economy is bad. Need to grow. I have some questions.

[snypavat]

My future wife has Chrons disease. We have received a card that allows us to grow 12 plants at a time legally. My girlfriend currently, (even before the diagnosis) smokes about 3 grams a day.

The goal we have for growing is to be able to provide an ounce a month for her purposes and about 7 ounces per month for re-sale to other people with Chrons that need this for their health.

At the current moment I have about $200 to invest into this project. I've done mass amounts of research and I have found very little to answer some of the outstanding questions I have. If anyone can help please let me know.

What I would like to know is how to begin an intital cycle to produce a constant harvest every month. Would a 12'x12' room do the job? How do I space out the growoing processes to achieve this result? How many plants do I need to have to produce 8 ounces a month?

I am going to be forced to use Fluorecent grow bulbs initially. I cannot afford to buy or pay for electricity on a HPS set-up. I assume it needs to be large due to the amount I need to grow. As for roomy pots, fertilizers, airation and the like, I am pretty much all set. Once I grow and harvest an initial crop I will invest in a HPS set-up if I get decent results.

Aslo, I am not really concerned on the grade of the smoke itself. I decent mid-grade would be fine for the medicinal purposes.

As for the seeds. My future wife has saved about a pill bottle full of mid-grade seeds and about a quarter of a bottle of high/mid-grade seeds. Will these seeds be viable?

Any help on these matters would be greatly appreciated.

 

[d2rod89]

you are definitely biting off more than you can chew...i think you have enough space, which is the most important thing...but 12 plants won't cut it...perpetual harvests producing a half pound monthly require SOG style growing in you're given space, meaning you have to decide if you want to break the law and grow 60 plants at a time... and CFL lighting is going to make things difficult, HID is the way to go... IMO, you should reconsider a half pound monthly... but let's see what the more experienced growers say about this

 

[d2rod89]

oh and the seeds your girl saved will work... if you are on a budget like $200, just use the bag seeds, if you look at the bag seed grow journals on this site you will realize they are nearly as good, they are usually mexican or jamaican sativa plants which are an awesome high when taken care of properly... hope i helped, i remember asking a question just like yours when i first joined the site

 

[kaitlan]

I can't comment on the growing because I'm a newbie myself. but I just thought I'd mention (since you are on a tight budget) that the 'Mr Green' video in the sticky in this section called "free grow videos" shows how to set up a vegetative/flower room with items from your average hardware store. I have so far set up the veg section and the parts were much cheaper than I thought they would be. I got a tub for about 5 bucks, pump for 10, some other bits and piece... we did buy a more expensive light to start with but I needed a bigger one, so I got one off ebay for like $10.

 

[WoldofWeedcraft]

A 12x12 would probably suffice. But the lighting however, isn't going to give you the buds you desire unless you invest in HPS. You can run a CFL setup to start with, but your yield is gonna be much smaller and the buds are going to be very light weight and fluffy. In my opinion, HPS is the only way to go for indoor flowering. But the floros/CFLs could do well in a veg area before you move them to a flowering room. To get the 1/2 pound a month, you're gonna want a rotating harvest. Check out Get a harvest every 2 weeks . Al B Fuct uses a hydro medium to get a quick turnaround, but a soil setup would probably work with 1 month cycles. Just have 4 trays, each with around 8 plants, and put 1 tray in once a month, you should have 8+ ounces per month coming out. Of course you'll need to veg moms in a separate area, and take clones to keep it rotating like that.

 

[WoldofWeedcraft]

you are definitely biting off more than you can chew...i think you have enough space, which is the most important thing...but 12 plants won't cut it...perpetual harvests producing a half pound monthly require SOG style growing in you're given space, meaning you have to decideif you want to break the law and grow 60 plants at a time... and CFL lighting is going to make things difficult, HID is the way to go... IMO, you should reconsider a half pound monthly... but let's see what the more experienced growers say about this

Definately a SoG setup to get that kind of turnaround. I forgot you mentioned you're only allowed 12 plants. Is that 12 total or just 12 mature flowering plants?

