AKGramma's Perpetual Grow

[Arctic Bowl]

Evening to you AK

Just dropping by to say hello and see how things are going your world. Ugh, can't believe it's July already lol, probably nobody else but us up here get that though lol. We will have to try some AK 47/AK 48. We were gifted a few clones but not sure of the line but we will get the names of them in a few days. Hope all is well with you and yours our friend.

Blessed Buds our friend and be well

 

[AKgramma]

Welcome to my humble grow, Urbanachiever!

For those who don't want to read from the beginning, this is a summary of my equipment. You can also follow my DIY evolution by browsing my gallery.

I grow DIY and cheap, since I don't make any money off my indoor garden. In the beginning it was all desk fans, tarp-covered wire shelving, and a couple dozen 23W CFLs, both daylight and soft white for wavelength variety. Since then I have added 4 Mars 300 panels, which greatly improved the light penetration. Each panel eliminated 6 CFLs and a LOT of electric cords!

I still use only passive ventilation and grow low-odor strains so the whole neighborhood isn't bothered by some dank odor emanating out of my windows. LOL!

Even tho we are legal here in Alaska, I still attempt to hide as much LED light as possible (old habit), but I think blackout curtains on the one window would be a lot easier to deal with, instead of draping blankets around my units.

I have been tempted to purchase real grow tents, but I don't need the extras, as I leave the tops of the shelving open to vent heat, and have two fans on each shelving unit, plus one to bring air into the room, and one to exhaust out the window (yes, even in winter).

The other downer is that shipping on grow tents is more than the tent itself, and the local shops sell them with the shipping added... way too expensive, too fancy to grow a few weeds. Several hundred dollars to a grand for a tent vs $40 for each 72" tall shelving unit/coat rack, and I have 3 units. The shelves are easier to assemble and sturdier, too. For my 36" x 36" unit, I wired two coat racks together for the depth (the kind with a wire shelf on the top and the bottom).

I wrap a white polytarp around the sides, leaving the top open, and the "door" is a shower curtain liner on a curtain rod with those shower hooks, so it slides open with ease. ("reflective" cover cost: less than $20 per unit) The white polytarp makes for a very bright interior without hot spots.

This is an early version, before I started using curtain liners/hooks/rods for the flap. It is always evolving.

Oh, and I now grow in 3 gallon tall kitchen trash bins (around $3.88 each at Wallys.) The plants, esp the Autos, like that extra root depth (14") and the bins take up a lot less floor space.

Do the math. With what I save on name-brand equipment, I spend on good soil, good additives, and good seeds.

I'll try to get a couple pics up today, before I start changing things around again.



But that is just me, and how I prefer to grow. I don't know how long I will continue this hobby. it depends on if my family gets their grows going and how much meds I need. My grows will get smaller, for sure, and I'll actually be able to stay under the limit.

 

[Tony Urban]

Well I was just gonna lurk and like, but since you caught me, I gotta say I dig your style. Best wishes with all your plants moving forward. I live in central BC and have a lot of the same scenery/landscape...as well as the expensive delivery of goods lol. Ok, back to lurking

 

[AKgramma]

After viewing the $40 rise in my electric bill from activating the smaller unit, I decided to go to the gaslight schedule: 12/12, with an hour on in the middle of the night. That break in sleep time keeps the ladies from going to flower.... usually.

And I am cutting out a total of 6 hours per day off the electric bill. I should see a decent drop in the August bill. A bonus is the drop in temperature in the units.

All the plants but the clones are almost mature enough to switch. about 3 weeks more, and I'll toggle off that one extra hour and they will go right to flower. Gaslight keeps them on the edge of flowering, and so when one make the final switch, flowering generally happens rather quickly. Ive had them stretch during gaslight, instead of after the switch, so they'll be ready for buds.

Sometime during the next 3 weeks, I'll take a few clones, and once they flower, maybe collect a bit of pollen if I get a male, and seed one branch on a female from the same strain. I will be a whole lot more careful this time so I don't lose most of the harvest to seed.

