Newbie Mistakes

[algebraist]

Here I intend to describe some of the things I've done wrong over the past couple of months while gearing up for and then starting my first grow, in the hope that maybe some of my fellow newbies will be able to dodge some of the traps I walked right into. And also to vent... I should probably go in chronological order, or maybe start with the most costly, but I can't help but begin with today's. It's a doozy.

So I'm transplanting my two little plants from their 4 inch square pots into 7 gallon cloth pots ("Phat Sacks" -- the equivalent, more or less, of "Smart Pots"; it's what they carry at the local shop). I'm no dummy, this will raise the base of the plants up higher than they've been, so in the interest of keeping things consistent I take one plant and place it on the floor next to the pot it's going into, and I measure the difference in the heights of the soil bed. 7 inches. So I go into the closet and raise the lights by 7 inches. It takes maybe 2 minutes.

Did you catch my mistake? While I was in the closet, the fucking dog was eating my damn plant. Ugh. I know to watch out for the dog -- she's never been anywhere near my plants. Until today.

I think it will recover. Anyway, here she is (a little blurry -- sorry about that), with her lovely sister. I'll confess to some of my other mistakes later -- had to get this one off my chest immediately.

 

[lime73]

Keep your bitches separate lol

 

[weedenhanced]

Here I intend to describe some of the things I've done wrong over the past couple of months while gearing up for and then starting my first grow, in the hope that maybe some of my fellow newbies will be able to dodge some of the traps I walked right into. And also to vent... I should probably go in chronological order, or maybe start with the most costly, but I can't help but begin with today's. It's a doozy.

So I'm transplanting my two little plants from their 4 inch square pots into 7 gallon cloth pots ("Phat Sacks" -- the equivalent, more or less, of "Smart Pots"; it's what they carry at the local shop). I'm no dummy, this will raise the base of the plants up higher than they've been, so in the interest of keeping things consistent I take one plant and place it on the floor next to the pot it's going into, and I measure the difference in the heights of the soil bed. 7 inches. So I go into the closet and raise the lights by 7 inches. It takes maybe 2 minutes.

Did you catch my mistake? While I was in the closet, the fucking dog was eating my damn plant. Ugh. I know to watch out for the dog -- she's never been anywhere near my plants. Until today.

I think it will recover. Anyway, here she is (a little blurry -- sorry about that), with her lovely sister. I'll confess to some of my other mistakes later -- had to get this one off my chest immediately.

View attachment 3877632
View attachment 3877634

bash the fcking dog

 

[Cx2H]

Are you sure the dog wasn't topping it for you?
#Budtender

You know dogs eat grass...

 

[algebraist]

Yeah, good point @Cx2H -- I'm sure she was just trying to help.

Anyway, I'm over it -- no longer growling at the dog when she comes near.

 

[mo841]

My dog is the same way, loves the leafs.

 

[MasterMiller]

Are you sure the dog wasn't topping it for you?
#Budtender

You know dogs eat grass...

Funny you say this cause I gave a small plant to a buddy and he planted it in the back yard. Next day one of his dogs ate almost all the leaves off. She ended up giving up roughly a pound and had like 8 hardcore colas. Hehe

 

[lime73]

My dog is the same way, loves the leafs.

Cats too

 

[MadButcher]

One of my dogs decided it's s good time to slurp the oil out of a pan that was cooling down to go into edibles. She had about 1/4 cup. I've never seen anything or anybody that fucked up. She pissed all over the place and for the most part couldn't use her legs. I felt bad for her.

 

[algebraist]

Wild. Well, I bet we could go on with dog stories. In any case, we have

Newbie Mistake #1: The dog ate my weed. Basically.

Moving on:

Newbie Mistake #2: Buying the wrong tent.

Since you're reading this, chances are you're like me -- totally obsessed with growing. So it's not that I didn't do my homework -- I did. After reading everything I could I decided I needed a 2ft x 4ft tent, which was right on the money, as that's what I can fit in my closet. Then I decided it needed two key features, beyond the usual:

1) Windows, and
2) It had to be tall.

My reasoning behind the windows was that it's important to be able to check on your plants without opening up the tent, so you don't lose heat and humidity (which are tough to maintain in the winter under LEDs) and let out odor. Reasonable in theory, but in practice, no. As far as I can tell, windows are useless. They're plastic (of course); you can't really see much through them. You certainly can't tell if your plants need water -- which is mostly what you're checking -- unless maybe you let them go until they're nearly dead. No, you're opening the tent pretty much every day to check the plants, windows or not.

