Phenominawesome Family First Grow Tries Aurora Indica, AK48's - 1KW MH/HPS - 5x5 Tent

[Phenoman]

Re: Phenominawesome Family First Grow Tries Aurora Indica, AK48's - 1KW MH/HPS - 5x5

The Tent arrived, I cannot put anything in until I have the AC installed in that room but here she is!

The plants are just waiting on me to transplant and get them into a nice (better)controlled environment.


Temps have been from 77-85 the last couple of day.
RH 30-60% Been a little higher lately due to storms ~50%
My wife and I both on our computers put the temps over 85 so they will be happy to leave the office and get into an AC controlled grow room.

 

[Pennywise]

Re: Phenominawesome Family First Grow Tries Aurora Indica, AK48's - 1KW MH/HPS - 5x5

They will try to grow regardless of what we do them, spiteful little things!

 

[Phenoman]

Re: Phenominawesome Family First Grow Tries Aurora Indica, AK48's - 1KW MH/HPS - 5x5

No joke! One of the Auroras must have broken the main root in the earlier mentioned fall. It's still growing and green but has no stability. Flops around like it should just die but it's not.
They have all had air blowing lightly directly or indirectly all of the time and just when it started to get some stability my transplant hurt it again. Hindsight, should have waited on that one in particular.

 

[Phenoman]

Re: Phenominawesome Family First Grow Tries Aurora Indica, AK48's - 1KW MH/HPS - 5x5

Day 17 from seed. May 31 - the big move

- **note the first mix of RO and Seaweed was off. I made a mistake measuring luckily with a light product!! 2 tbs instead of 2tsp. When I found the problem I made up the new water.

- Moved all plants into new final homes:

- 5 gallon fabric pots.

- FFOF no amendments except root fungi (scientific control for future grows), will run Fox farm entire line dirty dozen nutrients later in grow.

- Mycormax bags of Mycorrhizae 2 per root ball hole

- installed AC unit, closed off room save for a small opening in house vent to provide fresh air.

- Increased MH from 400W to 600W and raised light to cover larger area with pots. will likely stick with 600 for entire veg and go 1000W on the HPS only.

- switched to Tap water @ 73 degrees F. 256PPM - 245 baseline so about 11 from the seaweed extract.

- PH 6.8

- Still need a bracket to hold one of the sides of the vent. It's taped currently but that will not hold long I think, getting one after work.


This endeavor, while still purchasing medication is very expensive to start and I just couldn't afford some things. switching to tap water as ours is tested out ok. Will save me on the Cal Mag.

2 weeks out minimum for any nutrients save for the seaweed extract in the water.

* things I need to look into:
Fabric pots, how much water they drain really weird?
Will cracks in the soil when moving a pot hurt the plants?

Here are some shots. The one from the window is today just before lights out.

Whoever said growing was "easy" is an idiot. Lot more work than I thought but equally just as rewarding.

All plants watered during transplant, forgot to soak root balls, almost lost some to breakage!

* Remember water plants leading up to transplant

*Room control is spot on, this little unit is perfect and keeps temps and humidity very tight. I highly recommend. Arctic King $150 Wally special comes with a remote with live information as well as a dehumidifier mode.

To research:
* how the hell do I water these pots?? How much etc.
* I need some saucers also, maybe home depot as well.
* how much run off to be sure that I don't build too much salt?

 

[Phenoman]

Re: Phenominawesome Family First Grow Tries Aurora Indica, AK48's - 1KW MH/HPS - 5x5

Day 26 from Seed June 10

Sorry for the long wait on the update, finally got busy at work again.

- All are finally over the transplant shock, used to new environment and into true veg

I'm going to have a heck of a time with the canopy but hopefully with some scrog netting I can get things balanced out. Now I get why different strains is tough. Heck even if with environment/prototypical changes there is a lot of variance. Now I get the appeal of clones.

Speaking of which, Listening the Grow Tube Round Table episode for pheno hunting with Remo. Subcool talks about "stem rubbing" to see the smells. The is so cool!! PHENO HUNTING WITH URBAN REMO - GrowTube Roundtable #43 - 5.12.17 - YouTube

BTW I assumed the biggest lushest would be the first choice, there is a lot to learn!

I could tell at this stage at least the ICEd Grapefruit smells like...grapefruit lol. The Aurora's like a spicy hash, the AKs smell lemon and fuel, some citrus and fuel (I love fuel so that is good) but the biggest one like PURE lemon. Not artificial but lemon juice lemon...VERY interesting. The lemon heavy seem to be sativa leaning strains which is what I was after. I have never have Lemon OG or Lemon Larry etc but they always sound so good. It will be interesting to document the smells as they mature and flower and compare to effects.

