Sarenna
Member
With two family members now medically excused, a *very* low budget, supply problems in my area, and a green thumb, I decided to give a grow a try. I don't honestly know if it's going to work, but it's worth a shot.
We're growing three plants. I know the scale sounds silly, but I wanted to start small and work out the kinks as I went without wasting seed, and we're truly just growing enough for our family. I've got one Jamaica Me Crazy growing, (a gift from the seed company, Vancouver Seed Bank, love them) one Arjan's Haze #3 sprouted and planted, and one germinating. They're all feminized seed but I grew up in farm country and I know that nothing in life is guaranteed, so I'm keeping an eye on them anyway. Cost: $35 from Vancouver Seed Bank for seeds.
The space is 4 feet tall, 6 feet long, 5 feet wide. Loosely tarped off with some plastic we had lying around, just to define the airflow of the space. Humidity tends to the low side, about 58% within an hour of the lights going on. Plenty of natural ventilation, with more available by way of windows and fans.
For lights, we've got a real hodgepodge - anything I could scrounge. 2 T38 fluorescents, 3 1100 lumen wide-spectrum halogens, and 1 daylight spectrum 1000 lumen compact fluorecents trained on the three pots. Total cost of the lights, plus timer: approximately $50, thanks to a local thrift shop that sells used construction equipment.
I germinated/am germinating everything the way I was taught growing up - on a plate, wrapped in a wet paper towel, in the dark. Worked fine. 100% germination. The JMC seems to have a shorter growth cycle, it sprouted much faster.
I'm growing in a mix of 33/33/33 homemade compost (my kitchen garbage and fall leaves, very very porous) with perlite and planter box potting soil. Everybody sprouted is in four gallon pails right now, we can re-evaluate that later. Total cost: $15 for soil and perlite, $10 for pails and trays from the dollar store.
Still watering manually, sprouts are too small for nutrients of any kind, and our only other outlay has been for new batteries for the smoke detector and a temp/humidity sensor for that area, so we've managed to get going for about $125 plus electric.
I've attached some pictures of our first plant, (has been above ground for a day and a half now) and our second sprout should be up in a couple of days, based on the speed that it germinated. Comments welcome!
We're growing three plants. I know the scale sounds silly, but I wanted to start small and work out the kinks as I went without wasting seed, and we're truly just growing enough for our family. I've got one Jamaica Me Crazy growing, (a gift from the seed company, Vancouver Seed Bank, love them) one Arjan's Haze #3 sprouted and planted, and one germinating. They're all feminized seed but I grew up in farm country and I know that nothing in life is guaranteed, so I'm keeping an eye on them anyway. Cost: $35 from Vancouver Seed Bank for seeds.
The space is 4 feet tall, 6 feet long, 5 feet wide. Loosely tarped off with some plastic we had lying around, just to define the airflow of the space. Humidity tends to the low side, about 58% within an hour of the lights going on. Plenty of natural ventilation, with more available by way of windows and fans.
For lights, we've got a real hodgepodge - anything I could scrounge. 2 T38 fluorescents, 3 1100 lumen wide-spectrum halogens, and 1 daylight spectrum 1000 lumen compact fluorecents trained on the three pots. Total cost of the lights, plus timer: approximately $50, thanks to a local thrift shop that sells used construction equipment.
I germinated/am germinating everything the way I was taught growing up - on a plate, wrapped in a wet paper towel, in the dark. Worked fine. 100% germination. The JMC seems to have a shorter growth cycle, it sprouted much faster.
I'm growing in a mix of 33/33/33 homemade compost (my kitchen garbage and fall leaves, very very porous) with perlite and planter box potting soil. Everybody sprouted is in four gallon pails right now, we can re-evaluate that later. Total cost: $15 for soil and perlite, $10 for pails and trays from the dollar store.
Still watering manually, sprouts are too small for nutrients of any kind, and our only other outlay has been for new batteries for the smoke detector and a temp/humidity sensor for that area, so we've managed to get going for about $125 plus electric.
I've attached some pictures of our first plant, (has been above ground for a day and a half now) and our second sprout should be up in a couple of days, based on the speed that it germinated. Comments welcome!
