2blgl's First Grow Afghani Kush - Skunk & Northern Light - Big Bud

[2BLgL]

re: 2blgl's First Grow Afghni Kush/Skunk and Northern Light/Big Bud

Hello All
Changed my res last night. After change PH was 6.0 and PPM was 430. Used 1/3rd recommended strength on the nutes and added recommended of Orca and Hydroguard. Tonight PH was at 5.9 and PPM was 425. Still getting noticeable growth every time I check them, which is when I get up and at 6 pm when lights come on. I will be topping the AKxS tomorrow nigh after I do more reading to make sure I dont F-IT-UP because if it can be done wrong I the guy to do it unless I study first. Now some pictures for your viewing pleasure.

The AKxS

The New Northern

Undergrowth on the New Northern

 

[Greenthumb J]

re: 2blgl's First Grow Afghni Kush/Skunk and Northern Light/Big Bud

Looking great buddy!!


A tip on "tipping", so you can save some time reading

Both of your plants are ready to be "tipped"

To do this, spread apart the uppermost growth to find the terminal shoot (leading growth)

Grab it between your fingers and bend it over until it snaps off.

Congratulations you have successfully "Tipped" your plant. Its that easy. No need to fumble around with scissors or tweezers or whatever.

 

[2BLgL]

re: 2blgl's First Grow Afghni Kush/Skunk and Northern Light/Big Bud

Looking great buddy!!


A tip on "tipping", so you can save some time reading

Both of your plants are ready to be "tipped"

To do this, spread apart the uppermost growth to find the terminal shoot (leading growth)

Grab it between your fingers and bend it over until it snaps off.

Congratulations you have successfully "Tipped" your plant. Its that easy. No need to fumble around with scissors or tweezers or whatever.

Thanks Green, topped the girls this weekend and new tops already starting to grow. Stems are starting to look like small tree trunks. Had to top off the res this weekend not only are they drinking water but the PPM is dropping and that tells me they are taking up nutes also. PH stays fairly steady at 6.0 to 6.2, once a week i'll drop 3 or 4 drops of ph down in just to bring it back down to 5.8 and let it go back up till next res change. Been reading alot of pruning and defoliating posts so I clipped some of the biggest fan leaves and noticed good growth on the once hidden branches right away now that they are getting some light.

Question on changing the reservoir, does it really need to be changed out or can I just top it up with water and add my nute mix as needed? sort of doesnt make sense to keep throwing good water down the drain when I can just re-fortify it.

now for the latest pictures.

The AK

The AK with it's new tops

The new Northern

The new Northern and its new tops

 

[Greenthumb J]

re: 2blgl's First Grow Afghni Kush/Skunk and Northern Light/Big Bud

>>> Been reading alot of pruning and defoliating posts so I clipped some of the biggest fan leaves and noticed good growth on the once hidden branches right away now that they are getting some light.

There is little truth behind the fact that defoliation produces a better yield. It seems like its really all a matter of preference.

There is no reason to remove any leaves during vegetative phase. There are no BUD SITES in veg, so it doesn't matter too much that where you assume buds will grow, dont get lots of light. The lower branches that are blocked by the canopy may not be producing any energy for the plant, but they are STORING it for later when the plant uses up its reserve nutrients during flowering.

 

[Sphnx]

re: 2blgl's First Grow Afghni Kush/Skunk and Northern Light/Big Bud

Subbed! The ladies look amazing. They are gorgeous you are doing very well. I tried hydro once, my roots got all brown and slimey from pulling them out of the container into the light for pictures.... Fatal error on my part.

 

[Greenthumb J]

re: 2blgl's First Grow Afghni Kush/Skunk and Northern Light/Big Bud

Subbed! The ladies look amazing. They are gorgeous you are doing very well. I tried hydro once, my roots got all brown and slimey from pulling them out of the container into the light for pictures.... Fatal error on my part.

Use Botanicare's Hydrguard next time along with some beneficial bacteria and you'll be golden!!

