My First Time: AK47 & Gold Bar Kush

[Radogast]

Maybe I don't need a mother plant for each. I just don't want to waste seeds or lose a strain that might end up being a favorite.


I haven't read about fluxing. I'll have to look it up.

Light Addict's fluxing tutorial Light Addict's Quick Guide To Fluxing - Featuring The Original Flux!

Light Addicts current flux Fluxing It Up One Last Time! - The Flux To End All Fluxes! - LA Style!
(I haven't read this one yet, but it's an active thread.

 

[Radogast]

If you can take two clones and have a 95% chance one of them will survive, you don't need a mother plant.

When I first started, I would take a clone around 4 weeks into veg and plant it, Then I would take 2 more clones right before flower. Depending on whether the flower room was getting full or not, I would keep either the first clone or one of the second set of clones. If both tries fail, one still has a chance to take 2 more sets of clones in flower. That is a whole bunch of chances to get a good clone.

Genetically, a clone is as good as a mother plant. It's small enough to hold in one's hand. It doesn't need any nutes and is less likely to harbor mites and harmful insects. A 3 month old clone is more likely to produce clones than a 3 year old mother plant.

As I said before, the major advantage of a mother plant is to be able to take 10-20 clones at a time.
Adding a mother takes a plant out of the stream of plants headed towards flower, so you need to grow one more plant.

You can try both techniques on the same plant. With a plant in flower, and both clone and mother in veg, when a free flower spot opens up you can choose to flower the mother (big yield) or flower the clone (smaller yield if it is small.) The choice you make on run #3 might be different than the decision you make on run #5.


Saving a plant as a mother is a way of putting your harvest of that strain on hold while you try another strain.
So is taking a clone of a clone in veg and pulling the mother plant instead of putting the plant into flower.



It will all work out - part of finding your own style and pace of growing

 

[MrGreene]

Light Addict's fluxing tutorial Light Addict's Quick Guide To Fluxing - Featuring The Original Flux!

Light Addicts current flux Fluxing It Up One Last Time! - The Flux To End All Fluxes! - LA Style!
(I haven't read this one yet, but it's an active thread.

I like that technique. So neat looking. I'll have to give it a try soon.

 

[MrGreene]

Great explanation as usual.

I for sure don't have a growing style yet and I don't have a clue about how much I should grow to support my needs since I have never even tried it before. I can see where always having a couple clones at different ages would work out to always have one ready for flower and not worry so much. I'm sure the most economical way to success will win with me.

My growing spaces will change this year no matter how I set them up now. I'll be moving to another place that is an empty shell right now, just walls and a roof. I plan on having a secret room that can't easily be found. I had thought that 4 foot by 8 foot would be plenty but now I'm considering making it a little bigger. Everybody says they never have enough space or enough light.

 

[Radogast]

Great explanation as usual.

I for sure don't have a growing style yet and I don't have a clue about how much I should grow to support my needs since I have never even tried it before. I can see where always having a couple clones at different ages would work out to always have one ready for flower and not worry so much. I'm sure the most economical way to success will win with me.

My growing spaces will change this year no matter how I set them up now. I'll be moving to another place that is an empty shell right now, just walls and a roof. I plan on having a secret room that can't easily be found. I had thought that 4 foot by 8 foot would be plenty but now I'm considering making it a little bigger. Everybody says they never have enough space or enough light.

My first grow room was 4x8' - then I heard about a seperate veg area and put in an 8x8' veg room to feed the 4x8' flower room. I didn't have quite enough lights to fill either room.


3 years later, my current flower room is 4x6' (my lights cover a 4x4' area plus space for fans and heater.)
The size choice is based on flowering 4 plants at a time.


- - - -


I am planning on 4-5 oz harvested every 4-5 weeks grown from a 4 plant flower room.

Once everything gets rolling (which takes a few months):

4 (2x2') flowering plants should produce 1+ oz per week.
6 (2x2') flowering plants should produce 1.5 oz per week.
8 (2x2') flowering plants should produce 2+ oz per week.

Up to a point, the yields should get slightly higher over time


1 oz a week should supply my household of 4.

 

[MrGreene]

I'm still at home so I decided to adjust the new restraints on GBK. I must have tried a little too much and split her right in the middle. Should I wait and see what happens, put on a bandaid, or turn those branches into clones?

 

[Radogast]

Bandaid - that is over 1/2 the plant affected.

If you clone and veg the remainder, it will be a few extra weeks before you are ready to flower

If you hold those pieces of stalk together, matching the edges as well as possible, the healing process will only add a few days to your remaining veg time.

 

[MrGreene]

Thanks Rad. I'll get right to it.

Bandaid - that is over 1/2 the plant affected.

If you clone and veg the remainder, it will be a few extra weeks before you are ready to flower

If you hold those pieces of stalk together, matching the edges as well as possible, the healing process will only add a few days to your remaining veg time.

 

[MrGreene]

Made a bandaid with yellow electrical tape. Things lined up ok but not quite as tight together as I hoped. I felt like I would break something else if I stretched the tape any tighter.

