First Grow, AK-48, 5-gallon DWC, 400W

[Schleep]

Dude, you're going to love AK48 in DWC using the Lucas formula. Control your environment and change your solution out 100% every week. I grow the same strain and method with great results.

TFD

I'd love to hear some more arguments for or against the Lucas Formula with AK-48. I was planning on switching over to 1-1-1 like mentioned earlier, but I'm happy sticking to Lucas if it's proven to work. I just want the best bud possible

Day 16:

Edit: Also, even though she's still small, she handled ~400 PPMs all week without any problems. In fact, she seemed to do quite well with that many nutes. My target PPM for Week 3 is about 300, but I'm thinking she might be ready for something closer to 500. Any thoughts?

 

[fatigues]

Lucas ratio will do you MORE than fine. Leave it be.

Let that plant grow another week or two before getting aggressive on nutes. It's still a seedling. You are not at the vegetative stage yet.

NOTE: Your air lines are transparent and are letting light into your bucket. Not good, especially with the holes mounted on the top and right under the light. You are risking serious algae problems. You've only got one plant -- you don't need that sort of hassle.

Switch out your clear air tubes for black tubing and keep the light out of your rez.

Watching one plant is SO much better than keeping an eye on a dozen -- or 1000! All the marbles on one itty bitty seedling! Fun grow. I've pulled up a chair and I'm pulling for ya.

 

[Schleep]

Lucas ratio will do you MORE than fine. Leave it be.

Let that plant grow another week or two before getting aggressive on nutes. It's still a seedling. You are not at the vegetative stage yet.

NOTE: Your air lines are transparent and are letting light into your bucket. Not good, especially with the holes mounted on the top and right under the light. You are risking serious algae problems. You've only got one plant -- you don't need that sort of hassle.

Switch out your clear air tubes for black tubing and keep the light out of your rez.

Watching one plant is SO much better than keeping an eye on a dozen -- or 1000! All the marbles on one itty bitty seedling! Fun grow. I've pulled up a chair and I'm pulling for ya.

Great suggestion. Rather than getting new line, though, I'll probably just put some duct tape around the first few feet leading out of the bucket. And I can't even imagine trying to grow more than one or two plants at once, especially in the beginning. I'm watching over this thing like it's my child, maybe even more so

And I was wondering if anyone could give me a rough estimation of how long this grow will take. I've read that if you let it veg for an extra week or two, this plant REALLY produces when it's time to flower. So how many weeks for veg and how many weeks for flower? Just wondering for planning purposes.

 

[fatigues]

And I was wondering if anyone could give me a rough estimation of how long this grow will take. I've read that if you let it veg for an extra week or two, this plant REALLY produces when it's time to flower. So how many weeks for veg and how many weeks for flower? Just wondering for planning purposes.

The issue is partly one impacted by the size of the cab and your layout of your light, etc. That is not clear on the pics you have shown so far.

Generally speaking, cracking the seed to end of the seedling stage is about 4 weeks. It can vary by +/- a week, but about 4 is a fair approximation.

Veg is three to eight weeks (or more) and it depends on the size of your cab and your aim and object of your grow. It can depend on a number of other factors, too.

In your case, I'm guessing (and that's all it is) about 4 weeks or so. Problem is, you don't want to have it stretch in 12/12 to reach your light, so timing is an issue here and you don't want to veg it too long.

You might want to have some Bushmaster on hand in case you find you've let it go too far and want to use some hormone treatments to stop vertical height (BM works best when you throw it in to 12/12 though -- not so good in the middle of it).

More traditional LST, scrog and topping/supercrop is usually preferable to control height then messing with Bushmaster - especially when just starting out.

Expected time to finish flowering: Dude. Don't time that at all. There are 2 mistakes of all new growers. #1 is they fuck with the nutes early on in seedling stage when you just need to back off and let your plant do its thing on its own. (That lesson is learned by most new growers early on.)

The second mistake of new growers is one that sticks around a long time -- and so becomes a mistake of experienced growers, too. It's simple: Do not harvest too early!!

