ajcapetown

Hey guys

Not sure if any of you are doing weekly IPM treatment but I do regularly and I must say it works very well for me.

Prevention is always better than cure so I thought I'd share this file with you all:

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0248/9641/files/BuildASoil_IPM_Notes.pdf?1490

I currently just do neem/silica weekly foliar spray and it works perfectly. Both products available from Jamie's Garden Shop.

Cheers

Hey GLO

Have you needed to order any more of these?

A buddy of mine tried to place an order but the costs were crazy... Into the thousands. Remember yours weren't too expensive but wondered if you had a connection or if they made a mistake with your pricing?

Hmmm pity on the coverage on the cool tube, I was hoping to go that route so that I could stop smashing my head on my raptors... they are so cool but damn somehow my head always finds the corners of mine.. they are almost 1 meter long and super heavy.

In a tent though I'd say you only need so much light so even if you are losing 10% on your cool tube it's probably still ample light.

I also have with a fan and without, although without is 1000w and I'm surprised how warm they get... can only imagine how hot magnetic must get... could probably fry an egg on it. The 600 with fan basically gets luke warm but agree with GLO I can see dust build up on the fan blades so can imagine that dust definitely get's in there.

I got a huge fright recently, I had hung some cable up to get it out of the way but it had a few loops in it. One day I reached up to adjust it and the cable was so hot I could hardly keep my hand on it... the cable was completely soft. I freaked out because it had been hanging like that for like 2 weeks. I figured out that by having a couple of loops in the cable it was basically forming like a coil effect and man it got HOT! So now I hang all my cable so that there are no sharp bends in it. That is of course 1000w though which is a lot of power. With 600's I have never noticed heat build up in the cable.

Have those plants started to bounce back yet? I know another grower on here who also runs straight coco... apparently growth rate is faster and he hasn't had any water logging issues at all.

Those 600w ballasts from GT hydro are awesome, they stay so cool.

How does that cool tube work? 

They are so nice and compact compared to air cooled hoods, wonder if they reflect as much? Are you pulling air through it?

Hope they are mostly girls. Are you able to test them first or will you eventually out them all into flower then chuck males?

Sigh... Ok Kim you got me again... Is this better??

Training Day... 3 days in 100% ORGANIC

Guys please vote so that Kim can at least win something.. Hehe

Oh wait here is one where I wrote a tag..... LOL

Excuse the yellowish colour, the plant is green I promise....

This is Training Day, 2 days into flower.

LOL @ Kim... ok you got me that isn't even my plant.... hahaha

Ok Admin sorry about that, rookie error. I'll retake some pics tonight with hard proof! lol

Here's a pic of my favorite strain... Humboldt Seed Org - Blue Dream. Taken last night, 2 days into flower.

Grown TLO style in a 25 liter bucket.

Cheese don't go over to the dark side.. stay in soil.. next thing you know you'll be growing shit tasting bud like Kim  

LOL

Looking forward to seeing how much she yields.

Lol Kim go bury a dead fish in your pot.. The plant will draw out the nutrients it needs and give you a great seaside taste... Like OG Kush but better.. I heard it from a friend of a friends cousin so I know it'll work..

Hey Cheese, I'm an organic guy so I'd say keep them in organic soil but there's no doubt straight coco/perlite with synthetic nutes will get you faster growth with bigger yields... A lot of cash croppers go that way for faster profit.

I find there's a lot more pride in growing an organic product which is healthier and sooo much more tasty.

But then again seeing faster growth with bigger yields is also exciting haha! 

Maybe doing a bit of both will work well for you.

Hey, great that they pulled through.

Just a suggestion.. You are using JGS soil which is a 100% organic living soil. I wouldn't use synthetic nutes like nutriplex or easy hydro.

You shouldn't need any nutes for a good few weeks but once they start looking hungry use compost teas and biobizz organic products.

The salts in synthetic stuff will kill your microbes which is defeating the purpose of organic living soil.

As always each to their own though... Just my 2c

Super bushy, I'm sure she will bounce back.

Definitely too much n, I'd keep cutting off the dead growth and giving plain water for a while.

Are those 20w CFL's?

Definitely a problem in SA, especially as this is the hottest summer in 50 years.

Try switch lights to run at night, 8pm - 8am which will help by a few degrees. Veg you can run lights from 5pm - 11am skipping the hottest part of the day. 

Have good ventilation to change the air as fast as possible, and a big must for me is air cooled hoods. Couldn't imagine trying to run bird wings at this time of year. I have put intake fans in my grow too whereas in winter I can just do a passive intake. So I am pumping fresh air in.

You can also dim and raise your lights during the heat of the day. Everybody wants to give their plants full power but there's no use pumping a 600w on full when the plants are being destroyed by heat. On these extremely hot days dim it to 400 or even 250 and you'll see a huge difference. Once the sun goes down you can crank them back up and give the plants more light.

I bit the bullet and bought a 12000BTU portable air con. It's making a fantastic difference, had my flower room on 28.5 yesterday where it would normally hit 36/37 minimum. That's running during the heat of the day, I actually just changed over this morning to have the room run through the night rather so that should bring me down even more.. As Reaf says, 27 is an ideal temp. The downfall of AC is that you need to vent it through a hole or window and when your girls start stinking it can be a problem as the AC vent's that air. I haven't thought about how I will deal with this... I am going to have to deal with it if and when it happens. At full power mine runs at 1350w so you can expect a jump in your elec bill.

