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And here we are finally... It's been an agonizing wait for many of you, for some of you the wait will have been worth it. This growoff has produced many quality grows, many more than our previous growoff and big up to all of you who made it till the end. I would gladly smoke bud from any of your trees! Without any further blabbering let's get straight to the point and announce our winners Please note that winners of overall prizes are ineligible for the category prizes Category Prizes The Fattest Cola @CreX Best Grow Diary @McMan DIARY LINK Best Trained Plant @Prom Overall Prizes 3rd Place @iGrowDagga 2nd Place @SkunkPharm Our Champion @mantis 1st place was a VERY tough decision to make for us. Mantis and Skunkpharm both produced superb grows. Both with differing appealing qualities. What it ultimately came down to was which grow had the least flaws and @SkunkPharm I'm afraid your small thrips infestation is what counted against you and tipped the scale in favour of @mantis. It was a margin as fine as that. As I say though, you guys both produced two very solid grows. The simple way to put how we judge this competition is we are looking for the grow that is the most "Pro". Would the grow be accepted according to an indoor commercial grow operation standard. Those are harsh but necessary standards, and the same applies here in this comp. Meeting the criteria is key. Thank you to all of you who came along for this ride. Congratulations to all our winners Thank you to our genetics sponsor Thank you to @Totemic for sponsoring the genetics that I feel did really well overall this comp. Very promising for the future indeed! And of course our generous prize sponsors @Light It Up @Aeradix Green Smoke Room @Cannabist Green Grow Room @ExploGrow @Golden-Goose @THCSA (TheHighCo.) @Futurama Hydroponics Till next time!

Pleased to present to you the 1st and 2nd place trophies 3rd place is on the way

I am busy harvesting the ripe ZxP that have been ripening up for the last week where I have also cut off the water supply for the last 7 days. The buds are looking real good. I am about half way through the chop and I am on a break. Here are a few pics of the preharvest:

DAY 35 Sins there is about a week or 2 left or less before the flip to flower I have decided to take a chance and repot 2 of my gals. Hope the gamble plays off, didn't look like they had any shock during the re-potting, the Velcro makes it very easy to trance plant them Added about 10L of coco to the new pot (ph/nut), buff for the new soil to match as closely as possible to existing media to prevent fluctuations and shock. Haha there first time being outside Back in there tent happy again

What an interesting few months it has been. The culmination of 1 year of pushing totemic as an official brand in SA, I have distributed a little over 45 000 seeds, 15 000 regulars and 30 000 feminized seeds. I feel it is important for me to share this with other local breeders not at all to flex as some are assuming, but to illustrate how big the local industry is, how big the need is, and how much of our economy is still flowing out to the international market. I feel I'm drowning and can't keep up with the market! I'm not here to compete with other local breeders. Breed your fire. Let's grow this industry together.

Progress! Just since watered once with plain pH 5.8 water.

I have since fed once with 1ml per litre of Grow, Micro (soft) and Bloom respectively. This is now the full dose as recommended on the bottle. I have also continued to add some extra silicon at a strength of 6% SiO2 at a dose of 0.5ml per litre. I have not taken any leaves or even the cotyledons off yet. I am now eyeing when to repot to the final 17L container and also when to do the first topping to begin the mainline. Might actually top as soon as tomorrow or the next day.

