Ok. This has my attention.

With the ridiculous prices for marijuana in the states, i've come to the conclusion that I need to do something about this for myself. I've been smoking for a little over 7 years now and I think its about time for my first grow. For those of you that are interested in following along, please do! I'm looking forward to sharing my ideas and hearing your opinions and hopefully some great suggestions will lead to great success in my first grow! Be prepared for a lot of stupid questions along the way!

I believe I should be able to buy all my products from WalMart, Lowes & Home Depot if thats correct? Help out a n00bie! Yup, I said it. Oh yes, and my local hydro store for soil and nutrients.

Some quick questions before I make the trips to the store!

1. Hydro or Soil? If so a recommended setup?
2. CFL lighting? It's a preference for me. How many will I need?
3. Most cost efficient items that work great from your experiences for setting up a first time grow box. 2-3 plants TOTAL.

I know there are hundreds of threads on these forums about different types of growing you can do but I guess I really need to be sold on a way to do it(get started that is). In other words, sell me on your method. I believe I can easily handle a hydro or soil plant. But lets not jump the gun, ha.

Cant wait to here some feedback!

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i got the same problem dude, i am just starting to grow as well.

this is what i have gathered so far though,
need about 2000 lumens (per 1.5 sq ft) for indoor growth.
steralised potting soil (or miracle-grow) is good.
and im also doing fluorescent lights (2 18" 15 watt tubes) 1 warm white and other tube daylight. and i also added a CFL 20w (replaces 75 watt) OTT-LITE fluoro bulb.

hope i could atleast get you brainstorming on some ideas, but like a said im also a noobie.

Gents,
The sun puts out well over 100,000 lumens, not like an indoor grow will compete, but your grow is trying to mimick nature as best you can. Your typical indica strain will produce buds as big as your forearm if not bigger in natures cathedral, so..... What ya gotta do is try to match mother nature as best you can. I realize money can be tight, but invest in yourself and your grow. CFL's work pretty good for vegging. I recommend if you are gonna use CFLs, get a bunch and make sure they are the highest wattage bulbs you can get. Now when it comes time to flowering, whatever CFLs you got it wont be enough, not even close. Get that 1K HPS and you'll get close to what mother nature can do for ya. I know, I know, it's a hard hit in the pocketbook, but believe me you won't regret it once your first harvest comes in under them. 15 watts??? for the first week I would say sure. After that, you're gonna need more. Soil is fine, very forgiving if problems occur, just takes a whole season to reap a harvest. Hydro, bubble, DWC, Ebb & flo, are much quicker, would you believe a couple maybe 3 harvests a season? Just make sure you sharpen your pencil and know what you're doing. The above mentioned methods, are very UNforgiving of mistakes. Everything can die in a very short time if you are'nt paying attention and staying on top of them. Just my 2 cents worth. Personally I'm doing a Recirculating DWC and every day I run thru a checklist just to keep my lovelys green and happy. Ya gotta do what ya gotta do. Good luck with whatever method you decide on. Just remember 1 thing,..... the more the watts, the bigger the buds. The rest is just keeping em alive.

Nim

nimbliez, thanks for your input! i can't wait to hit up the store this weekend. Im sure ill be able to come across a 1000w somewhere for cheap. I'll definetley be vegging my plants with the CFL's for the first few weeks if not longer. I'm probably going to be sticking with soil for the first grow.( I've heard foxfarm is great?) even though hydro is where my heart is. I dont want to jump the gun to far, if you know what I mean. This weekend i'll be designing and creating a grow setup for the vegging process of my plants.

Ideas are still flying...

right on!! right on!! now snatch the stone from my hand Grasshopper

supitseric said:

nimbliez, thanks for your input! i can't wait to hit up the store this weekend. Im sure ill be able to come across a 1000w somewhere for cheap. I'll definetley be vegging my plants with the CFL's for the first few weeks if not longer. I'm probably going to be sticking with soil for the first grow.( I've heard foxfarm is great?) even though hydro is where my heart is. I dont want to jump the gun to far, if you know what I mean. This weekend i'll be designing and creating a grow setup for the vegging process of my plants.

Ideas are still flying...

Click to expand...

alright man. first of all for 3 plants u definately dont want a 1000w. depending on how big ur grow space is, for 3ish plants i'd go with like a 400w hps. when it comes to soil, ur local hydro shop will definately get u set up straight. just make sure it's organic, thats pretty much the most important thing. when it comes to cfls, go to walmart, buy the cfls that come in boxes of like 6. usually they have like a 6 pack of 23 or 26 watts (100w equivilant). get Y connectors and the things the Y connectors plug into the power chord with while ur at walmart. thats the cheapest place i've found them. the peeps at my hydro store are pretty much as helpful as this website is for me. so use them as reference. they usually know their shit

cfl's arnt bad i just harvest one of my 2 plants that are under cfl's had to chop the one early cuase of some issues.

as far as lumens per foot
2000k per ft is the bare minmum ull get popcorn buds and not alot

once my cfl grow is done im switching that space to test out these 20$ hps

I've come up with a few ideas! See you all in about a week with some pictures to show you my new setup i've decided to make!

this is what i'm doing, it would work awesome for a single grow start to finish, depending on how much money you want to spend. For the first picture that setup cost me about $300. The light and tent i got from this website (Cheap Hydroponics - Indoor Gardening and Hydroponic Supplies - (Powered by CubeCart)). I switched to this setup about 3 days ago and it has already made a huge difference. Its just a 250w ballast that can do either metal halide (for vegging) or high pressure sodium (for flowering) and the lamp comes with the 2 lights.

If you want to go on the cheap like how i started (2nd pic) the cfl's work alright for growing decent plants. You just need alot, about 3-4 near each plant depending on the wattage. Mine i put into a hollowed out dresser that you could pretty easily but a door on it to "disguise it".


And if money is an issue u prlly wana go soil. Its pretty simple but the hydro setup useally works better from what i've herd.

Hope this helps.....

**I also threw in a pic of my 25 day old plant.

LF, great little setup. Let me tell you first that I have decided on Hydro now. If all else fails I believe I can fall back to soil or eventually experiment with that later.

I am going to run a drip on my plants vegging. What size water regulators should I get. .5g/hr, 1g/hr, 2g/hr...Im not sure.

Thanks to those who have given me some input!
I believe im gonna be off to a great start.

These forums offer just as much, if not MOREEE amazing advice than the DVD's, Magazine and Books i've read in the past Any recommendations on books I should buy for Hydro though?

Build this hydro set up:
YouTube - Grow Cannabis hydroponically By Eatspam & Raven

And get this cheap 150 HPS light:
http://www.e-conolight.com/Product/EProductDetail.asp?ProductFamilyID=7&FGNumber=E-MT6H151G

This is what I'm using for my first grow... and while it hasn't had the smoothest start, its not because of the set up. I think I have I nice little cheap set up myself

attached a few pics...v cheap to build but did buy proper ebb n flow fittings...110 litre tank. the room is 4' square.....if you have any questions please ask...