PsyCLown

The type of lighting and spectrum can also cause stretching, I believe far red can lead to larger leaves and excess stretching. So great for something like lettuce, for cannabis not really what we're looking for unless you want a lanky plant. Unless you specifically want your plants to have larger internode spacing. But without a doubt, not having the lights at the correct height can affect the growth of the plants, ones generally wants to try and maximize their grow and efficiency etc. Pointless spending big bucks on a grow light, only to not use it as intended and get similar results to a far cheaper light.

So the law has not been finalised just yet, but no more than 8 plants if there are 2 or more adults in the household

Nothing wrong with HST, as long as its done right it can work well. I personally like to use a combination of HST and LST to achieve the type of plant I want. I know some who use just HST to achieve a similar result to me. Topping a plant isn't necessarily a bad thing, if the plant is happy and healthy the delay caused is minimal to almost none as far as I am concerned. You can easily take a cutting to flower in 6 to 8 weeks with it being bigger than a 20L fabric pot, trained and topped and over 30cm tall from the medium. Most likely closer to 6 weeks. Around 8 weeks if working from seed. You should yield at least 80g dry from such a plant too, a good strain could yield more. I have been helping some newbie growers out, they got some cuttings and 4 weeks in the cuttings were almost ready for flower - just waiting for the plant to grow a bit more but its already been topped, trained and has had the leaves defoliated multiple times. Sometimes doing all of this can actually speed up the growth of the plant I feel - although this is based on my opinion and not actual hard facts and science. The plants really seem to explode after having the leaves cleaned up and the smaller branches at the bottom removed. It no longer needs to use energy to maintain that, can use all of the energy on new growth.

@Psylecta even if you're growing from seed, after a month that plant is going to be fairly well sized and you'd likely have wanted to do some topping before 4 weeks to help speed things up a bit and help with the training. Not sure where you got the idea from that topping will affect the potency of the plant? It does not affect the potency of the plant, however training the plant will affect the yield and the size of the buds. Having a xmas tree with a single large cola and will yield a larger bud / head however the yield would be lower - having a trained plant could yield more although you'd have multiple smaller buds / heads. The size of the bud has nothing to do with the potency of it though. Training and going after a flat canopy helps you make better use of your lighting as well as the plant and budsites will all receive higher intensity levels of light as it will all be the same distance from the light where an xmas tree plant will receive high intensity levels of light at the top and as you go down the long cola the intensity of the light will naturally start to diminish. I am not saying there is a right or a wrong way, it comes down to personal preference and how interactive you want to be with your plants and your grow and so forth, although training a plant vs not training a plant does not affect the potency of the plant. Based on this theory, a mother plant which has lasted years and has had multiple cuttings taken from her and has been butchered to stay a nice size would have next to no potency - we all know this is not the case otherwise we'd not have some of the amazing strains we do nowadays as these special cuts of strains / phenos would lose their potency.

I see the price is actually a little more than I quoted, this one is R170. https://www.petworld.co.za/webstore/fish/aquariums-accessories/aquarium-pumps/aqua-one-fountain-pump-101-400l-h-9325136037012.php Although a slightly bigger one isn't that much more: https://www.petworld.co.za/webstore/fish/aquariums-accessories/aquarium-pumps/aqua-one-fountain-pump-102-500l-h-9325136037029.php More than double the L per hour (apparently): https://www.petworld.co.za/webstore/fish/aquariums-accessories/aquarium-pumps/aqua-one-fountain-pump-103-1200l-h-9325136037036.php You could possibly even find these pumps cheaper elsewhere. I have the small 101 pump for my blumat system, it sits in the res and works well. It runs 24/7 as the blumats only open and let water in when the medium dries out a bit.

You can get a water pump from around R110 or so and it works fine for a smaller system. The pump I use for my res is a small one and a cheapy. Sent from my Redmi Note 7 Pro using Tapatalk

For coco it's possibly easier and more effective to rinse it all in a tub as opposed to flushing the plants. Sent from my Redmi Note 7 Pro using Tapatalk

So always has been a heated debate. I have personally flushed before - with plain water and with chelated stuff such as florakleen. I have also not flushed and I no longer flush. I feed my plants up until harvest. I stumbled upon this video, still busy watching it but a bit of research has been done on it and so far quite interesting. So far it seems as if there isn't much of a difference, I find it interesting though that with the terpene percentage, there certainly seems to be a trend though - could be coincidence. The longer the plant was flushed for, the lower the percentage of terpenes. However it's still a minimal difference and how noticeable it would be, unlikely I feel.

Remember, its not the lumens or watts which count when we are looking at a light for growing, its the PPFD. Not all LEDs are equal in terms of their output (PPFD), so 200w of LED is not 200w of LED. Just because there are 2x LED lights of which both draw 200W and may have the same spectrum does not mean they will perform the same or provide the same PPFD output. While you may be able to build that light fixture for under R1k, it does not mean its going to be the best value for money - chances are it's going to be very inefficient at turning your watts into light which the plants are able to make use of. However this thread certainly shows us that there are light options available at under R1k which will work for a grow. I feel the purpose and point of a forum is to have a discussion, any member who is looking for a budget light and sees this thread now has more context as to what may be a suitable option for a grow light if their budget is around R1k and hopefully they will gain more knowledge and a better understanding of everything. EDIT: This article actually explains things nicely: https://fluence.science/science-articles/horticulture-lighting-metrics/#:~:text=PPF is photosynthetic photon flux,a lighting system each second.&text=PPFD measures the amount of,a given surface each second”. Lumens, LUX, PAR, PPF, PPFD.

Precisely, it looks like a banana... nana...nanner

Got a link to an overseas site which sells the right Serenade, there seems to be a few different types. When I last looked I could only find a huge bottle of it, I think it was like 4 gallons or something stupid.

