New Grower First Auto Attempt - New Year Budget Bucket Grow

[Samwell]

Hi all,

With my first grow I want to get a plant to harvest on a $250 budget for materials. Hopefully I'll learn a lot and don't impede myself too much by setting such a strict budget since I know quality of some of my items will be lower.

Items already owned - drill, box cutter, screwdriver, measuring tape, duct tape, scissors, power strip, zip ties, temp/humidity meter, seeds.

$13 - 4 5gallon buckets x $3.25- I rigged together a space bucket over the past week using four 5 gallon buckets. It sits about 30 inches tall. As much as I wanted it to be a super clean fancy bucket, but I realized quickly I don't have the tools or skills needed yet.

$13 - pc fans - exhaust fan and fan to circulate air.

$8 - timer- will put bucket on 18/6 schedule

$8 - set of 5 3gallon fabric pots - Using a 3 gallon fabric pot that I needed to fold down a little bit so that I have a few more inches to work with. I should be able to use the pot as an anchor for lst. I'm thinking I should have gone with 2 gallon pots, but I'll see how this goes.

$40 - 216w UFO LED - 72 3w bulbs, actually wattage pulled is probably 60-75. I didn't feel like spending half the budget on a higher quality light, but there was a 300w growstar light that I think I could've spent the extra $28

$24 - Bushdoctor Coco Loco - I should've done more research here and just got a brick of coco. This potting mix seems more like coco coir with organics mixed in, but I'll run with it. Fox farm customer service suggested no nutes until week 2/3 just keep an eye. It was 2cu ft of potting mix so I imagine this is going to last me a ton of grows as I will do 1 plant at a time.

$27 - AN coco bloom A+B - not sure if I need to go to regular based on the potting mix. I plan on following @TaNg easy auto feeding schedule with adjustments as needed.

$12 -calmag - coco specific nutes supposed to help for this issue but you never know.

$8 - pH up and down kit - tap water looks to come out over 8 while water from the fridge is looking to be more towards 4.5.


I've got about $100 of the budget available at the moment. Here's what I probably need:

$20 - pH and tds meters
$20 - AN overdrive and carboload

Anything else you can think of?

I dropped a blue cush and kush autos I got as freebies from seedsman, hopefully one pops her head up. If they both do, I think I might turn one into a cup grow and get some CFLs on it. If neither do, I'll drop some more.

Pics will come as things progress!

Thanks all.

 

[islandgrower]

Sounds good bro.

Sent from my SM-J710F using Tapatalk

 

[Samwell]

@Unique @Need4Weed @Free Flow @Kingflipper Tagging a few people who had previously been kind and asked.

 

[Free Flow]

Sounds good so far bro! Ill tell you what though, I get 2kg bricks of coco from the pet store for $8 , that could easily last 4 grows if not more.

Lets see some pictures lol

 

[Samwell]

Couple pics of what its like with the light on. I've got couple extra spacers I can throw in to give me about 6 more inche, but hoping to tame with lst and not need them.

 

[cornell584]

Im subbed mate, great start for the girls cant wait to see what you can do in such a small size space good luck buddy, happy growing!

Boo'sBuds[emoji271] https://www.autoflower.org/index.php?threads/61958/

 

[Free Flow]

Looking good already bro. Space bucket seems like a cool ass idea for a breeding project. I may make one in the future to make some seed

 

[Kingflipper]

Hey thanks for tagging me in. Never grown in such a small space so it'll be cool to watch. May I make a recommendation for you to get yourself a good pH meter? Gotta stay on top of it in coco! Good luck bro

 

[Samwell]

Hey thanks for tagging me in. Never grown in such a small space so it'll be cool to watch. May I make a recommendation for you to get yourself a good pH meter? Gotta stay on top of it in coco! Good luck bro

Any recommendations?

I thought about it, but after getting gallon of water to test the 6.0 color and then coco pH perfect nutes, I thought I would just continue with what I've got to really stay under the budget just in case I needed wiggle room for any unexpected buys.

Then again, maybe having the good pH meter will reduce the chance that there will be any unexpected buys.

 

[bad dragon bzzz]

good on ya for getting stuck in and doin it your way.we all would have done things different if we were to have our time again.its as much a hobby as it is a medicine or just for fun elements,there will always be a to do list/to get list/should have done list.
an eejits thoughts on PH....if all is going well in the garden we can more or less ignore PH.if things arnt going well in the garden a PH pen is key.
and a ph pen isnt the end of it,ph calibration 4,7 fluid is needed.possibly cleaning and storage solution to depending on pen.no doubt the acurate8 is the best but at £70 out of reach to a lot and a luxury for most.
i took the chance on these two https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TDS-Test...d=122689338932&_trksid=p2047675.c100009.m1982
have seen me right for a couple of years.
good luck n keep er lit.