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I think a lot of people think it is to expensive to grow their own plant. Here is my take on the minimum requirements necessary to start. Tent: 60x60 The cheapest tent around is the Garden HighPro ProBox EcoPro 60 https://hydroponic.co.za/hydroponics/garden-highpro-probox-ecopro-60/ One clip on oscillating fan https://hydrobiz.co.za/products/15cm-fan?_pos=1&_sid=8356d5aa9&_ss=r one small extractor fan https://hydroponic.co.za/hydroponics/hydor-wall-or-inline-exhaust-fans/ Light: https://growopz.com/products/qb-75v2-3000k 10l pot x2 soil: Freedom Farms or Orgasoilux or Organics Matter yellow stickies to control fungus nats This adds up to R3550. Without seeds. this may not be the best equipment on the market but you will be able to grow at least 50g of weed with your first grow. That works out to R71 per gram. It is with out electricity but R250 a month is not going to break the bank.

Thought I responded to this one in the morning.. joint and feeding the plants must have come in between I would put a bag back in if I do not trust the jar for some reason.. usually i replace the jar (very hot soap water in the jar and shake it.. gets wet outside, not sealed), leave the bag for 2 weeks and take it out again. My bags are usually all together in one glass to even out after use.

Forgot to mention.. smell is also up.. so the carbon air filters came into play. I run 3 of them... you understand, Neo, there is no smell Exits go into the kitchen.. had a cozy 18 degrees inside the house when i woke up. At least I don't need fire wood this winter.

Small space = Auto Flower Plants Insane me put 8 in a 1.2x0.6 ... got 300g dressed from that little none effort grow in 12 weeks. Have the grow diary here (used a Blurple light^^):

The efficiency of a diode is how good she turns electricity into light and heat. The better version, the lm281b is 30% less efficient compared to the lm301b. The normal 281 is even worse. You turn 30% less electricity into light.. don't underestimate that. If you run those lights most of the year, add your Eskom growing bill together for 12 months, then take 30% off and calculate again if they are cheaper. If they bring a new generation I will exchange my lights after a test run.. 30% of my Eskom grow bill (10k x 12 = 120k a year) is 36k.. I get a new set of lights for two 2.4x2.4 from China for that amount of money. So year 2 they already would save me money. And this only counts till the next Eskom price hike, not including the 30% your light is less efficient and needs more electricity.. they go on top to the new Eskom price. Cheap is in most cases today not the best choice. Running a light at 75% doesn't change the diodes efficiency rating, you run em cooler perhaps, less heat resistance.. but a light should never run hot anyhow. So 75% or 100% with the same running temp gives you not more heat resistance, is the same. If they get hot.. put a bigger passive cooler on. Your diodes will turn electricity into light depending on their efficiency.. the more efficient the less energy they consume to reach the same output in photons. I would always go for new technology when selecting a grow light.. it runs usually 12 to 24 hours a day, flower light, 50% of the months none stop, easy calculation.

This Is why I opted for the 1,2x0,6... I could grow 4 plants in there and average 40g per plant in half the space. Still not exactly happy with this yield though. I suppose that's also why bigger plants need bigger space. And a longer Veg period, of the uphill battle.

Harvest update, the Organic Tent™ yielded 168g total between the four plants. Growing naturally I yielded roughly 37g per plant. With the new growing technique I managed 42g per plant... progress? I don't know. I think I need to try the same manifold again, but bigger plants. What a coincidence! That's exactly what I am going to do with my autopots in the big tent! Watch this space.

Rain water storage is full.. man it rained the last days Had my snorkel beside the bed just in case. Will not get more wet then this.. so far OK. Some pics I took from the WW's this morning. All plants in the tent got 0.5L feeding.. due to the crap pots. Lens was fogged up ^^ Very much middle flowering, still 2 weeks to go at least.

