New Grower - Set Up/Strategy/Advice

[DSchwiz]

Hey All!
This is my first time growing and Iâ??m writing a log to gain help from experienced growers. My basic goal is to produce one legitimate plant yielding one or two ounces, anything above and beyond that is magnificent. I would like to have ready-to-smoke weed within 3 months starting on June 1st, 2007. I know Iâ??m really rushing into this and skimping on some key equipment, but Iâ??m not trying to grow some crazy chronic. Let me begin by introducing my closet space and equipment:

My growing space is 1â??7â?� x 1â??7â?� x 4â??6â?�.
Soil â?? Some generic potting mix.
Fertilizer â?? Rapid-Gro, Eco-Gro
Lighting â?? 100 watt CFL (2?)
Containers â?? 8 smaller plastic pots, 2 larger (3 gallon) pots
pH meter - ???
Fan â?? check

All the other fancy stuff I am going to have to live without.

I was going to check out a Home & Garden store tomorrow to figure out some logistics.

My strategy:
1) I have started with 8 seeds (crazy looking, just from a bag) and they are germinating in warm water as I type. I started germinating the seeds on June 2, and have begun to see their white insides emerge (It is currently June 4). When should I plant them? How much does the white middle need to emerge from the shell?

2) I plan on buying 8 small plastic containers and 2 larger ones. The idea is that I will fail more than half of my plants, and 1 or 2 strong ones survive.

3) Because I only plan on growing 1 or 2 full plants, I only plan on using a couple CFLs (Please advise me on the specificity of them). I was thinking a single 100 watt.

4) I havenâ??t given much thought about pruning or anything past a couple weeks of growing. I figured I could start with some essentials and add on to my grow as time progresses.

Iâ??ll get pics up when thereâ??s something to see, but I wanted to get peopleâ??s general impressions and thoughts as I embark on my first grow. Iâ??m looking to spend about $150-$200 on this grow, maybe more, but plan on starting only with the essentials. Thanks!

-DSchwiz

DSchwiz Reviewed by DSchwiz on 06-05-2007. New Grower - Set Up/Strategy/Advice Hey All! This is my first time growing and Iâ??m writing a log to gain help from experienced growers. My basic goal is to produce one legitimate plant yielding one or two ounces, anything above and beyond that is magnificent. I would like to have ready-to-smoke weed within 3 months starting on June 1st, 2007. I know Iâ??m really rushing into this and skimping on some key equipment, but Iâ??m not trying to grow some crazy chronic. Let me begin by introducing my closet space and equipment: My Rating: 5

[DSchwiz]

You know what I learned: that if you don't want to invest in lights, it's probably not worth going through the trouble of indoor growing. The idea of growing weed is amazing, but I guess not practical for all budgets. I'm at a loss, might as well just buy myself an ounce or two with the money I would have wasted.

[personal growth]

hey you can grow with cfl's you just need about 4 or 5 26watt(100 watt) cfls per plant that you want to grow. That is what I have read acrossed this page. so its not too high priced and some mylar. that stuff is not that much. you just have to think out side the box when it comes to mylar. From what I have seen some of the people look like they are using winsheild covers that are all silver. they say on the pack that they reflects 99% light and uv. that is what I am going to get to put into my setup.

[personal growth]

Check out this post of you don't like that idea.....http://boards.cannabis.com/grow-faqs...use-mylar.html

[untilbroke]

Dschwiz,

Just checking your posts...and I see you live in Ann Arbor. I used to grow my own plants back when I was in a different state. I'm trying to get rid of my grow lights (High performance sodium lamps - I think they are 400-450 watts). This is a big industrial unit which can fit in a large closet space. I'm willing to sell it for $300 obo (we can definitely negotiate price). It was used only for one set of crops. I think i used it for 4-5 months of continuously lighting and that is it. Let me know if you are interested. I'll let you hook it up at your place to make sure it works before you purchase it to be fair.

[untilbroke]

By the way, forget Mylar....just use the shinest side of aluminum foil. It works good enough and is cheap.

[PharmaCan]

By the way, forget Mylar....just use the shinest side of aluminum foil. It works good enough and is cheap.

Even I know this is total bullshit! Aluminum foil sucks - big time!!!

A mylar blanket costs $1.50 - how much cheaper can you get than that?

[PharmaCan]

You know what I learned: that if you don't want to invest in lights, it's probably not worth going through the trouble of indoor growing. The idea of growing weed is amazing, but I guess not practical for all budgets. I'm at a loss, might as well just buy myself an ounce or two with the money I would have wasted.

Your observation about lights is spot on, but I think your math is a little fuzzy - unless bud is amazingly cheap where you live. For the price of an oz, you could have a damn fine grow set-up and never have to buy weed again.

But, above all else, beware of people trying to contact you via this forum. Why would someone who knows nothing about growing try to pretend that he does and contact you? (Rhetorical question)

If you are interested in growing in your space, check out the indoor growing and cabinet/closet growing sections. There you will see some of the most ingenious grows - it's really amazing what people with just a few bucks and a tiny space accomplish. Any idiot, like me, can put together a nice grow op given sufficient space and sufficient funds. But I really admire the ingenuity of those people who are growing in small areas on tight budgets.

