Teal Smith

@Chris Jay Thanks so much man :D A great book on Fungi with loads of easy to understand info: "Field Guide to Mushrooms & other Fungi of South Africa" by Gary B Goldman & Marieka Gryzenhout. Just reading over that book a few times will give you quite a good understanding on the ID part. Wow, no I never knew that about hemp. Very cool, super interesting, will def check it out!

@Fridge That would be awesome bud :) Thanks everyone :)

@Fridge feel free to message me any new info or interesting articles on fungi. I've been into mycology for the last few years and am always looking for new info. I used to be a nature guide and so always loved photographing animals. These days I just walk the forests for my own interest and fun/exercise, and I take just as many photos of fungi as I do of birds and animals on my hikes. Here are some of those pics. We have some truly amazing species right here in SA. As time passes, I find the smaller things in nature to be even more intriguing than the larger ones. @ORGANinc. the Red Stinkhorn (below) has been speculated to be mycorrhizal (as well as being saprophytic). No idea which plants they form a symbiosis with. They are so strange... smell just like rotting meat to attract flies so they can disperse spores. I dry heaved a few times when I smelled this one LOL.

@Fridge Awesome, that is fascinating, thanks man :) Agree 100%. There is intelligence at work there for sure. Like something almost otherworldly. So many different species of fungi, all with different functions, without which life on this planet wouldn't exist. Pretty crazy how fungi are more closely related to us than they are to plants, too.

Fungi are fascinating. So diverse and they can do so many things. Thanks for sharing @ORGANinc.. Something I came across the other day, you might find interesting, check out this video https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/video/slime-mold-navigate-maze/ There are certain slime molds that were able to navigate their way around a maze to get to a food source. Nature never ceases to amaze

Anyone tried the Auto Pablo Escobar from Divine Seeds?

I had a really great result with Canuk's Auto Girlscout Cookies. A really smooth and uplifting smoke full of flavour. Great bag appeal too. The phenos were fairly uniform. She flowered faster than the other strains, in just over 8 weeks (all flowered more or less at the same time with this strain) Equally as good was the LSD25 from FastBuds. Bag appeal off the chart with those purples. The vibe is even better. Good yielder. Total winner. Question - Which local online shop/s in SA would you guys say, is the best importer/s of seeds at the moment? I'm very happy to stick with Canuk and FastBuds. I am unable to get through my old channel at the moment.

@Prom just having a closer look at this pic of yours... Which material have you covered your intakes with, pls? On this point, something a little interesting.... I had one plant, much taller than the others, and I had nowhere to put her without getting burnt, so I placed her in between 2 lights with her main cola sticking out the top above the lights (quite far above, like 25cm). Besides the main cola she got plenty of good light. I was surprised to see that her main cola continued to grow much bigger than the buds below with no direct light at all. Interestingly, her leaves on the main cola also kept their green colour, while all the leaves under the light below were yellow (yellow was the correct colour is it was in late flower.) Unless the main cola was still catching ambient light bouncing around the tent and that was enough to keep it growing big... But I found that noteworthy.

@Prom Great! Ya it looks amazing, thanks for confirming. I like to smoke in the daytime mostly (keep me focused! haha), so I prefer a more energetic vibe. Then sometimes for restless nights, I may keep smaller reserve of a more indica dominant strain, late harvest. So far the AK x Critical Mass from Canuk has been really tasty, a little cerebral in the beginning, with a relaxing vibe soon after. A little chocolate on the palate, which I love. Anyway I could talk about this all day! Haha.... Thanks man, and well done on this grow! Always good to learn!

That is great news for me, the pruning was time consuming. 201g from a single plant... Sjoewee... Even your 136g is damn impressive. So I will undoubtedly NOT be pruning my autos anymore :) But I will have to revisit my airflow directed at the base of the plants. I installed little 180mm RAM oscillating fans but they not going to be powerful enough. I'm thinking of mounting box fans or similar directly above my QB bar lights. Should do the trick (and free up some floor space). Nice one. I've been looking into getting a nice sativa-dominant auto and Royal Gorilla is checking a lot of boxes. Thanks. It's on my short list. I also like the sound of Green Crack Auto from FastBuds.

Hey @Prom. I'm curious, so you don't prune your autos at all? I lollipopped mine and am wondering if that's the reason they were a little on the small side - too much recovery time from pruning. I pruned in increments, over 3 sessions about 2 weeks apart, roughly, so as not to shock them too much and cause stunting, and also to improve airflow and RH. They all had a high bud to plant ratio but I never had huge yields. I experimented with topping and FIMing one of each also, just to see, and those yielded a little less than the regular defoliated ones. Should I just leave them alone completely? (besides necessary maintenance)

@Prom Thanks for the tip :) never knew you could re-hydrate.

