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Statement of Intent: GROW POT!
REMEMBER, it's up to you to inform your friends, family, neighbors and
co-workers that we have been lied-to, cheated, relieved of
freedoms, happiness, privacy, civil rights and liberties by the WOD.
Hemp prohibition is a political issue driven by big business interests
and it's damn well time we turn these policies around through
extreme civil-disobedience. Grow it everywhere, they can't get it all...
Hemp laws are immoral.
Hemp can save the forests, the planet and us.
Prohibition laws create crime and black markets.
Taxing drugs would pay for treatment of addicts.
350,000 people die every year from smoking tobbacco.
150,000 people die every year from drinking alcohol.
0 people die every year from smoking pot.
Cannabis could potentially save .5 million lives every year in the US alone.
The CIA is the worlds' biggest cocain dealer.
The CIA would rather you smoke crack than pot.
The War on Drugs is a campaign of fear and mind control; a war on civil
liberties.
Stop political prison sentences in our time.
Stop the promotion of poisons and the prohibition of medicines.
Stop the lies.
Tell the truth.
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Legalize It!
- Bob Marley
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TABLE OF CONTENTS:
OVERVIEW
GENETICS AND THE PLANT
INDOORS & OUTDOORS - CONSTANT HARVEST STRATEGY
PLANTING INDOORS
SHELF GROWING
RECYCLING
LIGHT
SEA OF GREEN
GERMINATION
VEGETATIVE GROWTH
FLOWERING
HYDROPONICS
PLANTING OUTDOORS
GUERRILLA GARDENING
SOIL GROWING
SECURITY
PLANT FOOD AND NUTRIENTS
PH AND FERTILIZERS
FOLAIR FEEDING
CO2
VENTING
TEMPERATURE
PESTS
TRANSPLANTING
EARLY SEXING
REGENERATION
PRUNING
HARVESTING AND DRYING
CLONING
BREEDING
SINSEMILLIA
SINSE SEEDS
ODORS AND NEGATIVE IONS
OXYGEN
SAFETY AND PRIVACY
DISTILLED WATER
BIRTH CONTROL PILLS
SEED AND BUD STORAGE
REVIEW
_______________________________________________________________________
OVERVIEW
There are few things in life as good as your own herb, grown by yourself at
home out in the garden and indoors in pots... 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 and celantro are 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 herb fresh 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 PLANT
It's very important to start with good genetics. You should attempt to
find seeds from local gardeners that are acclimated and bred for local
climate and best floral characteristics. Potency, aroma, fast growth,
early maturation, resistance to fungus and pests. All of these factors
are considered by the seasoned gardener and you will benefit enormously
by finding a friend to get you started on the journey that never ends...
Attempt to find an Indica/Sativa hybrid if possible, as this will have the
best high and good characteristics for indoor growth as well. Indica
plants have a heavy, stony high that is tiresome, and sativas' are hard
to grow indoors due to high light requirements, and late flowering traits,
so a hybrid can be bread that will have the energetic, cerebral high of the
sativa and the early maturation tendencies of the Indica plant.
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 hybrid 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. It is possible to recognize a good hybrid by the leaves
once you know what to look for.
Look for seeds that are dark brown or light grey. Some may have dark lines
inset into these colors, like tiger stripes. White, small seeds are
immature and should not be planted.
INDOORS & OUTDOORS - CONSTANT HARVEST STRATEGY
One of the best solutions to energy verses output for most home gardeners is
to use outdoor light for flowering and use continuous light indoors for
germination and vegetative growth. This will take advantage of the natural
light/dark cycle and cut your energy use in half compared to the same
operation indoors. A small greenhouse can be built of Filon fiberglass or PVC
sheets that is innocuous and looks 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 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 and gophers,
keeps out the neighbor kids, and can be easily locked up. It will also
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.
If more space is available to constantly be starting indoors and flowering 2nd
harvest plants outdoors, harvests are possible every 60 days in many
areas, with a small 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. At germination the plant enters into a vegetative state
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 photosynthesis
constantly and grow faster than it would outdoors with long evenings.
