I think I got this in the right spot now. My first grow ever. Granddaddy Purp. She was kinda trapped under the soil (buried her too deep I guess) but I got her out and she’s starting to grow! Planted her on 7/18 using Jiffy Seed Starting Mix. I have no clue what I’m doing but it’s okay. Trial and error. I’m learning as I go through old threads. For now, I’m letting it soak up the sun but I want to switch to an indoor setup when it’s time to transplant to a bigger pot.
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Welcome to the forums @AlexanderTheGreat
Not familiar with the jiffy starting fluid.
Best advice when using a solo cop, wait till the fans leave reach the outside edge of the cup or when you see roots coming out of the holes you cut in the bottom edge. Usually will take 2-4 weeks. Some may do it sooner. Then transfer into your final pot. Good luck. There will be more along the way with advice
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Awesome!
From all that I’ve read trying to learn stuff, everyone seems pretty helpful. So thats a plus! I’m gonna need all the advice.
This is the stuff I’m using. It seemed like a good soil to start it out. But I have no clue if it is or not though. I just had it on hand from some jalapeno plants I tried and failed to grow. Lol.
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So what’s your indoor setup like? What sizes pots? Medium using? Lights?
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That’ll do for starting the seed. Once ready you wont want to transfer to a larger pot full of that. You want it to contain a cannabis friendly soil. Plenty to choose from. Myself, I use Fox Farm Ocen forest and Strawberry fields cut with 25% perlite.
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I haven’t nailed down the exact details yet. From what I’ve read GDP doesn’t get too tall so I don’t know the minimum size exactly yet. I’m most concerned about lighting and what to use. I’m a little limited on budget so that’s gonna be my main issue. If it looks too expensive I may have to go with an outside grow.
Soil was another of my questions. It seems like Fox Farm is the standard for growing so that seems like what I’m gonna go with. I think there is a kit on Amazon that has soil and some nutrients for a decent price. I just didnt want to commit to anything before I got some advice.
If your doing just the one plant HLG has a sweet 150 watt light for right around 175 bucks. Ill post screenshot. Good luck with your grow.
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Welcome!!!
It may be too late to go outside. FFOF is a great soil and u don’t have to add nutes for at least 5 weeks. The light @Jimtroutbum mentioned would do well. Try a closet for the grow. Be sure to have air in and out. Light is the most crucial part. Environment is also. But, you will find out this is such a fun hobby addiction, you will want to keep adding to your arsenal of equipment. lol
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No kit per say. You may wish to look for a local hydroponics store. They often are alot cheaper then online stores. 10 bucks a bag of soil cheaper at my local shop. Your gonna end up spending prolly about 20.00 bucks for a bag of perlite,Look for medium sized perlite in a big bag dont get small scotts brand bags. Look to lowes or home depot for perlite. Looking at 20-30.00+/- for your soil. FF liquid fertalizer trio , in quart size bottles for about 50 bucks or so. A quart lasted me about a year at 4-5 plants every 3 months.
Fox Farm isnt as much the standard as it is the best soil for beginners. Its well buffered @ 6.5ph which is perfect for marijuana. It contains a fair amount of nitrogen (ocen forest anyhow) based nutrition excellent for the earlier stages of growth. Also they been around since 1984.
@beachglass is right about only having to water in the begining but I want to stress to you, that 5 weeks isnt guaranteed, Ive had plants needing feed after 3 weeks. I think it has alot to do with the condition of the soil, I like to only get it from places that store it inside not outside. Its just what I do.
I noticed you said you are on a budget… this in and of itself isnt ideal. Initial cost for starting a grow tent setup is gonna be 300-500 for good one 1-2k for a great one. Thats just lights tents fans and extension cords, that does NOT include PH pen, tds meter, nutes, seeds, pots etc etc.
Okay so apparently being my first post, i had to wait a while after so many replies lol. But cool I’ll look into all the advice given. I’m really just trying this to see if I can actually do it. I don’t want to sink a bunch into it and not have the ability to do it. Some people have that green thumb and some just don’t. I’m looking into all possible solutions to cut as many corners as possible just to get this first plant grown and harvested. Maybe if it brings in some money, I can get serious about it, but for now, all DIY solutions are being considered. Lol. Thanks to everyone that’s offering advice and stuff! It’s nice to see a helpful community!
These things can make or break eachother. Bottom line- in order to grow OTC quality weed, you will need good equipment
This is not the best way to discover if you “can do this”. Maybe save you some time and money by not doing it at all. Success does not begin by selecting the “extra parts”, before you build the engine, and throwing them away.
You will not likely grow, on your first attempt, anything that will net you money. On the other side of that coin…if this is an illegal operation you will not make enough money for the worth of a felony. Especially if you dont invest in your enterprise.
500-1000 initial investment will likely grow you about 1/2 a lb, depending greatly on the quality of equipment and effort on your part.
Sorry if that sounds pessimistic but if you look around at the threads on this board it will become painfully obvious that those with sub par equipment have sub par experiences, and then end up spending more money to correct thier initial short coming
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@AlexanderTheGreat you can also get a green-beams (dot com) GB2 for $179, it’s a 240w light using Samsung LM301H diodes and a meanwell driver. Probably good for up to a 3x3 tent (I have 260w in my 4x4, does decent enough, and several of those w’s are used by the fans!).
But ya, invest some money, it’s well spent!
@Docnraq That may be the case but it’s still my plan. Whatever happens just happens. But I’ll still be DIYing everything that I can. I have a PVC structure that I’ll be making a tent out of by wrapping it in Mylar which is what it would be if I bought one. And I have a light. Just need the right bulb for it. This is a single plant grow mainly for my own use. Maybe a few others. Thanks for the advice but I’ll take my chances with my subpar setup. If it works, it works. If not, oh well.
@Spudgunner I’ll look into that. It’s just one plant right now. I have one of those lights that has the aluminum reflector on it already. I want to see about using that or potentially a fluorescent light with a growing bulb. I’m gonna spend what little budget I have on things like lighting and soil. Like I said it’s a single plant that’s really just gonna be for personal use.
Got a picture? Most lights come with aluminum reflector. Grow or otherwise. There are big differences between bulbs and some bulbs are good only for veg others only for flower.
I get it, my self imposed task is to be as honest as possible to help people achieve sucess growing. Sometimes, a reality check is necessary. This felt like one of those times. Good luck!
No worries man! I appreciate the honesty. The light i have is like this one:
Not exactly this brand but like it. I may just break down and get this set as a back up. But the right bulb in this light should do what I need it to for one plant right?
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I built a light for a friend once, years ago. It had 4 of these attached to a single fixture. I put 2 of these.
And 2 similar but not the white instead they were the yellow off white light (good color for flowering). It started a fire because I didnt ground the light out. Barring that, it worked. Dont go above 150watt bulb in that. Prepare for the heat that is gonna come off this fixture.
@dbrn32 is the light guru here at ILGM forum. He would be better suited to help you with that. I thought you were talking about a light like this.
She’s growing at least!
@Docnraq yeah I’ll have to compensate for the heat but I’m looking into some ballast lights like that one. I’m just learning as I go pretty much.
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I recomend looking past ballast lights and into LED. The technology is amazing. I get 1000 watt equivelency from the same 150 watts youll be working with from that light from a Mars Hydro ts1000.
@Docnraq would something like this work? I know it’s a little on the cheap side but in theory could it work?
SERWING 200W LED
edited to fix link