First grow in 30 years, Nirvana AK-48 and Northern Lights

03/23/2012
1 of each seed soaked in tap water for 12 hrs. Then into damp paper towels. Room temp +- 72F 45%RH

03/24/2012
Germination, tap root showing, plant 1/4" deep in MG seed starting mix. Tap water.

03/26/2012
Seedlings break ground. Lights 18/6 T-5 51k Four 25 watt 2' tubes @ 2k lumens. Distilled water.

04/02/2012
400 Watt MH @18" 80F 35%RH

04/06/2012
Today PICS !

Tomorrow I plan to transplant into 3 or 5 gal containers and start some dilute nutes.

Comments or suggestions welcome.

Looking good. Have fun and welcome to RIU!

Grow Safe!

Nice job, what are you gonna use for flower?

n/l my favourite. looking good.

chocolope514 said:

Nice job, what are you gonna use for flower?

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I am using a Sun System 2 400W MH.HPS switchable ballast, I'll swap out the MH lamp for a HPS. I'll supplement this with a couple of 52 watt cfls to help fill in around the edges.
I hope this will be enough lighting to get a good yeild in a 3'x2'x6'3" cab.

30 years, wow. I wish the best of luck to you, seems they are coming out nicely.

Welcome back to the world of growing! Nice strains!

04/07/2012
Transplanted plants to 5 gal buckets today. I drilled 4 1/2" holes at the bottom of the buckets.
Planting mix is 1 part pearlite, 4 parts MG Moisture Control Potting Mix.
No pics of the AK-48 as I did not have my camera. When I saw the roots on the plant I had to get the camers.

Pic 1 shows NL in 6"x6" pot, pic 2 is rootball.



I thought I could leave them in the 6" pots for a week or 2 more , but I am happy I transplanted when i did. Much longer in the small pots and I would have stunted the roots I think.

I have a Technaflora trial pack and for transplanting they recomend using 10 ml SugerDaddy and 10 ml Root 66 in each gal of water. I used 15ml each in 2 gal of water for each 5 gal bucket. This resulted in a 280 ppm mix using distilled water. I know the MG potting mix has some fertilizer in it, but I do not know exactly what so I reduced the concentration of added nutrient.
2 gallons of distilled water nutrient mix in each 5 gal. bucket resulted in only a small amount draining out of the holes in the bucket

Here's the girls in their new digs

Be careful with MG soil, It has alot of salts which can cause nutrient lockout very easily and worse time release ferts so when you try to flush you just add more nutrients

Good strain choice amigo, hope it all goes well.

I might hold off on nutes after transplanting as the new soil should have all the plants need for a good few weeks. A little nute burn is no biggie though as long as you back off at the first sign of burn.

Hilltop112 said:

Be careful with MG soil, It has alot of salts which can cause nutrient lockout very easily and worse time release ferts so when you try to flush you just add more nutrients

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Anybody know exactly what is in MG soils?
Not much info on the label.

Nice job im also doing nirvana ak-48, no journal this grow maybe next. keep up the good work.

Jwhoopee said:

Anybody know exactly what is in MG soils?
Not much info on the label.

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The MG seed mix wont have much nutrients, atleast not enough to make a difference early. If you got MG moisture control or all purpose mix. It should have a NPK label somewhere, It should read something like 5-10-7. The ferts they use are their own, You can buy them in any store that sells fertilizers really. MG is good for tomatoes, bad for cannabis IMO, Now i've heard stories of people using MG just fine for years but many more stories about MG messing up a grow completely, If you can get some cheap soil at homedepot or somewhere, Supersoil is what i started out with, Best cheap soil i've ever used.

I cant tell you exactly what MG soils have in them, I'm assuming a little peat moss, Perlite and compost. The reason i dont like MG is because they use alot of chemicals in their soils and fertilizers. just my .02 good luck

It's like riding a bike, you might not have done it for years but you'll soon get up to speed! Good luck and definitely along for the ride!

Hilltop112 said:

The MG seed mix wont have much nutrients, atleast not enough to make a difference early. If you got MG moisture control or all purpose mix. It should have a NPK label somewhere, It should read something like 5-10-7. The ferts they use are their own, You can buy them in any store that sells fertilizers really. MG is good for tomatoes, bad for cannabis IMO, Now i've heard stories of people using MG just fine for years but many more stories about MG messing up a grow completely, If you can get some cheap soil at homedepot or somewhere, Supersoil is what i started out with, Best cheap soil i've ever used.

I cant tell you exactly what MG soils have in them, I'm assuming a little peat moss, Perlite and compost. The reason i dont like MG is because they use alot of chemicals in their soils and fertilizers. just my .02 good luck

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Thanks, I found the NPK info once you pointed out what to look for.

0.21, 0.07, 0.14 with some verbage about time release.

04/18/2012

Here's where I am after one feeding of Technaflora growth mix at 500ppm one week ago.

First The AK-48.

Looks good, one thing that puzzles me though is the proportions of the plant, almost twice as wide as it is tall. The plants I grew back in the 80's were always tall and skinny.




And the Northern Lights.
Slightly taller than the AK-48 but just as bushy. The stems also seem very thick. thicker than a pencil,




Growth seems good and all is well. I think I may have the beginnings of some nute burn here, Note the yellow spots, but not serious. I will just feed ph adjusted water for remainder of veg stage or untill growth slows significantly.




The only thing I know about hydro is that it is supposed to grow faster than growing in dirt. Sixteen days after I started these plants in dirt, I started 1 AK-48 and 1 Northern Lights in hydro. I wonder if they can catch up.

Getting impatient, Going to go to 12/12.



Switched main lamp to 400 watt HPS and added 2 62 watt cfl's