1000Hills Nursery

Set it up to draw passive air from inside the house and vent outside... Will help as the air temp is cooler inside. Keep the exhaust fan close to the lights and have a fan blow air between the lights and the top of the canopy. And yeah remember to run your lights ON cycle at night. The fact that things are dry there is a benefit. All this is only important in flower. In veg the plants are fine with things being hot. Should anyone disagree I'm happy posting a pic of my veg room running hot and the plants are thriving with no heat stress symptoms.

@Meepmeepza Judging by the response theirs obviously something wrong with that soil maybe it's too acidic or something I don't know haven't used it. As a beginner rather get the recommended soil so you don't end up pulling out your hair when funny things happen...

@PsyCLown Maybe my attitude towards growing is based on the fact that I remember what it was like wanting to grow my own and not having money to buy all the correct supplies. I've taken soil from the garden, used the cheapest of the cheapest of everything. The plants grew and I took it to harvest. Didn't have jewellers loupe and probably harvested too early but I was still proud of myself when I showed my mates my dry buds all on a stem joined together. We never saw weed like that before. I mean the weed we bought on the street back then came wrapped in directory paper aka slupes. My point is there is no such thing as it won't work or you wasting your time... just drop that bean and start your journey... You will be amazed where you will be as a grower next year this time.

Harsh bru. Give the owe a chance. He happily posted some supplies he's got as a gift towards the cause and you guys are being so despondent instead of assisting him in making it work. @Trailblazer420 Is your garden gnat free?

@Za Weed Lover Your lighting plan sounds spot on for what you have. Reading and researching is very important but with that said it also requires you to filter the information out there. 1000W HPS lights are demons... I don't think even 4 x 400W hps could compete with 1 x 1000W. But that's not the point. What's important right now for you is to plan better for keeping the temps down. An exhaust fan is not going to be able to keep the temps down in flower more especially if it's hot where you live. HPS lamps run a lot hotter then MH and 2 x 400W HPS lamps create a lot of radiant heat. If you not going to use an aircon then Aircooled hoods are an okay option together with running your lights ON cycle during the night. With this comes another problem with high humidity when lights are OFF. Don't take anything I said as a negative, it's what we all have to deal with. Every grow set-up comes with its own set of problems. The better prepared we are for it the greater the chance for success.

@Meepmeepza Don't disappoint the wife. She didn't do too bad. Get some decent compost, a small brick of coco and mix it with that soil and keep it for your 1st transplant. Remove as much of the bark and funny things. Start seeds in something small with a little of that coco only and then transplant as they grow. That plant food shows a pic of seaweed on it and says kelp on the side so it will work for your grow for veg for.The most part. Drench and foliar 2 in 1. You can diy some teas for flower or maybe buy a biobloom later on or top dress some worm castings during the grow to boost microbials or whatever.. The plant will grow and you can wing it as it grows. There is only one thing in cannabis cultivation that I feel you should never compromise and that is good genetics. As a beginner start with photo's, leave the autos till you get some experience. Seeds are cheap for a 3 pack delivered @Cannabist

@GasSak Hi and welcome... A dwc set-up is very dependant on your grow space, the type of lights you intend on using and the amount of plants you want to grow. I highly recommend dwc over every other system because of the ease of it. Your choices are to purchase a built system or diy it. A recirculating dwc (rdwc) is by far the system that requires least physical work when it comes to checking ph/ec, draining the reservoir and keeping all the plants dialed in. It also adds extra turbulence in each bucket which assist the airstones with keeping everything bubbling and moving. The most important factor to me with any dwc set-up is somehow having it elevated off the ground so it makes it easier to inspect roots and do any maintenance whilst the top if the plants are scrogged etc.

@Za Weed Lover Yeah definitely short veg. Install scrog when you flip and then you can spread out the stretch under the scrog. This only applies to 400W HPS because it doesn't have the penetration like the bigger hps's and LEDs. I only use hps and I'm okay to show you my lighting set-up so that you have peace of mind that I'm not putting you in the bush. Nowadays I use 400W MHs in my veg room and 1000W HPSs in flower room. When I get another aircon I will upgrade my veg room to 1000W lights. It will surely help me become more perpetual because now I veg my plants for a week extra in flower room just to get them use to more intense lights before flip.

@CreX Besides all the theory behind MH and HPS... I've personally witnessed the differences. It's huge. HPS definitely causes larger internodal spacing in veg and preflower. MH gets the buds to set closer in preflower so that eventually all those buds grow into each other and become one large bud. On the flip side if you use MH past like +-day18 then you going to have smaller buds that won't bulk up to full potential during the weeks 4-6. But if you could only choose 1 for the entire grow it has to be HPS. I've used mixed spectrum lamps when I didn't have a choice and the buds under the MH didn't harden up like the ones under hps.

Depends on how fast your plants grow. Flipping early as in 3-4weeks. And if you can get your hands on metal halide lamp then that would keep everything a lot more compact in veg i.e. tighter internodal spacing. And then you can use hps lamp from around day 18 of flower

All the luck with your grow. Don't over water those seedlings and help the tops of that medium dry out. Small fan light breeze. Damping off can be heartbreaking. 400W HPS grows decent hard mugs. To increase yield on those lights I would recommend you flipping the photos early just after the bottom branches catch up to the top. If they get too big then you gonna end up with a lower yield of ripe buds and lots of larfies with those lights. I only grow with hps and I eventually found that I yield more with 1 plant per 400W as opposed to getting a few to share. On a side note I'd love to afford some LED replacements oneday. Anyone grows with a not too expensive LED that can match a 1000W hps footprint 1200 x 1200.

