Northern Lights and Hashberry... First Grow!

OK! Here we go!!!!! I have been thinking about growing my own smoke for a long time. Finding some good smoke has been hard. I am not one that likes to go out and look for schwagg, and I plan on having some decent smoke for the spring and summer. You gotta love sitting on the boat or around a campfire with some good smoke!

My requirements:

Stealth cab. Must fit in my closet and be completely self-contained. Cabinet was fabricated in my garage by me. LOL It is 36" tall, 35" wide, and 24" deep. Flowering chamber is 36" tall, 26" wide, and 24" deep. The mother chamber is 36" tall, 9 " wide, and 24" deep.

The HPS v CFL debate...

Well, since I made this cabinet out of wood I had laying around, I am into this grow for about $70 dollars. This is what I spent on the seeds.. I don't have seeds laying around, and I don't want to ask friends and raise suspicion. Don't tell, Don't smell, and Don't sell. I don't want anyone to know or suspect I am growing. That being said, I also don't want to spend the bucks, right now, for an HPS system. Maybe if I am good at this and like it, I will buy a good one for my next grow. My plan is to use 6 42 watt CFL's for veg and flower. Of course, I am going to use the proper spectrum for each stage.

So, without further discussion, I got my seeds from Seedboutique and Marijuanaseeds.nl on the same day (how farggin cool to get seeds by mail). I put them in to wet towels (five NL and five HB) this evening and placed them in a warm and dark corner of my closet. I am going to go to Helms Depot tomorrow and pic up some soil.....

My goal:

To get some smokeable bud for me and the Mrs. and an occasional friend. Anything else is gravy!

Odor Control:

It is my understanding that NL and HB have very little odor. The cab has a passive intake with two 100 CFM PC fans. One exhausts the flowering chamber into the utility room and the other fan exhausts the utility room to the outside of the box. I am prepared and fabricated the cab with odor control in mind. If I need a scriubber, I am ready and willing to spend the money to make one

I'll post some pics of my cab tomorrow and the babies when they pop!

Thanks bro... I am so freaking excited about this grow. I am hoping like hell that all goes well. I have just been looking at your journal, and I like what I see. I am getting up early to go to Helms Depot.......

attillathehun said:

Thanks bro... I am so freaking excited about this grow. I am hoping like hell that all goes well. I have just been looking at your journal, and I like what I see. I am getting up early to go to Helms Depot.......

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Awesome. I'm in it for the personal smoke. It does wonders for me. I luckily have a very trust worthy and intelligent friend who looks after them like its his job when I'm not there.

This will be a good grow. I use Miracle Grow PH Balanced Potting Soil. It seemed pretty good, and I mixed 25% pearlite and 25% vermiculite in.

I too am also extremely excited though. I can't stop looking at them .

Take care man.

The girls all germed and were planted in beer cups last night. I have put the finishing touches on the cab. They are under 150 watts of 6500k cfl's for veg. I finished securing my closet with lock and key and ran power to the inside. All there is to do is wait until they pop their sexy little head up.

The cab temps for now look pretty good. The closet that my cab is in has an AC duct, so I don't think tems will be an issue with the passive intake and that fans I have for ventillation.

By the way, I placed some pea gravel in my soil mixed with perlite. I hope this helps a bit with drainage. Hole punched in the bottoms of the cups.

All sounds good man. Can't wait for some pictures .

It has been a while since I started the journal. I have been real busy. Here is the deal with my grow.

First off, none of my Northern Lights seeds sprouted. In fact, the popped open a bit and nothing. I started 3 more seeds five days ago in a wet paper towel and nothing. They crack a bit and that is all. No tails and no sprouts. Must be a bad batch.

The Hashberry seeds, on the other hand, pop in about 24 hours and sprout about 36 hours later. When none of my NL seeds popped, I placed three more hasberry seeds in the towel and transplated them after they grew tails. They have sprouted.

I have one plant that is slow going -- my runt. But it is a healthy looking runt if I do say so. I have two plants that are five days older than the other three.

Here are some pics

Here they are:

This is my biggest seedling. I have kept the CFL's within an inch and a half for the past 8 days. Really no stretch to her at all. Pretty compact. Color seems pretty good. Got some soil on the leaves. I sprinkled some soil into the cup and it got on the leaves.

I have a question about pic #1

This is one of the 8 day old seedlings. It has purple around the leaves. I thought that it might be a lack of phosphorus, so I put a bit of soil that contains phosphorus in the cup and it appears to be getting better.

Pic #2 is my runt

Pic 3 and 4 are of a coupl of the 2 day old seedlings.

I hope this goes good!

Looking good.

I wouldn't worry too much about what the seedling is doing in terms of color right now. Mine showed a slight tint of purple after they sprouted too, but I just knew whatever they needed was in the soil and they would find it.

Looking forward to more updates!

Well, a lot has happened. On the 3rd, I transplanted my biggest plant into a larger pot. I did this beacause it just didn't seem to be getting and bigger. It has taken off in the last couple of days.

All of the new seedling are really gaining size and looking good. I am fully into the veg stage and can see myself switching to 12/12 by the end of the month or first week of March!

No nutes at all yet, and I did switch to a 20/4 light cycle on Sunday too. I wanted to give them a bit of a rest. Temps are OK. High 80's to no more than 91 degrees. I left the cab door cracked a bit and the temps settle right down to around 85 degrees. I need a few more intake holes cut.

Pics to follow later tonight!

Give me some pictures .

Its amazing how the growth during vegetation extrapolates. Mine are growing close to .5" - .75" AT LEAST everyday. I am happy yours are taking off.

After I let them dry out, and water them with nutes they will grow almost an inch in the coming 24 hours. Nuts these plants, I tell ya!

Sorry about the pics. I'll try and have some up tonight or tomorrow. Lights are off for four hours in the evening.

Anyway, I have what I think is a dumbass question. I can't seem to find a definitive answer in the forums, so here goes:

Can I switch to 12/12 early to force my plants to show sex and then switch back to veg? If I do, what are the possible adverse effects?

I only ask because I want to take some clones from any females that I get.

Thanks!

i wouldnt advise it. You could wait for them to pre-flower or you could take clones now and flower those to see which are female.

I see. What you are saying is take clones, label them with which plant they were taken, and wait until they sex normally. Then I would know which clones were from females and which were from males.

Duh!!. A few to many Whiskey and Diet Cokes at this point....

Thanks bro!

If you really wanted to know you could put the clones in a seperate area to flower while your mothers are still in veg. Then when you know which clones are female you know which mothers are female and which are males.

Thanks for the advise...!!!!!

Anytime, sorry to hear about the NL

Here are my girls!

Pic 1 and 2 are my bigger plant. The one I repotted. She is doing great. Good color. Tight growth.

Pic 3 and 4 are of my runt. She has shown some good growth over the last few days. Not bad at all. Will prolly end up being my best plant. LOL

Pic 4 and 5 are of the plant that had the purple on the original tips. Lots of new growth on the plant. It looks good up top, but I noticed that in the last 36 hours, thos leaves with the purple shriveled up and are going bye bye. The rest of the lant looks great. No sign of it spreading at all.

Here is a pic of one of the Hashberries I sprouted about a week after the original ones above.

Good growth on this plant. Lookin super sexy to me!