My Reader's Digest Condensed grow!

....an AK-47 hydro grow

Allright! My first post to the board!

Intro

I got into growing originally to help a friend who was dying of cancer. He had too little time to live to get the card and his doc kept dicking him around.

I was a nerdy tech stoner dude with a brown thumb. I had a better chance to build a computer than keep a plant alive.

My first grow only a single plant turned out to be female. She grew far better than I had a right to. My friend got to try the fruits of what we did a month before he died.

At that point I thought of stopping but couldn't. It was too freakin' fun. I kept learning, met a really experienced grower who taught me a lot. I think I do ok, I still have a lot to learn.

[Note: most photos in this grow can be viewed larger size by clicking]


The room.

I don't grow year round, it's a lowly walk-in closet the rest of the time.



A few details; I started with a couple months of research as I didn't know shit. I decided on hydro early on as it appealed to my inner nerd.

The closet was completely rewired before a single piece of equipment was put in (the one part I didn't do LOL). Then it was my turn. I think I bled more making that room than surgery I've had

Many ingredients are there, a switchable ballast (1000w MH/HPS) vented HID, second 306 cfm Ellicent, ,temp, air cleaner, heat and co2 controls (Co2 only in winter when outside air cools the room down too much).

Depending on the needs of the enviro I can add humdifier, dehumidifier, airconditioner and a radiator type heat system.

The mylar sections are labeled. I use industrial velcro on the back (the other side stays on the wall). We unroll and up she goes (if more details on room desired I can put in grow room post). These yo-yos to move the lights are worth a mention. I love these things!!



Here's the seedling chamber I use. I'll also show you a Home DePot C30 veg cab (125w fluoro, 10k lumen) for clones/tweeners (very easy to build, not pictured).



Well, let's close up and come back later. ~SirNugz

 

His Dark Materials ​

Like others starting in hydro, I started with commercial systems like waterfarms. I quickly got into building/modifying my own stuff.

I got tired of lifting a 5 foot mature plant and digging through sopping roots to get at a submersible. So I have been using an external pump system for around 2 years. There are grilles on the inside to (try and) keep the roots out (nylon mesh - not pictured - goes over the grille).



The hose system for flushing has been a godsend for my back. Here's how it works; hooks directly into the feeder line, then suctions out. Unhook the hose, reverse water flow, and fill up buckets (and res if you want). Flush, suction, hang up hose. Do the roots like it? .



Reef pump and airstones above and below complete the picture



Ok, enuf jawin! Let's get growin!

submitted respectfully,

SirNugz

 

Seeds, Germ, Veg​

I grow from seed. I know clones are more uniform, efficient, etc, but I like the diversity and the whole experience.



AK47 is one of the most diverse I've grown. Here's what I've read; It's a strain that's won an Indica cannibis cup (2003, 2nd) and a Sativa (1999, 2nd)! Nice read here: http://www.puresativa.com/article011.html

Ingredients: Germination - water and papertowels. Seedling - RapidRooter medium & Formulex (1/3 str right after pop). Veg - hydroton medium, Canna a/b veg, rhizotonic, superthrive. When root mass starts increasing, cannazyme.

PPM 250-500 w/ a base water PPM of <50. Canna is ph buffered so it's 5.8 pretty much no matter what you do (below 250 ppm you have to adjust).

Enviro I keep at 79-81 (except germination natch) with around a 40% humidity.

Veg was uneventful except I tried adding humic acid. This reminds me 'if it 'aint broke don't fix it'. I started at 1/4 str as I usually do when introducing something new.

Growth slowed dramatically. 2 days after flush and removal the rebound was obvious. A week later we were back on track and by the end of the month everything looked good (4 plants).




Some reading I did surprised me. Humic is leonardite which is lignite which is a soft coal. I could only find one study using it in agriculture (peppers, and appeared debatable). What I did come across was use as salvage in land based chemical/oil clean up in Iraq/Kuwait, etc.

I know people have reported success, friends of mine as well. The best I can figure is perhaps it messed with the buffered nutes of the canna? Not sure or tryin to stir up controversy, just reporting results. Comments on this please! I'm trying to keep an open mind but didn't work with the canna.

I did LST my first grow and liked it. It is a really great method. Now I just top selectively to build up budsites and keep the canopy even. I combine this with a training method you'll see in flower (next post).

It was flower where things got crazy.

yr. humble servant,

 

Wow. I threw down a home setup with stuff I've built and no one's interested?

