LESSON #1- Grow the meds yourself, or if someone is growing for you make sure they have a proven track record
Completed my first med grow with a friend that supposedly knew what he was doing, and just refused to take any advice from anyone. He had 2 prior grows. This was very frustrating as i saw the plants not grow or produce like they probably should have. Hopefully this thread can help others not make the same mistakes that were made this time. This was a co-op med grow for a few patients with one person basically instructing a first time caretaker on how to grow and take care of all the plants with him doing very little work himself, and all the others involved pitching in here and there. Me and a very helpful (non pot smoking i might add) girlfriend being part of the "others".
LESSON #2- Do not let your plants stretch. The quality and quanity of your yield will suffer greatly.
This grow was started in april and just finished now. we started with clones of sour diesel and nancy's (never heard of nancy) in soil. The veg was about 4 weeks, and some plants were 2-3' tall when we started to flower. Flower was 10 weeks and some plants were 5+feet tall (from bucket to top of plant) with some over 6'. Others stayed around 4'. Expect your plants to at least double in height once you induce flower.
Most of the plants that were stretched looked like crap, and were very elongated with very little solid bud. After drying we had (some) tops that were like 6" but then there would be quite a bit of space between that and the next small buds on the branch. So basically it was like bud, stem, small bud, lots of stem another small bud, etc.
LESSON #3- Know the strain you are attempting to grow
I hate sour diesel, or at least this SD. Im not sure if this is the norm but the amount of leaf on this strain is truly remarkable. The amount of trim/manicuring we had to do was insane. This thing had a fair number of large fan leaves and tons of the smaller (fan leaves?) ones that were just all over and in between the actual bud. You really had to dig into these buds to get the other smaller leaf out. When they finished they were very airy, and not dense what so ever. These buds had no weight to them at all. An ounce will easily take up an entire plastic sandwich bag. The trim method we used was to cut them down, pull off the bigger fan leaves and trim while still wet.
The Nancys were the total opposite. These things were super dense with hardly any leaf left to trim after you plucked off the bigger ones. I cant even describe how sticky these were. Your fingers would stick to the branch halfway through. You could trim 5 of these in the time it took to do one SD. The yield looks smaller but the quality is 10x better imo. Id say the SD is averaging 1.5ounce per plant of dry, airy bud. Not sure on the nancys yet. I would never consider growing SD again. The Nancys on the other hand, i would fill a room with. The potential looked very promising.
LESSON #4- Prepare for, and know how to handle all problems that may arise.
We also had quite a few problems as well. First major problem was PM (powder mildew). Quite a few plants had some serious PM issues that we never really could get rid of. My buddy did about 3-4 neem oil sprays and then as a last ditch effort, tried a sulfer burn a couple weeks before harvest. Several plants were lost to PM, and I dont really know what causes it, or how to get rid of it.
The other big problem was white flies. My buddy speculted that this infestation was from the soil we used. He switched to a new kind that was supposed to be better than what he was using before. The brand he used this time around was Roots. Supposedly he had never had a fly problem this big before.
Sticky traps were hung through the room, but many plants were still covered in white flies. Underneath the leaves is where they all would be, covering the backs of the leaves in what looked like tiny white larva. if you shook a plant they would come buzzing off and you would have to shew them away from your face. When we chopped the plants for harvest they had to be shook out before manicuring. A couple were lost to white flies as well, but mostly they were just a nuisance.
One other problem was that some plants (towards the top cola) had alot of borwn, dead leaf. A few others had dead leaf throughout the entire palnt, top to bottom. Now I do know when plants are finishing the tips of leaves will sometimes turn brown and curl up, but this was far beyond that. These leafs were dead, and rotting. My friend was very concerned about botch (which I know little about) so manicuring these was a nightmare because all the dead leaf (he said) needed to be removed.
LESSON #5- Make sure you have sufficient space, time and lighting for your grow
We started in a room that was 12x12, but quickly ran out of space once we switched to 5gal buckets. The caretaker had no room to work at all. Many plants had to be moved on a daily basis just to water. This person had a full time job with a one hour commute and a full room on his hands. Eventually another space was made about 1/2 way through flower because the plants had started to outgrow the grow area and it would have been impossible to keep them all in there. I dont want to say how many we had exactly, but it was under 100.
I really dont think we had enough light for the size of the room either. On top of that, the light disribution was very uneven with almost 40% of the plants on one side of the room recieving only 20% of the direct light. Also, plants of different sizes were grouped together, and all lights were hung at the same height. So, some plants were 4' from the light, some were 1'.
I think about 5200kw total was used for the entire 12x12 room. In my estimation, we needed at least 7k minimum. Im guessing that is why most of the buds were airy and the plants were stretched. If you are new to growing, dont go cheap on the lighting. If you cant afford proper lighting grow fewer plants!!
Before you start a grow make sure you have a good design, or blueprint if you will. The poor layout of the room had to be a factor in many of the problems that we encountered. The space was not utilized well, making the plants very hard to reach and tend to. Simple things like watering and pruning became a major chore with plants having to be moved around like a puzzle so you could get to certain areas. Growing should be an enjoyable experience, and this was about as far from it as you could get. Having the grow located about an hour from me made it a real drag when we had to go out and do some work. Usually they were on days that I already had put in hours at my regular job.
For the most part, with what the caretaker had to work with, everything turned out decent. But looking through some of these other threads I cant help but wonder, what could have been? If its your first time make sure you research and have a good plan before you start, and however many you think you can handle, grow a few less.