Wrong diode.. i wouldn't waste my money on a lm281 light.. way less efficient as the lm301. 301B or H.. forget the rest or if you don't want to go Samsung, choose same tech from a different producer.. just leave the old tech be.. is just old ^^ like HID systems

For me it can go another couple of weeks. By just looking at the flowers. Cannot see the trichomes.

Ok I will do a grow with this Minimum requirements and see how it turns out. I have a clone that is ready for flower. Let’s see how it turns out.

The pH window for soil is 6.0-7.0 .. same range just different window.

Best advice would be not take that first injection of indoor dagga, you will spend the rest of your life growing and smoking herb and wanting to take long walks on the beach. Grow chillies or something.

Just ask the guys at 420 cafe...

This is the way.

Hi folks, What should the pH be for seedlings in clay balls and roughly how old is a seedling when it officially enters veg. Also, is the dripper arrow in the right position please. She is 5 days old (gorilla glue).

Speaking of the big tent, I've gotten the first net installed to keep the initial canopy spread level. This time around I have also removed all the LST lines seeing as the first net will now do the majority of the LST and when I add the second net shortly after flip that will also help shape the final canopy. I want to really develop a solid canopy this time around, so I will let the canopy grow close to where the LEDs are sitting now and then flip. I am hoping for this round to be the yielder I have been looking for

And the look into my treasure tent ^^ the 13 mothers I keep... and need urgent rework

Yo @Naughty.Psychonaut my cake isn't pinning as expected probably due to the sudden cold temps the last couple of days. RH in chamber is constant at 90% and temps avg 18celcius. I fan at least 5 times/day and only mist the inside walls when no condensation is visible anymore. Got some strange shroomies popping up and can't find anything on the web. Could you please have a look bru?

Have to make this very short post in regards to pH and soil.. found it in the Royal Queen Seeds blog Go Organic and Forget About Measuring pH Isn't part of the hydro setup you run.. but Royal Queen Seeds trust that sentence that much, they put it in bold inside their pH advice. Hydro you always have to measure... no way around. Soil for home growers, Hydro for commercial production.. and the Coco dudes lost in between both worlds is about how i see it.

I’m waiting for @SkunkPharm seeds then I will be planting some autos

Yeah I can't disagree with you, however, These diodes will only ever be used at 75% power and that's for first 3/4 weeks of flower. Other than that, I run them 40/45%. yes they still less efficient. But at a 3rd of the price and concisely limited usage, they fit my purpose.

Yup.. needs more time to ripen ^^

Pics taken a few days ago of dirty banana

As a sideline observation I noticed the tap root in my only planted seed had actually emerged half way down the 'plug'!. I can see now why Rockwall cubes would make better sense for a setup like this. I will be hopefully planting 3 more seeds tonight .........., just waiting for propergation to take place . I guess the 'plugs' would work better if they were half the size. Anyhow, onwards and upwards.......

I will give you the answer to minimum requirements at the bottom of this post. I just started growing indoors a couple weeks ago for the first time in over 10 years again. I swore I would never do it again and then a butterfly flew past. I asked about a year ago what a basic indoor setup would be, I think it was mentioned a budget of 10K. @SkunkPharm, those are the real minimum requirements, but there are monthly costs and unforseen costs. Last night for example my budget was blown out the roof, need a pH/EC meter, an airpump, some peroxide and a unit that cleans the air ( ionizer ?? ) , it was even mentioned an air conditioner would be good ( FT aircon and eskom ) . Further to that we needing more rockwool, gladwrap, batteries and the list is like a bottomless pit of money. So my final answer for minimum requirements is balls of steel and a bank balance to match for growing indoors.

What kind of increments would you aim for? And do you still do the same now in coco?

ahaaa makes a lot more sense can you get a driver for that light locally? I think growopz sell a drivers seperate. I know heatsinks and potentiometer is easy to source.

Gradual changes. I would vary my pH up and down during the course of a week when I was doing DWC.

Wow. That is a big range. Considering 5.5 is 10 times more acidic than 6.5. I noticed big differences in my plants changing my PH by 0.3, surely a change of 1.0 can't be good? Or is Hydro just hugely different to soil in terms of PH?

