Outdoor Afghan Express Auto

[MasonJarOG]

Well this isn't my first grow but my first journal... With that said I picked up some seed from seedsupreme and ran my first grow on this seed two months ago with standard fox farms nuits and kellog patio plus and the plant ran well but just encountered some catapillar issues in my outdoor area so I decided the plant was far enough along and harvested and washed the bud. I figured this time around I have the catapillar issue resolved and would document this one since I had not seen this seed lot documented here.

I have two plants growing and its week one on the sprouts and did the normal water dish sprouting little over a week ago. I went straight the the final resting place because of all the things I've read here. I personally didn't buy-in the whole transplant/shock issue until recently when I planted some 15gal Japanese Maples in my yard and low and behold my first experience in 40yrs with a plant being shocked. SuperThrive to the rescue!

Okay so on the these little girls and I have them in two different size containers to see if it peronally matters for my outdoor situation. [HASHTAG]#A[/HASHTAG] 2 gal and [HASHTAG]#B[/HASHTAG] 5 gal since my 1st trail run on this seed was a solid 60 days from start to finish, no trimming or training. I plan to top and trim and train [HASHTAG]#B[/HASHTAG] and [HASHTAG]#A[/HASHTAG] will just just get some minor trimming on the lower portion to try and force all the energy up the center since the first run looked like it would be receptive to that.

I'm using Kellogs Patio Plus Organic and Plan a Weekly Feeding of Fox Farms Nuits (haven't started feeding yet), Sensi Cal/Mag (2nd watering of the week) and Sledgehammer (last watering of the week).

I already noticed [HASHTAG]#B[/HASHTAG] was stretching out like crazy so that is why i selected it to top and train. I added a little support until the steam strengthens up more . [HASHTAG]#A[/HASHTAG] looks great.
[HASHTAG]#A[/HASHTAG]
[HASHTAG]#B[/HASHTAG]

Original Test Run at time of Harvest 3ft tall.

 

[MasonJarOG]

Okay here is A & B now at week 3

I checked the Soil PH with a new tester and it as at 6.6 and started weekly feedings last week with GB/BB

 

[MasonJarOG]

Okay here are the updates for Week [HASHTAG]#3[/HASHTAG]
I checked the Ph on the soil with the new tester Thanks @TheMongol and its running right at 6.4 for both plants. They got their first feeding of Cal/Mag and 2nd feeding of GB/BB at 1/2 Strength. I also ph down my water from 8.2 to 6.5 before mixing nuits
A - is going like a gangbuster in the 3gal pot and I think I need to transplant this baby into something bigger because when I moved it.. it had a big tap root going right out of the bottom. Looking more on the indica side than sativa. I think this one may get monster for a auto.


B- is looking like the runt of the litter. I don't have high hopes for this one but its too late to sprout another to take its place outdoors. It's growing much like the last harvest so I will probably get about and ounce of dry cured from it.

A & B side by side to see my point.

Any suggestions on this are appreciated.

 

[TheMongol]

Looking awsome...why i got into ph?

 

[MasonJarOG]

I decided after seeing the tap root coming out the bottom to transplant [HASHTAG]#A[/HASHTAG] to a 25gal and see what happens. Might even top it and train it. I did water with Superthrive today after the transplant.

 

[TheMongol]

Ey 711,

why calmag outdoors? I don't know how it works on foxfarm but normally i mix nutes first and fix then ph, because nutes also change ph and if main root normally hits the bottom autos stop growing but idk how it's on your strain...

 

[MasonJarOG]

@TheMongol - I read in someone else's grow journal that they give their plants a small dose of cal/mag 5ml each week in between the . I'm just trying it out and see if it makes a difference from the first grow of this strain I'm also using sledgehammer (another grow journal tip I read) each week on other plants but haven't started it on these two since the feedings haven't gone on for very long and don't see any signs of nuit lockout. I have never adjusted the water after and have always done it before because i know it does raise the ph but just haven't bothered to worry about how much since I bring the water ph down to 6 first. I will check it next time to verify exactly how much to be more scientific. I try to really go by my gut feeling and what the plants are telling me. I can see when I feed them (other plants) hard sometimes when I think they want more I might get a few fan leaves with a slight tip burn.

My Planned Weekly Schedule right now for all my plants when they need watering: Water w/ Nuits - Water w/sensical - Water - Water w/Sledgehammer and repeat. Right now its pretty hot here so my more mature plants are sucking up a full watering every day but the little girls are every 2nd or 3rd day. From what I saw of the root development on the transplants Id say every 3rd day would probably be okay right now.

I will say the Afghan Express is very pungent and strong according to my taste testers on the first run of cured bud from 8/1/17. The first run only yielded 34gm on a small plant that didn't get very big outdoors. I'm still trying to find the right size containers for my situation since I don't want a 4-6m tall tree and can only legally grow 6 here. Just need to grow enough for family and friends to get by till next season. I think in my south facing climate you could actually grow from March-November outdoors with these auto's. The yields might vary a little later in the yr. I'm expecting this yr to be completed by Halloween and prepare for holiday entertaining.

 

[MasonJarOG]

A and B
I topped A 5 days ago and it has responded well and has also started to flower @ 30 days as well as B. As you can see B is still the runt but flowering all the same. Kind of similar to the first grow in size and flowering time. I almost considered pulling it and not wasting much time with it but WTH it has about a 60-75 days cycle and the last grow took off about this time. I was gone and we also had a nice rain storm last night so the plants got a nice natural rain boost.

I'm going to start add TB/OS this week to the schedule along with the normal BB/GB. All at 1/2 the recommended feeding.

 

[MasonJarOG]

A and B
A - I trimmed off the bottom two branches and gave it back to back feedings with GB/BB/TB/OS 1/2 reccomended and it seemed to like it very much. The nodes after the topping have taken off as I had hoped.
B - Still scrawny when compared to A. I will probably trim off the two lowest branches when it looks a little stronger. It got the same feeding as A and liked it too.

Fun Times!

 

[MasonJarOG]

Week [HASHTAG]#6[/HASHTAG] Update - 2 1/2 weeks of flowering
A is taking off like a champ after the topping and did some lst of the tops via a spreader bar I made with gardening wire.
B is hunkering down and just looks small and growing like the 1st grow i did with this seed and forming just one main that will probably produce only about an once total.
Still feeding GB/BB/TB/BB which they seems to uptake nicely.
I know it doesn't see like a fair comparison since the containers are not equal but B is just the runt and didn't want to expend the energy or supplies.
12" Chewbacca added to photos for scale.