If you had 500$ to...

Start a grow, would you do it in soil? home made hydro? What kind of lights/ballasts/reflectors would you use?


I have a minor operation going I started with like 300$, its only a 150w MH and its in soil, using basic nutes, and im just trying to get ideas because harvest is coming up and I want to upgrade a bit.

your on your way. Invest in Foxfarms

soil nutes

Depends on your grow area... Do you have one? How big is it? Do you need a grow tent? Can you use the existing ventilation or is this $500 from scratch? What are your goals?

That said, I'm doing a DIY Aero based off this:
https://www.rollitup.org/do-yourself/156863-grow-2-lbs-2-x.html

Set up is cheap, but any hydro/aero will require another $100-150 for the meters needed to measure PPM/PH.

Definitely soil. The meters are going to kill you.

I would use the $500.00 to focus on lights and ventilation. Probably a 400w air cooled HPS. They run pretty cool and you should be able to get it all setup for that.

I'd build a dwc system and invest in T5 HO lights and good nutes and good seeds.

Do a bubbleponic system that shit is hell of cool and really cheap

$500 will get you a 600w COOLTUBE digital setup off of ebay from the seller POWERKINGSHOP, along with a 2x4x5 grow tent for $90, get at least a 400cfm inline duct fan, 25' of ducting, two 4" 80cfm duct fans from HTG, n some 3gal growbags, a couple bags of Fox Farm Ocean forest soil, and the Fox Farm trio of nutrients. As for seeds, your gonna need to budget for those, but thats the easiest part. You should come in right around $500 for your entire setup. If you have cash to spare, you can get a PPM meter for $30 off ebay, and you can get a Ph meter for the same price too.

Dont skimp on the quality of your equipment. Having equipment that wont break down when you need it the most is invalueable. If thats your budget, you should be able to pull off a nice 10 plant grow with it. You will be able to pull off some SERIOUS fuckin nuggets & weight if your patient. N then after that, upgrade the shit out of everything -- you already have a 150w light, so youll already be on your way to setting yourself up for a perpetual grow in the 3rd n 4th time around. That 150w will be awesome for a clone army.

good luck, n i hope that helped

-K1.

Spend the money on some Super Silver Haze and a light.

MartinezTree said:

Do a bubbleponic system that shit is hell of cool and really cheap

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Agreed and you can make it yourself cheap and it is easy. Remember that bubbleponics is just another name for DWC since all DWC oxygenates water in one way or another. I like keeping the pumps and tubes out of my reservoir (my babies' nursery) and so use pure bubble action. Others like the hardware.

Cool guys, thanks for the input, Im hoping just to build myself up! I was thinking about just doing soil and invest the 500$ into a 600w HPS/Ballast/Reflector, Fox farm nutes, Good seeds, and some ventaltion. (Since I built my own box) the box is about 5X5X8<---Height (not sure if its in right order).

McLovin420 said:

K1Ng is right on the money. I've got a 600 watt hps digital ballast and 6" easycool reflector that rocks man. I personally decided to set up my room and learn how to grow before I start messing with hydro.

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Don't buy a cooltube. They are terrible an inefficient. Just spend the money and get a nice hood air cooled hood, a ballast and a lamp.

You've got to realize that the ventilation will cost some money too. Expect to spend about $200+ for the fans. If you go 600w I would try to put together some more scratch first. 400w is a lot more realistic. But then, in a 5x5 you really want to end up w/ a 1000w.

The easy cool is a hood not a cool tube. http://htgsupply.com/viewproduct.asp?productID=48150

McLovin420 said:

The easy cool is a hood not a cool tube. http://htgsupply.com/viewproduct.asp?productID=48150

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I know, it's a cheapo hood. Better than a cooltube and that's a start! I was referring to someone else's suggestion of using one.