The height thing was a real goof. Researching strains I saw that even the Indicas, which are shorter, grow to 3 or 4 feet, and I saw that some varieties were listed on various sites as "suitable for SCROG" while others weren't. So I figured I'd allow myself 4 feet for a nice Indica, add a foot for the depth of the pot, certainly the lights will have to be at least a foot above the plants, and then they vent out the tops so we need 6 inches there, plus the thickness of the lights themselves, and that adds up to a minimum height of 6 feet.

With very few exceptions, 2x4 tents are 5 feet tall, so that ruled them all out except for Secret Jardin and Gorilla. I didn't like the aluminum idea (maybe it's fine), so I went with Gorilla, which makes a 6' 11" 2x4 tent. Two, actually, and I went with the upscale one, instead of the one with thinner fabric. So I paid something like $320 or so; a lot more than I needed to for a 2x4 tent.

Because, for the most part, vertical growth is a waste. It's the top layer of the canopy that gives you the best bud, so that's where you want to concentrate your growth. Whether that is 3 feet from the ground or 1 foot the ground doesn't matter at all.

Moreover, any strain can be kept short by topping, LST, SCROG, etc. -- choose your favorite technique.

And so I paid more than I had to for my tent. More than that, it's awkward -- everything hangs from the top bars. Suppose you want to hang your inline fan, with ductwork and filter, from the bars at the back of the tent. It's relatively heavy and cumbersome, and you're holding it over your head with your arms stretched out while trying to wrap a strap around it without bashing into your lights or stepping on your plants (you might want to move the plants out of the tent first, but if you do, remember mistake #1 -- watch out for the dog). Unpleasant. If the tent was shorter, such tasks would be easier.

So there you have it, my mistake number 2. Not tragic; set me back a few bucks. The Gorilla is a nice tent, for the record. Too damn tall, though.

More to come. By the way, if you care to join in, no reason this has to just be my mistakes -- feel free to add your own, if you're so inclined.

Also, a disclaimer: This is my first grow, I am a bona fide newbie. What the hell do I know. Anything I claim to have learned could very well be completely wrong. Maybe I bought the perfect tent, and "dog-topping" will turn out to be the best way to grow weed. Time will tell.

 

[Bareback]

I just want to throw this out there. Pets don't belong in the grow area, unless you like smoking pet hair lol. Ummmm are these pistols or cat hairs. Hehehe

 

[MasterMiller]

One of my dogs decided it's s good time to slurp the oil out of a pan that was cooling down to go into edibles. She had about 1/4 cup. I've never seen anything or anybody that fucked up. She pissed all over the place and for the most part couldn't use her legs. I felt bad for her.

When my pup was really little one of my friends gave her a decent nug to eat and she wouldn't move or respond, she was breathing but DONE! I felt so bad but I thought "I wish I could get that high off a small nug, lucky." Hahahahahaha. I'm so messed up.

 

[chillok]

Yep gotta watch those leaves; they're fairly tasty. I munch them when pruning sometimes. A little bitter here and there, but they taste nutritious for sure

 

[Chef420]

Excellent thread. I made the same mistake with my tent as well. It was part of a kit and it became apparent fairly quickly that if you have the extra headroom, 5' isn't really tall enough.
Ditto with the window thing.
I eventually upgraded to a 3x3x6 secret jardin and I'm very happy.
Here's one of my newbie errors. Do your research with seeds. When I started I was looking for gsc and didn't know anything about clone only etc. I live in Ontario so illegal.
I found gsc seeds online but didn't realize that aside from the original, anything else is a breeder's interpretation of the cut. I got ripped off by a seed company that advertised all these strains but it was obvious they were all random chucks. Garbage.
Oh, and ph matters

 

[trich0me$]

bash the fcking dog

who do you blame the natural instincts of a animal? or the owner who let the dog in reach?

 

[algebraist]

I see this is going to end up the "shaggy dog story" thread. Agreed, the dog is blameless -- totally my fault. Can't stay mad at her anyway, she's a sweetheart. (And, @Bareback, the dog is never in the grow area, it's just that -- for two damn minutes -- the plants were out of the grow area...)

Anyway, moving on to more dumb moves on my part, here's another:

Newbie Mistake #3: Overwatering.

It's nearly a cliche, the newbie overwaters. Yup, did that. And then there's the post to the forum, "What's wrong with my plants?" (here: https://www.rollitup.org/t/seedlings-with-pale-leaf-tips-pix.930515/). Listen, everyone who replies is well-meaning, but if you can't tell what's wrong when you've been studying them in person for days, then unless it's ridiculously obvious (in which case you should be able to figure it out yourself), how is anyone going to reliably diagnose your plants from your biased report and a couple of pictures? So the advice rolls in: nutrient burn, light burn, overwatering. Could be any of these. I went with nutrient burn and tried to flush the soil -- taking my overwatered plants and turning the soil into soup. Bet you can guess how that went.

