New Grower GROWING HORROR STORIES - Share your Doh's & Don'ts

[stonedBRO]

Hey guys,
stonedBRO here :tiphat: I am a novice grower on my first run.
This place has plenty of lovely people who will tell you what to do.
I have started this thread for you lovely people to also share what NOT to do...
Your own hair pulling experiences, near misses with discovery and detection and facepalm homer simpson DOH moments!
Here are a few of mine to get started, please use the format below.
X) Insert stupid experience here

LESSON: What you and others can take home from this.

1) I have used organic nutes (biobizz) with a coco medium because they claimed on their site if you increase strength by 25%.
I do not know if anyone else has documented success but it was pretty lame for me, I switched to a coco specific nute and saw results pretty fast.

LESSON: Use organic nutes in organic fert, hydro nutes for coco. KISS.

2) I set up my grow before my extraction fan arrived. I watered, turned on the lights and went to work, my 125w CFL caused EXTREME humidity/condensation with no extraction...I know high humidity is good for seedlings...but the tent roof actually dripping on the CFL reflector was a shock (not literally) when I got home!

LESSON: Heat makes water evaporate, CFL may not be emitting much heat, but in a small space, with not ventilation and coco that holds a lot of water, condensation will form and start raining on you.

3) I moved my grow to a friends, I walked him through every step of feeding, mixing, dilution, ph etc showed him and watched him perform the same as I did.
He messaged me a few days later to tell me the PH pen was stuck on 7, he had added plenty of PH down to the mix but it would not budge off 7. I immediately presumed it was busted being a cheap yellow ebay pen, I went to my local hydrostore and got their cheapest ph pen at £50.
When I went to my friends he showed me what he was doing...so I could troubleshoot if the pen was broken or user error.
He was trying to ph test the water...(WAIT FOR IT) with the protective cap still on...I presumed he was smart enough to take it off...but he was baked when I showed him and never used or seen a ph pen before so how was he suppose to know the black thing he was dipping in was actually the cap protecting the sensor.

LESSON: Presumption is the mother of all fuck ups.
Do not presume anything, confirm it, and reconfirm it, if someone is not sure, make them sure, if you expect nothing, your a hard man to disappoint. If you overlook an obvious detail you will be kicking yourself, and presuming others know something they do not will not help them develop.

I am sure I will have more to add in the future, for now till anything comes to mind, over to you guys...have you ever came home to a nasty surprise you could help prevent someone else suffering or done something which turned out to be just plain stupid...
I KNOW I AM NOT THE ONLY ONE SO DONT MAKE ME FEEL LIKE I AM! \
Hope you enjoy the thread. :dance2:
Welcome to stonedBRO's House of Horrors!

As always,
Play safe
stonedBRO

 

[namvet25]

Thanks for your informative thread,well done.I don't have time to list all the mistakes I have made during my growing career but its been many.This is how we all learn by correcting mistakes and keep going forward to be the best grower we can be.

 

[Chandyside]

Good idea
I made the schoolboy error today of trying t flush my plants due to ever decreasing PH as I have no access t lime f a week or so. DON'T! Is the advice of the professionals. After about 8 litres of water the PH stayed the same and now she looks as droopy as the dog
I'm sure ill have plenty more t contribute t this thread before I smoke my first homegrown but until then happy growing folks Chandy.

 

[fweedom]

Nice thread Id like to add if your using a tent to check the poles, hooks, connectors regularly. (or whatever your lights hangs from) Its sooo easily overlooked and alot of us dont even think about it but ive opened my tent to my whole 600w hood literally on top of my plants destroying everything and ive also checked and found the plastic hooks cracking and on the verge of breaking. I now run string from my hood to a solid beam outside the tent so even if the poles break my light wont fall. Also ive noticed when ive ordered replacement hooks theyre muchh thicker than the originals for some reason so be careful even if theyre brand new.

Please make sure your lights are secure guys hate to see your plants end up like mine or even worse have a fire start which may lead to law enforcement getting involved be safe rather than sorry :Sharing One:

 

[stonedBRO]

Thanks for the feedback and input guys, glad you like the idea I am hoping this will be a thread people can add to and refer to over time and be a well known true house of horrors!
I will try and advertise it to users in the new growers section so that when they encounter their own doh moments they wish to share they know where to go (Y) if anyone of you see anything that would be suitable for the HOH could you give the thread link to said user!

 

[Blissmesome]

Really cool thread! Maybe you can read trough and find something you about to do, and cancel it
I had only a single grow , and I had many technical problems, (always have enough light and air ventilation)
But in that very first grow, I dried some bud for cure, and some for smoke, so I got high and another plant came in for trimming.
To me, I wasnt sure how to trim at the time and gave my best shot, being high, it was very hard and I was beating myself up for mistakes, so it was snowballing.
Cut off alot of pistils and harmed the flowers a little. So I would try not to smoke next time I trim!

 

[a9ymous]

Know what you mean, Blissmesome... for me it's remembering not to make my oil extractions when I'm high, as I'll forget to set oven timers and so on. Over-decarbed the very last of what we had back in 2012 so we had nothing except a little mild pain relief out of it for a long time Hard to remember because being high is usually nice for patient hand work like trimming or cooking. I always want to work with my hands with some nice daytime weed.

I tortured my last grow with my ph meter. Had a 40$ soil meter that was supposedly self-calibrating (and my first ever meter), but the real problem was that I ignored the instructions and started using it to check the watering can now and then (not supposed to use it in liquids). There were no instructions for manually recalibrating. It started giving higher and higher readings, and I kept adding more and more acid. I was out of tube tests but when I finally picked up a little basic dropper ph test kit it showed them down somewhere in the 3s. So What I Learned was--follow the directions for your equipment and always have a backup method to double check now and then in case your technology fails you (or you fail it).

 

[GCase]

"AFN smoke out""kudos"

 

[auto_mate]

My biggest error was buy a poor quality ph metre off of ebay for my first one, not knowing how to calibrate the thing was a major problem and the fact that it straight up didnt work. Invested in a bluelab combo metre and never looked back, so much easier and now i understand the ph i coukd probably use strips but for a newby a good ph probe is a must