Northern Lights and White Widow Micro Grow

Hey guys this is my first grow and I decided to make a thread so that there is a discussion about traditionally larger plants in a small grow space. Plus I think I need all the help I can get.

I am currently about 4 weeks from seed.

Here is my set up:

14x19x24 Grow Cab
Emergency Blanket lining
7 pod Aerogarden
4" Airstone
3" Fan (for air circulation)
4" exhaust fan (No intake fan as of yet)
1 White Widow Fem
1 Northern Lights Fem
Stealth Hydro Nutes

The girls are about a month from seed right now. I have LST on both of them. NL has gotten stem (twist tie) and some fan leaves (tape on the tips). WW has gotten much less, a little stem training and a little leaf tie down. I have already topped the White Widow (I believe successfully) and Fimmed the Northern Lights (I believe incorrectly). I think I did the Northern lights wrong because I never noticed much of a change in growths like I did with the Widow. They are on 3/4 strength "GROW" right now. I know they seem short but I believe that is because of me not changing the water during the first couple weeks. Ever since I changed the water and replaced nutrients, they have started growing faster. I really would like to hear from experienced growers to give me tips on how to keep these babies as short and bushy as possible.

My current questions are:
1. When do you think I should begin to flower? There needs to be enough space for the roots in the aero as well as growing space
2. What method would work best for keeping these ladies short?
3. Does it look like I did any topping or fimming techniques correctly? (Leave it to me to mess up something called "Fuck I Missed")
4. Is the top of the WW messed up? it seems gimpy to me but it is bushing out like crazy lately

First 4 pics are NL, 5th is a shot of my maximum grow space, last 3 are all WW. I circled the gimpy top in the last picture. Thanks for all of your help in advance and keep smokin!

I forgot to mention that the reason the big fan leaves on the Northern Lights are messed up is because of my botched fimming

I have decided that I may try to SCROG these two plants. I have some wire hanging around the house so I will see what I can come up with and will post pictures when it is done!

These two are really starting to take off!! I still need to get the SCROG made. I have started to turn the Northern Lights into a bonsai tree and I think that will keep it pretty low until then. I may just do the same with the white widow as she is starting to catch up.

Hey guys sorry about the wait. I've been gone for awhile. I put my plants into some darkness for 36 hours to force flower. I'm taking them out of flower tomorrow morning at 7. I'll post up pictures of the new setup then. Time for me to get back to my ZONG.

Who's Northern Lights and White Widow? Looks good though. I tried the tape on leaves method of LST. It worked, but I found that normal LST with wires allowed for much better control when the fan leaves weren't so large.

Hey thanks for the reply! Northern lights has the long skinny leaves and White Widow has the really wide short ones. I label the pictures as best I can, just check out the bottom right of each pic (NLday29.jpg). I switched to using wire ties pretty fast for LST. Right now, they both have a permanent LST tie down. I put them into flower this morning and will be posting up my pictures very soon!!

DAY 39: So these two just got out of their 36 hours of darkness this morning and are both looking pretty good. I pinched off some of the under growth to focus growth to the tops. Total, I counted 11 tops on the NL and 9 on the WW. They are in 12/12 now with 1/4 strength bloom. I took a lot of pictures so check them out and let me know what you think! First three are NL, 4-6 are WW, final is the cab with my newly installed SCROG

subbed !

Day 44: Things are still looking fairly good. The nutrients are currently around 3/4 strength bloom and should be roughly full strength by Wednesday. I didn't fill the reservoir during their 36 hours of darkness and then topped it off with 1/2 strength when they came out. That brought them to roughly 1/4 strength. I went through a full gallon mix of 1/2 and have been topping off with full strength ever since. My Northern Lights seems to be having a problem but I can't upload a picture for some reason. There are yellow spots on some of the new growth. I have debunked this as being a nutrient problem because the White Widow is looking as good as ever. I did defoliate the NL a little bit. Maybe that is the problem? I need some help here guys.
Pics: 1-2 both plants and scrog, 3 White Widow top.

Day 44: here is the problem that I just mentioned. It seems to only be really affecting the new growth on the tops. P.S. They are starting to smell pretty nice.

Day 46: Well it has been one week of 12/12 and, being that this is my first grow, I have no idea what I am looking for. How do you know that the plant has entered flower? I took a picture of a couple of tops. let me know if it looks the way that it should.

They look good, can you tell the sex yet. If theres a male your going to want to get him out of there before he pollinates

They are feminized so I'm not too worried about males. They still haven't shown any indications of sex yet.

Day 51: Not too much new to update about. I may have some starts to buds but I'm not quite sure. I think that it may be tome for some defoliating because my cab is getting pretty tight for space. I pinched some of the stems to slow vertical growth and also accidentally super cropped a couple of branches but they recovered nicely. Does anyone have experience with controlled defoliation of their plants?

Day 52: Well I woke up to a nice surprise this morning. I can now say without a doubt that my White Widow plant is a female. Still waiting for some definite pistils on my Northern Lights monster.

Day 60: Hey guys sorry it has been so long since the last update but I am now 3 weeks into flowering! I really haven't had any problems at all and honestly, this is going much much better than expected. Space is still a pretty big issue but I am doing what I can to keep the growth under the screen and the lights as low as possible for as long as possible to reduce stretch. I only have about 6 more inches of vertical space left in my grow cab so I have a feeling there may be some modifications coming down the road. Might consider going 12/12 from seed next time. Here is a shot of one of the smaller white widow buds!

subbed! Grow is looking good. what kind/wattage lights are you growing with?

I am running two 26 watt/ 1450 lumen bulbs. It seems to be working pretty well. I am definitely need to expand my grow cab a little.

hey how stinky are the northern lights and white widow plant? If you are not using a carbon filter can u smell them in your room?