First CFL Grow: AK-47 automatic and Cheese

[dionysius]

September 18th, 3rd week of flowering, and 12th week of grow. The Cheese became too big for the screen, so I tried a combination of LST and Supercropping. I actually liked Supercropping a lot because it's so easy to do. Unfortunately, I had topped the Cheese at some point during the SCROG and under the LST, one of the branches was ripped apart right at the point were I had topped. I only noticed coming late from work, so it seemed a little bit late to patch everything up. Maybe this wasn't the best thing to do, but I cut off the branch and made several clones out of it. To accommodate them, I improvised a cloning/veg room in my closet.

The three plants to the right in the orange juice containers are my first 3 clones that were doing remarkably well. For the new clones I used Rootech cloning gel and no Superthrive this time.

 

[dionysius]

This is the little guy. It's doing better than before, but it didn't develop any fan leaves. It's just stunted at that size and it started flowering. That's about when I realized I mixed up the Cheese with one of the autoflowering AK47s. I mean, there's no way I could have cloned that right? Everything turned out fine then, I was growing the autoflowerings as a surefire experimental harvest and the Cheese was the stuff I wanted to clone to do a perpetual harvest.

 

[dionysius]

These are the clonez! I've tried several methods to see what works: trying to root them with sunshine and fresh air, in a low lighted but warm place on the top of my batwing reflector, or under the powerful 200W light. Also there's the use or not of Superthrive and or Rootech cloning gel. In my first 3 very successful clones, Superthrive worked fine and I also used Biobizz Root juice. As I write today, these second wave of clones rooted very well, but have failed to grow big. They're like bonsai versions of marijuana plants and even one of them started flowering under the vegging 24/0 light.

 

[dionysius]

I put the little guy in the bloom dark room on 12/12 warm light. It's still growing buds, but it's disappointing it didn't get bigger. Well, I'll have to smoke this one slower and with dignity. The other autoflowering that used to be my pride and joy lost almost all its leaves, they were seriously burned. It looks like a weed version of a cotton candy. I don't think it was the nutes, because the Cheese didn't have those problems. I kept diagnosing it, sometimes thinking it was low N or K. Then I thought it was the lights and the high temperatures (90F-100F). Finally, I think it might be some kind of wilt, maybe fusarium. The plant is not absorbing much water through the soil, it needs watering every 2 weeks. I took the nutes off, and I noticed that by watering with some hydrogen peroxided the plants look a little bit more revived, I can see the grow of new pistils. Anyway, I don't have too much hope left on these two, but I will smoke them anyway.

 

[dionysius]

Cheese, on the other hand, is starting to show some bush! It was a long wait though, about 3 weeks and a half. I was starting to loose some faith here. The days are a little bit cooler, so I risked putting in more lights.

 

[dionysius]

More on clonez: they don't seem to be doing that well... Overnight I would notice the soil would become very dry, which is in a way weird because they aren't actually taking that much water. Could it be the air circulation and the heat that dries it up? I'll see what happens with my 3rd wave of clones taken from the first wave. Maybe the gel is not that good? Maybe Superthrive is not snake oil?

 

[dionysius]

Close-up on the Cheese, you can see the places where I Supercropped. Promising, isn't it?

 

[dionysius]

This is a picture of my improvised veg room. I repotted the 1st wave of clones and decided to use only coconut coir on these ones. I've had a good experience with it and peppers, it's very aerated and less insects live in it. My peppers on coconut grew bigger and healthier than the ones in soil, maybe I have to make a more aerated mix, the next time. Fox Farm Ocean Forest, while of good quality isn't is as aerated as I would like. I've tried mixing some with coconut as well. You can see that my first clones have very healthy and vigorous grow.

 

[dionysius]

I harvested and dried some of that cotton candy looking autoflowering AK47. It was a very quick and heady high. Some of my friends got very stoned on that one, but they also were smoking some other strain before. Maybe the succesive smoking of the two had some effect. I know it's not very good looking bud, but I had good times.

 

[dionysius]

I'm very proud of my first clones, they look even better than their mother. Maybe they're taking some of their looks from daddy

I already ordered a new bigger grow tent for these young ladies and they're going to get a new light treat: either a 250W HPS or a 63W LED plus some warm CFLs. I know the HPS would garantee and excellent crop, but the high heat and electricity bill might be a negative. I'm also very interested about these LED lights. They definitely look more 21st century to me. We'll see...

Before I start blooming these babes, I'm going to take some clones from them.

 

[dionysius]

Beautiful, isn't it? Can you get high from sleeping in your own grow room? This place is starting to stink, fortunately it's hard to smell outside.

