SkunkPharm

What are you growing in? When I grew in coco i used either greenhouse calcium or calmag from greenhydro.

Depending on where you are based nights may be to cold and wet for plants atm. But you don't need an expensive set up to grow your own. You can build a small hoop house for less than R 1500 and be able to grow year round. Auto Flowers need proper soil to start off with. They should also not be transplanted except if you are a seasoned grower and have mastered the art. PM me if you need advise.

Hoop house. Is probably the easiest to build. There are lots of plans and videos on the net. Green house plastic is cheap and eazily obtained. If you want a more permanent structure the clear polycarbonate roof sheets with plastic or net sides. You must also think how would this structude be cooled in summer. Mabe construct it so that the sides can be raised in summer for better ventilation. 

You need to look around here in Cape Town there is alot of second hand equipment on line. Rather buy a new lights.

44 minutes ago, MIles said:

Hi everyone

I am currently looking at buying an indoor setup with a budget of around R10 000. I have browsed most ,if not all, of the websites that sell the necessary parts in South Africa and haven't really gotten anywhere.I am looking to grow for myself ,so 1 or 2 plants at a time. 

Kits i am currently looking at:

https://www.futurama.co.za/grow-tent-combo-80-x-80-cm-360w-apollo-led/

https://hydroherbafrica.co.za/product/gf-ts-900-tent-combo/

for the most part,these kits are very similar with regards to what they include,with the main difference being the light. Unfortunately, i'm not very clued up on the technical side of things,which makes it difficult to compare the kits. Does anyone have any experience with either light/setup?

I am also open to buying parts individually,as long as i can stay under budget.

Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Hi Miles

What part of the country are you?

I avoid that place as my girlfriends ex is one of the employees. But ja they are an option. Also clear IRB will do the trick aswell. I have seen some real dank come from a north facing wall with Clear polycarbonate roof sheets and 60% shade cloth side walls. 

10 hours ago, Totemic said:

Where did you get the greenhouse plastic? I'm gonna have to put together a pvc frame and cover it soon. The dew did get hectic quite suddenly.

We should be able to sort you out a structure. I have seen some amazing things and i think it is actually not that expensive. One has to grow and evolve to make gardening work for you. 

Seeds for Africa sells it. But I am sure if you contact ghtech in somerset west you could get it for half the price.

So the season has come to an end and it was better than the last outdoor run. And then I decided to see how long I can push it. I veged out some plants indoors and as I harvested I replaced them with new ones. I had some issues with mold, so I had to prevent the dew from settling on the plants at night. So the nethouse was covered qith greenhouse plastic. Will most definatley get 3 harvests in this year. Photo's below. The first 2 is the an outdoor Spumoni and the 3rd is the Orange Kush Cake I was gifted by @YourStonedBuddy. 

How much are you looking for? I still have some left over. I mix my own if you want to give it a go.

That looks good. I use basically the same setup for my first 2 grows. Way back in 2016. What I have learnt from that experience was to use panda plastic as a reflector and build a square frame at the top of the tent for an extraction fan. Ise ir dont use it. This will suffice though.

I just brew in a bucket with a pump. But will soon invest in something better. 

Ok you can build a propper brewer for half the cost of a vortex brewer from Jamie. The pump from futurama will work but will limit you if you want to use it for bigger tea production. See the hortishop link below. They have electomagnetic air pumps and ultimately this is whay you need. If you are really interrested go to the youtube KIS organics channel. They have a video on there brewer on there. 

https://hydroponic.co.za/hydroponics/air-pumps/

Led to grow them big enough to go into the greenhouse. Can only afford to do one big indoor grow a year. 

51 minutes ago, Naughty.Psychonaut said:

Wana start brewing some tea for the girls, I will be using a 15L bucket, but will only do 10L batches at a time. What size pump will work best for this? Any recommendations?

Biggest air pump you can find or afford. 

Just now, Oolong83 said:

Hey guys. Not sure if its the right spot, but does anyone know where to grow supplies during lockdown?

I have to repot my seedlings but have no perlite for my mix. 

Plz any help.

Where are you base? I have some jsitting in my garage.

7 hours ago, oldsandals said:

The question should not be who are good breeders, but what environment do you have for growing and what genetics would best fit that environment AND suit your palate for quality of high effect and other requirements. Breeding is often a trade off. If you are growing outdoors its likely that you will not be able to run most indoor varieties because of powdery mildew, bud rot or some other problem like pests. If you have a perfectly controlled indoor environment then by all means go and buy from some good breeders to suit your tastes. Don't stagnate with buying one breeders stuff - you want to explore and educate yourself. 

Personally I don't run many modern hype weed. Very occasionally I will run something that is currently available to buy. But I'm a sativa lover and I don't like indica to get mixed in too often. Most of my seed stash I made myself or was gifted by friends. There are some breeder packs in there from places like Doc D, Cannabiogen, Ace Seeds but I'm not really growing those anymore. Last bunch of seeds I popped was all different landraces crossed to a Tom hill original haze male. Tried Senegal, Zambian copper, Malawi Gold, Mulanje Malawi, Punto Rojo, Ko Chang Thai, Hmong hill tribe Thai, Durban poison 70s, Zamal, golden tiger, flying dutchmen original haze. 

