Indoor DN's World of Seeds Northern Lights x Big Bud Grow - Soil - LED - Area 51 XGS-190

Pre-Update for Tomorrow's Update

Whoo! The Arcadia D3+ UV-B will fire up for the first time tonight at 3:30AM and run until 9:30AM. I'm sure it works but I'll check tonight and again in the morning just to be positive. I'd hate to find out that it wasn't actually running because I didn't flip the switch or something dumb ass like that.

Anyways... I'm amped. I'm starting the UV-B two days earlier than planned. Why you ask? This is sort of confusing so brace yourself haha. Well...the plant is growing in a diamond shape. Facing one way it's about two feet wide, turn it 45 degrees and its about friggin' three feet wide. You'll see what I mean tomorrow night in the pictures. At any rate, because the UV-B bulb is in the corner and I'm turning 45 degrees every night... two of the four sides I can get as close as I want to the bulb while the other two sides are about 7 or so inches at the closest. If I push it any closer with either of the two short sides facing the bulb the wider sides start running into the tent. No big deal really as I don't want them too close anyways, this bulb is pumping out as much UV-B as you can get and I'd rather be safe than sorry. So, I thought I'd take advantage of this odd growth and acclimate the plant to the bulb gradually by hitting the short side tonight, then rotating it 180 degrees tomorrow and getting the opposite short side. From there, I'll go back to quarter (45 degree) turns and just make sure the wider sides aren't ever within 6 inches (the wide sides could touch the UV-B bulb they stick out so much more). I'm hoping these first two nights give the entire plant a more consistent, even shot of UV-B so it doesn't shock it these first two nights. I don't really know, but it makes sense to me haha... This UV-B thing is certainly going to be a progressive process of experimentation. But, I look at it like this: even minimal amounts of UV-B is better than none at all. So, I'd rather start out with less, and increase exposure time / decrease light proximity if I'm not getting the desired results (stronger weed!).

Overall, I'm very happy with the growth. The smell isn't completely overpowering like Auto's Candy Kush, but it's there. This has a very satisfying, classic, skunky weed-type smell. Which I love. Buds are stacking, crystals are appearing, and the best is on its way. I could really use a good yield so I hope that the UV-B doesn't jeopardize this. I can be pessimistic when it comes to my own grows. It does look as if this lady will make it past Day 75 though, so I'm expecting some decent sized buds.

Oh... new camera tomorrow too. I got a killer deal on a 16MP Fuji so no more cell phone pics. Update should be up Midnight Eastern at the latest.
 
Great pictures!
Looks like she likes the LED.
Good job!
 
Here She Be... Day 50

Well...the first "half" of the lady got a UV-B bath last night. I watched it click on at 3:30AM and an associate double-checked it at 6:30AM and it was still crankin out rays. It was still facing towards the middle of the tent tonight so my cardboard "splint" worked out for keeping it's facing consistent as well. After tonight's feeding I spun her 180 and tonight the other half will get it. As suspected, I didn't notice any unusual changes. The nearest buds are 6.5 or so inches away... I think I remember reading that the Kush Mountain's UV-B levels are somewhere in the mid 300uw range...so if I've figured things out correctly about 6.5 inches from the Arcadia D3+ is like peaks of the Kush's on down haha...

Ugh I've been a bit tenser than usual about this grow because of this whole UV-B thing, and it's a relief to finally get it going. I'll admit I am nervous though...I think I mentioned I could really use a decent yield (LEDs = expensive) but I'm bound and determined to jack up the potency as well. Common sense tells me everything will be fine though. I mean all outdoor plants get UV so it's not as if the plants going to just randomly die, and I'm not the first to run HO UV-B bulbs either. Regardless, every grow is very important to me (gotta love em) so I'm anxious. I just want giant, stinky, dank as hell mega-buds... is that so much to ask?

There has been a bit more of the browned edges on leaves. The leave's browned edges curl upward too and seem to be concentrated more towards the lower, younger buds. I can't seem to find an ailment consistent with this. You can see it in some of the pics pretty well. I saw some Potassium deficiency pics that looked similar, but that seems highly unlikely with the nutes I use. There's also some necrosis going on, but this just appears to be the plant's natural life cycle. I'm always trying to guess the days and I'm thinking she should push 80, but might not quite get there. We'll have to see...

The pics also show the "diamond" growth pattern this lady has taken on. I've got it turned in the pictures so that the wide sides are out to the left and right. When I close the tent they'll actually be in the corners. This is in reference to my previous post and why I started the UV-B two nights early to acclimate it to the UV-B. As I stated, tomorrow when I start the BloomBastic I'll go back to quarter-turning each night. She's really started to stink a lot more recently. The initial scent is skunky as shit, but I can't quite place this other scent that's mixed with it. I'll think on it more haha...

Anyways...here comes the eye drugs! Note: Got the new camera, but didn't want to deal with it on top of everything else tonight so these are cell pics still.

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BSandT
 
55 Days Alive

I'm very happy with how she's progressing. The new camera helps to do her justice. The Bud P0rnographer. Someone prolly ought to get that name while it's available ha. Still waiting on the tripod to steady my rickety-ass hands.

I am high, therefore I digress...or is it the other way around?

