Afghani Clones, Organic, Indoor Cabinet Grow, Soil

[Miasma]

Afghani Clones - Day 1

I am incredibly stoked today; I finally found a source for Afghani land-race clones in Los Angeles and have been searching for a way to obtain these plants in the USA for a few months. My first purchase of this strain was for 10 seeds through Attitude in the UK, but they were taken by customs and burned; I blame it happening so soon after the election, and given the current Federal stance on marijuana I doubt I will try this again. Thankfully, I finally found these.

What strain is it? Afghani

Is it Indica, Sativa or Hybrid?

What percentages? Pure Indica

Is it in Veg or Flower stage? Vegetative Growth Stage

If in Veg... For how long? Mother Plant Age: 5 months

If in Flower stage... For how long? N/A

Indoor or outdoor? Indoor/Cabinet-Grow

Soil or Hydro? Soil

If soil... what is in your mix? Ecoscraps Natural & Organic Potting Mix, 1/8 tsp Vermiblood, 1/4 tsp Bone Meal, 1/4 tsp Espsom Salt.

If soil... What size pot? They are currently vegetating in standard-sized Solo Cups.

Size of light? These clones are assigned a larger vegetative cabinet with 24"-30" raised fan-cooled 300W LED. For bloom, each will jump into the HPS Bloom Room with a 400W HPS air-cooled, ducted light.

Is it aircooled? Yes.

Temp of Room/cab? Currently, the temperature is 78 degrees Fahrenheit.

RH of Room/cab? 50%

PH of media or res? 6.5-7.0

Any Pests ? I have not seen any pests so far through planting these clones; lucky, they will get to remain in cabinet quarantine through their vegetative process, even with organic pest control application.

How often are you watering? I will be watering every two to three days, starting today.

Type and strength of ferts used? 1/8 tsp Vermiblood, 1/4 tsp Bone Meal, 1/4 tsp Espsom Salt.

 

[Miasma]

Afghani Clones - Day 3

I am very happy with this strain, so happy that I bought another four clones. Eventually, I will mate one of these with another of my strains, but I am not certain if I will choose these or try to find another land race. I am trying to find a Nepalese land race, but we will see how the search goes. The second purchase of clones were much healthier and larger than the original four; it is pretty obvious in the photograph.

I asked about the origins within Afghanistan upon purchase, but they could only confirm that they were from Afghanistan and not a region within; I have a feeling they are what I want, a high-elevation, pure-bred indica strain from the Hindu Kush mountain range, given the demand for this specific genetic model for hash-making. They have proven extremely resilient to my torments thus far.

Only pour water into your medium after transplant, do not use a Foliar Spray application of water once the clone is in your medium; you risk under-watering your plants severely and causing incredibly fast withering. You need to promote root growth by giving the soil enough water for the roots to be comfortable and reach outward; only using a spray, even on the soil and not the foliage, will not allow enough water to seep into the soil to the depth that is needed.

I learned this the hard way, and when I opened my veg cabinet I discovered all of my Afghani Clones #1-#4 were withered and dying; if you'll notice the photograph now, within fifteen minutes of watering via pouring into the soil instead of spraying, Clones #1-#4 revived themselves to a standing position with open leaves. The few fan leaves that were damaged permanently have been removed, leaving the stubs you see now. I know that I saved their lives, considering how they looked yesterday, and I know what I won't be doing wrong for Clones #5-#8. What really surprises me is how well they took my pruning of two fan leaves apiece right after transplant, talk about strong genetics.

 

[Rastas]

Hi Miasma, I too am growing some Hindu Kush ATM. It's a landrace strain. Bag seed from the strain I sourced myself while I was hunting in Sri Lanka. There are some amazing pheno's in this breed. At least yours will be the same as they're from the same mother. I'll see if I can find some photos of mine. They show calmag deficiencies much earlier than the stable hybrids I've grow, I've found.


