OK im sure this has been asked before

[stonerboy4209]

i was wondering if anybody knows of any cheap nutrients that i can get at the local hardware store that will work on my plant.i just dont feel like paying a shit load of money for something i know i probably can get for cheap.

 

[caligrown]

Hey stonerboy, welcome. However, hearing this, makes me sad. Why?!

Because for nutes, it isn't about price!! In fact, miracle grow costs way more than a bottle of humboldt nutrients oneness, which is a great one part to start with esp with soil.

Look here, general fertz are 11 NPK ratio, mening it would e 15-15-15 or 6-6-6 or some other whack job ratio. fuck that. I'm serious. This hobby is money in money out. No money in? Well you know whats up.

Do NOT use general nutes. They wll cause you major problems. As a beginning grower, it is much harder to properly feed a plant using incorrect nutrients. For cannabis, the ratio should be higher in N for growth, and more in P and K for bloom. This is really important as cannabis sucks in massive amounts of P and K for flowering.

Here's what I suggest.

Go with a bag of Roots Organics or Fox Farm Ocean Forest (I like how Roots Organics has coco fiber and perlite mixed so its a little easier) and a bottle of Humboldt Nutrients Oneness. You won't need the nutes till like 3 weeks later too, so no biggie.
For lights, use a 125W CFL, as you don't need to spend a lot of money on cooling with HID's, and not to mention its a lot less conspicuous.

That shouldn't run you too bad. IMO, there is no point going into this hobby trying to jimmy rig everything. Fact is, at the cost of saving a couple of hundred bucks, you lose a couple of grand in terms of yield and quality, if not your whole harvest at times.

Go with GH or Humboldt oneness. Those are the cheapest. Oneness is more simple, but GH you can fine tune. As a beginner I woul dgo with oneness.

PLEASE do not buy miracle gro. That is just horrible. Really. You can grow with that, but don't expect to grow any stellar stuff. Fortunately, most of the nutes in a hydro store are designed for cannabis (altho they never list this) but UNFORTUNATELY hardware stores don't have those nutes. Foxfarm is good too, but my advice is just to stick with one line.

 

[caligrown]

oh also you can try craigslist. This dude was selling like nearly 6 full bottles of Humboldt Nutes and it was only going for about 40 bucks. I saw what he had, it was easily worth over 150. So yeah, try that. DO NOT USE MIRACLE GRO!!

 

[TorturedSoul]

Soil or hydro? If soil, many places carry Neptune's Harvest organic fish, seaweed, etc. products (there are four or five I think). It'll work although I can't say how well (as opposed to other products).

Or... a REAL hardware store is going to carry regular fertillizer (5-10-10, 10-10-10, ammonium nitrate (HOT), etc. usually sold by the pound and in 50# bags), bone meal, blood meal, super triple phosphate, and all kinds of stuff like that. Things could get pretty interesting while you experiment but you aren't likely to kill anything straight out if you don't burn your plants.

I'm guessing you're looking in hardware stores instead of just ordering over the phone or 'net for security reasons. Try hitting up a few product websites and checking their dealer/distributor lists to see what there is in your area. Or even anywhere near your area. A 150-mile drive (one-way) ought to put you in the range of many such stores unless you live in Bumfuk, Utah or the like and although spending a total of six hours on the road might seem like a real pain, it's not like you're going to have to go every week. When I was growing a fair amount I tried to go once a year or less and get gallon jugs of everything (or even larger containers).