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Hi all I am Norseman, a hobby grower you might call it and a reviewer of gear for Vaping and now also for gear connected to dry herb. The reason for doing reviews on gear directed towards cannabis is because of chronic back pain and the only thing giving me some relief is cannabis. Nice to be here.

Sales hype, you need these to see the plants glasses and save your eyes, normal sunglasses wont work, you need these...lol. Since when is a spectrum of the sun made by the sun, or by a light source, be it whatever it is, not be the same? Like saying the UVC the sun makes is different to the UVC a bulb makes You not going to wear those yellow tinted glasses, it wouldn't be worth it, but if your plants are green and correct, you can use a sunglass.

Just make sure the colour of the sunglasses, doesn't mess with the colour of the plants when looking through them, it makes it hard to diagnose them and you might miss something. That's the only reason they sell certain HPS OR LED glasses, cause they make you see the plant in colour a human can see best in. Plants aren't green, they just reflect green

Oh yeah, the sunglasses I use are both also polarised... If it makes a difference, lol. Sent from my POCOPHONE F1 using Tapatalk

Lol, yeah man these grow lights are bright AF... I use regular sunglasses (black tint) but I also have these glasses that have this greenish-blue tint on them (they do a better job). Those are just what I use. There are glasses with lenses made specifically to basically even out the spectrum and light intensity on your eyes which cost a bit and are available from grow shops. These are more effective and are made so that you can see the actual colours of the tree and such no matter the colour of the grow light it's viewed under (provided you buy the right one).

HPS is still the thing to beat.. they are just very very hungry. g/watt they lose against LED.. if I wouldn't have to worry about electricity cost at all.. I am rather sure, I still would use HPS lamps. They are great but very expensive to run.

digikey had free express shipping at the time. Aliexpress goes per weight.. so was cheaper for me to order from 2 different suppliers. If you buy just one QB 288, do NOT take the 240 driver, take a 120.. other way you waste way to much energy or need a dimmer. The 120 works perfect and the draw is correct. The 240 draws way more as it just tries to squeeze everything inside the board.. one reason my boards were way to hot. Now.. not even sure I need a heat sink, hand warm. So select the driver matching your boards wattage. 1 QB288 IM301B/H - HLG 120H-48(A, B or AB) 2 QB288s - HLG 240H-48(A,B or AB) If you do not want to use a dimmer, just don't connect one and it will run 100%, works on all three driver versions A, B and AB. But you still have the option.. I go with B usually as I like to connect them to a Arduino system and dim from that source.

i was having a look at this thread from the starting your own grow section - lol - this thread has properly blown up and become one of the most popular and most frequented topics on the whole forum!!! well done mate, you are well on your way to becoming green fingered hooligan like the rest of us!

OK cool. The light from master g can be dimmed as well, so I guess I'll just use that as it's already installed in the cabinet.. And then maybe add the supplemental light afterwards. I can still use it to grow macro algae for now in my fish tank refugium lol. Thanks again for all your help and time brother. I really appreciate it. And that goes to everyone who has assisted /n given advice.

The author is not taking into account specially formulated soils, which generally has zero michorizzal input from the 'earth'.

i found the comments quite informative, not so much the article unfortunately his approach to myco's is not as simple as "you should already have so adding more is futile" i would consider this guys opinion if i was a much more experienced grower and i knew for a fact that my myco system is on point if you are in doubt - it seriously is one of the cheaper additives - just add some in - it will not hurt i know this is in the soil section. but mycos in coco and hydro is very important in my opinion and everyone should have a tub of the stuff laying around

Week 9 Started... and they also start to put on some smell now ^^ Day 1 Week 9 And week 8 in motion. The cam and the fan started to collide. And then the less important had to go ^^ .. the Fan hehehe So sorry for the cam moving but the fan did that. Also nice to watch the plant relax after the wind disturbance is gone.

They are below my eye level, thankfully Cause, yes...even the reflection is enough to leave me with a headache some times, and put on my sunglasses, they aren't meant for LEDs but gather if the lights are a specific spectrum of the sun, and I'm wearing quality Polarized sunglasses, I should be 100% Dont kill me if it's not

Must say , I think im starting to read the girl a bit better and if not sure normally wait a day longer before i feed and seems like i found a good rhythm.

I was going to say, so much Info in this thread, it should become a sticky or go to for new growers haha But @zolrooker knows everything he needs to grow and impress even us here

Lol, any way to make the whole thread into pdf and post a link? Sent from my POCOPHONE F1 using Tapatalk

My pleasure, also wanted to say, and I'm sure you have already, sealed all light leaks, as you going to go reverse day / night, you'll have the day time light to deal with that night time wouldn't be an issue ( more critical in flower, but I like to keep the habit). That's the last thing I wanted to say. Good luck brother

Thanks for all the help guys. Much appreciated.

