First Grow: Closet, 400 W MH/HPS -- Violator Kush, SAD1, Afghan Kush Ryder

[SloeGinFiz]

Hey guys, this is my first attempt at a grow, with the assistance of a friend/roommate that has some experience with growing. I'm attempting to grow the following plants in a 3 x 5 x 8.5 closet space: Violator Kush, Sweet Afghani Delicious, and Afghan Kush Ryder. Here's a list of materials/items/nutes I'm using.

Nutes:
Roots Organics-- Buddha Grow & Trinity, with Buddha Bloom & HPK for flowering

Six inch inline fan for ventilation, and and oscillating fan on the ground to generally circulate air.

I'm in week 2 after germination and under the lights. My next two posts will include pics from the last 2 weeks and a bit of a small tragedy/small concern that maybe you guys can help me out with that occurred just a couple of days ago.

 

[SloeGinFiz]

The average temp was in the high 80s, occasionally creeping around 91. We made the decision to order an inline fan because we had been using an oscillating fan, rigged to be the exhaust to draw out the hot air.

For the first week we watered the germinated plants with 50% strengeth nutes and have made sure that the pH is at a optimal level, and this is what we had yielded after one week of a 18/6 light cycle.

 

[SloeGinFiz]

In the next week we quenched each plant's with fresh water for 3 days, and then began alternating between fresh and 50% nute water, and will likely stick to the freshH2O/50%nute alternating sequence for the time being.

A few days before our second week, we had to install our inline fan. It was after the light cycle had finished, so we placed the plants in a dark room and set up the fan. Once the fan was up, I went to replace the plants in the closet, and I accidentally dropped two of the plants after tripping on something in the dark

The roots were exposed a little bit, but for the most part they had clogs of dirt on them or surrounding them. I replaced the spilled soil with fresh soil, put the plants back in the dark, and rocked in a corner, shivering and filled with parental anxiety.

After about 2 days, there was noticeable shock/fatigue occurring in the two toppled plants (Violator Kush and SAD). I've included pics of some of the leaf wilt, slight yellowing, and a little leaf deterioration. We added full strength Buddha Bloom/Trinity combo to see if they were suffering from a nute deficiency since their roots maybe hadn't re-established themselves...?

Will you guys please take a look at the pics and let us know what you think?

After installing the inline fan, temp has been hovering betwixt 83-85, btw.

 

[SloeGinFiz]

Hey guys, still haven't seen an improvement in color from the Violator Kush. Since last Wednesday we've watered the plant with Trinity/Buddha Grow at 100% of suggested concentration on Wednesday and then gave it a water soak on Friday. The pics are from today, Sunday. There is another picture of a healthy Sweet Afghani Delicious to give you some color context.

Got any ideas of how to pep this plant up and improve its complexion??

 

[SloeGinFiz]

Here are some shots of the plants at week 3.

The yellowish droopy one is the Sweet Afghani Delicious that we have been having trouble with. We decided to lower the plants away from being so close to the light. Still feeding them 50% nutes and alternating days between nutes and fresh water.

and as you can see our Kush Ryder is showin' some of her buds. yesss!

 

[SloeGinFiz]

Week 4 pics. Plants still struggling.

alternating feeding them fresh water and ab 75% nutes. They only seem thirsty every 2nd day so we don't water them daily.

avg. temp is down to about 80 now. still going 18/6hr light shifts.

anyone have any tips for us?

 

[Punky McBadbone]

Remember with nutes more is not always better, sometimes it's better to use 1/4-1/2 the recommended dosage.

 

[SloeGinFiz]

Remember with nutes more is not always better, sometimes it's better to use 1/4-1/2 the recommended dosage.

Yeah, unfortunately this is some advice I should've read 2 days ago when I accidentally over-nuted our AKR and saw some nute burn at its tips. Thanks for your reply though! Glad to know someone else besides me checks this thing

Here is our week 5 update.

Recently we've transplanted all 4 plants into larger containers, switched to a 12/12 cycle, and changed bulbs to HPS to nudge the plants in to showing sex.

Still seems like theyre kinda slow going, probably due to the accident a few weeks ago. Hope they show sex soon. Took some pics in normal light this time to see what sort of photo quality I would get.

Please feel free to chime in if you have any critiques

 

[SloeGinFiz]

Sorry to my hundreds of followers that I didn't update this last week. I did however snap the photos.

Here we go. Under HPS in a 12/12 cycle. Been switching fresh/nuted water cycle, splitting an allotment of about a quarter gallon of water per plant.

Since they're getting bigger do I need to start feeding them more water than that?

 

[SloeGinFiz]

And here are week 7 photos

All the plants have shown sex, so I'm happy that everything is flowering, and that our AKR seems to be coming along nicely

 

[Lazerith840]

nice job on the plants I just started some VK and some Diesel ryders so I'm looking forward to seeing what happens with your grow.