Dollar Store Grow

AgentMcFeather

AgentMcFeather

Active Member
You're still on 24/0? I thought everyone switched to 18/6 after a few days. Do you think it's helped the plants? I'm experimenting with lighting times this time around. Reducing light 1hr a day until it's at 18/6, then maybe gradually reduce it every day so that I'm at 12/12 after a month or so of veging...maybe it'll simulate the natural light cycle a little better. Or maybe I'm gonna put myself through a ton of work with absolutely no extra positive results, lol. My last grow I actually did 12/12 from the beginning and they showed sex really early, but ended up about a foot shorter than would have been desired. :/

It's always super depressing to have a plant that's been growing really well and it turns male. Here's hoping for lots of ladies after you ditch the one dude. :)
 
Sustainable420

Sustainable420

Active Member
Get a light timer for when you put them into flower and some 2700k lights. You can save some money on electricity by switching to 18/6, but it's a bit slower and easier on the plants. Also, lose the tinfoil and replace it with flat white paint or one of those shiny car windsheild things. A thermomiter/humidity meter couldn't hurt. Do some research on fans and the yeast and sugar method to adding co2 to your room. You might look into molasses (grocery store prob.) and some epsom salts (bath salt, found everywhere for cheap) because weed loves that shit. The epsom salt is a natural dehumidifier, which is good so you don't get mold in your buds when flowering. Maybe some febreeze to cover OUTSIDE of the room when flowering? Peace.
 
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djewrecked

Member
AgentMcFeather said:
You're still on 24/0? I thought everyone switched to 18/6 after a few days. Do you think it's helped the plants? I'm experimenting with lighting times this time around. Reducing light 1hr a day until it's at 18/6, then maybe gradually reduce it every day so that I'm at 12/12 after a month or so of veging...maybe it'll simulate the natural light cycle a little better. Or maybe I'm gonna put myself through a ton of work with absolutely no extra positive results, lol. My last grow I actually did 12/12 from the beginning and they showed sex really early, but ended up about a foot shorter than would have been desired. :/

It's always super depressing to have a plant that's been growing really well and it turns male. Here's hoping for lots of ladies after you ditch the one dude. :)
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I'm doing 24/0 and 12/12 for convenience mostly. The less I have to remember to do the better. They seem to be growing a little slow but that's a good thing in a closet I guess. :) I have a timer for 12/12.

Thanks, I was actually a little happy just to finally see something interesting, ha ha. And it was one in the milk jug so the other plant might do better now.
 
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djewrecked

Member
Sustainable420 said:
Get a light timer for when you put them into flower and some 2700k lights. You can save some money on electricity by switching to 18/6, but it's a bit slower and easier on the plants. Also, lose the tinfoil and replace it with flat white paint or one of those shiny car windsheild things. A thermomiter/humidity meter couldn't hurt. Do some research on fans and the yeast and sugar method to adding co2 to your room. You might look into molasses (grocery store prob.) and some epsom salts (bath salt, found everywhere for cheap) because weed loves that shit. The epsom salt is a natural dehumidifier, which is good so you don't get mold in your buds when flowering. Maybe some febreeze to cover OUTSIDE of the room when flowering? Peace.
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Thanks! I have a timer and the foil is gone now. The electricity hasn't gone up noticeably yet. And we got a/c at the same time so that's a nice solution to a few problems. :D

I don't know if I described the fan in there now. It has some kind of ionizing setting. It really does take care of the smell for now. Anyone familiar with these? Guesses on how long that will be enough?
 
mouthmeetsoap

mouthmeetsoap

Active Member
Awesome job! Everything is looking pretty good with the exception of the nute burn. You're going to wanna flush that soil soon. Also, if heat isn't an issue, (which it shouldn't be with your cfl's) you should get those plants a little closer to what they're stretching for. If you're not flowering with the cfls then consider changing out those 2700k's for some 6700's. Oh, and plants grow about 2/3 of their final size in flowering, not 1/3. Electricity shouldn't go up much at all. (I run a 600 watt MH 18/6 and my bill was 30 bucks more.) Hope you can use some of this. :peace:
 
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djewrecked

Member
Switched to 12/12. Was going to wait til next week but since that one male showed and I'm excited I couldn't, lol. I want them to stay somewhat short anyway to fit the closet.
Looking good after their first dark night. Sorry for the bad angle but you can still see how bright green the new growth is. In person I don't know what it is but overall they just look a lot healthier.
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FYI, the big one in the square container is fimmed. The short one in the milk jug is left alone. All the others are LST. So the one in the box looks a lot taller but that might just be because the others are tied down. The one in the milk jug is quite short but it did have to share space until recently. So far fimming has given me the best results but we'll see at harvest.

