Leaderboard

10 days up. Starting the run with 25

I do not see any "health" advantage.. bio or chemical. The main fact is, not good to burn anything and inhale it. your lungs work best with clean fresh air. No other method grows as fast as hydro. Commercial setups all run hydro to my knowing. Hydro just needs most knowledge to run it smooth, things need to be always in the green area. But we are home growers... we use a bit what we like. When i bought the first tent in SA, i was very determined to go hydro... that is what i used to run. Bought already the hoses and valves... and then i get told. Go soil As the guy knows what he is talking about, no arguement from my side. Would be a bit like argueing with a alien about interstellar space travel. So ended with soil... but... if the law goes legal.. the grow setups for the coffee shop, will be hydro. Just easier for mass production. I like the simplicity of soil, organic fertilizer and rain water. No other real reason otherwise. Grow how you enjoy... in general, people enjoy something, ends nice If you want to know what is in your weed... send it to a lab. They do all from potency to heavy metal content.. And if you are not happy with your grow results... why not try one of the others methods.. might suit you more.. can end way better as before.

i dono man... the plants uptake synthetic nutes in the exact same way organic nutes are taken up... the plant doesnt see organic nutes and be all like ...mmmm theres mollases in this, or mmmm great banana peel!! the plant can ONLY absorb elements in their base form... synthetic potassium, or organic potassium is identical... so no... we are not smoking the salts... because thats just not how a plant absorbs nutes from its meduim....

yeah I guess like most said, it's personal preference at the end of the day, but cause this thread is about explaining our preferences, here's mine I've mentioned this a couple times before on here, I worked on a big export flower farm in Hermanus for a number of years, where I learned a LOT about the difference between organic and synthetic fertilizers. you'll be able to spot in my earlier threads that I used to mix organics and synthetics, used to also get good results even though a bunch of the members where frowning upon it. I grow all organic now. for me, where I stand right now, I believe synthetic nutes should be discontinued completely. The existence of those products have devistating effects on our biodiversity right around the world. not only on our fauna and flora, but humans too. there has been studies done on the synthetic nitrates we add to our soils and research shows that plants consumed carrying those harmfull nitrates result in a toxic reaction with the hemoglobin in the blood stream, causing methaeglobinaemia which damages the vascular and respitory system. This causes shortnes of breath and suffocation in severe cases. this is not only from the weed we smoke but what contains most of these harmfull nitrates is our FMCG crops. that fat healthy looking bright green lettuce on the shelf in checkers is more harmful in this regard than the weed we consume If you guys are interested we can go into detail as to who what why and where, but the fact of the matter is, organic farming, be it urban or commercial, will stand the test of time. the most important test, I would say.

faqme you guys where all off work today? I am only getting back now and there is 4 pages on this thread!? I will get to reading the whole thread, @PsyCLown https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331132826_The_Impact_of_Chemical_Fertilizers_on_our_Environment_and_Ecosystem that link is to an abstract from a book written by a couple of guys who I'm sure you'll be able to indulge, here is the list of authors and their qualifications, read most of it, it's quite a read. *if you scroll down on that page you'll find the whole chapter here is a PDF, not sure if you can get into it? but it's just about how any synthetic nitrate even the most subtle forms in our drinking water to the more heavy stuff like ammonium nitrate being way more harmfull all have links to the hemoglobin disorder. nitratmethemog.pdf any quick search on the old google bitch on methemoglobinemia and its relations to synthetic nitrates will give you the info. I just think, we can do it without synthetics, but to convince the world to do one thing is insane hahah that's not what I'm after. anyway, let me see what I missed.. *edit

I've been growing in soil with biobizz for close to 10 years but I'm building a new room and I will be using autopots with EHG in there as it seems like less maintenance filling a reservoir once a week. I have a friend who grows seriously and he uses EHG and autopots. For me all his weed doesn't matter the strain has a similar taste in them and I believe this is due to salts. All my biobizz weed has a similar sweet taste again. For me there is a definite difference in taste between salts and biobizz.