 

[greenearth5]

I would recommend growing only 3 plants to start off. once you become familiarized with the growing process then you can bump it up a notch. The reason is because there are so many things that can go wrong with growing, and its a huge chore to grow even 3 plants for a newbie like us.

Even 3 plants will give you some smoke... cut n clone cut n clone

 

[snypavat]

oh and the seeds your girl saved will work... if you are on a budget like $200, just use the bag seeds, if you look at the bag seed grow journals on this site you will realize they are nearly as good, they are usually mexican or jamaican sativa plants which are an awesome high when taken care of properly... hope i helped, i remember asking a question just like yours when i first joined the site

Thank you for the response. As for deciding to break the law if necessary, that is a choice I would have to make. Considering If I did, your advice would be that I need 60 plants to produce the amount I would need?

What I was hoping to do was to start seedlings in a box, bring them to vegetation and place them in the grow room for the 18 hour light cycles, start new seedling in the box and by the time I finish flowering and harvesting I have another crop ready for vegetation and flowering in the grow room. The thing is, I don't even know an average of weight each plant will produce for me to calculate how many plants I need or how to space out the grow cycle so I have a constant flow of end of vegetation/begining of flowering plants in the room. Lol. I guess the question I'm asking is how you came up with the number of 60 plants needed? Sorry for the drawn out response.

 

[snypavat]

I can't comment on the growing because I'm a newbie myself. but I just thought I'd mention (since you are on a tight budget) that the 'Mr Green' video in the sticky in this section called "free grow videos" shows how to set up a vegetative/flower room with items from your average hardware store. I have so far set up the veg section and the parts were much cheaper than I thought they would be. I got a tub for about 5 bucks, pump for 10, some other bits and piece... we did buy a more expensive light to start with but I needed a bigger one, so I got one off ebay for like $10.

Thanks so much for the response. I'll check that out.

 

[SlikWiLL13]

$200 is a modest investment even for a small personal grow.

as for saving on electricity with flourescents it wont happen. by the time you have enough flouro's to grow pot your using the kind of wattage that HID lamps run on. i see guys grow nice plants with cfl's, but they use 10 - 100w bulbs.... they could be burning a 1000w hps for that kind of electricity. and after you count the bulbs, sockets, power cords, and shit you use to mount them you could have bought that 1000w lamp.

and your definetly not gonna pull that harvest with just 12 plants. thats why they limit you to 12 plants, so you cant grow and sell.


i agree with d2rod89, sounds like your biting off more than you can chew

 

[snypavat]

$200 is a modest investment even for a small personal grow.

as for saving on electricity with flourescents it wont happen. by the time you have enough flouro's to grow pot your using the kind of wattage that HID lamps run on. i see guys grow nice plants with cfl's, but they use 10 - 100w bulbs.... they could be burning a 1000w hps for that kind of electricity. and after you count the bulbs, sockets, power cords, and shit you use to mount them you could have bought that 1000w lamp.

and your definetly not gonna pull that harvest with just 12 plants. thats why they limit you to 12 plants, so you cant grow and sell.


i agree with d2rod89, sounds like your biting off more than you can chew

Thanks for the response. I was hoping to use like a 6 ft double bulb fluorecent set-up with one warm tone and one cool tone bulb but I don't know if this would work because I'm not sure how much each plant will yeild or how many plants I would need.

Since it would be better to use a HPS 1000w set-up...where can I buy this locally? I need a set-up I can plug into a wall socket. would it be better to but the necessary components and build it myself or is this something I can purchase at Home Depot/ Lowes? Is it possible to do this light set-up on my budget?

 

[WoldofWeedcraft]

Thank you for the response. As for deciding to break the law if necessary, that is a choice I would have to make. Considering If I did, your advice would be that I need 60 plants to produce the amount I would need?

