PsyCLown

@Naughty.Psychonaut Not bad, reminds me a bit of December Streets. So I heard this song being played on the radio last night on my mission to the shops, a rather new song and its DnB - must have been a DJ mix on 5FM and likely a DnB mix too.

Looking good. Really good price on the perlite too. If only you could enter the comp, you'd have the chance of wining an awesome LED light! At least your light will keep the ladies warm this winter

Shit many, no jiffies. Whoever is getting those cuttings better appreciate it! Glad all 3 popped.

Nice, although I must admit... felt a bit dirt reading the title of this thread. lol Was wondering what it has to do with cannabis while reading it It makes sense to help keep the species alive, find ways to maximize fertilization to increase survival.

Why paper towel? I thought you did not like using paper towel?

Wazzup @highchome So using two different plant is best in terms of genetics, not ideal to pollinate the plant with the pollen from that plant. So this applies to 2x cuttings from the same plant. Ideally you want plants from 2 different seeds. However you can use the pollen from the same cutting on another cutting which is the same, or even the same plant. Separating plants and keeping pollen from going to places it should not be is a bit difficult, plastic bags, little to no air movement and as much distance as possible help. I have typically killed the plant once I have managed to get as much pollen from it as needed and I use the pollen outside to help keep my indoor area as clean as possible. Close all windows and door to help prevent pollen from getting in, it is a risk you will be taking. Change clothes and put the old clothes in the wash. Small things which add up and can help. I think I was spraying every 4 days until I saw pollen sacs forming. Been a while since I last used STS, I have a grow diary where I used STS to make seeds... Possibly documented timeline in there a bit but off the top of my head I think 2 weeks roughly. No sure about articles or books, however I found spraying the entire plant - leaves and all helped and made a difference. Some sources said not to spray the leaves, which I tried but was quicker and better when I did spray the leaves. Keep the STS in a cool DARK place, it is light sensitive and heat sensitive. So keep it in an airtight bottle wrapped in tin foil in the fridge type of thing to prolong the life. Do not get it on anything as it can stain, wash it off yourself if you spill a bit on you. Good luck!

Zephyr just give you the controller which comes with the fan, although it still has a lot of functionality - view RH, temp, adjust between the 10 fan speeds, set the fan to operate in a certain way based on the temp, RH etc. etc. I have had the misfortune or having to make use of the AC Infinity warranty and Zephyr farms were pretty decent and it's a lot easier dealing with them compared to having to ship the item to the US to get a replacement. Not sure Zephyr farms will provide support for a product purchased from Amazon and not them.

Very keen to get your feedback, was considering one of these for myself but will probably give it a miss. Although still curious to get your opinion and feedback on it. Have you tried some other vapes to compare it against?

Welcome and good luck setting everything up again

Blumat is fantastic as its a manual system (no electronics) and will water only when the medium dries out and you can adjust how dry the medium needs to be before it starts to water.

I have some AC Infinity fans and have those RAM inline fans. The AC Infinity can be very quiet if you set it to a slightly lower speed, at full speed it is loud. They are not cheap though. The RAM fan is rather quiet if set to the lower speed. If you want quiet, then look at getting an oversized fan and running it at a lower speed - that way you can still move the right amount of air but with less strain on the fan and lower RPM and therefore it will be quieter. I think @Ill_Evan has that metal inline and that is noisy as fuck!

Well perhaps @Prom can chime in here a bit as well as he has a lot more experience with autos compared to myself. Pistils are an indicator, however in no way is it an accurate way to tell whether the bud is mature or not. The best way as far as I am concerned is to check the trichomes - you ideally need a microscope or loupe to do it properly. This image should help make it easier to understand what to look for in terms of the trichome colour: Leaves can be an indicator that the plant is busy dieing or getting ready to die, but as far as I am concerned it is not an accurate way to tell whether the bud is mature or not. We do not smoke the leaves, we smoke the bud and the trichomes are what contain the active ingredients we want (THC, CBD and the others). One thing I do want to mention is that when checking the trichomes, you want to check on the bud itself and not the sugar leaves as the trichomes on the sugar leaves mature quicker than the trichomes on the bud. I do not know why, but this has always been the case and if you check on the sugar leaves you may think the bud is ready to be harvested but may not be the case. Ensuring the bud is properly mature is very important as immature bud can lead to some negative side effects which you often want to avoid, such as making one paranoid, negatively affecting REM sleep cycles and leading to you feeling groggy in the morning and a few others too. Although I will admit, with these autoflowers the trichomes are not maturing the same way my photoperiod plants have been which I must admit is a bit odd and confusing - so perhaps @Prom can confirm whether there are any possible differences when it comes to autoflowers.