 

[Sphnx]

re: 2blgl's First Grow Afghni Kush/Skunk and Northern Light/Big Bud

I use just straight coco and hand water now. Much much much more effective for my caliber of grows. For a few plants it's awesome, it's incredibly hard to manage 40 of those containers.

 

[Greenthumb J]

re: 2blgl's First Grow Afghni Kush/Skunk and Northern Light/Big Bud

40? damn.. thats way too many..

do 4 in a set up like this, for a 1lb chonger every 2 months!!

 

[mrrobert420]

re: 2blgl's First Grow Afghni Kush/Skunk and Northern Light/Big Bud

great finish to that cabinet - great job!!! New journal invite

MrRobert420's LP Aeroponics - DWC - LED - SCROG - 2 Hindu Skunk

 

[2BLgL]

re: 2blgl's First Grow Afghni Kush/Skunk and Northern Light/Big Bud

Subbed! The ladies look amazing. They are gorgeous you are doing very well. I tried hydro once, my roots got all brown and slimey from pulling them out of the container into the light for pictures.... Fatal error on my part.

Thanks Sphnx, but I have to admit that Greenthumb has really been helping me with great advice. And he is right hydroguard is the shit, my res is pristine now that I use it on a regular basis.


@mrrobert420 thank you for the complement, on my way over to watch your next grow ......

@Greenthumb J, reading the article now, thanks as always, I didn't do a defoliation but just snipped a few fan leaves that were just huge and I can say that one plant each grew an inch in just two days and the other a 1/2 inch and the lower branches got noticeably bigger overnight. I have read a bunch of info on the subject and growers sure have strong feeling one way or the other. It just made sense to me that allowing some more light to the lower area wouldn't hurt.

Going to keep them in veg for at least two more weeks want the new northern to get to at least 6' before i switch over to flower. I have 4' of grow room height in this cabinet between the top of the res and the bottom of the light at it's highest so I sort of want them to get big.

 

[HunterHunt]

re: 2blgl's First Grow Afghni Kush/Skunk and Northern Light/Big Bud

Looking great 2BLgL!!!!!!!! To answer you reservoir changing question, You do not have to change the reservoir out. It is however a good idea to do it because as your plants take up nutrients you can see what PPM is in your reservoir but you CANNOT see which nutrients are making up that PPM. So as your PPM drops and you add more nutes your reservoir could be mostly Nitrogen nutes instead of the correct dosage because the plant has been taking up other nutrients dropping PPM. (Thats what happen to me). My last grow I got a nitrogen abundance and had to much Nitrogen. I also let my reservoir go for at least a month before changing lol... So as long as you do it every 2-3 weeks i would say you should be good. When dealing with a larger reservoir you dont have to worry that much. I had a 3 gallon reservoir and added nutes and water daily.

 

[2BLgL]

re: 2blgl's First Grow Afghni Kush/Skunk and Northern Light/Big Bud

Hello my Friends
Added nutrients last night, didnt change the res just added to it. PPM started out at 225 after adding the nutrients and waiting an hour for them to mix well it was at 790, PH was at 5.7. Tonight the PPM was down to 773 and PH was still at 5.7 but also noticed about 1/2 inch of water gone. The Northern looks very healthy but staying so short and tight while the AK at almost 8" with the new top growth. One more week of veg and I'm switching over to Flower.

Question, should I do a flush for a couple of days before switching to flower or just do a res change, the technaflora recipe for success formula just makes a couple of changes between the veg and flower mix replacing the BC Grow with BC Bloom and adding Awesome Blossom

now for the pictures

Afgan Kush X Skunk 10-02-14

Afgan Kush X Skunk 10-02-14 new top's

Northern Lights x Big Bud 10-02-14

Northern Lights x Big Bud 10-02-14 new top's

 

[stealthgrow]

re: 2blgl's First Grow Afghni Kush/Skunk and Northern Light/Big Bud

Hi 2Bl.

Your plants are looking great man, nice and bushy.

You don't need to flush your plants before flipping to flower, just follow the recipe and change up the nutes and lights. The final week of veg growth is usually a transition time and nutes are all 3 equal parts grow, micro, and bloom. First week of flower drop the grow nutes and up the bloom nutes.
Looking great, good luck with flower.