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[Rastas]

I'm growing five fairly decent sized HKs in amongst a multi strain grow again. These girls were topped and chopped and bent and pruned all over the place so I am experimenting now to see how they flower. I've got crappy photos on my phone so if I remember tonight I will take some more. I've smoked a couple ounces in the past. I'm a sativa guy but HK is my fav indica. So good.


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[Miasma]

Nice dude! I am super stoked for these and yours, after looking at pictures of everything and learning a little more regarding the history of some landraces I made my decision on this strain. I love the idea of smoking something straight from the land that has been unaltered except by inter-breeding with itself over thousands of years; I feel more in tune with our history as humans, maybe I am just baked.

I have yet to try a 100% pure indica strain as California is littered with crosses at our dispensaries, plus I don't trust that all of their products are organically grown whatsoever. This makes any product of this effort with the strain something to look forward to, and I really can't wait to try it.

Right now I have 28 overall clones/seedlings in the dirt between 6 strains, all at much different stages with 3 Cabinets and a Bloom Room.

 

[Miasma]

Afghani Clones - Day 9

I noticed a discoloration on the leaves' tips that is synonymous with early signs of nitrogen overabundance. I re-potted all of the clones immediately into zero-nutrient potting mix with 6.0pH-corrected tap water. For the most part, they are healthy, but the revived Clones #1-#4 suffered the worst from my mishap upon initial planting and have had a few dying leaves trimmed off. Surprisingly, the plants are still alive and producing growth, but I imagine that they will be stunted for a few weeks because of the required pruning. Two of them are looking decently healthy and didn't require much surgery because of when I fixed it, initially; the others were a little late, but they don't appear to be wilting or withering any further than the leaves that have been pruned.

 

[Miasma]

Afghani Clones - Day 17

The discoloration and wilting on all of the clones have subsided. The new growth on all of the plants look very green and give me faith that they will stay alive, unlike their fallen brethren. Only clones #3, #5-#8 remain; the other clones have halted their root growth and shriveled up, even with the same amount/quality of water as the others. There is good news in light of the loss of three plants. I have new homes for the Afghani clones and will be picking up more soil to re-pot them tomorrow. They will be residing in a Sea of Green styled 12"x5"x5" rounded-rectangular pots, as close to cylinderal as I could get. This will help to condense space between all of the grows I have going on at the moment, plus it will give them a permanent home to root themselves into before they are flowered.

 

[Miasma]

Afghani Clones - Day 18

I picked up another bag of organic potting mix today and upgraded the Afghani Clones. I had enough left over for one of my seedlings from my Blueberry thread, which is also sharing the space with these clones. I will also be adding another PC Fan on top of the Filtered Passive Air Intake. All of them have very healthy root systems, which I am proud of. I am still seeing discoloration on some of the leaves, but nothing else has done any unwarranted shriveling.

 

[Miasma]

Additional Updates: Afghani Clones - Day 18

Pruning:

All of these clones have been thoroughly pruned, leaving healthy fan leaves while removing those that experienced nitrogen burning; each side-branch has one terminal cola, an opposing top-cola leaflet and the next healthiest/largest leaflet, resembling the lollipop technique in overall branch stature.


Topping:

All of the clones have been topped using the FIM technique.


Pest Control:

They were then watered with 1/3 liter apiece of 6.0 pH adjusted tap water and sprayed/re-watered with 1/3 liter apiece of a Water-Diluted, Pure 100% Neem Oil Solution as a pest-preventative.

 

[Miasma]

Day 23 - Low Stress Training Day


Each of the Afghani Clones have begun Low Stress Training, Clone #1 is the only plant that did not receive this due to its short stature; I have stapled 3-5 Zip-Ties to each container's outer lip, attaching 3-4 Rubber Bands to the container using these Zip-Ties. Some of the Rubber Bands are held with two different Zip-Ties to create a stronger pulling effect on the stem; this pulling effect went above and beyond just holding the plant for training, it ended up also super-cropping the base of four of the Clones, folding them at near 90 degrees perfectly without breaking them!

