Whats up guys

Long time lurker, finally decided to post my grow. Although I have a good friend that grows, the vast majority of what I learned, I learned here. This place is an indispensable resource!

Sorry for the crappy pics - my coolpix cam sux on macro. But I will take better ones with a Cannon Rebel this weekend probably...

Flowered on 9/1/09. This is growing in my coat closet. These pics taken 10/5/09. She had two Colas becuase I topped her (cut her in half basically, on 8/14 at 14", to make some clones - but they died - i'll get into that later)


one of the lower buds


Shes as tall as the top of my dishwasher from bottom of pot to top.


One of the two main colas

Overall, I am very happy with my first attempt so far - I have definitely learned a whole lot...I will try and keep you all updated as we go along...

GROW INFO:

Dimensions (WidthxDepthxHeigh): 2'5"x2'x8'

5 sq.ft Grow Area
40 cu.ft. Room Volume

Replaced closet door so I could replace when I move out ($25 Lowes)

Soil:
60% Scotts Premium Potting Soil (Lowes)
40% Miracle-Gro Perlite (Lowes)
5gal Plastic Pot

Nutes:
Tap water (contains Chloramine, i forget the PH-will post later)
Superthrive B1 (Lowes)
Fox Farms Grow Big (hydro store)
Fox Farms Big Bloom (hydro store)
Fox Farms Tiger Bloom (hydro store)
Dutchmaster Penetrator (hydro store)
Dutchmaster Liquid Light (hydro store)
Botanicare CalMag Plus (hydro store)
Botanicare Clearex (hydro store)
Grandmas Molasses (Walmart)

Lighting: (running on brinks digital timer from walmart)
VEG (18x6)
4x26 watt 6700k GE CFLs (lowes)
connected with 3 Y splitters to surround top of plant. (Lowes)

FLOWER (12x12)
(Amount of light varied - see blow)
Currently,
3x26 watt 6500K GE CFLs (from veg lighting)
7x42 watt 2700k GE CFLs (Walmart)

Ventilation:
VEG
Two 4" holes in closet door (top,bottom)
Tiny 4" o2Cool personal fan for exhaust
Small honeywell desk fan (maybe 5" dia?)
4" ducting
Lots of Duct tape

FLOWER
Used the veg setup for 1 week while trying to acquire a better option
Stanley Blower w/mod
4"exhaust
went from 1, to 2, to 3x4" passive intakes to control temps

Also had emergency blanket walls for a couple weeks, but trashed it due to heat build up - I don't recommend using this without really good ventilation setup.

Temps
INSIDE
has ranged from 78-94 F
Currently stable at 88 F

OUTSIDE (living room - AC controlled temp of 76 through veg, 70 through flower)

Odor Control
DIY Carbon Scrubber 6" OD,4" ID (parts from Home Depot)
Aquarium Activated Carbon (walmart)

AND FINALLY, THE STORY!!:

So, I went to Cali in July to visit a long time grower friend of mine. He is old school, lots of hippie connects. He got a hold of the original AK47, Cherry Pheno and has kept it in his mother room since. Decided I would take a cutting from her just to mess around with at home. He already had a batch of cut clones that he had cut the week before I arrived, so I asked if I could have one, and he of course allowed me to take her! I left two days later...

We put her in a solo plastic cup (she was in a jiffy puck already), cut some holes on the bottom, put that in another solo plastic cup, which we filled with water till it touched the puck bottom for like 1/4 inch, and set off on our drive home..

I kept her in my cupholder up front the entire drive, getting as much sun as possible until we passed border patrol checkpoints - at which point she hid in the center console until we were through. No problems there - although we went through several check points. I think there were only like 3 on the way TO cali, but like 8 on the way BACK to Tejas.

Bought some Fiji water on the trip, and every so often would refill the bottom cup so she wouldn't dry out.

23 hours later - we made it home! (7/19/09)


I left her on the window sill that night to absord the sunlight all day the next day

After work - I made a mad dash over to Walmart and bought some extension cords, a clamp-light fixture, 1 42w CFLs (which I later found out was 2700k). I got home, cleared out the coat closet (sort of lol - just the top shelf), and put her inside of a white plastic bin (the one you see in the pic up there) with 1 CFL in the clamp fixture hanging above her, and grabbed the small desk fan I had to circulate some air around it.




Didn't really have time to go to lowes, so I left her like that, watered her, and went to bed. Not much heppened the next day -she stayed in this position for one more day.

The next day after work, I got home..checked her out, she had nice roots barely coming out of the puck, so I decided it was probably okay to put her in a pot. Ideally, you would probably want to be more careful than I, but I was very impatient lol.

