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I said I write a little guide, so here it comes. How much is to much and how do I check it? If you checked into lights to grow indoor, you will run into some fun diagrams of light foot prints. Those help you to put the lights at the right distance. All good lamps provide you with the hanging distances for each stage Germination, Vegetative and Flower. If you build your own lights, you run into the issue, that you are a bit clueless, how to hang your lamps. Best to get that sorted is a Quantum Flux Meter. It measures the PAR (the light relevant to plants) light arriving at the sensor and hang accordingly. I am in the lucky position, that a friend bought one. Expensive toys You have one.. not telling you anything new.. Aim around 250 mmol for germination, around 500 mmol for Veg and 800-1200 mmol on flower. If you do not have a Quantum Flux meter.. I made some tests with normal Lux meters for your phone.. lets call them mixed results. But... Germination and Veg it seems to work. I have issues reproducing my results on different lamp configurations for the high readings. Varies up to 20%, what is to off to get clear results. Strangely, the low reading were spot on.. we talk 2-4% variation. I used Android tablet and phone, had the same readings .. using this app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pardel.photometer&hl=en_US&gl=US Put the phone/Tablet horizontal for all readings. 250 mmol should read 20k Lux 500 mmol 40k Lux Everything above that was just going different readings depending on lamp configuration. But as it look rather linear to 500.. you could use that to put your plants at the right light. Yes, the lamps are really that far away during germination ^^ My single QBs and TS3 gave me the 80k Lux at 1000 mmol.. but 2 other lamps gave way weaker readings 60k Lux. And I used 5 different lamps, 3 different diodes. The Germination and Veg results were spot on. Try, let me know if your plants grow bigger now. Now, you want to buy a good lamp.. -> store! You get help to select and a warranty on it, plus the instruction how to use the lamp.. so skip the Quantum Flux Thingy right away. Are those lamps really that good at 30k Rand? Yes, they are that good. Do I need one of those to grow awesome dank? Nope... ^^ Is no rocket science to build a good decent lamp doing the job.. but if you are not in the mood.. buy one from the grow store.. LED!!!! nothing else they wanna sell you. Size of the lamp is given by grow space. Don't go the other way around or you end up with a lamp way to big for your space. Why is that bad? What generates light these days, also generates heat. And as soon as you put a dimmer on.. you are back in the guessing game how far to hang now. Yes, light is way more tricky as fertilizer.. fertilizer come with clear instructions. Lights are more pointing in the right direction. Why LED? For a home grower it is the best choice these days. Very reliable and low heat light source. The times for HID systems are over in the home grower circle. There are still good reasons to go MH/HPS, but not for any new starting person. No Sir, hands off! LED are expensive! Really? I just build myself a 4QB setup for a 1.2mx1.2m tent.. 280$ with shipping. If that is to much.. thank god, you didn't started growing 30 years ago Buy or build.. but stick to LED.. very short section.. nothing to add really. What type of LED lamp? The right selection will make your life way easier. Remember, light produces heat.. and to much heat is not good for your plants. We used a few lamps and come to certain conclusions The no go Zone Those lamps just "gather" the heat below and if you use such a setup in a single tent.. your airflow will suffer one SHITLOAD. I wouldn't go this way.. we have one of those.. and is the worst lamp of all for climate control. Other disadvantage, any uneven canape is very hard to handle. Bar lights Lets bring the disadvantage up, is the same like the lamp before.. if your canape goes very uneven.. will get more work. BUT.. airflow wise, they are awesome. Put the fan over the light and point down to cook up a storm.. cools light and plants and you lose no space to a ground standing fan. If I would have 2-3 sections to grow, the one for the big ones, I would use a bar light and just sort the canape to fit. Those lamps are doing a better light distribution and little resistance to your climate control. Central configuration Still monsters but at least compact and offer not as much airflow resistance like the ones with build in non lighting surface. You lose a lot more light strength to the side and they bring some heat to the center plants. My second last choice. Single QB Build Lets start with the disadvantage, you have to adapt more ratchets.. 4 instead of 2. Advantages are airflow and dynamic handling in regards to canape. The 150mm duct brings the fresh air and the oscillating one is top mounted. The QBs run without any heat sink, 2 per 240watt driver. I used 3mm tread rod to build the hangers. For one grow section, you don't care how the canape grows, you can handle dwarfs and bean stalks. Hope it gave some ideas what to look for and what not to look for. Always remember.. light produces heat and heat needs to get removed. If your lights hinder you, they might be the reason why your plants stay on the smaller side. DIY tips You want to order and build? Read up! You need to read a bit and decide where to go.. and we mean spectrum frequencies ^^ All the LED light producers offer different frequencies for the diodes. For a grow light, my personal suggestion is to go with a 3000k 660nm board or a 3500k 660nm board. I avoid anything having more on it, like UV. The IR you want, that is a sexy wave length for flowering. There are 301B and 301H diodes out. B gets sold as V2 and H as V3.. both work. The difference is the hardening layer on the diode, the rest is the same. H stands for Samsung's Horticulture range, better environmental resistance.. buh hu hehe go for the cheaper one if money is a issue and the expensive if you like to waste it a bit QBs you get around 30-40$.. getting cheaper each year. Driver you can pick up anywhere you find it cheap.. i get mine from digi-key. If you are not in a rush, look for the free world wide express shipping they do from time to time. You build such a lamp system in an hour in very stoned conditions or 30 mins sober Hope it helped somebody.. or I wasted quite a bit of time