Please feel free to comment or add any suggestions/advice. Thanks for reading.
Completed my first med grow with a friend that supposedly knew what he was doing, and just refused to take any advice from anyone. He had 2 prior grows. This was very frustrating as i saw the plants not grow or produce like they probably should have. Hopefully this thread can help others not make the same mistakes that were made this time. This was a co-op med grow for a few patients with one person basically instructing a first time caretaker on how to grow and take care of all the plants with him doing very little work himself, and all the others involved pitching in here and there. Me and a very helpful (non pot smoking i might add) girlfriend being part of the "others".
LESSON #2- Do not let your plants stretch. The quality and quanity of your yield will suffer greatly.
This grow was started in april and just finished now. we started with clones of sour diesel and nancy's (never heard of nancy) in soil. The veg was about 4 weeks, and some plants were 2-3' tall when we started to flower. Flower was 10 weeks and some plants were 5+feet tall (from bucket to top of plant) with some over 6'. Others stayed around 4'. Expect your plants to at least double in height once you induce flower.
Most of the plants that were stretched looked like crap, and were very elongated with very little solid bud. After drying we had (some) tops that were like 6" but then there would be quite a bit of space between that and the next small buds on the branch. So basically it was like bud, stem, small bud, lots of stem another small bud, etc.
LESSON #3- Know the strain you are attempting to grow
I hate sour diesel, or at least this SD. Im not sure if this is the norm but the amount of leaf on this strain is truly remarkable. The amount of trim/manicuring we had to do was insane. This thing had a fair number of large fan leaves and tons of the smaller (fan leaves?) ones that were just all over and in between the actual bud. You really had to dig into these buds to get the other smaller leaf out. When they finished they were very airy, and not dense what so ever. These buds had no weight to them at all. An ounce will easily take up an entire plastic sandwich bag. The trim method we used was to cut them down, pull off the bigger fan leaves and trim while still wet.
The Nancys were the total opposite. These things were super dense with hardly any leaf left to trim after you plucked off the bigger ones. I cant even describe how sticky these were. Your fingers would stick to the branch halfway through. You could trim 5 of these in the time it took to do one SD. The yield looks smaller but the quality is 10x better imo. Id say the SD is averaging 1.5ounce per plant of dry, airy bud. Not sure on the nancys yet. I would never consider growing SD again. The Nancys on the other hand, i would fill a room with. The potential looked very promising.
LESSON #4- Prepare for, and know how to handle all problems that may arise.
We also had quite a few problems as well. First major problem was PM (powder mildew). Quite a few plants had some serious PM issues that we never really could get rid of. My buddy did about 3-4 neem oil sprays and then as a last ditch effort, tried a sulfer burn a couple weeks before harvest. Several plants were lost to PM, and I dont really know what causes it, or how to get rid of it.
The other big problem was white flies. My buddy speculted that this infestation was from the soil we used. He switched to a new kind that was supposed to be better than what he was using before. The brand he used this time around was Roots. Supposedly he had never had a fly problem this big before.
Sticky traps were hung through the room, but many plants were still covered in white flies. Underneath the leaves is where they all would be, covering the backs of the leaves in what looked like tiny white larva. if you shook a plant they would come buzzing off and you would have to shew them away from your face. When we chopped the plants for harvest they had to be shook out before manicuring. A couple were lost to white flies as well, but mostly they were just a nuisance.
One other problem was that some plants (towards the top cola) had alot of borwn, dead leaf. A few others had dead leaf throughout the entire palnt, top to bottom. Now I do know when plants are finishing the tips of leaves will sometimes turn brown and curl up, but this was far beyond that. These leafs were dead, and rotting. My friend was very concerned about botch (which I know little about) so manicuring these was a nightmare because all the dead leaf (he said) needed to be removed.
LESSON #5- Make sure you have sufficient space, time and lighting for your grow
We started in a room that was 12x12, but quickly ran out of space once we switched to 5gal buckets. The caretaker had no room to work at all. Many plants had to be moved on a daily basis just to water. This person had a full time job with a one hour commute and a full room on his hands. Eventually another space was made about 1/2 way through flower because the plants had started to outgrow the grow area and it would have been impossible to keep them all in there. I dont want to say how many we had exactly, but it was under 100.
I really dont think we had enough light for the size of the room either. On top of that, the light disribution was very uneven with almost 40% of the plants on one side of the room recieving only 20% of the direct light. Also, plants of different sizes were grouped together, and all lights were hung at the same height. So, some plants were 4' from the light, some were 1'.
I think about 5200kw total was used for the entire 12x12 room. In my estimation, we needed at least 7k minimum. Im guessing that is why most of the buds were airy and the plants were stretched. If you are new to growing, dont go cheap on the lighting. If you cant afford proper lighting grow fewer plants!!
Before you start a grow make sure you have a good design, or blueprint if you will. The poor layout of the room had to be a factor in many of the problems that we encountered. The space was not utilized well, making the plants very hard to reach and tend to. Simple things like watering and pruning became a major chore with plants having to be moved around like a puzzle so you could get to certain areas. Growing should be an enjoyable experience, and this was about as far from it as you could get. Having the grow located about an hour from me made it a real drag when we had to go out and do some work. Usually they were on days that I already had put in hours at my regular job.
For the most part, with what the caretaker had to work with, everything turned out decent. But looking through some of these other threads I cant help but wonder, what could have been? If its your first time make sure you research and have a good plan before you start, and however many you think you can handle, grow a few less.
Please feel free to comment or add any suggestions/advice. Thanks for reading.
eace::tokie:
