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Hi All ,grown the odd plant here and there nothing serious . Want to to step it up now ,ready to learn from the community ! Have a fantastic day .

Good start is to let us know what setup you got or what you want to get, or even just what your rough goals are. After that, start a diary and the guidance shall commence

Well bro beans - you have literally come to the right place, this community has been turning Noobs into novices into pros!! stick around and ask all the questions you need to my man, being part of the community also opens up doors to some quality strains and amazing knowledge sharing.

This morning I potted up 6x Gorilla Zkittlez to go into the empty space in the flower tent tonight after the pots have dried a bit on the deck. I am still playing around with what's the best height to grow the plants in the veg tent before transferring into the flower tent. Previously I got the plants to about no more than 80cm before transferring and they didn't stretch much and only ended at about a meter in height come harvest. With these Gorilla Zkittlez I've gotten them to a solid meter already before transferring into the flower tent. I think this will result in some bigger plants, which means bigger stems, which equals more food for bigger buds! There was a lot of space left in the ceiling of the tent for some more growth, so I am hoping to fill some of that space up with this batch. I also like to at this time remove the last of any lower branches that will definitely not be going through to harvest. I count 5 branches from the top and chop anything left below that. I hover between 4-5 branches depending on how big the internodal spacing is or how much stretch I think there is going to be. Then in the first week in the flower tent I will check how the lowest branches perform and if I like what I see and the vegetation isn't overwhelming the branches will be kept. If not, they get the chop. I like to make these decisions slowly because once you chop, it's decided.

welcome yeah was just about to ask to share what you busy with right now ?? great help, support and motivation coming from this group. if you're not already, you'll be harvesting good amounts of dank genetics in no time.