Eek, hope you find it soon - how far from harvest roughly? Maybe you'll get away without seeds developing.

Likely it's just instability, iffy genetics. Sent from my Redmi Note 7 Pro using Tapatalk

What have your grown with this? What does that 525W produce once flowered and how many plants does it cover?

Very nice, gravity system is clever and makes life easier if one does not want to run a water pump. Although wouldn't you want to run black piping to avoid possible algae growth inside the piping? @Batista what do you mean your coco does not like water at all?

So @Prom and @Batista pretty much covered it. You want to slow down the drying process by controlling the humidity. Having a tent or small enclosed space helps as the water weight from the plants will increase the humidity. So a small extraction fan (PC fan works well) connected to a controller wit ha RH sensor of sorts is ideal. Since its warming up, low temps aren't really an issue and unless you have an AC controlling the temp isn't easily achievable. However high temps will ruin the terpenes, so you want to try keep the temps low too. Below 26C preferably. Do not dry out your bud too much, I personally prefer to put the bud into a jar with Boveda and have it increase ever so slightly above the Boveda pack humidity and let the boveda bring the RH down. Whenever I have dried bud too much and the Boveda has had to increase the RH, the bud has ended up harsher than the rest - even after months of sitting in a jar with Boveda packs. I base my drying on the RH in the drying area vs the ambient RH, the snapping of branches has never worked well for me. I also do not really burp jars, if the bud is a bit too wet when I jar it, then I leave the jar open for a couple hours and continue to do so until RH is around where I want it. Burping daily is too much of a mission for me, I don't have time to do that. The drying process can make or break your weed.

So I think the higher EC run off is likely due to the fact that the coco you're using isn't plain coco so out of the bag the EC is likely on the higher side. When growing in coco, I do not water until run off. I know a lot of people do recommend it, but fuck that is a mission. Also flushing coco, its an inert medium so you need to feed with nutrients otherwise there wont be any for the plant. I also give nutes with every feeding and since using the automatic watering the plants get nutrient water multiple times a day, based on how quickly the medium dries up... So this leads me to over watering with coco. I feel its more difficult to overwater a plant in coco than it is to overwater a plant in soil, a larger plant in a 20L fabric pot I feel is practically impossible to overwater in coco. I can water it until run off and the plant will remain perfectly happy. When a plant is smaller, I guess it could become a problem but I usually drench the medium (entire medium, I hate only watering around the plant) and then leave it for a few days until it actually dries out a bit but I also dislike leaving my plants until the medium is very dry. When was still using soil I found this lead to slower growth, so since then I started to water more frequently and push nutes with every feed and growth increased and plants have remained happy. I personally feel people put too much emphasis on overwatering of plants. Don't do it everyday with smaller plants which cannot consume the amount of water but no need to wait for the medium to be completely dry before feeding your plants again. I do agree that generally we tend to feed our plants way more nutrients than they are able to consume, although I have not tried to lower the dosages and see what the results are.

Hey all, So how about sharing some of your secrets, wondering if any of you guys have special mixes of stuff you like to use on your plants which you feel make a difference and how do you use it? I know some of the common stuff is kelpack, silicon, various nutrients via foliar spray, Triancontanol etc. Then you get the stuff like trichoderma which can help keep roots happy and mycorrhizal fungi as well which you'd generally mix in with the medium or apply via a "soil" drench. Your various bloom boosters, which is generally MPK. Curious as to what you find works for you and how you apply it.

If its coming right then monitor for now, otherwise let us know. Auto's in general can be weird I find, very finicky. Not all of them, but some for sure. I would also start feeding closer to normal nutes as the plants are starting to get bigger now and I am sure you're at a lower PH by now too?

Nice! Sounds like a lot of natural stuff, not too much coming from a store I think this could be a great grow! Eager to see how it turns out.

Yeah, a grow with decent equipment adds up very quickly indeed. The carbon filter will have a rated airflow rate, the fan should not exceed this otherwise smell can leak. When connecting a fan to a filter, I believe the airflow is reduced by around 20%, you would need to work out the airflow exchange rate for your tent. There are a few calculators you can find online which will help you figure out the airflow the fan needs to be rated for in order to ensure it meets your needs.

Not a bad mutation, some of your bud may end up looking a bit different - I had a similar mutation with the one Bruce Banner plant I was growing. May be worth cloning and keeping if you end up liking the mutation, I believe some mutations can even lead to higher yield.

Welcome! Your name is awfully close to mine A carbon filter is to help mask the smell of the plants, especially once they start flowering. The air passes through the carbon, the smell basically attaches to the carbon and what comes out is air which is smell free (or heavily reduced). So whether it is required or not will depend on you and your situation etc. As for the sized fan, well, with LED lighting heat is not an issue, you could likely get away with a 4" fan, otherwise a 6" fan and run it on a lower setting for less noise should work well too. I'd personally go for a 6" fan as its more common and you can always increase the speed if need be. As for the size of the filter, well, its a small grow space so do not need a large one. Probably between 30 to 50cm long is fine but also keep in mind the larger the carbon filter the more carbon and therefore the longer it could possibly last. Not sure what you are asking about with regards to plastic vs metal? For what exactly? The fans and/or filter? Either or really... My fans are made from plastic, its common. The filters are generally metal, although I have seen some difference designs. I would not bother with plastic vs metal as a deciding factor.

Yes, breeding outdoors isn't ideal anymore. Breeding indoors, space is often the problem and a limiting factor. Sent from my Redmi Note 7 Pro using Tapatalk

It's quite sad actually and that's always been my thing... Is it really a true landrace? When people talk about Durban Poison, is it the original strain? Sent from my Redmi Note 7 Pro using Tapatalk