Anima is back! (with AK47 and Sour Diesel bx1.5 genes)

Hello all, it has been awhile since I have been actively posting anywhere...I let my last grow thread here fall into obfuscation.(sorry to those who were waiting in anticipation)
Anyways, I have crawled up out of my rabbit hole, blackmailed an evil leprahchaun, and will wait a for what seems to be years, all while being bounced off a few unknown proxies to share this growing experience with all of you. (you're welcome)
For those of you who recognize me
For those of you who don't...well, you'll just have to wait and see.

Ok now for the specs: I grow for personal use under a 400W hps (Hortilux EN bulb). Organic (as much as I can) in soil. This time, in a sealed homade cab (2ft x 2.5ft). Thats 80 watts per square foot if you are counting. I have fought some major battles with temp/ventilation in this situation, but I believe I have solved them with the help of my new friend stanley:

Sorry you don't get much of an outside shot of the cab (for security purposes)
And a bit of my own version of the DIY cooltube:

I altered the design a bit to keep the light from having to shine through the glass tube, right now the hot spot is registering as 85 deg F ,about 12 inches directly under the bulb. The rest of the cab is at about 5 degrees f above ambient (72 f) or less.
And... the cab is just under 4 ft high. With soil lvl 10 inches high, that gives my plants a total of 2 feet for vertical growth. (more twards the sides)
I am planning to top the plants once (just after the third cotyledon), and another time on one side, one node up from the split that forms from the first topping. Hopefully resulting in a final canopy, kind of u-shaped, with taller buds off to the sides, so they don't get fried. as soon as they have recovered from all of this topping I will put them into flower.

Ok time for the genetic snafu: this round 9 seeds were attempted.
(I put my males second in the crosses)
4 (Sour Diesel bx1.5 x AK47) this cross has treated me well so far:

from a previous grow (a sister to these seeds)

2 (AK47 x AK47) from a beautiful (cherry) sativa dom female, the male hopefully isn't (plural of kush x Amsterdam flame), a freebie that went hermie. but we will see.

2 (Sour Diesel bx1.5 x AK47) x AK47 (latest cross) the male was a beautiful sativa dom cherry smell-like the female AK47 that makes up the previous cross.

1 (citral X plural of kush) a freebie from awhile back. This one is a gamble....I expect it'll probably go hermie on me (rest assured it will die at the frist sign)...I smoked some stuff awhile back that tasted like lemon candy and I WANT MORE...that is why this is here. But first it has got to crack it's shell.

All were sprouted using a wet paper towel then transferred (yesterday, after approx. 24 hours.) to soil at the first sign of growth, except the Citral cross which has yet to do anything...
I'll keep this updated as time passes.


I appreciate any adivice / speculation, even a certian amout of criticism that is directed twards me. I am not really looking for replies like "nice pics" or "What kind of camera/lenses do you use..." go start a thread in the "Growroom/desigs and equip" sect. and ask me to come explain there or something...This thread is all about the life cycle of these PLANTS, and making them grow as well as possible.
I will however take requests for educational photos for inquiring minds (ex. a male preflower, or some such business...)
You help me...I help you.

Baby pics soon!
-A

Hey man, nice crosses. Have to love this hobby eh! Look forward to watching this thread.

B/R

Hi Black Ra1n!!! Thanks....(best hobby ever)
Well I went in to check on my babies and maybe get some birthday pics...lo and behold what did I find?
One Bug.



One bug to rule them all
One bug to find them



One bug to bring them all together
And in the brightness
Eat them!



The little dude was really cooperative letting me move him all around, and pose him with a stick. I gave it a shower after I saw he was a bit dusty..I named it "Mr Chill"...seems quite content to do just that. I'll take it as a good omen.

But yeah, most of the babies have poked thier heads up, and are getting their first taste of light from some flouro tubes. Save the POK x Citral which gets one more day. (maybe 2) Then it will be pronounced DOA.

And hell, while im at it I'll throw up more pics of the SD x AK that I have already grown out









-Mean lean green ganja growing machine

bug

bug

Anima

very nice bug

wish you good luck


x10fast

Thanks x10
Hes still there. guarding away.

Nothing really exciting to report...Everything is growing nicely. 1 of the (SD xAK) x AK plants has slightly wavy looking leaves, and the other is very stout. Seems like a wide range of phenotypes are to be had with the particular cross.
The AK47 x AK47 plants are the furthest along.
More pics on the way..

Is your grow inside? I don't know how I would feel having a dragon fly buzzing around inside my house. I love anything AK. It is a primo bud and super easy to grow.
I will be tagging along to your thread as I am going to try my first crosses this fall, AK may be a part of it.

Good luck

Welcome Dr Dog! Glad to see ya!
Yes the grow is indoors. I have no idea how it made it in... hitched a ride on my coat? Hasn't "buzzed" me yet. I'm cool with any predatory insects in my garden. At any rate, he has disappeared as mysteriously as he arrived.

About the AK...I just freaking love it. Got a pack of 15 seeds From Serious Seeds a handful of years back, and made crosses from all of the plants that had the cherry sativa dominant phenotype.
The sour Diesel Bx1.5's just happened to be in my garden during one of these crosses, and I guess I was a bit liberal/sloppy with the pollen application, and ended up with seeeds. So far this cross has been pretty uniform in throwing out some decent size (not quite approaching the original AK size though), connisuer grade stash, on a rancid skunk level all of its own. Totally unexpected really, but not at all disappointing. It maintains high female to male ratios and that high-flying-knock-out stone from the best of the AK line, while adding taste/smell character from the best of american skunk lines. Unfortunatly density/ yeild has suffered a bit.

