Best way to grow a single plant?

I'm a first time grower, been smoking since I was 14, and have been around a lot of other growers, but since I moved from Oregon to Texas the laws and different mindset in people around here makes it really expensive and hard to find good herb.

So...fuck it, might as well try growing.

I don't want to have some huge setup and I only need enough to sustain or even just suppliment my own habit, (which is only about 1-2 fatties a day since the move) but I want the little I do get to be as high quality as possible.

I'm down for the idea of having just a couple huge plants since I only have so much space. I'm thinking something along the lines of these all-in-one combos from sealth hydroponics: http://www.stealthhydroponics.com/product.php?xProd=170&xSec=24&jssCart=8dd59ade5cfa0744abe61e1c4cff3481
In addition to that I'll probably setup my extra bathroom or a closet with mylar, fans, and just see what I can do about getting some quality seeds.

It seems cheap, simple and I think it could produce some dank herb. My main concern is learning to correctly care for/trim/etc. the plant and baby it along so I can harvest as much as possible off of just a few. I'm good to go but I don't wanna buy anything until I'm sure there's no better option. Please any suggestions would be a huge help I've only been researching this for a while and I don't wanna fuck it up like the first couple times I tried making hash oil!

find something in your price range(decide on soil or hydro), get quality seeds or clones, get nutes, and hang around here for any questions

The hydro system is ok, but that light won't be adaquate for a "huge plant" during flowering (it won't penetrate into the bottom of the plant). Consider adding some additional side lighting. IMO, T5 strip lights are the best value supplemental lighting available, about $30 ea. Get the red bulbs.

AeroKing said:

The hydro system is ok, but that light won't be adaquate for a "huge plant" during flowering (it won't penetrate into the bottom of the plant). Consider adding some additional side lighting. IMO, T5 strip lights are the best value supplemental lighting available, about $30 ea. Get the red bulbs.

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Thats that I was afraid of I thought maybe I should get 2 of those do you think that would be better or do you think I should get the strips because I've never heard of those do you know where I can get a hold of some?

Do you think that it would be better to use soil than the hydro system I linked to?

koolaidflavormix said:

Thats that I was afraid of I thought maybe I should get 2 of those do you think that would be better or do you think I should get the strips because I've never heard of those do you know where I can get a hold of some?

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koolaidflavormix said:

Do you think that it would be better to use soil than the hydro system I linked to?

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Stick with the hydro, so long as you have time to maintain it and you are willing to research how to do so.

plantlightinghydroponics.com <- strip lights
The strips have the benefit of spreading the light more evenly over the plant. They generate less heat and average more usable light per watt of elec used. Check this out: Info on CFLs

Oh yeah, and ditch those ph test strips and get a meter - $125 and worth every penny.

Tell you the truth, all in all, you'd probably be better off just getting some T5s and parts off of plh (above link) and do it up yourself. You'd buy less parts that you wouldn't use. But, hey, whatever works for you.

I just moved to tx and I know what you mean man, I have no hookup either yet. Been growing my own. With just a few plants and a grow that not perpetual I still find myself without herb often. I've resulted to doing 12/12 grows from seed, I can usually harvest every 8-13 weeks, with around a oz per plant. and they stay fairly small so i can easily grow 7-15 at a time in a small closet space.

If you want to support a more than once a day habit, growing one or two big plants isn't the route I'd go. If I were you, I would do a perpetual SOG. Instead of getting say a pound every 8 weeks, you'd get an 1/4 of a pound every 2 weeks or even a 1/8 a pound every week. For me, when I buy a lot of bud at once it seems to go a lot faster than if I buy the same amount over a week. Look up Al B. Fuct's thread "harvest a pound every two weeks" and panhead's "harvest a pound every three weeks", both are stickies in the hydro section. For a smaller scale of this, look up misturbombdiggity's "CFL SOG" (or something along those lines.) All you need is a veg/clone area big enough to support a mother or two and 2-4 clones, and a flowering area big enough to support about 15-20 flowering clones. It's a lot easier for you to go back to growing one or two big plants after doing this that the other way around, trust me.

