my auto ak cfl/led closet grow

well this is my first grow and it seems to be going well. i did make a journal already but the site got hacked and i lost all my progress so im starting again. firstly im using 3x65w cfls (2 6500k and one 2700k) these 3 lights put out 10k lumens which considering my .37m2 space i think is sufficient. i stupidly bought one of the 15w led panels from ebay as an impulse buy so i have that in there as well. it only gives 420 lumens so ive just stuck it in the corner. every little helps i suppose. so far im on day 28 from seed (i started germing the seeds on day 1 they popped that day so went into soil on day 2)


i have a nice collection of pictures but they were all taken on my phone so no macro pics unfortunately. ive lost the sd adaptor for my camera so this will have to do until i find it or buy a new one.








all pics are in chronological order so u can see the progress over 4 weeks. all 4 plants are feminised and have started sprouting little white hairs on the main bud sites so things are going well. the only thing that is concerning me is that all the plants seem to be going differently. 2 seem to be growing outwards with huge fan leaves one of them is a little runt. (think i over stressed it when i repotted.) ive since found out u arent supposed to repot auto strains so lesson learned. the other seems to be really growing quite densly with small heavily grouped together fan leaves. hoping that this will be my super star. seems to have the most roots and strongest stem out of all 4. had a small issue with over nuting but it only affected the shoot leaves and i caught it before it did any real damage. all 4 look quite healthy now. im using 1/4 strength canna terra flores nutes and i have them in john innes #3 soil. at the moment i have been giving each plant 500ml water every other day and nutes every other watering and judging by how dry the soil is today (its watering day) i may need to up the amounts a bit. maybe another 250ml each next time round. unfortunately i dont have the capacity for all sorts of hectic lights and fans so i have punched 2 holes in back of cupboard as passive air in and out. will be fitting some 12v fans when i get the chance to wire them up for a mains socket. in the mean time im using a 7" desk fan to keep the air circulating and i seem to be ok on temp as well. 27-29c lights on and about a 5 degree drop when the lights are off. its all wired into one timer plug atm so fans and lights go off together. missus hates the noise of the fan at night so thats why next grow is gonna be standard strain not auto.

also im sure you guys noticed the few smaller plants on the centre of my grow area. 2 are master kush and 2 are white widow. basically what im doing to mix it up a bit is vegging those plants until the ak is ready to crop then im gonna switch the lights down to 12/12 and see what i get. the master kush a got as a free gift when buying the auto ak, which was on sale so i got 10 seeds for £33 of feminised auto ak and 5 master kush seeds free. not a bad deal imo. the white widow was some bagseed from my guy i buy from usually. the widow was deadly so when i got 13 usuable seeds from an 8th i was very happy. though not so happy i had to pick them from my bud

anyway any comments would be welcome and i will update this as i progress. should be roughly another 4 weeks until harvest so wish me luck.

just a little update. day 29 today and just before i shut lights off for the evening last night i decided that i was gonna experiment. on one of the bushier plants i decided to cut all the fans leaves off and see what happened. just checked up on it and it seems to have responded well. its grown almost 2" over night and the top bud site seems a lot fuller so hopefully the plant will concentrate on buds now rather than leaf development.

another quick update with some pics today. got my new iphone 4s today so using the good close up feature on the camera and got a few nice shots. here they are. last photo shows some nice pistils.

just another quick update. day 32 got some nice growth over the last few days. tallest plant is 10" now the one i pruned isnt doing so well. it hasnt really grown at all in the last couple days. think i have 2 different phenotypes though. 2 of the plants were really leafy and bushy and the other 2 are tall and quite compact. gonna be good to see how well they grow. also came home today and one of the plants was touching the lights noticed where it was touching there is a burn on some of the leaf tips. raised the light another 2" today.

another quick update, day 36. plants are looking healthy. i will post some pics later. i defo have 2 phenotypes here. one is flowering really well its 14" tall and doesnt seem to be slowing up. slightly concerned that i might have too much for my space. the one i pruned hasnt grown in over a week. its stayed at 8" tall. 3 of the plants are really bushy and have wide leaves the other one (which is the tallest one) has really small and skinny leaves but is flowering like mad.

any feedback???