There are all kinds of experienced growers who still do this. Don't lsten to 'em. Never mind what it said on the package or what your buddy took to grow his or what 12 growers on ICM said it took to grow theirs out. The answer is simple: It varies. It varies according to the particular individual seed, the nutes, the grow style, temps, humidity, the water and nutes you use, your cab, wattage, ballast, lightbulb, light positioning, etc. etc. etc.. It varies so much that the following truth emerges: every grow is different. Even if it's from a clone, let alone a different seed.

It's a hodge podge of factors and they are hard for one person to reproduce exactly on his or her own -- let alone for someone else to reproduce the exact nature of that particular plant's development arc.

So how do you know when? Easy: It's ready when it's ready, and not until. Use a pocket microscope or a loupe and harvest at about 33% amber. Some prefer a 50% amber (I think that's letting it go too long, but that's fairly a matter of opinion. It also varies with the strain and type of high/stone your are looking for, too). Ignore the color of the pistils and how much time it has taken to grow. That's irrelevant to the ultimate question of "is it ready?"

Really, there is no measurement of time that matters. The seed vendor can claim it's ready in six, eight, ten or 12 weeks or even 18 weeks. Truth is - it's ready when it's ready -- and not until.

If you plan on eleven to twelve weeks, you probably won't be disappointed -- (but you might be). It may amber up a little earlier than that (and it may not). It's ready when it's ready and not until.

Harvesting too early is the #1 noob mistake. It's also the #1 experienced grower's mistake, too. Get yourself out of that mindset and don't develop that bad habit.

Every seed is different. Be patient and you will be richly rewarded.

 

[sneaky101]

What fatigues said. Only use the data on the package as a rough estimate. From my experience, you can usually add at least a week if not more than that before it is truely ready. fatigues said it very well, it's ready when it's ready. Take his advice though and go get a pocket microscope or something to look at the trichs....that's the only real way to tell when it's ready. As far as the amber color...again, that's dependant on how YOU like your smoke. More Amber is more of a couchlock.

 

[RealHard]

Hi, Schleep. I'm growing AK 48 in DWC myself. Chef wasn't lying about the stretch I Vegged til 8 inches and I'm at 34 inches! Taller than I wanted to be with my 400w. I don't really see Lucas as being complete but, a lot of people swear by it. I keep the closet door open to deal with the heat and don't allow guests. I'll be watching the grow. Peace.

 

[RealHard]

Sorry to repost but, fatigues is right on about flowering time. I have 2 AK 48 from seed gowing and they are different. One of them is way ahead and showed pistols in a few days. The other was more finicky. She showed signs of heat stress when the other was fine and took at least ten days to start to bloom. She's running about a week behind the other so the time will be individual. Hope that helps.

 

[Schleep]

So much good info...

Awesome response. I was just asking because I was trying to figure out about what time she'd be finishing up, but it really doesn't matter right now because it's months away

I purchased a loupe a while back just for trichome-watching, so I'll definitely be able to tell when it's ready.

Hi, Schleep. I'm growing AK 48 in DWC myself. Chef wasn't lying about the stretch I Vegged til 8 inches and I'm at 34 inches! Taller than I wanted to be with my 400w. I don't really see Lucas as being complete but, a lot of people swear by it. I keep the closet door open to deal with the heat and don't allow guests. I'll be watching the grow. Peace.

How long did it take you to get to 8" and to 34"? And I think the outside temperature will really help the heating problem. I checked the cab temps this morning after leaving the windows open in my room last night, and inside the cab was 78F. That's extremely cool for my cab and a much needed boost of encouragement. So as long as November and December aren't 100F+ months, I don't think temps will be an issue.

 

[RealHard]

Ya, I'm enjoying the lower temps now too. I went 5 weeks from seed and switched the lights at just under 8 inches. I used a 90w quad band LED though. My nodes were so tight. I had atleast 13 nodes. The one that gave me some problems stretched a lot more. I topped it for 4 main colas and she still caught up and was the same height when I switched the lights. They just got done stretching. 3 weeks of stretch. I had to supercrop them both and they straightened up now I've got them tied down so that the canapy is 34 inches. If not for that they would be about 38 in. I thought I got all that stretch because of the LED in veg (thats all I had at the time). Now that I heard what Chef said about the nitrogen that makes sense. He really knows the strain.

