Sanity Check?

[Berm]

I went through a couple of the grow threads in starkes sig and they were very instructive. I'd misunderstood a couple things you'd said, but actually seeing the process cleared things up quite a bit! It lines up with the broad strokes of what I'd envisioned trying to do and filled in a lot of detail, so I'll probably lurk through a few more threads and try to mimic as best I can.

Gauss, thanks for the hydroton info. Sounds like a smart addition.

I'm also not a terribly consistent notetaker, Douglas, so I'm glad to know it's not necessary. I've done some research, but it certainly does sound like I've got more reading to do.

Troutman, when you're talking about high salinity
I'm interpreting that as hard water. Am I following you correctly? How high is too high? I'm guessing I'd measure my tap water with an ec meter?

Thanks again, all!

 

[starke]

Whatever your decision, I recommend spending at **least** a few weeks reading relevant threads on here. Once you can easily answer most of your initial questions yourself, jump in and get started.

This is probably best advice presented here so far. I did just the opposite and can tell you that trying to read and research like a mofo to try and save your plants as they are dying is the wrong way to learn.

 

[Leaflet]

There's so much advice I would give to myself if I could go back to the beginning. You will probably read over and over the usual things like - don't under/over water (soil), watch your pH and don't get too greedy with nutrients.
I think one uncommon piece of advice I would go back and tell myself is:
Don't fill your tent the first time around. Just start a few plants. Here is why:
It would be a real shame to start 8 seedlings and have them all die a month in because you messed up the nutrient schedule or let them stretch so much they fell over.
Worse yet, you spend 6 months growing a tent full of beautiful plants and then at the end you harvest too early, harvest too late(that's what I did the first time, being greedy for amber) or screw up the drying process.
Then you get to start over. Instead, maybe start some seeds and then start a few more 2 weeks later. They will be close enough to stay under the same lighting distance and schedule but staggered so you can correct mistakes as you learn from the first set.
Not that you have to take my advice - but I wish I would have been told that my first time.

Slightly related: Now that I have 2 tents (one for veg, one for flower) it's like having a perpetual grow - I just start 2 new plants every 2 months or so.
Of course, with autoflowering plants, you could have both stages going at the same time in a single tent.