Like it? Hate it? Whaddup?

 

Adam (love the 'tude) and Zerg Rush (ok you play Starcraft, that's awesome in my book LOL)

Thanks dudes for at least letting me know I'm alive LOL

I've grown for around 3 years. I built most of what I use mainly because it's cheaper and more fulfilling.

I have many many pics, but this is about the AK47 so I'll confine it to them. The AK turned out really interesting with some very different phenos (4 plants with 4 weeks of maturation difference between the earliest and latest).

My last AK is on flush now (sativa dominant) and as I pull them out I plop in clones.

The reason it's abbreviated is I'm moving from another forum. You know you couldn't even cuss over there? Not that I swear a lot but too uptight for me. I like the larger boards with many experts.

 

Flower Weeks 1-4​

(click pics for larger image)


Sexed at one week and got the good news, all females! Remaining pics at day 14, 21 and 26 (2 pics).



The budsites were increased with a topping program I start in veg. In flower I train using these punji sticks I made. I think scrog is more efficient although you can see I get pretty good bud spacing throughout. This is easier for me to unhook if I need to move a plant or get behind them.

I also use the stix to tie up the buds when they're becoming too top heavy

Day 33

I'd begun to notice differences between the plants that were increasing. Two would show signs of a nute overdose and the others would be happy. The configuration of buds, maturation rate, resin production were diverging.



It was here that I learned about the legacy of AK and its Sativa and Indica wins. That's when it clicked but it took awhile!

Sick Plant Challenge

Day 33 was also where one plant developed this problem. I'll have it diagnosed (sort of, I had it narrowed to two things), treated and resolved next post. Anyone care to take a stab at it?

History: Largest of the four plants. Liked nutes more than others but no previous deficiency. Started to appear day 27 or so after a period of rapid flower production.

Presentation: Newest leaves first, large older fan leaves were never affected. Interval chlorosis present, yellowing at base of leaf and progression to browning. Ph 5.8, water temp 60f, all other enviro equal. Getting Canna Flora A/B, biocanna, cannazyme @ 500ppm. Pk 13/14 started reently but problem already present, may be making it worse. Others not showing this. No infestation present (pic below).

Any other q's you think are relevant? Bud Pic Leaf Pic

Newb's who want a hint read this article. Very nice basics: http://www.gardenguides.com/how-to/tipstechniques/flowers/roses/yellowleaves2.asp

Clone Time!

I'd taken cuttings before sexing just in case I had too many males. Now I had an overabundance of females but I just couldn't chuck 'em (I would have flowered them right away but no room for all 6). Starting in the propogation chamber captain!



I use a method I was taught. It has produced 100% clone rate for me. It's unconventional but works! I didn't even know it was controversial until I posted 'the method'. I was told I would kill them for sure. I posted these day 11 pics and didn't hear a lot more of that heh heh...

Rapid Rooters are the shit!



I built about as lowtech a veg room as you can get. I was a little worried b/c it would have to work for 2 months while the rest were in flower. It's the old Overgrow Home DePot Cab bay-bay! I run a 125w 10k lumen fluoro, two fans, crack the door and done. Temps stable at 79-82 degrees. I ran these in a soilless mixture and handwatered once daily to begin, later twice.






submitted respectfully,

 

Hey Adam, Squonk Necro Zerg... G' mornin m8s

Adam.... I checked out your journal and posted a thought or twenty.

BTW, If you're want an easy way to change water n' stuff check my second post about the hose I use. I'm not sure it's adaptable to your system. I don't lift my plants unless there's a problem.

Heh heh... yeah, for the purpose of vegging the height is overkill. If you slapped a couple of side lights you could do fluoro all the way (or convert to vented 400w HID) then it would be useful.

If you like those roots check out the root porn I entered in this month's photo contest. The Kali Mist pic is also one of mine.

Hey squonk, the nice thing about this site is there is such a wide range of experience. I consider myself about an intermediate grower but still have so much to learn. I've already seen some examples of grows that are incredible. There are some inventors (rumpleforeskin) that have some really sweet setups. I love it that I can learn something here.

 

You beat me to it, I've already seen the awesome Postman pics and benefitted from guys like Chimera (solid fundamentals) and Dier Wolf (I love Dier's experimentation with lights, thinking outside the box stuff).

I went and checked out Dr. Buggreenjean's 3oz challenge. That's sick! I'm definitely going to enter with my own lil soilless mix next time hee hee.