Welcome to the thunderdome, boijies. In this diary I will be recording my grow for the year 2022, blunders, wins, alas. I have recently made some very nice improvements to my overall setup since my last diary and I think equipment wise there won't be much else to upgrade, so from this point on the focus is going to be on refinement of the setup, efficiency of the process and perfecting the strains in my stable. Speaking of strains, my stable/veg tent currently consists of the following strains which I have collected over the years: Zkittlez x Purple Punch - Ripper Seeds (ZxP) KmintZ - Ripper Seeds (KM) Gorilla Zkittlez - Barneys Farm (GZ) Aurora Indica - Nirvana Seeds (AI) Grand Daddy Purple - Blimburn Seeds (GDP) Tortoni F1 - Totemic (T1) Wedding Cake - 1000 Hills Nursery (WC) A solid seven strains. At the moment if I wanted another strain, I would try my best to swap it out rather than accommodate it. The space in the veg tent is comfortable enough to hold at least one mother plant of each strain, enough plants for the next round in the flower tent, and also enough unrooted clones to replace the plants that go into the flower tent. It's called perpetual growing, china. The veg tent is a 1.2mx1.2mx2m LiteHouse LITE grow tent with a 120W QB LED (set to 80W) at about 1.2m high from the ground, light schedule is 18/6 from 6pm to 12pm. I have found this to be the sweet spot all year round for all the veg plants, mothers, clones, they all good. I can get my plants to a nice 1m height before popping them in the flower tent. In addition, I also have a 59W 4 inch extraction fan set on low which exhausts air from inside the tent to outside the room through a window. The window has a custom fitted duct port which allows the room to remain sealed even with the exhaust venting outside. Lastly I have a 425W heat panel which I fixed to a wooden frame to allow it to sit upright at the back of the tent. This heater is connected to a Sonoff switch which is connected to the WiFi and regulates the heat within the tent automatically at a minimum of 22C. The average currently is about 25C (mid Jan) but sometimes, especially with the rains lately, the temp can dip but it will never dip below 22C in this tent. Humidity sits at an average of 70%. The flower tent is a 1.2mx2.4mx2m LiteHouse LITE grow tent. I have also upgraded to AutoPots. From what used to take me 1-2 hours every 2-3 days to water my plants by hand now takes me 20mins once a week. This has been an absolute gamechanger as I can now really focus on timing my veg tent and perfecting the strains going into the flower tent. Not getting absolutely sticky with resin every time I water is a nice plus too I have harvested 6 plants (ZxP) once already about two weeks ago as a test run using the AutoPots. I have another 6 plants (ZxP) currently going which are due to be harvested by the end of this month and I have also just recently planted 6 more ZxP which are the younger looking plants to the left of the flowering plants. First impressions have been fantastic. Compared to using fabric pots, I can see all the benefits and more. I have also installed each AutoPot with an airdome and I pump fresh warm air to the root zone for 12 hours a day following the same time as the light time schedule. I can see the same kind of growth that I used to see back when I grew using DWC. When I investigated the roots after the first harvest, the airdomes were just smothered in healthy white roots. Very nice. Unfortunately, I recently discovered that my pH pen was whack and I fear the last harvest may have been deficient during the ripening stage due to incorrect pH of the feeding nutrient. This will be one area of focus going forward to improve the overall grow. I have also invested in two new 35W Sansui Box Fans which I have attached to the ceiling of the flower tent. I had a few spots of bud rot due to the fokin heavy rains in the Highveld this Summer so improvements needed to be made to make it through humid times. I obtained a 450W GMC 26 Litre Dehumidifier that I keep running within the grow room outside of the tents. From these upgrades, my flower tent humidity has gone from 70%+ to sub 49%. I can also run my 62W 6 inch extraction fan on low (same setup as veg tent i.e. exhaust outside via duct in window) just to simply move stale air from inside the flower tent to outside and slowly bring fresh air in via the gaps in the door to the room through negative pressure created from the flower and veg tent fans exhausting air outside. The lighting power is three 240W QB LEDs (set to 160W) that I pair with 6 plants each on a 12/12 light schedule from 9pm to 9am. Initially when I transplant into the flower tent I will start at about 60cm from the canopy and over a week or two move the LEDs closer to about 30cm to the canopy. I find this enough to give the plants used to the higher light intensity without having to change my wattage settings every time I do a transplant. The idea is to grow and harvest in sets of six. Each set of 6 AutoPots have their own 46L reservoir containers so I can regulate the food to each set of six independently, which allows me to do plants at different stages and also different strains. Harvests are also only 6 plants at a time and not a solid 18 at a time. I am still getting the timing right to get a harvest consistently timed between each other, so that will be fun also to figure out. Something like once a month or so would be hot. The flowers have gotten big enough in the last few harvests that they flop around like big 'ol dicks, so I will be adding a net across the tent after I have harvested these last 6 plants and have planted new plants into all the empty AutoPots. Tying up the buds has been a mission so I'm hoping the net will help in that regard. I haven't gotten a chance to fully utilise the nets yet so that will be a first. In the empty set of six AutoPots I have at the moment I will be doing a round of Gorilla Zkittlez. To replace the current 6 flowering ZxP that will be harvested soon I have 4x KmintZ which are being grown for the first time from seed and are the latest addition to the stable. I will also substitute 2x ZxP plants to total that set of 6. The KmintZ are a supposed 'upgrade' to the lineage associated with ZxP, so pairing them shouldn't be a problem. I just recently took another batch of ZxP clones to replace the Gorilla Zkittlez when those harvest. After that however, it's a roll of the dice. Maybe we decide together what comes next from the stable, maybe I throw a dart on a board, who knows. Whatever is decided, I need to take those clones in at least 3 weeks time from now in order to be ready to plant into the flower tent come harvest time. I'll have a good idea of how to really time everything perfectly as we go so that as I harvest I already have a batch ready to go to replace those plants. Right now, taking at least 6+ clones every 3 weeks has worked out quite well. When I have things dialed in, I will write up a rough formula for all to enjoy! Or perish! It's ya boi. ***Harvest Dates - Weigh-Ins*** 2022 05 January - 87g ZxP 18 January - 136g ZxP 28 February - 257g ZxP 04 March - 173g GZ 12 April - 65g ZxP 12 April - 159g KM 06 May - 188g ZxP 12 May - 215g WC 06 June - 168g ZxP 27 August - 796g ZxP 21 October - 377g ZxP - 80g WC - 135g OMG 28 November - 827g ZxP

