Bugs in a basement aren’t the same kind to bother plants. It’s the ones on other plants you gotta worry about.
I never worry about RH, just vent to the basement. Keep the grow smaller and you can avoid things the need for A/C and humidifiers/dehumidifiers. Then again, most basements east of the Mississippi benefit from a dehumidifier.
Fertilizer is cheap…a lot less than buying weed. MaxiGro/MaxiBloom, Dyna Gro, Veg+Bloom, Megacrop all very very inexpensive options.
Don’t sweat the money. It’s the only hobby that pays for itself and then some. How much you spend a year on weed?
I could’ve bought all this for what I have paid already, just starting this year even. Problem is I can’t just spend the money I would on weed and hold out for that time. Id be up the walls. I don’t even have a problem with the costs, lol, it’s affordable as hell compared to IL med. Or IL street for that matter. I just have no flexibility financially. I’m on whatever I can scrounge for a while, leeching off family til I can get working again. I had the go ahead on $200-$300 but things came up. Can afford about $50 now. Med prices are killing me anyways, so I’m trying to get the ladies (just jinxed myself I’m sure) growing ASAP so I can get my head above water.
@ReikoX I have some photos that came in the other day, I think they’ll still work ok. The basement will be 99% dark, and the tent will coming not too long… right? Or will any light pollution just make this not viable with photos?
Edit- just saw something about running autos on 24 hr light? Would this be a method to open air grow without worry of pollution?
In my experience, any light pollution indoors will prevent the plant from flowering. Ive seen an LED on a power strip prevent flowering indoors. But you have at least 4-6 weeks of veg time to get the light pollution sorted.
Sweet, shouldn’t be an issue. The temp down in the basement is a bit chilly, 66 F maybe. Around 50-60% humidity. Once the tent is up I can climate control better but until then- suitable? I can put a space heater down there if I need, and will be turning the dehumidifier off (highest setting is 50%).
You can definitely pick up stuff cheap and secondhand/even free if you’re thrifty and handy, but there are some nonnegotiable costs. You’ll need a good light, nutrients, pots, substrate, and a fan at minimum.
At the moment we have some 4ft two bulb T-8s, hoping that’s enough.
But yeah, I’ve looked on the local getting sites, not much there. I am quite handy, so things like building the tent aren’t a problem. I just don’t know enough about plants; especially these ones. I plan to get it piecemeal, just looking to get seeds started this week; by next 2-4 weeks I can add another $50-$200.
You can get great bargains out there for little money on the second hand market. Look on Craigslist. I have built an entire room. 3 tents, LED and HPS lights, inline fans, filters, clip fans, nutrients and more. I have less then $800 in all of it. I have a thread on here about it.
I started a crop of autos on 24/0 light and they did fine. I eventually adjusted to 18/6 when I added some photo plants to veg in the same tent. The nice thing about autos is that the light cycle is not what determines when they flower - they’ll do that on their own no matter how many hours of uninterrupted darkness they see.
One of those autos was a Bruce Banner that, unbeknownst to me, developed a few male flowers and pollinated itself. My buddy grew one from the same batch of seeds and his also herm’ed a little. I harvested 5oz of beautiful, POTENT buds from that plant and now have a few dozen seeds from it. I don’t plan to grow them since I now have a ton of other seeds I purchased, so I’m happy to send some your way as long as you’re aware that ‘she’ might also be part “he”. Just PM me if you’re interested.
Especially at the end of the month when people have to move. You just have to keep looking on there all the time. I check it 3 or 4 times a day. Takes some effort but if you want to succeed you have to put in the time.
Like you said @vernal, certain things you can not skimp on in the end, however you have to start somewhere then reinvest.
What part of a “autos” did you find to your liking? Only asking because I started growing 8-10yrs back and I thought autos where the way to go also. Now I only use my own genetics.
It saves me from having to worry about when to flower and whatever… Fuck it, I decided. I’ll be setting up some photo periods this weekend, they sound like some great strains. Now knowing I have a few weeks to seal up light leaks I’m not worried about it so much.
I like simple. If I could have a machine to auto grow the plants I would. I enjoy the science of cannabis, but I am just not a plant guy. Considered those little autos that you just prune buds off every month, get like 1/2oz if I remember right. But I saw the price of the kits… I can build it bigger, better, cheaper so why would I buy? I don’t need it so simple they charge you to mix the soil or anything, just a water only, easily maintainable plants the produce enough medicine for me to stop worrying how I’m going to pay for it. I can see maybe getting into breeding, crossing strains. Maintaining good genetics. But thats about it. Set it and forget it.
I have a few tents going now, and one of them is at a friends house who is a cancer patient - it is a small 2x2 tent with 9 clones in 1 gallon fabric pots and an LED light and a fan. It is about as “set it and forget it” as I can imagine. I let them veg for about 4 weeks and then flip them to flowering - it is a 8-9 week strain I am running. I stop by to water them once very 10 days to 2 weeks. I harvest them for my friend and they get about 9 to 11 ounces on avg. every 3 months of bud, plus trim and leaves etc., out of just a 2x2 tent and a smal LED that costs practically nothing to run. That way they can consume about an ounce a week and not worry about going to any dispensaries etc… One great thing about having it at someone else’s house is it seems to get just the right amount of LITFA
I was thinking on 1 or 2 gallon pots, maybe 6 of them. I wasn’t sure how much they’d actually produce at that small a size.
@ClosetCartelGenetics I mean, we’ll see. If it takes a bit of work to get meds on the cheap I’m down. But I have enough obsessive behaviors, I don’t need to be messing too much; I prefer to read up.
My friend thinks he is gonna pull 4+oz per plant right from the start and I try to tell him that be happy if the plant just loves through both cycles!! You gotta fuck up to know what to do and not to do but if you need help just ask! Remember KISS - KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID
yeah 6 would work, we use a strain that doesn’t branch much and don’t top it at all, and by harvest time it is crammed in there for sure. I have often felt we would get more yield with fewer clones, however they like the way it works now and can’t see the logic of fewer plants producing more buds and if it aint broken dont fix it type of thing
Lol, yeah, I’m hoping for and ounce a plant maybe. Which is enough for 3-6 months depending on my tolerance. So I’d be pretty happy with that. Pretty happy if I get them all to flower.
