The cheapest grow ever?

sandhill larry

Well-Known Member
I just kind of skimmed the thread, so I didn't catch how you weeded out your males. But a trick an old hippy dippy grandma taught me for sexing plants would work well for you. Once your plants have reach sexual maturity, mark one branch tip on each plant with a bread tie. or some such. Cover that tip with a small paper bag after 12 hours of lights on everyday, removing after lights off. You should see flowers in about 2 weeks.
 

Cx2H

Well-Known Member
@zoic congrats on a good grow so far. I'm on the tight side myself, so I can respect a frugal grower. I've never used lights for weed, other than to veg my spring crop. But I do use CFL's for starting veggies. I made a 12 light hood with a section of duct, pigtail sockets, splitters, all thread, nuts, washers and a bit of chain. Here is the YT video that I used as a guide.


You can almost always pick up free pots at nurseries. Many farmers will give you cow or horse manure. Mushroom compost is super cheap. And when you have to buy soil, look for bags that have been torn and are taped back. I get them for as much as half off.

Also, there is no charge for using sunlight.
Good one.
I get torn bags @75% off at big orange depot. ;-)
 

sandhill larry

Well-Known Member
I should check that out!
I have been buying from Lowe's, and have been able to get a discount when checking out at the contractor's end of the store. They have changed their rules about price matching {how I got my discount}, so I don't know what I'm going to do now. I'm out of cow and chicken manure compost, and have holes yet to dig, so I have to figure something out soon. I may have to double up on mushroom compost. It's 15 bucks per scoop {almost a cubic yard}.
 

zoic

Well-Known Member
I wanted to buy some Promix BX but all I could find was one of those giant cubes. I have no idea what it weighs, but I could barely budge it, let alone move it around or lift it. I SETTLED for some gardening soil and Miracle Grow potting mix. One day I will step it up on better soil. Manures are no good for a grow in a tent or closet, way too smelly indoors.
:rolleyes:
 
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zoic

Well-Known Member
@zoic congrats on a good grow so far
Thanks Larry. That is a very unique looking light you built. There was some forest humus in the first bag of soil I bought and I kept seeing mushroom popping up throughout my grow. I decided to weed out the males to make sure my first grow was the best it could be with little margin for error. At some point I will try pollen chucking but I want to try and achieve success with cloning first. So far I am 0 for 2.
 

zoic

Well-Known Member
Honestly I was going for put you to sleep amber last time
I will have to try that with one plant. The only thing that usually gives me couch lock is eating 2-5 grams of hash or other cannabis extracts.
 

sandhill larry

Well-Known Member
Speaking of cheap growing, I stopped by a local nursery yesterday to ask about pots. She couldn't spare any fives, but gave me this stack of threes. I'll take her a mess of peas and squash next week, just to say thanks.

DSCF4904.JPG

This is what 3 bucks worth of mushroom compost looks like. You can go as high as 50/50 with peat moss, but I don't like to go over a third of my mix MC.

DSCF4908.JPG
 

zoic

Well-Known Member
Also make sure that the trichs all have balls on top
Well that has been my benchmark. I checked closely with 25x-65x magnifier and found 2 plants with generous sized bulbs on the end of the trichs. I have checked them thoroughly every day since you posted this, now I am at Day 70. Tonight the first one comes down and hung to dry in my newly prepared drying cabinet, not in the basement, but upstairs. In a day or two the 2nd one gets chopped and I will check the other 2 (which have smaller bulbs) at Day 75.
 

OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
I SETTLED for some gardening soil and Miracle Grow potting mix
Bad move on the MG potting mix. I've seen so many destroyed plants using that stuff. If it doesn't have their contaminated time-released nutes in it and is just plain potting soil maybe it's OK. I won't buy anything from Scott's.

Good luck.
 

zoic

Well-Known Member
Wow, that was a total bonehead move for sure. When I pulled the first scoop out of the soil mixture I made using the Miracle Grow some of it spilled on the table. This resulted in me looking to see how much spillage I have to clean up and the first thing I noticed was a gnat looking type of insect fly out of the spillage, then a second one. This stuff is going back today and I am going to buy some mushroom compost instead.
 

zoic

Well-Known Member
That was easy! (<-- pushes Staples button)
So I went back to Home Depot and plopped the open bag on the returns counter.
The young lad said" Can I help You"
I replied, "Yes , I would like a refund on this defective product"
He said, "What is wrong with it please"
I replied, "It is infested with gnats"
He said, wait for it .......... "No surprise there"

Well if that does not speak volumes I do not know what would.
 
