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Defoliated the greenhouse and tent. Added predator mites. Leaves and lower buds went into the worm farm. Gonna flip the tent soon.

Ola growers, all the babies are up in the propagation station and I do not think they will be stretching too much for the light which is amazing as it buys me sometime. I'm quite impressed with these LED tubes. They are fitting the purpose very well.

10 growers is a tiny percentage of growers in Capetown. That's the point I'm making. Yes there are growers doing amazing stuff in commercial facilities and undercover brothers all over SA... with outrageous bud I'm sure, I myself have sampled many many different A-Grade bud selections from Cape town growers (many many many many growers) and all over SA! This was before I started growing. I wasn't buying cheap stuff and by the time I started growing I had sifted through a bucket list of different types of weed. They did the job and I cant knock any products off the shelf, even though when we talk about these mysterious figures, nobody can say who exactly was growing what, you just knew, Hmmm that's a lot of money for a G, but the bud does look phenomenal, and well I guess I'm high and usually I noticed it wasn't for long. So at the end of the day, all said and done, I like my weed best, If I go to another province, id much rather smoke my own weed than paying for premium grade weed somewhere. So I take it with me no matter what. This is my personal super biased opinion about the weed in SA, and that doesn't mean anybody should care or even take notice of what I say. Its just what I've noticed over the years.

Aweh fellow florists, Removed the anti-cyclone netting so the Fruitpunch girls can breathe better, they are a bit bushy. Did a EWC topdress to give the girls a bit of a boost and watered the goodstuff in. Thinking I may need to do some more defoliatiin on the lower regions...

I've chatted to the organisers, and the logistics are a little crazy. Long story short... they are trying really hard to make a great event happen in a short space of time. Just remember, no matter what you do... you can't please everyone. There are going to be some fairly big names pitching at this event, if that is your thing. It's going to be a blast!

Yeah, I think it will be awesome for those who attend and I feel it is great that we are getting such events in South Africa. The more events like this the better for us I feel, brings more exposure and with time the backing will increase and the events have the opportunities to grow and improve. If 10 entrants and 100 judges do not work, learn from it and move on and improve it on the next even. Simple as that. I do not feel it will detract from the fun for those attending or entering into the cannabis cup.

100% However not everyone will be interested in entering this. Also they will be sifting through the entries and narrowing it down to some of the better 10 entries they get. You likely won't seem oom Piet's outdoor landrace from 2019 in that list of 10 because he still has some laying around and thinks its great because it hits harder than the majut from BP. It will likely be replaced by some better entries. We need to start somewhere, how many entries would you like for judges to sample? How much bud can a person sample in a few hours? Not sure how big this event will be, however I do not imagine it to attract 10s of thousands of people either. I think it is pretty cool to have such an event, if it runs well then the next one could look at taking it a step further, improving on the short falls and hopefully get more backing and a bigger turn out. Perhaps it could be built up to an event for people throughout SA to enter some of their best shizz - South African cannabis cup and see who can walk away with the title. How long have these cannabis cups been going on for in SA? I see there was a Cape Town one in 2021, not sure about the previous years.

Pics taken - 08/02/22 Tortoni Grapefruit Sourz The Row (pretty bad pic )

Once, when I was in Durban. I was all Mr. Big Dick because at that time I was already smoking close to everyday, so I had kept one of the joints while another was being passed between two other guys. I didn't finish the joint.

anyone ever had a bud that could only be described as "super weed"? I know I know it's a very corny thing to say, but one of the guys I used to buy from used to have moon cheese, he still gets it sometimes. the buds literally looked like moon rocks, but it was just normal bud, it looked like there was no way it came from a plant. smoking it tasted like dab or some really really good hash, but the high lasts as long as 4 to 5 hours. with extracts I can smoke a fat dab every hour or so, it just vibrates my brain and makes my toes curl, but dab don't keep me high. some flower I can only smoke 2 or 3 joints a day. If I come across weed like that I'll buy it just to treat myself I've asked the guy many many times to get me a cutting, but it's the same as with the hitler strain, clone only and is kept private.

Same same

Beautiful stuff man! Love to see proper outdoor plants looking nice and healthy Are they supported?

