Silky T's PPP and AK-48 Grow Journal

Very first Indoor grow. And man, the difference is day and night. Outside, you basically let nature do its thing, with a little TLC. But indoors is not only expensive but challenging for a newbie. I've got a few freeies growing in the garden as well besides the PPPs and AKs so that's also adding a bit of challenge-- there could be boys in there! Yikes! My PPPs and AKs are girls.

I'm coming in on nearly a month in. But rather than keep posting pics over and over here and there, this is the best way, and one of the reasons why, this is the best idea. Say, "just refer to my grow journal." I'm going to play catch up and post some from each week. Since I'm only allowed 10 per post, I've gotta stop here but I've got 3 more that are the most recent that I have questions about.

These I have questions on. I think one is already flowering after 4 days and the other one I took a pic of, (there are others like this) it's leaves are growing double branches. There's two branches growing out of each node. Is this what happens when you FIM it? I've FIMMED each plant twice, except for one that I'm using Organic and not trimming or topping, just letting it go. I think it's a freebie anyway so we will see the difference. Still, my others are almost like organic because I don't have a whole lot of fancy stuff to put them in or add to them as they go. Mainly potting soil, pH'd water and a whole lotta love.

Pic number ....128 is a closeup of the double branch effect. Is that what I want it to do?

Pic number .....832 is the one that looks like it's growing little afros in the nodes. Is that flowering or is it just new growth or more of my double branching? Two PPPs, One AK and One Feebie have been in flower 4 days.

By the way, not listing everything I'm growing with because it wouldn't make any difference. I have a very small grow going during some financial times that I haven't had in 14 years. My whole life hit a brick wall when CL husband had a severe stroke and has been in hospital for nearly 5 months. So, this grow is taking my mind off things. But finances are really, really tight and I have to have a stealth grow. So I am under tremendous stress with all the above. I'm hoping the outcome with make things better for me. I have a car to get out of the shop for $460 next week and that doesn't leave much for supplies. But I've got some notes on things I HAVE to get and that's FOX FARMS. I see the difference in size and health of those ppl that use it and the results are astounding! I can't use simple MG Organic and perlite. It's just not getting the job done. Plus I'm using MG for flowers and MG for veg so there's that.

I'm looking for a good recipe for compost. Now THAT I can afford. I have blood meal, bone meal, epsom salts, lime and a few other things and a space that measures 2 feet across by 4.2 feet tall to grow in. I have 4 in flower that I put in a large box when it's time to sleep and keep the other 5 in veg. Since I have FIMMed the girls twice, they are short and stocky and I'm trying to keep them at least stocky but I can take on another foot or foot and a half taller. The girls have been in flower for 5 days.

Took some quick update photos for day 30 of my grow. I LST'd two of them that I'm trying to keep shorter. The little ones are now taking off finally.

Your plants look good and healthy, a word of advice is stay away from MG nutes and soils that have nutes in it. I hear you about money being tight that's why I'm trying to tell ya to stay away from MG products. It will start causing problems down the road so be careful with it. As far as you having bloodmeal, bonemeal etc. DO NOT mix with MG, you will be wasting your money and your organic additives. MG isn't even good as far as synthetic standards go. Start reading up on growing organic they have some great threads and very informative people in the organic sections. It will really save you money and you will be growing top shelf meds, plus it's more rewarding than pouring chemicals on your girls that you worked so hard on. Just hit me up if ya need any help or have any questions about anything. Peace.

neonknight420 said:

Your plants look good and healthy, a word of advice is stay away from MG nutes and soils that have nutes in it. I hear you about money being tight that's why I'm trying to tell ya to stay away from MG products. It will start causing problems down the road so be careful with it. As far as you having bloodmeal, bonemeal etc. DO NOT mix with MG, you will be wasting your money and your organic additives. MG isn't even good as far as synthetic standards go. Start reading up on growing organic they have some great threads and very informative people in the organic sections. It will really save you money and you will be growing top shelf meds, plus it's more rewarding than pouring chemicals on your girls that you worked so hard on. Just hit me up if ya need any help or have any questions about anything. Peace.

Click to expand...

Right now, I'm just giving them water, water, and very weak nutes because I did kill a pure power plant by doing something wrong with the nutes. I was testing on the smaller plants since I could afford to lose a couple of them, and it just so happened that it killed one of my PPPs that were small. I'm like, dang, I wanted that one!

I asked if anyone had any compost recipes that I could get my hands on because I am starting one. THAT I can afford. I've started it and I've put everything that I read somewhere in it except or fruits and veggies (uncooked and rotting). Oh, someone said my plants looked really light and needed some nitro. Then disappeared. Where do I get nitro from? It was loaded in my organic soil but I'm out now. What else has nitrogen? Or do I even need it?

