Pure Afghan, Northern Lights & Big Bud - An Indoor and Outdoor Grow Journal

Hey guys, this is my first ever grow both in soil and indoors, so your advice and constructive criticism is more than welcome! Actually, it's not just me growing, it's both my old man and I.

Indoor Setup:

Lighting: 600W HPS / Reflective Hood
Grow Room: 1.2 x 1.2 x 2.0m Grow Tent
Fans: Small intake fan, 100 CFM outtake fan and an oscillating fan - We've also got a 350 CFM fan, but at the moment the temps are staying between 24-29 with the smaller fan, so we'll switch them out once summer hits its peak ( 40 Celsius on the regular ).
Strains: Northern Lights & Big Bud
Nutrients: DutchMaster Gold A & B ( Veg & Flower )
Grow Medium: Coco Coir with 25% Perlite
pH: 5.5


I read a forum post that said nutrients needed to be applied to Coco Coir after the first week, which I ended up trying and it burned a few of the girls. I flushed all the plants with a pH balanced water ( 5.5 ) and they seemed to have improved over the day. Their leaves were originally horizontal but they're now reaching for the lights! Excuse the terrible picture, I'll get more tomorrow when I can turn the light off. Another user ( Bozo, thanks again buddy! ) noticed how large the pots were and was concerned about the length of time the Coco would stay moist which may cause over watering, but I've decided to keep them in the larger pots and just water lightly around the base until the plant grows larger. The plants are around a week old.



Outdoor Setup:

Grow Medium: High Quality Potting Soil
Strains: Pure Afghan
Nutrients: DutchMaster Gold A & B ( Veg & Flower )
pH: 6.5

The afghans seem to be doing pretty well, I started giving them nutrients on the 2 week mark and they seemed to have loved it. No chemical burns and all their leaves are reaching for the sun which is always a good sign. They are about 2 and a half weeks old, the days are starting to get longer but they've only been able to get around 10-13 hours of light a day. This doesn't bother me though, as I plan to let them all grow until the end of December.

Pot 1



Pot 2



Pot 3

Weird, I notice a slight discoloration in the leaves in the pictures which I can't see when looking directly at the plants.. Hopefully it's just the camera.

Hey guys, here's a quick update.

When I checked on the girls this morning a few of the plants leaves had curled up, and after checking the temperature it was sitting around 31-33, which is obviously far too hot. I ended up pulling a large fan out of an old fried power supply and hacked it together with a battery. I can't believe how well it worked! The plants are now sitting at a cool 27 degrees so hopefully the leaves will go back to normal by tomorrow morning.

I'll post flicks tomorrow when I get home!

Hey guys, the plants seem to be doing pretty well! I added some more Coco to cover the stems and lifted the light to around the 3ft mark, however I think this might have caused some drooping ( either that or I've over watered ). I'm thinking of giving it another 5 - 7 days before I start giving them nutes ( you can see the nute burn on some of the leaves when I fed them previously ), what do you guys think?




All the ice cream sticks I had with labels absorbed water which caused the ink to run, so I have no idea what strain is what anymore. How do you think I'm going so far? I'd really value some input!

Okay, I figured out why my plants were drooping. It wasn't from over watering or from the light being too high, it was from the temperatures that the tent was reaching during the day when I'm at university and can't regularly check on the plants. It's been peaking at 32-36 degrees Celsius, so I've added an old ghetto "air conditioner" that you fill with cold water that cools the air it pumps out through its fan which will hopefully keep my temps down to a reasonable level.

If not I'm probably going to have to buy a cool tube, which will be a good investment considering the approaching summer ( 38-45 degrees on the regular ).

I also gave 3 of the plants a dose of nutes that seemed to be going a light shade of green / yellow and they were a lush green the next morning, so I guess it's time to start feeding!

I had to switch out the 600W for a 400W because I was unable to control the heat during the day. I'd prefer the plants to stay happy and healthy rather than roasting them just for a larger yield. Looks like I'll be conducting my grows during the winter from now on.

I'll post flicks of the girls at the end of the week!

I've been using small 'jiffy' pots filled with coco to germinate. It's just compressed coconut coir so you can plant directly into your growing pot & the roots grow through the walls of the jiffy pot. No transplanting issues. They can be bought in various sizes.

Can you say what general area your from? I'm blue jumper 50 clicks west of the 'hanger'.

Use a sharpie pen to mark paddle-pop sticks, the permanent shouldn't run.

GreyLord said:

I've been using small 'jiffy' pots filled with coco to germinate. It's just compressed coconut coir so you can plant directly into your growing pot & the roots grow through the walls of the jiffy pot. No transplanting issues. They can be bought in various sizes.

Can you say what general area your from? I'm blue jumper 50 clicks west of the 'hanger'.

Click to expand...

The jiffy puts are a good idea, I just started using small cups with coco to sprout few plants over the last few days but it would be nice not having to transplant. I'm from the Sydney area, man.

GreyLord said:

Use a sharpie pen to mark paddle-pop sticks, the permanent shouldn't run.

Click to expand...

Word, I'll keep that in mind!

By the way, I put a wet towel over my ghetto air conditioner ( after reading your comment on the bush fridge ) and it dropped the temps down to 28-29 ( and it was filled with room temperature water ). I've put some bottles of water in the freezer to get ice cold to refill the air con tomorrow so hopefully the temperature will drop even more!

Okay, here are the girls around 2 weeks old:

Plant 1



Plant 2



Plant 3



Plant 4



Plant 5



I noticed yesterday plant 2 and 4's leaves were a very slight shade of yellow compared to the others, so I gave them an extra nute feeding in the hope that was all the problem was. There wasn't any nute burns when I checked them out this morning, so hopefully everything is okay.

How are they looking?

Another user mentioned the quality of the pH meter I'm using is quite low and is prone to inaccuracy. I put it in the calibrating solution and sure enough, it was off by almost 3 points ( I usually adjust pH to 5.5, so it may be around 5.1 or 5.2, which will cause nutrient lockout ) and I had only calibrated a week beforehand. I've ordered a $40 pH meter which is higher quality and will hopefully help turn those yellowing plants ( nitrogen lockout? ) back to a lush green.

Oh, and here's the Afghans. As you can see they haven't grown much, i'm guessing that's because they're only receiving 10-11 hours of light though, hopefully they'll grow larger once the sun light gets more intense over the coming month.

I've managed to figure out each plants strain! The Big Bud plants have large indica leaves while the Northern Lights have thinner, more sativa like leaves.

The plants are doing very well, I'll post flicks at the end of the week!

It's that time of the week again! The ladies are now 3 weeks old.

Plant 1



Plant 3



Plant 4



Plant 5



Seedlings:



I was going to switch over to 12/12 at the end of next week, but I may give them another 2 weeks vegging. What do you guys think?