Photosynthesis stops during dark periods and the plant uses sugars produced
to build 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" 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. See FLOWERING chapter.)
Moving the plants to 10-13 hour light periods (moving it outside)
with uninterrupted darkness (no bright lights nearby) will force
the plant to flower. It will ripen and be 2-3' 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 in anticipation of oncoming winter. Vegetative
starts moved outside March 1st, will be ripe by May 1. Vegetative starts
moved outside on May 1 will be ripe by July 1. Starts moved outside Sept 1
are picked by Nov. 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!
PLANTING INDOORS
A small indoor space should be found that can be used to germinate seeds;
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 fuzz or rip-offs.
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, available from electronic liquidators for $5 each.
Dimmer swithes can be used to regulate the speed/noise of the fans. Use
silicon to secure the fans to 4-6" PVC pipe pushed thru a
round hole cut in the floor and ceilings. Use lots of silicon to damp the fans
vibrations, so that the walls do not resonate to the fans' ocsilations.
Line the walls with aluminum foil, dull side out to diffuse the light and
prevent hot-spots, or paint the walls bright white to reflect light.
Aluminized mylar, 1 mil thick is best.($20 for 25 feet of a 4' wide roll.)
Mirrors are not good to use, since 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. Spacers place 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 shop lights will be fine if you just want
to start plants inside and then take them outside to grow in a small
greenhouse. They can be purchased with bulbs for about $10 each, or
without bulbs for around $8. Try to find them on sale. Use one Cool White
and one Warm Light type bulb in each to get the best light spectrum
possible for plant growth. Do not use expensive Grow Lux type bulbs, as
they do not put out as much light, and therefor do not work as well in most
situations (go figure). If Cool White is all you can find, or afford, use
them. They work fine, and are by far the cheapest.(About $1-2 each.)
SHELF GROWING
Shelf gardening with fluorescents may be the trend of the future, since the
materials are so inexpensive, and easy to obtain. Fluorescent lamps are
great for shelf gardening. 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' 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 2 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 2" 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 flourecents are used to completely saturate the
shelf with light, the spacing issue will not create spindly plants. They
will mearly 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
HPS for heavy vegatative 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. Most HPS installations will not require
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" wide, up to about 24" 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; 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 soaks up light.
Hang shop lamps 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 (1-2").
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 internode length being much longer.
This is the length of stem between each set of leaves.
If it is shorter, there can be more internodes, 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.
LIGHT
Indoors, 2000 lumens per sq. ft. is about as low as you want to go indoors.
If you get under this mark, plant growth will certainly not go as fast as
possible, and internode/stem length will increase. Also, light distance to
plants will be much more critical. Daily adjustments to the lamps will be
necessary, meaning you get no vacations.
2500 lumens psf should be a good target, and 3000 is optimal if your going
to inject or enrich CO2 levels (more on that later).
High Intensity Discharge lamps are the best solution for most indoor
growers. HID lamps come in 3 basic flavors: High Pressure Sodium (HPS),
Metal Halide (MH) and Mercury Vapor. Metal Halide is an improved spectrum,
higher intensity Mercury Vapor design. HPS is a yellowish sort of light,
maybe a bit pink or orange. Same as some street lamps.
HPS lamps can be used to grow a crop from start to finish. Tests show that
the HPS crop will mature 1 week later than a similar crop under MH, but it
will be a bigger yield, so it's better to wait the extra week.
The easiest HID to buy, and least expensive initially are the flourescent
and mercury vapor lamps. MV will put out about 8000 lumens per 175 watts,
and 150 watts of HPS puts out about 15k lumens, so HPS is almost twice as
efficient. But the color spectrum from MV lamp output is not as good. HPS
is high in reds, which works well for flowering, while the Metal Halide is
rich in blues, needed for the best vegetative growth. Unfortunately, MV
lamps provide the worst spectrum for plant growth, but are very inexpensive
to purchase.They are not recommended, unless you find them free, and even
then, the electricity/efficiency issues outweigh the initial costs saved.
