Dear Noobs, first timers, and those researching ideas for your first grow PLEASE READ.
First of all welcome to a place where you can fine free knowledge from some serious reputable people.
Second, I was a Noob once myself. I remember the crazy anticipation, and virtually being so "on top of things" that I was literally watching the damn things grow. I'm here today because I've read so many threads since I've been back, and people are stressing out, screwing up, and seriously going for the gusto before even learning SIMPLE 101 PROVEN methods. A few pieces of advice for you all to never forget and to start implementing right away.
- If you've never grown before, grow in DIRT. And finish out a few grows before you start getting crazy ideas. Learn the SIMPLE process FIRST and ENJOY a SUCCESSFUL yield.
- DIRT Lots of you out there fussing over dirt too. its crazy and dirt should be cheap. Fox farm and all that crazy stuff is a bit of a rip and certainly a shit tonne of hype. Your best investment for dirt is a nice long tote with a lid to keep and mix your own dirt. Grab quality local potting soil, manures and/or composts without special additives or moisture control crap. grab one of each and mix if you like. Also good to have your own bags of pearlite and vermiculite on hand. I like to add a cup or 2 of these into everything I mix. keeps heavier soils light and air around the roots promoting easy strong roots.
- STOP trying to JACK UP YOUR PLANTS. Seriously just stop it. You don't know what your doing yet, there's no sense. At your stage, aim to keep the soil healthy and nutrified in later stages. coming back from minor deficiencies is much easier than a toxicity from over fertilization.
- WATERING. you people stress out so much about this. Garrr....water them of course. but don't keep em soaked, they are not constantly thirsty and more doesn't make em grow faster. Let that soil dry out some periodically almost to the point your plants wilt a little. DON'T WORRY>>>> its gunna be OK!!! they bounce right back withing MINUTES! The drying of the soil draws oxygen that is much needed around the roots. Find a good balance between wet and dry. Doing this prevents root rot and promotes strong healthy roots. Keeping things constantly wet limits available oxygen and slows growth. A plant that is water starved from time to time, accelerates with growth spurts when watered.
- GERMINATING. Watching you impatient paper towel princesses makes me shake my head. These extra steps are somewhat foolish for noobs and should be avoided. Plant in little dirt cells, peat pucks or little pots. I understand most of you are working with a limited amount of beans that may have cost you. But here's the paper towel setback. you have to handle a single root. and its damn fragile. they have fine hairs u cant see that grow into the paper towel and you can rip em off. you have to handle them in general causing risk. in the end you plant them in the dirt anyways. Silly steps all because you wanna SEE them germinated. And then you try to act like a micro surgeon planting the twisty little things. As i said Plant in little dirt cells, peat pucks or little pots. This is more natural and more guaranteed for the NOOB. It eliminates shell shedding problems, and working with a solid root ball when transplanting is much easier than a single root.
Plant that bean 1/4 - 1/2" in the dirt knot side up. Water well, cover and put somewhere warm with some light so they can start photosynthesis the moment they emerge, and your off. If its not gunna germinate like this, no paper towel is gunna help you. This is simple and no stress.
-TRANSPLANTING. Again....its NOT SURGERY. And all you sterility freaks ...... ITS DIRT!!! Full of microbes and bacteria. skip the process, a simple hand washing is fine. When transplanting to bigger pots....your new pot should accommodate 2" of new dirt on all sides of the root ball as a minimum. Water well, and DON"T fertilize. Let it take from the new dirt first. Expect a short growth delay as it adjusts. ( No you didn't screw up your plant its normal) Also expect growth spurt once roots expand out and grab up those fresh dirt nutrients. About 5 days to a week.
-SINGLE YELLOW LEAVES OR OPPOSING PAIRS. OMG. cut off your head or find a new career, you failed! (Kidding ITS FINE!)
*In veg this happens MOSTLY because 1. You're over watering and nitrogen uptake is inhibited or 2. You need a repot, or need to add nutrients to your dirt, nitrogen is just on the start of being used up. You're a noob. use HALF the recommended amount on anything until you understand and SEE the effects it has. Being modest is not gunna get you shitty buds. A simply healthy plant will give you AMAZING SMOKE!
