When Persistence Starts To Payoff

MyGrowTent

New Member
Hi all. New member here and a "new" grower.

I've been trying to grow since I was a kid in high school back in the late '80's / early '90's. We were always planting bag seeds, however, living in the middle of a desert with few places to hide our parents (or someone) always found our gardens before they were successful.

Back in 2016 I bought a 4x4 tent kit and realized 2 things.

1. I can't grow. I have a black thumb. Both times I had 6 plants vegging for over 12 weeks and I still had more floor than canopy. Slow, short and stunted plants is all I can grow.
and
2. It's expensive to grow floor for 20 weeks and walk away with only 4 - 6 oz. total dry.

I became disheartened and packed it all up until recently when I got the bug again and set it all back up in the spare room. Never one to settle for slight disappointment when utter failure is within grasp. I decided I wanted to do a perpetual grow this time so I bought a 2x4 tent kit and a 3x3 tent for drying. I've done two more grows now and again, unsurprisingly, they were short stunted plants.
I change things up a little every cycle looking for that "magic combination of nutes" that'll make my garden explode and I think I might have found it.

I currently just started the last leg of my fifth official grow. We are on day two of week two flower and I can't believe how big we are. I almost have the whole tent full and I still have a week or two of "stretch" so I'm hoping we can fill out the whole thing.

The key? I meticulously measured out all the nutes weekly and perfectly pH'd my water and made sure to water them at least once a day if not more. I made sure I topped them exactly on the 3rd node after growing out 5 nodes. I kept my tent at a perfect temp and humidity...
Well, not any more.

This time I've simplified everything. I threw out the temp and humidifier. I haven't given them any nutes at all, yet. I only water them once a week or every four days depending on how dry they are. When I do water I give them RO water mixed with calmag pH'd between 5.8 and 6.8 every time and every two weeks I also give them Great White microbes and a tiny shot of Myco Chum. I've also started using the dim feature on my light so I'm not blasting them. I'm still only on 50% at week 2 flower. Every 3 weeks I turn it up 25% and will be turning it up in about another week if the plants keep doing good.

What I realized?
It's a weed. It grows in a ditch on the side of the road without any care at all but somehow I was killing it. The only difference had to be the amount of care.

What I've learned? (so far)
Less is More.
Less water, less nutes, "less" light, just less time messing with them and more time staying out of their way letting them do what they do.

FLOWER TENT 4x4: Week 2, day 2
20220613_220740[1].jpg

VEG TENT 2x4: Week 2 Day 3
20220613_220653[1].jpg
 

NotTheRobot

Well-Known Member
What I've learned? (so far)
Less is More.
Less water, less nutes, "less" light, just less time messing with them and more time staying out of their way letting them do what they do.
Your plants are lookin' happy.

If the first pic is the current tent you don't need to worry about filling it if you keep your plants healthy.
 
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PNW 38

Active Member
It's a weed. It grows in a ditch on the side of the road without any care at all but somehow I was killing it. The only difference had to be the amount of care.

What I've learned? (so far)
Less is More.
Less water, less nutes, "less" light, just less time messing with them and more time staying out of their way letting them do what they do.
Spot on. Couldn't agree more.

You CAN do more, but you don't NEED to, and starting out doing more is a recipie for frustration for a new grower imo

Nice looking plants.
 

MyGrowTent

New Member
and starting out doing more is a recipie for frustration for a new grower imo
That's what was killing me. All the advice always seems to be give more of this or that. Not too many people in all these different forums telling new guys having troubles to just leave them alone. I guess that's just not popular, people always need to be doing "something" to fix a problem. How often is the answer to a problem do nothing...
 

Blue brother

Well-Known Member
Living soil could be good for you, I’ve put a lot of people round me onto it. It’s certainly a more gentle approach to fertilising. But my guess is you may have allready ironed out what problems you were having! Well done! Looking good!
 
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