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You can re~use your soil. In the US the guys would test their soil after every grow and re~amend accordingly. On the scale that we grow I dont think it makes sence. I would find a good quality compost(vermicompost) and add some kelp meal and basalt rock dust(turbogrow). Maybe some alfalfa meal as atop dressing. You really only need to amend your soil once a year or every second grow. All my 50~70l bags have got something else growing in them atm.

I don't agree with you on this statement. If you grow organicly why would you destroy all the micro organism that you worked so hard cultivating during the season? I use organic cultivation methods indoors and you must manage the pests accordngly by having an IPM system.

So to understand what you are doing with topping, you need to remember that even though the plant is alive, you aren't chopping off its head with this maneuver lol. There is no hard and fast rule as to where you must top... This comes with experience... One day you will just walk by and realize a lady needs a snip and just do it! You can top the plant right down to the first node if you really wanted to... Don't... But I'm just saying it would be fine... The trick comes more about which lower nodes have decent enough shoots, you want to make your snip as low as you can! Without cutting off the lower stems you want to promote. So even if the nodes alternate like you are experiencing, you are just looking for lower growth that looks good enough to become a main Cola... And that method you have about topping at the 5th node is wrong... Or atleast the way you interpret it is wrong. On a seed grown plant, you would want to wait for the plant to have atleast 5 nodes, before topping the plant.... Likely at the 3rd node or lower even, depending how the lower growth has grown. Lemi know if this has helped you alil and feel free to ask questions to gain a better understanding. And don't worry about killing them... As long as you leave a leaf or 3 on the cutting.... The plant will survive

Thanks all. i ran into major issues last night which turned out to be my 320w. it seems to be overloading my power somehow and then yeah all hell breaks loose and my lighting schedule has been interrupted for 3 days now. i didnt know because the tripping of the light happens irregularly. and disables my wifi timer whcih doesnt automatically switch on. this now means that i need to remove some lights. (i suspect im pulling more amps than my line is allowing me to) So whats the future of my pretty buds looking like? probably goung to get hermies. so ill be picking seeds out of something i guess. install a power regulator so that when shit kicks in it doesnt overload the powerline. remove some light. i mean who needs to grow under 1040w. im sure i can have a nice grow under 720w aswell. i will be rebuilding my grow room soon some pics of what i think im.about to loose to hermies

I've found that my re-used soil seems even more alive than the initial soil. Like you say the micro-organisms cultivate as you let the used soil sit. I take all my used soil, throw it all together in a semi open container outside, chuck in a few earthworms and let nature do its wonder work

I would happily offer to be the tester/judge for the KZN competitors... send me your indoor guys

Greetings Fam. There isn't much happening in the tent but the buds have started to pack on some weight. I fed them a day or 2 ago and rigged together a magnetic stirrer to put into the new CO2 generator bottle, I hooked it up to the light timer. This way it increases CO2 production during the light cycle by lightly stirring the solution and stops once the lights go out. As a separate project, I made a wing reflector out of a can and mounted 2 HID LED car headlights on it. I have it in a Microgrow box that I'll reveal to you guys in a separate thread. The entire system is 12V and runs off a PC power supply. Anyway, here are some pictures of what the Inzane tree looks like right now. The Frost is real, lol

Good Day All, New to everything, starting to setup a small indoor grow tent. Bought some items over last couple months to have a basic setup. Tried to so some homework , watching YouTube video`s etc,,,,,,,, Here to get some guidance , build some knowledge and see if i can at least be successful with my first attempt.

Welcome [emoji868], you will find loads of info and options here and you can't go wrong and nice that you did some research on your own also. I have grown a few times with FF formula one and GHE, what I have done is to bump my tap water to 0,2-0,3 EC with Calsium Nitrate (think Epsom does the same but I have no experience with that), after the tap water bump I add the veg recommendations up to 0,5-0,8 EC in early veg and in full veg to 1 EC. Keep us posted and add pics as you go along Good vibes Sent from my F5321 using Tapatalk

