Hey everyone, I'm new to this, so don't make fun of me that I don't understand most things, lol. I just have a couple questions - Well I just recently planted some weed as a joke and it accidentally started growing. I planted 5, and 3 came up. One of them died. I now have two baby healthy plants but their living conditions are probably unacceptable - In the window of my top-floor apartment, growing in mulch in a shoebox. I've just gotten to thinking of this as a challenge - How long can I keep these plants alive? Obviously the first thing I can think of doing is getting some new soil for them, which I will do at some point when I have the time/money. But I was also wondering - How much sun/light do they need a day? I have them in a spot where they get some clear sunlight from probably around 11am - 3pm. Is this enough/too much? I used to think it was supposed to be grown in the dark, but I've just been growing them like normal plants and they seem to be doing fine. I'm not interested in purchasing a book, or special fertilizer and whatnot. I just want to know what I could do to improve the living conditions of these two lonely pot plants. Thanks
Go to a hardware store and purchase: -200W or So of CFL light bulbs, with the highest wattage bulbs they have -Mogul Socket Adapters for these bulbs -Reflectors if they have them. Find a way to mount these lights over your plants. You still have a chance to get something out of thesep plants, but they need WAY more light, especially seeing how winter is fast approaching.
At least put it outside so it can more direct sunlight it will only get sun through your window for a very short time (few hours) a day which will not cut it. You need 24 hour light or close too for an indoor plant.
lol, no you dont. you are mimicking the conditions of spring-fall. you shouldnt chime in if you obviously dont know what you are talking about.
I obviously don't know what I'm talking about? I'm new but that doesn't give you the excuse to act like a Bastard....oh. wait?
Your the second person to give me flack and i've been on here for a week. I think i'm gonna quit posting because obviously nobody gives a shit.
Now now children, play nice.. I swear everywhere I turn on this forum is someone trying to bring down someone else.. This forum has went downhill quick from just a few months ago.. Everyone used to be so helpful, but now it is trash the newbies and I'm the superior growing authority.. Worship me.. Guys this is a forum.. I think GC wants newbies to stay on and if everyone keeps trashing everyone we are all going to end up talking to ourselves.. Let's bring gc back to its glory.. Now take a toke and shake hands.. grrower your advice was kill them.. At least the newbie tried to help the op.. I've seen your grows and you are a great grower, but your advice definitely didn't reflect that.. I see the op's question as more of a how can I get this plant to grow.. They don't really seemed concerned with flowering so let them have the learning experience.. Thats how a grower gets started. Mast3rmind welcome to gc.. I know you've had a hard time the past week, but trust me it gets better.. I've felt the same way for a couple weeks now, but I promise that once you get a good group of growers you will feel right at home.. Good effort for the answer, but there are several different ways to grow mj so your answer really wasn't accurate.. To the OP.. A simple light set-up for one plant.. 104 actual watts.. Shopping list.. Lowes or Home depot I'd say.. Prices are for Lowes Medium work clamp light w/reflector (9.99) 3 socket splitters (2.99 a piece) pack of daylight 26 watt bulbs 6500k (11.99 for bulk pack) pack of soft white 26 watt bulbs 2700 k (13.99 I think) timer (11.99) I like the non digital, but all preference With tax I'd say you'd be looking around $55-60 Take off the reflector and screw in a splitter.. Screw the other two splitters into those two new sockets and insert 3 6500k daylight and 1 2700k soft white.. Simple 1 plant setup so only keep the one that does the best.. Plug that into the timer and set it on whatever ratio you would like lowest being 18/6 and highest 24/0.. All up to you.. You need new soil.. Try to get something without time release nutrients.. An oscillating fan and if you want it stealth you'll need a place to put it all in and create some ventilation to keep it from getting too hot.. Getting a grow started up is no small task though.. I suggest reading around to find grow journals that have budget in the title because it gets expensive quickly.. Your setup right now is not going to be sufficient and with a shoebox you are going to have a mold problem with all the watering.. Get a real pot for those guys.. If you want both then give them both their own.. Growing out of one pot is not something you want to do if you decide you want to flower them.. You are looking at a lot of costly things to get this off the ground.. Be ready to drop some bucks on this.. It isn't going to be cheap.. Goodluck Edit.. If you decide to keep this going then look into the lst guides on this forum.. That or scrog seem to be the best alternatives to just letting it grow because you can get more colas than one big one..
just to be clear, my advice was based on the OP's statement.... Due to the OP's clear statement that he didnt want to buy anything. There was nothing he could do except watch them slowly fail. It's not being mean, or trashing newbies. My advice was direct, but not insulting.
