It’s healthy to question everything from time to time, isn’t it? Just imagine a world where everyone believed everything you said:

Hi, my name’s Everest and I’m from the future.
>> From which year Everest?
I’m also the president of the United States.
>> It’s an honor to meet you Mr. President.
And perpetual economic growth is a good thing for the planet too.
>> Hi ho, hi ho, it’s off to work I go…
Genetically modified foods are perfectly safe for human consumption.
>> Thanks for putting my mind at rest Mr. President.

Do you hear that? Silence. That’s right, there’s not even a murmur of dissent. Whatever you say, it seems, goes.

So, furnished with this knowledge, what’s your next move? Will you start your own global media empire? Or is it preferable to take a vow of silence?

One has to wonder what value any ‘truth’ would have in a world where words are so readily accepted as the real McCoy. And even if you were to confess your special powers of persuasion to the world via your dedicated 24-hour news channel, still the masses would faithfully accept every broadcast word as gospel. Tell them everything is fine. They believe you. Tell them everything isn’t fine but you can fix it for them. It’s the same story.

I receive lots of emails from novice growers asking me to recommend a special nutrient recipe or a bloom booster product that will guarantee them a marked increase in their yields. “Show us a shortcut, Everest!” they might as well say. Now, it would be easy for me to play up to this by giving myself a silly name (ahem!) growing my hair long, furrowing my brow, and working on my thousand-yard stare but instead I simply ask about their growing environment. Guess what? Nine times out of ten there are rudimentary problems that need to be addressed – such as high temperatures!

The hobby hydroponics industry is leading the way in terms of ‘spare-no-expense’ inputs for our gardens and, while many of these can constitute liquid heaven for our plants, we should remain cautious about becoming overly deferent to the claims on all the bottles. Sorry for the ‘inconvenient truth’ but no $400 tub of bloom booster is going to make up for crappy genetics and high temperatures in your indoor garden. Period.

First and foremost then, obtain good, strong plant genetics. Provide a healthy environment, give them a basic feed, avoid stress and you will enjoy good results. Get to that point first and then see where you can go from there. The ‘buy it in a bottle’ culture is well conditioned into us living in North America and it is all too easy for novice growers to think their paltry yields are down to the lack of a product, rather than a lack of basic skills in the garden.

We all want our gardens to be successful and to enjoy big, monster, jaw-dropping yields. But what are we prepared to do in order to reach our goals? Are we willing to spend time with our plants, to observe them closely every day, to invest time, money and effort into perfecting our indoor garden’s environment, searching out the finest plant genetics and understanding all the intricacies of our plants’ processes?

Or do we just want to buy some magic elixir in a bottle and let it do all the thinking, growing and blooming for us?

There, I said it. Doesn’t it feel good to be on the same page?

Everest

An extra word from Everest…