ajcapetown

Awesome, they look super healthy! They must be starting to smell great?

Thanks Buddy!

I've also bought various thinks from BTL headshop and man they are a cool bunch, had awesome and efficient service from them everytime!

Agreed buddy. I have actually dealt with GT Hydro and Hydro Herb, had great service and stuff that arrived on time from both of them.

Hey All I've been thinking a lot about putting this post up as I'm not really one for moaning and being negative, however after much thought I decided that it would be unfair of me to just keep quiet if I can stop other guys from going through what I did recently. Some of you might know about my ballast problem, for those that don't, I bought a blue electronic ballast from Hortishop in Cape Town last year. It came with a price tag of around R3500, not cheap for a 600 watt. When I collected I asked about the dimming features etc and was not really given any help apart from "go to an electronic store for a dimming controller" and "just connect it up and it will run at 600 watts" I went ahead and connected it up and started using it, assuming it was 600 watts. I wasn't entirely happy with my grows up until recently but put it down to different nutes/experiments I was doing etc. Then a friend came to my place and was in my grow room and he said he felt my light just didn't look that bright. We tested it and it was putting out less than half the amount of lumens it should be! This obviously freaked me out.. we all know less light = less results and explained why I was getting such bad stretch, small buds etc. I then emailed hortishop and was again told to go to an electrical shop, no other help was offered. I got a 1 sentence reply. I went to 4 different shops and nobody could help me. Eventually I got to shop 5 and was helped by a really helpful light technician who also had no answers but managed to get hold of the guys who supply the ballasts... Venture Lighting. Venture were very helpful and said that the ballast should be connected to a simple on/off switch which will allow it to run at either 50% or 100%. That is the only dimming feature available. I bought an on/off switch like you'd have on a bedroom wall from the electrical shop but they could not help with how to wire it up so I contacted Venture Lighting myself and again they were helpful and emailed me a wiring diagram. I managed to get it all wired up, can't say it looks very pretty as there are now loose wires and a switch in the mix but as soon as I flicked that switch the light literally doubled! So I now know that it is working at 600 watts. What upsets me the most is that for the last 9 months I've been running a ballast at basically 300 watts. Clearly the Hortishop doesn't know that these things run at 50% power BY DEFAULT unless a switch is attached (which they clearly don't know how to do) SO how many other guys have bought ballasts from them and will never know any better? Instead they, like me will think they may be growing poorly and getting low yields etc. The whole switch and cable mess is also ugly, my eyes go straight to it overtime I'm in my grow room... not what I'd want given the amount of money I spent. In this industry I feel we need shops that are knowledgable and helpful. I have made the decision that I will not longer shop at Hortishop. I almost feel guilty whenever I try get advice from them, as if I am wrong for asking questions. I never discuss what I grow so it can't be that they hold that against me. Anyway I'm not doing this to knock them, my reasoning is that if any of you are using their ballasts its VITAL that you check your lumen output, you might just be getting half of what you paid for. Rather use another shop when buying technical equipment because they also have no clue how their products work. Peace Guys!

Awesome news hey! One step closer..

Hey Boys and Girls I adopted this Training Day plant from my buddy GarethL. It was grown indoor then put into flower and for some reason it went completely haywire. So I took it, didn't know if it would survive and planted it in my garden with some potting soil, mushroom compost and a bit of Sea Grow as nutes. I then just gave her water every 2 days or so. She was in a really poor state. It was growing single bladed leaves and they leaves were all dying etc. This was done around late November. It also wasn't a full sun area but I didn't have anywhere else. Slowly but surely it started perking up, it started growing proper leaves and by early Jan it actually looked very healthy. I cut off all the old foliage. You can see in the first couple pics some of the old foliage with the new growth as she re-vegged. It started flowering way to early.. early January but I think this may be because it was flowering when I got it so it was just completely confused. I manage to pull some clones off her but they also started flowering as soon as they rooted.. very strange. They are slowly re-vegging now and I think they will get healthy soon. I harvested her now and wow there are some nice buds, super stinky and super sticky! I'd say final weight is going to be about 45 - 50 grams dry of lovely smelling, sticky medicine I wish I had more time with her because she could have been double the size but thought I'd share some pics. I tried a new way of taking pics, used my phone though a jewellers microscope and it worked ok!

