First Grow - What Do You Think?

Discussion in 'Micro Grows' started by hobbybill, Mar 8, 2021.

  1. Hello everyone,

    Preface
    I just started my first grow just for personal use. I'm not trying the gain the biggest yield, it will be for personal use and as a learning experience. It is far too expensive and hard to acquire in the country I am currently residing in. Got some seeds from an overpriced dime bag I purchased and thought I would give it a try to grow one myself. I'm not sure which strain it is but hoping for the best.

    There is a language barrier as well as other differences in the country so I don't have the luxuries and is difficult for me to purchase specific soils/nutes as well as equipment for my setup.

    Setup
    I purchased a plastic shipping/moving box online and lined with mylar inside for now. I will be eventually making it air tight and will cut out a doorway on the side for access.
    [​IMG]
    Ventilation:
    I am thinking 1-2 120mm PC fans (is one enough?) for intake and hopefully a 4inch duct fan plus a DIY carbon filter for odor control. Also a small fan inside for circulation.

    Lighting:
    Currently using 2000W "full spectrum" LED grow lights from Aliexpress and additional LED grow light bars.

    Soil:
    As they are still seedlings, I just mixed in about a quarter inch of worm castings on top of regular potting soil (meant for indoor plants such as pothos/monsteras) after its second set of true leaves and have been giving it purified/distilled water whenever the soil dries out to about an inch deep in the soil.

    Since I don't have access to cannabis specific nutes and soil, I am thinking of creating an organic soil mix because I heard I do not need to regularly feed the plant.

    Questions
    Any simple recipes that would be good for creating a soil? I read that I can mix in compost, worm castings and perilite to a soil mix. What compost would be good for cannabis?

    For lighting, my light has a "BLOOM"(mostly red and infared), "VEG"(some red, blue, white, and UV light), and "BLOOM/VEG"(all lights) setting. I have been running it on "BLOOM/VEG" 24/7 since they sprouted and am about 2-3 weeks in. Should I change it to "VEG" or will it shock the seedlings?

    Once again, I am looking for a budget, simple, newb proof way of growing a plant or two. Any criticisms and tips would be highly appreciated.

    Thank you!
     
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  2. You'll need way more light than you have now. It'll work for a little while. Also a good idea to pH your water.

    Looking good so far.
     
  3. Everyone will tell you that you need more light or better soil or just a overall better set up. Pay no mind to them!!! Sure better set up would be better yes you would get better results. However you will still get results with junk lights. You have more watts than me! Yet i pulled 30g tops off my plaints maybe get around 100g total if not way more ((100g just a lowball guess))



    Thats a link to my YouTube channel i grew "bag seeds" just like you which BTW are going to take like 4-6mths till harvest maybe worth starting over with some auto flower seeds that take more like 10weeks buy them online good seeds are around $100 for like 6-7 ruffly.. now watch my vids not the best YouTube content but i was just tring to document the process and prove my point which is you DONT NEED $2,000 SET UP to get good results. I have 4 2 ft led strips each are a 60watt Equivalent which means maybe 20-30watts if that. Than i have a multi spectrum light that does very little and 2 lizard lights 100watts each I used cheap dollar store soil bloom booster and kept a eye on ph after the 2nd mth. And more importantly i didn't really train them. I only topped 1 time half of them and the other half i did low stress training. If i would have super cropped them i would have had a few 30g tops instead of 1 on the none topped and 2 on the 1 topped...
    So look into "training" check out Bill ward on YouTube your lights should be good

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  4. Definitely not a true 2000 watt light. Probably not even pulling 100 from the wall.
    You can cheap out on almost everything but the lights.
     
  5. What kind of additional lighting would you recommend?
     
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  6. I agree that its more like 100..
    But i 100% disagree with not being able to cheap out on lights...
    I remember all the post about my lights everyone saying they wasn't any where near enough etc etc waste of time etc etc.
    Yet my 40watt ***Equivalent*** led strips let my girls grow successfully! I been posting videos every step of the way showing it works just fine, sure it could be better but if your growing a head stash and money is thight or you just dont want to go all in till you get a grow or 2 under your belt you can make ***cheap lights work***
    I stopped listening to people on here im happy my money was tight and i couldn't afford to get better lights cause i would have done so and never been able to prove everyone wrong.
    Also i just made ice hash from "fan leaves" ! I was told on here you can only make ice hash with sugar leaves. That you can only make ice hash with bubble bags yet i used fan leaves and a coffee filter. Was it a lot no but i only used a handful of leaves mixed old new leaves and used a peanut butter and jelly jar got 1 gram of dark hash.

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  7. Thank you for your input. I am tight on budget and will learn from this experience. I will try with what I have now, or maybe add an additional LED or CFL if I can afford one. It is comforting to know it is at least possible to grow successfully from your input.
     