 

[Schleep]

What could it mean if the leaves are a little droopy? The PPMs are at 440 still and the water hasn't dropped much.

Day 17:

Day 17 roots:

And a picture of my cabinet setup:

 

[RealHard]

Don't worry about the water level. The plant is so small you won't notice the level go down. She doesn't drink much yet. As far as the drooping and yellowing, I can't say. I'm not experienced enough. You have a lot of stretch there and the stems may not be able to take the weight of the leaves yet. They look real thin. I think the yellowing on the lower one may be okay but, I don't know.

 

[Schleep]

I changed out the res last night in hopes that she might perk up after some fresh water and changed nutes. I went with the 1-1-1 ratio this time, just to see if some GH Grow would help the droopiness. I added 5 mL of Grow, Micro and Bloom to 3.75 gallons of water.

Any ideas as to what could be causing this?

Day 19 (~5.5 pH, 230 PPM, cab temp ~79F)

 

[Chef BeanStock]

needs something other than the lucas components... To me, its showing multiple signs of underfertilizing.

The fan might also be too close. At that distance, the velocity of the air greatly reduces the amount of humidity around the plant. The closest leaves to my fans look like the same as your whole plant.

Glad to see you're trying 1-1-1. Get some cal mag -- 0.5ml:l.

Raise the ph a little higher. The color is still too orange.

And get the air pump out of the room.

 

[thefalsediviner]

what he said.

TFD

 

[JohnnyHopkins]

Yeah definitly bump up the ppms..... 700-800ppm sounds about right..... and i would raise the water level to where its touching bottom of net pot..... that way you can put more nutes in. i also agree that ph is too orange. Good luck!

Also, what is the rez temp? if it is say 78 or above then u could use some dutchmaster zone and silica to compensate

 

[Bob-Hope]

Hope you dont mind, but may i make a few suggestions based on your cabinet picture.

1. on the right hand side of your cab,at the level the light is at now, make a hole in the side of your cab,and poke the ducting through it. then as your plant grows, and you raise your light it will be out of the way, also the draw through the ducting will be far stronger without the kink.and the air in your room will be cooler.

2. remove all the paraphernalia in the cab. carrier bags spare ducting and all that clutter,as it wont help with air flow,remove the orange bag your fan is on, put 2 hooks in the ceiling of your cab and suspend the fan using bungee cords,so it blows down on your plant and not across it.

3. imo your plant looks as though its starving to death, i dont no what the lucas formula is,but ive got ak48 on the go, there 5wks old from seed and are on an E.C value of 1.5. in coco watered 3 times a day for 10 mins a time, canna A + B and a little rizotonic.

imo AK is one of the toughest strains out there and takes a hell of a lot to kill it, so hang in there bro,and like the others said up the feed a little.

and have a tidy up.

 

[Schleep]

needs something other than the lucas components... To me, its showing multiple signs of underfertilizing.

The fan might also be too close. At that distance, the velocity of the air greatly reduces the amount of humidity around the plant. The closest leaves to my fans look like the same as your whole plant.

Glad to see you're trying 1-1-1. Get some cal mag -- 0.5ml:l.

Raise the ph a little higher. The color is still too orange.

And get the air pump out of the room.

Yeah, this morning she looked much more beefed up and I think it was thanks to the 1-1-1. The leaves are still curled down a bit, but they're strong and not withered. The stem is getting much stronger too. I moved the fan away and have it blowing on a wall to direct the heat up and still move air around the plant.

I can't think of a way to remove the pump without sacrificing my privacy. My apt isn't huge and it wouldn't take much for someone to wander into my room while I wasn't there thinking it was the bathroom or something. While I don't expect snoopers, the cab is loud and from the right angle you can see some light, so I need to keep everything contained as much as possible right now.

Hope you dont mind, but may i make a few suggestions based on your cabinet picture.

