Ultimate Plant Food!!!

The ultimate pot plantfood

Canada's Advanced Nutrients could have the world's best mix for your marijuana.

Steve Kubby`s medical grow show: amazing...There's a hidden problem in the marijuana cultivation industry ? a secret affliction that robs us of thousands of pounds of marijuana a year.
I'm not talking about the police. No, what I'm talking about is a systemic "illness" that I call "marijuana growth deficiency syndrome" (MGDS).

In the 10 years that I've been writing about indoor and outdoor cannabis cultivation, I've seen MGDS over and over.

It happens even to the best growers who have tried their hardest to create ideal marijuana gardens ? people who purchase 10 premium seeds for $300, plant them in high-tech grow rooms equipped with the best lighting equipment, pay attention to details, and then end up with sickly plants that grow slowly and give a scanty yield of below-average pot.

After visiting dozens of indoor grow rooms and outdoor grow sites in the US, seeing pathetic yields in situations that should have produce twice as much as they did, I decided to investigate MGDS.

What I discovered during my horticultural sleuthing will give you the ability to dramatically improve your growth rates, potency and yield.

...buds brought to you courtesy of Advanced Nutrients.Diagnosis and prescription

I first used a process of elimination to determine what factors were not responsible for the mysterious lack of vigor, potency, and yield that I was witnessing.

I'd seen MGDS in gardens around the world, where growers were using various types of genetics, clones, growing mediums, water sources, CO2 augmentation, environmental controls, lighting equipment, and other diverse techniques and infrastructure. So I concluded that MGDS was not caused by genetic factors, nor was it caused by equipment, environment, or the influences of soil, rockwool and other growing mediums, including aeroponics.

These factors do make a difference, of course, but they don't account for the prevalence of MGDS that I've seen in gardens around the world.

My investigations kept leading me back to how plant health and vigor are affected by nutrients, root development, pests and diseases.

I repeatedly found that most growers were using generic feeding programs, few of which were designed specifically for marijuana plants. Their feeding mixes featured combinations, ratios, formulations, and concentrations of nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus, and micronutrients that were in most cases exactly the same as nutrient products targeted toward houseplants and other non-marijuana plants.

I also observed that when plants were showing signs of nutrient overload or deficiency, slow growth, or obvious diseases, most growers didn't know how to diagnose or heal their plants.

Too often, they would compensate in the opposite direction of what was needed. For example, they'd add extra nitrogen to "correct" yellowing leaves, when the yellowing could well have been caused by too much nitrogen, by nutrients being added at the wrong time in the grow cycle, by poor quality nutrients, or by other well-intentioned but avoidable mistakes.

Growers admitted that they didn't know how to properly feed their plants. Many of them said they "assumed" that standard N-P-K micronutrient fertilizers were sufficient, especially if those fertilizers were advertised or sold by "pot-friendly" magazines and businesses.

They assumed that all plants grew the same and needed the same types of nutrient inputs at the same times. They confessed that they often found themselves overwhelmed by a spiraling series of crop problems, including poor growth, leaf irregularities, pests, and diseases, that defied their attempts at diagnosis and remediation.

The growers I interviewed had tried to educate themselves by buying books on marijuana cultivation, reading Cannabis Culture and grow articles in other pot magazines, participating in online gardening forums, watching Pot-TV gardening shows, and by trial and error.

I realized that the only scenarios in which I had not seen pervasive examples of MGDS were a few commercial grow operations in Holland and Canada. These scenarios were usually expensive, computerized grow operations monitored and run by plant scientists. The key to success in these scenarios was not their awesome array of innovative electronics, lighting and equipment. Instead, it was the knowledge factor possessed by the plant scientists that made the difference.

"People think that growing cannabis is like growing vegetables," one Dutch plant scientist told me. "It's nothing so easy. There are too many factors involved, too many different types of genetics for it to be so easy. And the inputs that people put in, including water, atmosphere, lighting and nutrients, are all variable and changeable, so you have a situation that is not manageable for most amateurs. They are going to get some yield and potency, but they aren't usually going to get the most possible. In places like North America, where people can go to prison a long time for growing it, it is an unhappy thing to realize that you are growing marijuana, taking all that risk, and only getting half of what you could get."

Within a few months of commencing my investigation, I concluded that MGDS was primarily caused by growers using inferior or inappropriate nutrients, applied without proper understanding of plant biology and growth phases. This causes a cascade of other problems that affect the plants' ability to metabolize nutrients, resist diseases and pests, and produce large, potent buds.

