571 lines
34 KiB
Plaintext
571 lines
34 KiB
Plaintext
Greetings. This is a pamphlet that I typed up from a handwritten copy
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that I received a couple years ago. I've just finished typing it in
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but there's still some proofreading to do. While there are still a
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few typos in here, I would like to post it to alt.drugs. With the
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anon server gone, I'm hesitant to do this however. Call me a coward
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or paranoid, but I just don't feel comfortable posting something like
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this with with my name on it. If you could, would you post this to
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alt.drugs for me? I don't want credit for it, but I think its a decent
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pamphlet worthy of posting, especially the section on lighting. Tell
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them its from an anonymous source or take credit yourself if you like,
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it's not important to me. Also, let me know what you think of the
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file, I honestly don't know how valid some of this information is.
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When typing it in I edited out a couple paragraphs of truly absurd
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advice so I'm sort of suspect about the rest of the file (but it sounds
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good at least). I also added the editor's note at the end.
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Indoor Marijuana Cultivation
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Introduction:
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Growing marijuana indoors is fast becoming an American
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Pastime. The reasons are varied. With the increased interest
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and experimentation in house plant cultivation, it was inevitable
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that people would apply their knowledge of plant care to growing
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marijuana. Many of those who occasionally like to light up a
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joint may find it difficult to locate a source or are hesitant to
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deal with a perhaps unsavory element of society in procuring
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their grass. There is, of course, the criminal aspect of buying
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or selling grass; Growing marijuana is just as illegal as
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buying, selling, or smoking it, but growing is something you can
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do in the privacy of your own home without having to deal with
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someone you don't know or trust. The best reason for growing
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your own is the enjoyment you will get out of watching those tiny
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little seeds you picked out of you stash sprout and become some
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of the most lovely and lush of all house plants.
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Anyone Can Do It
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Even if you haven't had any prior experience with growing
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plants in you home, you can have a successful crop of marijuana by
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following the simple directions in this pamphlet. If you have had
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problems in the past with marijuana cultivation, you may find the
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solutions in the following chapters. Growing a marijuana plant
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involves four basic steps:
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1. Get the seeds. If you don't already have some, you can ask
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you friends to save you seeds out of any good grass they may
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come across. You'll find that lots of people already have a
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seed collection of some sort and are willing to part with a
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few prime seeds in exchange for some of the finished
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product.
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2. Germinate the seeds. You can simply drop a seed into moist
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soil, but by germinating the seeds first you can be sure
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that the seed will indeed produce a plant. To germinate
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seeds, place a group of them between about six moist paper
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towels, or in the pores of a moist sponge. Leave the towels
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or sponge moist but not soaking wet. Some seeds will
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germinate in 24 hours while others may take several days or
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even a week.
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3. Plant the sprouts. As soon as a seed cracks open and begins
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to sprout, place it on some moist soil and sprinkle a little
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soil over the top of it.
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4. Supply the plants with light. Flourescent lights are the
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best. Hang the lights with two inches of the soil and after
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the plants appear above the ground, continue to keep the
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lights with two inches of the plants. It is as easy as
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that. If you follow those four steps you will grow a
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marijuana plant. To ensure prime quality and the highest
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yield in the shortest time period, however, a few details
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are necessary.
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Soil
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Your prime concern, after choosing high quality seeds, is
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the soil. Use the best soil you can get. Scrimping on the soil
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doesn't pay off in the long run. If you use unsterilized soil
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you will almost certainly find parasites in it, probably after it
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is too late to transplant your marijuana. You can find excellent
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soil for sale at your local plant shop or nursery, K-Mart, Wal
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Mart, and even some grocery stores. The soil you use should have
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these properties for the best possible results:
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1. It should drain well. That is, it should have some sand in
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it and also some sponge rock or pearlite.
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2. The ph should be between 6.5 and 7.5 since marijuana does
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not do well in acidic soil. High acidity in soil encourages
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the plant to be predominantly male, an undesirable trait.
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3. The soil should also contain humus for retaining moisture
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and nutrients.