True, we do not grow for looks but it is part of the package I feel... Just like with food, you want it to look good and look appealing. Same with bud and cannabis IMO. The Pluto cut I feel will be a disappointment as it looks as if the plant died and then remained in the tent under the lights. Also this is the 2nd time I am running some autos. The first it was a Daquari Lime by Dutch Passion. Not sure I will run more auto's again in the near future, but let's see and I am certainly curious as to how these autos will smoke compared to my usual photoperiods. I will give feedback once they have dried and been trimmed and cured for a bit - will post some pics of the bud once dry and cured too.

So I chopped all the plants down last night. Took a few pics before I did the chop chop though. Gelato - it really looks good now. Has had quite the transformation from veg until now: Pluto Cut, I think this plant actually died - I should have been checking more frequently but have neglected them a bit... So my own fault end of the day. I do not think this will be good bud unfortunately. LSD-25, well, the colour is nice. Frost is lacking a bit. Quite leafy, but I have always wanted to grow a plant with such colouring. Done it now and not sure I would grow this strain again.

Doesn't really matter, one might get higher yields if doing extracts but I have not tested this myself. Ultimately I think the THC percentage will determine the way the strain yields when it comes to extracts. Although it does feel like a massive waste not keeping the trim and using it for some sort of extract, will likely use the trim from the next harvest though and try make some bubble hash perhaps.

So I have used an array of coco, including lots of the 5KG bricks. You do get coco bricks which are just plain and you need to rinse and buffer yourself, you get bricks which are rinsed / washed already and you just need to buffer and then you do get bricks which are already rinsed and buffered but these are difficult to source locally and the ones I have found are often priced high and the quality of the coco is really shit. So typically when buying 5KG bricks you need to buffer yourself, it can be a bit of a mission but more time consuming and labour intensive than anything else. I have also used some premixed coco, but prices can get quite out of control very quickly when going this route. Freedom Farms and Bio Leaf are the two more affordable options which I have found in terms of prepared coco. You still pay a premium compared to 5KG bricks but it is convenient!

You will be running some nutes too though, right? So shouldn't be an issue then!

I wouldn't spend more than R300 on an EC meter personally. My cheapy from China is perfect and when testing it against calibration fluid is more than accurate enough I feel.

Setup looks good! Keen to see how the grow turns out for you. Good luck

The one I use is from china, works super well and is very accurate and consistent. I think Hydroponic, takealot or bidorbuy will likely stock similar ones. Mine does EC, temp and I think PPM as well. A 3 in 1 EC meter.

@CG420za Very neat setup, must have taken a while to do all the wiring though.

Gotta do it from the website and not via Tapatalk. When you click the plus, it'll insert it into the post. Sent from my Redmi Note 7 Pro using Tapatalk

So this is my opinion and my experience. Environment needs to be perfect, a stunted plant will end up smaller and yield less - not always very beginner friendly A lot of autos can still be quite unstable, lots of variances between the seeds of the same strains Cannot keep a cutting if you find a keeper plant Gotta buy more seeds and keep popping seeds if you want to grow autos Photoperiods are able to produce far higher THC percentages compared to atuoflowers Less control over when the plant goes into flower, less options in terms of training as you do not want to stunt the plant Yields are kind of capped, the plants goes into flower itself and you cannot end up with a huuuge plant It is not uncommon for people to try autoflowers and end up with 20g of dry bud or less, especially if you are still rather new to growing or mess up - heck one can even just get unlucky and have a seed which sprouts but grows slowly and then you're screwed. Sometimes it's better to scrap the plant and start from scratch as opposed to waste more time and effort on the plant you already have. Autoflowers have their place, for a newer grower it can be convenient not having to change the duration of light the plants get. If you want to grow in winter or want quicker harvests when doing an outdoor grow, autos will be able to provide this to you. Probably a few other things as well which I cannot think of at the moment.

Welcome back! Good luck with the comp!