What Lesson Did Your Garden Teach You in 2022

[bboyfromwayback]

The last year I’ve realized how much time I wasted each week filling containers with water, mixing nutes, adjusting ph and then watering plants over the years. Last October I finally opened the AutoPot system I had sitting on a shelf and now I spend maybe 15min on Saturday or Sunday mornings filling the reservoirs and adding nutes.

[OldManGrower]

Gee...I kind of enjoy all the nuisance and fuss. It's my hobby and keeps me out of bars.

[MagicMike66]

Id love to try mine but my grow area is cold so I’d need a way to heat the water which isn’t an option really so I’m stuck with hand feeding.

[changeofpace2014]

smaller containers of water would be easier to warm then one large container..

[ponzi314]

I started growing in 2022 so i learned that you can actually grow weed at home .

I did my first grow ever outside first and mistakes were made where i sprayed for bugs during day and it looked like i killed the plants the next day due to burning of leaves. So i learned to only spray at night.

Now im almost finished with my second grow(first indoor), learning that Live soil really is hands off, just have to water and keep env proper

[90Gizmo]

Since it was my first year of growing then, literally everything. Most monumental to me, 5 gallon pots grow so much more than two or three gallon pots that there's no reason to go smaller.

[changeofpace2014]

pot size will be proportional to the available grow space..large tall pots are not always an option for the grower...

[90Gizmo]

At the same height, a 5 gallon pot will be (only) 1.6 times the diameter of a 2 gallon pot. But if you can't do five's then maybe three's... Point being that larger containers are actually more space efficient.

[Bluey]

My last indoor grow I took two of 7 plants to harvest, 12 gallon pots.

The canopy size after pruning and training was a huge 5 x 4 (for the two plants) and I had to cut off two main colas as they fell well outside the light they needed to properly mature....at full flower the area was quite cramped and difficult to stop the buds and leaves from touching.

I lost pretty much all main colas to mould but still managed to harvest the medium and smaller buds for a total yield of about 14 to 16 Oz dry.

The grow didn't go well as at about 6 weeks into veg I lost power for a while and could only give enough light to keep them going so continued another few weeks of veg once power restored then flipped....all up the grow went for about 5 months and I barely hit the harvest window, so low THC but still very nice to smoke.

I dont know how much I lost as I threw it out prior to drying but probably double what I did manage to save. I was happy to have saved what I did..it was my 1st successful hydro grow

[changeofpace2014]

sounds like your scrambling went very well....i have been eyeing the very nice generators our various neighbors have...luckily our hydro loop seems to be more robust...

[Puglover1]

The punishment for not growing will make everything you own break, twice.

[Bluey]

Well this grow got 1st leaf 22 December 2022 so I guess it qualifies.
Grow is in harvest with no more than a couple of weeks to run at most.
What I learnt this grow is my AC is too small to hold 24⁰C in late flower and keep the humidity down at 40%RH...So bigger AC when flowering over summer here.
That the cal mag I added is not compitable with the flower nutes I'm using re unstable pH in the tank over time
That I need to act faster when I identify a problem and not just pretend it will go away like magic
That being away from the grow 4 to 6 days at a time is not great for the aesthetics re defoliation or LST.
What a fungus gnats infestation is and what causes it and that they proved harmless
That I am an habitual overwaterer, see above
That my lights are awesome but a bit too close together
To keep Mrs.Bluey away from my seed bank so I don't end up growing different strains with widely different needs that turns the grow into a serious compromise where none get ideal nutes
That some of my trichomes show aqua blue for a short period 😍

[SoOrbudgal]

Excellent write up Bluey you got me thinking about my leaf issues. Yes it looks like i've drowned a couple seedling myself still do by the looks of my Bubba kush she's a question mark. LOL wife likes to look thru your seeds eh??

[Bluey]

Mrs. Bluey decided that the 4 jars of seed weren't being utilised efficiently and put them all in 1 jar so she could use the other 3 jars. I was lost for words.
I'd like to grow something I've never grown before next grow,. The hunt is on. Lots of life long growers in my area with a wealth of knowledge but almost all outdoor growers...but my love of old sativas doesn't look like waning any time soon.

[changeofpace2014]

Yeah - I confess there have been times when I let the girls power through....

[Mollisol]

I learned to diligently record and log watering when switching to large pots

[changeofpace2014]

I had to watch the transplant carefully when changing grow mediums with a transplant...I had a 1 qt root ball of coir but needed to transplant to dirt for the wife's summer grow....kind of pampered them with G.H trio until the roots started to grow in soil.

[Bluey]

Well this grow is still not over and 2 sugar leaves (of hundreds) are showing the little bit of colour, a dark red, and they pulled easily and that is what precipitated the mold attack on my last grow. It's showing on the most stressed and nutrient deficient plant and that plant has the biggest buds and I'm seeing amber on the trikes on the sugar leaves, but not on the flower itself...all whites.
I will harvest and fully trim those buds in 2 days..giving them all a flush now with very small amount of nutes so I can read pH. Will harvest the rest in 6 to 7 days.
I think I'm just about there.
The inability to manage the nutes to suit each plant and the pH instability in my nute tank has impacted quite a bit on yield I reckon. A few tall buds are showing secondary growth on the top of the buds from light stress. Has the quality been effected? Of course, but it still should be great..I'll give it 3 days of darkness the last 3 plants dry and cure so should be fine.
🤞

[changeofpace2014]

I do the 3 days of darkness at then end of a 3 or 4 day flush...actually they are watered some during the 3 days but prefer to keep them a little dry.. the strain makes a big difference to how they respond to 3 days of darkness...

[Bluey]

I'll do the darkness as I've got to turn the grow room into a dry room come Tuesday as I'll harvest that plant the sugars pulled easily on.
I'm probably a good week off the ones I'll give darkness but at a minimum I will at the very least have all white/cloudy trikes....pretty happy...growing outdoors here you'd be lucky to get this far once in every 10 grows...some never get this far outdoors.

[changeofpace2014]

I guess that is why so many people have changed over to auto s..but I have been holding out.. bud trimming - I have always trimmed wet but yesterday I trimmed dry bud and it was much easier and cleaner...the buds came out looking really good and I could snip out most of the leafs pretty easy... that will be my preferred method moving forward.