Northern Lights

[Dan42nepa]

I have 5 seedings growing under a 400w metal halide bulb in my cedar closet. They seem to be doing well. I have them in organic soil and so far no problem with the soil and the seedlings.
My question is... how tall should these get? What would everyone recommend as far as height before flowering for this specific strain? The breeder says they can grow up to 3 inches per day and flower for 8 weeks.
I think my soil is good.. I am not planning on adding anything to it.. I cant find any of the fox farm products in my area but found master gardeners organic gold soil.

description:
All natural rich blend of Fir bark fines, forest humus, sphagnum peat moss, perlite, worm castings chicken manure, bat guano, kelp meal and pH balanced to 6.5 with oyster shell and dolomites limes. For use in all indoor/outdoor potting containers and raised bed applications.

Anyway, I would like to just let it go with this soil and see how it goes and maybe use some sort of organic nutrient for flowering when the time comes.

Anyway, would love to talk to someone who has experience with NL for any info they could provide.

BTW seeds from Weed Depot, joey weed NL-F2. Hope they stay in business as their service was prompt and they answered all emails..

Dan

 

[Guest]

If you want best results,veg then until you have either alternating branches or preflowers or both,usually 4-6 weeks.

 

[Dan42nepa]

ok.. i am in no hurry... I have 5 seedlings.. at some point i will have to consider the topping issue and take some cuttings for clones. I have decided to veg and flower in the same area and just remove the males once i identify them after i switch to the HPS light.

Thanks

 

[Guest]

Your welcome,make sure and take those cuttings in the veg phase before going 12/12, it's very important.You want good "veg" cuttings as free from pistils as possible

 

[Dan42nepa]

At what point? plant height etc? I dont want to shock the plant too much. I cutting per plant or 2?

 

[Guest]

I always take 2 cuts per plant in case 1 doesnt make it for some reason I dont lose the phenotype.I take my cuts the same day I go 12/12 with the plants,you can do it anytime earlier,you just want them to be a minimum of 3 inches,I like 4-6 inch cuts.Make sure to label all seedplants and clones that way when you determine sex under 12/12 you can trash the male seedplants and accompanying clones.Although you may get a good idea which pheno you want to keep from the flowered seedplant,I always flower out the clones before making a final decision.The flowered clone is the finished product,this is what you want to see and compare.The 3 things I look for are yield,quality and finishing time.There may be slight variations between the seedplants and their clones,especially with finishing time.Another reason to make your final judgement from the flowered clone.

 

[Dan42nepa]

Well, i have two grow areas... the closet with the 400 watt is the preferred. I also have a table with 2 48 inch shop lights each with a warm and cool bulb. I started the seedlings under that and moved them saturday to the 400 w setup. If i could time it just right... 5 seedlings, 2 cuttings per plant, turn to flower but have the clones in a different area. Once i determine the sex of the plants i can keep or discard the clones. trying to think if I take the cuttings right before flowering, flower for 8 weeks max and start the clones back under the 400W right after the harvest. That would be perfect.

 

[Guest]

You need two areas to do a perpetual grow,1 for flowering and 1 for vegging and clones.An easy way to remember how to have a perpetual harvest every 30 days on a 60 day strain is to do the following:You want to halve your plants and harvest 1/2 of them every 30 days.Another words you want your flower room to be full 100% of the time.Say your flower room holds 20 plants.You'll have 2 sets of 10 plants flowering 30 days apart.You will harvest 10 plantys,and the same day you'll replace them with vegged plants ready to flower.Now you'll have 10 plants that are 30 days in,and 10 that you just moved in.In 30 days its time to harvest another 10 plants and move another 10 from the vegroom to the flower room.This is how I keep my flower room constantly full and harvest every month.Once you get the timing down its easy breezy all the way!

 

[Dan42nepa]

sounds good.. i just am not familiar with the flowering time for this strain and the optimum lighting is with the 400w setup. I figure the weaker cooler fluro lights would be good for seedlings and maybe clones. If its 8 weeks for flowering I would need to veg under the fluros for 8 weeks and then put them under the HPS for flower. For a 6-8 inch clone I dont know the growth time.
I am not in a hurry. I can move the clones to the closet and switch lights back to metal halite after the 1st harvest. I dont know what stage the clones would be at that time or how big.. If they are small enough I would even veg for another month before i flowered them.. live and learn first.. A long way to go and i have never attempted to clone before anyway so that could be a disaster.

 

[aeric]

u could do LST by bending the tops over then take clones off of the lower branches, for less stress. Blue light is needed in the critical 3-4 week period to increase the chance of fems, but otherwise I would go with the HPS (especially if a Hortilux) or an MH because veg takes too damn long under floros.

NL is usually very easy, one of the best for beginners. It is one of the few that u can push with nutes as well. Meaning u can keep increasing PPMs and CO2 and it will respond favorably by getting larger, rather than getting burnt. I don't know about that seedbank but not all NL is the same. An F2 can go from 7 weeks to 12 easily. More likely 7-9 though. Hope that helped.