Hey all! I’m a new user and also a new grower.
I’ve got two plants that are a little over 3 months old and I feel like they have stopped growing. I’m on a crazy low budget growing in a closet. I’ve got some full spectrum lights.( purchased from Amazon… four led light bars that are posable ) the soil is Harvest Organics natural & organic potting mix. Light cycle is 12 on 12 off. No fertilizer. I water as needed. I’m attaching some pics. Any and all info tip or help is much appreciated.
Hope this is the right place to post🤔
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I’d be willing to bet you’ll need more light. If your lights are the ones I’m thinking of they are very weak.
They don’t look too bad.
And I expect you’ll need some ferts soon too.
All the best and best of luck
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On a low budget… what would you recommend as far as lighting?
On the fert side. Can you recommend something easy to use for a new grower?
Is that even a thing?
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There are many options. You can get a half decent light for $100 or so.
I like pure blend pro but there are cheaper options.
80w isn’t terrible but I’m skeptical it is actually that.
I just flowered under 100w
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For one plant in a small closet this should do fine. DAKASON LED Grow Light 1500, Full… https://www.amazon.com/dp/B092PMWMGN?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share
For cheap fertilizer that works great Dr earth tomato and vegetable blend just topdress 1-2tbsp/gal of soil.
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When I started I got a 7 way splitter off Amazon for 20$ canadian, a couple packs of Walmart brand screw in LED (cut off the domes) for like 13$ per pack. And 50$ for 3 part advanced nutrients on amazon .
Then I put it all in a mini fridge that I snagged off the side of the road
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you’re on 12/12 lighting - that’s flower.
If you want the plant to grow larger (veg) you want 18/6 or 24/0 lighting. At 12/12 you’re flowering (bud production)
For nutrients, super simple = gh Lucas formula. (5ml micro + 5ml bloom + calmag). Super cheap.
For lighting try to get up to 250-300W (Real watt from wall) not the “watts” the lights on amazon say in the title (which is significantly less than advertised.) I’d look at local listings on Facebook for a cheap, quality led grow light.
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Agreed but be careful. If you don’t know what you’re looking at it’s dangerous territory.
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for sure that’s a good point. I’d recommend a brand name light that is plug and play (just look at any grow shop online and see the high end brands they carry and try to find a used one for a good price). Ie: HLG Lighting. UL rated lights. Make sure it works before you pick it up and your downside is minimal.
Unless you know lighting, I’d stay away from DIY lights.
The other thing to mention which is HUGE imo… try to minimize the use of extension cords and multi-plugs. If you are going to use them ALWAYS know how to count the amount of amps you’re running through them, and how many amps the wires/plugs are rated for.
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Use this brand of light cheapo these lights work well you can buy them from eBay cheap they have a little fan that buzz a bit but it don’t bother me,I just upgraded all my lights and went back to these
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I’m amazed at the huge rip offs for garbage I see for sale online.
Agreed on electrical safety but if we’re only talking 100w or so I wouldn’t worry too much about it.
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I agree with these guys.
I use Jack’s 321 and you can get small bags on Amazon for around $30.
A budget is good to stick too but growing your own will save a lot of money.
Lots of awesome growers here to help
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The buzzing would drive me nuts 
my tent is in the bedroom.
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I often hear “how much is this going to cost me?”
The real question is how much do you smoke a month and how much will this save me?
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yeah that’s a huge one! If you know what you need, a little knowledge and it’s pretty easy to reverse engineer a setup to meet those needs. (And it is usually much cheaper than what you pay for finished flower on the market)
the other play is I literally only have X amount, can someone help me create a setup in that budget. But we really don’t know either.
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I have 2 tents in the bedroom 1 in the living room
Wife works nights ,2 dogs sleep in the bed with me so their snoring takes the buzzing sound away
When I bought them lights they were like $40 a piece shit over 2 years ago,just bought new lights and the plants stopped growing so I went back to these,it’s funny they heat up the tent the new lights I bought couldn’t raise the temps in the tents,plants stopped growing
these lights are bright that’s about it,they definitely slowed my grow down
When I first started growing plants around the house I used these lol worked pretty well 100w bulbs
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That soil is a good start but there’s not much NPK in it.
I would suggest in the future, look at 1/3 (your soil), 1/3 perlite (or equiv), 1/3 worm castings/compost.
Here’s a handy recipe book foe review.
soil recipes.pdf (193.4 KB)
Don’t go nuts with the amendments. Some of these can be crazy expensive depending where you live, I like using local substitutes where ever possible.
To get those plants to the finish line you will have to feed them some nutriments, and as folks said … the lights need some upgrade too.
Cheers
G
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I use ace hardware soil add nutes to it
use ocean forest when I first started growing,it’s to expensive
This is $6 bag that’s what you call cheapo growing
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Ocean Forest got up here 2 years ago… and was going for $50 a bag…
I’ve never been so annoyed by a bag of dirt…
Cheers
G
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