Metacanna
Well-Known Member
Dear all,
I'm creating this thread to share with you how I managed to grow my weed on low budget, on a funny and practical way.
I wanted to have a small grow set up, with minimal equipment and logistics. Basically I wanted to have my grow space fitting in the living room and barely noticing it is there. At the same time I didn't want to spend too much on equipment and keep my electrical bills low. Plus, going to a shop and buy a ready-to-use system is not my thing, I prefer Mac-Gyver-it. I'm proud too grow weed without ever entering on a grow shop
The system is light and mobile, in case I need to move it, just need to unplug from the wall and take it to another place, every components are inside or attached to the bucket,
I got a 23L plastic bucket, added 10 meters of LED light strips SMD 5730 and installed two fans on the lid, everything for 40$.
The LED strips I got from ebay, 6$ which roll of 5meters. I got rolls of red, blue, 2700k and 6500k white for this and other projects. After playing with the LED strips for awhile, it seems the 2700K and 6500K do a better job than the others, unfortunately I didn't know this when I ordered the LEDs, so I ended with more blue and red than I wanted to.
I added two small fans on the top of the lid for air circulation and cooling the leds, the average temperature inside the bucket is 24º, with peak temperature of 27º (very rarely).
On my set up I cut various LED strips in small 30cm parts to fit in the bucket, wired them in parallel and connected to a laptop like AC-DC power supply, rated for a max of 120W. It took about 2 hours of soldering as I'm inexperienced with the soldering iron.
My watt meter tells me the lightning system is pulling 85W from the wall.
I'm growing an auto strain on a 2L pot. The results are not fantastic but I wondered if with 85w CFLs or T5 I could get more weed on an equally neat set up.
Some pictures:
Day 6 (day 1 - soaking on a glass of water)
50w of Blue and red around the bucket, 35w of 2700k and 6500K on the top. Seeds are unsexed, let them grow and cut the males if any balls show up.
Day 21
One of them had balls, gone!
If I had started this grow with a single female I believe the vegetative stage would have been much more vigorous. With 3 plants on a 2L pot and 85w the growth was far from optimal.
Day 29
Another plant showed balls, gone as well.
Once this plant was let alone in the bucket the growth was much faster, unfortunately it was a bit late as she was already flowering for a week.
Day 32
Small and bushy. She's far from the center of the pot, not good for proper root development.
Dark green leafs indicates she's getting too much nitrogen, started feeding more gently.
Day 38
More bud development. Used some fishing line to lean her to the center of the bucket to unsure better light distribution.
Day 42
This is how she is looking right now. Things getting more frosty and smelly.
Noticed a bit of nutrient burn, not a problem but something to keep in mind next time I feed her.
PS: I'm feeding her with orchids nutes ahah, seems to work
In the end the yield will be ridiculous when comparing to many grow journals in this forum, still the fun of projecting and trying something different is more appealing to me than the quantity of weed I get.
This girl have another 2 weeks to mature, after that, I would like to grow a photo strains and LST her to take advantage of the lighting positioning on the bucket.
Later, I will open another topic to give more details about the bucket / lightning set up and show some work in progress. Is not that I'm amazing with this DIY things, just would like to share how I did and why I did the way I did to those interested in LED strips and small grows set ups with minimal costs.
Feel free to comment. Suggestions, questions, critics are welcome.
More updates will come
I'm creating this thread to share with you how I managed to grow my weed on low budget, on a funny and practical way.
I wanted to have a small grow set up, with minimal equipment and logistics. Basically I wanted to have my grow space fitting in the living room and barely noticing it is there. At the same time I didn't want to spend too much on equipment and keep my electrical bills low. Plus, going to a shop and buy a ready-to-use system is not my thing, I prefer Mac-Gyver-it. I'm proud too grow weed without ever entering on a grow shop
The system is light and mobile, in case I need to move it, just need to unplug from the wall and take it to another place, every components are inside or attached to the bucket,
I got a 23L plastic bucket, added 10 meters of LED light strips SMD 5730 and installed two fans on the lid, everything for 40$.
The LED strips I got from ebay, 6$ which roll of 5meters. I got rolls of red, blue, 2700k and 6500k white for this and other projects. After playing with the LED strips for awhile, it seems the 2700K and 6500K do a better job than the others, unfortunately I didn't know this when I ordered the LEDs, so I ended with more blue and red than I wanted to.
I added two small fans on the top of the lid for air circulation and cooling the leds, the average temperature inside the bucket is 24º, with peak temperature of 27º (very rarely).
On my set up I cut various LED strips in small 30cm parts to fit in the bucket, wired them in parallel and connected to a laptop like AC-DC power supply, rated for a max of 120W. It took about 2 hours of soldering as I'm inexperienced with the soldering iron.
My watt meter tells me the lightning system is pulling 85W from the wall.
I'm growing an auto strain on a 2L pot. The results are not fantastic but I wondered if with 85w CFLs or T5 I could get more weed on an equally neat set up.
Some pictures:
Day 6 (day 1 - soaking on a glass of water)
50w of Blue and red around the bucket, 35w of 2700k and 6500K on the top. Seeds are unsexed, let them grow and cut the males if any balls show up.
Day 21
One of them had balls, gone!
If I had started this grow with a single female I believe the vegetative stage would have been much more vigorous. With 3 plants on a 2L pot and 85w the growth was far from optimal.
Day 29
Another plant showed balls, gone as well.
Once this plant was let alone in the bucket the growth was much faster, unfortunately it was a bit late as she was already flowering for a week.
Day 32
Small and bushy. She's far from the center of the pot, not good for proper root development.
Dark green leafs indicates she's getting too much nitrogen, started feeding more gently.
Day 38
More bud development. Used some fishing line to lean her to the center of the bucket to unsure better light distribution.
Day 42
This is how she is looking right now. Things getting more frosty and smelly.
Noticed a bit of nutrient burn, not a problem but something to keep in mind next time I feed her.
PS: I'm feeding her with orchids nutes ahah, seems to work
In the end the yield will be ridiculous when comparing to many grow journals in this forum, still the fun of projecting and trying something different is more appealing to me than the quantity of weed I get.
This girl have another 2 weeks to mature, after that, I would like to grow a photo strains and LST her to take advantage of the lighting positioning on the bucket.
Later, I will open another topic to give more details about the bucket / lightning set up and show some work in progress. Is not that I'm amazing with this DIY things, just would like to share how I did and why I did the way I did to those interested in LED strips and small grows set ups with minimal costs.
Feel free to comment. Suggestions, questions, critics are welcome.
More updates will come