My organic soil mix, developed over about 10 years of side by side tests. I'm from KZN so the sources are found closest to me here that I have added. Per 1000 litres mix you will need the following core ingredients: 400 litres of flushed expanded coco coir. Always flush more than you think you need to... (coco helps with the cation exchange capacity and adds a sponge effect to the medium allowing moisture to be spread out more equally, i use this coco) 300 litres of perlite. (along with the coco this is the main source of storing oxygen in the medium, i get mine from here or here) 150 litres of quality moist black worm castings. (The main component of the nutrients for the mix come from the worm castings, it is broad spectrum NPK and micronutrients, i get mine from here or here) 150 litres of quality compost. (if contains manure - use only 20% or lower manure content, can be mushroom compost or wood chips + manure etc. i get mine from here) Per 1000 litres mix you will need the following amendments: 500g of Talbourne Organics 2-3-2 (I use this as the main source of phosphorous instead of bone meal but it has all NPK and micro nutrients also. Very good product. Get the non pelleted version, their website) 2kg of Dolomite lime (main source of calcium and magnesium while also stabilizing pH, can get it at most nurseries or garden shops) 1kg of Rock dust (Turbo grow - source of micro nutrients) 1kg of Diatomaceous earth (the silica breaks down over time adding strength to plant cell structures, making stems stronger and leaves glossy. i get mine here) 200g of Cricket frass (contains high amount of calcium carbonate and iron, i get mine here) Liquid feeds that work well with this mix: Fish emulsion (Seagro brand has very low pH which is useful to bring down tap water that is higher than 6.5pH) Seaweed extract (The auxins and cytokinins help to de-stress plants and give life back to stunted or shocked plants, can increase internode lengths and delay onset of flowering) Biobizz bloom (I don't really use this anymore but can be useful to boost flowering plants without adding nitrogen) Biobizz grow (contains mostly fermented sugar beets and molasses, good to feed the soil microbes in light dilutions) Biobizz fish mix (pH corrected fish emulsion with molasses, I prefer to use the Seagro brand for the acidity) This mix is not a super soil so depending on the container or hole size that you use for a single plant, you may need to add liquid feed after 4-5 weeks of growth to support hungry plants, but you will be not adding much since majority of the nutrients are in the soil. Keeping the pH between 5.9 and 6.6 seems to have best results. Feed plants only plain water for about three weeks prior to harvest for the cleanest best tasting end product. Edit: to answer OP's question of reusing soil. I think that a proper made organic soil gets better over time because the larger particle sizes are broken down over time by the microbes and are more available to the plant for uptake. But I generally do add a bit of worm castings + dolomite lime + talbourne 2-3-2 for reusing the same soil that has grown plants in already, guessing how much is a bit of an art. My soil that I am using now has been grown in about 10 times and still very good.

When you say garden soil I assume you mean garden master, culterra and all that shite. By all means don't use that soil. You won't find a good soil for cannabis at most nurseries or builders warehouse. You'll need to look to a grow shop for a commercially available soil for cannabis, that works. I mix my own and every grower should have a crack at mixing their own soil at some time in their growing. You may find yourself not turning back

Controversial one that... sterilizing an organic soil is the last thing I would suggest to be honest. I would rather suggest using an IPM to control any pests or bad fungus. Depends on your preferences of course but personally I feel sterilizing the soil is setting you back

I read a nice blog on the RQS website this week. It is all about soil mixes for autoflowers. It kind of gives my theory some backing atm. Will post a link when i find it again. My biggest Autoflowers to date.

Welcome and Happy Growing. Share with us the details, would be nice to help get you a good start. Sent from my POCOPHONE F1 using Tapatalk

Hi guys. just thought I’d drop you guys this info for great seeds, it’s been a mission finding a good bank out there and I trust you guys will find this one to be top class. I have no affiliation to the bank at all it’s just great service and great seeds. They agents for Dinfem and Humboldt seeds in SA. website is Overgrow and their email is info@overgrow.co.za website: https://www.cannabisseeds.co.za

Hi fellow growers, I started growing cannabis around 10 years ago. Back then I still lived at a place where outdoor growing wasn't an option due to the short summer, so I started off with indoor soil grows. However I moved to SA about 8 years ago and started growing outdoors as nothing beats the South African sun (yes it's possible to grow awesome weed outdoors ). So far I tried to keep it as organic as possible growing in soil and using Biobizz. I grow Autoflowering and photoperiod strains. For the next outdoor season I plan to create my own super soil. I have read up on this topic a lot but I hope I'll find some good information on here too. I just got my own worm farm and started a compost heap. Looking forward to be part of this community. Fridgedoor

