Wow - A Little Overwhelmed

[PottyBear]

Hi All,

I'm completely new to this whole growing thing. Actually, I am pretty knew to the whole cannabis thing altogether.

I have a chronic illness which results in pain and fatigue, and that is what got me to here. A couple of years ago, my wife convinced me to try using some pot to try and help with the problem. Now, it had taken her about 4 years to even convince me to TRY it as I had never taken any "illegal" drug before - I had only used prescription and OTC meds, and drank only occasionally. Anyway, she managed to acquire some stuff for me to try out, and I found that it really did not help, at all. She found someone else that had a different strain, and I tried that, and gave up because it just plain didn't do what I needed it to do and I REALLY didn't like the effect. I never bothered with it again. That was oh, about 2004.

Fast forward to about 5 weeks ago... my wife's aunt was visiting, and she has RSD and a medical MJ card. She gave my wife some stuff for me to try, saying it was more of a "body stone" and not a head-high which is what DIDN'T like. Well, I was not interested in trying it, and refused for several days until she finally convinced me. I had no expectations, but this particular stuff was totally different from what I had tried before and it was almost like a miracle cure (only notsomuch on the full "cure") - it helped me feel substantially better, dulled the pain, and improved the quality of my sleep about a hundredfold. Over the following few weeks I used small amounts and found my life was suddenly substantially improved. I could do stuff I had not done in years. I was getting good, comfortable rest... and I felt REALLY happy about it.

To make a long story short (I know, TOO LATE)... we have been in the process of getting the full medical stamp of approval, but realistically on my limited disability income I can't really afford a lot. That means that the only real solution to supplying my needs is to grow it myself.

After trying to read many different pieces of information, we decided to take the plunge and purchased some seeds. One of our neighbours said she had grown stuff for years on her back windowsill (we live in a rural area) and it was not that difficult. My wife and I figured, what's the worst that could happen?

Well, we got the seeds about 2 weeks ago. We finally planted some (6 of the 10) in peat pots on Saturday. Yesterday, we had 6 little plants 3" tall which surprised the crap out of me after hearing stories of people's seeds taking 10+ days to start. Today, they had grown another inch just sitting near a window and the roots had started out the bottom, and I began to worry that they were going to end up with problems, so we transplanted them into a mix of 1/3 potting soil, 1/3 perlite and 1/3 peat moss in the bottom halves of 2L Coke bottles (with some drainage holes put in the bottom). I have a small plastic mini-greenhouse, so we moved them into it (in our spare BR). I rigged up a little fluorescent shop light on a chain so the light can be kept right above the plants, took my small clip-on fan and secured it inside the greenhouse to "agitate" the little seedlings a bit as well as provide some air flow, and then decided as some added insurance to make 4 ghetto-style CO2 generators by putting some yeast in sugar water in some empty Powerade bottles with small holes poked in the lids and stuck them in the greenhouse with the plants. A little water with a light solution of fertilizer with trace nutrients in it, and there you have it - the world's cheapest grow space (best I could do since we're broke right now).

Now, I've always been a gardener and before I was ill I also maintained a fairly significant indoor-garden of vegetables and herbs in the apartments I lived in in the past. I've grown lots of different plants over the years, mostly successfully, but I have never grown anything that cost me so much per seed. To say the least, I'm REALLY nervous about screwing something up. I have read page after page of info but some of it is contradictory and some of it just feels like it is TOO much for me to take in for a first attempt at this. When I finished setting up I thought I'd done an adequate job of MacGyvering the best I could come up with but more reading has given me a LOT of doubts about it, and has shaken my confidence in my idea that it is "just another plant until I need to make it flower" perspective.

I can't go out and buy any expensive lights and run a substantial ventilation system. I have read posts by a lot of people here who have complex setups and huge yields and obviously have a lot of expertise - but what about doing this as simply and basically and CHEAPLY as possible? I need to keep the power bill from going through the roof, and my goal has just been to turn these seeds, which are supposed to be a similar strain to what my wife's aunt had, into something I can use as quickly as I can. Outdoor growing is out of the question at this time (we had someone steal TOMATOES out of our garden last year, so I'm not giving them buds to pick), so I need to do this the best I can while spending as little as possible.