Sup 420SA fam, HIGH time for an update. I scored a awesome metal ring a while back, did what any stoner would, turned it into a 200 ish liter fabric pot. She got filled mostly with cocopeat, peatmos, perlite, and a tiny bit of actual soil from previous grows. Planted my Blueberry Kush #4 cut in the ring, hoping for a giant. I planted some red clover as ground cover, in the raised bed as well as the metal ring. Also in the mix around the edges of the bed I sowed some marigold as companions. In the raised bed I planted cuts from my small collection, Strawberry Sherbs (KushCookies f2 cut), Cheese (the same one i sent @1000Hills Nursery in the "Forum Cuts" thread), and Blueberry Kush #3. Got some supplemental lighting in the evening to help the clones stay in veg mode. The soil mix is drying out much better than I expected, and im watering lightly everyday to to avoid drying out the clover seedlings. Peace n buds gowmies

30 Days From Seed Got the girls repotted and transplanted into 20L fabric pots. The tent is looking much more occupied now with 12 plants! Feels just like it should. I will be using three 240W Quantum Board LEDs, one for every four plants. It worked really well in the last grow so how about we just triple it Starting off the QBs at ~120W each in the current veg stage and I like keeping them around 40cm from canopy. I find this is the sweet spot, but I always watch the plants for stress and try increasing power as we work towards the flowering stage. I am so much more at ease with the full LED setup over the HID bulbs. It's so much less "stuff" and looks super neat. I will consider myself a full convert after the success of this grow; I haven't just yet thrown out the cool tubes and ballasts

I'm gonna be growing these outdoors in the shade house using soil in 20l pots. Then there are two of each queuing up for their slot in the cabinet. Seeds courtesy of@Totemic, thanks bud. Day 1. Seeds in the shot glasses. Sent from my DRA-LX5 using Tapatalk

get a soil sieve and sieve your soil bro! something with a 0.5cm to 1cm mesh will do the trick really well i had them in bulk too... nasty fucks in the garden... but are somewhat great in the compost pile with all their chomping and vermipee. they turn into those yellow and black beetles. Pachnoda sinuata, the garden fruit chafer we use a sieve at my dads place quite often to loosen up the compost he wants to use and it is very effective at removing kak in the soils. otherwise you could go handful by handful until you get through all your useable soil

