The biggest issue I see with growers is breaking the number one rule. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. I was happy when I finally reached that level of not experimenting and just doing everything by the book. Of course we're always learning new things , but I see guys spend so much money on new gadgets and bullshit , constantly changing grow styles and patterns.
I would say this is me, but I did it in reverse. I learned how to grow in coco and how to clone, then ran the same setup and genetics for years. Occasionally I would pop some seeds for new mothers or introduce a new piece of equipment, but there were no big changes for a long time.
Then I started focusing on nutrients, automation and mediums. The nutrients were to save money. Automation was to save time. Mediums were to try to get my plants as low as possible due to height constraints, but also to jive with the automations. I spent a couple of years playing around with those variables, and learned a lot. I also lost a lot of time and money in the process.
So now I'm back to square one. I'm not going to attempt DWC, soil or anything else at this point. My experimentations are pretty much over. Now I have to decide if I'm going back to coco in 3 gallon pots or running rockwool slabs. I will still probably mess around with automation, but everything else is getting tuned in and tightened up for the foreseeable future.
On top of that I'm about done with a long ass pheno hunt. I'm looking forward to cranking out familiar colas as if it's second nature again. I'm glad I went though the struggles though. Aside from dealing with unforeseen problems of different setups, I was forced to learn a lot about plant health. My yields have suffered, but my knowledge has expanded dramatically.