Hey all!
Last Nov 2020, my state approved and legalized recreational marijuana use and growing. I've had a medical card since I retired and moved here and wanted to grow my own but was reluctant due to the legal issue. Once I felt free to do so, I spent a month researching and planning how to best do this at my home. I was very excited to find the GWE site as it is the finest website out there for information, tutorials and forum sharing with folks like myself. Nebula Haze and Sirius Fourside have done an amazing job of putting this together over the last several years. Hat is off with a big Thank You! to them.
I made my supply lists and went to Amazon with card in hand. LED lights, filter/scrubber, smart pots, coco coir, GH nutrients, pH adjuster, a small humidifier as I live in a very dry environment, and several other accessories; all came to my door. Modern supply is an amazing thing! Having some hobby cabinet making skills and some materials on hand, I opted to build my own grow cabinet- 30"x48"x62" inches which I lined with mylar space blankets. They're very cheap and I think more reflective than a grow tent. Some spray adhesive on the plywood before construction made it a simple process. Two people to stretch this would make it much easier. I did it by myself. A few small wrinkles are no big deal. I built my own quantum board with 3 Bloomspect ss1000 lights mounted on a 12"x46" rectangle frame made of 3/4 inch pvc pipe and 4 elbows. I have rope ratchets at each end to raise and lower. The lights are rated at 98 watts each true power use so almost 300 watts of full spectrum light to completely fill the cabinet. I started my seeds with one of these and plugged the others into my timer as the plants grew. Under $600 total investment for all supplies, most of which can be amortized over several grows.
I bought my seeds (Critical Mass feminized) online from ILGM in Amsterdam. I chose this strain for several reasons. Medium high THC 20%, medium high CBD 5%, a reliably easy beginner grow and ILGM had a special deal of 10 seeds for $114 plus 10 free seeds. I paid cash through the mail, which made me a little nervy, but it went through just fine and I received my order in 8 days. Outstanding service! They use some kind of drop service in the US so orders don't come all the way from Amsterdam in that time. Everything in this process is a leap of faith, is it not?
My 3 girls sprouted on Dec 10, 2020 and did reasonably well through the seedling stage with a few minor health issues due to my inexperience. getting my pH adjusted to the right level was the biggest pain in the A.. I'm using filtered tap water which is 8 pH from the tap. At first I was bringing it down to 6 to 6.5 and started having leaf yellowing and brown spots developing. Aha, says I, nutrient problem! Wrong! Then I reread the section on pH in coco being 5.5 to 6. I started adding a bit more pH Down to my water and nute solution and, Wala, problem solved. My 73 year old eyes are having a tough time differentiating the solution colors as opposed to the chart they provide. I'm going to buy a meter. It can't be said loudly enough, pH MATTERS! One of my original sprouts damped off just as it broke the surface. I believe due to my bottom heat being too high and she got dry at the wrong time. I immediately sprouted another seed as I wanted 3 for my first grow. She is now 7 weeks and has caught up with the first 2. When I topped them from the 6th to the 3rd node to start my manifold training, I planted 4 clones in solo cups with coco coir and no root hormone as I had none on hand. I had no expectations here, just thought I'd try it. To my amazement, 1 of them has survived and has doubled in size in less than 2 weeks. This morning, I fimed her top above the 6th node and will let her grow with the others through veg. When I switch to 12/12 in a couple more weeks, I will let her go on to bloom with the rest. Again I have no expectations, just curiosity.
I hope you have enjoyed reading my little intro treatise and perhaps you might have learned something as that is what this forum is about. Or perhaps you see something that I'm doing that is just a rookie mistake. If so please let me know right away on here. We all have a learning curve and all I know is I still have much more to learn! I am writing a journal as I go and have pics at all stages. I will share all this later. If you click on my avatar photo, you will see one of my manifold plants with 6 tops growing on each side. That will be a total of 36 cola tops on 3 plants plus whatever might happen with my 1 clone. HIGH HOPES!