Augustwest looks really cool. I haven't read much of his thread, but the early Indy dominant AK really keeps me in my chair so I'm sure I will heh heh.

Anyone have an idea of that nute deficiency yet?

 

Necro... RE: clones. OK, ayi, but I'll do it on a separate post. It is very different than other techniques. I have no idea where this dude who taught me got it from.

Basically it involves super high humidity, lots of water, it's called the 'Water Column Method' and I love it. I have done 3 sets of clones and gotten 100% with abundant fat roots around 10 days. You'll need a mini enviro but I'll show you how (under 10$).

I am sure many people have their techs that work (like germination). Like others I stay with what's worked for me (why change at 100%?). It is not the only way! Just one way.

I use a propagation chamber because it's very cheap to run and you want to keep 'em out of the HID early on.

Zerg - Funny you should ask! I never weighed a grow until this one. When a single grow can give you more herb than you can smoke in every waking minute for a year (including giveaways , major smokeouts, etc) it's like, who cares? .

[NOTE: So's not to give up the finale, these pics are NOT Ak but Kali Mist, my favorite strain]

I'm not a top yielder but I've fulfilled my dream to grow buds "big as baseball bats"

Detail. Somewhat larfed for photo..

[now back to grow already in progress]

But I wondered about weight myself, so for once I'm gonna get a final on the manicured nugz after dry and a week of cure (app 2 weeks). The flavor is not set, but the weight is (at least how I do it). I have a total on the first three plants, but my last plant is only halfway thru flush so it'll be two and a half weeks . I'll have you dudes up to speed in the next few posts.

Then we can all join hands, sing kumbaya and finish dis mudda fukka together!

I'll get into weight, composition of the nugz, smoke report, etc during cure. I guess you'll just have to follow along to find out... heh heh heh...

 

Flower and first Harvests Day 40-62*​

*except final weight of buds - included for clarity.

Hey gang! Well we'll be almost caught by the end of this post, then we can finish this out together.

Day 40

Ok, no one has a guess on that nute deficit? Ok, big hint, I foliar fed the 'big bud' for a week with mineral matrix. Here's what happened:



My biggest regret is I let it get established before acting. I get a second chance with those clones tho.

The 'snowbud' (back right) was maturing very fast;

This pic shows the difference in phenos. The one on the right is just finishing flush as I write this. The one on the left I took down almost 4 weeks ago!



Day 47

At this point I was tying a few of the previously sick big buds up (second pic) [Key to pics: back right, back left, front left, front right last two pics]



Day 57 Harvest #1

Bythis time there was no denying two of them were done. They were flushed for a week with bananamana.

Here's the haul and a close up of a 'snowbud'. I'm def gonna try a few photos under UV next time, that looks tite (thanks Mr. Postman!)



Day 62 Harvest #2

Third plant down! This is the 'big bud' (back left) that had the nute deficiency. Also flushed with bananamana.

These ended up being very tite buds with most falling down as I untied 'em.



In the last pic you can see the jars of the first two. They were being aired (burped) regularly at that point.

I was curious how much weight was lost through the drying process. I tagged a bud and recorded weights at day 0 (cut), day 5 (jar) and day 14. Temp 70f and humidity 35-40%. Weights went like this: 25 gm, 7 gm, 5gm. I'm really excited to see how this cures out over the next few months. I don't go by weight, and don't recommend it (better to develop a feel and smell), but it was interesting to do as an experiment.

Final First Two (day 71)

Total Jar wt of 1st two, 331 gm or 11.8z's

The snowbud was really heavy, nugs are about 1/3 heavier than the others!

Smoke report (1st two): The snowbud is very tite and very crystally (I will take a closeup, just gotta set it up). The smell ranges from pine to cookies with the taste initally piney to earthy but the second is curing out nicely and becoming dense and perfumy. I just took a confimation bonghit dag!

Final Third (day 76)

I did about the same on this one. 161gm or 5.75oz

Clones!

The clones had been truckin along. It was a real learning experience to hand water. I quickly joined the 'overwatering' club (pic one and two). But by picking up the baskets each time I went in I slowly developed a feel for when they needed it. This was the best thing about 'low-techin'

I plugged these in as space developed. Third pic - the front two had been in for a week, the back one had just transferred from the veg room.



This was the first time I used anything but rapid rooters, but the soilless mix and netpot combo works fine. I can report no problems (clogging of filters, pumps or tubing) on 4 systems running it. But I'm getting ahead of myself LOL...

yr. humble servant,