PsyCLown

Looking good, you going to continue with GHE nutes?

@John Stonedwell Not just you, hence why I uploaded it to Streamable as well. Try viewing it with the link I posted, should be easier and smoother that way.

I took a video of the plants further into flower as well. Let's see how the video hosting does. Otherwise I uploaded it here too: https://streamable.com/rcdtbp 1626959344776.mp4

So let's get some pictures going! Not many and not the best, sorry for the delay. As per another thread I have started, I have an issue with some Root Aphids so trying to deal with that - hopefully this grow won't be affected too badly due to them darn pests. As mentioned, some plants went into flower before others. These plants need a defol and went into flower later so not much in terms of pistils and bud formation yet: These plants went into flower towards the end of June, they were delayed a bit I feel due to the weird light cycle when I messed up the schedule on the sonoff but are now nicely on their way to some good bud being formed. Tent is starting to get nice and smelly now too which only started happening this week. I need to try even out the canopy a bit, may be difficult now as I left them for a bit too long. A mix of strains as you can see, always requires work to get a flat canopy and I have not put the work and effort in as you can see - been busy and then the root aphid issue has kinda been a bit of a downer and put me off the grow a little, part of the reason for the delay in these pics being posted.

Eco Insect Control is pretty good stuff, however pests can develop resistance to it quite easily and quickly so best not to use it too often. A combination of pesticides I feel is often best and try wipe them all out as quickly as possible to prevent resistance and the resistant pest becoming dominant and being more of an issue to get rid of. I have heard mixed things about Spinosad and neem being systemic, systemic pesticides certainly are appealing as it makes life easier - especially if you miss a patch on a leaf etc. 1.5ml seems to be on the higher side, looking at it for big applications for farms and such the dosages recommended for a more concentrated versio nof the product worked back to 0.6ml per L for soil drench and 1.2ml per L for foliar and I applied it accordingly for a soil drench. Less than half the dose you used though, perhaps upping it would yield better results. It does not seem to be harsh on the plants at all though. Received my goodies, will apply them tonight.

@Dr. Green As per usual, another grow with an amazingly even canopy and a nicely filled tent! I must admit, far more consistent than I am with my training and canopy. haha

In terms of refurbishment, not exactly the same although best to try compare apples to apples. One can simply replace the Qb288 (the board with the diodes on them) on a Quantum Board light. One does not need to replace the entire light, you can then continue to reuse the heatsink, power supply, dimmer, hanging equipment etc. Just providing you with info, the choice is yours end of the day. Both options will be great between the Modugrow lights and quantum boards and I believe the Modugrow also use Lm301b diodes so performance would be similar watt for watt. One thing you want to avoid is those shitty lights without a proper heatsink, they just have an aluminium plate and are very thin. Not ideal for heat dissipation. Having the power supply mounted to the light is also not ideal for heat dissipation. Heat will cause the diodes to degrade quicker and provide less output. Sent from my Redmi Note 7 Pro using Tapatalk

Multiple quantum boards can be seen as modular in the sense that one can adjust their height individually, like I do in my tents with multiple 240W lights. @stick you can also dim the 240W light if need be. Would work well in such an area, give you extra height too which could be useful in a shorter space like yours. Save up and get a proper light. It'll be worth it. Gives you time to do some research too I guess. Sent from my Redmi Note 7 Pro using Tapatalk

MDS couriers are sloooow, was hoping to have my goodies today but may only arrive on Friday... Hopefully tomorrow though. Will keep you guys posted on progress. Sent from my Redmi Note 7 Pro using Tapatalk

Welcome and enjoy your stay. Sounds as if you have some really good, well established soil there. Plants likely thrive in it

I had some Frosted Apricots last night mixed with a bit of Tropicana Banana. Not sure what to have tonight though, was eyeing some of the Blunicorn and Bananium.

Geez, this thread took off rather quickly. With an indoor grow, lighting makes one of the biggest differences without a doubt. You are trying to replicate the sun in a way, no easy task. Infact, we aim to better what the sun puts out for our plants. The whole appeal behind indoor is to have control and try create the perfect, consistent environment to ensure the plants can reach their full potential and we try do so consistency. It is a bumpy road at times. Spending money on high quality lights is well worth it, saving up and buying a high quality light versus buying a lower quality light is well worth the wait. Ask anyone who has upgraded from older lighting tech to lights which use LM301B diodes and I am sure everyone will sing praises to the LM301 diodes and how great they are in comparison. I highly doubt anyone on this forum who has done such an upgrade regrets spending that money. @Sticks A 240W Quantum Board with LM301B diodes can work in a 1.2m x 1.2m space, won't be optimum in terms of the output (2x 240W QB's would be optimum in terms of coverage and PPFD output for flowering in such a space) but will work and get a decent harvest and yield. Reduce the space a little and you easily cram 4 to 6 plants under a 240W light with good output and spread for those plants. HID lights have a sharp cutoff in terms of their output and spread, even more so with the smaller / lower powered HID lights. With Quantum Boards it is not as severe in terms of the cutoff for decent output. A single 240W QB will output about the same as a 400W HID in terms of PPFD, although use a fraction of the power and help keep things cooler.

