NL, J47, GG Indoor. Late Start Journal. My First Grow

So this is my first grow, I was nervous to start a journal because I was afraid of broadcasting my failure, but I'm a month in with a few problems, but nothing catastrophic... yet. I did a fair amount of research before starting up. But I have always been more of a hands-on learner. This grow started on Oct 12 (when I started germinating seeds). Northern Lights (NL), Jack 47 (J47) and Gorilla Girl (GG) are the three strains I am growing. I made a few mistakes early on (and most likely will continue to make mistakes) that I wrote down in my own journal I'm keeping so I can hopefully learn from them for future grows. My goal is to learn as much as I can during this first grow while also coming out in the end with a product I can enjoy. Also, I know the plant labels are cheap, but I wasn't planning on showing these to anyone, and I know which one is which. In the pictures the NL is back left, GG is back right, and J47 is in the front. I'm not really sure what all is expected here so here goes.

Short list of supplies:
250w MH (for seedling/veg) HPS (for flower in hopes I make it there)
3x3x6 (36x36x72) Grow Tent
6" Inline fan with 402 CFM
6" Activated Charcoal Carbon Filter
Air Cooled Reflector
3x 5 Gallon Fabric Pots
2x Small Clip Fans
Fox Farm Ocean Forest Soil
Fox Farm Trio for Nutes
3 Seeds 1x Northern Lights 1x Gorilla Girl 1x Jack 47

A few notes to get everyone caught up:
- I germinated all seeds in wet paper towel by space heater. NL sprouted very quickly within 24 hours. GG was next at around 36 hours. The J47took almost 4 days to sprout.
- I moved the seeds to rooters as they sprouted and kept them in a tray. Initially I filled bottom of tray with water, until I realized that that would just create bad stagnant water. So I started mist spraying water on them and kept them in my grow room with 18 hours of light.
- I moved them to amended soil a bit too early on, as well as moving them directly from rooter to 5 gallon pots. I realize this was a mistake, especially with the fact that I was feeding nutes almost immediately. Although I did apply water in a small circle around the plant, I realize up potting as you go is the correct way to do this.
- There was what looked like a yellow cotyledon on the GG I quickly discovered was just the seed stuck on the leaf, removed with tweezers.
- NL grew very quickly compared to the other two into veg stage at around 18 days in. The other two followed shortly after.
- GG early leaves were a bit frail, lower leaves are still a bit frail compared. Also upper leaves have been growing in with small holes in them. I have heard that this can just happen sometimes. Might be a slightly deformed seed (it was free). But just in case I applied neem oil treatment to all 3 on the 11th of November.
- I started off overwatering all 3 plants, about 2 red solo cups of water every 3 days. Also I was using nutrients at the beginning until I learned that thats not a great idea because my Ocean Forest soil is amended and has nutrients pre built into the soil. After 3 times of that, I let them sit for 4 days and then watered 4oz for each plant with no nutes. I am now on an 8oz water every 3-5 days schedule currently.
- I fimmed the NL and the J47 on 11/4 after 4-5 nodes on each. Right after fimming I gave them water and some 6-4-4 nutes thinking that the fim would stress them out and they would need more nutes to sustain the stress. Now the leaves on both of them are pretty dark green. And the NL leaves are a bit drooping/clawing... I suspect that to be the culprit. I did not fim/top the Gorilla Girl because not only did the lower leaves grow in kind of frail, but when the leaves started growing in full and healthy, they were growing in with holes in the leaves. So I didn't want to stress out a plant that already seemed to have a bit of internal struggle going on.


Current news:
- Currently as of this post, both the NL and the J47 look a bit dark green with slight curling on tips, this is probably N excess due to me feeding 6-4-4 after fimming. GG looks healthy besides the small holes in leaves.
- I planned on LST bending about 14 days after fimming the NL and J47 on Nov 4 (so on Nov 18 coming up). But as of right now I'd be afraid to put anymore stress on the NL. I might try it with the J47. And if GG keeps looking healthy, I'm considering just trying basic topping on that one. Although I'm curious if it being behind the other two would make it worth it to just leave alone so they can all enter flower at the same time effectively.

