Aerogarden Tutorial: Complete Auto AK47 Grow Journal

So you want to try growing pot in an Aerogarden and don't know where to start? Well, this grow journal is intended for the total newbie, and I have documented my experience (with pictures) from start to finish in as much detail as possible. I have tried to incorporate the feedback from hundreds of posts on Grasscity about Aerogarden grows, and I want to take this opportunity to thank the users of Grasscity for your kind comments and advice that made this my first successful grow!

According to Grasscity and other online forums, dozens of people have had great success with this approach and are using it to grow their own personal supply on a small scale. It is cheap, self-contained, and simple, and you can easily grow your own supply year-round with little effort or cost. It also seems to be a great way to get started with hydroponics, not to mention a ton of fun!

Although Aerogardens are too small to grow most pot plants, Lowlife produces a number of autoflowering strains that are ideal for an Aerogarden grow. These strains do not grow very tall (only 12 – 18 inches) and flower automatically without the need to alter the light/day lighting schedule to produce buds as in most other strains. An excellent strain for beginners is the Autoflowering AK47 (‘Auto AK'), which will produce about 1 - 1.5 ounces (28 – 45 grams) of dank pot that packs quite a punch, but does not have a strong growing smell making it ideal for stealth grows. It is best for the beginner to grow a single feminized seed, as you can be sure that your seed will produce bud. Male plants do not produce bud and must be discarded unless you plan to use them for breeding. If you are not using feminized seeds, you can identify females by the white hair-like things, whereas males have grape-like clusters.
Here is what you will need:

Supplies
• Aerogarden VeggiePro ($180) or similar with 3 CFL grow lights in the lamp. Available online, ebay, or at Canadian Tire or Bed, Bath & Beyond retail stores.
• 4” rectangular airstone ($2) with air pump and tubing ($12), available at most pet supply stores.
• 3 1L bottles of Advanced Nutrients ‘Grow Micro Bloom' system of liquid nutrients (1L Grow is $12, 1L Micro is $18, 1L Bloom is $12, available at hydroponic shops)
• 2 1L bottles of Advanced Nutrients PH Up ($21) & PH Down ($21), and eye dropper ($3)
• Graduated syringe for measuring liquid nutrients ($2 at local drugstore or pharmacy)
• One autoflowering AK47 feminized seed ($18), available though many online distributers (I used SingleMarijuanaSeeds and was very happy with their service and speed of delivery)
• Approximately 15 gallons of distilled water ($35), available most cheaply at the pharmacy section of the grocery store ($2.19/gallon).
• Electronic PH Meter ($30), available on eBay (PH-600 is a cheap, reliable model) with buffer solution for storing the meter
• Small oscillating fan ($20), available at Wal-Mart
• Power bar ($10), available at Wal-Mart
• Aerogarden grow pods. If you are buying a new Aerogarden, you can just use the tomato seed kit that comes with it to grow your plant - just remove the tomato plant seed from the grow sponge and you are ready to go! If you buy a used Aerogarden, you can either buy any Aerogarden seed kit ($20) and remove the seeds, or you can buy the Master Gardener kit ($25) which includes 18 empty pod sponges (growing medium) and 6 pod baskets for you to use.

So, if you are starting from scratch, it will cost you about $400 to get everything you need brand new. Yes, that seems like a lot, but you will make most of that back with the money you save from your first crop, and then you'll be set up to produce your next crop at virtually no cost! You can also save a lot of money by getting supplies used on craiglist or kijiji. It's a lot of fun shopping for all of the supplies you will need

To give you a roadmap for what you will be doing, you will first germinate the seed and feed it nothing but distilled water for 2 weeks (or until it has a healthy set of leaves). Next you will begin adding nutrients weekly. The plant should flower (start growing buds) at about 4 weeks, and be ready for harvesting after about 9 weeks. That's basically it..but read on for more details!

