How long before you became a "real" grower?

[FirstTimer10]

I did 4 years of research on OG before I ever started growing. I only did 2 runs which both turned out great before I had to stop due to some personal changes. But I will be starting back up again soon, its been about 6 years since I have done any growing myself, but I have helped other people out in the meantime.

 

[supermanlives]

i was born to grow weed. my life on a farm with greenhouses made it easy for me. pot is just anther plant. 20 yrs +. every time i get it dialed in i get new strains and start at the beginning.

 

[RockyMountainHi]

Killed a lotta plants for several years. Bought a 1000W about 12 years ago.

Killed a few more plants and got a few to harvest.

Been getting better, but I'm still learning.

About the time I think I have been thru all the trials and tribulations - there is a new lesson.

Soon to retire and still going to school.
And not complaining a bit! lol

I have several registered patients that would rather fight than switch caregivers.
And a growing stack on a waiting list.

It took about a year on OG.com and the help of a few kind souls.

 

[StealthyStalks]

You are a "real grower" once you take that first hit from the herb you grew yourself. You will get "realer" with time, experience and open-mindedness.

 

[toohighmf]

There's a buttload of growers. There's only a few GOOD growers...
Some thumbs are greener than others, and some people have more common sense. Good grOwers are consitently pulling down primo. A good grower is hard to find.

 

[OU812]

i'd say as soon as you are smoking some bud you grew yourself then you are a real grower. the main thing that inexperienced people do is kill them with kindness. lights too close, too many ferts, cutting leaves to get light to budsites. one of the best skills to learn is - LEAVE YOUR PLANTS ALONE TO GROW as much as possible.

V.

SO true!! I left mine alone for the most part and just let them be plants. I think they grew in spite of me, and I've now harvested what smells like it's gonna be some dank herb-my first grow.

I may be a "grower," but-I humbly bow to those who have been growing for years who help those of us who are newer, to avoid a lot of the mistakes they've learned from. Folks like that have my respect-and my thanks!

 

[oregon024]

I waited 36 years to get my chance to finally grow.And probably three harvest.Felt like I could grow about anywere now.But like many have said growers like to learn and be challenged.Still know nothing other than soil growing.Peace Oregon024

 

[tomahto]

As you learn your plants and keep getting better and better results, you will get to a point where the returns get more and more marginal. When you can consistently get to this point, I believe then you are a master.

 

[mcmawg]

Been thinkin' about growing off and on for the last 40 years.

Took me about 5 months once I got serious about it.
'Hey, I can do this' light bulb.
Buckets of hours reading up/wading/searching here, figuring out logs, finance and constructing.
Suffering through the trials and tribs of a new venture in uncharted zones.
Warming the dice in my hands that I was about to throw down.

I became a “real” grower at 7:30 P, 31 Jan 2010.
System up, 6 clones in, door shut, MH light on.
Fingers crossed as I strapped into the roller coaster.
(Yes, the gurlz are still alive and throwin' roots!)

I no longer wannabe a grower.
I AM a grower.
How good? Dunno yet.
Dice are rolling; roller coaster has taken off from the platform.

I like roller coasters. They're especially fun while baked.
Here's to a non-expiring E ticket!

 

[sidewing]

