Hey there guys!
First of all, congratulations for the amzing community you have here! I have been reading a lot of tutorials and topics here for weeks now, so I gathered a lot of good information.
I am thinking about start growing my own plants, but I never did this before. I want to start indoor growing Autos.
The problem is, i live in a small portuguese island, so there is nothing here avaliable to buy wich means i have to order everything online. Living here, makes it extra hard to get stuff across Customs without raising suspicion, specially in a small comunity.
Iâm thinking about ordering a grow tent (probably a 80cmx80cmx1,60cm is enough), but the problem is i have to order ir to my address and i canât find anything online that ships to Portugal and that comes with discreet packaging.
I am also struggling to finding the right lights to order. Electricity here can be very expensive so i wanna go with LED lights that consume very little and is enough to grow at least 2 Autos.
My budget is also very very low, so i am trying to find th cheapest things to buy and to consume less energy.
Iâve ordered some seeds with a auto starter kit a week ago from a trusted bank and still havenât received it, so iâm starting to fear that they got caught! I feel kind of lost in how to do this, it seems like an impossible mission now, because i donât know how will i get the needed material delivered here and keeping a low profile.
Any advice would be more than welcome!
Thanks in advance!
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Can you order some âHome Improvementâ products? You could buy 3 sheets of 1" Styrofoam (metallized on one side) for dirt cheap and use duct tape and plant staples to assemble. I ran dozens of plants through one and it was in all ways superior to a tent.
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Thanks for the reply.
I forgot to mention that i live in a rented house and sometimes my mother in law and my mother come here once in a while (and other people) and they would go crazy if they found out about me growing plants. Thatâs why i tought that a grow tent would be easier to call less atention, looking almost like a wardrobe if somebody accidentally saw it.
A homemade âtentâ would be great if i didnât have the problem of unwanted visitors! Anybody seeing it would notice something âfishyâ going on.
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Then your biggest issue is going to be getting a carbon filter and exhaust bc that smell in flower will be a dead give away. Had a strain in a tent with a carbon filter and you could still smell it outside the home from the exhaust
Wellllll if they see a grow tent in a room they will be suspicious. Just because it is very odd to have something like that in a room. You will need to filter anyways so Konflict is right. Also, if you are still seed shopping I have noticed some will tell you they tend to have a strong smell so beware. Try and avoid those. Do you have a closet you could use?
This is our 3x4 grow tent in a bedroom we donât use. You can see how we did the window to vent the filtered air out. You will need some way to exhaust that and I am not sure you would want it to exhaust inside your place.
Best of luck to you! It sounds like a frustrating situation.
Also, the one area you will want to put your money into is the lights. We had to ditch the $150 UFO LED light as it would never be able to grow much more than light fluffy buds for a $460 MarsHydro light. The thing is, if you are going to put effort into this and want a crop this will be the one area you will need to upgrade to the best of your financial ability. Keep in mind while LED lights run cheaper on electricity you will also be running fans and filters. If you are like me in a dry environment I have to run humidifier, while colder a month ago I had to run a warm vaporizer to keep temps up. Hope on an island that is not an issue. Just to let you know, it will all add up. BUT if you continue to plan on growing just think of equipment as an investment. Each grow will get cheaper as you have the gear. I feel like I have to slink back to my husband and tell him âhon we need to buy ONE more thing for this harvest to make itâ he is good natured and as excited as I am but still, building up all we need to grow can get pricey.
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Thank you all for the answers!
I know i canât ask for miracles⌠The house i live in is small and the windows of any place i could put the grow tent would go straight to the street (in a pretty busy neighbourhood). In terms of ventilation i would think my best bet would be venting it to inside the room, using the least smelly strains and some perfume candles or sprays in the room in the flowering weeks. There are times where there can go months with no visits in the house, but i never know.
I wonât have money for such expensive lights⌠i live with the minimum wage (wich is only about 600⏠here) and i can barely pay my bills. The most i could pay for a light would be about 100âŹ.
Due to the Covid situation, our island was âshut downâ, resulting in nobody having weed to sell. I smoked daily for about 10 years⌠and now i havenât smoked for 3 months and i have no ideia when we will have avaliability of weed again! And the prices are just crazy! Aaaand, the weed sucks⌠outdoor poor quality weed.
All of that raised my frustration to a level where i started to seriously think about growing my own, because i feel like i am in a dead end and kind of hands tied to do something about it! 
Sorry for the âstory of my lifeâ⌠Just venting outâŚ
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Whats the worst case scenario of your grow being ousted on your island? would it be legal troubles or disappointment from family?
It would be legal troubles⌠Last month a friend of mine got caught doing outdoor plants (guerrilla style) and got 2 years of suspended sentence (i think thatâs how to translate it), so yeah, itâs a risky thing to mess with!
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Yikes. You are definitely between a rock and a hard place. Sounds like if you did grow indoors. If the smell comes strong then you might get so paranoid you trash the plant before its ready. With law and family, it really sounds like the best bet would be finding a good spot in the wilderness to drop a plant or 2. Not sure if the plant count means different charges on your island but if 1 plant would get me a slap on the wrist and 3 would put me in jail. Id plant 1 and run with it
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I would highly recommend a grow cabinet of sorts. Typically itâs a normal looking cabinet on the outside, except when you open it. Just look up stealth grow cabinet, and let your imagination grow wild.
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Itâs not legal where I live either and they link charges.like growing is manufacturing thatâs a charge doesnât matter if it 1 or 100. Then thereâs possession and they will go by total weight of any flowering plants, stalks, stems and all and any finished product. Then if you have over an oz you can be charged with intent to distribute. And so on⌠A buddy crossed state lines while on vacation and snitched⌠Ok add trafficing.
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Do you have a closet in bedroom you can use? I rent and canât have weird stuff so hereâs my closet, and inside my closet. If anyone comes in my house I unplug the timer and extention cord throw it in closet and close door.
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@Covertgrower looks like @KikiGee has a setup with your name on itâŚliterally.
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looks like an alien is landing in your closet!
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To the OP, its a sad thing that people are still struggling to except cannabis as a normal thing. Sorry to hear about your troubles. The truth is, growing cannabis especially to flower is extremely difficult to be truly stealthy. Undoubtedly, anyone you invite into that house will figure it out come flower time, if not sooner. Several examples have been demonstrated here and all are kinda questionable about stealth. What you should be asking yourself, and I mean this, is am I willing to get caught for my weed? How much harm will this cause to my family? Can I be jailed? Possibly lose my ability to travel? These are serious questions and deserve some focus. I wish you the best and you are always welcome here. If I could send you some weed I would!
I can send you a picture of some weed!
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Good point, itâs legal for me but I didnât start growing till it was legal. Lines sometimes canât cross lolâŚ
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Thats right, and if there is any advice I would really want to give⌠dont wreck your life to grow pot! Its difficult, but if paying cash for it is better than paying with your freedom? Thats an easy choice for me.
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It can go either way growing is a risk and buying off the street is risky too. Too many people who could talk, shady characters , and donât forget the law may be watching the seller and you get caught up in it. I follow one rule " I trust me more than I trust you"
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âItâs not that I donât trust you, I donât trust anyoneâŚâ
Carbon filters, and cabinets can definitely disguise a small grow area. Grow warehouse not so much.
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