*In Flower. You all freak when you flip the switch and start seeing yellow. THIS IS NORMAL. Your plants by now have likely used up all the nitrogen in your pot since your repot and its time to add blooming nutrients with reduced nitrogen. Start MODEST I cant stress that enough.
IN CLOSING - Over care is the #1 mistake and plant killer for noobs. You do not need to pine over and coddle these things. You don't. Its super exciting to be doing, and everyone wants to make it to the finish line as fast as possible, but exercising a little patience will give you much better results. I promise.
Just aim for healthy, and to finish the grow. Don't clutter your first experience with all the what if's and could be's. You'll grow again next time with more knowledge.
I hope these points help some of you stress bags out. STOP WORRYING SO MUCH AND ENJOY YOUR GROW.
STOP STRESSING (about your grow), GO SMOKE ONE, THEN READ THIS!
- Thread starter Sgt.Sly
- Start date
so....my girlfriend says i shouldn't be spending so much time on my plants, like HUGE fights about this ALL the time; such bad energy haha.....she thinks i must be doing something wrong because i shouldn't have to be in that tent working on them every day. I've been growing for a little over a year and have learned ways to save some time from all my mistakes, but still there is something to be done every day. I have 2 tents...right now i have 8 plants flowering, 3 vegetating, 1 re-vegging, plus i have about 30 clones rooting......i know it varies because some tasks take a whole lotta time; others don't...but i enjoy every minute of it; every hour of making my own medicine is serenity! o'k...so...on average, folks, lol...how many hours /day do y'all spend working on your plants IN SOME WAY??
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xtsho
Well-Known Member
You're girlfriend is right. I've made growing so simple that I don't spend hardly any time with them. I would rather spend time with my girl. You're grow isn't that large. You shouldn't need more than an hour a day if that. Sometimes I go for days without even looking at what's in my flowering tent. The veg tent takes a little time because I hand water. I just make sure they're watered and leave them alone. My grows have gotten better since I stopped fussing with a weed.
SmokeyMcChokey
Well-Known Member
I'm usually at about 30 minutes a day checking in on them adjusting pH and about 2 hours every Sunday or every other Sunday for drain refill. Then every couple months I get the whole day to re work the whole room. She is right. It's a fine line you gotta walk and family is really important to me. So I make damn sure she is happy before I go out to pH check every day. And if possible I do most of my stuff around 9 pm after the kids asleep and when she can join me. Even if it's just to sit in the room and talk while I fiddle. Try including her in the garden. Maybe ask her to do the watering every other day or something. It goes a long way to getting what you want
OldMedUser
Well-Known Member
Great post @Sgt.Sly !
I have been telling nOObs the same kind of things for years. More plants die from too much fussing around than any other reason.
I grew my first buds from bagseed back in the late 70's with dirt and sheep shit from my father-in-law's farm under T-12 shop lights. My grow guide at the time was a little book by Alexander Sumach called Grow Yer Own Stone. I even wrote him a couple letters and got replies that I still have. There was an application to grow your own in the middle that I filled out and sent off to Health and Welfare Canada but they said no.
lol
Still have that letter too from a Denise Boucher, Chief, Domestic Control Div., Bureau of Dangerous Drugs in Ottawa, July 1975.
Unfortunately the book itself got lost in the sands of time and I seem to recall that mine had a yellow cover. This is a pic of the reprint from 1992.
I have been telling nOObs the same kind of things for years. More plants die from too much fussing around than any other reason.
I grew my first buds from bagseed back in the late 70's with dirt and sheep shit from my father-in-law's farm under T-12 shop lights. My grow guide at the time was a little book by Alexander Sumach called Grow Yer Own Stone. I even wrote him a couple letters and got replies that I still have. There was an application to grow your own in the middle that I filled out and sent off to Health and Welfare Canada but they said no.
lol Still have that letter too from a Denise Boucher, Chief, Domestic Control Div., Bureau of Dangerous Drugs in Ottawa, July 1975.
Unfortunately the book itself got lost in the sands of time and I seem to recall that mine had a yellow cover. This is a pic of the reprint from 1992.
tstick
Well-Known Member
LOL...sounds familiar!
When growing, I prefer to be spending as much time as possible with the plants during lights on. It's like the plants pull me in...like they want me there...and I want to be there, too! It works out fine because my wife likes time to herself to do her things and I'm not bugging her.
