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Failure is a common human occurrence, especially when you're learning something new.
But... what if you could skip all the error in your cannabis garden?
Instead of learning from your own mistakes, learn from mine and countless others when they first started growing, and, avoid 6 of the most common boo boos made by newbie marijuana growers.
1) WRONG PH
Having the correct PH for your plants is essential to your garden.
Without the proper PH, plants cannot uptake nutrients properly, nutrient deficiencies are bound to occur, and the overall health of your plants will decline and they could potentially die.
In order to measure PH, you will need a PH Pen shown below.
"What is the correct PH?"
The chart below shows the appropriate PH ranges for Soil, Coco Coir, and Hydroponics.
Be sure your PH is in the correct range and steer clear of dreaded PH imbalances and the side effects that come along with it.
2) OVERFEEDING
Another very common mistake of new growers is to overfeed your plants.
Trust me, I get it...
You're excited to try out all those new nutrients you purchased and you're thinking the more you give your plants the bigger, fatter, and danker the buds will be.
WRONG!
Less is more.
If you overfeed your plants you will burn them, possibly create nutrient lockout, definitely create nutrient imbalance and they will most likely wither away and die if the problem is not corrected quickly.
Most commonly, you will know if you are overfeeding your plants if the tips are brown, dry, and look burnt, if the leaves curl or twist, or if the leaves are yellowing, browning, or have brown or yellow spots.
A great way to prevent the overfeeding of your plants is to purchase a PPM meter and follow a PPM chart for the different stages of growth.
Examples of both are shown below.
Measure your PPM and follow this chart closely and steer clear of overfeeding your plants.
3) Forgetting to measure Runoff
This section coincides with error # 1 and error # 2.
Most grow guides will tell you to make sure to balance your PH and measure your PPM before you feed or water your garden..
BUT...
What they don't tell you is that you need to also measure the PH and PPM of your water/nutrient runoff that ends up in the trays after you feed or water.
This is very important!
PH
YOU NEED TO MEASURE THE PH OF YOUR WATER AND/OR NUTRIENT SOLUTION RUNOFF BEFORE AND AFTER YOU WATER OR FEED YOUR PLANTS
Measuring the PH of your water/nutrient solution and the runoff PH of your water/nutrient solution will provide you with a pretty good estimate of the acidity, neutrality, or alkalinity of your grow medium if growing in coco or soil.
For example, if you are growing in soil and your water has a PH of 6.5 and your runoff has a PH of 6.0, this means your grow medium is acidic.
Don't worry though! It's an easy fix!
All you need to do is raise the PH of your water until the PH of your runoff gets to where you need it to be.
Continue this process until your runoff PH is within an acceptable range.
Do the opposite if the PH of your runoff is higher than the PH of your water to correct the PH imbalance.
PPM
YOU NEED TO GET A PPM OR EC READING BEFORE YOU WATER AND/OR FEED, AND YOU NEED TO GET ANOTHER PPM/EC READING AFTER YOU WATER AND/OR FEED BY MEASURING THE RUNOFF.
Doing so allows you to diagnose the overall health of your plant and gives you an idea of the state of your oh so important root zone!
For example:
If your PPM of your nutrient solution is 800 and the PPM of your runoff is 600, that means your plants are absorbing a lot of the nutrients and your root zone is in great shape
On the other hand, if your nutrient solution PPM is 800 and your runoff PPM is 2000, there is a whole lot of mineral buildup in your root zone that should not be there.
In the high PPM runoff scenario, you need to FLUSH with pure water that has been PH balanced and do another runoff reading.
Keep flushing until your runoff PPM is in an acceptable range.
For more information on PH, watering, PPM, and feeding, check out this article "Watering Cannabis: It's Trickier Than You Think".
4) OVER OR UNDERWATERING
This is probably the easiest area to make a mistake on.
Even growers with some experience (including myself) sometimes have issues overwatering or underwatering their crops, especially in the seedling and early vegetative stages.
Too much or too little water is a very easy mess up.
You'll know if you have over watered or under watered your garden because your plants will start showing symptoms.
Underwatering Symptoms
If you aren't giving your plants enough water the leaves will feel thin, brittle, and dry to the touch, the grow medium will be dry, and the overall plant will look thin, sickly and will be wilting.
The picture below is a good example of an underwatered cannabis plant.