sort of.. it is a very fine line and a bit of guess work. Sativas are known for a racy high, uplifting, energetic. and Indicas are known for a more mellow high and high euphoric feelings. now imagine you have a baseline where sativas are as above and indicas are as above. that would likely mean that you have harvested with maximum cloudy trichomes, and few amber and few clear for each plant respectively. Nooooow, you have a sativa, and its flowering, and you harvest early when the trichomes are just starting to go cloudy . This will result in a very light smoke, not too much of anything really and in my opinion is just to early for any recreational or medicinal use. Same sativa, and you leave it to go all the way till 50% amber, and you are looking for a speedy high, but also don't sit down if you plan on being productive. so it is quite a tailored smoke that, and I'm not sure if it ticks all the boxes for a full blown sativa high. okay so for the Indica, same story if you harvest early... it just leaves you wanting more, minimal euphoria, minimal couch lock, minimal pain relief, minimal anything. and then on the flip side if you leave her late, the smoke becomes almost debilitating and you will be left being a shell of a human... which is great for bedtime... but not before an important meeting haha i hope tat clears things up a bit. i look for different things now in a sativa vs Indica plant. i like my sativas to display full-bodied sativa flavours and highs, but with the growth structure of an Indica, so that i can grow it inside in a tent. I have grown one plant before that grew very Indica like... but the high was the craziest sativa high i have never again experienced.

1) As soon as the seeds pop, I put them 1cm deep in FF Premium Classic and water with Root juice. 2) You start your clock when you drop the seed into the glass of water for 12 hours. 3) I try to give nutes on all feedings.. can be to much for some strains. You always have to use your eyes and check the leaves for troubles. If you are unsure, give every third feeding nutes and stick to water otherwise. The feeding amount is per liter you apply to the pots. Your feeding table says: 3 Grow, 2 Bloom and 1 Top Max.. you add that to each liter.. and apply the amount the plant needs for this single feeding. OK.. my beefed up feeding tables for 8 and 10 weeks.. 9 and 11 week plants I just take the lower one.. 8 for 9, 10 for 11. 12 you have from the original table. To make it easy for me: Fish-Mix = F / Grow = G / Bloom = B / Top Max = TM / Rotating each feeding with Fish-Mix or Grow = FG | 4/4/4 = 4ml Grow, 4ml Bloom, 4ml Top Max per liter of feeding liquid. 8 week Table Week 1 4ml Root Juice Week 2 2ml F Week 3 3ml F Week 4 3 ml FG / 2ml B Week 5 3ml FG / 3ml B / 1ml TM Week 6 4ml G / 3ml B / 3ml TM Week 7 4/4/4 Week8 Flush - if 9 weeks 4/4/4 and week 9 is flush 10 week Table Week 1 4ml Root Juice Week 2 2ml F Week 3 3ml F Week 4 3 ml FG / 2ml B Week 5 3ml FG / 3ml B / 1ml TM Week 6 4ml FG / 3ml B / 2ml TM Week 7 4ml G / 4ml B / 3ml TM Week 8 4/4/4 Week 9 4/4/4 Week 10 Flush - If 11 weeks 4/4/4 and week 11 Flush I haven't checked my Ph for over a year ^^ so you can skip that, if you use rain water. If you kill your plants.. don't come running to me. Those tables takes no prisoners and on the 8 week table you might very likely run into yellow tips.. half the feeding amount for 1-2 feedings or give pure water. Then resume with the same dosage. If it comes back, your strain might not need that much.. some strains are very hungry out there, some are not ^^ And 1ml means 1ml.. not 2 not 3 or 4, the 5 is totally out of question be as accurate as you can be and use your common sense.

New favorite in the stable, FruitPuke's kids are looking aight

Just over a week now, this seed showing vigor. Excited to grow my first auto.

