I got laid off today....

Hey guys, had a pretty bad day today (on 4-20 no less) got laid off. I had been looking into growing before this happened because I can never get good bud here in south Texas. I got paid today and now I have no idea what I'm gonna do for income. My smoking alone was hard to manage with a job, without one I'll be smoking crap I find on the floor.


I'm a total Noob at growing but I have tried to read up on how to grow. I saw a hydro Tub that can be made cheap. Can anyone help me out with that? Maybe like an easy step by step way of the setup and grow?

If cash flow is low going hydroponic on your 1st time growing isnt the cheapest way.

Get a 600 watt digital hps system from Hi Tech Garden Supply aka HTG for $300 delievered,thats for a complete system & bulb,get some decent reg seeds from a bag & get 6 or 8 plants going in soil.

A 600 watt light will give a 1st time grower 4 to 16 ounces per harvest,approx 3.5 months from the time the seeds sprout.

Hydroponics is going to cost alot more.

Go find some computer programmer guy to date; tell him he'd be really cool if he bought you weed

Seriously though, if your broke, get a 1000 watt light, $100 in Dynagro, 16 5 gallon buckets (or 16 reusable shopping bags), 2 bales of Promix Peat Moss (the $10 shit from HD, not the $30 shit from the Hydrostore) and a HUGE bag of Perlite (from Agway or somewhere, not Home Depot / Lowes)

The trick is not to spend money on bullshit like tents and carbon filters and AN Super-Bloomer. If you want to splurge, get a 15 amp timer for your light and a 20 gallon res / pump / garden hose so you can water without having to carry water. Remember to put down a tarp too unless your in a basement.

i gonna give you some real shit from a ghetto grower to expert. dont do it first off unless you got some real dedication. second if you got less than a 1000$ your not gonna be able to build a sytem that will make you bank. your first step from here, srry to say, is to find another job and start a small grow for under 300$.

the cheapest/ fastest grow setup i can think off

is 2 400w high bay lights(50$) carbon filter(60$ for the cheapest) inline fan (60$) oscilating fan (free) hempy bucket DIY x5 (50$) air pump (25$) 20$ in black and white plastic 30$ at lowes for screws and 2x4x8 wood cut to size to make a box and havac tape(10$).. then a 5 pack of auto fem(50$) seeds still wont harvest for 80 days and i forgot to mention nutes, timer, media and about 200$ more of stuff

a pretty girl like you should just try to find a weed dealer or grower and date him and then bam you got all the weed you want problem solved. But on another note, your going to have to get another job because you wont get paid for like 4 monthes at least. also if you want any real money you need at least a 1000 watt, very good genetics and then work your way up from there. also do some reading into growing and learn as much as you can.

Thanks for the input guys.

I really didn't wanna grow in soil (stealth) and I had read you can make a diy tub for 150, but you guys would know more than me.

Sorry if I came off a greedy asshole, the money I can get isn't why I'm doing it since I will probably smoke 75% of it. I just wanna make a few bucks , I don't need a big grow operation. I am going to the unemployment office on Monday. Fucking lame.

People always claim that hydro is more exp. but really depends on which route you take. a 4 plant dwc can but setup for roughly 75$(not including lights, and setup costs)
3$ "homer"buckets from home depot
4 outlet airpump from petco(only reason i prefer the petco ones is they come with tubing and aircontrols.) 30$
8 4 inch airstones ~ 15$
10$ bag of hydro pellets.
4 netpots 5$

obviously prices will vary for the rest of the setup. one thing thats nice about dwc. its damn near impossible to over water.
hope it helps and im sorry about your job.

