Worried Noob, Seeking Advice 2 Weeks into First Grow

Hey all, I've been lurking here for a while and finally decided to start a grow of my own. I'm about 2 weeks in and happy with the progress, but a little concerned with my plant the last couple days. Depending on how things go, I might start up a journal on here soon. Anyway, here's some info about the grow:

Strain: Northern Lights Auto (just growing one plant for now)
Medium: Soil (generic potting mix, no added nutrients) mixed with Perlite
Lights: CFLs (1 27w 5500k right now) running 24/0

Anyway, here's the plant:



As you can see, it's lighter around the edges and along the veins on some of the leaves. The leaves are curling upwards ever so slightly. I noticed the lightening of the leaves 3-4 days ago and the curling appeared this morning after watering last night (just using reverse osmosis water from the grocery store).

I'm a complete noob and after doing research (read all the stickies in the plant hospital), my conclusion is that it's probably heat stress. When it sprouted, I put the light just a few inches above the plant and kept it there until this morning when i raised it about a foot. Temperatures were 80-82F at soil level before I raised the lights and 76-77F after. I'm sure it's a bit hotter at the top of the plant. Humidity is always 45-47%.

Anyway, just looking for some reassurance that I'm on the right track. I know I'm probably completely overreacting like many first-time growers, but I'd rather be safe than sorry. Plus, can't learn much if you don't ask questions. Thanks to all who take the time to help out us noobs and first-time growers!

If you aren't feeding her yet you need to start. That's the easy answer. Also you might wanna try 20/4 or 18/6, they need a little time to slow down, especially if it's a nirvana northern lights, they tend to like to have a little darkness. Very few people will run autos successfully at 24/0, it's a lot of stress on the plant.

If you are feeding then tell me what and how much and we'll go from there.

Thanks for the advice cranker. I'll bring it down to 18/6. I haven't started feeding yet and when i first saw the light spots appearing I thought maybe it was a nutrient deficiency, but the upwards curling confused me because it didn't seem to match the pictures I was looking at of the various deficiencies.

I was planning to start feeding Sunday anyway, so I think I'll just start a couple days earlier. I was planning on picking up some all-purpose plant food and starting out with small amounts.

Do you know if the leaf curling had any connection to the fact that I watered her or is it purely coincidence?

The leaf curlage most likely has to do with the heat issue, but you now have that resolveD! happy growing

Just use a 100 w cfl and keep it about 5-6 inches away. Works well for me when raising babies. Nutes are def. needed a this point, even at 10 days.

Thanks for the feedback guys. She's looking about the same after 24 hours if not slightly better, so I'm more confident now that the light was causing the stress.

I bought some food and a timer on my way home from work today so I can get her started on 18/6 and some nutrients

Well, it's been 4 days now and I think she's looking good. No new problems, although some of the leaves are still a bit curled. The discoloration on the leaves hasn't gone away (I read that it probably won't), but new growth looks good. She sure has grown a lot since I fed her 3 nights ago

Here's some pictures:

mine doesnt grow that fast and i keep it 24/0 and 7-8 hours of that 24 is in direct sunlight

Yea, I hear ya man. It definitely seems like growth comes in bursts, which I guess makes sense because she gets water in bursts too.

One thing I'm noticing is that it's difficult to tell if things that I do have a direct affect on the plants. I'm keeping this grow as simple as I can, but it still seems like there's so many factors at play.