Onion
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Everything posted by Onion
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I would potentially be interested in a seed buying club in the Heldeberg. I don't think I qualify as a "trusted" member yet according to the site, because I am relatively new and don't have a lot of interaction. I have some specific strains I want to collect.
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This is an update of all the plants so far. I have one more seed sprouting, an heirloom TK.Order:SSL (TK x DBN)DWD (Double Wild Durban)MP (Mystery Purple)Adopted 1?? (belongs to housemate)Adopted 2?? (belongs to housemate)Holly (TK who was fimmed severely by the locust)Molly (TK my favourite from seed)Polly (TK looking very lanky... suspected male)Vegetable seedlingsMy housemate asked me to give his plants some tlc because they were stunted and necrotic. They have bounced back nicely.
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I have made a three pronged attack on the bugs. Yesterday I did a soil drench of BT, a foliar spray of Beauveria Bassiana, and a sprinkle of DE. Today I squashed a fat green grass hopper that had feasted on the one plant all night. The toxins take a while to work. It's not immediate. I have several different kinds of grass hopper as well as the large red locust. Just for extra measure for the night, I sprayed with the Margaret Roberts garlic and canola mix. Two plants are still in tents. I see now what I am up against and will have to make tents for all the vegetables too.
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They look lovely and healthy. Cuz, these things are going to get big and how are you going to disguise them then?
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Thanks John! The two bigger plants had their first night out of the screens last night and I doused them in Margaret Roberts garlic and canola. The one plant was munched before I opened them up. They both survived the temperature fluctuations and another day. I'm pleased with progress generally but this is going to be a labour of love, hand rearing these outdoor plants. They need constant attention at this stage. Soon they will be vegging powerfully and hopefully less maintenance will be required. When I sprayed them this evening, a cloud of aphids flew off the unscathed one. I will have to watch that closely. There are no crawlers on the leaves yet and I hope to keep it that way. I'll buy ant traps if necessary too. I have a more potent muti than the Margaret Roberts which I must make this weekend. It has cayenne, marigold, pennyroyal, canola, casteel, onion and garlic and bicarb and works pretty darn well. If these bugs give me kak I will use Diatomaceous Earth too, as no bees are going to be around them at this stage of their development, and that stuff is pretty effective imo.
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@John Stonedwell Hi and thank you. This is my first soil grow, so I am learning as I go too. I like the idea of growing local strains in local conditions. I like that it doesn't cost a lot to do. The results will be interesting to me. I have bean seeds on my shopping list. Beans and herb seedlings. I'm not going to try to propagate the herbs myself... headaches! What have you got growing?
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I've decided to journal my vegetable grow here too. I was lucky to win second prize in the photo of the month in September, and I won a bottle of Envirofarm EPIC 5:2, which I will use as a foliar spray for my veggies. I have already used other products in my cannabis soil mix, so the EPIC will be for my veggies (I sprayed a germinating cannabis seed with it to see if it would speed up germination). Here is the seed tray, with the following seeds being sprouted:
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I want to thank team @Envirofarm very much for my Epic 5:2! I have started using as a foliar spray on my seed tray, so it will soak in and feed the new sprouts too. I'm cautious not to over feed my cannabis, which already has other products in the soil mix. So I am thinking, I will use the Epic 5:2 on my veggies. I am fantasizing about healthy vegging and fruiting plants giving me a great harvest. I will journal my veggie grow with my cannabis grow. -
Time has passed and I have topped two of my plants. The one that got eaten by the locust is bouncing back fast and furious as @Stinger96predicted for me. My mystery purple plant has begun fattening out nicely and I have a Double Wild Durban which will go in the ground in a week or two. I am still popping beans so I hope to have another Transkei heirloom seed sprouted soon. I bought buckets from Mambos. There were plenty to choose from and the price was acceptable. I bought the untreated Lucerne seed from Agricol for under R200 for the kg. MY teas are all made and fermenting now. I have the Bacteria Juice in one bucket, SST (with Kelp) in another, and Banana Tea in the third. I am doing vegetables in a seed tray at the moment too. I will have to build tents for all of the plants. There are squashed locusts errywhere!
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Nice grow!
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Thanks so much! How exciting!
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The best is to send your comments to Dear South Africa. They explain that they keep a legal record and present it to the Ministry or whoever. The mailboxes at Parliament mostly don't work.
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I realize my view was very unpopular when I commented on the Cannabis Bill in a thread on this site. This is the reason why Cannabis Bill Rejected Outright All I have to say is Viva Legacy Growers, Viva!!! and %*&$# the government.
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Thanks for the encouragement Stinger. Check the bridezollas
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Caption this.... (and feel free to use expletives)
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Don't stress about the shell. The plant knows how to grow itself. I wondered how long the lovely green shoots would last in Widget's tank lol. If the seedlings don't get enough light then they will grow tall and skinny, so do put them outside even if the weather isn't great. They should survive unless you are having torrential rains. I'm germinating in the Cape and temps go really low sometimes, way below 13 degrees, and then the plants just go dormant until they can metabolize again. I've grown plants in Cape Town winter with success and no fancy equipment.
