Hello fellow growers, consumers and strain hunters! Where to start... Well as most of you may know, South Africa has recently amended the laws surrounding the recreational use and cultivation of Cannabis within a, "private setting" and although the, "paperwork" isn't yet finalized in terms of how much we can grow or carry, I find myself engulfed with the need to source and collect the worlds purest strains. However, this is definitely biting off more than I can chew so for the time being I've placed my focus on near national strains.. So far I've been fortunate enough to acquire some Durban Poison and South African Kwazulu seeds but they're unfortunately not from trusted sources. To add, I might just have my hands on some 30+ year old seeds that originated from Malawi (says dad). If that is the case and he is in fact able to find where he stashed them, I recon I'd have the purest form of Malawi Gold in all of SA, possibly even Africa which personally, even if they're no longer viable, gets me very excited! A lil about me: South African born and bred, jack of all trades, perfectionist by heart, always looking for new things to excel at, I'll never turn away advice from others as I believe we can never know enough and I welcome both innovative and traditional ideas or techniques. Recently I've invested a lot of time in researching various, "farming" techniques, two of which that suck fast were, "Permaculture" for outdoor grows and, "Rotary Gardens" for indoor grows. I'm highly inventive with a strong background in 3D design, be it Architecture, Animation or Character Design so I find my mind is always looking for new ways to achieve a goal or simply improve on an existing system. My dream: To take advantage of our recreational laws and to start a business whereby independent growers can have their harvest tested, then processed and refined (if good enough) into medicinal grade products such as Tinctures, Oils, Vapes, Shatter, Waxes etc. South Africa has a high rate of medical problems that Cannabis is proven to treat in an effective manner but as you all know, medical grade anything is pricey as and with our economy and unemployment rate being what it is, people are simply not able to afford it, not to mention that the sale of said product is still illegal. Can't think of anything else to add at this point but that's that in a nutshell. =P PS. I'm honored to be a part of this community and I hope to see nothing but great things for each and every member! Signing off, Steffano