I found this to be quite troubling. Commercial marijuana producers are an important part of the marijuana supply pipeline, but home growers are important too, and few of them have the time or money needed to obtain specialized academic and vocational training in plant science.

How can home growers, hobbyists, med-pot patients, and small-time commercial growers learn enough, and afford to implement measures, that would eliminate MGDS? Is it possible to eliminate MGDS without getting a degree in plant science or spending tens of thousands of dollars on equipment and supplies?

Advances in knowledge

During the time I was pondering MGDS, I was contacted by medical marijuana refugee Steve Kubby.

As most readers of Cannabis Culture know, Kubby is an American cancer patient who took refuge in Canada and later received a coveted Health Canada med-pot exemption that allows him to legally grow 59 plants (CC#42, Kubby winning in Canada).

Kubby called to tell me about a Canadian company called Advanced Nutrients. He was excited because they were building him a "sealed grow room" free of charge.

A sealed grow room is one that does not exchange air with the outside world. It resembles the sealed growing chambers NASA uses to test the possibility that plants can be used to produce oxygen sufficient to keep astronauts alive during space flights to Mars and beyond.

After the early phases of growth, when plants have well-established root systems and sufficient leaf mass, the CO2-augmented, duct-taped, sealed grow rooms achieve atmospheric symbiosis ? the plants produce oxygen while taking in CO2, and everybody can breathe easy, including humans who tend the rooms.

One of the many benefits of this type of room, Kubby said with a chuckle, is that growers can kill any plant pest by increasing room CO2 levels to 10,000 ppm for an hour or so. This atmospheric attack suffocates spider mites, whiteflies and other insidious pests.

Kubby explained that Advanced Nutrients was sponsoring Health Canada med-pot exemptees across the country.

"They build these fantastic grow rooms for patients," he enthused, "and then they practically run them for you. I could never have afforded the kind of equipment that Advanced Nutrients has provided me."

Kubby suggested I get in touch with Advanced Nutrients' co-founder Mike Straumietis.

When I reached Straumietis, I found him to be a gregarious and enthusiastic gardening aficionado who knew more about plant biology and gardening than 99% of the people I have ever talked to.

Straumietis talked about his decades of gardening experience, as well as the philosophy and practices of his company, which he formed in 1996 along with co-founders Robert Higgins and Eugene Yordanov.

He claimed that his company had developed a proprietary and unusually effective research and development program that made it easy for marijuana growers to maximize plant yield and potency.

Voila, I thought, this guy might be making products that would allow growers to eliminate MGDS!

When I asked him about my MGDS hypothesis, he launched into a lengthy, detailed explanation of plant biology, growth characteristics, grow room protocols, genetics, and nutrients.

I was heartened but skeptical. The claims he made about his products were so superlative that I suspected they had to be exaggerated.

I was also worried that any article I wrote about Advanced Nutrients would be seen as a quid pro quo conflict of interest situation ? Straumietis had already told me he valued Cannabis Culture as perhaps the most impressive marijuana magazine in the world, and that he was going to be giving us a lot of money to pay for an advertising campaign.

Most people would assume I was writing favorably about Advanced Nutrients because Advanced Nutrients was a major Cannabis Culture advertiser.

I told Straumietis I was intrigued by his claims, but that I needed evidence that they were true.

I thought he might be offended; instead, he told me he would contact me in a day or two to provide me irrefutable third-party verification that Advanced Nutrients' products were indeed the cure-all for MGDS.

Cluster of phat colas from the Advanced Nutrients research centreUS government recommends it!

The day after I asked Straumietis to prove his claims I received a multi-page fax from him.

The fax consisted of letters and reports sent to Straumietis by Dr Mahmoud ElSohly, the long-time plant scientist manager of the US Government's marijuana farm, which is located at the University of Mississippi.

I've met ElSohly. He's a friendly Arab guy who loves marijuana, even though he works for the world's premier prohibitionist outfit. His job for several decades has been to study marijuana potency and horticulture. He supervises on-site growers who grow pot for the fed's "Investigational New Drug" program, which provides pre-rolled, low-quality marijuana cigarettes to a handful of med-pot patients who were lucky enough to qualify for the program before it was closed to new patients during the administration of the first President Bush.

Apparently, ElSohly became interested in Advanced Nutrients products and agreed to try them out in a side by side test that competed them against his standard marijuana nutrient protocols.