I will record the specific smells of each starting when they wake day 27.

- Look into having labs test terpines and cannabinoids. If i'm going to medicate, I would love to be able to see how these work together.

If anyone has tips to the best way to add photos Desktop or otherwise I would love feedback. I figured a medium with option to open full was best but noticed mobile doesn't seem to work correctly...



So to sum up since last check in, all 3 of my FFOF was different wetness when it arrived and while I watered them before transplanting, I didn't give enough time to soak in properly I think, the one bag was so wet it shocked my most vigorous plant and still doesn't need water!

I've watered Aurora#2 who's roots have stabilized and is growing again vigorously in the last 2 days. The same for her sister but even more so for her. Aurora 1 doesn't need water yet.

I've also watered AK2 until about-10% runoff, let it absorb back for 20 minutes, dabbed the bottom of the fabric pot with a towel and put it back in the tent.

Until now water temp has been around 77 degrees. I heard cooler water is better so I've been leaving the jugs next the AC unit. This has brought the temp down to about 71 degrees.

Aurora #2 was fed with cooler water only, the rest with hotter water so far. Let's see how she likes it.

The environment (Really tight now, just need to keep it clean):

Temps Lights On: 77-81
Temp Lights Off:77-79

Humidity Lights On: 40-50
humidity Lights Off:55-70

Lights still turned down to 600W for Veg.

All plants save for the Aurora's have been topped.

The really tall AK I think might be a male due to the crazy height so a little experimentation is in order, worst case I might slow it down a little I topped in an odd way from the up-shooting branches just to see what becomes of it.

I switched to tap water due to CAL MAG and after doing so have learned that Chlorine and Cholormine may be wiping out my microbial Rhizosphere a bit each time I water. I will have to look into this more but the obvious solution while not as cheap is to go back to the RO water and add Cal Mag. The goal for my wife and I were to use as little in the way of synthetics and as for soil make sure that there is life and that the nutrients are available to the plants not just present in the medium. Anyway, will do some research and cost analysis.

 

[Phenoman]

Re: Phenominawesome Family First Grow Tries Aurora Indica, AK48's - 1KW MH/HPS - 5x5

Day 30-34 from seed.

My bad everyone, I had a post started for this but apparently it never got actually sent. I'll try to get in 2 updates today.

Day 30:

Started training the stretchy AK that I presume may be the first male for kicks. I am doing a little LST as well experimenting with breaking a little tissue with a squeeze and letting the branch fall over. It's working and producing a mainlining effect.

I took each end of the mainline and topped a second time fimming both sides. Boy if this turns out to be a female I'm going to have my work cut out for me supporting and roping this girl under control!

 

[Phenoman]

Re: Phenominawesome Family First Grow Tries Aurora Indica, AK48's - 1KW MH/HPS - 5x5

Day 34 First Feeding of Nutrients.

So i bought the fox farm line of nutrients dirty dozen. For some reason I was under the impression the bottles were somehow smaller than normal so my expectation was to get a couple of grows. For 90 bucks they shipped full 16oz bottles along with enough Open Sesame, Beastie Bloomz and Cha-Ching to last quite a while. For a hobbyist grower, on paper, this by far seems the best value. We'll see as I said this is going to be the control that I will be basing all future grows from I think that it's good to use a complete line of a single product.



I will say this, after mixing up the week 2 veg nutes at 1/4 in tap water PH 6.7 I noticed within a few hours all of the yellowish stems and upper growth turned a rich happier green than it has ever been.

I wonder if my poor babies could have had some more food up until now but I have also read, and it makes logical sense, that certain stresses are good. A little hunger, a little thirst followed by a decent amount etc. All things I cannot wait to try and experience.

(update end of day - no signs of nute burn on leaves, all plants look happy save their normal bedtime droop)

I noticed a couple of days ago what looks like a magnesium deficiency on the Aurora Indica directly dead center so I added 1/2 tsp/gallon Epsom salt to the feeding. Total PPM 960-290 from water = 730?? That seems a bit high and especially after only doing 1/4 dosage.

Anyone please chime in, meanwhile I will be watching closely and can flush if needed.

 

[Phenoman]

Re: Phenominawesome Family First Grow Tries Aurora Indica, AK48's - 1KW MH/HPS - 5x5

Just a quick update no ill effect from the feeding.

