First LED Grow With AK-48 & Master Kush

Hi, Everyone!

We are Frida and Vincent, a married couple venturing into indoor growing after having terrible experiences having to depend on unreliable local suppliers. For months we’ve been educating ourselves by researching extensively all over the internet, and find this community to be the most resourceful and engaging, hence we’re here now.

We’re starting our first grow ever with AK-48 and Master Kush from the Nirvana seed shop in The Netherlands. Our customer experience with them turned out to be great as we received our seeds in the mail in only 10 days. We chose the AK-48 strain because it has a reputation as being “first-time grower friendly”, and Master Kush for being one of their most highly rated strains. Both strains are well balanced hybrids, AK-48 more towards Sativa and Master Kush to Indica - perfect for us because we like smoking both in the morning and evening.

We’ll be updating this grow journal frequently with photos of our progress, and would love to hear your input, critiques and advice as this is our first grow ever! Thanks.

Peace and Love,
Frida & Vincent



Equipment:

• 4’x4’x6’ Apollo Horticulture grow tent
• 300w GalaxyHydro LED light
• 6” inline exhaust fan with carbon filter
• Custom built suspended SCROG frame/net

Supplies:

• Fox Farm Ocean Forest with 20% added perlite
• Extreme Gardening Mykos Pure Mycorrhizal inoculant
• Maxicrop Liquid Seaweed
• General Hydroponics pH UP (Base) & pH Down (Acid)
• 4 inch plastic seed starter pots
• Geopot smart pots 1 gal. & 3 gal.

Germination


Day 1 (March 1st): Dropped AK-48 and Master Kush seeds in two different glasses filled with tap water. After two hours, they were moved to the cupboard where temp was at 73ºF.

Day 2 (March 2nd): No sign of cracking on either seed. Temperature: 73ºF.

Day 3 (March 3rd): No sign of cracking (10:00 AM). At 11:00 AM moved them to the laundry room (as we were doing laundry) and put them close to the dryer (each seed still submerged in the glasses of water). Temperature 77ºF-79ºF. 8:00 PM: Seeds still not opened, so decided to transfer them to the Paper Towel/Ziplock Method, this time moving them into our small bedroom walk-in closet with a timed space heater at a temperature of 81ºF.

Day 4 (March 4th): At 9:00 AM opened the ziplocks to check the moisture and the possibility of the seeds being cracked. AK-48 showing small taproot tail (heck yeah!), but Master Kush still closed. Closed the ziplocks (as they were still very moist) and decided to leave them in the walk-in closet where temperatures continued to stay between 81ºF and 85ºF.

Day 5 (March 5th): 8:45 AM checked on the seeds again. AK-48 was completely germinated showing long curly taproot. Master Kush still closed but noticed its color had changed dramatically to dark, and was definitely much bigger in size (like a tick) than how we started on day 1, put it back in the ziplock and left it in the walk-in closet after changing the space heater temp to 85ºF because the wet paper towel felt pretty cold. Will be leaving the Master Kush to continue germinating in the warm and very dark walk-in closet until it cracks.




Planting AK-48 Seed Into Soil


While the Master Kush seed continues germinating in the paper towel, filled the small 4” pot with moist Ocean Farm soil (20% perlite added) and planted the AK-48 seed right beneath the surface. Also poured some Mykos Mycorrhizal in the hole to stimulate root growth. Then put it in the grow tent under the LED light which is running on a 18/6 cycle. The temperature in the tent hovers around 77ºF and the humidity level around 32% (without running the ventilation fan or exhaust fan). The humidity is supposed to be closer to 50%-60% during veg so this is a little bit worrisome. Added a container of water in the tent in the hopes that some of it will evaporate in the tent and increase humidity.






Thanks for reading our journal! Stay tuned for more updates coming soon...


Peace and Love,
Frida & Vincent

Sprouting of AK-48 and Germination Issues


Day 6 (March 6th): 8:30 AM checked on the Master Kush seed germinating in the paper towel/ziplock and it was not cracked. And even though our hopes for it to germinate were truly slipping through our fingers, we decided to give it one more day.

On a more positive note, the AK-48 sprouted in the little pot today! The temperature inside the grow tent has been at a constant 75ºF, and we’ve been successfully keeping the humidity between 52% and 62% with the warm damp towel on the tent floor and a baking glass dish (like the ones you use to bake lasagna with) filled with about a 1/4 of warm/room temp water. The AK-48 pot soil is still moist, and didn’t have to water it yet. Will check again on the Master Kush tomorrow, but not holding our breath.


Day 7 (March 7th): First thing in the morning and checked the AK-48 inside the tent - it’s growing so beautifully (!), showing a strong little stem and leaves already!

The “germinating” Master Kush seed it’s definitely a goner , not even cracked a bit after a whole week; had no choice but to throw it away and grab a new Master Kush seed and do it all over again. This time though, we put the new MK seed in a shot glass half filled with tap water for couple of hours (9:00 AM - 11:00 AM), then transferred it to a paper towel soaked in water with few drops of Liquid Seaweed and sprinkled some of the Mykos mycorrhizal inoculant onto the damp paper towel to accelerate the germination process. She will remain in the dark walk-in closet with a constant temp of 82ºF with the controlled space heater. Will check on it at 11:00 AM tomorrow morning hoping for signs of germination so that it joins big sister AK-48 within the next couple of days.




^ AK-48 (aka Hermione) growing strong and beautiful!

