This is my third attempt to sit down and write about what happened to me, it's really difficult but I feel I owe it to the forum to share my experience after having gained so much from UK420.
Hopefully, some of you out there will learn from my stupidity and avoid the mistakes I made. Here we go.
A few months ago I was given a 400w hps which belonged to my sister's ex. Me and the missus decided to have a shot at a grow, she has arthritis in both knees and is waiting for surgery, she can't walk or stand for more than a few minutes and I've had to quit work to help to look after her, we found that having weed helped with her pain somewhat, more importantly it helped to pass the time and stopped us going mad with frustration at not being able to go anywhere or do anything.
We've been stuck in limbo for months and months, marking time, waiting for the NHS to get round to helping her. We found weed to be a great help and support, keeping Mrs Robot calm and providing a bit of distraction from the shitty hand she has been dealt. She is on DLA and I have no income, so being permanently skint we got fucking sick of paying through the nose for shitty green, so the decision was made. A grow of our own.
We didn't know what we were doing so we had a quick look round the net for advice, ordered the cheapest seeds we could get hold of, got some pots and some John Innes. The seeds arrived, and we were off. Neither of us really knowing what to expect.
We germinated 3 seeds, got them into pots and set them up under the light in our storage cupboard. To start with, we fucked up. The pots were too small and the plants suffered, none of the american grow sites we'd looked at really mentioned or emphasized the importance of potting on. Then I found UK420 and we realised what was wrong. We repotted and the plants recovered beautifully, and grew, and grew, and grew!
They showed sex. All female! What a result for a first time grow, we were well chuffed, but starting to worry about the smell. By this time we had 3 four footers in our cupboard, with the odour growing stronger every day. You could smell it all over the flat and whiffs of it were seeping out of our front door.
It worried me, but at this time you could only smell it if you were standing right near our front door, I told myself that nobody would notice or care, stuck a rolled up towel to the gap under the door, got some air freshener, and carried on.
A couple more weeks went by, our girls were flowering well, and I got my first inkling of disaster. I was speaking to this bloke who had been visiting a flat in my block. Out of the blue he says ''I reckon someone's growing buds in your block mate you can smell it all over the hallway.''
After a long sleepless night I went out and bought a load of masking tape and attempted to seal up the front door with it, as well as setting up a fan to try and blow the smell back into the flat I also bought some strong, pungent smelling disinfectant called Zoflora, and took to sneaking out at night and sprinkling it around the lobby like holy water, trying to mask the smell.
It didn't really work, the smell was increasing all the time as the buds grew. I should have taken the grow down there and then but we were a month away from chopping and I just couldn't do it. We kept going, praying for our luck to hold out for just a few more weeks.
A couple more weeks passed, i was in the local shop and one of the staff (who I went to school with) came up to me saying ''who's growing killer weed in your block mate? fuckin stinks you can smell it in vicky's flat'' (the flat directly above mine).
Well obviously I was paranoid as fuck but we were less than two weeks from cropping. We'd already cropped the smallest weakest plant early and the other two were looking beautiful. We'd also planted two more from bagseed and were growing them on 12-12 to see what happened. Just a few more days. Surely noone would bust us now?
Another week passes and we crop our second biggest plant, and hang it. By this time we were feeling extremely pleased with ourselves, we were looking at a possible 5-6 ounce yield on our first grow!
Friday 30th October, around ten to three in the afternoon, I was fast asleep in the bedroom, the missus was sitting in the living room having a spliff.
BANG BANG BANG BANG!
She ignored the door, but the knocking goes on for ages. Next thing she knew there was a policeman and our housing officer standing at the balcony door, staring in at her. Stoned and blindsided, she went to the door and opened it.
The housing officer did the talking, saying that she'd been informed that we were growing or smoking it in the flat and asking to come in and look in the cupboard. Not knowing what to do, she let them in, and that was it, game over, we were fucked.
''Mick''
SNORE
''Mick!''
''Whaaaa?''
''The police are here, they know about the grow''
Not a very nice way to be woken up, believe me!
Stumbling out of the bedroom in my pants to find a housing officer and a copper staring at me, 4 feet away from our stinking grow cupboard really isn't going to go down as a high point in my life. Copper asks me where the plants are and I open up the cupboard. You should have seen the cunt's face light up!
Long story short, he calls in for a van and another sergeant shows up. They take the plants, my light, the drying crop hanging up, two grinders and the potted remnants of the two plants that we'd already chopped. We're told to appear the next day at the police station. The housing officer tells us we'll be hearing from her, and they were gone, leaving me not the smallest bit of trim to roll up and calm our nerves.
Yesterday we went for the interview, he got Mrs Robot in first and me straight after, making sure that we didn't speak to each other when she came out and I went in. Not a problem as we already had our stories straight and it was an open and shut thing. I was questioned as to why? how? were you planning to sell it? All that bollocks. I managed to keep my composure and give him frank honest answers. I came away feeling cautiously hopeful that we'd get off with a caution.
The bigger worry is that the housing association will evict us, we've got some serious fast talking and arse kissing to do but I'm inclined to think that with Mrs Robot's medical problems and the fact that it wasn't a roomful of plants, we'll get off with a final warning. Fingers crossed!
So now here I am, two days ago I was nearing the end of a wildly successful first grow and had enough smoke to last until the new year, last night I spent half an hour picking tiny bits off the carpet to scrape together enough for a bong hit. Crazy how fast things change!
I'm veering between feeling angry, depressed, lost, defiant, guilty and terrified. I've enjoyed growing more than I've enjoyed anything for years, I'd love to try again, and use my brain this time, but I doubt Mrs Robot will ever let me after what's happened. I'm right back at the bottom of the food chain again, scrabbling round kowtowing to lowlives, paying ten pound a gram for underweight, shit weed, and it really is a bitter, bitter pill to swallow.
I know it's bad netiquette, but....
IF YOU'RE READING THIS, AND CONSIDERING A GROW, YOU HAVE TO GET A CARBON FILTER. YOU HAVE TO ERADICATE THE SMELL. THIS IS NOT OPTIONAL, PEOPLE WILL SMELL IT, YOU WILL BE GRASSED, YOU WILL BE CAUGHT. I THOUGHT I DIDN'T NEED IT. NOW I'VE GOT NO WEED, I COULD END UP IN COURT AND COULD LOSE MY FLAT.
GET THAT FILTER
![:\](https://bluelight.org/xf/BL_Images/Orig_Emoji/wrygrin.gif "wry grin :\")