What I was hoping to do was to start seedlings in a box, bring them to vegetation and place them in the grow room for the 18 hour light cycles, start new seedling in the box and by the time I finish flowering and harvesting I have another crop ready for vegetation and flowering in the grow room. The thing is, I don't even know an average of weight each plant will produce for me to calculate how many plants I need or how to space out the grow cycle so I have a constant flow of end of vegetation/begining of flowering plants in the room. Lol. I guess the question I'm asking is how you came up with the number of 60 plants needed? Sorry for the drawn out response.

His post and mine were referring to a rotating harvest using the SoG (Sea of Green) method, where you only grow the top colas (i.e. no side branches). The plants don't get bushy and you can cram much more plants in a small space letting them grow vertically each plant yielding 1/2 oz to 2 oz. The alternative would be SCRoG, where you LST the plants to growing outward so you pull huge weight off of each individual plant.

 

[WoldofWeedcraft]

Thanks for the response. I was hoping to use like a 6 ft double bulb fluorecent set-up with one warm tone and one cool tone bulb but I don't know if this would work because I'm not sure how much each plant will yeild or how many plants I would need.

Since it would be better to use a HPS 1000w set-up...where can I buy this locally? I need a set-up I can plug into a wall socket. would it be better to but the necessary components and build it myself or is this something I can purchase at Home Depot/ Lowes? Is it possible to do this light set-up on my budget?

Check yellowpages for your local hydro shop or ebay it if you have to. The ballast will plug directly into your wall socket, and you'll need a fan to cool the heat from the lamp.

 

[OregonMeds]

You can grow what you want with 12 plants... But you'd have to have LOTS of light and either grow trees or have numerous scrogs running perpetually.

Anyone growing to sell is running HPS, flouro's are not going to cut it.

Bagseed can get you started, might as well germ them now so you can start selecting plants to clone and be your mother.
For starting a couple cfl's is fine for the first two weeks or so, but you'd need to get some HPS's on the way.

Search for seemorebuds video's on youtube and watch them all so you will get an idea of what different setups yield and all that you would need to reach your
goal.

 

[snypavat]

You can grow what you want with 12 plants... But you'd have to have LOTS of light and either grow trees or have numerous scrogs running perpetually.

Anyone growing to sell is running HPS, flouro's are not going to cut it.

Bagseed can get you started, might as well germ them now so you can start selecting plants to clone and be your mother.
For starting a couple cfl's is fine for the first two weeks or so, but you'd need to get some HPS's on the way.

Search for seemorebuds video's on youtube and watch them all so you will get an idea of what different setups yield and all that you would need to reach your
goal.

Great info. Thanks!

 

[mannurse801]

Hey man, it is a challenge, a challenge that 200 will not do. For a great sog grow, you will need more than CFL's. CFL's and tubes will be fine to veg with. Read Jorge Cervantes book on medical marijuana horticulture, it is full of everything you need to know about growing.
I would recommend growing a mother first, and take clipings from her to clone. You don't want to start from sseed every time, thecost to you would be faily high. Clones are free, and work perfectly in a sog grow.
You will want a small room to veg with, or even a closet in the 12X12 room. The biggers thing is that the light from the veg room does not get into the flower room when the lights are out.
You can have a perpetual production of product ever few week with some lowrider#2 and Northern Lights. Veg for a couple weeks, then move into the flower room.
For flowering a sog, 1 1000W bulb is not th way to go. I recommend 4x400W. You get a much more efficient coverage of light. I also recommend you use the Hempy bucket method. It is killer easy, and the yeild is just as good as almost everything else. Another bonus is that it is dirt cheap to grow hempy style.
Because you can only have 12 plants at a time, just have 5 flowering, 5 vegging and 2 mothers. That way, your mom's can be both different strains for different symptoms of the chron's.
You don't have to worry about odor if you can grow legally, so big filters are not a concern.
All you are gonna need are the lights, exhaust fan, 12 beckets, water and ferts perilyte and vermiculite (new for each grow - cheaper than soil)
Paint the walls of the room flat titanium white, ensure a clean supply of water, Reverse osmosis is great.

