Rodrigo's Hydro AK48 - Aurora Indica - Big Devil #2

[Rodrigo]

Hello, comunity!
I've been growing for a while but this will be my first attempt at a journal.
I run a perpetual cycle, so I harvest every 65 days or so, currently I'm getting about 50g per plant, but I'm hoping to do much better from now on since I changed nutrients and will start using enhancers.

The setup

Veg:
Strains: AK-48, Aurora Indica, Big Devil #2 auto
System: Hydro, drip irrigation
Medium: Rockwool cubes
Reservoir: about 12 lt, aerated
Res temp: about 18°C
Lightning: CFLs + T5
Temps: Around 25°C
RH: Around 30%
Current pests: a few thrips, currently under treatment and control
Feed schedule: 3 times a day, 15 min at a time
Nutes: Advanced Nutrients Sensi Grow 2-Part @ 2ml/lt


Flower
Strains: AK-48, Aurora Indica
System: Hydro, Ebb and Flood
Medium: Rockwool cubes on clay pellets (hydroton)
Lightning: 1x 400w HPS + 7x 20w CFLs (100w equivalent)
Air: Powerful intake fan, exhaust fan+carbon filter, small fan inside to move air around
Temps: around 30°C during lights on
Reservoir: currently 60 Lt, will switch to 30 Lt shortly
Res temp: around 25°C, aerated
RH: around 40%
Currents pests: a few thrips, currently under treatment and control. Most recently I've found many fungus gnats trapped on the sticky tapes
Feed schedule: 3 times a day, 15 min at a time
Nutes: Advanced Nutrients Sensi Bloom 2-Part @ 3ml/Lt
Bloom Enhancers: Advanced Nutrients Big Bud and Overdrive (not yet in use)
Tent Size: 1x1x2 mts


Ok so the clones (AK48), taken on 10/14 and vegging from the 23rd. They about 12cm tall and already started to grow again.
The seedlings (AK48, Aurora Indica, Big Devil #2 auto) are also about 12-15cm and growing really fast and bushy.
(in the video below you can see the seedlings and clones, I'll upload pics later)

I had a thrips problem which I solved using sticky paper, this took care of the flying ones but I still can't get rid of those tiny green fuckers that dwell on the leaves and cause the damage, although their numbers seem to have gone down considerably. I'm awaiting the arrival of Monterey Garden Insect Spray with Spinosad no get rid of them once and for all.

Yesterday I removed one of the sticky traps from the flowering room because it was full of bugs, upon closer look I realized that they weren't thrips as I though, but they were fungus gnats (pictures below), the sticky paper has been keeping them under control, I haven't seen a single one flying so I think they are getting trapped as soon as they exit the medium (the sticky traps are laid flat on the base where the bugs seem to concentrate) Hopefully the Monterey Spray will also help with this fuckers.
I've read that the easier way to get rid of these pests is to put a layer of sand atop the soil, but I don't use soil so I think the sand would fall right through the pellets.

(More pics in gallery)

The plants in flower (video below) has been flowering since 10/22. The two AK48s are 3ft and 32" respectively, the Aurora is much shorter, during vegging for some reason it got stuck and didn't resume growth for a few weeks so now it's only about 30cm tall but flowering good and still getting taller.

Sorry about my English in the video, I don't get to speak very often here so I get rusty.
[video=youtube;YuvACrB5SGI]

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I don't know what other information I could provide at this moment, feel free to ask if I missed anything.

I'll upload pictures once or twice a week to show the progress.

Thanks for any input!

 

[danklover79]

Re: Rodrigo's Hydro AK48, Aurora Indica, Big Devil #2

Awesome you started a journal! I'm along for the ride, hopefully without the slush this time!

 

[Rodrigo]

Re: Rodrigo's Hydro AK48, Aurora Indica, Big Devil #2

Yeah! no organics this time so slush shouldn't be a problem.
Thanks for the support, stay tuned!

Give me your thoughts on the video when you get a chance.

 

[Cultivator]

Re: Rodrigo's Hydro AK48, Aurora Indica, Big Devil #2

Hi Rodrigo

so u started a journal finally. im sure it will help u improve as grower as it helps others learn your techniques and u can get some answers to any issues that u have better as people can see everything u are doing.

A cooltube will help a lot with your room temps.

im not the person to help with fungus gnats as ive never had them. but the sticky strips should help. If u run peroxide H2O2 through the system that will kill any in the pebbles.

your english is fine mate, u prob speak it better than me and i live in england haha.

good luck.

