I forgot to add @Skydiver…good luck on your claim. Don’t be shy and spill everything out. Because their job is to deny you…period. I wouldn’t be surprised they get bonuses for all the claims they deny.
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Interesting read, you are going to get some pretty divided attitudes about growing weed. Even I have seen the despicable side. We had a family a couple blocks from here that wanted more grow space so they made their little boy sleep in a closet to plant out his bedroom! I’m sorry but I call serious bullshitery right there! Then we have the guys and gals that grow for a bit if extra cash and of course personal use… not harming anyone. So there’s both camps.
As for what I others thi k about me for growing some weed… don’t really care to be honest.
Backyard growers have a bit different biases to fight. I get a bit tired of some professional growers rattling on how we can’t grow good weed.
Or how our backyard breeding is ‘pollen chucking’.
And you’re also right about folks thinking that it’s super easy, especially outdoors. Well, no, it’s not hard but there’s lots of almost daily care if you’re going to grow top quality Cannabis. I’m pretty proud of my results.
Here’s a Violeta bud from this years crop.
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@the2409labs, I agree with you 100%. That is why I am so glad that I finally found this forum. It is still illegal to grow in the state that I live in, hopefully someday they will come to their senses. This is the reason that I have always been a guerilla grower. This will be my first real attempt at a completely indoor grow, start to finish. I have dabbled in it in the past but usually only to get a jump start on plants that were eventually going outside in the soil, or to eliminate male plants. That is why I am being so anal about trying to make sure that my set-up is as close to right before I even start. You are right nobody has any idea as to what is involved, I can’t really speak as to the indoor side but give me a year or so. As for the outdoor, it can be a real pain in the ass but well worth it, unless you are one of those that chucks seeds in the ground and doesn’t really care about the outcome. I can remember when weed was $15-20 an ounce and I used to get $100 plus for my what they called homegrown. If they one day do make a TV show, I hope that is a documentary like you said. That’s all we need is another reality TV show that is BS, like moonshiners, totally BS, been there done that, got the T-shirt, enough said. Some of the things that really happen, you will never see on TV. I have always been a keep my mouth shut kinda person, loose lips sink ships. I have to be very careful especially with the job that I now have. Like @blackthumbbetty said, thieves, that was one of my deciding factors to attempt to grow indoors. I am getting tired of loosing over half of my crop. Sure, I loose a fair amount to the critters but, I expect that. The thieves are getting better and better at finding the grow spots or there are a lot more of them out there now a days. I believe even if it ever does become legal in my state, I will continue to keep my mouth shut. I like @MrPeat comment, spell my handle backwards and that was my profession in the military and they made it very clear that, I was not to talk about it. There was a lot of stigmatism attached to that also, whenever I did let my guard down and mention it to someone their response was usually not favorable. Now a days if it comes up, I just use a line I heard in a song and I tell them that I was a specialist with a deadly skill and leave it at that and move on. I feel for everyone like @Skydiver, I too was once on workers comp and social security but am now back at work and what a pain in the a**. It was very difficult to get and believe it or not as difficult to get off of. It literally took me over 3 years to get off of social security once I was back at work and I literally started trying to get off of it my first day on the job. No kidding. It was almost if not more of a fight than getting put on it. Like @Cannabian said, I could give a rats a**, as to what others think about me or anyone else growing weed. Don’t like it, not my problem. Well that’s all I got to say about that. I hope that nobody finds anything that I said offensive, just the truth as I see it. Again thank GOD for this forum. I am very happy to be amongst, the tremendous amount of knowledge and experience here,
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@mrpeat and @Skydiver : they DO get bonuses for denying claims. My mother’s a lawyer and fights the shit on a regular basis for people.
@repins12 I caught that. I was a Recon guy. So I know what you mean. 
And that doesn’t surprise me @the2409labs.
