Biggest Growing Mistakes...

With watering it seems like there's a fine line between- I need to water today, and, shit.... I should have watered yesterday.

no way would I have more then one dog. I think this even covers any desire to have kids lol

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Originally Posted by Twentyinches

With watering it seems like there's a fine line between- I need to water today, and, shit.... I should have watered yesterday.

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lol, exactly! :D I always want to kick myself in the ass when this happens, and I'm left staring at a sad, droopy plant the next morning. I guess in this respect, hydro growers have got it made.

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Originally Posted by Twentyinches

With watering it seems like there's a fine line between- I need to water today, and, shit.... I should have watered yesterday.

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Sounds familiar, wise words indeed, lol:

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Originally Posted by Rusty Trichome

It can be a fine balance between "ok...I need to water later today" and "shit...I should have watered yesterday."

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lol, great minds think alike, apparently. I KNEW I had heard that somewhere before, I just couldn't put my finger on its origin. It makes just as much sense now as it did when I read it the first time. That's definitely going in my siggy!

The worst mistake I made was in the taking of cuttings. My first time I cut some leaves with a stem attached and couldn't wunderstand why they didn't root. Now let me tell you this: I researched, read, participated in forums here and at OG for two years before starting my grow. I just 'knew' this was going to be easy. Unfortunately I had NO practical experience with growing of any kind( except my lawn). So I start out with some Afghani seeds and got started. Seeds germed fine and plants vegged for 4 weeks and looked perfect so I said to myself "damn I'm going to be good" at this.

Went in 12/12 and again all is good. Within 2 to 3 weeks they started to look like shit and it took me a year to solve various problems related to lockout, salt buildup, nutrient def.'s and ph problems. For me I've never experienced a problem before flowering. Just goes to show vegging is the easy part. Once into 12/12 the plant shifts into overdrive and it's needs become paramount in the first 2 weeks of flower.

Anyway, the clone issue I had was simply no understanding of what a cutting should be(duh, you need nodes dummy). Growing is no different than any other endevour. You can have all the knowledge but without experience you can't do shit. Another example is when you graduate from college. You could major in accounting and not be able to do shit until you get some experience. HANDS ON experience isthe answer and why many long time growers state "It took me about 5 years to get a handle on all the facets of growing".

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Originally Posted by grey1223

HANDS ON experience isthe answer and why many long time growers state "It took me about 5 years to get a handle on all the facets of growing".

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That's exactly it. Before I started growing, I did plenty of research into the different stages of growth, nutrients, lighting, and all that jazz. Of course, I only started with the bare essentials, and wrote most of what I read off as 'niceties' - nice to have, but not essential. I had to make numerous mistakes before I finally realized that many of those things they say in grow books aren't just novelty items... they're ESSENTIAL if you want to harvest a good crop. A lot of people hear growers say that it's cheaper to grow your own medicine than to buy it off the streets, but they don't realize that it's only cheaper AFTER you've made the initial investment to get started. Even then, with all the new gadgets/fertilizers/lights on the market, it can still get pricey trying to keep up with new trends. Hell, just buying soil and fertilizers every couple of grows can take its toll on a checkbook in no time flat. I don't sell anything I grow, so I just have to bite the bullet and spend the money necessary to keep things growing. On the other hand, I haven't had to buy a bag in several years... which has saved me a TON of money in the long run.

Moral # 524.3 - If you plan on growing with just the bare essentials, don't be disappointed when your results are mediocre, at best.

Thanks Grey! :jointsmile:

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Originally Posted by Mr. Clandestine

Hell, just buying soil and fertilizers every couple of grows can take its toll on a checkbook in no time flat.

Moral # 524.3 - If you plan on growing with just the bare essentials, don't be disappointed when your results are mediocre, at best.

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Oh yeah....

