Zo's First Grow 5x5 - AK48 - Northern Lights - Aurora Indica - Nirvana Seeds - 2016

[Zogrowsgreen]

Re: Zo's First Grow 5x5 - AK48 - Northern Lights - Aurora Indica - Nirvana Seeds - 20

Still a great plant, but not as great as the next one will be.

Thanks, The harvest is going to be the end of Week 8, i dont want to risk 9 weeks either. Did Someone say next one ? great minds think alike my friend. It has already begun! ZCOG 2.0 and i have been working on a xcel spreadsheet to document important aspects of my grows, Not the first or the last to do this but i feel its important for anyone looking to analyze differences between grows and compare numbers / quality they create there own spreadsheet.. i still have many more things to add that havent came to mind yet but i will have a detailed record of every one of my grows, so instead of looking through an entire grow journal i have a quick data sheet.

 

[Zogrowsgreen]

Re: Zo's First Grow 5x5 - AK48 - Northern Lights - Aurora Indica - Nirvana Seeds - 20

Update 08/28
Day 53 Flower

I decided to do updates every 3 days to see the difference in photo comparison a little better. I will try to take shots from the same angle to give a good side by side. To my naked eye the buds seem to be swelling up still and still producing trichomes so in 3 days i will decide to chop or go 3 more days. Night time temps have been lowered to 61 F and daytime temp is 77-79. i also switched to 10 hours lights on / 14 hours lights off to signal daylight is getting shorter and fall is coming so they can pack on any last weight these last few days.

AK48

"Outside the cage"

"Inside the cage"

Northern Lights -

Aurora Indica -

 

[floatinspace]

Re: Zo's First Grow 5x5 - AK48 - Northern Lights - Aurora Indica - Nirvana Seeds - 20

Looks beautiful!

 

[Zogrowsgreen]

Re: Zo's First Grow 5x5 - AK48 - Northern Lights - Aurora Indica - Nirvana Seeds - 20

Update 08/31
Day 56 Flower

I'm going to start this update off by Giving Huge Reps to Mr. Krip, probably saved my harvest from losing 20-30% if not more. I had been following one of his journals and a few days ago i came across a soil/hydro ph range chart, I was following the "Three a light" feeding regimen which is based on soil so i was closer to the soil ph chart and not the hydro. i also hadn't been checking the runoff of my water only checking ph of what was going in (usually 6.2-6.5) My runoff for my AK, NL, and AI were 7.1 6.9 and 6.7 respectively. All 3 plants have been flushed to the proper ph range for hydro. Again, Thanks Krip.


The Garden -

AK48 -

This girl is ready to harvest any day now, Amber Trichs are much more visible now. I will let her go 7-9 more days

"Outside The Cage"

"Inside the cage"

Trichs

Northern Lights -
After Adjusting Ph this girl is beginning to recover, growth has definitely been stunted and after seeing my runoff i now see why. She will go for another 14 days, hopefully she swells up nicely

Aurora Indica - This Baby seems to be shooting out new pistils and has some more time to mature, Trichs mainly cloudy, no amber trichs yet. 7-14 more days

Finally filled in, Now time to swell up and Mature!

Different focus of the same cola. This girl should have

Trichs

Im really glad i listened to the Three A light Team. My Ak48 has swelled nicely since day 48. You will notice on the cola pictured you can still see the stem on day 48 and on day 56 you can no longer see it and the top seems to have swelled. Im sure another 7-9 days will add on some more weight.
Day 48

Same Cola Day 56

 

[Mr. Krip]

Re: Zo's First Grow 5x5 - AK48 - Northern Lights - Aurora Indica - Nirvana Seeds - 20

Great job, Brother! I'm very happy that you found my posts helpful!

 

[DankestBuds42]

Re: Zo's First Grow 5x5 - AK48 - Northern Lights - Aurora Indica - Nirvana Seeds - 20

Awesome looking garden you have there bud! Sorry to hear about the hermies. I'm a little nervous I might get some because my tent has a couple pin prick light leaks. Hopefully the thick sheets I hung over the tent work. Do you plan to make seeds at all? I want to try and cross breed and make feminized seeds down the road for sure. Really enjoy your high quality photos. It's like I'm looking at a magazine. Seems like your flowers are starting to finish up. Do you have any plans for a next grow? Also, what did you like/dislike about this grow? Excellent work though. Mad respect.

 

[Zogrowsgreen]

Re: Zo's First Grow 5x5 - AK48 - Northern Lights - Aurora Indica - Nirvana Seeds - 20

Update 09/03
Day 59 Flower

The Ladies seem to be in the final phase of there lives, all 3 plants are swelling and turning trichomes amber. The light schedule has been diminished 30 minutes everyday for the last week or so and is now at 9 hours on, 15 hours off ( a modification to technique known as gas lantern routine ) and harvest is planned for next friday, which will be Day 65 Flower.