 

Germinating your seed
• You should grow a maximum of 2 female plants in the Aerogarden at one time. It is preferable to have only 1 female plant plant as the roots will take up a lot of space in the reservoir. Because of the small space and limited light in an Aerogarden, 2 plants will produce about the same amount of bud as only 1 plant, so save your seeds and grow only 1 plant at a time!
• Germinate the seed by first soaking overnight in a glass of distilled water. Then you can do one of 2 things: put the seed in a warm, dark place in a moistened paper towel until the tap root pops out of the seed (24 - 72 hours), just plant the seed in the pod and place an Aerogarden grow dome over the pod until the seedling germinates. I recommend the latter method, as one of my first seeds actually rotted in the moist towel before it would sprout, and you also risk breaking off the tap root when you transfer the seed from the towel to the grow pod.
• Once the tap root pops out, squeeze the Aerogarden sponge (growing medium) in distilled water first to absorb some water and avoid airlock. You should cut the sponge almost in half vertically down the middle to provide the seed with a clear root path down to the water, otherwise the seed may struggle harder than necessary to get through the growing medium to reach the water. It's kind of like a hotdog bun though…don't cut the sponge complete in 2 pieces, or your seed will just fall down inside! Cut the pod ‘almost' all the way through, but leave it hanging together a bit on one side (like a hotdog bun!)
• Next, very carefully place the seed in the sponge, just below the surface, with the tap root facing down. The seed will start to grow into the growing medium within 24 hours.
• Place a 4” airstone attached to the pump in the middle of the reservoir to provide adequate oxygenation of the reservoir. You can just feed it down through one of the empty pod holes and cover up the edges somehow, or install a small plastic valve in the side of your Aerogarden if you're really crafty. Personally, I drilled a small hole down through the top of one of the 6 Aerogarden Pod spacers that came with the unit and fed the tube down through that into the reservoir, which worked great.
• You will be using the 24-hour setting on the Aerogarden VeggiePro. Some people recommend 18hours of light and 6 hours of darkness, but you will need a timer and a figure-8 power cord to get this going. I didn't see much point given that the plant will flower on it's own after the 4 weeks anyways, so the more light the better in my opinion.
• Use an Aerogarden dome initially to keep humidity high as the seedling gets started, but do not let it touch the top of the dome! Remove the dome before this happens.
• Make sure that all of the other empty Pod holes in your aerogarden are covered at all times so that light cannot penetrate through to the reservoir, which will cause bacteria and algae to grow (BAD). There are a number of ways to do this, but the simplest way is to place clean golf-balls in the empty pod holes! You can also use Pod Spacers that are available for the Aerogarden.
• Once the seedling has grown 1 – 2 cm out of the sponge, carefully slide the seedling down so that the leaves are just above the surface of the sponge. This will give the plant a head-start on getting the root system down into the reservoir, and will also help you to avoid growing a weak, spindly, reachy seedling.

 

Growing
• Top up the reservoir with distilled room-temperature water daily. Always fill to above the Fill line to ensure that your plant never runs low on water. The temperature of the reservoir should be no lower than 68 F (20 C).
• Completely empty and replenish the Aerogarden reservoir once per week with fresh distilled water and nutrients. DO NOT simply add more nutrients to the reservoir each week as your plant may end up with nutrient burn. Use only distilled water (with no added nutrients) for the first 2 weeks, or until the plant has a solid set of true leaves.
• The reservoir PH should be kept between 5.5 – 5.7 using PH Up or PH Down solution. It’s best to set the PH when you are doing your weekly empty/replenishment of the reservoir (see below).
• Always have an oscillating fan on your plant to ensure that it grows strong. Not strong enough to hammer the plant, but enough to make it move a little bit. This is important or your plant won’t grow strong enough to hold itself up, much less your big sticky buds!
• The Aerogarden hood should be adjusted regularly so that the lights are 1 – 2” above the tallest part of the plant. Any closer, and you risk burning the leaves that actually touch the light, and any further away and you will produce a plant that is weak and splindly as it tries unsuccessfully to stretch towards the light.
• At week 2, begin adding nutrients (see below). There is a nutrient schedule at the Advanced Nutrients website, which tells you how much of each nutrient to use, but it should go something like this:
• Start of 1st Week (Germination) (Day 1, Apr 10) – 0 nutrients
• Start of 2nd Week (Day 7, Apr 17) – 0 nutrients
• Start of 3rd Week (Day 14, Apr 24) – 1.7ml each of Grow, Micro, and Bloom
• Start of 4th Week (Day 21, Apr 30) – 2.3ml each of Grow, Micro, and Bloom
• Start of 5th Week (Day 28, May 7) – 2.5ml each of Grow, Micro, and Bloom
• Start of 6th Week (Day 35, May 16)– 2.9ml each of Grow, Micro, and Bloom
• Start of 7th Week (Day 42, May 22)– 2.4 ml each of Grow, Micro, and Bloom (I accidentally added 5.4ml of each instead which caused nutrient burn)
• Start of 8th Week (Day 49, May 29)– 2.1 ml each of Grow, Micro, and Bloom (instead I added 3ml Grow, 3ml Micro, and 4.4ml Bloom as per the Advanced Nutrients flyer I got from the hydroponics shop)
• Start of 9th Week (Day 56, June 5 )– No nutrients (I added 1.6ml Grow, 1.6ml Micro, and 2.2ml Bloom as per the Advanced Nutrients flyer from the hydroponics shop)
• Start of 10th Week (Day 63, June 12) – No nutrients
• Start of 11th Week (Day 70, June 19) – No nutrients
• End of 11th Week (Day 77, June 26) –No nutrients
• End of 12th Week (Day 84, July 3) – Harvest!
• At end of 9th week, I began flushing the plant, meaning no longer adding nutrients to the reservior, just distilled water. The plant still wasn’t finished by the 10th or 11th week, so I let it keep growing.
• During the middle of the 12th week, I completely emptied the reservoir to cut off water and stress the plant for 48 hours. This was supposed to produce more resin, but it just made my plant wilt like crazy, so I filled the reservoir again for another 24 hours before harvesting!
• Mature plants may turn yellow towards the end of the grow cycle, this is normal.
• If you get white mold on your plant, put peroxide (full-strength) on a Q-tip and apply to kill it. Covering the mold with black electrical tape will block light and kill it as well.

