7thG's Northern Lights Micro Cabinet Grow!

[7thG]

WOW! I feed my plants this morning and then slept all day. I just checked on my plants and WOW! They exploded. Sadly they were all over my lights so there are several light burns but its ok they can take it. That GrowBig is some serious stuff.

 

[7thG]

I have been procrastinating on adjusting my lights for a while. I would just try to matt the plant down around the lights but I cant put it off anymore. Right now I'm trying to figure out the best way to position my lights. Any suggestions are welcome. I am really amazed by how much my plants have grown since I fed them less than a day ago. My plants respond VERY well to Growbig. I know a lot of people here use GH but I am a believer in Foxfarm, it impresses me everytime I use it. I think I forgot to mention that this morning I also did a moderate amount of trimming. I trimmed all yellow and sick leaves. I also trimmed all leaves touching the dirt or on there way there.

 

[sunakard2000]

only idea for the lights is some sort of reflector to redirect alot of that upward shining light down below to the plants, you may also be able to keep them a tad higher at that point since more light energy is being directed to the plants, possible a foil hotel pan or flood light reflectors, otherwise those are lookin GREAT, just remember since Grow Big and Tiger Bloom are synthetic nutes make sure to do a flush somewhere either in early flower or before you flip, just to make doublely sure you dont run into salt build up problems nearing the end of flower, i had that happen and it sucked having to flush at the end just to correct thing, added another 2 weeks onto my flower time for the plant to rebound. better to nip it in the butt ahead of time rather then when its a serious problem.

 

[7thG]

It's been a while since I did a dated update so here it is. Seeds went into the soil Oct. 26 which makes today day 38. Pulled my plants out today for an inspection. I didn't plan on it but once I had them out I topped each plant in 1 or 2 spots. My large plant I accidently pulled off much more than I planned. My plants look a little tired today for some reason. I added another bottle of nutes to each last night so I think it may have been too much. I noticed some slight nute burn on the tips of the leaves but that is a good thing because I have been trying to find their limit. I'm going to let them go for a couple days then give them a nice heavy watering of fresh water. I've noticed I get better results when I let them get a little thirsty/hungry between waterings. Anyhew, this will be the last of the topping, fimming or anything. I'm going to let them recover and bush out for another 2 or 3 weeks and then it will be time to flip them.

*I took pictures of some of the places I cut, in the one pic is that a pistil?

 

[greenjoe]

man they do move slow eh.........and i don't see any pistol hairs yet...maybe i am blind

 

[7thG]

I took some clones today. Just one clone from each plant. Assuming that they take root I will put them into 12/12 to see if I have any females. If I do I will probably take clones from that female before I flower.
However, since I did this with no cloning supplies my chances of getting 2 out of 2 to take root is questionable.
To clone I took my cutting from the lowest branches on each plant. I cut the stem at a 45 degree angle. Then I cut a slit into the end of the stem. I dipped the stem in honey and let it sit for 20 seconds. I don't have any cubes so I just used perlite and a little soil. I used clean scissors to cut most of my fan leaves in half. Then I put the cutting into soil. Each cup has a ziplock bag held on by a rubber ban to prevent them from drying out.
Im not sure if this will work. I'm pretty sure if done right you can clone with honey. Without rooting cubes though it might be tough we shall see wish me luck. If anyone has any tips please feel free.

 

[7thG]

man they do move slow eh.........and i don't see any pistol hairs yet...maybe i am blind

Yeah Northern Lights is a pretty casual growing strain. It is growing much better now than it did when it was small though. The first 2 weeks it was growing super slow. Maybe it's not for everyone but I am happy with how its growing and think its size is perfect for my space.
Yeah lol maybe that was wishful thinking on the pistil.

 

[WeedHopper]

Northern Lights is well known to be easy to grow and a strong healthy plant with some TLC,,,and most important,,Good Smoke..

 

[7thG]

Northern Lights is well known to be easy to grow and a strong healthy plant with some TLC,,,and most important,,Good Smoke..

I don't want to get ahead of myself considering I don't know if I have any females yet. But, if I can just pull an oz of some good Northern Lights I'll be happy with that. This is mostly about learning for me anyway.

 

[Growdude]

I took some clones today. Just one clone from each plant. Assuming that they take root I will put them into 12/12 to see if I have any females.

You can put the clone directly into 12/12 without waiting for roots, takes a couple weeks but it will sex.

 

[7thG]

You can put the clone directly into 12/12 without waiting for roots, takes a couple weeks but it will sex.

Ok I think that's what I will do. I am more concerned with determining sex then actually successfully taking clones. My cabinet isn't light proof quite yet so I think I will just put them into a cardboard box for 12 hours a day.

