At this point (day 11), the plants are really taking off. They are starting on their 3rd node now with nice wide indica-type leaves. I decided to give them a very mild dose of Earth Juice Grow formula. I added ½ tablespoon per gallon of ph7 water. This was given once per week for about 6 weeks until flowering was induced. At about 18 days veg, I topped all of them in the hopes that they would bush out a little and provide a lot of cuts for cloning. I pinched them all at the 5th node and they really took off after that. This prompted me to order my cloning equipment and get ready for my first lessons in cloning. I must say that this strain loves to be topped and pruned. I lost 4 plants due to under-watering (vacation) which left me with one female plant! At week 5 of veg, she started to show sex without any change in light regimen. I felt it was ready for cloning now with numerous spots for cuts on her. I bought some cloning gel and trays and proceeded to clone her. The cuts taken were about 3-4 inches in length with leaves trimmed back a little. The first few times were pretty disappointing because I could not clone to save my life! What was I doing wrong? Vermiculite, soil, and water were my cloning medium. After many tries at cloning her unsuccessfully, I decided to give it a try one more time this time taking bigger (5-6 inches) and healthier cuts. And by healthier, I mean cuts that are taken 20 minutes after a fresh watering! This seemed to make the difference. By the 7th week, I now had about 12 fully rooted clones of my Northern Lights…females too! As soon as they were used to the garden conditions, I transplanted them into 5 gallon containers for their final journey. 2 of the clones were put in separate rooms for pollination and cutting more clones which left me with 10 healthy clones. I decided to flower the mother as well because I had to use the same veg room for flowering.
Flowering began in the mid-March, close to the end of cold weather in the Northern hemisphere. The first couple weeks were hassle free. The clones for some reason took on the sativa phenotype; they stretched quite a bit in early flowering and their leaves were thinner than the mother’s and also darker in color. I wasn’t sure if it was something I did or just simple genetics. The flowering room had 1 1000 watt HPS lamp and 1 1000 watt MH lamp. Ventilation included a 425cfm rated blower and 465cfm rated exhaust. This didn’t seem to do the room justice because I ran into temps way into the upper nineties and sometimes above 100 degrees during flowering. Then again the room is 12 x 10 ft. This eventually hurt my final yield but next time I know good ventilation is a must! During the later stages of flowering, I used Jack’s Classic 10-30-20 flowering mix. I’m not too sure if this made a difference as I did not notice any significant bud formation in the last 2 weeks of flowering. My buds seemed a little bit on the leafy side but again not sure if this was genetics or too much Nitrogen in flowering. Harvest time couldn’t come any faster after almost 5 months of sweat in the garden. I took down the mother first as she showed signs of bud maturity. The clones took about 10 days longer to finish. I dried them in paper bags in the dark for about 5 days and they went straight into canning jars. I took a sample smoke after a couple of days in the jar and WOW…this is some good shit! The taste was very smooth and had a very earthy taste. The high was somewhat in-between couch lock and energetic which makes it a very good overall strain. The smell is minimal when in curing jars but is definitely there and pungent when breaking up the buds for rolling a joint or packing a bowl. I would definitely recommend this strain for new growers as it is very forgiving during the veg stage and tolerates high temps.