The Ultimate Growing Competition

H.A.F. said:

I try new stuff all the time, post about it, etc. I think I would do OK, but I am not into working 18 weeks on something only to be disappointed with an awesome grow because of - people...

Click to expand...

This is EXACTLY why the votes are the way they are. I admit that 'hidden' was the WRONG word to use! Next time I'll grab the thesaurus.
If the votes were shown from day one, then drama is guaranteed to break out. People will see that this guy voted bad for them, get butt hurt, and vote bad for them back on the next vote. Then someone else with a beef sees the vote so they also swing their next vote and it becomes some kind of 2-man coup to try to take over the internet.
The way the votes are set up now is not to try to cheat or fool anyone all of the votes are shown at the end.. They are set up the way they are so that a voting battle doesn't break out.

H.A.F. said:

LOL - I saw the voting part and skipped the rest
But you have to admit it is still based on some pretty loose criteria.
Not saying that it is bad, just that I don't think there is a perfect way to do this unless we all know each other and there is some trust.

Click to expand...

I think this is about the best competition you are ever going to get.

H.A.F. said:

Not my point, but actually it is. My point is that there is no "win" other than getting votes - but there is no criteria to vote on. So it is a popularity contest.

Click to expand...

You are not thinking like a grower.
The best growers in this comp will come out of this comp with more knowledge about growing.
So will the intermediate growers and the novices.
There will be a wealth of information shared.
You have the wrong attitude if you're concerned about popularity, winning or cheating.
It will be interesting to see if it is easy to cheat in this comp and risk a reputation doing so.
I plan on displaying plants with 11+ blade leaves in my grow.
I doubt I'm going to have spare plants bigger with the same leaf structure and if I was capable of it then I'd be the grower you would want to study if you are about growing.
Doesn't sound like this comp is for you.

H.A.F. said:

LOL - I saw the voting part and skipped the rest
But you have to admit it is still based on some pretty loose criteria.
Not saying that it is bad, just that I don't think there is a perfect way to do this unless we all know each other and there is some trust.

The guy with the room to grow a forest and the ability to post 4 good pics will win.

Click to expand...

Than move on
You don’t have to enter stop creating drama

Kushash said:

You are not thinking like a grower.
The best growers in this comp will come out of this comp with more knowledge about growing.
So will the intermediate growers and the novices.
There will be a wealth of information shared.
You have the wrong attitude if you concerned about popularity, winning or cheating.
It will be interesting to see if it is easy to cheat in this comp and risk a reputation doing so.
I plan on displaying plants with 11+ blade leaves in my grow.
I doubt I'm going to have spare plants bigger with the same leaf structure and if I was capable of it then I'd be the grower you would want to study if you are about growing.
Doesn't sound like this comp is for you.

Click to expand...

In his defense, his comment was made back when he thought there was no voting criteria.

H.A.F. said:

@Dyna-Gro what is the latest date to withdraw? I am not trying to cast doubt on the contest, but it looks like it is still missing something for me to enjoy it.

Click to expand...

You have until July 26th to withdraw.

What suggestions would you have for future competitions?

actually, my first inclination as a grower was "hell yeah!"

Dyna-Gro said:

You have until July 26th to withdraw.

What suggestions would you have for future competitions?

Click to expand...

Like I said, I think it would be very difficult to create a "fair" competition period - among a bunch of strangers.

For my tastes
I would prefer one with set limitations to see who can get the best harvest growing one plant in the same size pot (for soil growers). Not sure what the similar standard would be for DWC, Hydro, etc. but maybe one contest for each?

I like the 'end date' part to prevent unlimited vegging, and to test the skill of the grower to get their harvest in 'on time'

Other than that, I like the elimination of other limitations. Great way to LEARN @sunni , and see which method, lighting, nutrients. LST or HST, etc. would produce better results on the same 1-plant grow. I also see that placing these limitations requires that there be a trust that simply won't happen in a public forum like this. So @sunni it was me wanting to NOT have drama that made me ask these questions before it started. Lighten up Francis.

@Kushash Actually, thinking like a grower is why my initial response was "hell yeah, I'm in!" - it was later reflection (and seeing the BS in some other online contests) that made me have second thoughts. I LOVE growing! I am retired and it is my primary hobby. Seeing other peoples techniques and what works better is what it's all about. That is actually the reason I am on here - check out my grow journal. The contest part just has the possibility of adding unnecessary 'stress' or whatever over something that I enjoy. That's all.