Am I doomed to failure? What kind of time frame will we be looking at before anything productive might come out the other end (the strain said "8-9 weeks", I assume that is from when you start to force flowering) if I manage to not kill the plants? Do people really just throw the stuff on a windowsill in a pot and get results? Is there anything else I can do (inexpensive/free) to improve my chances?

Anyway - I really hope something comes of it. I still have 4 seeds in reserve if something goes wrong, but I'd like my chances to be as good as they can be under the circumstances. Any advice?

(BTW, just a PS - the plants are now pretty much 5" high, they are almost growing at a rate that you can visibly see. I now understand why they call this stuff "weed" - I have dandelions in the garden that would be jealous of these things.)

PottyBear Reviewed by PottyBear on 07-17-2008. Wow - A Little Overwhelmed Hi All, I'm completely new to this whole growing thing. Actually, I am pretty knew to the whole cannabis thing altogether. I have a chronic illness which results in pain and fatigue, and that is what got me to here. A couple of years ago, my wife convinced me to try using some pot to try and help with the problem. Now, it had taken her about 4 years to even convince me to TRY it as I had never taken any "illegal" drug before - I had only used prescription and OTC meds, and drank only Rating: 5

[rastaman79]

Hi man,I hope everything goes well. On the days your at home you could put them in your yard,then in the evening bring them back inside and put them under your light,giving the plants max light and you smaller bills(they need a pretty strict routine though). You might wanna tape round those coke bottles to keep your roots in the dark. Everyone makes mistakes man,its just a learning curve,keep at it though.P.S,you might want to learn the difference between the male and female pre flower as you wouldnt want to waste your time and effort to grow a loverly lookin 5ft tall Male! Peace,RM

[Rusty Trichome]

Gotta be careful bringing them inside, after they've been exposed to the great outdoors. (bugs)

[hudson88]

Hey PB welcome to cann.com :thumbsup:

but what about doing this as simply and basically and CHEAPLY as possible? I need to keep the power bill from going through the roof

Sure you can do this on the cheap, i'm sure there's some good grow logs on the subject if you have a look around, try using the search function.

Basically the more money you spend on your setup the best chance you're giving your plants to reach their potential (max yield and potency) so doing it on the cheap won't give you the best quality or biggest yield but you can still get good results if you do it right.

You're not very specific about your lights, you just say you've got a shop fluro, you need to understand that you need a certain amount of lumens (you don't need to worry about lumens really, most people talk about how many watts of light they've got and so long as you're using the correct type of light it's probably easier to use watts, you've just got to understand that some bulbs put out a lot more lumens per watt than others, the types of bulbs that put out the most lumens per watt are HID's (high intensity discharge, hps or mh) at the other end of the scale, incandesent (normal houselight bulbs are one of the least efficient and are unsuitable for growing) to properly light an area so that you'll get a decent harvest.

If you're using cfls or fluro's i'd say you want to be in the 60-90 watts per sq ft area, but check out these links and some growlogs and decide for yourself.

http://boards.cannabis.com/indoor-li...-lighting.html

and

http://boards.cannabis.com/indoor-li...uch-light.html

What kind of time frame will we be looking at before anything productive might come out the other end (the strain said "8-9 weeks", I assume that is from when you start to force flowering) if I manage to not kill the plants?

Veg for around 5 weeks, flower for 8-9 weeks, harvest. 13-14 weeks total.

Do people really just throw the stuff on a windowsill in a pot and get results?

Yeah, usually poor results tho. If you want good results you've got to spend time caring for your plants.

Is there anything else I can do (inexpensive/free) to improve my chances?

Yeah, read, read and read some more

Anyway - I really hope something comes of it. I still have 4 seeds in reserve if something goes wrong, but I'd like my chances to be as good as they can be under the circumstances. Any advice?

See above

Good luck!

edit to correct typo

[veggii]

go with some cfl 2700k they got 4paks $8 @walmart :thumbsup:

[stinkyattic]

The link in my siggy should help you.
Be careful adding peat moss to a soil mix. Most commercial soils contain some, or even use it as the primary ingredient, but it is necessary to add lime to stabilize the pH of the naturally acidic peat.
Cover your coke bottles with tinfoil to keep light out, run some flourescents (even a shop light fixture is fine for vegging plants up to about a foot tall), and re-pot very soon into potting soil that has extra perlite added to it, but no extra peat.
Good luck!

