What is your "inexpensive" hobby that turned out to be expensive/ you gradually invested lots of money into?
Edit: so it turns out that every hobby can be expensive if you do it long enough.
Also I love how you talk about your hobby as some addicts.
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Growing cannabis (legal here in Canada)
…anyone can grow weed. Growing GOOD weed is an art.
I unintentionally grow weed because I made some tincture for grandma.
Now it just grows on my garden and I can't get rid of it.
One of it's many nicknames is ditchweed for a reason. It's a weed like any other. The US spends millions per year burning it out of ditches on the side of the road all around the country.
I’d be happy to burn it for them!
A little bit at a time!
We call it "The Granny choice" variety.
And trust me it is horrible, for tinctures it is great, but for anything else not.
In Germany we will be allowed to grow some for private use come next year. I have no idea what to get yet, but I will just plant it in a planter in the garden and hope that it works I guess :D
Thats growing weed.
Any tips for good weed?
If you can grow indoor and force into flower (8 to 12 hours per day light and lower the temp a bit) that will give you the most consistent crops. Bugs are likely the number one problem particularly with normal soil grown plants. I recommend doing smaller shorter grows but more per year. The shorter grows time means less likely you will have an infestation problem. Well mean smaller harvests but you can do more per year. This kind of control requires a location you can entirely remove any light sources but your grow lights.
Overall it is really hard to kill a weed plant. They grow like a weed. Thus the name. In my case, I able leave them in the grow stage for a month then flip the lights to 10 hours days to force flowering. At that point they might be a foot high but even in flower they will grow another 3 feet over the next two months. Clean out any dead or crappy branches. Also at some point about half way thru I start to remove bottom leaves and thin out a bit. 90 percent of your harvest will be from the top. They will get super sticky if you do it right. Leaves on the bottom typically get little light and use up energy. Stressing your plant is part of the cycle. Basically the low light and leaves being cut off tells the plant fall is coming and I am struggling a bit so start to flower heavily to carry on my species.
And for God's sake, don't over fertilizer. Most soils are good by themself or only require a small amount of nutrients. I don't know how many people grew but get these crappy returns as they over fertilizer and as it hurts their growth, they keep think even more will make it better.
Anyhow this is just part of a good crop advice. Lots of videos. Mostly keep a clean room and other than water and a bit of love, you will get good crops.
Forgot one thing. Get feminized seeds. You can't have males. You don't even want your neighbors to have males. Burn their house.
“You don't even want your neighbors to have males. Burn their house.”
This is actually quite reasonable, IMO.
(No. Please don’t actually!)
I hope you’ll be able to get seeds and strains imported from the US and Canada. I smoked weed in Germany while I was living there in 2015 a few times and it was the worst weed I’ve ever smoked. It tasted weird, smelled bad, and didn’t even get me high. When I asked someone about it they were just like “weed isn’t as strong here as it is in the U.S.”
There are European based seed banks. Also they share a border with the Netherlands.
I think that's still up for debate. Let's see. But I haven't been smoking for quite some time, so maybe my first batch is fine being on the weak side
Have you smoked outside of Germany? I only ever smoked in Germany so I don’t know how it is anywhere else in Europe so maybe my experience is the problem, but I have friends who have come to the US and said weed is way stronger here.
No, only ever smoked in Germany. That would explain how it is shown in american media
2000 into my fully automated hydroponic weed factory. Another 500 to make my nutrient solutions from scratch. Mind you that 500 dollars when making from scratch likely last 20 years of crops. It does make a good 1.5 pounds of dry weed every 3 to 4 months with the for legal plants allowed in Canada. I barely smoke so give nearly all away.
Three year prior, harvested a crop down right before going to Mexico for three month trip. Was still some shoots barely growing so for shits and giggles I turn the lights back to 22 hours per day to see if they would go back to the veg state. Have camera so can watch it remotely. Shit starts fully growing like a new plant. Anyhow COVID puts a wrinkle in my return. Ended up in Mexico for 18 months. Over that time, thing kept growing like nuts. Automation on water replacement and nutrient injection along with pH monitoring. Became sort of a how long can this thing go with near zero human intervention. Had only to send my brother in law in three times to cut it down and refill my nutrient injectors from solutions I made before leaving.
Right? When you grow, you really get an appreciation for what an amazing, and resilient plant it is.
I used to grow, but never smoked except to taste my harvest. My spouse smoked daily and heavily. I didn’t, but I LOVED coming home from work to my grow room. It was so therapeutic! Still is, but I miss my old HPS & MH lights.
Well it is called weed for a reason. Is definately therapeutic for me too. I started with MH lights. Without question they resulted in a better crop. I am now all LED but I had to double the specified wattage equivalence. In other words if you're taking out a 1000 watt MH light, you need to put in 2000 watts of LED equivalence. More or less all the LED manufacturers lie when they state what the equivalence is for growing. Still worth it as you will save on power within two or three years and you are not dealing with excessive heat or burning your tops. I forgot about that full cost now that I think of it. Likely spent more than I said.