Information Overload

[wargasm123]

Wow. I've been lurking in these forums for a couple days now and just WOW.

Let me preface this post with my situation if I may. I don't smoke, but my wife does. About an 1/8 a week. Not much I know but we are at the mercy of availability and finance.

As we get older (mid 30's now) it's becoming more and more a pain to get her weekly 'sanity' (as she calls it). The ppl we would normally get from moved away, some stopped selling/smoking,huge dry spells yadda yadda yadda.

She suffers from depression and anxiety. She's been prescribed different drugs in the past, pretty much all of them making her lethargic. Pot does the trick however in 'evening' her out

So in frustration I picked out 10 of her bag seeds a few weeks ago (before I discovered this forum), got some MG and sprouted the little devils on my back porch in separate seedling cups. At about 5inches or so I transplanted them in 6" pots and moved them to my attic. I got 4 48" T8 32w warm fluros on a 18 hr timer about 2" from the seedling tops, small fan circulating the air and 24 hours of classical music playing softly

Now that they're getting bigger and bushier I'm unsure of the next step. My set up is extremely amateur compared to what y'all are doing lol.

I've read the growing guides now and they are all very helpful, but they all seem to presume a much better set up than what I have going lol.
I have a very old house with very old wiring. I would not be comfortable, nor can I afford, using the kind of bulbs that a lot of the hardcore growers here use.

Am I on a doomed expedition?

 

[ozzydiodude]

No you are on your way to growing good safe meds for your wife. In my sig is a link to "the bet" a grow I am starting with all CFL's. you must unclose your grow space so as light is consontrated on the plants with planty of air flow and try to keep the tempertures around 70 f to 80 f

 

[Caretaker]

You have alot more reading to do, We can help but only so much. My house it pretty old to and honestly these lights when running only 1 arnt that bad, Even a 1000w one. Hair dryers are around 1800watts, Toasters are 1000w's. So your probobly running appliances that take more power than these lights even do. But your at a right start. Its good to build a box or a room to grow in. Having reflective walls helps the grow alot. Make sure you only water when the soil gets totally dry. You will need more lights for sure so that might be the first thing you want to look into besides reading on this forum some more. I have been reading on here for a couple years and still consider myself to be slightly nooby. But I am very modest too.

 

[PencilHead]

How hot is your attic and how hot is it going to get this summer?

Lots of folks here do flouros with enviable results, but they've de-kinked their systems over a period of time. I use HIDs so I'm no help there.

A small ballast won't pull as many amps as a small window AC unit. Digital ballasts are less overbearing but get spendy. Keep doing the flouros and get better stuff as you can.

The libeation of you and your lady is about to begin--congratulations. No more dry spells, no more forced commerce with A-holes with attitudes, no more thuggies or thuggettes, 6 grm sacks, preported cryp with seeds--shall I go on? Just got my first serious grow jarred--I am empowered, I am self-sufficient, and I learned it all right here on MP. If my easily distracted where-with-all can do it, anyone can. Have fun, stick around, read, read, read.

Get yourself a pH kit soon as you can and start using 5.3-5.6 pH adjusted water. Distilled water should be around 7.0 but don't bet on it--test it to be sure. Pet shops sell pretty cheap pH kits that have pH Raise, pH Lower and a test reagent. It's a breeze to adjust and your plants can't stand it anyother way.

Biggest obstacles to success:
1) Out of tolerance pH
2) Over watering
3) Over feeding causing nute burn
4) An inability to quickly act on needed adjustments and/or roll with the punches and keep going.

 

[wargasm123]

Good call on the heat in the attic. In the summer it's gonna get mighty hot up there. Looks like I'll have to move them. I have one other room that is feasible; My beloved music studio in the basement

The walls are all sound proofed and the floor is carpeted so reflective surface will be hard to come by.

Ozzy recommends enclosing the grow area. I have a few mylar blankets in some first aid kits kickin around, you reckon I can fashion something out of that?

