First Grow - RQS / Northern Lights Auto

Hello guys, I’m as new as you can be - therefore please, have some mercy :face_with_hand_over_mouth:

It’s my first grow - exactly 4 weeks since sprouting, shes currently recovering from a rather serious overwatering (obviously due to me being an idiot and initially saturating the soils as you would saturate coco, followed by consecutive small waterings) but at least I’ve managed to correctly diagnose it and now shes going strong - wanted to ask you guys about her state in reflexion of how old she is - does she look ok or slightly stunted? Contrary to what everybody said I’ve performed substantial LST since her early days, trying to aim at creating a „circle” of sorts - I’ve tried to take a picture of the stem to try and show that. Shes already equipped with like 8 semi-main colas and I inted to keep her top flat.

2x2x4 Tent, 1x Fecida 50W Red/Blue LED (True Wall Draw) for the first 3 weeks, added another Fecida 50W (True)SunLike LED and she seems happy with those (great PAR values for such small chips, google it) grown in a „medium” nutrient rich soil + perlite + vermiculate (60%\30%\10%) - so far I’ve fed her only water PH’d to 6.5/6.7 - 20L pot, I’ve tripled the drainage holes amount prior to planting, which along with raising the pot and aiming a blower on it probably saved my plant from dying! I’ve learned a massive amount already - but I’d still love to get you opinion, advice and critique! Thanks for taking the time to read this, much appreciated.

EDIT: I’d love to add more pics, but as a new user, I cant :frowning:

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6.7 ph is too high. 6.5 should be your top value. Shoot for 6.2 :+1::v:

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Even for growing in soil? I’ve read in a couple of places that this might harm microbial life there - but no worries, I’ll adjust. Recent runoff measured ph of 6,5 exactly so I’ll simply switch to 6,2 - 6,5 from now on, thanks for your insight :innocent:

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I go with 6.1-2 because that’s where mag is absorbed into the plant. Below that it can’t :+1::v:

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We’re at day 33 from seed, I’ve stripped a few fan leaves to open up the bud sites and decided to drop the LST for now to let the plant strech properly - the canopy should stay relatively flat now, shes drinking heavily again which is a good sign, you can still see a minor nute burn but its being taken care of so hopefully we’re good for now.

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Forgot to mention, here’s where the initial main cola is now - didnt I take it too far? My thinking was that from this point onwards it should more or less stabilize the averege cola height if I’ll let them strech - am I right or wrong?

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@Gio,

((#Welcome))::wave::wink:

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Day 37 Update - the girl is exploding in growth - her canopy stays pretty flat even though I’ve untied her more than a week ago and stopped any LST - pretty happy with how she turned out - preflowers showing on each and every cola - lets see what true 100W LED’s can produce in the end :slight_smile:

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Day 39 - Well, back to LST I suppose lol :sweat_smile: The canopy is growing faster than I’ve expected therefore had to tie her down considerably yet again - hence the droopy look on the photo - LST done just an hour ago - she’s drinking around 1L each day now which sounds about right. I need to say it again - its only 100 True Watts being used here for the lights which is why her growth boggles my mind (first grow, mind you). These 2x50W lights produces around 500 umol/m2s at 20cm (120 beam angle). I’m running 24/0 schedule because of that - which after applying some math turns out to deliver a whopping DLI (Daily Light Influx) of around ~ 60 mols which is EXACTLY how much you get on a sunny summer day at noon! Insane efficiency - I guess I need to wait for the flowers to learn whether these will do the job right - I’ll continue to update every once in a while :slight_smile:

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You sure its ok to run 24/0 schedule?

Seemingly yes, I’ve read numerous grow reports which used this light schedule - some people say that a period of darkness is vital, but others say that they’ve run the same strains under 18/6, 20/4, 24/0 without any noticeable difference in yield or bud quality - therefore I’ve decided to give it a shot, you can learn alongside me :joy: Here’s her at day 40 - she got properly LST’d and defoliated yesterday and has already perked up!

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She does look much better!

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Day 41 from sprout, my apologies if I’ll be posting relatively often - but I’ve always wanted to find pictures of the same strain I’m growing in daily increments to compare my own growth progress - therefore I’m hoping this might help someone down the road. So far she’s getting fed 5ml of tomorite per 1L, and 1L of PH’d water interchangeably. I intend to keep it that way in the spirit of simplicity and really basic/cheap set-up, I want to see how far she’ll land from the same examples of NL being grown under zillion watts & 10 different specialized and expensive nutrient compounds. 100W/tomorite/water - that’s it. :see_no_evil:

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Day 42, there is just one thing I’m wondering today - I’ve found exactly ONE petiole turning red and a couple leaves that are experiencing the ’drawstring’ effect - in my mind and by the book it must be a Mag deficiency - which after some thinking doesn’t make much sense - she’s a small plant yet sits in a large pot, rather than actual deficiency it seems to me that it’s uptake got simply greatly reduced as an aftereffects of my early overwatering, and that it’s just a lingering effect which will go away - since it seems hard to imagine she already went through all the available magnesium in 20L of potting soil - any thoughts on that, anyone? :sob::sweat_smile:

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@Gio,

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Thanks a million, I’ll go through everything you’ve provided :heart_eyes:

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I’m kinda baffled here - I’m certain that the slight cal/mag deficiency is a result of initial overwatering, so is the very light nuteburn you can see on the tips of the leaves - but as per pictures - does she look in bad shape in any way? I mean, look at the pictures attached - to me it seems she’s more than happy - I’ve just released all LST straps again so her canopy is out of order - but other than that the leaves are looking healthy and are literally trying to grab the lights - this doesn’t really scream ”help I’m having a hard time” lol - I’m saying all of this because I feel like trying to hastily amend the problem might do more harm than good - I’ll lower the watering even further, I’ll keep the feeding schedule as it is now and observe for another couple days - does that sound reasonable?

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Seems like a great plan! You’ll get better at deciding after you have grown the same strain more than once! Its really the best indicator so take lots of notes.

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Looks really healthy to me :mag::+1:

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Day 43 - she keeps on going strong, my bottle of Cal/Mag just arrived - I’ll experiment with adding one dose at her next watering and look for any effect - good or bad, for a couple of days. This strain seems crazy resilient to me given that she was sprouting and vegging for the first 3 weeks basically in a swamp - as a beginner myself I can wholeheartedly recommend it - great strain to learn your way into growing since she’s very forgiving - at least for now :see_no_evil:

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