Welcome to Riu & congratulations on some nice equipment as well as your strain selection I have never grown master kush but I've grown female seeds pure ak which in all truth ak 48 it was very " user friendly" I wish you the best on your upcoming adventure

horribleherk said:

Welcome to Riu & congratulations on some nice equipment as well as your strain selection I have never grown master kush but I've grown female seeds pure ak which in all truth ak 48 it was very " user friendly" I wish you the best on your upcoming adventure

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Thank you so much! Yeah, we're having a great "first-timers" experience with the AK-48 so far too, hoping the Master Kush doesn't let us down again this time around.

Good vibes your way!

Great job making your decisions. Try not to over think it. I found that to be my major problem with my first adventure. Peace , good vibes and great smoke !!

mortal_wombat said:

Great job making your decisions. Try not to over think it. I found that to be my major problem with my first adventure. Peace , good vibes and great smoke !!

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Thanks! We'll do our best, lol. Peace and good vibes your way too!

Germination Completion & Planting of Master Kush


Day 8 (March 8th): 32 hours later, the Master Kush seed has germinated! The germination method used for the new MK seed was very successful and will continue to use it for future grows. Planted the Master Kush taproot into a 4 inch seed-starter pot with a blend of 80% Fox Farm Ocean Forest soil and 20% Perlite damped with warm tap water, same way as we did with the AK-48 on Day 5. It has joined big sister Hermione (AK-48 ) in the grow tent and should sprout soon. Oh, and we decided to name her Ponyo!

Happy to see you have lift off as this progresses I hope you get a lot of enjoyment out of your grow as I have with mine

Quick update! This is Day 12 since planting AK-48 (left) and Day 8 for Master Kush (right). They're both growing really fast! They were stretching a bit initially because the 300w LED light was positioned too high. Added some more soil to stabilize their stems and lowered the light to about 12" and they seem to be loving it. No more stretching and vigorous leaf growth!



Ordered another identical 300w LED grow light yesterday to get more light intensity in the tent. Will take some more pictures once that one is installed!

Thanks for reading/replying and as always.. Peace, love and good vibes!

Coming along nicely,
Nice choices by the way haven't tried ak but masters(master kush) is awesome!!
will be interesting to see what yields you get from the led too.
Good luck

Lash666 said:

Coming along nicely,
Nice choices by the way haven't tried ak but masters(master kush) is awesome!!
will be interesting to see what yields you get from the led too.
Good luck

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Thanks! Yeah, so far it's going pretty well - can't complain! You know, we've never tried either strain - we chose them based on their genetics. This will be the first time growing and smoking them for us, so we're pretty stoked about this whole grow - especially when we see people like you who have smoked it say is awesome! Have you grown it (Master Kush) yourself?

Hope we'll get a good yield, we will be doing a 4-way LST on each plant and then SCROG. Hopefully the second LED that we ordered will help a lot during flowering for bigger buds. We'll see!

Have a good one!

Frida & Vincent said:

Thanks! Yeah, so far it's going pretty well - can't complain! You know, we've never tried either strain - we chose them based on their genetics. This will be the first time growing and smoking them for us, so we're pretty stoked about this whole grow - especially when we see people like you who have smoked it say is awesome! Have you grown it (Master Kush) yourself?

Hope we'll get a good yield, we will be doing a 4-way LST on each plant and then SCROG. Hopefully the second LED that we ordered will help a lot during flowering for bigger buds. We'll see!

Have a good one!

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I haven't Grown it myself, But some of my mates have (outdoors), they had solid colas and nice structure to them. Smoke was really good and potent kinda musty/piney scent.
also had a musty/piney taste to it.(kinda like afghan)

sweet lil setup.love me some mk,hope you guys get some good phenos on both plants.i ak47 a long time ago for a few runs also and everyone liked it.peace

Nice setup man, im not sure how many plants you plan on growing, but for that area you def want more than just that single 300, i had a mars 600 for two plants in a 2x2 scrog and i regret not having more light, but if youre good with just one, i would suggest lowering it to about 12-18" from the canopy

Lash666 said:

I haven't Grown it myself, But some of my mates have (outdoors), they had solid colas and nice structure to them. Smoke was really good and potent kinda musty/piney scent.
also had a musty/piney taste to it.(kinda like afghan)

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Sounds good! Can't wait to try it.

sixstring2112 said:

sweet lil setup.love me some mk,hope you guys get some good phenos on both plants.i ak47 a long time ago for a few runs also and everyone liked it.peace

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Thanks! Yep, the equipment turned out perfect since is just for personal consumption. Good to see your feedback about these strains, we seriously can't wait!

Traplife said:

Nice setup man, im not sure how many plants you plan on growing, but for that area you def want more than just that single 300, i had a mars 600 for two plants in a 2x2 scrog and i regret not having more light, but if youre good with just one, i would suggest lowering it to about 12-18" from the canopy

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Thanks for catching that(!) - we were wondering why nobody had said anything about the height of the light, fortunately we lowered the light to 12" soon after the girls sprouted (mentioned on post #10) and today we put it a little bit higher at 16" just to be on the safe side - and they're growing very healthy and nicely! The second 300w LED actually arrived today so each plant will have a dedicated light. Will post more pics soon once the second LED is up.

Nothing to add as you seem to be doing fine. I hope we can both pull off our first grows and shrug off the rookie tag.

cheech86 said:

Nothing to add as you seem to be doing fine. I hope we can both pull off our first grows and shrug off the rookie tag.

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Indeed, fellow first-time grower! Looking forward to it.