u can be classified as a real grower when u pull a crop u like to smoke as personal... i did a lot of OG reading and had massive amounts of knowledge from 2002 on didnt do my first try until 2007... butchered my nodes on failed clone attempts and resulted with a early pull and a small premature yield that looked good but i didnt let it dry long enough so looked crappy but was sticky and smelled decent decent high.. did a single plant outdoor in 2008 that i had to pull a couple weeks early cuz of the smell (smelled in the driveway of the house when it was in the backyard).. that stuff was amazing smoke i loved it.. 3rd attempt was indoor and had good results (minus the mislabeled garbage clones) except had mites.. this was my biggest learning experience, learned how to identify the spider mites, what stage they are in, how to treat them, how to sterilize the area and remove them, and how to prevent them in the future... had to pull the crop at day 50 because mites were overtaking,,, 4th crop is going amazing and see nothing but amazing results.. the only problem is a couple of plants are too tall (had like 12 wks of veg while others had only 2-6..) too much height variation.. so i am mastering topping and understanding how it works and the best way to use it.. this next round im using what ive learned to this point and have all of em uniform in height and keeping em short and bushy.. i expect results this next time to be top top top notch and should be smooth sailing.. i had fungus gnats this last round and looked like the beginning of root aphids.. solved this problem with beneficial nemetodes and lady buds.. also used azamax (neem oil) in the water as a root protectant.. the next major step will be improving drying/curing methods..

i think u are a grower when u decide u are going forward fully with it and finish a crop from beginning to end and have smoke u are happy to keep as personal meds.. other than that its always constant learning. i honestly think OG had the most knowledgable resource availible and i feel fortunate to have a lot of that knowledge i learned there stuck in my head.. i also have some resources i can resort to in real life from experienced growers..

the biggest step i took was realizing less is more, dont get crazy, find a good organic soil, good organic nutes, and run with it.. dont mess with the plants other than to water and to top once during a two month veg to keep the height uniform... spray simply with some sort of neem oil once a week during veg as a protectant and jump up your pot sizes.. i start in small red cups, after a month upgrade to a medium sized pot.. on the switch to 12-12 upgrade to a extra large pot.. have good ventilation (suction fans from the light reflectors and a fan blowing on the plant tops between the tops and lights).. then let em run.. a small fan blowing on the vegging plants strengthens the stems and thickens em so they dont topple over in flowering..

 

[ghostly]

dude... i hit a homerun my first crop... 10 and a half pound on 30 plants and 5600watts.
then i had 2 mediocre runs (2 and 3lb from 6000 watts w/ co2 and all the bells & whistles) before i killed one completely... 6lbs this last run and i thought finally, i got it! 2 weeks into flower, looking perfect and SWAK! massive mite and powdery mildew, I want to cry. I battled both of these foes before and it wasnt anything nice. my mentor is a serious pro and he still hits ruff spots.

moral of the story is, even though were God in the room, we are still fallible. so keep a sharp eye and be vigilante and dont count em til they hatch.

ps... any have ideas for help with my double whammy? I have a sulfer burner to dea with PM but the mites...? my room is huge, and spraying isnt a real great option.

 

[DankSide]

Don't know if it counts but a major 'step' taken was getting a tent. No cabinet I could find had just the right dimensions besides some of those home depot wardrobe cabinets, which are hard to move and hide.

The tent definitely helped out, I didn't have to worry about trying to make my walls as reflective as possible. Could pull about 200 from a non scrogged multi strain run on a 250watt in a tent, very basic soil setup. About to test with smart pots to see if yield will gain.

Would definitely say that a 'real' grower is anyone who can provide enough for themselves (perpetually or not) to smoke without ever having to see a dealer. Then there is the career grower, the one who can produce enough for themselves to sustain decent living with the funds.

 

[xceptional]

i thought i would have less issues then I've had because i like to consider myself pretty smart and very good at learning based on my accomplishments in life. i chalk up most of the issues to lack of patients. its funny this reminds me of mixing audio everyone wants a instruction manual that tells them step by step what to do but like any good mixing engineer tells you every song is different so is every grow/strain. understanding this I'm now dedicating myself to understanding what plants need, how to give it to them and how to speak their language.

taking that kind of commitment i feel as if I'm a real grower even if i haven't had a grow that suffered minimal issues because i knew how to take care of all their needs.

 

[ak-51]

I'm most of my way through my 2nd run. I was happy with the results of my 1st run, but it seriously pales in comparison to what others are doing around here with the same resources that I had at my disposal. I look at it as a success though, since I did make it to the finish line on that one, and seeing how much better other growers are doing just makes me realize what is possible.