Good luck and happy growing!

SikSol said:

I just moved to tx and I know what you mean man, I have no hookup either yet. Been growing my own. With just a few plants and a grow that not perpetual I still find myself without herb often. I've resulted to doing 12/12 grows from seed, I can usually harvest every 8-13 weeks, with around a oz per plant. and they stay fairly small so i can easily grow 7-15 at a time in a small closet space.

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15 oz in a closet and 12/12 from seed? What type of lighting are you using? What setup? Much props to you.

Because of the laws here in Texas I just feel more comfortable growing fewer plants plus it seems like less work to just leave one plant alone and let it grow and grow. I guess I'm down for whatever I'm just looking for something that's fuckup proof and easy.

What kind of space will you be working with?

I'd rig some kind of huge rubbermaid DIY Waterfarm with 2 of the biggest lights I could cool, one on each side. Here's a link to some KBS trees I found the other day. I'll start it off on page 3 for the eye-candy, but you can work out the details.

http://www.planetganja.com/highsociety/showthread.php?t=41321&page=3

koolaidflavormix said:

Because of the laws here in Texas I just feel more comfortable growing fewer plants plus it seems like less work to just leave one plant alone and let it grow and grow. I guess I'm down for whatever I'm just looking for something that's fuckup proof and easy.

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Well the beauty of having many plants is if you fuck up one, you're only out a percentage of your crop. But i can understand where you're coming from with wanting to have fewer plants. You can do a 2 or 4 plant perpetual ScrOG. You can double, triple, even quadruple the yeilds on growing just a normal untrained plant by doing ScrOG.

Look at this. This is a non-perpetual ScrOG with 2 plants.
http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=29593

Here's a CFL SOG that can easily be scaled down to your needs:
http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=88449

This is an example of a average sized perpetual SOG, but probably more than you need:
http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?p=443825

beginningbotanist420 said:

Well the beauty of having many plants is if you fuck up one, you're only out a percentage of your crop. But i can understand where you're coming from with wanting to have fewer plants. You can do a 2 or 4 plant perpetual ScrOG. You can double, triple, even quadruple the yeilds on growing just a normal untrained plant by doing ScrOG.

Look at this. This is a non-perpetual ScrOG with 2 plants.
http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=29593

Here's a CFL SOG that can easily be scaled down to your needs:
http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=88449

This is an example of a average sized perpetual SOG, but probably more than you need:
http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?p=443825

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This looks perfect, just overly complicated. I want something really cheap easy and basically plug and play.

I'll post some pics of my two options for grow spaces. There's the closet (about 4.5/5.5) or the bathtub (about 2.5/5) the closet seems the obvious choice but there isn't power in there unless I use the light socket.

Maybe my question should have been what's the easiest way to grow the dankest weed in the spaces I have for under $500 startup

You want to grow more than one at a time, because what you gonna do if you spend "X" number of weeks waiting to find out its a male... ur gonna be pissed that what. I use a closet space smaller than yours mines only 3 ft by 3 ft and 8 ft tall. Also like you no power source in the closet. Becuase I run 12/12 from seed I have plants at all stage you can introduce a new plant at any time and no need to make adjustments, Because I built shelfs in the closet I can maximize usable amount of space. I have one 150w HPS bulb and 15 23w 6700k CFL's on power strips mounted to the walls the HPS hangs from the top of the closet. Everything is powered of two extension cords that come into the closet from a nearby outlet. I have the lights, one tower fan, and the timer. I also have a thermometer with humidity gauge in there. Temps tend to get a little high on some days, all I do is leave the closet door open some so cool air can get in, My temps range from 71-85 and 20-40% humidity. Total cost I maybe have $200 or so in it. All from lowes, home depot, walmart. Just be creative and you will figure out what you want, but I highly recomend 12/12 from seed grows if you have limited space and only wanna wait half the time to harvest. Each plant grows to full harvest size in just a cut 20oz pop bottle. Depending on strain, you will get betwen .5 and 1.5 ounces per plant typically.

