Budget Growing...Trying to McGyver Some Items

Hi,

I am starting my second grow, and the seed i planted is supposedly a BC Bud strain. I am not sure which one, but i smoked the plant it came from and it was great. Sadly I am still new to this sort of thing, so I can't remember what the flavors or aromas were. What i do remember is that the nugs were dense, thick, and long. One nug weighed 6g dried. So I know the potential that it has. Yes, I do realize that it may not be as good as when I bought it. But hell, what does it matter when your growing it? So I am a little sad that I don't know which exact BC strain it is.
Okay, now it's time to get down to the purpose and intent. I am on my second grow, and am stuck to a tiny budget so I am doing what I can with what I have.

What I need?
- I need a Seedling through Veg contained growing area, so I can avoid Light leaks in my Growing room, as my divider for the veg and Flower is not purely light proof.
What I have?
- I have my first plant 2 to 3 weeks away from harvest. It is in a 5 gal DWC.
- I have one Air Pump, (2) 5 gal Black Buckets, and (1) 6" Bucket Basket Lid(plant growing in it already).
- I have Dutchpro Nutrients
- I have a Camping Tent Box, Solo Red Cups, light fixture, 23W 5000k CFL(Need 6500k), USB wall charger, USB charging cord(both from my broken trashed months ago Bluetooth), Laptop Lap Board Dual Fans USB Powered, 550 Cord, a lighter, and a utility razor knife.

What I Did?
I took the tent box in my garage and through the awesome power of McGyver I made a Air Circulated Growing box..... No, I'm not gonna say that was what happened. So first I had to make sure that the fans would work with the wall charger and USB. Since the fans didn't have a USB plug in and i had stripped the fan power cords down long ago, I cut the Charging end head off and stripped the red and black wires. I took 2 crimping Butt Splice and crimped them onto the fan leads, then plugged in the wall charger and place each exposed lead into the ends of each Butt Splice until I found the one that turned the fans on. Marked the positive side since both splices are red, so i would not mess up my wiring. Crimped each lead in the correct splice.

Next, I took the box and cut a door of sorts into the side that would face forward. Lay the box down with the side opposite the door facing up and traced the fans where I wanted them some where near the bottom. Next cut out the traced shape from the inside edge of the tracing, this is to ensure a snug pressed fit. So, the reason for the fan being near the bottom is that the cool air gets sucked in and will flow up and past the Light and fixture and push hot air out. it also helps to keep the hot air away from our baby. As this is a 1'x1' area, this isn't a bad set up for start growth.

Finally, i used the 550 cord to hang the light and tied it in a fashion that allows for instant raise and lower of the light. after i hung it in the box I closed the lid leaving a 1 inch opening and the placed a dark towel over the top to catch any heavy light coming out and to focus the exhaust air out and away from the rear of the box.

Life of a Bud Plant on a Budget Grow:
I planted the seed 9/18, 4 days ago, in a Take Root/Super Thrive & water saturated peat pellet. Using the same tent box minus the modifications I was germinating the plant from seed to sprout in a grow dome with the same light, trying to get temps higher for faster germination. Checked my pellet last night and still no sign of the sprout.

This morning I check my baby and she was unfolding herself upwards to the light. So, immediately enacted the plans stated above to make this baby comfortable while she starts her first few weeks of life in this grow box under 24/0 conditions. I will be super cropping and LST'ing much earlier on this grow to get as tightly grown side branches as possible.
This day marks her first day as a seedling. I plan on having Weekly Updates. This is an experimental grow, designed around trying to make what you can if it is needed. Any item I need and McGyver will be discussed in the future. I do plan on using aluminum foil to cover the walls.
Yes, I realize that Mylar is better. Yes, I understand that these are all things that most growers might think negatively towards. And, YES, I am well aware that this kind of thing has been done buy many growers in the past and even now. But this is to document and provide knowledge for any body growing on a budget and minimal set up items.


If you have any Comments or Questions Please send them to me directly and Do not post on this journal.

Are you talking about a water farm set up?