On a cycle like this, you should be able to harvest 5-10 oz/month, more with experience.

 

[flamdrags420]

Along with what Oregon Meds said (keep an eye on his posts too, he's really good), read up on the hydroponic sections. Two guys stick out on infromative perpetual growing: Stinky Bud, and Al B Fuct. They have some stickies on there, and stink's page is active on the bottom. The videos and these threads from these 2 guys and others can help you derive what style of grow you can do based on: Number of plants, growing area, and of course money. Plan on taking twice the time and quadruple the money you think you will need to setup and run things. This is how I approached getting started. And I'm still a long ways away I think before I'm up and running my stuff.
Good luck

 

[snypavat]

Hey man, it is a challenge, a challenge that 200 will not do. For a great sog grow, you will need more than CFL's. CFL's and tubes will be fine to veg with. Read Jorge Cervantes book on medical marijuana horticulture, it is full of everything you need to know about growing.
I would recommend growing a mother first, and take clipings from her to clone. You don't want to start from sseed every time, thecost to you would be faily high. Clones are free, and work perfectly in a sog grow.
You will want a small room to veg with, or even a closet in the 12X12 room. The biggers thing is that the light from the veg room does not get into the flower room when the lights are out.
You can have a perpetual production of product ever few week with some lowrider#2 and Northern Lights. Veg for a couple weeks, then move into the flower room.
For flowering a sog, 1 1000W bulb is not th way to go. I recommend 4x400W. You get a much more efficient coverage of light. I also recommend you use the Hempy bucket method. It is killer easy, and the yeild is just as good as almost everything else. Another bonus is that it is dirt cheap to grow hempy style.
Because you can only have 12 plants at a time, just have 5 flowering, 5 vegging and 2 mothers. That way, your mom's can be both different strains for different symptoms of the chron's.
You don't have to worry about odor if you can grow legally, so big filters are not a concern.
All you are gonna need are the lights, exhaust fan, 12 beckets, water and ferts perilyte and vermiculite (new for each grow - cheaper than soil)
Paint the walls of the room flat titanium white, ensure a clean supply of water, Reverse osmosis is great.

On a cycle like this, you should be able to harvest 5-10 oz/month, more with experience.

Great info.. thank you. Pretty much what I needed to know. Now, how to get some HPS lights on a budget!!! Arggghh.

 

[SlikWiLL13]

Thanks for the response. I was hoping to use like a 6 ft double bulb fluorecent set-up with one warm tone and one cool tone bulb but I don't know if this would work because I'm not sure how much each plant will yeild or how many plants I would need.

Since it would be better to use a HPS 1000w set-up...where can I buy this locally? I need a set-up I can plug into a wall socket. would it be better to but the necessary components and build it myself or is this something I can purchase at Home Depot/ Lowes? Is it possible to do this light set-up on my budget?

if you use t-12 shoplights you will need more than 2 tubes, 6-8 should be okay to veg under(i use 6). you wont find a 1000w in your budget. you may however find a 75-250w hps or mh at home depot/lowes/menards within your price range.

oregon is right, you can grow your expected harvest with 12 plants, but it would take ALOT of lighting and veg time. he is also right that you wont really have a marketable product without HID lighting in your flowering room.

the potential to get what your after is here. but i wouldnt expect to turn a profit for at least 8-12 months. your first harvest will get you a hid lamp, the second everything elso you need, then you can think about some money for yourself.

 

[SlikWiLL13]

Great info.. thank you. Pretty much what I needed to know. Now, how to get some HPS lights on a budget!!! Arggghh.

if your grow is legal check police auctions...im serious! ive gotten some great shit via police auctions. they sell all confiscated grow gear.