I ordered from them 2 years ago when they were still known as Medical Marijuana Seeds SA. They delivered within a week at the time. It was recent that they came out as "Overgrow". I believe they are still providing a decent service. I will probably be buying seeds from them next as I'd like a Dinafem seed again or try out Humboldt for the first time. I know they give you the original packaging from the breeders which is always a plus. Edit: I noticed there is another site with a very similar url to Overgrow; https://www.cannabisseed.co.za/. The only difference is an 's' at the end. Kinda dodgy me thinks.

Okay ingredients points organic. Omit what I said.

@Newbe_2020 Also for humidity for germination you need it above 70% for best results. Dont oversoak the Jiffy, make sure its damp thats all!

@Newbe_2020 WHats up bro! Good luck with your setup! Let us know how it goes and even start a grow diary here on the forum! Just shout if you need any information!

Thanks buddy. I came across SOG while researching lights. Really got me interested. As mentioned I am a novice on indoor so trying different methods in a small space then converting my garage in 2 months or so. Gonna need a ton of help then.

Hi, I wish you good luck with germinating your seed. I only use the jiffy pellets and it always worked out for me (and I don't even PH the water). I'm sure you'll see it sprouting soon.

Thanks All, So below is some info on my setup. I created a small propagation dome , with a small heat pad to assist with the germination process. I have tried to germinate one seed bought from Biltong and bugz using Rockwool but it failed to germinate. Seed was left in ph`d water over night, and placed in rock-wool using info i read on you tube. I initially thought the temperature or humidity was at fault , but closely inspecting the seed it was very soft and the contents of the seed was like a white past, so i think the rock wool was too wet. I did not add any water and i added so other none weed seeds into the dome which germinated perfectly, so the other thought could be that the seed was a dud. So as it stand Im attempting to do my second seed, this time using a Jiffy pellet and regulating the temperature and humidity more carefully. trying to keep the temperate between 21.5 and 23 and humidity between 50 -60%. Today is day 2, Im keeping a eye on it daily and had to water the pellet this morning as it was drying out a bit. Feeling more comfortable with this attempt so hope it works. I am using ph`d water of around 5.6 , hope its ok. Reflective Indoor Grow Tent - 60 x 60 x 140cm From Seedleme.com HZ-100 Silent Series inline Fan (100mm, 2 speed From Seedleme.com 1/8″ ROPE RATCHET From Seedleme.com CAN-Lite 150 PL Carbon Filter hydroponic.co.za Freedom Farms Formula 1 Growing Medium hydroponic.co.za Jiffy Pellets hydroponic.co.za Freedom Pots hydroponic.co.za LED Full Spectrum LED Light (Import) Not sure of watts Unknown General Hydroponics Flora Series Nutrient Kit Futurama Got Small fan , humidifier and heater if needed PH UP, PH Down, Kelp

Backing up potential. Fruitpunch and Pineapple Express. The selected moms are showing promise.

Clones are a bit different to starting seeds as you are basically growing a branch of a plant. The growth is not symmetrical. My suggestion is to just top the plant. See which 2 branches grows the strongest and top those 2 branches again. Clean up all the rest of the branches and make more clones. Give some to friends.

I have seen really good results with Just Cannabis soil. I have seen the pics of the owners grow this last season. Very impressed. Will be testing it myself on yhe next autoflower run.

What’s up guys! So just a little update. I will begin some LST training next week some time as the ladies are looking beautiful!

I've had good results reusing my living soil without feeding. I didn't re-amend as well... but it depends on the soil of course @SkunkPharm is spot on

Yea man! Ofcoarse you can reuse your grow meduim! But I would maybe buy a new cycle of soil if you want and put your used soil in a pile and re-ammend them with various things. Let it sit for a the whole grow, and then you could use it for your next grow, doing the same with your newer soil. @SkunkPharm knows his shit, maybe he can help out

A gift from @Cannabist A 5 pack of Harlequin Fast Fem 5:2 CBD Super fresh viable seeds, breaking the surface overnight. And off they go... Transplant time Into solo cups they go... Now it's time to start feeding a little so they continue with this early momentum.