True, but it did nothing to help the grower to see that it was going to cost them whether they like it or not.. It is going to cost them a lot of money.. You could have added that in by saying I think you should kill it because it can't be done for free.. Your advice was direct and not insulting, but on the internet things can be taken out of context and you have to be ready for that.. Example is the fight with mast3rmind.. You said a simple statement and to me it looked completely fine, but they took it wrong and it started a battle between you two taking all the attention away from the op.. I see nothing wrong in what you stated to mast3rmind, could've been a little more helpful to the op imo, but it is done and over. As I said you are an excellent grower and I love checking in on your babies. My statment comes from the fact that lately all I've see is good growers telling everyone to look it up because they have answered these questions way too many times before.. It is becoming more noticable that experienced growers are getting tired of answering questions leaving newbies to try to do it which leads to bad advice being given out everywhere.. That and the fighting.. Sorry I'll get off my soapbox haha.. I just thought potheads would be a lot less confrontational when I joined I guess..
Ok, here's what I think you should do. If you keep them small, it's possible to do them both under just 3 26W cfls. Should run you just the $12 listed above, if you have incandescents in your house/apartment/whatever, you should swap them out anyway because it'll save you a fair bit on your electric bill and help offset the grow. You'll want a timer, just because it's a pain to try to remember to unplug the lights everyday at the same time. I think mine ran me about $12 but that was a year ago, so I can't remember and all record has since passed. If you shop around, you can probably find a pretty cheap one that should be sufficient for your needs. After that, all you need is a light-proof box or a closet with a door, anything to keep them hidden and keep things dark when they need dark. The only challenge here is that your plant will need fresh air, so some sort of ventilation will also be necessary. That, I'll leave up to you. I have a 120mm pc case fan, and I've used a smaller box with a side cut out and shrouded to light-proof it. The same could be used for the intake, but you wouldn't need a fan there. A fan similar to mine could run you less than $10 depending on what you pick. Oh, and it would also require a power supply, I wish I remember what mine ran me, but I'm wanting to say maybe $15, I'm not sure, and there are options for that as well. You could also use a fan you have on hand as long as it isn't big. You're going to want them in small pots. The first plant I grew to completion was in a 1-L Mountain Dew bottle with the top cut off. I started it under 12/12 and accidentally topped it shortly after it showed sex. It worked out quite well, it stayed really small and yielded 6 small, but dank nugs. As far as fertilizer goes, it will probably be necessary eventually, but you probably won't need it immediately. That mulch will have some nutrients in it, and should be enough to keep your plants fed for a while. Anyway, that's my piece. Good luck!
I mean only to address this issue here....It is NOT gGrower's job to steer people to the stickies. More and more i see the same, rudimentary, answered 3000 times already questions coming from a lot of these newbies and the threads and posts are cluttering up the forum with useless crap. The stickies are there for a reason and, If you ask me, The newbies need to be responsible for their own learning and where to start. IMO, once a newbie has a basic understanding of the plant and its requirements, then they are free to ask questions once again, everything they need for the basics are in the stickies...and just about anything else can be found in a thread here or there...reading the information which is already present is the most important part OP: grab a few CFLs fro home depot and hang them around the plants. read about flowering and how to use the lights. If you actually want anything to come of it, you can do it...just takes research first
^ i agree. if someone is looking to start growing but is just going to come in here and ask basic questions without doing any research, it seems quite clear that the grow is already a lost cause.
I understand and respect your post.. I actually don't have a problem with him not showing the stickies.. My only problem was when the only advice given was kill the plant and then an argument broke out with a newbie who took offense to something that was said.. I am simply saying if you want to give advice like that at least give advice as to why.. If you just say kill the plant the newbie won't learn as to why they should.. If you say kill the plant this is going to cost you more than you are really prepared for then thats another story.. I simply stopped an argument from continuing and gave the advice to actually give a because reason when posting an answer to the newbie.... There are way too many arguments and fights on this forum and I'm getting tried of wading through them when we should be focusing on the op.. I don't fight, I don't argue, I just wish other people were the same.. No reason for a grown person on here to start anything with anyone and lately we must be getting a rush of underage newbies (not talking anyone in particular) because everyother thread that's what I see.. So I'm leaving this thread as it be.. I didn't do anything wrong and I probably stopped a newbie from leaving.. Oh how I just ruined the world.. OP if you need any help just pm me or visit my grow link and leave your questions there.. All I can say is if I was bagged on as bad as some of the new newbies I never would be where I am now and I definitely wouldn't be growing..