AK 48 grow...

[yarddog35]

I am growing with a medical marijuana card so all of what you see is either your imagination or is legal...


AK 48 feminized seeds from Nirvana (would buy from again!)

This is where it started:
https://www.rollitup.org/showthread.php?t=264734&highlight=seeds+Nirvana

After doing a ton of reading on here I learned cfl and fluorescent lights are best for root growth then introduce to HID after they are around 6"-8", opinions still vary but this seems to be the best way.

They are in Fox Farm light warrior mixed with some perlite. I will be transplanting to either Ocean Forest or Happy Frog when I go to HID lighting.

The closet:

2 Reef Sun 50/50 fish tank fluorescents and 4 75w 6500k cfl's to get the girls started. Thinking of getting a couple more cfls and getting rid of the fluorescent but I still need to buy a mh bulb...

This is eleven days after popping out of the soil. I slowed their growth a litte messing with the hps light at first but they are growing fast now.

I will keep things updated every week or so.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[newb101]

awesome grow great lookin stuff looks like youve got everything under control! great post bro.

 

[yarddog35]

A little update. Well I'm noob to growing let alone noob to cfl's. I realized they need to be very close to the girls and I needed more. Growth has been slow due to my mistakes but, after searching more of RIU and seeing very fast growth from some members picture's I learned quick that I was doing somethings wrong.

This is the end result and how I will veg for awhile. 4 23w 6500k cfl's, 2 18w 6500k's, 2 23w 2700k's. I think that should do cause I have to wear sunglasses now to look into the cabinet.

Some pics:

Sometimes the simplest things come in handy. "never had it, never will"

The second girl has always been lighter in color. She was the first to pop out of her shell and out of dirt. Now the other has caught up and looks better.

So this is day 16 since they popped out of dirt. The growth rate has picked up since I lowered the original cfl's. Now with the addition of the 23w bulbs I hope they will take off.

Any advice is always welcome.

 

[Abnjm]

Your seedlings are looking great! I'm on my second week of flowering for my Nirvana AK-48's, and it has been easy to care for, and a strong grower.

Good luck with your grow!

Subscribed.

 

[yarddog35]

Well I really blew it this time. Did some rearranging over the weekend and one of the sets of cfl's I had swiveled onto one of my little girls.

In this pic you can see the danger before it even happend.

I hate to pull her so lets see what happens. I germinated another AK 48 seed I had, its in dirt now.

The final set up for now for vegging. 6 23w 6500k cfl's, 2 23w 2700k and 2 18w 6500k's.

 

[Dr.RR]

Honestly I'd put them under the MH now (Unless u only have HPS, in which case I might start using it as well). My last set of babies were started under MH about 34" away for the first day, then started lowering it everyday. They grew like champs. I know opinions vary but if I were you I'd introduce them to the HID you have.

BUT they are looking damn nice! You've done a stellar job so far; i'm going to follow this thread because I'd love to grow some AK-48 from Nirvana someday. Want to know if it really is a fast grower & flowering strain!

 

[yarddog35]

After dealing with heat issues and my blunders I think I am finally on the right track here. The mylar was creating too much heat in my small closet 2'3"x2'3"x3'4".

After reading more on here and the advice from Dr.RR I set up the 250w hps light along with 4 6500k 23w cfls. Since I am on a budget for now this will have to do for lighting.

As for the heat issues I went to Lowes and picked up two cheap bathroom fans, 50cfm for $13 each. I mounted one up top with ducting running up and out the back of the closet through an opening for exhaust.

The other brings in cool air to the small area. I tried blowing air on the light or just into the area it seems to do better just blowing in toward the bottom.

I also bought a little Sunbeam humidifier from Wal Mart for $23, it works good and blows nice cool air.

Now my temps peak around 82 and are usually around 79-80. Humidity is around 50%.

The closet

The healthy girl

My little two headed monster. I'm glad I didn't pull her I think she will be okay.

Growth has been slow. I went to the hydro shop and picked a bottle of Flora Nova grow, its 7-4-10 the guy said to start with about a quarter dose for now. Any opinions on this product?

That's all for now, I hope I start to see faster growth when they get some food.

 

[yarddog35]

Been tinkering a little more with the closet. I would really like to get a piece of furniture to grow in, I've seen a few awsome stealth nightstand and armoire set ups (big props to LoveTheVapor for his set up).

Anyway I added another strip of cfl's to bring in more vegging light, each plant gets 92 watts directly on it plus the 250w hps.

A close up of the girls

And a little sprout that is starting to show some growth

This is their second feeding with another round of 1/4 strength nutes. Growth is still slow but I think they are doing okay. I'm really leaning on building a bubbleponics system when I can cut clones, growth is incredible.

That's all I got for now

 

[timsatx1]

the color seems off big time. dont feed nutes yet.

 

[Dr.RR]

I gotta agree with the above poster, seems way too early for nutes. They def ain't growing as fast as they should...

 

[yarddog35]

Yeah I don't know whats going on to be honest. I don't know if it was messing with all the different lighting or what. The pic does make the plant look a little more yellow than in person but idk whats up with the growth. I bought ph test strips today and my filtered water comes in at around 6 so its okay, soil is ff light warrior with more perlite...

At this point I almost feel like I am just waiting to get clones from the bigger one and starting over again. I have one bean left of the ak...

 

[sampson0420]

you seem to have those lights awful close for being seedlings, I would def back them off and let them stretch and mature a bit.

 

[yarddog35]

you seem to have those lights awful close for being seedlings, I would def back them off and let them stretch and mature a bit.

All the threads I have read on here have said to keep the cfls as low as possible to the plants due to the lumen loss at a farther distance.


I was really frustrated with my space so I did some rearranging. Two power strips, 12 23w 6500k cfls.

Growth has picked up a little. I think it was time for a small amount of nutes, the new growth is nice and green.

My only guess for the stunted growth is stress on them from the early start of the grow. Each grow is learning experience right

 

[yarddog35]

Well I switched to bubbleponics/dwc so these slow going girls got kicked out of the closet.

They are now soaking up light from 2 24" floro's and a 23w 6500 cfl. I used this florescent light for my first grow and it worked good to veg.

I really don't want to invest more time into these, obviously something is wrong with them.

The good news is they are growing and look fairly green. I will just water them when they are dry and feed them when needed. I might practice lst on the bigger one...who knows.

Well here they are as of today, gave them a little misting before the photo.