Leaderboard

Buds for Brains

I'm happy to announce the opening of a new area on 420SA - The 420 Directory At present the directory will feature listings for the following categories: 420 Friendly Accommodation Seed Banks Grow Stores Head Shops Activism Organisations Private Clubs Magazines News & Blog Websites There is room for improvement with this area and more to be added but I felt it will be good to get it out there and start getting the database populated. If you would like to list your business here. Please visit this page for more info and to apply https://www.420sa.co.za/sign-up/directory/

Day 20. Outdoor babies have settled in for the long haul and looking healthy. Just the waiting game now. Indoor babies taking it easy under shade during yard time. These are about one week old. Sent from my DRA-LX5 using Tapatalk

Nice lady... by the way... clean up your garage..

I have noticed that the Secret Jardin DS is very popular and customizable to suit your layout (inlet, exhaust vents etc). I dont own a tent but if I did, it would be this bad boy: https://www.secretjardin.com/product/dark-street-120w/

My lady is growing up fast. Is there anything i should be doing other than just waiting? and dont say “clean your garage”

I was super stoked this morning when my package arrived from @Daggafontein Genetics. Not only did they resend me a pack of Gardener's Delight seeds, they also send me a pack of African Buddha seeds and some coir pots as well! That is 5 star customer service right there! Thank you Bob and Daggafontein Genetics. You guys rock! To top it off, all 4 Gardeners Delight seeds that I have planted on Sunday 15th have germinated and are going along happy and strong. No action from the 4 Diesoline seeds that I planted the same day. I also planted 4 Candy IV seeds from Daggafontein on the 16th and 2 of them have germinated and are breaking through the soil. I've made some extra space and the African Buddha will make a very welcome appearance as well... DG-GD #1-5 DG-GD #6 DG-CANDY IV #1-2 DG - African Buddha - Planted 2020/11/20 6 Swazi I decided to keep from the 13th

R1k seems a bit high to me, unless your electricity rate is stupidly high. LED light = 260w draw, taking into account the less than 100% efficient LED driver 2x fans = 120w draw (60w each) Total power = 380W let's call it, however fans are likely more efficient than that and that is also if you run the light at 100% all of the time. I personally do not like doing it like this, dim it during germination and increase watts slowly as the plants get bigger and require more light. I know @Prom just runs it 100% and adjusts the height. Both ways work, dimming lights will help save power though. Average electricity price is around R1.64 let's call it, the tiers actually start at a lower rate but let's assume you are on a higher rate and round up to R1.7 per KWH. Light = 260w x 20 hours x 31 days = 161.2 KWH Fan = 120w x 24 hours x 31 days = 89.28KWH Total KWH a month = 250.48 x R1.70 = R425.82 If it takes 3 months from seed to harvest, even if we round up to R500 for electricity per month that comes to R1500 for 3 months. If you harvest 300g dry, that is R5/g in terms of cost of electricity on your dry bud. Obviously there are other costs to consider as well - medium, nutrients, seeds, sprays, equipment and most importantly your time and effort. Even if you do a photoperiod grow and it takes 5 months from seed to harvest and you manage to pull 300g it works out to 60g a month and meets your requirements. @Stinger96 I was looking into solar recently. It does not make sense to run your grow off the batteries, will cost far too much to run it entirely off the batteries if you have a decent sized grow. I was thinking a grid tied system could work well, however you'd then need to have lights on during the day to benefit from the solar providing power when the sun is out. When the sun goes down then it can draw power from Eskom or if the solar panels are not producing enough power the deficit can be drawn from Eskom. Even if it helps reduce your monthly electricity usage and offers some savings it can be worth it. For a house, typically one would require batteries though as during the day when the sun is out you are at work. So electricity usage at home is minimal, unless you are growing. At night is when you are home and no sun there, so gotta draw power from the batteries and then let the panels charge up the battery the next day once the sun is out again. What causes issues is the bigger appliances, such as the aircon, oven, microwave and geyser. At around 2KW or more each, your draw adds up very quickly and would require a massive inverter. One may not use all of these appliances at the same time, but it is not impossible. Heatwave in summer, boiling hot at 6PM so AC is on, you are in the kitchen busy cooking while the GF is taking a shower. So getting completely off the grid can be a costly experience or requires compromise. A system which works together with the Eskom mains is more ideal I feel and can help reduce electricity costs quite significantly. Just a pitty about the monthly connection fee as that effectively makes your first few units really expensive and it becomes cheaper as you use more - if you factor in that cost which is close to R500 a month. Bleh.