They are still there.. smokers know 2 (sativa/indica) and growers know 3 (sativa/indica/ruderalis) The ruderalis is just a timer, if we look at it in a simple way. Taking the photo sensitivity out, brings other advantages.. but autos have one big disadvantage.. you can't pheno hunt them over clones. The sativa high is still the sweet sexy uplifting high you can only get from a sativa. And nothing can couch you like a indica but over all, yes, the old rules got changed to what science found out. When you come to my smoking cabinet.. right now I have 18 different jars with 15 different strains, 3 outdoor, rest indoor. Some very little and some quite big jars ^^ I pick and smoke depending how I feel or want to feel. Before lunch time, you will never really see me running around with a late harvest indica, or I plan to go back to bed. The Royal Gorilla is my preferred day smoke beside the early Blue Cheese and Early Blueberry Kush at the moment.. or what the jars provide Afternoon to evening I prefer a not as potent but going relaxing smoke. Late Blue Cheese, Candy Kush. Evening after dinner, Gelato, my Nr1 right now. And when I want to couch or have issues to get asleep.. late Bubblelicious, a passion fruit knockout. Others just got in the cabinet and need curing time, the early Somango and late Critical just going into the cabinet (trade with a friend.. what I can recommend to stock up your selection ^^ 100g swaps). The longest cured weed inside the cabinet is now 8 months in the jar and just this change of taste is hard to believe. A Amnesia Haze.. mouth watering. Harvest is one thing.. curing the other. But there is one main rule.. bad weed doesn't become a good weed with curing. But good weed gets better with curing. You boarded the train to a life long learning and each year new tastes.. will keep you busy and happy to keep up with all the new stuff each year.. growing is never boring

I harvest day smoke at 10% amber and my evening relaxers or desert smokes at 50% amber

Sorry.. just wanted to post a reminder.. your 12 week outdoor Autoflowers wanna hit the glass NOW!!! So No.. you are not to late

Is not a bad spot to put them.. inside a vacuum sealed container.. can also freeze them

Thanks for this Prom. I used an Android phone and the Doggo app with my QB bar lights and it seems my estimations were fairly close to your findings on the Photometer Pro App, no idea how close the Lux readings will be between the 2 apps. Anyway, for Germination I had it on 15K - 18K Lux, Veg - 40K-45K and flower was around 63K (Max @ around 40cm away, guess I can move them a bit closer as they run quite cool). I'll fine tune that closer to your recommendations next time. Will also try out the app you work with. Cheers

I have a few of a mates fabric pots and must be honest, i am preferring normal plastic tapered buckets. My medium doesn't dry out from the heat as much and i like the firmness of plastic pots. i can one hand an entire pot! with fabric pots, things get trickier. i am running in coco, so maybe that's why i am preferring them, if it were soil where i know the medium will hold a lot more water for longer, then airpots will be of more use to me.

Worth a try. You never know. I know I'm starting to sound like a stuck record but I'm yet to experience gnat's. Sent from my DRA-LX5 using Tapatalk

I believe it has something to do with being outdoors in this case. My guess would be your soil would dry out too fast for comfort. Fabric pots are a nice median. Airpots are boss when used indoors I rate, but personally I'm happy with what I get with fabric pots all-round, plus I have so many of them it would be a mission to replace them all

My bad dude. I was reading a different reply of his. He did indeed say he wasnt in favour of airpots in the reply you quoted. I must have been higher than I thought earlier [emoji23] Also keen to hear his answer then because I have considered trying one out Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk

LOL you open the jar of that and your couch sommer fluffs up and grows seatbelts hahaha i would be locked for days on that couch hahaha

yoh! 50% is like comatose deluxe hahaha!

I germinate in EazyPlugs then transplant the seedling to the FF Classic, no problem. I wouldn't try germinating straight in the soil though. The seedling should at least show it's first set of true leaves before going into the FF Classic IMO. I don't strictly stick to a schedule or strictly adhere to the weeks necessarily, but I follow the above chart from BioBizz when using their product with FF Classic. So WK 1 is obviously seedling stage, WK 2 is vegetative stage for as long as you want to stay there. WK 3 you start maybe two or three days after the day of flip, then you follow the chart as you would expect to. So if you decide on 5 weeks of veg, you yourself are on week 5 of the grow, but you will start with WK 3 on the chart. Also, if your veg is particularly long, you may even up the dosage recommended in WK 2. So you are not necessarily strictly sticking to the chart, it's a guidance based on the context of your grow.

