Gidget's Ghetto Grow

So this is my first post and journal. Any advice is welcome and appreciated. I am trying to make do with what is around or extremely low cost. I have my Rx so also totally legal.


I have taken an armoire/computer desk and begun growing where the monitor would be sitting.
I have mounted a light fixture that used to be a blacklight and replaced the bulb with a 18" flourescent daylight (700 lumens, color temp 6500k) also there is a normal lamp in there with a CFL.

Currently growing from seeds that I had around.

One plant I'm gonna call Backyard, it's from a plant I just grew to barely 1 gram outdoors (lots of drama in that grow). It was small, but I definately wouldn't mind smokin it again. (Not sure genetics, but it's gonna be something new if its a female!)

I tried lots of blueberry seeds (from a previous smoke) older seeds, first round the seeds cracked, but the little roots didn't grow, so the second time I just planted a bunch and hoped for the best, and Ta Da! Some are sprouting so I'm excited about that!

I've also got some Rhinowreck (from a previous smoke) also old seeds. They are just barely breaking the soil.

Also, as if I'm not trying to do too many already, I planted some Super Skunk seeds (from a previous smoke). Those are too new to know if they are gonna grow.

And for fun and pest control, I got myself a Venus Fly Trap.

Currently running lights 24 hours a day, I'm impatient and want to get these things growing quick.

I intend on using another portion of the desk for the flowering area. I have not begun that project yet and would appreciate any input on that. Also not sure what cheap alternate lights there are for the flowering stage, or if I can just use the daylights and the hour difference will make them flower just not as good of bud, not sure about that part.

Thinking about some kind of SCROG grow for the blueberry, that's why there is so many of those.

Here's hoping for females!!!

They grow so slowly!

Any advice thusfar anyone?

Sure. They look healthy, but your plants will grow faster with more lighting. If I were you i'd go out and buy just a few more CFL's to speed up the process. It should only cost 10 dollars for 4 5500k 27 watt bulbs and 6 dollars for 4 light bulb socket adapter. You could then just plug your bulbs into a power strip.

jr22hockey said:

Sure. They look healthy, but your plants will grow faster with more lighting. If I were you i'd go out and buy just a few more CFL's to speed up the process. It should only cost 10 dollars for 4 5500k 27 watt bulbs and 6 dollars for 4 light bulb socket adapter. You could then just plug your bulbs into a power strip.

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Gotcha! More lights! I'll work on that tomorrow! (It's brighter in there then the picture looks! But I definately agree with how many I have in the soil I definately need more lights)

Since I'm gonna be light shopping what should I look for for the future planned flowering area?

All you really need is some 2700k bulbs, some unsulfured molasses and maybe some flowering nutes.

GidgetGrows said:

They grow so slowly!

Any advice thusfar anyone?

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They start slow, they will take off in a couple weeks. You will see them grow 2 inches a day sometimes

#1Raiderfan420 said:

They start slow, they will take off in a couple weeks. You will see them grow 2 inches a day sometimes

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Thanks for stoppin by!
I've covered all the walls and the top with a Mylar blanket from wally world. Not much growth, I'll post pictures once I get more lights in there.

We got blueberry and rhinowreck and backyard and superskunk. So still hoping for females later on.

its a long process, growing from seed. Patience is a virtue.
Good luck with the grow op

I finally was able to upgrade! Yay!

I went the no wiring route. Chose some socket plugs and a couple Y joint sockets.

Lots of pictures so those practically speak for themselves. My only concern is running the bulbs off a power bar, is there anything I should be concerned with? Anyone have experience doing it like this or advice. (I think it will work)

My one plant has started yellowing, I'm assuming it was either not enough light, or I gave it too much 20-20-20 (that's all I have right now).

I have the 6 plants in 8" pots. Not sure if 6" pots would have been too small, but I could fit a couple more plants in there if I went smaller. Not sure with how tall the space is on if the plants need that much room.

Space is approx 22" H x 18" D x 30" W


The information I gathered stated a minimum of 2500 lumens/sq.ft. Veg stage and 5000 lumens/sq.ft. Flowering stage.

So with my estimate measurements that would put my space at approx 4 sq.ft. needing approx 10,000 lumens for Veg. and 20,000 lumens for Flowering. {UtOh I'm getting scientific}

GidgetGrows said:

My one plant has started yellowing, I'm assuming it was either not enough light, or I gave it too much 20-20-20 (that's all I have right now).

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I'd give it a few days under more light and see if it improves, I bet it will. Low light is my best guess, based on the location of the yellowing. But be aware, some of your fastest growing shoots will be more pale than your leaves, sometimes by a great deal, naturally. But the others are looking good under similar conditions, so I wouldn't worry.
Just something to be aware of, I've seen in soils that contain a lot of fresh mulch, a different yellowing due to a nitrogen deficiency. And these plants burn through nitrogen. I don't think that's what you have here, and even if it was, I would not try to correct this with the general plant food that you have.
And my last suggestion is no plant food until they are a little bigger.

Thanks Man! I definately won't feed them if I don't have to. The more natural the happier I am anyway!!

Thanks Again!!

I transplanted a rhinowreck and a super skunk into 6" pots tonight. There are a couple sprouts that seem way behind, but since I have space I will leave them in to see if they survive, I can always use a new houseplant

Thanks for checking out my journal! Planning on keeping it up to date and +rep'ing any good advice given.

Have a nice night!

My little babies are so lush and beautiful now!

I believe I have a dwarf!
(I had been reading about bonsai herb plants, not sure what if anything I did to stunt it)

It's Rhinowreck

I currently am running 4 bulbs at the 6500k spectrum and 2 at the 2700k spectrum.
The plants for about 3 days now have been running on 20 hours light 4 hours dark.
All seems well for now... I wonder when I should think about flowering.... or when I should find out if they are females or not... (Input appreciated)

When Should I Flower?

suggestions...? thinking about right after Christmas...

I still have no ventilation in my grow area, it's in my room, so I regularly remove one wall so it can get plenty of air from me breathing in here.
The extreme yellowing on my Backyard plant has definately worked it's way out and they all look very healthy. I have had about 3 or 4 mushrooms show up in my soil, but I immediately removed them and I haven't seen any sign of reoccurence.
Backyard was the first planted, with Superskunk being the last to go into the soil, but they are all doing very good right now.
Lots of pictures of plants growing. I love pictures~
So picture of my whole grow area, or veg area until I make a flower area.
The plant I've deemed Backyard and Superskunk followed by Blueberry (I've assigned the plants a letter now to track the pics per plant) and then Rhinowreck one being a little dwarf plant, the other I'm attempting to LST.

So I have this odd leaf growing .....

Hey Gidget

They all look great! You are on your way. Great start. Your BB is just beautiful... Good job.

How big is your flower area?

Im along for the ride!!! Have a nice day...SL2