In the beginning (First Grow)

Grow box size is 30" x 24" x 60". Diamond foil on interior. White floor and ceiling. Currently using G8 LED veg/grow 140 actual watts. G8 LED Bloom booster 75 Actual watts. (It's not being used in veg). Started off at 36" high. Dropped to 30" on day 7. Additional Co2 supplied with Exhale bag. 2 muffin fans provide intake air and 2 more for air movement. 4" carbon filter with 150 cfm variable speed extraction fan. Using 2.2 actual gallon air pots filled with 75% FFHF, 12.5 % perlite, 12.5% coco coir which was properly cleaned and buffered with cal-mag. Also mixed into the top 2" of soil 1 TBSP pelletized lime. I made a shallow 1/2 cup depression in the soil surface and filled with Epsoma seed starting mix. Using ph corrected distilled water with KLN added I wet about the top 5" of the soil. I Dropped 4 AKR seeds in a shot glass of water had nice tails after 48 hrs on 3 of them and planted them. One just barely cracked open I transferred this to a moist paper towel it produced a small tail after another 3 days then it was planted. Using clear solo cups with hole in top to increase humidity.

Apologize for not taking photos in normal lighting. I do not want to interrupt their lighting cycle until I need to do any major LST work on them at which point I will shoot some natural photos. Lowered the lighting to 20" PAR meter reading of about 250-300 umoles directly over each seedling. I'm removing the solo cups twice a day for an hour or so. Minimal as needed watering in a 6" circle around each seedling using a turkey baster being careful not to over saturate the soil. My heat is on in the house so keeping the humidity up above 40% is the reason for the solo cups until root mass and watering needs increase. Temps with the door closed are up around 84F to 85F. The timer is set up so lights go off during the warmest time of day 11:00 am till 3:00 pm. Co2 with the lights on ranges between 800- 900+ ppm. Lights off it will drop to about 500+ppm range.

Started using a electronic moisture meter to help me gauge moisture levels at different depths of the pot. Humidity is low because I need to water. Still watering only as needed but watering to the point of minimal runoff if any. Basically what ever it takes. Seeing fine feeder roots coming out of the bottom of the pots. Lights are about 18" to 20" above the plants. Par meter measurements are 300-400 umoles. Using anodized aluminum bonsai wire bent with a hook to begin laying them down for the LST. Typically growth tips turn back up towards the light in a few hours. I will begin 1/4 strength nutes at the start of week 4.

Training the new growth toward the pot edges. Leaf color is dark green in typical Indica fashion First time getting nutrients. using Dyna-grow Protekt added first primarily to adjust my ph up.( It will send 5.8 distilled water up to about 8.5) Then adding the rest of the nutes/enzyme it's comes out in the 6.3 range. Dyna-grow recommends using this product as a stand alone silica additive it supposedly needs a high ph to keep it in solution. It has a higher silica % than most of the products out there so I figure I'm still getting some of the benefits of the product regardless. Take notice I'm now mixing up in gallon jugs. Used about 1/2 gallon per pot or until I get 10% runoff 1st watering of the week only. Runoff ph seemed low at 5.7 so I added 1 Tbsp. Epsoma pelletized lime lightly stirred into the top inch of soil and added a little extra feed water. Letting top inch of soil dry a bit between watering days. Only watering 1/4 gallon every other day or as needed using nutrients with every watering. I am not watering to the point of creating any runoff. Lowered led lights to 16". Using a par meter measuring a range of 400-550 umoles. With the exception of slow poke, all started showing pistils by the end of the week.

Since I haven't been watering to runoff on day 29 did a medium flush of about 2+ gallons of distilled water ph 6.3 until runoff was around 800-950 ppm. Runoff ph was still a bit low at 5.8 added 1 Tbsp pelletized lime to the soil. I'm guessing some of TDS left in the soil will be used up by the microbes and plant this week. Lastly added one quart of nute mix per plant. Using electronic moisture meter/pot weight technique. It took about 2 days until they needed more nute mix. Once again feeding nute mix every time but not to the point of runoff. Some more LST work trying to space out each branch to create a enough room/light for each bud to grow. A few of the leaves are touching the soil but they will be removed if they don't reach for the lights in a few days. Co2 levels are ranging 900-1200 ppm lights on,550-650 ppm lights off. Fired up the red Bloom booster and raised the veg bloom light up to about 20". Par meter reading 425-575 umoles

Started week watering until runoff with a 1/2 gallon of ph correct water followed up with 1 quart of feeding solution. Runoff ppm's seemed within range. Feeding with each watering about every 1.5 days as needed. Not watering until runoff. Stretching putting the heights at 10-14 inches between the 4 plants. Added 1/8 tsp Epsom salt per gallon to my feeding solution. Trimmed any leaves that were touching the soil because of the LST work. Tucked a bunch of leaves and pulled some of the larger fan leaves to the sides and rear of the main cola. Dropped my temperature to around 79 at the end of the week. Par readings 450 - 600 umoles.

