Man... Let me tell you my story - yield and grams per watt

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colon stewart

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Keeping to whats relevant... I lived in England from 2000 to 2005. I stopped smoking for a while but decided to start again after a year or so. I asked a friend at work to sort me out an ounce. He said, "Sure, come round my house". I popped round, he said here's your ounce and take a look in my loft / attic. He had a 3.5x.3.5m room full of it, 2x days away from harvest. 4x 1000w hps, 4x girls under each, 1.2x1.5m per light per 4x plants. I had never seen that before, very very impressive, something nature won't do on her own.

I had just bought a house and my friends suggestions was... "Get it going in your place", my response was "**** yeah!". I gave him £2,000, he bought all the equipment and consumables, came to my place installed it all, gave me clones, showed me everything.

(long time ago, now i don't re-call everything perfectly). Pots had layer of hydroton at the bottom, rest was 50/50 coco perlite. Canna A and B Flores i think was used, with PK13/14 and the Hydrogarden Dry Flower 4x part range of additives.

Pots were placed in trays and bottom fed. Strains i believe was white rhino and mother's finest, (from sensi, i think). I see mother's finest is sensi, so i assume the rhino was from sensi too.

Anyways, 4x week veg, 8x week flower, 1000w 4x HPS, 16x plants, 1.2x1.5m space under each light, 4x plants under each, and... it came out at about 4.2kg each time, a little over 1 gpw.

Imagine... You bumped into someone who showed you / gave you all of that!!

Anyways... in 2006 i moved to South Africa, Johannesburg, (many reasons). I decided growing was not a career move, i wasn't going to do it again. There's plenty of outdoor in Africa, why bother.

However... in 2010 i decided i needed grow again, (many reasons). So...

I went about setting things up as closely as i could to what i was shown in the UK...

15L pots filled with 50/50 coco perlite, bottom layer of hydroton, 4x under a light, plenty of space, 1.2x1.5m per light, per 4x plants. Canna nutes aren't available in South Africa so i've ended up using GHE, Lucas formula seemed to work best.

Since 2010 i've had many trials and tribulations... First thing i found out was the canna coco we were using in the UK is PH corrected, but at least now i know to Ph correct the medium before use.

Basically... since growing in Johannesburg I've been getting a pretty consistent 0.5 grams per watt... Half of what i was getting in the UK.

I have been trying everything i can to improve this and get it back to what i was shown in the UK. Johannesburg is 1,600m above sea level... This is the one variable i cannot change.

Otherwise i have... 3200w, (2x 1000s and 2x 600s) 16x pots, 4x under each light, 50/50 coco/perlite, layer of hydroton, GHE nutes using Lucas formula, all air cooled reflectors, temps 22 to 32 celcius, big mist maker and humidistat, 40% humidity. I'm using phillips 1000w hps bulbs and 600w sun masters, lights are the same as UK, humidity is the same, temps are the same, medium is the same.

Selection of strains... white widow max from marijuana-seeds.nl chronic from seriousseeds.org, super sk from a friend, most recently and not yet flowered, white rhino and white widow from green house seeds, and liberty haze, pineapple chunk, grape ape, critical kush from barney's farm. The chronic i bought 20x seeds and only kept the best 2. All seeds i've bought recently i will only keep the best 1-2 of 10.

I have never gotten more than 1.6kg from 3000w in Johannesburg, where as it was 4.2kg from 4000w in the UK.

Basically, i'm asking / pleading for someone to tell me / advise me... where am i going wrong? Been 3x years now, many cycles and haven't significantly broken the 0.5gpw figure.

Strains are different, but i have tried a few now and all come out around 0.5gpw, so i'm not sure if its strain.

Nutes are different. GHE Lucas now instead of Canna, but i bought load of aditives, GHE bloom and root boosters, canna PK13/14 imported, even imported the dry flower 4x part program... none made any real difference

Altitude is different, Johannesburg is 1,600 meters above sea level, UK is at sea level.

I've let the plant get too big sometimes and end up with a lot of wastage on the lower branches, this time i'm flicking smaller.

I phoned the guy who showed me it all, he moved to Australia, doesn't do it any more and could not really tell me the secret, (i'm not sure he knew himself). I called the grow shop in the UK we were using, but they point blank refused to say anthing on the phone. I'm posting this on a lot of forums in the hope of getting the "silver bullet" answer, or even pointed in the right direction would be good.

It was so easy in the UK, it just happened, 4kg every 3x months, 1gpw, but... now i'm struggling for years and don't know why.

I'm going try with the latest seeds i've bought, GHS WW and WR, and Barney's Farm, range of 600g per m2 strains. If i still get the same result with them i suppose i will fligh to Amsterdam and buy Sensi White Rhino, (they don't ship to South Africa).


Anyways... If any of you ever wondered is 1gpw possible, answer is yes definitely, the first 4-5 grows i did i got that, under some expert tutorlidge in the UK with Canna nutes, but...

Now in Johannesburg with GHE nutes, Lucas formula, all of the above, i simply cannot get more than 0.5gpw.


This is having a bad effect on my life in general. It may be a "dependant arising", but... dam! i have to get it back to 1gpw.


Please, please, please... any good advice is very much appreciated, (only respond if you know *** your talking about, there's millions of punks out there with different stories), if your not getting around 1gpw you may be one of them.

Responses from those who know what they're doing are highly appreciated.