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If you want to make your own soil mixture, you can use this
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recipe: Mix two parts moss with one part sand and one part
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pearlite or sponge rock to each four gallons of soil. Test your
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soil for ph with litmus paper or with a soil testing kit
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available at most plant stores. To raise the ph of the soil, add
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1/2 lb. lime to 1 cubic foot of soil to raise the ph one point.
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If you absolutely insist on using dirt you dug up from your
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driveway, you must sterilize it by baking it in your oven for
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about an hour at 250 degrees. Be sure to moisten it thoroughly
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first and also prepare yourself for a rapid evacuation of your
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kitchen because that hot soil is going to stink. Now add to the
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mixture about one tablespoon of fertilizer (like Rapid-Gro) per
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gallon gallon of soil and blend it in thoroughly. Better yet,
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just skip the whole process and spend a couple bucks on some
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soil.
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Containers
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After you have prepared your soil, you will have to come up
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with some kind of container to plant in. The container should be
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sterilized as well, especially if they have been used previously
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for growing other plants. The size of the container has a great
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deal to do with the rate of growth and overall size of the plant.
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You should plan on transplanting your plant not more than one
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time, since the process of transplanting can be a shock to the
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plant and it will have to undergo a recovery period in which
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growth is slowed or even stopped for a short while. The first
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container you use should be no larger than six inches in diameter
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and can be made of clay or plastic. To transplant, simply
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prepare the larger pot by filling it with soil and scooping out a
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little hole about the size of the smaller pot that the plant is
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in. Turn the plant upside down, pot and all, and tap the rim of
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the pot sharply on a counter or the edge of the sink. The soil
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and root ball should come out of the pot cleanly with the soil
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retaining the shape of the pot and with no disturbances to the
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root ball. Another method that can bypass the transplanting
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problem is using a Jiffy-Pot. Jiffy pots are made of compressed
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peat moss and can be planted right into moist soil where they
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decompose and allow the passage of the root system through their
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walls. The second container should have a volume of at least
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three gallons. Marijuana doesn't like to have its roots bound or
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cramped for space, so always be sure that the container you use
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will be deep enough for your plant's root system. It is very
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difficult to transplant a five-foot marijuana tree, so plan
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ahead. It is going to get bigger. The small plants should be
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ready to transplant into their permanent homes in about two
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weeks. Keep a close watch on them after the first week or so and
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avoid root binding at all costs since the plants never seem to do
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as well once they have been stunted by the cramping of their
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roots.
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Fertilizer
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Marijuana likes lots of food, but you can do damage to the
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plants if you are too zealous. Some fertilizers can burn a plant
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and damage its roots if used in to high a concentration. Most
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commercial soil will have enough nutrients in it to sustain the
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plant for about three weeks of growth so you don't need to worry
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about feeding your plant until the end of the third week. The
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most important thing to remember is to introduce the fertilizer
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concentration to the plant gradually. Start with a fairly
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diluted fertilizer solution and gradually increase the dosage.
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There are several good marijuana fertilizers on the commercial
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market, two of which are Rapid-Gro and Eco-Grow. Rapid-Gro has
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had widespread use in marijuana cultivation and is available in
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most parts of the United States. Eco-Grow is also especially
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good for marijuana since it contains an ingredient that keeps the
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soil from becoming acid. Most fertilizers cause a ph change in
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the soil. Adding fertilizer to the soil almost always results in
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a more acidic ph.
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As time goes on, the amount of salts produced by the
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breakdown of fertilizers in the soil causes the soil to become
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increasingly acidic and eventually the concentration of these
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salts in the soil will stunt the plant and cause browning out of
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the foliage. Also, as the plant gets older its roots become less
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effective in bringing food to the leaves. To avoid the
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accumulation of these salts in your soil and to ensure that your
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plant is getting all of the food it needs you can begin leaf
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feeding your plant at the age of about 1.5 months. Dissolve the
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fertilizer in worm water and spray the mixture directly onto the
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foliage. The leaves absorb the fertilizer into their veins. If
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you want to continue to put fertilizer into the soil as well as
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leaf feeding, be sure not to overdose your plants.
