Growing on the Cheap!

HighSeeker

This thread is dedicated to growing good buds on minimal funds. In the next several posts I will cover the supplies needed to go from start to finish on the cheap. Most of these supplies can be bought at Walmart. Others I will provide links to where I have found what seems to be the best prices.

Please feel free to add your own ideas or suggestions. Or hit me up in chat if you would like to talk shop!

Peace

HS

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HighSeeker

I'll try to start at the beginning.

Once you have your beans (seeds) in hand, you will want to germinate them before you put them into your grow medium. I prefer to soak them overnight in a glass of water to soften them up. Then I fold them up in a wet paper towel and put them in a warm place. You do NOT want to let this paper towel dry out. I usually lay the folded up paper towel in a tupperware type dish and soak it a couple times a day to keep it moist. You are simulating the ground conditions of a rainy spring. In 2-7 days the seeds will pop open and a white root will shoot out. Once this root is showing, you will want to move the sprout to your preferred grow medium.

This is a simple, reliable method to germinate seeds. Old school and easy!

You will want to germinate more seeds than you intend to grow. I would germ 5 for every 2 FEMALES I want. Some might not germinate and some will be males. If you get 4 sprouts, 2 of those will probably be female. 50/50 is common male/female ratio.

Good luck!

Peace

HS

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HighSeeker

Now that you have a sprouted seed, it will need to go into your grow medium. There are many mediums people use but these are 2 that I prefer myself for this stage of growth.

I prefer to use a 16-18 oz solo cup or something of similar size for both methods. This is plenty of room for root growth to veg your plant to 12 inches tall or so.

If you are doing a soil grow, I use the JiffyMix (from Walmart) at this point. You will need to cut or poke a drain hole in the very BOTTOM of the cup. When growing in soil, you do NOT want to retain any water in the cup other than what the soil itself holds. Fill your cup with soil, poke a small hole about 3/4 inch deep and GENTLY place the sprouted seed ROOT DOWN (the white tail) into the soil. Cover it with about 1/4 inch of soil on top. This will basically force the seed hull to come off naturally as the seedling breaks the top soil. If the hull does not come off on its own, you may have to help it with a needle or similar. Just be VERY careful! The seedling is VERY delicate. Do NOT touch it with your fingers! Use clean tweezers to touch anything but the seed hull itself! Once you have the seed covered with soil, water it in with clean PH water (6.0 is standard for soil grow PH). I basically make sure the soil is good and soaked the first watering. It probably won't need water for a few days after this. Let the soil almost dry out before watering again. THIS IS THE MAIN PROBLEM WITH NEWBIES AND SOIL GROWING---OVERWATERING!!! Also, the seedling will have its own nutrients stored to get it up and going. It needs no fertilizers at this point!

The other method I like to use while growing on the cheap is the Hempy style. This is a hydro method using simple to find products. I prefer this type grow over soil myself because it is easier for a newbie and very forgiving if you make an error and need to adjust.

Growing the Hempy method, I would generally start my sprouts in rapid rooter plugs or similar. These items are normally in the INDOOR Gardening area so are carried year round at most stores. If you cannot find them, you can put your seed directly into the hempy mix. Just be very careful watering as it will want to float to the top while it has no roots to hold it.

Once you have your seedling rooted, you will want to use the same solo type cup for early vegatative growth. Instead of a hole in the very bottom, you will want to create a 1 inch deep resovoir in the cup. You can use a thumbtack or similar to make the hole, just be sure to watch and make sure it doesnt get clogged up all the time. I make the hole a little bigger so it has plenty of room to drain. Into the cup I put a 75% perlite/25% vermiculite mix. Walmart usually has both products. If not, Home Depot does have them year round.

Attached area few photos for reference. More in the next post as well.

Good luck!

Peace

HS

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HighSeeker

Pics of a few products I mentioned in the last post---

You can buy the Perlite in a bag similar to the Vermiculite bag. Pic 2 is the actual perlite itself. Solid white in color. The vermiculite looks like tiny pieces of petrified wood. It will help retain some water whereas the perlite will not.

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HighSeeker

Pics of a few products I mentioned in the last post---

You can buy the Perlite in a bag similar to the Vermiculite bag. They are normally right together at Home Depot or Walmart. Pic 2 is the actual perlite itself. Solid white in color. The vermiculite looks like tiny pieces of petrified wood. It will help retain some water whereas the perlite will not.

*** One thing I did not mention in the last post concerning the Hempy method. You will want to PH your water to 5.5-5.8 for this style grow. Hydro PH is maintained at a slightly lower PH than soil grows.

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HighSeeker

In this post I am going to include things you may NOT be able to find at walmart. Any hydro store will carry them or you can get them online. Im sure there are some home remedy options available for some but not that I am familiar with.

Pic 1 is PH DOWN. Your regular tap water will usually be around PH 7. Just a few drops of PH DOWN will lower your PH to an acceptable range. I add 25 drops to a gallon of clear water and it is close to what I want. You will have to get used to how your tap water reacts to it and adjust accordingly.

Pic 2 is a PH test kit. It is essential that you be able to control the PH in your water.

Pic 3 shows the color chart you will use to test your water.

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HighSeeker

If you have a question or want/need me to post a pic of something just let me know. Here are a few more pics that might be helpful.

Pic 1 is what I use to water at this stage. If you just dump the water in there you disturb the roots. I prefer to apply with this turkey baster. 1 dollar at the dollar store.

The 2nd pic is a coco cube. These can be used for rooting like the rapid rooters. They expand when you wet them. You just have to poke a hole to stick your seedling down into.

Pic 3 is the JiffyMix. Its a loose soil product. Ive vegged out many plants in this stuff.

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HighSeeker

Once you have your babies into the cups, you will grow them till they basically fill the inner pot with roots. This will make for ease of transplanting to your larger buckets.

When watering soil, you will want to water maybe only once a week at first. As the plant gets larger it will drink more water. Let the soil almost dry out between waterings. This will promote root growth and make for healthy plants. Occasionally you will want to water with straight PH water (no fertilizers). Fertilizers build up in the soil. The straight water will help allow those nutrients to be absorbed by the plant.

Watering the Hempy style is totally different than the soil style. You will want to water the Hempys every day or every other day. And every 3rd watering you will use straight water without nutes. Make sure the res on the bottom is full when you water. Always keep a drip pan under your cups so the overflow has somewhere to go. The advantage here is that you CANNOT overwater because any excess will just drain out. This is a significant advantage for some newbies!

Good luck on your grow!

Peace

HS

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tokinGLX

to be a little more specific on this point, it is best to water every day until the roots have hit the bottom of the pot.
how do you know when the roots have hit the bottom¿ the simple answer to that is you will see growth really start to take off. fan leaves will start becoming larger and node growth will shoot up.

you switch from watering every day to every other day because you want to encourage the roots to wander around searching for more water/nutes.

if the plant is not in its final container, you will generally see signs of needing to be transplanted when growth slows to a crawl and the pots are very light due to the roots drinking up the internal reservoir very fast.
so you transplant and are back to watering every day and watching for the start of the growth spurt.

ramble much¿ possibly, after all, i am a stoner
(':

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HighSeeker

Right on. Great input. yes, it was tmi for me to get it all in there at 1 sitting. I hope to clear some issues up as I add to the thread.

Peace

HS

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