1. on the right hand side of your cab,at the level the light is at now, make a hole in the side of your cab,and poke the ducting through it. then as your plant grows, and you raise your light it will be out of the way, also the draw through the ducting will be far stronger without the kink.and the air in your room will be cooler.

2. remove all the paraphernalia in the cab. carrier bags spare ducting and all that clutter,as it wont help with air flow,remove the orange bag your fan is on, put 2 hooks in the ceiling of your cab and suspend the fan using bungee cords,so it blows down on your plant and not across it.

3. imo your plant looks as though its starving to death, i dont no what the lucas formula is,but ive got ak48 on the go, there 5wks old from seed and are on an E.C value of 1.5. in coco watered 3 times a day for 10 mins a time, canna A + B and a little rizotonic.

imo AK is one of the toughest strains out there and takes a hell of a lot to kill it, so hang in there bro,and like the others said up the feed a little.

and have a tidy up.

1. Cutting a new hole in the cab is a no-no, especially on the side facing my door. I'm already having a huge problem with the light leaks now, and if I cut a hole at light-level, my room would be like the sun 18 hours a day.

2. I do need to stop hanging stuff from the top. The ceiling of the cab is sagging pretty significantly under the weight of the light and the ballast. I'm going to prop it up tonight and I'll take that stuff out of there.

3. I'm hoping the new formula, although lower in PPMs, will balance out the nutrients she needs. I'm going to give her a week more to take it easy with the nutes and then start bumping it up to 700-800 PPMs next week. But we'll see how she looks.

 

[Schleep]

I finally snapped some photos with the real camera. Any idea what those brown spots are on the bottom leaf? The rest of the leaves look good so I'm hoping it's just an isolated case and that leaf will fall off anyway. I'm hoping.

Day 20:

 

[shibbysurfrider]

Hello there. I am a small cab (tent in my case) DWC grower as well. My plants had leaves like that and they were short on the CalMag. Get CalMag+ and add it to your nutes. Those spots wont go away, but atleast they'll stop appearing on your new leaves. Those 2 single blade leaves at the bottom are seed leaves, they will naturally yellow and die as the plant gets older.

You NEED to get a digital pH meter. Makes life sooo much easier and you can judge the EXact pH. Optimum for hydro is 5.5-5.8 That's .3 difference for optimum growth, soemthing your drip tester can't exactly do.

Keeping your PPMs low is good, most growers over feed vs. underfeed. But a tthis stage you should be around 350-450 ppm.

As for your light leaks, I'm not sure how severe they are, but I recently found my Walmart carries insulation supplies. They sell this stuff called "Self-Adhesive Rope Caulk" for 3$ a pack. It's pretty much puddy in a 1/8'' wide x 35' long roll. It is like clay and can be stuck into the corners of your cab and help make it light proof. When you start flowering you need to get rid of those leaks.

Good luck man. Once you get it dialed they TAKE OFF in DWC.

 

[Schleep]

Hello there. I am a small cab (tent in my case) DWC grower as well. My plants had leaves like that and they were short on the CalMag. Get CalMag+ and add it to your nutes. Those spots wont go away, but atleast they'll stop appearing on your new leaves. Those 2 single blade leaves at the bottom are seed leaves, they will naturally yellow and die as the plant gets older.

You NEED to get a digital pH meter. Makes life sooo much easier and you can judge the EXact pH. Optimum for hydro is 5.5-5.8 That's .3 difference for optimum growth, soemthing your drip tester can't exactly do.

Keeping your PPMs low is good, most growers over feed vs. underfeed. But a tthis stage you should be around 350-450 ppm.

As for your light leaks, I'm not sure how severe they are, but I recently found my Walmart carries insulation supplies. They sell this stuff called "Self-Adhesive Rope Caulk" for 3$ a pack. It's pretty much puddy in a 1/8'' wide x 35' long roll. It is like clay and can be stuck into the corners of your cab and help make it light proof. When you start flowering you need to get rid of those leaks.

Good luck man. Once you get it dialed they TAKE OFF in DWC.

I'll get some CalMag+ today and toss it in there. What pH meter do you use?