Completed RQS Northern Lights Auto - Aurora - Lighting Fail

Chaps,

This is my third grow. I learned a lot but still struggle to get the feel of watering. So I gotta master that first.
However, I am now much less paranoid about the soil, so I dropped the light mix.

Tent 80x80x160cm
BestVA 600w reflector
2x 15w fans
dehumidifier

Biobiz Allmix + 10g of RQS Easyboost (plus a bit more for blooming phase)

Water -> Pre-boiled bottled water PH6.39

Same method as usual:

seed in a cup of tap water for 24hrs, check after 12 then 6 hours.
It's 11am, I'm a prep my soil so as not to be caught in a hurry like it happened before.

-> biobiz allmix + 10g of RQS Easyboost, and a proportion of 1 for 10 of added perlite in a 3 gallon rootpouch. Soak in 2 liters of PH water, just until it wets the bottom of the pouch.

at 7am the next morning, checked the seed, tapped it, and sunk to the bottom, put it in paper towel. In the meantime it's 28 celsius with RH of 42%, so the soil is drying at a average pace, to avoid bugs on one side, and hydrophobic soil on the other.

next morning at 6am, after having had to rehumidify the towel once, the root is out. Bang in the soil, not too deep, little spray on top of it, a few drops of water, stick the plastic dome on top of it (dont know why I actually put an old plastic cup on top of it at the beginning, then realized I had this lovely dome) lights above 22 inches

yes at least Dummy masters that stage..

Nothing in the morning, but around the time I turned off the lights (545am-845pm schedule) she sprouted.

Dome off, lights raised to 28 inches

Having a bit of a drought...

Not much change, added a wet towel to raise the humidity a bit

Night 51% 25 celsius
Day 42% 28.7

Slow, am I impatient, or has DG serial stunter struck again?

Well the top is well dry, so a little splash of water won't kill anyone (won't it?)

Night 61% 23
Day 58% 28.5

okok it's all good, she woken up..

2nd set coming out.. little splash of water, lower lights backs to 22

Night 55% 25
Day 62% 29

oh me happy, cuz she happy

I'm struggling to change the wet towel enough times a day

but well, it works.. however me got a couple of gnats hanging... buggers! but I'm not too worried about gnats as long as it's not darn rave down there, plus I'll lower humidity again once I'm sure she's good to grow.

First proper watering of 0.25 liters (get on your google unit converters dudes)

She fallin over a slight bit, so I put a cork to straighten her out

Night 60% 26
Day 52% 29

Day 11

0.5 liters of water

she good, nothing further

Day 52% 27.7

Ok, now I' sure she's good to keep on til the end, i'll stick the dehumidifier on at 50 to hit the mid 50s

Hopefully it'll be enough to get rid of the gnats that are still not in enough numbers to be worrying

4th set coming out, but I had to twist her arm... pff

Night 63% 25.6
Day 52% 29

ok, this morning we are already back to looking for gnats, instead of just seeing them hanging around which is a good sign.

growth is steady, but the heat is a pain, I actually stick my water in the fridge for half hour before to feed it.

0.5 liters of water

Night 53% 27
Day 48% 29.2

Not a gnat in sight!!! They don't seem to like my windy dry environment haha

0.5 liters of water, hesitated to top it.. but in the end pu**ied out

Night 53% 26.6

ok, the trunk is getting thicker, good.
5th set coming out, ok let's be brave. As soon as there is enough space to cut the top and leave a bit of stem, it goes.. scary

One of the leaves is a bit damaged, but it was probably due to a bit of early mutatio, except from that she's in enough good health to be topped. Hopefully I'not wrong, and if I am, well, roll on..

0.75 liters water. Rain on forecast, dehumidifier on 40%

Night 56% 27
Day 48% 29.5

Topping day! my first ever, so I'm not a virgin anymore (Topped for the very first time )


However my gut actually churned when I did it.. I hope it'll hurt less next time

In a good mood today, been puffin on that 15g harvest of mine northern lights sisters yeah but I cured it well, so it's quite a pretty good smoke..