The results were astounding! ElSohly wrote that Advanced Nutrients had produced plants with higher yield, energy, and potency. He found Advanced Nutrients formulas were easy to use, and had produced 21% more bud weight along with a 42% increase in measurable THC. The products also increased the levels of all other major cannabinoids, except for CBG, which is not known as a particularly important psychoactive cannabinoid.

Straumietis was rightfully proud to have received such a glowing recommendation from the government's top grower-scientist, and I found the recommendation also impressive, if also ironic.

On the other hand, as was pointed out to me by Dr Ethan Russo, who has long complained about the quality and potency of ElSohly's marijuana, the University of Mississippi federal pot farmer's standard cultivation protocols against which Advanced Nutrients so favorably competed aren't necessarily the most effective techniques and inputs.

What would be of more value, Russo suggested, is to see how nutrients from various nutrient companies (especially companies that admit to specializing in marijuana) competed with each other.

Nevertheless, the company also received kudos from the Canadian Cannabis Research Institute (CCRI). Straumietis says the CCRI told him that Advanced Nutrients is "the recognized leader in plant-specific growth technology."

With the right nutrients and a little love, your buds can look as awesome as these!Holistic growing

Straumietis gave me a convincing recitation of factoids that seemed to show that Advanced Nutrients products were superior in design, manufacturing, quality control, and effectiveness when compared with nutrients produced by other companies.

His recitation gave me a lot of insight into MGDS. My intuition about it had been correct: the way to understand MGDS was by viewing the nutritional and environmental needs of marijuana plants in much the same way we view the needs of humans.

It seems like a novel concept, but plant scientists learn it during their first year in school. Marijuana plants are living organisms, just like we are living organisms. They have immune systems, energy systems, hydraulic systems, hormonal systems, growth cycles, and nutritional needs. They need food, light, water, and air, in proper ratios, formulations, and at the right time. Plants don't have blood or brains, although they do have internal fluids and intelligence. Like us, they need proteins and carbohydrates.

What they don't need are poorly-designed, low-quality nutrients that are chemically inappropriate for plant uptake and utilization. They don't need nutrients designed for vegetable plants or roses. They don't need to have inferior forms of nitrogen, for example, dumped on them during growth cycle phases that primarily require nutrients other than nitrogen.

To further complicate matters, marijuana plants vary genetically in ways that radically affect nutrient and environmental needs. For marijuana plants, "ideal diets" vary due to factors including the strain, how old the plants are, the grow environment, and what the grower intends for them. If a plant is destined to be a clone mother, for example, it gets a different nutrient regime than a plant destined to be harvested and killed.

Study well

Straumietis and his team of doctorate-holding scientists are way ahead on all this variability, and on the concept of looking at plants as living beings.

He told me that when his company first formed in 1996, he and his co-founders began hiring scientists and studying a century's worth of cannabis-related agricultural studies.

Most of the studies focused on industrial cannabis, but the Advanced Nutrients team gleaned useful information that at least told them what new research they needed to do.

Prohibition has created a difficult situation for people wanting to expand scientific and practical knowledge about cannabis cultivation. Few if any individuals or companies are legally allowed to study high-potency cannabis. Most of the research that is conducted is kept secret. Home growers and big-time commercial growers might learn a lot, but they are unable to easily share their knowledge without exposing themselves to narks and rip-offs.

Straumietis says that the way his company solved the research barrier problems has given Advanced Nutrients products a provable edge when compared to other companies that make generic fertilizers or purport to make marijuana-specific products.

"We don't engage in illegal acts to do our research," he says, "but in the early days we were willing to use marijuana growers as consultants just so we could get a handle on what they knew and what they wanted. By 2000, we already had more product development knowledge than any company out there. But the real breakthrough came when Health Canada decided to allow medical pot patients to grow their own marijuana."

Advanced Nutrients took advantage of the breakthrough by recruiting med-pot growers like Steve Kubby to be part of the company's marijuana research program. The company provides nutrients, grow rooms, equipment, other supplies, and expertise to patients, free of charge. In return, patients give Advanced Nutrients total access to their grow rooms and plants.

The company's scientists use this access to study the most complex, subtle details of marijuana physiology and cultivation.

"Outside of GW Pharmaceuticals, we have the largest plant-specific cannabis database in the world," Straumietis says. "We know what works best with specific strains on a day-by-day basis during the growth cycles. We are genetically-fingerprinting the world's best strains, and designing specialized nutrient programs that work best for each strain. We know what causes plants to have immune system deficiencies that make them susceptible to diseases, molds and fungi.