400 watt HPS will output around 45k lumens. For every 500 watts of
continuous use, you use about $20 a month in electricity, so it is evident
that a lamp taking half the power to output the same lumens (or twice the
lumens at the same power level) will pay for itself in a year or so, and
from then on, continuous savings will be reaped. This is a simple initial
cost vs. operating costs calculation, and does not take into account the
faster growth and increased yield the HPS lamp will give you, due to more
light being available. If this is factored into the calculation the HPS
lamp will pay for itself with the first crop, when compared to MV or
fluorescent lamps, since it is easily twice as efficient and grows flowers
faster and bigger.
Lamp Type Watts Lumens per bulb Total efficiency
Fluorescent Bulb 40 3000 400 watts = 30k lumens
Mercury Vapor 175 8000 400 watts = 20k lumens
Metal Halide 400 36000 400 watts = 36k lumens
High P. Sodium 400 45000 400 watts = 45k lumens
Notice the Mercury Vapor lamps are less efficient than the fluorescent (FL),
and can not be positioned as close to the plants, so the plants will not be
able to use as much of the MV light. The light distribution is not as good
either. MV lamps simply are not suitable for indoor gardening. Use flourecent,
MH, or HPS lamps only. Halogen arc lamps generate too much heat and not
very much light for the wattage they use, and are also not recommened, even
though the light spectrum is suitable for decent growth.
There is a new type of HPS lamp called Son Agro, and it is available in a
250, 1000, and 400 watt range. The 400 is actually 430 watts; they have
added 30 watts of blue to this bulb. It is a very bright lamp (53k lumens)
and is made for greenhouse use. These bulbs can be purchased to replace
normal HPS bulbs, so they are an option if you already own a HPS lamp. The
beauty of this bulb is that you do not give up most of the advantages of MH
lamps, such as minimal internode spacing and early maturation, like most
HPS users do, and you have all advantages of a HPS lamp. One bulb does it
all.
Internodal length of plants grown with the Son Agro are the shortest ever
seen with any type of lamp. Plants grown under this lamp are incredibly
bushy, compact and grow very fast. Son Agro bulbs however, do not last as
long as normal HPS bulbs. There is something like a 25% difference in bulb
life.
Metal Halide (MH) is another option, and is available in both a 36k and 40k
lumen bulbs for the 400 watt size. The Super Bulb (40k) is about $10-15
more, and provides an extra 4000 lumens. I think the Super Bulb may last
longer; if so, that makes it the way to go. Halide light is more blue and
better than straight HPS for vegetative growth, but is much less efficient
than HPS. It is possible to purchase conversion bulbs for a MH lamp that
convert it to HPS, but the cost of the conversion bulb is more expensive
than the color corrected Son Agro bulb, so I would recommend just buying
the Son Agro HPS. Even though it costs more initially, you get more for
your energy dollar later, and it's much easier to hang than 10 fluorescent
tubes.
If you have a MH 36k lumen lamp burning at 400 watts and a 53k lumen HPS
burning at 430 watts, which is better efficiency wise? Which will provide a
better yield? Obviously, the Son Agro HPS, but of course, the initial cost
is higher. Actually, the ballast will add about 10% to these wattage
numbers.
The Son Agro bulb will prove much better than the MH for any purpose. The
MH bulb does not last as long, but is cheaper. Compare $36 for a 400 watt
MH bulb vs. $40 for the HPS bulb. Add $15 for the Son Agro HPS. The HPS
bulb life is twice as long. 10k hours vs. 21k hours. The Son Agro is 16k
hours or so. Still, longer bulb life and more light add up to more for your
energy dollar long term.
Horizontal mounting of any HID is a good idea, as this will boost by 30%
the amount of light that actually reaches the plants. Most HID's sold for
indoor garden use these days are of this horizontal mounting arrangement.
HPS is much less expensive to operate than any other type of lamp, but
comes in the 70 watt size at the home improvement stores. This size is
not very efficient, but blows away FL in efficiency, so they might be
an alternative to FL for very small operations, like 9 sq. feet or less.
Over 9 sqr. feet, you need more light than one of these lamps can provide,
but you could use two of them.
