Ill_Evan

Welcome @Greybaard, you got any magic growing at the moment?

Bruh, was talking to a mate and we were going to setup a grow at his place but without genuinely investing in an inverter battery system the whole effort would be a waste already took me so long to fully backup my own setup, even like you say if at least just the ventilation. Those humidity spikes are the real PM magnet.

My boy taking a break from a hard day's work!

Last harvest of the year numbers are in. The big tent ZxP yielded 547g main buds, 280g popcorn and 5g hash. Main buds Popcorn Hash That sums up the diary for 2022. Next year looks like a big year for harvests so I'm looking forward to that. The setup is pretty much dialed in and things are as efficient as they can be currently with me doing everything. I think this diary shows what is possible for a small scale grower and what the possibilities are with what I would consider hobby level equipment. I won't be doing a diary like this again next year. Instead, I will be doing short and concise grow reports that show everything from beginning to end in single posts. The grows are becoming quite consistent now so I think I'd like to switch things up a bit.

Sounds like I should rather be asking you for a job!

Hi there! What topics exactly are you studying with regards to cannabis? Have you ever taken a look at Cheeba academy? If you wanted an education in cannabis in South Africa that you could get a legitimate certification backed by a tertiary university, I'd look into Cheeba. Otherwise the fastest way into the industry would probably be to start growing yourself and learn the process of creating cannabis right from the beginning. Being able to produce, even just a little bit, of high quality cannabis would put you ahead of many people who have just simply studied the topic. A small 1 square meter setup is all you'd need. You might even be able to get everything in the classifieds section. Then when it comes to gainful employment you would need to get to know people in the industry face-to-face. The best places to meet people would be the two Cannabis Expos that happen in Jozi and CPT now on a yearly basis. You could also attend an open day at an academy such as Cheeba. Then you can also visit your local cannabis club, become a member and meet other members. If you are unsure of where to find a club, find your nearest Grow One Africa affiliated club. They are a safe bet and you can ask about other clubs that might be competing in the area and check those out too. I would also lastly recommend that during this process you keep your guard up and don't fall for any nonsense. There are many, many people from very different industries looking for ways into the cannabis industry like yourself and it is a highly unregulated and new industry. There will sure to be a few snakes on the path, some bigger than others.

Anyone can slap a name onto a seed. I think for the most part looking for the old school 90's classics that is not a clone would probably result in a "fake". But also, why would you want exactly that 90's strain? I can tell you it wouldn't be for yields, or even THC %. Those true classics, for the most part, kinda look like jutt at first glance sometimes The ideal situation for genetics would be for growers to exclusively buy local genetics that are selected for their growing style and overall preferences for bud quality and then start a new generation of "classics". Unfortunately we are at a point in time where imported commercial seeds for the most part squash the local market and we are left selecting from a massive pool of options and sources. At the end of the day, find a breeder you like and whos' seeds grow well in your environment and buy their limited editions or new releases. Grow a few and select for the best.

Looking good!

Harvest hung up to dry, should be ready to trim in 4/5 days.

Trichome check

When I used DWC, I would use modified cooler boxes and swap out frozen water bottles. The temperature would be less affected by the environment due to the insulation of the cooler box. At the moment while using autopots, I haven't done anything to cool my reservoir and so far so good after multiple successful harvests. In the Wilma 4 pot hydro system the roots are not directly exposed to the reservoir water like in DWC so I wouldn't be too concerned about your roots being as affected due to temperatures of around 24C. I think you'd get away without changing anything.

Check out Go 'n Grow in Irene if you're looking for a more mature 420 crowd. Otherwise you can also try Tightbuds in Doringkloof. They have more events and stuff.

Some more pics. I wanted to try highlight some of the lower nugs. I'm really happy with how they are turning out

Quick update on the big tent. We are about two weeks from harvest on this one. Fade is slowly coming in and the flowers are smelling ripe! The lower nugs all look like keepers, much more so than the last one so I'm happy to see that. I am slowly removing a few big fan leaves every few days but I reached a point where it felt excessive to keep removing as I felt the majority of buds were getting direct light and the canopy was looking pretty flush. Humidity is also holding steady sub 50%. Not the ideal of sub 40% but I am not seeing any PM, which is just great. From having repeated PM outbreaks to none at all has been a major win for the grow space. I attribute this to the top and bottom box fans I have at each side of the tent, plant count and canopy maintenance. I'm going to save 50g of this harvest and if I make it into the cannabis cup I'll send it in. If not, I'll then at least have some well cured weed to share and try out

Price drop. This tent is brand new.

Price drop. Two tents still available. They are brand new.

Big tent is midway through flower. I am getting a good stack this time around; I think the lower nugs will be the most developed out of all the previous harvests. I am still mulling the idea of when to do the final defoliation, I am thinking soon. When looking closely I feel there is still great light penetration and wind movement past the plants at this foliage level, so every time I think about it, I decide to keep the leaves for the time being. When I look at the last picture, I feel like I'll just start with the most bottom leaves for now and give it another check then. This will be the last harvest of the year, and it's looking to be a mighty one to finish it off. For the most part I always end up eating shit in some way when I've tried flowering in December/January, whether it's budrot, mildew or an empty wallet from running an AC 24/7. I've grown now straight for three years and imma go take a break before ramping it up for probably another three years hopefully towards bigger things in the process. I'm going to setup my mother plants to be able to survive a week and a bit by themselves in December and be ready to be thoroughly chopped for a full steam ahead run starting January.

I have weighed the other harvest, which was the Wedding Cake and OMG. Wedding Cake - 80g I would call this my flavour strain. I always get a great terpene profile from it, citrus and sweet. First time doing an organic run with Biobizz with it, not the best run in my opinion but definitely a keeper. I gave it a lazy trim as I felt the buds were not super dense. OMG - 135g Probably the most trash harvest I've had this year. This strain did not enjoy any of the training and all the four phenos mutated or stunted in some way. Although the resin was very sticky, more so than the Wedding Cake or ZxP. It also reeks like good old street skunk. I've kept one pheno to maybe try again. I gave it an even lazier trim because I think I am just going to straight up turn it into dab. If it turns out power I'll then definitely rerun it.

I have applied

Never used them, but they look like a freshly setup online store. My experience with stores like these is always positive, they will probably go beyond expectations to deliver while they are still new. Many of them don't last long, the hydroponic sales industry is quite over saturated in my opinion. So supporting them would be a cool thing. - me, a failed online store owner (ex-owner?)

Harvest has been weighed, coming in with 377g of ZxP. I must still weigh the Wedding Cake and OMG.

Joh, four fixtures in a 1.2x1.2 seems a bit overkill. I'm rocking just two easybreazy.

Unfortunately, you would need another refractometer for brewing. The refractometers for brewing vs plant brix use different integers but are essentially the same device.

I just struggle my tits off to get enough juice on the plate, so my refractometer just sits in drawer now. Once I was very curious about brix, now I'm very meh about it. Brix also changes depending on what part of the plant you are extracting the juice from so at a point I was getting different readings from different parts of the plant, and even time of day made a difference, so I just left it alone. If you can get consistent readings and provide that to others, then you are the man