Made another mad dash to Lowes, and picked up the correct color lights (4 x26watt 6500K), a socket-to-wall converter, soil, perlite, a 5 gal pot and Superthrive, as well as some duct work that I thought I was going to make into DIY relectors, like the youtube CFL DIY reflectors - I just couldn't find a dual socket- and picked up a temp/humidity gauge at walmart

I filled the pot up with a very well mixed blend of 50/50 soil/perlite, and stuck her in the middle, burying the puck with about a 2 and a half inch of mix. I also got rid of the old leaves, leaving only the new ones she made since being cut. Watered the entire pot for a good 5 minutes, allowed the excess to drain, then I mixed up a batch of superthrive (with no way to measure, I tried to acheive 1 drop, in two cups of water - looking back that was probably WAY too strong..but it seems she liked it! but I would not recommend following my lead on that.), and dumped that in, right at her base.



I took this right after watering with the superthrive...





I left the closet door cracked like that. That weekend, I cleaned out the coat closet, and started planning out how I was going to set up this grow for real.

I cleared out the closet on saturday morning, and hung an extension cord with two bulbs on a Y-splitter.



And that is how she stayed for a couple days. I wont go into daily detail, though I have the records, but to summarize, I gave her 2 cups of water with a drop of superthrive every other day for the next week.

This is her that next weekend (7-26-09)


Gave the pot another good full watering for 5 minutes, allowing to drain (this drains very well by the way), and changed up the lighting - adding the other two 26 watters on Y-splitters, so they hung above her.

From here, I stopped with the superthrive every other day, and proceed to allow the soil to dry out for the top 2", and a light pot. From there I would give her a good 5 minute watering and 2 cups of water/1drop superthrive on top of that.

TO BE CONTINUED...

dam that pic looks frosty bro...bet you she gonna be tasty....long live texas my friend

__________________
Don't Bite Your Friends.

Okay....... I'm back, had to take a "break." Yummy OG Kush - I brought a couple ounces of medical OG back too

Thanks bro! Hell yeah man, I can't wait. she is frosted UP! It's crazy, I'm only on what - flowering day 36? haha, and that pic is just a bottom bud. Man the colas look like I dipped them in pixie stix or somethin! I'm giddie like a 6 six year old on Christmas...

Okay! back to the story...

So we saw her at the end of what I'll call, week 1 (day .

She really took off, I was pleasantly surprised! She seemed to enjoy her superthrive diet - plus this damn soil has time release nutes (i didn't think about that)...but it looked like she didn't mind.

I was saying that after week 1, I stopped with the Superthrive/water every other day - and changed it to whenever she was light and dry on her top 2" of soil. That was about every 4-5 days. On day 8 (above pic), I also added the other Y-splitters and bulbs, so now there were 4x26w CFLs on top of her. I notice this week that the temps were really climbing, even with the door cracked. So I decided I needed to get to some air somehow - was gonna drill through the ceiling ( the ac duct runs directly above this closet ), and then exhaust into the plenum, but then I worried about smell, damage cost, etc. So I went to lowes and bought a replacement door- ONLY $25!! lol, couldn't pass that up. Also bought a vent kit and round diffuser, and a 4" hole saw.

I went to lowes and Home depot, and Ace hardware looking for a decent cfm bathroom extraction fan that wouldn't cost me an arm and a leg - but was very disappointed with the selection. I also looked everywhere for dual socket light fixtures, but noone had them.

So I went online, and bought an Airking bath fan from some contractor supply store. Here is the link
http://www.rewci.com/50-cfm-high-performance-fan.html.

I figured with my 40 cu.ft. room, that 50cfm @0.5 sones at .1sp was pretty decent for $40 bucks - it was the quietest I found without getting in the high dollar range. It was okay- it worked all the through veg. But after adding more lights and running through carbon - it really struggled. It was probably more because of not enough intake to be honest now that I look back, but more on that later.

I would do business with them again though, because it was smooth and very quick shipping.

I also found my dual socket fixtures for way cheap online...$2.42, not bad.
http://www.bicsuperstore.com/search....ord=B000HJ97US Awesome experience there too.

Also, went to Walmart and bought the rest of the 42watters, and aquarium activated carbon, as well as a tiny o2cool fan that I was really going to use just for more airmovement, chains and S hooks for hanging my fixtures....

Anyhow, I also stopped by the hydro store and bought a bottle of FF Grow Big, becuase after week 2 I was going to start feeding my girl. I also was picking up some dutchmasters liquid light and penetrator at the advise of my friend. They didn't have any on the shelf - they don't carry it yet, but she had a box of samples - she gave me 3 of each, free.

Also hit up the dollar tree to pick up some spray bottles in case i would need em.


