Bugeye
Well-Known Member
Hello from Colorado.
Started growing in 1999 because my wife found that MJ seriously helped with her migraines and we didn't have a good source, just always scrounging around to find someone with some Mexican brick. Yeah, I liked pot too, but more just for recreation.
Not knowing what I was doing, I just dropped the seeds in some dirt and watered. Holy shit, it actually grew! I didn't do a whole lot for them but somehow ended up with some decent bud.
My next few grows were all down hill from there as I chased good results with one bullshit product after another. The pattern was always the same, good start, I'll help them do better with a little of this and a little of that, always following the directions, plant starts going south, I think it must need more of the bullshit products, plant dead, I'm depressed.
So then I realized that only losers grow in dirt and switched to hydro. It was so complicated that I actually had to read a little more about what I was doing. Eventually I got pretty good at growing it, but didn't understand the need to clear the nutrients at finish. Smoke was very harsh until I finally cracked that nut. Then I was the shit!
Here's a picture of some of my better hydro bud (no idea of strain name now, maybe Arjan's Ultra Haze?):
Then I smoked some organic weed from a grower friend in CA and I immediately knew that my weed did not compare. I picked my friends brain and moved back to dirt growing, because only losers grow hydro. LOL
I was using some of those bullshit products again, now armed with a TDS meter and a better idea of safe nutrient levels. My first grow room was a very cramped little space in a dirt basement under a hidden set of stairs in our bathroom. As shitty as it was, I spent a lot of pleasant hours down there with my plants. I really enjoyed the grow process and got good enough to grow decent weed that I thought tasted better than my hydro.
A few years ago we moved to the mountains. Based on a fucked up situation where some guy in Denver was arrested for child abuse for growing pot in his basement with a child living in the home, I decided it was best to get my grow out of the house. The guy was able to get around the child abuse charges, but it had my attention since I have a child in my home. So that led to my first outdoor grow.
It was fun growing outside.
But perilous...
Other perils included crazy fucking hail, bears, foxes (don't use blood meal in your outdoor soils I learned if you can't protect from small carnivores), and the realization that I could never finish anything outdoors at my altitude due to cold night temps.
So my first greenhouse was born:
Nothing fancy, just enough to get 6 small plants into October.
Here's one of the occupants (far healthier and better tasting than the hydro bud):
But this led to me second greenhouse that I broke ground on in March 2011:
By May 1st I was catching water (floor is 14' X 20'):
I was moving plants in by mid June and took until mid-July to get all 10,000 pounds of dirt carried up the hill and placed in large bays in the floor. Picture of those bays before they were filled:
One more shot of the structure without skin:
And here's what it looked like inside around late September:
I don't know if these will be big enough to see, but this is what growth looks like with a 30% shade screen being used and less than great soil mix with little nutes. Very stretchy. So I learned a lot that grow. My organic grows started the next year.
I'll continue my intro another time because I think all future pictures are on another device. Lots of greenhouse upgrades made and more coming this year as I attempt to get my high temps down without using shade screen.
Started growing in 1999 because my wife found that MJ seriously helped with her migraines and we didn't have a good source, just always scrounging around to find someone with some Mexican brick. Yeah, I liked pot too, but more just for recreation.
Not knowing what I was doing, I just dropped the seeds in some dirt and watered. Holy shit, it actually grew! I didn't do a whole lot for them but somehow ended up with some decent bud.
My next few grows were all down hill from there as I chased good results with one bullshit product after another. The pattern was always the same, good start, I'll help them do better with a little of this and a little of that, always following the directions, plant starts going south, I think it must need more of the bullshit products, plant dead, I'm depressed.
So then I realized that only losers grow in dirt and switched to hydro. It was so complicated that I actually had to read a little more about what I was doing. Eventually I got pretty good at growing it, but didn't understand the need to clear the nutrients at finish. Smoke was very harsh until I finally cracked that nut. Then I was the shit!
Here's a picture of some of my better hydro bud (no idea of strain name now, maybe Arjan's Ultra Haze?):
Then I smoked some organic weed from a grower friend in CA and I immediately knew that my weed did not compare. I picked my friends brain and moved back to dirt growing, because only losers grow hydro. LOL
I was using some of those bullshit products again, now armed with a TDS meter and a better idea of safe nutrient levels. My first grow room was a very cramped little space in a dirt basement under a hidden set of stairs in our bathroom. As shitty as it was, I spent a lot of pleasant hours down there with my plants. I really enjoyed the grow process and got good enough to grow decent weed that I thought tasted better than my hydro.
A few years ago we moved to the mountains. Based on a fucked up situation where some guy in Denver was arrested for child abuse for growing pot in his basement with a child living in the home, I decided it was best to get my grow out of the house. The guy was able to get around the child abuse charges, but it had my attention since I have a child in my home. So that led to my first outdoor grow.
It was fun growing outside.
But perilous...
Other perils included crazy fucking hail, bears, foxes (don't use blood meal in your outdoor soils I learned if you can't protect from small carnivores), and the realization that I could never finish anything outdoors at my altitude due to cold night temps.
So my first greenhouse was born:
Nothing fancy, just enough to get 6 small plants into October.
Here's one of the occupants (far healthier and better tasting than the hydro bud):
But this led to me second greenhouse that I broke ground on in March 2011:
By May 1st I was catching water (floor is 14' X 20'):
I was moving plants in by mid June and took until mid-July to get all 10,000 pounds of dirt carried up the hill and placed in large bays in the floor. Picture of those bays before they were filled:
One more shot of the structure without skin:
And here's what it looked like inside around late September:
I don't know if these will be big enough to see, but this is what growth looks like with a 30% shade screen being used and less than great soil mix with little nutes. Very stretchy. So I learned a lot that grow. My organic grows started the next year.
I'll continue my intro another time because I think all future pictures are on another device. Lots of greenhouse upgrades made and more coming this year as I attempt to get my high temps down without using shade screen.