My latest is a cross with the last cross with my last 2 ak-47 seeds. One turned out that beautiful cherry sativa dominant, and the other a more indica. Both were male. Most seeds will be from the sativa dom, while others could be from the indica dom, or even (slim chance) flo from dutch passion.
Thanks for watching...I think I'll try for pics every week...I always loved grow diaries with evenly spaced pic intervals.
-Peace

Good luck anima! might wanna check your stanley blower for your dragonfly

Sup Pimp, my blower hasn't really been on (just for some temp testing).
They are under some flouro tubes ATM:



They just got their first good watering today.
-ttfn

I'll probably transplant tomarrow, and under the HPS they'll go...18/6
Then before you know it, it'll be flowering time!

well you got some toddlers on your hands. This is the time of the grow I love, you are full of expectations and start dreaming about what is to come. I will be hopefully dropping some more AK seeds come Sept.

The SD*AK is looking a bit weak, too much stretch?

Hey Anima, things are growing up nicely. Keep up the great work man, I'll be back to check them out later.

B/R

Welcome back Dr Dog and Black Ra1n!
All of the SDxAK47's (the 4 on the left) are doing great! The one that is in the brown pot on the far left is a bit small because it's a late starter, and it doesn't get the quality light from the middle of the tubes. Theres always a runt. (not always a bad thing)
The 2 AK47xAK47s seem to be growing the fastest.
And my newest cross (SDxAK) x AK (the 2 on the right) seem to be doing well, although the one in the front has stretched a bit, and the one in the back is throwing out fat indica leaves and not stretching at all. But both are very strong and vigorous.

but really all the stretching that is going on right now is superficial compared to what the SDxAK47's are going to do about 3 weeks into flower. I just hope I get denser nugs with my new ventilation and/or crosses.
We just have to wait and see.

On a side note: Fungus gnats
I always friggin get em!
I've devised a way to make bug strips ON THE CMEMORY
you need:
Duct tape
Vegtable oil
paintbrush?(optional)

all you have to do is paint the vegtable oil on the sticky side of the duct tape (i just smeared around a drop of it with my finger, but im old school like that)
and put it out around where the little buggers are likely to land. sticky side up. duh.
The oil will make it sticky as hell esp after a day or so, but it will work immediatly.

works well enough... there is always still one or two, but thats better than 30 or 40.
Cheers
-A

look like some nice cross's, i run 2 x 400w hps from my stanely i run my 400's at night 6pm-6am. my temps stay 78-80 lights on low 70's when lights are off my outside daytime temps are 110+ heat and me where old friend not anymore.
i also grow as organic as possible but when it comes to critters gnats mites dont matter hotshot nopest strip kills em dead fast hang it for 1-2 wks and all gone put away in baggie in the garage when not in use

Welcome Maj. Pothead!
Thanks but no thanks on the pesticides...really give the duct tape and oil a shot, I just recently devised it and it works like a charm.

On to the grow:
6 plants have had their tops pinched, repotted to 2.25 gal pots, and got put under the 400W hps at 18/6.
temps are around 85F.



here they are getting their first taste of the HPS(click for bigger pic)

The runt SDxAK and the more indica (sd x ak) x ak got left behind...Prepared to make another apperance in the event of males. No more seeds for me.

Each pot has a mix of:
2 tablespoons of high P bat guano (more fossilized) 0-16-1
2 teaspoons of high N bat guano (still bat turds) 6-1-1
2 tablespoons of glacial rock dust 0-0-1
1.5 tablespoons of dolomite lime
1/2 teaspoon epsom salts
~ 1/6 of a bag of perlite
about 2.5 cups pure worm castings (a heaping double handfull) (1-0-0 I believe)
3 heaping handfuls of Miracle grow Organic garden soil (haven't tried yet)
and to top it off about 3-4 handfuls of recycled soil from a previous grow that was heavy on sphagnum peat moss.

I plan on supplimenting with the Flora nova series Grow and bloom added to my water, maybe some guano/wormcasting tea as well..suggestions/experiences/opinions are welcome.

Next week is training week, if all goes well, after that I'll flip to flower.
Right now I am really open to suggestions.
I am considering getting kind of medieval and supercropping them.
Let me know what you all think!!
-A

(shame-less bump)
cmon anyone have any advice on where you want to see this go?
I will go for anything but SCROG...

-A

Current (color corrected) progress:

Looks like you got rid of the sick one, but the other 6 are growing up nicely, they have some real nice serrated leaves. I do like watching scrogs, but I think these would look nice as trees as well, Ak I find always looks nice in a tree

looks like you have it nailed ......
i was going to add how to make the pics bigger.........u got that too...
good luck man.

Nope, Dr. dog, I didn't get rid of them, and they weren't sick, just slow. The (SD X AK) x AK that you said looked sick and stretchy is on the bottom right of my previous pic. The two in the back (top of pic) are SD x AK's, the 2 in the middle are the AK x AK's and, the front one on the left is a SD x AK.

If there is one thing that you can count on with this grow is that it will NOT be a SCROG. All of the plants have to be able to be moved individually, and a bunch of plants with their own scrog screens is a PITA, so that is out!
And I've already topped them, so you are not going to see trees (besides I don't have the vertical room). What I think I am aiming for this time is kind of a stadium grow (lower in the center, taller on the sides) achieved with topping and tieing, and bending.
That's my plan at the moment...

Thanks for popping in joe!
Yea, I'm not a total newbie to this game...I've been around..but I'm always eager to learn more!