Under $100 1st grow, 5G DWC, WW (Fem Seed) Closet Grow (106W Veg, 160W Flower)

Alright, so I'm just going to warn that I'll be taking a lot of pictures, and probably updating this WAY too often. But hey, it's my first grow and I'm excited about it.

Materials:





The Setup:



The Seedling:

<-Day 3 (1/4") <- Day 5 (3/4") <-Day 6 (2 1/2") <-Day 6


So, I added 4 coats of green "plastic bonding" spray paint to help light proof the bucket. Used regular 8" plastic pot and added plenty of holes. Using MG perlite and covered the top of that with black aquarium gravel for more light proofing. Drilled hole near top of the bucket for air stone tubing and am using 1 6" bubble stone.

Seedling was germed in a Motts cup with a 1/4" of water in a cabinet for 18 hours and then transplanted into a Jiffy cube and sat in a window sill for 4 days. On the 5th day I planted the Jiffy cube directly into my perlite and have watered once a day from the top.

Cost:

Bucket .89 (Lowes special)
Lid for bucket .98 (Orange Box)
8" Plastic Planter 1.97(Orange Box)
Air Pump 5.98 (Wally World)
Air Hose 1.27 (Wally World)
Air Stone 1.97 (Wally World)
MG Perlite 4.97 (Wally World)
Shop Light 9.57 (Wally World)
4" T8 bulbs 3 x .90 (Work)
42w cfl 5.32 (Work)
32w cfl 3 x 3.52 (Work)
Wire Free (Work)
Sockets 3 x 1.27 (Work)
Nylon Cord 1.98 (DG)
Seeds 12 for 29 (rather not say)
Nutes 7.75 (eBizay)
Blower Fan Free (was laying around)
Power strip Free (was laying around)
Timer 2 (Wally world clearance sale )
Total Cost = $90.92

I'm 1 for one on germing and I have 11 seeds packed properly in the freezer. I figure even with a pathetic harvest I will more than make my $ back, and I'll have that pride of blazing my own Herb.

Oh yeah.. lights being used are...

Veg:
1 x 42w 5000k cfl
2 x 32w 6500k 4" T8 Linear Flouro 106w

Flower:
3 x 32w 2700k cfl
1 x 32w 6500k 4" T8 Linear Flouro
1 x 32w 3000k 4" T8 Linear Flouro 160w



This site has been great for me to learn the basics for all of this, and I hope to be able to contribute back a bit. I will be staying with my current light setup throughout the grow and for at least this first time will not be adding anything. I really want to keep this under $100 to be a "budget grow" , but I'm very open to any suggested add-ons that will total $9.07 or less

P.S. - I'm not counting odor control to this total, as I intend to use some pet odor control supplies I already have.

Thanks for reading ! Please come back for updates, as I will be making too many of them !

Day 7 Pics:



Seedling has grown from 2 1/2" to 3 1/4" between days 6 and 7. I know it's still very early in the grow, but any advice or other comments would be appreciated. Thanks for looking !

Anybody ever use those "volcanic rock" odor neutralizing packs from HD ? If so, how well did they work and for how long ?

Added 1 x 15w 5000k R30 style CFL. Not adding anything to my cost total since it came out of a ceiling fan that I wasn't even using the light on !!!


Plant is showing signs of new growth on top, hope you can see it...


Seeing as that the stem is ~3" and the growth is so small at the moment, should I bury it a bit deeper and lower the lights accordingly ??? +rep for a good answer !!!

MrJones86 said:

Seeing as that the stem is ~3" and the growth is so small at the moment, should I bury it a bit deeper and lower the lights accordingly ??? +rep for a good answer !!!

Click to expand...

It would not hurt to bury it some, though it may not grow roots on the buried portion of the stalk. Have you looked into LST? How far is the light from the top of plant, ya rally want it as close as possible. Use the back side of your hand to determine, if your hand feels heat(uncomfortable) then so will your plant. The CFL bulb puts out more light from the side, that might be one reason for the stretch. With the light vertical right above, the plant does not get as much lumens as if the bulb was on its' side or angled. Once you get the light as close as possible then your plant will not have to waste energy in tryin to reach it, an then you will get canopy growth.