 

[Rodrigo]

Re: Rodrigo's Hydro AK48, Aurora Indica, Big Devil #2

Thanks, Cultivator

A cooltube may help but I don't believe I have the space required (plus they don't sell them here). What you can't see in the video is that the tent fits snugly in the room, i.e. I cannot access the back, I only have a few centimeters clearance on the sides and the top is very close to the roof. What I DO need to fix is the exhaust, because it vent out into the room and not out of it, so slowly the air inside the room starts getting warmer and gets sucked back into the tent.

What I'm planning on doing for cooling (summer is starting in a month and outside temps are over 30°C already) is to put a small fridge I have in the room (not the tent) and I'm gonna run a series of radiators through. Basically, radiators in the freezer will cool the water that's passed through them, this water will flow through hoses to another radiator in the intake so as to cool the air that's entering the tent, the water will keep flowing to another radiator inside the res, this should cool the water a bit, then the water flows back into the fridge for another cooling run.
I don't believe anyone has tried anything like this (at least not that I've found) so hopefully it'll work.

How do you run the h202 through? do you pour some in the res and get it flowing? or do I pour it directly on the clay surface? if so does it have to be diluted?

Thanks!

 

[Cultivator]

Re: Rodrigo's Hydro AK48, Aurora Indica, Big Devil #2

u def have room for cooltube but it needs exhausted correctly. can u cut a hole in the ceiling in the cupboard and extract through that? i have no idea if the fridge will work but im interested to see. u def want the air going somewhere else as it means plants are just recirculating the same air.

the H2O2 i use is 17.5% strength, u need to check strength. i use would use 0.5ml per litre. u arent using any beneficials or enzymes so 1 it will keep nasty bacteria and pests out of the res and it will oxygenate the water. U have to be careful with its use but because of your warm rez temps and pests i think it would be good to run it. U would just mix your res up with nutes as usual then add the H2O2 as an additive then ph.

 

[Rodrigo]

Re: Rodrigo's Hydro AK48, Aurora Indica, Big Devil #2

I could cut a hole in the wall, I've been thinking about it but the thing is that it needs to be concealed. I've my grow on a storage room in my house, it's actually on the outside and it's only separated from the house by a narrow corridor and sometimes people go through there, it can't be done from above so the side is the only way. I've been trying to figure a way to exhaust the air out of the room without making any major changes to the structure that may give away what happens inside, after all it's only a storage room so a noticeable vent would draw attention.

I'll make a h2o2 run tomorrow, see how it goes.

I'm also interested in figuring out if the fridge idea works, theoretically it should. In case you're wondering these are the kinds of radiator I'm planning on using, again they don't sell them here so I have to import them.

 

[Cultivator]

Re: Rodrigo's Hydro AK48, Aurora Indica, Big Devil #2

im off to bed now mate but i'll check the link out in the morning. and have a think about how u might be able to extract better.

 

[Rodrigo]

Re: Rodrigo's Hydro AK48, Aurora Indica, Big Devil #2

Ok so it's been about 9 days since my last update.

I've made a few changes to the setup since my last post, you can see the progress on the video below.
The changes I've made this weeks are as follows;

1.- I changed the location of the intake fan. Now instead of sucking air from inside the room it draws it directly from outside. I didn't cut a hole in the wall but rather I removed the glass on the window and covered it with a MDF board with a hole cut in it for the duct to fit in. There's a filter to avoid plant matter, dirt or bugs from flying in. It's not stealthy as it sits right now but I'm fixing this tomorrow.
Also, now instead of the fan being located near the bottom of the tent it sits closer to the tops and pointing a little down (you can see the differences in the video). By doing this (shortening the duct, i.e. the distance the air has to travel before being pushed into the tent) it doesn't get as warm so the inside temps remain lower. Currently on a hot day the temp stays at around 30° during lights off, this is because warm air is being pushed in. At night when the light come on, the air being pushed in is cooler, so the temp usually drops a bit to about 27°. This is much better than the 33° I was getting before. But I'm still gonna do the freezer cooling system and see how it goes. Worse case scenario it doesn't work and I lose about 60 bucks.

2.- I changed the res size from 60lt to 30lt and I'm changing the water weekly. There's much better water circulation and aeration. The res itself is not completely dark so some light does get it, as you can see in the video it is blue in color, it is semi translucent but not enough to promote algae growth so I'm pretty sure I'm ok.

3.- I added 4 more CFLs in places where light wasn't reaching very good so the buds that are growing in those areas now are getting much more light so hopefully there will be little to no popcorn buds. I used to get a lot of that when I didn't use any CFL but when I started using them the lower buds became more than decent. Also since I'm now doing LST, light reaches everywhere and there's a lot more bud sites than before.
So with all the light I'm using I predict that I'll get at the very least between 150-200 gr overall.

