It's just a plant, dude

[Feel free to use any text and images in this growdiary on your website. Everything is by me] Weed !is just a plant! and it !will! grow like any other plant. This grow diary and guide is directed at the individual providing for himself and its friends and aims to show you firsthand that a harvest of a few dozen grams per plant every 2-3 months with a sub $6 budget per plant (including quality seeds) and the bare minimum care, knowledge and capacity is a guarantee(not exaggerating here). So think a windowsill, guerrilla grow or lowest possible budget indoor grow. There is little reason not to try this kind of grow. Everything you need to know will be covered in this very post - stick around to see it play out. First things first. You need a spot. Here is how you can go about it: You will need at least 6-8 hours of DIRECT light a day. Forget about light cycles, we are doing automatics here. More about that type of genetic later. If you are growing outdoors these genetics can be started April to August. My rules of growing: Don't tell anyone. Not even your friends. Just let it be a surprise "Look, I got this glass full and Im going to share, wanna break it in?". Otherwise, word will travel insanely fast. If you post pictures online, delete your exif (screenshot the image, paste into paint, save as jpg), black out any identifiable information (bar codes, your popular computer setup, fingerprints) and dont have the pictures link to otherwise used usernames. Order seeds right away, think about the rest later. Guide to choosing seeds/genetics is further down. Don't over water If you are going to use it, read the damn fertilizer instructions and use 25% that and ONLY if they've been growing for a few weeks already. ------OUTDOOR GUERILLA----- Hopefully you know your local forests and would know where to look for a spot that is undisturbed for ~3 months. Make sure there is something growing there already. The type of plant that's growing there and their respective heights will show you the type of soil you are dealing with (f.e. waterlogged, dry, nutrient rich) and if there is enough light (knee high no bark greens are a very good sign; Dead coniferous forest floor is a very bad sign). Use a combination google, google maps and a hiking map (f.e. 4umaps) to first find a few promising candidates and then scout them out on foot with some good music. Optimal are either nature reserves or that spot 25 meters from the nearest road nobody ever goes to for some reason - and there a lot of those spaces. Don't visit your spot time and time again - youll create a trampled path inviting others (also automatics do not like being pampered), make sure nobody sees you go into the spot, wear natural colors and put everything in a backpack, make sure other weeds are growing right around yours to camouflage the silhouette, dont plant in orderly rows or pattern, dont plant too many in one spot. We are going to replace or enhance the soil, this will increase yield and success rate dramatically. Dig out a 30x40cm hole. Here are the most common type of soils that need some extra knowledge: -Waterlogged Soil: Mix in a lot coco coir or wood chips. About 50%. Maybe more. -Clayey Soil: Mix with normal discounter potting soil. 70% potting soil will be good. If it is very Clayey (water forms puddles which stay for more than 20 seconds) replace. Coco Coir will always help your root system grow faster while also improving drainage, at the cost of having to water more often. -Acidic (Conifer forest) Soil: Replace with normal discounter potting soil. -Hard Ground: Replace with normal discounter potting soil You must always germinate your seed indoors for reasonable success rate. Then, two weeks after germination put the small pot in a cut-in-half plastic bottle, tape it together and safely transport that contraption to your spot. You can cover the freshly replanted seedling with a split in two plastic bottle during the first week too. Poke some holes in it. This mini grow dome will help it acclimate. ------WINDOWSILL------ >You'd be surprised how well hidden a 40 cm high, quick yielding dwarf genetic is among other plants on a windowshill. 1. People expect these plants to be obvious 1-2 meter high bushy trees 2. They will not pass judgement/take action(aka use their phone to open an inter dimensional combine super portal to summon the overwatch invasion force) if they cannot get close enough to actually confirm that bonsai is what they somehow suspect it is 3. I cannot promise this one but I feel anyone with a say discovering this up close will at most think it's some kind of curious experiment and could you please stop doing that here. 4. Many people, especially students, just won't even care. 5. Example: My parents once had five 2 meter high hemplings growing in their garden that ended up there by accident, it was about 10 meters from a well traveled bicicle/Foot traffic road in a rural side and really poorly "camouflaged" by a single tree stump. NOT ONE ever seemed to be noticing in the ~5 months it was growing there. Just dont be blatant and obnoxious about it. Good carefree small genetics for this are Monster Dwarf Automatic (Zamnesia Seeds), Quick One (Royal Queen Seeds) and Purple Bud Automatic (White Label) [yes it really is purple] -remember, if you are growing behind