Leaderboard

Ok so recently I decided I need more light in my tent. So decided to get prices for lights. Cheapest was R4500. It was elg~240 driver and bridgelux eb 2nd gen strips. Fuckit build one myself. Driver HLG~240H~20A = R 1175.11 Strips Bridgelux EB 2nd Gen 56cm - 12 x R82.42 = R 989.04 Aluminum strips = R450 Plug, Wire, wago connectore and electrical cable = R300 IMPORT COSTS = R 430 TOTAL COST = R 3344.15 If you count the rope rachets its another R240

I just deleted my BidorBuy and Takealot account as this habit of offering products without local stock gets a bit annoying. I look in general always for local stock, if it is not totally in a hilarious price range. But when I get 2 weeks, or more, delivery time, I started to cancel the orders right away. I can order from China myself. As local stock seems to shrink rather fast.. annoyingly.. I thought I write a few lines to import.. as when you go look outside, you can choose from several options of the same product and not just one they offer in SA. With any order the payment process offers a shipping note to add. To make things way more speedy, add your SA ID and your contact phone number there and add the comment For private use, not retail! Will go through customs rather without hassle and the courier has your direct contact, if the China trader messed that part up. I never ever had any Credit Card issues with a Chinese company/trader.. and I ordered quite a lot from that area. Hobbyking, Alibaba, Aliexpress.. zero troubles, is more complicated to chat with the translated Chinese.. but i always got what I ordered. Don't forget the tell them at the end to please make the customs bill to the % you like it to be.. I take in general 50% to 80% off.. less customs.. they grab shameful amounts charging 50% import tax.. is just asking to get cheated on. That brings me to the list of couriers I can recommend.. but don't get me wrong, they are not perfect but... with the added information in the shipment, those works the smoothest (might swap due to local crew incompetence ^^) Cape Town area I rank em like that: 1 DHL 2 UPS 3 Aramex .. there is a gap.. Fedex is very incompetent handling anything, contacts to payments 4 Fedex another gap.. nothing is even close as bad as post office.. i wouldn't even call that a mail service anymore 5 EMS (Post Office) DHL and UPS have working invoice systems in place for CC payment, great contact and fast. Aramex i put before Fedex as their computer system at least works. Fedex is great till it hits SA.. they don't check for payments or even try to contact you. Additional their phone system is very unstable and you need several calls. They are never over worked (fast response) but your line gets cut in general when they want to forward you. Not one try they succeeded.. I had to call in a few times. So Fedex only if you want to endure the full load. EMS with Post Office termination is not really an option, except you have a lot of time to wait, my record, got a parcel after 8 months of shipping.. and lost quite some parcels too, avoid EMS. The good news.. if you import yourself, you get your stuff the cheapest possible. I always say support local.. but then again.. if you order yourself and not over a SA third person, will be faster and cheaper. If I get my stuff within 5 days.. I take it local.. anything else, cancel, I order myself. BidorBuy account I closed as I made 3 orders, and only growguru.co.za had local stock, rest wanted to let me wait 20+ days. When I went shopping for the same product outside, I got double the amount of the product and on express shipping.. so faster.. 5-7 days (in this case 5m RAW rolling paper, 48 of them ^^, not even a dollar a piece, 730R for the papers, going to my planetexpress storage.. I order more stuff to reduce shipping cost ^^). If you run into products "they" don't send to SA.. you can always get a warehouse or shipping service to work around. You have those issues more in US/Europe.. China/Hong Kong ships to SA ^^ For the USA/Europe www.planetexpress.com works very nice (you can't repack seeds!! keep that in mind) rest, you can collect also parcels for 45 days and ship in one parcel.. less shipping fees, pays back rather fast, if you have a few things to order. This premium service is 50$ a year or you can also just take it for one big batch and take the service just for a month. With the saved shipping fees.. always pays back. Just for one parcel.. is just a little additional cost but you get your stuff shipped to SA, have 2 parcels combined and the fee for planetexpress is paid and you saved some. Just select the warehouse depending where you need it. California for the US and UK for Europe. If people run local stock.. i will always order there first (as mentioned.. if the price is reasonable) but I am not supporting people just doing the order them self and add 100-200% on top.. i hate wasting my money ^^ If you stick a bit to the same courier.. you have the numbers and websites you need bookmarked, importing yourself as a private person isn't as complicated and frustrating as most think. Just think ahead and put the information needed on the shipping yourself. If nobody needs to contact you, you will be amazed how fast it can go. US or China to SA.. DHL or UPS does it in 5 - 7 days and not a month like those order "reheaters" offer for more expensive in general. Support people running local stock.. rest be smart. Hope it helped somebody