Your plants are looking really nice. Im planning on growing my own plants so lets se how these go and ill make my decision for auto normal

thanks man, this is my first grow so its nice to hear a compliment. adding a few more pics from the last couple days one of them is really going for it with the buds as well now

looking nice man . i see your using cfl's how much watts you using ?

got 3 65w (2 x 6500k & 1 x 2700k) but ive just ordered 3 x 23w 2700k and im gonna take the 6500k's out and stick those 3 in when they arrive. i might even think about adding another socket with 4 sockets and fill that up with 2 more 23w 2700k and the 2 65w 6500k lights i want to see the end result with these to see if i need more light though. only one of them is really taking off at the minute. the one that was a different phenotype from the others. lol word of advice. do not trim auto flowers. it freaked mine the fuck out. it was 8" when i done it a few weeks back. its only just 9" now. starting to get a right nice smell going on. i do think one is gonna be done long before the others.

looking sexy so far man, keep it up and your gonna have a nice smoke.

plants are 6 weeks old today. bit concerned that onlly one is really flowering the other 3 have preflowers but dont seem to be pushing out any buds. will take some pics today as i need to water them today. had a really crap week for water to be honest. i live in flats and the council came to clear the buildings water tanks during the week so all my water smells of chlorine. bloody nightmare. got 20 litres of water in bottles sitting in my room now. so plants are gonna be on mineral water for a few feeds. also going to get some molasses this week and try 2 of the plants on it and see how different the smoke and yeild are.

Here they are..... All 4 separately

Switch up the light cycle a bit. The genetics trigger that. Ruderalis will want 14 hours a day or more I bet. Up to 22 is ideal i've heard. Interestnig plant. I am looking to grow an auto and your plant looks great, it's interesting how you can see the ruderalis traits. Its kind of a "weedy" look. Especially the top pic. It has a plastic ditch weed look to it. Crazy. Hows it smell is it stinky?

It has a kinda raw vegetable smell at the minute until it warms up about 4 o'clock. Then u can smell bud. I had them on 18/6 but changed it 14/10 cos ive read a few people say they do well on that cycle. Can u see the differences in pheno though? The top plant is completely different from the other 3

well just a quick shock update. got out of bed this morning and my entire flat stinks of bud, like ive been up smoking all night. slightly concerned by it. may need to invest in a carbon filter. was kinda hoping id get away with the smell until i had a proper stealth cab built.

brett, I'm curious, What size pots are your 4 plants currently in and are they your final pot size?

PS - I smoked all night in my flat and woke up this morning and it smells like weed as well. Go figure! lol.

Brett I have 3 auto widows that are almost at 6 weeks now and they love the 24/0 cycle. Budding beautifully.

Amaximus said:

brett, I'm curious, What size pots are your 4 plants currently in and are they your final pot size?

PS - I smoked all night in my flat and woke up this morning and it smells like weed as well. Go figure! lol.

Click to expand...

i didnt smoke at all last night, that was my point. the pots are 20cm pots not sure what they contain. thinks its 5ltr. im limited space so couldnt really use 25ltr buckets. wouldnt have any space. i was planning on downsizing amount next round so might get 25ltr buckets as im doing photoperiod plants only want 1 or 2. found some nicer soil for next time round. comes with vermiculte in it. its only a generic one. im finding the john innes a bit much to work with. its goes muddy very quickly and very dense.

Longrange270 said:

Brett I have 3 auto widows that are almost at 6 weeks now and they love the 24/0 cycle. Budding beautifully.

Click to expand...

i have to try and be discreet as i have kids, so having lights and a fan on in a cupboard 24/7 would attract attention. i had them on 18/6 for 5 weeks and as soon they started showing pre flowers i dropped it to 14/10. this is my first ever attempt at growing so im learning as i go. i like to just jump in at the deep end. if it goes horribly so be it. ill just try something different. i have nice collections of bagseed beans labeled and ready to go so trial and error.

brettsog said:

i didnt smoke at all last night, that was my point. the pots are 20cm pots not sure what they contain. thinks its 5ltr. im limited space so couldnt really use 25ltr buckets. wouldnt have any space. i was planning on downsizing amount next round so might get 25ltr buckets as im doing photoperiod plants only want 1 or 2. found some nicer soil for next time round. comes with vermiculte in it. its only a generic one. im finding the john innes a bit much to work with. its goes muddy very quickly and very dense.

Click to expand...

Doh. I misread your original post. Thought you said you were up all night smoking.

5 ltrs eh. That's about 6 quarts smaller than what I plan on using (I plan on 2 gallon containers).
They look fine in those containers @ 6 weeks. I think you just helped me decide my next grow!