most ghetto attempt at a grow, ever.

it's j5 everyone. lost my login info so this is my new id.

I recently decided to forgo the flos and save for HID lighting. That make take months cause at the present time i'm totally broke. This is the equipment I'm using for this particular grow, which is my first. this is what I got so far:

1) outdoor seeds, unknown source. nice mellow high, so hope this works out.

2) lamp hanging from ceiling. Took off the lower part of the chandelier and the bulb is hanging pretty low.

3) two square pots, filled with soil

4) unknown fertilizer - it's in Greek and I can't tell what's in it. hope it works.

5) portable heater on wheels, + several boxes and styrofoam to mount the pots close to the light source. rather than adjusting the lights, i'm planning on adjusting the boxes as the plants grow.

Since I can't afford batteries for my camera, I made you guys a drawing in photoshop you can check out below.

Here's the log so far:

Day 1:

Put the seeds in damp paper towel, put that on a plate, and covered the whole thing with a bowl.


Day 3:

Seeds have sprouted. bought some cheap soil, pots and fertilizer. put sprouted seeds inside. then I called brother for advice and read a few dozen posts about planting. realised i planted them too deep. tried to dig up the seeds and replant. scared i *$%&*$ the whole thing up. put the plants under the light and prayed that my poor babies didn't receive too much of a shock.

Day 4:

Registered on this fine forum. still waiting.

Day 5: Today

I see little sprouts coming up! yay! adjusted the setup by adding an extra box to bring them closer to the light then realised it might be too close for comfort cause the lamp gives off heat. found a fan and am trying to figure out how I can mount that to blow at the bulb. found a couple tables but none reach high enough. may have to lower the plants even more to avoid heat issues.

if the plants get too skinny I'll replant them. good news is that I might be getting some funds soon!

pray for my babies everyone, with many thanks! being poor truly sucks.

sanchez said:

pray for my babies everyone, with many thanks! being poor truly sucks.

Click to expand...

But at least you got a grow on

gonna sit back and watch this one as I just love to see ghetto grows

good luck

Like they say mang anything is better then nothing. Everything sounds great. Here is some GREEN MOJO for your babies. Good luck on the grow my friend.

Day 6:

Lights have been on 24/7 and I now got 6 children. I have to take pics from other grows to show you guys what's going on cause of the situation of not having money for batteries still prevails.

Pic taken from Elephant Man's grow.

day 6 update: transplanting my babes.

as per the diagram I had two pots, with 7 baby plants growing (3 in one and 4 in the other). i decided i had to seperate them to avoid a siamese twin situation and I didn't do the best job.

i tried to lift them out with a spoon for the transfer and roughed up more than a few of them. In transplanting them to their new homes I couldn't stick the roots down straight, they're now curving (cause the new containers are much smaller). I even found one that hadn't sprouted yet and rather than give it an abortion I just scooped it up and stuck it in a container and covered that with dirt.

i'm really upset cause i think I might have really injured or even killed them. they were so young and just starting their happy happy lives under the blaring yellow translucent bulb. such a waste. i've been checking on 'em every half hour.

will any survive? what are the odds?

Day 7:

It seems they all survived cause all the babies have straightened out and have grown a bit since last night. Even the baby that almost got aborted is peaking it's pretty little head out the soil.

So I'm a proud mother of 8, what a feeling. Am really wanting the flos right about now, my childrens needs some proper light!

Day 8:

They're all growing fine now, even the one that was almost aborted but I'm thinking this exercise is pointless. So I took the set-up down today.

I did this cause I'm positive the end result will probably be 1' tall skinny as hell plants with three internodes that won't flower properly. And even if I still kept em growing under these conditions I'll probably bury the stems upon transfer to new pots once I get the right lights. No point in keeping them under that light, so I might as well put them outside with the rest of my (normal) plants.

I'll still going to update this thread, but considering my balcony is shaded most of the day, don't expect much action. One positive point is that it's winter and the light is on the cool side, so I won't be getting much growth on the stem. maybe I'll transplant them in march to locations outside and just let 'em be till the fall.

i know it's fun to watch ghetto grows, but this one I was attempting was totally killing it!