 

[Sphnx]

re: 2blgl's First Grow Afghni Kush/Skunk and Northern Light/Big Bud

Hi 2Bl.

Your plants are looking great man, nice and bushy.

You don't need to flush your plants before flipping to flower, just follow the recipe and change up the nutes and lights. The final week of veg growth is usually a transition time and nutes are all 3 equal parts grow, micro, and bloom. First week of flower drop the grow nutes and up the bloom nutes.
Looking great, good luck with flower.

Great advice, +reps!

 

[Greenthumb J]

re: 2blgl's First Grow Afghni Kush/Skunk and Northern Light/Big Bud

Stealth some good info, but if i may...

>>> First week of flower drop the grow nutes and up the bloom nutes.

Dont drop the Grow. Your new growth will come in yellow in colour, not lush green like they should. You still need N going into your plants during flower for the first 3 weeks, or they will pull all the N from the lower leaves and start to yellow off and die much too early and your buds forming will be neon green or bright yellow, looking like an Iron deficiency. This is what they are supposed to do at the END of flower, not at the beginning. After week 3, you can start to add less and less, till eventually in week 5 or 6 and on, you are adding NO Grow at all.

>>> You don't need to flush your plants before flipping to flower

You're right. In fact, you dont ever have to flush your plant unless you like to smoke fertilizers, or you are experiencing deficiencies (which you are not my friend, your plants are looking fabulous!)

But it is HIGHLY suggested to flush your media between transitional phases to remove salt build ups. All the big brands suggest to flush before switching to flower when reading their feeding schedules online.

I would even suggest flushing for 2-4 days every 2-3 weeks

It makes total sense tho. Its a totally new phase of growth for your plants. New hormones are being released to start the reproductive cycle, so why not flush out the growing medium so its as fresh as possible before adding a fresh batch of nutrients specifically for flowering.

>>> Looking great,

i couldn't agree more. 2blgl, your plants are looking amazing.

>>> hydroguard is the shit, my res is pristine now that I use it on a regular basis.

Hell yea buddy... +1 for that!


All in all, your grow is coming along very nicely!

Maybe i didn't pay attention earlier, how much vertical space do you have to flower in before plants are getting close to your light?

 

[2BLgL]

re: 2blgl's First Grow Afghni Kush/Skunk and Northern Light/Big Bud

Hello all

First thank you everyone for the nice complements, it sure makes you feel good to hear others say that something your doing and growing with your own hands is doing good.

Been sick for the last few days but yesterday evening because the res was low anyway I changed the res and started with the flowering nutes at half strength and changed my LED over to flower setting and changed the light schedule to 12/12. So if everything keeps going well in 60 days I should be able to catch my first buzz since last Easter when I quit smoking till I could harvest my own.

The AKxS is 12" tall now and the new Northern is at 6"

@GreenThumb my light at it highest level is 36" above the top of the res, so the AK has about 24" and the new Northern about 30"

Noticed that a few ( less than 6 ) fan leaves showing some very small rust brown spots will be keeping a close eye on this but not to concerned as of yet.

will get some new pictures in the next couple of days once I feel better.

 

[Sphnx]

re: 2blgl's First Grow Afghni Kush/Skunk and Northern Light/Big Bud

Hope you feel better!

 

[2BLgL]

re: 2blgl's First Grow Afghni Kush/Skunk and Northern Light/Big Bud

Good evening fellow enthusiasts

Each of the girls have grown an inch overnight. the root balls are massive. the AKxS is showing some brown spots have taken a picture, tested my PH tester and it is spot on and the res PH is 5.9 dont think I should mess with a reading in that range. Can the brown spots be cause by heat, cabinet got to 86 yesterday.

Now the pictures

The AKxS now over 12" tall

Brown Spots

The new Northern

 

[Sphnx]

re: 2blgl's First Grow Afghni Kush/Skunk and Northern Light/Big Bud

Looks beautiful!

 

[Greenthumb J]

re: 2blgl's First Grow Afghni Kush/Skunk and Northern Light/Big Bud

Do you foliar spray at all?