Here she is on 8/1/09, roughly abound week 2


Top view


Side view, showing growth =]

So, for week two, watered a few times and she started getting big. That weekend, my new toys also arrived, so down to business! Replaced the door, and drilled my 4" intake, 4" exhaust. Hooked up my bath fan, used my 02cool fan, cut it all up till it was just the back screen supports and the motor with bladed, attached it to some duct and to my round diffuser which I installed on the bottom hole, a my intake fan. No idea the CFMs. Seemed pretty low though. Also, grabbed some of the womans stockings, and made me a 4" diameter round, 2" thick "carbon scrubber" that i would use temporarily until my bigger one was done. I then attached the bath fan to the exhaust vent, through the scrubber. This really slowed things down, but NO SMELL! =]


Bath fan on ceiling


Exhaust at top of door

I also built all of my reflectors,but I wouldn't really use them till flower.

Anyway, on to week three! Started with a 5 minute flush with plain water, until the pot was nice and heavy, and I let it run off as usual. I then gave her a healthy feeding of grow big - following the formula on the bottle - but cut to 1/4 tsp/1 liter water(the size of my water bottle sprayer). I took the top off a water bottle, punch some holes on the cap with a knife, and put that on the top of my sprayer bottle - I use it as my watering can =P

Again, waited till it was dry to water (about every 4-5 days), and gave it nutes every watering this go round. She grew A LOT. got really bushy! By the end of the week, she pretty much shaded her pot, and was like 7 or 8inches tall, with nice green leaves!

Trouble is, grandma was coming over to stay the weekend. Four days actually- my first test for my temporary ventilation/scrubber setup. Happy to report that with my dad, brother, and grandma in the apartment, no one noticed the fan sound, nor smell. they didn't even say anything about the door having vents on it. I don't think they really even noticed! nice. No pics for this week. Week 4 done.

Didn't really need to water during that time, but anyway, at the end of week 4, she was very nice and healthy looking - at 14" tall too.


8/13/09



top view, 8/13/09


Measured growth! 14" 8/13/09


I only have a certain amount of time at this apartment, so I wanted to clone her and give the clones time to veg. Anyway, went to the hydro store, picked up some clonex, and growbig and tiger bloom. I cut her down to like 5 inches, topper her at the second node, and cut the top into like 10 way too small clones.


Before, 8/14/09


After clone surgery, a much "lighter" girl




I got greedy, and tried to get a lot of clones, but it was bad idea. If you try to clone, follow everyones advise, and make them at least like 3-4" inches long.

Anyway, I got a ziploc container (like 4"x6"x4"deep) and filled it with perlite. Cut holes on bottom, put it in another container with an 1"bed of perlite. Cut the clones, dipped them immediately into the clonex, moved em around to get rid of bubbles etc. Tried scraping a few of them, and then dip them. Covered them with a ziplock bag with some slits in it for ventilation. It looked like it was going to work. stuck them in my room with the mom.

Week 5 looked promising, the clones looked healthy, mom looked healthy, new growth etc. Kept the watering schedule up, except I would add a couple drops of superthrive every other watering. I also began using the dutchmaster liquid light/penetrator mix. Holy crap. She really took off now! used that on average every 4 days. sometimes forgot and did it in 6 days.

Anyway, by week 6 the clones started looking a little off. Spots of black on leaf tips, and random spots on leaf. still green though. I figured maybe they didn't like the ziplock bag dome. So I made them a container dome, no holes this time, I would just no cover it up completely. Burped everytime I got a chance. Same feeding schedule.

Also noticed yellow spots on moms leaves. Looked like aphids. I bought some ortho ecosensebrand 3in1 rose and flower care - and began using every 3 days. Also pulled everything back out of the closet, sprayed some raid, then washed the walls and everything inside with a light bleach/water solution. Also used a carpet cleaner to steam clean the carpet in the closet. Did a light rubbing alcohol/water solution spray down as well at the end of week 6, washing it all of with lots of plain water afterwards.

Also by the end of week 6, the clones looked dead pretty much. dry and crispy, despite high humidity and good moisture level. Still don't really know what happened there - maybe to much light, too hot, too much water. ???

At week 7, decided that clones were done for, so on 9/1 decided I would switch to flower.

To be continued....

i use Schultz TakeRoot rooting hormone from walmart and it works fine for me...i dont use clonex
EDIT:forgot to say that it was for clones...i dunno why i typed this tho im just fuckin BLAZED

__________________
Don't Bite Your Friends.

Posted some more pics. Will post the rest, and finish the story later tonight!



One of the colas on 9/16


Here is the same bud from up top (lower branch) on 10/05

Is she ugly or something? Cmon people where is the loooooove

She is BEE E A UUUUUTIFULL!!!!! Ausome job working with CFL's too. +Rep I can't wait to see the yield. Subscribed

Looking good man. What lighting did you use during germ/seedling stage?

__________________

this was one of the first strains I ever tried that was worth a damn . And it was AUSSSSOME!!!!

Akilleez - she was a cutting from a Cherry AK47 mother that my friend had in cali, I drove her across state lines to get her to Tejas lol. The mothers he has are under T5HOs, not sure on wattage.

When I repotted it into a proper pot, I started the first few days with 2x26w 6500k CFLs, then about the start of week 2, I changed it to 4.