The issue is that business teaches people how to fish. People can take their own clones from the first clone. If you sell fancy fertilizer eventually people will realize they can get away with regular cheap dry amendments once they realize what they are actually doing with fertilizing.
Yep, you start off buying obscure soils and obsessing about ph levels and light and moisture and years later I use the cheapest 4-4-4 fertilizer I can find and water when I stick my finger in and it’s dry.
I get better product now than I used to. Mostly it’s about genetics anyway.
The number one bit of advice I give to new gardeners (my garden is pretty well developed) is ‘less is more’. Basically leave the plant alone as much as you can. Water deeply instead of frequently and use many seeds to start with whittling down to the best genetics.
For example for my 5 pumpkin plants I planted around 50 seeds from last year. Waited a couple weeks and then pulled the smaller plants. Do the same again a couple weeks later. Then when transplanting cull once more. Plant three in every hole. Two weeks later cull until there’s one plant in each spot.
Then for advanced mode you use the seeds from this selection process next year, and they get more and more adapted to your micro climate.
Is your view on this unique to marijuana or pretty much all plants? I'm looking to grow some berries but would love to avoid some rabbit holes that lead to nowhere. The 'less is more' concept is definitely appealing, but does that mean the latest wave of agtech startups optimizing every part of growth fall under the hype umbrella?
I’m really talking about pumpkins and gardening in general. Sorry I live in Oregon thus I don’t really think of cannabis as any different to other crop plants.