We would like to inform the family, that we are pushing the date forward until the evening of the 28th April. Wednesday Night at 17:00 is cutoff for nominations, so you have a chance left to tag or nominate someone still. Wednesday Night after cutoff, we will see who has the lead and inform you all as required. I've seen all the goodies that @Marijuana Seeds SAis adding so generously to the gift, and I can personally say that the winner is going to be extremely happy. On top of the pack of GSR RooiBaard, and the Pack of Chemdog and Nirvana grating Card, I've managed to pull together another seed, Sannies Female, and the winner can decide on which one of the strains on hand at the moment. Thank you and bless you all

I think we should burn our plants, not water them. Haha Sent from my Redmi Note 7 Pro using Tapatalk

Uhh.. that plant is hanging Can make you a picture once dried. Also went to builders and looked for inspiration for screens. I hate nets.. I like to be able to move pots and reorganize. With a net, that is not possible after some stage. So I decided to make a screen for each pot.. that is what I found and came up with, I give it a try.. will make different sizes for 22 and 40 pots. A screen for each pot.. Goal is a 16 cola plant with a dead flat canape. Lets see ^^

aaaaaay, when you're poor you're poor lol

You buffer for calcium and magnesium due to the exchange caution capacity, as it leaches on to it plus throw in leds and you could have a cal-mag issue. What I think they are saying is that syntactics and salt buildup could have a negative effect ( as I mentioned) there needs to be more studies done in labs to be able prove each side. This is why it organics vs syntactics. Atleast I know well whos growing syntactics here

So you're saying flushing should happen only if one is using synthetic nutes but when using organic nutes it's fine not to flush? Reusing the same medium, I do not see why not. You want to rinse the medium though to get rid of the nute build up so you can start clean with balance nutrients. Lets use hydro as an example, water is the medium. You out nutes in there with say an NPK of 3.3.3 and the plant will consume nutes in different quantities. Over time you may end up low on nitrogen in the water but still have plenty of potassium. So the balance of the nutes are now all over the place. It's easier to scrap the res and start fresh with new "balanced" ratio of nutes. We all know excess nutes can cause issues as can an insufficient levels of nutes. Lead to lock out, toxicity, burn and deficiencies etc. This happens with organic nutes as well and with soil too. I just toss the fabric pots in the washing machine with some washing machine detergent. There is a rinse cycle. I wouldn't use washing machine detergent to clean the pots. If you have a glass of hot water, add a lot of salt and it will dissolve. That now becomes a solution. Leave that glass of water out to dry out and you'll be left with salt at the bottom of the glass. This is basically what happens and why you see the nute build up on the side of the fabric pots. Add water to the glass and the salt will dissolve again, same with the nute build up on the side of the fabric pots. There is nothing dodgy or dangerous going on when this happens. Not sure what health concerns you have with synthetic nutes? You've likely consumed loads of products where the plants were fed with synthetic nutes. What is the difference between an organic nutrient and a synthetic nutrient? What defines what an organic or synthetic nutrient is? Sent from my Redmi Note 7 Pro using Tapatalk

I have always understood that one typically wants to flush before harvest and you do not feed after flushing. Flushing has its use and purpose if you fucked up and fed the wrong nutes or waay too much or at the incorrect PH and it can cause damage / harm to your plants. For example, feeding some nute solution with an EC of 4.0, that can cause some serious damage to the plants. You've already fed it to your plants and shit, now what? A flush can help, get rid of the nutrient solution in the medium to then replace it with a nutrient solution which is safe for your plants. Although this would be done at any point in the growth cycle and not specifically at the end of the grow just before harvest. I feel a lot of this misinformation was spread about due to the fact that back in the day, a few decades ago, information was not as common as it is now and research was not done on cannabis as it is now. People have to play around and things were done with trial and error for the most part and you used what you had available to you. The amount of cannabis specific products were little to none and then trying to get your hands on what was available was likely very challenging and possibly expensive. Now we're getting onto the topic of flushing though and not organic vs synthetic.

I gotta disagree with you here. Plants have a limit as to how much nutrients they can consume / take in and most of the time when we're feeding plants we tend to feed more than they need and overtime the nutrients can build up in the medium (soil, coco, hydro - whatever). Plants will take the nutrients they require, which means an imbalance can occur in the medium. Flushing will clear the medium of nutrients, not the plant. However a flush can lead to the plant being starved due to the lack of nutrients now available in the medium. However whatever the plant has previously taken up to grow and create the leaves and bud will remain there. EDIT: Actually, a quick reference can be made to this link here: https://www.rxgreentechnologies.com/rxgt_trials/flushing-trial/ Go to the section "Mineral Content of Flowers at Harvest" They even have some nice graphs showing the mineral content with different durations of a flush. It is kind of all over the place. Some nutrients are found in lower concentrations with no flush compared to when the a flush was performed. Ultimately, a lot more research I feel needs to be done still. Also a flush can be done regardless of whether you're feeding organic or synthetic nutes. Excess nutes can be fed in both scenarios.

