Hopefully this will catch on! If everybody shares their experiences, this could be a great thread!
Tip: dont waste your money on mylar! Use solar blankets! I get ten 8x4 sheets for $8! Same stuff!
Tip: dont waste your money on ir blocker! Use poly plastic. Way cheaper! Same stuff!
Tip: if you grow sog style. Clones are your biggest issue! Consider making your own rooting hormone from willow bark!
If you grow hydro. Forget those $200 flood tables! Try a cement mixing tub, or a childs wading pool. Even a storage tote!
If youe use co2, dont waste your time on grow bags or anything else! Its probably a huge waste! You can rent tanks for less than $15/month! Mine come full and 50lbs last a whole cycle!
I could keep going, but I would like for others to share! ANY AND ALL ideas. From power and ventilation, to seeds and cultivation.
KNOWLEDGE IS POWER! SHARE YOUR MISTAKES AND KNOW HOW! PLEASE!
Great thread I would like to contribute cause I'm super dooper stupid cheap!
My easy to run setup for 1 or 2 plants for a personal grow. I do not sell my weed. Keep that in mind.
Hempy bucket, drill a hole 2 inches up maybe 5/16 or 3/8 bit. Just small enough your perlite/vermiculite does not come out.
I have been using a 80/20 mix of perlite/vermiculite for years now. It is simply MG stuff and was hot with some nutes so I did flush it out before the first use. Bucket and medium prolly less than $20.
GH Flora 3 part. I think around $40 bucks on ebay for quarts and that will last a long long time because? I only mix 1/2 gallon batches for my one plant. When it's time to feed/water I simply poor in like 1/3 of the mixture at a time and let the nutes get absorbed in the medium. If you poor it in all at once, the liquid goes straight to the bottom and out the hole before it has time to wick. No sweat, just watch a movie and poor in a bit more later.
LED. Let's face it, may not be the best choice for commercial, but for a small timer with 1 or 2 plants for personal, they do well. Can't advise which to get, would like to know myself. Just make sure you trust your source with hopefully a few good reviews. My stuff is several years old and I paid about $100 for like a 150 watt or something like that UFO. It works. Don't remember the specs, that's why I say know your source and make sure it is trusted. I see they are way cheaper on ebay now per watt than what I payed. I'm thinking maybe $50 for a good LED 100 W plus light. The actual draw will be less so you save on electricity and you don't have to move em around all the time like CFL. It doesn't put out much heat so, house temps are fine. Less electricity less dollars. It also just seems safer than other choices.
Cheap dollar store fan. Little small one like $6 and a larger adjustable one like $15 for when it gets bigger. Get a used one at the thrift store for $2 if you want. It's just a fan that moves air.
Cheap PH and PPM meter from ebay. They are cheap and won't last forever but they work just fine. Check calibration a couple of times a grow and I'm never off more than maybe a digit. $12 a piece. Been a while though.
Get your hands on a 5 gallon water bottle. Go to the local grocery store that has a machine and you can fill it up with extremely well filtered water for .30 a gallon. I have used my house water before, it runs a pretty low ppm. Yet, feeding 1/2 gallon at a time the filtered water prolly runs me $3 at most for a complete grow. Guess I BF it a little too. Think my house water would be fine.
I do use Pargro cubes. Don't remember how much they cost but, I got a chit load of em pretty cheap. I have used jiffy pellets from the feed store and they will work fine for hempy or soil for around a quarter a piece. I bought the cubes for a hydro grow, those jiffy pellets have small medium in them that may cause a clogged jet. Makes sense anyway. Anyway that cost is negligible and sometimes easy is better than cheap.
As for anything else, just use stuff from around the house! But I do have one very cheap ingenuitive thing I did to make a light mover.
So, I knew someone that was throwing away a microwave. It was one of those really old school large ones from the 80's or 90's. I disassembled and threw most of it away. But I kept the bottom of it with the little motor, metal/plastic track and plate that makes the food turn slowly while it is being nuked. I built a base under it with 2X2s laying around and soldered a 120 cord and plug to it and that shit worked for a hempy! The plant would gently rotate in circles under the light! I was feckin proud of myself and my idea! Does it really work? Not really, lol. My soil grow would be to heavy after watering and it would just cackle and try to spin the other way. It looked cool tho! LoL. It was a fun afternoon project though. Funny looking back at how much effort I put into BFing it with silly unnecessary crap. Leave it alone to do its thing! CHEAP!
Anyway great thread!