70 watt HPS lamps cost about $40 each, complete.
Two lamps would be 140 watts putting out about 12k lumens, so it's better
than FL, but a 150 watt HPS puts out about 18k lumens, the bulb life is
longer, bulbs are cheaper and the lamp more efficient to operate.
The biggest problem is that the mid size lamps like
the 150 and 250 watt HPS are almost as expensive to buy as the larger
400's. For this reason, if you have room for the larger lamp, buy the 400.
If your going pro, a 1080 watt model is available too, but you might find
there is better light distribution from two 400's rather than one large lamp.
Of course, the two smaller lamps are more expensive to purchase than one
large lamp, so most people choose the larger lamp for bigger operations.
Heat buildup in the room is a factor with HID lamps, and just how much
light the plants can use is determined by temperature, CO2 levels, nutrient
availability, PH, and other factors. Too big of a lamp for a space will
make constant venting necessary, and then there is no way to enrich CO2,
since it's getting blown out of the room right away.
Bulb Costs: the bulb cost on the 70 watt HPS is $24, the 150 is only $30,
and the 400 is only $40. So you will spend more to replace two 70 watt
bulbs than you will to replace one 400 watt HPS. (Go figure.) Add that up
with the lower resale value on the 70's (practically nothing) and the fact
that they are being modified and are not suited to this application, and it
becomes evident that $189 for a 250 HPS lamp, or $219 for a 400, might just
be worth the price. Keep in mind that for $30 more, you can have the larger
lamp (400watt) and it puts out 20k lumens more light than the smaller lamp.
Not a bad deal!
Here is the breakdown on prices (from memory):
Type Complete Cost Bulb Cost Bulb Life Lumens
HPS 400 $219 $40 18k hours 50k
MH 400 $175 $37 10k hours 36k
Son Agro400 $235 $55 15k hours 53k
Super MH400 $190 $45 ?? 40k
MH 250 $149 $32 ?? 21k
HPS 250 $165 $36 ?? 27k
HPS agro250 $180 $53 ?? 30k
MH 150 $139 $25 ?? 14k
HPS 175 $150 $30 ?? 17k
If your looking for these types of lamps, look in the Yellow Pages under
gardening, nursuries, and lighting for indoor gardening stores in your area.
SEA OF GREEN
Sea of Green (SOG) is the theory of harvesting lots of small plants, matured
early to get the fastest production of buds available. Instead of growing
a few plants for a longer period of time, in the same space many smaller
plants are grown that mature faster and in less time. Thus, less time is
required between crops. This is important to you when the electricity bill
comes each month. One crop can be started while another is maturing, and a
continuous harvest, year round can be maintained. 4 plants per square foot
will be a good start for seedlings. 1 plant per square foot will allow plenty
of room for each plant to grow a large top cola, but will not allow for much
bottom branching. This is OK since indoors, these bottom branches are always
shaded anyway, and will not grow very well unless given additional light and
space. The indoor grower quickly realizes that plants that are too tall do not
produce enough at the bottom to make the extra growing time used worth while.
An exception to this rule would be if it is intended the plants are
to go outside at some point, and it is expected that the light/shading issue
will not be a factor at that point.
The plants, if started at the same time, should create what is called a
"green canopy" that traps most of the light at the top level of the plants.
Little light will penetrate below this level, since the plants are so close
together. The gardener is attempting to concentrate on the top of the
plant, and use the light and space to the best advantage, in as little time
as possible. Use of nylon poultry fence or similar trellising laid out
over the green canopy will support the plants as they start to droop under
the weight of heavy fruiting tops. Stakes can be used too, but are not as
easy to install for plants in the middle and back of the room, where reach
is more difficult.
It's easy to want big plants, since they will produce more yield per plant,
but it's usually better with limited space to grow smaller plants that
mature faster and pack into smaller spaces. Sea of Green was developed
in Holland. Instead of fitting 4 large plants in that small room, fit
12 small ones on a shelf above 12 other small plants. These
plants take only 3-4 months to mature from germination to ripe buds, and
harvesting takes place constantly, since there is both a vegetative and
flowering area devoted to each, with harvests every 45-60 days.