so what about the not so noob growers? i can sorta see your angle and where you are coming from. But at my company we have a motto "First time right" , so while i agree with you it may be benificial for noobs, it would be better if these peeps researched a bit more on all kinds of grow techniques, and the importance of not over feeding, rather than flushing. another note, if flushing is to remove excess nutes in the meduim, then there is zero saving in a flush as you are washing unused nutes down the drain... as opposed to just leaving them there. another thing is outdoor plants... i have grown the most beautiful weed, with the most delightful terps and aromas ...and obviously didnt flush because they were in the ground. so maybe a point to the amazing terp profile from the organic outdoor - but a big question remains, is flushing nesseccary if you dont need to flush outdoor plants

alright - a much more elaborate explanation - which i agree with... i was more trying to get at the point that once organic material is broken down and is now available for the plant to uptake... it doesnt make the elements that the plant uses any different to the synthetic nutes. weather they are absorbed like you said, or via the backstage, its still the same element that has been absorbed. plant health is an important factor...if you are feeding your plant correctly, you will not have a huge build up of salts in your meduim, but if you are feeding wrong, you get your toxicities.... and regardless weather its organic or synthetic...if you are burning your plants, they gonna taste like shit, but if you have healthy happy plants, you are unlikely to have a build up of synthetic nutes in the buds

Yes that's correct, the reason that works so well is because microbes are amazing, and you've given them a food source, without organic matter and a 25th of nitrogen, microbes do not have a sufficient diet to survive. Then after they been doused with waaayyyy more than 100 times the amount of nitrogen, their nutrition balance go out of wack, and they start declining. the soil starts oxidizing and so carries on the unsustainable practice of synthetic nutrients. Number one problem in agriculture today, No organic matter??? Why??? So much added nitrates that the microbes ate the selves out of there.

Link to the flushing data which is being referred to: I like to wash my fabric pots between grows incase there are spores of mold or something, help keep things clean but I have simply reused them after a grow. I assume you want to make reference to the nutrients which are sometime visible on the fabric pot from the nute solution getting on the fabric and then drying? I personally do not like reusing my coco, however I know many do reuse theirs. I did not like reusing my soil either, but ideally you should actually reuse soil as that is part of how one builds it up - continue adding to it. Reusing coco and/or soil, if there are pathogens or spores, it can cause issues and complications with the next grow. How likely that is to happen though, who knows. Also easier not having to reuse it as its never as light and fluffy after the plants roots have had their way with the medium.

Myth. Double myth.

I am in no way defending synthetic nutes or against organic nutes and ways of growing - however there are quite a few things being said here without any links to the actual soruces. There are pros and cons to everything, sometimes what we expect is better or good can actually be detrimental to the environment - such as natural flavourings vs artificial flavourings. End of the day, they are the exact same compound once refined but the source of where the "pre cursors" came from is what determines whether it is classified as natural or as artificial. There are natural flavourings which are just not good for the environment. Now back to the topic on hand. I think we can all agree that ultimately we still know very little about cannabis and how to achieve the best results from it, lots of learning still happening and even a lot of incorrect information going. Flushing being one of them, there have been recent studies that point towards the fact that flushing does not make a difference (it's soo small, it can not be classified as a substantial difference). If anything, the data points towards the wants which did not have a flush ending up with better bud, a smoother smoke etc. I personally have not noticed difference in taste between my soil grows and coco grows. The difference in high is also not noticeable, far more difference noticeable in the way I have grown it and the time of year, environmental differences and so forth. All of those make a far bigger and noticeable difference than coco vs soil or organic vs synthetic. Until more research is done and it can be proven, how true is it really? It could be placebo or changes in environment. Grow the exact same cutting year round with the same nutes and such and it can differ between grows. Glyphosates (Round up) is a herbicide. The appeal behind it was that crops can be modified to not react to it, so that farmers could spray the fields with it and kill any weeds and such, without affecting the crops. I agree that the evidence points towards it not being good stuff. However if we stay on the topic of genetically modified crops, we will have a vast array of views on it - it is not always a bad thing though, there are benefits to it for sure and when people breed just about anything (dogs, horses, fruit trees, cannabis) we look for certain traits (sometimes in the form of a mutation which is beneficial) and try breed that trait into whatever it is which is being bred. @Naughty.Psychonaut do you have a link to the source of your info regarding the nitrates having these effects? For all we know, it may be a particular fertilizer which is possibly even banned in lots of places or seldom used and the others could be rather safe in terms of consumption. I do agree that the use of fertilizers and how cheap they are and the quantities they are used in is not ideal for the environment. For us home growers, quite a small compared to the loads of commercial farmers who push KGs of nutes to their crops. Commercial farming is at the point where one gets their soil analysed and you get a fully customised chart which states what nutes and how much you need to give every week for each growth phase of the crop. We are all pretty much using a general approach for cannabis and have broken it down into a 3 or 4 stages of growth typically with regards to nutrients, I still feel there is a loooot more research which needs to be done and a lot more which we can still learn about the plant. I do not feel one can say organic is better than synthetic or the other way around, it really comes down to personal preference and what you are looking for in terms of growing style. I feel that soil with organic nutes is certainly the meta and what companies are pushing at the moment. If you take a look at grow medium and nutrients and what is most popular, organic is more expensive. Don't be fooled into believing it is better though. There are pros and cons to both.