I have the day off today so I'm gonna go start building now

 

[dirtyolsouth]

Hi,

A goal to supply about an oz or more of meds every couple of months is definitely within your reach. As you're discovering, there is always more than meets the eye when you jump into something new. I've been doing this on and off for about 15 years and do it as much for the love of the herb and growing as I do for personal medicinal purposes. Just like anything else you'll need to apply yourself and learn about growing mj. There are tons of resources available online in the forums or you may consider getting a good book on the subject to gain a solid foundation on learning the fundamentals.

If you're spending $$ on an 1/8 per week you may consider spending a couple hundred to upgrade your lights. You don't need to spend a ton of money on HID lighting but there are some excellent options in fluorescent lighting such a T5 fixtures and compact fluorescents made for indoor growing. You can get pretty decent results with 6 or 8 lamp T5 fluorescent tube fixtures. T5 tubes are much brighter than standard T12 fluorescents with bulbs that have specialized spectrums for veg and flowering available.

If you goal is to grow a small amount of pretty decent bud this type of gear will be adequate for lighting but there are many other factors. Fresh air and ventilation is also key for good plant health and also for dealing with garden odors. One plant a few weeks into flowering in a remote bedroom can stink up the whole house if you don't ventilate. Even with ventilation you may also need a carbon filter and you can search and read about those.

I don't know what the temps are like in your climate but one of the most important factors when growing is keeping temps in the mid to upper 70's. If it gets any warmer than 80, quality will suffer. Even with enclosing the grow space and using AC and ventilation an attic that gets 120-140 in the summer would be difficult if not impossible to use. So... lots to think about and learn.

Good luck and happy growing!

 

[HippyInEngland]

You also need ait exchange, old out, new in.

Blowing old stale warm air around will do nothing for your plants

eace:

 

[lordhighlama]

those first aid blankets work great for reflective
that's what I use in my box.
Your definitely going to want to get some kind of frame made to glue, tape, or stick em' to though.

Good juck!

 

[naturalhi]

Try going with T-5 Flouros and mix the warm and cool colors equally, they penetrate the canopy deeper than what yer using.

 

[docfishwrinkle]

id lean towards the t5's. you can get those through pet shops @ a pretty good deal usually. go to one that specializes in salt water, theyre mainly used for reef tanks if hids are outta reach. HIE says it right about the air exchange, it is crucial! oh yeah id put all cool white(blue) bulbs in your floros now & run em 24/7. 6 hrs of dark isnt doing em any good in veg, IMO.

 

[wargasm123]

Fantastic suggestions. Lighting and location are going to be my main focus atm.

Will it shock the plants to switch to a 24 cycle after 3+ weeks of 18? should I gradually move up to 24?

 

[docfishwrinkle]

no just turn off timer in a day cycle & theyll never know.

 

[The Effen Gee]

If you grow in your attic, and you have summer temps OVER 75, you NEED an ac unit.

Period.

Unless you use only 1 400, and that will not yield a ton of medicine over time.

I suggest at least 1 600, maybe two if space provides.

For depression AND anxiety, be careful with strains that are too heavy on e way or the other.

Sativas help with depression, but can amplify anxiety.
Indicas will help anxiety, but make depression worse.

These are some tid-bits of information given to me by my first medical MJ doctor.

 

[wargasm123]

If you grow in your attic, and you have summer temps OVER 75, you NEED an ac unit.

Period.

Unless you use only 1 400, and that will not yield a ton of medicine over time.

I suggest at least 1 600, maybe two if space provides.

For depression AND anxiety, be careful with strains that are too heavy on e way or the other.

Sativas help with depression, but can amplify anxiety.
Indicas will help anxiety, but make depression worse.

These are some tid-bits of information given to me by my first medical MJ doctor.

Ahhh, and the fact that I'm using bag seed who knows what I'll get. Lets hope that the sheer happiness of having pot on demand (so to speak) will put her at ease lol

I have to admit though, after planting these seeds out of frustration, this project is quickly turning into something I look forward to very much. I check on them multiple times daily, mostly just to look and admire. If I can get half of the results I see here I would be absolutely thrilled. Very exciting.