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@MrPeat. I used to have it on my license plates and people only knew what it meant when I was behind them and they looked in their rear view. By the way, thanks for your service and I think it’s a shame what veterans have to go through after we put our lives on the line defending our freedoms in this country. People need to realize that freedom isn’t free but, it does have a bit of a recoil.
@MrPeat. I meant to say freedom isn’t free, it has a nice ring and a bit of recoil. Still not completely awake.
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Ex military also, 031
I don’t grow for money, I grow because I enjoy it.
I kept everything on the down low for years. Now my state is legal. I still don’t broadcast it.
When I disclose my hobby it’s usually to another cultivator or someone that’s interested in becoming one.
Coaching novices is enjoyable. Getting into debates or heated discussions with other cultivators is not.
There’s a lot of hubris in the cannabis world. Since it’s mostly been a closed topic, there’s a lot of misinformation or anecdotal growing that causes people to get defensive when you challenge their methods. The, “I’ve been doing this for years and the guy that taught me has been doing it for years, so it has to be right” attitude.
Hopefully the sharing of wisdom through the internet will help future cultivators eliminate that.
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Oh that’s funny!!! I’ve had friends that have been doing it for years lose an entire room. Others get their crop ripped, popo leave a business card " this is constable so and so, if you have any questions or concerns please call"
As for technology, the most elaborate operations still learn from doing and outside help. Perhaps a better way to measure and distribute nutrients? Maybe improve climate control? Pest management? Its constantly changing and what applies to a major operation may or may not apply to you.
Lighting seems to be one of the most controversial issues right now as LED is beginning to shine brightly at a more attractive price point. Still there are many that prefer gas lamps. They aren’t all wrong, perhaps using what is on hand, available, initially cheaper or fits with their current program.
I really like reading about things I enjoy. I’ve gleaned a ton of info from it, some conflicting, some seems out of reach financially or technically for me. Somewhere, you all and I need to find what works for us and streamline it to make it work with the least amount of fuss and best quality product.
As for the, I know more than you shit, let them. They may have shut the door on learning or improving while you keep an open mind.
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My take on life has always been that the day that you think that you know everything it is time to find something else to do. You will always learn something every day of your life. Anyone that says this is not true is not truly living. IMO
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Hey, I have MAD respect for “backyard growers.” You have jobs, families, NEIGHBORS, etc., that all require energy and time. Knowing how much goes into growing MJ, even one plant, it’s no small feat. So keep on, keeping on and props to that sugary nug you’ve got there!! She looks like she’s going to smoke real nice. 
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@Drinkslinger - i am absolutely on the same page as you regarding arguments with other growers.
I’m a scientist first and foremost so I LOVE teaching, I love conversations, I love healthy debate and sharing new ideas - it’s how we grow as people, growers, an industry, etc., but I do notice some real arrogance coming from some of my professional colleagues. They like to act like they’re in some elite league and they’re above everyone else. They don’t share techniques, they won’t have conversations about the science, the process, etc., they keep it all locked up tight. That’ straight bullshit. That’s not keeping with the cannabis culture. We’re all in this together. From the “backyard grower” to the massive commercial farmer CEO. Those CEOs wouldn’t be where they are if not for the trailblazers before them. They wouldn’t be able to profit if not for the openness and willingness for smaller growers to share their stories, their techniques, processes, etc…
I’ve poked around a number of forums and this has been the only one that I’ve seen that fosters a healthy and respectful debate/sharing of ideas, which is why it’s taken me so long to actually join a forum. I’m not interested in culling through pages and pages of insults just to find that no one ever answered the original question.
I’m a professional grower and I’ve been blessed and lucky to be as successful as I’ve been, but I truly believe that one of the main reasons for that success is my constant hunger and search for information - that I value the advice and experiences of ALL growers: the lady who grows one plant in a kitchen cabinet, the husband and wife who grow 10 acres, a trimmer, the millions of men and women who have grows of various sizes in their homes, basements, backyards, attics - everyone has an experience, a story, a technique, advice, information that we can all learn from to become better growers and better people.