Hey guys Been a while since I posted cause phone fell and cracked the screen. So it went in for repairs and I got it back yesterday. This morning I snapped some fresh pics of the ladies.... JACKY WHITE : BLUE KUSH BERRY : PINEAPPLE CHUNK : BANNER BISCUITS : BRUCE BANNER : SLURRICANE CHEESE : So that my garden shots for now. They have come a far way since my last update. I so apologize for that but my phone broke during work and had to go in for repairs. Unfortunately, all my info was on the phone and I had to wait for its return. The Pineapple Chunk is taking her time to start flowering, but all the others is in full flower. This is a good platter this season and looking forward to puff them all...

So all 7 seeds have germinated and 5 are out of the medium. I put them in the sun in the morning at 5am and bring them back is at 6-7pm.

I use a 5-6cm layer of Leca. I like the fact that it is a wick for the Coco, and it offers an aeration gap which I’m certain stops the pot from “sitting in water all the time”. I’ve started recycling it for future grows, so it’s cost reduces par grow. The roots love it, I find those fine white roots favouring the airdome and the Leca zone.

Big or small, I think there should be as many events as possible. I like the vibe this particular event is trying to set, I think all the numbers are manageable and also chill.

Pics Taken 23/01/2022 Tortoni Grapefruit Sourz The Row

Good to hear @DamDave. I have tried got hold of support a number of times, phone calls and messaging, just copy and paste messages, verbage, Where did you buy them sir etc. Support agent told me to take them back to spar and get a refund, do you know what driving 30km will do, Spar will ask me to contact Vuse directly. And then you go from pillar to post and start smoking more. A mate gave me a lekker vape, just need to work out all the stuffs I need to jazz it up.

That's unlucky man. I've been using the Cue for some time and changed to the Vuse about 6 months ago with no problems. Have you approached Twisp directly. I usually pop into a shop when I had problems with the Cue and would walk away with a replacement no questions asked. Sent from my S40 using Tapatalk

Lol, I have no clue. However 660nm and 730nm (or UV as quite a few manufacturers refer to it as) are quite common with grow lights now a days. @Righteoussower A light from 2011, you need to keep in mind that the efficiency and output of the light will decrease over time. It is generally recommended to replace your grow light in 3 to 5 years due to this decrease. I guess you can think of it like clothing, you have a favorite pair of socks or top which you wear often... Over time it starts to wear down, gets damaged and you end up needing to replace it due to holes. Similar concept with grow lights, while the light may still appear to be bright, the actual PAR output will reduce quite a bit and therefore the efficiency goes down and you end up using the same amount of electricity for less output and your plants will start to notice it as well and growth won't be the same as when the light was new. I have never seen that light before, but it is basically just COB's which are not very popular anymore and you get far more efficient LED's and therefore grow lights now a days. In terms of a new or replacement light - you can go the route of building your own if you enjoy that sort of thing or have the knowledge to do it. Not difficult, but not for everyone. Otherwise you can just buy a good grow light - we have vendors on this forum who offer grow lights and the members can help guide you - most make use of Quantum Boards or bar lights. Both have pros and cons, but end of the day they're very very similar - especially if they both use the common Samsung LM301 LED diode. I prefer Quantum Boards, however there is no right or wrong between Quantum Boards (QB's) or bar lights, it comes down to what may be better for you and your setup.... With that being said you do get some shitty Quantum Boards and you do get some shitty bar lights. If you are unsure, ask on the forum and the members can help guide you

my conclusions: - you got a light that can grow your weed - you going to need more light to light up the whole 1.5x1.5 - avoid blue/purple/red/pink lights in future my advice: - use that blue light for the small tent (blue spectrum is more for vegging, so I don't know how well it will work for flower) - get into researching some more about LEDs. here is a good place to start https://ledgardener.com/ The light I built was a step by step guide from this very website. very very very helpfull to those who want the help