2nd winter run is coming to an end. 1st pic, Major General Banner has some rock hard budz just like they discribe. 2nd. Blunicorn day 66. 3rd OG Kush and Gorilla Zkittles 4th. GTH fading fast

Day 55, almost 8 weeks into flowering...... Goeie naand mense! It was a good week for them, however they got some leave tip burn or something, it might be the Fire Juice that is gave at just over 3ml/L and the max dose is 2ml/L. Besides that they had the same feeding as the previous week. The GSC is becoming much bigger and denser this week. OKC is doing her thing slowly now as with the Sapphire OG. Most thricomes are still clear, il say 90% clear still. This forum and some other growers I met via 420 has really helped me alot with my growing, still loads to learn tho [emoji847] Sent from my F5321 using Tapatalk

So after a friend of mine wanted to buy a 100w cob grow light for 3.5k I decided to give him a hand and I built him a 2k strip light. 123w light. Driver HLG~120H~C1050B =R846.11 Bridgelux eb gen 2 strips 6x R82.41 = R494.46 Aluminim strips R200 Wire plug and wagos and other bits R220 Import costs R230 +- R2000

My goal is always to reach 1000g per square meter. But also try to reduce the wattage used. My personal record stands on 2.45g per watt. Is not one or the other, i measure both to keep track if i move in the right direction. Friend just pulled 200g from a amnesia haze auto in switzerland... hehehe i never reached that.. time to up my game

Just over 11 weeks now. Managed to get see the trichomes up close and personal. It looks like we got another 1 or 2 weeks. Was planning on harvesting the most purple pheno this weekend however I could only manage to find about 5 amber trichomes. Its been a bit of a bumpy ending and it seems they going to have to roll with the punches for a few more days. By now you can imagine the smells of dreams i'm tormented with everyday. Almost there...

My last autoflower run I got 365g off 3 small plants under a 240w QB running at 75%. I reckon had i utilized the space correctly, i woulda gotten more. Lighting is a huge factor in your tent, but i think your overall environment is more important. Optimal conditions is what cranks out the yield in my case. I've noticed the differences when growing in different seasons. I'm with @Ill_Evan, quality over quantity.

I am so sick of people just making money out of the grow community. And I am getting the feeling there is a couple of people that is feeling the same. I want more people to grow and I just feel that for some people the investment is to big.

Awsome neat slick build there brother. I love it. Spelling

I think I might actually build this for next winter.

If any one feels that they are able to do this please see the following article. https://ledgardener.com/diy-led-strip-build-designs-samsung-bridgelux/

Wow. Just wow. Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk

I was thinking about this topic this week again, I did a RDWC grow and then a few coco/perlite grows with GH and Greenhouse powder nutes and then Living soil, sooo when I started with the soil I had abit of growing experience behind me. The soil was super easy because its just plain water that needs to be used. I have a system now where I use the FF Premium Classic in 1L tubs for rooted cutting for 3-4 weeks with just water and then I use the FF Custom Crafted Soil when reporting into bigger pots and that soil can just be watered till harvest time, no ammendments needed. I have used@SkunkPharm soil and the Orgasoil mix from Jamie 's, they all very simular and I can recommend any of them. Took some coco/perlite/peat moss mix and added that soil amendment from Jamie's ( at 100ml/L of substrate) and trying that on next run. But I haven't tried any other cheaper soil or compost mix from a nursery yet, I was advised against [emoji28]. All the tried and tested soils cost between R170-220 a bag. Cost per plant Soil - R200 Pot - R100 Plant/seed - R200 Electricity - [emoji2369][emoji23] +- R500 to harvest between 40-100g is not bad. Sent from my F5321 using Tapatalk

