All New Growers Need This...And Experienced Ones Too!

I recently came across this at my local shop The Chronic Gardener's Professional Grow Journal Its a journal to keep track of everything in your garden. I always used a calender to keep track of everything but this thing works so much better. The guy at my shop told me its a really small company so they may not be all over yet, but you can order them from their website for $14.99 shipped and it lasts for 6 months. I tried to post some pics but they don't seem to want to work. I am going to keep trying though becuase the pics on their site just don't do this thing justice www.thechronicgardener.com

There are spots for ppm, ph, humidity, temps, and res temps plus daily notes. It also has places for all the nutrients you used and how much of each one you used. It is a fill in the blank kind of thing so you don't even have to think. It tells you what you need to track and you just fill in the boxes.

There is also a ph chart and measurment conversion chart. It even has a plae for harvest notes and when you bought/need to replace your bulbs, carbon filters, etc.
I always tell new growers, and even experienced ones, TAKE NOTES! Finally a company agrees with me and has made this book. I have over 6 years experience and this book still works great for me so its not just for the newbies. After finding this thing I will never go back to using a calender again.

Why not take 10 minutes, set up a spreadsheet, and be done with it.

Girdweed said:

Why not take 10 minutes, set up a spreadsheet, and be done with it.

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Maybe ten minutes of his time is worth more than 15 bucks....maybe he makes 90+ dollars an hour

I duno about anyone else but I've never needed to write down anything or keep track of how long the grow has been going on. I do quite fine.

Nusky said:

I duno about anyone else but I've never needed to write down anything or keep track of how long the grow has been going on. I do quite fine.

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Depends on if I was involved in a breeding project...If I'm just growing smoke, i might take a few notes on new strains..."Light Nutes" or something along those lines in case I plan on growing it again.

You're right. I could make a spread sheet in 10 minutes. However, after printing the 90 pages its going to take to match the 6 months in this book, I will have spent like $10 in ink, $3 on paper, money on electricity, plus my time to print all that stuff. That makes it like the same price. Plus it has a nice hard cover on it that is glossy so I'm sure it will resist water. Which means if I get it a little wet it wont ruin the whole thing. It's also spiral bound so its much more durable than a stapled spread sheet.
If you're talking about keeping a spread sheet on you're computer than you're just nuts! Why would you leave anything on your computer that anyone could find. Why leave evidence anywhere besides with all your plants. If you keep all your notes on your phone and you lose it, then what? If you keep it all on a computer and something happens, what are you going to do?
And to the guy who said he doesn't keep any notes...if you can remember everything you did years ago in your garden, then keep doing what you are doing. But personally I forget what I did 4 years ago when I had a problem or how much of what pesticide I used 2 years. Its nice to be able to look back and see how things turned out. You may think you are getting better results but really don't know because you have nothing to compare it to. You can't remember what you yielded 7 harvests ago.
Every good gardener keeps notes. It was even in Maximum Yield magazine how important keeping notes are. How are you going to perfect your grow if you don't keep notes?

Grow buddy app on my Droid is what I use.

I prefer to forget everything between grows so I gota relearn it all everytime lol.

jk sounds like a cool idea be careful could be used as evidence.

last time I grew was about 2 years ago, I grew one plant that yielded 4.5 ounces, I followed the feeding schedule exactly. Whats the point of knowing how much pesticide you used? Each time would be different. Theres just no need to have a book telling you what you did. Even if you went back and grew the same plant, each seed is different. If you're buying clones, they have many mother plants and each will be different. If you can't remember what week you're on, you need to stop smoking so much pot.

Having it on your computer or having it in paper, either way you wouldn't be able to destroy it before the cops knock down your door and confiscate it.

If you grow one plant every two years you probably wouldn't need to take notes. If you're satisfied with the results you get following a feed chart exactly than great. But for those of us who are trying to get the best from our garden, we usually don't follow the feed chart exactly. For instance I have found that the Fox Farm solubles work much better than the Hydroplex in the Botanicare line I use. Bloombastic works much better as well, so I use those. There is no feed chart for how to mix those nutes with a diffent brand of base nutrients, so I had to figure it out. If I didn't take notes I would have no idea what worked and what didn't.
I have used a bunch of different nutrient lines, and when you're getting almost 6 harvests a year, and you've been doing that for the past 4 years, plus like 3-4 grows a year for 2 years before that, you can't remember what you did all the time and what results you got. I have found that most nutrient feeding charts have WAY too high of a ppm. My plants do better at a max of 1200ppm, but if I follow the Botanicare feed chart exactly I'm closer to 2000ppm. Some plants require more or less of certain nutrients during their life. There is no single feeding chart for every single strain in every single garden. If you're temps are higher or lower than mine, then you need to run a different ppm than me. If you're growing sativas and I'm growing indicas, you need to run a different ppm. If you have water with a higher or lower starting ppm, you need to add different nutes to compensate for that.
If you use the same pesticide, the amount you mix will be the same. A lot of my plants can't handle certain kinds of sprays at full strength. If I haven't used it in a year I want to look back and see how much I mixed so it didn't burn my plants. If I just follow the bottle I may ruin my garden.
Many growers don't buy clones or seeds for each grow, the keep mothers around. This way they can take some notes, learn their strains, and get the best results out of each one. I haven't run an entire grow with new seeds or clones in years. I will add one or two plants, maybe 5 at most, of new strains because I don't know if that strain or the pheno I get will be up to my expectations and I don't want a garden full of garbage.
If the cops knock down your door you have a lot more to worry about than whats in a book. You better get rid of those plants real quick, thats the real evidence. I never heard of anyone getting arrested for what was written in their journal without physical evidence of what they were talking about. If you have plants a book is the least of your worries. On your computer though you could get caught just by some random person finding the info. But with a book, it is with your plants. So no one is going to find it unless they are already in your garden. You are aready busted once they find the plants. They can't charge you with grows that you wrote about anyway, only the one that they found. You are not going to get any extra years for taking notes.

