John Stonedwell

9 hours ago, The_StonedTrooper said:

@John Stonedwellsending you my postal address

JK, but if I could make use of that beautiful art, I'd purchase one from you sir

Not only do you get stoned well, you make stone well too, good work 

Thanx for the kind words man. But I can't take credit for this one.

A lady very close to my heart does pottery and made this little awesome 1 hitter bong and as I was sending @Weskush a seed I thought I might as well fill up the package.

If you are really interested in one pop me a message then we can hook you up.

I learnt how to use Pudo and makes sending items really cheap and affordable. R50 for locker to locker and they have a good footprint across SA.

Have an awesome Friday. 

Smoke it up man. 

True that we all have so much to be thankful for. We live to share 

23 minutes ago, Totemic said:

They all looking fire. You must recommend he tries other breeders too... There is so much fire out there coming from other breeders. Even I'm constantly hunting through many other lines alongside my own. What I have to offer is really not even a drop in a very large genetic pool

Hey man. Speaking of local breeders. Have you ever worked with Motherland genetics and what do you think of their crosses and work?

I currently have the Purple Dosidos and Sunset Sherbet S1 seedlings going... 

Hey bud. 

Hope you're good. Have you ever thought of grafting different strains onto one bonsai plant? A buddy of mine sent me this reddit screenshot and I thought it might be right up your alley for a next experiment.

Hi folks.

So I came across this exciting article of the first company to get a licence to produce, package and distribute cannabis and related products. They are also looking at entering the psilocybin space which I am very excited for.

The company, Cilo Cybin, is also looking at an IPO locally and internationally. I definitely want to find out more about this company but it seems like they got their shit together and also have the capital and expertise to enter into this market while it is in its infancy.  Might be a clever move to buy in if the company's strategy looks sound.

Enjoy the read.

https://businesstech.co.za/news/technology/515352/cannabis-company-plans-listing-after-being-handed-first-rights-to-grow-and-package-weed-products-in-south-africa/

21 minutes ago, CoolJ said:

The Terp Council. 

https://terpcouncil.com/product-category/genetics/in-house-genetics/

Oh wow thanx man. And I thought I knew about most of our local suppliers. Another nice one on the list now.

Thank you very much.

5 minutes ago, CoolJ said:

Thanks man! I will definitely be starting a diary soon that will be updated more ofren 

I agree buying together helps a lot, we got lucky with a 40% discount on these so we had to jump on it. 

That's an insane discount. Wow.

Was it through trophy seeds or african smoke?

1 minute ago, CoolJ said:

So myself and @Dr. Greenpurchased a pack of Loud Cake together so I will be running 4 of them. Might stick in random clone but I'll see, 5 plants felt a bit too much in my spare. 

Yes yes yes. This is some fire man. I hope you get some wicked pheno expressions in that batch. 

It's good to do a group buy on these type of seeds as they are crazy expensive to just buy yourself. 

Please keep us posted man I would love to see those ladies in their full glory. 

All of the best brother man 

Just now, CoolJ said:

Haha thanks man!  @Dr. Greenis the man who guided me to this level, I'm still far from reaching his level(but soon ) 

 

 

 

Yeah what the Dr did to those Headbangers was exceptional. With every grow we learn and hone in on the skills that will make us happy campers. 

So what you planning on popping next?

25 minutes ago, CoolJ said:

I finally decided to harvest. 

The 1 Crescendo and Headbanger could of definitely gone abit longer but due to space everything must be Chopped! 

This was definitely a challenging grow, not being there daily to check up on plants and feeding has cause some problems. 

The Blumat watering worked great but needs to be monitored daily as I've had pipes blocked abit and those plants sufferred from that only noticing a few days later. 

Now time to wait and see how they turn out and taste. 

Fuck me bro.. I can see you and @Dr. Green read the same grow bible 

Epic scrog work my man. You can be very proud of that grow  

1 hour ago, Prom said:

Day 4 of Week 16 Update

Got nothing

Tarryn

Sisa

@Pants check those roots my boy 

@Prom you probably grow some of the fattest nugs on this forum. Very well done man. Great defoliation and proper balance on nutes. Will use what I have learnt from you on my next grow.

