Phenominawesome Family First Grow Tries Aurora Indica, AK48's - 1KW MH/HPS - 5x5 Tent

Phenoman

Phenoman

Well-Known Member
5/17/17 Entry #0 - The Setup:

This is my wife and I's first grow, I will try to outline the differences between care of the plants when they happen.

Quickly before I go into equipment, we totally rushed this part and I will never ever rush again as it's become a nightmare of purchasing items to stay ahead of the plants. My plants will appreciate Amazon prime membership.

*Note To Self: Be Patient!

Here is the equipment setup:

  • 1KW 6" Cooled Reflector Hood.
  • 1KW Dimmable balast 400,600,1000 MH and HPS.
  • I'm using a mid range MH bulb and the cheaper HPS bulb that came with my light kit to start with due to budget.
  • 6" inline vortex fan.
  • 5x5 tent in a 10x12 room that is being converted to a flower room as we can afford gear. This room can be sealed for light and/or air and doesn't have traffic.
  • 8,000 BTU window A/C with dehumidifier mode on the way from Fry's. Plenty for this grow but I'm hoping this will be able to cool 2.5KW when the room is complete.

The consumables:


Fox Farm Ocean Forest Soil.

RO water purchased from the machine PPM= ~4

They didn't have Mykos so we got these pouches...not sure about this so will look into.
might just order Mykos/Azos for transplant into their final pots.

PH up/down with Tester

PPM meter by Dr

Not Decided/Haven't bought Yet

Plastic vs fabric pots? 3 vs 5 gal (5-6 plants in 5x5).

CFLs for seedlings??

Bone Meal.

Seaweed Extract

Calmag

Etc... Need to run but will update after work.
 
Re: Phenominawesome Family First Grow Tries Aurora Indica, AK48's - 1KW MH/HPS - 5x5

5/17/17 Entry #1 - Take One:

So to get caught up...Please don't read into my name. I have an ego, we all do to some degree, but believe me when I say that mine is more deflated than most :Namaste: I'm open minded as they come... as are many here so ya.

I bring that up because I welcome comments and constructive criticism. I don't know if that is typical of Journals but I would like that to be the case for this journal.

Back in time.....

5/14 - We germinated our seeds by first 18 & 24 hours in a cup of 75 degree tap water @ 265 PPM (the Auroras were put in 12 hours later and soaked 24 hours vs 18.

5/15 Early morning we move to paper towels on a paper plate, wet with tap water - I heard they can use the minerals in tap water at this stage. Put seeds in between moist paper towels and into dark hall closet for 12 hours.

5/16 Early morning, All Aurora's are germinated and showing 1/8" taproots. 5 of the 5 AK's have popped and are showing a taproot, the Mystery seed is showing a rather large taproot and I'm worried needed to be planted right away.

Lunch break I run to store for RO water and Dixie cups. Come home to find the Mystery seed is now completely germinated out of the seed!! Only the husk is barely hanging on and that is only 6 hours after I checked on it last!!

I hurry and plant MysteryX seed without covering the husk as the seed has used all of it's energy to extend this far, I doubt it will make it if I bury the whole thing.

Later that evening we planted the rest of the seeds/

5/16 Aurora Indica 2 - feminized both popped, sprouted 1/4" taproots. and planted into a Dixie filled with Fox Farm soil 3/4 to top. cup root down and about 1/8" into soil.
All 5 Ak-48 regular all planted, put into a casserole dish because I forgot to get a leach tray and put back into the dark closet, Is this right?
 
Re: Phenominawesome Family First Grow Tries Aurora Indica, AK48's - 1KW MH/HPS - 5x5

5/18/17 Entry #2 Aurora Indica/AK/?? Seedlings -

On 5/17 the seeds are sprouting, so I moved the entire dish out of the dark closet and into the 'veg closet' under a 1kw MH turned down to 400w.


*The MH light is too hot to be able to use right now and that is probably a good thing.

