first grow 12/12 from seed -northern Lights

Hey everyone, been lurking for a while and finally started my grow 9 days ago, started with 4 Northern lights male and female seeds from nirvana but I killed 1 with sloppy watering.

Sprouting was done via the paper towel method until seeds opened, all 4 opened within 48 hours.

The grow room: 16" wide by 24" deep by 5.5' tall.

Lighting: 2 100W EQV daylight CFL (5000K), 2 60W EQV cool white CFL (4000K), 4 60W EQV soft white CFL (2700K) and 1 2' Soft white T5 (2700K). cycle is 12-12 from seed.

water and fertilizer: Tap water let to sit open for 3 days, 1/8th strength Alaskan organic fish fertilizer (5-1-1) every 2rd watering.

Ventilation: Fan blowing across the lights and tops of plants at an upward angle, passive intake, exhauste is done at the roof by 3 pc fans blowing threw a filter - light trap - muffler.

Soil: all purpose potting soil with vermiculite, perlite and peat moss.

Pots: 6" wide by 6" deep by 8" tall- will transplant when I have determined sex.

here are some pictures
plant 1
plant 2
plant 4

ventilation and plants with lights.

The seedlings are stretching due to lack of light , get them closer ,
Later those stems will need re-burying
Why are you running 12-12 from seed , just interested ?

Well it looks like you got the stuff to grow some weed. I am doing a 12/12 from seed grow, with some clones. I don't know what nutes your soil has, but be careful with those extra things for 2or3 weeks at first. Good growing..rw

Ya, been trying to get the lights closer, the space is an issue for the way I can orientate the lights, when i get some more money I will be able to get some more y splitters and add more light in the vertical space.
The lights are currently about 1-2" from the plants, should I try and lower them to 1/2-1"?

Growing 12-12 from seed out of curiosity more than anything, I dont realy have time befor I move for these to finish so this whole grow is more an experiment/ practise befor I can get a better set up going, see what works and what dosent, what to change or not. To some that may seem like a waist but it is a learning experience for me.

Ya being very careful, dont want to burn them this early, might just stop the fertilizer all together until the 3rd or so node.


Thanks for the help.

roofwayne said:

Well it looks like you got the stuff to grow some weed. I am doing a 12/12 from seed grow, with some clones. I don't know what nutes your soil has, but be careful with those extra things for 2or3 weeks at first. Good growing..rw

Click to expand...

How can you do 12-12 from seed with clones ???????
You mean you are doing 12-12 from rooted clone ,
This is high risk of low yield outcome as clones are already a mature plant and will switch to flower quickly with hardly any growth...

Hey so here are the pics from today of the plants.

left to right plant 1,2,4

plant 2 has slightly yellowed patches on the leaves, is that nutrient burn, heat/light burn, over watering?

All 3 plants have received the exact same fertilizer and watter amounts, why would only 1 show burning?
Plant 2 is farthest from the fan but also not able to touch the closest light (1/2" away).


This is why it is a learning experience for me, any help is greatly appreciated.

You didn't say if your potting soil had nutes in it or not, much of it does. Personally I would stop givin any nutes till they get at least 3 or 4 sets of leaves and then just very mild fertilizer. At some point you are going to want to swith your nutes from a veg. nute (High first number) to a bloom nute which will have a higher 2nd. number). One of my plants in my first grow developed brown tips on leaves and I figured out it was because I was misting with weak nutes in the water. I quit doing that and havent had the problem since. If your leaves touch a bulb it will burn them. I wouldnt have a bulb less than 100w equiv. I have become partial to the 200w equiv. and above. Walmart and some lowes sell a 200w equivalent GE bulb.

To be completly honest I dont know if my soil has nutrients or not, here is the web site http://altwin.net/ and here is what I found on there site.

"An excellent choice for the widest variety of applications, Heat sterilized and 100% organic. Gentle for delicate
botanicals and nutrient rich for more demanding plants. With superior water
retention and distribution properties, this soil will slowly release moisture
and nutrients for less watering frequency. A blend of premium Canadian sedge and
sphagnum peat moss, vermiculite and perlite, makes this soil and exceptional
choice for all container gardening."

I know they are trying to sell a product and the fact that I couldn't find any listed __ - __ - __ numbers means there is probobly very little nutrients to begin with.

I am going to stop all nutrients and see what happens, as for the lights, ya none of the plants can actualy touch them, they appear to have stopped growing vertically (every day I measure them and add it to a graph) since I added/switched to the 2 daylight bulbs. They are holing at just under 5cm average, no increase in height over the last 2 days, leaves appear to be getting bigger also.

I was having trouble with heat, that is one of the reasons for the smaller bulbs, along with thats what I had and wanted to see if I could do it without buying more lights, with became apparent I couldn't so I went and got the 2 100W eqv daylight.

As the plants get bigger I will increase the lights size if it looks like they can take it (heat wise), the multiple small lights also make it easier to distribute them around the plants.

hey so just a quick update


plant 1,2,4

plant 2 I am prety sure got burned by fertilizer, I am prety sure I got some on the leaves when i was watering, witch would explain why the rest are not showing any symptoms.

well it looks like plant 2 will survive and the second set of leafs are starting to show.

so far I have learned:
daylight lights not warm lights.
lights kept closer.
no fertilizing until larger.
especially no fertilizer spills on leaves.
be very careful watering (thats how plant 3 died).

so I am haveing some more trouble with my plants

plants1,2,4

why are the leafs curling in like that? I have only been using straight watter, Over watering?

pulled from here ---> http://growweedeasy.com/marijuana-symptoms

"[h=2]Over watering[/h]Problem: Your plants leaves will start drooping if they've been over-watered or under-watered. If you've overwatered your plant, its leaves will be firm and curled down all the way to the stem of the leaf. You may also notice Chlorosis (Leaf Yellowing). Plants use their roots to get oxygen which is dissolved in water or oxygen in their grow medium. When you overwater a plant, its roots are sitting in stagnant water which no longer has any oxygen left. The reason your plants droop is because basically their roots are starving for oxygen.

Solution: The best thing you can do for overwatered plants is give them time without watering, and then start them off slowly until things seem back to normal. You can try to increase the temperature and airflow to help the water evaporate more quickly. You can also use a pencil to gently poke some air holes into the growing medium to provide extra aeration and oxygen to the roots.
For soil grows, you generally only want to water the plant when the soil feels dry if you press a finger in it. You can also use the "lift the pot" method described below (under Underwatering) to decide when to water your plants. For other growing mediums besides soil, your watering method will vary, but if your plants are drooping and you've been feeding them a lot of water, it's a good idea to cut back and see if that helps.




sounds like my problem

What happened to these seedlings?