Hi all. I'm running out of space at the moment and I'm thinking of putting up a little grow tent to hold some mothers etc while my other areas are full. Only problem is I literally have no areas in my house where I can get near a window to pull fresh air in or vent out. I can leave windows open around the house though. I have got a large open plan area in my house, basically the size of about 3 double garages and it's a double volume ceiling which is double story in height but it is just open rafters so nowhere to vent either. If I was to put the tent in this open plan area for now could I just pull air through the tent from inside the house and then vent it out back into the same area? I know it may heat up the room a little but I'm only planning on using a 400 hps in there which doesn't get too hot. It's a really big room. So basically the air inside the house will be what is used and I'll try leave some windows open. Any of you done this before?

Haha thanks guys! I'd say it's been worth the stress, I sit out there at least an hour a day just admiring them. The trimming is going to be a battle haha. I think I will most probably try start on a Friday afternoon and work through a weekend. I harvested a couple of plants this Sunday and man my hand was aching! Toby I started mid October so they are about 5 months now. I think next season I'm actually going to start mid November though, otherwise I seem to be constantly cutting them back it's kinda pointless. But then again that means I have to wait longer to start my outdoor grow... naaa I'll start in October again

There he is! Welcome Al - Hassan.

Hey Guys We are well into flowering now and things are going really well. I gave the plants a good trimming but they actually just went even more crazy haha. They started getting a bit pale as flowering started but a good dose of bio grow / sea grow sorted that out. The buds are absolutely huge, at least 40cm long. Smell isn't too much of a problem yet and I put 4 lavender bushes in the mix to try mask it a bit. 3 of the girls are heavily in flower while the one big one only really started about a week ago which means she will be harvested much later than the others. The height has also been a problem, as I said above even with a huge trimming they still shot up, growing about 4cm a day. That has slowed down now luckily and every day I am watching that they don't creep higher than the wall. They are literally on the border though measuring in at about 2.2 meters. The one plant was getting very heavy and I noticed with the wind the buds were weighing the branches down so I put a stake in the ground and individually tied string to the heavy branches so that they can't sag any lower. it worked really well. It's been such a pleasure to watch them grow and to care for them everyday. The amount I have trimmed off them is crazy, if I'd let them just go I would say they could have hit 3 meters in height. I am however getting quite uncomfortable though, it's on my mind constantly that I am at risk. Every time there is a knock at the door or I hear a helicopter I get a bit stressed. I'll be glad come harvest time when I can get them down. Here's some pics:

Hey All About 8 months ago I bought a "dimmable digital ballast from hortishop in cape town. When I collected it I asked how to dim it and wasn't given any answers except connect it and it will run at 600 watts... Anyway a friend was at my place yesterday and told me his 400 watt light is brighter than mine. We measured it and its putting out 40000 lumen... not even half of what it should be for a 600 watt. To me it is as if it is running at about 250 watts and I can only think that maybe because it is dimmable it is set on the lowest setting by default. The bulb is still fairly new, only the second grow and the cable from the ballast to bulb is 1.5 meters. The ballast has no dimming switches or dials on it. It has 4 cables coming out of it.. Live, Earth, Neutral and then a White cable which is labelled "dimming" The bulb side has a black and white cable which I then connected to the reflector as live/neutral. When I collected it I asked if that white cable should be connected to a controller so that I can set the dimming on it but wasn't given an answer and was told I could check a lighting or electrical shop. I shouldn't have actually accepted it but I was so excited to get it home and just thought it would run at 600 watts. The white cable was taped up and I forgot about it. Do any of you have a ballast like this or know how/what needs to be done to get it working like it should? Thanks!