4.- I changed the light schedule in both veg and flower phases, I started using (just today) the Gas Lantern Routine (GLR) on the veg side so light now are 12-on 5.5-off 1-on 5.5-off for a total of 13 hrs of light a day instead of the usual 18, this saves me 150 hours of light a month, in my case this translates to 48 kW which is only around US$10 but it all counts.
On the flower side I start to use the Diminishing Light Schedule (DLS) so now instead of the usual 12 hrs of darkness they get 10.5, over the remaining weeks I'll be reducing the light exposure half an hour a week so by the end of the cycle I'll be using only 9 hrs of light. I haven't done the math yet but this will mean even more savings.

I gave the plants in flower an H2O2 treatment in an attempt to help with the bug problem, which is not really a problem anymore since I started using sticky tape, it truly works wonders. Anyway I have no idea if the H2O2 did anything, luckily the plants didn't react to it at all, and since I never see bugs flying or crawling around I have no way to tell, but there's very little damage remaining in the leaves so I'm not worried.
The dose: The way they sell it here is by volumes, i.e. even if you ask what % it is they don't know, basically you can get it in 10 volumes or 20 volumes, which means that for every one volume of H2O2 in the water you'll get 10/20 volumes of oxygen when it breaks down. So I got the 20 volumes and based on my brief research about it, the 20-volume is about 6%. So I ended up using 1ml/lt in the res just before the pump goes on and the plants get fed.
I didn't see any critters rushing out of the ground nor did I notice an increase in those trapped in the sticky tape, so either A: there weren't any, or B: the solution was not strong enough. Either way I think I'm good. I should get the Monterey Insect Spray within a couple of days along with the bottle of AN Overdrive which I'll start using right away.

And for the veg side, I have no idea if it the nutrients or not but the plants have really grown since the last video (as you can see), specially the auto (Big Devil #2) which has gotten twice as tall and I think it might have started flowering, I'm not sure about this but there are white hairs that don't grow on the others coming out of the would-be bud sites.
One of the clones really bounced back is now well under way to become a big plant, but the other still remains small, although new growth has resumed, it still hasn't picked up speed like its sister, I'm hoping that after it gets a couple new sets of leaves it'll pick up speed and growth will truly resume.

Changes to come: I'm gonna improve upon the exhaust because currently there's much more air coming in than it is coming out so the tent swells up like a balloon when it is closed. This is due to the carbon filter placed atop the exhaust fan, which restricts airflow, the intake fan has not such restrictions, and both fans are exactly the same.
So there's two solutions to this, either restrict air intake by blocking the intake (which I've done in the past) or improve upon the exhaust, but this will mean putting up a second fan with a second filter, now this may or may not work. I might need to get a bigger fan with a bigger filter because I think that removing hot air is more important and more effective than pushing 'fresh' air in. Also because there's positive pressure on the inside, some air gets pushed out the seems and zippers on the tent, allowing for some smell to filter through, it's not too strong so you can't smell it from the street but it's enough to detect on the front door of the house.
I'll work on this on the coming weeks.
The other change that I'm thinking of is the freezer cooling system, in very few words, water gets pumped thorough radiators on the freezer to be cooled, this cool water travels through hoses to another radiator on the air intake, heat exchange should take place and nice cool air should be pushed in the tent. Ideally if the water in the system remains cool enough it'll go through another radiator in the res, where heat exchange should take place again cooling the water in the res. Following this the water in the system should continue to a water tank inside the fridge and go through the cycle again. So it's pretty straight forward and theoretically it should work... we'll see.


I think that's all for now. Sorry about the length of the post but I'm thinking that the point of a journal is to be thorough.

This is the new video, taken today Nov. 17th, the previous one was taken on the 9th
[video=youtube;ESz0I_bN-rg]

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As always feel free to ask anything or express your opinions, ideas, and constructive criticism (in a respectful manner, please)

 

[Cultivator]

Re: Rodrigo's Hydro AK48, Aurora Indica, Big Devil #2

why dont u use a passive intake instead of using a fan to bring air in? that way u wont get positive pressure in the tent. In flower u will def get odour leaks if the tent is ballooning up..

Nice video mate.

 

[Rodrigo]

Re: Rodrigo's Hydro AK48, Aurora Indica, Big Devil #2

why dont u use a passive intake instead of using a fan to bring air in? that way u wont get positive pressure in the tent. In flower u will def get odour leaks if the tent is ballooning up..