People like you Nusky are why I haven't been on this board in years. You're a mod and telling people not to take notes. You're telling people to just follow the feed chart exactly. That doesn't work everytime. I'm glad it worked for you on one plant 2 years ago, but it's not the norm. Most people who follow a feed chart exactly fry their plants. I will most likely never be back to this forum after seeing the people they allow to be a mod. You're suppose to be a trusted source of quality info but you have made yourself out to look like a fool. The first post says make a spreadsheet. So while he's not going to buy this book, he is still smart enough to take notes. Another guy uses an app on his phone and another said he'd take notes on new strains and stuff. So out of all the people on here, its you, the mod, who is telling people not to take notes and to follow the feed chart exactly. This is the type of attitude and misinformation that caused me to stop posting on this board in the first place. Have fun ruining peoples gardens Nusky.

bongrippinbob said:

People like you Nusky are why I haven't been on this board in years. You're a mod and telling people not to take notes. You're telling people to just follow the feed chart exactly. That doesn't work everytime. I'm glad it worked for you on one plant 2 years ago, but it's not the norm. Most people who follow a feed chart exactly fry their plants. I will most likely never be back to this forum after seeing the people they allow to be a mod. You're suppose to be a trusted source of quality info but you have made yourself out to look like a fool. The first post says make a spreadsheet. So while he's not going to buy this book, he is still smart enough to take notes. Another guy uses an app on his phone and another said he'd take notes on new strains and stuff. So out of all the people on here, its you, the mod, who is telling people not to take notes and to follow the feed chart exactly. This is the type of attitude and misinformation that caused me to stop posting on this board in the first place. Have fun ruining peoples gardens Nusky.

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You're the one making a book about growing and then spamming it on here. You said it your self, you don't visit this website any more. So you decided to make a (crappy) book and then spam it on here. I never said not to take notes, I said I never needed to. I've grown many pot plants and many regular plants hydroponically and never needed a book. I've never needed to look back at what I did. If it works for you, then good for you. But you can do the same thing on a computer for free. Plus if you're that worried that someone will find it (you'd be an idiot to not being able to hide it properly, plus YOU'RE GROWING, THEY'RE GOING TO FIND YOUR GROW BEFORE THE BOOK) you could use a rootkit to hide it. Rootkits were first made for the simple reason of hiding things like porn from your family. Cops are too stupid to find rootkits even with forensics. Or there are several encryption options available, a lot are free and use military grade encryption that would take 50+ years of constant cracking to crack.

If you're only growing a few different strains from a mother and can't remember what you did with that plant before, you gotta stop smoking pot. Your brain is fried.

Stop spamming this board with your for profit, overly expensive grow log. Do what normal people do and ask for link exchanges on websites, get proper META tags, and try to sell it at hydro stores. Don't spam my forum with your bull shit over priced book that could be replaced with an excel data sheet. You're lucky I don't have this whole thread erased.

How about this, I make an excel spread sheet with EVERYTHING your book has, and then release it for free. Or I can program a program in visual basic that does exactly what your program does and then release it for free. Hell, I don't even know PHP but I could make a free, fully encrypted website that doesn't log ANY information and does exactly the same thing your book does, for free. Watch out who you try to troll, or you'll have major competition. I actually know how to start a website without spamming it.

bongrippinbob said:

Why would you leave anything on your computer that anyone could find. Why leave evidence anywhere besides with all your plants. If you keep it all on a computer and something happens, what are you going to do?

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I didn't take that into account. Living in a legal state and following the state laws makes the computer a handy tool.

I'm typing on it now.

Keeping notes appears to be critical, though I'm very new to growing.

I even have a journal on a website asking for help.

Looks like a nice product. Raining on this thread was never my intention. Glad it works well for ya!