Day 67. With the load shedding and opportunistic night dweller's digging up power cables our power supply gonna be unstable for the next few weeks. So with a heavy heart I grabbed the snips. Was hoping on another week. To all the sponsors @Totemic, @Light It Up, @Aeradix, GSR Seeds, @Cannabist, Green Grow Room, @ExploGrow, @Golden-Goose, The High Co and @Futurama Hydroponics thanks for making this possible. Then let's not forget @420SA for pulling this together. Had a great time and most of all I learnt so much so shout out to all you out there. Looking back I ended up investing some on grow equipment and my little tent kitty has already been started. T3 the entrant that could have been.

Alright... The ladies are still going on.... Getting fuller and heavier by the day!

Ok these should be the last pics. 68 days of Flower. The one pheno is milky and the other has some orange trichomes already. I might the one for another couple of days or a week. But it is time for some new flowering plants.

Day 97 52 of 12/12 But is starting to gain some weight , expecting them to start swelling from this week .

Just for fun

Alrighty then we are coming up on that time I am going to post the update pics in order of how I took them this time just out of convenience as I have three different angles for each plant. I am also going to post the other plants I am growing just for comparisons sake. There's a bunch of pics to follow so I will do my quick summary here rather than after. One of the Tortoni's, T#6 has been developing some nanners so I am going to chop her tomorrow morning after setting up my drying net. The nanners are very isolated and look very new so I do not think they would have had time to do too much damage. Time will tell if any seeds developed in her or in any other of the ladies. When I give her the chop I am going to give the back plants a closer look as I will have a bit more space to do so. T#10 has the thickest and most complete queen cola out of all the Tortonis and she has the most green and lack of purple out of all the Tortonis. T#5 may be short, but her buds are all nice and consistent in size, she's like a mini version of T#10 but with a little more purple hues. T#8 has the most developed bottom nuggets I have ever seen on any plant I have ever grown in my life, I just forgot to take a pic of them but I will next time. They look like nuggets you would find in the middle of the plant but they are the most bottom which I usually get undeveloped meh buds, but not this lady. T#9 has the deepest colour of purple out of all the Tortonis and is a bit like T#8 in shape and size but the bottom nugs don't seem as developed or as large. Otherwise still a good few clear trichomes on the Wedding Cake and one or two of the Tortonis. Trickles of amber are appearing throughout all the plants so end of month is still looking like perfect harvest timing. The Choc Gelato is the tiniest plant of the lot, super small but I am hoping she packs some tasty flavour. The Zkittles x Purple Punch has some really stellar compact trichomes, it wows me every time. Wedding Cake T#5 Choc Gelato T#10 T#6 T#9 T#8 Zkittles x Purple Punch

UPDATE to the end of week 2 of flower. No feeding necessary, they are doing well. Will just been spraying some humic/fulvic over the topdress/livingmulch. Definitely flower time

What's crackalacking fam! I have a few updates for you all. With just a handful of days to go before the flip, I have cleaned up the plants and taken Off most fan leaves. The remaining leaves will really take off and set the scene for flowering. Stakes and trellis will be added to support and guide the stems to success and bountiful harvests with fat unwavering dongs I enjoyed @iGrowDagga post with the ruler for reference and decided to include some of my own ruler for reference pics 5 more sleeps guys

Okay! Definitely one plant is more exuberant than the other, no matter... I have trimmed off some more lower fan leaves and ones that go inward to the plant to expose lower growth. Some stems seemed to grow a bit faster than others, these I have pinched and rolled to slow down the growth for a few days to let the shorter stems catch up. Plants are happy and are not displaying any signs of stress or issues, it is smooth sailing for now Only 10 days left for them to do their things! They will be considerably smaller than other plants I usually put into flower, but I am hoping for the best, juiciest, most succulent flowers come harvest time

They've put on a lot of chunk the past few day's. Smelling absolute bonkers stuff man, I don't have the ability to describe terps like Jesus's sweat and 2-stroke on a rainy day, so I'll rather just say it's like nothing I've smelt before. @Totemic The seeds are fire yo, doubted the one plant all the way and now she is the most beautiful, spear shaped harddd branches of dagga. Tortoni #2 TORTONI #1 Tortoni #1 TORTONI #2

Coming up on my planned harvest of The One this weekend. Buds are looking frosty! Gave The One a final feeding last night and will try let the pot dry out as much as possible by Saturday/Sunday before harvest.