Welcome to the thunderdome, boijies. In this diary I will be recording my grow for the year 2022, blunders, wins, alas. I have recently made some very nice improvements to my overall setup since my last diary and I think equipment wise there won't be much else to upgrade, so from this point on the focus is going to be on refinement of the setup, efficiency of the process and perfecting the strains in my stable. Speaking of strains, my stable/veg tent currently consists of the following strains which I have collected over the years: Zkittlez x Purple Punch - Ripper Seeds (ZxP) KmintZ - Ripper Seeds (KM) Gorilla Zkittlez - Barneys Farm (GZ) Aurora Indica - Nirvana Seeds (AI) Grand Daddy Purple - Blimburn Seeds (GDP) Tortoni F1 - Totemic (T1) Wedding Cake - 1000 Hills Nursery (WC) A solid seven strains. At the moment if I wanted another strain, I would try my best to swap it out rather than accommodate it. The space in the veg tent is comfortable enough to hold at least one mother plant of each strain, enough plants for the next round in the flower tent, and also enough unrooted clones to replace the plants that go into the flower tent. It's called perpetual growing, china. The veg tent is a 1.2mx1.2mx2m LiteHouse LITE grow tent with a 120W QB LED (set to 80W) at about 1.2m high from the ground, light schedule is 18/6 from 6pm to 12pm. I have found this to be the sweet spot all year round for all the veg plants, mothers, clones, they all good. I can get my plants to a nice 1m height before popping them in the flower tent. In addition, I also have a 59W 4 inch extraction fan set on low which exhausts air from inside the tent to outside the room through a window. The window has a custom fitted duct port which allows the room to remain sealed even with the exhaust venting outside. Lastly I have a 425W heat panel which I fixed to a wooden frame to allow it to sit upright at the back of the tent. This heater is connected to a Sonoff switch which is connected to the WiFi and regulates the heat within the tent automatically at a minimum of 22C. The average currently is about 25C (mid Jan) but sometimes, especially with the rains lately, the temp can dip but it will never dip below 22C in this tent. Humidity sits at an average of 70%. The flower tent is a 1.2mx2.4mx2m LiteHouse LITE grow tent. I have also upgraded to AutoPots. From what used to take me 1-2 hours every 2-3 days to water my plants by hand now takes me 20mins once a week. This has been an absolute gamechanger as I can now really focus on timing my veg tent and perfecting the strains going into the flower tent. Not getting absolutely sticky with resin every time I water is a nice plus too I have harvested 6 plants (ZxP) once already about two weeks ago as a test run using the AutoPots. I have another 6 plants (ZxP) currently going which are due to be harvested by the end of this month and I have also just recently planted 6 more ZxP which are the younger looking plants to the left of the flowering plants. First impressions have been fantastic. Compared to using fabric pots, I can see all the benefits and more. I have also installed each AutoPot with an airdome and I pump fresh warm air to the root zone for 12 hours a day following the same time as the light time schedule. I can see the same kind of growth that I used to see back when I grew using DWC. When I investigated the roots after the first harvest, the airdomes were just smothered in healthy white roots. Very nice. Unfortunately, I recently discovered that my pH pen was whack and I fear the last harvest may have been deficient during the ripening stage due to incorrect pH of the feeding nutrient. This will be one area of focus going forward to improve the overall grow. I have also invested in two new 35W Sansui Box Fans which I have attached to the ceiling of the flower tent. I had a few spots of bud rot due to the fokin heavy rains in the Highveld this Summer so improvements needed to be made to make it through humid times. I obtained a 450W GMC 26 Litre Dehumidifier that I keep running within the grow room outside of the tents. From these upgrades, my flower tent humidity has gone from 70%+ to sub 49%. I can also run my 62W 6 inch extraction fan on low (same setup as veg tent i.e. exhaust outside via duct in window) just to simply move stale air from inside the flower tent to outside and slowly bring fresh air in via the gaps in the door to the room through negative pressure created from the flower and veg tent fans exhausting air outside. The lighting power is three 240W QB LEDs (set to 160W) that I pair with 6 plants each on a 12/12 light schedule from 9pm to 9am. Initially when I transplant into the flower tent I will start at about 60cm from the canopy and over a week or two move the LEDs closer to about 30cm to the canopy. I find this enough to give the plants used to the higher light intensity without having to change my wattage settings every time I do a transplant. The idea is to grow and harvest in sets of six. Each set of 6 AutoPots have their own 46L reservoir containers so I can regulate the food to each set of six independently, which allows me to do plants at different stages and also different strains. Harvests are also only 6 plants at a time and not a solid 18 at a time. I am still getting the timing right to get a harvest consistently timed between each other, so that will be fun also to figure out. Something like once a month or so would be hot. The flowers have gotten big enough in the last few harvests that they flop around like big 'ol dicks, so I will be adding a net across the tent after I have harvested these last 6 plants and have planted new plants into all the empty AutoPots. Tying up the buds has been a mission so I'm hoping the net will help in that regard. I haven't gotten a chance to fully utilise the nets yet so that will be a first. In the empty set of six AutoPots I have at the moment I will be doing a round of Gorilla Zkittlez. To replace the current 6 flowering ZxP that will be harvested soon I have 4x KmintZ which are being grown for the first time from seed and are the latest addition to the stable. I will also substitute 2x ZxP plants to total that set of 6. The KmintZ are a supposed 'upgrade' to the lineage associated with ZxP, so pairing them shouldn't be a problem. I just recently took another batch of ZxP clones to replace the Gorilla Zkittlez when those harvest. After that however, it's a roll of the dice. Maybe we decide together what comes next from the stable, maybe I throw a dart on a board, who knows. Whatever is decided, I need to take those clones in at least 3 weeks time from now in order to be ready to plant into the flower tent come harvest time. I'll have a good idea of how to really time everything perfectly as we go so that as I harvest I already have a batch ready to go to replace those plants. Right now, taking at least 6+ clones every 3 weeks has worked out quite well. When I have things dialed in, I will write up a rough formula for all to enjoy! Or perish! It's ya boi. ***Harvest Dates - Weigh-Ins*** 2022 05 January - 87g ZxP 18 January - 136g ZxP 28 February - 257g ZxP 04 March - 173g GZ 12 April - 65g ZxP 12 April - 159g KM 06 May - 188g ZxP 12 May - 215g WC 06 June - 168g ZxP 27 August - 796g ZxP 21 October - 377g ZxP - 80g WC - 135g OMG 28 November - 827g ZxP

Some of the taller gilrs were topped, but most are el naturale AFAIK. This one made OG type nugs. Just larger. Just got confirmation that no.3 came in at 170g. One plant in a 10L plastic pot. That is fucken unreal!! Rule of thumb for a decent yielding strain, grown well in a 10L pot would be 100g. 10g/L. Anything over that is super heavy yielding. He says no.1 will come in even heavier. My mind is blown.

