My first GROW ( all on the cheap) less than $100.oo

rollingstoned77 · Apr 5, 2007

Hey there everyone ! this is my first attempt at a real grow . My goal is first to do this as CHEAP as possible , and manage to have good results. I have done alot of reading on this site and have learned a great deal . What a great find in my net searching. ALL my supplies i had or got from friends and work and have spent little cash . We will see how it goes .

I will be buying better equipment later but for now CHEAP is where its at .The cabinet is a metal wardrobe that was at my house when i bought it .The 4' fluro Light fixtures are from a friend,and from work as well as all my wiring . A fan is placed at the bottom for an intake can see it in photos .The fan was taken from an old ceramic heater . A $13 bathroom exhaust fan at the top with some ductwork , a register vent cover , and a universal charcoal filter cutdown to fit inside the vent coveris my exhaust fan. Inside is (2) 48" T12 fluro's one on each side mounted verticaly .The 2 lights hanging are clamp on worklights from lowe's $5.oo each .Clamps removed and fixed to a piece of wood . Wood was drilled to fit sockets ,eyehooks and chain used to raise and lower the light . Planning on using CFL's in them . I'm vegging on a shelf now with another 48" Fluro.
The cab will be used when i sort out the few best looking plants and will move 4 to the cab and top and train the rest . Starting with 10 jiffy pots with GOOD bagseeds that i germed in papertowels .

rollingstoned77 · Apr 5, 2007

The date on the pics is wrong . The camera needs it changed

rollingstoned77 · Apr 5, 2007

Seeds were put into germ on MAr. 30 . they were all ready by late on the 31 . i put 15 into jiffy pots and watered with water that had sat for 36 hours . April 3rd 10 of the jiffy's had sprouted and were put under 24 hour light with 48" T12 fluro's . 5 pots didnt sprout , upon inspection 3 didnt have seeds in them , LOL and 2 seeds died off . guess i forgot the 3

. All pots are numbered and I will be splitting the group soon.Assumin the ones that are female i want to take 4 or the healthiest and grow them as fast as possible then to flower . the rest of the 10 i will top and train to try and make little bushes .The 5 remaining pots will be filled with 5 more of a different bagseed . I intend to purchase good seeds later , but this is my TEST GROW . mistakes now on the cheap stuff , then bigger better things.

rollingstoned77 · Apr 5, 2007

This room is in my basement and the Temps are from 55 - 64 degrees F . Is this too cold? Also the sprouts look a little stretched out already , the lights are 3 " away from the plants . I'm using a 15-30-15 nutrient now mixed at 1/8 strength everyother day from a turkey baister . 3 second bursts twice a day every other day . ALL HELP IS WELCOME !!!
also any green MOJO that may be floating around , send some my way !!!

DLtoker · Apr 5, 2007

Nice! GL with the fluorescents. You'll get some nice, frosty, buds with those.

Jbong · Apr 5, 2007

Hey man lookin great, I allways love lookin at low budget set ups and seeing what results can be had with a little bit of know-how and spare parts. In my opinion your temps are a lil low (about ten degrees). About the light height question, I am not sure what kind of heat those give off but with the 6 fluro tubes I use I can keep the light pretty well touching the plant (pain in the *** moving up all the time) but works pretty well for keeping the nodes nice and tight together. good luck

rollingstoned77 · Apr 7, 2007

well things have changed since my last post . A friend of mine calls me up and asks if i want a small hydro unit.his wife busted him he has to get rid of it . I said sure ill take from you , not sure what to do with it but YES ! i'll take it ." Like i didnt know what i was going to do with it !!! It came with all the goodies , rockwool , nutes LIGHTS ! the works . It's an EMILY's Garden . So this is my new project along with my first soil grow . I have moved my sprouts from the shelf and built a box in a pantry cupboard downstairs in my ( growroom )

it is VERY stealthy . I will do the soil grow in here and the hdryo in the metal cupboard. I can't wait . I'm a newbie to growing (especialy hydro) and could use ALL & ANY help . Anything i'm leaving out i will gladly post .PEACE FOLKS:bongin:

rollingstoned77 · Apr 7, 2007

I have managed now with the sprouts being in the new box to get the temps to stay around 70 . i hope this is a good number , not sure of humidity . Using 3 T10 fluro's in there about 2" away from the tops of the plants , they were stretching a bit on the shelf and have since stopped . they love thier new home . Since yesterday the growth on the leafs has doubled , and NO MORE stretching . Will be transplanting to 3 gallon pots soon and will be only growing half of the 10 in the box . Guess i need another box for the remaining 10 to keep vegging in . In the pantry pic i'm only using the bottom for now . guess i could LST and train the reamaining in there while the bottom box flowers . ALL IS LIGHT TIGHT !! no leaks.

rollingstoned77 · Apr 7, 2007

has anyone here ever used one of these ? Did you get good results ? It is a small 6 pot unit , can i get 6 nice plants to maturity in there ? ALL hydro info is VERY very welcome . STONEY where are you?