glass your plants will grow substantially slower. You might think Im insane but I have tried the difference and I'd say you loose 30% of grow speed. A fan simulating the wind outside will mitigate this somewhat. -If you cannot put a plant outside, because you have neighbors from hell which double check your windowsill with a binocular regularly or you are just scared about it, there are privacy films which you can apply to your window, which will make everything behind it a blurry mess. This will reduce your light intensity even further, but you will still get a dozen grams or so. ------INDOOR ARTIFICIAL LIGHT------ >Wanna go indoor but have near zero or even a zero budget? I'd recommend you get a 135W 5500K CFL or something similar, they are about €20 for a pair and screw in like any other light bulb. Make sure it is 100W -ACTUAL- (and !NOT! "Effective Wattage"). One such light per Plant is optimal, but you can go as low as 50W per plant. -Distance is EVERYTHING. Light falloff is quadratic, NOT linear. So double the distance means 25% the light intensity. You can keep your plants within centimeters of your CFL with just the most basic ventilation going on, and you should do just that. -If you are growing indoors ventilation is as important as light and soil. Plants cannot photosynthesize without air circulation and the leaves will clog up, plant will get sick, bug infestation will happen and your crop is done for. A $4 120mm Computer fan per 100W CFL will serve you very well. The windier the better. Make sure to have at least one fan blowing directly on your plants. -I have seen one friend, despite my repeated protests, grow bag-seed under a regular halogen desk lamp with an additional ~2 hours of direct sunlight a day. We got a bit over 20g dry out of it. So even though this isnt recommended any light will work if you keep it close; Except -Don't grow grow under these super bright and HOT traditional 400W/600W Floodlights. Don't try it. Also you shouldn't be attempting a Grow with a regular incandescent light bulb. Two or Three Dwarfs will not smell enough to attract attention - but some other genetics do smell strongly. Luckily most automatics do not. ------GENETICS------ Look into nature. Most of what you are seeing is plants that just grow there all by themselves with no outside help. These wild plants haven't been overbred for potency, they've survived. Automatic Cannabis has the best of both worlds. The cannabis ruderalis genetics used in breeding these strains (which have the autoflowering trait that makes it finish in two to three months regardless of any circumstances like light), have been discovered after a lot of stray hemp seeds landed in ditches. After enough lost seeds some started to show an autoflowering trait and were propagating on their own. They learned to survive, prioritizing survival over any other trait. They are so hardy in fact that they are "pest" (like f.e. the stinging nettle is here) in many parts of Russia. Look it up. But at the same time they still pack the punch you expect. So now the claim "it will grow like any other plant" isn't so far-fetched anymore is it. If you are looking for a genetic don't obsess over potency, strain name or if it is a "haze". Also Strain is not = Strain. There exist the same strains from different breeders under the same name with a huge differences. Find and select a reliable breeder (Zamnesia Seeds has really sold me over with their uniform Northern Lights Automatic, so Ill stick with them for now). Here are a few suggestions for genetics you might wanna try if you live in Europe. >Northern Lights Automatic by Zamnesia (My few week old seedlings so far have endured a few frosty nights without complaining, even though it was so severe it even frost burned my potatoes and pretty much killed my beans) >Purple Bud by Whitelabel Looks amazing, DWARF ,takes a little over three months from seed to harvest, small yield. ( I think they took this one out of their store though, probably working on a 2.0 version) >Sticky Beast from Zamnesia Seeds Placed 1. in Highlife cup 2018, bred for strength, apparently packs quite a punch, ~60 cm height, 2 months from seed to harvest, yields a lot If you are unsure there is always seedfinder.eu . The older genetics tend to be reliably documented there. Please focus on growth hardyness and not whenever the vendor claims it is 18% or 22% thc. You will love them even more when they just do their thing without intervention. Also there are cannabis competitions. -----FERTILIZER, ADDITIONAL CARE, HOW TO HANDLE POTTED PLANTS, AND MORE----- In the following entrys, keep reading. In todays grow diary I've started the germination process of five Blue Monster Automatics from Zamnesia seeds as part of the Spring Cup by Zamnesia. They have provided me with the selected Blue Monster Automatic Seeds, a Quick Start germination Kit, Monster Bud Mix fertilizer and some Markers. Make sure they are moist at all times during their first week, but not drowning in water or mud. Never should they dry out during germination and the temperatures should be kept between 20°C and 25°C. Always use potting soil and not random dirt. 20 Litres can be had for €/$1. Enhancing your soil will increase growth speed but isnt a requirement unless you are growing in waterlogged ground. The pictures are commented.