It's not the size of the plant, but the maturity and quality of the product
that counts. Twice as many plants grown half as big will fill the grow space
twice as fast, so harvests take place almost twice as often.
Get good at picking early flowering plants, and propagate only those
that are of the best quality.
6" square containers will allow for 4 plants per square foot. You may also
gauge by the size of your growing tray (for passive hydroponics); I like
kitty litter boxes. ($3 each at Target) Planted 4 per square foot, (for
vegatative seedlings) a 12 sq. ft. closet will hold 48 seedlings on one shelf.
In my case, I use 4" rockwool cubes that fit into kitty litter pans @ 12
cubes per pan. I can get 5 pans onto a 12 sq. ft. closet upper shelf, so
that is 60 seedlings on one small shelf!
For flowering indoors, 1 plant per sq. ft. is a good rule of thumb for SOG.
If less plants are grown in this size space, it will take them longer to fill
the space, thus more electricity and time will be used to create the same
amount of product. If more than one plant p.s.f. is attempted, the grower
will soon find that plants thus crowded tend to be more stem than bud, and
the total harvest may be reduced, so be cautious.
It's good to avoid "topping" your plants if you want them to grow as fast
as possible. It's better just to grow 2 or 4 times more plants, since they
will produce more, faster, in the same space. Also, "training" plants with
twist-ties is a great way to get them to bush out a bit. Just take any
type of plastic or paper twist tie and wrap it around the top of the plant,
then pull it over until the top is bent over 90-180 degrees and then attach
this to the main stem lower on the plant. Do this for one week and then
release the plant from it's bond. The plant can be trained in this fashion
to take less vertical space and to grow bushier, to fill the grow space and
force lower limbs to grow upward and join the green canopy. This technique
takes advantage of the fact that if the top is pulled over, it creates a
hormonal condition in the plant that makes it bush out at all lower internodes.
Sea of Green entails growing to harvest the main cola (top) of the plant.
Bottom branches are trimmed to increase air flow under the "blanket" of
growing tops. Use these cuttings for clones, as they are the easiest part
of the plant to root. It's also the fastest part of the plant to regenerate
after flowering has occurred.
GERMINATION
Germinate seeds in sterile soil (for planting outdoors) or a hydroponic
medium of rockwool or vermiculite. DO NOT (!) use a Jiffy cube #7 to
germinate seeds. Informal tests and experience show these peat cubes do
not work well and stunt the plants growth. Planting in vermiculite gives
the seedling so much oxygen, and are so easy for roots to grow in, that
the plants look large 1 week after germination!
Keep them moist at all times, by placing seeds in vermiculite filled 16oz
cups with holes in the bottom, placed in a tray of weak nutrient solution,
high in P. Rockwool cubes also work extremely well. When the seed sprouts,
place the rockwool cubes into larger rockwool cubes. No repotting or
transplanting, and no soil mixing!
You can germinate seeds in a paper towel. This method is tricky; it's
easy to ruin roots if they dry out, or are planted too late after germinating.
Paper towels dry out REAL FAST! Place paper towel in a bowl, saturated with
weak nutrient solution (not too much!), and cover with plastic wrap to keep
it from drying out. Put bowl in a warm area; top of the gas stove, water heater
closet, or above warm lamps. Cover with black paper to keep out light.
Check every 12 hours and plant germinated seeds with the
grow tip up (if possible) in a growing medium as soon as the root coming out
of the seed is 1/16" or longer. Use tweezers, and don't touch the root tip.
Transplant as little as possible by germinating in the
same container you intend to grow the plant in for a significant period of
time. Just plant in vermiculite or rockwool. You will be amazed at the
results! 90% germination is common with this method, as compared to 50% or
less with Jiffy Cubes. (Your milage may vary.)