Hi All. This is my 3rd grow and boy have I come a long way. Im still not a pro, but I have learned alot. My second grow was unsuccessful because of my lack of experience in growing in promix coco coir. Heat also being an issue. Anyways back to the Velvet Bud grow.... Apparently Velvet bud is a descendent of Purple bud. Velvet bud is produced by Seedsman. I didn't pick this strain. It was given to me because of a order blunder from the local outlet...so this is how I ended up with it. My set up is: 800mm x 800mm x 1250mm grow tent 400w MH/HPS 400w digital ballast 100mm centrifugal extractor fan 4 x 20L pots Soil medium : promix coco coir perlite mix 50/50 Pots lined with filter floss Hydroponics system using normal 3 part nutrients system. Grow nutes Micro nutes and Bloom nutes by EHG. Seedling stage: 3 out of 5 seeds germinated. Seedlings where ready for transplanting into the bigger pots after about 2 weeks. Used a humidity dome to keep the fellows warms as temps where still cool. I felt that the seedlings responded well to a temp of 24 celcius. 15% nutes of bloom grow and micro. Two seedlings flourished while the 3 guys lagged behind a bit. Unfortunately no pics of the seedling stage. Vegative stage: Once these guys got into the bigger pots they just took off. Ramping up the nutes gradually to 90 % of the recommended dosage with Grow, Micro and CalMag( a definite must for growing in coco coir). I only topped these plants once, then after a few days I LST the 4 main branches by pulling them down with pipe cleaners. The above picture is after 3 weeks of vegging since I put the seedlings into these pots. Good vigorous growth for Velvet Bud! I ended up using an auto pot for one on the right. I also added an airstone and pump. You can clearly see the difference! Im not doing any testing. Im just following the schedule on the nutrient bottle but dosing slightly less and seeing how the plants respond. I add a table spoon of CalMag to every 10L of normal tap water. 18/6 light schedule with MH globe. Temps where a little low so I added a temp sensor switch to my extractor fan. When the light comes on it also acts as a heater, so when the temp got to 25 celcius the extractor fan would come on and cool the tent and plants down with cool air from the outside. Above is a picture of the temperature controller. The sensor is in the tent, it also has a heating as well as a cooling option. This controller really helps with keeping a constant temperature. The above pic is at 4 weeks veg. Nice lush vigorous growth.Plant is looking really bushy and healthy. Velvet bud is responding well to the nutrients. Grow 20ml/10l, Micro 10ml/10l and Tblspn CalMag. Normal tap water with no testing. You're probably wondering what that piece of acrylic is for....well its a budget way to replicate a ventilated hood. I'm not using the temp controller anymore as the outside temps have risen so now I have the extractor fan running constantly. I had a piece of perspex(acrylic) clear cut to fit the tent perfectly. I used a holesaw to cut holes into the acrylic glass directly under where the globe would be. I did this because when the extractor fan creates the negative air pressure inside the tent, its will pull the tent tight around the edges of the acrylic and force the cool air from the bottom compartment into the above compartment directly over the globe therefore also keeping the globe cool and keeping my plants cool. Its also adjustable. I also have been using a humidifier on and off. I usually only use it weather depending. During this time I also took six clones. I used a rooting hormone and rockwool cubes all six clones rooted after 10 days. Velvet Bud takes good clones!!! I gave 4 away (good karma) and added 2 clones to a fourth pot. I had to leave for a month and had to ask very nicely if she would take care of them. I had to mod the grow to make it as easy as possible for her maintain. So I bought a tray to fit the tent and ripped out the single auto valve I had, stuck it in the center of the tray, chucked the plants in, filled the tray with hydroton balls, made a watering schedule and nutrient mix levels( 20ml/10l bloom 10ml/10l micro 1/2 Tblspn CalMag) 10l and Mondays and 10l on Thursdays and had to leave for a month wondering if my girlfriend would take good care of my babies........ Whoo hooo!!! So after a month of flowering I return to this!!! Velvet Bud is looking so good and really is starting to smell so good. Nice sweet fruity smell ! My girlfriend did good!!! Box of chocolates for her!! I was mostly impressed with the two clones I had planted into the fourth pot front right in the picture. Heads as big as the rest and looking super healthy with fat nugs forming on the stems. Week 6 of flowering and Velvet Buds are swelling up and are just smelling irresistible!! Another wider pic at 6 weeks. Tents is so full!! 😁 The above pic is at 9 weeks flower. Buds are full of trichomes and have been flushing. Trichomes are not completely cloudy though so will defs have to go for another week. 9 weeks.... Buds are so fat they are starting to lean on each other with only the tent sides holding them up! Thats all for today folks.....will continue with this grow story once I have harvested. Its just about ready. Till then..chow

Hello everyone out there! I stumbled upon this website a few minutes ago and got intrigued. Rather than simply lurk, decided to send a holler out there. Am currently hunting the Sheelavathi strain in Vizag, any help would be much appreciated. Thanks.

Hi all. I'm from South Africa currently growing some bagseed Sativa as a first time grow. Very excited to be a part of this forum to learn some new tricks and improve my grow and hopefully get to offer something. All the best Baconovich

South Africa outdoor sativa grow Today, 04:07 PM Hi everyone I am a first time grower in SA and planted around end August start of October 2015. I am at 150 days of vegetative growth and now first signs of flowering have appeared this week I have a few photo updates on veg state 2 weeks ago and currently. This is from 2 weeks ago: First image is two of the first planted one has purple stem and started signs of flowering first, the other is same size and looking healthy. The rectangular pot is all the seeds found in some Red Swazi about 20 plants growing together all sprouted by mistake and I am going with it! Last pot is planted at end October Sour Diesel which has shot up as tall as my marijuana forest in 2 months. I will take current plat photos and post today. Others are photos of purple stem (don't know strain :/) and some of other. I keep them on the chairs because there are tiny green grasshoppers that love my bud leaves they look juicy don't they! Previously during flowering stage used Seagro plant nutrients very Eco friendly and Organic seaweed base NPK and micro nutes. I ran out of this and purchased more today had 200ml and used 5ml per liter every 36 hours. I like this fert because it even states it doesn't burn plant if mixed over ratio. Also got some guano organic fertilizer tea which smells like hydrogen sulphide (egg-fart) mixing 15ml per 1liter bi-daily 48hours. Been working hard only ladies, let me know how I am doing and open for comments and suggestions. Was thinking about force flowering at this stage with a perforated black shadow net?