^^^ Thanks for the advice man.

Day 9 update:

Pulled the CFL at an angle to get a bit more light. My plant responded by leaning back like she was driving a Cadi !



Secondary leaves are coming in nicely now. Would it hurt to add one of the 32w 2700k cfl's that I have at this point. I figure more light should be better, so I might add it on tomorrow ! Might lower the shop light too, it's far to high to do any good.

More lumens never hurtz, as long as the temps are adequate. I went back a checked your pics again, in the first setup pic is that how high the T8's are always? If so then I don't think them T8's are doing much to benefit in the light department. Check out the light on the wall that is cast by the T8's... just below the top of the yard stick you can see the light fades fast. It might be hard to see with the cfl bulb on. I am looking also at the shadow of the yard stick. Might want to try an get a pic of just the T8 on an see how far down the light is then adjust it down till it saturates decently. Then ya could droop the cfl's on either side of the T8's. Ummm if ya have $$$ ya might want to get 1-2 more reflectors or if you lower the light ya could just turn the current reflector 90 degrees to utilize the shorter height for a while. I would try an surround that yougin an even lay a reflector across the T8's but.... i get carried away also, if ya had not noticed!

Good Luck Mr. Jones!

always leave urself 2-3 inchs extra in ur pot. also put a fan on that plant after u fill up the pot alittle. the fan will blow away some of the heat from the bulb and u can put it with in a inch. keep ur temps around 70 low. also make sure u have at least 4 hour of dark. plants that veg in 24hrs light seem to stretch more then one that dont.

oh and whats up with the zip tie on the light bulb ur going to melt that thing and start a fire never put anything on the bulbs. even if it wont start a fire if it burns and smeels and someone calls the fire department ur fucked.

Cransi said:

More lumens never hurtz, as long as the temps are adequate. I went back a checked your pics again, in the first setup pic is that how high the T8's are always? If so then I don't think them T8's are doing much to benefit in the light department. Check out the light on the wall that is cast by the T8's... just below the top of the yard stick you can see the light fades fast. It might be hard to see with the cfl bulb on. I am looking also at the shadow of the yard stick. Might want to try an get a pic of just the T8 on an see how far down the light is then adjust it down till it saturates decently. Then ya could droop the cfl's on either side of the T8's. Ummm if ya have $$$ ya might want to get 1-2 more reflectors or if you lower the light ya could just turn the current reflector 90 degrees to utilize the shorter height for a while. I would try an surround that yougin an even lay a reflector across the T8's but.... i get carried away also, if ya had not noticed!

Good Luck Mr. Jones!

Click to expand...

Thanks man !. Lol, I actually did a lot of that stuff last night before going to bed last night.



I tried lowering the shop light a bit more than that, but temps were getting too high for my liking, 88-90. So I scooted everything back to where it is in these pics and it was back down to 82. Before I leave for work I put a frozen 2 liter bottle of frozen water in front of the fan and then replace it again when I get home. This usually brings the temps to the 76-78 range. I'm in the south, so temps outside are 88-97 during the day with a TON of humidity.

Oh, and the pic on the left is showing how my "giant reflector" is normally in the closet. It's one of those reflectors you put on the dash of your car to reflect light away from it.

shizz said:

oh and whats up with the zip tie on the light bulb ur going to melt that thing and start a fire never put anything on the bulbs. even if it wont start a fire if it burns and smeels and someone calls the fire department ur fucked.

Click to expand...

Appreciate the concern bro, but it's a high temp/ UV rated tie and not a cheapo-depot type one. I needed a way to get the bulb tilled so I could get more side light above the plant.

shizz said:

always leave urself 2-3 inchs extra in ur pot. also put a fan on that plant after u fill up the pot alittle. the fan will blow away some of the heat from the bulb and u can put it with in a inch. keep ur temps around 70 low. also make sure u have at least 4 hour of dark. plants that veg in 24hrs light seem to stretch more then one that dont.