I find that quite interesting. Is there any point after that where you would put the Boveda back in? Are you watching RH after those 2 weeks? I don't think my RH drops below 62%, as I've left the Boveda's in for the entire time it's stored. Removing a bud or 2 from the jar when needed, but jars all sit in the top of a closed cupboard. Which also makes me doubt it being a light issue (@the_stonedtrooper) Someone told me my issue might be caused by too much moisture? My feelings there are that I'd have mold, not brown weed .

Board only, no driver, no heatsink, no dimmer, no import costs, probably looking closer to a R1400

I've seen guys try to flower under white CFLs I guess quality also becomes a factor, or no? you can veg in a flower setup, but you shouldn't flower in a veg setup and conveniently the flower setup will need to be bigger and also cost more, so skip what's needed for veg and only focus on flower. how about everything from the first post paired with the 125w LM281b for 9 dollars light? 60 x 60 x 140 Tent = R950 125w Light = 9Dollar = R150 (probably pluss courier & import fees?) Clip Fan = R380 Extractor = R495 Total = R1975 That doesn't seem right, what am I missing?

Nice, yeah I get a sour chemical smell off mine, also very little sativa in her growth charactaristics, but I heard she has a long flower period. will see how she does here. still a little uncertain about autos on this side. will look into them again once I've done 2 or 3 grows back to back with no hickups. still learning for now!

Aha, I see you just don't skip over the part where I mentioned you can treat a photoperiod just like an auto. so you don't HAVE to get autos just cause you want less weed, smaller plant and less grow time. you can achieve this with photoperiods too. infact it will be way easier too. however you can not treat a auto like a photoperiod. photoperiods wont show you the finger when you colour outside the lines a little. where as with autos are more likely to give a person headaches cause of the whole "don't sneeze near them" thing. not true guage of how good of a grower you are, many times you'll come across people telling you how autos put them off growing cause of all the headache. not trying to bash your ways, just trying to make it easier for you brother don't know how I missed that! Carbon filter will remove some stuff, but it doesn't do a lot in terms of lowering EC. it will reduce stuff like chloramine, chloride and fluoride.. more a form of chemical reduction to make the water a little more "organic". for argument sake, if you take a given EC/PPM and run it through a carbon filter the readout should be less, but not much less. and on the other side of the knife, the amount of chemicals in the tap water is most likely less than 0.1, but that's enough chemicals to harm microbes. Nail on the head, Sir 🛠 You reduce EC by flushing the medium with low EC water. To increase EC you feed. but not just "feed" you need to know what to give, when to give and how much to give. this is where it becomes interesting the plants talk to those who listen

Many thanks Prom, I have been steadily decreasing the pH. Waiting for pump cycle so it helps mix the PhDown. Got it down to 5.73 so I'll leave it there for now and check again tomorrow. Seems I'm on the right track now . I have 3 more seeds in for germination so I could try the rockwool for them. Will update in around a week unless I hit any panic stations!. Cheers....

This can become a rabbit hole real quick. With the given parameters of absolute minimum to get something A-grade, on a budget and in a tight space @SkunkPharm has got it pretty thought out. I run my 120W at 80W for veg in a 1mx1m tent, so if for example later down the line a person could upgrade and get a bigger tent as a flower tent then keep the 60x60 with the 75W as a veg tent. But I do agree, 75W will is a bit thin for flower, but if the hypothetical person lollipops the shit out of their plants they might get a handful of solid heads on top. I wouldn't do el natural either, definitely top. I rate we go into what the ultimate growing technique would be for a 60x60 75W grow.

Yes there is that option. Minimum requirements. Share links if you guys are giving suggestions please.

Sometimes not only over drying with Humidity, it can also be caused by sunlight or any light. Turns the cannabis brown quickly

This is informative for the new grower, but I really think anybody who is considering a budget should rid themselves of the fear and just go buy lights from alibaba, I need to buy new boards because one of them has an issue, and I’m picking up a lm281b 125w board only for 9 dollar, like wtf Anyway, that’s just my opinion, then tent size can be increased because of the money saved, more watts and more space, what else do you need.