Similar concept, generally Alibaba is for bulk items. Import duties will vary depending on the price of the items you are bringing in and the items themselves. Lights should not attract large duties, unlike with clothing.

So I spoke to two people today - guy from Real IPM and Jamie from Jamies Garden Shop, went into quite a bit of detail with the guy from Real IPM. However both seemed to think along the same route as what I was thinking - soil drench is a must and a combination of Bio-Insek (Beavaria Bassiana & Metarhizium) along with some Bio-Neem would work well. Metarhizium - not sure which strain and whether this strain attacks aphids, Real IPM have a strain of Met which is specific for Aphids but quite pricey at around R1600 for 1L which is the smallest quantity. Lasts upto 12 months in a fridge only. Once again, different strains of Beavaria Bassiana exist and whether these strains target aphids is another question but worth a shot and bio-neem is a good idea to help keep the root aphids under control for a while and help knock the population down a bit. Frequent soil drenches will be required. This is not going to be cheap to treat. Should get my stuff tomorrow hopefully.

Ahh ok, nice. I have noticed a lot of the nutes use Calcium Nitrate - Hortimix and Haifa both do if I am not mistaken. GHE I am not 100% sure, I know the Calcium is edta but it may contain some Calcium Nitrate too. So basically blending your own mix of nutes in a way, I imagine it to be really cheap as you likely buy them in bulk and you are not paying for R&D and fancy packaging etc. May be a bit of a challenge to dial it in and get it 100% though. Reminds me a bit of Hortimix - no proper feeding charts. So far looking good though!

Looking good so far, as others have mentioned typically most water after potting up to ensure all the medium is nicely saturated! Also the inconsistent sizes when they were smaller is unlikely to be grower error, this is likely to be the seeds germinating at different days and being different pheno types and is quite common Removing those bottom leave won't cause any issues, although leaving them and letting them sit in the medium and getting wet when watering won't cause issues or harm to the plant, but those leaves may get a little bit of burn - although not an issue either way. I personally like to keep my plants nice and neat and remove excess leaves and stems early on, why let it grow when it will just get removed later on anyways? Seems you are running coco with some perlite, although what nutes are you using? It just states straights? Not sure what that is? Plants are looking very happy though! Shoes look like Ultraboost ST's? I love my Ultraboosts, the uncaged are some of the most comfortable shoes I have ever owned and tried on. The Ultraboost 21 are also very nice!

Nice, they're getting some colour back in them as well and do not look as starved anymore.

I used 0.6ml per L which equates to 6ml per 10l, inline with the pamphlet. Sent from my Redmi Note 7 Pro using Tapatalk

Diatomaceous earth is just going to stop them from coming to the surface, also when wet it's kak. I actually tried some of that Margaret Roberts stuff for fungus gnats but doesn't make a difference, thought I did have fungus gnats initially. I believe Cinnamon kills fungus and I'm planning on using fungus to help kill these root aphids, so not going to risk it. Sent from my Redmi Note 7 Pro using Tapatalk

Hydrogen Peroxide only kills the larvae and you gotta leave it and let the medium sit in it for a while. Not an ideal solution and quite risky getting the concentration just right to kill them and not damage the plants, will kill anything else in the medium too. Nematodes are also a possibility, works well in combination with Beavaria Bassania to help spread it apparently. Finding the right nematodes locally is probably not easy and not a solution to eradicate them either. Oh, Eco Insect Control by Effekto is what I tried initially but so far does not seem to be killing them on contact but did a drench of it and will continue to monitor. Works well with Beauveria bassiana though so hopefully a combination of the 3 (bio-neem too) will help me get rid of them. Otherwise, then I need to look towards Plan B...

