My newbie mistake -- Lesson learned

Whats up everybody. Thought some of you all might be interested

Story: I posted about a week ago about how disappointed I was in a sample of an early clipping. I tried the toaster over quick dry method. Placing the fresh clipped bud on a tray and placing it on TOP of the toaster oven flipping every 10 min until dry. The sample not only tasted like shit, it was harsh, and the high was very mild and lasted all of about 15 minutes.

I decided to wait one more week, shut off the lights for 30hrs, then harvest. The buds are drying now and are becoming more dense and are getting noticeably more sticky. I cut off a sample of a fairly dry bud. I could still bend the stem but I heard some crackling so I know its getting close to being able to snap. The bud its self was a little wetter than desired but I couldn't resist.

Smoke report: Tastes like weed, Smoke is smooth, and after three hits am at my desired level of highness haha. I expect these results to only get better after a few more days of drying then onto its curing.

Lesson learned: Patience. This was my first grow and it was a crazy ride. I made a few mistakes and learned from them but now I have my own chronic weed. Its not much (I'm guessing it'll be around a half). I got a little anxious about 1 1/2 weeks ago and clipped a larger sample than I should have and I might as well have thrown it in the garbage because it was shitty. I learned that waiting that extra 1-2 weeks is well worth the wait. I have about 3-4 more drying days then off to cure. However, I do plan to enjoy some of my herb before the cure.

If the taste is tolerable and gets you high SMOKE up

Wish I could get some quality pics up to show but my piece of shit camera is worthless.

My mistakes were many and the largest lesson learned is that for your first grow, don't set your expectations too high; expect the worst and hope for the best.

- Lack of preparation and in depth research of the entire plant life cycle.

- Started too many at once and had to keep killing off plants due to overcrowding; development was impacted by overcrowding and this was compounded by the next mistake in my list.

- Poor lighting which contributed to plant stretch and extended vegetation time.

- Did not have an oscillating fan blowing on all of them during the vegetation cycle resulting in thin stems on many; this ultimately led to at least one beautiful plants main stem breaking from bud weight (I am happy to report that I was able to save it by tying it to a stake and taping the break; this also worked on a number of branches that were broken by a falling light).

- Spent waaaay too long in the vegetation stage. (This did however save me later on when other issues were encountered; the plants being so mature, were able to withstand more stress.)

- Did not invest in the proper PH testing equipment until the end.

- Poor quality nutrients; all though I did start out with a safe soil less grow medium; comprised of only Peat, Vermiculite, Per-lite and lime, I used "off the shelf" nutes that worked, but you get what you pay for.

- Did not take into consideration the growth method employed; that is, in respect to the required amount of maintenance to the number of plants. Flushing 5 gallon buckets at a 3:1 ratio is a bitch when you have to filll gallon jugs and let them sit out 24 hours. Testing the PH on the run off was also a hassle due to the pot size.

- I did not keep a journal; sounds silly at first, but number your plants and keep track of issues, watering, nutrients, etc., is well worth the few minutes of extra time it takes to jot things down. Use common sense and be stealthy about it. For example, I use encryption technology to store these files inside encrypted volumes, that are tucked inside or nested inside additional encrypted volumes on my hard drive and use multi-pass free space cleaning techniques along with other clean up methods.


Summation:

Research, Research, Research.
Budget
Plan
Follow the plan

Cincinnati11 said:

Whats up everybody. Thought some of you all might be interested

Story: I posted about a week ago about how disappointed I was in a sample of an early clipping. I tried the toaster over quick dry method. Placing the fresh clipped bud on a tray and placing it on TOP of the toaster oven flipping every 10 min until dry. The sample not only tasted like shit, it was harsh, and the high was very mild and lasted all of about 15 minutes.

I decided to wait one more week, shut off the lights for 30hrs, then harvest. The buds are drying now and are becoming more dense and are getting noticeably more sticky. I cut off a sample of a fairly dry bud. I could still bend the stem but I heard some crackling so I know its getting close to being able to snap. The bud its self was a little wetter than desired but I couldn't resist.

Smoke report: Tastes like weed, Smoke is smooth, and after three hits am at my desired level of highness haha. I expect these results to only get better after a few more days of drying then onto its curing.

Lesson learned: Patience. This was my first grow and it was a crazy ride. I made a few mistakes and learned from them but now I have my own chronic weed. Its not much (I'm guessing it'll be around a half). I got a little anxious about 1 1/2 weeks ago and clipped a larger sample than I should have and I might as well have thrown it in the garbage because it was shitty. I learned that waiting that extra 1-2 weeks is well worth the wait. I have about 3-4 more drying days then off to cure. However, I do plan to enjoy some of my herb before the cure.

Click to expand...

Hey Cincinnati11, I didn't notice you mentioning if you flushed and cut your nutes (straight water thereafter) 2 weeks before harvest; skipping that step can make for some harsh stuff.