Let's see... first thing that comes to mind is how much I love the way this plant smells. It's got such a classic skunky, sour smell. Hard to explain...it smells like really good weed lol. Its aroma has become quite significant, too. I've read more than once that UV-B increases "stank" quite a bit which some people (myself included) believe is an indicator of potency. I don't think I've ever had really stinky (good stinky anyways) cannabis that was bad.

In regards to this though, I am paranoid and cautious of a sort of placebo effect I might get when judging the effects of the UV-B. I can see the plant taking on crystals and resin a lot more over the past few days along with the smell increase...but given how far along she is this isn't really surprising. First time growing this strain too which obviously doesn't help. I'm strongly considering growing an Auto Candy Kush again soon... I have the most grows with that strain so it would be a good point of reference.

One thing I will say is the closest buds to the UV-B each light cycle (21hoursOn/3HoursOff/6HoursUV-B) are 6" away maybe a bit less and the UV-B doesn't seem to cause any visual stressing whatsoever. I like that with the quarter turns, each "quadrant" of the plant gets 3 UV-B light cycles at 6 hours, then a break on the fourth being that it's on the opposite side of the tent. Depending on the effects, increasing the UV-B's hours is always an option.

Just to be safe I tied off the biggest of the branches because it was hanging way out. It's practically horizontal. I'm losing fan leaves and there's some yellowing going on. I'm thinking I've got maybe four weeks. I'm always shootin for a couple extra days haha. I like to harvest as late as possible. I use Earth Juice Sugar Peak Grand Finale (what a name lol) after my forty day feeding schedule (last two weeks basically). It's kinda like Molasses On Crack, its NPK is (0-6-4) and it's actually nice and light so if you use it properly it doesn't affect taste or the smoothness of the smoke at all. I really like this stuff, I've definitely noticed extra growth and development since I started using this stuff. I also have some bloom FINAL by Advanced Floriculture that is for the last two weeks also. It's different from the Grand Finale so I'm going to give it a shot.

Ahh I'm tired. Here she is...

Day 55

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BSandT
 
Dia Sesenta || Day Sixty

I think the smell might be my favorite part of cannabis and growing it. I can't comprehend it when a person doesn't like it. I always wonder what it was like for the first dude ever that came upon a cannabis plant. He must have known that something good could be done with it. Be it eat it, smoke it, whatever haha. Like some caveman cookin' weed with pterodactyl eggs or some shit in a cave haha. Glass of mammoth milk on the side.

Anyways... whole point of that was to say... This lady smells so, so, very nice. It's that classic, wonderfully potent, sweet-skunkiness. I can already tell I'm going to love smoking this NLxBB. I'm getting pumped. I should be vaping some perfectly cured nuggage right around the middle of October. I'm still paranoid about yield, but I'm just going to follow my schedule as planned and let her do her thing. I'm thinking I should be able to run the two full weeks of Grand Finale and Bloom Final, and maybe get a few more days of completely clean water or just 1ml of Bloom Final per half gallon afterwards. The Bloom Final states that it will help those lower buds mature faster even through harvest and I've read that it doesn't affect taste even that late, but I haven't completely settled on what I'm going to do yet. It usually takes me four days of cutting, so I do get some decent maturation throughout cutting. There's so much about Cannabis growing we don't know that it's insane. If there were a definitive, know-all book you better believe I'd be reading it.

She is getting very frosty as well. Once again, could be my imagination, but the UV-B does seem to be making a difference. It's smell and resin have really elevated over the past week. Some of the yellowing is slowing up in places. The Grand Finale will accelerate this and really get the lady pushing those buds the last two weeks. I've got high expectations as it progresses. Four more days of watering, and it will be the Home Stretch. I'm so amped up and anxious about the end result I can barely stand it. I love watching the effects of the Grand Finale too, and I'm hoping the Bloom Final jacks it up even more.

I'm thinking when I've got ten or so days to go I'm going to start trimming away at her so she'll get as much of that LED goodness as possible. I'm going to try to be as stingy as possible with this. I don't want to stress her so I'm going to try my best to spread it out over four days. I'd like to find a middle ground... where the benefits of the light aren't negated by the loss of foliage. Hopefully most of it is gone at that point anyways. Another thing I'm going to play by what the plant is tellin me. I'm trying to establish signs (leaf yellowing, hair color changing from white to red/orange/etc.) to better predict when the plant will be ready.

Loving the camera. The tripod makes it that much better, too. This plant really helps to show how awesome higher quality pics are. I'm really happy with the purchase and am glad I said "screw it" and bought it. I went on a brief stint of wanting to be a photographer when I was younger, and I took photography in high school. I forgot how much I enjoyed it. Nice little bonus hobby to go along with the growing. Well... Enjoy!

Day Sixty

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BSandT
 
She looks great! Let her go at least until all the pistils are dried up if you want to maximize your yield. The buds can swell up and get a lot denser in a couple extra weeks.

Good job!
 
Looking tiiight under just one xgs190. Props brother. Just got two of these units and going to use it in my 4x4. Excited to see your results brother. Been wwatching this for a while!
 
Looking tiiight under just one xgs190. Props brother. Just got two of these units and going to use it in my 4x4. Excited to see your results brother. Been wwatching this for a while!
 
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