Medical Cannabis Growing Guide

Horticulture

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Cannabis Growing Guide Part 1 - 9

A Marijuana Garden At Home

Table of contents

[Overview] [Genetics And The Marijuana Plant] [Germination] [Growth Stage] [Flowering Stage] [Grow Lights]
[Male And Female Plants] [Sinsemilla]
[Growing With Hydroponics]
[Soil Growing Indoors]
[Shelf Growing With Soil Indoors]
[Soil Growing Indoors And Outdoors]
[Growing Outdoors]
[Guerrilla Growing]
[Harvesting] [Storage]
[Security] [Odors] [Pests]
[Nutrients] [Foliar Feeding] [pH]
[Carbon Dioxide] [Temperature] [Venting]
[Transplanting] [Pruning] [Cloning] [Breeding]

Overview

Rather than relying on this old guide, look at newer marijuana growing guides. If you want to grow indoors or outdoors with soil, check out this. If you want to grow indoors with hydroponics, check out this.

There are few things in life as good as growing your own marijuana, grown by yourself at home out in the garden or indoors with soil or hydroponically. Oregano, Dill, Basil, Sage and other herbs are all easy to grow.

Mint will take over the whole yard if you let it. Fresh mint is incredible in salads and oriental dishes. But it all comes down to a truly motivational herb that is your friend and mine, a great healer and teacher to those that know it well.

Most people think of gardens as a seasonal, yearly project, but it's actually less time consuming and more rewarding to keep the garden going year round. If one were to attempt to grow year round, indoor gardening techniques will be needed at least during winter to keep the garden producing.

You will have fresh marijuana at all times, there is no worry of mass storage thru the winter and spring, it requires less space, and once established, requires only minimal attention every week to keep it producing at optimal levels.

The best part of being a gardener is it connects you to the earth. It connects you with nature, and is spiritually enriching. Try giving your plants energy by beaming good thoughts and energy at them every time you visit them. I find this helps me as much as it helps them (my plants seem to respond to it favorably).

Genetics And The Marijuana Plant

It's very important to start with good genetics. You should attempt to find seeds that are well known. In the past In the past I have ordered from dutch seedbanks. Unfortunately some people (like myself and other growers) are paying for seeds and not getting them. At the present time, instead of ordering from holland (the netherlands, amsterdam, etcetera), it is safest to buy marijuana seeds through a seedbank that ships from Canada, especially if you are ordering from the United States or Canada.

When growing indoors with soil or hydroponically, a mainly indica strain that is easy to grow will have good characteristics for growth (indica plants are easiest for beginners to grow). Sativa strains are hard to grow indoors due to high light requirements, long maturation time, and the tall height of the plants.

The indica plant is easily recognized by its extremely broad leaves that are very rounded on the sides. The sativa has very narrow, finger-like leaves. A indica/sativa mix will have qualities of both and have leaves that are a cross of these two types, thinner than an indica, but much broader than a sativa.

An outdoor grower in a cool climate should select a strain that matures quickly. They mature quickly, produce a large yield, and don't grow too tall. Overall they are very good strains for growing outdoors in an area where the temperature will drop to freezing in or prior to november.

This includes many parts of the northern hemisphere including the USA and Canada. In fact, strains that mature quickly should be used to grow marijuana outdoors anywhere there is a winter where temperatures fall below 40 degrees, freezing weather will destroy a crop.

If, after harvesting a crop or two you notice there is still time left for plants to grow, you can get a strain that takes longer to grow for next years crop.

Germination

Germination is the first stage of life for the marijuana. A seed is provided with moisture and kept in the dark until it sprouts a root (usually within a week). Follow the directions located here.

If you are growing with soil, plan on transplanting only once or twice before harvest. Use the biggest containers possible for the space and number of seedlings you plan to start. Plants will suffer if continuously transplanted and this will delay harvesting.

Growth Stage

After the seeds have been germinated and sprout a root, they pass into the seedling stage. This is the stage when the plant establishes its root system. Once the root system has established itself (usually 1-2 weeks), the plant will really start to grow.

This means the plant will photosynthesize as much as possible to grow tall and start many grow tips at each pair of leaves. A grow tip is the part that can be cloned or propagated asexually. They are located at the top of the plant, and every major branch.

All plants have a vegetative stage where they are growing as fast as possible after the plant first germinates from seed. It is possible to grow plants with no dark period (24 hours of light per day), and increase the speed at which they grow by 15-30%.

Plants can be grown vegetatively indefinitely. It is up to the gardener to decide when to force the plant to flower. A plant grown under artificial light should be forced to flower when it is somewhere between 8-30 inches tall.

The larger the wattage of the light, the taller a plant can grow before flowering. With a 250 watt light, start flowering when the plants are about 8-10 inches tall. 400 watts at 10-14 inches, 600 watts at 16-18 inches, 1000 watts at 24-30 inches.

When growing indoors, keep lights on at least 18 hours a day until the plants are ready to flower. If using fluorescent lighting, keep the light on 24 hours a day unless you need to turn it off for a few hours a day.

When using metal halide and/or high pressure sodium lights during the pre-flowering stages of growth, 18-20 hours of light per day is a good idea to reduce electricity costs (they use a lot more power than fluorescent lights). If the amount of electricity is of no concern, you can run the light for 24 hours a day to get the maximum growth possible.

Weak stems can not support the heavy flowering weight that the plants will. An oscillating fan will reduce humidity, circulate air, and improve the stem strength (the breeze strengthens them). The importance of internal air circulation can not be stressed enough. It will exercise the plants and make them grow stronger, while reducing many hazards that could ruin your crop.

Flowering Stage

When grown outdoors nature takes care of the flowering stage. When grown indoors, if the marijuana plants you grow get 18-24 hours of light per 24 hour period, they can be forced to flower (called flower forcing) by reducing the amount of light they get down to 11-13 hours a day. This simulates an oncoming winter in the fall as the days grow shorter.

As a consequence, it is a good idea to have two separate growing areas. One grow area is used strictly for the initial seedling and vegetative phases. It is lit with inexpensive fluorescent lighting that is turned on for 20-24 hours a day.

The second grow area is used strictly for flowering the plants. The flowering area would use metal halide and/or high pressure sodium lighting turned on 11-13 hours a day (12 hours on and 12 hours off is most often used for flowering).

There is no other requirement other than to make sure no light reaches the plants during the dark period. Any light at this time will delay flowering by days or weeks.

If you are growing outdoors in a greenhouse, the same effect can be created in the summer (when the days are long) by covering the top with a blanket to make longer night periods. A strict schedule of covering the plants at 8pm and uncovering them at 8am for 2 weeks will start your plants to flowering.

After the first 2 weeks, the schedule can be relaxed a little, but it will still be necessary to continue this routine for the plants to completely flower without reverting back to vegetative growth.

You can start plants indoors and flower them outside. During the spring and fall, the nights are sufficiently long to induce flowering at all times. Merely bring the plants from indoors to outdoors at these times, and the plants will flower naturally. In late summer (with fall approaching) it may be necessary only to force flowering the first two weeks, then the rapidly lengthening nights will do the rest.

When flowering the plant indoors, 12 hours light and 12 hours dark is the standard lighting cycle during the flowering phase. However, 13 hours light and 11 hours dark will increase flower size (larger yield) while still allowing the plant to flower. But this will lengthen the time needed to harvest the crop.

An extended period of darkness can also be substituted for the standard 12-12 cycle. 11 hours light and 13 hours dark will reduce the time needed for the crop to mature and harvest, but it will also reduce the size of the crop.

A light proof curtain can be made from black vinyl, or other opaque material, with a reflective material on the other side to reflect light back to the plants. This curtain can be tied with cord when rolled up to work on the garden, velcro can be used to hold it in place so no light leaks in or out.

If the shelf is placed up high, it will not be very noticeable, and will fit in any room. Visitors will never notice it unless you point it out to them, since it is above eye level, and no light is being emitted from it.

I cannot stress enough that during the flowering phase, the dark period should not be violated by normal light. It delays flower development due to hormones in the plant that react to light. If you must work on the plants during this time, allow only as much light as a very pale moon can provide for less than 5 minutes. Keep pruning to a minimum during the entire flowering phase.

The schedule of the light cycle should coincide with your daily routine. It is best to keep the dark hours to a time when you would normally not wish to visit the garden. This is so you don't disturb the dark period.

Personally, I like my garden lit from 7pm to 7am. This allows me to visit the garden at night after work and in the morning before work. During the day (when the light is off) I'm at work and it lies unlit and undisturbed, flowering away producing THC.

If you spray your plants, keep it to a minimum during flowering. This will reduce the chances of developing mold and rot. Keep humidity levels down indoors when flowering, as this is the most delicate time for the plants in this regard.

Never spray when metal halide or high pressure sodium lights are on. One drop of water can cause a light to explode, if brought in to contact with the light while it is on (cleaning a light with water and a soft cloth is ok when the light is off but allow it to dry completely before turning it on).

When flowering indoors, flowering is noticed 1-2 weeks after reducing the amount of light to force flowering. Outdoors plants will start to flower when the length of daylight hours have dropped to low enough level (in late summer or early fall).

If all the plants are the same marijuana strain, male plants will probably start to mature before female plants. You need to identify male plants and remove them from the garden before they mature.

Otherwise the male plants will release pollen and fertilize the female plants. Once fertilized, the female plants will expend some of their energy producing seeds, rather than THC (not recommended because this decreases the potency of the marijuana).

3-6 weeks after flowering has started, your female plants will be covered with these white pistils emerging from every grow tip on the plant. It will literally be covered with them. These are the mature flowers, as they continue to grow and cover the plant.

At the point when you think there are enough flowers to provide a reasonable amount of marijuana, you can:
1) --- reduce the light to being turned on for only 8-10 hours per day. The plant will start to mature very quickly, and should be ready to harvest in 2-3 weeks.
2) --- let the plants remain on a 12-12 light schedule for the entire flowering process. This will increase the yield, but it takes the plants a bit longer to harvest (than it would if you turned the lights down to being turned on for only 8-10 hours per day).
3) --- if you grew the plant in a container with soil, you can bring the plant outside and mature with whatever natural day light is available outside.

