My wife uses cannabis for medical reasons. It helps a lot with her issues. We started buying at MA dispensaries and it got too expensive (~$400+/oz) so we discovered that Maine took her medical card so we went there for cheaper prices. It is about $200/oz but as we build up tolerance (t-breaks + medical issues = no go), even that became cost prohibitive. Now, don't get me wrong, we're not poor and buying cannabis doesn't make us not able able to pay bills. It is just a big bill in and of itself.
An answer to the big bill of buying cannabis was to grow our own. Living in a completely recreationally legal state and owning my own home makes this a possibility. Up until recently, my wife did not approve of growing. There were concerns but over time the cost savings became the number one factor. She gave the full go ahead at the end of January. It began as a closet grow I'd have to build but when my carpenter friend backed out I got discouraged and my wife approved a 3x3 tent.
I set out to find the best supplies and growing method for my budget and that was actually fun. I had a wish list on Amazon and I went bonkers adding items and comments on them. I narrowed it all down based on reviews, advice and feedback.
Looking to the internet for growing advice is tricky. There's a tech term called "signal to noise" that is just as it sounds, the amount of signal compared to the amount of noise. Cannabis growing advice is a lot of noise with signal being difficult to pickup. I can't grow in smart soil, clay, hydro, coco, dirt and all them at once. I also can't use all of the Advanced Nutrients, Flora this, Flora that, Cal Mag this or any of the other of thousands of nutes all at once. It's enough to make your head spin. The worst part isn't the wealth/quantity of information but all the pushy people telling you that you HAVE to use the light they say and HAVE to use the nutes they say. How can a person work with that? If you do everything everyone on the internet tells you to do, you'll have a house full of nutes and weeks of waiting for Alibaba.
Tent: Mars Hydro 3x3 (actual 39"x39"x70"). Chosen for quality (1680 Mylar vs 600) and height. My ceiling is a touch above 6 feet tall.
Light: I know what I've chosen is "wrong" to a portion of people on the internet. I got a Mars Hydro TS1000 because it was bought when the 2x2 closet was the space. I am making it work in my 3x3, detractors be damned. It's good on energy use and is not overly hot. I could buy all the quantum boards on all the chinese web sites but I bought this and people need to get over themselves. We'll see how it grows.
Nutes: Greenleaf Nutrients Mega Crop. All in one powder mixed in with the water. Starting at 2g/gal and going up as the grow progresses.
Medium: I bought a 50L bag of Mother Earth 70% Coco / 30% Perlite for $20 at a local store. Easy to work with, no need to clean. pH neutral.
Seeds: Ordered 3 Green Crack autos (Fastbuds) and 3 Northern Lights autos (Seedsman freebie) from Seedsman on 1/30/20. Bought all supplies over 10 days and got impatient so I ordered 5 Blue Dream'mattic (Fastbuds) from Neptune Seed Bank on 2/11/20 and received them in three days. This is what is in my pots.
I germinated three seeds in a paper towel for 2 days after soaking for a day in a shot glass. They all popped well and I placed them in 3 gallon fabric pots that were pre-watered to a slight runoff after letting it settle. Sprayed the tops a tiny bit after covering them and now they sit in ~70% humidity with a temp of 75F.
An answer to the big bill of buying cannabis was to grow our own. Living in a completely recreationally legal state and owning my own home makes this a possibility. Up until recently, my wife did not approve of growing. There were concerns but over time the cost savings became the number one factor. She gave the full go ahead at the end of January. It began as a closet grow I'd have to build but when my carpenter friend backed out I got discouraged and my wife approved a 3x3 tent.
I set out to find the best supplies and growing method for my budget and that was actually fun. I had a wish list on Amazon and I went bonkers adding items and comments on them. I narrowed it all down based on reviews, advice and feedback.
Looking to the internet for growing advice is tricky. There's a tech term called "signal to noise" that is just as it sounds, the amount of signal compared to the amount of noise. Cannabis growing advice is a lot of noise with signal being difficult to pickup. I can't grow in smart soil, clay, hydro, coco, dirt and all them at once. I also can't use all of the Advanced Nutrients, Flora this, Flora that, Cal Mag this or any of the other of thousands of nutes all at once. It's enough to make your head spin. The worst part isn't the wealth/quantity of information but all the pushy people telling you that you HAVE to use the light they say and HAVE to use the nutes they say. How can a person work with that? If you do everything everyone on the internet tells you to do, you'll have a house full of nutes and weeks of waiting for Alibaba.
Tent: Mars Hydro 3x3 (actual 39"x39"x70"). Chosen for quality (1680 Mylar vs 600) and height. My ceiling is a touch above 6 feet tall.
Light: I know what I've chosen is "wrong" to a portion of people on the internet. I got a Mars Hydro TS1000 because it was bought when the 2x2 closet was the space. I am making it work in my 3x3, detractors be damned. It's good on energy use and is not overly hot. I could buy all the quantum boards on all the chinese web sites but I bought this and people need to get over themselves. We'll see how it grows.
Nutes: Greenleaf Nutrients Mega Crop. All in one powder mixed in with the water. Starting at 2g/gal and going up as the grow progresses.
Medium: I bought a 50L bag of Mother Earth 70% Coco / 30% Perlite for $20 at a local store. Easy to work with, no need to clean. pH neutral.
Seeds: Ordered 3 Green Crack autos (Fastbuds) and 3 Northern Lights autos (Seedsman freebie) from Seedsman on 1/30/20. Bought all supplies over 10 days and got impatient so I ordered 5 Blue Dream'mattic (Fastbuds) from Neptune Seed Bank on 2/11/20 and received them in three days. This is what is in my pots.
I germinated three seeds in a paper towel for 2 days after soaking for a day in a shot glass. They all popped well and I placed them in 3 gallon fabric pots that were pre-watered to a slight runoff after letting it settle. Sprayed the tops a tiny bit after covering them and now they sit in ~70% humidity with a temp of 75F.