I am incredibly excited that I accidentally discovered this way to simultaneously Super-Crop and Train plants; I will keep using it as another technique in my repertoire from now on, just because of the accidental nature of its origin. Using this technique with the Rubber Bands has allowed me to bend all of my Afghani Land Race Clones into spiral shapes.

I've also put Bamboo Supports into each pot, and have now lowered my lamp as far as possible; the Bamboo Supports act as the center point of tying for my version of Low Stress Training, and are outfitted with the smallest, highest tension Rubber Bands of the whole build. This should even the growth playing field for all of my plants now. Given that Afghani Clone #1 was so far behind and short in stature, I think it has a better chance of keeping up finally.

 

[Miasma]

Afghani Clone #7 begins Vegetative Week #4 with a successful bend into Low Stress Training.

Afghani Clone #5 at the beginning of Vegetative Week #4; this clone has been Super-Cropped by Low Stress Training at the base of the primary stem, and has responded well.

Afghani Clone #8 begins Vegetative Week #4 with the rest of the group, also having successfully been Super-Cropped at the base by its Low Stress Training.


Vegetative Growth Week 4: Day 30

All of the clones have been thoroughly Neemed, eradicating the fungus gnat problem that extended between all of my grows; I believe that they are already in the soil upon purchase, leading me to establish an initial Neem Oil application in my soil mix assembly for my next bag of soil. The Low Stress Training each of them has undergone is working very well, and the plants that were Super-Cropped because of this method are booming at their new top-cola points with leaves of a healthy green; the leaves almost resemble those of the Kushberry and Blueberry Seedlings that are in Vegetative Week #6 in my other journal. I am proud that they look this way so far.

 

[Miasma]

Family Photo

Vegetative Growth Week 4.25

All of the Afghani clones have begun to bounce back from having cuttings taken for my cloning journal. The growth of the new cola-sites has produced very lush and green leaves, unlike when they had been nutrient-burned before.

 

[Miasma]

So... I'm quite certain that I overloaded the required amount of predatory mites and nematodes; I originally thought that the nematodes were alone in the Nemaglobe that I purchased, so when I opened my brand-new, 50x magnifying glass and put my face on the top of the soil I was surprised to see HUNDREDS of small, white mites crawling through the soil over each other fairly quickly. I began to vigorously make a strong, organic Neem Oil solution with light dish soap mixed in, per the instructions from Dyna-Gro; I did a thorough soak of each pot's soil with this solution, thinking these were Spider Mites.

Within seconds of the Neem Solution's full soaking into the soil, many of the supposed Spider Mites came to the surface in groups; their appearance was then followed by a nematode's emergence from the topsoil of Afghani Clone #8. After seeing their persistence, I continued in my ignorance and made another batch for my 2 liter, 360 degree-spouted Horticultural Misting Bottle.

I laid down the law of the land to the top/bottom of every leaflet, each side of every stem. I was completely oblivious to the type of mite that they actually are, and after trying to nuke them with nothing but failed attempts, I identified them as Western Predatory Mites while researching online through multiple pest guides' pictures. Right around this time it began to make sense as to why the Neem Oil was ineffective on these mites after taking out the fungus gnats upon one spray: because they aren't the Neem Oil's intended target!

When I came across the Western Predatory Mites' lovely, magnified photo that was an exact match to the many that I had just seen in the soil, I realized that these aren't Spider Mites at all. This lifted the veil from over the incredibly confusing question: "why haven't these Mites killed, let alone damaged the Plants and why have they not swarmed onto or harmed the Plants physically in any way?

I'm glad that it was hundreds of beneficial insects that I had overlooked from the back information panel of my Nemaglobe and not a nightmare. What an evening!


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[Miasma]

I've done some more research to narrow down what these insects might actually be; I woke up this morning and began looking into it, discovering that they still had the potential of being root aphids. After a lot of paranoia from looking at pictures of root aphids and while trying to project what I had seen in my garden onto the root aphid pictures, I stumbled upon a species of predatory mite called Hypoaspis Miles. The images of this predatory mite in its adolescent phase that I found are exactly the same as the mites in my soil, right down to the leg count, body shape, color, size, speed, and general activity that they perform. I am very glad that I have these guests now, as they destroy fungus gnat larvae.

