Marijuana Growers Were Newbies Once Too

Usually when we hear about these marijuana grow operations,. we hear about, or see video, of the good ones. With indoor grow ops, we see these complicated setups – tubing, meters, lighting, buckets or tables. With outdoor ops we see these huge trees, some standing upwards of 9 feet tall or 9 feet in diameter.

When I first started growing, I got excited and inspired by these setups, especially indoor grow ops. It gave me encouragement but I still didn’t have all the know how. I had the access to information but nothing will ever replace the knowledge you gain from experience. You don’t gain experience from growing perfect marijuana every time. You learn more by making mistakes and grower error.

I want to show people – that are interested in growing marijuana and even those that may have lost faith in their ability – that we all make mistakes because we were all new at this job at some point. Even the professionals, some with 5 to 30+ years of experience still make mistakes.

Here are some great errors admitted by marijuana growers [I’ll let you know why, if it’s not obvious]:

“I remember my brother’s first attempt at hydro. It was a damned mess. He was hot gluing everything instead of using grommets and tubing. Eventually, it ended up with him flooding the damn bedroom and you could see wet spots in the ceiling of the garage above the room lol.”

“My big error was using tape on a water pump that was too damn strong for one dripper ring. I walked into the room and just heard that empty water pump sound. I ran to the closet to see an empty bucket. Luckily it was only about 2 gallons of water total. I unplugged everything just in case and used a lot of towels.”

“First several times I tried to grow with 100W incandescent bulbs. Other’n that, I got nothin’.”
[Incandescent bulbs, or regular light bulbs, do not have the right spectrum of light that will promote plant growth]

“I’ve heard of people that are convinced their herb tastes like grapes not because of the strain but because they pour in a gallon of grape Koolaid the last week of flower.”
[Usually people who don’t know much about marijuana either make up or believe made-up stories of how marijuana gets its scent or flavor. Different marijuana strains have their own natural scents and flavors. Sometimes some scents match those already in nature, some desirable, some not. For example, who wants their marijuana to smell and taste like a skunk?]

“When I first went indoor, I couldn’t fer the life of me get em to flower. Mel Frank and High Times helped me feel like an idiot. 12/12 huh…who knew???”
[12/12 refers to the light cycle of 12 hours of light and 12 hours of dark to mimic the changing season. 12/12 signals the plant to start flowering or growing buds. Marijuana won’t show buds indoors unless you signal it to do so.]

“I remember my first ‘real’ indoor grow (8 x 4′ flouros mixed cool/warm) back in 93 or 94. “You can tell if you have a female by the sets of two white hairy pistils that originate at the base of a branch in a calyx” “preflowers can be seen much sooner, and you might need a magnifying glass”…was what the text read. Little did I know you couldn’t see them when the plant was two or three sets of leaves tall! LOL. My god, I was right in there with my face looking for the ‘preflowers’ trying to figure out if I had boys or girls! After a few weeks of wondering, I saw my first sets of preflowers and I was hooked! Thanks, now I have to go back to my corner…” [Preflowers]

“I got a couple good stories about a buddy of mine out here. I gave up on trying to help him because he just doesn’t like to listen. 1# He use to stab the dirt through out his whole grow to aerate the soil. I told him don’t do that you are killing the roots. Still didn’t listen, **** knew best!!!! 2# He use to cut off all the leaves in about the 5th week of flower. Said lets more light reach the bud. Said this way he would get bigger buds, Because the buds need more light than the leaves. Don’t want big leaves just big buds. I love this guy but his head is thicker than the walls out here.”
[First problem is obvious, I think. The second problem is that the buds do not support themselves. The fan leaves are the light gatherers and process the light, air, and nutrients for the buds, THC, seeds, etc. In other words, YOU NEED FAN LEAVES]

“…sold a newb a 10” can fan that he wanted to use to exhaust a 10’x10′ bedroom.. Told him it was overkill for the room and he needed at least double the surface area of the fan for intake…. A big f’n hole lol. he didn’t think so, thought the small gaps around the door was fine. Couple days after runnin the fan it sucked the bedroom window right off the frame into the room onto his plants hahahahaaa.. best lessons learned are the hard way I guess.”
[Negative Pressure]

“When I first got my 1k set up going…I was trying to cut corners an had a vast supply of boxes that were 10 inches deep an were 7x7inches around…they were cardboard so I lined with 2 thats right 2 plastic grocery store bags….was my first encounter with black mold….lol”
[Cardboard and moisture is a breeding ground for black mold which can cause/aggravate asthma, bronchitis, pneumonia]

“I was told by a friend, that shwagg seeds grow shwagg plants, dense, compressed brown nugs……according to him….he saw a shwagg plant lol.”
[example of what can be done with schwag seeds]

“I once thought that a 2k room didn’t need any cooling in the summer, with temps hitting the mid 40s Celsius. Had a nice bubba S1 clone that produced great looking buds with no smell and practically no high, musta cooked all the volatiles and cannabinoids right out of them…lol”
[2k refers to 2 kilowatts of light which gets pretty hot. This could have been worse than what occurred. Please make sure to use proper ventilation in any grow room.]

“Heres one I heard few years ago….some dude was going out of town for a week an asked a buddy to feed an water his girls…second day into it the friend mistakes ph-up for being a nute an gave em all a healthy dose of ph-up…couple days later entire dead crop..lol”
[“pH up” is used to balance the pH (acidity/alkalinity) of hydroponic solution. Proper pH is important to aid in the plants uptake/absorption of nutrients. Too high or low will cause “nutrient lockout”.]

Don’t think you can’t do it because you don’t have a green thumb. Don’t get discouraged because your first, second, or even third attempt failed. It’s the mistakes that teach you the most important lessons. So, don’t be afraid to admit your humanity by asking questions or getting information if you need help. Tens of thousands of growers around the world go in and out of marijuana growing forums just so they can help others. And, it’s all free of charge. Dust yourself off and get dirty again.