I hope that my experience will help those first timers to avoid mistakes I made that cost me ounces and ounce of yield. Number one… PATIENCE. If you think this is an overnight thing let me just stop you right there. I had an outdoor grow and went pretty much completely natural. Three plants same water, same sun, same soil, same everything. I would suggest looking at your first grow as an experiment to see what works for you and what doesn’t. If you are looking to get some crazy multiple pound yield from a plant, it’s probably not going to happen until you grow for a few seasons and really get to know HOW the plant grows and what it needs and at what stage it needs it.
I started with seeds I bought from my local grow shop called ‘medical seeds’. Pretty much everything I did for the first 2 months was wrong. Wrong soil, no PH testing, no pre-spraying for pests etc. White flies almost wiped out all three of my plants and it’s a miracle that they even survived it. I saw little white dots, didn’t think much about it. Then the spots turned brown, then the spots became holes, then the entire leaf curled up a nasty brown color and died.
Every leaf on a marijuana plant has a purpose in my opinion. Test your water PH!!! It could mean life or death for your plant. Use the right soil! If you are not sure what that is, do not rush yourself and just buy something you ‘think’ will do the job. Halfway through the grow I had to flush everything, change soil, change pots, get a PH testing kit, etc. Because I did not take anything like that into consideration in the beginning it caused severe long term problems that burned about 50% of my plants off. I would recommend starting small, and I know most beginners don’t want to hear that, I know I didn’t. Three plants is a good place to start, you could do more but it’s going to mean more stress to you the grower. I found myself scrambling to figure out WHAT the problems were and in addition how to remedy them to save the plants. Until you can look at a leafs color or state and immediately know what’s wrong and how to fix it, you are setting yourself up for a nightmare with a large crop right off the bat.
I live in South America, and growing is legal. It’s funny that it’s the first time I have not had to worry about the police… but in my case it was the neighbor that !@#$ed me. I had about 2 weeks to go until harvest and someone scaled our security fence and uprooted my plant. It was about 5 feet high and they ended up breaking it in half and getting the top and some smaller buds below it. That stunt cost me an ounce easily. Not to mention how pissed I was after 5 months of daily care to be ripped apart in a matter of seconds. It really sucked. But I did still have the bottom half of the plant, so it could have been worse. I am happy with the outcome being it’s my first grow and although the plants had to be cut down before they were completely finished, and the fact that I could only give them 2 weeks to dry as oppose to the recommended month I guess it’s ok.
I ended up with maybe 2- 2.5 ounces from three plants. The yield should have been twice that. But with so many issues in the beginning that I did not address, it cost me big time in the end. It was a great experience and now that I know how to start the right way next season should be a lot better. Oh yeah… make sure you get NEEM, for white flies. I had an infestation and neem sprayed every two to three days completely took care of it. They will destroy your entire crop if gone unchecked. So here’s a pic of what I ended up with. The good news! You are on THE BEST website for growing. If it weren’t for the help and suggestions along the way that I got here, I doubt any of my plants would have even survived. Good luck!!
