Venom

R150 and it's at your door the next day. I have no issue paying that. To date, I have had no problems with them.

Hey Wallis, well done on the grow. So what if it's not A-Grade. I think you've done really well. This is the best way to learn. Photo's posted, positive comments and away you go. Any info that helps is good info. Next time, try posting pics early, get some early advice and keep posting. You'll learn SO fast! You will be growing A-Grade before you know it.

All on timer switching on and off at the same time: One inlet fan, two small desk fans, one 600w MH running at 75% with a cooler hood. Extractor runs 100% of the time. My temp sits at 26.5. If you are getting 25 with no extraction, I would suggest sleeping in that cupboard because man oh man, you live in a cold area! :thumbups

I want to nominate Leaf's post - "The GLO way" http://www.420sa.co.za/index.php/topic,595.msg4723.html#msg4723

Run my lights at night to help with load shedding, also keeps the babies warm.

First grow? Wow, looks like a very experienced grow! Well done! Hard work and dedication pays.

I germinated all my seeds from them in moist cotton wipes and I have only had one fail to germinate.

Spend the money and buy decent soil. I started with that picknpay stuff and it's full of unnecessary crap. Buy decent soil from a gardening place. In most cases, the more you spend, the better the soil. I now use a German mix. I add worm castings, perlite, vermiculite, Turbo Grow, and even some Leca. What you don't want is to spend R50 on soil, and the grow fails. Spend the R150-R250 and make a rich soil that produces a decent crop.

I bought from them a number of times, never had an issue. I just germinated 5 seeds (Durban Poison, Blueberry S Diesel, C*99) and all germinated and are growing well. All the seeds arrived in tiny plastic containers, not bankies. I have never had cracked seeds or anything out of the ordinary.

So long as the government cannot make money out of it and the pharmaceutical companies lose money from it, it's doomed. It's all about money. Since when has mother nature ever provided anything medicinal that is dangerous? The powers that be cannot earn from something we can grow in our gardens. So, make it illegal. How many people die from smoking cigarettes each year, how many alcohol related deaths are there each year? So why are these addictive substances not illegal? Because you cannot just grow it. When it requires certain processes in manufacture, the government starts earning. The best statement we can make? Just grow our own!

Did they pick up? I have only seen your thread now. I would have said, give them some time to settle in.

So I finished my first grow and my results were mixed. of 7 plants, I had three males. (Left me with 4 plants) Then I have one go Hermie. (Left me with 3 plants) Then the one just died. So I was down to 2 plants. One was a beaut and was harvested. The other was put into my makeshift ICU, which it seems to love! So my post is simple. When we start, we read up, we buy stuff and we hope. But, we do things wrong, things that we could have avoided, but did not. Here is my advice (From my first grow) to new growers: Water - water less than you think you should. I have 5 seedlings growing now (3 in soil, 2 in Coco) I water the coco plants once every 5 days with a small amount of water (like 100ml) and the soil plants, I water every 5-7 days. This will become more frequent when they get bigger and need more water. On my first grow I over-watered and it cost me! (And use Vermiculite or perlite to help with aeration) Nutes - I enriched my soil on my newest grow with a whole bunch of organic additives bought from Horticultural stores. They were all added in moderation, not too much. The problem in my first grow was I tried to force feed the plants with nutes. I added nutes at every opportunity and again.....it cost me! Less is better. I thought if I pumped the plants with nutes, I would get a bigger yield, better buds....well not entirely. I nearly killed my plants with N toxicity. Whatever the nutrient bottle says, do not exceed it. Not until you are a master at growing. Keep it simple and give very small amounts of nutes. Use quality nutes. I made the initial mistake of buying African Violet nutes, Orchid nutes, Rose nutes....what a waste. Find a dedicated Horticultural store that specialises in Hyrdoponics, they will have the correct nutes. Lights - I was on a budget so I used CFL. (Compact Fluorescent lighting) Each light was attached to a cable that I could raise as the plant grew. My first mistake was keeping the bulb too far from the plant. The plants stretched to get to the light and I had weak stems after that. Now, on my recent grow, my bulbs are about 1-2 inches from the plant. I have fat thick stems and big leaves. There is a little heat stress, but i can manage that by lifting the lights about 2-4mm when I see that. I have a nice big MH and HPS lighting system due any day now. Once the seedlings get a little bit bigger, I will move them over to the bigger light (Without hurting them....I'll be starting off on about 250w and working my way up toward 600w as they grow). Obviously I was concerned about the CFL's not being strong enough as I bought the bigger system. You can use CFL's, I did in my first grow. So what I learned about CFL's is that they MUST be close to the plant. As the plant grew, I introduced more CFL bulbs. BUT AGAIN!!!! I failed to put the lights close enough. AGGHHH! Anyway, we learn.... Soil - Don't use crap! Don't make the mistakes I made. My first time was potting soil at R30 a bag. I added perlite. All I got was a compact solid mass. This time, I bought German soil at R99 a bag, added Perlite, Vermiculite, even put in Leca. Added Worm castings, bone meal, etc. All in moderation. If you use soil, DON'T USE CRAPPY SOIL!! Pots - I have moved away from round funnel shaped pots and am using square non-funnel shaped pots. In other words, as the pot moves down, it does not taper in. I saw this on YouTube and am trying this out. There was a concerns about the funneling down and the round shape affecting the roots. Lights and Timing - I have invested so much into my growing now, how can I not protect myself against ESKOM??? When I was in flower, I ran my lights from 22h00 - 09h00. I have a backup electrical system just in case the power goes, but it was never needed. The times that the lights went on and off were never affected by Eskom. Heat - What I learned was try to run lights at night if the weather is hot. even with CFL's I struggled to bring the temp down. I had fans everywhere and I just could not bring it down. i have a mobile aircon, but I never used that. Once I moved the plants over to lights on at night, things improved. Now during winter, my lights are on at night to keep them warm. So it seems that lights on at night works for me. Plant supports - I never use dowls or anything like that in my first grow and because the plants stretched, I had to insert dowls later. This was not good because the plant roots had to be damaged to insert the dowls. Now, my seedling are growing up with the dowls in place. Smell - I had a carbon filter installed from day 1 Air - I have a small fan that blows air into the tent from outside. OBVIOUSLY, I don't run this in winter. I allow the extractor fan to cause a small 'vacuum' effect in the tent and this pulls cool air from outside in at a very moderate rate. In all, the very best advice I can give from my first grow is; When it come to water and nutes....less is more. Yep, use less than you think you need. If you are starting for the first time, less is more. Any addition to my post is welcome!

