First grow, AK-48 from seed under 400w HPS.

[monkeybones]

Weekly to twice a week updates

As the title states, first grow!

Using this as an excuse to make my first post and break into the rollitup scene

I started with 5 AK-48 and 10 mystery seeds, all 5 AK's are up and out of the dirt and 7 out of 10 of the mystery seed are also growing. Two of the mystery seeds are the largest as they were preliminarily sown in jiffies 5 days before germination of the rest of em.

These have been growing since March 8th.

Here are some pictures, taken March 21. I'm growing in my closet, basic Shultz potting soil with a bit of added perlite. All of these girls were started in coir pellets, which I attribute to the great germination rate Temps are currently ranging from 67 at night to 82 during the day. Two fans in the enclosure, one venting the light and one blowing directly on the girls.

Looking for comments and pointers towards obvious mistakes and things that can be easily improved.

Cheers =)


My closet ^^b

The prettiest of the AK-48 seedlings:

One of the plants that got a head-start:

Another mystery seed sown at the same time as the AK's:

An overview of the grow closet, notice the broad range of plants that are sharing the light while outside thaws XD

Again, I'll be updating this thread with more advanced stage pics

 

[monkeybones]

Ah, that didn't work. Let me fix those pictures...

 

[GanjaFresh]

Wonderful setup my friend, love the flag. Most of your plants are looking healthy, but I do see some that are stretching for light. You do have a fan in there right?

 

[monkeybones]

Wonderful setup my friend, love the flag. Most of your plants are looking healthy, but I do see some that are stretching for light. You do have a fan in there right?

Thanks, fresh! Yeah there are two fans in the room, one above the hpsreflector and one pointed at the plants. As soon as the stems look sturdier I want to move a bigger fan in.

Are you pointing out the bending leaves, angle of the leaves, or appearance of the stems as evidence of stretching?

At any rate I lowered my light to about 16 inches (down from 18.) and turned up the fan a bit.

 

[TexasMonster]

Thanks, fresh. Yeah there are two fans in the room, one above the hpsreflector and one pointed at the plants. As soon as the stems look sturdier I want to move a bigger fan in.

Are you pointing out the bending leaves, angle of the leaves, or appearance of the stems as evidence of stretching?

At any rate I lowered my light to about 16 inches (down from 1 and turned up the fan a bit.

I love autos. I will be watching this one if you are going to keep us posted

 

[monkeybones]

For clarification sake I revised the overview picture, fencing in the important babies and pointing out strain ["?" being representative of a mystery seed].

Texas; definitly going to be posting pictures two to three times a week. I'm too obsessive of a hobbyist for any less

 

[ckckck]

your gonna have problems with light leaks when u swith to flower 12/12 make sure your grow room is 100% light proof otherwise you will have problems with plants turning hermie

 

[monkeybones]

your gonna have problems with light leaks when u swith to flower 12/12 make sure your grow room is 100% light proof otherwise you will have problems with plants turning hermie

Yeah you bring up a good point. I certainly plan on investing in some mylar to accomplish this quite soon. For now they're enjoying the 18/6 they currently receive.

 

[bobbyhopefeild]

i noticed on some of you seedlings(particularily third pic down which you labelled as the plant having a head start) leaves look a bit crinkled and wavy and delicate
i noticed the same thing on my seedlings a while ago
do you (or anyone) know why their leaves start looking a bit worse for wear???
x

 

[monkeybones]

i noticed on some of you seedlings(particularily third pic down which you labelled as the plant having a head start) leaves look a bit crinkled and wavy and delicate
i noticed the same thing on my seedlings a while ago
do you (or anyone) know why their leaves start looking a bit worse for wear???
x

I cannot claim to know for sure, but it's my guess that this is a natural process. All of my seedlings that have begun their second set of serrated leaves have experienced this waveyness, but both of the "head-start" seedlings, though also showing this characteristic, grew out of it by time their 4-leaf nodes began.

My first thought was "leaf burn" but I ruled that out when the leaves didn't actually die but continued growing normally.

Based on no experience at all and on observation so far, it looks to me like this is something the plants do to accomodate for the sudden change in leaf size that the first serrated blades undergo.

Or that could all be hogwash and there's something wrong with our plants! haha

I would doubt that though, all of my seedlings seem to be in quite good health regardless of the temporary leaf bending

 

[monkeybones]

On further reflection I suppose it's also possible that because I began some of my seedlings under a pretty shitty CFL (bein' a nooby i was scared of giving the babies too much light), now that they're under a more powerful light, puny leaves have changed growth patterns producing this weird wavey effect.

