New Grower Auto Vertigo (Paradise) and AK47 (Vision)

[The_Dude]

This is my first attempt at growing. These forums (and others) have been VERY helpful in getting started, so I figured I'd share my progress along the way. I originally started this grow journal on another site, but since I've come to use this site more regularly for information, I will post further updates and future grows here.

Please feel free to comment or provide suggestions. I'm interested in any advice that could help my plants be as successful as possible!

Setup:

• 3x3 tent (started in 2x3)
• 450watt G8 LED
• 90watt G8 UFO LED (red spectrum for flowering)
• 5 gallon Smart pots with Fox Farm Ocean Forest soil
• Two 8-inch fans
• Cool and warm mist humidifier (when needed)
• Fox Farm nutrients
• Distilled water with PH adjusted as necessary
• 2 Autoflower Vertigo
• 1 Autoflower Ak-47

Getting started:
• Germinated seeds using paper towel method and planted directly into 5 gallon Smart pots
• All 3 sprouted within 1 day, but the Ak-47 didn't shed its shell. After waiting a few days, I helped it along, but it didn't make it.
• After about 1 week, I planted an additional Ak-47 to replace the one that didn't make it. It sprouted quickly, and it looks healthy.

Lighting, humidity, and temperature
• Lighting schedule started at 18/6, but I switched to 24/0 a couple weeks in due to a problem with my timer.
• Started with only the 450watt LED set at approximately 15" from sprouts and gradually moved them up to maintain about 24" above the majority of the flowers.
• Humidity started between 50-55% and is currently between 30-35% at 9 weeks in
• Temperature runs between 72-77 with lights on
• Watering approximately every 4-6 days throughout grow

In the posts below, I'll share the progress of each plant from sprout to the most recent.

 

[dudeibeensmokin]

Welcome dude!:Sharing One: Looks good man.. Ive grown out vertigo several times good lil strain! I would suggest cutting ur fox farm ocean forest with some light warrior.. it runs a wee bit hot.. You might also need to add some lime their ph has been off lately my last batch was around 5.7.. you wont need to use nutes untill about 3 to 4 weeks in with that soil even if you 50/50 mix it. Distilled water is good for adding nutes.. but if your just using it straight it will wash out all of your nutes etc.. as it does not contain any trace minerals.. so might keep that in mind... everything else looks pretty groovy! Best of luck.. you have found yourself in a brilliant forum!

 

[The_Dude]

Vertigo 1

The first vertigo is quite a bit larger than the second at about 28" tall. Both vertigos have a more branchy, stretched growth compared to the ak47. This vertigo had some deficiencies about halfway through, which caused some discoloration to some of the fan leaves. Added CalMg to my water, which seemed to have solved the problem.

This one is currently at 67days since planting the seed.

 

[dudeibeensmokin]

oh snap.. your almost done.. lol thought you were just getting started... looks good mate!

 

[The_Dude]

Vertigo 2

Vertigo 2 is shorter than the other, and strangely the side branches grew for longer and ended up taller than the main cola. However, the flowers took longer to develop. This plant has had basically no problems other than slightly yellow leaf tips. Healthy from start until now. The main cola is about 8-9" shorter than the other plant, but it's dense.

 

[The_Dude]

Welcome dude!:Sharing One: Looks good man.. Ive grown out vertigo several times good lil strain! I would suggest cutting ur fox farm ocean forest with some light warrior.. it runs a wee bit hot.. You might also need to add some lime their ph has been off lately my last batch was around 5.7.. you wont need to use nutes untill about 3 to 4 weeks in with that soil even if you 50/50 mix it. Distilled water is good for adding nutes.. but if your just using it straight it will wash out all of your nutes etc.. as it does not contain any trace minerals.. so might keep that in mind... everything else looks pretty groovy! Best of luck.. you have found yourself in a brilliant forum!

Thanks, man! That's good news on the vertigo. As for your suggestions, I'm already on it thanks to a number of people here. I've got a bag of Light Warrior and Ocean Forest waiting to go for the next grow. =) I also picked up a bag of dolomite lime. Thanks for the info on the water! The last two waterings I've been using PH'd, de-chloronated tap because I read somewhere about trace minerals.

I've poured over these threads for hours looking, so I figured I should share the fruits of the knowledge available here.

 

[The_Dude]

oh snap.. your almost done.. lol thought you were just getting started... looks good mate!

They're definitely getting close...I'll be getting started on a couple more soon. Just waiting for these two vertigos to finish, and I'll replace them with a couple of fresh ones (vertigo and ak47).

 

[dudeibeensmokin]

Yeah man.. what I do is use tap water... let it sit for 24 hours then I put an air stone in and bubble it for another 24 hours to enrich the water with o2 for the roots. its a system that works for me and thought I'd recommend it to you!

 

[The_Dude]

ak47

This is an ak47 (vision seeds) at 59 days old. This got started late since the first one of these I germinated failed to shed the seed husk and eventually died. This plant on the other hand has been nothing but healthy. It grew so bushy that a month in I had to upgrade my tent. lol This one is supposed to go a bit longer than the vertigo, and it looks to have a few weeks left.

The flowers on this one are really dense and numerous. Besides the main cola, all the surrounding spots are filling in nicely.

 

[The_Dude]

Yeah man.. what I do is use tap water... let it sit for 24 hours then I put an air stone in and bubble it for another 24 hours to enrich the water with o2 for the roots. its a system that works for me and thought I'd recommend it to you!

At first I thought using distilled water was the best option, but the more I read I found that most people were just using tap. I hadn't considered the air stone...I read that these Smart Pots are supposed to help with O2 and possibly putting in some peroxide, which I only used for germinating. The air stone sounds like a good method that I'll definitely look into. I'm enjoying this new hobby so far, so I look forward to trying a few new things on the next grow.