She deserves and expensive Christmas present from you... Btw have you checked on the plants to make sure they haven't started flowering as I mentioned earlier. You know with the load shedding, timers could have went out of whack. 1 timer has failed on me during these power cuts

I think your trusty novice has earned a status upgrade. He's done very well weaving and filling up the canopy. I can't see the tops very clearly, it looks like it has the bud crowning pattern that usually shows as it's about to flip into flower and start pushing pistils.

Battery operated aquarium air pump and candles is what I use to use in dwc. You gonna chance not running air in your buckets, that's like playing Russian roulette with root rot. My cousin is big into Kratky... baby marrows, tomatoes and some general vegetables. He's forever telling me to try it. I don't think it's advisable for cannabis though unless you enjoy a challenge. I've seen he's roots, they nothing compared to cannabis roots. Have a look for yourself and tell me if you will grow cannabis in water without air. Btw he also has black buckets and the insides look the same.

@PsyCLown Looking after it is probably the reason it's still being kind to you. Hopefully you never have to replace it. Grohydro in durban sells it for 8k with the Ph adjustment add on. It is an expensive investment that's not for everyone but my family wants to start going on holidays again so I'm going to have to automate things further then just 3 days.

Just to be clear I meant the ballast and Lamp. I have seen these nifty travel cases for clones that the hydro shops sell. I'm sure if we really wanted to we could make a small box with a cheap battery LED. Secure the clone in there. Hope they stored in the right direction for most of its journey. Not sure on the legalities cos we not selling to each other. Are we allowed to gift plants? Hopefully one day we will be allowed too. We can build our own Alpha team, do collaborations etc. Run each other's cuts, see how they express themselves. And then there's local cannabis cups... fingers crossed to a bright cannabis future

Courier Guy

@PsyCLown Nothing lasts forever. I'm using ph pens from before the hydro shops even opened in sa. Can't find my old bluelab right now. Eventually you will find just as I did, Ph drops is the most reliable. I only have faith in the bluelab guardian.

For free for you bra. 1 lamp and 1 ballast. The ballasts are being used to hold a fans base down atm. Anyone else that is battling to upgrade their lamp, let me know, you can also have 1.

Sealed for Light... Extractor will replenish co2 & remove heat.

Ph pen is either a quality expensive one or drops. Even the bluelab and Hannah's bomb out. I'm saving for a bluelab guardian. Till then I'll use drops. Yeah the fan thing can work but the space looks a bit big for that. R500 is for the 400 hps. Magnetic ballast, Z400M igniter, 60uF Capacitor, Lamp holder, acdc hps lamp and diy reflector.

I would say soil is easier for a first grow. That hidden space with walls will definitely work. Put a door or curtain or something to make it light proof. CFLs gonna give you poor results. The cheapest decent grow light will probably be a 400W HPS. If you go that route I'll sponsor you a Phillips 400W MH Veg Lamp. If you in durbs, I'll give you clones as well. Maybe someone here knows off an LED for around the same price. Basic essentials Grow light +-500??? Small Extractor Fan +-1000 Timer 200 Multiplug 120 Desk fan 200 Nutrients + Ph drops + Ph down 800 Pots and grow medium 300 Reservoir(bucket, etc) 50 Seeds 500 the most important investment. Well that's your budget gone... Guys have I missed any of the basics required? Just know we all started small with small budgets. With time comes upgrades. And you could always get growing accessories for bday gifts from the wife etc. One things for sure, once you start growing, even when you go to the local checkers you will automatically take a walk past the garden section.

@PsyCLown yeah I hear you. If I grew only a few plants at a time I would try fight it. Unfortunately sometimes some strains are just more vulnerable to pm and mold. So I don't try battle it anymore, I'll chop those down to stop the spread. And get rid of their respective clones. I only want strong plants. Besides pm and mold, I start chopping 1 2 colas from here and there usually from around the day 40s. I enjoy the racey high now and then.

Yeah dude it sucks that your beautiful plant is being a rebellious biach. You should be able to ride it another couple days to a week without really getting seeded. It's quite strange though cos the nanners you getting look more like those close to harvest nanners that some strains push out. I would use ripen in my next feeding and then a big flush and reevaluate things. So what if your buds get seeded now right at the end. You have come a long way to worry about a few seeds. Just don't regrow any clones you taken off that plant. On a side note. Last grow I harvested 5 plants on day 38 because of pm. It was all clones from the same mother and I didn't want to the pm spreading to other strains. I lost a lot in weight but the buds still had a nice racey high. And if you want some easy growing clones in the future that are stable hit me with a pm

I say we have a competition... who's humidity is the highest in their flower room... But on a serious note I got home from work now, power just came on. 1stly I could smell my grow on the road. Then the climate in my flower room is 18C and 92% humidity... So I've decided I'm just gonna start flushing now at day 43(eish), just in case the shit gets real. I've done emergency harvests before without a flush and it sucked. Anyone else in late flower atm?