Just got to make friends with the right people and search the right stuff that you like and it will come eventually

 

Golden Tiger x Tom Hills Original Haze

 

Could not aggree more.

19 minutes ago, PsyCLown said:

My concern with this would be heat in summer, I think it would get too hot then.

 

Regardless in summer I think it will probably get too hot and therefore you'd need an AC running in there.

That is quite a large space, you will require quite a few LED lights to get decent output, with that being said you will be able to fit way more than 12 plants inside there.

 

I do not agree with needing 4000+ true watts, I reckon you could get away with around 18 to 20 LED QB's, which equates to around 2000W in power and they're dimmable so during veg dim them down. This will give you more than your desired 12 plants, in fact 9 QB's will easily cover 12 plants but not the entire space.

Your electricity bill will increase a lot with 2KW of lighting if you are running the full 2KW during flower that equates to an additional 744 units per month and at a rate of R1.70 per unit works out to R1 264.80 on a 12 hour cycle. Then also take into consideration a heater in winter, an Aircon in summer, other electrical stuff such as fans.

Probably an extra R1500 to R2k per month in electricity alone. The initial equipment is going to cost you a small fortune, if you can get QB's for R5k for 2 that is R45k for 18 QB's or R50k for 20. If you only want to do 12 plants then 8 or 10 QB's will suffice and at R5k local price for this many would be R20k or R25k and you may only find the lights at a higher price too.

Unfortunately the exchange rate has gone to shit so importing lights at the moment is a bit steep too, the R5k for 2 QB's is based on local pricing with the current stock. If these suppliers had to order new stock the price would increase quite a bit. To help lower costs do some research into importing your own QB's maybe, you could probably still save despite the higher exchange rate... Regardless the initial setup is going to cost you.

 

If you plan to go hydro, once again heat in summer could be an issue. Do not want your res temp too high so an AC would be even more important I reckon.

With that many plants watering by hand is going to be a bitch so I highly recommend an automatic watering system.

 

I wouldn't recommend soil, I feel coco would be a better choice as you can get 5KG bricks and buffer it yourself, mix it with perlite and you have a lot of medium for a very low price. Waaay cheaper than soil.

We have different views on this. She is growing outdoors in summer and with a door on each side of the grow and an extration fan or 2 in the roof you could get away with it in summer. Indoor growing is not the be all and end all of growing. And you dont need to invest thousands of rands to grow good weed. Most guys winning cannabis cups in the US is growing in living organic soils. You dont need to invest in new soul after each grow. You can run living organic soil. There are guys in the US that has been growing in their soil for 10 years and they are only now seeing there best flower being grown in that soul. It is all about maintaining a healthy living soil. Organic farming is sustainable unlike using salts to grow.

If it was me I would not over complicate your grow. The soil looks good. I would give no nutrients. This soil should have enough in it. I would maybe read up on compost tea's and make it 2-3 times just to give the microbial life in the soil a boost. The plsnt should do the rest. My philosophy is to stary with a good soil and then Kiss. Keep it simple stupid. Just dont over water it.

I would just replace the sheds roof with clear roof sheets and add some Led lights if you want to give some suplemental light. For insulation maybe some iso board if you really want to add it. 

I don't wash buds. I do how ever spray off the plants 2 or 3 days before I harvest.

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Ok if it was me.
Set up iso board insulated grow area.
In a 2.4 x 1.2 grow area you will need at least 400-500w per 1.2x1.2m area.
At least a 6" or bigger extraction fan
At least 4 fans. 2 under the canopy and 2 above the canopy.
8x20l grow bags.
160l of grow medium.
If you are going to grow with salt based fertilizer you will need a pH and EC pen
If you grow in organic soil you will have to invest in a good soil inoculant if you do not already have super awesome compost.
My 2c's.
Enjoy growing. Best investment I have made.


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What soil are you plants in? When I top dress I always use a bit of compost kelp meal, rock phosphate and turbo grow(soft basalt rock) to add minerals into the mix. I do know that goes into my soil so I know there is enough calcium and magnesium in it and do not amend it to after the 2nd grow. When I see deficiencies I just feed compost tea to activate/increase micro organisms. They normally fix any possible deficiency. When a plants leaves go a bit yellow it will signal to the microbes what it needs and the microbes will provide.

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21 minutes ago, Prom said:

 sexy stuff! Looooooooooooooove pic No3  That is how it should look..

 

But.. clean your pots  those old rotting leaves have nothing to do so close to your plant.. keep em clean

 

And happy at least somebody enjoyed outdoor growing.. I did till February.. then it was more like a Nightmare on Mildew Street  

I run these pots as no till organic pots. They will get some alfalfa meal and compost plus a couple of amendments and then run them indoors. I already have new plants in some of the pots. They look even better than the first runs plants. Still going outdoors untill June. Might ever put some greenhouse plastic on the roof and see is i can grow straigt through winter.  Leaves make good food for microbes.

18 minutes ago, Ill_Evan said:

Beautiful stuff man 

Hope you got some help come harvest time 

I have done 3 plants already. Was hard work.