Hey guys, great forum, lots of experienced folks on here. I'm new to all of this, but have grown veggies/herbs in the past outdoors.
I've been reading all day and snagged a recipe for soil Muddy posted that I'm going to try to replicate...sprout in Pro-Mix and then grow in pro-mix + perlite + worm castings. Going to look for Better-Gro orchid nutes to use from about week 2.5-10 and just try to have a successful small, single-plant grow. Yield, potency, fancy-shmancy 3 cola plants will come with time, I just want this thing to be healthy, small, and happy. I'm going to do 1 seed at a time so if anything goes wrong or I screw it up, I have time to re-asses, change my process, and restart another plant. Time is of no object and I'd rather not germ. 4 seeds only to lose 2 or 3 and realize the error of my ways too late.
My space is a closet, about 3'x3'x5'. The closet itself is about three times that big, volume-wise, but I only have about that much area to dedicate to this project (there's some stuff on shelves above that 5' mark and some clothes hanging in the second half of the closet). Needless to say, there will be plenty of room to get to the plant and there will be nothing to fall on it or otherwise disrupt the lifecycle, I just can't empty my whole closet 100%. I don't intend to do a grow-box or tent, just have it free-standing in a pot, on a saucer, on a tarp, on the floor. I have a couple of shelves and a clothes bar from which I can hang/suspend lighting and will have a small fan for air circulation. Temp/humidity I'm going to somewhat leave up to mother nature/my AC system. I usually keep the central air around 70-72 in the summer and the house itself stays just above that. I figure inside a closet with a lighting system it should stay a bit warmer.
The question I have pertains to lighting. I want this to be a cheap, less is more type approach, but I'm willing to buy a dedicated LED grow-light if it will really make a big enough difference in plant health. I'm planning on using a few CFLs and maybe a T-5, just enough to get good coverage and maybe a side light or two for fun. I have, however, fallen in love with the blackstar setups and think I could just do a plug-and-play 1 light setup using one of their smaller rigs.
For those that have done 1 plant micro-grows or have experience with small scale setups, would you recommend just going the extra mile and buying an LED grow-light or would the extra cost not be justified over 3 or 4 CFLs?
I'm looking at the 100W Blackstar unit right now as my first choice, it says it covers a 2cubic foot area, I can't imagine that would be insufficient for 1 small plant.
Seeds are Iranian Auto Fem., btw. Thanks for your suggestions!
Tim
As a side note, I got the recommendation from the person that supplied the seeds to flower these at 12/12, although they are "autoflower." That seemed odd to me since most of you guys are doing 20/4 or at most 18/6 with your auto strains. Any thoughts about that?
I've been reading all day and snagged a recipe for soil Muddy posted that I'm going to try to replicate...sprout in Pro-Mix and then grow in pro-mix + perlite + worm castings. Going to look for Better-Gro orchid nutes to use from about week 2.5-10 and just try to have a successful small, single-plant grow. Yield, potency, fancy-shmancy 3 cola plants will come with time, I just want this thing to be healthy, small, and happy. I'm going to do 1 seed at a time so if anything goes wrong or I screw it up, I have time to re-asses, change my process, and restart another plant. Time is of no object and I'd rather not germ. 4 seeds only to lose 2 or 3 and realize the error of my ways too late.
My space is a closet, about 3'x3'x5'. The closet itself is about three times that big, volume-wise, but I only have about that much area to dedicate to this project (there's some stuff on shelves above that 5' mark and some clothes hanging in the second half of the closet). Needless to say, there will be plenty of room to get to the plant and there will be nothing to fall on it or otherwise disrupt the lifecycle, I just can't empty my whole closet 100%. I don't intend to do a grow-box or tent, just have it free-standing in a pot, on a saucer, on a tarp, on the floor. I have a couple of shelves and a clothes bar from which I can hang/suspend lighting and will have a small fan for air circulation. Temp/humidity I'm going to somewhat leave up to mother nature/my AC system. I usually keep the central air around 70-72 in the summer and the house itself stays just above that. I figure inside a closet with a lighting system it should stay a bit warmer.
The question I have pertains to lighting. I want this to be a cheap, less is more type approach, but I'm willing to buy a dedicated LED grow-light if it will really make a big enough difference in plant health. I'm planning on using a few CFLs and maybe a T-5, just enough to get good coverage and maybe a side light or two for fun. I have, however, fallen in love with the blackstar setups and think I could just do a plug-and-play 1 light setup using one of their smaller rigs.
For those that have done 1 plant micro-grows or have experience with small scale setups, would you recommend just going the extra mile and buying an LED grow-light or would the extra cost not be justified over 3 or 4 CFLs?
I'm looking at the 100W Blackstar unit right now as my first choice, it says it covers a 2cubic foot area, I can't imagine that would be insufficient for 1 small plant.
Seeds are Iranian Auto Fem., btw. Thanks for your suggestions!
Tim
As a side note, I got the recommendation from the person that supplied the seeds to flower these at 12/12, although they are "autoflower." That seemed odd to me since most of you guys are doing 20/4 or at most 18/6 with your auto strains. Any thoughts about that?
