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here: Issue #257 - Sunday, March 19, 2017 Dear Fellow Grower, In today's issue... - What makes the those first few grows seem so tough? After this issue...nothing!
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Nebula Haze & Sirius Fourside (founders of GrowWeedEasy.com) "In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the expert's mind there are few."
~Shunryu
Suzuki
Why the First Few Grows Can Seem So Tough... by Sirius Fourside |
I’m not ashamed to admit that my first few grows ended in complete and utter failure. I had some bad information, and I combined that bad information with some over-priced products and a dash of over-zealousness. Each of those times, I ended up with plants that never got the chance to make even tiny buds I could actually
harvest!
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After some time and practice, I can now grow more better-than-medical-dispensary bud than I can use while expending a minimal amount of effort. But I’m not special!
I’m no artist, prodigy, phenom or anything even remotely close to those things! I just learned to fix a few mistakes that were holding me back as a grower, and today I’m going to go through some of those common setbacks and make sure they don’t…well, set you back!
Is it possible to love something too much? I’d say Nebula might love cats too much. A baker once told me I love desserts too much (he was right). And we’ve all known at least one overprotective mom who loved her child too
much. Loving something too much isn’t really a problem, it’s the extraneous attention we give as a result of that love.
When it comes to growing cannabis, that extra love can mean that growers check on their plants more often than needed. While there’s nothing wrong with checking on your plants often (that's actually a good thing!), these extraneous check-ins often mean the growers is going to do something to the plants. A poke here, a trim
there, maybe a little water…
The fact is, plants spend a lot of time not doing much. Or rather, they spend a lot of time doing things very slowly. This means that there will be long periods (sometimes days) where there isn’t much (if anything) for the grower to do.
Unfortunately, there isn’t a trick to beating the waiting game. Just treat these times like the perfect opportunity to
practice patience, because the flowering stage requires a lot much of it! Is My Plant Really Thirsty? The best instructions are the kind that are specific. Well made, specific instructions can teach a totally untrained person to do a specialized and/or complicated task. The bane of
good instructions is telling the user to make a judgement call. If they’re untrained, their judgement call might just be a wild guess!
Unfortunately, plant watering requires many judgement calls. How often do I water? How much do I water? Am I watering too much?
It would be nice to be able to tell
growers, “Give your plants exacts .5 gallons of water every Monday and Thursday until harvest”. But there are too many variables (strain, pot size, plant size, growing medium, temperature, humidity, etc.) to be able to make such a statement. Luckily, watering is a breeze after a couple of attempts, and here are some guidelines to make it even easier.
Note: Make sure your pot/container has
proper drainage. This means excess water should be able to freely escape the bottom of the pot.
How to Water Cannabis Plants
- Wait to water your plants until the top inch of your medium feels dry (or the pot feels light).
- When
watering with extra nutrients in your water, make sure that 10-20% of the water comes out the bottom of your container. This helps prevent pH problems and excess nutrient buildup amongst other things. If growing in plain soil with no added nutrients in the water, try to give enough water that you just barely get a tiny bit of runoff (so you're not accidentally washing away all the nutrients in your soil).
- Go back to Step
1.
There are plenty of ways to deliver light to your plant. Some are lucky enough get their light straight from the biggest light for Earth: the Sun.
Us indoor growers have to navigate the hotly debated and often confusing world of indoor grow lights. Every side claims to be the best for one reason or another: CFL users say their bulb is stealthy and low cost, LED lovers say their
lights are the future, and those in the HPS camp say no light will take their crown! And that’s not even mentioning the others like T5s, CEDs etc.
The fact is, most types of grow lights will work great under the right circumstances. If you’re somewhat new to growing indoors and are having a hard time deciding on a type of grow light, here’s what I would
recommend:
Small stealthy grows, PC grows, file cabinet grows, or just trying to get a feel for the process - T5s if you have the space for them, CFLs if you don’t (or to supplement the T5s)
- As long as you have at least 4' of height, you can often use a small LED even in a very tight space
A small grow tent (2' x 4’ or 3' x 3'), regular closet or something similar - T5s will work well in this scenario
- A 250w or 400W HPS or a 315 LEC would be tough to beat in a small space like this
- Relatively lower powered LEDs (between 120-400w) will work in this case, as well!