Hey bro. After reading your dairy on the flux mainline method I decided to go with that flow. The decreased veg time when compared to the Nugbuckets method is a definite benefit. 2 specific strains I am running are loving the topping and tie down high stress training. Peyote WiFi by Seedsman and Washing Machine by Ripper seeds. I did the second and final topping today but the two 2 new grow tips on either side still need some growth.... With your experience, how far do I still have to go in veg before flipping? Washing Machine Peyote WiFi As you can see I also went with the Perlite top layer for the soil run off and it works real well, thanx for the tip The clean up for the flux mainline also results in some real nice clone cuttings which turns out to be real benefit when you consider the price of decent genetics. Happy growing

CMH with LEP is one day lights for me. Till then I'm on the cheap cheap running costs

I agree I've also noticed that afternoon temps are higher than midday honestly, so I've decided to go lights on at 6pm. Sent from my POCOPHONE F1 using Tapatalk

I agree, Try to have your light switch on at 5 or 6pm, as it starts to get cooler, your room or area will be okay till that time of day to switch off, just before the external temps effect that space. My 2c Currently I hit maximum temp at between 3.30pm and 5pm. Then gets cooler fast.

I do this. Helps keeps temps stable and within a nice range. It works well in my setup. Sent from my POCOPHONE F1 using Tapatalk

Correct, good stuff the Mycorrhizae Plus it has insect frass in it

Na.. don't worry.. is not really a hot mix. But a great buffer for all. Main nutes still come from BioBizz, but is a very fluffy mix. With Root Juice, they grow very fast in the first 2 weeks. I always reach 5 finger leaves end week 2.

Perfect

Hello everybody, I start my seeds directly in the jiffies. Also did the papertowel method in the past. My reason for starting the seed directly in the jiffie without a soak is that I want to protect the fragile taproot. Once the seed is in the jiffie I put it in a warm place and wait till the seedling breaks through the surface. Thats when I carefully place the jiffie into the final pot. That's just how it always worked for me, but there are so many different ways to start the seeds. Sorry my English isn't 100%. I am from Germany originally (hi @Prom )

You are over thinking it now, you got this brother. Have faith, and we are here if you come across any issues, with what you have and our already guiding you, you are going to be just fine.

I use Freedom Farm Premium.. drop the seed directly in it.. they love the shit

do it!!! just a few mm deep, nothing crazy i was topping up the saucer every morning because the it was dry - but never from the top of the jiffy unless the jiffy is obviously dry

There are many way better growers then me on this site. I ignored Autos for 3 years.. autoflower.. what shit is that!? hehehe But when a professional grower tells you.. "mhhh Cape Town, you should put some Autos outdoor, that should end great with the amount of sun you guys have. First batch has also no seeds." The second part made me listen.. i tried them and cursed myself not to have given those babies a earlier chance to prove them self. I had one more grow of Fems beside the Autos.. then decided that I actually enjoy Autos a lot more.. and we talk miles I am over snipping and binding. I want to grow as relaxed as possible and get some results. The Gelato.. that weed changed all my books. And my tracker moved, post office is catching up.. 100 42FastBuds Gelato Seeds inbound, passed customs already that should keep me happy for a year might sell some of the beans I don't need. No need to let em get old.

or if you can, leave your tent open when lights are on?

@Prom Im amped bro. Got my autos. Gona maybe germ the banana monkey 2nyt. Making a stop at GTH for the jiffyz quick.

As a side note, if you have issues with heat... One thing you can do, and it stabilizes the temps more which is what you want ideally, a stable and less changing temps. Change your grow around, if your lights come on at 6am and off at 6pm, for example, then you rather run the lights at night when its cooler, and off in the day when its hottest, so on at 6pm and off at 6am, flowering example.

You slowly convincing me to try auto flowering, as what I've seen has been ridiculously good, and as you say, they just have a certain vigor about them and style and growth. Again, big ups to you on the grow brother Prom.