Perlite is your friend. I am well aware that vermiculite is completely different, but I went with it anyway because I'd read that it improves drainage, and, more importantly, because the local hydro store was out of perlite (as were all the big box stores, it being winter).

Another thing: I didn't believe that overwatering was the problem at first because all the books show overwatering as causing curled down leaves, which was not the case in my seedlings. Turns out it can look very different in small seedlings -- the leaves turn pale and eventually die, starting at the tips. Assuming you fuck it up as completely as I did.

 

[Bareback]

My Dane is a social smoker, if it is just me and her, she only wants a hit or two. But if my daughter is there then ivy is like getting in line until the bag is empty. Lol

 

[MasterMiller]

Excellent thread. I made the same mistake with my tent as well. It was part of a kit and it became apparent fairly quickly that if you have the extra headroom, 5' isn't really tall enough.
Ditto with the window thing.
I eventually upgraded to a 3x3x6 secret jardin and I'm very happy.
Here's one of my newbie errors. Do your research with seeds. When I started I was looking for gsc and didn't know anything about clone only etc. I live in Ontario so illegal.
I found gsc seeds online but didn't realize that aside from the original, anything else is a breeder's interpretation of the cut. I got ripped off by a seed company that advertised all these strains but it was obvious they were all random chucks. Garbage.
Oh, and ph matters

Yeah. That's why I'm gonna do 10 full cycle grows and then I want to start trying some landrace strains. I just finished my 2nd full cycle so I got a ways to go.
Oh and ph does matter depending on your media. My tap comes out at 8 so I take it down to between 6.5 and 7. Any way I can make the environment as comfortable as possible. I'm in soil so it doesn't matter so much from what I read but I realized there is no magical number.

 

[MichiganMedGrower]

It is the alkalinity of your water and nutes and their affect on your medium that needs to be understood.

The biggest mistake I made other than over watering when new was adjusting the ph of my water down from 8.0 even though it is only at 150 ppm on average. That is quite soft for well water and does not cause any rise or fall of medium ph. The lime or oyster shell in the medium buffers that.

And I use natural based nutes which the ammonium as it becomes available helps lower the rising ph from the plants feeding.

Nitrate based fertilizer will raise your ph. Urea and such will lower it. And all only over time.

It is all a relationship to understand and strive to balance.

 

[algebraist]

I think I've dodged pH problems so far -- woo hoo, a mistake I missed. The FFOF and perlite mix I just transplanted into measured 6.5 on one of those "rapitest" testers (with the powder capsule and color chart). I think that should be okay.

But here's one or two that might be obvious when you put everything you've read together, but I blew it (again), and I don't think I've seen it said straight out. So here goes:

Newbie Mistake #4: Growing too few plants. And:
Newbie Mistake #5: Growing too few varieties.

I'm not saying turn your whole house into a pot farm. But for a given fixed space -- like my 2x4 tent -- more plants is better. And when you're just starting, so is more types of plants.

I have two plants in my tent, now in 7 gallon cloth containers. My idea was that I'd grow 3 or 4 foot plants (dumb idea -- I'll say it again: vertical growth is a waste), and they'd each fill out roughly 2ft x 2ft of area. Which is fine, and I expect I can do it. But 3 plants, or 4 plants, or 6 plants could fill out the same space much faster, and I'd be harvesting the same amount much sooner. The only savings is a few seeds, which are not cheap, but neither is my time (which, reincarnationists notwithstanding, I assume I don't get back -- ever). And once I get in the groove I'll be cloning, making the seed cost a non-issue.

As clearly as I can say it: More plants yield a quicker harvest. And the sooner you harvest, the sooner you can start your next grow, which in the end means more weed. Period.

As far as varieties, I purposely grew only one, reasoning that different varieties would grow at different rates, need different amounts of flowering time, etc. And I figured the slower growing ones would be farther from the lights, so grow even slower, get even farther behind, and it would just get worse and worse. Idiot: You raise the smaller plants up on a pile of books or something, so that they're all at the same height. And if they're not ready to harvest at precisely the same time, then you harvest them as they come ready, not such a big deal. (You don't rush any of them, though -- that's a newbie mistake I plan to avoid. I want my weed mellow.) Meanwhile you get more experience by seeing how the different strains react to whatever you're doing, you're less likely to wipe out your whole crop with one bonehead maneuver (some of the strains will probably tough it out), and most importantly (and obviously), you end up with a variety. Which is important so you can figure out what strain or strains you like best, and focus on them in the future.

I'm almost ready to add "Spending all my damn time on the forum instead of paying attention to my plants" as my next Newbie Mistake; in the interest of dodging that one, I'll give it up for now. I'm sure I'll be making more mistakes soon, and will return to fess up when I do.