Tips and ideas for lowering costs of growing.

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MIMedGrower

MIMedGrower

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You can grow very cheap. All you need is some light, get the best one you can afford. Then just pure cheap soil, dont need perlite etc. Good nutes are 20$, I like flora nova has everything the plant needs and last long time. And one fan. Thats it, you dont need anything else


Sure depends on environment what you can get away with. To grow potent buds temperature and air flow is key. Ventilation can be as important as lights.
 
OdlaFett

OdlaFett

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Sure depends on environment what you can get away with. To grow potent buds temperature and air flow is key. Ventilation can be as important as lights.
True but we talking the cheapest you can get away with. If you want to control the enviroment then we talking another league.
 
MIMedGrower

MIMedGrower

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True but we talking the cheapest you can get away with. If you want to control the enviroment then we talking another league.


I hoped we were talking how to grow decent buds. In my opinion thats the only level.

Environment is the number one factor to plant health and flower quality. Light is part of the environment. Also complete darkness indoors is necessary. I assume on a budget we arent growing autos.
 
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PROMETHEUSRISING

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Turn around, growth rates, cloning... I think cloning is essential to running a cheap setup. If someone is starting out dirt is the way to go for ease sake, but learning hydroponics is fun and will increase growth rates a lot. It also doesn't need to break the bank. A descent drip or aero system can be put together for ~$100.
 
OdlaFett

OdlaFett

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I hoped we were talking how to grow decent buds. In my opinion thats the only level.

Environment is the number one factor to plant health and flower quality. Light is part of the environment. Also complete darkness indoors is necessary. I assume on a budget we arent growing autos.
I grown 20% thc+ blue dream buds using only that and some perlite, not even carbon filter just two windoes open all time.
 
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PROMETHEUSRISING

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I've found the cheapest nutreints for hydro to be GH Maxi series. It's solid, so it's shelf stable, you aren't paying for water to be shipped. And it seems to be balanced for tap water use. And that saves on water filtration costs. I keep looking for directions on turning Miracle Gro into a hydroponic solution, seeing as how it's most of the way there, but everything I find just says "Don't do it!". Id also like to play around with a 'compost tea' hydroponic system idea. Maybe fish emulsion as a nutrient in a hydro system. I just like to play with things and see what happens though.
 
MIMedGrower

MIMedGrower

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I grown 20% thc+ blue dream buds using only that and some perlite, not even carbon filter just two windoes open all time.


Like i said. The environment will dictate what you need. Open my windows lately and get 100% humidity and freezing cold air.

And the filter some need to stay out of prison.

So many variables...
 
OdlaFett

OdlaFett

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Like i said. The environment will dictate what you need. Open my windows lately and get 100% humidity and freezing cold air.

And the filter some need to stay out of prison.

So many variables...
lol, I didnt argue about enviorment not being important, I just said what the essentials were. After that you can improve everything depending on your location etc. Sure if you live in a desert or alaska forget growing without a AC.
 
MIMedGrower

MIMedGrower

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lol, I didnt argue about enviorment not being important, I just said what the essentials were. After that you can improve everything depending on your location etc. Sure if you live in a desert or alaska forget growing without a AC.


That was my point. Cant tell a new grower they will be fine with less than they need. Think how bad it can go.
 
OdlaFett

OdlaFett

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That was my point. Cant tell a new grower they will be fine with less than they need. Think how bad it can go.
I stand by what I recomended. Dude starts thread with Im poor. Wants to buy LED for 15$ in walmart... I say do it, learn to grow and make mistakes and see if its for you. Then he can improve his equpment with time
 
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PROMETHEUSRISING

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I stand by what I recomended. Dude starts thread with Im poor. Wants to buy LED for 15$ in walmart... I say do it, learn to grow and make mistakes and see if its for you. Then he can improve his equpment with time
Been there. Done that. And yes, being disabled poor is my situation. Over the span of around four years I've tinkered and brought in a few crops. I'm no master grower. But I've also learned the guys telling people a 1000W light is the only way to go are blowing smoke.
 
bunkerking

bunkerking

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@MIMedGrower whaa? No cfl pc case builds then? Lol. Yah what's the point of growing if it's not at least ok and mold free.
 