So I’ve really enjoyed being here. Hopefully in exchange for whatever knowledge I can share to help other growers, I will also receive some critical information that just might change how I do things.
I’d still rather take the advice of a person who’s grown in their sunroom for the last 15 years than some stuffy ass old text book or scientific paper.
What I do wish though, truly, is that we lived in a world where people at least respected what we do. I’m not looking for an award, or a pat on the back or any of that shit. But I would really like to be able to introduce myself to someone new, tell them what I do for a living, and not have to worry about being looked at like I’m slinging crack or cooking krokodil out of match strikers and gasoline.
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Here here! Many of the big commercial ops, especially the medical ones make employees sign NDAs or non disclosure agreements. This is because they may be employing a combination of technologies in a particular way that is uniquely integrated in such a way not yet employed by competitors. We have one such operation near here. This particular place is a medical grade facility that purports to he completely environmentally neutral. It employs a bio energy plant to makes it’s own power, very hi tech environmental control system, integrated pest and disease control, leaf scanning technology, state of the art security inside and out.
Now to be transparent, they made the mistake during permitting of releasing construction data to a friend of mine, he then sent this to me for confirmation of the existence of this technology because of serious environmental concerns of the local farmers and of course the local watershed. What I can say is that the facility is quite ingenious, very expensive and in theory will work as advertised, but!!!, none of the technology has not been used elsewhere! They are using ideas that others have already tested and proven. So why then is it proprietary? Why do they feel they need to protect themselves? The simple fact is not very many people can afford to implement this level of technology anyway? And those that can will anyway!
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@Cannabian yea, they do that grimy shit all to keep up the exclusive persona. Making it appear to everyone on the outside that they’ve got some ingenious new process or whatever that’s going to produce a product superior to all others when really all they’re really doing is finding ways to justify their inflated costs.
I totally understand protecting a company’s trade secrets and such so that they’re not pirated by scumbags, but claiming something is proprietary when it isn’t should be an immediate red flag. I guarantee that once we see their products on the shelves of dispensaries, we’ll also see that they’re much more expensive than their competitors and that it may not necessarily be a better product.
But, I bet their packaging will be reeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaallllyyyyyy pretty.
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Seems the company was off to a good start? They had financial backing from, let’s just say seedy people! They had to go to court about some shady stock market stuff and were found not guilty I think? Anyway, the project was going ahead then… the district pulled the rug out from underneath 2 of the 4 building sites because it’s on agricultural land and they would be exceeding the allowed ground coverage with concrete! Which will cut output in half! Possibly more because of needed infrastructure space! Like the power plant? HVAC system etc.
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sounds like they were getting a little bit too big for their britches.
I’m not sure how I feel about those massive farms. I mean, I’m a commercial grower but I don’t have like 100,000 sq ft of space and my own power plant. lol. I really believe that growing is a deeply personal process and the very best bud comes from plants that have been loved and cared for directly, not just pushed through some factory farm. Plants need eyes on them, not infrared scanners and cameras. Plus, REAL growers love and need the daily experience of walking among their crops, touching them, smelling them, feeling the environment - sometimes my staff laughs at me because they’ll catch me in a grow room squatting or lying down on the ground looking up through the canopy so I can see what my small buds “see.” Like how much light are they getting, are they blocked by anything? Sometimes I spend days checking each plant in a space branch by branch, node by node, bud by bud.
Growing cannabis should neeeeeevvveeeeeerrrrrrr be some automated, impersonal process. Ew. It’s always been a plant that’s been nurtured, loved, raised, deeply cared for. Heaven help us the day we lose that.
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thank you very much @Kenken !! It’s actually my “Cannabis-aversary.” 8 years ago to the day I dropped 10 mystery cannabis seeds into a solo cup to soak. Then, three years later, October 28 was the day my cannabis company officially opened! But, the day I dropped those seeds was the day the most wild ride and epic adventure of my life started! So today is a most righteously special day for me and my company. And one million thanks for the shout out! <3
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