179g for no.3 to be exact

Its sounds far fetched but lots of truth in there. I think the Spraying in Pondoland was more along the lines of no one gave a shit, an American company ( Monsanto) tightly involved and funded by DEA/CIA were running out of places to use their Agent Orange, South Africa was ripe for the picking. It was the ass end of the "drug war" and South Africa was a little insignificant, even if you take into account the growing area and the amount of biomass that is exported. Spraying humans, animals and land with a cancer causing chemical should not be a problem. Throw in the "I LOVE DAGGA" sticker. "The South African Police Service’s National Air Wing spent more than three weeks spraying dagga plantations with a chemical called Kilo Max, in the greater Lusikisiki area. Drugs have proven to be a very difficult plague to control, not only in South Africa, but throughout the world. These exercises literally nip the dagga problem in the bud. It goes without saying that the abuse of drugs leads to other more serious crimes such as rape, murder, attempted murder and robbery with aggravated circumstances. Therefore, it has become imperative that we must be extremely decisive in the steps we take to drastically minimize this scourge. In this operation, some unknown people have been distributing stickers with messages such as "I love dagga" and pamphlets stating that the methods we are using to destroy the dagga, are unsafe and detrimental to the environment. This is not true. The dosage used is so minimal that it only kills the dagga plant. We have found that the natural vegetation surrounding the dagga plants survives the spraying. These people even went as far as inciting people to cause harm to our police officers." "Dagga plantations have been sprayed in this area for over 20 years. In all this time, not one person has been reported to have suffered any form of illness as a result of the chemical used." Source

sounds and looks promising!! i have popped 4 of these beans along with @PsyCLown so we are hoping to find something similar

Quick smoke report for 11 and 12 11 : Smells fantastic. Pineapple and fuel. Decent bag appeal with some good trich coverage. Taste is not quite there though and the smoke is harsh. It is very strong though, so that might account for the harsh taste. The high comes on almost immediately and it is a face ripper. Not my cup of tea though, as the high has an edge to it. Also, it only lasts about 45 to 60min. For me, this is not a keeper although I'm sure there will be guys who will love it just because of the crazy freight train high. 12 : Smell is creamy sour fruit with a hint of fuel. Bag appeal is excellent. Large calyxes covered in resin. Taste is great as well, and the smoke is smooth. Tastes like more. High is like the smoke. Smooooth! Come on slowly but there is depth to the high. Has a nice narcotic stone. This is my kind of high. Helps you unwind after a long day. You can still focus on tasks, but once you get up and walk around you realise just how stoned you actually are. Not nearly as strong as no.11 but this one is definitely a potential keeper. It yields well at 85g for one plant. Slightly better than no.11 which was 80g

This could be the case, but I have to say perhaps people like monsanto or who ever is behind all of it and who ever was paying them didn't give a shit, but saying no one gave a shit might not be so fair, because I think the gteater amount of people did give a shit. that's why they fought and got them to stop. The reason you gave and the quote from those sources all plays into all 1000 different angles of defence those guys will throw at you, so they can keep doing it and protect their bank or whatever agreements they have. when taken to court the platform for monsantos argument will be they did it, because cannabis is schedule 1 narcotic in some other parts of the world and they might be exporting it there. the situation about getting rid of the product or the argument about if it's carcinogenic or not is kind of irrelevant, but I am not surprised that if it was monsanto, or for that matter any branded company that wana push their product, will create a silly argument like that they can win in some way to distract a person from the real problem which is them killing the cannabis fields. monsanto has been in hot shit for many years about all kinds of crazy shit. even if the shit they sprayed was a super nutrient for all other plants, and only killed the cannabis, the argument was that they didn't want them to kill their cannabis fields anymore and the focus was to get them to stop all together, not to spray a different product that's not carcinogenic but still kills the cannabis

Did they use Agent Orange in SA??

It's literally raining once every second to third day here in the Highveld my dude it's the first Summer in the last 7 years that it's rained this much according to my memory. Usually it will piss down in the first few weeks of Summer and then chill out to like once a week or so. My RH is at least sitting at a constant 50% inside the grow room now but I was a bit late in sorting that out to prevent any rot on the flowering plants right now. These flowers are on exactly week 8 of flower now and I've just finished a flush, so I'll be harvesting what's survived within this week.