AK48

"Outside the cage"

"Inside the cage"

Northern Lights -

Aurora Indica -

lower bud

Trichs

 

[Zogrowsgreen]

Re: Zo's First Grow 5x5 - AK48 - Northern Lights - Aurora Indica - Nirvana Seeds - 20

Awesome looking garden you have there bud! Sorry to hear about the hermies. I'm a little nervous I might get some because my tent has a couple pin prick light leaks. Hopefully the thick sheets I hung over the tent work. Do you plan to make seeds at all? I want to try and cross breed and make feminized seeds down the road for sure. Really enjoy your high quality photos. It's like I'm looking at a magazine. Seems like your flowers are starting to finish up. Do you have any plans for a next grow? Also, what did you like/dislike about this grow? Excellent work though. Mad respect.

Thanks for the compliments Dankestbuds, and surprisingly i'm not that mad about the whole situation. I'm a firm believer that each failure has a lesson to teach you; this was my first grow so looking back at my previous "goal" now it seems somewhat foolish that my goal was to grow a pound on my first attempt, rather than growing a seed successful to harvest. Once i took a step back and thought about it from this perspective that i shouldn't try to "run before walking" by setting unrealistic goals so to speak i became much more relieved about the circumstances. The way i look at it now is If i harvest 1 gram , Its successful in my opinion because this was one of the greatest learning experiences in my life and the knowledge i gained from this "Training/learning curve" grow will never be forgotten and will only push me to strive for excellence in all of my future grows. I have not decided on what i am going to do with the seeds because i still have 4 fem seeds of AK and 4 of AI ( I know the phenos may be different ) but as far as the seeds in my plants i'm not sure of what the genetics would be, for example if the ak48 turned herm first through self pollination then pollinated aurora indica i would have ak x ai, what about if the ak/ aurora plant was pollinated by a male plant from an outside source, what if both self pollinated from the light leak? I can't pin down a direct answer but i may grow the seeds out in the future to see what types of phenos i get, it would be nice to have a AK48 x Aurora Indica cross, these were my 2 strongest plants. As far as Breeding, Yes this is something i look at doing within the next 5 years, but i would like to get a few harvest under my belt before i begin experimenting with breeding. I liked many things about this grow, the biggest probably being the fact i can now rest assured after this harvest knowing that i grow all of my own medicine, i know whats going in it and on it, no pesticides, mold, mites etc. A big reason i wanted to begin growing was me learning about some of the awful things commercial growers do to increase yields regardless of quality and I'm the type that likes knowing whats being put in my body. I no longer wanted to pay for something that is potentially harming me when i could do it myself the right way , all 3 of my girls have been receiving nothing but Reverse osmosis water since day 49 and were regularly flushed through out there life cycle so my medicine won't be fertilizer bud, which goes around a lot in my state due to growers not caring about the patient, Treating cannabis as a money tree not a medicine tree. As far as dislikes I have no complaints. Regardless of any setbacks i have had on this mission , I have grown with my plants every single day and thats whats most important to me not first grow dislikes.

 

[Zogrowsgreen]

Re: Zo's First Grow 5x5 - AK48 - Northern Lights - Aurora Indica - Nirvana Seeds - 20

Did Someone Say Next Grow? I invite everyone here to my 2nd grow - ZCOG 2.0 - link in my signature.
I have only posted once in the thread with a basic overview but when this current grow sums up ZCOG 2.0 should be kicking it into Rapid growth Veg mode.

I'm Sure some of you Might have a few questions concerning this grow, a few being "how old is the plant pictured?" "What is that green thing on top of the rock wool block?" and if you just started reading this thread on this page "What is ZCOG?" I will cover all of these answers very soon . ZCOG 2.0 link in signature below.

 

[Mr. Krip]

Re: Zo's First Grow 5x5 - AK48 - Northern Lights - Aurora Indica - Nirvana Seeds - 20

Looks great, Zo!

Technically, the Gas Lantern Routine (GLR) is putting the one hour of light in the middle of the dark period of a 12/12 veg schedule. So 12 hours on, 5.5 hours off, one hour on, and 5.5 hours off in veg is the GLR.

GLR is often followed up in flower with a "diminishing light schedule" and that's what you're actually doing now by lowering the amount of light.

Diminishing light starts with 12/12 in the first two weeks, then each week the lights-on period is decreased by a half hour, so, at the final weeks, you should be at 9/15 which is supposed to build up the plant hormones so they produce lots of trichomes.