 

[wmmeyer]

Wargasm,

Welcome to the forums, you're in the right place. Being a newbie myself, I'm not going to attempt to offer any suggestions, but what advice you've already got here is excellant.

I'm in almost the same situation as you, bag seeds in miraclegro, in the closet, under fluros, and wishing I had the money, space, and air control to have something better. The only suggestion I could possibly offer is, don't scrap your current grow out of frustration. You'll learn alot by watching what you're doing and what results it has. You just might end up with a little smoke in the end. The background classical music is a brilliant touch, I hadn't thought of that.

I also suffer from severe clinical depression and anxiety disorder and have been thru the mill with the shrinks. I've been toking what I like to call the "surprise package" cuz you never know what's in the bag that you buy in the 'hood. I also find a little goes a long way to take the edge off, far better than anything the shrink came up with. Comparing my bag-seed grow with pix on the forum here, I'm guessing I have somewhat of an Indica strain coming on, and I like the effect. I'm looking for something that I can watch a test pattern on the TV for 2 hours, thinking its a good movie.

Anyways, hang in there, we're all in this together. Read, Study, Try it and see, and make educated decisions, and I'm sure you'll see some progress. Good Luck.

 

[wargasm123]

Thanks Wmm! Yeh, admittedly I really didn't know what I was getting into when I dropped those seeds in those cups. Now I feel all responsible for their survival so I want to do the best I can with what I have.

Ahhhh the music thing. Well in my research I've read several studies about music and plants and the conclusion is...inconclusive

However, there are some very compelling results out there. For instance, many studies showed that plants tend to grow towards the music source with healthy growth if they 'like' it and away from it with stunted or sparse growth (or even die) if they don't. check a article out here
h t t p://wiki.answers.com/Q/Does_music_help_plants_grow (sorry can't post links yet I guess, need a few more posts.)

So yeh, I play nice music for them, tell them how pretty they are etc. Little do they know the evil intentions of my wife who is planning on devouring them lol

 

[mr.greengenes]

Hey Wargasm,

I'm older than you but our stories are similar. I planted some seeds on a lark in late February and started my research for how to grow after the fact. There are some very experienced, veteran farmers here that can help you provided you post photos of your grow when you need specific advice (a picture is worth a thousand words...).
You may want to buy a book on the subject. I've found that books tend to take you from start to end and that the information overload happens from jumping between threads and trying to interpret various persons thoughts/experiences.
Also, if you haven't, learn about the different strains of sativa and indica. Sativa takes longer to grow and harvest but may be preferable as an anti-depressant med. I recommend that you look at this grow as a short term experience but budget for the long term process if it is safe for you to do so.
Tell no one, if possible, about your grow and be wary of web sites that might be monitored by law enforcement.
Most of all, try to be patient. The process takes time and there is a lot to consider at each stage. Myself, I'm anxious to try a lowryder strain that will grow to maturity in 8 weeks.
Welcome to MJ Passion.
Mr.Greengenes

 

[wargasm123]

OK, so at the end of the day here is what I've done:

Moved the whole operation from the attic to the basement.

Enclosed the grow area.

instead of 4 32w T8 warm fluro's , they are now alternated between cool and warm.

Removed the timer for straight up 24hr veg (vs 18/6).


Next week I'll look into switching to the t5's. do those come in 48"? I assume I'll need new ballasts. I'll also pick up a temp/humidity monitor and a phKit.

Thanks for the tips everyone, you all are super helpful

 

[wmmeyer]

The T5s are available in either 24" or 48" (sort of - they're a fraction of an inch off the exact length). You will need a whole new fixture for the T5 bulbs since they're a different length, different diameter, and a different end-pin connector type, and require a different ballast.

The bulbs come with either a color temp of 2900 Kelvins or 6500 kelvins. The 2900 is in the red spectrum and is what you'd want for flowering. The 6500 is in the blue spectrum and is the "daylight" bulb for vegging.

 

[mr.greengenes]

Looks like the T-5 lamp set up is about $300 retail on the web. Check out Craigslist. Folks sell grow lights on there all the time.