After 6 weeks of flowering (when the plant is in full bloom) plants can be flowered in the final stages outdoors even if the days are too long for normal flowering to occur.

Once the plant has almost reached peak floral development, it is too far gone to revert quickly to vegetative growth, and final flowering will occur regardless. If needed, this will free up precious indoor space sooner, for the next batch of clones to be flowered.

Look for the white hairs to turn red, orange or brown, and the false seed pods (you did remove the males, right?) to swell with resins. When most of the pistils have turned color, the flowers are ripe to harvest.

Don't touch those buds! Touch only the large fan leaves if you want to inspect the buds, as the THC will come off on your fingers and reduce the overall yield if mishandled.

Cannabis Growing Guide Part 2

A Marijuana Garden At Home

Table of contents

Grow Lights

When growing outdoors the sun provides light but when growing indoors artificial light is required. Fluorescent light is ok for beginners to learn with but the final product will not be something to be proud of.

Metal Halide (mh) and/or High Pressure Sodium (hps) are the lighting systems you need to grow high quality marijuana indoors. They can be found at any hydroponic store.

The sun emits light energy that spans from the red to the blue end of the light spectrum. As far as marijuana plants are concerned, in spring-summer when plants start to grow (vegetative growth) there is more blue spectrum energy and that promotes plant growth.

In summer-fall when plants produce flowers there is more red spectrum energy (and shorter days) that cause hormones in plants to increase flower and THC production.

Metal halide light fixtures produce large amounts of blue spectrum energy and are best for vegetative (beginning) growth. The light produced looks similar to the 'cool' fluorescent light found in schools, offices, stores, and other high traffic areas.

A single 400 watt metal halide bulb delivers about as much light energy as twenty 'cool' fluorescent 40 watt bulbs. What that means is that fluorescent bulbs use about twice as much electrical energy to produce the same amount of light as metal halide bulbs.

High pressure sodium light fixtures produce large amounts of red spectrum energy and are best for flowering (later) growth. The light produced looks similar to the 'warm' incandescent lights found in most homes but has a deeper orange-red color. The street lamps in many cities are hps lights.

A single 400 watt high pressure sodium bulb delivers about as much light energy as about forty 'warm' incandescent 100 watt light bulbs. What that means is that incandescent bulbs can use as much as ten times as much electrical energy to produce the same amount of light as high pressure sodium bulbs.

What light should you get?
In a perfect world both metal halide (mh) and high pressure sodium (hps) would be used during both the vegetative and flowering stages of growth.

For example, a garden with 15 plants or less would use a 250 watt hps and a 250 watt mh lighting fixture. A garden with 25 plants or less would use a 250 watt hps and a 400 watt mh lighting fixture.

This is not always possible because the cost of two light fixtures will be more that of a single fixture. Two lights will also use more electricity, take up more space, and produce more heat than a single unit.

You can run

hps light through both stages of growth (ok).
mh light through both stages of growth (ok).
run a mh light through the veg phase of growth followed by hps light through flowering (very good).
run both mh and hps light through both stages of growth (best).

When grown with hps light only, the marijuana plants I grew were taller and thinner than when grown under mh only. That meant a smaller harvest. Plants grown with mh light only, tended to take longer to flower but the harvest was larger.

However, many growers I've asked said they have had better results using hps, if only given the choice of using one type of light. This is something you can experiment with yourself, if you are interested.

You can't use a standard high pressure sodium bulb in a metal halide fixture, but you can use a metal halide bulb in a high pressure sodium fixture of the same wattage.

The list below gives an approximate idea of the area covered and how many marijuana plants can be grown with a certain wattage light system in a dark room. Any sunlight you can give the plants will increase the number of plants you can grow, and will help the plants grow faster.

The number of plants is based on growing fairly bushy indica strains that take up a larger area than some slender sativa strains. If you know the strain you will be growing is slender, you can grow more plants in the same size area.

A 250 watt fixture will supply enough light to cover a 2.5 foot by 2.5 foot grow area. (6 plants or less)
A 400 watt fixture will supply enough light to cover a 4 foot by 4 foot grow area. (12 plants or less)
A 600 watt fixture will supply enough light to cover a 5 foot by 5 foot grow area. (18 plants or less)
A 1000 watt fixture will supply enough light to cover a 6.5 foot by 6.5 foot grow area. (30 plants or less)

If you use two fixtures, you can grow a few more plants than adding the values in the list above. A single 250 watt fixture will produce enough light for about 6 plants. Because the light is spread over a larger area with two fixtures, you can grow up to 15 plants.

In order for the heat produced by a light system not to harm the plant, a 250 watt light system should be started 18 to 30 inches above the tops of the plants, a 400 watt light system should be started 3 to 4 feet above the tops of the plants,

A 600 watt light system should be started 4 to 5 feet above the tops of the plants, a 1000 watt light system should be started 5 to 6 feet above the tops of the plants.

The light should be lowered a few inches everyday until the light is as close as it can be without harming the plant. You will have to figure out the optimal distance yourself because it will vary depending on things like the bulb efficiency, quality of reflector, and other things. Whatever your light source, replace bulbs after 6 to 12 months of use (6 months if they are on 24 hours a day, 12 months if they are on 12 hours a day).

One note about replacement bulbs, they can be divided into three categories: vertical, horizontal, universal. Vertical bulbs have to be used with fixtures in the vertical position. Horizontal bulbs have to be used with fixtures in the horizontal position.

Universal bulbs can be used in a horizontal or vertical position. If you aren't sure what to buy, make sure you get a universal bulb. It will work in either type of fixture.

If you want to build your own metal halide light fixture to grow marijuana, plans are located here. By adapting the plans you can also build a high pressure sodium fixture by getting an hps ballast and socket.

If you decide on buying a light expect to pay $225.00 to $500.00 for a single 250, 400, 600, or 1000 watt lighting system designed for growing plants.

An alternative to a single large fixture is two smaller fixtures that add up to a wattage similar to the single large fixture. For example, instead of a single 400 watt fixture, use two 250 watt fixtures (one mh fixture - one hps fixture).

Instead of a single 1000 watt fixture, use two 400 watt lighting fixtures (one mh fixture - one hps fixture) and a single 250 watt hps, the 250 watt hps fixture can run a mh if necessary.

This will allow you to spread light more evenly over a larger area. It also enables you to use both metal halide and high pressure sodium light at the same time.

It will reduce the ceiling height needed since a smaller wattage bulb can be placed closer to the plants. The drawback is the higher cost of two or more fixtures compared to only buying one.

Here are some mid-priced grow lights broken down into wattage values. There are cheaper and more expensive grow lights available but a mid-priced light is a good place to start for someone on a budget.
400 watt hps (high pressure sodium) grow light
400 watt mh (metal halide) grow light
250 watt hps (high pressure sodium) grow light
250 watt mh (metal halide) grow light

Using 400 watts as an example. You can find 400 watt lighting systems that range in price from about $250 to $500. More expensive units usually last longer, are more efficient, and come with better bulbs than cheap models. If you have the money, get the best light system you can afford to grow marijuana. If money is limited get a mid-priced model to start.

It is suggested you consider a 400 watt light and grow 8-12 plants the first time you grow marijuana (force flowering when the plants are about 12 inches tall). You could grow more small plants than this with a 400 watt light supply, but for personal use 8-12 plants should be adequate.

In many areas, drug trafficking charges are determined by the number of plants being grown. In these areas a plant that produces two ounces (about 56 grams) at harvest time is considered the same as a plant that produces one-eighth of an ounce (about 3.5 grams) at harvest time.

Even if you had a permit to produce medical marijuana for yourself, once you grow more than a set number of plants in certain jurisdictions, you are considered to be cultivating with intent to traffic.

So growing 10 fairly large plants that will produce an ounce or more per plant is a better idea than growing 40 smaller plants that will produce a quarter ounce per plant.

When using a 400 watt light supply to grow 8-12 plants, each plant yields me about a half ounce (about 14 grams) to an ounce (about 28 grams) of premium marijuana every 3 to 4 months (if flowering is started when the plants are 12-18 inches tall).

The harvested amount depends on the strain being grown. If grown in the same conditions, some sativa strains will yield as little as a half ounce and some indica strains will yield an ounce per plant.

If you wish to produce a lesser amount of marijuana, a 250 watt light can be used to grow a smaller number of shorter plants. The amount you produce per plant won't be as large as it would be when using a 400 watt light supply.

But for many users who consume small amounts of marijuana, 250 watts of light is all that is required to produce enough marijuana for their particular needs.

Male And Female Plants

Flowering is noticed 1-2 weeks after reducing the amount of light to force flowering in an indoor garden. Outdoors, the plant will start to flower when the hours of light available are reduced to a point where they trigger flowering. Assuming all the seeds are of the same strain, the male plants will probably start to flower before the females.

To distinguish male and female plants, look for the development of pollen sacks on the male plants and white hairs (pistils) on female plants. This is the easiest way to determine if a plant is male or females early on. Do not try to distinguish a male from a female based on height or bushiness.

Sinsemilla

Sinsemilla is a name for female marijuana plants that have not produced seeds. Not producing seeds allows the plant to use more energy producing THC and other chemicals that users enjoy.

An ancient tradition for cannabis growers, sinsemilla is the result of removing male plants from the grow environment before they have a chance to fertilize the females. People who grow hydroponic marijuana indoors always grow sinsemilla. Growing sinsemilla outdoors is harder.

A single male plant can fertilize females within an area of a few hundred feet. You will have to separate the male plants from the female plants before the male plants flower and produce pollen unless you wish to produce seeds. There is approximately a 50% chance a seed will be either male or female.