Day 46 of 12/12

Hi folks, Currently on day 72 of flower and started chopping down the rest of the clones (1 Palomino and 3 Twisted Helix). The remaining mother plants will be getting the chop either on Friday or Saturday. This time round I had to opt for a semi wet trim as I had the PM issue. The Palomino clone is my favourite plant I have grown to date. Just love her looks,smell and resistance. Palomino clone Twisted Helix clone Group photo Remaining ladies in the tent: Tortoni #2 Palomino Twisted Helix Tortoni #1

Things are progressing along well, stacking is evident and I am hoping she starts to fill out soon

Thank @CreX for this one! A "Wow" reaction has finally been added! ... as well as a "Fire!" reaction Receiving either of these reactions will add 2 points to your rank.

Day 50. This grow has honestly been one of my favourite in years, it's reignited a spark in me and rekindled my love to grow from seed.

Saturday morning update. Filling out nicely. Mutant still not Growing that great. Will see what happens in flower. Gave them a good IPM treatment. Ludwig's spider mite and Broadband (Beauveria bassiana strain PPRI5339). Will be spraying every 2 days for a week. After that every 3-5 days until they start flowering. The reason for the combination is it targets spidermites in 2 stages of the lifecycle. eggs and adult.

Day 45 The decline continued since my last update. As I'm sure many could see was gonna be the case. This is definitely the last time I grow in plastic pots beyond the seedling stage. That, and I need to sort out my potting regime. I keep underestimating root growth and allowing the plants to get root bound (see below) as a result the plants look like shite now. It's still manageable at this stage though and if this new soil doesn't incinerate these plants I'll see them bounce back nicely. I went ahead and repotted into 40L fabric pots yesterday afternoon. A few days to settle into the new pots and I'll start some training

So the girls have been transplanted. About 110l of soil in the grow bed. Will give them a proper feed on Monday.

It has been a slow couple of days. It's been really cold. Hopefully this week will be better. Only gave water about every 3rd day.

What's up ouens. I can sit here and say I have wanted to do everyone a favour and skip the boring part of veg but to be really honest, I just wanted to make sure I do not have any fuck ups while posting a diary. I know it is part of the game and that is why we are here...... to learn. I had a bit of a fuckup on my first scrog grow so I was abit hesitant. I managed to isolate the problems which I will briefly discuss in this diary and ironed them out with a couple of minor changes. So here goes. Strain: Mango Sapphire by HSO Medium: Coco/Perlite Nutes: Calmag, GHE/TA TriPart and Ripen always fed at a PH of 6.0 Lights: 2x 480watt (DIY build and the other Kingbrite) 10 clones were taken and rooted for 2 weeks. Once they were done, they we moved into small 12cm pots, vegged out for 3 weeks and then only the best 8 would be transplanted to 20cm pots. Vegged for 3 weeks and then transplanted into 20Lt Fabric pots. When the plants were moved into their 20LT Fabric Forever homes, the net was lowered and the tucking began. Once the net was filled to about 100%, the lights were flipped. Day before flip Day 2 of Flower This is where my last mistake was made. Previously, when I flipped the plants into flower after filling the net, something went wrong. I have a slight suspicion the plants did not flip when I flipped and it felt like the stretch went on waaaaay too long before showing any pistils. I think the first bud sites were visible at day 20. This is very late. Even after soooo much defoliation there was still tons of growth coming up. I ended up having a shit ton of bud but everything was popcorn because there wasn't any place for the buds to fatten up. So how I solved it this time was to do a flip but make sure the plants would go into flower. The lights were switched off for about 30 hours and when they came into their first day of flower, I would keep them on an 11 hour on and 13 hour off cycle just to make sure nothing carries on vegging. This seemed to work very well. After day 2 a stretch was already visible and I could see this time it was on the money and that each site would stretch out into their own space. The ladies ended up stretching so nicely that I had to source an extra net very quickly to help support the buds. Luckily @John Stonedwell came to the rescue and donated a second net to the ladies which they were very happy for . The ladies are now on day 46 of flower and should be finshed by the week 8 mark which is in 10 days. They have been getting Ripen until now and soon they will have all the nutes removed with clean water to try get the plants to start fading and consuming the last bit of nutes that is left in them. They will only get clean PH 6.0 water from today until they are done. So far I am extremely happy with the progress. No hickups at all this time. I feel like this was a good grow and that there will be some very nice product coming out. It is smelling unreal in there. Not strong at all so I am not using a carbon filter this time. I would put it on the very sweet and fruity side. Can't wait to taste them. Thanks to all the guys on the forum that I have learnt from, spending hours observing every step they take to try immitate their grows has helped me learn and understand what is needed for a succesful grow. I look forward to sharing the last few updates into harvest and eventually a final report on the dried product. Thanks for watching.