Hey, shit happens. If you don't have the money to drop on a 600 watt (it needs to have an air cooled hood in texas) then you could try your hand at cfl growing.
On another note... shopping bags?!? Would they work as well as those fancy bags that air prune the roots? Why haven't I heard of this before?

tibberous said:

Go find some computer programmer guy to date; tell him he'd be really cool if he bought you weed

Seriously though, if your broke, get a 1000 watt light, $100 in Dynagro, 16 5 gallon buckets (or 16 reusable shopping bags), 2 bales of Promix Peat Moss (the $10 shit from HD, not the $30 shit from the Hydrostore) and a HUGE bag of Perlite (from Agway or somewhere, not Home Depot / Lowes)

The trick is not to spend money on bullshit like tents and carbon filters and AN Super-Bloomer. If you want to splurge, get a 15 amp timer for your light and a 20 gallon res / pump / garden hose so you can water without having to carry water. Remember to put down a tarp too unless your in a basement.

Click to expand...

yeah man carbon filters are such a scam. you gotta let that smell run free. who cares if the neighbors smell it, right?

Wand Via Stomps, I'm gonna PM you a link to a site that can help you out. Cool username btw.

And LOL to those thinking they're talking to a girl right now. I mean I could be wrong but based on the posts and the screenname I gotta have serious doubt the OP is a female.

Moz. said:

yeah man carbon filters are such a scam. you gotta let that smell run free. who cares if the neighbors smell it, right?

Wand Via Stomps, I'm gonna PM you a link to a site that can help you out. Cool username btw.



And LOL to those thinking they're talking to a girl right now. I mean I could be wrong but based on the posts and the screenname I gotta have serious doubt the OP is a female.

Click to expand...

Lol actually I am(Av not me but close : ) ). Yea send me the link if you can. I'm still trying to figure out what to do.

Wand Via Stomps said:

Lol actually I am(Av not me but close : ) ). Yea send me the link if you can. I'm still trying to figure out what to do.

Click to expand...

well damn. now I'm even more impressed with the username. (it is an mma reference right?)

I tried to PM you but it looks like you have PM's turned off so I left a visitor message.

Moz. said:

well damn. now I'm even more impressed with the username. (it is an mma reference right?)

I tried to PM you but it looks like you have PM's turned off so I left a visitor message.

Click to expand...

Yea my ex got me into it,now i can't get enough of it.

Cool thanks.

Wand Via Stomps said:

I am going to the unemployment office on Monday. Fucking lame.

Click to expand...

Hey check it, I've been on unemployment for the last six months after getting laid off from my job as well. I started building my hydro setups a couple of months before that, acquiring my cabs on CL and spending a LOT more than I ever needed to on unnecessary grow equipment. Didn't even start growing up until about a week or two before I got the boot. But here's the deal - while being on unemployment I spent upwards of six hours a day for like four months lurking on all of the grow forums soaking up and learning all that I possibly could about growing cannabis in hydro, saving the best info as web pages on disk, and reading all of the good books out there on the subject too... having all of this spare time has definitely been a blessing in disguise imo.

As others here have already said, maybe don't think about going hydro because whatever the cost you've tallied up for parts and shit in your head, you're going to at the very least end up doubling that figure in the end. Hydro equipment isn't cheap by any means, but the upside is that the majority of the stuff is really well constructed and will easily last you a lifetime if taken just menial care of. Figure on at least shelling out $2,000 - and that's buying all of the right equipment the first time around and not making any purchasing mistakes along the way.


On another note, best of luck to you applying for unemployment benefits down there in Tejas. That state is by far one of, if not THE, absolute worst when it comes to getting approved. I know I had to fight for it real hard when I got laid off there!

Moz. said:

yeah man carbon filters are such a scam. you gotta let that smell run free. who cares if the neighbors smell it, right?

Click to expand...

No kidding! The fact that it WILL no doubt stink is an enormous understatement. I'm running no filters of my cab and towards the end of the flowering cycle, the smell becomes so pungent in my apartment that it's almost debilitating at times.

well you can come live with me if you look close to that im sure my girl wont mind. lol.

if you got unemployment then your aspirations are more feasible just buy all the right shit the first time spend a lot cash(1000-2000) and do a lot of research and get it done right.

another thing if you know exactly what you need you can plan it out in steps 500$ first month 500$ second month and so on.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ JJ 420
Thank you.