I woke early 5/18 to find the temps nearing 90 degrees at the plant, further check showed the entire room to be that hot so that tells me 2 things:

The light isn't too close (I don't know if too intense), just poor ventilation/cooling.

While I have heard of folks using a MH from seedling at 400W it's a battle, but can be done. Just not for me right now without the AC unit :(

For me the battle between heat and money won this round. So instead of $200 for the AC unit and no food this week made executive decision to go with -$40 for a T5 clone/germination light from Walmart.

In the pictures you can see that for now I'm using an upside down lid to what will eventually be my reservoir. The T5 hooks onto the ends like it was made to fit. The only problem is too many plants for the little light.



I have to make it one week until we have the AC unit and tent...not sure how long they can stay under that little T5 but hopefully a week is doable. Plus having the light will help for future propagation.

Trying to post pictures...
 
Re: Phenominawesome Family First Grow tries Aurora Indica, AK48's. 1KW MH/HPS - 5x5 T

5/19/17 Entry #3 Let's call this day 1! ...for seedlings (2 are actually 2 days old)

Temps: High 82, low 77. 79 Most of the time at the leaves with the T5.
Humidity: 55-60%.
Water: None yet, still letting the seedlings/air use up some of the saturated soil. It's still visible moist so I know there is plenty of moisture.
Food: None for now. Likely will not be doing much feeding unless I see a deficiency once I have my soil mixed up and amended.


All of the seeds have sprouted. 100% success into seedling from seeds!

I'm so happy about this :thumb: because when I was younger, I use to try to get some of these going for creating gorilla gardens (all failed to finish for one reason or another). I would be lucky to get a sprout from 4-5 seeds but back then we didn't have places like this to share information.


NOTE:
What isn't listed above is that 2 plants -Aurora Indica #2 and AK #2 seemed to be struggling. This is my first grow so it's hard to leave things alone.
VERY hard.

The Aurora seemed to be weighed down by the seed husk and the taproot had begun to curl underneath. With the humidity being so low, I worried the poor taproot would shrivel and die so, I placed a bit of saran wrap over the cup top and misted some water into it. No change after 12 hours so I lightly brushed my finger upward along the husk and it fell off. 1 hour later the plant is already standing back up straight and looking at the light!

AK48 #2 was suffering a similar situation in which the skin from inside the seed husk (the husk was gone) was keeping the cotyledon from opening. without moisture that skin looks tough. I tried a similar approach. Misted under saran wrap to loosen the husk skin and lightly brushed it off with my finger.

2 hours later and all 8 seeds are now grown up to seedlings.

I have some photos that i'm trying to upload, not sure where I need to go to do that....
 
Re: Phenominawesome Family First Grow Tries Aurora Indica, AK48's - 1KW MH/HPS - 5x5

Day 7 Seedling. 5/22/17 I originally started to count at sprout but decided based on what they look like and what others look like etc I would say from Germination I am 7 days.

Today I am out of room under the little cheapo T5. Actually I shouldn't knock the light, it germinated and sprouted all 8 of my 8 seeds!

For $40 though it's a bit of a ripoff but I needed something fast and Walmart is open 24 hours lol.

So now the little-uns are sharing my Office with me under the 400W MH 24/7 for veg. (I am thinking to slowly decrease this, giving the plants some dark time. Landing at 18/6 after the first week starting next week through the rest of veg).

* I started 24/7 while waiting on the tent to get them started. I felt it wasn't worth waiting another 2 weeks to get the seedlings going. If I find it's not a good idea, I do know that 24 hours of light is ok for veg in fact used to be the standard school of thought lol.\

Edit- almost forgot my notes!

5/20 raised up the Auroras to be closer to the light. was 4 inches now is about 3.

*Neat trick I figured out with the dixie cups. have one with holes to drain and I put a 3/4 inch tattoo ink cap inside another cup and put the vented cup inside the other. This raises the inside cup enough to drain and makes it easy to move without using a tray.