I fed the Aurora an extra quart of the food that I mixed up yesterday with the epsoms salt as the magnesium issue looks worse today as well as some continued yellowing that I now know COULD be underfeeding. We will see.


I Think I may not see improvement in the effected leaves, can anyone chime in if this is true?

That means I need to be patient and wait for new growth to appear or the condition to stop getting worse I imagine.

Will post picks in a couple of days depending on the girls condition.

Overall, all is well just fattening them up for the flip. Say that five times fast

 

[Smoke Screen]

Re: Phenominawesome Family First Grow Tries Aurora Indica, AK48's - 1KW MH/HPS - 5x5

Nice looking garden! I also have an ak48 almost 2 wks in flower. First grows are always stressful just be patient and relax you have a good setup and seem to be on top of things. Peace

 

[Phenoman]

Re: Phenominawesome Family First Grow Tries Aurora Indica, AK48's - 1KW MH/HPS - 5x5

Thanks SmokeScreen! That's the tough part but you're right. I have to remind myself constantly to slow down to plant time. I think for now im just going to keep an eye on the Aurora and hope that my AK48 #1 is a girl (tied for second place in size, but lovely fuel lemon smell stem rub and symmetrical structure.)

Thanks for the kind words it's always good to get some positive reinforcement. I appreciate it, definitely love to see those AKs in flower! Have you smoked them before? I bought on a whim based on ease of grow and profile. Anyway, I hope you have a wonderful, healthy evening, I know I will

 

[Phenoman]

Re: Phenominawesome Family First Grow Tries Aurora Indica, AK48's - 1KW MH/HPS - 5x5

Day 37 "Worried about the Aurora's and paranoid about infections and infestations"

I'm all over the place now and hopefully someone can help before I do more harm than good.

I know people are cautious to give advice as to not wreck someone's harvest by misdiagnosing but if some folks could chime in with hypothetical and possibly what their experience has been? I'm not asking for the solution I can work it out once I have more information Can anyone tell I write computer software?

Questions that will help me troubleshoot the problem (Super grateful in advance even if no one sees this, this sight has overpaid me already):

1) Can I check my soil PH with water tester or PH pen (liquid kind) accurately .
2) How hard is it to knock out soil PH? I would imagine feeding from 6.5-6.8 wouldn't do it, so salt/fert build-up.
3) What is most common? Magnesium deficiency, or unavailable Mg?, Iron deficiency, or unavailable Fe? etc.

Help with those 3 questions will be awesome! Even more awesome would be better questions to ask!!

Smoke Screen above helped me calm down (Thanks Smoke!) so I'm not being reactionary. I'm going to do this calm.

I will post a photo from yesterday in natural light:


Here she is today:


Here are some leaf close ups:



So the Aurora 1 and it's lil sister appear the only 2 doing it so far.

I've been pretty cautious on PH, double checking my meter much of the time with liquid to make sure it's in the right ballpark.

The only "mistake" that I can think of is 2 waterings without runoff as I learned I was over watering, they were too small for pots so I didn't water till runoff.

They are large enough now so when they dry out I will water to runoff to leach a bit.

I do have a few fungus gnats, put out more traps today but I would call it far from infestation on the adult level, larva I don't know. Topsoil kept dry.

Here are a few more in natural light:



This Aurora droops a lot before bed...


Overall looking good. I want to be sure all is in order before I flip to 12 12 but i'm quickly running out of space and need to sex my plants so I don't think I can wait for pre-flowers.

The other option is let them veg out like mad, save up for the LED and take some cuts before flowering.
The problem with that is we don't have the genetics that we want yet. My wife is still searching as am I
Lime Skunk sounds AMAZING for example.
CandyLand is my current favorite and if I could some Estes CL genetics next run I'll be sooooo happy and run it over and over and make rosin and...Ah weed

 

[Smoke Screen]

Re: Phenominawesome Family First Grow Tries Aurora Indica, AK48's - 1KW MH/HPS - 5x5

Try some mosquito bits mixed into the top layer of soil, with the yellow traps that should take out the nats before they get to bad. The bits kill the larvae when they feed on them it worked great for me. They also sell dunks but you got to crush them yourself. I havent smoked ak yet but definetly a bushy plant and cloned really easy.

 

[Phenoman]

Re: Phenominawesome Family First Grow Tries Aurora Indica, AK48's - 1KW MH/HPS - 5x5

Nice, perfect timing Smoke Screen. Got paid today and relized the gnats can really come back fast. I was looking at those and the gnat nix. I'll order some bits tonight then should be here by Sunday. Ill have an update with picks tomorrow.