Hi bud, hope you are well! How much did you pay for that light? First I wana say I am not an LED master like some of the other forum members on here, but a short story is in order ... I started out with a blurple light (blue / purple / red / pink) and it served me well for atleast one grow. I had buddies growing with all kinds of tech, the HID light grows still take the trophy for bud profuction, but because of the running costs it has become a thing of the past. LEDs made a wave when they came out with much less running costs and much less heat coming off the lights. Better all around, and for a while horticulturalists thought that having light in specific colours that do certain things for plants will be the best way to grow, but that quickly changed. the idea behind using a blurple is giving the plant only the essential spectrums it uses during either veg or flower, but what time and countless experiments have shown, is that removing the non essential spectrums you are removing a very important part of what the plant needs. it's sort of like feeding the plant only macro nutrients without any micro nutrients, same concept, but not as diar. the best light for plants is a full spectrum horticulture light. white light LEDs are a mixture of red blue and green/yellow light, that the human eye sees as white. mixing those colours at the right ratio will give you any colour you want, so in a sense by giving them white light you're giving them all colours. those are the best lights. check this out without anyone telling me I had my own experience with weed grown under my blurple and the same cuts being grown under my buddies HID lights. the difference was enough to make me think about going over to HID... this was when I started doing some deeper research and found that the new tech LEDs such as the samsung and the bridgelux horticulture LEDs are closing in one the production value of the old school HIDs. they're quite pricey when compared to blurples and even some HIDs, but when concidering the running cost, the environmental improvement, the lifespan and the end product the innitial price you pay will be well worth it. the reason I asked you what you paid for that light, is because my 300w blurp cost 6k at the time I got it, local brand so I can get it fixed easy and cheap. when researching blurps and doing PAR tests on the lights you'll find that the actual Wattage is significantly less than what is advertised. they blow up the numbers for marketing, but in reality my 300w blurp tests more around 240w.... for 6k .... keep that in mind... I built my own LED with samsung horiculture diodes, tests 310w, white light all for less than 4k. the design needs for no integrated fans or heat sinks for active cooling, because it's a bar style light and all parts are seperate so it never heats up. I can run the light for 12hrs and wrap my hand around the diodes and keep it there for hours. the heat is so little it's not even something to mention. my design also allows for much better focus, coverage and spread, because the whole canopy has diodes everywhere right above it. this and the fact that there's no heat means I can also hang my light a little closer to my plants with less stress and if I want a little less focus and intensity I hang the light right at the top of the tent. you can also put a potentiometer on your light to allow you to dim the light. I didn't do this, because I use my light just for flowering. so I need all the powa

So, the 3 SCH are doing great, JF clones are 4.5/6, although entirely my own fault. I left the zip on main tent down and one of my cats was investigating the rickety scaffolding in a strange very bright white room, and was really surprised to be suddenly showered with wet substrate and small plants... Luckily only one clone was a outright write-off, the .5 was just kinked, so I masking tape splinted and it seems to be ok. You can see it in the middle below. the idea is to keep them all in main tent, until there's something to flower. Then I'll get around to setting up my smaller tent for mothers/vegging. Talking about substrate, the grow medium I use is largely recycled from previous grows, with top ups of whatever it seems to need, including lots of home-made compost. I've seen advice to not recycle, but i've never had problems, and it spends a long time 'ageing' outside in the sun between re-uses. Nutrients; at the moment it's just water for everyone, substrate has enough nutes to get through until 2nd transplant. When I do start, I have been using Green House Feeding powder fertilizer. When that's finished though i'll be switching to their BioGrow version.

KmintZ are in! There are four KmintZ and two supporting ZxP. They looking fresh and ready for their flowering journey. I gave them all a nice douse of spinosad before going in just as a preventative to the latest little stint of thrips, of which I saw none of when checking tonight. I got a little fright when looking for more PWM, but it turns out it was just dry milk on the leaves that I rubbed yesterday. Lol me. Otherwise, I haven't spotted any more PWM so hopefully that has been sorted as well. Flower tent looking skits. KmintZ ZxP Gorilla Zkittlez

Some decent growth in the last few days.

I believe it's more for very aggressive plants or strains. The leca they recommend for you to put at the bottom of the pots is so that if the roots get too keen on space, you won't risk the drainage holes getting clogged. It's very beneficial for the system to be able to fully drain the pots before it feeds via the aquavalve again. As long as this is achieved, with or without leca, you should be good. In other words, as long as you're not using straight up clay, I think most mediums will be fine. I personally like using this technique because with the addition of the airdomes which I use, I feel the roots are getting the best of both worlds with a healthy medium to retain moisture, and the space at the bottom between the leca to suck up that good O2, plus never having to worry about drainage being an issue. However it's also important then to use the root control discs in the trays and the matrix sheet inside the pot to stop any dirt or dust getting past the leca and messing with the aquavalve.