51 minutes ago, CreX said:

Thanks man, i generally do exactly that, down to sitting in water and using 6 year old dynaroot LOL, i find the hollow stems of the tops often lead to the stem going soggy from some bacterial infection or something, so i add a few drops of h2o2 to my cup of water that they sit in for a few min... that seems to make a good difference, but its not fool proof.

The RH in the dome plays a big role. I followed your advise of lowering it by leaving the lid slightly ajar as my dome doesn't have any vents. 

When I used this process the rooting success ratio moved from the odd 90% to 100%

The tops that I clone with are also relatively small reaching about 10 to 15 cm. With about one to two nodes above the cut that I fully remove with only the top tip remaining and those fan leaves at the tip getting a proper trim down. I also don't really mist or spray my dome too much within that 2 week period probably only about 4 to 6 times after the first initial spray down.

Happy cloning my friend and hoping this little bit of input can help you knock those top cuttings out of the park

4 hours ago, CreX said:

what tips do you have for cloning the freshest growth?

i would like to call myself adept at cloning... but i still battle endlessly with turning tops into cuttings

 

Hi CreX.  

I primarily only clone with tops due to the mainline that I run. No special process and close to 100% rooting success rate.

I cut the tops and keep them in water for a couple of minutes till I am done with the one plant. I then use Dynaroot rooting powder and dip the stem in it. (My rooting powder is also probably 6 to 7 years old) Then over to peat cubes. 

I do remove quite a lot of leaves and any nodes that are above the cut so as to allow for a smaller leaf foot print. If the stem is relatively big the rooting might just take a little bit longer.

The Twisted Helix cut that I gave @PsyCLown was a top cutting. 

2 hours ago, PsyCLown said:

So I have photos of when I first noticed the root aphid issue, not the best but thought to post them for anyone who stumbled upon this thread later on. May help them identify the issue, although pretty easy to tell if something is on your roots.

 

 

You get some which are light in colour and some which are dark in colour, based on my research the ones darker in colour are a big issue and far more difficult to kill and seem to be resistant to more pesticides. They may also change colour as they grow, not 100% sure on this.

I saw reports where Orthene was not working as well against these darker root aphids experienced in some tobacco fields.

 

 

To date I have spent over R2000 on pesticides trying to get rid of these root aphids.

The following is what I have tried:

• Bio-Insek Powder (beauvaria Bassiana & Metarhizium) - also contains diatomaceous earth along with the spores. Applied as a soil drench only.
• Eco-Insect Control (Spinosad) - applied as both a soil drench and foliar. Even tried doses upto 1.6ml per L
• Bio-Neem (Azadirachtin) - Applied as a soil drench at the recommended dose of 5ml per L and applied as a foliar as well (same dose)

 

I then thought I might be winning the battle and continued to drench with the above mentioned products as a pre-caution. I even filled the bottom of my rooting tray with the mixture I used as a soil drench to help my new set of cuttings make it without these darn root aphids... End of last week however I took a peak into my clone dome only to notice roots, but one cutting which had rooted had root aphids, the other cuttings looked fine. I tossed the cutting which contained the root aphids in the bin along with all cuttings of that strain, sprayed some doom into the bin and took the bag outside... Very disappointed and frustrated, felt as if all the money I had spent, all the time and effort on applying these drenches was all for nothing.

I even went as far as to soak the glue plugs in the soil drench solution with the above 3 mentioned products before putting the cuttings into the clone dome and I cleaned out the clone dome (top and bottom) with a heavy JIK (bleach) solution to ensure it was as clean as could be. Of course the dome went into the veg tent, which at the time I thought and hoped was root aphid free - they just took a short vacation, chilling in the coco it would seem.

My plants in my veg tent did not look happy, the most purple stems I have ever seen and such light, pale, yellow leaves. It's shocking and very disappointing. Growth is extremely slow as well.

 

After further research and more reading, it become clear to me that based on my experiences and the experiences of many other growers out there - using these organic pesticides is more of a money pit and quite frankly a waste of time. The fact that even some systemic pesticides such as Orthene are not effective against these root aphids was also a clear indication that I have a big issue on my hands.

