There’s nothing quite as soul destroying as genuinely putting your heart and soul into a cannabis growing endeavour, only to watch the whole thing come crashing down before getting anything out of it whatsoever. It’s not as if anyone sets about the process of growing marijuana with the intention of failing, but each and every day, thousands do exactly that.

Why? Well, given the fact that you and you alone have full control over everything that happens with your own cultivation project, this in turn means that when things go wrong, it’s all your fault. Much as this may be a bitter pill to swallow, it nonetheless drives home the importance of being thoughtful, proactive, sensible and mindful at all times.

Not only this, but it also emphasises the importance of making sure that you personally do not fall foul of any of the most common mistakes made by novice cannabis growers. After all – what’s the sense in learning from your own mistakes, when you can just as easily learn from the mistakes already made by thousands of others?

So with this in mind, what follows is a quick rundown of probably the 10 biggest and most common rookie errors made by vast numbers of newcomers to cannabis cultivation every day. No need to thank us just remember who was looking out for you!

1. Over Watering

The first entry to the list is probably the most obvious and predictable of all.  Even those with no experience growing cannabis whatsoever are usually aware of the fact that over watering isn’t a good idea. Nevertheless, overwhelmed by the desire to grow strong plants and give them as much of the good stuff as possible, over watering remains the number one killer of cannabis crops worldwide. If the top few inches of soil are not largely dry, chances are it doesn’t need any more water at all.

2. Blabbing

Regardless of whether or not you live in a country where growing marijuana  at home is legal, it still isn’t necessarily a good idea to tell too many people about your plans. Why?  It’s simple really – chances are there’s no way in hell they will keep quiet. And when they tell people, chances are the people they tell will also tell other people. Before you know it, word travels either to somebody who will quite happily rip you off while you sleep, or bust your ass and throw you in the slammer. Either way, pointless – not to mention easily avoidable.

3. Disturbing Germinating Seeds

Just because it usually takes just a couple of days for seeds to sprout does not mean you won’t occasionally have to wait for closer to 10 days. The simple fact of the matter is that if you do not give your seeds long enough to germinate before prodding, poking and summarily giving up on them, you are giving up way too early. If you buy quality marijuana seeds, the actual chances of any of them not germinating properly is spectacularly low – you just have to have enough patience to ride it out.

4. Growing Males

The only thing worse than cannabis plants that will and die before reaching maturity is growing a crop of stunning cannabis plants that produce pretty much nothing worth smoking. Nevertheless, so many newcomers will find themselves (for one reason or another) in possession of some random cannabis seeds, only to go investing tirelessly in a growing effort that results in jack. If you set out with the wrong gender in the first place, you really are wasting your time.

5. Too Much Fertiliser 

Just as is the case with water, there is very much such a thing as too much of a good thing when it comes to fertilisers. Even if you are using the most fantastic quality fertiliser on the market, this doesn’t mean that you need to stick a load of fertiliser in with every single watering. Exactly how much fertilise you require will vary in accordance with what you are growing, the growing method you have chosen and various other factors. Follow any guidelines you have from responsible sources to the letter.

6. Poor Lighting

Will cannabis plants survive and grow under any normal household lightbulb?  They will, but your chances of actually coming out of the endeavour with anything you can smoke are somewhere around zero. For so many novice growers, the idea of investing in any kind of professional equipment with which to grow their crop seems nonsensical. In reality however, it’s not nearly as nonsensical as attempting to grow cannabis plants without the right provisions and tools. They don’t use the right equipment, they fail and summarily give up altogether – somewhat on the tragic side to say the least.

7. Ignoring Air Quality

The fact that you cannot see the air around you in any given indoor growing environment means that it is naturally something that goes overlooked.  Unfortunately, stagnant air represents one of the most common killers of cannabis crops – even if you are making all the right moves in every other department. You don’t have to get carried away when it comes to the provision of fresh air, but simply ensure there is plenty of movement and circulation using fans, extractors, filters and so on if necessary.

8. Starting Too Early

Logic might tell you that if you are growing outdoors, the earlier you get started, the bigger and better the buds will be. In reality however, to start too early is to run the risk of putting your plants to work outdoors only for them to be completely and utterly annihilated by a freak frost or cold snap. Even if this doesn’t result in your plants being killed entirely, it will have a detrimental impact on the way they develop going forward.

9. Harvesting Too Early

The same also goes for harvesting too early…at least, in the fact that it is also a terrible idea. It’s inevitable that you will not be able to resist the urge to grab at least a couple of buds while they’re still growing, just to see how your work is coming along. Nevertheless, to harvest too early is to significantly dilute both the potency and flavour quality of the buds you’ve worked so hard to produce.

10. Lack Of Space

Last but not least, space must be considered at all times throughout the growing process in a number of capacities. If you plan to grow in containers, try to remember that their size will have a direct impact on the resulting size and strength of your plants. When growing cannabis plants in shared containers, placing them too close together can have disastrous consequences. Insufficient space in an indoor growing environment can lead to rapid degradation of air quality, attempting to dry buds hung too closely together can be risky to say the least and so on and so forth. Space matters, so bear it in mind.