So here we go: This is my first run in coco Auto AK47 from marijuana-seeds.nl 3 gallon felt pots these seeds are about 2.5 years old, and barely germed 600w veg MH, flower HPS cocotek ~ coir 65% perlite 35% Ironhead's formula (http://forum.grasscity.com/coco-coir/1371748-ironh...) daytime temps between 70-80F night time temps between 65-70F RH between 40-60% Getting 16 hours light, to be bumped up to 18 once they're bigger. Was planning on mainlining the Seedsman White Widow and Special Kush #1. Thanks for stopping by, we should have some fun!
I guess I got an update here. 6ml micro 9ml bloom 1g epsom 5ml hygrozyme .5ml roots excelurator On Wednesday they get florakleen. This is the recipe followed up until the final stretch is done, at which point I will trade the roots excelurator for floralicious plus at .5ml. In flower they will get florakleen two times a week. I'm now using just de-chlorinated tap water. I have an airpump and stone, bubble for at least 24 hours before watering. After the nute mix I double check pH and ppm, but NEVER need to adjust anything. it works out perfect. I will use the VAM for transplanting, although the autos are in their forever pots. Ironhead is a pretty cool dude, his method has a great track record, so YOU ALL should follow him. http://forum.grasscity.com/coco-coir/1371748-ironheads-method-success.html In the tray, left we have White Widow, right is Special Kush #1. These are getting bottom fed only. They are both 4 days in from being placed in coco. The 4 auto AK47 are looking a little better. I am in the process of getting trays to place them in. Anyways, I guess the worst part of growing is the waiting, lol. I'm pretty excited though. Gonna have a good 2-3 months veg time on the WW and Kush, I'm thinking right now of using 15 gallon smart pots for them. Try to fill up the 4'x4' tent with both. Still planning on mainlining them.
Looks like you got a great setup for those plants to thrive. I plan to run auto's next time, gonna start them right off in the final pot as well, looks good so far, hopefully you can get your nutes dialed in to where you like it.
Lol yeah. I'll LST these autos to get better light to the lower buds, but other than that, they don't get touched. Autos need to be put straight into their forever homes. They are fun to grow, just don't end up with monster crops. They're good for a sea of green. Given the right conditions and all that, you could get up to 2, even 3 zips a plant... I like to keep a goal of just one zip, better than getting hopes up. There are a lot of auto strains out there too, some are finished in 60 days, some take up to 100 days, some yield better than others. Summer before last I pulled like, just under 20 g's off an auto ak47 outside in ffof in a gallon milk jug with the top part cut off, didn't even water it, mother nature kept it like it needed to be, not one deficiency either. These seeds were a bitch to get going, I don't know if it was because of their age, or me not remembering how they were before, or what, lol. But, they're green now so all systems are go! Lol!
I don't mind a long veg time, but when a auto can harvest within that timeframe, that's pretty appealing for trying new strains. So you'll have the WW and Kush in there vegging with the AK flowering for a bit?
Oh yeah, the WW and Kush will get at least a good 2.5 months veg... possibly 3 months. I'm gonna flower these autos under an HPS, so unless I get another light by then, the WW and Kush will get 1 - 1.5 months under the HPS, so I might take it back under the MH for 2 to 3 weeks after harvesting the Auto ak. I'm not sure yet whether I want to mainline to 8 or 16, obviously yield maximization is the goal, lol.
Have you seen this grow? http://www.growweedeasy.com/600w-dwc-cannabis-grow-journal Depends if you want big or medium colas, lol. I thought about 16 as well, but indoors and in a small area I think light/air will penetrate 8 a lot better. Plus I can't get over the possible chance of those massive bottle sized colas everywhere.
Oh yeah, that was one of the ones that convinced me to mainline. I'd be the happiest bastard on the face of this earth if I could pull that, haha. Probably just end up doing 8, and getting those around 12-16 inches each before flipping the lights.
So far so good. Just got their first dose of Florakleen tonight (or should I say 'this morning' lol). Some official numbers to throw up Auto AK-47 was placed in coco (from taproot showing) : 5/24 @ 4:40pm White Widow & Special Kush #1 was placed in coco(from taproot showing) : 6/3 @ 11:24pm I guess everything is looking good so far. Got one lil straggler tagging along, hopefully it will amount to SOMETHING at least. Two looking good, one a lil small. I guess the WW and Kush are coming along okay. They're being bottom fed. The coco soaks up what it needs and is keeping them happy. I might do a complete water change on them before the weekend. I don't know if maybe I should have packed the coco/perlite into the pots before popping the seeds in, because the plants want to move around when given water... I hope it's just because of their size. No pH-ing is done with this method of growing, but for the heck of it I checked the pH of my de-chlor tap water w/just florakleen and it came out to 7.13.... I've asked the creator of this method if we ever pH any feeding ever, and the response is never... and taking into consideration the amazing plants he grows, I won't question it, and just follow along as instructed. I cleaned the cool tube up today also.
Not any real reason to update this other to show growth... that and I like the HD pictures, lol. Almost ready to LST a couple of the AK's, want the lower growth tips to grow out a little more first. F@#%ing storms here right now so I really hope the damn electricity stays on. Also have some 14 inch trays that should be here by tomorrow to put the pots in so they can drink up the ~10% runoff they get when being fed. Starting to smell great in there! I guess they don't look too too bad for about 3 days shy of 3 weeks since being placed in the coco.
Looking great for ~18 days. I want to re-do my drainage system too, got a link to the trays you bought?