 

[DankestBuds42]

Re: Zo's First Grow 5x5 - AK48 - Northern Lights - Aurora Indica - Nirvana Seeds - 20

Hey Zo. Glad to hear your first grow was such a success! Cool beans. Always good to have some leftovers. I have 3 fem AI left. Saving them for a rainy day haha. I like your reasoning behind growing. No sense paying money for something you can easily make yourself. Substantially healthier and more potent for you. Definitely checking out your second grow. Stoked to see what you get up to next bro.

 

[Zogrowsgreen]

Re: Zo's First Grow 5x5 - AK48 - Northern Lights - Aurora Indica - Nirvana Seeds - 20

Looks great, Zo!

Technically, the Gas Lantern Routine (GLR) is putting the one hour of light in the middle of the dark period of a 12/12 veg schedule. So 12 hours on, 5.5 hours off, one hour on, and 5.5 hours off in veg is the GLR.

GLR is often followed up in flower with a "diminishing light schedule" and that's what you're actually doing now by lowering the amount of light.

Diminishing light starts with 12/12 in the first two weeks, then each week the lights-on period is decreased by a half hour, so, at the final weeks, you should be at 9/15 which is supposed to build up the plant hormones so they produce lots of trichomes.

Thanks for clearing that up Mr. Krip, I had read up on the topic about a week or so ago and plan on using the full GLR on my next grow but i implemented a dimishing light cycle to the end of this grow , just not by direction, removing 30 minutes everyday until i got to 9 hours on instead of removing 30 minutes every week. I probably should have explained better but thank you for filling in the gaps Krip.

 

[Zogrowsgreen]

Re: Zo's First Grow 5x5 - AK48 - Northern Lights - Aurora Indica - Nirvana Seeds - 20

Hey Zo. Glad to hear your first grow was such a success! Cool beans. Always good to have some leftovers. I have 3 fem AI left. Saving them for a rainy day haha. I like your reasoning behind growing. No sense paying money for something you can easily make yourself. Substantially healthier and more potent for you. Definitely checking out your second grow. Stoked to see what you get up to next bro.

Definitely good to have some leftovers for sure definitely a nice strain and honestly i feel like every person who uses this plant on a regular basis and has the resources should grow and harvest at least 1 plant in there lifetime. Its sort of like the "You give a man a fish sandwich you feed him for a day, you teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime", Now instead of having a gram today and gone tomorrow i can grow an abundance of my own cannabis for a lifetime.

 

[KingstonRabbi]

Re: Zo's First Grow 5x5 - AK48 - Northern Lights - Aurora Indica - Nirvana Seeds - 20

Love your attitude on growing your own. The rewards are far more than the harvested bud and money saved. (Although as an accountant I gotta say you've got one hell of an ROI!) I also really appreciate all the reasoning underlying your methods, what advice you're following and what you've come up with on your own. +reps for the fish-wiches!

 

[Zogrowsgreen]

Re: Zo's First Grow 5x5 - AK48 - Northern Lights - Aurora Indica - Nirvana Seeds - 20

Update 09/06
Day 62 Flower

Again, So many thanks go to Mr. Krip my girls seem to all be doing great now and finishing up strong after being ph'd to the correct range (5.5-5.8). I had a chance to go through the garden and very slightly squeeze a higher and lower nug from each plant, I was very shocked to see the Northern Lights definitely will have the most dense flowers of all 3 plants. The scents each plant gives off is unique and amazing and i will go into more detail on this during the harvest and smoke report.

AK48

"Outside the cage"

"Inside the Cage"

a few of the calyxes starting to purple

Northern Light - I'm so happy this girl is starting to plump up. I can really see the difference from 2 weeks ago, some of the buds have caught up to the Aurora Indica nugs and the great thing is the northern lights buds are rock hard.

Golden Trichs on leaves

Still mostly cloudy on flowers ,if you look closely you will see very few amber on this flower.

Aurora Indica - Its looking as if this will be the last plant to finish. She seems to still be putting out fresh white hairs and has virtually no amber besides 1 or two amber trichs at the tops of all the highest colas. I will most likely harvest her and NL next friday on day 72 , a week after i harvest the AK48 -

Milky Trichs

 

[Zogrowsgreen]

Re: Zo's First Grow 5x5 - AK48 - Northern Lights - Aurora Indica - Nirvana Seeds - 20

Love your attitude on growing your own. The rewards are far more than the harvested bud and money saved. (Although as an accountant I gotta say you've got one hell of an ROI!) I also really appreciate all the reasoning underlying your methods, what advice you're following and what you've come up with on your own. +reps for the fish-wiches!