After I sex them I might go ahead and switch them to bigger pots. Wasn't planning on it but we'll see if I can get my hands on some containers. I found a hardware store down the street that sells organic soils and all kinds of stuff. Not sure of the brand but it looked like good stuff. Glad I started with dollar store soil for my first grow but they've earned some better dirt. :D

Thanks for looking and all the great feedback!
 
Bojangles69

Bojangles69

Member
How many do you plan on keeping if you have enough females? If you keep them in that specific grow box I'm not even sure that 1 is going to fit... as a matter a fact, I don't think the POT from one plant will fit. What happens when you upgrade the pots? They're gonna take up a great deal of your vertical space in an area that small. I just don't see it happening but I'm a newbie to growing so who knows.
Are they living out their whole life in that little box? If you get a proper harvest I'll be rather impressed.
 
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djewrecked

Member
Bojangles69 said:
How many do you plan on keeping if you have enough females? If you keep them in that specific grow box I'm not even sure that 1 is going to fit... as a matter a fact, I don't think the POT from one plant will fit. What happens when you upgrade the pots? They're gonna take up a great deal of your vertical space in an area that small. I just don't see it happening but I'm a newbie to growing so who knows.
Are they living out their whole life in that little box? If you get a proper harvest I'll be rather impressed.
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It's a closet, and the plants right now are on a small table. So when/if they take off the first step is to simply take the table out. (Story on the table is I put wheels on it thinking I could wheel the plants out for watering and such. Setup changed though so the table can go if needed.) I could also expand farther into the closet in theory. There's some stuff in there but we got rid of our cats recently so we have more space to play with. (Their stuff was in a different closet in the house.)

Originally I was skeptical I would even get this far, so space might get tricky at some point. Worst case scenario is I have to get rid of some plants. But now you have me thinking about it, maybe I will clean out that closet. Husband is not going to be happy, lol. I promised this would end up 3 small plants max. :P
 
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djewrecked

Member
Just checked our latest electric bill with grow costs included. Bill jumped about $30. :O
We did get a window a/c at the same time I started. I'm sure most of it is that. Gotta say though, CFLs are probably saving me a ton of cash right now.
 
HippySmoke

HippySmoke

Active Member
wanna calc your light bill? theres a simple formula... does anyone remember? kw.hour x watts then x or / hours per day?
 
Bojangles69

Bojangles69

Member
HippySmoke said:
wanna calc your light bill? theres a simple formula... does anyone remember? kw.hour x watts then x or / hours per day?
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I'm rather curious myself as I wanna figure out mine too. I think you need to divide watts by 1000 to get KW. Then you multiply hours used a day x 30. Then you multiply your first number by your second number, then multiply again by the cost which I think is usually 12 cents.
 
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djewrecked

Member
I can't stop messing with it, ha ha. I just reorganized it after thinking about cleaning the closet. I didn't even have to do much for way more space, just take out the clothes and rearrange stuff. (I could even put the clothes back in but I like it better now.) It's also MUCH safer now. I was starting to get worried about all the wires, especially with watering in there. Not to mention it's raised now and way easier to get to the plants, work with them, water, etc.
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I put a shoe organizer in there to set the fan on. I think the lights are way too high so I might try raising the plants more. Everything is secured with plastic zip ties. Not sure how they'll hold up to the heat so I'm keeping a close eye on them. You can see the table and underneath space for water bottles and tools. (The wine bottle is fertilized water.)

Also I need more parts for the lighting, so right now I only have 6 23 watt warm bulbs. Thoughts? Anyone grow with just warm bulbs?
 
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djewrecked

Member
Okay one more post. I was just switching some of the twist ties to metal hooks for the LST plants. I checked them all already today but did it again just to be safe. I have a female!
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You can see the hairs right in the middle of the pic. Much harder to see in real life—I thought it was fuzz at first, lol. But they do look much different than any of the shoots or leaves I kept thinking might turn into balls or hairs.

This plant is the second one in the milk jug. So one male and one female from that container. Wonder what's in there that those two showed so early.
 
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