Poor Man's Grow With Home Depot LED Lighting

[Ricky11]

So I had posted this in the "introduce yourself" thread and decided it would be better here since I'm going to continuously upload progress and photos,
This is a super budget grow , with only $70 being spent on the room and $60 on the seeds , the seeds are bubblegum and sour kush autoflowering and both from growers choice seeds.
My lights are just cree 120w equivalent LED's bought from home Depot , my soil is just plain old kellogs potting soil.
Germinated Friday 14th December and sprouted Sunday 16th December
The picture here is from Monday the 17th.

 

[Oldbear]

Hello Ricky ... welcome to the best cannabis site in the world.

Great start on your grow. You have some nice looking young ladies there. I think you are going about this in a smart way. A modest investment, basic gear to find out if growing is something you will enjoy. You can upgrade and add various components - like a fancy light system - later on.

Look forward to your updates.

One suggestion - be careful with that soil and possible overwatering. There is a lot less drainage material (the white bits) in that mix than is suggested. 25% by volume would be about minimum and some go as high as 100%. Good luck.

 

[Ricky11]

Hello Ricky ... welcome to the best cannabis site in the world.

Great start on your grow. You have some nice looking young ladies there. I think you are going about this in a smart way. A modest investment, basic gear to find out if growing is something you will enjoy. You can upgrade and add various components - like a fancy light system - later on.

Look forward to your updates.

One suggestion - be careful with that soil and possible overwatering. There is a lot less drainage material (the white bits) in that mix than is suggested. 25% by volume would be about minimum and some go as high as 100%. Good luck.

Thank for the reply , yes I have been warned about overwatering , in hindsight I should have just picked up a bag of perlite.
I'm probably going to add a few more lights as they mature , but not sure how many to purchase as of yet since I'm only growing two plants and they are both autoflowering, so I imagine they are not going to grow amazingly tall.
I'm wondering when to add nutes as the soil is store bought and I've heard that autos need a fraction the amount as OG photo periods?

 

[Emilya Green]

Hi Ricky! Yep, add at least 20% perlite to your soil next time and it will go a little better. I am assuming you have put drainage holes in the bottoms of those tubs? Your soil should have all they need for the first 3 weeks or so, and then if you wanted to supercharge them you could add nutes from then on out. When you start adding nutes it is going to be very important to make sure that the water and water/nutes that you apply to the plants is in the pH range of 6.3-6.8, so you are going to need a way to not only check that accurately, but also be able to adjust it down for your plain water and up when you have added acidic nutes to the mix. Someone should have advised you to put this on your basics list... it is not something you can overlook and still grow a weed correctly. I also invite you to read my paper on correct watering... especially on those big tubs, you are going to want to read what I have to say about soil migration within a container.
Good luck on the grow!

 

[Oldbear]

From what Ive read on here, 36 inches above soil is a good benchmark. Thats a more or less figure and there are lots of variables.

Is there slow release fertilizer in that soil? If yes you may not need to add any.

I have only grown autos outdoors but @AKgramma has a lot of indoor auto experience. She can advise on how much nutes and when if she stops by. Others will too.

 

[TriangleCheese]

Nice title Rick And welcome to 420 MAG

One of my friends got a job on a major electronic components company. He is specialised on LED sales and he said that eventhough the label on most of the products say CREE, like the chips on my DIY LED kit, they are fake. That is not a problem but the amount of light decreases dramatically. Your setup looks proper for early veg. but I really suggest you to invest more on lights. I just bought Viparspectra reflector series and I think their price is real fair. If you decide to buy one of these, get the red boosted version for better flowering. It would be even better if you get a Growant kit with Osram Horticulture LED's. They will definately improve the yield and quality. You will spent at least 4 months for a proper grow and you should get a good result to make it worth your while.

Peace

 

[Ricky11]

Hi Ricky! Yep, add at least 20% perlite to your soil next time and it will go a little better. I am assuming you have put drainage holes in the bottoms of those tubs? Your soil should have all they need for the first 3 weeks or so, and then if you wanted to supercharge them you could add nutes from then on out. When you start adding nutes it is going to be very important to make sure that the water and water/nutes that you apply to the plants is in the pH range of 6.3-6.8, so you are going to need a way to not only check that accurately, but also be able to adjust it down for your plain water and up when you have added acidic nutes to the mix. Someone should have advised you to put this on your basics list... it is not something you can overlook and still grow a weed correctly. I also invite you to read my paper on correct watering... especially on those big tubs, you are going to want to read what I have to say about soil migration within a container.
Good luck on the grow!

I will take you up on that could you post a link? I'm new here and navigating through posts and such is confusing at times , but yes I added around ten holes to the bottom of each and roughly 5 to each side of both container.

 

[Emilya Green]

The Proper Way to Water a Potted Plant - STICKY
Emmie's Links, Journals and Tutorials

 

[Ricky11]

From what Ive read on here, 36 inches above soil is a good benchmark. Thats a more or less figure and there are lots of variables.

Is there slow release fertilizer in that soil? If yes you may not need to add any.

I have only grown autos outdoors but @AKgramma has a lot of indoor auto experience. She can advise on how much nutes and when if she stops by. Others will too.

I don't think there are slow release nutes , it's organic and I'll have to check the ratio on the bag when I go check on the babies again.

