7 Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me
When I First Started Growing Weed
by Nebula Haze

When I first got started growing weed, I was completely overwhelmed by all the information about growing. 

Everything seemed so complicated.

Do you know what that's like?

After I started growing for real, I realized how easy things can be when you just know what to do.

As time has gone on, I've realized that I worried about a lot of things that weren't very important in the beginning and didn't pay nearly enough attention to the fundamentals.

Back then, I didn't even know what the fundamentals were!

(GrowWeedEasy.com has the basics all laid out right here)

If you want to learn from my mistakes, you'll love today's article, because it breaks down the 7 most important things I wish I'd known about growing weed when I first started.

1. Growing weed doesn't have to be hard.
   
   I think a lot of people want to feel like they accomplished a major feat because they were able to grow weed.
   
   But truthfully, if you just need medicine for personal use, growing can be incredibly easy. If all you're doing is a simple hand-water grow, you'll easily get at least 6-8 ounces of buds off your first plant, even if you make lots of mistakes. 
   
   Each grow after that, you'll learn more and more about what works for you. For many people, just growing 1-2 plants at a time is all they'll ever need to keep a regular medicine supply. 
   
   If you can dedicate a weekend to setting up, ten minutes a day to care, and then a few hours at the end of each grow to drying and curing your buds, that's all you really need to faithfully grow a few pounds of super potent buds each year.
   
   
2. More nutrients does not equal more buds. 
   
   It's tempting to want to give your plants as much "good stuff" as your possibly can.
   
   When I first started growing, the thoughts frantically rushed through my head when choosing nutrients, "Which nutrients are the best?! What supplements do I need to use so I get great yields?"
   
   But I've realized that as long as you're giving your cannabis the basic nutrients it needs to grow, you really don't need to know a lot about nutrients, especially in your first grow.
   
   The most important lesson though is that LESS IS MORE. Unfortunately though, there's no one perfect formula for growing because each strain and plant is different.
   
   You'll get great results with a wide variety of nutrients. I use General Hydronics nutrients and get great results with my plants, which lately has been a lot of Northern Lights.. 

5. The strain makes a HUGE difference of your results.

It's often worth it to get the particular strains that best fit your needs (that being said, some of the most awesome buds I've ever grown have been bagseed). 

If you buy a seed of "Northern Lights" strain, it will grow very similarly to pretty much every other true "Northern Lights" seed. 

They tend to grow fast, ready to harvest only 2-3 months after the beginning of the flowering stage. It's consistent because this strain has been refined and perfected over several years. 

However, Northern Lights seeds will grow WILDLY different from a Super Lemon Haze seed, for example. 

Haze seeds grow long and leggy, and take several months to mature before they're ready for harvest. 

When you're starting out, if you have a lot of room to grow and if it's not what you're banking your whole grow on, bagseed can be a fun experiment. 

But if you're very serious about growing and getting a good crop, or if you have very limited space and time constraints, I highly recommend investing in a proven strain (honestly Northern Lights is one of the best strains for beginners, and will give you POTENT buds)

6. For truly killer buds, wait until the right time to harvest your weed, and take the time to properly dry and cure them. 

After months of waiting, it's easy to jump the gun and harvest your plants too early. It's also easy to get caught up with life and neglect your newly harvested buds during the curing process.

I've created a complete guide to harvesting, drying and curing your weed but here's the long and short of it: 

Wait until the buds on your plants stop growing new white "hairs" (pistols). At this point you still have 2-4 weeks left. When 90% of the remaining pistols have darkened and started curling in, your buds should be fat and ready for harvest.

7. Just because someone says something is true in the grow forums, it doesn't means that they actually know what they're talking about. 

I remember hearing some people say "Oh you can't do this, or if you do that it will kill your plants." 

And they were DEAD WRONG. 

So take things said in the forums with a grain of salt. 

It's also true that some of the best growers are hiding out in the forums, if you just know how to find them. 

The key is being about how to spot a good grower. 

Here are a few tips: they have lots of pictures and lots of activity on their profile, they are relatively nice to people, their pictures go back a long time, they have pictures of their dried and curing buds.

~~~

I hope that helps you as much as it would have helped me when I started growing!

So today, take a moment to check your grow and make sure you're not making any common grow mistakes outlined above. 

Definitely reply to this email and share the biggest lesson YOU'VE learned since you started growing..

If you haven't started your grow, today is the day! This cheat sheet will help. 

Pat yourself on the back, you now know more than 90% of new growers. 

About Nebula

Nebula founded GrowWeedEasy.com in 2010 after growing her own medical marijuana for 6 years in the California Bay Area. She has published dozens of growing articles in print and online and is dedicated to showing others how easy it is to grow marijuana.