High all. Will publish the results and names next week when back at the office. Taking a short break to savour CT. A huge dankie to all the entrants, judges and sponsors. As well as Sensiva Cafe. This was a short notice event but was an opportunity to get the joint rolling. The feedback has been amazing. People and brands are jumping on board for 2023 already. Definitely some things to do next time that will make it bigger and better. Including HPLC testing. Will share as many pics and vids here as a I can. Didn't really take any of my own:( This was a be there to experience it kinda thing. The buds and company were top shelf. I will be growing this event slowly each year to ensure that it is sustainable and dank AF. There has also been requests for a Joburg cup. What do you think?

Hi all Thought I would start off courteously and introduce myself. Been growing outdoors for a number of years, and at risk of sounding vain, I feel I have pretty much reached my full potential given the natural constraints inherent to an outdoor grow. My outdoor grows are organic, with either Freedom Farms or Orgasoilux along with mostly the Biobizz nutrient range. I like to use the odd dose of Nitrosol, molasses and Epsom salt too. Used the Freedom Farms Antifragile soil as test this year and thus far I am quite impressed (only used it as a third of the medium in each pot). Having to wait from May to November each year for summer to come around has forced my hand in setting up an indoor grow. Currently on my first run, plants at 3 weeks and so far so good. Indoor I am going for coco and salt based nutrients, and will have to pick some brains here to assist with the unknown. Anyway, that's enough about me for now. Looking forward to this journey of mastering the indoor side of things. Hopefully I can give back or at least pay forward the knowledge obtained here. Apologies for the "low" resolution pictures. My photography skills have never been much to write home about. Respect

Hi folks, So it's been a while since I last posted about my grow but I thought better late than never (and also skipping most of the veg part is more entertaining) This is my 3rd indoor grow and I have learnt a lot from my last 2 grows from fellow forum members. Special shout out to @The Grass Baas @The_StonedTrooper @PsyCLown @Prom @Bay Seeds @Stinger96 @GGG @GreenGrow Garden Route @Weskush for all their guidance and support with the previous grow. I have learnt a lot from you guys and will attempt to apply it with this grow. What went wrong previously? I neglected my plants and encountered the following: - Too much N (nute frequency overall) - Not enough airflow - Not enough defoliation - And a one shoe fits all approach (which doesn't work well with several different strains) What am I doing differently this time round? - Every watering doesn't need to be a feed (let the plant tell you when they need something) - Each strain will have their own frequency of feeding and quantity thereof - Airflow/Circulation is key - Defoliate, defoliate, defoliate... we don't need no nodes stealing energy from the nodes that we want to create into big fat ass nugs - And some IPM for the issues that might catch you off guard So what am I working with for this grow? I decided on a mix of old school variants with some local and international breeders filling the gap. I am running 4 strains of feminised seeds from Old School Genetics courtesy of @Golden-Goose , 2 strains from Motherland Genetics (hope the drama on the photos wasn't an indication of the quality of genetics that they supposedly produce) and lastly some 2 super tasty InHouse strains courtesy of some cuttings from my man @PsyCLown. IPM measures with wood cider vinegar courtesy of @Thrive Strains in play: Old school genetics - White Bubblegum Old school genetics - White Afghan Skunk Old school genetics - Super Silver Haze 98 Old school genetics - OSG Cheese Motherland genetics - Purple Dosidos Motherland genetics - Sunset Sherbet S1 InHouse - Blunicorn InHouse - Jelly Breath Started of with germination on the 28th of September with a 100% germination success rate. I normally go for the 3 topping 8 cola mainline but this time round I decided to do a 2 top manifold mainline which some people call a flux mainline. (Hoping to decrease veg time) I also installed a oscillating fan from the roof of the tent to aid in circulation. Today was the last clean up in the veg cycle and I took clones of each for a buddy to keep for us to see which one we want to keep and work with... I am about 2 weeks from flip to flower and this is the current situation... Here we go with some pictures to tie it up... Seedlings Clones joining the picture Pre clean up White Bubblegum White Afghan Skunk Purple Dosidos Jelly Breath (no before pic taken) Blunicorn Sunset Sherbet Super Silver Haze 98 OSG Cheese Attempt at a level canopy Clones New fan IPM Wood cider vinegar Thank you for reading. I am very excited to see where this grow goes

