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.
untilbroke Reviewed by untilbroke on . 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