Welcome to the HOMEBASE

Hey ya'll !!
This is my first grow journal and I have come quite a ways thus far.
I have tried my best to research all available options and have put forth a plan on the tightest of budgets. Anyone who is interested in stealth grows may find my situation intriguing. To make a long story short I am hoping to grow enough of the sacred herb to sell to friends who are eager to buy and move out into my own place so I can do this more efficiently without the risk of causing serious drama within my house. I'm pretty young and my mom is great to a degree but it is obvious she was wayyy to influenced by marijuana propaganda in her youth to ever have an rational thoughts about it in her lifetime and as far as she is concerned it's a demon plant. Now with that being said I have carried my babies through veg and they are finally ready to flower, of course the smell is going to be a problem and the steps I take now are vital to the success of this op.
Please save your criticism, if I had any other options I had not exhausted yet I would be traveling down that avenue. Lucky for me where I Live nobody and I literally mean NOBODY (no one I have met in the past 10 years and I'm talking thousands) has given thought to growing herb because it is so intimidating. Everyone here buys herb for ridiculous prices which I think is stupid but when I try to explain this to any of them, they respond with typical lazy ignorant excuses. So I figure the ones who have listened will be brushing up on their cannabis horticulture while the others will simply await the fine herb I'm about to bring .

So enough with the introductions, I currently have a propagation area, 1 veg room, and one flowering space under construction. In the veg room I have

-Five 40w CFL 4100k I needed CFL's to start since i was working with like 60 bucks
the 4100k was the only spectrum I could find at the time which I thought would match the blue light spectrum preferred in veg. Although its more or less supplemental light I had to make due with it. Surprisingly enough it's been more then sufficient so far.

-Two blue LED rope lights, once again for that extra blue
-Two 23w 6500k daylight fluorescent tubes

-emergency blankets to reflect light

-One tower fan

-small febreeze carbon filter/scrubber

-speaker near plants hooked to my computer playing various classical music (Beethoven, Mozart, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina) some hip hop, Indian ragas, Jonathan Goldman's Holy Harmony and R&B

the veg room is dual level and also padded with acoustic foam for soundproofing


the soon-to-be flowering area is on the other side of the room (outside the closet)
I have:

-One exhaust fan blowing air out a window with a Honeywell replacement activated carbon filter tied on to it

- One 1000w Metal Halide lamp- I really need help with this....I know the lights are supposed to get hot...but Jesus, I can cook meat on this damn thing !
I bought my light for cheap at insidesun . com and the ballast is refurbished.
I turn the light off every 2 or 3 hours and let it cool off, I may be paranoid but I feel like I am either going to burn the house down or bring the cops to my doorstep once the helicopter flys over my house with the FLIR. Which is does NIGHTLY
The room is in my basement but the house is a 2 levels. I have the tower fan blowing air on the light and my window fan about a foot away sucking air out. I really need to get a fire extinguisher

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated...I almost convinced myself to sell the light to a friend for 100 bucks and buy some 2700k CFL's but I chose metal halide over HPS for one reason. More dense, resin buds. From what some of the experts here and on other forums say,although HPS will give you larger fluffier buds- MH will provide more of the blue spectrum to promote more resin development and denser buds which look smaller but weigh out to be more . Dont take my word for it, I am sure most of you may already know this or have heard of growers who simple prefer mh from start to finish.


Now for the plants.
Currently I am growing some 7 seeds obtained from a friend.
I have white widow, silver haze,malawi gold and recently my friend sent me some bagseed to grow and out of 5 seeds, 2 germinated and are chillin right now.

All of the seedlings were in miracle grow soil which i quickly changed to walmart garden safe potting mix with small amount of nutrients, I used some anti wilt while they were only about 7"
and also some prop-o-gator food for their roots.
I did this for two feedings and then fed them only way for a while until I started to notice light green leaves which signaled deficiency so I mixed a solution of 1part urine 1 part water and fed it to them (before you get all grossed out consider how urine is a high source of nitrogen and all the food we eat is grown with cow and worm poop so really whats gross and whats economical?)
After the first urine feeding they flourished and nearly doubled in size over the course of a week ( the 2 weeks prior growth had pretty much come to a halt)

It has been nearly 2 months now and all of my babies are looking pretty bushy.
I haven't quit researching while growing and after discovering hempy buckets I was SOLD.

I currently have 3 bucquets ( the soil buckets)

for those who don't know its a simple bucket with a water reservoir in the bottom and a hole in the side to prevent over watering.
I use 1 part vermiculite 3 parts perlite and a layer of coco coir separating a layer of soil I keep to stimulate the stem and hold a bit of water within the coir.
I transplanted 3 our of my 7 plants to buckets and they are lovin it

The buckets have been working great so far I feed+water them with a light mix every watering. I have a giant rubbemaid plastic waste basket with an aquarium heater and an airstone in which I have over 10 gallons
of water in. Also this water has:

Ph is about 5 - 6.5
-a cap of hydrogen peroxide (provides o2 to roots)
-a few caps of Prop-o-gator (0-3-2)
-a teaspoon of Epsom salts
- ph down
-1 half cup of urine

Now if anyone sees a problem in this mild solution please let me know.

I have layed off the feeding now that I am ready for flowering. I have noticed the tops of all my plants to turn light green. I have not switched the photo period but I noticed the change immediately after i switched the light from CFL to MH.I also noticed the warm water was starting to smell a little funky after a few days like the urine was fermenting so I dumped it and now I am giving them straight only PH water.
Might it possibly be the light or the solution which has caused this I do not know, my money is on the solution seeing as after the watering they are looking slightly better. At least they are not drooping at all !!
so now my final step is to order some black & white poly or possible visqueen, get a light timer from a friend and get about 3 more febreeze carbon filters and I should be good. Does anyone know if this will be sufficient odor control for seven 1ft plants??

I was thinking about investing into some Fresh2 odor eliminating bulbs which some other growers have used and liked but the only drawback is it can decrease the potency is used in the same room as your plants, I was thinking of putting them in the next room but I am worried it might still affect the plants.

I am very confused on what nutrients to buy. I Only have access to walmart- home depot- canadian tire and a small hydro shop with expensive stuff.
Anyone who may know of some good bloom nutrients should throw in their two cents seeing as I will spend the extra dough if its going to pay off.
Lucky for me I can use both hydro and soil nutes in hempy buckets.

anyone who is interested in seeing all of my pictures can find them in my imageshack album

http://profile.imageshack . us/user/mrchamber/




finally one last thing
is white widow a form of crack?
I know it sounds retarded but I really need to know before I start hooking up friends with solid nugs. Check this and please tell me your thoughts. I donèt want to believe it but knowing is always better.

http://wiki.answers . com/Q/Is_white_widow_laced_with_crack


Peace & Respect