Looking great! Pity about the male!

Wow! This has made my day, thanks Totemic! Really appreciate it!

Came across this article on news 24 last night.. Police spraying poison from helicopters to kill cannabis in the eastern cape Don't even have words... I HATE chemicals.. If this was sprayed anywhere near my head...um ya.. Does anybody know if this is harmful to other plants? Here's the article Police 'nip dagga problem in the bud' http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Police-nip-dagga-problem-in-the-bud-20150219

You know what scares the daylights out of me, they seem to arrest everybody in the whole house? In my case that would be my wife, my 60 year old mom who lives with us and what about our little 2 year old boy? All because I grow a few plants... I actually hate reading it because it makes me so uncomfortable... like I want to go home and chop down every plant I have.

Thanks Gents!

Haha ok cool Toby! Fire that's hilarious!! I better keep R400 on me at all times lol!

Hi Guys. I have managed to source most of the things I need, Totemic maybe you can help me here. I can't track down the Lucerne. I tried a few pet shops but they all seem to be selling either like a rabbit muesli or a mix that has a bit of lucerne in but also corn, sunflower seeds, hay and who knows what else. I also can't track down the Taiborne. I checked their website and then tried Stodels Bellville and Milnerton. I also tried Super Plants and PnP Hyper (it says on their site they have it) None of them had. Hortishop is out of worm castings but they getting today I think. Where did you buy the Talborne and lucerne? Thanks a mil

Toby, sorry to hear about your grow room... when you say "they" are you referring to police? If so what was the outcome? Has anyone on here been busted by police for growing and what sort of punishment can one expect?

Hi Totemic I've been searching the net for organic recipe's but we don't have the brands they have overseas so it made it quite difficult. Very pleased to have found this and all of the ingredients are easily available. I just wanted to check, you have the super soil and the pro mix and you use both. If I use just one or the other would that also be fine? I also notice the first mix doesn't have any perlite, would it do any harm if I add a bit to it? Also can I substitute the agricultural lime for dolomite lime? Thanks for sharing this, It looks like a fantastic mix... I'm going to mix up a batch of the super soil this weekend

Ok, so I'm going to the nursery this weekend to buy every lavender plant I can find! Maxwell I have thought about trimming them down but I just don't have the heart to give them a good hacking. even cutting the tops off gets me quite upset haha. Also... as it's so close to flowering, with one even showing hairs do you think I would interfere with bud production and yield if I go and cut them back a lot at this point?

Thanks Toby, I'm really pleased with them. Yes please if you can get the name that would be great! I've heard Lavender also smells quite strong and can throw people off the scent of cannabis. Fortunately most people relate a cannabis smell to when it's being smoked so hopefully if anybody does get a whiff they won't recognise the smell of it flowering. When I do grows indoors it usually gives my whole place a smell even with extractor etc haha.

Hey Guys, apologies for not continuing with this but I've been really busy lately an I'm fighting with an indoor grow that just isn't performing. Anyway... as you can see my outdoor plants are doing super well. The 2 tallest ones have hit 2 meters now and I have actually started trimming them because they are almost visible over the wall. I removed 2 plants which I have identified as males and I have my eye on another 2 which look a bit suspect. One of them is showing signs of flowering so I am super excited. I have 4 confirmed females in the group. I've been feeding once a week with 50% Sea Grow and 50% Bio Grow which has worked well. I also threw some garden master organic potting soil over the surface (about 2cm thick and last week I threw another layer over the surface of mushroom compost) I'll post some more pics once flowering really starts which should be in a couple of weeks. At this point my biggest concern is smell as they are probably going to put out quite a stink and you can see the grow is on my property perimeter. I've considered buying some jasmine plants... I don't know though. Anybody on here grown this much in your gardens before and did you have any problems with smell? Cheers for now!

Here's an update, things are going nicely, I've taken a few clones off the 3 biggest ones to test for sex.