Zarnon takes aim at a fall and winter grow

[Zarnon]

Hola amigo/as!

How have y'all been? Welp, it's time to make my little clothes closet a grow room again!

I left at the end of a very fun Kali Mist which has cured out very very nicely! It's some fragrant stuff and the high is very 'up'.

............ and now for something completely different!

What is the lineage of AK-47? Welp, it's one of five strains from SS and pretty much everyone knows of it. It's been crossed and more crossed.

The guy who started Serious Seeds introduced both Chronic and AK-47 at the 1994 Cannibus Cup.

This strain has Indy, but is still mostly Sativa.

They say 1.5 mo (Gypsy Nirv) so I'm gonna guess 2 for flower.

Fall air will let us do C02 this time around. This is fairly basic but does include a regulator/sensor and another unit that kicks off the Co2 if an exhaust fan is on.

Germination:

There's many ways to germinate, and the seed will germ if it can.

I have used a germination method that is really easy and has gotten 100% generally within 72h [edit: this grow was 24 hours]. Basically take the seeds you want on moistened paper towel. I get the towel really wet with distilled water and then shake all the water out (by putting in a ball). I loosely fold the towels a few times then loosly (the idea is to be really gentle) put it in a bag to keep the humidity up. Then I put it a dark plastic bag and set it on my stereo. The multiple layers keep it from getting too warm. Once they sprout, I'll start 'em under fluoro in the 'grow chamber'.


* * *

 

[THE BROTHER'S GRUNT]

Whats up Zarnon. Glad to see your back at it again. Looking foward to following this journal from beginning to end. Good luck man.

 

[Mutt]

Now thats a set-up man. Lookin foward to this journal.

 

[Zarnon]

Hello Mutt and the Brothers! Nice to see y'all back again after my summer off. Mutt I read you are back as well...

All 5 seeds germed and they are now in the first rapid rooters. The rest of the morning I spent rinsing hydroton and making sure all the waterfarms ran correctly. I noticed the show 'Weeds' has the same "Black Buckets O' Death" made in my hometown. Cool! (still totally off technically but you gotta admire the effort).

BTW, you can make these WF buckets for about 10 bucks each. All of the ones below (ext. pump version) I made myself.

 

[ProductiveSmoker]

Wow, that looks like a scene from the 80's movie "Flight of the Navigator"!

You appear to have more growing experience than I do, but I thought that aluminum foil shiny side exposed was a bad thing as it creates hot spots? Or is it something else?

 

[Zarnon]

Whassup dude? Thanks for your comments!

Nah, don't even stress about heat spots, what you're seeing are sheets of mylar.

Anyways, the whole 'aluminum foil shiny side causes heat burns' is urban growth myth IMHO. Is there one pic in existence of someone having burn from al foil? Nah......... the reason aluminum foil blows is that it's crumbly crap. I can take down all that mylar and reroll it for next season. If I need to adjust a sheet a few cm upward I can. Can you imagine that with al. foil? LOL

RE: Heat spots. It's going to be difficult to get the equivalent energy from a magnifying glass and the sun esp since here the leaves are moving (unless you have no circulation system). I've done multiple grows and never encountered a burn with leaves right up to that mylar (except a chemical one from nute splash, a totally different story).

As far as the techie side of me goes, guilty! I am a geek.

The whole external pump system you see in this grow is something I came up with (back on the old Overgrow) and have used successfully through four grows. I'd like to think there is a little 'Captain Nemo' in me.

**

 

[ProductiveSmoker]

That makes sense, I have never seen Mylar before! Sorry for the short bus question!

 

[Zarnon]

Nah dude, I am ok with q's. I want to post a grow journal people can learn from and I enjoy questions.

The accomplished growers I know can give you very cogent reasons why they do what they do, even if they buck 'conventional wisdom' (see the clone tech I was taught in the previous grow. You can see how even a very knowlegeable person like Hick can get caught in 'conventional wisdom').

Argh...looks like somehow I erased some of this stuff but here is the breakdown...

Once the environmental elements are stabilized (light, wind, temperature, humidity, etc) the main area for experimentation is the microenvironment. New elements are signified with a (*).

Root support/enhancers

Cannazyme - cannot say enough positive stuff about Cannazyme. It breaks down dead matter and will keep your roots looking white and healthy.
Eurponics Fossil Fuel - humic acid (*)
B subtilis - was given a bag by a friend at the hydro store here. I will update with the name but appears very concentrated compared to Hydroguard. (*)

Main Nutes

Canna Grow A/B
Canna Flower A/B
PK 13/14

Flowering additives

B'Cuzz Bloom
FLoralicious
Bananamanna

Flush

Clearex (1st) (*)
Molasses flush (2nd) (*)

 

[Bojok]

Everyone has seen mylar before if you ever been in a flower shop or grocery store and seen the baloons flying over head. Most are made of mylar..................................