You have all the blessing you need and by the way you said that you were totally broke. If you can scrounge up some cash then maybe you can go on ebay, I just purchased a 400 watt MH for $100USD shipped.

thanks for the wellwishes NGT. as for buying lights online, i'm wired for 110v whereas they use 220v in the US and even if i was to use converters the sellers i'm interested in buying from (like InsideSun) won't ship across the atlantic. so i'm stuck. however I'm learning about lighting and how to connect ballasts and **** so if i can master that sort of thing maybe i'll try learning how to convert an appliance from 220v to a 110v and get my bro to send me a light from back home. i tell ya, this growing weed thing makes you pick up farming, construction, chemist, and electrician skills. people who grow plants are pretty damn intuitive .

b4 i came to the board, all i had were superior smoking and rolling skills.

as for the plants, we're on Day 9. I moved them outside this morning to get used to fresh air. they're going to come back in in about 4 hrs, and will get 4hrs of outside for the next few days. then i'll up the hours and keep 'em out all day long. Eventually i want to leave em out 24/7. The temp here in the winter hardly ever dips below 10oC so they should be ok.

Day 11

Plants are now outside 24/7 on the balcony, which unfortunately is in the shade because I face north.

Since I moved them outside I noticed a few things - a) they stopped growing fast, probably 2 mm in leaf length in the last two days (they still look like that pic above from Elephant Man's grow) - b) the leafs turned a bit darker - and c) the stems are getting thicker. I think moving them out was a good decision, especially since the weather is a bit colder, it'll probably make them more resilient and stronger in the end.

sanchez maybe you should try searching for a secutiry light, many of those use the MH and HPS bulbs. usually more in the 70 to 150w range but c couple 150w hps would make a nice grow i would think.

We are wired for 110v in the US. But you can find a light for 220v just ask the seller on ebay when looking at lights.

sanchez said:

i'm wired for 110v whereas they use 220v in the US and even if i was to use converters the sellers i'm interested in buying from (like InsideSun) won't ship across the atlantic. so i'm stuck.

Click to expand...

Whoa whoa whoa... hold up.
It isn't the volt differences that make much difference... 110 (120) or 220 (240) is the same thing... just rated on the packaging a lil difference... products are built to these tolerances.
The problem between North American and most European power is the cycles per second. This is probably why they don't bother to ship. There should be enough places online that u can find over there. If not, buy all the parts on ebay and get an electrician to build you a ballast.

Hey Sanchez, I'll bet there are a bunch of places you could buy lights from in your country. If you want to narrow your location down to just a country, I'm betting we can find a source for you.

HPS, HID and Flo's are worldwide now. Everyone has them.

There's no need to try to buy your stuff from the USA.

PM me if you like, or just knowing your country can't be dangerous to you unless it's got a really small population...

Hehehe, I live in the USA. Try to find me

unfortunately drug penalties are HARSH over here and i'm paranoid of even posting on this board to be honest. i'm searching most stores for lights and will eventually have some luck - it's the HID that's hard to find at a decent price and all the shop owners have a million questions as to why i want them - i tell em its security lights for a store, which leads them to show me lights where the ballast is attached to the bulb thing. so i'm searching some more.

i'll get lucky eventually. for now the plants stay outside. at this rate i'll have a joint to smoke in 6 months i think! but it's better than nothin.

anyhow, thanks for all the advice everyone.

I hear you! Where I live, one stupid seed is a felony if the cops want to push it. I don't blame you at all for being careful.

Good luck on your quest for light! I wish there was some way I could help.

thanks

Your post on the other thread, about finding stores that sell office lighting gave me a good idea. Since roads here twist and turn and are so narrow I might be missing some shops, but there are tons of furniture stores that specialise in office furniture so I'm going to ask them if they can refer me to lighting specialists. Flos shouldn't be a problem, I'll get those soon, at least to start vegging until I get a better solution.

Look out for my next thread, probably gonna be called 'somewhat ghetto attempt at a grow'. Happy New Year everyone!

Day 18, they've grown a bit, but are still really tiny. I'm noticing the top two pointed leaves have grown larger than the bottom two round leaves. The stems have gotten a bit thicker too.

I wonder if they'll grow tall and skinny, like they were doing under the translucent bulb. They're on my balcony right now and we've had some cold days, some nights went low as 6oC. They are in the shade all hours excepting a few in the morning.

I wonder if they'll get stressed once I get my lights and closet ready. They'll be going from 6oC - 20oC and from shade to about 6000 lumens/square foot within a short span of time. Is this enough to get them to go hermie or turn them into males?

well they say the more stress they have tthe more they chance they have of being male or hermie so it can reproduce.

mine sat in my bedroom window starving for light in the cold for two months before i put her under lights and she responded VERY well when she got her first dose of light which came from a 250w indandesent heat lamp.
shes in flower now so we will see the effects soon of her rough start.
i have another little one that came from my sisters under almost the same conditions and its doing really good too.

good luck on your continued search!