I truly believe there's elegance in simplicity. Looking around the forum, folks fool around with air conditioning systems, water chillers, humidifiers.... I don't use any of that. Just lights, fans, Pro-Mix and a commercial fertilizer. Nothing else. No magic wands, no miracle potions. If I may wax poetic for a moment, there are two major elements to any pursuit - internal and external. In our case, the internal element can be defined as grower skill and the external as all other elements including the environment, the equipment, and arguably the most important, the genetics.
Genetics are crucial. I spend a good amount of time and resources on free seed plants, test runs and the like. The ones I don't keep are posted in this thread. The others will become next season' crop, but I digress. Genetics can mean the difference between a 1oz and a 4 oz plant. Literally. They define the smell, the potency, the bag appeal. All things staying equal, everything rests on the genetics.
My personal experience is such that finding a great plant is a crap shoot. For example, I flowered a free seed not expecting much, as the strain typically yields low. I grew it out solely out of personal curiosity. I actually had two seeds. The plants grew side by side. One yielded 4oz of the smelliest shit you'll get your hands on, beautiful buds hard as a rock that finished in 9 weeks (from seed). The other didn't do badly. It was a ~2.5oz plant with a muskier, earthier smell and a slightly fluffier structure. In September, I'm going out with a full run of the 4-ouncer. I'm convinced that if I were to buy a pack of the strain, as I've done many times hoping to do better, I wouldn't get the same plant again. So, I'm guarding the clone with my life!
Simon