There may be many threads like this, but this one is mine…
I was fortunate enough to jump into growing through circumstances. I also figured, if I can grow, farm, and propagate the most difficult and most colorful corals, “weed” should be easy. Well, yes and no, I’m happy to say that most of the chemistry and nutrient stuff was quickly absorbed thanks to my reefkeeping experience and I quickly fell in love with growing. Also, although I’m only a hobbyist, I’ve read just about everything I can get my hands on regarding reefkeeping, including several text books and hundreds of research papers. What’s the point you say? When I love something I take a heavy and deep dive and have been learning daily about cannabis for a year, through reading and through trial and error.
So, to help some folks that maybe don’t have the time or patience to sift through gobs on info, here’s my list of the most important lessons I wish someone had told me about when I started!
1.) Like any involved hobby that involves growing something, or something alive like pets or plants, there are a lot of fads and there are a lot of things in expensive bottles that you simply don’t need.
2.) Some parameters are more important than others, as a new grower you should focus on these things first and foremost
A.) Nutrients: Ensure you have all 17 required nutrients for life. This can be achieved by way of as little as one bag of inexpensive fertilizer, or by way of a more expensive duo of trio of bottles from a respectable company . Anything above and beyond that is not needed to grow beautiful weed, at least when it comes to adding things to soil/water//coco/whatever. Everything beyond that should be questioned (also see #1}.
B.) Don’t stress about humidity, but try to keep it above 40% and below 65%, you can start running into trouble outside of this. Too high (above 70%) for too long can be a recipe for disaster for your plants, especially once they’ve been flowering for a bit.
C.) Keep temps in a safe range. IME anything between 65 and 85 is tolerated pretty well. Someone with more experience and a better understanding of certain plants can safely play outside this range. You, we are not that person yet.
D.) PH is supremely important, if you want to grow big healthy plants with lots of bud this is a big one no matter how perfect everything else is. Get a PH meter and calibrate it regularly with proper solution. It’s easy once you do it a few times.
3.) Give your plants and roots lots of “air” to breath if you want large healthy plants, if you want smaller plants, don’t. A gentle bnreeze and good air movement always seems to be appreciated it. I don’t understand the science, but I’ve seen the unhappy plants when I don’t realize a fan is turned off or not working.
4.) PPFD, PAR, light intensity, whatever you want to call it, is king when it comes to lights. Luckily, even cheap amazon grow lights can grow great plants due to the simple spectrum requirements of cannabis. Those cheap lights work well, at least for a while, until you can decide if you need or want some fancy features and to tweak leaf coloration and max yield potential.
5.) The outdoors and bugs are not your friend unless you’re an outdoor grower where you have natures balance to help you. Do not put plants outside unless necessary, if you do, inspect them closely and research neem and other believed to be safe pesticides. If you’re using clones do the same. Spider mites suck!
6.) Each plant is different, they don’t follow your schedule, and just because the breeder said 65 days doesn’t mean that’s what will happen. If you’re consistently going really long, something with your grow might not be right breeder’s with parameters or light, though breeders are often optimistic,
7.) Did I mention PH is important? Don’t ignore this one or you might be chasing your tail thinking something else is wrong when it’s simply your PH.
8.) If you’re growing in soil or coco, don’t over water and over fertigate. If you’re doing it more than once every day or two slow down. Also, younger plants don’t consume a lot and small root structures drink far less. Once every day is more than sufficient early on and once you get out of the seedling stage, and typically enough throughout a grow unless pots are small.
That’s what I’ve got for now, I hope some new or aspiring growers find it useful. Others, feel free to chime in on some of your newbie lessons learned that I missed.
