lexort420
Well-Known Member
I grow on a very tight budget and I thought I would share how I do it. First off let me say in no way is this the ideal way to grow however this is just to show it can be done. For starters my medium is a Jiffy seedling starter soil less mix, this is great stuff and anybody reading this is probably thinking to themselves "but it's a seedling starter". well before you spaz out let me explain why I use the seedling starter. First and foremost it has no nutes in it and in my area its hard to find any without, secondly it's a soil less mix so it's pretty much hand watered hydro which for me is so much better when all you have is crappy nutes because I have better control on what goes into it, and lastly I get such insanely fast growth in this medium. Obviously since I am on a budget I'm using cfl's which don't suck as bad as many ppl think. I use mainly 26w cfls that are 2700k. Now I know that 6500k is better for veg however I like the results I get from the 2700k cfls because it keeps the growth tight and compact. For pots I use 2-liter pop bottles that are cut about a inch above the label. Before you say anything about how I need a bigger container because my plants will get rootbound I have to say I've had no problem with that thus far. The key is keep veg time short also it is my opinion that my soil less mix makes root space less important, just a theory though. For nutes I use the dreaded miracle grow yes I said it, and I know it is hated on alot and rightfully so. Even I will say if it wasn't for such a tight budget and lack of anything better around I wouldn't even use it myself. In my experience the key to using miracle grow is to first off get the liquid stuff such as the African violet plant food which has a npk ratio of 7-7-7 and use the liquid cactus plant food with a npk ratio of 2-7-7. Now I can't stress this next part enough so listen up USE IT SPARINGLY AND DON'T GO CRAZY THINKING YOUR PLANT NEEDS A HIGH DOSE. I rarely see nute burn and if I do it's because I go ocd when I inspect my plants so I notice the very light nute burn and know to back off on the nutes. I flower my plants in a Rubbermaid tote grow box that I made, I lined the inside with a emergency blanket and have reflector clamp lights with y-splitters hanging inside and a roughly 8inch fan installed in the bottom tote so it can push the air out the top tote. I made my veg/cloning chamber out of the frame of a crib lined once again with a emergency blanket fan for circulation and more reflector dish clamp lights and a lights of America grow light fluro. Growing this way I managed to get enough off 3 plants to smoke every day all day for 2 months and I smoke alot lol. Don't have actual weights yet due to the fact that I don't have a scale yet. All in all I've spent little in comparison to what I would spend to smoke every day all day for 2 months and its still just as good quality if not better then what I can get in my area so I would call it a success. As stated in the beginning this is NOT I repeat NOT the ideal way to grow but if your on a tight budget it is possible. Thank you for taking the time to read this and happy growing