Intro

Welcome

hello and welcome to the farm and sorry to hear of your son's troubles, i'm sure we can help you get settled so long as you understand that there are some skills involved, if you have any general gardening experience that will be immensely helpful.

...anyway, if you have a spare bedroom or space in your basement for a couple of tents then you can be up and running in very short order, ...you'll need 2 spaces, one for mothers and vegging plants and one for flowering the plants for bud production and you'll need a fair bit of bud if you plan on making oil, edibles can be made from butter that is made from trim.

...in time you'll find that growing weed is very satisfying in iti's own right too so be sure and include your son in the garden for as much as he is able, you'll be surprised how therapeutic it is to tend the garden.

...and here is a couple pics of my own 48" x 48" DR120, Secret Jardin growtent so you'll have an idea what can be done very quickly and easily.




good luck, bozo

...just be careful though, growing can get under your skin and before you know it you'll be feeling positively 'entish'.

Welcome to the Farm Frodo

Thank you all for the warm welcome! I am looking forward to putting in the time and effort that you all have been doing for a long time.

@justanotherbozo , thanks for the visuals. Im putting together a list of the things I'll need to get started. So many options!

Welcome, Frodo.

Good luck with your garden Frodo.

Welcome aboard!

FrodoTBagins said:

Thank you all for the warm welcome! I am looking forward to putting in the time and effort that you all have been doing for a long time.

@justanotherbozo , thanks for the visuals. Im putting together a list of the things I'll need to get started. So many options!

Click to expand...

if you wouild like i can offer you advice on a very simple setup that could be put together on a budget as well as being simple to learn and to run giving you and your son time to learn more about the plant and the skills you'll need to run a continuous operation to supply your son with quality medicine.

...but unlooked for advice can often be as welcome as hemmoroids and i want to help, not to be a pain in the ass, as it were, so let me know if you'd like some pointers.

...if you do then i'd also suggest you outline your gardening experience for the community, there are many approach's to this hobby and my simple philosopy might not fit your personality but there are many gifted growers here with experience in all styles of ganja growing so i'm confident you will find the help you need.

peace, bozo

@justanotherbozo , Wow thank you so much for offering some guidance in these early stages! I've been reading a few other threads and I'm finding that the KISS method is a very popular practice! Especially with someone as new to this as we are, I think it would be a great idea to stick to this concept?

As far as my gardening experience, I am virtually a "noob". Other than planting flowers, shrubs and some ornamental grasses; I have zero experience with anything that would help nourish anyone or help anyone for medicinal purposes. I have used some nutrients such as Miracle Gro "Bloom Booster" and Osmocote flower and vegetable food. I've never followed any feeding/watering or lighting charts for any of this obviously. So anything that you can tell me would be welcome information. I have been reading information online and watching vids on youtube. I also have a copy of Ed Rosenthal's "Marijuana Grower's Handbook", all of which are a little hard to follow to some degree.

So there you have it. Literally starting from scratch! Thanks again for your time

...ok then, assuming you have a spare room or space in your basement i'd start with a pair of Secret Jardin DR 120's which are 48" x 48" x 80" which are priced at $219.95 each at Amazon but can be found for less elsewhere and actually would be better if aquired at a grow store in your area, i just think it'd better to not have something this physically large delivered.

Secret Jardin Darkroom II Pro DR120 48"x48"x80"
http://www.amazon.com/Secret-Jardin...&qid=1398811241&sr=8-1&keywords=secret+jardin

...back in 2006 there was only one grow shop within 50 miles of my house and now there are at least a dozen within 15 miles so if you look you may be surprised.

anyway, as i said above, you need one tent for vegging and this is all you need to set up at first, it'll be at least a month before you'll need to begin setting up the budding tent.

...oh, and yes, KISS is the way i would advise you to go, actually, i advise a passive form of hydroponics called 'hempy buckets' which is an adaptation of an acient Roman technology that is brain-dead easy to setup and to run and maintain.

...basically, you can take any watertight container and turn it into a 'hempy bucket' simply by putting a single drainage hole on one side of the container about 2 inch's from the bottom and this would depend on the size of the container but 2 inch's is a good rule of thumb for anything 3gallons or less.