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@StonerZN Thank you so much for the interest, and welcome aboard. The wind is blowing hard tonight and those little babies better tough it out. I am taking a fittest will survive approach on the hill here. Are you keeping a journal that I can look at?
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Today my three Transkei origin plants went into their specially prepared holes in the ground. Their roots look fabulous and they went in intact and now look as happy as can be. My mystery purple plant is in a pot and has healthy cotyledons. I have set three more seeds to germinate. They are special phenos from a homey. Two are Durban landrace origin plants with different parentage and geographic origin. The third is a proper heirloom Transkei landrace seed. These three will also go into the ground when they are ready. Pictured here is my first ever batch of bacteria juice; then Holly, Molly and Polly in their new homes. I ended up getting the buckets from Mambos. The price was under R50 each which was what I was after. Alfalfa seeds (untreated, from Agricol) are ready for me to make my first batch of SST, but I will do that once the new seeds are in the ground too. For now I will just water the plants that are in the ground with tap water because the tank water is finished. They have plenty of living nutrition in their holes.
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Thanks GGG. That's what burns my butt though. I can get them for under R20 if I buy 30. But yes, R60 will be my last resort. What a rip off. If I buy in Jhb I can get them for under R40 but then I have to pay for shipping. I must physically go to Mambos because I did look at those websites and couldn't find what I was looking for.
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Hey Blazer, thank you. I took a look at Westpack on your suggestion. I have been hunting online for good prices in Cape Town. Prices here are more than double Jhb in the places I've been looking. The big plastics places sell wholesale and I can get a great deal on 30 buckets, but I only want 3 to make my juices. If I could find takers for the others I would get them. I will likely ship from Jhb if I don't find anything soon. My LABs are almost ready for a bucket. I will take white buckets if I can't get black.
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My first three plants are coming along well at the end of their second week. I am busy brewing the LABs and ordering buckets etc. Does anyone know where I can get 20 or 25 litre black buckets with lids in Cape Town that don't cost an arm and a leg? I am likely going to order from Jhb and ship because it appears that Jhb has more competitive prices. I'm making a banana tea for flower, and will feed with an SST kelp blend for veg. I'm getting excited to try all these yummy organics and see what results I get. The sun was out for a few days... nice.
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I discovered that Agricol is the place to buy bulk untreated Alfalfa (Lucerne) for SST (sprouted seed tea). I collected my Elemental Blend from Jamie's today. I will dig it in with the rest of my soil mixture. I also had to stake my plants up a bit because they had got too top heavy. The stem was all above the soil, so I added more soil to the cups. I am concerned that they are so tall and spindly. They are outside but they are not yet in full sunlight. I guess I must put them in the full sun and hope they calm down. I haven't experienced this before and my lighting conditions are not that different. Oh well, every little challenge is a learning curve.
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Today I dug holes for the transplant in a few weeks time. I dug till I got blisters. As you can see, it is rocky. I mixed half vermicompost (nice one from Jamie's with traces of worms so hopefully some eggs), with two handfuls of lucerne (alfalfa) meal and the rest soil from the ground and a myccorhizae inoculation from local flora. I bought a great soil conditioner, called Elemental Blend (also Jamie's) which I will use to top dress. I dug 5 holes, the rest I will do when the next batch of seedlings is on the go. I also started my batch of Lactobacillus which will take 3 weeks to be ready. My three little plants are looking very healthy and are growing at a good pace. They are a week old now.
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AAAah thanks for sharing this @Totemic, that's less than half the price that SFA are charging. My only question is.... is it treated with chemicals? I'll have to try to find out.
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I do live in the Heldeberg basin @Fridgedoor, so I am open to splitting orders. I spoke to Seeds For Africa and they said 250g seed to 22 litres of water. They told me that 440 seeds make up a gram. So if they sell packs of 5000 seeds for R38, that's 11 g. So that's 23 packets of seeds if I'm not mistaken..... and would cost R847! That's a lot of money I sent Agricol an email. I just don't know if those seeds would be treated with chemicals that might not be ok for organic grows. The SFA seeds are dusted with organic growth hormone. Maybe I should negotiate with SFA and see if they would be willing and able to supply bulk at a better price. I might just have to buy what I need each month because I'm ALWAYS skint. Let me know if you are able to find another source. I sent SFA an email asking for bulk discount. Let's see what they come back with. UPDATE - ok so Kelly at SFA says that they sell bulk packs as follows, so I reckon we are sorted. If you would like to share, we could order 500g and split that? Would that be enough for you? · 100 Grams / R34 · 500 Grams / R165 · 1kg / R310 · 5kg / R1450