I've been adding this method as they have been watered.

I was going to wait 7 days until watering as a rule, and for the most part it worked out that way.

Some cups were dry on day 5-6 up to my first joint on my index finger.

Day - 5 5/20 Watered AK-48 #1. -experiment. Took a Microbial (like Mykos but possibly different fungi?) bag and made a tea with it just for the heck of it and it measures 46ppm only so I wasn't worried to give it to the plant.

Day 6 5/21 Watered AK#4&3. Gnat stix arrived and I put up 3 across the row.

Day 7 5/22 Watered the rest, moved under 400W MH. 24 hours of light per day. Gnats look all gone. I'm sure this will be a continuous battle so I am investing in some Gnat Nix and Mesquito bits when I get the soil amendments.

Week 1 analysis:
Plants look good. The leaves range in color from light-ish to dark-ish green, but I do not see evidence of anything serious. Some are a little light or yellowish in the newly growing areas but it looks healthy and normal to me.


*Side note. We (wife and I) discussed what we want to achieve in general. This grow of course will be soil based and I will mix up an amended soil that will hopefully require little food during flowering.

Our next and subsequent grows we are going to stick with the soil and be as organic as possible. Maybe no-till.
We both agree that since we are growing for ourselves we want really good natural quality over a possibly larger yield. I say minimally not because I believe one can yield substantially more than the other, only that at my scale it is not going to be a problem. Another reason is cost and confusion. Too many products, too many opinions and until I know my bum from a hole I'll stick with soil and maybe we do Coco at some point I don't know.

Ok now to upload some pictures...
 
Re: Phenominawesome Family First Grow Tries Aurora Indica, AK48's - 1KW MH/HPS - 5x5

Thank you! I just scoped your tent. Doing great over there, they look happy:thumb:!
 
Re: Phenominawesome Family First Grow Tries Aurora Indica, AK48's - 1KW MH/HPS - 5x5

Day 8 Seedling 5/23 - Deficiency or Lockout? Advice Appreciated as always.

Twisting Curling, Yellowing Veins?
Seeing some odd color and twisting/curling of leaves on the AK's. I don't think the twisting is an issue alone, but what is bothering me is the yellowing of veins in the leaves of some of them and the twisting one has very dark green in between veins especially on the outside of the leaf.

Yellowing of the leaves


They all have been watered once either yesterday or the day before as needed (by my limited experience) I stuck finger in soil to first digit if wet leave alone, if dry, water until I see runoff then stop.

Some commonalities:
1) Most of those that are yellow the soil is still wet from yesterday's water.
2) Most of those that are yellow contained a Gnat Stick.
3) One plant doesn't fit either really but isn't as bad.

Strains affected are 1 Aurora Indica -had gnat stix. 2-AK-48s. The Iced Grapefruit is super healthy and the soil is on the dry side.

Actions for now:
Research and comparison of other's photos.
Removed gnat stix. Will hold off an extra day on watering the Iced Grapefruit.


*Some somewhat related news!

We found out the Mystery plant is most likely an Iced Grapefruit. It was along with one of those nugs that we found the seed, however things have been in that jar before the IG so I wasn't sure. While that nug was a random gift we ended up getting some more of it and I found another seed! A single seed in a single nug in about 1/2 OZ of what you would swear is Sensi?!

Not sure how a viable seed ends up in otherwise seedless weed.
You cannot have a viable seed without pollination. It's biology.
Sure we can graft and clone and they can hermie but they cannot magically create a fertilized seed. Unless they can.

Here's a question for those in the know (above and beyond the current problem of course :) ).
What if this IG was pollinated very late in flower?
 
Re: Phenominawesome Family First Grow Tries Aurora Indica, AK48's - 1KW MH/HPS - 5x5

Phenoman said:
Day 8 Seedling 5/23 - Deficiency or Lockout? Advice Appreciated as always.

