For my first grow I defied the conventional wisdom, and I started with
10 different strains in a hydroton, flood and drain bucket setup.
Unfortunately, I don't recall all of the different cloned strains I had, but
I do remember the mistakes I made and the strains that came through
despite my mistakes and environmental problems.
During my grow, I...
1) Left the green light on overnight, twice! I turned the green light on
to do work during the dark cycle. Then the timered lights came on and
I forgot to turn off the green lights because they were no longer visibly
noticeable.
Even though green light shouldn't disrupt the cycle, most green lights
give off some other spectrum light and I think it was too much. The
lights were on much longer than just through the daylight cycle. I'm
pretty sure I disrupted the flowering cycle by leaving my green lights
on far too long.
2) Over fertilized. One batch of fertilizer came up much stronger
by the same measurements. By the time I tested it with the TDS
meter, the concentration was very high, over 2,500 ppm dissolved
salts in my reservoir.
3) Let my reservoir get too hot. It was in the same room with the
lights and it was reaching temps in the mid 70's. I clearly had some
type of root rot infestation and it took this stuff I bought from the
local hydro store to clear up the reservoir and restore health to my
plant's roots.
4) I had a thrips infestation. I had pest strips out and noticed them
fairly quickly but they were a bitch to kill off. Multiple nicotine
pesticide treatments finally killed them. Fortunately, none of my
plants seemed to contract TMV.
5) I had one dramatic PH swing. I don't remember how I did this
but I remember freaking out when I measured the reservoir PH
in the high 4's one day.
Through all of these mistakes and the bug infestation, I had three
strains that not only survived, but they lived and performed quite
well in the end considering resources put in. These strains were
'Pot of Gold,' 'Kalimist,' and 'Ice.' They were all clones I purchased
from a medical dispensary in Hollywood. All 7 other strains gave
up the ghost weeks before maturity.
I would recommend 'Pot of Gold' to any indoor grower, newbie or
advanced farmer. The other two were great but the grow tall and
require considerable space and light resources.