I haven't found anything about this in the forums so far, but I will keep on looking until an authoritative source points to the correct answer.

 

[monkeybones]

Here's an update, rapid growth everywhere.

Someone asked about fans...

The biggest plant, not included in the last pictures.

Anyone seen leaves like this? It failed to split a third leaflet and has weird blemishes. The rest of its leaves look fine.

Second biggest from last time.

Beauty AK-48.

Mystery;

Like my cacti?

They're enjoying the light.

Questions? Comments? Fatal errors? =P

Cheers,
monkey

 

[monkeybones]

The two largest leaves on the largest plant started showing copper coloured spots today.

From What i understand this, in conjunction with curling leaves (see most recent pictures) is good indication of over-fertilization.

This vexes me, as I have not fertilized these plants once yet.

I've used "Shultz Potting Soil Plus" the entire grow, which includes their "Multicote" plant food, said to feed plants for up to nine months. I figured, something so slow-releasing must be gentle enough for little seedlings. I've since regretted choosing this potting soil as, after further research, I would have much prefered a neutral soil that I might have fertilized selectively with more natural choices. I do like me some bat guano.

I've considered going out and buying bags of vermaculite/peat moss and possibly some sphagnum moss and with the perlite I already have mixing some of my own soil and using that from now on. Possibly repotting the most of the plants (though I rue the additional root stress =[ ).Infact this does sound like a choice option.

Opinions? Insight?

Camera is on the road at the moment, new pictures coming later tonight.

 

[monkeybones]

So after some independant research I've found that copper coloured spotting on some leaves with the presence of twisting leaves can be indication of Zinc deficiency in a cannabis plant stemming from an overly acidic pH.

Lowering the soil to a more alkaline pH should free up more zinc for the plant to digest.

I ordered a ph/moisture meter a couple weeks ago and it should be arriving any day now, so my babies won't stress out too much longer hopefully.

I also have a bottle of superthrive on the way. Heard nothing but good things about this stuff and I can't wait to try it. (organic, yay!)

 

[monkeybones]

March 25th, finally got my hands on one of the cameras, but it's a shitty one, so bear with me. I wanted to post a minor update while I get my hands on the camera used in the last posts.

Everything seems to be doing okay. The largest plant, the one that has been showing problems in the form of copper spots, is showing much less stress in its new growth, so hopefully that issue is alleviating itself.

The AK-48's are by far the fastest growing so far, as you'll see in the upcoming pictures.

Small overview, AK-48's are in the large pots surrounding the two largest plants in the middle.





AK48's:


The second pic is blurry, I know, and I even managed picturefinger. Go me!
But I wanted to give you folks an idea of the actual colour of the leaves.




Second largest plant, the new growth on this one is also showing much promise in comparison to before.


Largest plant, observe the older, battered leaves, and much healthier looking new growth.

I added a larger fan and raised the lamp a bit, and this seems to be helping a lot with the bending leaf issue.

I'll hopefully be posting back later tonight with a wider range of higher definition pictures.

 

[monkeybones]

Here's an update;

Just a bunch of AK-48 pics today.

Things are lookin good methinks =)

Obviously taking pictures exclusively outside of the HPS's sunshine is a much better idea.

Cheers,
-monkey

 

[monkeybones]

If anyone would like more specific photos of different plants, or information about my grow, let me know

 

[Anjinsan]

yeah those last few pics are looking very healthy...nice color...the works.

Yeah a good airflow is key. I had a full sized ocscillating fan set on low for the first month...and as the plants strengthened...the last month of so the fans were on full blast.

It does a few things: the plants need the fresh air to "breathe" and as importantly...the shaking of the plants via "wind" strengthens and thickens the stems.

 

[GOATHEAD]

Ive been growing ak-48 for about 18 mo. SOG style, I keep ph just below 7. a good meter is worth everything

 

[monkeybones]

yeah those last few pics are looking very healthy...nice color...the works.

Yeah a good airflow is key. I had a full sized ocscillating fan set on low for the first month...and as the plants strengthened...the last month of so the fans were on full blast.

It does a few things: the plants need the fresh air to "breathe" and as importantly...the shaking of the plants via "wind" strengthens and thickens the stems.

Thanks for the compliments Yeah, I've moved a full size oscillating fan in there now, and the plants are looking much much healthier for it.

Ive been growing ak-48 for about 18 mo. SOG style, I keep ph just below 7. a good meter is worth everything

Thanks for the tip on PH, glad to hear a fellow AK-48 grower say something about PH, was really hoping for exactly that. When my meter arrives I will aim for something just below 7.