 

[ShiggityFlip]

I am so freaking happy for you finding your clone groove. This life can be so damn frustrating you know?!

So when you finally get something to work in the clone game it's like the sun shines through all the clouds. It must have been such an exciting day to see roots! Did you do a happy dance and scream with delight?

I know I would have.

AKGramma, have you heard of KNF? (Korean natural farming)
It is a simple method of cheap gardening using ferments and bacterial cultures to grow.

Sue did some with the LAB she made awhile back.

KNF was invented in Korea to help poor farmers get away from fertilizer and use free and cheap things in order to grow superior plants.

I am going to experiment with this method as well. But anyway here is a free copy of Cho's natural farming, the Bible of KNF! I am going to link this in my thread as well. Save it to your computer in case it gets taken down. It's a PDF so it will be easy to access even from a phone.

https://ilcasia.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/chos-global-natural-farming-sarra.pdf

 

[AKgramma]

I am so freaking happy for you finding your clone groove. This life can be so damn frustrating you know?!

So when you finally get something to work in the clone game it's like the sun shines through all the clouds. It must have been such an exciting day to see roots! Did you do a happy dance and scream with delight?

I know I would have.

AKGramma, have you heard of KNF? (Korean natural farming)
It is a simple method of cheap gardening using ferments and bacterial cultures to grow.

Sue did some with the LAB she made awhile back.

KNF was invented in Korea to help poor farmers get away from fertilizer and use free and cheap things in order to grow superior plants.

I am going to experiment with this method as well. But anyway here is a free copy of Cho's natural farming, the Bible of KNF! I am going to link this in my thread as well. Save it to your computer in case it gets taken down. It's a PDF so it will be easy to access even from a phone.

https://ilcasia.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/chos-global-natural-farming-sarra.pdf

Shiggity: I try to go organic, when I can, but I draw the line at recycling my poop!

 

[AKgramma]

Switching to gaslight made a HUGE difference in the amount of heat generated in the grow! Looking forward in next month's electric bill. All the ladies have made a dramatic jump in growth.

I was right: The seeded plants caught up to the revegged plants, so they will all go to flower together, right after I take more clones!

Gonna keep cloning in pure vermiculite. ;-)

 

[NorCaliwood]

Congrats on getting your cuts to root. Whatever works is what works.. As long as it puts roots on your cuts.... After a minute you should find the groove and start getting 100% returns. GL and Keepem Green

 

[AKgramma]

The plants I revegged: Since I trained them for 8 colas, taking all the side shoots off, I'm tempted to take 2 - 4 of the leaders off the Haze as clones, to preserve the Arjan's Haze.

Just so you all know AK 48 has been the easiest to clone (when I had success). AK 48 is like the energizer bunny. go go go go go!

It has an outstanding lineage for a hybrid. One or more of these ancestors has a will to live!

White Castle is so damned bushy, I gave up trying to make it conform to a modified mainline. I will just pinch out the new itty-bitty branches when I do the switch, take a few clones, then hope to the Cannabis Goddess that they are not male!

The AK 47 x Durban Poisons are long and lanky, so they are either expressing Sativa growth or going to be males. Time will tell.

 

[AKgramma]

All the plants in the large tent looked ready yesterday morning, so I toggled off that one hour in the middle of the night, and put the batch to 12/12. If I'm going to take clones, I have to do that in the next couple days.

The only sign of mites I have seen in this grow were on the clones that I replanted in 50/50 vermiculite and soil. The soil is the same mix I used for all the others, so I dont know how in-house clones would be the only plants showing a few mites.

They got soaked with Neem this morning.

 

[AKgramma]

I took 6 Nirvana White Castle clones today, exactly the same way as the previous successful batch. If these survive, I'll have my medicinal strain. Thank you Sue for the gifts. ;-)

 

[TorturedSoul]

I DID IT!!!!! I got rooted clones!

Congratulations! I am so happy to read that you're having much better success at rooting cuttings this year. I knew you could do it .

It was the switch to vermiculite that made the difference.

