My 3.5 week old AK47 auto is only 7 inches tall and 13 inch diameter but looks fine

Go for it pirate.Looking forward to see what she yields.
GL.

Nice! Looking forward to seeing the finished product and hearing how much it yields. My ak47 is 8-9 days younger than my vertigos, and it has already grown as tall as the smallest vertigo. It's super bushy like yours.

Well the plant is in darkness until tomorrow morning when I end her life. I feel sad since we nurtured this little gal for almost 3 months.
In preparing for my next grow I stumbled across reference to using 100% Perlite as a growing medium. Have you or someone you know used this method?

Ive read about growers using 100% perlite,or with vermiculite mixed in for water retention,but never done it myself.
Do some research on it and weigh up the pros and cons.
Ive not seen many growers using it on RIU,but there will be some who could advise you better than me.
Try the search bar on here or Google it,you shud get a fair idea from there.
GL.

Yep, I'm wavering on the 100% perlite idea. Good news, today is my first HARVEST DAY. I'm cut her down and trimmed her out but didn't cut as many leaves and stems off as I could have so the numbers I have are inflated BUT very encouraging. I ended up with 676 grams (23.845 ounces) of wet stuff. With 70% water loss that brings projected dry weights down to still over 7 ounces. That sounds waaaaay too high still so I'm anxious to do a final weigh-in after the drying period. You couldn't knock the smile off my face all morning. This is a very satisfying hobby. The drying room is 35% RH at a temperature of 70 degrees F. Here are some pics.

Very nice pirate.Dnt forget the weight of the branches has to be deducted.
But you shud have about 3 or 4 oz dried weed,i guess.Which is great for an auto,and your first grow.
Well done pirate.
I was thinking of growing perlite/vermiculite 70/30 in hempy buckets,it would cut out messing around with coco.
And you just use the stuff over and over.
Good luck with the drying/curing and keep smiling,it is a very satisfying hobby indeed.

So satisfying when u get to chop it im about a week out and this is the worst part waiting but awsome job looking forward to seein some finished product. And for the perlite idea I use like 60-75% perlite and a few handfulls of foxfarm seems to work for me but they do dry out really quick almost every other day I have to water

Thanks for the kind words. I have my coco coir all washed up and ready once my seeds arrive. Robro, are you still sold on coco coir? Seems like you might be considering other options. Propain, your medium approach sounds interesting also. I have no problem watering on a frequent basis. I overwatered this AK47 so if I can get a medium that allows a little bit of overwatering abuse but still drain well then it would be a good option for me. Your mention of "a few handfuls of foxfarm". Would you please tell me you mixture? My next grow is Northern Light and Aurora Indica photoperiod and I want to find an easy medium that suits those strains. Just today I received six Air-Pots. I'm such a newbie but researching as much as possible.

I don't turely have a mixture I use fox farms happy frog and wiggle worm earthworm castings and I use to add some bat Peruvian bat guano but I don't have anymore. But yeah I put a this sheet of like brown packing paper in the bottom of the pot then fill with 2-3 in of just perlite then on top of that a thin layer of worm castings then a 1-2 in layer of soil then a layer of perlite and so on till its full then I use my had to mix it up a bit so its not in perfect layers but if its drainage ur looking for I water with one gallon and the pots are 2gal and it just drinks it up I don't have to stop and wait for it to drain at all. It works for me when I first started I didn't use very much perlite and realized that the soil just turns to like clay and those plants sucked it completely stunted the roots now my plants could prob use bigger pots cause they cover the entire inside of the pots at the end

And do u have a microscope cause from what I can see that plant looks like she might have been able to go another week or two can't really tell from the pics

Yeah,im gonna start using hempy buckets and 100% perlite.Ive done some research on them and i like the idea.
Ive enjoyed using coco,but theres a lot less work involved using perlite in hempies,and a lot less waste.
So it will be easier on my bad back and my pocket.

Just have to get some more perlite and buckets and i will be giving Hempies a go.
GL on your next grow pirate.

Propain, I really had intended on the plant going another week but it started to yellow all over quickly over this past week. I figured it would be safer to go ahead and harvest now instead of running the risk of something going terribly wrong. I do have a jewelers loupe and I also have a microscope type camera which gives so-so clarity. You can see some the trichome pics in my earlier posts. Bottom line is I agree with you that in a perfect world I should have waited another week or so. Thanks for your candor. I'm hoping I can pick your brain on future grows if you don't mind sharing your experience. So much to learn, so little time.

Yeah no problem anything I can to to help. But yeah the yellowing is a good thing normally it means that the plant has about a week or two left I just pull the leaves off if they come off with a little tug then they need to come off but my plants now have literally only a handfull of fanleaves left and they look like absolute shit yellow and the ends are burnt (all my fault) but they are basically just buds on stems and they are still growing and the buds all look great and they are all still bulking up.

pirate this turned out really well for you. i think you did really well for using florescents. what light cycle did you use ? 20/4 24/0 18/6 ? i'm thinking of having ak47 auto under floro for my next grow, this thread is really nice

i was looking around and saw you posted 20/4. what seed company did you use ?

Hiya FridayFishFry, I bought my AK47 auto seeds from Bonza Seeds. They were very good and stealthy and arrived in a timely manner. Yes, CFLs are a good fit for me since I can't vent easily outside. I threw as many CFLs as I could into this grow and mixed the spectrums along the way. It was a bit of a challenge positioning the lights where they would do the most good. My next grow is even going to be more challenging since I'll be attempting 3 plants (including another AK47 auto). All 3 seeds are now in wet paper towels and I hope to see them pop tomorrow. My first grow which has been detailed in this thread is now in the drying rack and I'm hoping the stems will be snapping tomorrow. They look fine but I have nothing to compare it against so who knows how the smoke will turn out. I'll let you know when the drying/curing is complete. This is an engaging hobby for me and so far has been satisfying.

anyone have a clue what strain this is iwas told a k47 or sour diesel was taken from 3 year old bag of seeds. there are better vies on my photos on first time growers

Your plant looks similar to my AK47 but mine was more bushy. I imagine there are many variants of the strain.

I'm really psyched about the results of this grow. I ended up with a little more than 3.5 ounces (100 grams) even after the wifey grabbed a few pieces from the drying rack. She is very impressed by the quality. I'm adding my whole grow journal below along with some general observations. I find CFL growing matches my conditions and feel I'll be using these lights for some time. Thanks to everyone for the helpful advice. Please keep in touch. You can bet I'm going to be pestering you in the future for more tips.