Not a lot of change with Aurora, needs time to recover, but still going on.. hoping it will get bigger before flowering.. still learnin

Left it without water until today to try to get to a better watering schedule, trying not to let the soil become hydrophobic, but at the same time watering more less often.. so I'm slowly getting to that perfect spot.. hopefully.. thank you btw @Mañ'O'Green for the qdvice


Night 55% 28 celsius
Day 49% 30 celsius

Pistils!!!

Tiny pistils are making their appearance.. I would have liked a few more days recovery after topping so I can do a little defo before flowering stage but well..

Using the advice I received from various AFN legends, I let the soil dry, but only until I saw the plant starting to get slightly floppy, so as not to give too much chance of creating dry pockets of soil. Then I weighed the pouch and used that as my base weight.

Bit of weird stuff happened yesterday, as the 2nd set of fan leaves from the top started dancing like, facing sideways, but proper perpendicular to the floor, and then get back to normal... then again!?! then back to normal... I learned to be not too reactive and think before acting...so..
Did a little research on what it could be, but tbh the replies were as of supposed experienced growers (out of AFN obv haha) very fishy.. So I decided to raise back the lights a bit.. And no more dancing.

I don't want to experience more than one new form of training per grow, so as I started with defoliation last grow, and topping with this one, I'll leave LST for next time (yeah I know usually it's "advised" for inexperienced growers to try LST first. But I still try to wrap my head around this technique..

I will soon switch to blooming mode on my lights, top up a bit of soil and add a bit of Easy Boost to get big buds hopefully, now that I got nice bud sites.

Yesterday I decided to leave her one more day without water, yeah, she looked in a good shape to last another day..



That was without counting on a really hot and dry day.. So gave me a little scare when I came back from work to find her, well, floppy...



Gave her a good 1.5L watering until slight runoff... crossed fingers, blew her a kiss and went to bed

AVG night 51% 26.7 c
AVG day 49% 29.4 c

Yeah, she back to life after that big very slow watering.. Think I found the sweet spot, and the pouch feels humid all around, no dry spots..
Topped up the soil a bit due to its flattening. No more nutes yet, and decided against defoliation at this stage after reading some AFN stuff.

Gonna start today to read more deeply into myth busters. I'll do one a day starting with flushing. There's decent post about that too..

more pistils, but not really flowering yet, but will switch the lights soon (thank god, that color is killing me)

AVG night 51% 26 c
AVG day 51% 28.9 c

Day 33

Noticed yesterday a bit of yellowing of the bottom fan leaves. Except from the nutes put when I prepared the mix, I did not add anything yet. So I'll crumble a little 8 grams of easy boost pellets and top feed.

watered 1.5L

AVG Night 53% 25 c
AVG Day 50% 26 c

Damn, messed up with the lights as I saw what I thought was light stress.. too reactive again, I need to calm down

Oh well, it's stretched quite a bit, and I got a few pretty budsites, so I'm happy enough with my overall progress.

Next time will take on a bit of LST to help balance the canopy

Another 1.5L on day 37

AVG night 48% 25 c
AVG day 45% 27 c

For the last week has been developing a nice fruity fresh smell.. Buds have not started to grow seriously yet but I have a few more budsites.. Defoliation gon be needed soon plus a few wooden tutors to bend the exterior branches in

I'm realizing they've been growing and stretching up to day 40 or so..

AVG night 48% 26 c
AVG day 47% 27 c

Considering the early problems I created for myself with lighting and watering at the end of vegetative stage, I think it's not going too bad for me skinny gal. Just wish for a bit of faster bud growth.

So as the main buds are all over the place and don't get enough light anymore, I got the yarn out and stretched a line in diagonal across the tent, about three quarter height. This to help the slightly falling main left branch.
For the lower branches, I also used thread, but this time by bringing each opposite branch toward each other.