OdlaFett

OdlaFett

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His temps
Been there. Done that. And yes, being disabled poor is my situation. Over the span of around four years I've tinkered and brought in a few crops. I'm no master grower. But I've also learned the guys telling people a 1000W light is the only way to go are blowing smoke.
Yeah wassnt ment to mock you, just to clearify why I recomended what I did. Ok then, I say skip those walmart lights and buy a used HPS 250-400 or 600w instead
 
bunkerking

bunkerking

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I suggest you check out my micro tent grow. It was very low budget. Cost under $100 all in and easily got me over a quarter pound.

Dollar store 100w (15w) led bulbs, amazon 7 to 1 bulb splitter, cheap inline duct fan, lamp timer and a pc fan.
In a tent I made from 1x2 and plastic sheet (panda film).

You can also use cheap fertilizer, MG and scotts work. Just use it at half strength.



This ^ should be their model to follow. I'm blown away by these results.
 
bunkerking

bunkerking

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His temps

Yeah wassnt ment to mock you, just to clearify why I recomended what I did. Ok then, I say skip those walmart lights and buy a used HPS 250-400 or 600w instead

It's a gamble with shipping and a used ballast. Craigslist yah. But those boards get so hot. Can break easily in the shipping process. A connection, that is
 
OdlaFett

OdlaFett

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It's a gamble with shipping and a used ballast. Craigslist yah. But those boards get so hot. Can break easily in the shipping process. A connection, that is

Ahh ok didnt know that. Buy a new HPS with magnetic ballast instead its like 100$ if im not mistaken go for the 400W-600w
 
MIMedGrower

MIMedGrower

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@MIMedGrower whaa? No cfl pc case builds then? Lol. Yah what's the point of growing if it's not at least ok and mold free.


Why? A good pc case micro grow has ventilation to maintain a proper environment.

Look at @BigCube micro grows. Cheap but effective bulbs and a proper box and environment.
 
BigCube

BigCube

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In another information article on this site we discuss lumens and how they affect plant growth, but you should be aware that a lot of scientists would argue it’s not the lumens that affect plant growth at all – it’s the PAR (photosynthetically active radiation). Understanding the difference between the two different methods of measurement may seem like nit-picking, but it’s not really. If you’ve read up on this topic you might be forgiven for thinking that they’re one and the same thing at first glance but, like any other information, it takes a while to process.
There really are a lot of terms that you need to get familiar with if you’re going to start a successful grow operation of any size, but taking the extra time now to figure all this out will pay dividends for you in the future. We’re going to take a closer look at exactly what the difference is between PAR and lumens and how this might affect your grow operation.

So What Is a PAR?
Essentially a PAR is the amount of light that is actually available to be used during the photosynthesis process. There may be more light emitted from a particular source, but your plants don’t make use of all of it – some of it has no real effect on the photosynthesis process. It might be best to explain this with an example. For the human eye a bright white or yellow light bulb seems to illuminate the room most effectively, whereas blue or red light appears to our eyes to be very dim and so for us we prefer the brighter bulb to light up a room.
The lumen is a measure of brightness or how much light is actually emitted from any particular light source at a given time. Unfortunately, plants don’t really use that bright yellow light for photosynthesis, and while your traditional light bulb may be high in lumens it won’t necessarily be very high on the PAR scale. Plants experience the best growth when exposed to both blue and red lights and this type of light, while still visible to the human eye, is better measured in terms of PAR’s than lumens. As part of the visible color spectrum blue and red light is found between 400nm and 700nm and as you approach 700nm the PAR exposure increases. As a plant grows from a seed to a mature plant its need for light shifts from the blue to the red end of the spectrum, and you can measure how much exposure to light it’s getting in nanometers by using special instrumentation – the closer the light gets to 700nm the higher will be the PAR reading. As long as you keep your plants exposure between that 400nm and 700nm range at the appropriate levels for each stage of the plant’s growth cycle, you’ll end up with healthy and productive plants.

You are talking like lumens and par are different to the plant some how. They are both measures of the same light. The plant uses light. It doesnt care if you call it a lumen or par. Plants use lumens, just as much as it uses par. They are different measures of the same thing.

It's like you're saying cars dont run on litres, they only run on gallons.

It's just wrong. You post definitions as if they havent already been well defined in this discussion. All while not even grasping how it works.

You said plants dont use lumens. You are wrong. Now you are trying to spin it some how to make what you said right. It's not working. What you said was wrong, just admit it and be do e with it.

Copy and pasting definitions of things you obviously don't understand is not helping. You said something wrong, just fix it and move along.

Again one last time. Address what I said please. Find something wrong and I will admit it. Unlike some people...
 
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