 

Emptying and Replenishing the Reservoir
• For beginners, it is best to use Advanced Nutrients 3-Part liquid nutrient formula (Grow, Micro, Bloom). A 1 L bottle of each of Grow, Micro, and Bloom will last for dozens of AG grows. The schedule should be used at only ½ - ¾ strength however (I used ½ strength based on formula for Light Feeding in a 1 Gallon reservoir).
• Don't use Aerogarden nutes, people generally have poor results with them. If you must, however, only use 1/8 to ¼ Aerogarden nutrients at most, or they will burn your plant.
• Advanced nutrients should be used as follows:
o Measure out the correct amount of distilled water to fill the AG reservoir in a bowl (1 gallon)
o Add the appropriate amount of Micro nutrients for that week to the distilled water, mix, and wait 5 minutes.
o Add the Grow and Bloom nutrients to the distilled water, mix, and wait 10 more minutes.
o Test the PH and use PH up or PH down solution to adjust PH until it is between 5.5 – 5.7. The Advanced Nutrients PH Up/Down is extremely concentrated, so use only 1 drop at a time and wait a few minutes for the drop to mix evenly before testing the PH. I have found that just 1 drop can reduce the PH by about 0.5. Because the airstone will make the PH drop slightly, it's better to adjust PH to be on the high end of this range (ie. 5.7). Curling leaves on your plant usually indicates a PH problem.
• If you see nutrient burn (brown leaves), immediately empty the reservoir and fill with only distilled water. Do not add nutrients until the plant appears recovered.

 

Harvesting

• To know when your plant is ready, look at the crystals (trichs) on the bud with a magnifying glass. You will need at least 20x magnification, but preferably 30x or 60x as they are tough to see at only 20x. When some trichs begin to turn cloudy, which should be at about week 7 or 8, begin your flush. When the crystals are mostly cloudy, you are ready to cut your plant.
• More clear trichs will give you a head high, more cloudy trichs will give you a body high
• When ready to harvest, cut down your plant at the base. Pull off or cut off all of the fan leaves (big leaves with no bud on or near them). Get rid of them, as they have no THC.
• Trim the remaining leaves from around your buds, but keep the leaf bits for making hash or smoking leaf if you like. There were still plenty of trichs on my leaves (although not as much as on the buds, of course) so they should give you a buzz if you smoke'em.
• Dry the bud in an area with a little humidity, otherwise the bud will be harsh. When the stems snap rather than bending, take them down, cut off the buds, and store them in a jar to cure for 2 – 4 weeks by opening the jar daily and turning over your bud, then close the jar up again.
• Enjoy the experience of smoking your own home-grown pot!