Aweh fellow greenfingers. Just finished jarring the last of the late summer outdoor. Now we trying winter. 1/2. Purple Russian Express lady getting lekker. GDP x White Russian. 3/4. Seedsman Purple bud going pistils. 5-7. Some Winter Fruitpunch pheno hunting going on. 8-9. Pheno hunting ''spoils of war'' Not making the the cut doesn't mean they won't be enjoyed. 10. Fruitpunch potential. Puff, puff pass.....

So my clones have been growing for 11 days now since i got them from the grower. On this grow i want to at least top them twice this might be a stupid question but from what I've seen and heard im supposed to top them when they reach 5 nodes(please correct me if im wrong) but with normal grow from seed the grow is even but with clones im unsure because there is just 1 node on each side sometimes so does is count a node or only half a node ? Also if you if you top you stop the growth of the tap root ? and lastly where the do you top them cause some people say you just remove the middle part of the top growth and others cut it just a few cm above the the node below it so very unsure about how to as I really don't want to kill them ?

Hey guys So I've been reading up about soils and it's all really abit too much to be honest. I have grown in a +-60L fabric pot with soil that I bought from builders. Their "organic" potting soils. I think it's a grandmaster brand or something. Either way. I used 1x 60dm3 bag and the only nutes I ever gave were some nitrogen fertilizer. Gave it a teaspoon with water once every 2 or 3 weeks in veg and then some freedom farms fire juice once every week at 2ml or 3ml. From this I flushed for about a week or so using just my normal tap water that it's always been given (don't know the ph). I would pour quite abit of water so that it drains out the bottom quite abit everytime, but allowing it to dry over the next day or two. So basically what I'm looking to find out is wether I am able to reuse soil in an indoor grow. For example. I have 6x 20l flowering pots. Would I be able to reuse that soil after a harvest to transfer some vegging plants into as the base? Should I just add abit more and till it abit? Any extra nutes before I use it again etc etc. Plus I'm looking to find out what's the best options for me in PTA cbd area.? Any help will be appreciated. Thank you

Thanks guys, good to know I am in good company. At the moment I am preparing for next outdoor season and enjoy my cured harvest ...and with all the Covid stuff going on I have more than enough time on my hands to do some online research. My aim is to get the best quality out of the genetics I got. Quantity is not important for me. Last season I started with some photoperiod plants and some Autos in the end of September. That way i could harvest twice. The Autos came down around christmas and the photoperiod seeds where harvested in the end of March/ beginning of April. Below you'll find some pictures of my last grow. Dinafem - Purple Afghan Kush Ethos - Inzane in the membrane Dutch Passion - Auto Brooklyn Sunrise Dutch Passion - Auto White Widdow I can really recommend all plants above. The Inzane is one of my new favorite Sativas with a trichome production out of this world. In the one picture you can see that I mainlined the plant. I do that to all my photoperiod plants as all budsites get a similar amount of light and also it's not so vulnerable to the wind we get here in the Western cape. I look forward to start my grow diary here as soon as spring is here.

I dont really like buying more than 3 seeds of one strain. I will probably never grow out 5 plants of one strain with my pace constraints. Maybe one day when I am on the Farm.

It's part of hortimix range, bought the calmag by mistake when I finished first bag and it gave me issues, yellow leaves and slow growth and then only did I see it was the wrong one. Replaced with calsium nitrate and solved the problem Sent from my F5321 using Tapatalk

@moloko plus here is a link to an article that explains working with clones. https://www.growweedeasy.com/main-line-clones-nugbuckets

@Newbe_2020 Dont be bummed with germination. Always some dud seeds in the mix. Seeds are relatively cheap in comparison to the setup or even nutes. I personally germinate more seeds then I need and keep just the strongest. That formula 1 growing medium... If it's coco/perlite mix you will 100% need some sort of calcium additive. Calmag or Calcium Nitrate. The best option for you would be Greenhouse feeding company calcium and Epsom salts to avoid nitrogen issues. You also will need some GHE ph drops.

