Everything about growing AK-47

By: Simon

The AK47 is a mostly sativa plant which will stretch quite a bit. That means: do not wait too long with keeping them in veg because they will grow taller than you might expect.

The height in your grow room is of importance here but even if you have a height of 5 metres there is no point to let the plants be taller than 1.25 metres Why?

This is because grow lights are never as strong as the sun. Outside every part of the plant gets enough light to grow well. This is the main difference with indoors where the lowest branches won't get enough light at all.

The efficient distance from the grow lights may stretch roughly to 1.50-1.75 metre. 
The first +- 40,50 cm right under the light is too close so the distance where the plants grow well is from roughly 50 cm from the light to about 1.75 from the lights. There is little point in letting the plants grow taller than that. 

Of course not all the lights are the same in this respect, and adding more lights gives a much better and stronger flow of fotons (light particles) meaning buds further from the lights get more light and will be heavier. The light from more lights combined will also penetrate deeper into the canopy, between the leaves.

The above was just to explain why to not veg them for too long. Normally 3,5 weeks maximum. If you see at three weeks that they are already doing really well, around 20 cm tall, then do not wait longer to set the clock to 12/12. 

This info to change the clock when they are 20 cm tall is specifically for AK47 or other plants with a lot of sativa in them. Indica type plants need more veg time of they can stay too small. It depends.

The thing is that it is hard to give hard rules, like ''set the clock at 12/12 when the plants are 3 weeks and 3 days after germination". There are so many factors at play that I can only give rough rules. You need to look at your plants and decide for yourself if now is the right time to start flowering or not. You will learn from doing.

Seedlings will grow taller than clones of the same plant. They have a vigor which clones do not have. So I'm not talking about clones/cuttings here, but about seedlings. The plants grown from the AK47 seeds you bought.

For AK47 use a formula of "the size they have when flowering starts will be around 6x that at harvest time". 

How many plants per square metre is also different for a seedling or a clone from that same seedling. The seedling will grow bigger and wider than cuttings of that plant. There is also differences between different strains/cultivars.

Pot size depends on several things. For example: with clones you need more plants per square metre. More smaller pots per square metre than with seedlings. Plants from seeds need bigger pots and less of them per square metre.

Next thing is: soil or substrate. This is the stuff you grow your plants in: soil or soilless substrate? 

If an artificial substrate (or a natural one like coco) the pot size may be smaller. In soil the minimum pot size is 8 litres when you have several plants per square metre (like 6 for example). A pot size of 11 litres is better if you have 4 or less plants per square metre. 

The given pot sizes (8 or 11 litres) are when you give liquid fertilizer added to the water. If you use living soil than the pot sizes should preferably be a bit bigger. So the plants have enough to feed them for the whole cycle. We use Aptus nutrients at the moment and the plants like it!

And finally, if you top/clip a seedling then the side buds (4 or 6 of them) will all be of the same height. Then you have 4 to 6 buds in stead of 1 big top bud being the highest of the whole plant. 

Clipping the very tip at the start of the flowering time (till 2 weeks after, not longer) will give you multiple buds of the same height which will be lower than the main big bud would be. This could be an advantage if you think the plants will be too big.

This could happen with AK47 growing next to other strains in the same grow room. If you clip the AK's then they will stay shorter and will be more in line with the height of the unclipped other plants. 

Also indoor it is an advantage to clip the main tip as the result is 4 to 6 buds having the same distance to the lights. With 3 clipped AK47 plants you will have a full square metre with multiple buds. (normally, after clipping add like 5 days extra veg.time to recover unless it is to keep them shorter)

How many plants per square metre depends on the size of the plants. You can have 1 to may be 3 per square metre I think 4 is already too much unless the plants stay quite small. With clipping you can keep the plants smaller. So you could clip when the AK47's seem to be getting too big.

Usually you will start to realize "they are becoming too big" when the plants are already in flower for some time. Maybe when they are flowering for 3 or 4 weeks. Clipping is advised till 2 weeks after start of flowering, but if needed to keep the plants smaller, you could also do it at 3 or even 4 weeks after the start. Only it will effect the size of the yield because you clip away the main bud which was on its way to become the biggest bud.