"We know how to make nutrients and other products that are totally biologically available and safe for plants, and we know how to combine and time those materials so that they push the plants to the limits of their genetically-programmed potency and yield. We know how to help medical growers produce cannabinoids that are most helpful for their conditions; we also know how to help recreational cannabis growers produce cannabinoids that give them the type of high they want."

More fabulous Berlin buds from...Unique products

Straumietis's product list reflects the company's "vast knowledge database." There are one-step products for growers who want simple, complete feeding formulas. There are also more specialized products for growers who want to micromanage their crop cycles, or who need to attack pests, diseases and other problems safely and without the use of toxic chemicals.

Many of these products contain exotic, specialized ingredients not seen in other company's products.

"I'm not here to insult other companies," Straumietis explains, "but frankly, a lot of the other products out there are crap. They're selling cheap garbage that is improperly manufactured and formulated. Some put dyes in their products ? dyes that are toxic. Some use forms of nitrogen and other nutrients that are impossible for plants to absorb. They don't understand the differences between different growing mediums, and they have no idea about plant-specific feeding regimes."

Straumietis insists that his company has a superior approach to marijuana nutrients and growers.

"We start with a scientific team that nobody else has," he asserts. "Then we spend a long time on product development and testing. We have scientists supervising our manufacturing processes. We have an interactive website and phone-in customer support. We are the only company conducting marijuana cultivation research in climate-controlled, sealed grow rooms with intensive monitoring of all growth factors. We are the only company with such an extensive product line, and we are the only company that challenges itself to upgrade its formulas and come up with new ones regardless of how much it costs us for research and development. We are debuting an all-organics line and other new products, not because we want to increase our market share, but because we want to see people get the most out of their gardens."

...Steve Kubby`s medical grow show.Proof

It almost sounded too good to be true, and as a journalist, I am becoming increasingly wary of writing about commercial products based solely on a marketer's self-interested claims about them.

Absent any objective research comparing Advanced Nutrients to General Hydroponics, I was left wondering if the innovative, impressive program Straumietis spoke of was actually as good as he said it was.

To bolster his credibility, Straumietis issued an open challenge to other companies, inviting them to co-sponsor objective marijuana cultivation tests that pitted Advanced Nutrients against their products.

He also put me in touch with two people on different sides of the law. One of them was a wealthy commercial marijuana grower whose 500-light operations would land him in prison the rest of his life if the cops caught him.

The other was a cop!

"I've grown with every nutrient there is," the grower told me. "General Hydroponics, Canna, Ecobloom, Bumper Crop, Hydrofuel, Bionova, Dutchmaster, Super Natural, Grotek, Technaflora, Botanicare, Pure Blend Pro, and Advanced Nutrients.

"I've grown and bred the best strains," he continued, "Pluton 2, Skunk #1, Early Pearl, Early Girl, Northern Lights 5, Shiva Shanti, Super Silver Haze, Shiskaberry, Grapefruit, Alaskan Thunder fuck, K2, Blueberry, Bigbud, Hashplant, Ruderalis Indicia, Bubble gum, Sensi Star, Durban poison, Holland's Hope, AK47, White Rhino, Afghani #1, Hawaiian Indica, M-45 and M-39. I've also grown regional strains like Professor, Red, XXX, Yellow, Primo, Chemo, Jamaican, Kong, B1, Mighty Mite, Catpiss, Elephant, Texada Time Warp, Berlin, Sugar, and many others.

"I thought I was doing it perfect," said the growmeister, "until I started using Advanced Nutrients. Then, all of a sudden, my plants grew faster, developed better root systems, and produced phatter, more resiny, more stony buds than I've ever seen. The other nutrients companies suck. Most of them won't even let you mention marijuana when you ask questions about their stuff. You can be cynical about Straumietis if you want, but he's the real deal."

The grower's credentials and recommendations were impressive, but it was even more impressive to hear a Canadian marijuana eradication officer verify the effectiveness of Advanced Nutrients products.

"We do a lot of busts near Powell River," he said, "and we kept noticing that the grows where they were using Advanced Nutrients had the strongest plants. Like there was an 18-inch plant with a huge root ball that filled a five gallon bucket. We joked with each other that every time we busted a grow that had Advanced Nutrients on site, we would have to get a bigger truck to haul in the yield."

Straumietis laughs when he talks about how the cop initially contacted him.

