen many, how was your germ rate?

Sorry Whit I don't have a camera at present but am getting round to it. So far out of the 3 seeds I used all 3 germed no problem using the kitchen towel method.

if its curling without burning then your gonna laugh but thats early sign of heat stress not to severe just what cannabis does
your box is probably getting warm around noon or so
just my opinion
i grow with cfl's and leds and have a 6" exhaust fan/filter 280cfm in a 3'x4'x5' grow box and it still gets warm enough to show signs
thats actually one of my previous grows in the pic

Ah I see, I'll move the lights back an inch when I get the chance then, hopefully they're not at risk while I'm away today they'll have had a full 20hours of light by the time i get to them!

I also lack the right circulation at the moment, I've got a small heater fan here at work which becomes a/c on the lowest setting. Would adding this to the area provide any stress release of heat, there's no intake/outake at the moment as I've stated earlier it was started with the intention of using everything I have already at my disposal.