Thanks for the compliment on my plants. It's important for a noob to get real scrutiny

Right now, I'm just giving them water, water, and very weak nutes because I did kill a pure power plant by doing something wrong with the nutes. I was testing on the smaller plants since I could afford to lose a couple of them, and it just so happened that it killed one of my PPPs that were small. I'm like, dang, I wanted that one!

I asked if anyone had any compost recipes that I could get my hands on because I am starting one. THAT I can afford. I've started it and I've put everything that I read somewhere in it except or fruits and veggies (uncooked and rotting). Oh, someone said my plants looked really light and needed some nitro. Then disappeared. Where do I get nitro from? It was loaded in my organic soil but I'm out now. What else has nitrogen? Or do I even need it?

Find some good fish hydrolysate (liquid fish fert) just stay away from fish emulsion its a less quality. A good simple aact recipe is a cup of EWC, tbsp molasses, tsp kelp meal and a tbsp fish hydo to a gal of water. Its very simple but very effective.

neonknight420 said:

Find some good fish hydrolysate (liquid fish fert) just stay away from fish emulsion its a less quality. A good simple aact recipe is a cup of EWC, tbsp molasses, tsp kelp meal and a tbsp fish hydo to a gal of water. Its very simple but very effective.

Click to expand...

It's raining out here, there? That's all we need is more rain. Okay, I cut that and pasted it into my grocery list for Tuesday when I go out. Thank you. And where do I find these? At the local gardening shop? I googled Fox Farm on my phone and it showed one on the northside. Have you been to one here?

Not many places sell fox farm products down south. There is a place here by my house that does sell it but its very pricey. Yes it raining here, Lol. Find a good gardening store near you and they will have it. Lowe's and HD do carry some, probably the most common there will be Alaska brand. The kind I use is Organic Gem brand, but you can only get off the internet.

neonknight420 said:

Not many places sell fox farm products down south. There is a place here by my house that does sell it but its very pricey. Yes it raining here, Lol. Find a good gardening store near you and they will have it. Lowe's and HD do carry some, probably the most common there will be Alaska brand. The kind I use is Organic Gem brand, but you can only get off the internet.

Click to expand...

No there's an actual Fox Farm here. I will find it. I've looked at Lowe's and Home Depot - how did you know that's where i got my supplies? So far tho, I don't have half the nutes and soils I want. I have to pick up my Camry from the shop next week and it's $460 (Warning on tv.....) so I'm going to have to make some decisions now that I have 4 in flower. They are going to need some special care. Dang! The National Weather service announcement again... sheesh!

I measured them before I put them to bed and they grew over an inch today, one of them grew almost two. Is this possible or am I looking at this tape measure wrong?

Silky T said:

I measured them before I put them to bed and they grew over an inch today, one of them grew almost two. Is this possible or am I looking at this tape measure wrong?

Click to expand...

thats called the stretch Silky, when they transition from veg to flower the inter nodal gaps stretch out so there is space for the bud sites/flowers to form along the stems.

to minimise it (it will still be 1.5-2.5x taller at the end);
-get adequate blue spectrum light on them
-dont give em too much nitrogen, but they still need feeding gently in this phase
-dont let the day/night temperature difference be too great - this promotes stretching. reversing the day night temperature cycle (cold during lights on, warmer at lights off) can retard the stretch effectively

And continue plant training (LST/SCROG), but stop any cutting of the growing tips (the growing tops of the plant are called meristems) You have been removing or disrupting these when you top or FIM (remove the apical meristem), and your little 'afros' - are pairs of growth tips at each node ( = axillary meristems).

For an organic nutrient tea: you have blood and bone right? get some warm water, add a few tablespoons of that and shake it up a few times over an afternoon, then strain it with a tea strainer and, dilute it for your plants. that will boost the nitrogen, calcium and phosphorous.

Or do as neonknight says and water in some fish stuff, its great

I am making a compost pile and will write down my recipe and post it in my blog.

Your garden is looking great BTW

Chester da Horse said:

thats called the stretch Silky, when they transition from veg to flower the inter nodal gaps stretch out so there is space for the bud sites/flowers to form along the stems.

to minimise it (it will still be 1.5-2.5x taller at the end);
-get adequate blue spectrum light on them
-dont give em too much nitrogen, but they still need feeding gently in this phase
-dont let the day/night temperature difference be too great - this promotes stretching. reversing the day night temperature cycle (cold during lights on, warmer at lights off) can retard the stretch effectively

And continue plant training (LST/SCROG), but stop any cutting of the growing tips (the growing tops of the plant are called meristems) You have been removing or disrupting these when you top or FIM (remove the apical meristem), and your little 'afros' - are pairs of growth tips at each node ( = axillary meristems).