yebo - ecomonic power and status. the ouens getting their salaries don't even know why they doing it, it was the task at hand and the sooner they can clock out to go spend that fat check the better. this root goes down deep deep deeeeep, back to the mexican revolution back in early 1900's and stems from the reason cannabis was made illegal in the first place. might sound like people are looking to the easiest and first most logical reason there can be, but more often than not people like to look at things and make them way more complex than they actually are just to try understand them, when taking things at face value will bring you closer to the truth. They did it "because they can" they, the people deploying the helicopters, will give you 1000 different reasons why they're doing it trying to justify their stance, when in reality it's very simple - in certain parts of the world the last glimmer for a source of economic stability needs to be chocked out to help maintain the pyramid structure our society is built on that benefits only the tippy top of the 1% the reason people like Simon and the team that helped him got their wishes, was because the poison sprayers literally had no foot to stand on for what they where doing other than "cannabis is illegal in some parts of the world" and that was not a good enough reason, but really, going back to the reason why it was made illegal, was based on this very same economic power struggle. Sadly cannabis wasn't even the original target, but just caught in the crossfire. During the power struggle, it was hemp standing in their way and was the main cause of the power struggle. Hemp was made illegal when the DuPont family, who created the nylon empire, merged with te Hurst Family, who started up the biggest Timber company at the time. They used their money and power to befriend a guy named Harry J. Anslinger, first ever leader of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics when it was created in 1930. Together they flooded the media with anti-hemp propaganda, and the only angle they had to make Hemp look bad was that HJA was a fucking racist and out to make profits and as he quickly saw there was more money to be made in nylon and timber, so the only way was to lie about it and create 2 different things and demonising the one. Hemp was known by the masses as it was the only textile/paper resource at the time, so how do you make that product look bad? you can't.... but what you can do is associate it with cannabis. Cannabis tinctures and extracts where used as a medicine, all medical books had information on it at the time and the substance had high cause for abuse as with any medicine. The mexican jazz culture was also creating quite a buzz at the time, and the habitual use of cannabis became synonymous with mexican jazz. They focussed on calling it something else like "crazy tobacco" and newspapers where flooded with stuff about "reefer madness" and how "marijuana makes black people rape their mothers and sisters and kill their brothers" and a whole bunch of other racist fucked up lies, then they supressed any further research on the matter so no one could find out if any of this was true or even possible. Within a few months global perspective has shifted and everyone was OK with it being made illegal and since then all Hemp/Cannabis crop fields has been sprayed with poison. No reason needed... basically just to protect a entity that fucks the whole world up the butt and sucks us dry of valuable resources cutting down forrests and shit. So I guess the oncommission in a sense is the fact that there are probably some government bodies benefitting off the massive monopoly timber and nylon companies have that exsist in their countries by not making way for the hemp industry to take off again, because poor countries will become stable and independent and that's no good for the 1%.

Wouldn't hold my breath for that commission. I think the emergence of activists such as the Dagga Couple and the Dagga Party, coupled with social media put that BS to an end. Somebody needed to stand up for those people as they had no voice for themselves.

Sample smoke of no.12 pheno

monsanto has been in trouble from all sides surrounding their use of glyphosate. most FMCG crops that spray round up has heard the wrath from the public - no one wants round up around since many years ago. problem is they have the monopoly and they have the money to keep their names clean. they have been fighting the round up wars for many many years and they will always win. long and short of it is monsanto is riding on the back of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics' stamp of approval, they gave the green light to monsanto to go spray. where the law was broken in this case, was not that they used glyphosate, instead it was because the FBN had no right to do what they did. if any given entity where trying to minimize dagga coming into their countries they can do so by patroling their borders, screening traffic and all that jazz. no country, not even the government has the right to cross borders into other countries and go spray poison on their crops.

I watched a video around 2016 on YouTube, with the sabc showing the helicopters and spraying the goods, but cant find it yet. Here is a article from that video and same time. They did show the barrel of poison if I recall in the video http://thegreentimes.co.za/south-africa-stop-this-criminal-devastation-of-the-transkei-ecology/ Added, the details are in this article, Monsanto, Glyphosate, RoundUp Ultra (the new Agent Orange)

I spent the rest of the day trimming a harvest I had drying for the last week. This was the first run I did in the AutoPots and consisted of 6x ZxP. I won't sugarcoat it (although there was still plenty of sugar), but there managed to be more bud rot again, but it didn't spread. I think it developed as far as it did while flowering and mostly stayed at the center of the buds most affected. I'm going to be honest and say I probably lost half the yield to bud rot. The buds mostly affected were the large, main colas () positioned at the tops of the plants. I don't think I had very good ventilation in the tent at the time. I've managed to save a good portion of buds so not all was lost, but we gotta get this shit pristine now. The unaffected buds are frosty and nice, I managed to get about 2/3rds of a 3 liter jar. I am going to log the weight of all my harvests for the year and present a grand total, try and set myself some baselines/future goals.

