Hay smell comes from several things starting with the genetics. With proper genetics it gives you more wiggle room to be a newbie. With unknown genetics it's a crap shoot as to what you will get. However if you track the seeds from super dank weed chances are they are good genetics. So go ahead and start with your best bag seeds. It's a fun way to learn different techniques and see the plants react. Just don't bank on them or count your chickens. Order good known seeds from good breeders that have Chem break downs of the genetics. No guess work then but you will be spending 5-20 US dollar per seed on feminized so your going to be blowing a few hundred. See bag seeds are a great way to start! Save some cash on bag seeds till your bag seed crop comes in then order seeds and grow them while you toke the bag seed harvest.
Next thing is plant growth during veg. You want vigorous green growth every step of the way. There are things you can do to help this take place. Good soil, good pot with drainage (in hydro same thing but with set up and nutes)
Water can be tap but make sure to vent it for 48 hrs at least ph one of the filled gallons in not all to ph up or down. You can go totally anal with water and ph but remember they drink a lot over 4 months and doing multiple steps can get annoying any you not doing them. So make a realistic expectation you will follow and do.
Lights and temp must be dialed in. To far away=spindly to close= light burn. Also temp can be higher in veg but keep it within 75-90. Of course the butter zone is in the middle. Keep humidity around 70 to 80.
Keep a very close eye on the leaves for signs of bugs, disease, nute problems, ph ect. Just spend time with them every day training be a useful the goal is to have everything a
perpetual harvest. So there's always plants flowering, vegging and cloning or seedlings so there will be a fair amount to keep up with. If you just take time with them and pay attention then you can spot problems and correct them before it becomes a threat to the plant or crop.
Then comes flower and this is where you must get strict. The plant will be focusing all vitality towards the buds so the canopy must be maintained to support all the bud requirements. If you keep it in good shape then the buds will grow nice. The more stress it has durrimg.ca this time will greatly impact your final harvest.
It's like saving money. Your goal is 1000 in 100 days so you must save 10 a day to meet that goal. If you do bad here and there and only save 2 or 3 dollars a day you will be short. The more times you mess up the less you have.
If you mess up on watering, nutes, pests, light, soil, genetics or any part any day then you will be short. Sounds difficult and scary and it is the difference between award winning 1 hit wonder weed and brown dirt weed riddled with seeds that makes you caught to tears and displace a lung is HUGE. ITS up to you!
Remember if temperature to hot in flower and it will bake off terpens causing a hay smell.
The last 2 things to worry about is drying and curing and believe it or not they are just about as important as the grow phase because it's lasts for at least 2 months. Anything short of C quality (average job on all growing responsibilities on A to F grade scale) will result in hay smelling weed.
If you can at least do good on the dry and cure though you can still pull off an ok smoke.
It's easy to grow weed but expensive, time consuming and a learning process to grow 1 hit wonder weed.
Don't beat yourself up and give up because weed is easy and fun to grow on any level. 1 plant by a window or in a closet with a light or commercially with Co2 and full automation. If you grow the plant correctly and keep it healthy she will reward you with good bud.
