Well...
There are 2 school of thoughts on "budget grows"
1 says that you should use the cheapest materials available...
I believe that is the option for the kids...
...
My take on a budget grow is that the grower is tight for money...
None of us do this for the growing... we do it for the buds...
So I believe in having patience and building the "perfect set-up" the very first time...
The "perfect set-up" will cost a lot more that the "cheapest set-up"..
But it will put out MORE, BETTER buds...
A "budget grower" should be concerned with one thing... and one thing only...
HOW MANY WATTS (DOLLAR$
) WILL YOU BURN FOR EACH GRAM OF SMOKE-ABLE BUD???
We call that Grams per Watt... or G/W...
A "cheapest grow" may do good and achieve 0.2~0.4 G/W... IF all goes well...
A "perfect set-up" is capable of giving you 1 g/w... the very first time around...
So while while it is not the cheapest to put together... the "perfect set-up" will prove more economical EVERY TIME...
At EVERY HARVEST the op will pay for the equipment over and over and over again...
With a 400w HPS.. pretty much ANY smoker will never have to buy bud again...
And still have some for the edibles... the hash... the closest friends... etc...
But as you can see...
It will require lots of time .. and some pretty big decisions...
and I should warn you.... I can be very .. short sometimes.... I deal with some pretty fucked up pain .. so some days I get real cranky.. but I never mean any disrespect...
I just get VERY to the point... and I do not send flowers with it...
If you can deal with my weirdness... You can have a kick ass grow in less time than you imagine...