Northern Lights first time box grow.

alexander3187

New Member
I`m growing Northern Lights for the first time. I kept the seeds in between a few wet paper towels in a zip-lock bag. After germination I planted them in pots (a few I did earlier this year & just got around to planting the rest of them). Out of the 10 seeds 7 sprouted. I have the seedlings and one of the plants I`d grown earlier inside a bedroom closet. They`re on an always-on lighting schedule. For lighting there is a 35W UV light and a fluorescent bulb about the same size. I have an old PC fan set up for air circulation, although there is no ventilation from the outside.

Here is a picture of the "Vegetative" closet:
IMG_0201.jpg

Since I am growing this discretely in my room, I made a separate box-setup for flowering one plant.
IMG_20130917_073456.jpg
The setup consists of 3 boxes. One houses the actual plant. It has Aluminium foil on the inside and some regular LED lights as well as a fan for air circulation and a large hole on the top.
IMG_20130901_161416.jpg
Over the hole is another box with a hole on the bottom. This houses the lighting. I have a 35W UV light and 2x Fluorescent bulbs.

The third box contains all the wiring & balasts for the Fluorescent bulbs as well as a small directional ventilator that helps circulate the air. The box itself serves as extra space for air to circulate in (the air-exchange system does not connect to the outside of the 3 boxes)
Capture.jpg

This is how the boxes look in my room (very discrete, since I usually have a lot of boxes in my room:
IMG_20130915_185204.jpg

I use a 12/12 lighting schedule. I have a programmable timer switch supplying power from 4AM to 4PM.
IMG_20131003_172444.jpg

Here is the plant a few weeks ago:
IMG_20130917_073420.jpgIMG_20130922_124619.jpgIMG_20130922_124628.jpgIMG_20130926_104619.jpg

I am starting to notice some buds forming on the plant.
IMG_20131003_163553.jpg

I will post more pictures as the buds get bigger. I will probably need some advice when harvesting.

Since I don`t smoke, do I need to harvest the buds, cure them & dry them (and then heat them in sunflower oil) or is there a better way to get the buds in my brownies?
 

Indoor Sun King

Well-Known Member
welcome to RIU....looks good

Yes, you still need to dry/cure your buds before consuming/eating them...never heard of using sunflower oil

cheers
 

Pinworm

Well-Known Member
I`m growing Northern Lights for the first time. I kept the seeds in between a few wet paper towels in a zip-lock bag. After germination I planted them in pots (a few I did earlier this year & just got around to planting the rest of them). Out of the 10 seeds 7 sprouted. I have the seedlings and one of the plants I`d grown earlier inside a bedroom closet. They`re on an always-on lighting schedule. For lighting there is a 35W UV light and a fluorescent bulb about the same size. I have an old PC fan set up for air circulation, although there is no ventilation from the outside.

Here is a picture of the "Vegetative" closet:
View attachment 2844647

Since I am growing this discretely in my room, I made a separate box-setup for flowering one plant.
View attachment 2844650
The setup consists of 3 boxes. One houses the actual plant. It has Aluminium foil on the inside and some regular LED lights as well as a fan for air circulation and a large hole on the top.
View attachment 2844651
Over the hole is another box with a hole on the bottom. This houses the lighting. I have a 35W UV light and 2x Fluorescent bulbs.

The third box contains all the wiring & balasts for the Fluorescent bulbs as well as a small directional ventilator that helps circulate the air. The box itself serves as extra space for air to circulate in (the air-exchange system does not connect to the outside of the 3 boxes)
View attachment 2844653

This is how the boxes look in my room (very discrete, since I usually have a lot of boxes in my room:
View attachment 2844656

I use a 12/12 lighting schedule. I have a programmable timer switch supplying power from 4AM to 4PM.
View attachment 2844657

Here is the plant a few weeks ago:
View attachment 2844658View attachment 2844659View attachment 2844660View attachment 2844661

I am starting to notice some buds forming on the plant.
View attachment 2844662

I will post more pictures as the buds get bigger. I will probably need some advice when harvesting.

Since I don`t smoke, do I need to harvest the buds, cure them & dry them (and then heat them in sunflower oil) or is there a better way to get the buds in my brownies?
Chop 'em down when the trichs are 85% milky, and 15% clear, then you can do whatever you want with 'em. Use the trim for budder, Butane Honey Oil, or w/e.
 

robnarley1111

Active Member
Nice looking plants! I would recommend you pick up a few car "windshield light reflectors," cut to size and use them to reflect the light in your boxes instead of aluminum (that's what I use for my grow). I believe emergency blankets found at Home Depot, etc will work well too.