 

[dionysius]

This is about the 7th or 8th week of flowering and the Cheese is exhibiting a few problems from the other plants. Fan leaves are drying, getting crisp and brown. I've used some hydrogen peroxide and althought it slows the process a bit, it might not be enough. Some of the leaves are very resinous, so it's a pity I'm even losing some leaves to make hash. I've crushed some of the dried brown leaves and they strongly smell of bud. Suggestions anyone?

 

[Gordon d'Angelo]

hi mate ok your hydro im soil...same nutes thou....so far all i can tell you on the nute thing is this....the bottle says one thing...far too strong and the bio bizz charts say summit else .....if you don t have the charts shout up....ill post em for yea if it helps ?.....i mean the directions on the bottle is way harsher than the chart....sorry i ramble on when im stonned.........be lucky weedtastic

 

[Gordon d'Angelo]

hi mate ok your hydro im soil...same nutes thou....so far all i can tell you on the nute thing is this....the bottle says one thing...far too strong and the bio bizz charts say summit else .....if you don t have the charts shout up....ill post em for yea if it helps ?.....i mean the directions on the bottle is way harsher than the chart....sorry i ramble on when im stonned.........be lucky weedtastic

...edit im gonna take a read of this sober.......got me real interested wots goin on over here ha ha.....ps sorry for double postin

 

[dionysius]

Trichomes! This is the best I could by composing my digital camera with a jeweller's loupe.

 

[dionysius]

hi mate ok your hydro im soil...same nutes thou....so far all i can tell you on the nute thing is this....the bottle says one thing...far too strong and the bio bizz charts say summit else .....if you don t have the charts shout up....ill post em for yea if it helps ?.....i mean the directions on the bottle is way harsher than the chart....sorry i ramble on when im stonned.........be lucky weedtastic

Actually, I'm on soil, Fox Farm Ocean Forest. My second grow of which you see some photos here as well is soilless but wouldn't qualify as hydro. I do have the Biobizz chart, and they're made in terms of the Biobizz soil you use. The bottles say to use 2-5 ml per liter, which kind of looks like what you would use on the All-Mix on the lower end and Lite-Mix on the higher end. Mind that these are organic nutes, so there is more buffer room to make mistakes than with non-organic. As a rule of thumb, you should start on the lower side and then adjust more as you seem fit. Also be careful with unit systems, Biobizz is from the Netherlands, so they post the doses in ml/l, so if you fill a gallon you have to multiply by 3.785.

 

[Gordon d'Angelo]

hi mate thought it worth a mention on how i got on with my nutes im in all mix soil too so i went with wot it said on the chart maxed out and only a couple of tips showed signs of burns on my first grow...in your opinion cud i go a little further ?...or do you agree with the chart ?...sorry for all the questions...ive never seen anyone else using our nutes ha ha thanks inadvance...be lucky weedtastic

 

[dionysius]

hi mate thought it worth a mention on how i got on with my nutes im in all mix soil too so i went with wot it said on the chart maxed out and only a couple of tips showed signs of burns on my first grow...in your opinion cud i go a little further ?...or do you agree with the chart ?...sorry for all the questions...ive never seen anyone else using our nutes ha ha thanks inadvance...be lucky weedtastic

On the contrary, I think there are many who use Biobizz out there. If you want to go 100% organic, to my knowledge, the best options are Biobizz, Botanicare Pure Blend or Pure Blend Pro, and Biocanna. There's also Humboldt's Nutrients Organic 2-Part, but I don't know much about it or know anyone who has used it. I've gone over the max accidentally and nothing wrong has happened. I usually stay within the limits of the chart since it was designed for cannabis. As I said before, there are less chances of screwing up with organics by feeding too much, but if you are going to increase the nutrient take, you should experiment with one of your plants and see if it reacts positively to the nutrient increase. Do it in small steps and space them enough in time so you can properly see the reaction.

 

[dionysius]

hi mate thought it worth a mention on how i got on with my nutes im in all mix soil too so i went with wot it said on the chart maxed out and only a couple of tips showed signs of burns on my first grow...in your opinion cud i go a little further ?...or do you agree with the chart ?...sorry for all the questions...ive never seen anyone else using our nutes ha ha thanks inadvance...be lucky weedtastic

You got me a tad curious there, I think I'll increase the dosage of BioBloom and see what happens...

 

[dionysius]

These are pictures of my 3rd wave of clones, taken from my first clones. They seem to be doing ok in general. I've been taking the clones from the lower part of the plants and I think the fresh air and sunlight is doing them well. I think the survival rate will be higher than the last time.