Lifeisshort117's first grow journal - Northern Lights/Pure Afghan

hey guys, been really into this stuff for a while now but i just started growing a little over 2 weeks ago. i've been taking pictures as progression goes on but havent made a journal until now.

i ordered my seeds from www.marijuana-seeds.nl and they got to my house within the week! super fast shipping, i'd definitely buy from them again. anyway, i got 10 Northern Lights seeds with 5 free Pure Afghan seeds. unfortunately it wasnt an "all feminized seed batch" but thats alright.

my initial plan was since im growing inside my closet, that i'll just grow the Afghan for now running 12/12 to keep the plants small because im only looking for personal yield. but 2 days after i planted the Afghan, i decided screw it and planted the Northern as well. i guess i'll just wing it if the plants get out of hand but my aim is still to have them grow small, and i've done plenty of research on how to make them grow smaller than they normally would so i guess we'll see.

when i first bought everything i did research but not as much as i should have, especially with lighting. because i ended up buying 2 14w cfl daylight bulbs in clamp lamps lol. those held me over for like a week and a half. then i had to upgraded. i ended up buying a 300w soft white bulb and 2 100w daylight bulbs. i made a custom canopy for the 300w using a 5 gallon paint bucket i cut in half and lined with aluminum foil. works great so far. then i just put the 2 100w bulbs on the clamp lamps and put those on the side adjacent to each other. you'll see in the pics..


i planted the Afghan on October 12th, and the Northern on October 14th. all the seeds except 1 Afghan and 2 Northern sprouted within a couple days later, but i'll let the pictures do most of the talking. and here they are, enjoy!

seeds:

afghan planted (10/12):

northern & afghan sprouts (10/18):

10/19:

10/21:

pot transfer (10/22):

in pots (10/22):

(10/23):

lighting upgrade (also bought 2 100w bulbs to replace the 2 14w bulbs):

new lighting setup (10/25):

started playing music for them (10/27):

(10/27):

(10/29):

CURRENT - almost finished music session - 10/29:



thats it so far! any feedback or questions would be quite appreciated. something that truly amazes me is how the music perks the plants up after about an hour or so.
thanks guys! :-o
 

thegersman

Active Member
I thinkthe light upgrade was very good, the plants look nice...what type of soil are you using and how long do you intend to Veg them?

Peace
 
thanks guys! yeah i hope the NLs come out pretty good i just dont want them at 5ft or more lol. i honestly want to veg them out till they're about 36-48 inches. i THINK that'll take another month with the lighting. i havent used any fertilizers yet but i plan on using bat guano as a starter, easing the plants into it of course. im brainstorming an irrigation setup at the moment but we'll see. i like to make my own stuff rather than go out and spend way more for it. thanks for the support!
 
Update! Today I got some mexican bat guano for fertilizer. I was thinking about getting more lights but I think I'm good for now. I started measuring my grow space and planning for my grow cabinet I'm gonna build. With an ozone machine to handle the smell when flowering starts in the future. Here are some pics as of 10/29...



 

Potentrx7

Active Member
thanks guys! yeah i hope the NLs come out pretty good i just dont want them at 5ft or more lol. i honestly want to veg them out till they're about 36-48 inches. i THINK that'll take another month with the lighting. i havent used any fertilizers yet but i plan on using bat guano as a starter, easing the plants into it of course. im brainstorming an irrigation setup at the moment but we'll see. i like to make my own stuff rather than go out and spend way more for it. thanks for the support!
Lookin' good!

The NLs would prob have a hard time getting too tall (depending on how indica dominate your pheno is) Main thing I would worry about letting your plants veg that long is light penetration/intensity... Plants that big need a ton of CFLs surrounding the bud sites. Your current lighting would need to be 20x what it is to support multiple 4ft plants going into flower. Usually get a better yield/quality with a good LST, topping or fimm job that way you create a nice even canopy with no variations in quality of light to the bud sites.

You plan on doing any LST training or topping with them?
 