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Remember to increase the amount of food your plant receives
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gradually. Marijuana seems to be able to take as much fertilizer
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as you want to give it as long as it is introduced over a period
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of time. During the first three months or so, fertilize your
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plants every few days. As the rate of foliage growth slows down
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in the plant's preparation for blooming and seed production, the
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fertilizer intake of the plant should be slowed down as well.
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Never fertilize the plant just before you are going to harvest it
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since the fertilizer will encourage foliage production and slow
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down resin production. A word here about the most organic of
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fertilizers: worm castings. As you may know, worms are raised
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commercially for sale to gardeners. The breeders put the worms
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in organic compost mixtures and while the worms are reproducing
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they eat the organic matter and expel some of the best marijuana
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food around. After the worms have eaten all the organic matter
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in the compost, they are removed and sold and the remains are
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then sold as worm castings. These castings are so rich that you
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can grow marijuana in straight worm castings. This isn't really
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necessary however, and it is somewhat impractical since the
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castings are very expensive. If you can afford them you can,
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however, blend them in with your soil and they will make a very
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good organic fertilizer.
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Light
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Without light, the plants cannot grow. In the countries in
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which marijuana grows best, the sun is the source of light. The
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amount of light and the length of the growing season in these
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countries results in huge tree-like plants. In most parts of
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North America, however, the sun is not generally intense enough
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for long enough periods of time to produce the same size and
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quality of plants that grow with ease in Latin America and other
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tropical countries. The answer to the problem of lack of sun,
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especially in the winter months, shortness of the growing season,
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and other problems is to grow indoor under simulated conditions.
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The rule of thumb seems to be the more light, the better. In one
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experiment we know of, eight eight-foot VHO Gro-Lux fixtures were
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used over eight plants. The plants grew at an astonishing rate.
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The lights had to be raised every day. There are many types of
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artificial light and all of them do different things to your
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plants. The common incandescent light bulb emits some of the
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frequencies of light the plant can use, but it also emits a high
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percentage of far red and infra-red light which cause the plant
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to concentrate its growth on the stem. This results in the plant
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stretching toward the light bulb until it becomes so tall and
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spindly that it just weakly topples over. There are several
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brands of bulb type. One is the incandescent plant spot light
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which emits higher amounts of red and blue light than the common
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light bulb. It is an improvement, but has it drawbacks. it is
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hot, for example, and cannot be placed close to the plants.
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Consequently, the plant has to stretch upwards again and is in
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danger of becoming elongated and falling over. The red bands of
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light seem to encourage stem growth which is not desirable in
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growing marijuana. the idea is to encourage foliage growth for
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obvious reasons. Gro-Lux lights are probably the most common
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flourescent plant lights. In our experience with them, they have
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proven themselves to be extremely effective. They range in size
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from one to eight feet in length so you can set up a growing room
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in a closet or a warehouse. There are two types of Gro-Lux
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lights: The standard and the wide spectrum. They can be used in
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conjunction with on another, but the wide spectrum lights are not
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sufficient on their own. The wide spectrum lights were designed
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as a supplementary light source and are cheaper than the standard
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lights. Wide spectrum lights emit the same bands of light as the
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standard but the standard emit higher concentrations of red and
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blue bands that the plants need to grow. The wide spectrum
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lights also emit infra-red, the effect of which on stem growth we
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have already discussed. If you are planning to grow on a large
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scale, you might be interested to know that the regular
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flourescent lamps and fixtures, the type that are used in
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commercial lighting, work well when used along with standard Gro-
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Lux lights. These commercial lights are called cool whites, and
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are the cheapest of the flourescent lights we have mentioned.
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They emit as much blue light as the Gro-Lux standards and the
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blue light is what the plants use in foliage growth.