Some relevant info:
- At first I pH down then pH up in same water, I found out that was no good and have been getting better at slowly inching towards desired pH so I don't overshoot. Currently all H2O that enters the soil is between 6.0-6.5.
- I haven't figured out how to check ppm with my pH meter yet, but I assume its ok as I have been buying distilled water at the store. At some point I feel like I could save a few bucks learning how to distill water on my own. It can't be too hard.
- Night temps are between 73-76... Day temps are between 79-83 (If it gets up to 83 it drops almost immediately, as I have the passive intake at the bottom lined up with a low to the ground wall air vent set at 75. I also setup my exhaust to go carbon filter inside tent>inline fan connected, but outside tent>leads back to air cooled reflector for light>exhaust to outdoors with window panel I built.
- The lights are about 3ft away from plants, as I read that HID lighting should be about that far away.
- I currently have two fans redirecting air towards the carbon filter, I am not currently using an oscillating fan. I havent looked THAT hard for one, but I havent really found one that meets my size requirements, because if it's oscillating it needs a bit more room, and I don't want it to be too high powered as in the small space I have it would most likely be directly next to the plants.

Obviously people are free to post whatever they like. But I would like to hear some opinions on my dark green leaves for the NL and J47. I'm pretty sure its N excess due to information I posted above. I know theres not a perfect solves all amount of water to give them, but maybe some estimates could be nice to help me rule out over/underwatering. I feed 8oz water every 3-5 days. Do people think it would be worth flushing them?? Or might this problem sort itself out if I just dont feed any nutrients for a while?? Although I performed a neem oil treatment just to be safe, I welcome opinions on the holes in the GG plant. It seems that is the only plant affected and the only pests I visibly spotted were springtails, which are harmless. The damage almost looks like caterpillar or slug damage... but this is indoors and slugs/caterpillars are definitely not getting in there. Thanks in advance for anyone that takes the time to read this. And an extra thanks in advance to anyone who offers me their hard earned experience and knowledge for advice. This is quite a learning experience. And I am excited/nervous going forward. I will try to update at least once a week, or more if anything comes up.

NL
J47
GG
NL yellow cotyledon day 32
NL dark green and curling down
NL dark green and curling down
All 3 together
J47 dark green minor curling at tips
GG lookin pretty good besides holes in leaves

Just wanted to add some pictures of my exhaust setup as well but could only put 10 pictures in original post. Sorry for all the catchup here. I believe we are all on the same page now though.

Quick update: So like I said, mistakes were expected. I mis-diagnosed the plants pretty bad. Apparently I was simply underwatering them. I was watering 8 oz per plant every 4 days. Just gave them 24 oz and they perked up within an hour. It was actually really cool to see. The bottom leaves on the NL are still yellow though, I'm wondering if that is just more permanent damage from being underwatered or possibly even N deficiency (the exact opposite of what I thought at first). I will try giving a light dose of 6-4-4 on my next water and see what happens.
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Something I learned was that a good way to tell the difference between underwatering and overwatering is the stems on the nodes. With overwatering the stems will be full and upright while the leaves will droop from being too heavy. With underwatering the stems droop down as well due to being weak.

So I just began LST bending. Watched a few videos and got the idea of what I'm going for. Northern Lights still has a little yellowing on bottom leaves. And soil feels dry as well as pots feel light again already. Seems even 24oz of water might not be enough for the bigger two NL and J47. I will try a larger amount next water. I noticed each set of leaves grows with one set of fan leaves and a set above them. I am assuming that the set directly above the fan leaves is where the colas will be growing from so where possible I tried to pull those "cola site" stems out into the open. I also bent the plants slightly to the side to eventually go for a sort of circular motion to provide more light along the side of the plant. I'm using ties I bought from my local garden store with holes cut in the top side of my fabric pots.

I havent posted in over a week. I had some issues with my girls and was nervous I had killed them and this post isn't really being watched by anyone, so at this point, this is mostly for me anyways lol
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My girls were turning yellow on the bottom. I researched and found out that was most likely N deficiency. So I gave them some extra N. I noticed they were still turning yellow, and it was climbing up the plant. I decided that the only thing it could be was nutrient lockout. I suspect the nutrient lockout mightve been caused near the beginning when I gave them too many nutes before they even needed it with ammended soil. Overloading the soil and allowing the nutrients to crystalize and create blockage in the soil. Regardless of the reason. I believe flushing all 3 plants thoroughly with 6.1pH distilled water did the trick. The yellowing has ceased. Since the flush I have watered once with 6-4-4 nutes to try to replenish their supply. Although the yellowing has stopped climbing the plant, the yellow leaves on the bottom remain sadly. I assume those will not go away? But besides those yellow leaves the rest of the plant is looking great! I'm really glad to have figured this out, and in the future I feel like I will be able to diagnose that much quicker, preventing as much damage to the lower end of the plant.
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Here is some update pictures.