Started week out with a 1 gallon flush of ph correct water. I added about half and let it sit for about 30 min. then put the rest through. Waited until runoff stopped. Followed up with about 1/2 gallon of feeding solution with 1/8 tsp epsom salt. Purposely let pots dry out a bit more than usual before next feeding to stress them a bit. Still feeding every 1- 1.5 days they are starting to really suck the moisture from the pots. Removed any tiny bud sites and leaves from the lower branches. Tucked and tied back any leaves blocking light to the buds. Cooler seasonal temps allowed me to get some cooler air in there during the late morning and lights off. Still using 2 pm - 10 am light schedule. End of the week Par meter reading 500-650 umoles. Leaves seem to be holding up well.

Plant heights range from 12 to 21 inches. Buds are getting fat and frosted. Thinned some leaves out to get more light to the lower parts of the buds. Smell is average with a slightly sweet floral/ripe fruit/spice scent which draws you in for more. Started week with a light 1/2 gallon flush ph correct water followed by nutrient feeding to the point of runoff. Runoff ph is ranging from 5.9 to 6.1. I'm not going to obsess with the ph any more. 795 ppm nutrient feeding every other day. Using ph correct water with 1/4 tsp Epsom salt per gallon between each feeding only enough to maintain even moisture through out pot. Upper leaves showing some nutrient deficiency (I believe this is normal at this point) and possibly a bit of light burn so I backed off on the lights on day 56 keeping them between 18 to 20 inches above the plants. I have been keeping the main colas off to the sides to try to keep them from getting to much light. Pistils are starting to brown at the tips. Trichromes are starting to get cloudy but still many are clear with well defined heads. I'm estimating a harvest around day 70-75 . This is the last week I will feed before flush.

Early morning day 60 watered with 1/2 gallon of Flawless Finish/ Dyna-Zyme let it sit until evening.Then flushed with ph correct water until runoff was under 90 ppm. Used flawless finish in the last 1/2 gallon. Rest of the week plain ph correct water from here on out to the end.

Getting very close to chop. I could probably chop now but I will give them a few more days hoping to see a bit more amber trichomes. 2 front plants the trichomes are mostly milky/cloudy with some 1/2 cloudy. About 5%+ amber. 2 rear plants Trichomes are mostly milky/ cloudy with some 1/2 cloudy. A few stray amber here and there but nothing significant. Looking to chop on day 75. Backed off on the light a bit more. Going to stop watering a couple of days before chop. The smell is phenomenal spicy sweet with a touch of ripe citrus through out the house yet not too over powering.

World of Seeds Afghan Kush Ryder, first thing I noticed is there aren't nearly enough grow diaries on this strain which in my opinion is a shame. "In the beginning" was a reference to Afghan Kush being one of the original land race strains which has led to many phenomenal strains which we know and love today. It seemed like a great strain for a first time grower like myself due to it's smaller easier to manage size and branch structure. It also seemed to be a very forgiving strain easily handling my occasional over watering/under watering and very tolerant of my inexperience using LEDS regarding light intensity. I believe too high of a light intensity too early prevented the two front plants from stretching properly. Also due to the main light being a veg/bloom light the spectrum contributed to the buds being leafier. (Note to self, buy an led bloom light next grow) Oddly the slow poke seed LR/left rear that I was going to toss produced top shelf buds with excellent weight, density, smell and stickyist of the sticky icky. This plant was directly under the red bloom booster light. I was also dealing with a low runoff ph which may have affected the roots ability to use the nutes in the soil, but they pulled through this issue very well once corrected.I was a bit hesitant to start fertilizing too early (Worried about nute burn) and actually think a slightly earlier and higher ppm feeding schedule could actually tweak more weight out of each plant. The smallest plant was a mere 12" tall and about 12" around which put out 49 grams of frosty bud.The tallest topped out at 21" and 14" around. At some point I will definitely grow this strain again. Since I'm a bit old school growing up in the late 70's and early 80's the smell and taste brought back some great memories of burning similar bud which some old/current friends truly appreciated me growing and smoking this strain with them. I received a lot of compliments about my smoke even with very little cure time and a great trim job topped it off nicely. Think I nailed it for harvest timing. The less amber bud had a nice even high not racy,not sleepy but relaxing yet functional started by slowly creeping through the top/back of your head then spilling over to your upper body ending up with a nice slow flow through the extremities. Lasted full blast 2 hours tapering down over another 1-2 hours off three deep hits held in properly. Using the more amber bud with a nice AKR hash oil smear on 1/2 my rolling paper for the second test joint definitely put it over the top a high you can't describe in words but with laughter and smiles. Good times. Happy growing😊0