Hi everyone I am a first time grower in SA and planted around end August start of October 2015. I am at 150 days of vegetative growth and now first signs of flowering have appeared this week I have a few photo updates on veg state 2 weeks ago and currently. This is from 2 weeks ago: First image is two of the first planted one has purple stem and started signs of flowering first, the other is same size and looking healthy. The rectangular pot is all the seeds found in some Red Swazi about 20 plants growing together all sprouted by mistake and I am going with it! Last pot is planted at end October Sour Diesel which has shot up as tall as my marijuana forest in 2 months. I will take current plat photos and post today. Others are photos of purple stem (don't know strain :/) and some of other. I keep them on the chairs because there are tiny green grasshoppers that love my bud leaves they look juicy don't they! Previously during flowering stage used Seagro plant nutrients very Eco friendly and Organic seaweed base NPK and micro nutes. I ran out of this and purchased more today had 200ml and used 5ml per liter every 36 hours. I like this fert because it even states it doesn't burn plant if mixed over ratio. Also got some guano organic fertilizer tea which smells like hydrogen sulphide (egg-fart) mixing 15ml per 1liter bi-daily 48hours. Been working hard only ladies, let me know how I am doing and open for comments and suggestions. Was thinking about force flowering at this stage with a perforated black shadow net?

Hi everyone I am a first time grower in SA and planted around end August start of October 2015. I am at 150 days of vegetative growth and now first signs of flowering have appeared this week I have a few photo updates on veg state 2 weeks ago and currently. This is from 2 weeks ago: First image is two of the first planted one has purple stem and started signs of flowering first, the other is same size and looking healthy. The rectangular pot is all the seeds found in some Red Swazi about 20 plants growing together all sprouted by mistake and I am going with it! Last pot is planted at end October Sour Diesel which has shot up as tall as my marijuana forest in 2 months. I will take current plat photos and post today. Others are photos of purple stem (don't know strain :/) and some of other. I keep them on the chairs because there are tiny green grasshoppers that love my bud leaves they look juicy don't they! Previously during flowering stage used Seagro plant nutrients very Eco friendly and Organic seaweed base NPK and micro nutes. I ran out of this and purchased more today had 200ml and used 5ml per liter every 36 hours. I like this fert because it even states it doesn't burn plant if mixed over ratio. Also got some guano organic fertilizer tea which smells like hydrogen sulphide (egg-fart) mixing 15ml per 1liter bi-daily 48hours. Been working hard only ladies, let me know how I am doing and open for comments and suggestions. Was thinking about force flowering at this stage with a perforated black shadow net?

A lot of SAs weed is imported from Swaziland it is grown wild and outdoor year round

As a child i had the privilege to grow up in south africa and the privilege to smoke some of its finest strains durban poison and rooi bard being my favourites I grew up near the valley of a thousand hills , the hills strech from petermaritzburg to kwazulu natal ie durban . Weather this is an urban mith or not im not sure but they say durban poison grows down in the valley . I use to score my weed of a zulu lady called dagga doris. The weed wasnt durban poison but it got you stoned and made you laugh like fook .

hi all, there is my 2nd grow started 4 months ago, using soil from my backyard, 5 36w cfl bulbs and 2 pc fans i vegged this plant during 3months using the 13/11 light cycle without using ferts, now its been 1 month since i change the light cycle to 11/13 to induce flowering, ive been using a homemade seaweed preparation since i changed the light cycle, the plant has already started to grow flowers, the photos below was taken 2weeks ago(the most recent). i have no camera at the moment i ll post new photos in a few days. have a look, please give your feedback or advice, will be very much apprecieted Hav a nice day btw the strain is 'South African Kwazulu' from world of seeds.