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Now we come to the question of intensity. Both the standard
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and wide spectrum lamps come in three intensities: regular
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output, high output, and very high output. You can grow a nice
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crop of plants under the regular output lamps and probably be
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quite satisfied with our results. The difference in using the HO
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or VHO lamps is the time it takes to grow a crop. Under a VHO
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lamp, the plants grow at a rate that is about three times the
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rate at which they grow under the standard lamps. People have
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been known to get a plant that is four feet tall in two months
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under one of these lights. Under the VHO lights, one may have to
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raise the lights every day which means a growth rate of ate least
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two inches a day. The only drawback is the expense of the VHO
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lamps and fixtures. The VHO lamps and fixtures are almost twice
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the price of the standard. If you are interested in our opinion,
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they are well worth it. Now that you have your lights up, you
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might be curious about the amount of light to give you plants per
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day. The maturation date of your plants is dependent on how much
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light they receive per day. The longer the dark period per day,
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the sooner the plant will bloom. Generally speaking, the less
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dark per day the better during the first six months of the
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plant's life. The older the plant is before it blooms and goes
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to seed, the better the grass will be. After the plant is
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allowed to bloom, its metabolic rate is slowed so that the
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plant's quality does not increase with the age at the same rate
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it did before it bloomed. The idea, then, is to let the plant
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get as old as possible before allowing it to mature so that the
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potency will be a high as possible at the time of harvest. One
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relatively sure way to keep your plants from blooming until you
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are ready for them is to leave the lights on all the time.
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Occasionally a plant will go ahead and bloom anyway, but it is
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the exception rather than the rule. If your plants receive 12
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hours of light per day they will probably mature in 2 to 2.5
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months. If they get 16 hours of light per day they will probably
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be blooming in 3.5 to 4 months. With 18 hours of light per day,
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they will flower in 4.5 to 5 months. Its a good idea to put your
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lights on a timer to ensure that the amount of light received
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each day remains constant. A "vacation" timer, normally used to
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make it look like you are home while you are away, works nicely
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and can be found at most hardware or discount stores.
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Energy Emissions In Arbitrary Color Bands
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40 Watt Flourescent Lamps
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In Watts and Percent of Total Emissions
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Daylight Cool White Gro-Lux GroLux WS
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Light Type Band Watts % Watt % Watt % Watt %
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~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~
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Ultra-Violet -380 0.186 2.15 0.16 1.68 0.10 1.42 0.27 3.16
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Violet 380-430 0.832 9.60 0.72 7.57 0.70 9.67 1.07 12.48
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Blue 430-490 2.418 27.91 1.98 20.78 1.96 27.07 1.22 14.29
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Green 490-560 2.372 27.38 2.35 24.67 1.02 14.02 1.24 14.49
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Yellow 560-590 1.259 14.53 1.74 18.27 0.10 1.42 0.83 9.77
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Orange 590-630 1.144 13.21 1.69 17.75 0.44 6.05 1.36 15.93
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Red 630-700 0.452 6.22 0.81 8.47 2.86 39.55 1.86 21.78
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Far Red 700-780 0.130 1.53 0.07 0.81 0.06 0.80 0.69 8.10
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==================== =========== ========== ========== ==========
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Total 8.890 100.0 9.52 100.0 7.24 100.0 8.54 100.0
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Temperature and Humidity
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The ideal temperature for the light hours is 68 to 78 degrees
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fahrenheit and for the dark hours there should be about a 15
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degree drop in temperature. The growing room should be relatively
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dry if possible. What you want is a resinous coating on the
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leaves and to get the plant to do this, you must convince it that
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it needs the resinous coating on its leaves to protect itself from
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drying out. In an extremely humid room, the plants develop wide
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leaves and do not produce as much resin. You must take care not
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to let the temperature in a dry room become too hot, however,
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since the plant cannot assimilate water fast enough through its
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roots and its foliage will begin to brown out.
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Ventilation
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Proper ventilation in your growing room is fairly important.
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The more plants you have in one room, the more important good
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ventilation becomes. Plants breathe through their leaves. The
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also rid themselves of poisons through their leaves. If proper
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ventilation is not maintained, the pores of the leaves will become
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clogged and the leaves will die. If there is a free movement of
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air, the poisons can evaporate off the leaves and the plant can
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breathe and remain healthy.