I've completed a grow with a similar light, it flowered really well. Got around 0.83g/w. I think it would make a good supplemental in flower[emoji1362] Sent from my POCOPHONE F1 using Tapatalk

two are not drinking as they should. Noticed on one plant very fine yellowing on the tips.. my inner feeling told me to give them a pure water feed today. Royal Queen seeds say is a 8-10 week plant. Also shows you, that you can't trust those numbers, very sure the plants will need 11 weeks. But 8-10.. I select my 8 week feeding sheet that one takes no prisoners. I should be scratching the limits here @afternoon blazer I don't do this to show how great I am as a grower.. I actually am not I have more respect for the guys getting a 600g harvest out of a single fem. I grow for over 30 years.. and all I want to show is that Autos are a new breed to deal with. Those hardened Nordic suckers have a unbelievable nute distribution. They go way more berserk with flowering, as they usually have way less time to do their job in nature. Due to ignoring the Photo sensitivity you get a lot of energy into the plant in a very short time.. and best is just the fact: don't disturb Autos! We did 2 individual tests for defoiling. In both tests we selected the fastest growing and strongest plant and made a clever defoil.. open the light to the buds, not touching the other fan leaves. Both tests had exactly the same outcome.. the once strongest and biggest plant had in both batches at the end the lowest yield. And was never second last or middle.. dead last. Undisturbed, they seem to perform best.. so if you like to grow but don't want all the training snipping, binding, folding or what do I know.. go Autos they yield unbelievable well for the size they form.. just keep them happy feed and have the right climate. Mine is never dropping below 19 and not over 22.. love winter indoor growing

Cool, thank you. With regards to the extra supplemental light, it's not really necessary to have it now, or probably even the light of Master G right now at full power. Like Evan said the other day and you can find online, your seedlings really only need a little bit of light 200 to 400 PAR and anything more would be a waste of electricity and potentially burn the seedlings. I'd say use the UFO style light with more red now till they need more light, and then run the new light, probably on a dimmer and working up to full blast in flower and then adding the UFO for supplemental lighting. I bring my lights on in stages in the morning and off in the evening to replicate the sun rise and set, the UFO is perfect for that spectrum too. But this is stuff you play around with after you can grow start to finish a decent plant. Seen as the sun is probably one of the best light sources you get, and still seen people grow air rated weed in the full sun, and therefore those people buying the best light for indoor, but they have a few basic elements missing so it isn't worth the investment yet. In other words, before playing or investing too much, get a few runs under your belt and go from there.

What up 420SA Sorry. But this is going to be abit of a long 1. Just out here tryna start a basic, budget, Covid-19, winter grow while confined to the spaces of my home. So i tried growing once before. Failed. Had alot going on. Didnt try again until now. When we are on lock. Anyway. Since i have not figured this shit out yet. I am going to be messing around with bag seeds until i get somewhat of a useable plant. I am basically just trying to grow as a hobby. As something exciting to do while chilling at home. Not expecting amazing yields. Or the best looking plant or anything like that. I just want that rewarding feeling of growing my own plant from start to finish. So anyway. It is winter. So abit of a challenge. I did manage to germinate in a shot glass and then paper towel. Roughly 36-40 hours. Tap roots were about 12mm long. Got my hands on some coco(R40)(cheap stuff-brick form). Rinsed it out. Got me a small bag of perlite(R20).(tons of videos and mixes i have seen have perlite. Never used it before.) Added abit of bone meal(about R40)and root starter pebbles(lying around) to the coco and perlite. Just for a sprinkle of nutrients. Until i manage to get my hands on some easily accessible (walk-in-store) "cal-mag" / "cannabis growing soil" So after mixing them all together. I potted in some 1 liter lunch tins that looked cool and were R10 at a discount store close to home.(i did drill a bunch of holes for drainage.) So i wanted to start with this coco mix( as alot of people say coco is the easiest for new growers to get started). And either transplant and keep the same mix. And add the cal-mag supplement needed for coco. Or Get a right kinda soil. And when ready to transplant. Use the soil. You guys can advise. So now since its cold as B#$%S these days. I decided to get some cheap LEDs 20w each. 1670 lumens each. 6000k each. (from the same discount store - R100 for 3 lights. With fittings) Lux meter reading below with the plants about 50mm away from soil For the seedling stage and to just extend the daylight hours at the moment. I thought it would be a good idea to have those. So the plan is . Keep the plants in the sun between 9am, bright and warm until 5pm, still considerably bright and warm. And the rest of the time it could be under the 3 lights. I am still gona figure out how much of darkness to give them. You guys could advise on that aswell please. I am starting with 5 bag seeds. I am expecting to end with atleast 1 plant or 2 at most. So potted the germinated seeds on Tuesday evening. Really impatient. Hope i get something to grow. Bored as hell in these troubling times of ours. Sorry about the long message. Lockdown is getting to me. Please give me as much direction and opinion as you like. I am open to suggestions. Ask questions and for pics if needed.

I love a side by side, All your brothers and sisters here do We can even advise you best on how and it would start with 2 clones from the same plant. Let us know when you are ready

Sounds interesting bro. R u in the gas industry?

I am actually growing in organic matters at the moment, gave it a try as it came with some Mycorrhizal fungi.