End of the First Week, Day 7:

So the plant has its first 2 sets of seedling fan leaves. It looks healthy, but its still feeding off the Nute Enriched planting soil from Fox Farms mixed with some perlite and broken down Superthrive/Take Root soaked peat pellets. Only been adding water when I can stick my finger in the soil up to my first knuckle and its dry. I think next week will be when I start to actually making a solution and use it. I believe there are enough Nutes in the soil mixture plus the peat pellet I germinated the seed in was soaked in a growth nutrient mix solution. This may sound crazy but i recycle the run off from the cup by placing it in an air tight container in a dark room, then running it through the soil when it starts getting dry. Also, I did get around to adding Aluminum Foil to the Box, as mentioned previously. Sorry, but i didn't think i should include how i did what i did with the aluminum, and the installation of it.

If you have any Comments or Questions Please send them to me directly and Do not post on this journal.

Day 22:
My apologies for the delayed journal entry. I was very busy these past 2 weeks, with my education. So I again had to McGyver some new additions to my collection. As mentioned in my original post I was in the middle of flowering another plant so I needed a place to start this seed, that would be light proof, just until i could collect all the provisions needed to build myself a reflective light lamp and a two 5 gallon bucket top feed /reservoir drain to fit in a relatively small space. Since I had access to most of the reservoir items that would be needed to make this work, I decided to start on that build.

Items List:
1 10 Gallon storage bucket with lid(had)
4 5 Gallon Buckets(had)
1 300 GPH Water Pump(bought)
1 20ft roll .5 inch black garden tubing(bought)
4 Tee connectors(bought)
1 Dual port Air Pump w/ air stones(had)
1 24 inch stiff black garden hose(bought)
And a few other small water piping items(bought)

I will not lie to you and say that I came up with this design grow style on my own. I borrowed the idea from a well known RIU Member, flowamasta, and put a build together that was in the budget that I have. The idea came from this forum from flowamasta, https://www.rollitup.org/t/flowamastas-methodology-how-to-grow-monster-pound-plants-jack-h-x-skunk.570843/

I drilled 2 .25 inch holes into the 10 gal bucket to run the air stone lines since this will be the base, and the reservoir. In the lid I cut out 2 drain line return holes and one pump line hole in the center. In 2 of the 5 gal buckets I drilled out just over 5/8 inch drain holes and stuck hard hollow piping through it then used aquarium safe silicone to seal for any leaks and some 1/2 inch soft black garden hose on the reservoir end. Next, I took a board, to add stability across the top of the bucket, and drilled a 3/4 inch hole in the middle to allow for the pump line to go through. I took the other 2 5 gal buckets and drilled many quarter inch holes in the bottoms to allow for fast draining, and i even cut out quick release slots for dis-assembly and cleaning. I took a press fit water line tee and attached a 6 inch stiff black garden hose in the 2 ends opposite and ran the pump line into the remaining opening. I then took 2 stretch fit tees and connected them to the stiff lines. Calculated and measured out my soft black garden tubing for my water rings and drilled several holes in them. I attached them to the remaining tee connectors to form my watering rings. I filled both growing buckets with hydroton/clay expanding pellets and slid them into the drain buckets, and locked in the feeding line to both buckets.all i had to do was set my timer and plug it in.

I also built my own light, but you can find the basic build here ---->
All in all, I spent about a total of 150 dollars on all the things I needed to make this work. I'm using 276W of CFL's, 12 23W 6500K 1600 Lumen CFL's.

I realize that I'm not meant to do any soil growing right now as this little baby was struggling in the soil that it was in previously. But during the transplant on Saturday I had to remove more of the roots than I wanted too. I was afraid it would stress out and die on me so I place my Northern Lights seed in a wet peat pellet Saturday night. Here is my new set up, What do you Think? Yes there is a transition with the photos.

If you would like to post a response feel free to Post Reply.

Today is Day 37 of the BC
I realize last week I had typed Day 22, in truth I meant day 29. I was stoned when I wrote that sorry.... So I have some disappointing news. I lost the Northern Lights seed on Saturday, let me explain, it had been a week in the pellet inside my dome, inside my house. I figured if I stuck it outside on my patio the heat would help this seed germinate faster.... But when I went to check on it a few hours later, the dome top was off, the pellet had been torn apart inside the tray of the dome, seed gone. I'm thinking bird got it, because I was home that whole day doing yard work in the front and the back of the house.