I would like to know your thoughts on the use of Leca / Hydro balls with autopots, we know it's recommended by the autopots company, but there's alot of growers who don't use them at all and say plants grow just fine. I did use them on all my plants but one on my previous grow and didn't see any negative effects, this current grow I have not used them at all and again I don't see any negative effects, the plants seem to be growing as normal. So what's your guys thoughts

The Cannabis Lords continue to test me with the Gorilla Zkittlez I went into the flower tent for a good bit and wiped any spots of PWM with a paper towel and a mixture of 1 parts milk and 3 parts water, both the tops and bottoms of any affected leaves. I am 95% sure I've gotten the worst of it. Then guess who I find chilling under some leaves, some fokin thrips babies having a lekker chow. It was one of few leaves that had them, so it's early. I then gave all the Gorilla Zkittlez a misting of Spinosad, tops and bottoms of the plants, while they are still in early flower. That should execute the pests for the most part. Then I turn around, and not a single care is being given by any of the ZxP. They are all just styling, chilling, asking howzit. No mildew, no pests. I'm starting to think some plants are not as equal as others Lesson of the story, check your plants, fix things early.

Autopots and trays prepped and ready! Here is also a picture of how the roots grow into the airdomes for that good oxygen injection straight into the plant veins. I like to just about cover the airdomes with leca pebbles and then fill up with a 60/40 mix of leca pebbles and coco. I find this allows for very easy drainage for the aquavalves to cycle between feed and stop, but also allows for just enough moisture in the medium for the first week where I am still top feeding.

Ladies are doing well, all healthy and strong. Was hoping they would'nt get too tall, have to leave space for preflower stretch. Think they going to touch 2.0m. Had a couple of rough days with the weather, even tried prepping for that flippen cyclone-hence the net. After the rains last week, the sunshine was a female dog- hectic UV that even bleached some leaves. IPM wise, they got a biogrow insecticide spray around the bottom and middle and a Margaret roberts for worms around the tops seeing as theyre allready in preflower. Last week, topdressed with some more organic material and capped off with dry straw/grass clippings and finally watered in some tricoderma(fusarium control) Yesterday they got a maintenance dose of calmag as some plants were just starting to show a cal def. Here's to happy flowers.

Trimming day! Started early this morning and finished just after lunch. Caught some bud rot again but not nearly as much as the last batch. I'm sure I might have even lost this batch if I had not reduced the humidity when I did. If I never see bud rot again, that would be great. Managed to get a fat 3L jar worth this time around. Jirre I might have gotten another 1L worth if it wasn't for the bud rot. Tsek. I'll update in a few days on the dry weight.

Thanks 420 for setting up a new forum category for this specific method of plant irrigation. For those who don’t know, the Autopot system uses gravity to get water or nutrient mix to the bottom-feed Autopot tray from a central reservoir. Through wicking, the water creeps up the expanded clay substrate and into the coco or soil. Each plant uses just what it needs, and the more a plant drinks, the more frequently the Aqua Valve allows new water in. If you want to learn more about the aqua valve, go to the Autopot website. The four main advantages of the system is that it is self-watering, the reservoir allows you to take a long weekend here and there, there is very little waste and finally there is no risk of overwatering, there is almost no wasted nutrients since there is no water till runoff. Not relying on water pumps is also a reassuring place to be. The system also comes with its own set of challenges of course, which hopefully we can discuss in this forum. Although this thread has been placed under “Indoor/Hydroponics” since I think this is the most popular application of the system, it can be used in greenhouses (the surface must be flat and level), with organics in soils and with both auto’s and photo’s. Please join the thread if you use Autopots in any way or form. My own combination is as such: Salt based nutes (TA trio); Autoflowers; Freedom Farms F1 (Amended Coco-perlite). I’ve just completed a run and have spent the day cleaning the grow room, and stripping the coco, clay pebbles etc out of the pots. I have learned a few tips over the last 18 months spent growing which I’d like to share as time goes on.

VS x CC Pics Taken - 08/02/22

BB x HC Pics Taken - 08/02/22

BB x HC Pics taken - 23/01/22

Purchased 2 epod 2's in October and December last year from Spar tobacconists. The first one's battery died after 2 months, and the 2nd one also after 2 months. These units are just a gimmick and do not last, its cheap imported junk. Dont waste your time or money with them, it will cost you a fortune. Their support is non existent and they dont get back to you.