And @Dyna-Gro I am still considering it. I think it's great you're trying, and like @Big Perm said it might be the best thing going. I just like to prevent stress before it happens, rather than dealing with it afterwards.

H.A.F. said:

For my tastes
I would prefer one with set limitations to see who can get the best harvest growing one plant in the same size pot (for soil growers). Not sure what the similar standard would be for DWC, Hydro, etc. but maybe one contest for each?

Click to expand...

You can do that in this competition. That's the beauty of it.
Simply state that you are going for the best harvest possible growing one plant in x size pot, DWC, Hydro, etc. You will be judged by your grow.

Sounds good. I may join. Setting up a new grow.

I like dynagro products. The foliage pro works great start to finish.

H.A.F. said:

The guy with the room to grow a forest and the ability to post 4 good pics will win.

Click to expand...

I want to clarify some things, because there is inaccurate information going around about the rules, and it's snowballing.
It's not 4 pics to win.
You aren't being judged on a pic.
You are being judged on your entire grow.

Go back and read the rules, this will help A LOT!!!!!!!!!!

I don't really feel like spelling out everything, but I will if it comes down to that.
You aren't voting every week.
You aren't voting on a single pic.
You can grow any way you want.
These are all questions answered in the first post.

Greenthumbs256 said:

yes it is, but in all fairness it isn't as clear as could possibly be, which is the reasoning so many ppl aren't understanding! I tried my best, just saying!

maybe it would be best to have it all spelled out, just saying, I been here since the very first post was made, and I was the second comment, and even still I'm not 100% on how the rules are laid out!

Click to expand...

Ok, thanks for trying. I'll spell it all out and highlight it in red later.

Jeezus .... *grabs aspirin

Notes

• You get judged 4 times during the competition.
• When you get judged is up to you.

(You'll want an even spread on your grow. This rule was designed so that you aren't caught at a bad time in your grow if a call to vote for all were to come out.)

• You cannot go more than one week without posting a pic of your grow.

(If you are vague on your grow, people are going to be vague on their votes. You'll want to post many pics of your grow. The one week max is so that we can see the transition in close to real time.)

• When someone wants to be judged, they post that they are ready for their 1st,2nd,3rd,4th judging.
• The voting scale is 1-100. 1 being the worst possible, 100 being the best possible.
• The vote will cover the time frame since the last vote was taken for that person.

(The first vote goes back to the start date.)

• When it is time to vote for someone you have one week to get your vote in.
  
• If you don't vote you are disqualified.

If there are any more questions just ask. Here are a couple more I thought I would elaborate on:

Notes

• You claim the number of plants you are going to run by March 16th.

-This means that by 11:59pm PST on March 15 you have to have announced how many plants you are entering in the competition. (3 seeds, 5 clones, whatever)

-In ANC's case, he grows for 8 weeks and his next grow window isn't until halfway through the competition. So, for example, he could announce he is running 11 clones, but he is starting with 1 clone and on whatever date he says he is going to take 10 clones from that 1 clone and grow them out. He would basically veg out a clone until he wants to start his grow.

-There is no plant number maximum.

• Limited to one grow. You can move your grow around from room to room, but it must be the same grow.

-You can't claim 100 plants and have 20 in 5 different rooms. If this is the case, you should claim 20 plants and run them in 1 room.

-You can move your grow from room to room though, like from the veg tent to the bloom tent.

• You are free to post any time you would like as long as one week does not pass between photos.

-You don't have Mon-Fri, or anything like that. You have a week from the last time you posted a pic, whenever that was.

• Anyone suspected of cheating will be disqualified only after a vote has been taken from the other players.

-If you are going to do a massive defoliation, you might want to take some before and after shots so that you don't get accused of cheating by swapping out plants.

-The players are the judges. So if a player suspects another player of cheating, they should call it out. We'll take a vote to see if the majority of the other players agree. The vote will decide if the player is disqualified.

-If a player is disqualified they lose their voting rights and their previous votes are deleted along with their score.

Big Perm said:

I want to clarify some things, because there is inaccurate information going around about the rules, and it's snowballing.
It's not 4 pics to win.
You aren't being judged on a pic.
You are being judged on your entire grow.

Go back and read the rules, this will help A LOT!!!!!!!!!!

I don't really feel like spelling out everything, but I will if it comes down to that.
You aren't voting every week.
You aren't voting on a single pic.
You can grow any way you want.
These are all questions answered in the first post.

Click to expand...