Cannabis Growing Guide Part 3

A Marijuana Garden At Home

Table of contents

Growing With Hydroponics

Most growers report that a hydroponic system will grow plants faster than soil, given the same genetics and environmental conditions. This may be due to closer attention and more control of nutrients, and more access to oxygen.

The plants can breath easier, and therefore, take less time to grow. One grower tested sativa plants in soil and using hydroponics. The plants grown in soil matured in 13-14 weeks while the plants grown hydroponically only required 10-11 weeks.

Fast growth allows for earlier maturation and shorter total growing time per crop. With soil, plant growth tends to slow when the plants become root-bound.

Hydroponics provides even, rapid growth with no pauses for transplant shock and eliminates the labor/materials of re-potting if rockwool is used (it is the recommended method of indoor marijuana growing).

Hydroponics is recommended for indoor growing only. You can grow with hydroponics outdoors but you will only be able to grow when temperatures are above freezing (or the nutrient solution will freeze and the plants will die of cold). Evaporation is also a problem outdoors. For detailed information on how to grow hydroponic marijuana, see this article.

Soil Growing Indoors

Indoor growing has many advantages, besides the apparent fact that it is much harder to have your crop found, you can control the ambient conditions just exactly as you want them and get a guaranteed good plant.

Plants grown indoors will not appear the same as their outdoor cousins. They will be smaller and may require you to tie them to a growing post to remain upright.

However, the marijuana from plants grown indoors will be more potent (if you provide optimal conditions) than that of the same strain being grow outdoors. Plants will take longer to grow in soil than they would in a hydroponic garden, but they can be just as potent.

Select a grow area and put tar paper or plastic on the floors to prevent damage from water or other sources. The walls of your growing room should be painted white or covered with aluminum foil to reflect the light.

Containers for houseplants can be used or you can use almost any container that is clean and has never been used to store chemicals or anything else that might be toxic.

The height of the container should be from 12 to 24 inches. Width and depth should both be about 12 inches. 3 and 5 gallon containers do a good job and are easy to find.

You will need enough soil to fill each container to within 4-6 inches of the top. Make sure to provide drainage holes at the bottom of the container if it was not designed for growing plants in. There should be enough holes to allow any excess water to escape and they should be small enough so that no soil is washed away.

Buy sterilized bags of soil form a gardening supply store. Ask a salesperson for soil that was designed for indoor use with fast growing vegetables. You need soil that is fluffy when moist. It shouldn't clump together if you gently squeeze it in your hand.

Organic potting soil is a good choice, if available. If you are already used to gardening, mushroom compost or soilless mixtures might be something to look into. Stay away from anything like clay or sand.

After harvesting, add the soil that was used to grow a crop to your outdoor garden, do not try to use it to grow another crop. See the section about nutrients and marijuana grown in soil so you know how to feed the plants.

Soil pH should be in the 6.0 to 7.0 range. Get a pH meter to measure the soil pH if needed. Most nutrients (fertilizers) cause a pH change in the soil. Adding nutrients to the soil almost always results in a more acidic pH.

As time goes on, the amount of salts produced by the breakdown of nutrients in the soil causes the soil to become increasingly acidic and eventually the concentration of these salts in the soil will stunt the plant and cause browning out of the foliage.

Also, as the plant gets older its roots become less effective in bringing food to the leaves. To avoid the accumulation of these salts in your soil and to ensure that your plant is getting all of the food it needs you can begin leaf feeding your plant at the age of about 1.5 months.

Dissolve the nutrients in water and spray the mixture directly onto the foliage. The leaves absorb the fertilizer into their veins. If you want to continue to put fertilizer into the soil as well as leaf feeding, be sure not to overdose your plants.

The lighting system can be fluorescent, but metal halide (mh) or high pressure sodium (hps) are recommended. Metal halide or high pressure sodium lights provide enough light to grow potent marijuana and should be used by any serious gardener. Make sure you understand lighting and how it affects marijuana plants before setting up your grow room.

If you don't have enough money to buy a metal halide or high pressure sodium light fixture, fluorescent light can be used instead. This is a good introduction to growing, but the results will not be as good.

Figure about one plant per two feet of fluorescent tube. Fluorescent light sources should be an average of 3-6 inches from the top of the plant. They may be mounted on a rack and moved every few days as the plants grow.

Once you have your grow area setup you will want to introduce your seeds or clones. If you have clones you can place them in the growing containers. If you have seeds, you will need to germinate them before they can be placed into the containers.

Set your light timer for 16 hours on and 8 hours off per twenty four hour period. Keep this light pattern for the first two weeks in the containers.

When I grow with mh or hps lighting, I like using a fluorescent light for these first two weeks of seedling growth. A standard 48 inch fluorescent light fixture sometimes used in garages and kitchens can be found at most department stores. You don't need special grow lights for this purpose, 'cool white' bulbs made for standard 48 inch fluorescent light fixture are cheap and will do a fine job.

After about two weeks under the 16 hours on and 8 hours off light schedule the plants should have put down a good root system and grown a few sets of leaves. At this point you should increase light by an hour a day. You can leave the light on from 18-24 hours a day at this point in the plants life (vegetative phase).

If you have mh or hps lights, now is the time to introduce them to your garden. As you increase the light, the plants grow faster but power consumption increases. This power increase doesn't make a lot of difference with low wattage lights, but mh and hps lights require more power. The more power you use, the higher your electric bill will be.

When the plants are about twelve inches tall, cut the light down to 12 hours on and 12 hours off per day. This will cause the plants to flower. After the plants flower, you will have to remove the male plants unless you want to produce seeds. White hairs (pistils) will begin to develop at bud sites of female plants.

If you are growing under mh or hps light it will be about 10-12 weeks (after flowering starts) till harvest time. Total time will be about 12-16 weeks from seed or clone to harvest time. If you are growing under fluorescent light it will take longer before harvest time and the plants will not produce as much marijuana.

If you use a metal halide or high pressure sodium light fixture, a 250 watt light (either mh or hps) is good to grow up to 6 plants at a time (force flowering when they are about eight inches tall). Each plant will yield about 7-14 grams of marijuana every 12-16 weeks.

If you use a metal halide or high pressure sodium light fixture, a 400 watt light (either mh or hps) is good to grow up to 12 plants at a time (force flowering when they are about twelve inches tall). Each plant will yield from about 14-28 grams of marijuana every 12-16 weeks.

Cannabis Growing Guide Part 4

A Marijuana Garden At Home

Table of contents

Shelf Growing With Soil Indoors

Shelf gardening with fluorescents is cost effective introduction to the art of growing marijuana, since the materials are so inexpensive and easy to obtain. Fluorescent lamps are great for shelf gardening marijuana plants up until they are ready to flower.

Fluorescent lamps should not be used when flowering marijuana plants because the finished product will be inferior to that grown in natural sunlight or HID lighting (high pressure sodium and metal halide especially). However, if you are short of funds but would still like to learn how to grow marijuana, you can use fluorescent lighting through all stages of growth.

In this system, many shelves can be placed, one above the other, and fluorescent lamps are used on each shelf. Some shelves have 24 hour lighting, some have 12 hour lighting (for flowering). Two areas are best, perhaps with one other devoted to cloning and germination of seed.

Shelf gardening assumes your going to keep all plants 3 feet or shorter at maturity, so all shelves are 3-4 feet apart. Less light is necessary when you have plants that are this short and forced to mature early.

One drawback to a shelf garden like this is that it is very time consuming to adjust the lamp height every day, and it is harder to take a vacation for even a week with no tending of the garden. This applies mostly to the vegetative stage, when plants are growing as much as an inch per day. Lamps on the flowering shelves are not adjusted nearly as often.

Normally, the lamps should be kept within 3-5 inches of the tops of the plants, with the plants arranged such that they get progressively taller as the end of the lamps go up, so that all plants are within this 3-5 inch range.

This is an ideal however, and if you do go on vacation, adjust the lamps so that your sure the plants will not be able to grow up to the lamps within that length of time.

If enough fluorescents are used to completely saturate the shelf with light, the spacing issue will not create spindly plants. They will grow a little slower if the lamps are not very close to them.

An alternative is to use fluorescent lamps for cloning, germination and early seedling growth on the top shelf of a closet, then switch over to high pressure sodium (hps) for heavy vegetative growth and/or flowering in the main closet area.

Position the hps such that it won't need adjustment, at the top most possible point in the closet or room. When used for flowering only, most hps installations will not require much lamp height adjustment.

Just attach the lamp to the underside of shelf or ceiling as high as possible, and if you want to get a few plants closer to it, put them on a temporary shelf, box or table to get them closer to the lamp.

A shelf is all that is necessary with this type of setup, preferably at least 18 inches wide, up to about 24 inches maximum. This area must be painted a very bright white, or covered with aluminum foil, dull side out to reflect light back to the plants (dull side out prevents hot-spots and diffuses light better).

Paint the shelf white too. Or, use aluminized mylar, a space blanket, or any silvery surface material. Do not use mirrors, as the glass absorbs light.

Hang fluorescent fixtures from chains and make sure you can adjust them with hooks or some other type of mechanism so they can be kept as close to the plants as possible at all times (3-5 inches).

If the lamps are too far from the plants, the plants could grow long, spindly stems trying to reach the lamp, and will not produce as much bud at maturity.

This is due to inter node length being much longer. This is the length of stem between each set of leaves. If it is shorter, there can be more inter nodes, thus more branches, thus a plant that provides more buds in less space at harvest time.

Shelf gardening is sometimes referred to as sea of green, because many plants are grown close together, creating a green canopy of tops that are grown and matured quickly, and the next crop is started and growing concurrently in a separate area of continuous light.

Clones are raised in a constant light shelf, until they start to grow well vegetatively, then placed on a 12 hour per day shelf to flower.

Starting The Plants Indoors

A small indoor space should be found that can be used to plant the seeds after they germinate. These vegetative starts are placed outside to mature in the spring after last freezes are over. The space can be a closet, a section of a bedroom, a basement area, an attic or unused bathroom.