If your plants are experiencing similar symptoms try giving them more water, watering more frequently, and transplanting into a larger pot once the plant looks healthy again.
Overwatering Symptoms
If plants are receiving too much water, the leaves will feel firm and be curling downward, and the leaves might have brown spots or yellowing and will look heavy as though the stems can't support the water weight of the leaves (because they cant).
An example of an overwatered cannabis plant is shown below.
Three reasons why you might be overwatering your plant are:
Pot is too big for your plant
Your grow medium doesn't have enough drainage
You are simply giving your plants too much water or watering too frequently
When it comes to underwatering or overwatering it's a fine line and can be difficult to get right.
Every strain is different, and every phenotypes for those particular strains are going to be different with different needs, so you'll have to learn to act and react according to what your garden is telling you.
For more detailed information on watering check out this article titled "Watering Cannabis: It's Trickier Than You Think"
5) GROW LIGHTS ARE TOO WEAK
The grow light you choose for you garden is an essential part of your crops success or failure when it comes time to harvest.
I know you want to save a few bucks on a cheaper light, but do yourself a favor and spend a little bit more on a quality grow light that actual has enough power to yield results that are worth the 3 - 5 months of blood, sweat, and tears you're going to put into your indoor garden.
Fortunately, there are plenty of great lights out there with great power, at a significantly more reasonable price point.
You don't have to spend $500 to have great quality buds.
2 best options for indoor grow lights are full spectrum LED or HPS/MH.
Be mindful of the size of your grow space and the PPFD coverage of your lights. For more information on this check out the 1st part of this article "4 Best LED Grow Lights... for the money".
LED
LED is probably the best route to get started. They are almost all full spectrum and you don't need to do a thing pretty much except turn it on and move it further or closer to the plants.
A couple of my favorite LED's for a 2 x 2 foot set up are the Phlizon CREE Cob 1000 and the Spider Farmer SF-1000 . Both are great lights, at a fair price, that will yield above average results with the proper set up.
For a 2 x 4 foot grow space you can either double up on the lights I mentioned above, or I highly recommend the Mars Hydro SP3000.
This is a very powerful LED grow light with uniform full spectrum light distribution that makes for superior yields, high quality flowers and the light is specifically designed for a 2 x 4 foot grow tent
There are certainly a lot of cheaper LED's on the market, but most of them are junk, and, considering there is a lot of time, energy, effort, and money that goes into a cannabis grow you want to be sure your end product and harvest are well worth it!
HPS/MH
A 400 or 600 watt HPS paired with a MH bulb is also a great option for an indoor cannabis garden.
You will experience fantastic yields! Especially with the 600 watt, but, you will have to change from MH bulb for veg to HPS bulb for flower, they run a bit hotter, and are pretty heavy and bulky.
The iPower 600 Watt Air Cooled Reflector Hood is my favorite HPS for the price.
IMPORTANT: If you decide to use the 600 watt HPS/MH, be sure to use a 2' x 4' x 6' minimum sized grow tent. Ideally you should place this light in a 4' x 4' x 7' grow tent as they are very powerful and can easily burn plants if they are set too close to the top of the canopy.
6) HARVESTING TOO SOON
Newer growers have a tendency to get oh so close to the finish line, but end up pulling the trigger a bit early.
In doing so, you're depriving your flowers of the time necessary to fully mature into top shelf smoke-ables.
Harvesting too soon will negatively affect the buds potency, flavor, smell, and weight.
The best way to tell if your plants are ready to be chopped down or not is by taking a look at the trichomes under a jewelers magnifier like the one shown below.
Trichomes are the sticky stuff that contains the THC (the fun stuff that gets you high) shown under a magnifier in the picture below.
Harvest Guide
Not Yet: If the trichomes are still clear, the plants need more time to mature.
Harvestable: If pretty much all of the trichomes are milky white they are ready to harvest, have high potency, and can be harvested if you prefer a lighter, more cerebral type of high. See below.
Best: If the majority of the trichomes are milky white AND about 25 - 50% of the trichomes are amber-brown colored. This is when your trichomes are fully mature and will have the highest potency producing an excellent head and body high. See below.
CONCLUSION
Hope this guide helps you avoid the most common beginner cannabis grower mistakes.
I definitely wish someone would have told me about these.. instead, I experienced many headaches and hassles in the learning process, but it's all fun in the end no matter what happens in the indoor garden.
Happy growing!
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