Larger grow tent (4’ x 4’ or bigger), walk-in closet or something similar - One or several higher powered LEDs (400w+) would excel in this area.
- A 600w or 1000W HPS is the golden standard for this type of grow... for now
Huge grow areas like a garage, shed or an entire room - Multiple 1000w HPS lights are the standard for big indoor grow operations
- The sun; the price can't be beat if you can get sunlight to your plants!
Bad Seeds = Confidence
Killer Growing with bad marijuana seeds is particularly harsh on growers of all levels.
This is
mostly because it’s tough to pinpoint when the seed itself is the actual problem. Most growers will blame themselves for a problem that shows up in their grow long before they assume it’s the seeds.
The term ‘bad seeds’ refers to any type of seed that has a significantly higher likelihood of causing problems in a grow. Most notably, this includes:
Bag Seeds
- Bag seeds you randomly find in your buds aren't supposed to be there, so that means that the genetics are a toss-up. Even if the seeds started with good parents, there’s no telling how high or (more likely) low the quality will be. Unfortunately, the only way to
find out is to grow it… Some growers win the genetic lottery, but many others lose out.
Beat-up Seeds
- These are seeds you might get from a friend, or maybe you have them stashed somewhere and forgot how you got them. In either case, if the shell of the seed looks beat-up, it may not
germinate as well or quickly as seeds that were stored in good conditions.
Old Seeds
- Seeds are a little nugget of genetic material than can hopefully grow into a plant. And like all other genetic material, it doesn’t last forever! Although seeds can be viable for quite a few years
after they’re made, the chances of them successfully germinating goes down with time.
Check out the picture below. We planted all the plants at the same time. The tub on the right has seeds that were planted within a week of receiving them in the mail. The tub on the left has a very popular strain with award-winning genetics... but the seeds were more than 6 years old from when we first bought
them. Even though they were all put into the tank at the same time, the seeds on the left got outpaced by algae! Sometimes It's Random! - Even if you're starting with the best, most fresh seed stock, occasionally you'll get an individual seed or
plant that just doesn't grow as well or quickly as the others. That's totally normal! It's always a good idea to sprout at least a few more seeds than you need in case you happen to run into a runt! If all your plants are healthy and growing fast except one, you can blame the seed!
Plant Food Should Be Easy, Right? The world of cannabis
nutrients is the one of those niches within the cannabis industry with hundreds and hundreds of companies vying for your money. Why?
There are two main reasons:
- Nutrients don’t cost much to make, but they tend to sell for higher prices.
- Cannabis plants have simple requirements, so it isn’t difficult to make nutrients that satisfy those requirements.
In short, this means that even a no-name company with little-to-no experience can make nutrients that work as well as high-priced nutrients. This lower barrier of entry combined with high
profits makes for a lot of competing companies who all essentially do the same thing.
Unfortunately for newer growers, it means they have to wade through a bunch of products to find something that does the job.
If you’re in this spot, allow me to narrow down your choices to a few proven companies that
work great for growing cannabis!
Trying Advanced Techniques Too Soon There are some growing techniques that
growers can try right out on their first grow if they’re feeling adventurous enough. There are simple plant training techniques (such as FIM’ing and low-stress
training) are easy, have low time requirements and are low risk. This means that even brand new growers can try them out without much consequence if it doesn’t go perfectly.
On the other hand, there are techniques like Manifolding, ScrOG and defoliation. These techniques can be tough to do, they carry a higher risk for your plants, and they can add days or weeks to your total grow time without offering any benefits if done the wrong way.
Especially never try any new techniques if your plant is sick! Although each of these techniques can pay for itself in the right conditions, they should only be employed when the grower knows those conditions and the technique doesn’t become a burden on
them.
For example, a grower could start a ScrOG setup and end up having to spend additional hours (yes, plural) each week making sure the ScrOG net is being utilized correctly. Meanwhile, a grower could be using a much simpler setup to grow much more bud than he or she can use.
