Stonedsalmon's Indoor Soil Grow: Apricot Kush Auto, First Grow, First Journal, 2018

[stonedsalmon]

The strain is Apricot Kush Auto Flower X by Ancestral Seeds it's a Hybrid early strain. They are regular seeds.

My setup:
3x1.5x5 Tent
3 Gallon Pots
4" inline fan and carbon filter
2 LED Lights (Mars 300, Mars 600)
Humidifier
Clip on Fan
Nutrients - General Hydroponics Flora Grow,Micro,Bloom

I'm hoping for 2-3 females and popped 5 seeds initially, in hindsight fem'd seeds might have worked better due to space constraints of my tent but it is what it is. If I end up with more than I can handle I have willing friends to take any extras. To start I germinated the seeds using the paper towel method and once they popped and showed the taproots I placed them into jiffy peat pellets and put them into their 3 gallon pots. Plants are currently about 2 weeks old after breaking soil. They received their first 1/4 dose of nutrients at around 12 days old and i'm watering about every 3rd day. I've been maintaining a RH of 55-60% and temperatures of 21-24c with the aid of the humidifier. For the seedling stage i've only been using the Mars 300 light but I have the 600 ready to use also. I'm pleased with my results so far but worried I'm not getting enough vertical growth yet (maybe it's yet to come). I'm considering LST without topping to maximize space/yield but apprehensive as it's my first grow! Support definitely welcomed!

Pictures taken today:

This picture shows my space constraints (though I can put the pots two deep now I'm guessing this won't be optimal once flowering etc)

Horizontal Growth

Vertical Growth

 

[Troy01]

Subbed up. Good luck with the grow.

 

[Bonsaiweed]

Welcome to the forum

Looking good so far.

Hope you get around to other members journals, talk and ask questions.

These are great people, and most don't bite.....hard.....

 

[stonedsalmon]

Subbed up. Good luck with the grow.

Thanks for checking in!

Welcome to the forum

Looking good so far.

Hope you get around to other members journals, talk and ask questions.

These are great people, and most don't bite.....hard.....

Thanks I appreciate the welcome!

 

[stonedsalmon]

Last photos were at 16 days from breaking soil today is day 22 I've used the same plant as a reference pic. Some of the others aren't quite as strong. I have what I believe is burn from spraying the leaves (I realized this was a mistake). It seems to be recovering though (I'm still learning). Growth seems a little slow to me but i'm no expert.

 

[Old Salt]

It's an autoflower, so topping isn't recommended. How high does the plant get? Are you going to have enough height in your tent for it? A five foot tall tent has only 30-36" available for the plant once you take into account the pots, and room required for the lights/filter.

 

[stonedsalmon]

I really hope so, from what I'd seen of autos prior to ordering the tent I thought it'd be OK for 2 plants. I was hoping some LST might help would you recommend it? I had my eye on the Crow Royale also how big will those plants get?

 

[Old Salt]

I've stayed away from autoflowering plants. You have more control over photoperiod plants.

The CKS Crown Royale will easily top three feet, if left alone. Even with topping and LST, several of my colas topped three feet.

 

[stonedsalmon]

yeah, combined with the regular seeds (having to buy soil and pots for males) I probably I would have been better off with fem'd photo seeds. 5 feet is the maximum vertical space I will ever have to work with though (until I change apartments). Autos are generally smaller than photos though right?

 

[stonedsalmon]

The plant I've been using for photos has some new growth, I tried to get closer in with my DSLR and it might be too zoomed out but i'm thinking these are looking like man parts?

 

[stonedsalmon]

More clusters of grapes on the plant i've been photographing for this thread. Hopefully someone can confirm from these images for me that the plant is male.

Also I've been struggling with what I believed was a PH issue or perhaps overwatering the growth on some of my other plants has been very very slow and the leafs tips were dying. They seemed to be bouncing back but now I'm noticing what looks like little gaps between the serrations on new leaves.

Here a picture of the worst affected one: (Warning unhappy looking plant )

 

[TurboBucket]

Yes that's a male. I'm not sure why it started flowering so early though.

 

[stonedsalmon]

Yes that's a male. I'm not sure why it started flowering so early though.

I was expecting pre flowers around 4-5 weeks in as it's an auto or was that information incorrect?

 

[Bonsaiweed]

I was expecting pre flowers around 4-5 weeks in as it's an auto or was that information incorrect?

Autos can flower very early. I had preflowers at 21 days.

 

[TurboBucket]

Not sure. I'm trying my first run of autos right now and they are 4weeks old with no signs of flowers yet

 

[stonedsalmon]

Autos can flower very early. I had preflowers at 18 days.

All my growth has been pretty slow unfortunately and I'm fairly certain no one has grown this strain for comparison sake (at least that I could find).

 

[stonedsalmon]

Not sure. I'm trying my first run of autos right now and they are 4weeks old with no signs of flowers yet

Just had a quick peek at your thread, your plants look great (much healthier than mine at the same age). I'm kicking myself for not using fabric pots as I think a lot of my issues are down to poor water drainage from the soil.

 

[TurboBucket]

They do look a little moist. Getting a good root system built up early is key. The first few weeks are where I tend to end up being the hardest on plants so dang impatient.. I end up trying to down them

 

[stonedsalmon]

They do look a little moist. Getting a good root system built up early is key. The first few weeks are where I tend to end up being the hardest on plants so dang impatient.. I end up trying to down them

I ended up cracking some bag seeds I found recently and they've grown more in 4 days than these did in over a week. I wonder if I can improve my soil quality and drainage without stressing the plants out any more?

 

[TurboBucket]

With a photo I'd say yes, but autos don't like having their roots disturbed. You could add more drain holes to the container and keep the bottom elevated with a plant riser or saucer full of rocks.