I've used a mixture of up to 50% vermiculite with the rest being perlite, to good effect. For me, pure vermiculite would hold too much water. But, IIRC, your humidity is much lower there than what mine is most of the year.

I gotta plant them in solo cups

What would we do without the ubiquitous big red Solo cups, lol? I bought a 100-pack of 18-ounce (I think) ones a while back when I was pulling an urban Johnny Appleseed and leaving clones everywhere (malls were great - LOTS of vehicles to leave a gift beside ) and am just about out again. I want the 24-ounce ones, but haven't seen them locally for a year and I'm not going to order <BLEEP> disposable plastic cups :icon_roll . So I'll probably have to get more of the 18-ounce ones. I guess maybe the youngins aren't chugging cheap watered down domestic beer around here like they used to? Ordinarily I'd consider that a good thing, but I want bigger cups.

You can also follow my DIY evolution by browsing my gallery.

You must be the hardest working 70(?)-year old cannabis-growing grandmother in the entire state of Alaska.

I don't make any money off my indoor garden.

+REPs!

Oh, and I now grow in 3 gallon tall kitchen trash bins (around $3.88 each at Wallys.)

Are you referring to WalMart? I don't normally recommend people give their money to that corporation (for so many reasons). But if you do have a local(?) WalMart, I'm pretty sure that people can order things off of WalMart's website - that seems to include far more merchandise than they'd ever deign to actually stock on their shelves - and get it shipped to their local store for free. Probably just comes on the regular truck, and it's a guaranteed sale, so they don't charge for shipping it to the store. I do not know if the same thing holds true up there where you're at because obviously things are a little tougher for y'all. But it might be worth looking into (and not just for cannabis-related items).

That's all I have to type at this time. I ended up at the above posts by mistake - I've actually only just gotten to your early 2017 posts and still have a way to go before I'm caught up.

 

[AKgramma]

Yes, TS: I do browse Wally's website, but since we have 2 stores, one that is just a mile from my place, what's the point? Freddy's is even closer, and they sell bins of all sizes and shapes.

Shipping for bulky items is more than the cost of the item itself. so I buy in town.

I have my cloning container next to the PC, so I can keep an eye on them. I hope White Castle clones as readily as AK 48's do. If so, I'll have two strains I can keep going without purchasing seeds.

These aren't sexed... dammit, I took clones from both plants and forgot to label them A and B. I hope both plants in flower turn out to be females......

PS: I did a little research. Both strains have an Ice father, and Ice is a vigorous, sturdy plant. So I can expect these clones to root quickly, like the AK 48's.

Oh, last edit, I promise: TS, my humidity seldom gets above 60% in the house, even when it's pouring rain outside. Vermiculite works wonders retaining moisture in my soil mix. (1/3 vermiculite-1/3 Black Gold Indoor potting soil-1/3 Perlite to keep it all loose and aerated.)

 

[TorturedSoul]

Yes, TS: I do browse Wally's website, but since we have 2 stores, one that is just a mile from my place, what's the point?

Their website contains exponentially more items than the store does - even such things as grow tents, pH meters, nutrients, et cetera. I know that shipping is painfully expensive in AK and was wondering if your local WalMart offers the same free shipping to the store that we can get on many of their items in the continental US. It still costs them whatever fraction of the volume is x the fuel/etc. cost, but they eat that since it's just another item being delivered to the store by the WalMart truck. As opposed to having UPS, FedEx, etc. deliver it to the customer's house.

If the store doesn't offer the above then, no, it wouldn't help.

These aren't sexed... dammit, I took clones from both plants and forgot to label them A and B.

Lol. I did that with a couple plants of different strains that I intended to become mother plants. Annoyed me silly. I think I figured it out, but...

I hope both plants in flower turn out to be females...

Hope so. If not, lock them up together for the weekend .

PS: I did a little research. Both strains have an Ice father, and Ice is a vigorous, sturdy plant. So I can expect these clones to root quickly, like the AK 48's.

I never experienced any difficulty with White Widow in that regard, either - so you should be good to go from both parents.