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In a small closet where there are only a few plants you can
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probably create enough air circulation just by opening the door to
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look at them. Although it is possible to grow healthy looking
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plants in poorly ventilated rooms, they would be larger and
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healthier if they had a fresh supply of air coming in. If you
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spend a lot of time in your growing room, your plants will grow
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better because they will be using the carbon dioxide that you are
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exhaling around them. It is sometimes quite difficult to get a
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fresh supply of air in to your growing room because your room is
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usually hidden away in a secret corner of your house, possibly in
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the attic or basement. In this case, a fan will create some
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movement of air. It will also stimulate your plants into growing
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a healthier and sturdier stalk. Often times in an indoor
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environment, the stems of plants fail to become rigid because they
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don't have to cope with elements of wind and rain. To a degree,
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though, this is an advantage because the plant puts most of its
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energy into producing leaves and resin instead of stems.
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Dehumidifying Your Growing Room
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Cannabis that grows in a hot, dry climate will have narrower
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leaves than cannabis grown in a humid atmosphere. The reason is
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that in a dry atmosphere the plant can respirate easier because
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the moisture on the leaves evaporates faster. In a humid
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atmosphere, the moisture cannot evaporate as fast. Consequently,
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the leaves have to be broader with more surface area in order to
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expel the wastes that the plant put out. Since the broad leaves
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produce less resin per leaf than the narrow there will be more
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resin in an ounce of narrow leaves than in one ounce of broad
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leaves. There may be more leaf mass in the broader leafed plants,
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but most people are growing their own for quality rather than
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quantity.
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Since the resin in the marijuana plant serves the purpose of
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keeping the leaves from drying out, there is more apt to be a lot
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of resin produced in a dry room than in a humid one. In the Sears
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catalog, dehumidifiers cost around $100.00 and are therefore a bit
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impractical for the "hobby grower."
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Watering
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If you live near a clear mountain stream, you can skip this
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bit on the quality of water. Most of us are supplied water by the
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city and some cities add more chemicals to the water than others.
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They all add chlorine, however, in varying quantities. Humans
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over the years have learned to either get rid of it somehow or to
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live with it, but your marijuana plants won't have time to acquire
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a taste for it so you had better see that they don't have to.
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Chlorine will evaporate if you let the water stand for 24 hours in
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an open container. Letting the water stand for a day or two will
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serve a dual purpose: The water will come to room temperature
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during that period of time and you can avoid the nasty shock your
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plants suffer when you drench them with cold water. Always water
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with room temperature to lukewarm water. If your water has an
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excessive amount of chlorine in it, you may want to get some anti-
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chlorine drops at the local fish or pet store. The most important
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thing about watering is to do it thoroughly. You can water a
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plant in a three gallon container with as much as three quarts of
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water. The idea is to get the soil evenly moist all the way to
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the bottom of the pot. If you use a little water, even if you do
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it often, it seeps just a short way down into the soil and any
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roots below the moist soil will start to turn upwards toward the
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water. The second most important thing about watering is to see
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to it that the pot has good drainage. There should be some holes
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in the bottom so that any excess water will run out. If the pot
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won't drain, the excess water will accumulate in a pocket and rot
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the roots of the plant or simply make the soil sour or mildew.
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The soil, as we said earlier, must allow the water to drain evenly
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through it and must not become hard or packed. If you have made
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sure that the soil contains sand and pearlite, you shouldn't have
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drainage problems. To discover when to water, feel the soil with
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your finger. if you feel moisture in the soil, you can wait a day
|
|
or two to water. The soil near the top of the pot is always drier
|
|
than the soil further down. You can drown your plant just as
|
|
easily as you can let it get too dry and it is more likely to
|
|
survive a dry spell than it is to survive a torrential flood.
|
|
Water the plants well when you water and don't water them at all
|
|
when they don't need it.