The SSH has gone Hermie as Reaf said it would. What do I do? The Guava Ghost train is 2-3 weeks from finishing. The SSH (under normal conditions has 5 weeks. Will the Guava Ghost get fertilized if I leave them together? Is there enough time for the Guava to start focusing on seed production? I will destroy the SSH if it is the best thing to do. I can start again.

Pics as promised: Some leaves look good, some are drooping. Is there hope? This dowel is very thin, it looks huge, it's not. (And to any smart-asses, no, that's not what my wife says) More: And a couple of pic of the Guava Ghost Train

Thanks for the comments guys. Here is what I did. Two days ago, I was wondering if she was drowning, so I took a pot, the exact same pot as she is in and punched it full of holes with a soldering iron. I then put some dry soil into the bottom of this pot, not much soil, very little actually. I then took a soldering iron to the pot she is in and made a cut about 1cm above the base and ran the iron all the way around the pot. I also punched a whole bunch of holes into her pot from the sides all the way around. She looks like her pot was shot by a pellet machine gun. I was able to drop the base of the pot out. (My biggest fear was root rot). Out came a solid compacted flat 'plate' of soil . Essentially, I was holding the piece that I cut out and it was solid with soil. Wet compact soil. There were some roots in it, so I checked them and the did not smell, they seemed quite healthy. Anyway, I put that base aside. I picked up the pot that the girl is in and inserted it into the other pot that I punched full of holes. According to my measurements, there should be about 2mm gap between the dry soil in the outer pot and her base. Such a small gap, but enough to let some air in and if the soil in the base falls, it's only 2mm. I then placed a fan blowing onto the outside of the pot and the soil. I have stopped using the dehumidifier as it seems that the extractor is doing a fine job. This morning, she still looked droopy. Her giant fan leaves are dying and lying on top of a lot of the buds, so I cut them away. I did this for a number of reasons. I wanted to get airflow through the lower section and also to get some light to the buds and their leaves. Also, just past 6 weeks into flowering, I was expecting these leaves to die soon. After I cut away the leaves, she looks a little less 'bushy', but I was surprised that she does not look 'that' bad anymore. I may still lose her, but there seems to be some light at the end of the tunnel. Her smaller leaves seems to be good. Some are erect and some are a little droopy. The fact is that I have cared for her and I genuinely care about her and I think this will make a difference. I am also hoping that the fan and the double pot will dry out the base soil. She was getting a bit weak knee-ed, so i put a dowel in to support her. Hope that this means that her buds are still growing and that she is getting heavy. I must make a correction. I made an error with something, I used Perlite, not vermiculite. (Sorry guys). The compost that I used was that organic 'super grow' stuff. Yes yes, next grow will start soon and the learning curve has been ridiculously steep. I won't use peat again and I will ease up on compost. Next is Durban Poison and two little Cinderella 99's. I will post photo's tomorrow of her and then of my pride and joy, the gorgeous Guava Ghost Train. (please note that I am a beginner and that even my Guava Ghost is showing small over nute signs. I have adjusted everything since two/three weeks ago. Now all they will be getting is water.....and not very much of it) Watch for the pics tomorrow.