Day 52. First 2 pics is the remaining one under lights. Bushing out since I did LST by mistake and still looking good. Routine still the same, water when needed (usually every 3rd day) and yard time whenever possible. Third pic is at 40 days and standing at 600mm and lives in the shade house. Then the two babies planted two weeks later. These get watered every second day. Gonna run a test on four of my outdoor potted Durban Poison using GuanoGrow. Local tomato farmer product. Sent from my DRA-LX5 using Tapatalk

So, Sober October was called to an end last night... Feeling great after this month's detox. Started a training schedule, and putt on some weight at the same time. Hope to keep up with the training in the weeks to come... Blazed up a spliff after 1month, some blue dream from my last harvest... like a noob, I didn't need much, only got to about halfway and it was more than enough ... Then went trick-or-treating with the offspring... Sweet tooth sorted after that Be safe bro's

OKC then GSC and lastly Sapphire OG Sent from my F5321 using Tapatalk

Hi guys, sooo awsome grow it was and learned alot regarding soil and what goes with it. Super happy with the outcome and espesially with the OKC, GSC was second and proud of her also and in 3rd place was the Sapphire OG, I think she was just to low when we flipped to flower, tallest buds did good. And here we go Gram per watt = 1.43 Gram per square/meter = 649 Starting with next grow in the soil soon..........cleaning up time first [emoji23][emoji23][emoji23][emoji23][emoji23] Sent from my F5321 using Tapatalk

Hi Guys When do you guys generally axe your plants and why? thanks

Fruit chafers are cool in the compost pile as stated by @CreX, they help with breaking down organic material and adding insect frass to the mix. One or two shouldn't be an issue as they normally munch on detritus or rotting organic material, but they are voracious and may chow on living plants and roots if they can't find enough sustenance. Sifting your compost is about the best way to get them out of the mix.

It was so hot in CPT today that my temps got to about 28.5 in the tent, any tips for hot days? Should I turn the light down or just hope its not hot for that long? It's has been about 24.6-25 since the start of flower (and the start of spring/summer) But otherwise, here are some update pics :D I am using a half dose of bio bloom once a week, starting today lol

To close was mainly a HID issue... foxtailing the result hehehe LED are not as tricky.. still you need good ventilation, if you go that close. I use 8 QBs total.. and I don't go closer as 40cm during flower to the canape (PAR wise).. some buds are closer. If you have just one long main cola, you might wanna go closer.. the part getting to much light, just can't use it and is wasted, if you don't run a CO2 generator. As long as it stays cool, good to go. Is one of the advantages with led. Radiation heat is not as dramatic as with a HID system.

shot for this mate!! i personally have all my single QBs hanging at different heights like in your last example... and yea, it is a bit of a B to adjust, but the flexibility is second to none. i spent a bit more time on my build than you did im sure... had to do it in increments and weekends hahaha i have wired up a dedicated 12v system that feeds each light in my grow for a little pc fan. I also have no heatsink, only the board and an alu plate, but with a fan for each unit. as much as the boards can handle the heat, i add the fan because i ran some tests about a year ago where i tested the light output for a passively cooled and an actively cooled setup. both boards were at max output (120w) and the one with the fan put out a whopping 10% extra lumens according to my dinky toy phone sensor.. less heat equals less wasted energy equals higher light output! Again, shot for a sweet write up man

Great write up@Prom I need to borrow/hire one of those sensors, espesially when I get to flower, atm I'm hanging my QB's between 20-35 cm away. I have no idee if I'm spot on or to much Sent from my F5321 using Tapatalk

Thanks for your willingness to share. I don't use these pots, I've just seen them and always wondered about them. They look the something you would find on the event horizon, lol!

Thanks for your reply.

@felix2000 i can tell you why i never ended up getting the air pots. I did some research on them and found 2 deal breakers. Some of your medium is prone to run out the holes when watering. And the holes on the pot allow gnats easy access to wet soil. Can imagine a fungus gnat infestation in all those little holes would be near impossible to get rid of.