Greenthumbs256 said:

yes it is, but in all fairness it isn't as clear as could possibly be, which is the reasoning so many ppl aren't understanding! I tried my best, just saying!

maybe it would be best to have it all spelled out, just saying, I been here since the very first post was made, and I was the second comment, and even still I'm not 100% on how the rules are laid out!

Click to expand...

@Big Perm Seeing how you added the "NOTES" before I responded, lemme try and paraphrase:

• We are being judged only on how well we can accomplish our stated goal at the beginning.
• The ability to photograph and explain techniques is a plus.
• More pics is better but not all are judged.
• We can decide when we want our grow voted on, and it must be 4 times.

If any of the above is incorrect, let me know.

So the last pic will obviously be results oriented, "proving your thesis statement" or what-not.
The first three might be the germination/clone process, how you prune/train your plant, and what you look for before flip?

It makes more sense now, and thanks for the explanation. It might work better if there was a specific 'pic' required for each vote. More pics and votes might be a plus if there is a plan for what needs to be voted on.

Also, this could be a GINORMOUS thread to weed through for voting an such. It there a main forum thread for the contest, and individual pages for each grow?

For what it's worth I am a stoner at heart, but I also am retired military (20+years with no flowers) and have a BS in Elementary Education.
I like breaking things down to the basics points, then attacking them - but I could also put together a powerpoint and a lesson plan on how I did it

VillageAnt said:

The gram/watt measurement is flawed. The variable of TIME must be included in order to get an accurate assessment.

If one guy vegs for two months, and then flowers for two months under 600 watts and comes out with a pound, and another guy doesn't veg at all and goes straight from rooted clone to flower under that same 600 watt light using more smaller plants in an SOG, and winds up with a pound, clearly the second grower is doing much better. Plus, he can get two harvests in during that four-month time frame, whereas the first guy can only get one harvest in.

Click to expand...

I agree, it is very flawed. It should incorporate price per kilowatt hour in the formula as well. Wattage x Hours x Price / grams. If I’m growing in A rural area at $0.055 cents per kilowatt hour and you are growing in California at $0.194 cents per kilowatt hour, who cares if you and I both produced 500g in two months? It cost you over three times as much to do it. I know I’m pushing this to far but it is something most growers don’t consider. Also with newer more efficient lighting coming out multiple grams per watt are starting to be seen more often.

H.A.F. said:

We are being judged only on how well we can accomplish our stated goal at the beginning.

Click to expand...

The point of calling out your plant numbers is say you take 5 clones and 1 dies, now you have 4. You run your competition with the 4 but you losing the one plants doesn't drop your score by 20%.
You don't have to announce your entire grow plan from the first day unless you want to, but then you have to follow it. My example of ANC's grow is that he would be ending with 11 plants but starting with 1. He would announce that from the beginning, not just decide to do so during the grow.

H.A.F. said:

The ability to photograph and explain techniques is a plus.

Click to expand...

Since you are being judged by the means of pics and details, yes.

H.A.F. said:

We can decide when we want our grow voted on, and it must be 4 times.

Click to expand...

Yes

H.A.F. said:

If any of the above is incorrect, let me know.

Click to expand...

Some are

H.A.F. said:

So the last pic will obviously be results oriented, "proving your thesis statement" or what-not.
The first three might be the germination/clone process, how you prune/train your plant, and what you look for before flip?

Click to expand...

It's not 4 pics, it will probably be hundreds.

H.A.F. said:

It makes more sense now, and thanks for the explanation. It might work better if there was a specific 'pic' required for each vote. More pics and votes might be a plus if there is a plan for what needs to be voted on.

Click to expand...

"This will encompass grading criteria such as deficiency problems, watering, nute burn, plant appearance, transitions, bud appearance, visual yield, difficulty of grow, overall technique, etc. The better you do overall, the better your score at the end."

Greenthumbs256 said:

seems like I keep meeting more and more brothers in arms lately! I as well am ret. vet. I hope you decide to join us brother!

Click to expand...

Now that it makes sense I'm in. I have to start planning to rearrange my rotation. I have a plant that will harvest before the contest date or shortly thereafter, but I have monster-cropped clones from this grow and the last one in my veg-tent.

First thing I need to do is find Murphy and kick his ass - then proceed.

H.A.F. said:

For what it's worth I am a stoner at heart, but I also am retired military (20+years with no flowers) and have a BS in Elementary Education.
I like breaking things down to the basics points, then attacking them - but I could also put together a powerpoint and a lesson plan on how I did it

Click to expand...

lol I understand. I watched you break down and attack your own points as well multiple times. If you'd like to do a PP on this, that would be great once you get it figured out.