Thanks for the help getting to this point everyone. Proper seeds are ordered and will be delivered soon. Following advice from @Prom I will start growing those at the end of this month. In the meantime I decided to pop some bag seeds to do a trial run. The plan is to grow them for a month in some homemade canna soil I found at nursery not far from my flat according to a google search. I put their details in my Post about Durban supplies. I'll attach a pic . Checked this morning and 3 had sprouted already. 1 had a taproot that was already around 1cm long. Maybe there is something to this full moon thing after all! Moved the 3 sprouts into a seedling tray and watered well. The other 3 are back on the modem. Little tray of joy Settling in on the windowsill till the weather settles

Hey there guys, Thought I'd drop this here so long... Please let met know what you guys think: This forms part of the main Dutch Passion Auto Daiquiri Lime Grow Series (Forum Grow Report and YouTube Grow Series). I will be building this forum topic as I get time, so just sharing the video for now as I'm quite busy with my full time job, etc. I'll post some finer details if anyone is interested and can post some decent quality copies of the photos in the video for those interested in this sort of thing (DIY light building/tinkering with electronics). Hope you guys have a great weekend! Peace.

Looks great bro.

Fedex is a total face palm.. you call in for the invoice.. DHL just send me that by them self, containing the EFT information or link for electronic CC payment. Anyhow.. Fedex.. then you call in again as you want to pay by card. As in the payment confirmation was Ref for Fedex, the tracking number. I expected this to be a automated process. I was wrong.. after a complain 4 days after my payment, they decided to say thank you for the payment. Tracker didn't move for another 72 hours.. on a Express Parcel I stick to DHL and UPS.. and in emergencies Aramex.. but Fedex SA is like Post Office OK, not the same same.. but they try very hard to reach that low level.

Sweet write up @Prom! Thank you for this, you really did put it all together very nicely

Thanks man, wish I had some of this knowledge before I ordered an 240w QB from Alibaba and used FedEx. The packaged arrived within 5days but took 3 weeks for FedEx to clear it with customs after numerous calls and phone calls being cut(just like you mentioned) The customs fees tip is a good one. I asked for my fee to be made less luckily so the 50% charge wasn't too bad considering what it could of be.

I've seen this on hydrobiz, didn't expect them to be local though, so that's a plus, just looking at the packaging I thought it was imported premium An extra 20/50 bucks for proper organic not bad at all in my book, especially if you only need a bag or two Gonna post some pics of the grow later

I'm not actually sure, I imagine the trichome won't mature if its revegging - or if it does mature, may be at a much lower rate. Perhaps someone else would chime in here and confirm. If there are lots of milky, you could chop it still I guess, if you don't want to wait. Better than just clear trichs.

This is true, one could base their outdoor grow on the size of the pot I guess. Although light won't really work, also space wise is a bit tricky to measure the space the plant is using outdoors. But you are right, there certainly are some measurements one could use.

I will be worth the wait. Looking lovely.

A lot of the soils which are used for cannabis contain some coco and perlite too. When you start adding amendments to coco, I feel it starts to become a soil and isn't really coco anymore. The perk and benefit to coco is the fact that its inert, it gives you full control over what you feed your plants. The way it retains water and air is also fantastic. Sent from my Redmi Note 7 Pro using Tapatalk

I'd say do a bit of defol..

@PsyCLownThis could be applied outdoors too!! As outdoors the better you train your plant, the more light it receives, more bud as a result (this the equivalent of how well space is used indoors/gram per sqm) but outdoors i guess could be measured as grams per 384.6 yotta watts lol how well you used space can be defined like @oros da boss mentioned grams per litre/pot size, its actually a brilliant idea as pot size is strongly linked to plant size if everyone grows same strain then judging the most efficient won't be opinion but based on figures Just as important for outdoor growers to have a metric to be able to gauge efficiency & keep improving/push the envelope