Some people devote entire bedrooms to growing. The space must be light leak proofed, so that no suspicious light is seen from outside the house. This could invite thieves. The space should be vented.

Opening the door of a closet can be enough ventilation if the space is not lit by big lights that generate a lot of heat. Separate exhaust and incoming air vents are best. One at the top of the room to exhaust air into the attic or out the roof, and one to bring in air from an outside wall or under-floor crawl space.

Use fans from old computer cabinets, often available from electronic liquidators for cheap. Dimmer switches can be used to regulate the speed/noise of the fans. Use silicon to secure the fans to 4-6 inch PVC pipe pushed thru a round hole cut in the floor and ceilings.

Line the walls with white plastic, aluminum foil (dull side out to diffuse the light and prevent hot-spots), or paint the walls flat white to reflect light. Mylar, 1 mil thick is best but it can be expensive. Mirrors are not good to use because the glass eats light.

Line the floor with plastic in case of water spills, etc. Set up a voltage interrupt socket and be sure the electrical wiring will handle the lamps your going to use. Always place ballasts for HID lamps on a shelf, so they are above floor level, in case of water spills. Something placed on the floor under a ballast will work too.

A shelf above the main grow area can be used to clone cuttings and germinate seedlings. It will allow you to double the area of your grow space and is an invaluable storage area for plant food, spray bottles and other gardening supplies. This area stays very warm, and no germination warming pad will be needed, so this arrangement saves you $.

Hang a light proof curtain to separate this shelf from the main area when used for flowering. This will allow constant lights on the shelf and dark periods in the main grow area. Velcro can be used to keep the curtain in place and ties can be used to roll it up when tending the garden. Black vinyl with white backing works best.

Now you need light. A couple of fluorescent shop lights will be fine if you just want to start plants inside and then take them outside to grow in a small greenhouse. A 48 inch fluorescent light fixture designed to work with 2-4 lights (rated at 30-60 watts each) can be purchased with bulbs for about $20-$50.

Use cool white light type bulbs rather than expensive Grow Lux bulbs, as they do not put out as much light, and therefor do not work as well in most situations (go figure). Cool white bulbs work fine, and they are the cheapest.

Soil Growing Indoors And Outdoors

If you grow your plants with soil in containers that can be moved, one of the best solutions for home gardeners is to use continuous fluorescent light indoors for seedling and vegetative growth then move the plants outdoors for flowering.

This will take advantage of the natural light/dark cycle and cut your energy use to nearly nothing (compared to the same operation using metal halide and/or high pressure sodium lighting indoors).

A small greenhouse can be built from fiberglass or pvc sheets that are innocuous, they can be built to look much like a storage shed or tool shed so it's not likely to raise suspicions.

In fact, a large shed of metal or plywood can be modified with a luminous roof of pvc, glass, fiberglass or plastic sheet, and some marijuana strains that do not require a great deal of light will grow well. Such a shed will discourage fly-by sightings and keep your business your own.

It also allows you to keep out rats, gophers, and neighbor kids. It can also be easily locked up. It will give you an opportunity to actually plant in the ground if you desire, and this is the best way to avoid root-bound plants (if your not using hydroponics), and get bigger harvests.

In winter, indoor space is used to start new seedlings or cuttings to be placed outside in the spring, using natural sunlight to ripen the plants. This routine will provide at least 3 outdoor/greenhouse harvests per year.

With two growing areas (one for the first stages of growth and one for flowering) harvests are possible every 60 days in many areas. with a smaller indoor harvest in the winter as a possibility as well.

The basic strategy of year round production is to understand the plant has two growth cycles. After germination the plant enters the seedling stage (lasts about 1-2 weeks) after which they pass into the vegetative stage (lasts about 2-4 weeks) and will be able to use all the continuous light you can give it. This means there is no dark cycle required.

The plant will photosynthesize constantly and grow faster than it would outdoors with long evenings. Photosynthesis stops during dark periods and the plant uses sugars produced to build itself during the evening. This is not a requirement and the plant will grow faster at this stage with continuous photosynthesis (constant light).

Once the plant is 12-18 inches tall, weather permitting, it can be forced to start flowering by placing it outside in the spring or fall. For summer outdoor flowering, the night must be artificially lengthened in the greenhouse to force the plants to flower. More information about that will be discussed in the flowering chapter of this guide.

Moving the plants to 10-13 hour light periods (when moving them outside) with uninterrupted darkness (no bright lights nearby) will force the plant to flower. They will ripen and be 2-3 feet tall when ready to harvest.

When a plant is moved from continuous indoor light to a 10-13 hour day outside, it will start to flower because the decrease in light tricks the plant into anticipating an oncoming winter.

In most parts of the northern hemisphere, vegetative starts moved outside march 1st, will be ripe by may 1st. Vegetative starts moved outside on may 1st will be ripe by july 1st. Starts moved outside sept 1st are picked by november 1st.

In Winter, operations are moved indoors and a crop is planted for seed in anticipation of planting outdoors the next summer, or just for some extra winter stash.

Keep in mind that the man is looking for plants in the sept/oct/nov time-frame, and may never notice plants placed outside to flower in april. Be smart, make your big harvest in may, not october.

Cannabis Growing Guide Part 5

A Marijuana Garden At Home

Table of contents

Growing Outdoors

Growing outdoors means you don't have to worry about light leak problems, dark periods that keep you out of your grow room, electricity bills. Outdoors, outside of a greenhouse, there are many factors that can kill your crop. Deer will try to eat them. Chipmunks and rodents too.

Bugs will inhabit them, and the wind and rain can whip your little buds to pieces if they are exposed to strong storms. Wind can blow trichome resin away (leaving a low potency crop). For these and other reasons, good indoor hydroponic marijuana is usually superior to anything grown outside.

You might have to put up a fence and make sure it stays up. Visit your plot at least once every two weeks, and preferably more often if water needs demand. It's a good idea to use soil if you don't have a green house, you can use hydroponics outdoors but it will be less reliable in the open air, due mostly to evaporation.

Light exposure is all important when locating a site for a greenhouse or outdoor plot. A backyard grower will need to know where the sun shines for the longest period, privacy and other factors will enter in as well. Try to find an innocuous spot that gets full winter sun from mid morning to mid afternoon, at least from 10-4, preferably 8-5.

This will be really asking for a lot if you live north of 30 degrees latitude since days are short in winter. Since most gardeners will not want to use the greenhouse in the middle of the winter, you can still use winter sun as an indicator of good spring and fall lighting exposures. Usually the south side of a hill gets the most sun. Also, large areas open to the sun on the north side of the property will get good southern exposures.

East and west exposures can be good if they get the full morning/afternoon sun and mid-day sun as well. Some books say the plants respond better to morning-only sun, verses afternoon only sun, so if you have to choose between the two, morning sun may be better.

Disguise your greenhouse as a tool shed, or similar structure, by using only one wall and a roof of white opaque plastic, PVC, fiberglass, or glass, and using a similar colored material for the rest of the shed, or painting it white or silvery, to look like metal. Try to make it appear as if it has always been there, with plants and trees that grow around it and mask it from view while allowing sun to reach it.

Filon (corrugated fiberglass) or pvc plastic sheets can be used outside to cover young plants grown together in a garden. Buy the clear greenhouse sheets, and opaque them with white wash (made from lime) or epoxy resin tinted white or grey and painted on in a thin layer. This will pass more sun than white pvc or filon, and still hide the plants.

Epoxy resin coats will preserve the Filon for many more seasons than it would otherwise last. It will also allow you to disguise the shed as metal, if you paint the clear filon sheets with a thin layer of resin tinted light grey. Paint will work as well, but may not protect as much. Be careful to use only as much as needed, to reduce sun blockage to a minimum.

You may want to keep outdoor plants in pots so they can be easily moved. A big hole will allow the pot to be place in it, thus reducing the height of the plant, if fence level is an issue. Many growers find pots have saved a crop that had to be moved for some unexpected reason (repairman, appraiser, fire, etc.).

It's always best to put a roof over your plants outdoors. When I was a lad, we had plants growing over the fence line in the back yard. We started to build a greenhouse roof for them, and a cop saw us hauling wood, thought we were stealing it (which we were not) and looked over the fence at us and our lovely plants.

We were busted, because he saw them. If he had seen a shed roof instead, there would never have been a problem. Moral of the story is build the roof before the plants are sticking over the fence. Or train them to stay well below it.

When growing away from the house, in the wild, water is the biggest determining factor, after security. Water must be close by, or close to the soil surface, or you will have to pack water in. Water is heavy and this is very hard work. Try to find an area close to a source of water if possible, and keep a bucket nearby to carry water to your plot.

A novel idea in this regard is to find high water in the mountains, at altitude, and then route it down to a lower spot close by. It is possible to create water pressure in a hose this way, and route it to a drip system that feeds water to your plants continuously. Take a 5 gallon gas can, and punch small holes in it.

Run a hose out of the main orifice and secure it somehow. Bury the can in a river or stream under rocks, so that it is hidden and submerged. Bury the hose coming out of it, and run it down hill to your garden area. A little engineering can save you a lot of work, and this rig can be used year after year.

Contrary to popular belief, marijuana grows well in many places on the North American continent. It will flourish even if the temperature does not raise above 75 degrees. In fact many strains prefer temperatures under 80 degrees.

I've smoked some excellent marijuana (grown outdoors) from places as far north as Alaska. Marijuana plants do need a minimum of about 12 to 16 hours of sunlight per day during the first stages of growth. 18 to 24 hours of sun everyday during this phase of life is recommended but not possible in some areas.

If you are going to grow marijuana outdoors in a place where the temperature gets lower than the freezing point of water in winter, you should plant in early spring. But definitely, plant after the last frost of the year. In countries that stay mild all year, plants can be started earlier.

There are two schools of thought about starting the seeds. One says you should start the seedlings for about ten days in an indoor starter box. The other says plant them in the ground. That is a choice you will have to make.