"He said that he and his buddies could tell that our nutrients were better than anything else out there," he recalls. "And he said that he wanted to buy our stuff wholesale so he could ship it to a bamboo farm that he wants to make money off of in Chile."

Based on unbiased testimony from cops, commercial growers, med-pot patients, and US Government officials, Straumietis's company seems to be the real deal.

Will Advanced Nutrients products cure MGDS and give you stronger, higher-yielding marijuana?

Check out the company's website, talk to their tech support crew, test their products, and then write the magazine and tell me what you think.

The Ultimate Plant Food.

1 POUND Plants Indoor!!!

Growing Stages (seedling stage)

Seedling Stage of Cannabis

The seedling stage of cannabis follows on fromgermination. You will be able to tell when it has begun when your shoots start to develop a second set of leaves. These will look different to the embryonic cotyledon leaves. They will be bigger, with a long serrated edge – a look that is much more associated with cannabis plants. However, these new leaves will only have one “finger”, instead of the 5 or 7 normally seen in adult leaves.

After this your cannabis plants will start to grow a third set of leaves, these will tend to have three fingers. This will be followed by more and more leaves, with each one beginning to resemble the expected cannabis leaf shape more and more. As mentioned, the most common and expected is a 5 or 7 finger leaf, but do not be surprised if you end up with 9 or even eleven fingers!

The seedling stage is usually over when you start getting leaves with their maximum amount of fingers. Other indications will include a stem with a thickness of around 4-6mm and a height of around 3-4 nodes. During this stage the seedling will also try and develop a strong root base, this will allow for strong future development and nutrient intake. Depending on where you grow, the seedling stage can take roughly 2-3 weeks indoors and 4-6 weeks outdoors.

As an extra tip, it is usually advisable to set up a small, weak fan to blow on at your seedlings. This will help them gain fresh air and encourages strong growth. It does this by giving the plant something to resist. As the fan blows at your cannabis plants, your seedlings will recognize that they need to put extra effort into growing and developing their structural integrity to withstand possible future sources of resistance.

You will know the time to transplant your seedling to a larger grow medium when you start seeing signs of its developing root base. Chances are your seedlings will be growing in individual, small pots. As their roots grow they will start to exit out the holes in the bottom of these pots. This shows that they need more room and are ready to be moved. Be very careful transplanting them though, roots are very fragile and any damage can have very serious implications into your cannabis plants' ongoing health.

Light during the seedling stage

There are a lot of cultivators out there who put their seedlings under florescent tube lighting, either for cost purposes or lack of better knowledge – it is in no way ideal. Due to the weakness of florescent lighting they need to be places quite close to your seedlings – about 5 cm above them, (don't worry, they do not produce much heat, so this is fine). This causes your cannabis seedlings to grow broad – you end up with long plants with thin, weak stems that will easily fall over. This is fine if you are willing to offer your plants support, but it is not a good foundation to lay if you want healthy, vibrant plants in the long run.

The preferred way is to use HID lighting. HID lights produce a much better quality of light for growing cannabis, leading to stronger, healthier plants. The offset is that they produce a lot more heat - something your marijuana seedlings are very vulnerable too. For this reason it is important to make sure your lights are at the correct height above your plants. Start by having your HID lights 80cm above your plants, lowering them by 5cm each day until you are in the region of 40-60cm (depending on the wattage of your bulbs). Also, always preform the hand test to see if things are getting a bit to hot.

In terms of color-band, it is best to go for a bulb within the blue spectrum. This will encourage strong and healthy stem and leaf growth.

During the seedling stage, most cultivators will use an 18/6 photoperiod. It is also possible to do a 20/4 period, with some cultivators going as far as using a 24/0 period to really boost growth!

Nutrition during the seedling stage

Generally speaking, seedlings are pretty self sufficient. However, as stated in our germination article, using a seedling/germination soil is recommended. This will have the finer, small amounts your cannabis seedlings can use. You should note, cannabis seedlings are extremely vulnerable to overfeeding, any excess will cause root burn, killing off your plants.

As a result, novice cultivators are strongly advised from adding anything to your soil other than clean, distilled water (pH of 6.5-7). Your seeds should have everything they need and will need minimal extra input from you. Just make sure they have the water and light they need and they will do fine. Once your seedlings have grown, they will enter the vegetative stage of their life cycle.

DIY $100 Grow Closet!!!