So yes, I think everybody started with salts and has either tried soil and moved back to salts or stayed. I really enjoy reading to expand my knowledge around micro-biological sciences, physics and chemistry as it correlates to agriculture so bio-physics and bio-chemistry, compiling all this info is super overwhelming for someone who barely got by in school, but comforting knowing the info comes from industry leaders, bringing agriculture to new heights! As you can imagine, there is new tech daily, the possibilities for AI, processing power increasing at an exponential rate. With all this comes a new understanding around microbiology and what chemical fertilizer/pesticide do in the soil. Chemicals companies obviously didn't care about what could possibly go wrong back then, but now because of the direct linking to certain types of disease and cancers, they are highly implicated. You see this is still all happening in the background, not much coverage, and still very little awareness. Bayer is facing in the 10s of thousands of law suites with direct links of Glyphosates causing cancer, and you thought you were being healthy eating that carrot. Glyphosate is the key ingredient in a once popular pesticide that had the ability to chelate a plethora of heavy metals resulting in the plant taking it up and you getting cancer to make the long story short. Salt nutrients are definitely a successful way to grow crops, but it still the equivalent to a picture or a digital song, its is not analogous. Dr Aden Anderson who has the highest qualification in just about everything, explains that while in different parts of the plants life the nutritional requirements change drastically, there are about 5/6 different stages in the reproductive/flowering phase. Would make sense that you would be able to achieve a higher level of tastiness. But not the yeild. However, I don't think anyone would argue that we are far behind the more progressive countries practicing full regenerative models and knocking it out the park. So yes, full organic... and still paying school fees.

Very interesting! I ll have to read this, thanx for sharing

@PsyCLown I got you my dude! actually have 2 nicely rooted in 10cm pots already shooting new branches, will take a photo in the morning. correct me if I am wrong, but aren't you up in jozi? I'm in winelands cpt

Possibly, or more possibly the fact that @Marzcannastarted this thread, to get some good debates going and some traffic and to get the fam having discussions. And what better way than with the most debatable topic you might get.

Good man. All received. Your seeds will be sent off Wednesday morning

No I totally agree with you. Burn them up

I’m definitely for re-amending your soil and reusing it @CreX really brilliant practice! The only thing I can see possibly going wrong is the salts getting stuck in the medium and hindering the cycling of the organic matter, but you can add worm casting / compost and should be sufficient, probably wouldn’t need to use any nitrate products for the beginning half of plants veg, coming scenario agronomist are prescribing to farms in the americas, this is what they say. But that’s what it’s about, Small steps, maybe try a fish instead? Fish hydrolysate is one of those really brilliant nitrogen products.

i must note that i do battle with the reused coco for a week or 2 before its 100% sharp again because of the cation sites in coco... getting the Ca and Mg ratio correct and actually buffering the meduim can be tricky... under buffering or over buffering is a mess. last buffer was only calcuim and no mg and so far so good Only do this if you really cant afford new coco... i just dump used soil back into the compost and so begins the process again this recent wash i did seems the best so far... happy plants straight from day 1

syntactics are the bomb diggity lol... peace and love and a small chuckle hehe

ill just leave this here

Week 2 update. I've never seen these small light streaks before, anything to worry about? 26 April 2021

Extracting straight to glycerin, if possible, is not a bad idea. Create a big batch, send it in to be tested to know the potency / strength and then create your edibles from that according to the strength you're wanting.