Click to expand...

You mean to have a couple of inches below the top no filled with medium ?

I've got a fan on the floor set on a timer with the lights. I'm going out today and getting a fan to ad to the shelf above all of my setup to exhaust some air out and get my temps down further.

Lights are on a 18/6 cycle right now, but on days 5-6 I accidentally left the timer on manual and they got 24/0 for 2 days, lol.

Thanks for the tips though man. I'll take any of them I can get right now !

Pics from Day 10 (from germ):



The 3rd and 4th pics make it look like the leaves are yellowing, but it's just where I pulled my 5000k bulb to the side and my 1 2700k bulb was shining more light on the plant. Growth seems to be going at a slow and steady pace, and since it's a feminized seed I'm assuming this is normal a growth rate.

Not sure if it's clear enough in the 4th pic, but I was trying to show the 4 new leaves that are developing and the small new top growth.

Sorry if I'm noobish in my constant posting so early, but I just want a full growth stages journal up, so I can look back at it all when I get to the end.

Day 12 (from germ) pics:



And again, the leaves are not yellowing, it's just the light from the 2700k on that side. I thinks she's looking pretty good at the moment.

Day 13 Pics:



With 2700K on




Without 2700k on




And my favorite picture so far...



Growing more and more each day. I figure she should be ready to top by the end of this weekend and then maybe veg a week before going into flowering. What do you guys think ???

MrJones86 said:

Growing more and more each day. I figure she should be ready to top by the end of this weekend and then maybe veg a week before going into flowering. What do you guys think ???

Click to expand...

It may not have enough nodes, well depending on how many main colas you want to grow. Have you seen Uncle Ben's Topping Technique to get 2 or 4 Main colas, good info in that thread. I topped my very first an only outdoor plant like in UB's thread but only knew about 2 colas... lucky me! It just happened to grow with 4 mains and lots of medium sized colas all below them 4. So if there is enough growth to clone the topping will ya? There is plenty of info here on RIU, I know a few good threads with pics that may help you out.

Found pics of that outdoor plant.

Cransi said:

It may not have enough nodes, well depending on how many main colas you want to grow. Have you seen Uncle Ben's Topping Technique to get 2 or 4 Main colas, good info in that thread. I topped my very first an only outdoor plant like in UB's thread but only knew about 2 colas... lucky me! It just happened to grow with 4 mains and lots of medium sized colas all below them 4. So if there is enough growth to clone the topping will ya? There is plenty of info here on RIU, I know a few good threads with pics that may help you out.

Found pics of that outdoor plant.

Click to expand...

Nice Man ! Yeah, I've read UB's thread and it's pretty much the reason why I'm topping. The 3rd node is sprouting now and the 4th node is starting to peek out. I was going to top at the 3rd node when the 6th node has sprouted. It may be alittle ways into next week, but I was being optimistic given the plant's growth over the past 2-3 days

Here are some better pics from the side:



and pics from the top showing 10 hrs of growth:

View attachment 1011452

Thanks for the advice so far man. I wonder why no one else wants to post on here, lol.

Oh, and about cloning.... maybe. If I do clone then I will most likely lollipop it since I don't have a separate place to veg and my plant should be ready to flower by the time a clone would take root. Saw some powder form rooting hormones @ the big orange box store when I was getting my planting pot there, and I think the stuff was like $5.

Day 15 Pics:



and Day 16 Pics:



Staying short and getting bushy. Hell, depending on how short she stays, I may veg for 2 more weeks...

Day 18 Pics:



She's been looking droopy in the evenings the past 2 days, but looks fine in the morning and again at about 11 am before I head out to work. PH is 6, water temp is ~68F, room temp is ~80 most of the day. I just changed out the res today for the first time and saw healthy roots sticking out of the holes near the bottom of my pot. Should I be concerned about this drooping or is it normal to droop a little during the end of the day ?