 

[7thG]

I have a bottle of Fox Farm Kangaroots Root Drench that is expired. This is the only Fox Farm product I have with an expiration date. 01/28/11. However, it has been sealed until yesterday. I opened it yesterday to add some to my gallon I have mixed up for when my plants finish the current mix. I am starting to have doubts as to whether it is a good idea to give my plants expired root drench. But, I really don't want to trash it. I will if I have to though without hesitation. I'm just hoping it is still useable, hopefully the fact it has been sealed and sitting at room temp has preserved it.
Does anyone know if it is still safe to use or should I just dump it and take it as a loss?

 

[7thG]

You can put the clone directly into 12/12 without waiting for roots, takes a couple weeks but it will sex.

Question - If I put a clone directly into 12/12, will it show sex even if it doesn't take root?

 

[7thG]

Chilling

 

[sunakard2000]

yes clippings need 24/0 light inorder to root properly, a common practice to determine the sex of plants is to take a few clippings from each plant in question, work your magic as if you were cloning the clippings, pop in your rockwool / Rapid rooters, and into cloner tray with dome (im sure you got something even a 2 liter pop bottle is good enough), just gotta keep the RH at proper levels for the clones stay healthy, and put them into 12/12, keep them in there and mist them once or twice a day for about 14 days, after 14 days they SHOULD be flowering already despite the fact that they didnt root at all, youll need to mix up a very mild "starter solution" to spray them with daily so they still get the food they need and continue growing. you can find some videos online about the whole procedure. its worked for me in the past, had a nice branch with dime sized buds and absoutly 0 roots extending into/out of the RR, pretty much only had a swelled stem in the RR that was white-ish, so the start of roots.

sorry for the runon again lol, hope this helps, if your confused look at some videos on youtube

 

[7thG]

yes clippings need 24/0 light inorder to root properly, a common practice to determine the sex of plants is to take a few clippings from each plant in question, work your magic as if you were cloning the clippings, pop in your rockwool / Rapid rooters, and into cloner tray with dome (im sure you got something even a 2 liter pop bottle is good enough), just gotta keep the RH at proper levels for the clones stay healthy, and put them into 12/12, keep them in there and mist them once or twice a day for about 14 days, after 14 days they SHOULD be flowering already despite the fact that they didnt root at all, youll need to mix up a very mild "starter solution" to spray them with daily so they still get the food they need and continue growing. you can find some videos online about the whole procedure. its worked for me in the past, had a nice branch with dime sized buds and absoutly 0 roots extending into/out of the RR, pretty much only had a swelled stem in the RR that was white-ish, so the start of roots.

sorry for the runon again lol, hope this helps, if your confused look at some videos on youtube

Awesome Sunakard that tells me everything I needed to know. I don't really have any cloning supplies so I might have to sex them without roots. I haven't put my clones into 12/12 yet because I'm curious to see if my cloning method will actually work. As far as the "starter solution" is concerned, I think a mild dose of Big Bloom should work great.

Assuming my goal in taking clones was just to determine sex, I wonder if I could just put the cutting into a cup of water (or mild solution) and put it into 12/12? And maybe hit it with a starter solution everyday.

 

[Dr. Green Fang]

I got 2 out of 3 clones successful by just cutting them at a sharp 45° angle and sticking directly into a "tall" shotglass of water. I never changed the water, only added to it every couple of days, and put it really low so it got residual light, at the bottom of my veg tent. Took awhile for roots, and thinking back.. wow, I should've changed the water every other day, and should've made the glass not see through!!

My point is, you don't need the rooting compound and proper setup. So if you have the available left over cuttings, may as well try if you dont' have the hormones :aok:

 

[Dr. Green Fang]

Oh and hey, I answered your question about camera in my thread. Please head back in for the reply :aok:

 

[sunakard2000]

thats correct you technially done need any rooting gel or hormones at all since your not actually CLONING your simply sustaining life for long enough that the sex shows. so a simple glass of water i dont think would work, you would have to use at least a 1/5 or 1/4 strength Grow Big with a small splash of Big Bloom, the Big Bloom alone doesnt have enough nitrogen to keep the clipping healthy enough so it doesnt start consuming its self aka yellowing and dying on lower leaves to sustain its self. your defently on the right track though id still recommend rapid rooters or a rock wool cube, simply for support and proper airation of medium. if you got a small DIY bubble cloner that would work too, heck iv put a tiny air stone in a glass with hydroton pellets and stuck a cutting in the middle and topped the glass off daily with water. it rooted after about 10 days, im sure you could do the same and sex the plants, because of the 12/12 being an incorrect schedule for rooting they will simply flower assuming they have some sort of food to sustain them rather then simply their own reserves there shouldnt be any problems.
i guess all in all any method will work and you seem to have everything down pat so far. try a few different methods out if need be to see what best suits your conditions.

 

[7thG]

Ok thanks guys! I have been asking this question for a while now and I always get told how cheap cloning hormones are and this and that so it's nice to just get a direct informative response finally.