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  8. Yep
     
  9. You could get the mars hydro for $89 off Amazon good for i think 3×4 area. Seems to be the "best name brand light" i may get 2 for my next round really really do not want to cause i love the idea of showing everyone just what could be grown under my light set up. Money is tight aswell and i want to get the most out of the $140 I'm spending on seeds but thats 10 seeds even if i only got 1oz each plaint 10oz for $140 of some banana kush thats amazing lol and a good way to look at a personal grow. I figure i would get around 100g minimum each plaint thats 1,000 (low average guess) for around $250 seeds/soil bloom boost ph stuff... again for personal use you cant be mad at that at all!

    but still i do know better lights will get better results just dont know if its *night&day* level results or just a little better... and to spend a extra $170 on top of the 250...idk...

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  10. So people say yeah.. but i take that all at face value now. I can go back to my earliest posts on here. People said i was wasting my time with my set up that it was pointless yet i got results that aren't that bad at all. I mean my 1 plaint had a 30g cola on it and that was 1 of 2 main cola's the other was like 25. after fully cleaned/trimmed i still got 50g from them 2 with 8 other way smaller branches to clean should be around 120-150 from a bag seed grown under shit lights that was only topped once with little training or trimming

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  11. My 300$ light puts out about 60 one ounce kolas.....

    IMG_6847.JPG P3020285.JPG P3020290.JPG P3020307.JPG P3020217.JPG

    Its worth it.
     
  12. And they are amazing
    But i still believe if i use my current lighting set up BUT did way more training if i did the "super cropping method" that would give like 6-10 tops/colas each plaint. And with my lights , my once topped plaints i got like 30g colas got over 100gs each from bag seeds in shit soil. If i had good seeds better soil mix more training should be able to get 50-100g more each plaint.
    This is why i want to do it right here people still saying i should do it even after I've proven my set up actually works i wish i would have done more training but to be honest i didn't expect to get that much so didn't want to waste to much time cause i listen to people on here telling me i was wasting time im a outdoors farmer never had to deal with lights before. Only indoor grows I've ever done were like 1 or 2 plaints i grew 1 under a Fluorescent bulb from my lizard tank one of them top cover with a light built in wasn't that bright at all but took 1 girl from seed to like 3-4ozs.
    And right now winter is over so i need ventilation thats $160 right there for a cheaper set up the lights i kind of want are mars hydro 600watt hps was going to get 2 they $90 each. We see how this harvest does before i start spending on the next anyway..

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  13. Yeah man its all about what works for you. I do the one big grow in the winter and the lights just help heat the house so its a win win.
     
  14. First off you'll get a lot of advice here from people that think everybody wants to or can just grow big, or feel they have something to prove.

    I looked at that light, it seems like it's just a 30 watt, which would be good for about a 1 sq ft area.
    You should shoot for about actual 30 watts per square foot. The biggest problem with a lot of these Chinese lights is that they seem to just pull their wattage out of their ass, you need to try and find out what the actual wattage they pull from the wall is.

    Don't worry about buying the ultra trendy stoner science fertilizers, reverse osmosis water, or pH at this point.

    If you can mix your own soil, do so. You can find some good simple recipes that are basically either peat moss or cocoa coir, mixed with some perlite and some sort of organic matter like worm castings or some composted wood chips or something. You can add a small dose of all purpose fertilizer at the beginning too, and some dolomite for peat moss or gypsum for coir.

    You can supplement the food after the first week with something as simple as miracle grow, just use very little of it, about a quarter teaspoon per gallon of water every watering.

    Use something with all three numbers the same or with the first number hire during veg, then switch slowly to something with a higher middle number after it starts to flower.

    be careful about overwatering if you use peat moss base mediums.

    I forgot to add, the requirements for cannabis are real similar to tomatoes and chilies, so you can use soils and fertilizers that are marketed for those.

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  15. This is the information I was looking for in regards to soil. Thank you so much!

    I added more cheap chinese lighting and should be around 30W per sq foot now. (fingers crossed)

    My plants seem to be growing much better now and have moved one into a much bigger pot.

    My soil composition is coco peat, vermiculite, perlite, worm castings, masato, rice husks, and some other natural organic additions that I can't seem to find a translation for.

    I will look for some fertilizers for chilies/tomatoes. Would this be in liquid form?
     
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  16. Liquid, or water soluble. Just be careful as it is easy to over fertilize with these.
    You can also mix manure with water to make "tea".
    I use high nitrogen bar guano and kelp/seaweed extract mixed in water for the first few weeks.

    Many ways to feed them. Grow a few plants and find out what works for you, then add the more advanced stuff if you want to increase yield.

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