Sgt.Sly
Well-Known Member
I'm sorry to hear this. What does your girlfriend do? And does she smoke? Mine Helps me. like hard core gets into it helps me. not always.....but when she does its genuine. She also respects my knowledge on the matter and doesn't question the time required to do so. That being said.....I have 2 grow rooms. one 4 x 6 x 7h with a 3' high table inside built to 2.5 x 5' and a multi level closet nursery 2.5 x 3.5 x 8h.
In that space I look after 6 Kale plants, 6 Arugula, 15 Green Bell Peppers, 15 red bell peppers 6 habanero pepper 12 jalapeno pepper, 20 tomato plants. Others I'm forgetting like my Fennel plant. And Best of all. 12 well established Master Gold Kush clones 8 weeks in. Another 8 of the same rooted and 2 weeks in. 20 more still waiting for roots. And one heck of a hydra head master mother plant.
I spend on average 1 hour a day. with one day in the week where I can easily spend 3-4 hours catching up on things that just cannot wait any longer.
When I was Noob.....I spent way more time obsessing. However...not always a bad thing. For a high functioning mind....you can absorb the smallest noticed details like a sponge. I learned in the end what to obsess over and what not to without too much trouble. I did neglect and lose a girlfriend back in the day by obsessing with this site though......Discussions, and pics and the combination of that with the grow rooms. .....was too much for her. Oh well.....she didn't smoke, and didn't see the value in it. 10 years later.....she now needs the Cana meds for her Anxiety, and I'm with someone who helps me grow. In every way. I win.
Sgt.Sly
Well-Known Member
YEA BUDDY!!! Thank you! for posting a pic of that AMAZING BOOK!!! I was a copy holder of the reprint of 92' when I was 18.Great post @Sgt.Sly !
I have been telling nOObs the same kind of things for years. More plants die from too much fussing around than any other reason.
I grew my first buds from bagseed back in the late 70's with dirt and sheep shit from my father-in-law's farm under T-12 shop lights. My grow guide at the time was a little book by Alexander Sumach called Grow Yer Own Stone. I even wrote him a couple letters and got replies that I still have. There was an application to grow your own in the middle that I filled out and sent off to Health and Welfare Canada but they said no.
Still have that letter too from a Denise Boucher, Chief, Domestic Control Div., Bureau of Dangerous Drugs in Ottawa, July 1975.
Unfortunately the book itself got lost in the sands of time and I seem to recall that mine had a yellow cover. This is a pic of the reprint from 1992.
View attachment 4109701
Sgt.Sly
Well-Known Member
Oh man....ya....coffee and a tan under the hps in a small grow room. that can chew up an hour of doing nothing but shaking hands with every branch.LOL...sounds familiar!
When growing, I prefer to be spending as much time as possible with the plants during lights on. It's like the plants pull me in...like they want me there...and I want to be there, too! It works out fine because my wife likes time to herself to do her things and I'm not bugging her.
Chip Green
Well-Known Member
The most common problem newer growers will encounter is a patience deficiency.
xtsho
Well-Known Member
OldMedUser
Well-Known Member
Us older growers can suffer that too.
Can hardly wait for GMO pot that's ready 4 weeks from seed and cures on the branch with no leaves to trim!
Budzbuddha
Well-Known Member
Get new girlfriend ... Problem solved
QuarksRSmall
Well-Known Member
With enough pot you can get all the pussy that you can handle. Just sayin.
ThatCrispyKid
Member
I spend about an hr give or take on my girls. I usually work in my box in the am after the wife leaves for work. But there are times like last night, mixed some nutes up and realized my ph meter was off by 2 points
I made her help me re adjust everything when she started complaining haha
ThatCrispyKid
Member
My perfect girl smokes more than I do haha she's All about the grow op..
jarvild
Well-Known Member
Yes , but us 60+ somethings have had all the pussy they needed for the most part. And Hookers are pretty cheap compared to the maintenance cost of a wife or girlfriend.
Xs121
Well-Known Member
Mine does too, she's more impatient than me. She used to ask me if we can pull off some leaves. lol
Sgt.Sly
Well-Known Member
This is good advise.