SikSol said:

You want to grow more than one at a time, because what you gonna do if you spend "X" number of weeks waiting to find out its a male... ur gonna be pissed that what. I use a closet space smaller than yours mines only 3 ft by 3 ft and 8 ft tall. Also like you no power source in the closet. Becuase I run 12/12 from seed I have plants at all stage you can introduce a new plant at any time and no need to make adjustments, Because I built shelfs in the closet I can maximize usable amount of space. I have one 150w HPS bulb and 15 23w 6700k CFL's on power strips mounted to the walls the HPS hangs from the top of the closet. Everything is powered of two extension cords that come into the closet from a nearby outlet. I have the lights, one tower fan, and the timer. I also have a thermometer with humidity gauge in there. Temps tend to get a little high on some days, all I do is leave the closet door open some so cool air can get in, My temps range from 71-85 and 20-40% humidity. Total cost I maybe have $200 or so in it. All from lowes, home depot, walmart. Just be creative and you will figure out what you want, but I highly recomend 12/12 from seed grows if you have limited space and only wanna wait half the time to harvest. Each plant grows to full harvest size in just a cut 20oz pop bottle. Depending on strain, you will get betwen .5 and 1.5 ounces per plant typically.

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You got me hella intrigued and now I'm glad I came here first. I never intended on starting with one plant and I do know how to sex them so I'd probably narrow it down from 5 or so but what is all this about no veg? Is there a trick to it? how many plants would I need to produce 4-8oz every 3 months or so? and how many lumens are we talking?

What if I revised my idea to go 12/12 only with stealth hydro's 315 watt CFR Ballast? it puts out like 15,000 lumens and you can get it with a red spectrum plus theres no heat problems like your talking about.

That would be fine there's no specific light source to make 12/12 work, I personal like a mix of warm and cool lights, thats why i use a HPS and CFL's with 6700k. Your 325 watt CFR ballast would work fine, if you get it with red spectrum I would also add some CFL's because the spectrum from them will help with the early growth.

There's no real trick to 12/12, mainly finding a good strain for it, some respond better than others. You will produce between .5 and 1.5 most the time per plant every 8-13 weeks depending on strain and how healthy of a grow they go through. So for let say 10 plants will get you approx, 5 to 15 oz every 3 months.

They grow like a budsickel, you get one main cola most the time. and they only get about 2ft high at max usually. And since is a single cola, they dont take up much room width wise. So you can put plants closer together. So in a 3ft by 3ft by 3ft cube of space you could fit like 20-40 plants pretty easily depending on what size pots you use. I like to use 20oz soda bottle with the very tops cut off. They are able to sustain these small plants until harvest usually.

Main thing is a good healthy grow, if you stunt the plants growth any time during the grow your going to risk your outcome greatly, with a regular length grow you have some room for error.

Check out this link for some idea's and to see pretty much how it works, this guy really perfected the 12/12 grow.
http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.p...9&userid=30088

You are a pimp. I think I'm pretty much sold on this idea it seems way easier. I could even use something like the aerogarden if I did it like this....too bad those are so small. So do you recommend using soil to start or DWC? Those are the only 2 I really want to bother with cause they seem the easiest.

I personally like soil, I use a scotts and perlite mix, with no nutes. i wont add nutes until the plants are at least, a foot tall usually and even then I do it in small amounts no need to risk burning them and stunting their growth I've even done soil grows with no nutes at all and had good results.

I used to doubt the 12/12 method until i seen some ppl pull it off really well and now im stuck on it. Yeah it's nice to be able to grow the bigger nicer plants with bigger yields but, I still can still get big numbers, in a smaller amount of time and in a smaller space with this method.