I thought you preferred the Organic Matters soil, more or less the same thing, bar a few ingredients. They have both given good results though.

I put the paper towel in a ziplock bag and place that under my modem.

Is a bit the question what you want to do.. my Arduino not just handles the dimming of the lamps. I use it for climate control and is connected to a few 240 relays handling 1 8 inch intake and 2 6 inch out takes (one in room circulation, other vent under the roof with a carbon filter connected). The system just reads the sensors (humidity, temp and light) and activates the relays depending on the settings (light would send me a alarm message). If you just want to dim, you need a simple regulator https://www.takealot.com/dc-dc-step-down-power-module-using-lm2596-1-25v-35v/PLID60539879?gclid=Cj0KCQjwgJv4BRCrARIsAB17JI6r7I8Z7x3U3HDNgpHkTGkQjEVXl3JQoeDDiMeCBggo01lnrDTZSMQaAu12EALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds And connect it. The rest i can write you the script or you will find out, is rather simple. The module also comes with a script.. if you want a keyboard or a knob to change the settings, that is your choice. Is a very simple language and you find for any issue help online. (I have a little advantage here, I worked as a professional programmer, when I was way younger)

I dont know @Pat999 But by the way you all been talking about him, I'm starting to miss him too Sounds like he is an awesome cannabro.

There is just something about organics that make buds so tasty. There is no better organic growing than in a "Living Soil" teaming with beneficial Bacteria, Mycorrhizal Fungi, and everything else your Cannabis needs to grow the dankest of bud. And best of all, you don't need any other nutrients at all for the entire life cycle of the plant. When I decided to go a full on organic route, I spent hours and hours searching the net for formulations, that are firstly effective, and secondly, has ingredients that are easily obtainable in South Africa from a sustainable source, and affordable. I have had to make many substitutions, since guano’s are not so readily available, and they are super expensive when you do manage to get hold of it. So I thought I would share my soil mix that I grow all my babies in. Super Soil Ingredients 60l Potting Soil (I use DoubleGrow) 40l Mushroom Compost ( Also DoubleGrow) 25l Worm Castings (Hortishop) 500g Bone Meal 500g Talborne (I do not use the Fruit and flower, but the VitaVeg 6-3-4) 1kg SeaMunGus (Chicken Manure and Kelp pellets and plants love it!) 1kg Lucerne Pellets (Rabbit food) 500g Agricultural Lime 500g Volcanic Rock Dust (Turbogrow) 1 sachet of rock phosphate 500g Mycoroot 1 Compost activator sachet (Effecto Brand) 500g Brown Sugar (You can add Molasses, but I find that it takes the micro-organisms longer to eat up the sugar) Once all these are thoroughly mixed, this soil needs to mature and stabilize over a period of 2-3 months minimum; however the soil becomes sweeter the longer you leave it. I store my soil in large black bins, and chuck the whole lot out and mix through once a month for the first 2 months. This soil needs to be kept only just moist, but not wet. Pro Mix Ingredients 60l Coco Peat 30l Worm castings 30l Mushroom compost 20l Perlite 40L Super Soil (This first needs to stabilize before using) 500g Bone Meal 500g Talborne VitaVeg 6-3-4 500g volcanic Rock Dust 500g Mycoroot 500g Agricultural Lime Regardless of the size of the container I grow in, I fill the bottom half with Super Soil, and the remainder with Pro Mix. From seed to harvest I have never had deficient plants, and I only use de-chlorinated tap water (Just let it stand for 24 hours or more to let all the Chlorine evaporate. Unless your tap water pH is really off, you don’t even need to pH correct your water. The lime in the mix is a brilliant buffer to acidity. It does cost a bit to mix this soil up, but the results speak for themselves!

And this is where I will pick up where I left off! Since the last update, my flower area is harvested and restacked, my veg area is barren and I have a few small ladies in the cloning station getting ready for transplant. I managed to find some homes for some of the plants, and one of the 4 Aurora Kush babies has found a home in @PsyCLown tent. The remaining 3 are in the flowering tent now and have been pulling out some magic. I have gone with large 160l totes for buckets and one has soil and the other has coco. So far, they are about the same... Coco dries out faster. Here's a few pics of everything in the tent now. The Aurora Kush ladies are in the front, and I'll introduce the others gradually. I put them into the flower tent and let them settle nicely into their new homes by keeping them in veg for some time... I think 4 weeks more, or 3....cant remember... But the growth was much. Iv upped the wattage on the lights to about 75% which puts me around 370w. Id like to add an extra light panel or 2 for better coverage. But it's okay for now So here are pics from the transplant... The scrog... The trellis, and the start of flowering.

Doors are on, still need to do some light proofing