The $100 Grow Cabinet

JACKEL AUGUST 12, 2013 22

As medicinal and recreational use of cannabis becomes more widely accepted, many cannabis users are choosing to grow their own. For those who can grow outside this is easy enough, but if your only option is to grow indoor, setting up a grow room can seem a complicated and expensive undertaking. I am going to show you how to build your own mini grow room for under $100. This grow cabinet can be assembled in minutes from common items you can discreetly purchase online and at your local walmart.

This $100 grow cabinet is perfect for those who want to grow for personal use and have limited space or a limited budget. You won’t be growing monster plants or harvesting tons of marijuana, but if used correctly, you can harvest enough for personal use and have fresh high quality herb every few months.

At Marijuana Growers Headquarters you usually see us going big. I’m not going to say don’t try that at home, but here are some real advantages to keeping it small.

• Low overhead means you can harvest good cannabis with very little start up cost.
• Negligible increase in energy use means no suspicious spike in your utility bill.
• Low maintenance, plus you can easily spot problems before they get out of hand
• You won’t harvest so much you are tempted to sell it and risk getting in trouble.

I designed this small cabinet grow room for making feminized seeds from my favorite mothers but the design worked so well I had to share it. For those wanting a simple, affordable and effective mini indoor grow room I can’t think up an easier solution.

Grow Cabinet

I wanted a grow cabinet that could be easily moved, easily cleaned and because I’m hard on things, durable. I found a plastic Sterilite 2 Shelf Storage Cabinet at Walmart for $44 that fit all of my needs. It was inexpensive, light weight, strong, and easy to assemble. The plastic was soft enough that I could use a pocket knife to cut holes where needed. I wouldn’t have to worry about water damaging the cabinet if I over watered or got a little out of control while foliar feeding the plants. Plastic is also less likely to grow mold and can be easily sterilized with a little bleach and water in a spray bottle.

The cabinet I chose measures 35-¾” tall, 19” deep and 25-¾” wide. It just snaps together and requires no tools to assemble. I used one of the shelves to mount my light and still have space to store some tools at nutrients. The seconds shelf was not needed so it went in the garage with my other treasures.

Grow Light

I have seen growers use multiple household compact fluorescent lights in grow cabinets but combining multiple outlets and all those tangled cords seemed like a nuisance. I have been eyeballing those big CFL’s at the growshops for some time and this was my excuse to try one. I purchased my 125 watt CFL from a nearby grow shop but you can buy them on amazon just as easily. These lights require a Mogul Socketand won’t fit in a normal lamp. Most mogul sockets are made to hook up to a ballast but I was able to  find them online already wired with a 120 volt plug.

I cut a hole in the top shelf just big enough for the socket of the light to fit through. I then set the shelf at the highest possible position so the plants would have as much room as possible to grow. I cut a hole in the side of the cabinet above the self to run the cord through. If I was a bit smarter I could have done this before wiring the plug and made a much smaller hole. I plugged the cord into a inexpensive but reliable timer and this little grow cabinet had light.

Ventilation

Even though CLF’s run pretty cool they do produce enough heat that a small space can get warm pretty quick. In addition to controlling heat, a little airflow is always required to replenish depleted CO2 levels. I wanted my airflow to be quiet, reliable and affordable . This 120mm computer fan I found on amazon delivers on all counts. With a pocket knife I cut a hole in the wall of the cabinet a little smaller than the fan. I drilled some small holes with a cordless drill and bolted the fan to the inside of the cabinet. Because the computer fan is 12 volt, I had to find  AC to DC adapter that would work with the fan plug. Once complete, I plugged it in and my little grow room had ventilation. I live in an area where it is usually on the warm side so I leave the fan on 24/7.

So there we have it, a grow room with light and ventilation in about an hour of assembly time. Lets add it all up and see where we stand.

Cabinet $44.08
125 Watt CLF $24.99
Mogul Socket $10
Timer $7
Computer Fan 12.96
Total $99.03

By the skin of my teeth as usual, but a perfectly functional grow cabinet for under $100. If I can build it, so can you. Go get some clones or seeds and get to growing.

Remember to switch your plants to a flowering light cycle before they get too big. If you let them get any taller than about 8 to 10 inches before switching I suspect you will have height problems before they are done flowering. Sticking to indica dominant hybrids will help since they don’t usually grow as much vertically once they begin to flower. Going with a shallower but wider pot will help give you a few extra inches of headroom as well.

I hope this design is simple enough to get you off your duff and growing your own cannabis. It can be a fun and rewarding project, and who knows, maybe you’ll find you have a green thumb after all. If you need assistance, please feel free to ask any questions in our forum.