I agree but this is really minimum requirements. What makes the 75w nice is you can add a second when you have cash.

75watt on a 0.6x0.6 is a bit low ^^ 2 of those lamps would do a great job. I use 120w on such a field in my setups... and am rather on the low wattage side. Most prefer 150w on a 0.6x0.6 area / 600w on a 1.2x1.2.

When I harvest, I remove as many leaves as I can on each plant and hang the whole plant to dry. Once I think I am dry enough.. in general is way more humid as you think.. I remove the buds from the stems and put em in big jars with a Hydrometer. If I am to moist still, I place that jar directly at one of my tent exit fans. Is in general 50% humidity coming out, will dry quick, so a few hours later I close and let the moisture even out, the hydrometer tells me that without guessing. Once the jar stands for 2 days between 63 and 60% I remove the hydrometer and put a 62% boveda bag in. Big jars get a big bag, 67g. As long as I am sure my jars seal 100%, the bag will balance it to 62% over the next 2 weeks. After 2 weeks I remove the bag and simply keep the jar closed in my storage fridge (not powered). I dress the buds in those jars when ever I have the time. They cure in the jars till is their turn. I smoke about 6-10g a day, so if I shut down, I need at least a kg on stock or I will run out for sure before I can do any harvest again. Harvest time is always a bit the point, most people have issues waiting. If somebody always ends with more brown than 'whiteish' buds... Wait for it! Is like a apple not ripe will always be green and sour ^^ once they change color, they get tasty. There are different opinions out there at what moisture level curing stops. Ranges from 58-54%, at least my last stand of knowledge. Once gets too dry, the micro organisms can't survive.. means they will not cause natural decay anymore. I don't like to have my jars go below 58%, due to curing. Batches going dry, usually also end more on the darker side as end result. If the nutrients in the flower can't decay, stays dark and is way more bitter as the smoke should be. Is the tricky part with weed.. germination, veg, flower, harvest, storage.. all have crucial points and if you fuck up one, quality drops. Flower, Harvest and Storage you can very much ruin it and render it worthless.

And this can be reduced by carbon filtering? Are there other ways? Actually, come to think of it, if you do see a too high EC in the runoff, what is the remedy, just more water i.e. flushing until it reaches the correct EC? haha, hence the clever name of the topic? Yes, this is what I'm going to do, I have no intention of transplanting. After germination they are going straight into the final pots. Based on everything that I read, I opted to use 10l fabric pots. As I mentioned elsewhere in this thread, I smoke very, very little. When I used to buy it, I bought about 3g every 3-6 months. As such I have no use for as much as 50g and would probably end up giving most away to friends (this is the plan anyway). This is why autoflowers appeal to me so much, because of their smaller size, reduced yield and generally shorter growing period. I'd rather have a small variety than a large yield that I couldn't possibly use by myself. In fact, I never would've started growing if autos didn't exist. I only learned about them very recently. I am, yes. Thanks for the offer, I'll see how these go first!

It was really good. Not as sativa effects as I thought it would be. But more exciting for me is I found that exact terpenes in an auto I have just seeded. Cannot wait to grow them out.

Power of the forums

That is correct. Still finding my feet I'd say, but super happy with the results I'm getting this far

Growth in veg is going well, all healthy plants and the training is even and flat for the most part. I will soon add in the first net to act as the initial spreader and leveler of the canopy. At that point I think I will start looking into flipping. In my last grow I flipped around here already and after harvest I felt I could have used a little bit more height in the space for some fatter buds and maybe less canopy. I got a few more pocorn nugs than expected so I would like to reduce that on this run.

I rate you can get away with less of you DIY. But you can definately spend more depending. Buy a tent. You can DIY a veg area. If a grow takes 12 weeks and you can get 100+ grams off 2 plants it is viable. But pricing above is about what it costs.