I'm one of those growers lol not trying to reinvent the wheel but rather see how it looks with a pair of mags lol Im experimenting to find the sweetspot between soil & soiless, basically got my pots with different ratios of both (coco/perlite/chunky vermiculite and prepared organic backyard soil) so far 1/3 organic + 2/3 soiless working well for me I enjoy having the ph buffer of soil but the aeration qualities of my soil is bad, holds way too much water/stays wet too long & makes roots work super hard which is why I love coco & petlite cause they super fluffy/airy and help make the soil more fluffy The cannapro premix is decent, (gonna try freedom farms next) I just add chunky vermiculite if using just that, works wonders for vegetative growth only downside to only using soiless is constant amendments and feeding + lack of pH buffer which is why I mix the two or if used on its ace just add organic ferts to it while I grow slowly turning it into organic soil

If it's harvested now, the trichomes likely won't be mature. Check how much Amber, milky and clear trichomes are on the plant. Sent from my Redmi Note 7 Pro using Tapatalk

An extended dark period of only a few hours is unlikely to affect them much. I would take them outside and then tomorrow correct it and ensure you are consist with it. Although the hermie trait is more prominent in some strains then others, some are just more sensitive.

Have to add to this list... St Clements Nursery Musgrave https://stclements-nursery.business.site/ Stock: Basic pots Their own soil (apparently very popular with locals) One or two other surprises... PM for deets dudes Got a 5l of their soil and 6 x 10cm smalls pots to grow out my pilot "bag" seed demo grow. Seems light and fluffy. Will post pics. Has bark (orchid) which I wasnt that keen on but was convinced to try... All in all cost was R75. They also apparently mix their own nutes which are available. Price seemed reasonable... may give it a run on the bag seed grow and see how it does Highly recommend a pit stop if nearby. Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk

Marigold companion flowering

Some nice colours coming out. 1st and 4th pic GTH 2nd pic gorilla zkittles barneys farm 3rd pic Major General Banner from GSR seeds 5th and 6th pic Blunicorn from in house

Howdy Greenies [emoji41] Day 40 into flowering and I'm happy with how the girls are enjoying themselves. No issues and my Sonoff for humidity is helping, no PM yet as per previous grows. The smell of the OKC is amazing, buds are dense and loads of thricomes. GSC is big but not as dense yet. Sapphire OG is also dense and I like the lighter brighter green she shows. Temps drop to 12 one night when I forgot to readjust the Sonoff higher [emoji39]. Sent from my F5321 using Tapatalk

I totally agree with this statement @PsyCLown. At least when it comes to mixing the soil yourself. On the other hand starting to grow with some good premixed soil like for example FF soil plus using the biobizz range is pretty much fool proof (if you stick to the feeding table). Beginner growers tend to try and invent a new wheel instead of sticking to proven grow technics. Or they try to safe and buy crappy soil from the nursery around the corner. IMO these are big contributing factors why some beginners struggle with their soil grow.

So it really comes down to efficiency and best utilizing the space and the lights. For outdoor it's not really applicable, except for grams per sqm I guess but you cannot compare an outdoor grow to an indoor grow. Grams per watts Grams per sqm One could throw in watts per sqm to give a better idea as well. They're different measurements, one being how efficient your lighting is (grams per watts) and the other about how efficiently you used the space (grams per sqm). Ultimately you'd like to try find a happy medium between everything really. @CreX I think this is what you're wanting to get at? Perhaps we create a spin off thread on this actually. Figures on my last grow were as follows: Grams per watt: 1.55g Grams per sqm: 373.33g Watts per sqm: 240w I feel I could have done better as I could have made better use of the space by having an extra 2 plants in there and I feel I could have improved on the yield by running strains which had a higher yield.

That's interstellar mahn

At the moment I am using grams per watt, just cause. I haven't really thought about it since learning how to grow. The gold standard that's usually plastered everywhere is to achieve a gram per watt, but I find myself now trying to achieve awesome buds over quantity, so I haven't paid much attention to it. When I gear myself towards quantity, most likely from my next grow onwards, I'd probably start using gram per square meter. I'd like to fully utilise my space so it feels like the right "gauge" to use. I'm easy mahn

Ja pretty much. Listened to a pod cast where they had clakamascoot on and he was taking these nutrient companies appart. Giving cheap alternatives to expensive nutrient lines. I guess the older you get the less your care about what you say. Would love to get neem meal in this country so that I could try his soil mix.

