What mistakes did you make on your first grow?

Hi guys, I'm new to riu and was curious to see what everyone's 'duh' moments were with their first grow.

I'm a first time indoor grower lady in the lovely state of colorado.

My biggest most obvious mistake was pouring water with nutrients in it over the plant. I also starved them in an effort to not over feed.

I was so worried about over feeding I under fed also for a month. Other than that she has done great, well not entirely true, a few small things that I corrected as I went. I learned that really the most important thing is to learn what and how to read what they need. At first I was trying to schedule everything and it doesn't work that way really. Have patience and let them grow. Not to much longer to go now for me, starting week 7 of flower today.

At first, over-watering causing huge stress. After I got a feel for it, everything went pretty well perfectly. This is due to the fact I did a boatload of research before I even began

-spek

Biggest thing is pH your water correctly. I just finished a 10 week flower of white widow, and harvested yesterday. Today is tent cleanout, wash carbon pre-filter, and reset lights etc.

I just cut 16 2L coke bottles and am about to go to the grow shop to pick up vermiculite and perlite... I'm doing a 12/12 from seed hempy setup this run, and will keep one mother from all three strains I have (White Widow, Bubba Kush and Blueberry)

-spek

biggest mistake on my first grow was rushing the experience and buying cheap materials etc...

i had a cheap indoor hydroponic setup sold on ebay a wood cabinet really, 3 feet tall, waste of money

heat issues, nute burn, and being cheap were my issues

be good happy growing!

followed the advice on the internet on how to germinate seeds and cooked them. used the paper towel and heat mat tech. Now I just put them in a super start plug and spray once a day - works every time.

I made a couple of mistakes:

1. Started seeds indoor and didn't harden them off when they went outdoors. (poor little buggers went into shock from all of that natural light)

2. Over watered them. What? There is such thing as TOO MUCH water?

3. Burnt them, I over fed them when they were coming out of shock from not being acclimated to outdoor life.

4. Worried WAY too much, the rest of my garden got it's regular "meh, they'll be fine until tomorrow" attention whereas I checked on these suckers morning and (sometimes twice) at night. I wondered why they didn't grow as fast / big / bushy / etc. as others I'd see at the same age online. Also I'd analyse EVERY little thing I noticed the plant doing and just to the conclusion that it was a glaring problem... it usually wasn't.

Better question is which mistakes I didn't make. over water, under water, nutes to soon, not enough nutes and the worst one chopped early but it all worked out

PH, over-nute, early harvest

ARobyn said:

Hi guys, I'm new to riu and was curious to see what everyone's 'duh' moments were with their first grow.

I'm a first time indoor grower lady in the lovely state of colorado.

My biggest most obvious mistake was pouring water with nutrients in it over the plant. I also starved them in an effort to not over feed.

Click to expand...

Watering over the plants with nutrients isnt a bad thing depending on concentration. Its called foliar feeding and quite common. The biggest mistake is to put too much credit into a single person on the internet rather than research alot and pull your own information from it all.

I didn't spend the money on good filtration for smell, And well I stunk up a block or two for a few months.
I had the air venting out of the roof so no one could pin down where the smell was coming from but it was noticed by all.

I wish I would have made my grow cab bigger, seriously limited how much I can grow indoors and what HID lighting I could use.

The rest of the advice is good, watch where you get your info, try to backup anything you can with general botanical information and don't over-love your plants. Every time you want to do something, step back and make sure you need to.

Nutrient overload for my girls

early harvest and some excessive trimming lol

Early harvest one of the biggest problems.

first mistake: Believing everyone who posted anything online knew what they were talking about (if anyone can tell me how to successfully press enter when posting a thread by the way I would appreciate it by the way) second mistake: not fully understanding how much smell will emanate. third mistake : going to LST and breaking off the main cola (in hindsight not as bad as I thought as 2 mains replaced it - smaller but still) Fourth mistake: underwatering, overhumidifying, over heating. overall I spent approx. 600 bucks f for what will likely be 26g of payload. LOL but all fun so I think it is ok. if I weren't making mistakes I wouldn't be learning, and the same goes for you

phd water very important im having that prob now my water was at 8.5 fert were brining my water ph to 7.5 but still not low enough now i have to wait to go buy ph down to flush my plants at 6.5 cause something is def locked out of my plants

This was my 1st grow and I made a plethora of mistakes (and I "thought" I was a "experienced" hydro guy)

1) believing someone who sounded credible on the net actually was
2) Buying a cheap Carbon canister (and I got allegedly "low odor" C99, and you can still smell a slight "Armpit" smell nearby) ..ditto to buying cheap shitz
3) using a cheap airstone or any airstone at all
4) not using a screen (scrog) and underestimating stretch height
5) not germing enough seeds
6) Buying 5 Nirvana seeds and getting 4 different phenos
7) Believing GH 3 part was the way to go (now just use Lucas Formula...perhaps not optimal, but simple)

........................................................................light leak's caused her to herm...............................................................

A few years ago when i first started i transplanted halfway through flower lol and under estimating the stretch i had wonky bitches everywhere.