[PottyBear]

Hey! Responses! Thanks for reading.

The light I am using now is a "Daylight" spectrum light somewhat like what my grandfather used to use to grow his tomatoes in his basement. It is not very large, but the mini-greenhouse is only about 2'x3'. I'm really not sure of wattage or anything as it is an old light and, well, the labelling is more than a bit vague. I have a second identical light to mount in there when I have some energy to do it later. My current plan for expansion is to go and buy some inexpensive light sockets and wire a few of them into an arrangement on a piece of wood and put in some CFLs when I have some money next week. The lights I am using now are the kind that you have to hold down the switch to get them to stay on, so they are completely unsuitable for using a timer - a human has to turn them on. Thing is, the very fast germination and growth of the seedlings took me by surprise. I really thought I had until next week before I had to do anything about it.

Same applies to the coke bottle pots. The other day we were looking at some larger pots, but didn't have the money to buy them. When I saw the roots starting to push out of the peat pots, I figured I'd better do something about it. So, the coke bottles are a temporary home while the plants get more established and I'm hoping to get some more suitable accommodations for them before the roots get big enough to fill them or get to the clear plastic.

Now, the peat moss issue is a whole different thing. I have been really concerned about moisture holding capacity due to the fact that I may not be able (physically) to check the water status every single day due to my illness. I didn't think it was that big a deal to mix in some extra to be sure the soil doesn't dry out since there is a fan blowing through there all the time. AFTER I'd done all that, I found some information that the plants may not take kindly to the low pH induced by extra peat. But - our water is pretty hard (not extremely so, but it's got a lot of calcium). I am constantly having to re-balance the pH in my aquarium when adding water (it can run as high as pH 8.3 at times). So I am hoping that for now, I will have a reasonable balance and when I transplant to some pots with opaque sides I will use a lot less peat moss. Once again it is one of those things that I hoped would work the same as it has for growing tomatoes and such in the spring.

The biggest problem I have is simply with sheer volume of information. A part of my disability is problems with maintaining concentration and information due to brain fog. It can actually be a lot like having a severe learning disability. On bad days I can read something a dozen times and retain none of it. Oddly enough, the cannabis I used recently actually helped push out some of the fog and gave me some ability to think more clearly (oddly, completely the opposite of the typical "stoner" stereotype). I seem to need some stuff to smoke in order to be able to learn more about growing stuff to smoke! Ahh, what a catch-22.

Also, a little peeve of mine, as a newbie on these boards - the "use search" suggestion is not nearly as helpful as you might think. I HAVE used the search function, repeatedly. I am no internet newbie, I've been using it since 1993ish and I know how to use search. The problem is the sheer volume of useless information returned for certain keywords. I don't have the stamina and concentration to wade through 8 message threads that don't have the information I need to find the one that does, let alone 80 of them. I spent several hours on here yesterday before I broke down and registered so I could just post. I know that there are lots of people who get on boards like this and rather than read anything for themselves, just want someone to spoon-feed them information - but assuming that is the case with everyone who asks a question really is a good way to get someone's back up and start the flameball rolling. I've seen a number of posts here where people say "use the search" to someone who already has and it just deteriorates into people being called lazy on one side and arrogant on the other. Do we REALLY have to go there? Every time I try and discover more info about the least-expensive way to grow, I find myself being sucked into a vortex of "you COULD buy this $50-500 (insert light/CO2/Hydroponic system here) and get mondo-maximo yields" - umm, no, I really REALLY can't.

My concern right now is just not killing the damn things before they produce enough for me to use, since the idea of slaughtering stuff that costs over $5 a seed causes me to have significant sphincter-puckering financial fears. I've got about 50 ebook/website how-tos to refer to, but when you have read 10 threads on this site and found 10 different answers, and find that one book says "do 'A'" while another says "whatever you do, DON'T do 'A'", what you really need is a response from a human who has done this before to clarify what is bullshit and what is truth.

Thanks for understanding, and I really do appreciate the responses - they are helping me because they are reinforcing that the things I was worried about so far ARE things to worry about later and not just me overthinking the whole process.