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

Do you foliar spray at all?

nope, I think the spots were a calcium deficiency, PH was consistently 6.0 to 6.1 which locks out cal completely lowered PH and have had no progression since.

 

[2BLgL]

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

Hello Everyone,

Today was the end of the first week of flower, about 7 to go. Cleaned the res today and did a water change. Started using hydrogen peroxide to clean the res instead of bleach or soapy water. Growth is tremendous the AKxS is about 18" and the NLxBB is about 9". The root ball is huge and white except where the nutes have discolored them. Some of the roots of AK are almost 1/4 inch thick. Still running my nutrients at 1/2 strength. Also I can see the white hairs starting to pop on the AK.

Now for the pictures

Both plants

The Northern Lights x Big Bud

The Aghani Kush x Skunk

 

[Sphnx]

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

Look at em go! Great job bud!

 

[Dusty Kiefers]

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

Looks great man.

 

[2BLgL]

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

Thanks Sphnx and Dusty

Feeling pretty proud, I cant believe I took two seeds and they have grown to this stage. Looked at the girls tonight and little white hairs are popping out all over the place.

 

[Greenthumb J]

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

Have you noticed any flowers forming yet? If not.. i wouldn't start counting weeks of flower just yet.

You might think you have an 8 week strain (very few strains are actually finished in 8 weeks.. take into consideration flushing time too!) but MOST breeders start counting flowering time when they see the first formation of flowers.

so if for example, it takes 10 days for flowers to form, you might think you can chop in 6 1/2 weeks, but in reality, your buds might not have ripened enough, thus giving you some weak smoke that leaves you disappointed.


Do you have a jewelers loupe to look at trichomes with? That is the best way to judge when your plant is ready to chop, by the colour of the trichomes.

I'm sure you've heard people talking about what ratio they like to harvest their plants at.. they mean the ratio of cloudy trichome heads to amber coloured trichomes.

Personally, i chopped too early my first run and was very disappointed. Constantly watch the ripeness of the plant with a jewelers loupe, and when you are almost at your desired ratio of cloudy to amber trichomes, start your flush

 

[mrrobert420]

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

agreed Greenthumb - I let both of my grows, so far, go past the "harvest time" a week or so - But i like couch lock

 

[Greenthumb J]

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

The plants are looking great.

The one thing i can say is 80% of first growers harvest too early. They think because its been in flower for 8 weeks since the change to 12/12 that the plant is ready to go.


Rule of thumb when reading a breeders flowering time.... Add about 2 weeks. Take into consideration how long it takes to finally see flowers, and also a solid 5-10 days of flushing..

If a breeder says 8 weeks, its usually more realistically 9.5 weeks.

But it really all comes down to what kind of high you like.

Head buzz and cerebral, harvest when your trichome ratio is mostly cloudy and very few clear trichomes.

A well rounded buzz, harvest when you have a 5% amber trichome ratio, 95% cloudy

Couch-lock buzz, harvest when you have a 40% or more amber trichome ratio.

Any more amber than 60% and you will be missing your harvest window as THC degradation will start to occur.

 

[2BLgL]

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

Yes , have started seeing the first signs of flowers on the AKxS the NLxBB always seems to be lagging behind by about 3 day's. And even if it is a little longer that will be ok as long as I can get a killer ass buzz for x-mas, I've been dry since Easter which except for my time in the Navy is the longest since something like 1985. I do have a pocket microscope with 100 power. I enjoy the head buzz more than a couch lock so will shoot to harvest once I see the amber starting. What do you guys think of this bud washing that I have been reading about? My plans for this harvest are 3/4 to nice cured smoke and 1/4 and the clippings/shake to bubble hash.

 

[Greenthumb J]

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

Bud washing should be suggested if you foliar feed your plants (which i dont)

Remember that even tho cannabis plants are somewhat water resistant (if you've ever trimmed plants bare handed then try to wash your hands afterwards... the oils in the plant as well as the trichomes produce a barrier against water, otherwise cannabis plants in nature would just get mould and die!) that you do lose some of the trichomes when washing. Bubble hash is made from extracting the trichomes in water right?

I duno really.. a couple members have tried it and swear by it, but personally, i dont have the time to add more drying time to my harvest

 

[devils letuce]

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

. good looking ladies

i am growing the afghan now .. one week in flower she is a beast and she loves to eat ..

i just got done with nlxbb she loves to eat also ..got almost 3 0z of her. both these plants are strong as hell.

cant believe im so late .. i will have to catch up but im in !!! i have pics of my girls in my journal thread ...cant wait to see the comparison since mine are done in soil..

 

[2BLgL]

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

Hello everyone,
Time for an update. Today is day 14 from switch to 12/12. Both of the girls have grown 12" since the switch. The AKxS is covered in flowers and the NLxBB is covered in the start of flowers, like i stated before it lags behind the AK by about 3 days. I am finding that they are drinking so much water that changing the res each week doesn't make sense so I will do a fill up and nute add every other week and a complete res change on the other odd week. Still running at 1/2 strength on the nutrients.

