I'm looking for a 3x3ish grow tent and a light. I've been looking at kits online and the reviews are all so mixed, I think it would be better to put one together myself. Problem is, I'm on a bit of a budget to start this project. I intend to round out the kit as needed, but I don't want to sink a ton of money into a project that may not work out for different reasons.
Can someone suggest me an LED light, exhaust fan and tent?
Thank you! I was worried HPS would run my electric bill way up, but to save money up front, maybe I'll go that way for my first run
Look for 100W COB Led lights on Aliexpress. They cost around 20 dollars each. I've had two of these in my tent and they gave me solid yiels
I also tried those fake 1000W ali quantum boards leds. They are also around 20 USD, but i felt like the light didnt penetrate deep enough, because the lower sections of the plant had a lot of popcorn buds
Hey, here's some things that I wish I knew, from someone who jumped into it without doing nearly as much research as I should have (and normally do).
Growing cannabis is expensive. Not nearly as expensive as buying it, but you will take a pretty solid hit to get things started. My costs:
Grow tent (vivosun) $100, LED Lighting $180, coco coir (any brand w/o added fertilizers will do, or you can order soil from fox farms) $30, ferts (fox farms) $60, ventilation fan/carbon filter (vivosun) $100, seeds x10 (ILGM.com) $100, buffers (pH Up/Down) and pH meter $60, timed power strip $30, for a total of about $700, plus I'm sure there are things I missed. I already had a dehumidifier in my basement and some humidifiers to keep the tent under control when necessary. The good news is that I'll get WAY more than $700 of cannabis from my first grow alone, and a lot of those costs are one and done unless something breaks.
You will need all of those things. Don't try to grow without a pH meter, ferts, sufficient lighting, etc. You'll kill your plants and have wasted a ton of time and some very expensive seeds. Don't skip the carbon filter because your house will reek well before your plants even start flowering. The degree to which the plants smell just vibing in my basement took me by surprise.
Don't try to build a tent, it will be more expensive, too much work, and less effective than a cheap vivosun one. A 3x3 grow tent is sufficient for one plant. I picked a small-ish indicia strain (granddaddy purple), my tent is 5x2.7x6.7' length-width-height and two plants are pretty cramped in there, halfway through flower. Get a tall tent, you will have to factor in the height of the container (likely about a foot), the lights being suspended below the ventilation (another 10-12 inches), and distance from the lights to the plant (12+ inches). I can push my plants to about 4 feet tall with this setup, closer to 5 feet if I squish the ventilation around the lighting.
My advice if you are on a tight budget is to start with small autoflower plants and smaller gear. You can definitely do it for less than $400. The only problem with this is if you want to expand in the future and are stuck with a too-small tent or lights.
Thanks! That's a good rundown. I'd rather start buying the equipment in parts and get the right stuff. I'm not really in a hurry.
I got started with a space bucket (r/spacebuckets) which just required a few old 5gal buckets, a little UFO light, and a couple cheapy PC fans I connected to some old power supplies. Honestly wouldn't worry too much about optimizing your first grow — if you're gonna splurge on anything splurge on the light. There's a bunch of guides on r/handsoncomplexity written by an electrician who grows cannabis and has a lot of strong opinions, but basically most LED boards or UFO lights are going to be decent enough bets for your first grows. (Personally I'd go with an LED board for a tent)
You'd be surprised at how much you'll get off your first plant anyway. Once you've gotten a grow or two under your belt I'd look into upgrading, but wouldn't bother much before then since you're gonna be learning and prob won't be going for Largest Optimal Yield or anything in a way where your equipment is gonna matter too too much.
As far as tents go, again I think just about any will be good for a first grow — they're all about the same in my experience, so you can go cheaper. Most of the things people care about are light leaks and for any tent you should be able to patch those up with electrical tape if they're actually concerning.
For fans I probably would just see what I could find at a thrift store, doesn't need to be anything fancy as long as there's room for it. I've got a $15 box fan in my tent right now.
Sorry, that was a lot of words that didn't specifically answer your questions, but without seeing your specific setup and hopes and dreams for it it's a little hard to make specific recs — happy to try to answer more questions if you've got em though!
Good luck and have fun :stalin-smokin:
I managed to snap one of my plants in half by dropping my other plant on it and I still got a shit ton of weed from both of them.
Lmao i was a dipshit who tried starting my plants outside this year and had a grasshopper bite halfway through the stem of a little seedling and then eat all the leaves off one side - she's an absolute monster now and I just flipped her into flower a week ago
It takes an enormous amount of incompetence to kill a weed plant
Hear hear. I once left four plants without water for like 12 days accidentally during the growth stage and they were in bad shape when I came back but they picked up right off again pretty quick and ended up producing like crazy.
Yeah, in a positive way for sure! My first grow was a bag seed that got pretty sad a couple times early on and I wound up getting close to an ounce off of her.
As long as you're keeping an eye on them they're pretty easy to keep alive imo — it's called weed for a reason and def will do its best to grow like one. They need a bit more diligence when they're sprouts or seedlings, but after that they're pretty hardy. If you haven't come across it yet, the Plant Doctor on growweedeasy.com is a huge help for diagnosing and fixing issues, I still consult it pretty regularly
Ah fair yeah, I've never had to talk any roommates into me doing it before, just my wife, and it was a little less of a concern since I lived in a legal state at the time.
Even since my first plant I've always grown way more than I smoked, but i love being able to give some away to friends and comrades too. It's so much fun to grow even as more of a casual user than a dedicated stoner – I know a handful of farmers that grow it on the side as a hobby just cause it's such a neat, rewarding plant to cultivate. One of my favorite hobbies for sure.
Smell depends on the strain, but just about any plant will have a noticeable odor from about 1-2 rooms away during flower if you don't have a filter. I didn't bother with it for my first few grows and you couldn't ever really smell it outside of my apartment, though from the inside it was pretty distinct as the plant got closer to harvest time
Literally describing heaven lmao
I tried to grow in the woods as a kid, and I think deer are em or something. Don’t think it’s in the cards any time soon but it sounds nice!
carbon filters are pretty easy to kludge together with some activated charcoal and a cheap pc fan, fwiw
Thanks! That's all good stuff! Is light leak only a problem if you're trying to be discreet? I can't imagine the little bit that would escape From a zipper would be enough to change the grow...
I don't have to worry about discretion. My plan was to get a 3x3, start 4 plants in it, move two outside once they were established, and finish the other two off in the tent. I have a huge yard, and I wanna grow one of those 14 ft bastards
Light leak is more of a problem when you get into the flowering period if you're growing a photoperiod plant — during flowering, the plant needs a certain number of consecutive hours near-total darkness in order to start flowering (basically simulating the season changing into fall) and too much light can interrupt that. In my experience a bit of light getting into the tent is okay - after all, the plant would get some moonlight in nature! If you're planning on finishing them outdoors it shouldn't be a problem at all.
That shouldn't be a problem for me. I was planning on growing in my basement, which is pretty dark. I can block out the little window with cardboard for extra darkness