Hehe ya I'll prolly not do that again. LOL

@PsyCLown Yes absolutely, I've been using H202 to sanitize the tent and stuff inside. I'd imagine there are spores everywhere, but with a bit of luck the mold was caught early enough in it's life cycle for it not to sporulate just yet.... Hope so, but no harm in taking all the measures. I cut off all stems at the base too, and wiped down with copper soap solution (grateful it's going for the stems at the base and not higher up towards the buds, or the buds themselves). I also dropped the RH to 48/49% for just over 30 hours now, and I don't see any more mold colonizing. It's back up to 51/52% now. On the lower end of the sweet spot. So far so good, knock on wood, things seem to be under control.

@afternoon blazer LOL by the reactions I take it this is the wrong thing to do. Figured since I have to wait for some to become drier before I can put them in jars, I may as well wipe off the mold where it has started colonizing to try curb the spread of it, and why not wipe it with copper soap, as long as it gets dried immediately after, was my thinking... " Oh well Unless you're referring to the tasting of the nutes... LOL that was to see if a theory of the white stuff being salts from nutes could be true.... Was thinking if they were salt they'd be salty.... But no, it is mold and surely does not taste like salt ;)

The more I think about this, I feel as though there may still be a little misunderstanding here. I mean, I know under normal circumstances one definitely wants to dry before curing. To explain better, I mean in my current situation where I already have mold inside the tent on the drying pieces, I was unsure of whether I should, as an emergency tactic, skip the drying phase on the newcomers to the dry tent to avoid the mold spreading to them, and wanted to know if that's what you meant. But since then, that had already been made clear to me by PsyClown earlier. They still need to be dried. Thanks, though. Cheers

Thanks @CreX :D, so with my current situation, it's best then to keep them drying as long as possible and make an educated call on when they're dry enough to move over to jars. Less chance of mold setting in on the buds that way, even though there is mold in the dry tent. Got it. :D

@Ill_Evan hectic! I never knew that. Will definitely be keeping those indicator cards out of the jars! Will rely on my mini hygros. Thanks!

Thanks so much for your detailed answer @PsyCLown :) Will def take all those things into consideration. I've known the Integra packs to work well in the past, not sure why it's doing this now, but it is still very much gel inside, feels new, no crystaline powder at all. Weird. Like all the other little things, I'll just keep monitoring and make adjustments as I go along. I actually have a CVault including a bigger Boveda pack it came with so will give them a bash soon. Just wanted to keep harvests separate in the beginning as I've been experimenting with early & late harvesting, plus now, some might get mold and I'd like to keep those separate anyway. Thanks again

Perhaps a better question, then, is: Since drying is always requirement, but is not necessary to be dried all the way, at which point do I know that the buds are ready to go from their minimum dried state into jars? I do read all your answers I promise, just learning here and want to be sure. I am grateful for your time. Thank you

Nice one Psyclown. I've read over a few times but to me, it was still unclear whether I can take the buds straight from harvest to jar, no drying at all. or only that it's fine now because they've been drying a while... Sorry, sometimes I need it to be spelled out as there is not much room for error in this, LOL, but thank you for clearing that up :) Also, good to know it cannot in any way, ever be nutes coming out the stems. Budwashing sounds like a good step to add as a preventative and after a little reading, it looks like it's a good practice anyway, will do in future. Thanks I still think the packs could problematic though. I left some weed in a jar over 2 days now with a 62% pack, and it's way too dry in there now, like under 50%. Ambient RH is higher than what's in the jar. The lids and rings are new, no leaks. I've tested now with 4 different mini-hygros. But the proof is in the pudding -the weed is too dry, not nice to work with. Also has become a little harsher..... IDK. I think I'll use the packs like a desiccant to bring RH down inside jars, then remove them once at 60% and monitor. If they get over 65% I'll put the packs back in again They are old packs also, about 3 years but don't know if they can expire. There aren't an exp dates on the packs.

Just checking - I can take put fresh harvested buds straight into jars with no drying at all?? Just monitor RH for 1st few days? Sorry. Thanks

@CreX ok great thanks. Well, even the wettest ones have been drying for more than 6 days, but @ around 52% - 64% (the 2 days of high humidity fell in that window). But there is still a very late one in it's 48 hours of darkness before chopping. What should I do with that one? (and any others that are clearly too wet for curing)? Just keep drying and monitoring/wiping mold?

@CreX just checking bud, so you mean even if the others are not snap-dry-ready yet, cut the buds and jar them? Or only the ready ones? I could put them with the 55% Integra Boost packs. Or do you mean to keep drying the ones that need time?

A new development... So cut off the affected stems, then wiped down remaining areas with copper soap solution. Dried it off well with a dry paper towel immediately after. While doing this I must have got some of the white "dust/mold" on my arm. It started to burn a little, same as my nutes do when I get it on me. So now I'm thinking there is a chance it could be nutes? Or @CreX do you think it's 100% PM, no questions