Is it worth it?

hello fellow smokers,

Just a quick general question, I'm thinking of starting growing weed, but not in major quantities, just something to smoke on the side, but there are some complications:

1. I cannot guarantee getting good seeds, and the seeds I get will be completely anonymous, meaning, I don't know anything about their potency and their origin.

2. It's pretty dangerous around here so I'm probably going to grow indoors, 1, or 2 plants maximum. There's a terrace in the house, but I can't put the plants all the time there since lots of people are coming and going.

instead of talking more I'm just gonna ask, is it worth it to give it a shot? I can give the plant as much care as it needs, but it's going to be my room that's the main growing place. Can it be done with an ordinary sidelamp (and a good bulb) and a fan for air? I don't need the BEST crop with the BEST potency, I just need something that'll get me nice and happy for free

much thanks, you can ask me anything of course...
your weed brother

ps: all we get to smoke is hash here, so weed would be nice for a change.

It's worth it if u have gardening experiance . Otherwise read up all you can before you give it a go .

in my opinion if you are going to take the risk at least make it worthwhile, as much light as you can, are you using soil or hydro, a sidelamp isn't going to produce that much, nothing like the sun can, if poss keep outside as much as possible, don't forget to take into account the light & dark cycles, can you keep it in pure dark when needed, you never mentioned anything about a closet tent or anything, few more details would help

Warning, growing can become addictive. I was like you once, I thought I would only grow a couple at a time nothing big, now 2 years later and a couple of thousand dollars later, I am growing way more then I ever thought I would. It happens slowly too, at first your like I just need a couple of CFL's, then next thing you know, your grow room lights your hallway from under the door better then the bulb hanging in the ceiling.

I think it is I can get regs pretty regularly but i got some £10/g stuff yesterday and it was too damp so i'm trying it. I'm trying to grow some critical (i think) at the minute just dropped the seed after germinating it into the soil this morning.

Go for it at leaast you should have something to show for your efforts

Thanks a lot for the quick responses

I read a lot about it, but the problem is every website provides a different way and each of them says. never do this and never do that and they usually oppose in opinions, this is why I got here in the first place.

Well, I wanted to say that I can construct anything as long as it's low-cost and wouldn't make a mess in my room.. I can construct a box I think, and I have a small closet which I can put the plant in for night-time but it's not ventilated of course. and it will be soil, not hydro. btw

I'm thinking, I'll get the possibly shit seeds, germinate and do the 1st process. Then put it on my room's window that'll give it good sun for a few hours/day (+ a lamp near it if it's possible to provide the missing sun action)

and for the night cycles, well it'll be night.

+ one of my room mates once planted them, but it was outdoor and all-natural, but he can be of good help in handling the plants. and fertelizers and stuff.

I'm thinking I can go for it, and 4star.. It's no problem if it becomes addictive It will be a completely different thing by then haha

Thanks a lot for the help guys, I guess the only question I have left now is: does it really need humungous care and effort 24/7 to grow? Or it can settle with less, like I said before, I don't need to grow the best shit ever, it should be smokable and not too hard to maintain.

Thanks again..

First Welcome to RIU, there is all the info you need on this site, just different opinions.
And you can get plants to grow any where, check out the getto grows.

For really low cost look into a uhaul wardrobe box. It's big enough for a decent sized plant with some training or a couple of smaller ones and has a bar you can hang lights off, CFLs are cheap and easy enough, or could use a small HID light. Cut two holes in the side (one high, one low), attach a computer fan for exhaust to the high one, and another to the low one for intake. To help reflect light, paint the inside of the box flat white or put up mylar if you want. Just put it in a corner of your room near an outlet, get a power strip/ surge protector to connect everything to, and you're ready to start growing. What is your budget and size limitations?

I think you can do it. Most of the time is just waiting around, but you need to be prepared to set a little time aside every day to check on your plants and tend to them. Think about this, do you have time in your day to keep a cat alive? If so, you can probably keep ganja growing.

As far as difficulty to grow... it's called weed for a reason, in many places it was an unwanted pest that would sprout up all over the place. At least, in my experience, it's been really resilient to my screw ups.

All that said: Anything worth doing is worth doing right. Think about this: Do you plan on enjoying what this plant can offer for the foreseeable future? If so, how much would you spend for average grade buds from a dealer over the next 5, 10, 15 years? Is it more then the $300-500 that you'd need to spend to setup a really great grow?