Now for the pictures, sorry they are not the best quality seems hard to get good close up's of the flowers.

 

[Sphnx]

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

Those pre flowers are looking great my friend.

 

[devils letuce]

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

looking good !!!

 

[mrrobert420]

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

nice start on your flowering looks good. 12 inches...... sweet......

 

[Greenthumb J]

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

A suggestion on the bucket changing..

Start with a fresh bucket and when you see the water level start to go down by mid week, top up the bucket with fresh, PH adjusted water. a few days later, it will be time for your weekly bucket change.

When in flower, make sure that you change the nutrient solution each week to ensure that your plants take in adequate amounts of phosphor, avoid PH swings by adding in nutes mid week, and take in enough Calcium and Magnesium, especially since you are using LED's.

A bucket top off mid week with PH balanced water will get you through until its time for the bucket change.

It might seem like you are going to use a lot of nutrients by changing your bucket each week, and you will. But your idea of bucket maintenance that you have is going to end up making you use more nutrients anyways.

Changing the bucket every week DOES make sense. Its not about trying to use as little nutrients as possible. You want to grow the best plant you possibly can, so you should make sure that its always getting the best nutrient solution that you can provide. Weekly reservoir changes help keep the root zone healthy by always having fresh nutrients to feed on. If you wait 2 weeks to do a res change, you are more likely to experience nutrient deficiencies as PH and PPM will all over the place by adding water then water with nutes in it or however you explained you were going to do it!

The PH and PPM will be difficult to manage if, halfway through the week, you are adding more nutrients to a solution that could become more concentrated than when you started. Plus if you add too much nutrients to your top off water, you have to either start over, or pour some out and add water to get the right PPMs. And that's a waste of nutrients right there!

If mixing a full, regular sized bucket, you already have enough practise getting the PH and PPM on lockdown, so why try and add more math to your nutrient regiment by having a top off measurement of nutes for mid week?

If you're worried that your plants wont take in all the nutrients within a week, trust me, they will.. When you add the PH balanced water to top off your bucket mid week, the plants will then use the remaining nutrients until you empty the buckets and start fresh again for the next week.

You dont have to do this by any means at all. Its just a suggestion. Weekly reservoir changes like this helps develop a routine, and each week it will get easier and easier. It also helps you keep a schedule in your head of how long/how old your plant is. It makes it really easy when you are in flower. I usually time my res changes with the day that i put the plant into flower, so that at the end of each week, i change out the reserviors. Makes it really easy to know just what week i'm at in flower, and what PPM i should make my nutrient solution.

OR..
Are you like me and just hate carrying a 5gal bucket of water around every time? lol Thats why i contemplated longer period of time between reservoir changes, but now after seeing how easy it is to get deficiencies that way, i always change the bucket every 7 days. A fresh batch of nutrient solution is usually enough to fix most common deficiencies!

 

[mrrobert420]

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

well said greenthumb

 

[2BLgL]

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

Hello Everyone,

@GreenThumb like usual your advice sounds much better than my idea so I made 6Gal of water and changed my res. Monday is my normal change day anyway. Still running 1/2 strength on the nutrients because they girls do not show any sign of needing more, I would say they are growing like a weed.

Now for some pictures

The Girls together

The Whole root ball

The AKxS roots

The NLxBB Roots

 

[HunterHunt]

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

2BLgL, everything is looking good! Those roots do look like they have slime on them though? Is that just the nute color? I know you said you had purchased some hydroguard earlier in the grow. Are you applying ever 4 days? Keep up the good work!!! Brown roots always scare me!!!!!!!!

edit to add: Keep in mind once you get closer to the end of your grow you might not be able to lift the lid with the plants so have an alternative plan on changing the reservoir!!! Once those girls get grown and packed with colas picking them up like that would be a challenge!

 

[2BLgL]

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

2BLgL, everything is looking good! Those roots do look like they have slime on them though? Is that just the nute color? I know you said you had purchased some hydroguard earlier in the grow. Are you applying ever 4 days? Keep up the good work!!! Brown roots always scare me!!!!!!!!

edit to add: Keep in mind once you get closer to the end of your grow you might not be able to lift the lid with the plants so have an alternative plan on changing the reservoir!!! Once those girls get grown and packed with colas picking them up like that would be a challenge!

That is the Technaflora nutrients causing the brown, they have been that color the entire time once I started feeding them. Its the Thrive Alive B1-Red and the Sugar Daddy. At first I freaked out but it's all good. Next grow I will look for hydro nutrients that dont stain the water and roots. I use hydroguard and Orca mycorrhizae religiously. And every other res change clean everything with hydrogen peroxide then rinse it with RO water before filling it again and putting the plants back in. I use a battery powered siphon pump to change the water so once it gets to heavy to lift I will stop with the every other week cleaning and just drain and refill through a peek hole I have in the lid.