My First Grow - RQS Quick One Automatic

What a week! So, the day after I last updated my diary, I noticed a shit ton of aphids on my leaves. And I mean nearly all the leaves. So much that I panicked and harvested the plant first thing monday morning! Harvesting went okay. I followed the tutorial from growweedeasy and it helped me a lot! The harvest had dried for 4 days and is now curing in jars I couldn't harvest all buds/flowers though. Because I panicked with the aphids, I wanted to cut the plant all in one go. This caused some buds to still be unfinished and unfortunately not useable. Some buds were also thrown away when there were aphids on there and I didn't feel like I could remove all of them. This, together with the not idea growing course I had caused the harvest to be quite slim. I am still happy though. This grow gave me much experience and teached me a lot on what to change next time. Don't have too many pictures this time to show for it due to me not thinking about pictures when doing stuff. Since this is my first strain I cannot compare it to others. However this journey taught me a lot about what it takes to grow yourself. I have collected a few items that I've learned and put them in a list. I learnt a lot more than this, but these are the things that are (to me) no always that obvious before I started growing. - When you fill the pot with soul, keep some clearance to the brim of the pot. When the plant grows, you can add more soil if the bottom leaves are high above the soil level. This will make the plant more stable in the wind, and gives it possible opportunities to grow more roots - When you plant the seed directly into the soil, and it doesn't sprout after 7-8 days, dig it up carefully. It might be stuck under there alive. Dig it up and replant it carefully - When you water the plant after it has sprouted, water it around the stem in a circle so the roots will seek water, forcing it to grow more roots to be able to absorb more stuff when it's bigger - A regular light bulb doesn't give sufficient light. Use a grow light, TL light, studio light, ... and put it close (about 5-10cm) to the plant - It's normal for the plant to "hang/droop" in the evening. It's tired after a whole day of growing - Be careful when you put the pot on your lawn. If you have many insects in the grass they can climb the plant and start eating. - You can wrap the pot with tin foil or a white cloth on warm sunny days to prevent the soil from heating to much - If you're feeling that the plant is still very short after 5-6 weeks, don't worry. It will grow tremendously in the two-week stretch period - Keep an eye out for insects and stuff (snails, leaf miners, ...). Spiders and ladybugs are friends, all others are bad. Thorougly inspect your plants at least every week! - Take stuff like harvesting times on the data sheet of your strain with a grain of salt if you're not going sweaty with your grow. They are not wrong, but some values change depending on the environment of your grow. Meaning plants can be smaller or take a longer time to grow if your conditions are not ideal. - Universal fertiliser is great for vegetation phase, but for the flowering phase it's better to use something with a higher PK with respect to N. - Harvesting buds takes time. Plan a afternoon to cut and trim your tree - Growing is a part of making your own product. After your plant has finished growing it still takes at least a month for the product to be completely ready (drying and curing) - Think about making pictures with many steps you take - Having the right soil, nutrients, light schedule etc.. is key for your grow. You can absolutely freewheel it. But it will really show in your harvest quantity and quality Thanks @Kenethica, @Cookie_Monster and @Mr_ROCKET for the help and everyone else for the support! I hope to see you all in my next grow!