The plants should be planted at least three feet apart, getting too greedy and stacking them too close will result in stunted plants. The plants like some water during their growing season, BUT not too much. This is especially true around the roots, as too much water will rot the root system.

Marijuana grows well in corn or hops, and these plants will help provide some camouflage. It does not grow well with rye, spinach, or pepperweed. It is probably a good idea to plant in many small, broken patches, as people tend to notice patterns.

Marijuana plants can reach a height of twenty feet (especially sativa strains) and obtain a stem diameter of 4 1/2 inches. Marijuana soil should compact when you squeeze it, but should also break apart with a small pressure and absorb water well.

A nice test for either indoor or outdoor growing is to add a bunch of worms to the soil, if they live and hang around, it is good soil, but if they don't, change it. Worms also help keep the soil loose enough for the plants to grow well.

There are three types of cannabis. The two that are grown for producing marijuana, they are Cannabis sativa and Cannabis indica. There are many different strains of marijuana, but most strains are either sativa or indica (or a cross between the two). Sativa strains are ideal for growing outdoors.

Look for an outdoor sativa strain that will produce a big yield. Sativa strains produce more THC than indica strains. Some growers like to grow indica outdoors if they are going to produce their own hand rubbed hash. The third member of the cannabis family is called ruderalis but it is not grown for its THC content.

To grow good marijuana, you will have to start with the right seeds. Make sure to get seeds from someone who can tell you the origin of the seed (indica or sativa), expected yield size, expected flowering time, and if the seed is meant to be grown indoors or outdoors.

If you are going to start the seeds outdoors, plant them by dropping them in the place you want them to grow and cover them with a half inch to a inch of good potting soil. The soil should be kept damp but not wet until you see the plant start to grow. Once the plant has started to grow you can let nature take its course.

If you are going to start the seeds indoors, follow the directions located here to germinate your seeds. After the seeds have germinated and the root is about a quarter of an inch long, place the seed, root down, in the soil of your sprouting box.

A good all around sprouting method is using a sprouting box (cheap, very common, sold in nurseries, and stores with a garden section). The sprouting soil should be designed to be used during germinating and seedling stages of a plants life.

When ready to transplant, you must be sure and leave a ball of soil around the roots of each plant. This whole ball is dropped into a baseball-sized hold in the permanent soil.

If you are transplanting outdoors, you should time it about two hours before sunset to avoid damage to the plant. Always wear cotton gloves when handling the young plants.

After the plants are set in the hole, you should water them. It is also a good idea to use a commercial transplant chemical (also purchased at nurseries) to help then overcome the transplant shock.

Guerrilla Growing

Guerrilla growing refers to farming away from your own property, or in a remote location of your property where people seldom roam around. It is possible to find locations that for one reason or another are not easily accessible or are privately owned.

Try to grow off your property, on nearby public property, so that if your plot is found, it will not be traceable back to you. If it's not on your property, nobody has witnessed you there, and there is no physical evidence of your presence (footprints, fingerprints, trails, hair, etc.), then it is virtually impossible to prosecute you for it, even if the cops think they know who it belongs to.

Never admit to growing, to anyone. Your best defence is that your just passing thru the area, and noticed something you decided to take a look at, or carry a fishing pole or binoculars and claim fishing or bird watching.

Never tell anyone but a partner where the plants are located. Do not bring visitors to see them, unless it is harvest time, and the plants will be pulled the same or following day.

Make sure your plants are out of sight. Take a different route to get to them if they are not in a secure part of your property, and cover the trail to make it look as if there is no trail. Make cut backs in the trail, so that people on the main trail will tend to miss the cut-back to the grow area.

Don't park on the main road, always find a place to park that will not arouse suspicion by people that pass on the road. Have a safe house in the area if you are not planting close to home. Always have a good reason for being in the area and have the necessary items to make your claim believable.

Briar and poison oak patches are perfect if you can cut through it. Poison Oak must be washed away before an allergic reaction takes place. Tecnu is a special soap solution that will deactivate poison oak before it has time to create a reaction. Apply Tecnu immediately after contact and take a shower 30 minutes later.

Try to plant under trees, next to bushes and keep only a few plants in any one spot. Train or top the plants to grow sideways, or do something to prevent the classic christmas tree look of most plants left to grow untrained.

Tying the top down to the ground will make the plants branches grow up toward the sun, and increase yield, given a long enough growing season. Plants can be grown under trees if the sun comes in at an angle and lights the area for several hours every day.

Plants should get at least 5 hours of direct sun every day, and 5 more hours of indirect light. Use shoes that you can dispose of later and cover your foot prints. Use surgical gloves and leave no fingerprints on pots and other items that might ID you to the fuzz...in case your plot is discovered by passers by.

Put up a fence, or the chipmunks, squirrels and deer will nibble on your babies until there is nothing left. Green wire mesh and nylon chicken fencing net work great and can be wrapped around trees to create a strong barrier. Always check it and repair every visit you make to the garden. A barrier of fishing line, one at 18 inches and another at 3 feet will keep most deer away from your crop.

When growing away from the house, in the wild, water is the biggest determining factor, after security. The amount you can grow is directly proportional to the water available. If you must pack-in water, carry it in a backpack in case your seen in-route to your garden (you will appear to be merely a hiker, not a grower).

Transporting vegetative starts to the growing area is a most tricky aspect of growing outdoors. Usually, you will want to start plant indoors, or outside in your garden, then transport them to the grow site once they are firmly established. It may be desirable to first detect and separate males from females so that no effort of transporting/transplanting/watering males is incurred.

One suggestion is to use 3 inch rockwool cubes to start seedlings in, then put 20 of them in a litter pan, cover it with another pan, and transport this to the grow site. The cubes can be planted directly into soil.

One outdoor grower we know has given up on seeds. He has several strains he likes to clone, so he starts 200 clones in his closet, then transports them outdoors in boxes to the grow site. No males, no differentiation, no weeding, no germinating seeds, no genetic uncertainties, no crops grown for seed, no transporting/transplanting/watering plants your just going to pull up later, no pollination nightmares, no wasted effort.

Harvesting

After about 8 to 12 weeks of flowering it will be time to harvest. It is very important to harvest at the right time. The best way to tell if the plant is ready is to examine the bud.

In the paragraphs below, the terms pistil and stigma refer to the white hairs in the center of the female bud. The term calyx refers to the pod that would surround the seed (were the plant to be fertilized). Many growers elect to pick each bud individually, as it reaches it prime.

Buds are at their peak potency about one week after flower formation slows...Harvest the plants when about half the stigmas in the buds have withered...
from the marijuana growers guide.

In the primordial calyxes the pistils have turned brown; however, all but the oldest of the flowers are fertile and the floral clusters are white...Many cultivators prefer to pick some of their strains during this stage in order to produce marijuana with a clear cerebral, psychoactive effect.
from marijuana botany.

Eventually the pistils start to turn color from pale white to red or brown...When the glands have swelled and the pistil has receded into the false pod, the bud is ready to pick.
from closet cultivator

At the peak of florescence, all but the oldest of flowers have white pistil development...Another indicator is bouquet. When a plant is at the peak of florescence, it has a sweet and musky fragrance. Later, it loses the sweetness.
from sinsemilla technique

The best way to harvest is to examine the resin glands on each bud. As they turn from clear to amber, that is the optimum time to pick. Buds usually mature from the top down, if grown under artificial light, and you will end up with more high quality pot if you pick each bud when ready. Additional harvesting directions can be located here. Once the plant has been harvested, it should be dried by following the directions here.

Cannabis Growing Guide Part 6

A Marijuana Garden At Home

Table of contents

Storage

If your weed is going to be stored for more than a year it should be wrapped in an air tight container and be stored somewhere that is dark and cool.

A freezer is best, but a fridge, basement, closet, or something similar will do. Dry it first if you grow your own, or if the stuff you have is very moist. And remember that light, air and heat are the things to avoid.

Security

Its interesting that marijuana plants really do blend in with other plants to the point that they are unidentifiable by all but the most observant. I remember a relative of the family on a visit to Texas showed me his corn in the garden and I was standing 3 feet away from several pot plants before I recognized them for what they were.

Plants started outdoors late in the season never get very big and never attract the least bit of attention when placed next to plants of similar or taller stature. Even tall plants grown among several trees will be almost invisible in their camouflage.

Outdoors the object is to control access to an area, and not to arouse suspicion. Tuck them here and there, never in a recognizable pattern. Space them out, and fit them in to the existing landscape such that they get full sun, but they're hidden or blend in.

Try to find strains that seem to match the surrounding plants. Feed nitrogen to your plants if they need to be greener to blend in. Some growers even use plastic red flowers, pinned to a plant, disguising it as a flower bush.

Visit the plants at night on full moons, and if your visible to neighbors, appear to be pruning a tree, mowing the lawn, or doing something in the yard that makes you invisible. Dig a hole and put a potted plant in it. The plant's height will be reduced by at least a foot.

Some growers top the plant when it is 12 inches high, and grow the 2 tops horizontally along a trellis. The plant will never be over 3 feet tall, and never arouses suspicion from neighbors. This type of plant can even be grown in your yard in full view. Many stories abound of having the neighbors over for a BBQ and nobody ever noticed the nice plants over by the fence.

Odors

Negative ion generators have been used for years now to cut down on odors in a grow room, but reports are coming in that a negative ion generator will increase growth speed and yield. No true evidence to support this.

However it does make sense, due to the fact that people and animals seem to be altered in a positive way by negative ions in the air, so plants may feel better too. Try putting one in the grow room. You may notice the buds don't have as much scent when picked, but that may be desirable in some cases.

A good negative ion generator can be purchased for about $100 depending on the type and power involved. Some have reversed cycles that collect the dust to a charged plate. It is also possible to use grounded aluminum foil on the wall and shelf where the ionizer sits, to collect these particles.