In spite of losing the NL, I have some Afghani #1 from Seedsman courtesy of Herbies Head Shop. It was a freebie with the purchase of some C99 BX-1's that I had received a little while back. So I stuck one in the bucket on Saturday at around 3pm, Tuesday morning it popped its head out and today its first set of leaves are almost as big as the cotyledons. And its Afghani. so there is that. oh and heres the link ---> http://www.herbiesheadshop.com/seedsman-afghani-no-1-seeds-3026

So the BC is beginning to recuperate nicely, even though I removed so much of the roots when I transplanted it, it seems to be regrowing its roots rather well now.

The C99 BX-1 from them is here ----> http://www.herbiesheadshop.com/mosca-cinderella-99-bx_1-seeds-2991

Both seeds are regular, so I am hoping to make more seeds.

That's cool

Day 42 of BC:
Okay, so now I am really reaching out as I believe I may have done something entirely wrong because i am looking at the BC and it looks like it is producing balls. I'm running 18/6, water cycles every 2 hours light is on and every 3 hours the lights are off. But I am curious, could me taking off so much roots cause the plant to force flower after it recovered from the transplant? Or, is it possible I stumbled upon an auto flower seed and I wasted my time on this one? I have never heard of a saving grace from this point but if any of you experienced growers have any input on this matter I would be grateful.

The Afghani is a week old. I went ahead and planted one of my C99 BX-1 seeds into a peat pellet, due to this sad recent finding. But this grow is not done. I may lose out on this BC, but I have plenty more seeds and strains to choose from. I guess if the Afghani and the C99 are both female, I'll have to clone them and make seeds.

BC Day 45:
I have decided to let it continue to flower. I figure there are things I can learn, and if I kill him now I won't be able learn anything about male plants. Besides I can always collect his pollen if he proves to be a good candidate with genetics. I'm guessing if a male has dense thick pollen sac clusters then it can pass on thick dense bud clusters in females. I'm hoping this will prove to be a very valuable experience. Here is how he looks.

Afghani Day 10:
Afghani seems to have recovered from the initial transplant day 4. Has 3rd set of fan leaves growing with the 4th starting.


Cinderella 99 BX-1 Day 1:
Just 3 days after sticking the seed in the peat pellet Cinderella popped her tiny cute little head out. Not much to see now, but I'm hoping she performs miracles.


I will say, I do seem to have pretty decent success with getting seeds to germinate, excluding the NL because it disappeared. Still sad about that.

P.S.: If you can answer the questions I asked in the previous post I could really use some insight.

Sorry for the late update. I have been really busy the past 2 weeks with class work and projects.
Thank god for taking notes about my plants.

Today is day 23 of the Afghani's life and day 14 for the C99's life. Last week I decided to pull the BC on Day 48 because I changed my mind about getting pollen from it. I pulled it and cleaned the clay pellets it was growing in and then transplanted the Cinderella on day 4. The method I used to transplant the Cinderella was nothing special, but I was able to remove the peat from the netting the roots grew into, without damaging the roots, and then carefully added the clay pellets into the netting around the Cinderella and then placed it in the bucket of cleaned clay pellets.

I cleaned the reservoir and flushed the system last week starting on thursday and then added nutrients on saturday morning to the reservoir. I find this setup is easier to monitor the pH of the system as I can easily add water and nutes to the system. The flushing is to remove any salt build ups in the growing media. I will Be flushing again soon.

Afghani Day 23:
The 2 heads have been noticeably forming over the past 3 days and should be fanning out and spreading open soon. This Afghani has a very distinct and very strong smell, but its not really growing crazy fast. I have lowered the light section over the Afghani in order to slow its height growth.

I have been controlling the light height over the plants in order to get them to stretch upwards earlier as I plan on LST'ing them through wire frame squares once they get to the top of the bucket.

C99-BX1 Day: Cindy is growing strong, starting to stretch out a little bit, starting to produce the 5th set of leaves. Won't be able to tell from the pics but I have examined it very closely. i have the light section over the C99 high enough to force slight stretching. This is so that I won't have many nodes below the top of the buckets and that everything that gets weaved in a wire frame square screen will be at the same height.

I'm hoping to pull at least a minimum of 4 total ounces dried from this grow. But as this is my second grow, we will see how it goes.

I recently purchased Emerald Triangle Humboldt County's Own Crystal Burst to use when the Plants start to show flowers.

Has anyone ever experimented with Crystal Burst? If so, Did you notice a difference in the amount of crystal production, did it enhance the flavors and aroma's like its supposed to, did you have to cut down on Nutrients in order to add it to the solution?