Anyway, if you want to grow, you can!

[sharingscaring]

Listen to pharma. You can create an inexpensive setup that can benefet your needs greatly. Being creative helps but the cabinet/closet growing sections can plant those good seeds for ya. If refined my space acoulple of times since my start. Heres the final list

AirPump and Stone $ 10
4gl Cont/net pots 20
150w HPS 100
8 CFLs 23w 50 (4 daylight 4 warm, trying to get full spec)
4 sockets 24
4 y adapters 8
timer 15
power 20
testers 80
2 o2 cool fans 28

Thats $355 with out the cab(which i found thrown away)
add a few duckects for misc hardware and your around the cost of an oz of dank.

good luck :thumbsup:

[untilbroke]

whoah whoah....hold up man. First of all...I am not an expert at growing but I have grown my own shit once (as I had mentioned before). Next, I live in Ann Arbor and I am a student. I am only trying to get rid of my growing lights because I can't grow my stuff anymore due to apartment space. Also. I wanted to give my opinion and my experience in this matter to help a fucking toker. I fucking grew my own shit because I got desperate where I used to live since I couldn't find any shrubs to lite. Next, don't fucking think I'm a complete moron. Although I may not have a botany degree, I have 3 science degrees which fucking qualifies me to read scientific literature reasonably well.

Next, regarding the matter of Mylar....when I was growing my shit...I wanted to line my entire closet space with a reflective material and I ran into 2 problems. First, mylar is difficult to find even at those average commerical stores (ie. Home Depot). Next, it is not cheap if you try to order it online (including shipping costs). The cost-benefit of looking for the materials and wasting your time (working at a job or studying) is way more valuable than hunting for this thing. Why don't you just buy generic aluminum foil? Although the efficiency is not as optimal as mylar, you can increase the quantity of light rays hitting the plant (aka: intensity of the light) by placing it closer to the plant. You will still have a fan to cool the plant and you will probably have to water the plant a little more since there will be more evaporation/transpiration.

Also, for my fertilizer, i used blood meal because the components were more "organic". I use the term "organic" very loosely. It was suggested from my readings that during the growing phase of the plant, the plant required lots of nitrogen. (The stems and other "wood parts" of the plants consists a lot of nitrogen). When you use an organic nitrogen fertilizer, the plant has to break down the nitrogen in order to consume/utilize it. If you use inorganic fertilizers, you are more prone to "burning" or overdosing the plant with this form of nitrogen. It has been suggested that inorganic nitrogen fertilizers (which is the form plants readily use) will be uptaken too quickly by the plant thus causing them to "burn" or overdosing. Since you are a rookie and I'm a rookie at this, my logic is to use a form of fertilizer where you will have least chance of burning the plant.

Next, for the flowering stage, people suggest that phosphorus rich fertilizer is recommended because phosphorus is utilized a lot here. I used Bone Meal because from my understanding of what i read, during the grow phase (the nitrogen fertilizer and its byproducts) are very acidic. I wanted to balance the pH a little bit so I used this fertilizer. I also used a little bone meal during the grow phase because I was scared of deficiencies in any nutrients and I was paranoid about extreme pHs. I tested the pH with a cheap ass soil kit every 2-4 weeks but you can also buy a pH meter if you think it is in the budget. In addition to the previous 2 fertilizers, I used a little dab of miracle grow fertilizer. I wasn't too sure about what other micronutrients the plant needed so sporadically I would put only a touch of miracle grow once every 3-4 days.

For the light cycle, I was 24h light/ 0 hour dark (for growing cycle) and 12 hr light and 12 hr dark for flowering. My plant grew very tall (5-6 ft) but it wasn't bushy laterally. I know there is a pruning technique to make your plants bushy but that was way too advanced for me and for the amount of time I was willing to put in to understand. I'll be honest, my startup was pretty expenisve...I think it came to like 600 dollars. It wasn't cheap for me...but I had to be certain that I met minimum requirements to make a sucessful plant since I hadn't smoked at that particular time in my past for a long long time. Also, my growing technique is soil based....not hydroponics based. One more tidbit, you will start to get little bugs leaping around your plants once your plant starts growing (they look like fruit flies. I think the bugs are from the soil....little hatchlings. I made this deduction because when I grew my plants in the closet, it was isolated from any vents or windows. <--the closet was almost a self contained room. I didn't use any pesticides because i was paranoid of considering what would happened if I smoked that shit up myself. I killed as many bugs as I could with my hands and let the remaining bugs be and you know what happened...they all died after 2 weeks or so. The only source of food is the soil and the plant for the bugs. If they eat the soil, it is likely they will overdose from all that shit u put in there and if they feed on the tree...they will likely die from posioning by THC. <---I never read this anywhere but this is what I'm thinking because all the bugs die after a while. None of them reproduced either....which was weird. Anyways, this is my story. I still want to sell you my grow light because I need to get rid of it. Let me know if you are interested. I know it is a High performance sodium lamp but I can't remember if it is 400 or 450 Watts since I have not played with it for 3 years. I'm not here to fucking screw anybody here but just want to help and basically get rid of something which I will likely not use ever again.