Leaderboard

Apologies, I should have mentioned the eggshell pieces for calcium part. That you can also get anywhere, however since it's so late grinding them to a powder might make them more soluble for the soil.

Usually i see those news on the internet. This one i have missed and just noticed you get quite a bit less. They went up 19%.... and is not the last increase. Load shedding and price hikes. I wouldnt mind if the higher price would fix load shedding... but the sad fact is... now just more gets lost to corruption. So yeah your indoor growing got 20% more expensive.

The topic of this post is something I spend a lot of time investing in. Because there is certainly truth to the idea that people are growing 'fake strains'. BUT, it's also quite easy to find out who still uses the real thing and who doesn't, so long as you know who to trust - or at least who has proven themselves over the years to be focused on legitimacy. Because holy shit, there's a lot of guys that should be selling used cars. They can convince their audience of anything, regardless of how removed from fact it is. Unfortunately, if one gets real about this topic, feelings get hurt as well. People see their favourite breeder being called out and they think that because they found good plants in their seed pops, that the breeder is trustworthy. I've even seen guys get offended when they learn the cut they think is X is actually not. Because this is such an important topic I feel, I just want to share my experience as someone who spends a lot of time researching breeders and have worked for a couple seedbanks in vetting genetics suppliers and breeders. These are the main problems when it comes to 'fake seeds' and 'untrustworthy breeders/sellers' The Rename Game / White Label The Fall of the Dutch Replicas Authenticity of breeding stock The clone market The Rename Game In cannabis genetics it's often a case of trying to establish provenance. In other words, what is the true genetic lineage of a strain. Unfortunately, websites like Leafly popped up a few years ago and made the problem even worse. Because lineages that have been shrouded with elements of half truths and mystery suddenly get replaced by incorrect, but authorative statements on what is in a cross. Girl Scout Cookies is a good example of a cut that has a somewhat mysterious lineage and while some parts of the puzzle are out there, they aren't exactly on display on some popular website, they're discussed by guys who were close to the crews, on old forums and in small communities of people who are passionate about this stuff. The way a lot of the big seedbanks work is not like people think. They aren't all these passionate breeders walking around their facilities making selections all day. In many cases, a lot of the Dutch and Spanish genetics (will touch on this in the next topic) are outsourced. There are 2 or 3 really big breeders in Europe, who supply the same seeds to a number of 'breeders' - it is a massive white label industry. The breeder then packages, brands and markets the product. In many cases what they sell it as is something that's popular and currently desired, but what people get is just a renamed seed that may share some expressive traits. This has been common practice for a number of years now and it's one of the reasons I haven't dug into Dutch genetics for the last 5 years. Though there are still some guys there doing things legit, I don't want to take that away from them. I also don't want to make it sound like it's only these countries where this is practiced, there are a number of shady breeding practices that occur across a number of countries. But because of the legalities, Spain and Netherlands tend to be the most common locations for these companies to set up. The Fall of the Dutch One of the biggest challenges, especially in South Africa, is that there remains this idealistic view of Dutch genetics. Back in the 90s, breeders in Amsterdam had a lot of freedom. They weren't getting raided or shut down for large grows and were able to conduct large pheno hunts for their breeding. This was the era where a lot of seedbanks/breeders started to establish themselves and also do some unbelievable work. At the time, Americans were looking to the Dutch for what was hot. These days it's the complete opposite. What happened was, over a decade ago now, the Dutch government started to seriously clamp down on what one could and couldn't do with cannabis. And in the process, they raided a number of large, popular breeders at the time. In those raids, a lot of elite genetics were lost. Cuts that had been held onto for decades. A lot of people aren't even aware of these raids, because a lot of those companies never stopped selling the strains that they did before. But those that grew both the old and the new variations were able to tell the differences in the plants. What tended to happen here is that they would simply replace the cut they used with a sister or hybrid of the plant. But it's hardly ever going to be the same, especially when bred with. Since then, the Dutch have started to focus less on their traditional Hazes that made them popular in the 90s, but instead they often seek to release US varietals, things like Cookies and OG hybrids - despite the plants not representing these cuts in most cases. I smoked Dutch 'OG' for a while before I finally popped some real OG hybrids, and the differences were astounding. Since then I've popped dozens