If I wanted to grow a little bit of decent bud there's a million ways to do that, probably the simplest of which is to just spread some bag seed around places people don't usually go and just come back in a few months to see what happened. If it weren't illegal, that kind of gathering nature's bounty would make sense.
But the way things are now it's gotta be kept secret, and that means the faster and the smaller the better. If you half-ass your grow you grow half-ass weed. There ain't nothing wrong with smokin a little ditchweed now and then, but that just ain't me. If I'm gonna grow it myself I'm gonna grow the best I can. I mean hell, the shits illegal to grow so if I'm gonna take the risk I might as well make it worth my while, right?
And dude, magazines don't tell me what to buy - I don't buy magazines for one. For another, I like AN's stuff and I don't think they even run ads in print.
Seriously. If you see a pic of some guy holding a cola the size of your head it's cause he didn't piss around with some el cheapo fert. Sometimes the cheap stuff works out nice but I don't just pay for results, I pay for reliable results. If a wanna roll the dice I'll get the guys together and shoot some craps.