Normally I'm the type of person who kills house plants; not because I forget to care for them, but instead because I simply mess up their care by under or over watering. So I was pretty scared that I'd royally mess up when it was time to start growing cannabis. However, what I found out is that if set up to meet your personal needs right the first time, then an
At-Home Hydro System can work, even for the brownest of thumbs people like myself. Unfortunately, I didn't do enough research on what my needs actually were before buying my supplies, and
that error cost me a lot of time, money and many frustrating problems along the way.
So my
first suggestion is that you should
figure out what your personal needs entail. So, what kind of space are you working with for your grow area? Is that space clean? Are you growing just one or two plants, or are you looking to grow in cycles- which is having seedlings, vegetating plants and up to the legal 6 "mature" plants allowed (
per person) in MA homes- running at the same time? Do you wish to grow multiple strains or stick to one kind? How "automatic" do you want your set up to be? Do you have or need temperature control for your growing area?
Remember that though growing weed is legal in Massachusetts, it is still illegal at the federal level, and therefore you could still get into big trouble. So
make sure your grow space is private and well concealed from the general public. Also if you are a renter, before setting any grow space up, make sure that you have the permission of your landlord (
soon we'll be seeing cannabis sections in our rental agreements similar to what we see with smoking and grill rules, especially for utility included rentals).
My husband and I went with a
two tent set-up, as we were hoping to run our harvest in a cycle. The smaller of the tents (
on the left) was set up for our seedlings and mother (
vegetating) plants. The taller tent (
on the right) was set up for our mature plants. We happened to purchase most of our supplies through Amazon, because of its ease of access and cheaper prices, while getting other items at Home Depot. Doing some comparative shopping beforehand with your prepared researched plan will help lower the start-up cost of this project, which for us has been about
$3500 in total for set-up and one grow cycle (not including energy or water costs).
For our system, due to not having temperature control and having a
really old electrical system in our home, we chose to
run filtered fans. Without an automated system though, we are constantly having to adjust the fan speeds throughout the day and night (
the ideal has been about 65/72, but note not to let your plants get colder than 60 or hotter than 90, with no more than a 20 degree difference between your night and day temperatures), which is very time consuming and frustrating, however, it is doable. We drew the blinds down nearly all the way and boarded up both windows from the inside using cheap plywood.
The trick is to not let in any outside light while keeping your project private. Using aluminum ducting (
cut down to size to fit space, so as not to waste), we placed
intake and exhaust ducts securely to the window, making sure to use
bug screens/air filters for all intake/exhaust fan ducts.
In total, we have
eight fans (five of which have attached carbon odor control filters, while the other three use cloth bug shield filter screens at the attachment spot to the plywood holes).
- Two fans bringing filtered air directly into each tent from outside (the one in the large tent pushes cold outside air directly to the light hutch)
- One fan bringing air inside the room from outside that is running through a carbon odor control filter (top left picture above)
- One fan filtering air out of our growing space (to keep down the smell)
- Two fans with carbon filters are used to remove hot air from the top of each tent (the one in the large tent is attached to the other end of the light hutch)
- One fan with carbon filter pushes inside room air into the larger tent, and lastly
- One fan with carbon filter removes air from the smaller tent and puts it into the room.
In order to start the
seeding process, we used a
Seedling Jump Start kit.
Including:
- Heat mat
- 72 cell insert
- 7.5-inch dome with three adjustable vents
- Rapid Rooter plugs
We ordered our seeds online through a UK shop (Attitude Seedbank) that mails them directly to your home. Due to federal postal rules, the company mails the seeds discreetly hidden in another type of product, which has its price added to your total shipping costs. I've seen them use an iPhone cover, and a high-quality tie and cufflinks set so far. Unfortunately, you cannot choose the item they mail the seeds in, so be ready for some interesting surprises.
For our
water, since testing the water from our home's pipes proved our water to be highly contaminated (
over 500 particles) and too high of a PH (
good for drinking at 7.5, but bad for plants who need a PH Level between 5.5-6.5), so we bought a
Reverse Osmosis filter system. This cleans our water to about 3 particles and to a PH of around 6. Regular water like this should be used for your seedlings, and be careful not to overwater so the plant's roots can still get enough oxygen to grow. Once the seedlings are moved into their own buckets, the water nutrient needs will change. Below are the ideal settings during each growth stage. (
Please make sure your temperature is never lower than 55 or higher than 95!)
