Ill_Evan

To celebrate 420 this year I've decided to get nicely lit up and start another grow diary To stick to the pattern of my grow diaries over the years here on the forum, I begin yet again with an absolute shitshow. The first harvest of the year was a disaster and a hard lesson on attentiveness, consequences and the use of autopots. The big tent (2.4x1.2) netted about only 160g compared to the 827g I managed to rock last year. Right? Bruh I know. The problem began early on. I had left the plants to the care of a friend that may have let the early veg plants suffer from underwatering and therefore also underfed. This caused some plants to stagnate behind which initially caused a lack of consistency in height when transferred over to the big tent and autopots. Some plants were able to settle and get nicely rooted in time for the switch over to the reservoir, some on the other hand, unbeknownst to me, did not develop sufficient roots to be able to feed effectively from the bottom of the autopots. Due to this, they were also unable to regulate themselves and suffered badly from the heat. The problem here is that after a while you can't water from the top anymore after switching to the reservoir system as it will first overflow the trays and secondly, once the top layer dries it begins to buildup salt, which if flushed through the pot could shock the plant. I eventually just culled half the plants as they were just so deficient the bud would have been awful. Might as well just smoke garden grass. Out of the 8 plants that went in, I had 2 that were jarred and cured at harvest. This result was also why I had decided to pull out of the last Cannabis Cup. I could never enter using bud I do not think is a representation of my capabilities. I've got a fire to bring it to the next one, if they will have me next year. Observe the ass-end of this grow:

Sent you a DM.

Still available.

Damn dude, came out like peanut butter!

Definitely still guys running HPS, but it's not economical at all when you factor in the amount of power you need for a backup solution with loadshedding in mind. I know of some guys running a grow club that nearly went under recently because of all the above factors. Obviously also not easy to just switch to expensive LED equivalents when you are already fully invested in the HPS and are riding on the edge of what you are able to afford. Imagine having everything necessary to grow, but no power. This applies to all industry currently. If you are a Chad with a compound, a generator and infinite money, then I don't see why not keep the HPS specifically for flower. CMH, MH and HPS are all still great technologies for growing good bud.

Unfortunately had to pull out. Things did not go well the last few months.

From a local grow shop: "Although the discs will last several years we suggest replace them at the start of every season. This will prevent diseases from being transferred, if present." If you're growing indoors I rate you will be good. Into the tray, gold side up.

I have reused mine at least twice. I do not know of an alternative at the moment. In fact I actually need to get more

Could be very early stages of PM, but it also looks like residue possibly from the rain if they stay outside 24/7.

Now that's podracing! Nice colour on the bud. How much more flower time you gonna push for?

I think it's mostly just cosmetic, but I hear you on the rotating to prevent flat spots. I would find it to be a bit of a mission so I personally wouldn't do it just for that reason This is currently my go-to method. Also keeps the sugar trim nice and tidy too for more quality extracts.

I own and have used racks/nets, but at the moment I prefer hang drying. I will use the racks/nets if I have to dry more than say one tent at a time. If it's just one tent at a time I just hang the harvest in the same tent. I find that when using the racks/nets you can sometimes come out with slightly compressed/flat buds due to gravity pushing down on the sides of the nugs whereas that phenomenon does not happen when hanging the plant upside-down to dry.

I see you use Shopify. If you have the patience and time, I would suggest working so long on creating a Wordpress website using the Woocommerce app via CPanel. You can do all this through domains.co.za, or if you already have the domain you should be able to use CPanel depending on the package you have. My expenses for running a site went from R1000+ a month to just under R100 a month. It can be a real life safer long term. Otherwise it's a working site, I like the default dark theme. Everything is pretty much available on the landing page. I would maybe suggest putting a page for a basic T&C for using the site, you can find a template online. Also maybe on the same page display your basic shipping conditions and where you are willing to ship to.

Absolute fire, great job!

Now that is awesome!

It comes with the territory I suppose. Keep the passion up and keep doing the diaries. Maybe even try out reports where instead of posting regular updates you collect all your pics and info during the grow then slut one big report at the end with a smoke report.

Looks pretty good to me. I do understand your desire to push the standard though, respect

Man on a mission!

This is why I suggested maybe finishing the grow as is. I don't know how well it will go trying to reestablish the soil microbiology midway through veg. If I was truly desperate I'd clone what I can and start fresh, I've been forced to do it before. I stand by my original suggestion of finishing up the current grow as is with the salt nutes and then making fresh changes for the upcoming grow.

I wouldn't change anything on this grow. You have mentioned you've done three grows already so I would just finish up the current one and make changes on the next. Don't lower your salt feed, I don't think that's necessary. There's a chance the salt nutrients have already disrupted the microbiology within the soil already to the point that your plants are only feeding off the salt nutrients. I think you will quickly find that switching to coco will be much, much more affordable than switching to liquid organic nutrients.

It could be an expression of that specific strain. I do note that you are using what is considered an "organic soil" but also using salt nutrients. In my opinion there could be a bunch of stuff in that soil that doesn't end up getting used because your plants will most likely just use the salt nutes you provide. I see @Totemic ninja'd me on that note

Is it the same strain?

That plant looks incredibly stressed which is deforming the bud. I'm not seeing anything deficiency wise. I'd even say that whatever food regime/soil currently being used is good. I've only ever had one strain curl up and grow leaves on the bud like that, and it was certainly genetics related and as a result of too much stress/training. Some strains are just better at handling themselves than others. So I would say something is stressing that plant. It's either heat or something with the roots, or both. Did you spray anything on the plant recently?