Couple of lekker big outdoor girls you have there, they look healthy and strong. They gonna reward you handsomely with some fris flowers.

Gotta admit, it looks above my pay grade. Although from the little I do know, I maybe wouldn't be standing in front of it while it's on looks radioactive.

aha how does one go about getting nominated? and who judges that? the 100 judges also first come first in and any ol' Joe can enter, like my uncle who never smoked weed before? people getting offended by everything, we are way too soft these days! When it's a competition there shouldn't be a problem with those terms, if a person wants to get offended when placing themself in a judged-by-the-public situation, they will just have to get over it and learn from the experience. hopefully it helps them grow and rise to the occasion so they can better themself. those that don't learn naturally gets weeded out over time, because no one likes a overly emotional person with a bad attitude. we all get offended by different stuff, but who cares? we can't all bend over backward everytime someone gets a little butthurt about their feelings. there is such a huge hidden network of big time growers right under our noses. every corner I turn I hear about some big time grower I never knew about. it's safe to say that Cape Town has some very serious growers. the likes of which this forum doesn't see too often. I sometimes forget that people have been growing and selling super dank weed around CPT for years and years and years and those growers or their children are still around doing big things. they just don't care to make themselves known. looking at some of the other grow competitions I see people and names I've never heard of, always asking myself "where did this guy come from all of a sudden" forgetting that every big time grower has a number of years of experience behind them, but what they do right is keeping quiet. operating in silence. then they wait for competitions like these and just pop out to steal the show

Yes. Capped at 10 but exceptions can be made for exceptional herb.

Lol , I'm so confused. I don't think they will take any random bud from anyone. There seems to be somewhat of a vetting process where the bud must qualify for entry into the competition, I think by means of a picture or something. And then 10 seats, if it is 10, I don't think it will be a good representation of the best bud in SA. 10 people is just too little and 100 judges is just too much I think you can draw out bias with 25 judges, get more entrants, tell them to bring less bud, I don't know, just another option.

Cool cool thanks for the clarification yo! Will there be an online presence for those not in Capetown? A live testing vibe or something? I'd love to see what is out there and how the judges weigh up terpines, bag appeal, high and smoke of some of the greatest bud in SA.

I feel the growth is perhaps a bit on the slow side. However there should be some explosive growth soon. I put some seeds into water on 31 December 2021, by 5th Jan they were in coco in 20L fabric pots and had stalks but few had leaves yet. This photo was taken on 28 Jan: There has been some explosive growth since then as well and you would not think it was the same tent if I posted a picture of what it looks like now. Just green everywhere as they're now getting established.

Really cool thread man, dig how you show both the ups and downs of your journey

You can even add taps to every line going into the trays so you can turn each tray off individually if needed without having to turn off the whole system

Just a quick note for the organic growers, you can do organic with autopots with great results, infact there's some debate weither or not organic in autopots grow faster and bigger than synthetics, from my previous grow comparing them both it definitely seemed to be the case but I won't go into much detail at this time (there's some articles on the net already covering this) So there's two main ways of using organic with autopots, 1. adding layers of ammendments throughout the soil and than top feeding when needed (I suggest turning the system off for a day so not to flood the trays) or 2. using liquid nutes in the tank with bigger valves (valve 5s). For op growth I would suggest investing in bigger valves regardless of what method you use and the new 20L fabric pots. The autopots have made my grows a "sit back and enjoy" vibe. Only going into the room once in awhile to check for any leaks or to top feed.

Aweh gromies, Did a bit of cleaning up again Fruitpunch ladies are vegging like machines, general defoliation and opening up the insides for ventilation.

Noticed a creeping issue in the flower tent. Usually after I transplant there is a slight fade just as the roots catch up, and after about a week the plant should bounce back strong and green. This has been exactly the case with the ZxP, but the Gorilla Zkittlez is due for the bounce back but seems to be fading further. I have given another top feed even though the reservoir has been on for a few days, I think the roots may be just slightly behind. Depending on how fast the reservoir drains I might top feed once more in a week. ZxP Gorilla Zkittlez

My tortoni - funny story here sort of. I was originally planning on putting one of each in the ground and keeping the others in the pots. I didn't check what I was doing and put both my tortoni plants in the ground also I broke a branch off while cropping ...........