Another problem I found with good extraction and ac is you can lose that cool air fast, to solve this I have put my extractor on an analog timer which has 15 minute slots. I run it 15 on and 15 off during the 12 hours of lights on. At lights off it runs constantly for the next 12 hours. This gives the AC a chance to actually cool the room without the cold air getting sucked straight out. As I said above I am pumping fresh air in too so my plants are getting enough of that. 

The Ac cost me R5299 but it's either that or forget about growing until May which I just can't do.... I'd spend that 5299 on buying bud in no time if I didn't grow my own.. 

In flower plants just cannot sustain temps of 32 and up unless you have strains that can tolerate a bit of heat but even then if they survive you are killing your yields and quality. I have had 2 failed grows due to heat stress. Long spindly growth, small little buds and clawed leaves... both started when temps went over 32 and stayed that way for a couple days.

For Veg I have been able to get away with 33 - 34 but even then growth has slowed down and I'm getting some browning on my leaves. It's really not ideal but I can't get another ac right now so I have to just accept it.

It is most frustrating, while I love summer I am also watching the weather and shouting and swearing when I see anything above 30.

Good luck to all.

Just finished mixing 2 of the JGR DIY kits, hands are sore and body is stuffed. Will probably mix one more time before using.

Excuse the few stuffed up clones in the last pic, i did that in the bubbler.. Either too much light or too little air. Most have recovered now and are happy.

Hope you come right with the soil! All the best.

I've been using Jamies soil for some time now.. From sprouting seedlings to transplanting clones into it. I use mycorrhizal fungi and sprinkle some worm castings before each transplant. For a 25 liter pot I've been watering 1liter every 7 days and it's ample. This week I noticed at day 5 my plants looked thirsty so watered, those in Cape Town will know that our heat has doubled and humidity has dropped by half in the last week so I'll probably water every 5 days going forward and peak summer every 3-4 days.

Lately I've been buying the actual soil kit from Jamie and mixing it myself. He suggests 90 liters of compost, I add 60L organic compost and 40L mushroom compost, making my addition 100 liters, no cooking and so far no probs. for feeding I do AACT every 2 weeks and other times I use plain water or bio grow and bio bloom... Cos that stuff is the shit hehe! I have my own worm bin which I feed banana peel, tea bags, alfalfa, carrots, lettuce, cardboard etc. for a quick 24 hour brew I use EWC and molasses, heated to 26'c

I've made my own super soils etc in the past and fried plants by not cooking so it's something that's always on my mind. If I make my own I cook at least 2 months but with JGS I just mix and use within the same week.

Just my opinion. Btw, having little mushrooms etc pop out your soil is excellent!!! Perfect sign of good fungi and a good living mix. 

I've gone as far as making my own compost pile now so soon I won't even be buying compost any more. Some pics attached of plants in JGS soil.. I also attached a pic of 2 plants I put outside in August which started flowering immediately, for those outdoor growers who didn't know you can pull 2 outdoor harvests over summer. Clones out from August - September then start again from October through til Feb. First lot won't be as dense and chunky as peak summer but it's great for hash and a little personal collection.

Nice one man!

Yeah things have gone well my side, have harvested 4 plants so far, just posted pics on my grow post now.

Was hoping for more weight than I have but I'll know for sure once they are dry. I always weigh my wet bud then divide it by 4 for a very rough average... I probably should just be patient and weigh them when they are fully dry.

lol that cat piss is my life source hey haha.. a beer after work then supper then smoke and watch TV.. pretty much my daily routine

But here are a few pics with lights off, only of what I have harvested so far. The Blue Dream and Super Lemon Haze still have a little way to go, hoping I can get them down around 12 July.

Cheers

That plant looks well trained as it's super bushy.. very cool.

What wattage is that LED light? was it the LED that has gotten it to this point?

passed 7 weeks in on Tuesday and still very happy.

Has anybody here grown blue dream to the end? This is my first blue dream and the leaves are actually going a navy blue colour, attached some pics. I'm guessing that's where it got the name?

The critical kush plants are by far my favourite... the buds are the biggest and they smell great.

Blue dream I am having slight problems with aphids, you can see there is a bit of leaf damage but I've been able to control them but scrutinising the plant everyday and either removing leaves or squishing them. They are only on the fan leaves and strangely enough have not moved to any of the other strains.. only the blue dream. Fortunately the problem started late into flower so I can control it manually until I harvest in just under 2 weeks.

The critical kush and cheese strains are coming down next week, will add some more pics then.

Hey Guys

Been noticing these controllers are getting used a lot in the states. Does anybody know if we can get them here with SA spec sockets etc? I've done quite a bit of googling, can't find much. 

They are designed to run ballasts, from 2 up to 24 on some of the biggest units. Ballasts use a huge amount of energy, especially during start up and general purpose timers and multi plugs aren't entirely designed for this type of load.

These controllers are designed for HID ballasts and can even be hooked up straight to your DB board on their own circuit. The benefit is improved safety and less fire risk. Also just easier to manage if you have 2 or more ballasts.

Looking good, when are you flowering there Bertus?

I still have a lot of GHS powder if you're interested... the grow and flower one.. we can make a trade.. lol

I always used the Bio Bizz stuff then moved off it with experiments that never really worked... now I'm back on Bio Bizz and happier than ever.

I've even had good results with Sea-Grow and Thrust which I got at Jaime's Garden Shop but the fish smell is quite hectic for indoor haha.

Let me know about he GHS nutes if you keen!