Hehehe okay... My limited abuse would be to change those damn cfls!!!! @Promhas very good success with SOG and auto flowers, but he is using some performance grow lights too. What is your budget? You need to consider what meduim you want to grow in, what lights will get you through flower, and what nutrient will be your source. My small 2c is to make sure you have a light that can do what you want it to do. Light gives the plant energy to use the nutrients you provide and make food. Imagine a body builder who is trying to bulk up, but isn't eating any food But welcome man! Enjoy the site!

True that. Once it dries though its damn hard to get wet, very hydrophobic initially. Have you found that? Not a big deal but something to consider if your soil has dried out. When trying to water the dry soil it can lead to pockets of soil staying completely dry. So best not let the soil dry out, which you shouldn't do anyway

@420SA I’ll actually give this a shot... will save on buying soil regularly.

Took the words out my post there Skunk lol

[emoji23][emoji23] Damn now I'm gonna be doing it too. I enjoyed the movies Sent from my POCOPHONE F1 using Tapatalk

Flip brother, every time I enter my grow room, I have you to thank. For some reason beyond me, after looking the plants over, I realise I'm busy whistling and singing... La la la, la la la la... The flippin Smurfs tune

For me, because im not a soil expert and I dont have the time and space to do soil tea etc, i thought I rather FULL ASS synthetic nutes then HALF ASS organic nutes lol I made peace with the fact that my synthetic plants need a flush once every 2 weeks aswell to flush out extra nutes.You can see nute salts easily on top of the coco. As for your last paragraph, I cant answer that.They was a guy on here that had immense knowledge of soil microbes,cant remember his name. If someone told you to stay away from doing this - its the safest answer.Its not correct and there are many factors influencing this but its a safe answer.

She seemed to still put on some nice growth even though she went straight into flower, the roots and stem look strong so I'm sure there will be some dense growth at those magical sites of bud formation

@TheUltimateNoob Thanks brother!

4 weeks of veg is what I got when I ran 12/12 from seed as an experiment once... I was even able to top it a single time around day 21 or so and it grew 4 mains. Yield was around 30-40g if I remember correctly. Sent from my POCOPHONE F1 using Tapatalk

Iv found jiffies very forgiving... I use straight tap water with the jiffies, unphed even... And leave the seeds... So far iv had 99% success.... It would be higher... But I was impatient and started digging around and I damaged a taproot... So now I set em and leave em.... And make sure the bowl has water in it so the jiffies don't dry out

After deciding to get rid of my one bar light I ventured onto building my own. Material: U-Connect steel frame 25mm + corner angles cut to 1.2m a piece. 10 * 31mm UChannels cut to equal sizes (even though i didnt at times) 20 * Bridge lux eb series gen 2 strips (you can go for more efficient lm301b strips or other samsung strips, these were dirt ship 8$ a strip) their lengths are 1.1m, you can opt for different strips or smaller lengths. 2 * LRS drivers 350 Watts 36v (I plan to change to HLG at some point, to bring them in line with the other HLG 600's I run). 1 * 25m Thermal adhesive tape. Cost cant really remember as i needed a few things like tools, strips and power supplies + customs came to around 4k (free shipping) UChannels were cut, and sprayed with hi resistant heat spray paint (you don't have to do this, I did it for fun, and to try hide the horrible scratches on the channel, I have no noticed any reduction in thermal conductivity), connect it bars were setup into a square shape as depicted below. JB Weld was used to secure the channels to the frame, I tried pratley rubbish and it did not work, this was allowed to cure and set for 24-36 hours. The strips were laid with the double sided adhesive thermal tape After curing, frame was resprayed with the high heat spray paint, I was going to sand down the joints on the epoxy but i got lazy, I was also going to grind down the edges, but decided one day... (most likely never). A strip was run on the test bench. Strips were laid on the frame. Test run of strips Another test run In its new home, running at 150 watts per side, total of 300+- in all, potential running of 700 (true wall watts) I still need to get some 3.4mm bolts and securely hold strips to the channels as I got some dirt underneath a few and noticed the adhesive coming loose.