Voi's Simple Tent Grow, 400w HPS - Soil - Nirvana's Northern Light

Hello everyone, I'm very excited to be a new member of the community here at RIU. There's a wealth of information here, which I hope to gain insight from and also share with all of you.
I've been wanting to start this thread for a while, showcasing a simple setup with clear direction. My goal for this grow is not only to contribute to the community, but also to help newbs better understand the entire process of growing a solid crop for personal medicinal use. My philosophy here is K.I.S. (Keep it Simple) while achieving gratifying results.

So here goes.

The strain I've chosen for our adventure is: Nirvana's "Northern Light" (Regular Seeds)
I've chosen this particular strain because it's a hardy, indoor, low maintenance, low smell, strong yielding, pleasant smoking, economical strain that I would recommend to any 1st time grower (And which a lot of 1st time growers seem to choose).

Here's the basic setup:
- 400w HPS running on a magnetic ballast
- 3x3x6.5 grow tent
- 6" centrifugal fan connected to a Carbon Filter (Acting as a Scrubber)
- Fox Farms Ocean Forest Soil
- Dyna Gro Nutrients (Two Part Bloom & Grow)
- Digital Ph Meter
and let's not forget, A few nursery pots with saucers and a watering can/spray bottle. Also, a few other things we'll get too as they come up later in the growing process..
With that said, here's what it looks like when it's all put together.




Please ask me any questions you have and I'll happily answer them to the best of my ability.
I'm open to your ideas and criticism as well, so lay it on people,
lets learn and grow!

Nice set up, and a good plan. Always love to see that. Welcome to RIU.

The seeds were planted in small nursery pots and gently sprayed with water. I tend to find germination rates are better with simply planting the seed directly to soil than the paper-towel-method.
I plant seeds in dry soil and then spray them lightly as to penetrate the soil just enough to hydrate the seed. I would not recommend you pour water over the seed/pot at first, you risk drowning the seed and by leaving dry soil below the seed you will stimulate faster root growth.
After just a few days the first seedling has sprouted and breathed it's first breath of life.



It's soil is dry now so again I give it a gentle spray that penetrates down to the newly established tap root.

Another Seedling is just breaking soil, can you see it?




The HPS light is extremely hot and will burn my little seedlings if it gets too close. But if it hangs too high the seedlings will stretch. I try to create a happy medium of light and heat so the seedlings will grow their best.

looking good so far!

I got the same size tent man and i have to have a cooltube in mine...But you might get away with it...My temps stay 78-85

hunter21312 said:

I got the same size tent man and i have to have a cooltube in mine...But you might get away with it...My temps stay 78-85

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Yeah, in the future I'm definitely going to upgrade to a 600w with a ventilated hood. What size is your light man?
For now the inline fan is really doing it's job, I get temps under 80 all day so for the size of tent I have it works well.

Something amazing has happened today, one of my seedlings sprouted up a second root, two seedlings from one seed! I've never encountered this before, but in doing some research found that well very-uncommon it can in-fact happen. Pretty cool!



My Other seedling is now standing upright.

After much deliberation, I decided to split the dual seedling into two separate plants, I delicately transplanted both taproots into their own pots. So far so good.



With these three seedlings growing strong I'm still waiting on the others to sprout, seeds tend to sprout at their own rate, from a few days to a week or more; as Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "Adopt the pace of nature, patience is her secret".

2 new sprouts today!



The other seedlings are looking very healthy and are growing strong.

A couple seedlings beginning to grow their second layer of leaves.

I'm amazed at how fast these little seedlings grow. Most appear to have almost doubled in size since yesterday.

Even more amazing growth today. 1st set of fan leaves starting to take shape.



Definitely let me know what y'all think. I'm interested in hearing your thoughts or if I can answer any questions please ask away.

That is pretty decent growth for one day. U gonna update daily the whole grow? Maybe I just don't have the enthusiasm anymore but damn that seems like a task. Anyhow, count me in on this one.

Metal n Weed said:

That is pretty decent growth for one day. U gonna update daily the whole grow? Maybe I just don't have the enthusiasm anymore but damn that seems like a task. Anyhow, count me in on this one.

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For sure man, I'm definitely going to try and update to the best of my ability. Hopefully I'll be able to document some really cool stuff.
Thanks for checking it out!

noice little girlies!

At the start of the second week all the plants are looking great and growing strong. We're officially out of the seedling stage and in vegetative.

Albeit a bit delayed, here's some updates with the remainder of the grow.
Plants continued to grow strong through week 3, once thay had 3-4 nodes off the main stem a few were topped for fun; and also encourage the development of more dominate colas.

The Plants continued to veg in 24 hour light until the end of week 4, and then switched to 12/12 for flowering.

In a matter of a few days under 12/12 most of my plants were already showing their sex, in all I came out with 4 lovely females. 2 that were topped, 2 that weren't. They grew up and out fast into big bushy plants! By mid 2nd week I was seeing small bud development.

Small buds continue to develop into what I can tell is going to be some awesome bud. All the plants are very vigorous, small trichomes are starting to develop on the leaves.

Very fucking nice man lol..im jealous i little..im starting a new grow here soon im trying to fit 9 in my 3x3 tent lol it's going to be a handfel i know that hahaha