 

[stoner 420]

hey zarnon man thanks for the knowledge of the al. foil i was thinking the same thing but everyone keep saying heat spots so i bought some flat white paint but one side of my box is a piece of glass so ihave to find something to cover it with... thanks

 

[Zarnon]

Started soaking the seeds Friday morning. Here's where they are Monday nite (actually there's one more but wouldn't fit in that bowl).

Those RR really favor root formation.

 

[THE BROTHER'S GRUNT]

We have babies. Looking good so far Zarnon now let's turn those babies into MONSTER ladies.

 

[Zarnon]

LOL... I am meditating on the mantra "OWATAFOLIAM". Last night I nailed two fresh seedlings from part of a camera strap that slipped out when trying for the hand held macro shot! Doh!

I tied one up and later the other. They are going to be ok. I could've wiped out almost half my seedlings!

BTW, do the shots look ok? I am on a laptop with dark screen.

 

[Mutt]

The shots look great man. They seem to "reaching for the sky" a little bit though. I know your a hydro grower. Is that so you can bury it deeper in the medium?

 

[Zarnon]

Mutt, you mean stretchy? I think you're right. I need to bury 'em a little deeper in those initial RR next time. No need to have them sprouting in a day. Plus I hit 2 with a camera strap LOL.

Hard to tell from the top shot but one is a good height. It took an additional day to sprout and has a nice stocky stem.

I don't think it's light stretch as the stem growth after sprouting has been minimal.

The only good part is that I've made this mistake before and seems to work out rather quickly.

 

[Sabby]

Those are some purty bebbies!

I look forward to watching this journal closely. I want to try a hydro grow at some point, myself

Good luck!

 

[Zarnon]

Sabby - Welcome. I hope you get some useful information from my lowly grow.

Ok dudes, here we are after a week.

They are off fluoro. The MH is vented and 4.5' away.

They are on the res now but only because I wanted to get this stuff hooked up. There is no need to fill the whole thing as I will be changing from seedling mix to the Canna in a week anyways.

I am trying Humic acid and B. Subtilus this time, the only changes I'm making.

Here we are (pic 1), reality check (pic 2) LOL, the third pic is the res feeder I built. Usually I've waited to hook this up and when I do the buckets usually are not oriented right to accept a space conscious feeder. (best to have the system numbered where they fit in, which I have done for future grows).

Hard to stay out of that room. Nice and toasty warm. (80-83f w/ 35-40% humidity)

 

[Zarnon]

K' dudes, what's up?

Well, it's been one screwed up week.

I had started this humic acid stuff at 1/4 str along with B. Subtilus a beneficial bacteria.

I am not sure what it was, I think it was the h. acid. H. acid is made from lignite, a soft coal. It appears to have mineral absorbing qualities? http://www.netl.doe.gov/publications/proceedings/96/96em/Em96/Em-p1-12.pdf I found one paper using humic acid with peppers, but none with flowering plants. http://www.actahort.org/books/491/491_35.htm

BTW, I had started at 1/4 str (brand name Fossil Fuel) so I don't think it was an overdose.

Anyways, for whatever reason after 5 days I had noticed growth slowing waaay down. Some leaves came out twisted (see pic 5, the older ones).

I changed out the res at day 14 back to the 'old skool' formula. They seem to be back on track. Pic 1-4 are comparison shots of one day after changing out the res and two days later (so days 15 and 17). Pic 5 just shows how the new growth is coming in.

The last pic was my bad. I left this little valve off on the air pump. It caused significant root death and I am not sure this one is going to rebound. I have started replacements with 'skunk 1' (freebie from Gypsy N).

Didn't someone say 'If it 'aint broke don't fix it?'. Doh!!

 

[Mutt]

The last pic was my bad. I left this little valve off on the air pump. It caused significant root death and I am not sure this one is going to rebound. (freebie from Gypsy N)

Sorry to hear of your troubles dude. Glad to see the others bounced back fast.
I hope your "injured" one pulls through for ya.

 

[Zarnon]

Yo dudes.... or dude or whoever might be still with this LOL...

So here we are 6 days later... Things appear to be on track.

I wish I had not had the slowdown from the additives but live and learn. Pretty much stayin the course with Canna Veg, Superthrive, Rhizotonic and Cannazyme.

I don't know about the little scrapper... This one will probably go just because I thingk it'll be too small to go through flowering. Two more weeks on veg abouts and then I'll start flower.