You never know, but I dont think so. However "agent orange" was a herbicide used in the Vietnam war and was a military grade herbicide made by the same company. The production of agent orange also supposedly stopped in the 70's but have lots of ties to Monsanto, RoundUp and Agent Orange. From 1965 to 1969, the former Monsanto Company manufactured Agent Orange for the U.S. military as a wartime government contractor.

It is inevitable

Woah, that is some crazy yield right there. We getting a smoke report on those too?

No 12 sounds great and looks pretty good, bud size looks great too. Was this an xmas tree plant or was there some topping happening?

Awesome man! I can't wait to see what you guys get.

very lekker man, you have some nice tech in your setup now!! but my boet, where the hell are you living that you have a 70% rh in the air as standard? sounds like you living in the ocean! but i know youre up north somewhere

..and here we have some lekker bud rot, courtesy of the rains. This current batch has been struggling with bud rot in its attempts to flower this Summer. The batch before was almost perfect except for the deficiency at the end, no bud rot though I've been keeping a really close eye every evening to chop any bad buds. I've picked maybe 6 buds so far. Bit of an eish but at least the entire batch isn't lost. I don't think there was saving these buds in-time with the recent purchases to reduce humidity. The real test will be from here on out during this high humidity period

That dude is power. Good on him. What was the real goal? Or was it another simple financial repercussion of the war on drugs where they had a budget, a good salary and didn't question anything

Its a deep , dark and sad story, and there should be a follow up to it, people/animals and land were taken advantage of. It feels like my catalyst, the guy who fought on the ground is sleeping on the other side of the house currently, I drink ( accidently ) with the guy who used to refuel those choppers and host them at the bottom of the Umzimvubu, we have had a couple debates, polar opposites. I gave this badge to Jules and Myrtle one night when they were about to go to sleep, you should have heard them when it landed on their bed. I think we had a coffee and another joint. https://www.instagram.com/p/BeuaDXaAAlr/ The whole operation was funded by the CIA that are in South Africa !!!! It was Simon Strainhunter on the ground, a surfer journalist and the might of the DC / FOGFA that put the nail in the coffin for this operation. It was a huge internationally funded operation and took place in Natal, Mpumulanga and down here in Pondoland. It also happened cross border, from Mpumulanga to Swaziland. Amazing what a handful of activists did and accomplished through the power of media.

This was a good watch. Good discussion on the topic of landraces. I wonder with regards to the topic of licensing strains as mentioned in this series, if the landrace strains are registered in the name of the local populace, what then happens with the Exodus and Sunset Sherbet strains they are growing? Wouldn't they technically need to then pay a license fee to Green House Co just as Green House Co would have to pay them for the landrace strains? Knowing Mzansi, a system like that will be exploited. Also sad to know that our government were spraying poison so haphazardly for 18 years. Where's the commission on that?

Oh yeah and I forgot to add. With the crazy weather in Gauteng I had a spare cutting of Blunicorn that I didn't want to throw away as I hate throwing away excess cuttings. We have a small little pot with mostly sand and some succulents in the garden. I took the fresh cutting with no hormone powder or anything on it and stuck it in the ground. No dome or anything and just left it be. To my surprise it took and is currently going strong. Just goes to show how tough this plant really is and how hardy it can be.

Hey, Thought I'd share what I built. Over time I developed an IOT platform which allow people to register and integrate their micro controllers over HTTP/MQTT Turns out it works great for my grow tent. Using this platform I created this custom light controller which can control up to 4 10A lamps over MQTT. At the back there is a toggle switch which will toggle between online and off line mode. In offline mode the knob in front controls the 4 channels, all the way to the left is off and the more you dial it to the right the more LEDs comes on 50watt at a time. Enclosure was 3d printed. When in online mode it connects via MQTT to https:// Littlenodes.com you can create sensors and switches , I also added integration with Alexa in the form of a virtual button which can be triggered via a URL, Which in turn triggers an alexa routine. So if you have a sensor and any of the parameters goes out of range it can trigger alexa to say something like "Warning temperature sensor out of range!" And a little sensor box that measure lux, temp and humidity. And to top it off a dynamic image that will show live readings in my tent. So when ever you refresh this page it will show live readings updated to 1min ago. Bit over the top and maybe a little bit gimmicky but hey!