 

[Phenoman]

Re: Phenominawesome Family First Grow Tries Aurora Indica, AK48's - 1KW MH/HPS - 5x5

Apologies but the weekend got away from me (Final Fantasy Online trial with my wife and mom) But I did get some pictures that I will put up during lunch or a lull at work.

Pre-flowers are starting, I've confirmed one female and about to confirm the large one that I think is a male.

I ordered some of Advanced Sensi Cal-Mag Ultra. Only because of the extra amino acids, otherwise it looks like one product is as good as any other so long as there is a bit of chelated iron as well.

The reason for this is so that I know exactly what is in my water and this...

My thoughts on Chlorine and chloramine:

After further research, pouring chlorinated water through soil does bind the chloramine the first 1/2-1 inch or so of soil.

...However, if you are mixing nutrients with microbes such as I am (Fox farms full line has a TON of beneficial bacteria and mycorrhizae), that would essentially kill my beneficial life before they ever hit the soil.

Therefore I am going back to R.O. water and adding the Cal-Mag, Iron Supplement.

I'm also needing a better system of organization, I have a notebook that has every detail but that is part of the problem. Every detail so finding information is getting more difficult. Normally I would use my computer of course but it's more convenient to write it down as I go.

I'm alternating food and water 1/1 and each plant only gets either when it needs it. No schedule in stone.

I need a way to track this. will design something and share with PPL unless someone has one already. Cheers back in bit.

 

[Phenoman]

Re: Phenominawesome Family First Grow Tries Aurora Indica, AK48's - 1KW MH/HPS - 5x5

Ok so great news. Day 43 from seed.

First a couple of large canopy shots. I have roughly 40 inches of plant to play with from the top of the soil (50 to the floor) after accounting for lights etc, 12" from light glass is what I gave myself. the tent is 5x5x6.5 (edited I originally put 7.5 tall it's 80 inches)

I haven't removed males as I haven't found any. I have confirmed 4 female. both Auroras, the Grapefruit and AK48#5.

All that in mind, should I stay vegging? (I've started to tie down the really big one with string)


I've been doing a water or feed 1 or 2 plants as they need it if I can to keep humidity below astronomical. Luckily, I hope, they won't get below 68f for PM. I'm sure the spores are around here...

Anyway pre-sexing them currently.

This one, my 'best' AK#5 is a girl! She's only second biggest but her shape, thick branching and stem rubbing is like pure lemon fresh rocket fuel. The others have a little lemon/citrus smell while the runt has a fuel smell that is nuts...shame but if there is room for her she will live.
I did some monster cropping to experiment and it was on this one. The branches stayed down for a while but I came in one day to find both plants that I had been training standing straight up with big knuckles where I pinched them but they decided it was better form to grow up. Duh, tied them down.

So I cannot do a scrog net until I get the damn males out. Good thing is that I'm getting pre-flowers so I think the best course is to veg until I can cull the males?

More pics here is Aurora Indica 1 The best overall in the garden in my opinion as far as spacing, size, health etc. -who is no longer showing deficiency on new growth. I have Sensi Cal-Mag ultra coming in today to add to the water. Switched back to R.O. water

Aurora 2

Iced Grapefruit X ?? closest center, Aurora Indica #2 closest right, AK48 (thinner pheno) 3 middle, back-center, back-right,Back-Left AK48#5 confirmed female will likely clone her if I can get the stuff together in time.

The babies just woke for the day and I am about 99 percent sure that AK#3 and AK48#4(the monster) are both females!!

There is no question about 5 it's got multiple pre-flowers with 2 hairs protruding from each, the 2 above have what look like a single hair and they are tear shaped but I don't have a loupe yet so it's hard to see if that hair is actually 2 stuck together still or what.

The runt looks like it's going to be a male but it's a but early. I'm about 80% on that based on the shape and growth differences. It has very little tear shape as compared to the others, more round but the tip is pointing straight out rather than up with the 2 hairs.

 

[Phenoman]

Re: Phenominawesome Family First Grow Tries Aurora Indica, AK48's - 1KW MH/HPS - 5x5

The joy was short lived. This is like a damn roller coaster I love it.

So...The ones that I THOUGHT were girls (AK48 #5 (Save for AK48 #5 definitely a female no doubt has many pre-flowers on the plant that are in no way mistakable) The others were a bit tear dropped with what looked like the start of a single hair...not female for sure but now I think this is a good indicator for a male. Why? because on other part of the plant it looks like 2 bitty sacs growing on the same side but very tiny yet so I want to give it a little more time to show me.