I read a comment someone had made somewhere stating that they took multiple pesticides (I think 10 in total, of which 2 were systemic) and mixed them at higher doses and put them into a small cup each. This person then proceeded to break off pieces of roots which were covered in root aphids from his cuttings and leave it in the cup with the pesticides and he wait a week only to find that majority were not very effective and the root aphids were swimming around having a pool party in the pesticides. The Imidacloprid was the one pesticide which stood out and was different and had killed all of the root aphids. How true this is, I cannot say - it is just some comment I found on the internet although it is a comment I can relate to.

 

As mentioned previously in this thread, I kept the rooted cuttings in my clone dome initially and then used that as a way to test the pesticides. I dunked the cuttings into solutions of the pesticides and then monitored to see whether they were actually working on not.

From what I saw, it took a few days but there was a reduction in root aphids most appeared to be dead but it did not happen over night despite the direct contact (full submersion) into the pesticide solution which contained the above 3 mentioned pesticides. I suspect the Bio-Insek did work as well as I saw some fungus on some areas of the glue plugs after a week or so, at this point I thought I was winning the war against the root aphids. I potted up the cuttings after getting rid of the root aphid carcasses, I dunked each cutting into the pesticide solution again (it was a fresh solution each time, I never let the solution sit for a period of time) - glue plug and plant and then put them into some fresh coco in fresh fabric pots which were either brand new and just unpacked from the box or which had been through a washing machine cycle.

 

So fast forward back to me noticing root aphids on the new, 2nd batch of cuttings after I had thought I was winning the war... I then inspected some of the plants which were in smaller plastic pots which needed to be potted up. Upon very very close inspection of the roots coming out from the bottom of the pots with a torch, I noticed those mother fucking root aphids again. So it was clear to me that my attempt at getting rid of these root aphids had failed and the money I had spent was a waste and at best took out a small percentage of the root aphid population. 

I potted up the plants, the weird thing being that once the plant was removed from the pot, I could not see the root aphids anymore. Closely inspecting the roots of these plants, I could not find the root aphids (the coco was a bit wet, so it fell apart when removing form the small plastic pots and was put into the larger 20L fabric pots). So even when inspecting roots when transplanting, they are not easy to see. They can easily be missed, especially if one is not looking for them - this just makes it that much more difficult to notice you have these pests.

 

Over the weekend and after more research and debate with myself, I decided fuck it and pulled the trigger and purchase some ProTek Complete 350 SC (Imidacloprid). A mere R170 for a 50ml bottle.

Read the pamphlet, mixed it at 1ml per L and as I was about to dose the plants (I was actually wearing gloves while doing this, but upon further research it seems that is actually not needed. Not absorbed very well via topical application and the doses to cause any harm seem to be extreme doses. Like the entire bottle in concentrate form per KG of body mass. It is used as a spot on for animals, we all know animals lick and groom themselves - heck some of us may have even used it on our own animals without knowing) I saw a root aphid chilling on top of the one fabric pot, I picked it up and put it into a droplet on my gloves of the solution and as soon as it touched the solution it stopped moving. I think it died immediately, maybe not. I stared at it for quite a while waiting to see if it would move again and it did not. I then put the fucker into the solution just incase. I wanted it to die a slow, painful death and wanted to make sure it was dead.

I continued to dose the plants in my tent with the solution of Imidacloprid. Now I know, some of you reading this will be shocked, horrified and disgusted that I have dared to use a systemic pesticide on my cannabis plants - fuck, not just any systemic pesticide but a neonicotinoid, Imidacloprid! Oh my goodness, the possibilities and potential health risks. Well shit, the decision did not come easily... but more on that later*.

I got to one plant in my tent, which just so happened to have a piece of grass growing inside of the pot as well (random I know, not sure where it came from but whatever), I ran out of solution. I had started applying a bit over the portion with the grass. I needed to meet up with a friend so quickly stepped out, upon my return I noticed 3 root aphids chilling on the piece of grass, dead! I blew and they just fall down, lifeless. Man oh man, did this make me excited! I mixed more solution and then noticed the plant was a male (regular seeds), so it got the cut. I did drench the coco and leave it in the tent to ensure any and all root aphids inside that pot die as well. The plant which got the cut went into a bag and into the bin outside straight away.