For an organic nutrient tea: you have blood and bone right? get some warm water, add a few tablespoons of that and shake it up a few times over an afternoon, then strain it with a tea strainer and, dilute it for your plants. that will boost the nitrogen, calcium and phosphorous.

Or do as neonknight says and water in some fish stuff, its great

I am making a compost pile and will write down my recipe and post it in my blog.

Your garden is looking great BTW

Click to expand...

Thanks! I've discovered that in some cases with some strains, less is more. Some like to be messed with i.e., FIMing, LSTing, etc., and some just like to be left alone. Since this is a very small grow, I actually have a tabbed section in my grow notebook for each plant. I find that if I keep up with what I've done to each, I can know what they like or not. For instance, when I checked on them about 6 last night, one of my babies (that were germinated at the same time as the ones in flower) looked like her leaves were drooping. Not like too much water or too much light but maybe, I thought, it's just the strain. I took pictures before I transplanted and attached two of them here. I got worried and didn't want to take any chances with it making it overnight and knew I had messed with the soil by mixing my own mixture of blood meal and bone meal, very little, for an experiment, the day before with that one and one other one which looks great. I tried to get as much of the "hot" soil off the roots as possible but shaking it. I don't usually transplant like this, but this time I had to get all the bad soil the roots. I put it in totally organic soil and this morning "it" (unknown species, unknown sex - freebie from Nirvana) is reaching for the light and doesn't appear phased by the transplant. Like I said, the other one that has the bone and blood meal is doing great, albiet small. It's so strange how I can possibly have 3-4 plants that look a week old and some of them are already in flower. Is it a God thing since I really don't have room for all of them to be in flower anyway?
Thanks for giving me something I can work with until I get paid tuesday and can get out and get some things. The bone and blood meal tea I CAN do right now. I'm not going to do a SCROG. I wouldn't even know how, maybe next grow.
I do have a question tho. In re: "inter nodal gaps stretch out so there is space for the bud sites/flowers to form along the stems." I thought that's why I was LSTing. I'm mainly doing it to get all those tiny leaves that are all up and down the stem to get exposure to light because I've FIM'ed them twice and have a lot of "top" which covers the inside of the plant on all sides. Is this what I'm supposed to do to get those leaves exposed? I've grown some new branches in 5 days as a bonus which may give me colas. Am I supposed to move it around and tie different fan leaves down at different times? I'm wondering if I'm creating a monster, not size wise but shape. I just want it short and stout.
I'm looking forward to your compost recipe. Like I said, I've started one with coffee grounds, leaves and grass cuttings, cardboard (yes I saw that in a recipe and I can't find) and a layer of water each time I add something. Am I supposed to mix it up or make layers?
That's enough for now, let me upload the before and aft pics of the freebie i transplanted last night.
The first pic is last night before tranplant when I was trying everything to get it to raise it's leaves to the light and after when it is.

When are my girls going to flower? Why are they staying kids? I want them to hit puberty since they've been in flower for 7 days. Am I expecting too much too soon?

Chester da Horse said:

thats called the stretch Silky, when they transition from veg to flower the inter nodal gaps stretch out so there is space for the bud sites/flowers to form along the stems.

to minimise it (it will still be 1.5-2.5x taller at the end);
-get adequate blue spectrum light on them
-dont give em too much nitrogen, but they still need feeding gently in this phase
-dont let the day/night temperature difference be too great - this promotes stretching. reversing the day night temperature cycle (cold during lights on, warmer at lights off) can retard the stretch effectively

And continue plant training (LST/SCROG), but stop any cutting of the growing tips (the growing tops of the plant are called meristems) You have been removing or disrupting these when you top or FIM (remove the apical meristem), and your little 'afros' - are pairs of growth tips at each node ( = axillary meristems).

For an organic nutrient tea: you have blood and bone right? get some warm water, add a few tablespoons of that and shake it up a few times over an afternoon, then strain it with a tea strainer and, dilute it for your plants. that will boost the nitrogen, calcium and phosphorous.

Or do as neonknight says and water in some fish stuff, its great

I am making a compost pile and will write down my recipe and post it in my blog.

Your garden is looking great BTW

Click to expand...

P.S. I stole your quote in your signature. Can I keep it?

Chester da Horse said:

thats called the stretch Silky, when they transition from veg to flower the inter nodal gaps stretch out so there is space for the bud sites/flowers to form along the stems.

to minimise it (it will still be 1.5-2.5x taller at the end);
-get adequate blue spectrum light on them
-dont give em too much nitrogen, but they still need feeding gently in this phase
-dont let the day/night temperature difference be too great - this promotes stretching. reversing the day night temperature cycle (cold during lights on, warmer at lights off) can retard the stretch effectively

And continue plant training (LST/SCROG), but stop any cutting of the growing tips (the growing tops of the plant are called meristems) You have been removing or disrupting these when you top or FIM (remove the apical meristem), and your little 'afros' - are pairs of growth tips at each node ( = axillary meristems).