In short, keep it simple
until you know you’re ready for something more advanced.
Getting set
up is basically a larger version of the problem new growers face when buying lights. There is a lot of money to be made in selling growing equipment, especially since cannabis cultivation isn’t fully mainstream and the prices of said equipment are still inflated.
This (again) means that you have a way too many choices and way too many decisions to make when it comes to getting your equipment. Luckily,
one of our greatest strengths as humans makes for a simple solution to this issue: our sociability!
What kind of grow setup should you get?
If you’re thinking about buying a particular product, make sure to look into it before you buy. Reviews will give you insights into products that you normally have to purchase them to find out. I’ve also
learned a great deal of valuable information from the people who work at my local hydroponic stores. In fact, my current setup is almost entirely comprised of suggestions from knowledgeable growers in my hydro stores. They saved me the time of trying out products that could have potentially disappointed me, and instead helped me get gear so good I can’t leave it behind!
What were some mistakes you made (or are still making) as a new grower? What information would you impart on new growers to help save them some time and make their grows go better? Did I miss a big
one? Reply to this email and let us know!
Now the First Few Grows Can Seem So Easy! |
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I love efficiency almost as much as I love dessert. Here's the gist of this wordy newsletter so the points don't get lost along the way!
- Too Much Love - Give your plants a little space and learn patience as a result!
- When to Water - Wait until the top of the medium is dry up to your first knuckle, and water until you see at least a little runoff come out the bottom. If you're growing with extra nutrients in the water, give water until you get up to 10-20% runoff.
- How much Light? - T5s/CFLs for super small grows, about 250-400w of HPS, LEC or LED for small tents, about 600w for larger tents, and 1000w+ HPS or the sun for large areas.
- Bad seeds = Bad times - We're HUGE proponents of starting with good seeds. Don't start a grow
off the wrong way, get good fresh seeds!
- Which Nutrients? - In short, pick a low cost,
reputable nutrient line. Fox Farms, General Hydroponics and Botanicare are great companies, as well as many others.
- Keep It Simple to Start - Start with the basics, then move on to advanced techniques.
- Getting Set Up - Don't start from scratch when people have already done it for you! Ask someone, read an article, forum, or our site!
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Subject: Praise
Hi there! Just felt the need to let you guys know what a huge help this site has been. I was frustrated by some other sites not really putting it all together or not mentioning LEDs at all. I do my research and thought I was
prepared. NOW I'm prepared. Truly appreciate the love and attention you pay to your plants and your site. Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us.
Regards
Eva
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Trophy Pictures of the Week! |
G'day everyone, This is outdoor down under(Australia). Seeds were given to me but I don't know the strain!
Skunk
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Who Runs This
Newsletter? |
Nebula Haze:
I'll be honest with you, when I first started growing, I struggled. Now, it is my mission to
make it easier for new growers to get started as well as help advanced growers get bigger, better yields with less time and money. We are updating and adding articles every single week and our goal is to eventually build a comprehensive growing resource so anyone and everyone can grow if they want to! If we all share the knowledge there's more buds in the world for everyone :) |
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Learn which seed sources are personally recommended by Nebula Haze |
Sirius Fourside:
Sirius Fourside is a hobbyist grower who has gained the bulk of his experience growing in water as a medium (deep water culture, bubbleponics).
"Growing cannabis can be a relaxing hobby in and of itself, but it also saves you money and keeps you from having to deal with shady characters. Cannabis is much easier to grow than people give it credit for, and growing in water
doesn't increase the difficulty much, if any. But whether you want to grow in water, coco, or a different medium, we'll show you how easy it can be!"
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Disclaimer: Grow Weed Easy only recommends products that we've either personally checked out ourselves, or that come from people we know and trust. For doing so, we may receive a commission. Nothing in this e-mail should be considered personalized Financial, Legal, or Medical Advice. The contributors to this magazine grow legally under their local laws but are not lawyers or medical professionals. Any decision to grow marijuana should only be made after consulting with an
experienced lawyer or other legal adviser. Any medical decisions should only be made after speaking with a doctor or other medical professional. Be safe!
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