for you new growers ready to throw in the towel

Ok, so I've had a few outdoor grows, but never really yielded any thing too crazy. I knew very little about nutrients and mostly just watered my plants outside in their ff soil. One day a friend and I decided that instead of paying the clinic $50 a week, we would grow our own indoor bud and save hundreds a month. We went to a local hydro store and talked with the owner/cashier and he told us we could achieve two ounces per plant (9 plants) with a 600w in a 4x4 space growing in coco and airpots. $300 later we bought everything he said we needed. No grow tent though, something I still want to add... Well, to sum up the first indoor grow it cost me $300 in electricity on top of nearly $100 worth of jugs of a specific water throughout the grow (invest in a good watering system you'll save so much time and money), and 15 weeks of daily waterings. We only got an ounce per plant due to multiple newbie indoor growing mistakes. It happens, and learning from it is worth more than any nutrient. $700 for 9 ounces of mid shelf flowers was pretty discouraging, but I decided to buy out my partner on his half of the equipment and leftover nutrient.
Despite being in the negative after almost 4 months of time and effort I decided to push through and start another grow with the knowledge I obtained from the previous grow. Here I am with three less plants at the end of the second week of flower, and my plants are trimmed down to 6-7 main colas and still taking up the canopy space with lush growth three weeks ahead of the last grow. This is with vegging three weeks less as well. I have about six weeks to go but with the way things are looking this grow will yield even more, and higher quality than the one before. Don't be discouraged by a bad first grow and sell all your equipment on craigslist to cut even. These are living things and to raise them properly takes time and effort. Just my thoughts on the subject.

For anyone interested I used the three part cns17 nutrient line along with molasses and Epsom salt only.

Nice words of encouragement!

If it was easy to grow, no one would pay hundreds of dollars an ounce for it now, would they?

Consistent environment is essential. Plant food is drastically hyped to noobs; the truth is that fucking Miracle Grow is sufficient. Don't waste any more money on hydro store nutes.

Sounds like the growing bug bit you but good- good luck!

I've been growing for about 2 years, and my first harvest of 2 plants was less than an ounce total. Considering that before growing pot I was known to kill silk flowers as I had a very black thumb.

As you are learning, not all good information comes from a grow-shop. Depending on the person behind the counter, you can learn a lot....or you can spend a lot.

I would like to give some good advice as I'm now averaging 4-5 ounces per plant consistently, and have had 1/2 lb plants in the past.

First.....you don't have to pay $100's for nutrients. I grow 8-10 plants at any given time and my nutrient bill is $10.......for three months. If you're growing in soil (something I recommend for new growers) go to your local nursery and get your hands on "Jacks Classic". Jacks has many different NPK's and I suggest either 20-20-20 or 20-10-30 for your entire grow. It comes with a measuring cup, and just put 1/2 tspn in a gal of water and you're good to go. It's so easy you'll feel like you're cheating.

Second, I really like Happy Frog soil. It's the only thing I actually buy at a grow store. It's consistent, and does what I ask of it......to grow my plants healthy.

Third, if you're new to growing.....Keep it simple. Don't try all the (often wrong) growing techniques adorning all these threads. Let your first try grow naturally to see how a plant grows without manipulation. Stay away from defoliating, monster cropping, super cropping, and all the other stuff that's on here. That's something you can try down the road.

Forth and probably the hardest thing to do on your first grow.....don't over-love your plants. Almost every new grower over-waters, over-feeds, and burns their plants on lights that are too close.

Fifth, find a mentor on these pages. A good one will have grown for at least a year or more and has pictures of some amazing plants. There's just too many opinions of how to grow weed and often they conflict and you'll get what I call information overload. I did just that and my yields went from 1.5 ounces per plant to 5+ in a very short time.

Good post, I was an outdoor grower for many years and came indoor thinking whatever, I'm an expert this should be easy - lmao Indoor is a completely different game. But persistence, a love for growing and some investment in building a good environment and decent equipment paid off. 1st indoor grow from a DIY cabinet I used for vegging and flowering, 3 plants (1 made it - lol) was harvested in July of 2013 and yielded 1 1/2 zips (5 months of f'ups!). My most recent harvest was a single Blue Dream which yielded 7 zips, below is a camshot view of my op as of yesterday. YOU CAN DO IT!

Don't trust hydro store employee. Most of them are clueless. I had to restock my Dolomite Lime & Jack's Classic fertilizer so I went to 3 different hydro store and dealt with many different idiots. All these employee had no idea what either of the 2 were, nor have they even heard of it. All the employees from one shop kept pushing the entire Advanced Nutrients line on me. The other shop kept pushing Fox Farm nutrients and the most expensive bottle of CalMag. Funny thing is, even though they had no idea what it is, they insists that I didn't need the lime or Jack's and that bottled nutrients will take care of everything. Fed up and tired of their sales pitch, I told them to fuck themselves and came back home and ordered online.

