Hi guys! Glad I found this forum after having caught an interest in autos.
Here's the thing. I've never grown before and am getting pissed at street prices and quality. So I decided to try and make my own supply.
Here's the situation:
During the week I am away from home. I have a small studio appartment there. There's really only one door between me and a hallway shared with a neighbor. Now I'm not too worried about this neighbor (caught a huge cloud of weed smell out of his place once) but there might be a new neighbor eventually.
So obviously, proper ventilation including a carbon filter is a must.
I do have a sort of closet I would want to put the box in. I only have space for something like a HomeBox XS (2ft x 2ft x 4ft high). So that limits my options somewhat, but height-wise I think I can do OK with not-so-tall-autos.
I have researched the laws in my area (Germany) and it turns out that if a bust produces less than 7.5g of pure THC, there will be repercussions but it won't be all that bad. So for a 20% THC strain, I should be safe up to about 35g dry bud. Since I probably won't be at 20% THC from the start, I'm guessing I should be fairly safe up to about 50g.
That got me thinking. Instead of trying to maximize yield on each grow and then cruising along on the resulting product until a new grow is required, it would be wiser to have only one plant ready to harvest at any point in time. With several others in growth and early flower.
So let's assume one plant takes 10 weeks from seed, and I drop a new seed every 4 weeks, I should have a constant supply of homemade goodness while never having a huge load of ripe buds in the box. When one plant is ready for harvest, the next one is 6 weeks old and probably only starting to get serious about bud production.
I think autos are really the ticket for me:
- limited space. I've seen experienced growers grow 9 beautiful plants in a Homebox XS, I'm not ready to deal with that yet.
- (possibly) less yield: I'm specifically trying to limit my yield as I'm getting started. If odor control fails, I'll have less of a problem. Once I feel confident about the stink issue, I may change my goals to get more yield.
- just one light schedule make it easy to stay in one small box. The height of the light will obviously be controlled by the largest plant, so I'll lift the other plants up to the required height. Since the light will usually be up fairly high, I'm hoping the new guys will be at a safe distance in their early days.
I'm not sure about the light yet. Since one light has to fit all, I'm thinking 150 or 250W HPS all the time. But HPS from the start is said to cause stretch. So I'm thinking T-NEON for mix-and-match spectrum, but these guys are a bitch to fit into a 2ft box. Another alternative would be a 200W or 250W mixed spectrum CFL.
What do you think? I'm looking to harvest at least 30g/just over an ounce a month.
Possible? Any experence with what I'm trying to do with the perpetual, multiple ages in one box thing?
As for strains, I've been looking at Dutch Passion (Auto Mazar, Think different) but I hear Nirvana also does nice auto strains.
I would also love to start with a relatively low odor strain. I understand Northern Lights does that. How about the Dutch Passion ladies? Are they bad stinkers?
Any insight would be highly appreciated!
Oh yes, the drying part. Since the box will always have about half the space filled with small(er) plants, I'm hoping to put a mildly ventilated (PC fans?) dry box under the smaller plants. If I try to get the dry box as lightproof as possible, it should provide the recommended DARK space, right?
Here's the thing. I've never grown before and am getting pissed at street prices and quality. So I decided to try and make my own supply.
Here's the situation:
During the week I am away from home. I have a small studio appartment there. There's really only one door between me and a hallway shared with a neighbor. Now I'm not too worried about this neighbor (caught a huge cloud of weed smell out of his place once) but there might be a new neighbor eventually.
So obviously, proper ventilation including a carbon filter is a must.
I do have a sort of closet I would want to put the box in. I only have space for something like a HomeBox XS (2ft x 2ft x 4ft high). So that limits my options somewhat, but height-wise I think I can do OK with not-so-tall-autos.
I have researched the laws in my area (Germany) and it turns out that if a bust produces less than 7.5g of pure THC, there will be repercussions but it won't be all that bad. So for a 20% THC strain, I should be safe up to about 35g dry bud. Since I probably won't be at 20% THC from the start, I'm guessing I should be fairly safe up to about 50g.
That got me thinking. Instead of trying to maximize yield on each grow and then cruising along on the resulting product until a new grow is required, it would be wiser to have only one plant ready to harvest at any point in time. With several others in growth and early flower.
So let's assume one plant takes 10 weeks from seed, and I drop a new seed every 4 weeks, I should have a constant supply of homemade goodness while never having a huge load of ripe buds in the box. When one plant is ready for harvest, the next one is 6 weeks old and probably only starting to get serious about bud production.
I think autos are really the ticket for me:
- limited space. I've seen experienced growers grow 9 beautiful plants in a Homebox XS, I'm not ready to deal with that yet.
- (possibly) less yield: I'm specifically trying to limit my yield as I'm getting started. If odor control fails, I'll have less of a problem. Once I feel confident about the stink issue, I may change my goals to get more yield.
- just one light schedule make it easy to stay in one small box. The height of the light will obviously be controlled by the largest plant, so I'll lift the other plants up to the required height. Since the light will usually be up fairly high, I'm hoping the new guys will be at a safe distance in their early days.
I'm not sure about the light yet. Since one light has to fit all, I'm thinking 150 or 250W HPS all the time. But HPS from the start is said to cause stretch. So I'm thinking T-NEON for mix-and-match spectrum, but these guys are a bitch to fit into a 2ft box. Another alternative would be a 200W or 250W mixed spectrum CFL.
What do you think? I'm looking to harvest at least 30g/just over an ounce a month.
Possible? Any experence with what I'm trying to do with the perpetual, multiple ages in one box thing?
As for strains, I've been looking at Dutch Passion (Auto Mazar, Think different) but I hear Nirvana also does nice auto strains.
I would also love to start with a relatively low odor strain. I understand Northern Lights does that. How about the Dutch Passion ladies? Are they bad stinkers?
Any insight would be highly appreciated!
Oh yes, the drying part. Since the box will always have about half the space filled with small(er) plants, I'm hoping to put a mildly ventilated (PC fans?) dry box under the smaller plants. If I try to get the dry box as lightproof as possible, it should provide the recommended DARK space, right?
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