Yes but also the conception of flushing is something I view quite one-sided, because why would you pour ridiculous amounts of water through the medium... And then cool you can leave them in there rather, all you really doing is watering to move those salt nutrients through and used by the plant, from the soil and into the fruits... Then your outdoor plants, boasted a lot more terps because of the diversity of microbes and huge variety of mineral matter available in a general outdoor soil, couple that with some bugs in a jug and you flying, greengrowing crops also bring huge microbial diversity as well. Then also worth mentioning - The sun! The fresh air! (CO2), the ground cycles out a hell of a lot of CO2, they measure how much microbes by the amount of Co2 emitted if i'm not mistaken, could be wrong on that one.

If flushing is the debate. Then I have to stick to my points the last time we had this discussion. Flushing is vital! Not to you me, or anyone who understand what synthetic nutrients really are, but to the beginner grower. Imagine the huge majority of first timers growing out their first bud pushing over recommended serving sizes not flushing, and tasting that chemical mess. They might stop growing completely and i'm sure they have. So this is would actually make flushing an integral step in cannabis cultivation. Cant just say get it right the first time.

Also this one is incorrect from what I understand, above are the compounds, these metabolites are way more complex prefab parts the plant didn't have to expend energy creating.

And yes, you can Chelate nutrients to be more available to the plants root zone, but the plant can still only take up elements and not compounds

I think we are straying off topic, yes there's research stating that flush doesn't make a difference but people still swear by it, and yes we can reuse coco & soil after synthetics, I've done it before. Some say you clean the pots, I'd hope that you do, but is it an easy process? Is there liable prove that same salt build up doesn't stay in your medium? The flash research was done on flavour which there isn't enough evidence to state it does infact improve taste. We know that the plant is infact intaking those same salts you are trying to wash off the pot and you are also smoking those. The nature of flash to flash out salt biuld up makes sense, and there is research around stating you shouldn't reuse medium that's been used with synthetics, I go by what I've seen, your plant is uptaking those salts and that's a fact. If you feed grape juice a few hours before harvest and actually taste it in some strains (do the experiment first, this is also anther highly debateable topic) whos to say you are not smoking those salts?

Got my ticket, Captain

@CreX I agree with you on that one. A combination of both organic and synthetic is actually what I do as well and feel it works best. Coco with synthetic nutes but organic / natural additives such as mycorrhizal fungi, trichoderma and some other additives which help support microbe life such as molasses based products and of course microbe incoulants. I know many say and feel the synthtic chemicals and ferts kill the microbes and such, however I have noticed a difference for the better when using these compared to a grow without them. One should not see either method / preference as inferior or better. Both have pros and cons. Is Indica better than sativa? Is an SUV better than a sports car? Is white a nicer colour than black?

i used to flush... but then i stopped because it honestly never made a difference to me or the buds. i have been reusing my coco for very long. sure you dont want to be a chop and harvest and then put new plants in the unwashed coco - you would destroy everything like that. rinse the coco from what ever EC it is at harvest and rinse the coco down to 0.1 EC and add calcuim and a 10% nute mix boom, presto! i have fresh coco again... takes a bit of practice, but it can be done without failure or detriment to your future crops

If you have the same cutting / pheno as the pics of that Banana Hammock bud I would be interested in doing a trade with you? Perhaps drop me a PM if you are interested.

I totally agree with you. Organic is the way it was intended to be grown. Also if we take how we need to flush after using synthetics and the fact we can't/shouldn't reuse the medium after harvest with synthetics, raised alot of red flags for me

Not to mention the environmental effects, who remembers the explosion in Beirut? Yep abandoned ship filled with ammonia nitrate... Fertilizer or Facking BOMB!!! hahaha never mind me growmies

Here are our SOTM March winners! Sorry for the delay guys, it's all Growoff at the moment! 2nd place @CreX 1st place & Our Winner @Dookie69 Congrats guys! You will be contacted shortly

Yea. Been looking for a seedbank that has stock and ships here. Quite a mission Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Also had that on the list, but as you say, very temperamental with our power system and even if you have backup, you have the chance of pumps or something else failing and the whole lot going to shit.

Found this little one today while watering the plants.. And this one on the Mustard yesterday.. Glad they back..

Grow Series Coming Soon : TBA Marzcanna - YouTube Grow Series

I like that CMH and LED setup in the last pic. Very creative. I run my one room with a mix of CMH and Gavita. It works really well. Those 630w CMH's put out a lot of light. Now I want to test flowering under 630's with one bulb at 3000K and one bulb at 4200K in the same fixture. Your plants are looking good bro. Can't wait to see them take off.