AK47 first ever grow! Advice needed.

[sguys]

Hi guys, very close to finishing our first grow. Got a cutting of serious seeds AK47 off a friend just before Xmas.

Started flowering on New Years Eve. According to Serious Seeds website AK47 should be finished in 53-63 days after flowering. Our baby has been flowing for 77 days now. I personally think its ready for the chop. Its not had any nutes for about 2 weeks and is starting to wilt.

The problem is i'm growing it with a friend who keeps saying it isnt ready because even though all the lower buds look finished the two big top ones dont. I'll post some pics and hopefully some of you guys can tell us if it is ready and why its gone on for so long.

It is just one plant been grown in a wardrobe under a 200w enviro grow light. We used Bcus A&B nutrients.

Overall we've been suprised at how easy its been to grow, the only problem we have had is with mechanical timers for the light. They keep breaking! We've gone through a few and hence this has occasionally disrupted the 12/12 flowering cycle.

Any advice and constructive critisim would be much appreciated.

Cheers.

 

[NOKUY]

looks nice

get a radio shack microscope or jewlers loope and check the trichs.

there are many threads on here to tell ya what to look for. i chop mine when they are mostly cloudy, and some starting to turn amber. Any other method is just a subjective guess.

 

[ZeusOGrefugee]

Those AK's look great man, but NOT ready, IMO. A little more info would help us here. If ur temps are low, like mine tend to be, Ur plants will take longer to ripen. If they are not gettin the full light spectrum, they will take longer also. Give us some more info, and get a microscope. Its the only real way to tell IMO. U dont wanna chop too early and get mediocre weed!!!!Common newbie mistake. Even with a microscope, I chopped my 1st 2 grows at least a week too early, if not more. Those buds look like they will still fill out some more, and u still have white pistils. Let em go another 2 weeks...and get a microscope!!!!Peace.

 

[Guest]

The reason your timers keep breaking is because they are not meant for the on/off stage of your light.

Get a INDUSTRIAL timer that is meant for HID lights. They are only like 60 bux and wont break.

 

[sguys]

Thanks for the advice guys. The temp is bout 19 degrees, is this too low? As i said this is our first grow so we dont have much knowlegde / experience! The problem is that because we've been flushing it for over two weeks now it doesnt have any nutes and is strating to wilt. Im going up to my mates later where the plant lives so will post some more recent pics. I just spoke to him and he said it isn't looking too healthy, lots of wilted leaves and quite afew are turning yellow.

 

[Guest]

If its wilting it needs to be hydrated,dont let a flowering plant wilt if possible.Its shouldn't need any nutes but it still needs water,looks like 10 days or two weeks more to me.Thats 19 degress C correct?

 

[sguys]

yeah mate, 19 degrees C. Thanks again for all the help.

 

[70s_PotHead]

No matter whether you chop it now or wait a week, it will be the best smoke you ever smoked just because its your 1st grow and you grew it all the way to harvest

70s

 

[JJScorpio]

The same happened with a few of my plants on my last grow. The tops took forever to ripen on a few. I ended up taking the lower buds and leaving the rest for another week.....

 

[Pops]

All my AK-47's have been nute hogs. The leaves wilting just signify that it needs water. The yellow leaves show that it is taking nutes from the leaves as it is getting ready for harvest. One of the problems with having too much nitrogen in your plants or soil is that they will continue to put out white pistols when you think that they should be ready. Usually these white pistols will be at the top of the plant, closest to the light. If the bottom buds have mostly dark hairs, the plant is probably ready. The white buds at the top are just new pistols that the plants are still putting out. AK's are known for that. As Nokuy stated, use a magnifying class or microscope to check trics. Ak's don't turn amber as fast as other plants. Many sativas don't. If you have mostly cloudy, they are ready. Ak is a great sativa-dominant plant and can be taken a little early and still be great. Mine are ready in about 55 days. I usually harvest at 58.

If you have had timers that have not given a full period of night, it can delay the flowering process and produce leafy buds and prolonged flowering. Check the trics. As Jj says, you can take the lower buds and leave the tops to ripen up. If you harvest the whole thing now, those white buds will still dry to a deep red and look like the rest of the buds. That is one distinctive feature about AK-47, the red hairs.

 

[Guest]

Yea AK's a pistilly beast alright,hey pops!She was decent erb but got dropped because she's just not a good commercial strain at all,too fluffy by far lol.You gotta do the sittin on the sutcase routine just to get 30 grams in a sandwich bag lol

 

[PassionForMaryJ]

Looks to have a week and a half or so to go to me, looks great though!!!

The Cherry AK-47 Pheno I have (from Serious Seeds I think) has been ready as soon as 47 days, but it much better at 55 to 60 days...
I would say 65 normally would be the max time you want to go, but again it all depends on your smoke potency preference..

Happy harvesting & smoking!!!!!!!!

 

[sguys]

Thanks for all the info. Those pics originally posted were actually a week or so old. We have just harvest!!!! at the moment the figures stand:

fresh off the plant we got 324 grams of bud. (11.5oz)

the buds are pretty whispy though, i'll post pics later when i get home. Does anyone with expericene of growing AK know how much weight we are likely to lose during the drying stage? We're expecting between 50-60%? We're really happy with the results whatever dry weight we get. Just looking forward to smoking the produce and starting the second grow, moving house in a couple of months though so will have to wait til then unfortunately!

 

[PassionForMaryJ]

Very welcome, hope you enjoy it!!!

I say you will lose from 1/4 to 1/2 the weight by the time they are dry enough to start curing..

Just curious, did you weigh that before or after the trim?
And with or without stems?

 

[sguys]

heres the harvest pics!

 

[sguys]

That was the weight after the we'd trimmed all the buds down and took all the big stems out.

 

[green_grow]

there's a reason why those timers keep failing, but it's kinda technical (to me), so i wont bother trying to explain it . i WILL say, however, that when i took my fan off the timer circuit and just left the lights only on the timer, it started behaving perfectly . if you want a better quality timer for the future, Home Depot sells an intermatic t101 ( i think it's t103 in canada) for about 60.00 CDN. it's a beauty compared to those cheap plastic "heavy duty" intermatic and woods timers . comes in a nice painted steel box and has 30amp rating .

 

[dmoc76@hotmail.]

Well played mate bet ur well chuffed. Everything looks pretty dam gud 4 ur 1st grow lukin forward to easter mate we'll av 2 get sum phat blunts on
C u at weekend mate Dom

U know that u've still got the oil to make yet lol

 

[Guest]

The reason those cheap timers were failing with the fan probably was the fan motor load was too much,intermatic T101-104's are the way to go without question.