i’d go with a dwc system personally but i’d also use a cheap ass light. i just stapled cardboard up on the inside of the closet and painted it flat white. the dwc system saves money after initial investment because the bottle of nutes lasts forever it seems like.
The plan (so far) is SIP with amended soil outdoors for veg, indoors as soon as I get the light. Got lots of rich abundant soil around, may as well use it. Can’t really afford more than the most basic amendments right now. Anything hard work is gonna net me (like setting up worm bins and doing compost) without spending anything is going to reign supreme. Except for Lights. Lights have to be good. Might try to get a tent, might just tape mylar survival blankets around the inside of a cardboard or plywood box and call it good. 
Mars has a 100w that isn’t dimmable for $60
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Yeah dude. I’m gonna need a bunch of smaller lights eventually when the genetics program pops off anyways, may as well start with one of those. Probably better than outdoors by a large margin.
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I have the mars light, for some reason I thought it was dimmable but I get confused on Amazon often.
I’ll see how it goes for veg, especially seedling stage and cloning without dimming function but for a budget closet flower chamber it could work.
Outdoors you really need like 4 2ft clones, they’d run you like $100-200 though and if you can set up the indoor for that amount seems like a no brainer.
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i got 2 cheap close outs from walmart online for $25 each. don’t recall the specs but they are bright as hell and a friend just used them on a very successful grow. i have yet to use leds, waiting on that license for some stupid reason.
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no, this.
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Many thanks! 
if youre looking for lights for seedlings, anything t5 or small led lightbulbs will do. once you hit veg your best bet is a cheap chinese or mid brand with samsung lm301b or lm301h. tons on amazon, ac inifnity has a 100w for under $100. but surely a viparspectra, meiju etc can do it just as well. you can flower with those too.
also, i compiled a bunch of diy projects for lights, soil and other shit here if you want to take a look.
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Very much appreciated! I’ll be giving it a look today! Yesterday was Crunchberry’s SIP thread, and I ended up getting a lot started! My plan today is to start a lactic acid farming loop. I got glass jars out the ass, may as well start stockpiling something I need. I’m also setting up the beginnings of a worm bin so I can have a steady supply of worm castings. There’s actually a few worm farms around here, so I might be able to get some eggs for a trade.
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Got my rice water started, also went outside and checked on my compost. I got a little crazy with it yesterday, ended up pulling about 10 gallons of soil back out to keep things balanced. Looks pretty quality, mostly forest floor leaf mold and fresh black dirt. Some natural rotted wood mixed in from a rotted fallen tree I found.
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I can vouch for 100% perlite. all my plants for the last decade have been grown in perlite. way faster than most other meidums. i run hempy, so a hole about 2 inches up on a bucket. it has all the water it needs and you can’t over water. i dare you to overwater with perlite. try, fail. a 2 gallon bucket will give you 3 to 4 days between needed waterings in veg, every 3 days or so in flower. i bought a big bag of vermiculite about 10 years ago, i never used it.
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Score, found the old man’s UV (minus bulb) and light timer. The grow lights went down the road years ago, sadly.
The original design called for perlite, so that makes 2 - 1, favoring perlite. Also saw it as an ingredient in a lot of dwc or hydro builds.
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Thoughts on this, anyone? I was considering making my own biochar (as soon as the JADAM starts to take off), but now I’m starting to question it. If I can’t help it I guess, but I’d like to at least take some time to address it and see if there’s anything I can do to sort of… clean it up?
Today’s garden haul. Cucumbers are coming in vigorously as usual. Zucchini are starting to take off, along with the yellow squash.
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Got the starter soil today. Happy Frog was expensive as heck so I hope all that hype is worth it. Got some perlite, almost made the blunder of getting the Miracle Gro brand until I noticed it was saturated in fertilizer. Nope, not taking the chance of burning. I think I’m gonna go 1/3rd perlite just to keep from having these drainage issues I keep hearing about.
Additional: North Star is popping! I think give it a few more days and plop it into it’s new soil.
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Happy Frog is great soil and awesome for starting seedlings. I’ve seen a lot of people say it’s too hot, but I’ve never burned seedlings with it. But keep that in mind.
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Happy Frog is pretty mild actually, it’s the Ocean Forrest blend that can be a little hot for seedlings of some strains. Happy Frog can benefit from added perlite in my experience as the drainage seems to be a little lacking.
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Yeah, I was worried about that myself. Added 1 cup of perlite to 2 cups of Happy Frog. HF had some perlite in it already, but I kept in mind that “Inadequate Drainage” is the biggest issue with the soil. After mixing, it’s very fluffy and moist. Not hard soil at all.
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