When I was 15, I got my first electric guitar.  My dad was my guitar teacher.  I asked my dad, “how long will it take before I can play as well as you?”  Here was his answer:  “If you play an hour a day, it will take you 10 years.  If you play 4 hours a day, it will take you 2 & 1/2 years.”  Guess what TheCapn did?  He came home from school every day, and played from the time he got home, until the time he went to bed, or until his fingers bled.  I never played as well as my dad, but by the time I was 18, I was sneaking into bars, doing “gigs” with a bunch of 30 year old dudes.

My point is, the more you grow, the better grower you will be.  As Scotty once said, “If you want to be a better grower, grow a lot!

Grow “perpetual”

I run a perpetual grow, and while running “Capn Style”, each plant is it’s own “grow”.  “Perpetual” means, to run multiple plants in different stages of growth.  So, instead of putting 3 plants in flower at once, and waiting two months, you would put a new plant into flower every 21 days, or similar.

Let’s compare a perpetual grower, to a traditional grower:

“JonnySmokeItUp” has both a vegetative growth room, and a flowering room.  He puts 3 plants into flower every 9 weeks.  He takes clones from these large plants, right before putting them into flower, and grows out the clones while his other 3 are flowering.  9 weeks later, he harvests the 3 plants, cleans out the room, and then puts three plants from Veg, into flower.  Rinse and repeat.  Jonny is making good use of his flowering real estate, because he has plants ready to flower every 9 weeks.  But here’s the problem.  It takes Jonny 3 days to chop 3 plants, another day to clean up and move the new plants into flower.  For every flowering cycle, Jonny is wasting 3-4 days.  Over a year, that’s 23 days of no productivity.  Jonny runs 7 “grows” a year.

“MrGreenThumb” runs a “perpetual” grow.  Greenthumb also has 3 plants in flower, and three plants in VEG.  However, GreenThumb harvests a plant every 3 weeks.  He puts a new plant into flower every 3 weeks, and chops down the plant that has been in flower for 9 weeks, all in one day.  He misses NO flowering time.   That’s 17+ “grows” a year.

Not only is MrGreenThumb producing slightly more product, after three years, GT has run 52 grows.  While Jonny has only run 21.  They have both been growing for three years… but who do you think is the more experienced grower?

It takes Jonny 9 weeks to determine if his nutrient recipe was good, or should be tweaked.  It takes 9 weeks for Jonny to know if he topped and trained his plants efficiently.  Jonny waits 9 weeks to see the results of “tweaking” anything.  GreenThumb, on the other hand, is running 3 grows at one time.  He sees results more often, and sooner, than Jonny.  In addition, his routine is much less intensive.  Instead of being overwhelmed with 3 plants to chop, dry and cure, he only has one, every 3 weeks.  GreenThumb also runs a much more efficient, and smaller vegetative growth room.  Since he has three plants of different sizes, he can balance out the light, rather than have 3 huge plants, starving for light in weeks 7-9.

A perpetual veg room.  One fresh cut clone, one 3 weeks of growth, and one almost ready to flower.  Pretend those seedlings don’t exist.

Grow a lot of stuff:

Grow banana trees, grow flowers, grow a garden.  The more stuff you grow, the more you will learn.  Here I am cloning some exceptional Coleus.  If you haven’t grown Coleus before, do it!  They are gorgeous plants.

If you haven’t grown Coleus before, do it!  They are gorgeous plants. Look at those crazy roots, growing in air.

Try different growing methods:  Dirt, coco, rockwool; they all have their pros and cons.  You never know; you may like one more than another.

Roots, grown with “recharge” in rockwool grow cubes.

Get a mentor:  Find a grower who is “killing it”.  Do what they do.  Follow their growing style and techniques.  Ask them questions.  Get their nutrient recipe.  Don’t follow the advice 10 different growers; follow the advice of one or two.

Exceptional for this strain.  Did the Mendocino Avalanche do it?  You’ll have to try it to find out.

Most of all, STUDY.  I studied for a year before I ever planted my first seed.  After that, I read for at least two hours, every night.  Go old school.  Read Jorge Cervantes and Ed Rosenthal.  Listen to the DudeGrows show.  Read everything you can get your hands on.  And don’t just read about growing pot.  Read about trees, bushes, plants; it’s all related.

One BlueDream, perfectly scrogged under a 600W light.  Notice the even spacing between branches.

BlueDream, 10 weeks later.