Just wipe the foil clean once a month. It should be grounded to an electrical outlets ground wire. If you don't cover the wall and shelf with paper or foil, the wall will turn dark with dust taken from the air, and you will have to repaint that wall later.

Another means of reducing or eliminating odors is by using an ozone generator. They are more expensive than negative ion generators (about $200 or more for a good one), but they do a better job. If you would like to build an ozone generator yourself, plans are located here. But if buying a pre-made unit is a better option, compare prices at ebay and amazon.

An alternative method is to use exhaust fans, these have the advantage of also being used to remove heat from the grow room. If you plan on using an exhaust system, make sure it is used in an area that won't attract attention. Placing it on a roof or other space that is seldom used by other people is a good idea.

Pests

You really have to watch pests, or all your efforts could result in little or nothing in return. Mites and Aphids are the worst; white flies, caterpillar and fungi are the ones to watch out for long term. Pyrethrumcan start you with a clean slate in the room, and then bleach or commercial sprays (like lysol) will do most of the rest.

When bringing in plants from outside, pyrethrum every broad leaf top and bottom and the soil too. Then watch them closely for a week or two, and soap down any remaining bug life you find from eggs being hatched. This should do the trick for a month or two, long enough it won't be an issue before harvesting.

Fungus is another obstacle in the path of a successful growing season. When the flowers are roughly half developed they become susceptible to a fungus or bud rot. It appears that growing conditions for the fungus are best when temperatures are between 60 and 80 degrees and the humidity is high. The fungus is very destructive and spreads quickly.

It is a spore type of fungus that travels to other buds via the wind so it is impossible to prevent or stop if weather conditions permit it to grow. If things should go badly and the fungus starts to attack your plants, you must remove it immediately or it will spread to other areas of the plant or plants.

Some growers will remove just the section of the bud that is infected whereas other growers will remove the entire branch. Removal of the entire branch better insures that the fungus is totally re- moved, and also enables the grower to sample the crop a few weeks ahead of time.

Fungi can wipe your crop quick, so invest in some safe fungicideand spray down the plants just before flowering if you think fungus may be a problem. Don't spray the plants if you have never had problems with fungus before.

Keep humidity down (under 50% if possible), circulate air in the grow space, and keep outdoor plants out of the indoor space. Don`t wait until after flowering, since it's not a good idea to apply the fungicide directly to flowers. Instead, flowers must be cut off when they are infected.

Most fungicides are very nasty, and you won't want to ingest them, so it is necessary to use one that is safe for vegetables. Safe fungicide recommended for any type of vegetable will work, just make sure the fungicide was made to be used with vegetables (or other plants that are eaten).

Use soap solution like safer's insecticide soapto get rid of most aphid problems. Use some tobacco juice and chili pepper powder added to this for mites. Dr. Bronners Soap can be used with some dish detergent in a spray bottle if you want to save money.

Pyrethrum should only be used in extreme circumstances directly on plants, but can be used in a closet or greenhouse in the corners to get rid of spiders and such. It breaks down within a week to non-toxic elements, and can be washed from a plant with detergent solutions and then clear water.

I find Pyrethrum to be the best solution for spider mites, if it is sprayed on young plants up to early flowering. Into later flowering, the tobacco and pepper/soap solution is your best bet, on a daily basis, on the under-sides of all infected leaves.

Spider mites are by far the worst offender in my garden. I have finally learned not to bring plants from outside into the indoor space. They are always infected with pests and threaten to infect the entire indoor grow space.

It is much more practical to work with the seasons and regenerate plants outdoors in the summer, rather than bringing them indoors to regenerate under constant light. Start a plant indoors, take it outside in spring to flower.

Take a harvest or two, feed it nitrogen all summer and it will regenerate naturally, to be flowered again in the fall. Once a plant has been taken outside, leave it outside.

Cannabis Growing Guide Part 7

A Marijuana Garden At Home

Table of contents

Nutrients

Nutrients are foods that plants eat. They have 3 main ingredients that will be the mainstay of the garden. They are Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium. These 3 ingredients are usually listed on the front label of the plant food.

Tobacco grown with potassium nitrate burns better. When growing in soil, plant foods with PN (P2N3) are foods such as Miracle Grow. This is an excellent fertilizer for vegetative growth, or through the flowering cycle as well.

Consider however, potassium nitrate is also known as Salt Peter, and is used to make men have less sexual desire or impotent, such as in mental institutions. So if certain plants are destined for cooking, you might use worm castings or some other totally organic fertilizer, at least in the last weeks of flowering.

Warning: Do not over-fertilize. It will kill your plants. Always read the instructions for the fertilizer being used. Use 1/2 strength if adding to the water for all feedings in soil or hydroponics if you are unsure of what your plants can take. Build up slowly to higher concentrations of food over time.

Novice soil growers tend to over-fertilize their plants. Mineral salts build up over time to higher levels of dissolved solids. Use straight water for one feeding in hydroponics if it is believed the buildup is getting too great. Leach (use straight water) on plants grown in soil for one feeding per month.

If your plants look really green, withhold food for a while to be sure they are not being over-fed. See this for more info about nutrients and marijuana grown in soil, or this for info about nutrients and hydroponic marijuana.

Foliar Feeding

Foliar feeding (also called leaf feeding) is a means of feeding plants by spraying the foliage (leaves) with a solution of water mixed with fertilizer. You can leaf feed marijuana plants when they are in vegetative and early flowering stages.

It is not recommended for late flowering, or you will be eating the sprayed-on material later. Stop foliar feeding 2-3 weeks before harvesting. Wash off the leaves with straight water every week to prevent clogging.

Dissolve the fertilizer in water (worm castings mixed with water will work well for leaf feeding) and spray the mixture directly onto the foliage. The leaves absorb the fertilizer into their veins. Feed daily or every other day and make sure not to overfeed.

Outdoors, the best times of day to foliar feed are between 7-10am and after 5pm in the evening. This is because the stomata on the underside of the leaves are open then. The best temperature is about 72 degrees, at temperatures over 80, they may not be open at all.

So find the cooler part of the day if it's hot, and the warmer part of the day if it's cold out. You may need to spray at 2am if that's the coolest time available. The sprayer used should atomize the solution to a very fine mist.

It's better to spray more often and use less, than to drench the plants infrequently. Use a wetting agent to prevent the water from beading up, and thereby burning the leaves as they act as small prisms.

Perhaps the best foliar feeding includes using seltzer water and plant food at the same time. This way, CO2 and nutrients are feed directly to the leaves in the same spray.

Foliar feeding is recognized in most of the literature as being a good way to get nutrients to the plant later when nutrient lockup problems could start to reduce intake from the roots.

It is important to wash leaves that are harvested before they are dried, if you intend to eat them, since they may have nitrate salts on them.

Personally, I never foliar feed my indoor hydroponic plants. It simply does not seem to be necessary when using hydroponics. However, if you are growing hydroponic plants under artificial light, spray only after the bulbs have been turned off and are cool. A drop of water can cause a hot bulb to crack or explode. In either case, the bulb will never work again.

pH

pH is measured on a scale from 1.0 to 14.0. Pure water has a pH of 7.0 and is considered pH neutral. pH below 7.0 is considered to be acidic and pH higher than 7.0 is considered to be alkaline.

A substance that decreases pH (pH-down) is called an acid while a substance that increases pH (pH-up) is called a base. A substance that helps nutrient solutions resist pH changes when an acid or base is added, is called a buffer.

A pH difference of 1.0 is equal to a ten times increase or decrease in pH. That is, a nutrient solution with a pH of 6.0 is ten times as acidic as a nutrient solution with a pH of 7.0. A pH difference of 2.0 is equal to a hundred times increase or decrease in pH.

It is very important to keep the pH level within certain limits when growing marijuana. Even first time marijuana growers need to monitor the pH of their nutrient solution or soil and keep it within optimum levels.

The pH level of your hydroponic nutrient solution or soil will determine how well your plants are able to absorb nutrients. If the pH level is out of the proper range, the growth rate of the plants will slow down or stop.

Checking The pH Level Of Marijuana

There are several means of checking the pH level of your hydroponic or soil garden. See this for information about obtaining pH measuring and adjusting equipment.

--- pH Meter: used to measure the pH of water, hydroponic nutrient solution, hydroponic media, and soil.
--- pH Test Kit: used to measure the pH of liquids like water or hydroponic nutrient solution.
--- Soil pH Meter: used to measure the pH of soil.
--- Soil Test Kit: used to measure the pH, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium levels of soil. There are also soil pH test kits available that just measure the pH level of soil.

First time hydroponic marijuana growers should get a simple pH test kit to check pH levels. They are cheap, easy to use, and can be used multiple times. However, you will eventually run out of pH test liquid and have to buy a new kit.

They work by putting a small amount of nutrient solution in a container then adding a few drops of pH test liquid and mixing them together. The combined mixture will turn color. This color is then matched with the color on a pH chart (included with the test kit) to determine the pH level of the nutrient solution.

A pH meter can be used to measure the pH of water, hydroponic nutrient solution, hydroponic media, and soil. If you have been growing hydroponic marijuana for a few years and you are tired of buying and re-buying test kits, it might be best to invest in a pH meter.

A pH meter is long lasting, and in general they give more accurate results than other methods of measuring pH. But the price may make them out of reach for first time growers on a budget. They also have probes and batteries that eventually will need to be replaced.

For accurate measurements always follow the manufactures instructions for calibrating, cleaning, and using a pH meter. Calibrating the meter is especially important because all measurements will be wrong if the unit is mis-calibrated.

Because pH meters can measure the pH of water, hydroponic nutrient solution, hydroponic media, and soil they are strongly recommended for growers who use hydroponics to grow indoors and soil to grow outdoors.

Soil growers should get a soil pH meter to measure the pH level of soil in their garden. They work by inserting the probes of the unit directly into the soil you are growing in, and taking a reading. Follow the manufacturers instructions included with the soil pH meter you use, and you will get years of accurate measurements.