- Seedlings:
- PH 5.5-7
- Particles 0-100ppm
- A high humidity of 60-70%
- Lights should be on at least 18-24hrs per day at 50% (about 450-500 watts)
- A temperature of 68-77 Degrees Fahrenheit
- Vegetative:
- PH 6-7
- Added nutrients for vegetation (covered next) will cause particle levels of around 2500-6000ppm
- A humidity of 40-70%, with a lowering rate of 5% weekly as desired
- Lights should be on 18-24hrs per day at 75-100% (about 750-1000 watts)
- A slightly higher temperature of 70-80 Degrees Fahrenheit
- Flowering:
- PH 6-6.5
- Added nutrients for budding (covered next) will cause particle levels of around 2500-4000ppm
- A lower humidity of 40-50% (important to resisting moldy buds)
- Lights should be on for a 12 hour day, and off for a 12 hour night
- A lower temperature of 68-75 Degrees Fahrenheit during the day and 60-70 Degrees Fahrenheit during the night (there should not be more than a 20-degree difference between day/night)
- Late Flowering/ Before Harvest: (if desired- the last couple of weeks before harvest, once the bud pistils (little white hairs) are starting to brown)
- PH 5.5-6
- Particles 0-500ppm (do not add any extra nutrients to your water- run clean)
- A humidity of 25-40%
- Lights should be on for a 12 hour day, and off for a 12 hour night
- Lower temperatures of 64-75 Degrees Fahrenheit during the day and 25-55 Degrees Fahrenheit during the night (increase the temperature difference between day/night compared to your flowering temperatures)
We were able to set up our
lights on a timer, at least. We tried out different light systems in each tent as we had planned to run the smaller tent for seedlings and the larger tent for our vegetating and flowering stages; however, I tend to believe the dimmable 1000 watt cool tube reflector light set that we have in our larger tent gives more flexibility and has shown bigger results.
- Dimmable 1000 watt cool tube reflector light set
- Dimmable light has three settings- 50% (500 watt), 75% (750 watt), 100% (1000 watt)
- Cooling tube light reflector hood
- Carabiners and rope to hang by
- Metal Halide lamp is a softer white light used for seedlings (and some suggest using it again during the final week before harvesting to bring out the buds' colors)
- High Pressure Sodium (HPS) lamp is an orange hue light used during the vegetative and flowering stages
- Full spectrum indoor grow light
- The Veg switch is similar to the white light of the Metal Halide lamp used in the set above and is used during the seedlings stage, whereas
- the Bloom switch is similar to the HPS lamp and used during the flowering stage
- Both switches are used during the vegging stage
- Best used in a smaller tent space, as it provides a max of half the light the other system provides
Note that lights should always be kept about
20-24 inches away from the top of the plants to avoid burning their leaves. If your hand feels hot hovered just above the plant, then so does it.
Also pictured above is a
temperature and humidity gauge. This is very important as it will help you to keep your growing environment optimal.
The nutrients we use in our water vary in amounts based on what stage we are growing and if there are any issues the plants show. (
Plant issues will be discussed in another post.) Here is a list of what we use and why.
- Rapid Start to help the roots grow faster during the first couple of weeks of vegetation (optional)
- FloraGro (Veg 15ml/gal, Transition stage 10ml/gal, Flowering stage 5ml/gal) used for fertilizer and to grow strong roots
- FloraMicro (All stages are 10ml/gal) mainly used for nitrogen
- Cal-Mag (All stages are 10ml/gal) mainly used for calcium
- FloraBloom (Veg 5ml/gal, Transition stage 10ml/gal, Flowering stage 15ml/gal) stimulates flower production
- Hydroguard is "good" bacteria to help roots stay strong
- H202 is used to treat root rot and cannot be used with Hydroguard (optional, as it will kill all bacteria)
- PH Up & Down to help regulate the waters' PH levels
- FloraKleen to clean the system of residual residue and to dissolve fertilizer salt buildups, specifically used the week before harvesting (optional)
Other supplies used to mix the nutrients and check water conditions are listed below with their reasonings as well.
- PH Meter to keep the PH level between 5.5-6.5 (or as otherwise previously discussed)
- TDS (ppm) and Temperature Meter to check the water temperature (should never be over 72) and the particle levels
- 60ml and 10ml Syringes for measuring the nutrients and mixing it into the water
Next, since we decided to change our growing system when we had too many nutrient issues from growing too many varieties of cannabis plants together in a circular water reservoir system, I'd like to discuss how an individual plant system is set up.
- 5 Gallon Bucket (per plant)
- Wide Lip Bucket Basket (per bucket)
- Clay Pebbles (fill only up to cover the basket holes)
- Commercial Air Pump (1-18 watts) with a 6 way on/off adjustable split
- Flexible Airline Tubing connects the air pump through the basket into the bucket and then connects to the airstone
- Airstone uses suction cups to secure to the center bottom of the bucket
The other style we had set up originally was an
enclosed circular water reservoir system, which will work great if you are growing a bunch of cannabis of the same strain, but has a
lot more to purchase and put together. However, with a reservoir system, you don't have to spend as much time caring for each individual plant and provides easy access for plant care. So instead, you work through the reservoir when adding any water, and when checking the PH levels and temperature.
If you are interested in a full description of the set up of this system, how it works and the products used,
or have any questions about the information provided in this very long blog, please contact me at regulated-weed-culture@googlegroups.com, or comment below, and I will get that extra information out to you ASAP. This is still a learning process for me, Mrs. Brown-Thumb, too.