KmintZ are in! There are four KmintZ and two supporting ZxP. They looking fresh and ready for their flowering journey. I gave them all a nice douse of spinosad before going in just as a preventative to the latest little stint of thrips, of which I saw none of when checking tonight. I got a little fright when looking for more PWM, but it turns out it was just dry milk on the leaves that I rubbed yesterday. Lol me. Otherwise, I haven't spotted any more PWM so hopefully that has been sorted as well. Flower tent looking skits. KmintZ ZxP Gorilla Zkittlez

Watsup everyone. Finally I have managed to finish my 480w LED light which I have been busy with for the last 6 months, or rather delayed for the last 6 months. Work has been abit hectic and haven't been home to work on any projects. I managed to make some time and if it wasn't for a good friend that put the flames under my ass, I probably never would have finished it. @John Stonedwell I had a thread open about the wiring of a 480w light but as I kept the wiring the same as in the diagrams I used from LEDgardener, I thought I would just start a new thread rather. At no time would I say that this build is cheaper than buying from Alibaba but it was an adventure I wanted to take and I have learnt alot about it. Plus I have a brand new 480 watt LED Grow light. The build is an example on the LEDgardener website which I was introduced to by @Cannabist Here goes. These are the following items I used: 12x bridgelux 3500k led strips (bought off of digi-key) 480w meanwell driver 480H-42A (bought off of digi-key) 6m of aluminium bar (6mm thick and 76mm wide)(bought at aluminium trading) 6m of aluminium angle (side are 12mm wide and 1.6mm thick) 6m of 3core flexi black cable (soft like extension cord cable) 10m of 2core twinflex (harder mouldable cable) Plastic coated steel ferrels Couple of meters of heatshrink Chocolate blocks (through and through connectors) 8x wago connectors (can be found at hardware shops) Waterproof 3 core connector 3 point plug 12mm plastic squares for corners Wondafix glue Plenty of little screws So to begin I had to get alot of the dirty work out of the way. I decided to group my strips into 4x groups of 3x strips. So basically it would be 4 bars with 3 strips on each. I measured the width and length and figured the aluminium bars I had were wide enough to take 3 strips each. Making wiring abit easier and I used less wires than expected. Note that all bars were cut to 1.2m to fit the led strips and to fit into a 1.2m tent. I think I cut them even shorter just to make sure they fit in the tent as the tent isn't exactly 1.2m . Anyway. Not going to be doing the exact measurements as I can't really remember. So all the bars were cut to size and I decided to drill holes throught the bars to mount the strips. I aimed for 5 screws per strip. Way too many I would say but anyway. I also threaded all the holes so I didn't have to use little nuts to tighten the screws, even though that is not a bad idea because the threading took kak long. I had to thread the bars twice as a friend and I made several mistakes (under the influence of beer and weed). I also used a heatpaste to transfer the heat from the strips through the bars, and what a serious waste of time. The strips, even though 3 on one bar, doesn't get anywhere near hot enough to be concerned. I honestly think its like 21 degrees or something. Don't waste your time and money on that crap. Also it doesn't dry out like normal silicone and rather stays "wet" forever. It can become a very messy storey. I used 2 screws on each side of the bars when mounting to the angled pieces just to make sure I won't have any sort of swaying on pivot points. This was just to stabilize the build. I also did not shorten the angled aluminium simply so that it could keep its position nice and centered in the tent and not lean to one side. I made sure to use plastic squares to plug the corners so they don't tear into the tent. As you can see their sizes weren't perfect but I squeezed them on and they stayed there. No glue and shit. Once I had all 12 of the led strips mounted onto the bars and all the bars mounted onto the angled aluminium, it was time to start the wiring. So, as some of you may know that followed the wiring thread, there was alot of questions about the driver and why it had the two outputs etc. I am not going to discuss why they have two outputs on but I can assure it is for a good reason and probably for safety (some electricians said I could use just one of the outputs as it wouldn't matter, which I understand buuuuuuut it was designed like that for a reason, so I used both. Less of a fire hazard). Firstly I connected the main power cable which was 3 core, and extended the input cable of the driver with the 3 core flexi cable I got, and also connected a 3 point plug onto the end so I can plug it into a wall socket. Lol. I used the waterproof connector to connect the cables and created a nice long extension of the drivers' input cable. This helps alot as I don't have to struggle with extension cables. I then used some of the 3 core flexi cable to extend my outputs from the driver. I connected them with the coated ferrels and then used the heatshrink to cover it nicely. Heatshrink is the shit. I love it. Note that the two output cables from the driver have 2x cables in each. So that's two red(+) and two black(-) wires and no earth. The earth cable was then just cut short. At the end of the two outlet cables I just left them open and soldered over the copper to make it a little neater and more solid as those 4x points would go straight into the chocolate block which is mounted on the frame. I did it this way so that if I needed to move and pack up the light, I could just disconnect it from the chocolate block and I would have just 2 pieces to carry around (1x driver and cables, 1x light). As you can see I just used electric fence wire to make the frames hanging cable which I just connected between the bars on the angled aluminium to make sure the whole light does not bend from being too heavy etc. If you connect it to the outer edges you start getting a bend and warp, which then doesn't help with the direction of the lights. I used wondafix to stick all the wago connectors to the back of the bars. When I had to wire the red (+) ends of the bars (3x strips), I just ran 2 red wires from the choclate block to the wago connectors and then spread the power between all the positive ends of the led strips. I also just ran the two black (-) wires across the back of the bars (strips) to the opposite end where all the black (-) connections were and fed them via the wagos. Also I just glued the wires to the back of the bars so they would not move around too much. I also just used cable ties to keep everything neat on the frame. I used twinflex cables for my red and black wires. This wire is semi flexible and keeps the shape you bend it into which is great if you want a permanent built frame with lights etc and no wires dangling everywhere. In order to get it out of the hard white plastic which houses both of them, I would pull the earth and it would strip the red and black from one another. Making it alot easier to work with. I can't tell people not to build their own lights because there are way cheaper options available online which are already built but damn it was an exciting and interesting journey. This is something I have always wanted to do and now I feel like I have the confidence and abit extra knowledge on how to tackle something like this. I really hope this helps someone else deciding if they want to go on a similar journey or not. Hopefully someone could learn from the ideas mentioned and probably better them or personalize them their own way. One positive I found is this thing saves a shitload of space vertically in my tent. Thanks for watching. Note: this is not my design but one of the many on LEDgardener.com