of OG hybrids and can safely say all the stuff I was getting from EU around OG was not true to the original thing. Replicas So what happens when the Dutch and Spanish breeders see Girl Scout Cookies surge in popularity? Since it was an American cut and was held pretty close, those seed banks in many cases aren't going to get hold of the cut - so they dig into their vault, find what looks the closest and maybe shares some similar traits and then they cross that together and give it the name Girl Scout Cookies and then people buy it, knowing none the wiser. This is somewhat similar to what the guy in OPs video is talking about. White label is still a more common approach than replicas, but replicas still do exist and they are a big problem. I've even seen some local breeders suggest they are working with OG Kush for instance, when there is not a single cut of the original OG Kush in South Africa (I'm pretty confident on this). Sure, you may have an OG hybrid, but even then in most cases the OGs that I see being popped are blatantly white label or replica. If you're looking to work with a particular genetic, source it from where it was found. Just like you probably wouldn't look to the US for a Haze historically, you probably shouldn't look to Europe for real OG. And this then ties into the next topic... Authenticity of breeding stock Not everyone is malicious, in many cases people are just uninformed or mislead themselves. Say for instance I hop on these forums and post a picture of a Chem 91 looking plant (of which I've found several in the S1s), if I were to tell people "Hey I've got a Chem 91 cut available" - I could even post pictures showing the same necrotic leaf traits and 'dog tongues' in the flower. Say guys got some from me and did some breeding work with it, they wouldn't even be aware that I had just given them a similar cut, but not the real thing. This is a massssssive problem, and I've seen it often. Guys who have been told that what they've got is this or that. And they will fight to the death that it is what they think it is. So as a breeder, it's really important, if you want to do things honestly, to try and have as best of a knowledge of how specific cuts express, especially if one is looking to use clone-only cuts. There are probably 50 different cuts of Cheese that go around, from 10 different breeders, but so many of those growers are convinced they have 'the Cheese'. This problem is bigger than people often like to admit, and no one is void from the impacts. There are well-respected breeders who have had to backtrack on what they claimed was in the line. This is particularly common with the Chem/Diesel/OG family, where a lot of similar, but inauthentic cuts exist. I spend a lot of time listening to The Breeder's Syndicate podcast, as I know the guys involved are pretty anal about provenance and establishing a history, as well as having been around for long enough to know the real thing from the fake. Some of the breeders that are typically associated with that circle as guys like Archive and CSI:Humboldt - two breeders I really trust when it comes to authenticity.' The Clone Market Finally, there's the clone market. Good god... The clone market... So similar to the above, with the authenticity of breeder stock - one can't understate the importance of authentic stock from clone banks. I won't mention names, but a rather popular local clone company imported stock from Europe and was advertising their new stock - but the stock they were advertising was clearly fake. The Girl Scout Cookies cut that they claimed to have looked like a classic Dutch, donkey-dick green plant. It was clearly not the real deal, and I don't think it was malicious, but I think that if you run a seedbank, it's worth making sure you can ID your cuts and have open communication with reliable growers who have grown the real thing, that can help you authenticate it. Not all cases are so benign though. There are clone companies who hunt packs of hybrids, select a cut from that pack and name it the parent it most looks like. And many guys think that because it comes with certificates that it means its legit. Certs are easy to fake and require a few minutes in photoshop to setup. Additionally, people assume that large companies with big websites and who sell themselves as leading clone experts can be trusted. Not only do many of these clone banks give you fake cuts, but they give you diseased plants that can wipe out your entire crop over time. One needs to be really careful about the clone market, especially when it comes to world renowned clone-only elites. Some of those cuts sell for tens of thousands of dollars - if someone is selling you big names with certs for pennies, that's something to raise your eyebrow at. Sorry for the rant - but I hope it proves useful, as things aren't always as cut and dry as one expects. When it comes to international genetics... I am still a huge fan of them. I want to source my genetics from those doing the largest hunts on the most authentic genetics. And in our current time period, that is the American market. But again... Know your breeders and do your research... Some international breeders I feel I can trust (just a few of many) - CSI:Humboldt - Archive Seed Bank - Swamp Boys - Jungle Boys - Bloom Seed Co - 707 Seedbank - Crickets & Cicada - Exotic Genetix - Lucky Dog - Riot - Kingdom Organics - Clearwater Genetics - Bodhi - Karma - Prolific Coast - The Source