And then, there's the risk factor. Provided you keep your trap shut about your indoor horticulture activities, and you're only growing for personal use, it's extremely unlikely that you will ever get caught if you keep your head about you. Whereas every-time you buy from someone, you're taking a risk.

Finally, do you want to spend a lot of time, some effort, and perhaps some decent money on some low yield crap? Consider this, at and decent seedbank, for USD100-150 you'll be able to get some really nice genetics. And, if you're smart about it and clone your females pre-flower, you'll never have to buy seeds again. Just keep cloning. It's a one time outlay and risk factor.

Just some food for thought. I've tried many times in my life to half ass something, and inevitably I end up with half ass results. Like yoda said... do or do not. there is not try!

Peace!

Thanks again for the valuable info, all of you fellas..

The problem is I can't get my hands on any seeds I want, in this country it's hard to get good seeds anyway, I guess i'll try my luck and even if i ended up with shit seeds, I'll try methods of increasing potency after the 1st generation.

And I'm too far for a UHAUL box, but I just saw their pics and I think I can make something out of an ordinary box, same size. According to size and budget I should be fine with the box method.

KawiZZR, I'm gonna try what you recommended... thanks

And Brill that was a nice post, much thanks for the niceness, but like I said before, the problem doesn't lie in me not wanting to get good quality seeds or materials, the problem is, It's hard to get either here. But I guess I'll start and see if it's worth it..

But does it smell bad with the computer fans (i've read some posts here that says it gets pretty smelly)? If so, is there a way to decrease that, or route it to a window?

sharingiscaring said:

And Brill that was a nice post, much thanks for the niceness, but like I said before, the problem doesn't lie in me not wanting to get good quality seeds or materials, the problem is, It's hard to get either here. But I guess I'll start and see if it's worth it..

But does it smell bad with the computer fans (i've read some posts here that says it gets pretty smelly)? If so, is there a way to decrease that, or route it to a window?

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Ah, suck. For some reason I thought you were in the US, but now that I reread the thread I see that you don't specify. I understand that some countries have more through customs departments then the US does.

Smell management can be dealt with a few different ways. If you have somewhere you can route to that the smell won't be an issue, that's probably the easiest and cheapest option. In my own case, I route to the attic. Air escapes into the grow area from small cracks around the door etc due to the slightly negative pressure my ventilation equipment puts on the room. Any smell that ends up in the attic will quickly end up going out the attic vents and be heavily dissipated by the time it reaches any people that may be outside. If you're going to go this route, consider the use of dryer vent as a cheap flexible ducting solution. While computer fans will work in the setup, they are definitely not ideal. The blade design of fans like those doesn't lend it's self to moving any air against any restriction, they are designed to move air in free space. CFM drops way off as any restriction is added. Blower wheels are really effective at creating the static pressure needed to make duct systems work.

Optionally, activated charcoal filters may be used to absorb some of the smell. I've never done it, but I've heard good things about them.

Thirdly, some people use ozone generators. Ozone is great at removing smell, but this is a complicated and expensive solution compared to the other two.

I agree with Brill that venting into an attic would be your easiest and probably cheapest solution since it's a one time buy. If you can't go that route though, charcoal filters work pretty well. There are several examples of DIY filters around, look for one that best fits your needs. Other option would be ona or something similar to cover the smell. Both filters and ona will need to be replaced periodically though.

Thanks...
No attic tho, 1 room... lol, i think if it gets smelly i'm going to have to find charcoal and do myself one of these filters.

Since i'm thinking of getting the materials needed to do my thing. What size of box should I be looking for, minimum... Something that would fit 2-3 plants (3 is exaggerated, 2 would be fine if there's a major diff). I'm guessing it should be slightly bigger than the uhaul wardrobe box, right?

and as KawiZZR said, i'm going to connect 2 computer fans somehow, a friend said you can power them up with batteries, but it would be nice if i could connect them to an outlet, anyway.. about the lights, I saw somewhere that each plant needs around 10000 lumens, and the last few hours I was trying to figure out which kind of lights would be considered to make the process nicer and faster, but at the same time, I don't want something too expensive and that would be easy to install + I read somewhere that the kind of lights is related to the phase the plant is going through (a wavelength for vegitation and another for flowering), so if all their prices are reasonable, it would be nice to have proper lighting. Anyway, I was thinking 1 or 2 expensive lights should be better than 6 CFLs or something.. or maybe forget about all that and a number of fluorescent lights should be enough.. It's cool to get confirmation on that from u guys.