LOL makes you sound like Dozer from the matrix. "it's a single celled protein combined with synthetic aminos, vitamins and minerals, everything the body needs"

Hey brother, I just see problems, those plants are not happy, they dont like that light and you should sell it to me Haha, only playing. They look amazing, and if I am correct to say you are just right as you are, dont cut anything other than lower branches that dont get light much, they steal from the big buds production and right now, you need to LST the branchs under, in and out that netting. Keep the canopy as even as possible without snapping branches, Your grow is spot on man Added, I also pre flower pistols, age is perfect for flip the weekend

And he got the "better" light as replacement for the 4 QB 288 board lamp he ordered.. is a LED Bar Lamp so those lights are better then QBs. I learn a lot from those dudes... I think I stick with my lamps and will not switch I would have demanded to get the 4 QB Lamp originally ordered.. a lot more for your money hehehe I cross this topic off and put a ignore on their URL, not touching that store myself.

Lets get quickly a bit science into this, might help a lot of the new folks reading this understand. Light is the main ingredient beside water. To little or to much of both will hurt or kill your plant. A plant with perfect light and lower quality fertilizer will still out perform a plant under low light and pro fertilizer. The plants have three stages with different light demand. For indoor growing, to much is more often the danger during early stages. Germination and seedlings need around 250 micromol PAR light for perfect growing. Veg they perform best with about 500 micromol PAR light. You can also go up in stages during Pre but I usually just go full. Full means 1000 micromol PAR.. that seems to be the max the Cannabis plants can handle with the usual CO2 concentration and no, didn't grew on my shit ^^, I read that up, Apogee made some extensive studies on that topic. Over 1000 micromol PAR you need to add a CO2 generator to have profits. So you would just waste the energy without it. Grow light producers do those measurements and tell you how high to hang for the stages. If they don't provide a germination distance, just use the same distance they reduce for Flower and add that to Veg distance. To much isn't the best for the youngsters. But in general they provide Veg and Flower distance. If you never grew before and get no indication what to do.. will not add to a satisfying outcome. Indoor, nothing has more importance then your light!! Is also the most expensive.. so you better do your home work, if you do not buy from a known producer. If you order yourself and want to DIY.. those boards have several options, you go for the 3000k 660nm or 3500k 660nm version. I perfer the 3000k, others the 3500k.. read up.. you learn quite some on the way till you order your first gear. If you are not in the mood to read up... do yourself a favor and buy off the shelf a known and tested product. Will help your yield if you know how to handle the lamps. Rest is a bit a mine field of frustration. Not all of the stuff the guys sell is crap.. they just seem to have ordered a bunch of boards and thought all can get used to grow.. the UV boards would work too.. you would just waste the energy for the UV diodes.. as that helps nothing with your plants. If you switch a 450 Watt lamp on for growing, you go 1000 Rand Eskom on top of your usual bill (light will make heat, air needs to get moved). So wasting energy shouldn't be on your list.. the indoor setup will get over taken by the Eskom bill within a year. Is not just the gear.. the gear will constantly cost you money. When you have a 600 Watt lamp in and just let her "shine".. you waste 300 Rand a month on a 1.2x1.2 area. Saving now.. might not be the big saving at the end of the year. The more efficient you can run your lamp(s).. the cheaper you get out of this experience. For a total beginner, outdoor first to see if you don't kill all green things.. if you have a good outdoor result, indoor should work fine, if you give it the same attention. It just comes with way more cost compared to outdoor growing. So fuck ups indoor.. cost more. Buying the wrong gear will actually hinder you making progress. If your Lamp has a dimmer.. you will have issues to set it correctly without a quantum flux meter. Most lamp producers have em set on max and so set their distance to hang.. but if you get a lamp with a dimmer. You enter the world of guessing without a tool costing the same as your lamp. Keep that in mind if you go high performance lamps.. those all have a dimmer in general.

