First budget grow

I started growing around 2 months ago with a 10w cfl since I didn't have anything else, but recently got a grow tent and an led grow light, it's far from powerful enough but still way more powerful than the cfl I used to use, I would buy a more powerful light but they aren't widely available in south africa, I had to import the one I have from amazon in the US and import fees are rediculously expensive, but my one plant got it's first preflowers 2 days ago but only on the one new branch after I topped it so it's a little strange to me since both branches are equally big but I'll post some pics and I'd like to know what you guys think and any advice is appreciated oh and would you guys recommend a DIY COB LED with an onboard driver? I can import those for around 30 dollars but they are 12 dollars in the US which will give you an idea on our import fees haha

I’m my honest opinion due to cost I’d probably go for a diy cob cfl, you can use 5 14watt for seedlings, clones, and some vegging, then swap them out for 42watt during pre flower vegging, and the flowering phase.

I'm going to shift this thread over to the LED section - you will no doubt get a better response from those guys.
They're pretty knowledgeable on this subject.

My plant got some more pistils today, it's getting more and more exciting, growth is still very slow but I guess you have to be patient with gardening.
My other big plant is still showing no signs of sex even though it's exactly the same age.

Merry Christmas to all, I've been away and left a buddy watching my plants, so sorry for not updating on that but 2 weeks ago I built a cob growlight for under 30$ if you have some pc heatsinks laying around and grew a blueberry autoflower to the age of about 1 and a half weeks old the growchips I used are tesfish 50w chips with the power supply built in and functions at 220v and are around 8$ each so I decided to start off with 3 as an experiment and the results aren't bad at all. Let me know what you guys think

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Here is some progress on my buds, sorry I was so slow on updates, while my friend was watching the plants they didn't get enough light so they are pretty lanky but im just going to let them bud and hope for the best.

I grew a seedling in a clear plastic bottle once, and it stunted.
I put tape all around the plastic to block the light, and it took off again.

Msidragon said:

Here is some progress on my buds, sorry I was so slow on updates, while my friend was watching the plants they didn't get enough light so they are pretty lanky but im just going to let them bud and hope for the best.View attachment 4093463 View attachment 4093464

Click to expand...

Looks like the structure of my first ever run.

Damn that looks good, how long does it take to start budding like that? My eta is about 2 months if I had to guess but bit genuugenu don't do know since this is my first grow.

Some more frosty goodness

This is a slow one but let me know what you guys think, the plant has 3 main colas like this one but will send pics of the full plant tomorrow