Hey all, So I recently noticed I have a bit of a problem... Yipp, found some root aphids on my cutting. A bit of research and it seems I am in for a bit of hell trying to get rid of them. Starting this post to see if there is perhaps something I have missed or to possibly help someone else in future who ends up with these pests. Firstly, root aphids are not easy to notice as they attach to the roots and generally we do not see the roots of our plants very often as they're covered by the medium we grow in. So noticing you have a problem can often be the first problem - the quicker you can start taking action the better. Root aphids seem to take multiple shape, one of their forms include wings and inside your tent they can appear to look like fungus gnats flying around. So if you think you have fungus gnats but they just aren't dieing like you're used to, it may be root aphids! Common symptoms show as deficiencies in your plants, yellowing leaves and purple stems. By the time you notice this, you already have an infestation. So now on to how to get rid of them - well, I am busy trying to figure this out for myself. Also part of the reason I created this thread, perhaps I can get some advice from you fellow growers. Natural remedies such as removing by hand, spraying with water are pretty much out of the question. Since they live in the medium (coco / soil), foliar sprays are rather useless unless they are systemic sprays and most of the time those can be problematic. Not all are safe to spray on cannabis. So a bit of research points to the following: Soil drench of Pyrethrum / pyrethrins / pyrethroids (Like Pyrol, Xterminator and many other products) - this can be hard on the plants and burn them. This is a contact killer generally and will not wipe out the entire lot of root aphids but should reduce the population heavily... if you are willing to risk your plants. Soil drench of Azadirachtin (Bio-Neem) - A good weapon to have and use it seems, will help stop them from growing and shedding and some may not eat either. So can help reduce the colony and kill off majority of them over a few days and help stop them from shedding and growing and from eating. Will not kill all of them. Beauveria bassiana (Bio-Insek) - Seems to be a very good option. This is a fungus, you receive this product as spores (either in powder form or in a pre-mixed liquid). Typically it is used as a foliar spray but will need to be used as a soil drench in this application to try get it into the medium and onto the root aphids where they will hopefully get infected and infect the others and possibly kill the entire colony over a period of time. Works well when used in combination with Bio-Neem. Metarhizium (Bio-Insek) - This is also a fungus, one which lives in soil and targets certain types of insects (this specific one targets aphids). It will kill the insects on contact, however trying to source some locally is a bit of an issue - I have reached out to Real IPM to see if they can assist. Used in combination with Beauveria bassiana, will hopefully kill all of them within a few weeks. Both Beauveria Bassiana and Metarhizium need to be able to target the root aphids, you get different strains of each. Acephate (Orthene) - Systemic and debatable as to how safe it is to use on cannabis. Often used on edible crops and tobacco though. When used on tobacco, does not appear to be as effective against the darker root aphids. Not sure it is worth using if you want to go systemic. Imidacloprid - Systemic and has a very very long half life in water without light (1 to 3 years). General consensus is that it is not safe to use on cannabis crops, although once again a bit of debate around this. Some seem to suggest it would be safe to use on mother plants and consume (eat & smoke) the bud from cuttings taken from the mother plant, after Imidacloprid has been given to the mother. Really not something I am comfortable risking. Seems to be a sure way of getting rid of the root aphids one time and majority of other pests you may have. Update 18 August 2021: Some more info I found on Imidacloprid seem to suggest that it will be out of cannabis within 60 days, however this is not based on any specific research which I could find. From the info I can find, the dose also has an effect on how long it will remain active in the plants for and the duration will vary depending on your crop. No specific information on cannabis though, it is used on tobacco which is also smoked but once again it is a different crop. It is also used on animals - cats, dogs, livestock however as a spot on / pour on / shampoo. Ingestion is only toxic at very high doses for humans and most animals. So going to be trying some Beauveria bassiana, Metarhizium and neem as my initial attempt at getting rid of these root aphids failed unfortunately. It makes life a bit easier that I have a rooted cutting with the aphids on, so I can try on there and monitor and see if it works and how well it works. A control of sorts. I am not sure where I got it from, everyone I received cuttings from has checked and does not have root aphids. The plugs were new and from GTH but the packaging was damaged so it is a possibility but cannot confirm it. Could have just been from the garden and they walked in, who knows... If anyone has tried and tested methods or something I have missed, I am all ears!

List updated. Just a single, sealed breeders pack remaining

I finally found a dehumidifier

So thought I might as well start a new grow diary. I have skipped the boring vegging stage, do any of you actually want to see that? I have also split the flower plants a bit - some went into flower around 27 June while others went into flower technically on Monday (12 July) - decided to give them 48 hours of darkness before switching to 12 / 12 as I had a bit of a fuckup with the plants which went into flower on 27 June. Moved over to a sonoff Pow R2 and setup a timer instead of schedule and only noticed after a day or two. So not sure if lights were going on and off every 7 minutes or if they were only off for 7 minutes every 24 hours or what was happening but it seems this slowed down the transition into flower Now a lot of these I have grown out previously, however there are some new additions. Also some new phenos of strains I have grown out previously, going to see which is the keeper pheno and narrow it down to make my life easier going forward. List of strains being grown: Bananium (multiple phenos) Platinum Punch (multiple phenos) Frosted Apricots Sugarcane Slurricane Slurrijug - I grew this out previously back in 2019 and it was good, this is a different pheno though... Blunicorn Twisted Helix (Thanks to @John Stonedwell for a cut of this, same pheno he is growing out) Black Cherry Pie Remo Chemo Will take some pictures and post them here when I get a chance. Got some other stuff coming up a well - but that will be for another grow diary.

Looking terpy and tasty man!