|
|
|
|
Bugs
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|
|
|
If you can avoid getting bugs in the first place you will be
|
|
much better off. Once your plants become infested you will
|
|
probably be fighting bugs for the rest of your plants' lives. To
|
|
avoid bugs be sure to use sterilized soil and containers and don't
|
|
bring other plants from outside into your growing room. If you
|
|
have bets, ensure that they stay out of your growing room, since
|
|
they can bring in pests on their fur. Examine your plants
|
|
regularly for signs of insects, spots, holes in the leaves,
|
|
browning of the tips of the leaves, and droopy branches. If you
|
|
find that somehow in spite of all your precautions you have a
|
|
plant room full of bugs, you'll have to spray your plants with
|
|
some kind of insecticide. You'll want to use something that will
|
|
kill the bugs and not you. Spider mites are probably the bug that
|
|
will do the most damage to the marijuana plants. One of the
|
|
reasons is that they are almost microscopic and very hard to spot.
|
|
They are called spider mites because they leave a web-like
|
|
substance clinging to the leaves. They also cause tiny little
|
|
spots to appear on the leaves. Probably the first thing you'll
|
|
notice, however, is that your plants look sick and depressed. The
|
|
mites suck enzymes from the leaves and as a result the leaves lose
|
|
some of their green color and glossiness. Sometimes the leaves
|
|
look like they have some kid of fungus on them. The eggs are very
|
|
tiny black dots. You might be wise to get a magnifying glass so
|
|
that you can really scrutinize your plants closely. Be sure to
|
|
examine the underside of the leaves too. The mites will often be
|
|
found clinging to the underside as well as the top of the leaves.
|
|
The sooner you start fighting the bugs, the easier it will be to
|
|
get rid of them. For killing spider mites on marijuana, one of
|
|
the best insecticides if "Fruit and Berry" spray made by Millers.
|
|
Ortho also produces several insecticides that will kill mites.
|
|
The ingredients to look for are Kelthane and Malatheon. Both of
|
|
these poisons are lethal to humans and pets as well as bugs, but
|
|
they both detoxify in about ten days so you can safely smoke the
|
|
grass ten days after spraying. Fruit and Berry will only kill the
|
|
adult mite, however, and you'll have to spray every four days for
|
|
about two weeks to be sure that you have killed all the adults
|
|
before they have had a chance to lay eggs. Keep a close watch on
|
|
your plants because it only takes one egg laying adult to re-
|
|
infest your plants and chances are that one or two will escape
|
|
your barrage of insecticides. If you see little bugs flying
|
|
around your plants, they are probably white flies. The adults are
|
|
immune to almost all the commercial insecticides except Fruit and
|
|
Berry which will not kill the eggs or larva. It is the larval
|
|
stage of this insect that does the most damage. They suck out
|
|
enzymes too, and kill your plants if they go unchecked. You will
|
|
have to get on a spraying program just as was explained in the
|
|
spider mite section.
|
|
|
|
An organic method of bug control is using soap suds. Put
|
|
Ivory flakes in some lukewarm water and work up the suds into a
|
|
lather. Then put the suds over the plant. The obvious
|
|
disadvantage is it you don't rinse the soap off the plant you'll
|
|
taste the soap when you smoke the leaves.
|
|
|
|
Pruning
|
|
|
|
We have found that pruning is not always necessary. The
|
|
reason one does it in the first place is to encourage secondary
|
|
growth and to allow light to reach the immature leaves. Some
|
|
strands of grass just naturally grow thick and bushy and if they
|
|
are not clipped the sap moves in an uninterrupted flow right to
|
|
the top of the plant where it produces flowers that are thick with
|
|
resin. On the other hand, if your plants appear tall and spindly
|
|
for their age at three weeks, they probably require a little
|
|
trimming to ensure a nice full leafy plant. At three weeks of age
|
|
your plant should have at least two sets of branches or four leaf
|
|
clusters and a top. To prune the plant, simply slice the top off
|
|
just about the place where two branches oppose each other. Use a
|
|
razor blade in a straight cut. If you want to, you can root the
|
|
top in some water and when the roots appear, plant the top in
|
|
moist soil and it should grow into another plant. If you are
|
|
going to root the top you should cut the end again, this time with
|
|
a diagonal cut so as to expose more surface to the water or
|
|
rooting solution. The advantage to taking cuttings from your
|
|
plant is that it produces more tops. The tops have the resin, and
|
|
that's the name of the game. Every time you cut off a top, the
|
|
plant seeds out two more top branches at the base of the existing
|
|
branches. Pruning also encourages the branches underneath to grow
|
|
faster than they normally would without the top having been cut.
