Many, many moons ago...before I ever decided to take on this enlightening and fulfilling hobby, I found myself reading EVERY book ever published on the topic. Even several that were out-of-print. Before I ever even purchased my first light, or any of the other necessities needed to have a quasi-successful grow, I purchased every piece of literature on the topic that I could find. (The internet wasn't flourishing then quite like it is now...books were still the best way to go.)

So, after reading countless books - many full of great advice, others full of so-so advice - I thought I was ready to tackle my first organic grow. I made all sorts of silly calculations based on the varying degrees of information I had obtained from my books, and jumped headlong into what I thought was going to be a fruitful & productive first grow. Boy, was I ever wrong...

Right off the bat, I ended up killing some seedlings by either over-watering, or letting them dry out completely. Those that did survive my initial experimentation were notably stunted, and took quite a while to resume normal growth. Then, I realized that a 1000W HPS in a closet, with little to no ventilation, wasn't very suitable for strong growth either. Took me a while to figure out what I needed to do, but I finally got it, and had air flowing freely in and out of the closet. And just when I thought I was back on track, and well on my way to a bountiful harvest, I ended up killing several more of my plants by over-fertilizing them! Needless to say, I was distraught. So, I had one or two plants left - obviously the strongest of all that I had started - and after successfully getting them to grow a few feet tall, I induced flowering with great exhilaration.

A few weeks later, I discovered that they were both males...:cursing:

I knew where it all went wrong, but still concluded that this was simply too difficult to do correctly. So I resorted back to buying crappy quality buds from sketchy & non-reliable black market dealers...confident in the fact that this was my only option. But, after wasting countless dollars & much time haggling with shady dealers, I decided to give growing another shot. I knew that nothing I could have possibly grown could have been worse than the garbage that I was buying, so I saw little incentive to keep going the route I was going.

I still made some mistakes on my second grow, but at least managed to harvest a small quantity of skimpy (but potent) buds. Now that I realized it was possible to grow my own medicine, I decided to get serious about it. I discovered ways to make the best of my situation, and constantly refined everything I "knew" about growing. Every time I started a new grow, I prepared myself for a learning experience...and knew that I would be learning many new things along the way. Even now, after having many successful grows under my belt, I'm still learning something new every time I start a new crop.

So, while patience is certainly a tool that new growers should utilize and "sharpen" frequently, the same can be said about perseverance and humility. I know a lot more now than I did back when I started, and have a method that never fails to produce a great harvest. Still, I'm not afraid to ask for help when I need it, and am always willing to try new methods that have worked for others.