Thanks in advance
 
Well 25 views and 0 responses (except this one)..............I wonder why that is...............;)
 
That was :joint::joint: read

sound to me like you just have to play with your nutes and get in tune with the plants needs. just because a formula works for most we all still need to tune it to our growing style
 
I think it might be strain related...

and are you vegging as long as yall did in the uk? If you flower to quick you loose yeild.
 
At your altitude your air is far less dense. I would think that you would need substantially more air exchange for your plants to get the same amount of CO2.

I also think that yield is really strain related. I haven't grown any of Barney's stuff, but I have heard some grumblings that his gear is not what it used to be. I don't know what GHE nutes are (are they made by General Hydroponics?), but I am not sure that nutes make that much difference if you are using good quality nutes formulated for mj.
 
Same thread on ...
Grasscity
Icmag
420
ozstoners
Sensi
Thcfarmer
Marijuanapassion

Direct Links Removed

Root oxygen
Tried with air stones in the pots... f all difference

Nutes
Lucas compares nutrient profiles
hXXps://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=21119

I've tried different nutrients and additives, Lucas with .pk13/14, hydrogarden dry flower 4x part program. Food grade humic and fulvic. Xww.gthydro.co.za nutes custom made. Admittedly I've not bought the canna flores A&B. Perhaps I'll import canna A&B, .pk13/14, dry flower 4x part mix just to be sure, but... tried different nutes and, honestly... none of them made f all difference either way.

Humidity...
M12 mist maker and humidistat... johannesburg is dry. UK is humid. Bought a BIG mist maker can have many humidity whatever I like, outcome was.... humidity makes f all difference... 10% or 60% or anything in between same result, (no humifier in UK)

Temps
UK wing reflectors , not air cooled. Ran portable air conditioner / fan assist heater. UK temps were 20-36 celcius. Johannesburg I've air cooled reflectors, need to be more careful with power consumption... Johannesburg temps also 22-35.... more stable that UK.

Air flow.
Room 3m x 3m x 2.5m high. Used top run 2x 500m cubic meters per hour fan for extracting through air cooled reflectors. Now just using one as two suck out the humidity too quick. Have some intake fans too but only run them if it gets hot.

Strain
I keep mothers and I clone. I select best 1-2x plants from seed and keep mothers from them only.

Water
Bought an ro filter... made f all difference. They prefer tap water. 0.2 .ec in straight tap water here

Good comments have been made about:

Pruning and size when flicked - appreciated
Altitude - appreciated
Temps
Nutes - better just import the canna to be sure
Strain - appreciated
Humidity

I think the lack of "the simple answer" speaks more than the given answers.


The man who said, in different words... "just keep trying with different strains and plants and you'll find a good one sooner or later"... was probably the best answer.


Also... someone on thcfarmer said I was lying.... hahahaha.... if that's what you think, imagine what I think !! ... did I dream those years? Is this life actually real at all ?? What is it trying to do to me ??

Anyways... sooner or later I'll figure it out... different strains and plants, canna nutes and a trip to the dam to get sensi seeds.

All prior and future comments appreciated.

I'm very busy but may post some updates and pics.

Not keen on co2

Thank you all. Thanks
 
Apparently you missed the part in the forum rules about ....NO LIVE LINKS.

And why make a trip to Amsterdam for seeds? You can get seeds through the mail.
 
Why do you post at all those places? MP is the only place that matters.
 
By posting that many places you have had the best growers on the planet look at your question. We're all telling you the same thing, it was the strain/pheno you had. You may never find a 1 gram per watt strain/pheno again.
 
Your 5200' above sea level. CO2 is diminished at that level, you will never achieve optimum results with the amount of CO2 you have at your spot. You will HAVE to use elevate your CO2 if you ever want to see the results you have had in the past.
 
:yeahthat: The Hemp Goddess said exactly what I was thinking then Hal nailed it down. CO2 is heavier and will not be as much quantity at that level as at sea level.
 
THG and NCH nailed it... Also agree you should peruse the rules for this site. No live links that lead off site are allowed. At least you didn't post a link to RIU.
 
''something nature won't do on her own''? huh? you ever grown outdoors? some of us kill it in and out time and again. :cool:

maybe your trying to hard. its all weed when grown proper, and picked ripe. maybe try another style? we all have variances due to many underlying conditions unseen, from one grow to the next. I have mastered several styles, ever learning, and grown for many moons. switch it up maybe, and eek out a style suited your environment. if I feel good, my plants show it...

I would never expect to go from 500' to 5000' and my style yield the same. just not gonna happen overnight. no, i'd get out and mingle, talk to some local growers bout the laws of the land and gravity. get a feel for the grow scene there from others perspective around you. then you can learn again.

you gotta walk before you can run...peace...
 
Irish hit the nail on the bread....


Many good responses on this forum and others. I met a local grower now, (off the internet, scary s***), also got allot more strains / seeds now, but they take time.

Going again now with same strain chronic. Have learnt allot about pruning and perpetual harvest from my new friend, who also has a fair few strains I will be grateful to leverage.

Only thing I'm changing immediately is pruning. Going to focus on 4-5 arms per plant, and because of all the extra pruning I think I will end up doubling the number of plants and amount of medium, probably also stagger the harvests and take clones off clones instead of off mothers.

Anyways... I won't know initial results until December.

Thanks for all your responses. I'm not one to talk s*** so won't post again until I know what I'm taking about / have something decent to say.

Thanks again for all your advice

Barometric pressure about the same in johannesburg and UK
 

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