Obviously, all of this created more shade, so I had to do a bit of defoliation. A good bit.

Before LST and Defo:


Then the thread to bring back secondary branches towards the middle

And after all that jazz

Enough space at the bottom to avoid humidity, and no leaves are damaged, so no defoliation needed there. Took about 10 leaves off. There's a few left at the top that will eventually have to go as they still shade the lower bud sites in the middle, but that will be for later.
Could have got rid of the lower tiny tiny budsites, but I think it was enough stress for today

Started giving her 2L of water every time and buds are starting to fatten up proper. Some of the lower fan leaves are yellowing a bit, so I'll give it a bit of food tomorrow.
The thread has helped her straighten up but real trouble will start when buds get heavy. We'll see..

AVG 46% 26 celsius

57

59

60

57

59

60

Increased water to 2.5L

Unfortunately, the focus on my camera is busted, so had to get my old crappy phone to take pictures.

Had to readjust the threads about once a week to support the branches as buds are getting heavier. Bottom leaves have started yellowing.
Buds are not very dense.

AVG 48% 25 c

Well good moaning to anybody reading this..

I've been having doubts over my learning skills, not in a sense of having difficulties to learn, but more like realizing I learn in a complete different way than the average, or so I have the impression. For example, I see newbies uttering complete non-sense theories and still getting proper yield from their frst grow. Whereas I learn from a special group of real pros in this AFN forum, and can't yet boast about an acceptable yield.
As another example,, I've alwas been told to try LST techniaues before to test HST. Well that didn't work out that way either.. The first LST I attempted, I snapped one of the main stems.. However, my first experience at topping is revealing to be the best thing I've done so far, and it keeps bringing surprises.

So today is a day of mixed feelings, as it is the day I snapped my little baby girl growing as a side experiment. However, Aurora has brought a new surprise this week: white topped colas.. it is absolutely gorgeous and fluffy and bubbly.. sorry for the excitement, it is my first time.(like for a lot of stuff actually)

Been giving her about 2.5L water every 3 to 4 days. She's now coming to the end of the estimated date of harvest, but she looks like she wants more. Recent low temps are helping her to get the hint of winter coming.

She's also getting really heavy, and it's been a struggle to keep her up with the threads I used, so I got rid of them all, so I made up a little mesh, and it's all back up straight. (had to build up the mesh around the plant as I cannot move it for fear of it snapping, which revealed some of my contortionist talents, or so I thought until the first cramp appeared)

Bottom leaves keep yellowing, but only a few small ones fell.

Overall, she's a skinny girl, but in decent health...

AVG 46% 21.5 c




I'm still baffled by this..

Well, it's getting to the end of this journey, from what it says on the tin anyway.. Still think it will take another good week though, as tricomes are still in production, and very transparent still. Plus buds are finally fattening up so I'll wait til the last moment.

The mesh has been my best decision in this grow, and I can already draw conclusions. I have finally controlled the watering of my plants, thanks to good kick up the arse from well meaning AFN members, and stopped my under/over watering paranoia. However I got so focused on watering that I lost control of lighting and did not realize it before it was too late. If I had, I'd be probably looking at a quarter-pounder harvest. Well maybe for next time. Hoping to get 2 oz (of popcorn) off this one we'll see if my guesses improve. As a last thing for next grow, LST will have to be applied in combination with topping, it's just a must.

A few very slight adjustments were made to the mesh so as all budsites get a maximum of light.

AVG 46% 22.5 c

Another 9 or 10 days gone by, and buds are still fattening up.. still shiny spots a little bit everywhere, no need to take the magnifier out yet. Plus pistils are still mostly white.
Well, patience..

I shortened one more hour of light, just to rush her a bit and coz of a bit of yellowing of leaves at the top, as I can't raise the liights any higher.Sso she on 11/13..

Haven't had to touch her since installing the mesh..

