As a new grower who takes new hobbies way too seriously, I am left scratching my head. I am a big reader, and have read just about every grow book published, both old and new. Examples
https://cannabislegale.org/these-are-the-5-best-cannabis-growing-books/
I have also watched many youtube videos showing grows and offering advice on growing.
Here are some topics that I find very frustrating, both from advice give on forums and from the grow books.
1.
Flower time----Countless professional grow videos show MOST cannabis finishing at around week 8-9 (including pre flower time-- we are talking 8-9 weeks after 12/12 flip and they harvest.) If you ask around here, chances are no matter what you say (Lets say I'm in week 9 Flower with an Indica) almost 90% of people will say " You have many weeks to go)... I understand that Seedbanks may be dishonest with flower times, but for a newbie, all the mis-information I can find is conficting. And yes, I let a 7-9 week Indica go many weeks longer following advice from others and it was harvested a bit late....(watching tricomes and pistols with a loupe)
2.
Bloom Nutrients-- And or Nitrogen during flower. This one is really giving me a headache, most say to cut nitrogen mid to late flower, but many also say that Bloom Nutrients cause more harm than good. So, I'm pretty much F'ed here. If I cant feed bloom and cant feed Nitrogen (grow nutrients-in flower) what the hell should I feed? I'm at the point where I'm starving my plants because I'm afriad to give them anything.
3.
Flushing before harvest---- This is a funny one. In this case, I'm talking about the final flush before harvest. Almost every book I read and following the advice from many professional growers, the taste of the final product will be lower quality if not flushed. And of course, if you've been reading recent advice from folks on the forums,many people are saying not to flush. Another confict leaving me wondering. (I do not flush pre-harvest, but I still wonder who's right)
4.
Flushing----- Now, not to complicate things, but the definition of "flushing" seems to be two different things. Definiton 1 is applying plain water 1-2 weeks before harvest. Definition 2 is to flush excess salts from the soil using twice the amount of water to soil. If you look at many feedcharts (Fox Farm as an example) they clearly say to Flush the soil (definition 2) if anything irregular shows----- So, once again we have contradictory opinions here. I cant tell you how many people say not to flush the soil (def 2) and how many say that pre harvest flush is useless.
5.
Soil PH---- This is by far the worst for me as it is very important to have the right PH in the root zone, but to save my life I have now way to test it accurately. Have you ever tried to get deep into your soil to test after the roots have taken over the soil? You can't ! The best I can do is to measure water PH going in to compare to the water coming out, but I don't think this is accurate at all. There has to be an easier way to accurately measure soil PH in the root zone. Soil is really starting to annoy me and I'm tempted to go hydroponic even though I know there is a deep learning curve.
6. And last but not least, too many things look alike. Fungus Gnats or Root Aphid flyers? (they look very similar and are very small)... Same goes for deficiencies, lets take purple stems as an example.---Could be a deficiency, might just be the strain. Its just a big headache to me now.
I like growing, but with the price of weed dropping (its almost free where I live now) I'm wondering why I'm bothering anymore. I just cant seem to find good advice that doesnt contradict itself and feel like a dog chasing my tail.
(Side note: please excuse my horrible hacking of the english language, some of the words used here may be off and I am aware that my writing needs improvent !)
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