|
|
|
|
Harvesting and Curing
|
|
|
|
Well, now that you've grown your marijuana, you will want to
|
|
cur it right so that it smokes clean and won't bite. You can
|
|
avoid that "homegrown" taste of chlorophyll that sometimes makes
|
|
one's fillings taste like they might be dissolving. We know of
|
|
several methods of curing the marijuana so that it will have a
|
|
mild flavor and a mellow rather than harsh smoke.
|
|
|
|
First, pull the plant up roots and all and hang it upside
|
|
down for 24 hours. Then put each plant in a paper grocery bag
|
|
with the top open for three or four days or until the leaves feel
|
|
dry to the touch. Now strip the leaves off the stem and put them
|
|
in a glass jar with a lid. Don't pack the leaves in tightly, you
|
|
want air to reach all the leaves. The main danger in the curing
|
|
process is mold. If the leaves are too damp when you put them
|
|
into the jar, they will mold and since the mold will destroy the
|
|
resins, mold will ruin your marijuana. you should check the jars
|
|
every day by smelling them and if you smell an acrid aroma, take
|
|
the weed out of the jar and spread it out on newspaper so that it
|
|
can dry quickly. Another method is to uproot the plants and hang
|
|
them upside down. You get some burlap bags damp and slip them up
|
|
over the plants. Keep the bags damp and leave them in the sun for
|
|
at least a week. Now put the plants in a paper bag for a few days
|
|
until the weed is dry enough to smoke. Like many fine things in
|
|
life, marijuana mellows out with age. The aging process tends to
|
|
remove the chlorophyll taste.
|
|
|
|
Editor's Note and Important Warning:
|
|
|
|
This pamphlet was written about 8 years ago. While the
|
|
facts, figures, and methods described here are still valid, an
|
|
important note must be added concerning the purchasing of
|
|
equipment and supplies. The information age is upon us and and
|
|
increasing amount of data is being kept about all of us whether
|
|
we realize it or not. With the war on drugs in full effect, the
|
|
D.E.A. is using this information at every possible opportunity.
|
|
When you make a purchase with a credit card, every last bit
|
|
of information regarding that purchase is filed away into a
|
|
database, both at the store and with your credit card company.
|
|
Not only the price, but the exact date, location, and items
|
|
purchased are recorded and stored away. Many stores and credit
|
|
card companies routinely sell their databases of customers and
|
|
transactions to anybody who can afford it. The D.E.A can
|
|
certainly afford it. After all, they're using your tax dollars.
|
|
The D.E.A. as well as other government agencies DO purchase
|
|
these databases for their own uses. They feed them into their
|
|
computers and the computers spit out a list of anybody with
|
|
"suspicious" purchases. Any purchases that could be associated
|
|
with drug production, use, or selling could be flagged for
|
|
further investigation. These "suspicious" purchases include
|
|
unusual chemicals, medical supplies such as syringes, lights and
|
|
timers, and even potting soil and fertilizer.
|
|
The point is, if you are planning on purchasing supplies to
|
|
grow marijuana don't take any chances. While the average home
|
|
grower, who is simply growing enough for his own use, would
|
|
probably never be flagged by the computers, you never know. If
|
|
you are purchasing equipment or supplies, PAY CASH! In addition,
|
|
many supermarkets and discount stores now have some sort of
|
|
"Preferred Customer" cards. When you buy something, regardless
|
|
of how you pay, you give them your card to scan and all of your
|
|
purchases are recorded. They then send you some sort of coupon
|
|
depending on what and how much you purchased each month. It
|
|
sounds like a good deal, but you wind up having all of your
|
|
purchases recorded and sold just like with the credit cards.
|
|
DON'T use one of these cards when you are purchasing anything
|
|
that might be deemed suspicious. For that matter, don't use them
|
|
at all. They just result in a ton of junk mail and a lot of
|
|
people knowing exactly what you buy and when you buy it.
|