AK48 - 250W - First Grow

My previous journal was lost with the rollback. I wanted to give a quick update and take it from here. This is my first grow so I only did a single plant to work things out before I ramped up. So far I've learned tons and looking forward to the next round. Here are some specifics of this grow.

Area: Roughly 3x2x5 homemade tent.
Grow Medium: 3:3:1 mix of soil:coco:EWC.
Nutes: Jack's Classic Veg/Bloom and EWC compost tea
Water: Really depends, mostly RO/distilled but use some tap when I think I need Cal/Mag

She sprouted January 31. Here are some weekly pics from February 7 to March 1. I flipped to 12:12 on Feb 29th. I've had nute/heat problems throughout the grow. I hope I have them mostly corrected and I'm looking to power through to the finish line.

March 8-18

She is roughly 12"x12". The pics are shot under HPS (first 2), no light w/flash, and cool blue led. Gives a general idea where she is at. I was excited to see some tricones. You can see the leaves in the top 2 colas are discolored not sure if its a nute problem. I had the light much closer at 3" above the colas but moved to 6" when I started to see the discoloration. Let me know what you guys think. Is there anything I can do about the cola leaves? They are not brittle just bleached looking.

I also noticed my soil PH dropped to ~5 and she sucked up a lot of water. Does she need more nutes or water for the next watering?

usual at week 4 and 5 the plant needs the most nutrition in my experience, i had a plant and in week 4 i saw burning signs i increased the nutes and all was good the plant shot back up with vengeance, week 7 i stop the nutes cuz there is still in the soil and flush at 8 then let it for few days with any more watering then in dark for 2 days then chop , and i belive soil ph should be between 6.5 and 7, though i never tested mine or managed it, i used compost potting soil and it works great, when watering , the water should come out of the bottom to make sure all is damp

cheers
all what i said is from my experience,

Appreciate the comments. Yours looks great compared to mine. The silver lining is that I am learning something. I'll update soon.

Just a quick update, it looks like she won't recover from my previous mistakes so I'm just going to power through and take the weight hit. The biggest cola was damaged by a hot light that I was trying to adjust the height. The sites continue to develop but she is pretty yellow and I keep losing fan leaves. Been feeding Jacks Bloom @ 1tsp/gallon. Fully flushed with RO a couple days ago, so now I wait. I think I still have 2.5-3 weeks to chop. Is this a good estimate?

ChrisGGG said:

Just a quick update, it looks like she won't recover from my previous mistakes so I'm just going to power through and take the weight hit. The biggest cola was damaged by a hot light that I was trying to adjust the height. The sites continue to develop but she is pretty yellow and I keep losing fan leaves. Been feeding Jacks Bloom @ 1tsp/gallon. Fully flushed with RO a couple days ago, so now I wait. I think I still have 2.5-3 weeks to chop. Is this a good estimate?
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She looks great mate but I would add a bit of Micro (N) to your next feed. Your on day 31 so you still got a few more weeks to go, adding a bit of N will help with those fan leafs turning completely yellow; remember you want them to be healthy for as long as possible to maximize yield. Good luck bro.

AWnox said:

She looks great mate but I would add a bit of Micro (N) to your next feed. Your on day 31 so you still got a few more weeks to go, adding a bit of N will help with those fan leafs turning completely yellow; remember you want them to be healthy for as long as possible to maximize yield. Good luck bro.

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Agreed, A little goes a long way looking good man

Thanks guys, I appreciate it. I'll add a little (1/8 tsp/gallon) of Jack's veg next watering.

Just a little update. I'm hoping she will be chopped by the 20th, what do you guys think? I switched from a HPS to MH in the hopes of increasing the THC amount. I may switch the bulbs every couple of days. The 2nd/3rd pics are of the side buds. The last one is a good shot of the main cola I burned from a hot light being lowered too far.

your leafs tips looks burned , are all the tips like this? even the bottom ones?
if so , this is a sign of over fertilising

Yeah, I got a little zealous with the feed. Believe it or not she is making a recovery. I'm now doing water:water:feed.

I'm starting to see some amber hairs. I'm starting final flush today and going to only use RO/moleases from now on. Anyone with experience with AK48 that can give an estimate on eta to cut down? I'm going to pick up a scope/magnifying glass tonight.

i don't have experience in ak48, but i feel like it hasn't ripen yet, the buds aren't that dense yet and the hairs are white to me, so which week of flowering is it now? maybe 6 or 7?
and is the ak48 more of a sativa? if so then it needs 9 to 10 weeks of flowering ,
or the ak48 is usually like this when ripen, maybe someone with experience in ak48 might assist more

I'm in week 6, the info claimed it can finish in 48 days (7weeks) but I guess I have at least a couple more weeks.

I grew AK-48 under CFL's and harvested at 7,8, and 9 weeks on different grows. It may have been an affect of the different grows, but I found 7 weeks was OK, 8 was better, and 9 weeks gave it a fair push in size and strength. A general rule that I saw though, was the pistols go mostly orange, stop sticking out so much, and the budd looks rock solid. If that makes sense. After a couple of grows, you'll see what I mean.

Oh and most of my AK-48's were largely stocking and Indica, though I did get a Sativa dominant strain that were tall and skinny. Yours looks more Indica, so around 8 weeks should do.

I read on another post yesterday something along the lines of "when you think its ready to harvest, give it another week and look again" And looking back at my grows this def makes sense.

I've tried uploading some harvest pics, but the attachment manager window is freezing, i'll try again later

I really appreciate it. She is definitely more Indica. How do you compare AK48 to other strains you have grown?

I have only ever grown AK-48, but couldn't fault it, a very sweet taste, lovely smell, and loads of trich's. I am currently 4 weeks into flower of my Second Strain, Blue Mystic, so should have an idea soon.

What I can say is that is a Terminator amongst plants. During my first few grows and set up changes it survived night temps of 5c, day temps of 35c, over nuting, over watering, clones survived with no humidty hood, shit soil etc etc. While I can't compare it yet, I can say its a good first grower for taste, strength and hardiness!