 

So it has now been a few days since I dosed the plants, there has been no sign whatsoever of root aphids and the plants are starting to perk up and are already starting to get some colour back in their leaves! This shit is legit, it really seems to work! It is still early days, I know but from the reports I have read, people have gotten rid of their root aphids with a single application of this Imidacloprid. It is systemic and travels up the plant and continues to travel up the plant as they grow. So any root aphids which may survive or eggs which did not die on contact for whatever reason, should die shortly after sinking their mouthes / teeth / whatever into the flesh of my plants. I will continue to monitor these plants, but at this point in time I feel as if I may have actually, eventually, managed to get rid of these root aphids and am pretty confident I have.

 

*Back to the possible risks of Imidacloprid with cannabis. I will be honest, my thinking was that if it is used on tobacco which is also smoked and if it is not very toxic when ingested, it does make me feel a bit more at ease using this particular systemic pesticide on cannabis. I understand that cannabis and tobacco are different, so it could be a danger in cannabis and not so much in tobacco. We all know that smoking is not good for us, period. Chances are we may have already consumed cannabis which has been dosed with Imidacloprid prior to us growing our own. Difference is, at least I know what is in mine and I can take precautious and it is my choice as to whether I decide to consume the cannabis or not (still undecided) and I can even send the bud to a lab to be tested.

My grow is indoors only, so bees are safe. I will need to make sure I dispose of the coco responsibly as well to avoid contamination in nature as I understand this pesticide is a big issue for bees and fish as it can get into water supplies easily. I would not dose outdoor plants with this. Not that I typically allow my pets into my grow area, however if they did get in and chomped on my plants I feel safe that it would not cause much if any harm to them. I do not plan on continuing to use this pesticide either, it is a temporary effort to get rid of the pests.
Only the plants in my veg tent were dosed, the ones in flower still have root aphids and will not be dosed with Imidacloprid.

 

So that is a bit of an update and where I stand at the moment. I feel that if I were to let these plants veg, take cuttings and then flower those cuttings it would be safe to consume the bud from those plants as it would be over 3 months before those cuttings went into flower and I do not believe the systemic pesticide would be in very high quantities, if at all, in the plant still and do not think it would transfer to the bud. I do want to look at sending bud in to be tested to see what the results are for interest sake - bud from the plants which were dosed. I feel I could have probably gotten away with a lower dose of 0.5ml per L based on the pamphlet and the results I have seen so far. Even if the dose is not high enough to kill the root aphids, at lower doses it can disorientate them and cause them to wander and stop eating.

 

I will provide further feedback after a bit of time. I documenting this for anyone who may run into this pest in the future and hope that it can help them out.

One of the most informative (and sad) posts I have seen on this forum. Especially on a pest that's not very well documented.

Sad for your financial knock but happy that you have seemed to find the trick that tames the beast.

I hope your troubles are over friend and that many more grows can prosper without those fuckers. 

5 minutes ago, mantis said:

Day 91

46 of 12/12

Fuck me. That's some good expression of the strain no doubt. Proper fire going there my good man. 

12 minutes ago, Weskush said:

Very nice! Shot for the offer man but i'm in CT ekse. Keep us posted on this grow please. Very curious to see the progress. Laka brother

Will keep you posted man.

I will pop you a pm and then I can maybe arrange to send you a seed as I have 5 fems and only intend on growing one. Let's just hope my germination rate holds solid 

1 hour ago, Weskush said:

A little update on my quest for Skunk.

I managed to get my hands on a Critical freebie fem. seed from RQS. This strain is a Skunk x Afghani, which makes it pretty close to what i am looking for.

Very keen to grow this lady outdoors this season

 

Nice man. Excited to see how it pans out for you. 

@The Grass Baas grew out a Critical outdoor once and it was one of the smoothest outdoor smokes I have ever had. 

I am currently germinating the White Afghan Skunk by OSG and its supposed to be a very close representation of the Super Skunk strain. If you were able to get to Pretoria I would shoot you a cutting anytime. 

This is how they describe the strain:

"

The cut of Super Skunk used is a high yielding cultivar from the 90's. This is original SS, and not the watered down stuff you see these days. Old school skunk funk with notes of ripe mango.

Unfortunately this cut of Super Skunk does not take well to pollen, and doesn't throw a lot of seeds. So an Old Widow male was used to revitalize the line. Old Widow was chosen to keep the traits of this stellar Super Skunk intact.