Watsup everyone. Finally I have managed to finish my 480w LED light which I have been busy with for the last 6 months, or rather delayed for the last 6 months. Work has been abit hectic and haven't been home to work on any projects. I managed to make some time and if it wasn't for a good friend that put the flames under my ass, I probably never would have finished it. @John Stonedwell I had a thread open about the wiring of a 480w light but as I kept the wiring the same as in the diagrams I used from LEDgardener, I thought I would just start a new thread rather. At no time would I say that this build is cheaper than buying from Alibaba but it was an adventure I wanted to take and I have learnt alot about it. Plus I have a brand new 480 watt LED Grow light. The build is an example on the LEDgardener website which I was introduced to by @Cannabist Here goes. These are the following items I used: 12x bridgelux 3500k led strips (bought off of digi-key) 480w meanwell driver 480H-42A (bought off of digi-key) 6m of aluminium bar (6mm thick and 76mm wide)(bought at aluminium trading) 6m of aluminium angle (side are 12mm wide and 1.6mm thick) 6m of 3core flexi black cable (soft like extension cord cable) 10m of 2core twinflex (harder mouldable cable) Plastic coated steel ferrels Couple of meters of heatshrink Chocolate blocks (through and through connectors) 8x wago connectors (can be found at hardware shops) Waterproof 3 core connector 3 point plug 12mm plastic squares for corners Wondafix glue Plenty of little screws So to begin I had to get alot of the dirty work out of the way. I decided to group my strips into 4x groups of 3x strips. So basically it would be 4 bars with 3 strips on each. I measured the width and length and figured the aluminium bars I had were wide enough to take 3 strips each. Making wiring abit easier and I used less wires than expected. Note that all bars were cut to 1.2m to fit the led strips and to fit into a 1.2m tent. I think I cut them even shorter just to make sure they fit in the tent as the tent isn't exactly 1.2m . Anyway. Not going to be doing the exact measurements as I can't really remember. So all the bars were cut to size and I decided to drill holes throught the bars to mount the strips. I aimed for 5 screws per strip. Way too many I would say but anyway. I also threaded all the holes so I didn't have to use little nuts to tighten the screws, even though that is not a bad idea because the threading took kak long. I had to thread the bars twice as a friend and I made several mistakes (under the influence of beer and weed). I also used a heatpaste to transfer the heat from the strips through the bars, and what a serious waste of time. The strips, even though 3 on one bar, doesn't get anywhere near hot enough to be concerned. I honestly think its like 21 degrees or something. Don't waste your time and money on that crap. Also it doesn't dry out like normal silicone and rather stays "wet" forever. It can become a very messy storey. I used 2 screws on each side of the bars when mounting to the angled pieces just to make sure I won't have any sort of swaying on pivot points. This was just to stabilize the build. I also did not shorten the angled aluminium simply so that it could keep its position nice and centered in the tent and not lean to one side. I made sure to use plastic squares to plug the corners so they don't tear into the tent. As you can see their sizes weren't perfect but I squeezed them on and they stayed there. No glue and shit. Once I had all 12 of the led strips mounted onto the bars and all the bars mounted onto the angled aluminium, it was time to start the wiring. So, as some of you may know that followed the wiring thread, there was alot of questions about the driver and why it had the two outputs etc. I am not going to discuss why they have two outputs on but I can assure it is for a good reason and probably for safety (some electricians said I could use just one of the outputs as it wouldn't matter, which I understand buuuuuuut it was designed like that for a reason, so I used both. Less of a fire hazard). Firstly I connected the main power cable which was 3 core, and extended the input cable of the driver with the 3 core flexi cable I got, and also connected a 3 point plug onto the end so I can plug it into a wall socket. Lol. I used the waterproof connector to connect the cables and created a nice long extension of the drivers' input cable. This helps alot as I don't have to struggle with extension cables. I then used some of the 3 core flexi cable to extend my outputs from the driver. I connected them with the coated ferrels and then used the heatshrink to cover it nicely. Heatshrink is the shit. I love it. Note that the two output cables from the driver have 2x cables in each. So that's two red(+) and two black(-) wires and no earth. The earth cable was then just cut short. At the end of the two outlet cables I just left them open and soldered over the copper to make it a little neater and more solid as those 4x points would go straight into the chocolate block which is mounted on the frame. I did it this way so that if I needed to move and pack up the light, I could just disconnect it from the chocolate block and I would have just 2 pieces to carry around (1x driver and cables, 1x light). As you can see I just used electric fence wire to make the frames hanging cable which I just connected between the bars on the angled aluminium to make sure the whole light does not bend from being too heavy etc. If you connect it to the outer edges you start getting a bend and warp, which then doesn't help with the direction of the lights. I used wondafix to stick all the wago connectors to the back of the bars. When I had to wire the red (+) ends of the bars (3x strips), I just ran 2 red wires from the choclate block to the wago connectors and then spread the power between all the positive ends of the led strips. I also just ran the two black (-) wires across the back of the bars (strips) to the opposite end where all the black (-) connections were and fed them via the wagos. Also I just glued the wires to the back of the bars so they would not move around too much. I also just used cable ties to keep everything neat on the frame. I used twinflex cables for my red and black wires. This wire is semi flexible and keeps the shape you bend it into which is great if you want a permanent built frame with lights etc and no wires dangling everywhere. In order to get it out of the hard white plastic which houses both of them, I would pull the earth and it would strip the red and black from one another. Making it alot easier to work with. I can't tell people not to build their own lights because there are way cheaper options available online which are already built but damn it was an exciting and interesting journey. This is something I have always wanted to do and now I feel like I have the confidence and abit extra knowledge on how to tackle something like this. I really hope this helps someone else deciding if they want to go on a similar journey or not. Hopefully someone could learn from the ideas mentioned and probably better them or personalize them their own way. One positive I found is this thing saves a shitload of space vertically in my tent. Thanks for watching. Note: this is not my design but one of the many on LEDgardener.com