...here's a couple of Folgers cans to illustrate.




so, once you've put that single drainage hole in the container then you'd fill that container with hydroton or grorocks or lavarock or even 3/4" gravel up to that drainage hole, then you'd fill the container, above that drainage hole, with straight coco.

...here are some Coke bottle hempys where i'm still using perlite in the bottom and this helps to illustrate how this tech functions, ...the reason you need different media in the bottom and coco up top is because if you just used coco all the way to the bottom you'd have no seperation at the drainage hole and you end up with soggy roots that will kill your plants.



...anyway, you'll have at least a few weeks to study as you begin to aquire supply's so you don't have to stress on it, actually, if you can include your son this whole process can become something that brings you two together in a completely new way and the more he feels like he's a part of it the better he will feel, emotionally if not physically.

oh, and here are a couple shots of my vegging op and you'll note how simple and barebones it is with nothing but a pair of 2bulb T12 shoplights which have been serving my purpose for more than 2 years now, before that i used CFLs. (in the pic below the CFLs are there to generate heat)





...you don't need to spend thousands to begin, you can start with the basics and add equipment as and where you need it.

anyway, i don't want to overload you with too much information so maybe do some reading, above you'll see a link to 'GrowFAQ', and let things percolate in your brain a little, then make a list of specific questions you have and i will try to answer as best i can.

keep in mind also that i don't profess to grow in the 'best' way, just maybe the simplest, stressfree way, ...my grow is so easy now it almost feels like cheating, lol.

peace, bozo

Welcome to the farm

Welcome to the Farm! Enjoy your stay;)

again welcome friend, and any way i can help just let me know.
Respect
TMB

Just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has welcomed us and messaged my inbox! We are definitely looking forward to working with everyone here and hopefully learning enough to maybe one day being able to assist another family in a similar situation to ours.

welcome to the farm!

ok Frodo, here is a list of supplies you'll need to get things rolling and keep in mind that while i post links to sources it will almost always be better if you can find these supplies locally and save yourself shipping costs.

...here are the 2 brands of coco i use and i've not really noticed any real difference, both do the job very nicely and you'd be surprised at how much coco you'll get once you re-hydrate the bale, make sure you get a good sized bin to do this in or you'll have coco all over the place, lol. ...btw, locally these 5kg bales cost anywhere from $11.00 to $17.00 depending on which store i get them at, usually the $11.00 store, lol.

General Hydroponics coco

Botanicare coco

...and here is a bag of hydroton for the bottoms of your pots and while this seems a bit pricey this is re-usable so it should be a one time expense, or at least a very infrequent expense, ...i would add that you might be able to find a very similar product locally for considerably less money under the name 'turface' and it is used by landscapers for walkways and such, ...the downside to the savings is it needs a thorough rinsing before use. (as i said above, you can also use grorocks or lavarock or gravel, just so it's something different than the coco up top.

Plant!t GMC45L Clay Pebbles 45L 8mm-16mm


...and here is a link to where i get my nutes and you'll find them on the left side of the page, the Jack's Pro 5-12-26 Hydro and the Jack's Pro 15-0-0 Calcium Nitrate. ...this is a very effective formula that gives excellant, reliable results for pennies per day that is extremely easy to use and it has the added benefit that you won't need to learn several formulations for different stages of growth, with the Jack's you'll be feeding the same simple formla to all your plants, both vegging and flowering, you can't get any simpler than that.

JR PETERS

...there will also be some incidentals that will be needed as your op progresses, like rooting powder for example, but these few i've listed above will be more than enough to get this party started.

peace, bozo

Thanks Bozo, I appreciate all the info that you have laid out for me here! I'll make an update as we progress!

Glad to hear you've found something that helps your son. Bozo has you on the right track. My only advice is form a plan and stick to it. You'll start seeing setups and styles you might think are better, and you could eventually plan to use one but don't try to change things as you go to much. Good luck and happy growing.

Hello again farmers... Just an update on how things are progressing for us. We have pretty much finished our veg room and are now trying to secure a few clones here locally (CO). We are also about half way complete with our flower tent. We went with the SJ 150. Hopefully we'll have more to report here soon and we'll add a few pics of what we have accomplished so far.

Thanks to everyone for being so helpful and willing to share your advice and growing techniques with us. It has been very helpful and greatly appreciated!