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Right now i dunno wtf im even gonna do with all them lol

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grow them, sell them, or send them someone who deserves them

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BlargIAmDead said:
Okay kiddos. New installment. Been thinking. Now I've got about $400-600 of expendable income. Here are your new options. I'll even give them numbers. If your post doesn't contain a number from my post....

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4) "Its your first grow, so go with coco"
It even rhymes.

If not #4, than #2, but the main train of thought on this is that it is your first grow, and the basic stuff is going to be a little challenging, so complicating the matter by needing to worry about extra elements like aerating buckets of water, or needing a lot of different organic amendments, or removing some of the buffer zones that help cushion the plants from mistakes, like growing in nothing but water or even aeroponics, is potentially going to make things less manageable for someone just starting. I think it takes the fun out of growing if you've developed a problem with your plants that has complex origins and will be difficult to sort out.

This is why I'd go with something like coco, or a soil grow, where you are using a line of organic chemical nutrients. I find coco more preferable, because you're going to get better results due to coco's ability to hold a perfect saturation of water while, at the same time, giving the roots plenty of air. Also, coco will give you some of the more basic lessons that you'll need to have down pat going into hydroponic grows, like the aforementioned DWC, since its soilless and the pH levels will be pretty much the same.

As for what to specifically get regarding lighting and ventilation and everything, it really is a question of your budget. The difference in the costs of ballasts themselves means that you'd be paying around $70 for a 150 watt HPS ballast, but only about $100 for a 600 watt HPS ballast, with the difference between the two being astronomical. A 600 watt HPS in a 3ft x 3ft area would give some great yields. Of course, you're going to need to have an extractor fan that can remove at least twice the volume of air in your grow area in one minute, and you could easily be spending over $100 on that, with about the same amount going towards a carbon filter, which would be a necessity if odor is any kind of security concern. Then you'd be looking at $50-100 for your reflector, $50 for your bulb (I personally got two so there is always a back up in case one burns out, having no light for days to weeks while you're waiting on shipping isn't an option), about $50 for a good set of nutrients, not to mention the cost of your coco or soil (at least another $20), pots, panda film, etc. etc. etc.... Some sort of pH meter would be essential, there's $50, although some kind of test kit could definitely get you by...

Basically, if you're going with HID lighting, the difference in cost between a 150 watt and a 600 watt setup isn't going to be that different (while going from 600 to 1000 definitely is ), and it'd just be wrong to sell yourself short as far as that goes. However, what you would really need to be aware of is the difference in the amount of heat that will be produced by HID. The extractor fan will already be helping with that, if you get an air-cooled reflector, but the possibility of needing air conditioning is definitely there.

I really don't know if $400-600 would cover everything you would need, if you went the HID route. Definitely a good chunk of it, though. If you check out my grow log, all the stuff there cost about $1200. One thing you could do now, though, is get everything you'd need minus the lighting, and work with CFL's until you have more money to cover that stuff.