So I've finally harvested my Auto Critical Orange Punch after just over 10 weeks of growing in my Cabinet ---> Apologies for the poor pics. Yielded 66 grams dry. Not too shabby! I was expecting 30 to 40 grams.

Banana Blaze Dried Cheese still going. Middle of week 10 at the moment. Very, very few amber trichomes. Mostly cloudy with some still clear.

Some more pics of the cheese plant

During my high school year's all I wanted to do was go travel. My grandfather who had been round the world a few times said to me one day ' travel your own country first before you go travel the world '. I did just that. In the days when hitchhiking was still safe'ish, my thumb took me from the East coast to the West coast, Cape Town to Harare. I hit the road to the airport with 180 pounds in my pocket and returned 10 years later. It's kinda hard to explain but visiting those small dorpies and farm towns in SA prepared me for a lot overseas. I got into indoor growing beginning of lockdown thanks to reservation moonshine and the bug has bitten. I've decided to travel SA once again before I venture overseas but this time it is for the quality and service I believe is available in this country. Everything about this grow is Proudly South African. The setup: CABINET. Wife's custom shelving converted into a cabinet. LIGHT'S. @growopz QB75'S. 1 x QB 3000k/4000k. 1 x QB 3333k. 2 x 15w Osram led strips 4000k. Rigged and ready. Once again@growopz came to the rescue. Approached him with a budget and what I had and a plan was made. SOIL. JouMaSeSoil. Coco - Peat Perlite Vermiculite Basalt Rock Dust Michorizzae Diatomaceous Earth Bone Meal Dolomite Lime Worm Castings Kelp Meal Microbial Tea Ph tested at 6.5. Soil is made by a Cape Town local and so far so good. SEEDS. @Bay Seeds. Bruce Banner 3 x TNR F1. Glamberry x Lemon Jedi OG. Master Lester ( Dr Grinspoon x Lemon Jedi OG ). @Totemic. Choc Gelato x Ghost Train Haze. Choc Gelato x Slurricane. @Daggafontein Genetics. African Buddha. Big shout out to all of the above for making this possible and look forward to the journey of finding those South African breeder's and gem's. Next year bud's.[emoji109] Sent from my DRA-LX5 using Tapatalk

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

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

Awe guys, I've been kak busy today. Check my new possie. 190 x 60 x 60 87cfm axial fan 2 x Cree 36v CXB3590 LED cobs with active cooling. The LEDs are running at 50w each for now. This build is lekker stealthy, it locks, the fan is alot more quiet now because it's hanging from the ducting and not fixed to the cab. If I put a box over the ducting outside for scrubbing, it'll be quiet enough to come inside. Now all I need is for these KAK seeds from GSR to germinate