TOKABIGONE
Last Nov 2020, my state approved and legalized recreational marijuana use and growing. I've had a medical card since I retired and moved here and wanted to grow my own but was reluctant due to the legal issue. Once I felt free to do so, I spent a month researching and planning how to best do this at my home. I was very excited to find the GWE site as it is the finest website out there for information, tutorials and forum sharing with folks like myself. Nebula Haze and Sirius Fourside have done an amazing job of putting this together over the last several years. Hat is off with a big Thank You! to them.
I made my supply lists and went to Amazon with card in hand. LED lights, filter/scrubber, smart pots, coco coir, GH nutrients, pH adjuster, a small humidifier as I live in a very dry environment, and several other accessories; all came to my door. Modern supply is an amazing thing! Having some hobby cabinet making skills and some materials on hand, I opted to build my own grow cabinet- 30"x48"x62" inches which I lined with mylar space blankets. They're very cheap and I think more reflective than a grow tent. Some spray adhesive on the plywood before construction made it a simple process. Two people to stretch this would make it much easier. I did it by myself. A few small wrinkles are no big deal. I built my own quantum board with 3 Bloomspect ss1000 lights mounted on a 12"x46" rectangle frame made of 3/4 inch pvc pipe and 4 elbows. I have rope ratchets at each end to raise and lower. The lights are rated at 98 watts each true power use so almost 300 watts of full spectrum light to completely fill the cabinet. I started my seeds with one of these and plugged the others into my timer as the plants grew. Under $600 total investment for all supplies, most of which can be amortized over several grows.
I bought my seeds (Critical Mass feminized) online from ILGM in Amsterdam. I chose this strain for several reasons. Medium high THC 20%, medium high CBD 5%, a reliably easy beginner grow and ILGM had a special deal of 10 seeds for $114 plus 10 free seeds. I paid cash through the mail, which made me a little nervy, but it went through just fine and I received my order in 8 days. Outstanding service! They use some kind of drop service in the US so orders don't come all the way from Amsterdam in that time. Everything in this process is a leap of faith, is it not?
My 3 girls sprouted on Dec 10, 2020 and did reasonably well through the seedling stage with a few minor health issues due to my inexperience. getting my pH adjusted to the right level was the biggest pain in the A.. I'm using filtered tap water which is 8 pH from the tap. At first I was bringing it down to 6 to 6.5 and started having leaf yellowing and brown spots developing. Aha, says I, nutrient problem! Wrong! Then I reread the section on pH in coco being 5.5 to 6. I started adding a bit more pH Down to my water and nute solution and, Wala, problem solved. My 73 year old eyes are having a tough time differentiating the solution colors as opposed to the chart they provide. I'm going to buy a meter. It can't be said loudly enough, pH MATTERS! One of my original sprouts damped off just as it broke the surface. I believe due to my bottom heat being too high and she got dry at the wrong time. I immediately sprouted another seed as I wanted 3 for my first grow. She is now 7 weeks and has caught up with the first 2. When I topped them from the 6th to the 3rd node to start my manifold training, I planted 4 clones in solo cups with coco coir and no root hormone as I had none on hand. I had no expectations here, just thought I'd try it. To my amazement, 1 of them has survived and has doubled in size in less than 2 weeks. This morning, I fimed her top above the 6th node and will let her grow with the others through veg. When I switch to 12/12 in a couple more weeks, I will let her go on to bloom with the rest. Again I have no expectations, just curiosity.
I hope you have enjoyed reading my little intro treatise and perhaps you might have learned something as that is what this forum is about. Or perhaps you see something that I'm doing that is just a rookie mistake. If so please let me know right away on here. We all have a learning curve and all I know is I still have much more to learn! I am writing a journal as I go and have pics at all stages. I will share all this later. If you click on my avatar photo, you will see one of my manifold plants with 6 tops growing on each side. That will be a total of 36 cola tops on 3 plants plus whatever might happen with my 1 clone. HIGH HOPES!
TOKABIGONE
anyway. You keep letting us know how and what if any questions come up. I'm in Oregon we love to grow outdoors and in. And we all love to see weed pics. of home grows. Crack some jokes and post some pics. Best of luck.
Comment