 

[Ricky11]

Nice title Rick And welcome to 420 MAG

One of my friends got a job on a major electronic components company. He is specialised on LED sales and he said that eventhough the label on most of the products say CREE, like the chips on my DIY LED kit, they are fake. That is not a problem but the amount of light decreases dramatically. Your setup looks proper for early veg. but I really suggest you to invest more on lights. I just bought Viparspectra reflector series and I think their price is real fair. If you decide to buy one of these, get the red boosted version for better flowering. It would be even better if you get a Growant kit with Osram Horticulture LED's. They will definately improve the yield and quality. You will spent at least 4 months for a proper grow and you should get a good result to make it worth your while.

Peace

I did notice that the cheaper LED bulbs looked suspiciously similar to these , the only reason I got these is I wanted to do a pure home Depot grow , not for any reason in particular other than to just see what's possible and how successful I can grow being resourceful. But 4 months for autoflowering seeds , is that correct?

 

[TriangleCheese]

I did notice that the cheaper LED bulbs looked suspiciously similar to these , the only reason I got these is I wanted to do a pure home Depot grow , not for any reason in particular other than to just see what's possible and how successful I can grow being resourceful. But 4 months for autoflowering seeds , is that correct?

I mean 4 months for a regular grow. Sometimes autos can take that long to grow but that is not the case always. I like to veg. autos for 3-4 weeks(including pre-flowering week) and watch trichomes to decide when to harvest. Still, it is likely to take 2.5-3 months easily. I strongly suggest you to invest on some non-home depot lighting You can really make things a lot better for 74 bucks.

 

[Oldbear]

Here you go. The Proper Way To Water A Potted Plant

Most people, like Emilya, have links to important stuff in their signatures (bottom of posts) which provide shortcuts.

The volume of info on here is mind boggling. It takes quite a while to know where different things are. Lots of people willing to help so ask away as needed.

And yes 10 to 12 weeks for autos is typical.

 

[Ricky11]

Here you go. The Proper Way To Water A Potted Plant

Most people, like Emilya, have links to important stuff in their signatures (bottom of posts) which provide shortcuts.

The volume of info on here is mind boggling. It takes quite a while to know where different things are. Lots of people willing to help so ask away as needed.

And yes 10 to 12 weeks for autos is typical.

This was a great read!

 

[Ricky11]

I mean 4 months for a regular grow. Sometimes autos can take that long to grow but that is not the case always. I like to veg. autos for 3-4 weeks(including pre-flowering week) and watch trichomes to decide when to harvest. Still, it is likely to take 2.5-3 months easily. I strongly suggest you to invest on some non-home depot lighting You can really make things a lot better for 74 bucks.

For the second grow I definitely will , I'm gonna stick with these LED imposters for now and see if I can make a decent grow.

 

[Oldbear]

Hey get the big orange store to sponsor your grow lol. I like experiments. Finding out what those lights can do is a good learning experience.

 

[Ricky11]

Hey get the big orange store to sponsor your grow lol. I like experiments. Finding out what those lights can do is a good learning experience.

That would be nice , I'll get them to cover the cost of my electric bill whilst im at it.

 

[Icemann420]

Welcome to 420 magazine my friend. Looking good so far. Man do I love autos. I’ll follow along best as possible. I’m a super busy person. But I do my best. But I have a strong passion for growing.

 

[Emilya Green]

The LED market is like the wild wild west right now... total chaos and no set pricing structure on what you can get and no consistency in specs or standards. There are many 1000w-2000w LED arrays out there for under $100, and no one really knows what is good and what is crap. There are well known brand names out there, indeed sponsors of this forum, but there are many many new name brands popping up almost weekly now. Dealing with a company now might seem like a good thing, especially at the price points they are offering these things, but who knows if that company will be in business a year from now?
I have taken the blind plunge and moved from high power HID lighting to experimenting with some of these newfangled LED systems to see how they compare, knowing that no one can tell me how to use these correctly, what the proper distance is from my plants at their various stages, or even if these lights will hold together for the next few years.
At the cheap end of this market, it is a crap shoot... but a wise buyer can get in very cheaply right now, and I see no rational reason not to jump in at this point. Save up a bit for flower, and look into spending another $89 or so for a strong new tech light... at that price it is hard to go wrong. If you are not much into experimenting, spend a bit more on a brand name... You can't go wrong with a MARS light.

 

[Ricky11]

Welcome to 420 magazine my friend. Looking good so far. Man do I love autos. I’ll follow along best as possible. I’m a super busy person. But I do my best. But I have a strong passion for growing.

Yes auto's just seem to fit the bill perfectly for my ummmm 'experiment'
Just hoping that my setup is good enough for these girls.

 

[Ricky11]

The LED market is like the wild wild west right now... total chaos and no set pricing structure on what you can get and no consistency in specs or standards. There are many 1000w-2000w LED arrays out there for under $100, and no one really knows what is good and what is crap. There are well known brand names out there, indeed sponsors of this forum, but there are many many new name brands popping up almost weekly now. Dealing with a company now might seem like a good thing, especially at the price points they are offering these things, but who knows if that company will be in business a year from now?
I have taken the blind plunge and moved from high power HID lighting to experimenting with some of these newfangled LED systems to see how they compare, knowing that no one can tell me how to use these correctly, what the proper distance is from my plants at their various stages, or even if these lights will hold together for the next few years.
At the cheap end of this market, it is a crap shoot... but a wise buyer can get in very cheaply right now, and I see no rational reason not to jump in at this point. Save up a bit for flower, and look into spending another $89 or so for a strong new tech light... at that price it is hard to go wrong. If you are not much into experimenting, spend a bit more on a brand name... You can't go wrong with a MARS light.

For a second grow im going to invest for sure.
This grow is more of an experiment using just LED's from home Depot , I'm wanting to see what's possible with my limited setup , I'm sure there is going to be a need for more lighting as they mature.