Dirt growing is pretty easy really. He probably over watered or over fertilized. Or used the wrong fertilizer. Do some light reading and have even just a little bit of a green thumb, it's not a big deal.

I don't do it anymore. I stopped when I almost got nailed from my "friend" rolling on me. But long before getting into hydro, my first venture was a single plant, some hash plant cross. I knew almost nothing...

24 hour veg under florescents for two months, then 18/6 hours veg under 250 watt hps for one more month. 11 hours light flowering under the same 250, for like forever. It was like almost seven months total lol

The funny part is, I used miracle grow for tomatoes for veg, and regular miracle grow for flowering. I made sure to not overdo it, and scraped off the top inch or so of soil when switching to flower.

The result was almost 3.5 oz of some shit that was so incredible, none of my friends would ever believe I did it my first time when they tried it. Then when I mentioned the miracle grow, they were just like oh fuck you bro you're so full of shit.

It was far from optimum or even sensible conditions, and it still turned out amazing.

The best advice I've gotten though... find a good plan somewhere, and stick to it exactly. Never say oh I've got a great idea! Just follow the directions. I got lucky that first time, but I still think it's easy to do if you have good info.