First Grow, 500$ and a dream

First Grow, 500$ and a dream

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So I have always been toying with the idea of growing my own marajuana. For personal use my friends use and maybe a little extra cash on the side. So one fine saturday I decided to do it. I have non experience with growing marajuana, but a green thumb runs in my family. So I started searching the internet for the first thing i would need, SEEDS!. I almost bought seeds from a site called "Mellow Gold". I had all my information typed in , but left my credit card number empty. I pushed enter to see what would happen, and sure enough it was a scam site. The owner even emailed me back trying to get my credit card number. So I browsed on and started looking on forums. Thats when I stumbled across this fine site. I Spent hours and hours reading everything i could find about growing, light types ventilation CPM, CFL, CSD, HID, and many more abbreviations untill I thought I knew it all. So I orderd my seeds from Gypsy nirvana's seed boutique. I order a pack of "Flying Dutchman Royal Orange". I also recieved with this bag a free bag called "Sam The skunk mans Poison X #1 South african. Royal Orange is a 60% indica, 40% sativa strain. With my seeds in hand, my desire to grow increased even more. So I Started my search at Home Depot. It took me 8 trips and 311 Dollars to finally get everything i needed for a stealthy grow. I had decided that I was going to try a cabinet grow. This would seem to be the easiest way to hide any unwanted smells which may expose my hobby. I also hit up Rona for some lighting and this is what I took home with me.

http://img39.picoodle.com/img/img39/...1m_0e56efc.jpg


The large tube florsent lights I returned as useless, as well as the ballasts for the CFL
[url]http://img39.picoodle.com/img/img39/...1m_0e56efc.jpg[/url light bulbs. I kept the 150watt sodium security light however and the cfl light bulbs. I Later bought a 300 watt T5 CFL grow light which i have yet to install. So later that week I began the construction of my cabinet. This cabinet is actually a wardrobe that i bought at the hardware store. It was cheap and poorly made, consisting of particle board and a cardboard back. I Sighed and purchase some Nice solid pine planks to make up the back and give this thing some strength. I also purchased a 40 dollar bathroom fan and cut a hole in the back with a jigsaw and mounted the fan to blow air in with a strong poxy. I then proceeded to cut a 6" in hole in the top of the cabinet to mount and inline fan, and using my information from this forums , I painted the insides completly white. Now to deal with the smell of growing marajuana in a small appartment. I quickly found designs for a active carbon air scrubber that would fit very nicely over my inline fan. Here are pictures of what my cabinet looked like while it was being build and when it was finished.

http://www.thefreeimagehosting.com/U...0340117896.jpg
http://www.thefreeimagehosting.com/U...1340118024.jpg
http://www.thefreeimagehosting.com/U...2340118152.jpg
http://www.thefreeimagehosting.com/U...3340118280.jpg
http://www.thefreeimagehosting.com/U...4340118408.jpg
http://www.thefreeimagehosting.com/U...5340118536.jpg

Ah finally finished, and in my appartment.

[img=http://img34.picoodle.com/img/img34/9/8/22/f_IMG00922m_a5914b5.jpg]

[img=http://img27.picoodle.com/img/img27/9/8/22/f_IMG0093m_80f2eda.jpg]

Now To start germinating my seeds and begin the grow!. Im very cautious person so I started growing the sativa bag of skunk. I Placed all the seeds into a dish wrapped them in paper towel and watterd the paper towl. I coverd the dish with another dish and placed it upon my fridge. Then i waited, and waited, and waited. Finally 3 seeds split open slightly, and then I waited some more. 4 days laters no tap roots had appeared at all on the seeds that split. So I planted the seeds anyway being the impatient person that I am. I waterd them and gave them light for another full week and still nothing budged

[img=http://img27.picoodle.com/img/img27/9/8/22/f_IMG0095m_2c26b6d.jpg]

[img=http://img27.picoodle.com/img/img27/9/8/22/f_IMG00942m_f0c40c1.jpg]

[img=http://img27.picoodle.com/img/img27/9/8/22/f_IMG00962m_199e9fb.jpg]


I got impatient and dug up the seeds and not one of them had developed further, so I figured they were old and tossed them away. Then I broke out the good seeds, the "Flying dutchman Royal orange. I started the germination processes like i had with the skunk X and they immediatly developed tap roots withing 40hours. I quickly went to the store and bought 2 bags of 16 10 10 miracle grow wet soil, and two bags of 14 14 14 soil and one bag of organic soild. I mixed them all together and put a layer of water retaining soil on the top. I used MUCH larger pots this time and lined the button with granite gravel. Using a Bathroom light fixture i created a 6 CFL bulb seed board. I loaded up my Wardrobe placed the tap roots down into the soil and burried the seeds about quarter an inch deep. Now i wait. BTW all that duct tape is to tryin and make the cabinet light proof. The dam thing lit up my room when i first turned it on.