 

[SweetSue]

Excellent work, both of you. Good timing to have Rad so near. Reps on that one, my newly retired friend.

You now know how much is too much MrGreene. They recover from this indignity all the time. You're not the first over-eager cultivator. Lovely, lush leaves you have on her. Good work. ,

 

[MrGreene]

Excellent work, both of you. Good timing to have Rad so near. Reps on that one, my newly retired friend.

You now know how much is too much MrGreene. They recover from this indignity all the time. You're not the first over-eager cultivator. Lovely, lush leaves you have on her. Good work. ,

Thanks Sue. Rad has been Mr. Dependable and a great resource.

I found out that GBK is not as flexible as AK47. Lol. She does have huge leaves. I kinda think she wants to be a large girl.

 

[Radogast]

Thanks Sue. Rad has been Mr. Dependable and a great resource.

I found out that GBK is not as flexible as AK47. Lol. She does have huge leaves. I kinda think she wants to be a large girl.

I would like to see you grow many large girls.

If you have some Aloe vera or cloning gel, you might put some in the exposed part of the crack to help it 'scab' over. I've only done this a couple of times. but cloning growth hormones seemed to have helped. It didn't hurt.

If you don't you don't.

Either way, your girl will recover.

Worst case: If she loses a limb, she'll grow a replacement.

 

[MrGreene]

I think I have some aloe vera gel for sunburn around here. I need to find it anyway since we are headed to the beach in a few hours and I burn easily. I don't have cloning gel, only powder. Maybe I can mix a little powder into a dab of aloe vera. She seems like she is recovering well and didn't mind my abuse at all. In fact, they both seem perky this morning.

 

[Radogast]

I think I have some aloe vera gel for sunburn around here. I need to find it anyway since we are headed to the beach in a few hours and I burn easily. I don't have cloning gel, only powder. Maybe I can mix a little powder into a dab of aloe vera. She seems like she is recovering well and didn't mind my abuse at all. In fact, they both seem perky this morning.

Forget the treatment then - if it ain't broke don't fix it !

 

[MrGreene]

I hope it wasn't broke. Can't wait to check on them tomorrow when I get home. I've been having a great time down here on the beach though.

 

[MrGreene]

They made it through vacation. I can't tell that they have grown much over the last few days but I didn't put much water in the swick so they would hopefully grow some more roots.

The little AK47 clone looks like she is happy too.

 

[Radogast]

The little AK47 clone looks like she is happy too.

Glad everyone made it home safe from vacation.

Your little AK47 clone looks like it is in flower, (as is the mother.) Is this what you want?
Veg and flower plants need to be on different light schedules.

 

[MrGreene]

Glad everyone made it home safe from vacation.

Your little AK47 clone looks like it is in flower, (as is the mother.) Is this what you want?
Veg and flower plants need to be on different light schedules.

I didn't mean for them to be in flower. I left the air conditioning on again and a cold front came while I was gone. That's twice I've come home to a cold house at the end of the week. Could that be the cause?

I've had them all on 18/6 the entire time. I watched for the lights to go out last night and come back on this morning and they are right on time. They are still under the same three 50w flood lights pulling around 90 watts total. I did raise the lights a couple inches the other day to keep them about a foot above the plants. The clone is farther away.

Now that the temp is up to normal should I give them some time or add light or something else?

 

[Radogast]

I didn't mean for them to be in flower. I left the air conditioning on again and a cold front came while I was gone. That's twice I've come home to a cold house at the end of the week. Could that be the cause?

I've had them all on 18/6 the entire time. I watched for the lights to go out last night and come back on this morning and they are right on time. They are still under the same three 50w flood lights pulling around 90 watts total. I did raise the lights a couple inches the other day to keep them about a foot above the plants. The clone is farther away.

Now that the temp is up to normal should I give them some time or add light or something else?

The AK47 Mother looks like she has been in flower mode for about 10 days. I looked back at the last picture 4/1 and I should have seen that.

The AK47 clone is about 3 days into flower, where the mother was 1 week ago.


I have had clones go into flower when they don't get enough light. Twice when I was under 18/6. Once when the clone was about 24" from the lights (flourescent) and once when the clone was about 12" from the light but shaded by the leaves of bigger plants.

I've never had an adult plant go into flower, but I tend to keep them within 2-6" away from a bank of 4 flourescent tubes.

Your AK47 is large enough to flower if you had stronger lights, but these lights are not strong enough to produce good flowers if they can't keep them in veg mode from 12" away.

Plants can flip from flower mode back into veg mode. Get your lights back low and put your clone on a box or something so she can get full light.

- - I'm too distracted to look back or remember - What lights were you planning to use to go into flower mode? How soon can they be ready?

 

[SweetSue]

We're certain they're not autos? I know, I know, but that was the first thing that ran through my mind. She's in bloom, and she won't be growing any more roots.

How did we all miss this?

I'll step aside and let Rad take over now.