Mylar reflects up to 95% of the light and doesn't cause "heat spots" like foil. Good job though, I'll def. be checking in on your grow..I'm growing NL too. :mrgreen:
 

mmmmbrownies

Active Member
welcome to RIU
yeah foil sucks keep your eyes open
i recently found some silver (like a mirror) mylar wrapping paper (not paper buy you know what i mean) in a discount bin
i thought my cabinet was bright before...i have been wearing eye protection it's bright
just throwing my 2 cents out there
 

alexander3187

New Member
Replacing the foil would be a hassle. If I start getting spots on the plants, I will definitely try using a wind-shield reflector. Thanks for the tip!

I was away for a while and didn't water the plant for a few days. Just got back & it still looks good. The little trichs looked better on the picture with the lighting off.

122.jpg123.jpg
 

alexander3187

New Member
My seedlings are dying! Please help! What do I do? They`ve been watered every 1-2 days and the lighting is the same as it was before.

IMG_0002.jpg
 

robnarley1111

Active Member
From the looks of the pictures it could be one or more of several things:

1.) Overwatering

2.) Nutrient burn

3.) Heat problems


What kind of soil are you using for your seedlings? Is it seedling soil? If not, it could be too strong for the seedlings and have burnt them badly.

Do you have a cooling fan blowing the hot air outside of your box?

You said you water every 1-2 days, but is the soil still moist when you water or has it dried? It should be dry for the first inch or so at least before watering.

Also the stems on the seedlings are very spindly...as if they aren't getting any wind forced upon them to toughen the stems. To help toughen the stems if you don't have a small fan to blow on them, you could "flick" your plant a few times back and forth gently sometimes so the stem starts to toughen up.

Your biggest plant seems to have serious nutrient burn. Can't really advise how to fix that one because flushing soil could just make matters worse. That's if that is the actual problem. Maybe someone else can chime in with more experience than me.
 

chino7564

Member
Don't go by how ever many days on the watering because it varies for everybody. Go by the soil. If it's a little moist on top DO NOT water it (learned the hard way). When the top of the soil is really dry then water. I only have to water my girls like once a week.
 

alexander3187

New Member
I took my flowering plant out of the box today. Looks pretty good (I think). Because I have a 2-box light setup, the plant vegitates more on the bottom. But the newly forming buds look good so I think it will be ok.

n4.jpgn5.jpgn6.jpg

I also installed a $4 thermometer I bought on ebay. I left the sensor hanging in the air inside the lower box, temperature seems to stay at a constant 31.1°C.
n3.jpgn1.jpgn2.jpg

It made sense to put this type of thermometer in since I already have a PC-PSU generating various DC voltages for the fans and LED`s.
 

alexander3187

New Member
IMG_0012.jpgIMG_0015.jpgIMG_0018.jpgIMG_0023.jpgIMG_0024.jpgIMG_0025.jpg

It has got worse: the majority of leaves are withered. Small plants look dead. I have 3 theories about what has caused this:

1) The plants started looking dead a day after I fertilised them. Before that, I hadn't watered the plants for a few days. I used 1cap of NPK with 1l of water.
2) Temperature is around 30-34C, but I don't think this is the problem because it was that hot in there before and everything was growing fine.
3) Humidity is high, the soil has been wet for days now.

Here are some things I can do, please advise me on what action to take:
1) Install a fan
2) Flush the soil
3) Re-plant the plants in new soil
4) Change the lighting schedule to reduce heat
5) Move my grow to a window-sill
6) Somehow change the PH of the soil??
 

chino7564

Member
Have you ever checked the PH? Also could be overwatered. I killed my girls on my first grow with a high PH and overwatering.
 

alexander3187

New Member
I think the problem is from over-watering. I drilled some holes in the bottom of the plastic pots and water came pouring out. The soil down there was so wet, it was still muddy 3 days after watering it. I replaced as much soil as I could (without damaging the plants) and put one of the seedlings in a special "recovery box" with better ventilation & lighting. Unfortunately I don't think there`s a practical way to get ventilation inside my locked closet (the one where I keep the most of them), so I`ll just have to switch them out in the recovery box and hope that at least a couple of them make it.
 

alexander3187

New Member
My plant would fry with 4x 32W bulbs. Remember, I am growing a seedling in a Sodastream box (very small volume). The only ventilation I have is a small fan I ripped off my old PC`s processor.
 
Top