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OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
As much as I hate MG you can't really blame the gnats on them. I've got gnats in many different bags of soil and soilless media. Those bags are sitting around in warehouses, on loading docks and then the parking lots of stores sometimes for a couple of years before we buy them. A lot have little air holes in the bags on purpose and many just get tiny tears in the bags from handling. Damn gnats are everywhere and find those little holes with nice warm, damp soil just sitting there so what's a poor gnat to do. :D

Any bag I open I check for gnats before using it. I dig in and scoop out a bit of the soil then put about a tsp in a shot glass and fill to the brim with water and stir gently. Then I put a piece of white paper towel over it to pick up whatever is floating on top and examine the flotsam with my 30x scope. Gnat larva are these tiny, translucent grub looking things with two tinier little black dots at one end that are their eyes. Could be other things in there too but gnats are most likely as part of their life cycle is living in the soil. The adults do no damage to the plant but the larvae eat the fine root hairs and if it's bad can kill the plants. First sign of gnat infestation is little flies buzzing around the room and plant growth slows and even stops tho the plants look fine. Keep sticky traps around the grow room for an early warning system of any flying bugs and to reduce the population of adults before they can lay eggs.

fungusgnatlife.gif
 

Cx2H

Well-Known Member
As much as I hate MG you can't really blame the gnats on them. I've got gnats in many different bags of soil and soilless media. Those bags are sitting around in warehouses, on loading docks and then the parking lots of stores sometimes for a couple of years before we buy them. A lot have little air holes in the bags on purpose and many just get tiny tears in the bags from handling. Damn gnats are everywhere and find those little holes with nice warm, damp soil just sitting there so what's a poor gnat to do. :D

Any bag I open I check for gnats before using it. I dig in and scoop out a bit of the soil then put about a tsp in a shot glass and fill to the brim with water and stir gently. Then I put a piece of white paper towel over it to pick up whatever is floating on top and examine the flotsam with my 30x scope. Gnat larva are these tiny, translucent grub looking things with two tinier little black dots at one end that are their eyes. Could be other things in there too but gnats are most likely as part of their life cycle is living in the soil. The adults do no damage to the plant but the larvae eat the fine root hairs and if it's bad can kill the plants. First sign of gnat infestation is little flies buzzing around the room and plant growth slows and even stops tho the plants look fine. Keep sticky traps around the grow room for an early warning system of any flying bugs and to reduce the population of adults before they can lay eggs.

View attachment 3959769
No doubt. I pass by ace's distribution center and pallets as far as you can see of soils, promix etc. outside for months with those little holes in the bags.

Last time I had a gnat issue I just dried all my media and they took off. I have dumped bacteria teas in the infected media's in rotation as well, they didn't like that sheet either. Gnat snax.
 

zoic

Well-Known Member
Thank you. That was informative on something I can do to avoid infestation. I kept a small sealed container of it which I am going to put double sided tape on the lid. Since I have a 120X magnifier and can try that method and get a really close look. I am playing golf on Thursday in Metcalfe, so I want to stop at Continental Mushroom and pick up some fresh compost, if they still do that.
 

zoic

Well-Known Member
So those broken pieces were hung to dry and 5 days later (today) I chopped the buds and jarred them. The tips had a wee bit of crisp on them but the centers were still fresh. I need to dry them just a little more. So top half of the plant the total weight of buds is 4.3g. The lower half was cut and hung two days ago so it has a bit to go yet before it is adequately dried.
The bottom half was mostly larf, total weight 1.9g for a whopping total of 6.2g. The second plant (the one I broke trying LST) was only a partial as well and total weight was 4.2g. The rest are still drying. I was hoping for more but I knew the first grow would be slim. The 2nd plant was GSC and my wife gave it a better rating than "yeah it is OK". She likes it, hoorah! (: :mrgreen:
 

ttystikk

Well-Known Member
The bottom half was mostly larf, total weight 1.9g for a whopping total of 6.2g. The second plant (the one I broke trying LST) was only a partial as well and total weight was 4.2g. The rest are still drying. I was hoping for more but I knew the first grow would be slim. The 2nd plant was GSC and my wife gave it a better rating than "yeah it is OK". She likes it, hoorah! (: :mrgreen:
Top your plants next time, they'll give you more yield.
 

zoic

Well-Known Member
Oh I did. I will post some pics in grow 2 a little later. There will be lots of extra buds and better lights will likely improve my yield.
 
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