The Feminized Aurora girls and the Grapefruit are 100% confirmed also so worst case I have 4 plants. Which is what I wanted to begin with, however I don't want to throw any away needlessly lol!

Sensi-Cal mag ultra showed up a day late. It's the only non-Fox Farm nutrient that I'm using other than the Epsom salt which I will be discontinuing now. I do not see a deficiency in new growth but will add it to the RO water for prevention.

This Cal-Mag has a 4-0-0 NPK with 4% nitrate nitrogen. It has iron and Kelp meal so no FF kelp me in the regular water.

I'll upload a chart of how the feeding went once done just to see what it looks like to feed and water that way. I'll try a regular schedule once the fall season comes on a couple...

 

[StonyMagoo]

Re: Phenominawesome Family First Grow Tries Aurora Indica, AK48's - 1KW MH/HPS - 5x5

The joy was short lived. This is like a damn roller coaster I love it.

So...The ones that I THOUGHT were girls (AK48 #5 (Save for AK48 #5 definitely a female no doubt has many pre-flowers on the plant that are in no way mistakable) The others were a bit tear dropped with what looked like the start of a single hair...not female for sure but now I think this is a good indicator for a male. Why? because on other part of the plant it looks like 2 bitty sacs growing on the same side but very tiny yet so I want to give it a little more time to show me.

The Feminized Aurora girls and the Grapefruit are 100% confirmed also so worst case I have 4 plants. Which is what I wanted to begin with, however I don't want to throw any away needlessly lol!

Sensi-Cal mag ultra showed up a day late. It's the only non-Fox Farm nutrient that I'm using other than the Epsom salt which I will be discontinuing now. I do not see a deficiency in new growth but will add it to the RO water for prevention.

This Cal-Mag has a 4-0-0 NPK with 4% nitrate nitrogen. It has iron and Kelp meal so no FF kelp me in the regular water.

I'll upload a chart of how the feeding went once done just to see what it looks like to feed and water that way. I'll try a regular schedule once the fall season comes on a couple...

Subbed! Nice looking grow! You clearly have your stuff together more than I do, lol. I had the whole cart before the horse thing going on, lol!

 

[Phenoman]

Re: Phenominawesome Family First Grow Tries Aurora Indica, AK48's - 1KW MH/HPS - 5x5

Thanks! I am a little obsessive when it comes to things but I feel exactly as you just described lol. I started the seeds before I had everything. In fact I work from my home office and for a short time they occupied the closet in here with no ventilation just so they could share the AC unit with me lol.

Hey quick question, you just flipped to flower on 6/27 I have notifications on your thread but if you wouldn't mind getting some photos of those first weeks of flower and just how much the plants fill out that would be awesome.

I'm worried some of my AKs are too small stem wise so I want to see if they fatten up a bit. If so I will flip this weekend. Thanks and great looking grow you have going on over there!!

 

[Phenoman]

Re: Phenominawesome Family First Grow Tries Aurora Indica, AK48's - 1KW MH/HPS - 5x5

Just a cool couple of shots at bedtime...Day 45 veg from seed

Some in regular light. I ran out of time last night before I got them all:

So what I'll do is start getting ready to flip. I plan on doing 24 hours dark plus whatever it takes to get them on schedule before I have the lights come back on with the HPS bulb in.

I'm hoping heat wise the 1K HPS won't push things too far heat wise
The lights are on a 17-7 schedule right now and have been for a few weeks. When I shifted the daytime by a couple of hours I added an hour of dark, from what I understand it's less stressful to take away light hours but that could be a myth.

I plan to do a 7P-7A 12/12 because of heat and work schedule.

 

[StonyMagoo]

Re: Phenominawesome Family First Grow Tries Aurora Indica, AK48's - 1KW MH/HPS - 5x5

Thanks! I am a little obsessive when it comes to things but I feel exactly as you just described lol. I started the seeds before I had everything. In fact I work from my home office and for a short time they occupied the closet in here with no ventilation just so they could share the AC unit with me lol.

Hey quick question, you just flipped to flower on 6/27 I have notifications on your thread but if you wouldn't mind getting some photos of those first weeks of flower and just how much the plants fill out that would be awesome.

I'm worried some of my AKs are too small stem wise so I want to see if they fatten up a bit. If so I will flip this weekend. Thanks and great looking grow you have going on over there!!

My AK-47 is a midget, it is also the one that had the worst of my root gnat issue at the beginning. They are slow growers no matter what though.