This is the End ^^ 7 September Update Time to judge ^^ time to write my opinion. I had 2 of the same Phenos and with just 3 beans I do not judge a strain. If somebody sets a pistol to my head and tells me to judge or die.. I wouldn't keep the Tortoni in my mother tent, not the Pheno I had. Would say is very heavy on the Sunset Sherbet side.. and also with my own Gelato selection, I preferred the Thin Mint Cookie side. Buds grow vigorocity isn't what I am used to.. or what I select when choosing a plant. Bud grow behavior was at best average. Picture to compare what I mean... the Pineapple didn't made it in my Mother tent either... not tasty enough, bud size was great. Harvest: 61.2g dressed, 8.7g dressing material on Sisa THC Content: 14.8% AW = average Water (moisture content, 63%) Dressing Pics What i collected on the glove while dressing (both plants) What I took for testing Final pictures Sisa's roots Training Pictures Close up on the trained section One branch was 3 cm lower as the rest, rest was more or less even. Happy with my training result. (Actually got the idea from @Stinger96 to do the pic like that ^^) Effect Pictures (for the fun of it) Tarryn said first Bye Bye to Tarryn ^^ Now you know from what woman I selected that name ^^ And Sisa's final pictures

So a bit of an update, took these photos on Saturday but didn't get a chance to post them until now - been busy trimming some plants which came down. Twisted Helix: Bananium: Frosted Apricots: Sugarcane: Really excited to take these plants down! Some new ones which I have yet to try myself as well.

Week 9 done and now into the 10th and (I expect) final week of flower. Gave 2L straight water each last night and I expect that to be the last watering for #1 and #3. Unsure about #2 at the moment, she might go a few days longer if she wants to swell. 31 Aug - 5 Sep: #1: #2: #3:

I checked on The One and it was clear to me she wanted out. The leaves began to wilt and become crispy, as though she were deep into Autumn. I decided then to give her the harvest, it was time. I took a couple shots as the final state of my plant for judging, some closeups and overviews

8 weeks of 12/12

Good evening to all like minded (mostly[emoji3526]) people. Same same the last week with one feeding and just rainwater when needed . Good luck to all with the final packing nice tight buds stretch of the wonderfull creation Sent from my Hisense Infinity H50 using Tapatalk

Day 85 38 of 12/12 Nothing exiting this week just insane smell and added a little weight

Just water. I will give them some food on tomorrow. But I dont feel its necessary. The mutant has turned into the comp plant. It is covered in trichomes.