AVG 47% 21.5 C

Seems like it was ages ago that I said there had to be a week left before harvest.. Well I'm still waiting.. Tricomes are still transparent, and I can still see a bit of fattening up of the buds. Shiny spots still seen around flowers.
But the smell has definitely changed a bit, it's probably started ripening.. not sure

The yellowing of the bottom leaves has been different that during my first 2 grows. Here they have been yellowing by stages, rather than continuously. I only had to get rid of 2 dead leaves so far. The rest was a bit of defoliation to keep all budsites in the light. Bud it looks like it's in full yellowing mode now, hopefully not long left to wait.

Winter's here, and I'm struggling a bit with low temps, but hey.. Nothing too alarming at this stage. I even think a bit of cold will help her finish.

Sorry for the pictures, had to add a little bit of details for some of them to be worth something..

AVG 45% 20 C

Gosh this one is taking her time.. Tricomes are still transparent for the most part, but a tiny portion started to get slightly cloudy. Lately she has been needing a bit more time to drink her 2L of water, 1 day more or less.

She started shedding leaves regularly, about 3 or 4 a day, and I had to readjust the mesh as she was falling a bit over the side. Added one more level/floor of mesh, as the branches from the first node were falling down.

Sorry for the quality of the pics; my phone cam is busted and I have nothing else at the moment..

AVG 45% 20 C

Can't believe how long this one is taking me.. but at the same time I have little experience and still discovering the species behaviour.

She's been accelerating the shedding of leaves and pistils are very brown now. However tricomes are still on the early stages of cloudying so she's just not ready to chop yet.

Her smell is now very potent and attaches itslef to my clothe even for a quick 10 min visit.

AVG: 44% 21 C

Cloudy tricomes are now generalized around the plant, but still with a few shiny spots..

This week she's been shedding all what was left of fan leaves and the bigger sugar leaves. She's taken an extra day to drink her 2L than usual, but probably due to slight variations of temps and humidity.

Hopefully, one more week will give her the right tricome color to chop her down.

Here are a few pics I took before I turned the lights back on, so as to avoid this horrible red light.

AVG 43% 20 C

Well it's all pretty cloudy in there so that's a wrap! Xmas harvest is always nice..

Looking at it after chopping and a rough wet trim, I think I'll probably get about 40g, which is still not where I wanna be. However, I know what were my mistakes in this grow and I really think that I'get it right next time out. I'm still progressing so I'm happy.

At least I mastered my main obstacle in cannabis botanics, which is the overcoming of under/over watering paranoia.

Sorry for the cr.. quality of the pictures

See yous in a couple a weeks for the weigh in!

Ok, to conclude, it was a fruitful grow for me, after finally mastering watering (which is so easy makes me feel dumb) It seems that on the way, I forgot I was growing a plant, which has basic needs. Nothing crazy, magical or mystical about the process.

I got my second guesstimate right -> 40g (first guess being 2oz) right after drying and dry trimming (without counting the trim), and the fact that buds are airy and pop-corn like is now verified 100%, although a few buds from the top are quite dense. I would basically be looking at a good yield if I had got the watering right straight from the beginning, and not forgotten about the lights.

The drying process was a bit too fast, but my experience here is even lesser, so I am not counting on experience when saying that, but rather by what I've learned here.

17 days at an average of 48% RH (lows of 42 and highs of 55) at an average temp of 21 C.

A the day I am posting this, curing has been going on since the 11th of this month, so a bit less than three weeks, filled up 2/3 of two jam jars, kept at 61% thanks to Boveda "Terpene Shields". It starts to be an enjoyable smoke, as I like to taste a joint a week to experience the progress of the process of the maturing of the flower. Some of the buds are still a bit fluffy and still stick to each other, so I'll keep it for a further week.

Happy with the progress. Next one should be a mean grow.

The blooming phase lasted forever, and having got bored, I started a little experiment while waiting to chop down Aurora. Nothing amazing at the yield level, but very interesting findings for me. I will publish it very soon and will be called the Bulb Experiment, or a grow with cheap light bulbs