Appreciate the love guys. Haha, didn't know that was you. But yeah man, I'm always keen to chat genetics and breeding. That's not a bad way to start the breeding journey in my opinion. For us the first step was establishing a library of females that we really loved over the years. Some of the cuts were found over 5 years ago and have kind of been waiting for their time to shine. The biggest challenge is running through enough seeds to find the things you're looking for. I used to grow 6-8 plants a run when growing for smoke, but now that I've been focusing a bit more on breeding, I'm scaling down the pot sizes and yields and focusing on just looking through as many genetics as possible. I'm fitting around 25 plants into a small tent at this point to run through, out of those there will probably be 3-4 females that get a second run from cut before narrowing down selections. For me, I love hunting through F1 and F2 populations, especially F2 for the recessive traits that become exposed, if you're able to look through enough plants to find them (or get lucky).

10 days in flower. 2 females one male. Making seeds with these. Clones are busy rooting. To flower out the females and see if they are any good.

Epson salts is a great source of magnesium,but you still need a source of calcuim.

Couldn't resist posting an update.

So we are growing again, and this is the first run in the new greenhouse from a SA company called easy greenhouse, https://easygreenhouses.co.za/ very helpful and delivery didn't take long. Still a few more tasks to tackle namely, extraction and circulation fans, but for now, we have power and spotlights for extra veg time, blumats installed and digital soil moisture meter. a few wasted days/weeks however, as the environment is still being dialed in, and so is the soil, from the colour of the cover crop and plants, the soil is in well need of nitrogen and other basic dietary needs, which I have top dressed and watered in about a week ago. Whats growing... - 1 x Chimpancheese (first plants nearest to the door) - 1 x DSCxbrucebanner - 2 x Grandpa stash (in the 20litres) - 1 x Sky stomper reg(in the 15L) there is another one but it got fried after a couple of IPM sprays - 1 x Tortoni - another 1 x DSCxbrucebanner Cheers, lets see how easy or kuck hard it could be to grow in this greenhouse. Temps and Humidity shoot to absolute extremes despite the current season, so cold and wet at night 99% humidity, but really hot, 38 sometimes 40 degrees in the day, and 20% humidity. Don't think this will be feasible during summer. However ventilation is on the cards. Whole new ball game.

Magnesium is what the plant uses "extra" so to speak, when producing seeds. Epsom salts is excellent organic sub for calmag - you can get it at your local pharmacy - the Magnesium and sulphur is what you are after. You can use a ratio of about 1 tablespoon in about 4 litres of water. - Even if your not after seeds these micros are healthy for your plant as well.

Chernobyl clones switched to flower. Transplanted 2x Atlas - Papa Smurf, and 2x Renegade - Tooth Fairy clones. 4 males in a row out of the fem search so far, darn.

Following! Nice

I stick to my normal feeding schedule with biobizz, switching to flowering nutes as usual. Once you have pollinated, there is a slight uptick in Nitrogen need as the seeds are setting up, but the biobizz schedule maintains a low 'grow' dosage along with the bloom anyway.

Thanx ^^ I learned a lesson.. @THCSA hope you do it again next year ^^ can count me in, I bring a flavor bomb next year

Well played @Prom

Well done @Prom yewww!!

Well done @Prom for placing

Rood Rage from Darkhorse Genetics

Seedbank - @LOUDcpt Breeder - Riot Seeds. Strain - Cherry Berry Lineage - Cherry AK47 (Norcal Ludens cough drop) x Blue Bonnet (IBL Blueberry by Texas Resin Co) 100% Germination rate. Grow report underway.

I got some Nag Champa F2's from Terpfi3nd and LA confidential from DNA_genetics