Thanks Kingston, It means a lot .
The Fish sandwiches quote was told to me by my father once on a fishing trip, and I'm sure his father told him the same story under similar circumstances. Its always stuck with me throughout life and the same principle can apply to so many things in life. Some people want a fish sandwich and aren't the slightest bit interested in learning how to fish, it should be the opposite in my opinon lol . Thanks for the reps and Reps to whoever came up with the quote.

 

[Mr. Krip]

Re: Zo's First Grow 5x5 - AK48 - Northern Lights - Aurora Indica - Nirvana Seeds - 20

They look great, Bro! +REPS!!!

While I appreciate it, you really don't need to keep thanking me - you did all the hard work yourself!

 

[Zogrowsgreen]

Re: Zo's First Grow 5x5 - AK48 - Northern Lights - Aurora Indica - Nirvana Seeds - 20

09/09 Yesterday was My Birthday and it was Harvest day for "Zo's Cage of Green" - AK48

Update Part 1 - AK48 Harvest Day 65 Flower

I'm Really glad i decided to listen to the team at three a light and let this girl go 64-70 days. The difference between Day 48 and 65 is incredible, especially in the density of the buds. This plant sprouted on 05/20 , begin flower on 07/07 and was harvested on my birthday 09/09 at 116 days from seed. I pulled the plant from the tent to a separate part of the house and didn't notice how strong the scent was until my girl who was coming from the store walked in and said "is that what i'm smelling?" in surprise, walked up to the plant smelled it and said WOW i smelled it as i was walking in The plant has a very noticeable citrus/ fruity berry smell with skunky undertones. This process has been the best last 4 months of my life. From Seed to Harvest I grew my first cannabis plant and learned so much in the process, not only about growing but life in general. For those who are wondering , This plant was grown in rock wool with Xtreme Gardening & Success Nutrients, in a 5 Gal smart pot, sharing light with 3 other plants under 2 8 bulb 54 w t5 fixtures ( at day 14 of flower one plant was removed, This plant finished out sharing light with 2 other plants.) .

"Outside the Cage"

"Inside the Cage"

 

[Mr. Krip]

Re: Zo's First Grow 5x5 - AK48 - Northern Lights - Aurora Indica - Nirvana Seeds - 20

Very well done, Zo! Contrat's on the harvest! +REPS!

 

[Zogrowsgreen]

Re: Zo's First Grow 5x5 - AK48 - Northern Lights - Aurora Indica - Nirvana Seeds - 20

09/09
Harvest Update Part 2 - AK48 Bud Wash / Dry Method


Bud Washing for the win! I learned about this method from a well known member of this site known as doc bud. Bud Washing This thread will describe the process in detail why its done, the reasoning behind it and the benefits of such a method. All i needed to hear was "Most people wash there vegetables and fruit before they consume it but most growers dont wash there produce." After i saw the results in my own before/after pictures i was very excited to see what brown/filth/dust that was in my water wasn't staying on my medicine, thus entering my body.

Bucket 1 - 5 Gal Room temp (60-70 F) RO Water with 1 cup of baking soda
Bucket 2 - 5 Gal Hot(around as hot as your home faucet gets without the water being too hot to the touch) RO Water with 1 Cup of Lemon Juice ( i couldn't find any 100% pure lemon juice at stores so i had to buy real fresh lemons and make my own, at the end of the day this felt much more "All natural" than buying a bottle labeled "lemon juice" that has been on the shelf for months , if you go this route make sure to strain all pulp and seeds out so this doesn't get on your medicine. )
Bucket 3 - 5 Gal Room temp ( 60-70 f) RO Water only

I started with a branch, dipped in bucket 1 for 30 seconds while swirling around and agitating the branch. remove and shake off excess water, let drip over bucket one for 10 seconds, then go to bucket 2, repeat the same action as with bucket one for 45 seconds, shake off excess water, let drip over bucket 2 for 10 seconds, then you go to bucket 3 and repeat the process this time for 1 minute. your last bucket is your "rinse water" it should look nearly the same color at the end as when you started or you didn't properly utilize buckets 1 and 2, Your first 2 buckets clean your medicine , your third bucket starts clear and should end pretty clear.

After the bud wash For my drying technique i followed this thread by another well known member Mr. Krip DIY drying box with odor control and adapted the box to fit my needs. I skipped some steps as odor control wasn't a big concern for me but +REPS to Mr. Krip for this idea. I now have a second controlled environment right outside of my tent. I have 1 Humidity monitor at the bottom of the box and 1 at the top. both read 51%-top 60%-bottom , both temps read 68 f sounds like im dialed in. I plan to let these dry slowly and then manicure and go to jars 7 days from Harvest. Everyone just hanging out 3 hangers / box full.