Hey thanks man, the trays are http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008XOSHR8?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s01 I chose them because they are plenty big enough around, my 3 gallon fabric pots will fit good, and so will 5-7 gallon buckets, and they are 2.2" deep so plenty of space. Also figure I'll find something else to use them for too besides just growing, lol. The biggest thing was, in this method of growing, the plants are supposed to be allowed to sit in their runoff, as they will soak it up as needed. Coco holds a lot of water, but being cut 50/50 with perlite cuts that down a bit. The dude who perfected this method of growing said that when he waters his 20 gallon smart pots, they get a whole gallon of water, and that's right around the perfect amount for him to get ~10% runoff.
Alright, so we have an update. 3 weeks on the dot for these Auto AK-47 today. Two of them have been LST-ed today. It is looking like we already have some nice lower growth tips started, so let's reroute some auxins and really make them explode. I'm assuming being 21 days in from being placed in coco, we are looking at at least 60 days more, minimum... and as we all know, growth is pretty much an exponential function up to a point, so my hopes are rising for these 2+ year old seeds. For anyone reading this journal, I'm tellin you guys, if you grow in coco, or are curious about it, check out this dude's method: http://forum.grasscity.com/coco-coir/1371748-ironheads-method-success.html?p=21695999 I've read a lot about people watching ppm's, and going half doses on nutes la la la, but lemme tell ya, this is the SAME mixture throughout the ENTIRE process, NO pH-ing is needed, and using only de-chlored tap water. I'm getting a pH of 5.96 literally every time I mix these nutes! I don't know if my ppm meter might be off because of being calibrated for something around 349 I believe, but I'm getting readings of just over 900 (my tap water is just over 200 alone), and as you can see, NO burning or anything, the freaking plants are obviously loving it! ...because as we know, coco is inert, so the only good stuff the plants are getting is what I give them.
They look healthy as a horse. Speaking of Ironhead, I was just contemplating switching to coco for my next veg run, lol. Do you do anything special to mix your nutes or just all in and stir it up.
Nah, nothing special. I have a brita filter on my tap, I run the water through it when i get it, then i put it in a bucket with a bubbler and run it for a day. Once it's time to water I add in the micro first, then bloom, then epsom, hygrozyme and roots excelurator, and stir it up. To be honest I'm not sure why I do it that way, haha, I feel like i might have read somewhere to add the micro first then bloom, but I cant even remember. I just know that nutes should only ever be mixed into the water, never with each other, and that they should only be mixed in right before watering. Other than that, I'm not real sure lol. But dude, if you get a chance, look through Ironhead's Method, which it the link up there, and then theres over 1100 pages of his perpetual dream room here: http://forum.grasscity.com/indoor-grow-journals/1200596-ironheads-perpetual-dream-room.html I can't even remember how I initially found him, whether it was looking through the coco threads, or whether it was his soil vs coco test, where coco literally cleaned house. This is the comparison thread: http://forum.grasscity.com/indoor-medical-marijuana-growing/1274192-water-only-soil-vs-h3ad-formula-comparison-grow.html This dude grows some absolutely killer stuff.
Simple things like not mixing nutes directly together isn't something you'd think twice about normally. That comparison says it all. I wonder where I stand in FFOF and biothrive bloom every other feeding, probably barely above the amended soil he used. I think i'm gonna try coco next . Gonna be interesting to watch your grow, I noticed the coco grows tend to stay lush green a lot more than soil grows, even mine turned yellow on me and did some random things along the way in ffof.
I think in the coco, it's all about the CEC (cation exchange capability). It's able to hold on to all the good stuff the plant wants (in the proper proportions that is) and instantly make them available to the roots. It's literally hydroponic growing, but in a soil-esque kind of way. I believe that problems are solved easier and quicker in coco. I think the coco might be a little more stable to rapid swings in pH also, but am not sure about that. I've had some killer results in the past with just FFOF and mother nature watering them, I'm sure that as long as your rhizosphere stays healthy, the plants will thrive. I think two of the big things of the Ironhead method are the use of the florakleen often, and the hygrozime (barley based cleaner) with feedings... it keeps the medium clean, and dead stuff, eaten up and digested I guess? Whatever it is, it works haha. I'm excited for ya to make the switch... I bet you'll never go back! lol (well, other than experimenting of course haha) ***I also forgot to add... unless you are growing in a bucket with zero drainage, it's almost impossible to over water coco, it holds on to the perfect amount of moisture.
Useless post's are what its all about, look at those tops already coming up. Thats gotta help especially when you reuse the same coco over and over.
Well fucking terrific, I fucked up. I guess I was overzealous in training these autos, and I broke a stem. It didn't look even half broke though, and I taped it up immediately. I guess I didn't see what I was doing... one of the wires kind of slipped and i guess that's when it happened. I guess the good news is, there are at lease 4 nice looking growth tips below the break. The other one I had tied over, I tied it down a little more and it seems okay. The other two I want to get bigger before I tie them over, I'd just prefer not to fuck them up, lol. It's really shitty trying to train them in the fabric pots, there's nothing great to tie stuff too... unless you use pins and all that. I think on the WW and Special Kush, I'm going to drill a lot of holes in 5 gallon buckets and put them in those.... I like the height to width ratio in those also, so hopefully they will be big enough to give nice big yields. Come to think of it, I might need to say F it and get some 10-15 gallon smart pots. I made a ring of wire ties around the pots to create a place to attach wire... maybe I just need to get some better supplies, as I am after all, just using things I have around to train these.