Aeroflo 14 AK47/Chronic Beginner´s Grow

We have enjoyed the wealth of information here and would like to show our grow. This is Trevor´s first grow and my second. My first grow was a 4 plant soil operation that went alright. A close friend of our´s was moving so we decided to buy his aeroflo14 off him. He also agreed to give us clones before he left. The grow is in a bureau closet of sorts that was built into the room. We had to cut out a board that divided the closet and drill a hole near the top for the exhaust. We have two 400w MHs. He gave us 6 Ak47s and 8 Chronic all from two mother plants he chopped down. This will be a one time grow because we will be graduating in about 6 months so we are potting all the sites hoping to provide enough bud for us for quite some time. Considering we probably spend between us 400 a month on herb this should pay for itself the first month.
These plants have been through a lot! We got the clones earlier than expected and had to scramble to get things together. They spent about 6 hours in a box during what would have been a light cycle. On top of that we were still waiting for delivery of hydroton, a Ruck fan and carbon filter, ph and ec meter, ph down, and comp fans. So the clones sat in the net pots in the small rockwool cubes for two days. I should also mention that when we got the clones they weren´t looking that great. Some of the leaves had been cut in half and others were brown and curling.
So the clones have now been stationed in the proper hydroton for about five days. They are growing quickly. Many of the older leaves are yellow but the new growth looks green. Just the PH fluctuation alone during that time could have locked some nutrients out. We want to do a short veg to keep them fairly short.

We are using Flora Series nutrients at the levels recommended on the bottle right now. We have a 375 ruck exhausting to a carbon filter that sits on a high shelf of an enclosed adjacent bureau. We have two PC type fans on each end currently blowing at mid stalk level on the plants. I´m thinking about raising the ran to blow across the tops of the plants. I also have a third fan but I´m not sure where to put it. I was thinking under the posts in the center blowing up. We lined the walls with this white sheeting stuff from the online hydro show because painted was not an option.
Our main current problem is that I ordered the wrong EC calibration solution for the EC meter and it wasn´t factory calibrated so we have not been able to check the PPM. We have topped up 5l of water twice during the week with no nutes added in. The reservoir was fills to about 30l. We are going to flush out the tank tomorrow, day 8 and add fresh nutes. Still have finishing work today and Trevor is relieved that he doesn´t have to keep eating chips to cover the walls with Mylar.
day 1 just sitting in small rockwool cubes
today (day8 ), the photos are terrible. i think I need t)o get in and take pics just after the lights go off and just turn on the normal lights in the room.
 
We put in some work last night after taking some Catatonic GBs. We got the doors to the closet back on. They kicked our asses. Heavy glass doors. We also decided to drain the tank last night on that logic that since our nutrient schedule goes week to week we might as well have the tank correspond when the nutrient levels vary. A little confused on the process. After draining we filled the reservoir with water and then balanced the PH. We then turned the pump on and added the nutes one by one. Would it be better to mix the nutes in a seperate container and mix with the water before the pump comes on? Here´s some pics I took today (day 9), came out a little better than the others.
Doors on, so now they can have uninterrupted darkness
These are the 5 AKs
Chronics from the bottom with the top 5 being AK47
 
hey guys its trevor first time posting,
a couple of our plants, especially the one in the photo have begun to lean to the side as these pictures depict. The newer growth has straightened out but we are concerned about their stability in the hydroton. Should we add support by a string or another method?


Also at the base of many of the stems there are spots where it has come up from the hydroton that appear discolored and indented. Is this normal?


We will also be going to 12 and 12 after tomorrow evening. The lights are currently off from 12:30 to 6:30. Ideally, we would like them to run 9 to 9. What is the best transition. Should they have 24 hours of darkness beforehand or should it be a gradual transition?
 
hello corey here. day 15.
after getting an email from the grow shop saying the shipping of our calibration solution was delayed we bit the bullet and bought a new one. when we checked it the PPM was over 2000 at 2.9 EC! the plants must have been drinking way more water than nutes and we let the water level get too low, topping up only twice this week. It certainly explains the recent leaf yellowing as well as the two plants that are significantly smaller than the others. We are inducing flowering tonight, setting the timer to turn the lights off at 9 tomorrow instead of 12:30 and coming back on at 9.
So, I have used the flora series chart and adding 15 ml gro 10 micro and 5 bloom to every 10 liters of water. The PPM is now at 1510 or 2.16 EC. This still seems high to me.



worst plant now
best plant now



Bubbles: "As soon as Ricky made me assistant trailer park supervisor I knew things were ********* right away, there was nothing I could do. All of a sudden EI checks start showing up for Trevor Cory, Cory Trevor, Randy Trevor."
 
quick update, before bed tonight we drained 20 L of the 50L out and just added back PH adjusted tap water. this brought the EC down to 1.8 or 1260 PPM. we assumed that since the system ran for about an hour there was an even mixture of the nutes. so, the water in the reservoir should still have the proper mixture of the flora series. was this the right thing to do?
 
day 24.
hanging in. got the EC sorted for the most part. we found that our tap water has an EC of 1.4. so we have been collecting air conditioner run off water which has next to no EC and a PH of around 5.6. We topped off with this for the first time and will use on the next reservoir flush when we change the flora nute pattern. This should keep our EC much more managable.
So, we are 1 week and 2 days into flowering and overnight last night we saw lots of pre-flowers come out. On the same hand we noticed a few lower level yellow leaves appear. The PH was at 5.9 and the EC at 1.49 rising only slightly from 1.46 12 hours prior. You can see in the pics. Is this normal?



here on the AKs you can see the yellow leaves I mentioned, which appeared over the course of lights out.
 
day 33
quick update, plants are looking great, flowering up. :leaf: :leaf: :leaf:EC floats between 1.4 and 1.6. The AK47s which were looking the worst have really recovered after we stopped using tapwater. So, we have found the Chronic to be not only resilient, but able to grow with high concentration of nutrients.


 
hah, i´ve honestly never smoked it. It´s supposed to be high yielding with fat main buds.
I smoked AK47 when I was in Toronto though, and it was great. bongsmilie
Serious Seeds were what we had available to us, and these two are supposed to be the easiest to grow. My buddy had some trouble with White Widow on his first grow.

That would be a sick harvest with those strains.
 
thx blazin. temps are alright, there are actually 3 of those PC fans and a ruck at the top exhausting to a carbon filter. my friend was telling me today that it can be normal for these strains to yellow at the bottom when flowering first begins. all the new growth is nice and green, hopefully it continues.
I guess our main concern now is how much taller they will get. We are 3 weeks in flowering and they are over 2 feet. We don´t have a lot of room left. Do they stretch all the way through flowering or slow down a bit? They have grown at least an inch a day lately.
 
day 48
Sorry, no update in awhile. Plants doing good. Flowering nicely. :mrgreen: I spend a good part of my day just looking at them.
They stopped stretching dramatically about a week ago. EC does best around 1.4. We had to shut everything down for about 3 hours the other day, including the pump because the landlord was doing a walk through and we couldn´t risk the noise. I think there was a bit of heat damage, but it doesn´t seem major.
My nutrient feed schedule table has the nutes ending in about a week and a half. I know the plants should be flushed the last week or two. How do I know when to begin flushing them? How long do you all think they need?, sorry the photos aren´t great, confused about the camera settings.


 
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