Vermiculite works wonders retaining moisture in my soil mix. (1/3 vermiculite-1/3 Black Gold Indoor potting soil-1/3 Perlite to keep it all loose and aerated.)

Yes, it's great for that. I used to use the same ratio (different soil, though). At one point, I stopped putting in the 1/3 soil and just adjusted my nutrient pH to ~5.8 and did the hand-watered hydro thing and/or "hempy" style containers. That's a pretty good base for it. But then I ended up decreasing the percentage of vermiculite substantially. Still enough to help retain moisture, but it seemed to me that it provided for more oxygen at the root zone. IDK. I'm thinking about setting up the same thing, only with coco coir instead of vermiculite. It'll give me a reason to open the bag of calcium nitrate (to prep the coco coir) I bought on impulse a while back.

 

[AKgramma]

I need to share something funny. I watered my plants today, and they all looked good: everyone still all green and no bugs.

A few hours later, I checked on the small unit I have on gaslight, and one of the AK 48 x Durban Poison plants was COVERED with male pods! He bloomed right out during the afternoon!

So I trimmed him down to one sturdy, but flexible branch, and covered what was left with a plastic bag, and tied down the branch to better catch the pollen. The leaves and mini-pollen sacs were quite sticky and smelled like cat piss. (from the Durban Poison, or is it Poison Durban?) So the trim will make a good addition to my dried herbs for edibles.

AK 48 clones doing well, tho I'm sure they are rootbound already in their solo cups. I dont have room to up-pot.

White Castle clones still doing well on day 4. Will check for roots in a couple days.

 

[AKgramma]

Three of the 6 White castle clones rooted. Two rotted at the soil line, and one is droopy. But I recut the stem and replanted in the vermiculite with its own little cap. Will be potting the three clones today. I have acclimated them to house humidity over the last 3 days, and they are good now.

I gave my "outgrown" equipment to a couple of neighbors who are starting their grow. They got a 2-hour intro from me about cannibus in general, growing cheaply, and this site, to post their journals on and connect with other serious home-growers.

It's nice to be able to seriously discuss this indoor gardening face-to-face woth others who take a natural approach to meds, and life in general.

 

[TorturedSoul]

Congratulations on being able to educate someone new about cannabis! (And thanks for doing so, of course.)

Education is the most powerful tool that a just cause can have.

 

[AKgramma]

White Castle definitely does NOT clone as easily as AK 48. So far, and it has been 9 days, only one of the remaining 4 clones has any roots at all, and these are only about 1 mm long. There were a lot of them, so I planted it in its solo cup. The other three, I trimmed back the bottom of the stem a bit for a clean cut, then replanted in the vermiculite.

Don't let anyone convince you that you cannot get stoned on leaves! I dry the leaves from many trimmings, like you would any herb, then crush it through a serve to powder it. Note that at no time are the leaves or powder decarbed. I want all the terpines and other goodies left in the herb.

I use 1/4 cup powdered leaves to 1 pound lean ground meat, and add anything else for a chili or ground meat stew you desire.

A big bowl of that will glue you to your recliner in about 60 - 90 minutes and your nap will be ...... interesting.

I wish I could get that kind of pain relief without being passed-out stoned!

 

[NorCaliwood]

Pain sucks.... I've dealt with it since 86'. GL in the gardens and Keepem Green

 

[AKgramma]

Time for some pictures!

In Veg. Since I ran out of room in the flower unit, I had to leave a fully-mature AK 47 x Durban Poison in veg.

Various clones, 2 pair in 3 gallon bins, those still in solo cups placed in the bare spots, till I find time to up-pot more.

Not shown: two more White castle cuttings finally started to show tiny roots, almost 2 weeks after cutting them. I have since put them in their red solo cups and will watch them for a couple days for humidity problems.

Next, the flower unit. These are all 2 weeks since switched to 12/12. They have stretched another 30%. I forgot to clean them up before taking the shots, but it was during their sleep time, and I couldn't see the used-up leaves.

This one is more to the right in the flower unit.

I am OUT of ROOM and have 6 more clones that need up-potting. Have to be creative....