Don't be fooled by hype. A proper cut of Super Skunk is pure gold. Some of the best smoke I've ever had."

Hi folks.

So finished with the chop on day 73 and 74. Now the tent is empty and time for a decent clean before the next batch goes in. 

I will post a final entry with some bud shots and a smoke report once the ladies have been trimmed and jarred for some curing. 

Hanging and chilling... 

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

1 hour ago, ORGANinc. said:

For foliar Epsom, I would go no more than 1/2-1 tsp per 5L. 

So I bought some small baking scoops, they come in 1ml / 2,5ml. They graft well, ill fill the 1ml and smash a 1L spray bottle. 

Thank you for sharing your knowledge. Much appreciated 

12 minutes ago, PsyCLown said:

I think I used it at around 0.2 to 0.3 EC, but I only did it once or twice.

 

@CreX What EC or PPM do you do your CalMag foliar at and perhaps any advice on the best way to use it?

 

Epsom Salts is Magnesium, CalMag is Calcium & Magnesium with some Nitrogen - so do not go too heavy on the CalMag foliar IMO.

Thank you very much. This info helps a lot 

8 hours ago, Dookie69 said:

Epsom salts is not for treating Calcium deficiency. It’s Magnesium Sulphate, made up of Magnesium, Sulphur and Oxygen.

Cool thanx man. Do you now the ratio?

1 hour ago, Green Leaf Organics said:

 

 

Wow!

This looks like an outdoor party I would like to join!! Beautiful photo with an amazing view of the cosmos  well done

On 6/2/2021 at 2:19 PM, CreX said:

shot for the thread man! 

i have a lot to say about foliar regimes, but wont go into too much detail just yet, lets see what the peeps have to say.

for me i like to keep it simple, i must admit that my efforts can be somewhat low and spontaneous, for example last night i found some white flies on my one plant, and found the tiniest spot of PM on another plant, so i gave them a spinosad spray and a copper soap spray separately. that should keep my ladies in check for at least a month.

i like to add copious amounts of fulvic acids to my sprays and a lil bit of kelpak, i did some research which i cant find now, where there was a control plant, a light sprayed plant and a heavy sprayed plant, they were sprayed with  5 parts fulvic and 1 part kelpak, and the results showed that the plant grew branchier and healthier with fortnightly sprays. but i spray once a month sometimes less, and only with what i think will help my situation.

i trust my plants roots and my feeding schedule so that i dont run into deficiencies therefore no need to foliar too often, more so for pest management.

i have foliar sprayed with almost every product you can think of, but found that if i K.I.S.S then things seem to go smoother.

• Humic acids - too many tiny fine particles make it hard to foliar, but i like it more than fulvic to foliar
• Fulvic Acids - very good as a chelate function and a wetting agent
• Kelpak - makes roots resistant to nasties and plant generally responds well in loooow doses
• H2O2 - i found the claimed uses not very useful or effective
• calmag - only for a deficiency
• epsom salts - only for deficiency
• milk - found it is useful for powdery mildew, and the milk seems to make the plant reach for the light
• seagrow - outdoor foliar for battling plants, wasnt too effective
• Neem - if used regularly it is useful, but there are better products
• Pyrol - very effective at contact killing bugs, but not eggs
• Spinosad - effective against bugs, but is systemic
• copper soap - very effective at killing and preventing powedery mildew
• plain water - for shits and giggles
• emprosoil - adds useful bacteria to the leaf surface
• sillica - im new to this one and need to learn how it works
• compost teas - adds useful bacteria to the leaf surface

Hey man.

What is the ratio of Epsom Salts foliar to be used for cal mag deficiency? 

2 minutes ago, PsyCLown said:

Looking great, once you go into flower (after preflowering /stretch) you wanna drop the nitrogen all the way down.

What nutes you using? Biobizz?

All your plants look quite similar frost wise actually, very nice.

Sent from my Redmi Note 7 Pro using Tapatalk
 

Hey bro.

Yes I use the BioBizz line. I think I might have prolonged the grow feed and strength a bit too much so will keep an eye on that next round. 

First round pulled the N too early, this time round too late. So hopefully the sweet spot will be achieved in the near future.