This will be my first indoor grow from start to finish. Because of my unusual work schedule now, 63 days at home followed by 63 days out of the country I was very excited about the auto flowering strains and quick finishers such as this, my latest crop of Easy Rider/AK47. I am very pleased with the results so far. Sorry I didn't discover this sight until just lately or I would have shared the process up to now; better late than never! What you're seeing here is day 48 from seed. Not too shabby, but lessons learned here will be applied to the next grow. Information sharing ensures a consistant supply of high grade sensi bud for us all to enjoy. How many of you remember the swag days of the 70's and 80's? We even smoked leaf then, I'm almost too embarrassed to admit.
Here is the big dilemma. I have just 13 days from now before I have to go overseas. I figure my grow will be easily completed by then but there is no one here that I can trust enough to complete the drying and curing process properly. A BIG WORRY FOR ME!!! Maybe someone can give a little advice here. A quick synopsis of the grow so far:
This small closet measures just 30" x 28". I have four Easy Ryder girls in there taking up all the space now. I even have to pull the two in the front out everytime I water, not a happy chore when risking the health of branches.
I used 400 MH for 2 1/2 weeks before switching over to HPS with broad spectrum to still allow a little more vegetative growth while concentrating on flowering. True to the strain, bud growth has been vigorous since week 3. The AgroMax 55,000 lumen HPS is one mean mother! I think it's worth the extra few bucks. I grow in Ocean Forest and use the Fox Farm nutes with every other watering. I'm in the finishing stage now of course, utilizing Tiger Bloom and Big Bloom, a cap full of each to every gallon of water every other watering cycle. I'm using 3 1/2 gallon pots to avoid becoming root bound. I'm without Cha Ching, but by the looks of things it shouldn't be needed. I've been using tap water throughout the process but draw it at least two days in advance uncovered to allow the chlorine and other nasties to dissapate.
I was a little surprised to see such vertical growth with two of my four Easy Ryder girls, they are both at about 31", while the shorter two are around 21". I can't explain the difference as the seeds were acquired via those nice folk at Attitude. I have always been satisfied with their honesty in delivering what I pay for.
I maintained a lamp height within 18-22" from the plants tops at all time, no more, no less. I keep a fan running on them 24 hours a day to keep air flow sufficient and to keep the temps between 75°-85° at the tops when the lamp is on. I was keeping lights on originally for 20/4, switched to 18/6 about two weeks ago thinking the slight change might help promote more flowering. I have been feeding mine since the first watering and began misting with seltzer water for CO2 utilization at day 42 to speed up bud growth too. Some people argue against that but it seems that my plants are really digging it!! I am now an advocate of it's use. I am aware of the bud rot risk and keep the air moving because of it. I had heard that it does speed the process along and I do not want to a spend in the neighborhood of 400$ for a system to get CO2 to them. Remember that my time is limited, I hate to hurry my girls along but I have little choice.
The colas I have at this stage are already immense, the fattest one is in the back on one of the shorter plants beyond the photos range, (I'll add a photo of her when I pull the front plants on the next watering) but it is already much bigger around than my wrist and is very dense. I'm about 10-12 days from harvest now, giving me just a couple days to set up something for drying and curing. I am so worried about leaving them unattended at that point. That will make it a total of eight weeks from seed! I'm pretty proud of them, as you can imagine. I hang out with them all the time and talk to them alot. They respond well to the extra TLC. It almost breaks my heart to see them come down, we've become rather close.
[/QUOTE]
Here is the big dilemma. I have just 13 days from now before I have to go overseas. I figure my grow will be easily completed by then but there is no one here that I can trust enough to complete the drying and curing process properly. A BIG WORRY FOR ME!!! Maybe someone can give a little advice here. A quick synopsis of the grow so far:
This small closet measures just 30" x 28". I have four Easy Ryder girls in there taking up all the space now. I even have to pull the two in the front out everytime I water, not a happy chore when risking the health of branches.
I used 400 MH for 2 1/2 weeks before switching over to HPS with broad spectrum to still allow a little more vegetative growth while concentrating on flowering. True to the strain, bud growth has been vigorous since week 3. The AgroMax 55,000 lumen HPS is one mean mother! I think it's worth the extra few bucks. I grow in Ocean Forest and use the Fox Farm nutes with every other watering. I'm in the finishing stage now of course, utilizing Tiger Bloom and Big Bloom, a cap full of each to every gallon of water every other watering cycle. I'm using 3 1/2 gallon pots to avoid becoming root bound. I'm without Cha Ching, but by the looks of things it shouldn't be needed. I've been using tap water throughout the process but draw it at least two days in advance uncovered to allow the chlorine and other nasties to dissapate.
I was a little surprised to see such vertical growth with two of my four Easy Ryder girls, they are both at about 31", while the shorter two are around 21". I can't explain the difference as the seeds were acquired via those nice folk at Attitude. I have always been satisfied with their honesty in delivering what I pay for.
I maintained a lamp height within 18-22" from the plants tops at all time, no more, no less. I keep a fan running on them 24 hours a day to keep air flow sufficient and to keep the temps between 75°-85° at the tops when the lamp is on. I was keeping lights on originally for 20/4, switched to 18/6 about two weeks ago thinking the slight change might help promote more flowering. I have been feeding mine since the first watering and began misting with seltzer water for CO2 utilization at day 42 to speed up bud growth too. Some people argue against that but it seems that my plants are really digging it!! I am now an advocate of it's use. I am aware of the bud rot risk and keep the air moving because of it. I had heard that it does speed the process along and I do not want to a spend in the neighborhood of 400$ for a system to get CO2 to them. Remember that my time is limited, I hate to hurry my girls along but I have little choice.
The colas I have at this stage are already immense, the fattest one is in the back on one of the shorter plants beyond the photos range, (I'll add a photo of her when I pull the front plants on the next watering) but it is already much bigger around than my wrist and is very dense. I'm about 10-12 days from harvest now, giving me just a couple days to set up something for drying and curing. I am so worried about leaving them unattended at that point. That will make it a total of eight weeks from seed! I'm pretty proud of them, as you can imagine. I hang out with them all the time and talk to them alot. They respond well to the extra TLC. It almost breaks my heart to see them come down, we've become rather close.