Now how does sativa/indica strains come into play? From all that ive heard on sativa/indicas, the it doesnt sound like it means much. It all depends on when you harvest??

No insomnia issues with a 50/50 harvest but if you want to have a productive day.. wrong selection

I'm getting to the bananas, have to up my game first [emoji39][emoji28][emoji23] Sent from my F5321 using Tapatalk

yea boooooi!!! why are these ladies looking a bit hungry? Man that is going to be one swell flower room!!

cigarettes are the worst for scale.... you gotta use a banana bruuuuu

Was a lucky find. Newish grow shop attached (I.e. inside) the Sir Vape Kloof branch. Recognised the name (Kulture Shop) on a last ditch Google search and came right [emoji106] Been meaning to update my list of shops actually... Limited selection for now but sure they will grow. They also stocking Bongalong paraphenalia, which would have saved me some shipping months ago [emoji23] Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk

More questions if anyone would be so kind. 1) FFarms say on their site that the classic shouldnt be used for germinating. Is this a thing? Sorta messes my plans to put seedlings straight into it if so... 2) When does one start counting the weeks for the strain? from germination or a certain point thereafter? This is mostly related to when to start feeding nutes. 3) When following Biobizz charts... Does one use the dilution they suggest in ALL waterings(i.e. only feed nuted water from then on), or simply a 4ml (for example) mixed intol 1litre water during that week. Would imagine the 2nd but was unsure so asking... @Prom would you be so kind as to share your amended feeding schedule when you have a moment? Other than that... Havent moved yet so still havent planted my special seeds yet

Would you do the same with a strong sativa and indica.. and does terps not also play a role?

I’ll lift the light a bit just to be safe

These are done. Onto the next one. Most of the current grow i am running again so everybody has seen it before. Will post again on the new genetics.

That curling up might be a sign of heat stress.? @CreX

Hi guys I ordered some more seeds from @Biltong and Budz to plant when my current grow finishes next month and was wondering if you had any tips for a first time auto grower? I am loving my photo grow and have some Joker CBD seeds that I was going to do next, but I wanted to do a few autos so that I can experience growing both types of plants. I topped my current grow twice and did lots of LST and defoliation as well as a successful recovery when she started to die off. You can see the grow diary here: But I hear that you shouldn't be giving autos too much stress and that I should only LST. Would love to top them at least once, but I am just worried about them not being able to recover in their short veg time. When I topped my current grow I hardly saw any stress, but I see genetics also play s role in that. Another question I had was about transplanting.. With this grow I went from a cup to a 5l fabric pot to a 10l fabric pot. Should I just start them in the 10l to reduce stress? Any grow suggestions would be really appreciated, willing to try some new things too. Let me know if I should change anything in my set-up: - Freedom Farms Premium Soil - 80cm grow tent - 240W Quantum LED Board - Oscillating fans + extractor fan - I water with 6.2-6.4 ph and a 1/2 dose of BioBloom once a week (during flower)

Also I would be doing you an injustice if I didn't get @Prom involved, he gets some consistently solid yeilds with autos. Although he focuses more on feeding and lighting as apposed to training.

You will get conflicting responses on both questions. The thing with an auto is you want to avoid stressing the plant to the point that it needs a recovery period. I grew an auto from GSR, my first ever proper grow in a "spacetote". I transplanted and then LST'd the shit out of that poor plant, resulting plant at harvest. Sadly I lost most of the main colas to bud rot. I am now growing a fastbuds C4 which I started in its final pot and did no training. It might be strain related or could probably even be grower fault, but I rate LST at the very least.

As a community we should just boycott bullshitters and people that that want to make excessive amounts of profit and deliver sub par product.. We all work our asses of to afford the luxury of getting wat we want.. and then to be scammed... not nice.. Important is that your happy with what you ended up with.. If not... JUST DON'T USE THEM AGAIN IF THEY CAN'T CORRECT THE ISSUE... and make sure everybody else is made aware that they should be wary and alert....