Another thing I was wrong about was spotting a live nematode; I looked up the larvae phase of fungus gnats and the photographs that came up were exact lookalikes of the black-headed larvae that emerged from my garden soil. I am very glad that I have predatory mites in there with it, hopefully they will destroy it and its compatriots soon. I will mention that I have seen a substantial reduction in fungus gnats over the past three days.


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[Miasma]

The fungus gnat problem suddenly doesn't seem so prevalent today. I have been denying the clones water for about seven days; now there's not a cloud of bugs and all of the tops of every plant have reached an even canopy level! They all look so healthy, I will have more photos tomorrow morning. I really felt satisfied seeing the gnats go from a small colony of a consistent 2-3 per day to zero. I hate swatting those things, I leave their corpses on the Cabinet walls to warn the others; after a week of no water and staring at their cousin's smashed corpse, I like to imagine that they were emotionally scarred and left for the promised land.

 

[Miasma]

Vegetative Cabinet B's inhabitants; the larger bushes are most of the Afghani Clones, and the stocky, short plant is Blueberry #4.

Vegetative Cabinet A's inhabitants; the larger bushes are the Afghani Clones, while another Blueberry Seedling has been transplanted to its vegetative environment.


Vegetative Week #6.85

Just like in my Blueberry and Kushberry journal, this week's primary focus has been fungus gnat elimination and prevention; after a lot of reading I've settled on my chosen solution, that being a top and bottom layer of sand with pea rocks on top of the sand. The gnats love to hang out around the drainage holes at the bottom of the pots, so adding a layer of sand that they apparently hate and will not go through helped seal up each of these drainage holes. Once you put the rocks on top of that, it's pretty air-tight and impossible for the gnats to get to the holes at the base; at this point, any gnats that were in the bottom will be sealed there. I've also added a layer of sand at topsoil level, which seals all of the bends in the pots and the topsoil itself, preventing fungus gnat females from laying their larvae in the top 1" of soil (their preferred growth environment). Again, another layer of pea rock was laid over the top of this sand, adding another layer to seal off the soil. Any gnats or gnat larvae that may be trapped inside will remain there until their life cycle is over; considering that they need air and light, I would say that any who are still alive have a poor chance of staying alive in this sealed portion of soil. I stopped seeing gnats on the soil level and the container bottoms the second that I put sand there; after adding the rocks and vacuuming out any spillage, it feels almost like a hospital in each Vegetative Cabinet. I believe that I have finally won my fungus gnat battle and I can finally water my plants.

 

[Miasma]

Bloom E: Day 1

At last, Vegetative Cabinet A's inhabitants have all moved into the Bloom Room to begin their first cycle of 12/12; the three members to observe from the set of four are the taller Afghani Clones, which overshadow the shorter Blueberry Plant. After observing the root structure of my previous harvest, I believe that my pot dimensions are perfect to allow these clones to stay put given the space that I will be growing in; if I have any issues with top-heaviness, I will run a small bungie or strap around the four pots to provide support.

 

[Miasma]

My Afghani Clones that are in vegetative stages are now 1.5' tall! Beyond that, I also noticed a large graveyard of fungus gnats in the same cabinet that had about twenty to twenty-five fungus gnat bodies laying near one another; sadly, it looks like they decided to huddle together when they starved. Disallowing the gnats access to the precious root structure that they see as a free buffet by using sand is a good trick.

 

[Miasma]

Posts are probably halting here, nobody reads this shit so why bother

 

[bignugz420]

Posts are probably halting here, nobody reads this shit so why bother

Sorry for nobody responding to your thread good job killing your pest problem, and plants look great, I am thinking you got pests Bc of not enough air movement, you want to exchange air every 3 to 7 mins, do you use a inline fan or any fan? Are your flaps open or closed? And is your source for clones reliable Bc I refuse to use any clones from outside source only my own clones that I cut, a ez cloner works wonders