Ok, well, I've read this forum for a while now but finally decided to jump in and contribute. I've just started my first grow - Lowlife AK-47 Automatic hybrid. I went for the auto for a few reasons, mostly space and simplicity,
but also out of curiosity. I'm just growing for me and I don't smoke pounds of weed, so it should be a productive grow.
I have precious little space in my flat to do any sort of growing so I just bought an HPS and mounted it under my desk (400W Sunmaster Super HPS Deluxe). Also out of curiosity, I'm growing the whole thing under 24h lighting just to see how it fares. I have an oscillating fan under there to move the air around and keep things cool. Otherwise I just leave my window open for fresh air and that's that. It's not really enclosed so the ventilation is pretty good.
They were germed on paper towel and started in jiffy pellets. Soil is just pure commercial bagged compost - again, I was going for simple. Compost is a bit acidic but I have really hard water so I think they work well together. Fed just water for the first week, then a feed of 1/4 strength nutes (Ionic Soil/Grow). I'm adding 1/4 tsp/L epsom salts to all the water and food as well, again because of the rather hard water.
I started them staggered so I wouldn't end up killing them all from the get go in case I messed something up - it's all a bit of a learning experince and I have a habit of learning things the hard way, lol. My first seedling was rushed and it toasted under the lights - pics are from the second one, which is the eldest, and #3 and #4 are about a week and ten days behind this one.
The eldest showed definite sex at 13 days - a girl!!
So far it's staying really, really short but it's branching like a fractal on amphetamines. As of today, day 16, I count seven nodes on the main cola, each producing two fan leaves and two satellites. The bottom satellites are on 3-4 nodes each already and some of those have started to branch off. The satellites are budding all over the place, as is the main cola. I get the feeling the AKs are definitely the daddies of the lowlifes when it comes to yield - this thing is looking crazy and nothing like the spindly, waif-like pics I've seen of Lowryder.
Some of the branches look a bit twisted in the pics - that's from me moving them around a bit to try to help them find light. It's branching so much that it doesn't have room to fit all the stuff it's trying to grow!
At any rate - more news to come. Watch this space. Questions, comments, and advice all welcome.
