What are common mistakes made by first time growers?

[BILBUS]

Over Doing is what I was doing> But do to your advise my system has cleaned up and growth is back to 2 to 3 inches per 2 days> Great info

[Joe Coffee]

My first growing experience I have learned 3 key facts.
1. The plants are light hogs and will get sick if they don't get tremendous amounts of light
2. Stay away from large amounts of potting soil that has peat in it. (throws the ph off)
3. mix some lime in the water to sweeten the soil.
:)

[Parallax view]

Great information. This is my first post here. I live in Honolulu so the growing conditions are almost perfect outdoors. I am a "tinkerer" grower, being, I have have grown before, but just less than good. Frankly, I didn't know squat about growing, just the other part for 40 yrs. ;-)

A friend of mine sent me 6 seeds from his Home in Texas, I would assume it is a Mexican strain, however, only two survived the trip, of those two, only one germinated into a luscious and lucky female. So I have one outstanding specimen, luckily, my abode is on a cliff so no curious neighbors... ;-)

Through luck, intuition, and reading, I have brought her to bloom and she is heavy with bud, most pistils are now about 30% amber, so it's got a few weeks to go.

I hear about 'water flushing" at about two weeks from Harvest, what does this do? Also I discovered some mites on my plant within the last week, turning the lower leaves rusty and apparently sucked on, I sprayed it with a 20/80 soap and water solution which seems to have controlled the pests and not done any damage to the buds.

Since this will be mine all mine, I don't want any chemicals applied. Also I have only used trace amounts of fertilizer, Bone meal, and light liquid fert applied in minute amounts, it seems to have been the thing to do as I have no fert burn or overgrowth.

All stems are now heavy with formed bud, classical popsicle shape, lots of pistil and through my jewelers loupe, I see lots and lots of "Trichomes", I believe they are called, on all of the smaller tight leaves that will stay so she's the real deal.

Is there anything else I need to know about an approximately 90 day old plant? I am in no way sophisticated enough to know growth cycles, too dumb to have actually plotted the planting date and know virtually nothing else as to what to do.

All in all, I am impressed with it's growth and it should be fine,but I don't want to ruin it at the last moment out of ignorance, any help as they say, Mahalo Nui Loa!!!

[BILBUS]

Im the exact Grower you Explained over analizing whether to water ,fertilize , top , So after this I will chill and let them do the growin and I will just help not Demand>Now Vipers Nest definetly Rocks on guru info also>>Thanks to you all

[CannabisAk-47]

Thanks...

[marcoochie10]

sweet post thanks alot. first time grower going to start with 1 indoor plant and see how it goes for me

[Joe Coffee]

I have been told from a friend that Tomato Plant fertilizer works really well...
Anybody have any thoughts on that?

[Screwnuts33]

Great post. Gathering gear for my first grow. In the mean time I am leaning all I can.

I will be using a 4'x8' Growlab tent with 2/ea 600 watt HPS lights above and 2/ea 4-bulb 4ft T5's on the sides. My goal is to have about 12 plants in 5-gallon buckets make it to flower. I will be using seeds from one of the site sponsors and growing 2-3 different strains. I am very excited to get started.

[guest420]

hey Parallax view. take a look at this link:
How to Grow Marijuana - Everything You Need to Know!
it will tell you, literally, everything you need to know. your specific question about trichomes is answered here:
What are Trichomes? Trichome 101
your other question about flushing is here:
A critical look at preharvest flushing
the first link is truly amazing and i wish i had found it BEFORE i started a grow, but have spent many hours browsing it, answering all sorts of questions i had.

[main1]

Great Advice.. thanks alot it really helped !

[Firestone]

Originally Posted by ghostbud

the colour of the resin on the thrycs can depend on the strain of plant not all strains turn amber, the way i judge when to harvest is to wait until most of the calyxs have swollen and most of the fused style and stigma(pistils) have turned colour. But depending on what sort of stone you are after also dictates your harvest time if you want a buzzy energetic stone harvest early when most of the pistils are still white and the calyxs are just swelling as the resin has more of the thc precursor acids that give you a heady buzz for a more intense body effect harvest the way i first suggested as there is more thc and more cbd acid(i think its cbd need to swot up on that again)which give you a fuller more intense stone.

You're a man after my own heart,Ghostbud,I thought that picking for the high trick was mine. lol.

I've been known to go out to the patch mid-afternoon,pick a fresh bud,sticking it the old wooden bowl and firing it up to get that ultra-trippy THC buzz.

[dgh420]

Biggest mistake that I see here from mates in OZ is overwatering, and trying to get a plant to grow in to small an area (small cupboard 1000watt light!). Ah well, we all make mistakes!!

[stonedinla]

Thanks for the tips and the usefull links

[mello redneck]

hello,new one here.a friend gave me a old, really old grow light ,a Prometheus brand.there is no markings on the bulb other than 2 letters(i don't remember them) and a real small square.the bulb is 8"-9" inches long and i can't bring my middle finger to thumb around it.it is frosted white amd looks heavy duty inside.the threads are standard size. i have 2 "kids" growing now and doing ok.,just ok.this grow light is like a big shop light with a huge bell reflector and NO ballast. i rewired it when i got it.just hard wired. i turned the light off the other day and when i went to plug it back in the light didn't light up.oh no.but after it cooled off it started again and i haven't turned it off since.i am in the grow cycle.and can't spell. my main question is what does ballast do and are they always needed?could i be using a hps or a mh without ballest? anyway this sight is great. thanks,todd God Bless America

[ganjapapa]

what is the correct medium to start your seeds in?