I am guilty of starting too many new topics and asking questions that have been answered hundreds of times on the forum. Sorry.
My advice for new people like me is to read the Free Guide and Grow Bible.
All of your basic questions can be answered there.
And remember, don’t freak out if you fail. Gardening should be a relaxing hobby. Have fun. You may be out a few bucks for a seed and some nutrients, but nobody got hurt. And hopefully you learned something.
Read the book!
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Great advice.
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I did the same thing when I started two years ago. It takes a while to figure out the forum workings, learn how to find the available information, and use the search function.
Best to you!
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At least you realize what’s going on Some people never do But that’s understandable if you need any help just ask
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yeah the problem with me is i have researched and read myself into confusion. this forum helps me re-center my plan of action. i already know i have done the newbie thing but without totally newbing out i would have panicked and done something drastic and totally unnecessary and ruined my crop because i didnt ask for advice!
I dont think its newbie. I post questions because I want a simple answer as fast as possible without diving down a rabbit hole. Reading to much into it and your going to get in trouble. KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID. If i read up and answer my own questions why would I be here?
Because you’re a caveman on a quest for fire just like the rest of us. We pool knowledge in order to create the best cannabis possible.
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Not to mention those I have upset, but I am sorry I missed the memo.
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There is a lot of good info on the forum. Some of it great advice. Some ideas are questionable and that’s why I read up on answers.
I had a Chef in culinary school who would not have a review for tests or exams.
Instead, he would say “Read the -----ing book”. He was the Gordon Ramsey type. I didn’t like him, but he got me thinking. You could go into a college bookstore and buy a book on any subject. Read the book and answer questions at the end of each chapter. If your going into business for yourself you don’t need a degree. Reading gardening books will make you a better gardener.
It takes a lot of knowledge and research to publish a book. Anyone can post anything in a few minutes without any scientific study or research to back it up.
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To share with others, pay it forward, if no other reason to share a valuable memory before it is lost.
Many do, I think.
and as @gooch99 said
I actually read and practiced RE-veging both outdoors and indoors, after reading forum with undecided directions.
Then there was the FFOF soil PH crashing I read about but didnt escape until I surrender a grow for dolomite lime.
I read to head off potential problems or expand knowledge base. Sharing that, in print, forces me to think.
Thats a trick test at my age and worse after smoking.
Carry on.
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It’s fun to see other people growing the same cultivar as me. You can see into the future. Will my Bruce Banner produce freaky traits like other people experienced? One of them was but the new growth is starting to look normal. Someone here is growing the Sour Diesel from ILGM. That was my first grow too and it came out great despite all my blunders. It’s fun to share. Even though I like to do my own research, there are concepts that are specific to growing cannabis that are discussed here that I hadn’t thought of. Especially with an indoor grow.
The free guide is just a click away. Easy read.
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Great info @Gooch99
Sometimes you need to hear the answer in a different way to understand it. Reading the book is a great way to start, but nothing wrong with supplementing that with others explanations. I do like your opening thoughts on too many topics started. I posted a thread a while back encouraging all of us to try helping people stick with a single topic/thread for their grow. When someone starts a new topic for each and every new question then we all ask the same things over and over. Nobody wants to fill out a support ticket 20 times.
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Forums are made for questions, even repetitively asked questions.
If all that info was pinned above all topics as to read first, it takes away a valuable forum asset, allowing its members the chance to pay it forward by helping others learn and getting acquainted.
Anyone ever notice, advice that is shared, rarely given as a “know it all” attitude. Thats what impresses me about this place.
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Absolutely agreed. Most smart people know that there is a lot that they don’t know. We ask questions. Stupid people know everything. There are a lot of smart people here. I’m here because I want to get to the level of the ten-to-twenty-year vets without having to wait 20 years. I see a lot of regulars lending their advice without being condescending. Great vibe!
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i did the same as well. took a while, but i finally landed a spot here with a certain inner circle of growers. now i just direct any questions to a few unlucky members 
. Pretty cool how you eventually settle in with a particular crowd. kinda like in school. welcome to ilgm, and look forward to seeing you grow with these fine people. Feel free to ask or post whatever you like atPR’s continuing grow adventures and member’s hub. Happy holidays to ya !
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This 
You and I often post the same ideas for the newer folks within seconds of one-another, but often say the same things in slightly different ways. It seems to work well.
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I didn’t see any of what you are referring to, but you have become a great contributor.
Some of the better members of the forum got off to a rough start. I suspect that some of them may have believed that what they read on rollitup, for instance, is acceptable here. The members and the moderators here have turned the forum into a finely tuned education forum, with none of the nonsense tolerated on other forums.
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I’m getting a little better at navigating throughout the forum. Here is one problem I’m having when I have a question. Where is the best place to post it. For example, if I had a seedling on its third set of leaves and they started to turn yellow and curl. There could be many causes. Should I post my question in seedling? Mabey it’s a nutrient problem, I’ll post it there. Then again, maybe I screwed up germination, I’ll post it there. When you don’t know what it is that you don’t know, it is hard to ask a question. I have seen posting instructions on other forums that seemed to help out a lot. A sentence or two at the top explaining what you should post here. Example, Germination - Post only questions, answers and observations about the germination process here. Seedling - post qeustions, answers and observations about your plants when they have three or more sets of leaves. Something like that.
The only other forum I belonged to was part of an online course you had to pay for. There were 100 or more lectures. If you posted a question that you should know the answer to the moderator would politely post a link to the chapter and lesson. Some friendly members would give you a short answer and then mention the lesson. That’s a bit too harsh for this forum. Thank you everyone. I’m learning and loving the vibe around here.
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The best way to learn on a grow is to start a grow journal. It will form a history of the plant and those that follow along will be predominantly seasoned growers. We wont ask you the same questions repeatedly because we will know the story. If you begin a new topic for each issue then we get lost in the stream of things and basically start over by asking things you have already posted in another thread.
Look for this spot to start a journal. I will set my account to follow and several others will too.
You can tag others to follow by using the @ symbol before their name like this… @Spiney_norman
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Thanks for that great tip. I will try that now.
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