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Originally Posted by Mr. Clandestine

Nice story, Rusty! Glad to hear you were able to salvage at least one of the babies... but losing good genetics still sucks, especially for a couple that really needs them. In my novel of a mistake up top, I couldn't save a single plant. I can't remember the exact strain I was growing, but it was some kind of Skunk & I ended up losing all the seeds that I had just payed handsomely for. I wish now I would have at least taken some clones, but even then with the amount of Nitrogen those plants were being poisoned by, they probably never would have rooted. Plus, I didn't know anything about cloning at the time. All I got for my efforts was just a big, smelly mess.

And just visiting Vegas is too expensive for me, I couldn't imagine living there! :) I don't visit major metropolitan areas now unless I absolutely have to. I went to college for four years in Athens, GA., and worked in Atlanta at the time. (About a 2.5 hour drive-time between the two.) Then, after college, I spent a couple of years dividing time working between Pinellas County, FL (next to Tampa) and Miami. I've come to DESPISE cities and their gridlock, vagrants, flaring tempers, bad drivers, etc. For the first time in my life, I'm living out in the sticks. Been here for a few years now, and I'm loving it! Only traffic I ever have to deal with is a random fleet of logging trucks.

Thanks to everyone who's chimed in so far with their stories! :thumbsup:

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Damn, I'm a St. Pete native and I know what you mean.

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Originally Posted by grey1223

Damn, I'm a St. Pete native and I know what you mean.

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I got to visit St. Pete Beach several times while I was staying in Pinellas, it's really beautiful over there. One weekend, the company I was working for put us up at the Don Cesar Resort right on the beach. Man, it was nice. My wife and I would love to move to Florida eventually, but I think I'd like to be closer to the Atlantic side rather than the Gulf. I've been taking semi-annual vacations to Daytona since I was a kid and living with my parents. Even now, I try to make it to Bike Week every year that I'm able to.

But yeah, traffic in Tampa could get pretty rough at times. Miami was the pinnacle of commuting despair for me, though. I eventually got to where I would take a taxi EVERYWHERE I needed to go.

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Originally Posted by Rusty Trichome

Sounds familiar, wise words indeed, lol:

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I knew I had too! I didn't mean to pass it off as my saying, it was one of those things I knew I had seen, but never could rememeber where it came from! thanks Rusty of course all credit goes to you, because that is a wonderful saying and it seems to apply wayyy to often haha :jointsmile:

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Originally Posted by Mr. Clandestine

A lot of people hear growers say that it's cheaper to grow your own medicine than to buy it off the streets, but they don't realize that it's only cheaper AFTER you've made the initial investment to get started.

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So true. I was adding things up at the start of my last grow and realized that I had over a thousand dollars invested in my equipment, and I hadn't had a very successful grow up to that point. I was actually pretty upset that I'd managed to spend that much cash on what was supposed to be a way to get cheap weed.

And then I pulled 4oz off one plant :stoned:. And my current grow is being done for the price of a bottle of nutrients and some electricity :D.



As for my biggest mistake - I installed a 400 watt HPS in a 4x4 Hyrdrohut without adding any ventilation. My ambient temps the next morning were 104F :microwave:

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Originally Posted by Help_Needed

As for my biggest mistake - I installed a 400 watt HPS in a 4x4 Hyrdrohut without adding any ventilation. My ambient temps the next morning were 104F :microwave:

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Haha! Nice use of smileys to illustrate your point... I'll bet things did get warm in there! When I set up my first 400w HPS, I just threw it inside a 3x3 closet, door closed, with only one oscillating fan inside. I didn't add any plants to the closet, I just wanted to see what it would do in terms of heat. I came back in several hours later, and I could feel the hot air blowing from the crack beneath the door. Had I put any plants in there, they'd have been cooked almost instantly.

Nice job pulling a qp off one plant, that's a definite step in the right direction! Yeah, setting up a growroom right can be a chore (and very expensive depending on what equipment you go with), but after those first initial payments, things get a LOT cheaper. Even cheaper for me because I try to buy all my fertilizers in bulk, and so only have to make purchases once or twice per year. Still, even though I'm pretty happy with my current setup, I'm still prone to blowing money every time I go to the hydro shop... regardless of whether or not I need the stuff. :jointsmile:

Thanks for dropping by and lending your thoughts!