GroErr said:

Good post, I was an outdoor grower for many years and came indoor thinking whatever, I'm an expert this should be easy - lmao Indoor is a completely different game. But persistence, a love for growing and some investment in building a good environment and decent equipment paid off. 1st indoor grow from a DIY cabinet I used for vegging and flowering, 3 plants (1 made it - lol) was harvested in July of 2013 and yielded 1 1/2 zips (5 months of f'ups!). My most recent harvest was a single Blue Dream which yielded 7 zips, below is a camshot view of my op as of yesterday. YOU CAN DO IT!
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Very true. I too, was a veteran outdoor grower and thought it was going to be a cake walk growing indoor. My first time doing indoor back in 2002, I had temp swings like crazy, humidity issues, soggy soil, too much airflow, too little airflow, grow room design flaws, you name it, that probably happened to me. Hahaha. A completely different game indeed. As time progress, I got it locked down. I just think it's a lot easier to stabilize the environment when growing indoors in the fall/winter/spring, rather than growing indoor during the summer.

Great post, its always refreshing to see encouraging words around here.
Some advice I would give to beginngers is:

**Start small, dont buy expensive seeds or huge expensive systems your first time around. You're bound to make mistakes and kill some plants/get a shitty harvest. Better that initial investment be $100-200 vs $500 and up.


I started out in a rubbermaid with CFLs and KC brains lol. Now im running a NFT/Drain to waste/RDWC contraption with some pretty costly little beans.

Baby steps and patience is all you need

6ixtynin9 said:

Very true. I too, was a veteran outdoor grower and thought it was going to be a cake walk growing indoor. My first time doing indoor back in 2002, I had temp swings like crazy, humidity issues, soggy soil, too much airflow, too little airflow, grow room design flaws, you name it, that probably happened to me. Hahaha. A completely different game indeed. As time progress, I got it locked down. I just think it's a lot easier to stabilize the environment when growing indoors in the fall/winter/spring, rather than growing indoor during the summer.

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Yeah, that was my first go, no idea how to control the environment and little things like not securing a fan properly and dropping it on the plants, my first unintentional super-crop - lol Good thing these plants can take some abuse. I spent 4 months and a couple of bucks on my flower room last year, it has HVAC from the house, tied into the the air in summer and heating in winter, keeps temps steady year round. Still do some outdoor, just a couple of plants now though, we have a short summer/grow season so year round indoor is nice to have

Keep it simple and keep it positive. Ya, you might have a 3 oz yield your first run, but that's 3 more oz than what you started with right? Get to know ppl at the hydro shop before asking for their opinion. I have seen some really smart guys in the shops. And some really dumb ( well not dumb just uneducated I guess) guys that had never grown a plan in their life. Don't buy into all the products in any line. You don't need all of it. Base nutes, PK boost and some b vitimans. What brand is your choice.

This site by far was the most valuable grow tool in my opinion. There are people with decades of experience who passed their knowledge onto others with decades of experience since that... you can save yourself years of growing by reading everything you can find on here.

Dont but into the nutrient boosters. I use gh 3 part and cal mag here and there and that's it!!

Like bulimic said this site has been a great tool.im on my 3rd grow.1st grow chopped plants weeks early .2nd grow chopped better time not best.this grow deff see what ppl ment by pistils retract into bud and get bronze.been really patient this one

yes I also have learned a lot from this site and youtube videos are good also. this year is my first indoor and I'm biting my nails, I don't believe that I have enough air circulation in my tent, my plants seem to enjoy the environment but i guess I'm just nervous. but I learned that experience is the best learning tool................................. with help from this site also of course!

New to growing?

Spend hours upon hours reading stickies, they are stickies for a reason, from there move to grow journals and find grows that are consistent and make you say WOW.

From there, decide how "YOU" wanna grow, hydro, soil, soil less etc and get what you need to get started. Set it all up and grow a tomato. While your tomato is growing Google "Al Tapla" and read everything you can find, He is a regular gardening guru and what you'll learn from reading his stuff is priceless !!!

Cannabis is not magical nor is it mystical, it is a plant and 100's of years of Botany Science applies to it like any other plant!!!

Now that you have home grown yummy tomato's find a grower that is killin it and follow em, do what they do and ask em questions. Most importantly, keep an open mind, don't get stuck in the myths or nonsense, learn to tell the difference. Get 3 good grows under your belt, knowing that a good grow is one that went to the end without hassle or difficulty. At this point yield does not matter, you simply need to finish and once you have "finished" 3 good grows start experimenting till you find what works best for "YOU" !!!

Over the years, I have taught a lot of folks how to grow this plant and there is a lot of joy in doing that. Once you have it down, pay it forward and teach others IMO the more folks growin this plant, the better the world will be