An alternative for soil growers is a soil test kit. These are easy to use and reliable kits that contain separate tests for pH, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. They give instant results on the soil conditions in your garden.

A single soil test kit will have a certain number of tests that can be preformed before you run out and have to buy another. For example, one company makes a soil test kit that can be used to check pH, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium levels in soil 10 times.

pH And Hydroponic Marijuana

When growing hydroponic marijuana the pH of the nutrient solution should be between 5.5 and 6.8. In most cases optimal pH is about 5.8 to 6.3 but this may vary slightly depending on the particular marijuana strain and the growing conditions you provide.

Some growers report good results with pH as low as 5.0. You can experiment to see what works best for your particular plants but always keep the pH between 5.0 and 7.0.

Measure the pH right after you add the nutrient solution to the reservoir (mix well first) because the nutrients will change the pH level of the water. Check the pH level at least once a week (every second day is recommended).

If your hydroponic system requires media to support plant roots, different hydroponic media manufacturers might recommend a specific pH level for their particular media. Follow the manufacturers instructions.

Adjusting pH Of Hydroponic Marijuana

pH-up and pH-down solutions are used to adjust the pH level of hydroponic nutrient solution and hydroponic media when the pH is out of range. pH-up (also called pH increase) is used to raise the pH level and pH-down (also called pH decrease) is used to reduce the pH level. A pH-up or pH-down solution for hydroponic or aquarium use is recommended.

For hydroponic applications, nitric, phosphoric or citric acids (even vinegar) can be used to lower pH, while potassium hydroxide can be used to raise pH. If you understand what you are doing, you can use them instead of buying pH-up and pH-down solutions (contributed by james and jorge).

However, if you aren't sure of the correct amount of acid or base that is needed to adjust the pH to optimum values, it is best to buy a solution specifically made to raise or lower the pH and carefully follow the manufacturers instructions.

Unless directed to do so by the manufacturer, don't try to adjust your pH by more than 0.2 per day. Make drastic changes over a number of days. If your pH is 7.0 and you would like it at 6.5, try lowering it by 0.1 a day for 5 days (or do it even more gradually). Overcompensating can spell disaster for your garden.

pH And Marijuana Grown In Soil

When growing marijuana in soil the pH of the soil should be between 6.5 and 7.0. When growing in containers, a single pH reading for each container is recommended. When growing outdoors in a garden, it is best to take two or three pH measurements from different areas of the garden.

If you have a large garden, you may have to adjust the pH in various parts of your garden to different levels. Check the pH once every one-two weeks.

Unlike hydroponics where the nutrient solution is in a single reservoir and only needs to be checked once, a soil garden will get its nutrients from the soil it is growing in. Even a small garden that contains a few plants may have soil that varies in pH from one area to another.

Most fertilizers cause a pH change in the soil. Adding fertilizer to the soil almost always results in a more acidic (lower) pH. As time goes on, the amount of salts produced by the breakdown of fertilizers in the soil causes the soil to become increasingly acidic and eventually the concentration of these salts in the soil will stunt the plant and cause browning out of the foliage.

Also, as the plant gets older its roots become less effective in bringing food to the leaves. To avoid the accumulation of these salts in your soil and to ensure that your plant is getting all of the food it needs, you can begin leaf feeding your plant at the age of about 1.5 months.

Dissolve the fertilizer in water (worm castings mixed with water will work well for leaf feeding) and spray the mixture directly onto the foliage. The leaves absorb the fertilizer into their veins. If you want to continue to put fertilizer into the soil as well as leaf feeding, be sure not to overdose your plants.

Adjusting pH Of Marijuana Grown In Soil

A good way to stabilize soil is to use dolomite lime (calcium-magnesium carbonate). Dolomitic lime acts slowly and continuously, so soil will remain pH stable for a few months.

Using fine size dolomite lime is important, coarser grades can take a year or longer to work. You can find fine size dolomite lime at any well stocked garden supply center.

Dolomite lime has been used by gardeners as a pH stabilizer for many years. It has a pH that is neutral (7.0). When added to soil in the correct proportions, it will stabilize soil at a pH near 7.0.

When growing in containers, add one cup of fine dolomite lime to each cubic foot of soil. Mix the dry soil thoroughly with the dolomite lime, then lightly water it. After watering, re-mix it and wait for a day or two before checking the pH. When growing in an outdoor garden, follow the dolomite lime manufacturers instructions.

Lowering soil pH: small amounts of composted leaves, cottonseed meal, or peat moss will lower the pH of soil.

Raising soil pH: small amounts of hardwood ashes or crushed oyster/egg shells will help to raise the soil pH. Hydrated lime can also be used to raise the pH of soil. In containers, use no more than 1/8 cup of hydrated lime per cubic foot of soil (per application). Mix it into warm water, then apply the water to the soil. When growing in an outdoor garden, follow the manufacturers instructions.

Wait at least a day or two before checking the pH level of soil after attempting to raise, lower or stabilize it. If adjustments still have to be made, use small amounts of whatever material you are using. Don't try to adjust the pH more than 0.1 every two days.

Cannabis Growing Guide Part 8

A Marijuana Garden At Home

Table of contents

Carbon Dioxide

Elevating carbon dioxide levels will not increase the potency of marijuana but it can increase growth speed a great deal, perhaps even double it. This will allow you to harvest more often, meaning more marijuana will be produced in the same area.

It seems that the plant evolved in primordial times when natural CO2 levels were many times what they are today. The plant uses CO2 for photosynthesis to create sugars it uses to build plant tissues. Elevating the CO2 level will increase the plants ability to manufacture these sugars and plant growth rate is enhanced considerably.

CO2 can be a pain to manufacture safely, cheaply, and/or conveniently, and is expensive to set up if you use a CO2 tank system. CO2 is most usable for flowering, as this is when the plant is most dense and has the hardest time circulating air around its leaves.

If you're strictly growing vegetatively indoors, (transferring your plants outdoors to flower), then CO2 will not be a major concern unless you have a sealed greenhouse, closet or bedroom, and wish to increase yield and decrease flowering time.

CO2 can be obtained by buying or leasing cylinders from local welding supply houses. If asked, you can say you have an old mig welder at home and need to patch up the lawn mower (trailer, car, etc.)

For a small closet, one tank could last 2 months, but it depends on how much is released, how often the room is vented, hours of light cycle, room leaks, enrichment levels and dispersion methods. This method may be overkill for your small closet.

It is generally viewed as good to have a small constant flow of CO2 over the plants at all times the lights are on, dispersed directly over the plants during the time exhaust fans are off.

Opportunities exist to conserve CO2, but this can cost money. When the light is off you don't need CO2, so during flowering, you will use half as much if you have the CO2 solenoid setup to your light timer. When the fan is on for venting air outdoors, CO2 is shut off as well.

Environmentally, using bottled carbon dioxide is better because CO2 is captured as part of the manufacturing process of many materials, and then recycled. Fermenting, CO2 generators, and baking soda and vinegar methods all generate new CO2 and add to greenhouse effect.

Vinegar over baking soda will work if you don't vent hot air outdoors to reduce heat. Just pour 1-2 ounces of vinegar into a container with an ounce of baking soda and close the door, (you will lose your CO2 as soon as the fan comes on if you vent heat outdoors). This method is not easy to regulate automatically, and requires daily attention but it does work in a small grow room.

Even though CO2 enrichment can mean yield increases, the hassle, expense, space, danger, and time involved can make constant or near constant venting a desirable alternative to enrichment. As long as the plant has the opportunity to take in new CO2 at all times, the plants will have the required nutrients for photosynthesis.

Most closets will need new CO2 coming in every two or three hours, minimum. Most cities will have high concentrations of CO2 in the air, and some growers find CO2 injection unnecessary in these circumstances. Some growers have reported to High Times that high CO2 levels in the grow room near harvest time lower potency. It may be a good idea to turn off CO2 2 weeks before harvesting.

Temperature

Indoors, proper temperature for most marijuana strains is between 70-80 degrees, but using carbon dioxide will allow you to grow in temperatures as high as 85 degrees. At night, the temperature can drop 10-15 degrees without harming the plant.

However, the temperature should never go very much below 60 degrees or above 90 degrees (even for short periods) or growth will slow down. If these extremes are exceeded for an extended amount of time, the plant may be permanently damaged or killed.

Outdoors, low temperatures at night are ok down to about 60 degrees, then they start to effect the growth in a big way. Mid 50's will cause mild shock and 40's will kill your plants with repeated exposure.

Keep your plants warm, especially the roots. Elevate pots if you think the ground is sucking the heat out of the roots. This is an issue if you have a slab or other type of cold floor.

Venting

Venting means using a fan to vent hot air from the growing room to another area (usually outdoors). You may have to vent with HID lamps like metal halide or high pressure sodium but less so for fluorescents. Also, humidity build up may require that you vent a few times per day.

For a room with a hot lamp that builds up heat quickly, the best vent would be one that cleared the room in 5 minutes, then would stop for 25 minutes before venting again, or similarly, vent 3 minutes, shut off 12 minutes, etc. The trick is to find a timer that will do this sort of thing. Not easy to find and not cheap.

Once you need to regulate CO2 on and off inversely with the fan, your looking at a climate controller. Alternatives are a thermostat that turns on a fan when a certain temperature is reached, and turns it off when the temp recedes 4 degrees.

But it is hard to coordinate CO2 release with this one, since you don't know when the fan goes on. All you really want is a fan that clears the air in a few minutes, a temperature switch that turns on and off the fan, and an inverse switch that turns off and on the CO2.

If you can vent the room really quick and the heat does not build up too quickly, the CO2 could be run in a slow, continuous fashion, and would build up in-between the occasional quick exhaust cycles.

Two timers synced can be used, so I could have a fan run 30 mins on, then 30 mins off. I could also sync it to the light so that I don't vent when the lamp is off.

I can sync this to an identical timer that will turn on CO2 during the time that the fan is not on, and vise versa. It would be difficult to sync them closer that 5-10 mins, but at least there would be a possible inexpensive solution.