Twisting Curling, Yellowing Veins?
Seeing some odd color and twisting/curling of leaves on the AK's. I don't think the twisting is an issue alone, but what is bothering me is the yellowing of veins in the leaves of some of them and the twisting one has very dark green in between veins especially on the outside of the leaf.

Yellowing of the leaves


They all have been watered once either yesterday or the day before as needed (by my limited experience) I stuck finger in soil to first digit if wet leave alone, if dry, water until I see runoff then stop.

Some commonalities:
1) Most of those that are yellow the soil is still wet from yesterday's water.
2) Most of those that are yellow contained a Gnat Stick.
3) One plant doesn't fit either really but isn't as bad.

Strains affected are 1 Aurora Indica -had gnat stix. 2-AK-48s. The Iced Grapefruit is super healthy and the soil is on the dry side.

Actions for now:
Research and comparison of other's photos.
Removed gnat stix. Will hold off an extra day on watering the Iced Grapefruit.


*Some somewhat related news!

We found out the Mystery plant is most likely an Iced Grapefruit. It was along with one of those nugs that we found the seed, however things have been in that jar before the IG so I wasn't sure. While that nug was a random gift we ended up getting some more of it and I found another seed! A single seed in a single nug in about 1/2 OZ of what you would swear is Sensi?!

Not sure how a viable seed ends up in otherwise seedless weed.
You cannot have a viable seed without pollination. It's biology.
Sure we can graft and clone and they can hermie but they cannot magically create a fertilized seed. Unless they can.

Here's a question for those in the know (above and beyond the current problem of course :) ).
What if this IG was pollinated very late in flower?
Click to expand...
The pictures are really blurry but they don't appear to be having problems from those photos anyway.
 
Re: Phenominawesome Family First Grow Tries Aurora Indica, AK48's - 1KW MH/HPS - 5x5

Apologies for blur, they looked clear to me but I had been under the light a little.

I think that you are correct.

I'm likely just a bit paranoid since it wouldn't take much to kill one of them I imagine at this stage.

I'm going to wait a day and see, let some of that water get used up, meanwhile get some CalMag as I'm using RO water.

I wouldn't think that they can so quickly become deficient in Calcium and/or Magnesium but I did Germ with tap water @nearly 300PPM then switched to RO water when they sprouted.

I've read that a seed has the minerals to sustain the plant about a week but come on, that quickly?

Thanks for the reply and peace of mind!
 
Re: Phenominawesome Family First Grow Tries Aurora Indica, AK48's - 1KW MH/HPS - 5x5

Ah, I see what I did... I have the pics on 'Thumbnail with Link to original', if you open the original it might be more clear? Anyway, if you do happen to check and they are still blurry please let me know so that I can make proper adjustments for the future :thanks:
 
Re: Phenominawesome Family First Grow Tries Aurora Indica, AK48's - 1KW MH/HPS - 5x5

If it is a very light green it's normal for new growth to be a much lighter color.

I am a huge believer in cal mag and great white powder. I put 200 PPM cal mag in whey feeding from 3 nodes on.

My seedlings where fed with 450ppm tap water and did fine. Then at 3 nodes started adding 200 PPM cal mag. That's 650ppm water with no adverse reaction. But might be stain related.
 
Re: Phenominawesome Family First Grow Tries Aurora Indica, AK48's - 1KW MH/HPS - 5x5

Day 10 things looking great all around.

The runt AK is starting to catch on.
Temps 77-82
Humidity 30-55 percent (sure hopes this goes up this weekend once in the tent. I think once they are bigger in the tent the transpiration and water evap will shoot it up).


They had their first "night" today for 4 hours from 6AM to 10AM.
I am gradually working them down from 24/0 to 18/6 just learned that light mistakes during veg are not as serious so I decided to give them down time for hormone production as well work related obstacles.

They are placed in a bathtub in a bathroom with 2 doors and a shower curtain. I'm nearly 100 sure there isn't a leak of light anyway but I was thinking it was like flower and that they would hermie on me.