How long till I consider myself a grower? Step one is to stop adding to the novel I'm writing, How I Fucked Up. Step two should become clearer once step one is out of the way.

I don't think I'll be looking at total yield to measure my aptitude, since I am in awe of a lot of micro-growers around here that probably have much smaller harvests than me.

One possible goal is for the value of my experience to outweigh the value of the gear that I've accumulated. I'm not there yet

 

[milehighmedical]

.

 

[sidewing]

dude... i hit a homerun my first crop... 10 and a half pound on 30 plants and 5600watts.
then i had 2 mediocre runs (2 and 3lb from 6000 watts w/ co2 and all the bells & whistles) before i killed one completely... 6lbs this last run and i thought finally, i got it! 2 weeks into flower, looking perfect and SWAK! massive mite and powdery mildew, I want to cry. I battled both of these foes before and it wasnt anything nice. my mentor is a serious pro and he still hits ruff spots.

moral of the story is, even though were God in the room, we are still fallible. so keep a sharp eye and be vigilante and dont count em til they hatch.

ps... any have ideas for help with my double whammy? I have a sulfer burner to dea with PM but the mites...? my room is huge, and spraying isnt a real great option.

not much to do with mites.. u can use azamax spray on all vegging plants to prevent it in the future.. best bet is just to order massive amounts of predatory mites.. u can find tons of places on the internet.. pm me for a good source that ive used before.. they will overtake the bad mites within a month max and then eat themselves when there are no spider mites left.. high direct air flow, very high humidity, cold temps.. leaves not touching infected plants... these are all things that can help control them.. predatory mites will eliminate them over time.. best thing to do is wash clean new cuttings and spray weekly with azamax spray and move forward clean..

 

[sidewing]

Well anyone who cracks a seed is a grower. I hear some people throwing the word "pro" around. In my opinion if you make a living off growing, then you're a professional. Even if you fail, and you're homeless... in a way you're still a grower. Because that was your chosen profession. I guess you'd just be an unsuccessful grower. So anyone who grows or has grown is a grower in a way.

Now a respectable grower? Well in my humble opinion, a respectable grower is a grower who has a sense of ethics. But I'm sure most people would disagree with me. I respect growers that help others in their community, that's pretty "real" to me. Haha.

Not to stir up any shit, but growing organically is big part of being an ethical grower. Sacrificing yield for quality, that's respecting your patients or customers, whichever you have. Obviously every other aspect of creating a high quality final product is a part of that as well (not cutting early, patient on the cure, etc.)

Not that I haven't grown with chem nutes before, although I thought at the time they were organic. I was using the full Botanicare line, didn't find out till half way through flowering that they weren't. Oh well, 100% organic now.

well that explains why on the very first one that i pulled early with 1 week max water flush that id get a headache when i smoked it.. oh well.. ive since shy'd away from botanicare and am using 100% biobizz products now.. great results.

 

[MaynardG_Krebs]

I think it would be when you can 'wow' yourself constantly. Also, when you know what to do when something is not quite right without panicking and doing something stupid. It's all in the 'wow' tho.

mgk

 

[one Q]

Ghostly! Killed it there!

VERY first runs, shitty. That was 9 years ago... and I tried to clone LEAVES! haaa

Then got my first "real grow" experience with a 250 and by then I knew what I was doing to the point of BUSTING OUT yields in cramped spaces...

Every time something changes tho. Strain, temps, grow style... still trying to get this narrowed down to the most efficient and yield... getting closer every time.

 

[RockyMountainHi]

,


I'm not there yet, but I am getting closer. First run new room, started 44 and didn't loose any from health issues, several healthy males and some hermi types I chopped early but all were healthy till then! lol

Mr Search at the top of the page is your friend.

If your reading this and having trouble, starting to believe it's just not ment to be,, keep trying!