She's a stretchy lass! Between not burning her and managing the stretch, I must admit her height has gotten away from me a bit. The canopy is no longer as even as I had hoped, although it may still look pretty cool in the end. She may even be quite a yielder! I have fed The One with a round of full Preflower dose, 2ml/L Gro, 2ml/L Micro and 1.5ml/L Bloom. She must feel so overwhelmed amongst my lovely ripening flowering plants, like a teenager checking out a varsity campus for the first time (most PC analogy I could think of.. and their were many )

Update, success on the Herijuana Then the established seedlings the Critical popped, upside down, Surgery last night, and this evening, the patient was out doing well thanks for following

Day 21 The view of the remaining 6 yesterday afternoon. Had them out of the tent for a good inspection. 2 more have been cut. No13, the outlier from the start is just a weak plant, while no11, is showing its hermie nature quite oddly, pushing growths along a fan leaf stem, but nevertheless has been cut. Wherever there is abnormal growth in that nodal area its a clear indication of the hermi trait. Even though those arrowed growths are showing only pistilate and not a single ball sack yet. So that leaves me with No1, 2, 5, and 6. Their side views. All virtually the same height at 70cm. No1 No2 No5 No6 And of course let's not forget the male. He is now reached his peak at 6 weeks of flower. I have been monitoring his development, deciding if I want his pollen. He produces copious amounts of pollen, pushing a fair amount of resin glands... Overall a lekker male. Something that many aren't doing. Don't grab the first pollen that your male gives. Grow him all the way out and check him out. As always I don't collect and use pollen, but always a live male, so he is joining the remaining 4 in the tent for only 2 days before going to reveg. That's more than enough time to ensure a full pollination. Wish I had a better camera to better capture some of his features I like. The view of the 4

Well I fed these girls on Monday with a combo of teas. Bacterial blend and Malted Barley. They will start doubling in size on a weekly timeline. (My experience) and should hopefully be able to go into flower 3rd of July.

Let's talk stress testing. It's the one most important thing that many of the newer breeders aren't doing. Stress testing should be considered as part of your selection process. I stress test all my plants throughout their life cycle in an attempt to get them to hermi on me. Those plants that survive the stress I consider sexually stable. Stress testing should be an indoor endeavor. These plants really don't express their hermi nature easily outdoors. Intense light All my plants are blasted with more light than they are comfortable with from germination Interrupted dark I Interrupt the dark cycle a few times during the first few weeks of Flowering. pH issues This is one I don't really do as causing pH swings in soil is hard to come back from. Compared to coco/Hydro. Over feeding Simply over feeding N, running the soil hot. Over/under watering Self explanatory. I run my plants on a wet/dry cycle. When I say dry I mean the plant is wilting from dryness. My plants may look healthy and perfectly grown, but they are being grown at their uppermost limits. These are all the most common stresses that plants are likely to be exposed to by new growers or just in general. If you are breeding and you are not doing this with your plants, you are skipping a crucial step in eliminating hermi plants.

Day 17 Seeing as I haven't yet given a breakdown of my setup..... It's a fairly straight forward setup with some gear that is getting on a bit now. Veg Tent 1.5 x 1.5 GTHydro tent 250w (early veg) 400w(late veg) MH Bulb 8" Extractor Fan (functioning as active exhaust) Flower Tent 1.5 x 1.5 GTHydro tent 400w(early flower) 600w(late flower) HPS Bulb.... or possibly 2 x 400w HPS throughout 6" Extractor Fan (functioning as passive intake) 40cm Wall Mounted Fan ---------------------------------------------------------- The pic below illustrates how the ventilation process works. The 8" inline fan in the veg tent is exhausting out the tent through a window behind the tent. The 6" inline fan in the flower tent is bringing air into the tent from a different window behind that tent. The tents are then linked with an 8" duct indicated below in the pic. Fortunately, as these tents are two different models, the bottom duct outlets are very close to each other. Keeping the duct short and making it easier for air transfer. When both tents are zipped closed, by pure luck really, a perfect equilibrium is achieved and both tents maintain a steady negative pressure. As the veg tent is sucking air straight from the flower tent, it's ambient temp varies between 1 to 3 degrees higher than the flower tent, when the flower tent's light is on. Which is an added bonus in winter when you want your veg tent to still hold the higher temps.