Fans are expensive to buy for venting, but if you can find a local electronic parts liquidators, they usually have good fans for $50-$100. A good vent fan will keep the humidity and temperature down, and distribute CO2 to your plants from new incoming air.

Internal air movement is very necessary as well. An oscillating fanshould be used to circulate air within the grow room, to help circulate CO2. It will also keep the humidity down, allowing the air to absorb more moisture, and reduce risk of fungus.

A good grow room needs good internal air circulation. For the first time grower, a cheap model ($20-$40) designed for home use is preferred over an expensive heavy duty industrial unit. Depending on the size of your grow room, one or more 12" to 16" units may be used.

Transplanting

There will be little or no shock if you are quick and tender in your handling of the plants. Make sure you only need to transplant twice, or better yet, once if possible, through the entire growth cycle. Transplanting slows you down. It takes time, it's tricky, it's hard work, and threatens the plants.

When using hydroponics, you may have to transplant once if you start growing in a cloner and later move the plant to a hydroponic garden. Or you may start the plant in the hydroponic garden as soon as the seed has germinated, in this way the plant never has to be transplanted.

When growing indoors with soil, start in as large a container as possible, square is best. 16 ounce plastic cups work OK, and 2 litter soda bottles cut down may be big enough for the first harvest when growing hydroponically. One-gallon plastic milk or water containers (squarish) will work too.

Or start seeds and rooted cuttings in 16oz plastic cups. It's better to have less seedlings than it is to have many seedlings that need constant transplanting. These larger cups take only a little more space, and allow you to transplant only one time before harvesting the first crop.

Transplant into a gallon water jugs (cut down to 3/4 gallon) before forcing flower growth. To regenerate this plant after harvesting, transplant it into a larger pot after it goes into vegetative growth once again, 5 gallon paint buckets work pretty well if you can spare the space, and a 2-3 gallon container would make this plant's 2nd harvest better than the first, given enough vegetative regrowth first.

A Russian study showed that seedlings with at least 4 inches of soil to grow the tap root were more likely to go female. The source I'm quoting says This may be why some farmers get female/male ratios as great as 80/20.

Cannabis Growing Guide Part 9

A Marijuana Garden At Home

Table of contents

Pruning

Plants that are regenerated, cloned and even grown from seed may need to be pruned at some point to encourage the plant to produce as much as possible and remain healthy. It is best not to prune plants at all but in some cases you may have to. See this article for more info.

Cloning

Cloning is asexual reproduction. Cuttings are taken from a mother plant in vegetative growth, and rooted in hydroponic medium to be grown as a separate plant. The offspring will be plants that are identical to the parent plant.

Cloning preserves the character of your favorite plant. Cloning can make an ocean of green out of a single plant, so it is a powerful tool for growing large crops, and will fill a closet quickly with your favorite genetics.

When you find the plant you want to be your buddy for the rest of your life, you can keep that plant's genetic character alive forever. Propagate and share it with others, to keep a copy, should your own line die out. A clone can be taken from a clone forever, so don't worry about myths of reduced vigor.

Cloning will open you to the risk of a fungus or pests wiping out the whole crop, so it's important to pick plants that exhibit great resistance to fungus and pests.

Pick the plant you feel will be the most reliable to reproduce in large scale, based on health, growth rate, resistance to pests, and potency. The quality of the high, and the type of buzz you get will be a very important determining factor. See this article for more info.

Breeding

It is possible to breed and select cuttings from plants that grow, flower, and mature faster. Some plants will naturally be better than others in this regard, and it is easy to select not only the most potent plants to clone or breed, but the fastest growing/flowering plants as well.

Find your fastest growth plant, and breed it with your best high male for fast flowering, potent strains. Clone your fastest, best high plant for the quickest monocrop garden possible. Over time, it will save you a lot of waiting around for your plants to mature.

When a male is starting to flower (2-4 weeks before the females) it should be removed from the females so it does not pollinate them. It is taken to a separate area. Any place that gets just a few hours of light per day will be adequate. Put newspaper or glass under it to catch the pollen as the flowers drop it.

Save pollen in an air tight bag in the freezer. It will be good for about a month. It may be several more weeks before the females are ready to pollinate. Put a paper towel in the bag with it to absorb moisture.

A plant is ready to pollinate 2 weeks after the clusters of female flowers first appear. If you pollinate too early, it may not work. Wait until the female flowers are well established, but still when the hairs are white (before they turn red/brown).

Turn off all fans. Use a paper bag to pollinate a branch of a female plant. Use different pollen from two males on separate branches. Wrap the bag around the branch and seal it at the opening to the branch. Shake the branch vigorously. After a few minutes, carefully remove it.

Large plastic zip-lock bags can be used also. Slip the bag over the male branch and shake the pollen loose. Carefully remove the bag and zip it up. It should be very dusty with pollen. To pollinate, place it over a single branch of the female, zipping it up sideways around the stem so no pollen leaks out.

Shake the bag and the stem at the same time. Allow to settle for an hour or two and shake it again. Remove it a few hours later. Your branch is now well pollinated and should show signs of visible seed production in 2 weeks. One pollinated branch can create hundreds of seeds, so it should not be necessary to pollinate more than one or two branches in many cases.

When crossing two different strains, a third strain of marijuana plant will be created. If you know what characteristics your looking for in a new strain, you will need several plants to choose from in order to have the best chance of finding all the qualities desired.

Sometimes, if the two plants bred had dominant genes for certain characteristics, it will be impossible to get the plant you want from one single cross. In this case, it is necessary to interbreed two plants from the same batch of resultant seeds from the initial cross. In this fashion, recessive genes will become available, and the plant character you desire may only be possible in this manner.

Usually, it is desirable only to cross two strains that are very different. In this manner, one usually arrives at what is referred to as hybrid vigor. In other words, often the best strains are created by taking two very different strains and mating them. Less robust plants may be the result of interbreeding, since it opens up recessive gene traits that may lead to reduced potency.

Hybrid offspring will all be very different from each other. Each plant grown from the same batch of seeds collected from the same plant, will be different. It is then necessary to try each plant separately and decide it's individual merits for yourself. If you find one that seems to be head and shoulders above the rest in terms of early flowering, high yield, and high, that is the plant to clone and continue breeding.

In depth genetics is beyond the scope of this work. See marijuana botany and/or the cannabis breeder's bible, for more detailed info in this area.

Safety And Privacy

Utility companies can tell your bill is way off from the same time last year, and police are finding growers this way. More than 500 watts in the family home running constantly will show up as a regular monthly increase in electricity use.

You can claim space heaters, more people living on the premises, too many television sets, and late hours, if they happen mention it to you (innocently). If the police knock and ask you about it, don't let them in, and move your plants to another location during the wee hours in a vehicle not your own.

Upon moving into a new place, it may be desirable to immediately establish high electricity use, so that your electrical use history won't reveal your activities in the future...

Light leaks, open windows, heat expelled from rooms that would normally be cool, and rip-offs are all serious issues to be concerned about. Don't use a burglar alarm on when your away from the house.

People are busted this way when the kids try to rip off the garden and the police come. Lock the house up well, and let them take it if they need it so bad. It's not worth getting busted for a burglary...

Think ahead to any situation that will require outsiders to visit sensitive areas of the house. Repairmen, solicitors, meter readers, neighbors, appraisers, and pets should all be considered and contingency plans made in advance.

Distilled Water

Some growers report purified or distilled water helps their plants grow faster. Perhaps due to sodium and heavy metals found in hard water that are not present in purified water. Hard water tends to build up alkaline salt deposits in soil that lockup trace minerals, and cause iron, copper and zinc deficiencies.

There are several types of purified water, but many are not free of minerals that could be causing salt buildup over an extended period of time.Tap water comes in two flavors. Hot and cold. The cold pipe has less calcium and sodium buildup in it, and should be freer of sediment once the water has been turned on and allowed to flow for 30 seconds.

Hot water will have rust, lead deposits, and lots of sodium and calcium, so much so, you will see it easily. Use only the amount of hot water needed to make the water the correct temperature (70-80 F).

Tap water filtered through a carbon (charcoal) filter will be free of chlorine and most large particles, but will still contain dissolved solids such as sodium and heavy metals (lead, arsenic, nickel, etc.).

Purified bottled water will be either Reverse Osmosis or some form of carbon/sediment filtered water. When purchasing water at a store, unless it says Reverse Osmosis or Distilled, don't bother buying it. It could still have the same dissolved solids and heavy metals your tap water has.

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Medical Cannabis Growing Guide

Cannabis Growing Guide Part 1 - 9

A Marijuana Garden At Home

Overview

Genetics And The Marijuana Plant

Germination

Growth Stage

Flowering Stage

Cannabis Growing Guide Part 2

A Marijuana Garden At Home

Grow Lights

Male And Female Plants

Sinsemilla

Cannabis Growing Guide Part 3

A Marijuana Garden At Home

Growing With Hydroponics

Soil Growing Indoors

Cannabis Growing Guide Part 4

A Marijuana Garden At Home

Shelf Growing With Soil Indoors

Soil Growing Indoors And Outdoors

Cannabis Growing Guide Part 5

A Marijuana Garden At Home

Growing Outdoors

Guerrilla Growing

Harvesting

Cannabis Growing Guide Part 6

A Marijuana Garden At Home

Storage

Security

Odors

Pests

Cannabis Growing Guide Part 7

A Marijuana Garden At Home

Nutrients

Foliar Feeding

pH

Checking The pH Level Of Marijuana

pH And Hydroponic Marijuana

Adjusting pH Of Hydroponic Marijuana

pH And Marijuana Grown In Soil

Adjusting pH Of Marijuana Grown In Soil

Cannabis Growing Guide Part 8

A Marijuana Garden At Home

Carbon Dioxide

Temperature

Venting

Transplanting

Cannabis Growing Guide Part 9

A Marijuana Garden At Home

Pruning

Cloning

Breeding

Overview

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