Looks nice. Dont let that one in the back grow too close to that light.
yeah i know that guy in the back starting growing crazy from the very beginning. i'll see about arranging him in a better position. thanks though.

Lookin' good!

The NLs would prob have a hard time getting too tall (depending on how indica dominate your pheno is) Main thing I would worry about letting your plants veg that long is light penetration/intensity... Plants that big need a ton of CFLs surrounding the bud sites. Your current lighting would need to be 20x what it is to support multiple 4ft plants going into flower. Usually get a better yield/quality with a good LST, topping or fimm job that way you create a nice even canopy with no variations in quality of light to the bud sites.

You plan on doing any LST training or topping with them?
thanks! you know what i have been doing a lot of reading about LSTing. i'd like to clone a few of them at some point but we'll see. i'll probably LST them within a week. you gotta really nice shot of your LST setup in your grow journal :clap: so i'll try to aim for something like that.
 

RC7

Well-Known Member
They all look great, ill be watching as well because im doing the same strain.
 
They all look great, ill be watching as well because im doing the same strain.
thanks man.

so i found this bit of literature from a website and thought i'd share:
"The sea of green ( SOG) method is used for rapid flowering when lack of height and wattage are a major concern for the grower. Marijuana clones are planted closely together, vegetating time is short, and the plants are pushed into flowering and bud production while they are relatively small. This is an effective method of growing, and when the lighting is adequate the yields are generally good.

The screen of green ( SCROG) method is also used when height and wattage are a consideration. A screen, usually of netting, screenwire or chickenwire, is attached at a desired height above the plants. This allows the growing marijuana plants to begin to grow horizontally after reaching the height limit, thus keeping the canopy, or height, at an even level, which allows consistent light penetration into the growing plants. Many growers have a consistent high yield using this method."

this is pretty interesting. because i just bought a 30"H x 15"W x 15"D cabinet to grow the plants in. i forgot to mention that im selling/giving some of the plants away at some point so i'll only have a few for myself. and i figure the 30" height restriction will be perfect with my current light setup. i do plan on LSTing, but i kinda want to try the screen of green method as well, if for some reason the plants grow out of control even with the LST in effect. within the week i plan on moving the plants to 5" square pots. but then again if i do that i can only fit about 4 plants in the cabinet. we'll see. until then, here are some photos from today...



oh yeah almost forgot... HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
 

SunnyJim

Well-Known Member
They're looking really good so far. If you're worried about grow height and want to keep your plants short, my advice would be to move the CFL bulbs much closer to the tops of the plants.

CFLs don't get particularly hot (even the big 125's I use), so to within an inch or two of the canopy won't burn your plants. If the CFLs are too far away, your plants will get really stretchy (growing closer to the bulbs for more light).

Great start to far.
 
looks like you got some nice healthy seedlings there man. you defo wanna check out LST to keep them short, theres a great guide in the "advanced techniques" section of this forum. Sea/screen of green methods are great but you might wanna get a few grows under your belt so you are comfortable with the basics before trying it.

also if that is tin foil i spy on your light, i would get rid of it. it causes concentrated heat spots that can burn / kill your plants, you're better off either buying some mylar or similar reflective sheeting, or using white paint (matt not shiney). or even white paper is good :)
 
UPDATE: sorry guys that its taken so long. a lot has happened since i last updated here so i'll try to keep it simple.

found a perfect sized cabinet for personal yield at target. girlfriend actually found it :D but i got that and built the bad boy covering the inside with tin foil. WELL i didnt think about ventilation as much and the plants started getting hot as i also added 2 more 100w cfls to the light setup. so i took down the tin foil (thanks evilbeaver) and lined it with white paper, as well as running a ventilation system using two 120mm computer fans that i wired to a phone charger. i then LST'd a couple of the lengthy plants. but here are some photos to summarize my rant :)






THEN I GOT SMART AND REDID THE CABINET









THEN I LST'D THEM...


AND AS OF TONIGHT (11/7/10)
 
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