And also, if there's anything more efficient than computer fans that would work if i decided to add a charcoal filter some time later.. possibly something quiet-ish (not dead quiet) since i'm sleeping in the same room.. I know it's too much details and shit.. but i'm just gonna go ahead and do this...

cheers fellas.

buy a couple 68 watt cfls 2700k their like 15$ each at homedepot put them in the lamp and watch the buds grow it easy to grow i grew killer crystally bud from a seed out a bag of dirt weed

stop thinking about how little you can care for the plants and how much YOU CAN care for the plants, they respond well to loving but than again what lady doesn't, i advise cfl's just read up on what spectrum you need in veg and flowering- find some quality soil and get the best seeds you can.

gl gl my friend

krazey47409 said:

buy a couple 68 watt cfls 2700k their like 15$ each at homedepot put them in the lamp and watch the buds grow it easy to grow i grew killer crystally bud from a seed out a bag of dirt weed

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no homedepot here but i'm going to take these specs and look around. thanks
and what you said gave me a push, cos theres a possibility that my seeds will be shit (note that these are the only ones i can manage to get now)

chief blunts
stop thinking about how little you can care for the plants and how much YOU CAN care for the plants, they respond well to loving but than again what lady doesn't, i advise cfl's just read up on what spectrum you need in veg and flowering- find some quality soil and get the best seeds you can.

gl gl my friend

Click to expand...

Thanks and believe me when i get the seeds and they turn into plants, i'm gonna mother them. I read somewhere that it would be best to either use MH or HPS lights, as well as fluros for cloning and early stages.. but i'm guessing from what you both said that CFLs are good enuff.. Although in flowering state would it be nicer to include a normal incandescent bulb, 100w or 200w alongside the CFLs as flowering needs a lower wavelength (red, orange and whatnot). I saw this here. http://howtogrowmarijuana.com/marijuana-lighting.html..

You can do a couple of small plants in a 2ft square space, try to have at least three feet of height, you can grow in less space though. If you go with HID lighting you'd be fine with just an HPS, but I think with what you're looking for you'd be fine with CFLs. Unlike krazey I prefer to have a larger number of the smaller wattage CFLs, but it is very much personal preference. Most dollar and general stores will carry CFLs in both spectrums and different wattages for cheap. You want 6500k for veg and 2700k for flowering. CFLs can get close to the bulbs and don't create too much heat as long as you have good air movement. Some PC fans can move a good bit of air, but if going through ducting or anything like that you may want to consider either an inline duct fan or some other higher powered fan. There are a lot of fan options online, but the nicer ones really go up in price. Do not use incandescent bulbs, they are very hot and inefficient, that is why we use CFLs instead for growing.

Also look into training/growing methods such as SOG SCROG and LST, these will help you with the space limitations.

Sharing - If you have any pet stores around you that have aquariums on display, you may be able to get an empty box from them for free. I have friends with access to this kind of stuff, and they got me a (brand new) box for a 30gal aquarium. Its about three feet tall, and I cut it into two parts so that I can move them back and forth to get access to the plants, then enclose them when I'm done. I bought silver mylar type gift wrapping from a dollar store and papered the panels of the box for reflecting the lights. I use 26watt CFLs (daylight 6500k) for vegging, and 42watt CFLs (cool white 2700k) for flower. About six or eight of them with "Y" adapters will allow you to adjust heights to your plant growth and have a pair on either side for fill lighting. You should be able to get buckets or small cheap plastic trash cans to use as plant pots too. If you have a dollar store or similar place, just cruise the aisles and you can find plenty of things to set up a great inexpensive grow room. If you have the money and ventilation that can handle the higher temperatures, then go with HPS lighting - if not, CFLs will get the job done just fine. Check out my first grow as proof...2 plants gave over 4ozs!
Good luck and happy growing -Mandi

https://www.rollitup.org/newbie-central/397286-first-grow-my-girls-looking.html