[img=http://img27.picoodle.com/img/img27/9/8/22/f_IMG0102m_82ca606.jpg]
[img=http://img27.picoodle.com/img/img27/9/8/22/f_IMG0103m_255b8f7.jpg]
[img=http://img34.picoodle.com/img/img34/9/8/22/f_IMG0101m_7b55d8e.jpg]

good luck bro! but i would not have used that soil if i were you, miricle grow is known for being very shitty for marijuana, and you do not want to give the plants any nutes just yet,

if i were you i would get a nice little 250watt hps, its way better then cfl's and only about 120 shipped of ebay (for a new one of course)

again goodluck and i hope ya get some good buds


peace out TjM

Do you think the soils that i used are much to hot to grow seeds in? Im starting to get worried the more i think of it. I wasnt going to add nutes till they were atleast 3 weeks old and much larger, but if they survive my soil i might just not add any at all.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by the joint meister

good luck bro! but i would not have used that soil if i were you, miricle grow is known for being very shitty for marijuana, and you do not want to give the plants any nutes just yet,

if i were you i would get a nice little 250watt hps, its way better then cfl's and only about 120 shipped of ebay (for a new one of course)

again goodluck and i hope ya get some good buds


peace out TjM

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I believe his picture did show a HPS.
How many watts was that??

Yeah, I'd make one more trip out, to the nearest hydro store, and snag a bag of Fox Farm Ocean Forest soil, and when you transplant to bigger pots, use that. I got desperate once and used Miracle Gro soil, and man, that stuff sucks. I will never *ever* use that stuff again. Even the crappy dirt from my front yard looks way better than that stuff. Ocean Forest, on the other hand, is just wonderful, nice and rich and loamy, with loads of organics that plants love.

Otherwise, looks good. I hope your eventual harvest is bountiful! ;)

ive used miracle moisture control and had no problems till flowering then swithed to there oganic and it worked out good but fox farm is better

Yah i mixed 3 bags to fill all pots, one was moisture control 18 10 10. The other was 14 14 14 regular miracle, the other bag was organic without any nutes in it. I didnt actually mix the soil, i put it in layers one of each about an inch deep all the way up to the top of the pot. Looking back i should have mixed it up to dilute the miracle grow soil with the organic soil, but as i water the plants over and over the nutes can leach down to the organic layers. Some pics of the soil i used.

[img=http://img30.picoodle.com/img/img30/9/8/23/f_IMG0105m_164d682.jpg]

[img=http://img01.picoodle.com/img/img01/9/8/23/f_IMG0107m_648c454.jpg]

[img=http://img03.picoodle.com/img/img03/9/8/23/f_IMG01084m_f1be62d.jpg]

Its ALIVE!!, Finally my babies have sprouted. They are very green and healthy looking so far. I added a 6 inch inline fan to the top of my box also to help with the temperatures, they should be in the low 80's now. I do have one question, How much should i water my seedlings? I have been watering them very lightly around the seedling itself with a waterbottle. I have been careful not to spray the seedling itself. So far with the air blowing right over the seedlings, and the heat in the mid 80's they are drying up very fast so I have been watering every day very lightly. No more then quarter a cup around the base of the seedlings.


[img=http://img39.picoodle.com/img/img39/9/8/24/f_IMG0109m_76b0821.jpg]

[img=http://img28.picoodle.com/img/img28/9/8/24/f_IMG0111m_5ff6775.jpg]

[img=http://img28.picoodle.com/img/img28/9/8/24/f_IMG0110m_105a992.jpg]


As you can see by the darker soil (Waterd) that i have been very gently watering around the seedlings. Also how big before they start to really smell?

As for the Sodium light, yah I do have a very nice 150 watt light ready to go. I drilled holes in the side of the casing to allow the inside of the reflector to be vented by my dryer hose. I was going to save to HPS for flowering though, as I dont know yet if i can control the heat that such a powerful light would generate. I will install it though when its time to flower, but for now i was going to use CFL's for vegging these.

Hey joe,
What are ya gonna use as a fan for the dryer hose?
I use the CFL's all the way cause the have warm and cool where I live.
btw, I've read in a few places that the heat from CFL's can equal or top the heat from a HPS at the same wattage. ie:6*26WCFL vs 1*150WHPS.
To be honest, It's kinda hard to control the heat from my 200Watts of CFL. Not the direct heat so much as the total combined heat building up.
so if you can vent the 150WHPS completely you would be in real good shape.