 

Day 0
This is the day that I started soaking my automatic AK47 seed in water, and got my setup all ready. In the pictures you can see how I have set everything up. Pretty straightforward! After 24 hours, I put the seed in a warm place inside of a damp paper towel to germinate the seed.

 

Day 3
You can see how the taproot has now popped out and the seed is ready to be planted in the grow sponge about ¼ inch below the surface of the sponge. I am only using distilled water in the reservoir at this point (no nutrients).

 

Day 16
The plant definitely has a couple of sets of true leaves now, but it is TINY! I added a small amount of nutrients to the reservoir 2 days ago (see the schedule I used above).

 

Day 23
The plant has grown several sets of new leaves and is getting much bigger…cool!

 

Day 36
Wow, what a difference a few weeks can make! The plant now has a substantial root system and lots of leaves, and is about 6 inches tall. Also, I was away for a whole week and wasn't able to adjust the PH or top up the reservoir, and it doesn't appear to have hurt the plant at all, in fact I am impressed with the amount of growth during that one week!

 

Day 43
The plant has really taken off now, and I have started to adjust the Aerogarden light hood upwards every few days to avoid burning the plant. You can see the main cola starting to show some bud sites, which means that the plant is moving out of the vegetative growth phase and into blooming which will produce all of the bud sites.

 

Day 49
The plant is now getting quite stocky and solid, but I accidentally added a bit too many nutes which resulting in some nute burn as you can see in the photos. I also spent the afternoon moving everything to a stealth closet, which should work out pretty well. I should add that there is still almost no smell from the plant, which is another props to the auto AK47 for stealth grows.

 

Day 56
The plant is now getting quite large, and at 21 inches tall is nearly to the top of the Aerogarden grow hood. Even after 8 weeks, the buds are still quite immature with not many trichs, and the bud pistols (hairs) are still totally green.

 

Day 65
The plant is now a full 24 inches tall and is in danger of being burned by the lights in the Aerogarden, even at full extension of the hood. The root system is very healthy and massive as you can see, filling almost the entire reservoir. The plant's main root is also quite thick (about ¾ inch), long, and sturdy. This is a nice-looking plant! The fan leaves have also gotten quite large.

 

Day 71
The plant is now just over 24 inches tall, and I have had to rig something up to pull the main cola out from under the hood and off to the side to avoid burning the plant on the lights. The hood is at full extension now and the plant has stopped growing taller. Some leaves are starting to turn yellowish, and I have been pulling off the fan leaves that look dead or almost dead. You can see that the pistols (hairs) on the buds are starting to turn reddish or brown, but it will be a few more weeks before harvest time. There are also plenty of trichs now, but they are mostly still crystal-clear.

 

Day 84

Harvest Day!!! Well, I waited quite a while to harvest because the trichs were still crystal-clear until very recently. Now, many appear to be cloudy, and a very few appear to be a light amber color. More significantly, about 80% of the buds are now a reddish rust color which means this plant is ready to be harvested. I took someone’s advice and emptied the reservoir for 2 days earlier this week, which is supposed to produce more resin, but the plant just basically wilted and looked like it was going to die, so I filled up the reservoir for another 24 hours and it came right back. I harvested the very next day.
Trimming the leaves was quite a learning experience, and though I am still not sure if I did a good job (take a look at the pics and please give me some feedback), it took about an hour to trim the plant. I did it in 3 stages: first by cutting off all of the branches, then trimming all of the big fan leaves off and getting rid of them, then finally trimming the leaves in close to the bud on each branch before hanging up the stalks and spreading out the trim (on screens) to dry. I used paperclips inserted through the branches to hang the bud. I also broke down and smoked one of the damp buds and got totally ripped, so this AK47 has some kick to it!!!

Final dry yield for this 24" Auto AK47 was 8 grams bud and 4 grams of trichrome-encrusted leaf.

Smoke report: A nice, light body stone which is great for relaxation and as a sleep aid, without couch-lock. Doesn't fry your brain though, it's great for playing Call of Duty online!

Thanks to Grasscity and all the great people on here who are always willing to help! Please send me any comments, and please tell me where I could improve! I hope this grow journal helps newbies like me get started with this great adventure.

Peace,
somekindaguy