matthewfoley
Active Member
Ok so here's my first thread. I've been a lurker for years - I did my undergrad back on overgrow and was a good way thru a veg period of Amsterdam bought seeds before my roomate got scared. Ditto the second time. Then I got a job where I was randomly drug tested and I quit smoking for about three years.
Then I decided to give it another try last winter. AFOAF supplied some clones; I ordered $1500 worth of equipment. I decided on aeroponics as I'd built my own before and saw how explosive the growth was (and I like the control too - but there are other sides to these advantages of course). I wanted steath so I spent maybe all my free time for a month building out an extra closet to be airtight. I installed a centrifugal fan in the top pushing out thru a charcoal filter in the attic. I air-cooled my 400W light and installed a CO2 injection system from a 10# tank. And just like a newb I went and overfertilized and eventually lost all but one clone. This one that made it got huge and I actually made it into flower, then got hit by high reservoir temps and root rot, followed by high PPM nutrient solution. By week 3 of flower I had to pull the plug. Really sad.
But I wasn't going to give up that easy. Then in January a friend and I ordered 11 AK-47 seeds (Serious Seeds), and 10 Hawaiian Snow seeds (GreenHouse). Being the nice guy I am I told my friend I'd get his started so he could just plant them outdoors as soon as it was warm enough. I set about growing the mothers in soil - out of the 11 AK, only 6 survived and 5 were female. I only grew 5 of the HS: 4 made it and all were female. Things were going well for a few months. The sexing was superfast on both - I only needed to grow 8 weeks from seed before it was obvious.
So I started my second go on the aeroponics with a couple of clones from each HS mother to see which one I liked best. I decided to SCROG due to my limited space. I went 2 weeks from clone in a small aeromister do-it-yourself job then 2 weeks veg before my screen was about 2/3 full. The growth was unbelievable. I had to train twice a day! I was cutting the big fan leaves from the bottom to allow air thru the canopy. Then I switched to 12/12. Which of course to me meant out with the veg nutes, in with the flowering. Doh! Now of course I know that it still needs N during the stretch (esp this stretchy sativa). This was exacerbated by trimming the bottom fan leaves which would have been a source for N. This meant SLOW GROWTH.
Well I'm using Advanced nutes, especially the Pirahna, Tarantula, and Voodoo Juice, because the summer where I live it gets HOT and my res temps were in the high 70's sometimes even 80's. Now I was rotating frozen water bottles to keep the temps down, but I go out of town a lot and it only lasts so long. Well according to the AN website, it tells you to stop using the beneficial bacteria/fungi when you go into flower, so that's what I did. And of course our friend pythium is back overnight. This coupled with the N def above meant that weeks 3-7 were almost 0 growth. One plant out of the 9 clones actually turned out right. I got about 1/2oz off of that one, and about 2 oz's total. Nothing spectacular but at least it's something, and what I did get off the one winner was killer.
So while all this is happening the mothers are getting bigger and bigger and my buddy keeps putting off coming to get the plants. Finally we get it together and so we slipped them into a big tv box, rode out to his land, dug some holes and wouldn't you know it he gets a case of cold feet two weeks later. So we decide to dig them up and bring them back to my house, and build a box to grow in. He was able to supply a 1000W HPS though. So now it's been almost 7 months from seed and they are huge. We pick the four best (any more would have crowded the light - 3AK's and one HS), and induce flowering on August 5.
Even after all that they managed to turn out pretty well I'd say
The Hawaiian Snow still has 4 weeks left
It all weighed 1100g wet with one 111g bud!
I'll start you off with week 7 pics...
Then I decided to give it another try last winter. AFOAF supplied some clones; I ordered $1500 worth of equipment. I decided on aeroponics as I'd built my own before and saw how explosive the growth was (and I like the control too - but there are other sides to these advantages of course). I wanted steath so I spent maybe all my free time for a month building out an extra closet to be airtight. I installed a centrifugal fan in the top pushing out thru a charcoal filter in the attic. I air-cooled my 400W light and installed a CO2 injection system from a 10# tank. And just like a newb I went and overfertilized and eventually lost all but one clone. This one that made it got huge and I actually made it into flower, then got hit by high reservoir temps and root rot, followed by high PPM nutrient solution. By week 3 of flower I had to pull the plug. Really sad.
But I wasn't going to give up that easy. Then in January a friend and I ordered 11 AK-47 seeds (Serious Seeds), and 10 Hawaiian Snow seeds (GreenHouse). Being the nice guy I am I told my friend I'd get his started so he could just plant them outdoors as soon as it was warm enough. I set about growing the mothers in soil - out of the 11 AK, only 6 survived and 5 were female. I only grew 5 of the HS: 4 made it and all were female. Things were going well for a few months. The sexing was superfast on both - I only needed to grow 8 weeks from seed before it was obvious.
So I started my second go on the aeroponics with a couple of clones from each HS mother to see which one I liked best. I decided to SCROG due to my limited space. I went 2 weeks from clone in a small aeromister do-it-yourself job then 2 weeks veg before my screen was about 2/3 full. The growth was unbelievable. I had to train twice a day! I was cutting the big fan leaves from the bottom to allow air thru the canopy. Then I switched to 12/12. Which of course to me meant out with the veg nutes, in with the flowering. Doh! Now of course I know that it still needs N during the stretch (esp this stretchy sativa). This was exacerbated by trimming the bottom fan leaves which would have been a source for N. This meant SLOW GROWTH.
Well I'm using Advanced nutes, especially the Pirahna, Tarantula, and Voodoo Juice, because the summer where I live it gets HOT and my res temps were in the high 70's sometimes even 80's. Now I was rotating frozen water bottles to keep the temps down, but I go out of town a lot and it only lasts so long. Well according to the AN website, it tells you to stop using the beneficial bacteria/fungi when you go into flower, so that's what I did. And of course our friend pythium is back overnight. This coupled with the N def above meant that weeks 3-7 were almost 0 growth. One plant out of the 9 clones actually turned out right. I got about 1/2oz off of that one, and about 2 oz's total. Nothing spectacular but at least it's something, and what I did get off the one winner was killer.
So while all this is happening the mothers are getting bigger and bigger and my buddy keeps putting off coming to get the plants. Finally we get it together and so we slipped them into a big tv box, rode out to his land, dug some holes and wouldn't you know it he gets a case of cold feet two weeks later. So we decide to dig them up and bring them back to my house, and build a box to grow in. He was able to supply a 1000W HPS though. So now it's been almost 7 months from seed and they are huge. We pick the four best (any more would have crowded the light - 3AK's and one HS), and induce flowering on August 5.
Even after all that they managed to turn out pretty well I'd say
The Hawaiian Snow still has 4 weeks left
It all weighed 1100g wet with one 111g bud!
I'll start you off with week 7 pics...