I have thought about it before, but I don't know if that's gonna be enough fresh air. I'm thinking about putting the intake fan on a timer, so during the day when the lights are off I get passive intake (hence no odor problems) and during the night when the lights are on I get active intake and more fresh air in to cool the tent. Odor isn't really a problem during the night because everyone's asleep.

Nice video mate.

Thank you! It'll be great if you could give me some feedback when you get a chance, basically your opinion on the particulars on the system. No rush, just when you get a minute.

Thanks!

 

[Cultivator]

Re: Rodrigo's Hydro AK48, Aurora Indica, Big Devil #2

the system looks fine to me mate. Only thing i would change is how u have the lighting set up, i would use 1000w hps in cooltube and that would help with temps, but other than that its fine.

What type of fan are u extracting with? As long as the space has the air exchanged 4 times an hour u dont need to push air in. Or u could by a cheap fan controller, just a plug in dimmer switch and turn down the intake fan. I dont use intake fans anywhere, i always use the extractor fan to pull air through the intake holes. If the tent pulls in when the intake fan is off that will show the extractor fan is pulling air in.

 

[Cultivator]

Re: Rodrigo's Hydro AK48, Aurora Indica, Big Devil #2

To avoid algae build up on the rockwool just cover with plastic mylar or light proof sheeting. Pleased the bugs are under control.

 

[Rodrigo]

Re: Rodrigo's Hydro AK48, Aurora Indica, Big Devil #2

I'd love to have a 1000w hps but that would mean also changing the ballast and I can't afford that at the moment. I'm almost positive that they don't sell cool tubes here but I'll see if someone sells them and maybe in a couple of month I'll be able to upgrade the lightning system.

To be honest I have no idea what type of fan it is, it's just like a super PC fan. It's supposed to be for a water chiller system. I'm not sure how much air it moves but it is quite a bit, they're very powerful. Unfortunately I have no way to figure out how much air they move.

As for the speed, I was under the impression that you couldn't use a common dimmer (such as those for lights) for a fan. Anyway the dimmers are $20 here but I haven't been able to find Fan Speed Controllers.

I'll try to improve upon the air extraction and intake over the new few weeks, money is a bit tight right now as I started a company with a friend and we have a lot of money in it.

As for algae, it only grows on the top of the rockwool during veg but only for a few weeks, when the plant starts getting bigger and light doesn't quite reach the bottom it dries out and die. I've been meaning to cover it anyway, I'll do it tomorrow, I still have reflecting material.
How is that going to affect the bug thing? meaning, will they have a better environment if I cover the base?

 

[Cultivator]

Re: Rodrigo's Hydro AK48, Aurora Indica, Big Devil #2

yeah the algae wont do harm it just looks ugly. i dont think it would have much effect on the bugs.

 

[KingJohnC]

Re: Rodrigo's Hydro AK48, Aurora Indica, Big Devil #2

subscribed. I am growing AK48 as well.

 

[Rodrigo]

Re: Rodrigo's Hydro AK48, Aurora Indica, Big Devil #2

subscribed. I am growing AK48 as well.

Great! what can you tell me about your experience with it? I'd love to compare my work with someone else's regarding the same strain, I think it can be mutually beneficial.

 

[KingJohnC]

Re: Rodrigo's Hydro AK48, Aurora Indica, Big Devil #2

My plants are in vegetative growth right now, I have yet to flower AK48. I have an upcoming project that I will run a journal with my 4 AK48 cannabis plants. my 4 plants are from regular seed and only 1 plant is showing pre flowers yet.

 

[bluefly43]

Re: Rodrigo's Hydro AK48, Aurora Indica, Big Devil #2

Subscribed. Looks like an interesting grow, I'll just sit over here and watch and learn

 

[Rodrigo]

Re: Rodrigo's Hydro AK48, Aurora Indica, Big Devil #2

My plants are in vegetative growth right now, I have yet to flower AK48. I have an upcoming project that I will run a journal with my 4 AK48 cannabis plants. my 4 plants are from regular seed and only 1 plant is showing pre flowers yet.

Good luck! so far AK48 is my favorite strain, the buds are really hard and the taste is amazing, the high is also fantastic. You'll love it. it also yields quite a lot so I'm sure you'll like this strain.

Preflowers? I gotta ask what you think preflowers are. As long as you have them vegetating they will not show sex or any indication of flowering. You cannot tell the difference while in veg.

So post a pic of your 'preflowers', maybe I can give you some insight on what's going on.