For an organic nutrient tea: you have blood and bone right? get some warm water, add a few tablespoons of that and shake it up a few times over an afternoon, then strain it with a tea strainer and, dilute it for your plants. that will boost the nitrogen, calcium and phosphorous.

Or do as neonknight says and water in some fish stuff, its great

I am making a compost pile and will write down my recipe and post it in my blog.

Your garden is looking great BTW

Click to expand...

In re: For an organic nutrient tea: you have blood and bone right? get some warm water, add a few tablespoons of that and shake it up a few times over an afternoon, then strain it with a tea strainer and, dilute it for your plants. that will boost the nitrogen, calcium and phosphorous. How much water? Does it matter? Don't forget my compost recipe. I know there's no tried and true but a ballpark would work>Thanks!

Silky T said:

When are my girls going to flower? since they've been in flower for 7 days. Am I expecting too much too soon?

Click to expand...

be patient. make sure the dark period is absolutely dark. And don't mess with the light cycle timing at all (12 on, 12 dark). Some people do 11 on 13 off to give them the signal sooner, especially for sativa heavy strains but I don't do this.

They will put out soon enough, mine took 8 days of 12/12 after 5 weeks veg. FIM/topping will make the plant take longer to respond to the flowering signal.
The only thing that I'm a little worried about, is that you are manually 'boxing' them up to make it night time - if you are late or forget they're gonna get confused!

Get a magnifier to look for the pre flowers at the angles where the growth tips' stems meet the main stalk

LST
you are right, LST is for getting the lower growth tips and leaves into the light to help them develop.
However, my understanding of the mechanism by which LST works is slightly different to what you think;
Blood and bone tea
you can do it with any volume of water, say a tablespoon b&b to a gallon water. Its not an exact science. Most of the nutrients will not dissolve, and you will have heaps of stinky sludge leftover - chuck it on your compost pile.

On that note, how big is your compost pile? for it to cook off effectively you need to make it at least 1/2 to 1m3 (or 3-4' wide/long and a few feet high). Your ingredients sound good so far. Make sure its moist but not soggy, and twice a week turn it upside down and move the centre of the pile to the edges. Keep it up for the next 6 weeks and you'll be there!

Silky T said:

No there's an actual Fox Farm here. I will find it.

Click to expand...

No no no no! I have a sinking feeling that you are driving around the countryside looking for a farm that raises foxes??? We don't have 'Foxfarm' in Australia, but its a a brand of potting dirt.

PS: i love your signature the quote isn't mine, its chris's. and sharing a signature tag line makes it look like we are part of a gang, a very philosophical and cynical internet gang.

I just put everything but the 4 girls outside (6). I don't have room and they should be fine. Now I can concentrate on the girls. I unLST's two of them and only left one. No sense in screwing them all up.

Chester da Horse said:

thats called the stretch Silky, when they transition from veg to flower the inter nodal gaps stretch out so there is space for the bud sites/flowers to form along the stems.

to minimise it (it will still be 1.5-2.5x taller at the end);
-get adequate blue spectrum light on them
-dont give em too much nitrogen, but they still need feeding gently in this phase
-dont let the day/night temperature difference be too great - this promotes stretching. reversing the day night temperature cycle (cold during lights on, warmer at lights off) can retard the stretch effectively

And continue plant training (LST/SCROG), but stop any cutting of the growing tips (the growing tops of the plant are called meristems) You have been removing or disrupting these when you top or FIM (remove the apical meristem), and your little 'afros' - are pairs of growth tips at each node ( = axillary meristems).

For an organic nutrient tea: you have blood and bone right? get some warm water, add a few tablespoons of that and shake it up a few times over an afternoon, then strain it with a tea strainer and, dilute it for your plants. that will boost the nitrogen, calcium and phosphorous.

Or do as neonknight says and water in some fish stuff, its great

I am making a compost pile and will write down my recipe and post it in my blog.

Your garden is looking great BTW

Click to expand...

I may have mentioned this, but I started a Manure and Marijuana thread and you would do nicely to put some of this over there for everybody to read AND FOR ME TO BE ABLE TO FIND EASIER. I often remember reading something and then go back and try to find it, even using the "search" link, but still can't find it sooooooo. Would you please? I guess I could copy and paste it over there. And I missed something that you had said above about Fox Farm. No, I didn't mean there's a REAL Fox Farm, hell, what's a fox farm anyway?. I meant we have, wow, we have 11 places that sell Fox Farm stuff here. My mistake was calling them "Fox Farm"stores. Well, I think I just saw they have them in California. I just looked again and there's actually a place that sells Fox Farm nutes 3.9 miles from me! Cool!