Hey FooDoo!
Thanks for stopping in and for commenting. Your rooted cutting above looks great and sounds like you are very happy with the results you are getting. That is Awesome! :)
I wanted to take this opportunity to share something that has been on my mind.
Much of what I originally learned when I was getting started was from guys like BudGoggles, FarmerEd and other early CCUC pioneers on the farm. Many of which are no longer here. I am very grateful for the contribution those guys have made to my gardens without knowing it. They helped me avoid so many common mistakes by sharing those mistakes transparently and the solutions they discovered to prevent those problems from happening again.
The growing community has evolved at a breakneck pace in the last 5 years when compared to the previous 40 years and that pace of evolution is only going to increase. My goal for getting involved in this forum or any other forum is to learn. To learn from you as well as my fellow growers, not be talked down to, judged or any other behavior that doesn't result in lifting the community up.
I would like to engage, attract and participate in a community of intelligent, well informed and educated people who are not only growers like you or I, they are innovators, scientists, botanists, horticulturists, builders, and educators that are willing to come here and participate in such a way that it helps all of us evolve to the next level. Those people are not going to come here and engage if they don't feel that there is something in it for them. That means elevating the quality of the conversation.
A rising tide lifts all ships! This metaphor I have found to be especially true here on the farm. We can show up here on this site anyway we so choose and we will be engaged and respected in accordance with how we show up. For some people that matters, for some it doesn't.
For people like me, I am here to learn and evolve to be the best grower that I can be as quickly as possible. We all have a reason.
Cannabis is going to get legalized nationally and along with legalization will come many changes. Many good, not all will be good or liked by this community. Especially when it comes to regulation.
With legalization comes more people like me and maybe you who are attracted to growing and seek to participate in forums like this to not only stay relevant today, but be cutting edge moving into the future. Many old school underground growers don't want legalization or change. They don't like the competition. They don't see evolution as a good things, they have other drivers which motivate them.
Why do I want to be cutting edge? Why do I want to experiment, share and learn from others? Why do I want to share quality information and encourage others to contribute quality information? Why do we want to learn best practices, understand new products and share our findings here on the farm?
Because I don't want to rely on a guy making $12/hr in the local grow shop to guide me in my education, practices, purchases, and results. I don't want to rely on a equipment and nutrient industry that is heavily incentivized to sell me a $350 product when a $43 dollar product will produce the same results or better. Because quality attracts quality. I want to learn from you based on your experience about a product or technique that you have personally tried and discovered that it didn't work as promised. Because I want to trust what you share to be fact, true, to not have an agenda, be contributed from a place of ego.
Most of all I want to learn from you as to how I can avoid very costly mistakes and maximize my results.
Looking at the bigger picture.... Washington, Colorado, Oregon, and Alaska are states coming on line with legalization. That means risk is going down and the quality of people who will be growing will be increasing. I personally would like to support an environment on the farm that becomes a place where we don't belittle each other or talk down to each other but rather, lift each other up to be our best selves.