Hey guys! I think I may have been doing this all wrong, by this I mean I should have been working out this thing "backwards". After discussing with @Prom what I realised was that I should look at my monthly consumption first as this will give me an idea on what size tent I will need. (Monthly consumption around 50g) Also these were his comments, posted below, (with his permission), regarding running costs. Lemme have your thoughts as well guys. The below text from @Prom does put "things" into perspective for me anyways. From @Prom : "I pulled 300g prime buds from the 1.2x0.6 in 3 months with a non effort grow, nothing but feeding the plants. 50g a month, no Sir, not the 1.2x1.2... way to big for you Autos perfect... you will have a good time, as long as all stays below 26 degrees. The 1.2x0.6 will set you back around 1k a month on electricity.. the 1.2x1.2.. 2k... and so on hehehe so growing your 300g prime buds will cost you at least 3k electricity, plus fertilizer and your work time." "Yes, the lights will run 20 hours a day and your ventilation never stops 24/7. The 250 watt light plus the desk fan and occilating one... should hit you with about 1000 rand a month, Eskom not expected to lower prices. Buying the material is the cheap part. Eskom overtakes your investment cost within a year. Counts for all tent sizes you can buy. Running them is the real pain. So you want to be as efficient as you can.. rest is just wasted cash"

U need to be moving with sneakers then bru. Cant be rocking the oldsandles

The 1.2x0.6 is a very sexy tent size. You reach all corners very easy and you dont really need to go bonkus on air flow. If you cant have it to noisy. A simple desk fan for entry, a small occilating inside and if you go with a light, combined with its own cooling, like the Mars144, you have very little noise in the room, but still a working system. Might smell a bit thou If it is your first indoor grow, i wouldnt go over the edge. Big tents bring work with them. I love my 1.2x0.6.. just easy to work with. You can always get a bigger one and sell the small one... but in general you add tents

Both Mars Hydro and Mammoth are good brands, I'd say go for the cheaper one or whichever is in stock. In a 1.2m x 1.2m tent I'd say you could comfortably fit 9 plants inside with space remaining, 12 if you cram them all in. This is based on a 20L pot size. Although a bigger tent, is a more expensive tent. Also a bigger tent requires more light which further increases the price. If 6 plants is your limits, I feel a 1.2m x 1.2m tent would be a waste of money and for a Mars Hydro 1.2 x 1.2 it is over R3k

You would need 2 of those lights for a 1.2x1.2, or 1 for a 1.2x0.6 Mammoth or the Mars Hydro... i never had a Mammoth. My Mars tents look pretty good after 1 year usage. All zippers work, no stitch let go. How many plants fit in... imagine you are a doctor and a 2 meter guy comes to you with his tiny wife and asks: she is pregnant, how tall will be our child? If you do a awesome job, 4 and is full. If you fuck over your auto batch... 16 easy if you do all right, 1kg dry should be easy to reach on a 1.2x1.2 area. Better number as amount of plants.

4 of the 9 are up. One damped off. I have other seeds soaking in case the remaining 4 dont come up. The seeds are fresh and should be chilling out a bit for the inhibitors to wear off, but I'm too curious about this cross too wait.

1.2 x 1.2 will be good, however you could go a bit smaller if you wanted to. 1m x 1m or even 1.2m x 0.6m could work for you and ensure you can meet your 4 to 6 plant goal... Cheaper too in terms of tent size. Lights I would recommend LED, I personally prefer Quantum Boards but nothing wrong with LED strips either if you want to DIY. Extractor fan, you could get away with a 4" however a 6" with a speed control would be more ideal and quieter - I have heard good things about the Prima Klima fans and pricing is decent. They have a model which has 2 speed settings which is what I would recommend. Do you need a carbon filter? Is smell going to be an issue where you will be growing or can it stink up the place without any issues? The clip on fans do not seem to last based on my experience, they are also a bit pricey. I find the box fans or even a desk top oscillating fan works well. Get creative when hanging it, cable ties and/or rope ratchets work well to hang it inside a tent. Soil, coco, hydro - your choice end of the day. Rough pricing breakdown as follows: Tent: R2500 (Mars Hydro or similar brand, from Hydroponics) Light: R4250 (240W LED) Extraction fan: R1400 Carbon Filter: R770 (if needed) Oscillating fan: R199 Timer & Rope Ratchets: R500 Total cost so far, approx R9 619 You will need ducting for the extraction fan too which will bring you up to the R10k mark. You will have extra money if no carbon filter is required.

I love this! Will make it much easier for everyone to find the type of companies / places they are looking for, 420 related of course.

1.2x1.2m tent Mammoth from Futurama someset west. Light 320w led DIY strips and driver from Digikey and source aluminum frame locally. See LED Gardener for specs on sprips and drive. 6" extractor fan grow guru was the cheapest last time i Looked which was years ago. 2x clip on tent fans from Hydrobiz Pots and trays. Soil orgasoilux from Jamies garden shop. The source clones don't plant seeds. You will probably have to invest in a dehumidifier at some stage for Winter. That is my take on it.

Yes, very true... This is probably one of those instances where if something happens to you, you hope your wife / partner does not sell everything for what you told her you paid for it. haha

Touchy subject if there are partners/wives in the picture