Yea I have been reading up on it for like a week now, not very long but because of circumstance I really have no choice but to dive in. Not because I wanna make a lot profit but because I myself, am A heavy smoker. I think I will have to go the soil route. What would you recommend in my situation?

polyarcturus said:

i gonna give you some real shit from a ghetto grower to expert. dont do it first off unless you got some real dedication. second if you got less than a 1000$ your not gonna be able to build a sytem that will make you bank. your first step from here, srry to say, is to find another job and start a small grow for under 300$.

the cheapest/ fastest grow setup i can think off

is 2 400w high bay lights(50$) carbon filter(60$ for the cheapest) inline fan (60$) oscilating fan (free) hempy bucket DIY x5 (50$) air pump (25$) 20$ in black and white plastic 30$ at lowes for screws and 2x4x8 wood cut to size to make a box and havac tape(10$).. then a 5 pack of auto fem(50$) seeds still wont harvest for 80 days and i forgot to mention nutes, timer, media and about 200$ more of stuff

Click to expand...

Why the hell would you buy seeds you can't clone if money is an issue?

Moz. said:

yeah man carbon filters are such a scam. you gotta let that smell run free. who cares if the neighbors smell it, right?

Click to expand...

Know how big of a grow you'd need for people outside your house to be able to smell it? Put it in the basement and shut the door.

IMO, ANY medium of choice can get expensive, or relatively cheap . Hydro, soil, soil-less. Generally, and especially over time, the more you put into it, the more you are rewarded. In a business sense, it takes money to make money. ( not implying your growing for coin).

With growing, you have to make one big leap of faith. You have to ask yourself if I plan on growing seriously, or just as a hobbyist. Obviously the hobbyist grower is going to have less $ invested, but he/she gets by and it satisfies their desires. IMO, a serious grower put the time and effort to understand his craft, and is willing to commit the necessary $ to get the productivity he/she wants. The idea is to understand your craft before you attempt it, or attempt it on a larger more costly scale. Obviously nobody just wakes up one days and starts a 40k hydro farm. They work there way there. So, with that, start small and progress. It will save your $ and heartache.

IMO, In life, you work with what you got. If you got the knowledge and coin to run a hydro op, and it satisfies your desire/goals then you will spend what you can/want.

Last week I was speaking to a young gent who was about 24-26 years old and he wanted to know "about how much money" it takes to become an artist and start making money. There is no exact dollar amount, ever. Some spend more, some less. Some get great results, some get okay results. Its a journey, and nobody has a price tag on it.

The great thing about horticulture is you can grow within your means. Most people are not going to sell house and home to start their grow op. They simply do what they can , and improve when life permits it.

Im sorry to hear of your troubles. Growing is tuff on a budget, but not impossible by any means. Its extremely rewarding, especially when your doing so under tuff economic times.

Hope this helps

All the Best~

Wand Via Stomps said:

I really have no choice but to dive in. Not because I wanna make a lot profit but because I myself, am A heavy smoker. I think I will have to go the soil route. What would you recommend in my situation?

Click to expand...

I grow purely for my own needs - and I need a lot as well, lol!

Unfortunately I can't be of much help when it comes to cultivation in soil. I do know however that BOG's (BushyOldGrower) Wally World soil mix recipe is posted up at a few various places online. It's cheap and is supposedly very effective. The guy was/is a growing god.

I know someone here had ripped on tents. I completely have to disagree. Tents are by far one of the best routes you can take imo. Cheap and collapsable, plus you've got a sealed room -which is real important on so many levels. The tents made by Secret Jardin are of the best quality from what I've seen on display at local hydro shops.

Then again, check CL. You never really know what may pop up on there. Example, I scored a mint BCNL Producer for just $500!