After figuring out how much money I spend on weed monthly, I decided to finally try my hand at growing. The funds will arrive next month, right now it's research time! I spent some time looking for components, and this is what I found: LAB90 Grow Tent (90cm W x 50cm D x 160cm H) £69.99 250w HPS Grow Light Kit, (comes complete with bulb, ballast and shade) £60.00 2x24w T5HO Sunblaster CFL High Output T5 kit £40 Atami 4 pot wilma drip-feed kit £69.99 (But I think I can find it cheaper) Misc: drying shelves, Eazi Rolls pulleys to suspend the CFL's, water pH testing kit, 120mm silent computer case fan with 44.71 CFM as an extraction fan, plastic vents, homemade carbon filter, digital timer. Growing in Canna Coco using appropriate coco nutrients. First grow will be the feminised Lowryder 2. The CFL's will be used to help seedlings grow for the fist couple of days, then positioned to light the midsection of the plants. Soo... Did I miss anything essential? Do you think the fan will do the job? Should I try something bigger and badder than Lowryder? I've read they are idiot-proof.
Sounds great. Just started my first grow with easy ryders a week ago. I dont know if you just didn't list it but you'll prob want to invest in a thermometer, especially with your hps going. you fan should be good, Im using the same thing for a slightly smaller space. happy grow
Since the purchase is still about a month away, very interested in your grow, MNPN. Can you share the progress as it goes along? Not sure about thermometers, is keeping some optimal temperature important? I think even if it's going to be too hot, I can't do much about it, hence only 250w. I should have mentioned it before, the tent itself will be placed in a big-ass bedroom closet, leaving about 30cm in every direction for the air to circulate. Would it work if I would just leave the doors slightly open, or do I need an intake duct leading outside the closet?
I have been toying with the idea of something like this hydroponics COMPLETE GROW KIT 600w light/fan/wilma/tent on eBay (end time 26-Jan-10 11:58:41 GMT)
IMHO that's an awesome system for a good price, IF you have space, can tolerate a bit of noise and can duct the ducts. But really, it's just a bit too powerful to be stealthy. Updates: I found Wilma system for £59, ten pounds cheaper than previously thought. And a complete Canna Coco medium+nutrients kit is £30. That includes fancy flowering additives and flushing liquid. Sweet... I also found a proper 100mm carbon filter for £26. So I don't think I will be bothering with a homemade one. This means the core ingredients will cost me £285. Not that bad, right?
I decided to switch my 250w HPS for 150w, since I'm afraid of overheating. So here's the question: is 150w HPS + 2x24w violet cfl tubes enough to grow 4 plants? What's better in this situation, 150w HPS or perhaps a 200w Dual-spectrum cfl which costs the same?
If heat is going to be an issue, perhaps you might want to just switch over to a T5. Going 150 on the HPS, you may regret it later wishing you had at least stayed at 250. We could have done 400 but went with 600 so we would not regret that major purpose later. Designing takes lots of research on your part as well as thinking long term rather then just what you can afford right now. Sometimes you have to just nut up and give yourself time to start it right to save yourself money in the long run of it all. Good luck.
It's not the money I'm worried about, it's ventilation. Everything else I can play around with. The space must be 90cm x 50cm x 160cm, and it must support at least 4 plants. Just 4 plants, I'm not greedy...
ventilation could be as easy as openig a closet door 3 times a day or keeping a fan running during daylight hours. Ventilation is easy in small grow ops. The larger they increase the need for fresh air and the movement of hot air from the room. Happy Growing
Updates: I've decided to try 250w HPS and install a cooltube in the future if needed. Also I've discovered that a 4-pot Wilma is 8cm wider than my grow tent! But since it has these useless long edges, I'm gonna trim them off. I also ditched Canna Rhizotonic from my nutes list and replaced it with Root Riot cubes and some foliar feed. The carbon filter is homemade with this as a carbon component. I've also found several cheap disposable CO2 systems for plants. Now are these useful at all? The project begins in a couple of weeks!!!
So I got myself some seeds... 5x Short Stuff "Onyx" (Feminized Auto) 1x Greenhouse "Super Lemon Haze" 1x Greenhouse "The Church" 3x Different "Kush" varieties I bought them at the Attitude Seedbank, just the Onyxes, rest came for free. The Greenhouse seeds were part of a special promotion which ran for 5 days only. Luckyyy... They also have an option of seeds being delivered concealed in a quite nice t-shirt. As a result, I am a proud owner of a garment with "Rollin' Stash" printed across the chest. Here's the plan: to raise a couple of generations of Onyxes, first from seed, then from clones. And when I'm bored with the low grade, which Onyx definitely IS due to its autoflowering qualities... I'm gonna plant some Haze!!! Yess... Unfortunately there's only one seed, so the rest of the pots will have to be taken by seeds which need similar conditions. And then I'm gonna clone some Haze!!! This is, of course, the best case scenario... And my grow tent is in the post. The rest will be bought as soon as I have the tools needed to "modify" the Wilma to be 8cm slimmer.
I might be the luckiest stoner ever. Scrap EVERYTHING I have said above, my latest purchase is a complete used hydro kit. I bought it for £140 on eBay. What does it include? 2 Pot Flood and Drain system; 2x Propagation domes; Maxi-jet water pump and digital timer/contactor; Envirolite CFL mirror finish single grow lamp/light reflector with vented louvre; Envirolite 125w Blue Spectrum 6400k CFL grow lamp; Envirolite 22a grow lamp/light timer/contactor; Small electric heated propagator; Elite mini 25w water heater, fully submersible; Trans Instruments EC-CF-TDS display nutrient meter; Trans Instruments Ph meter; 2x Calibration fluid, CF28, 250ml each; Ph buffer 7, 250ml; Hydroponic Ph Up, 250ml. 2x Hydroponic Ph Down, 250ml each; Formulex Nutrient Solution, 500ml bottle, approx 400ml remaining; Canna Hydro Vega A & B, 1 litre bottles, approx 800ml remaining in each; Canna Flores A & B, 1 litre of each. Canna PK13/14, 1 litre; Canna Rhizotonic, 1 litre bottle, approx 900ml remaining. Liquid Silicon, 250ml, also another 1/2 bottle, approx 125ml; Superthrive, the original plant vitamin/hormone solution from U.S, 4fl oz/120ml; 3G Bloom Stimulator, 100% organic. 2 parts, microbes and catalyst, unopened and expensive!!; Dry Flower - Liquid Black Humic, 1 litre bottle, approx 500ml remaining; Dry Flower - Clearing Solution, 1 litre; 6x Large Gordon rock wool cubes; 27x Small Gordon rock wool cubes; 7x Disposable surgical steel blade scalpels in single peel pouches; 5x Yoyo bud/fruit hangers, to support the all important crop as it grows; Gordon clay pebbles. Yes, I bought ALL THIS for £140. I am aware that just the nutes in this kit cost well over twice the price I paid... + my 250w red grow-cfl is in the post. Soo... My new setup still includes 50x90x120 cm grow tent, it will feature 2 flood&drain pots, possibly 4 in the future. Or straight away if I look at them and decide they are too small to house 2 plants each... Lights: 250w red cfl with a reflector lighting the canopy, 125w blue cfl suspended between the plants horizontally. This blue light also lights the propagator when needed. Ventilation: 120mm PC fan, homemade carbon filter. BTW, how often do you need to add or alter water/nutes in flood&drain? Is it a relatively automatic system? What I don't want is getting out of house for a couple of days and coming back to ruined crop.