We come to the point, where people write they know what they do and researched.. but I just had a quick look over their website and checked the LED lights. Lets quickly Quote the website: We at Online Grow Shop have researched far and wide to make sure that we offer the new and up and coming South African Growers market the top of the range in both HID and LED grow lights. Lets jump in the LED selection and that REALLY made my head shake!!!! https://www.onlinegrowshop.co.za/product/300w-led-quantum-board-v3-with-additional-red-and-uv/ I post the link... since when in this corner of the Universe is UV part of PAR? What a waste of energy is that?!?! No research.. also didn't found a PPFD from any of the lamps they build and sell. How do they know distance to hang for the stages?? I do not see any research at all... sorry.. just importing kits and selling them as top notch grow lights. Hehehe still giggle, PAR stops at 400nm, Hombres Light can hurt your plants and yield. After those guys, you have to figure that out yourself. Just writing it on your website, doesn't mean you know what you do..

Boss, rather go straight to @growopz and get his light, his are manufactured for him, with Samsung latest chips, and he actually knows so much about the technology, boards are made with quality thickness material and wont burn out or cause kak. That's my 2c I have 2 of his lights and my next light is already on the list with him. I can send you the link too, as I am here to help and you must be happy. https://m.alibaba.com/product/62213335398/Kingbrite-480W-LED-Strip-Light-Samsung.html

Amen to that, Brother... Price and Service of the guys just slap you in the face. If you have to go cheap.. wallet deflated badly.. import yourself!!! If you want to buy a light in SA.. look that you have a long time warranty in it.. that might come in rather handy. Second point is energy consumption. You want to use as little as possible with reaching your goal in yield. If you get a lamp with 600 Watt for a 1.2x1.2 area, the Mars Ts3000 is already waaaaaaaay more efficient. So anything drawing more as 450 Watt and you want to go 1.2x1.2 tent.. why on earth take the more drawing one???? If you extend it to the wallet game. The 600 Watt 12k lamp will be more expensive after 6 months than the 13.5k lamp running on 450 Watt. If the lamp provide a proper foot print, you can compare. If they don't.. you must be the god of grow lights to be able to know if the light will do the trick. Is like buying a race car with no kw or torque numbers of the engine. Think before you buy....

Nice profit on those lamps.. I should go into the grow light business ^^ I got my QBs for a 1.2x1.2 area for 7500...self import.. and I screwed the cables together myself.. and those boards are with Heat Sink, H version diode. 5.500 for screwing a lamp together in 10 mins.. not shabby. Looks like they spend the time after the lamp is done with drinking.. as they can't spend it on customer care.. there is NADA. Still nothing.. no lamp, no refund.. What PPFD foot print do they give you for the lamp?

I actually had 2 friends that bought separate QB setups from them. 1 went smoothly and without a hitch... the other not so much. The order in question was a 120w lm301h QB with additional red and UV. The light came in at R3000 (since then the price has bumped up to R3600) After some emails to confirm the order my friend received confirmation that the order will be delayed till the end of the month due to lockdown and Covid-19 implications. Which was totally understandable. They offered a full refund or free delivery and 5 free seeds from Bulk Seed bank asdvertised for sale on their website. Happy with the purchase and willing to wait he opted for the free seeds. The order eventually arrived but without the seeds as promised. The light was atleast a decent true representation of the advertised piece even though there is only 1 picture on their website to compare it with... After 3 unanswered emails to enquire on the seeds my friend is still waiting.. in this case I think there is just too much on offer product wise and too little on offer customer service wise. With the cannabis industry booming in SA it is easy to see a great business opportunity to try and flog products to avid customers. The problem lies in the business ethic and integrity of the company/person you are dealing with. If a product is unavailable mark it as out of stock. If it is a made to order product, make a note on the product description to state the same. If you delay an order and offer a comprise, keep to your promise... just keep it real and the support of your business will grow.. Or else you might just get screwed like Cannabist..

On my friends side... no refund, no lamp.. just more emails to say sorry. Time just passes.. they ruined him a grow with their lies and moron circus, selfish little pricks. If nothing is coming this week, Police gets involved. Fun is over.. I actually start to get mad now.. how can you not be able to do what you promise for 2 weeks??? God damn liars... sorry.. supporting those dudes is just not good for the grow community.. like Cannabist.. the name is gone by now.