LOL! I got through the same thing twice a year. the guy I get to water ignored the watering can and just dumped tap from the gallon pitcher. came back to what looked like a flood came through my soil…
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I’m growing in a stealth cabinet (see: The year of making do) and only have a total of 45W in there, and I’m pretty sure I’ve light burned my plants and also caused stunting. Note that the lights produce almost no heat. Any burning was from light intensity.
I’m a noob so I have a lot to learn but my theory is that the excess light causes the plant to deplete nutrients (like calcium) faster than it can replenish. I suspect that with the right nutrition I wouldn’t have seen the burning.
Some people are able to grow with a lot more light intensity than me in small spaces (@Mr.Sparkle comes immediately to mind). So I suspect it’s not so much that the light itself is nuking the plant, but it’s causing some sort of problem in concert with some other issue.
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Something else to consider is ambient temperature, ive found higher light levels can be pushed if your running higher temps just as the increased transpiration helps “cool” the plant and allow the plant to work with those increased light levels.
So for led’s a higher 27-30c “80-86f” can be beneficial vs older thought process for HPS and the likes of running 21-24c “70-75f” which when factoring in the IR created by those lights your leaf temps are higher than ambient, leds its the opposite.
So people tend to see damage and issues when trying to run cool and high light levels with led’s cause the plant can’t cool itself or to turn those photons into sugars so then that damage and issues occur and then “blame” the lights.
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Being impatient, rushing things that just cannot be rushed and harvesting too soon.
Drying too fast
Drying too much
I freaked once bc of how crispy the buds were and tried rehydrate them. The entire harvest smelled like hay
Not drying long enough before jarring
Not training/staking plants properly
Too much overthinking and overcomplicating things
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It’s tough, but humbling and comforting to know almost everyone experiences these things to one degree or another.
but @NICO you nailed it on the head. Doing too much too fast, not enough for long enough, worrying and overcomplicating.
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My first mistake was to start my plants in a solo cup what a waste of time now I start my plants by filling my 5 gallon pot with my preferred soil after it full I dig a hole in the middle deap enough and wide enough to put a toilet paper roll in it then fill with dirt I germinate under a paper towel after they sprout I plant inside the toilet paper roll the toilet paper roll make the roots grow deeper before the toilet paper roll rots and it doesn’t take long before it rots no transplanting it only takes 4 to 6 weeks before I flip to 12/12 my second mistake was using cloth bags in a tent when using bags you have to use 2 to 3 times more fertilizer because of the run off they can’t be moved without putting crack in the soil they dry out quickly they get dry pockets after a few uses salt build up on the bags the washing machine will not get it out my third mistake but someone might want to do this I have a 12 in x12 in solid red leds I put it on a Acapulco gold plant it turned it the prettiest red like wine but it lost it flavor I tried it on a purple only on part of the plant it made it black lost it flavor also someone else could make it work better for them but I’m calling it a mistake for me I would rather have flavor than bag appeal
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This. We’re new at things here, and both grows have suffered for this. The first time was a confluence of first-run mistakes, including having the light hung terribly, losing an easy 16" or more in vertical clearance. The monsters, which admittedly were fully allowed to get out of hand by us for science (!) got quite a bit of late stage LST and light burn, but we were too timid with them to take more drastic measures. Wound up pulling that run WAY too early.
Most recently, the problem was overvegging a couple crosses of a cultivar we weren’t familiar with any background information on. We were more active with early training this round, but the girls still won. They stretched easily 4x on us, and we wound up supercropping several times. Had something interesting to watch through flower with a tangle of right angles and no dehumidifier, but we brought it home and finished it over the course of a three-stage harvest.
On the matter of small mistakes, we had a hell of a time germing the second time around. We started with bagseed that was stored terribly and some of which was pretty old, but made mistakes of our own with the environment, mostly battling low temps.
Got a heating mat and a dedicated space heater for those cold months, and we got it done!
Honestly, looking forward to making more mistakes as we start round three in the next week or two- it’s all worth it for the experience and skill, eh? Who’s growing who between us and the plant, anyway? hahahah
Stay up!
Coffin_Dodger
I grew a whole tent with different landraces and some got out of hand I had to bend them to much while they were flowering and one hermed on me and I didn’t find it in time now if I have one that is stretching to much now I open my tent and I added a light outside my tent to allow for the plant to grow taller I had to do this because I was trying to make Feminized seeds using Femajuana It doesn’t work ! I used it only on one branch I isolated it while spraying it at night and I marked it so I could throw that branch away but it must of jack up its hormones because it must of stretched 4.5 or more it was taller than me It had the biggest cola I have grown I didn’t top it all the lower bud’s were as big as golf balls when they were dried I had the femajuana for a year or more could been out of date don’t know if that was why it did what it did I’m afraid to try it again unless I allow for the stretching I have never read about this happening to anyone its been like two years so the product is older now I just haven’t thrown it out because I have not grown any bud’s that big sense then but I haven’t made space to grow a plant bigger than me to see if it happen again or if it was a freak accident I would not buy the product again but I did like the giant bud’s I got from it but that not what it is marketed for
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Dammit, I just mindlessly did this to my flower tent! I was so ready to kill aphids I just sprayed everything with Bonide Pyrethrin including a plant I’m supposed to harvest in a week. Grrrrr I’m going to try and use my UV lights from tomorrow onward and hope that that helps degrade the pyrethrins faster, I needed to hang them back up anyways.
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It wasn’t so bad. But I could tell. And I wanted no part of it.
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Fed a single plant with 2.5 Litres of un-pH’d water/nutes. DoH
When I realized that I had jumped / missed a step, i checked the pH left in the pail, yep 5.9… damn
I Made another 2-Litre batch at a pH of 6.8 and put it right on top… trying to find an average for the substrate of 6.4
Learned about air circulation, and mold. Was sad when I had to toss it. Durban poison auto, and she was beautiful 
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Ceiling mounted 400w HPS when ceiling was 34" high. Burn baby burn.
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Anyone else confident enough to show your worst mistake?
I forgot to feed this one some N later in veg before I flipped and she’s been light the entire time. She looks happy to me, but should be greener. Next time 
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I took in a plant because a friend started too many, and I was greedy. I got mites - because I broke a cardinal rule - never ever bring an outside plant into your grow (without quarantine and a CLOSE inspection) .
Live and learn.
Die and forget.
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