I'm typing this on the 11th day, things are not so good...that's foreshadowing ;)
 
Re: Phenominawesome Family First Grow Tries Aurora Indica, AK48's - 1KW MH/HPS - 5x5

Day 11 Near Disaster :(

The plants where doing great until I decided to drop them on the way back to the light room from the bathroom. I dropped 3 completely including both Auroras!!

NOOOOOOO!!!!!

The root balls where shredded :( I've repotted them, watered lightly with pipette and misted with water.

The other 5 where shook up a little bit not dropped. They where knocked around so they should be fine though they shifted in the pots.

Anyway I hope they will recover or I go plan B, pop the rest of my Aurora Fems and hold back the veg on the others by pruning and making clones.

The roots on the worst one was barely 1x1 inches across the mass. The rest tore but there are some root so...

My instinct tells me at best they suffer some shock, at worst...well...

Sorry no pics of the drop, I was in a rush to get them into soil and stable.

Here they are now...don't know much yet.



I've read of people dropping plants and apparently "you can smack it with a tennis racket and it will be twice as big next week" -says one person in regards to dropping a plant face first. :) I don't own a tennis racket but i'll put that on my list of things to buy ;)

"If you think dropping a plant on it's face is bad wait until you supercrop" -Rusty Crutch.

I feel better now but I'm pretty sure one of the Auroras is in really bad shape.
 
Re: Phenominawesome Family First Grow Tries Aurora Indica, AK48's - 1KW MH/HPS - 5x5

Update Day 11 end of day.

I picked up some Fox Farms Kelp you Kelp me from the local nursery.

I'm really thrilled about this stuff! I used it to water the injured babies in hopes to reduce shock.

I mixed with 1tsp with 1 gallon of RO water and PH up from 4?? yep, triple checked with meter and liquid...to 6.5.

Going to vary the PH slightly each feed/water 6.6+-0.1 -ish.

The girls look fine 12 hours after taking the tumble...They are not droopy or yellow but bright eyed and bushy tailed.

I watered them with the seaweed water mix and made a foliar spray with the same concentration which I've used 5 times over 12 hours (note humidity).

Temps 79
Humidity 46

* note to watch the behavior after using foliar spray.
The non-injured plants look excellent after a few sprays.
It's like the last 12 hours have completely rejuvenated them.
They are sticking up and smiling bright to the light.

MysteryX received water/seaweed extract PH 6.5, root now sticking out of cup badly, need to transplant.

Water temps during all feedings so far have been room temp 72-75 degrees.

Monday I'm going to mix up my final soil and get them into their final pots save for the ones that fell. Not sure which size yet...would be nice to know how many I will be working with, yet another reason to get clones on deck for the next one.
 
Re: Phenominawesome Family First Grow Tries Aurora Indica, AK48's - 1KW MH/HPS - 5x5

Day 12 Early morning for me, near bed time for them.

Today all the plants look healthy. I'm beginning to think the fall didn't hurt them as bad as I thought.

It's only been about 6 hours since I last checked on them and the 5 not in shock have grown yet even more.

The 3 that took a fall yesterday look great considering.

No yellowing, no wilting, no color change or indication of problems other than they didn't grow any yesterday.

I expected that but I am just happy if they live at this point I need one mamma. The other strains are ok, but I'm really looking forward to the Aurora.

Cross fingers this grow goes well!

Then I can spend some $$ on the genetics that I really want Candyland and if possible GSC or PGSC to run with the Indica. I will have to leave those in a bit longer but I've seen people cut To bad only one place has them and want 200 bucks for 10 regular seeds. No other buying options.

Post back after they get up with Hi's and lows as well as pics.
 
Re: Phenominawesome Family First Grow Tries Aurora Indica, AK48's - 1KW MH/HPS - 5x5

Day 14 from Germination.

Well good news they all survived!

Here they all are on their second week from germination. You can see the Auroras and the one AK is stunted compared to the others,but survived the fall!.


Hearty little buggers.
 
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