rollingstoned77 · Apr 8, 2007

here is some updated pics . I built a folding shelf ( to save space ) that i can do my potting , transplanting and take the babes out to get thier drink. They are still a bit stretched but seem to be doing fine . they are no more than 2" away from the lights now . the box is staying at about 72 degrees now and the leaves are looking good . they look fat like indica but not sure , this is just BAGSEED . need to get grow medium ( rocks ) for the hydro so i can get started there . Sorry for the crappy pics , my cam is an old 2 mega pix , and i'm new using it , well in this fashion anyway , fisrt time being an MJ photog ya know . :aok:

Jbong · Apr 8, 2007

Nice work, the babies seem to be coming along nicely. Im sure they are happy after you mended the temp and light problems. Your hydro setup looks like you could get some good size plants to maturity but I am not positive. What are the dimensions of the baskets??

rollingstoned77 · Apr 8, 2007

the baskets ( pots ) are 6" x 6" sq. and 7" deep mesh or net style. the basin ( the orange part in picture is 5" deep . this hydro setup , though given to me is only $80 on the net . comes with everything . i just need rock . If i can get 6 plants to maturity that would be AWESOME !!!!
I'm thinking of getting a 400 W HPS later . after this attempt .

crintonator · Apr 8, 2007

for 100 bucks now you can get a nice 400 watt hps with ballast from htgsupply they are great, i also grow in basement and you can position the ballast to help warm your reservoir so water isnt too cold (can shock roots) and the added heat of the light helps with basements

at least we dont have too hot problems

. As for bringing them to maturity, ive seen 3 footers in a 3" diameter mesh pot only about 3 1/2" deep. So you should have no problem at all. Nothing grows like hydro, or at least as easy once setup

rollingstoned77 · Apr 10, 2007

well things have gotten slimmed down a little , space is of the essence and some had to go . i started with 15 jiffy pots 11 of one bagseed and 4 more pots of another . Both QUALITY smoke when i got it . I noticed the roots sticking out of the bottom (and they were stretched abit) of the jiffy's and decided to transplant . Being short on funds i'm allowed to use on this grow) i made my own pots from 2liter pepsi bottles , drilled small holes in bottom and cut tops off , wrapped with tape to keep light off the roots . CRUDE i know, but this is my first grow and i want to save money for my next grow . Plus am starting my first hydro grow soon too . I bought a big bag of MG potting soil $5.27 , and brought it home mixed with my other soil and got started . I decided to keep the 6 nicest out of the 11 , kept the 4 others of different seeds in jiff's , because they were started later .Watered the jiffy's to firm up the root ball ( too dry will fall apart or crumble ) and filled new pots half full watered and put the transplantees in thier new home , filling up to the bottom of the leaves because of the stretched stems , and watered again , still using 15 - 30 -15 nutes at 1/4 strength .

rollingstoned77 · Apr 10, 2007

Since being put in thier new homes the babies are getting nice new growth . the second sets of leaves are coming on . Is this going slow or is it just me . Am i using the right nutes? the soil has nutes in it to . April 3rd they popped out of the ground here they are today after transplant and soil filled up to the leaves ( stretched stems ) .

rollingstoned77 · Apr 10, 2007

1st pic is after transplnat other 2 from before

longtimegrower · Apr 10, 2007

Hey RS77 watch those peet cups they wick the moisture out of the soil that may be why the roots went out the bottom. Make sure when you water them soak the soil till the cups even get damp looks like you may not be getting enough water to the little ones. Dont drown them but wet them good then let them get half way dry before watering them again. Slim

rollingstoned77 · Apr 10, 2007

longtimegrower said:
Hey RS77 watch those peet cups they wick the moisture out of the soil that may be why the roots went out the bottom. Make sure when you water them soak the soil till the cups even get damp looks like you may not be getting enough water to the little ones. Dont drown them but wet them good then let them get half way dry before watering them again. Slim

I think your right , the jiffy's seem to take the water right out of the soil . i have noticed this . will be watering a little more now . thanx dude !:aok:

rollingstoned77 · Apr 11, 2007

wEll i guess this is how things go when you dont think ahead . I dont think i can take on the hydro grow now so it will have to wait

. Funds are tight and allready have an 14 pot soil grow going . SO what i have decided is to take the newly ( 6 ) transplanted pots and put those in my metal cab. and the other 8 into the smaller pantry cab. . In the metal cab i have 6- 48" bulbs , 2 red spectrum, and 4 blue . i also have 2 CFL's hanging above . MAN IS THIS THING BRIGHT !!!! the CFL's are only 26W 1600L ( 2 pack $ 6.36 )for now till i upgrade . The 48"s are T12 - 2 are 3000L - 3200K the other 4 are 3000 lumens - 5600K . Figure this is a good mix , While i was at WALLY WORLD , i grabbed some SUPERTHRIVE and i'm mixing 1/4 tspn to a gallon of water and putting on the babies tonight .

Kindbud · Apr 11, 2007

looking good man wish i got a free hydro set up lol peace

My first GROW ( all on the cheap) less than $100.oo

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