5-55-17 plant food such as Peter's Professional will stimulate root growth
of the germinating seed and the new seedlings. Use a very dilute solution,
in distilled water, about 1/3 normal strength, and keep temperatures
between 72-80 degrees. Warm temperatures are very important. Many growers
experience low germination rate if the temperatures are out of this
range. A heating pad set to low or medium may be necessary, or a shelf
constantly warmed by a light may do, but test it with a few seeds first,
before devoting next years crop to it. No light is necessary and may slow
germination. Cover germinating seeds with black paper to keep out light.
Place seedlings in the light once they sprout.
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 delay
harvesting. You will suffer too, from too much work! 13 2-liter plastic
soda bottles filled with vermiculite/pearlite will fit in a cat box tray,
and will not require transplanting for the first harvest, if you intend to grow
hydroponically. Transplant them for a second regenerated harvest.
Cut holes in the bottom of containers and fill the last few inches at the
top with vermiculite only, to start seeds or accept seedling transplants.
Since vermiculite holds water well, wicks water well, but does not hold too
much water, roots always have lots of oxygen, even if they are sitting in a
tray full of water. A hydrogen peroxide based plant food is used to get
extra oxygen to the plants when the pans are kept continuously full. The
water can be allowed to recede each time after watering, before new
solution is added. This allows the plants roots to dry somewhat, and make
sure they are getting enough oxygen.
Use SuperSoil brand potting soil, as it is excellent and sterilized. If you
insist on using dirt from the yard, sterilize it in the microwave or oven
until it gets steamy.(NOT RECOMMENDED) Sterilize the containers with a
bleach solution, especially if they have been used a previous season for
another plant.
VEGETATIVE GROWTH
Once sprouted, the plant starts vegetative growth. This means the plant
will be photosynthesizing 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 internode. If you "top" the plant, it then has two grow tips
at the top. If you top each of these, you will have 4 grow tips at the top
of the plant. (Since it takes time for the plant to heal and recover from
the trauma of being pruned, it faster to grow 4 smaller plants and not top
them at all. Or grow 2 plants, and "train" them to fill the same space. Most
growers find)
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, 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 can grow from
12" to 12' before being forced to flower, so there is a lot of latitude
here for each gardener to manage the garden based on goals and space
available.
A solution of 20-20-20 with trace minerals is used for both hydroponic and
soil gardening when growing continuously under lights. Miracle Grow Patio
or RapidGrow plant food is good for this. A high P plant food such as
Peter's 5-50-17 food is used for blooming and fruiting plants when
beginning 12 hour days. Epsom salts (1tsp) should be used in the solution
for magnesium and sulfur minerals. Trace minerals are needed too, if your
food does not include them. Miracle Grow Patio includes these trace
elements, and is highly recommended.
Keep lights on continuously for sprouts, since they require no darkness
period like older plants. You will not need a timer unless you want to keep
the lamps off during a certain time each day. Try to light the plants for
18 or more hours, or continuously at this point.
Bend a young plant's stem back and forth to force it to be very thick and
strong. Spindly stems can not support heavy flowering growth. An internal
oscillating fan will reduce humidity on the leave's stomata and improve the
stem strength as well. The importance of nternal air circulation can not
be stressed enough. It will excersize the plants and make them grow stronger,
while reducing many hazards that could ruin your crop.
HYDROPONIC VEGATATIVE SOLUTION, per gallon:
Miracle Grow Patio (contains trace elements) 1 teaspoon
Epsom salts 1/2 teaspoon
Human Urine (OPTIONAL - may create odors indoors.) 1/4 cup
Oxygen Plus Plant Food (OPTIONAL) 1 teaspoon
This mixture will insure your plants are getting all major and minor
nutrients in solution, and will also be treating your plants with oxygen
for good root growth, and potassium nitrate for good burning qualities.
Another good GROWTH PHASE mix is 1/4 tsp Peter's 20/20/20 fertilizer per
gallon of water, with trace elements and oxygen added, or fish emulsion.
Fish emulsion is great in the grean-house or outdoors, where smells are
not an issue, but is not recommended for indoors, due to its strong odor.
FLOWERING
The the plant will be induced to fruit or flower with dark cycles of 11-13
hours that simulate the oncoming winter in the fall as the days grow
shorter. As a consequence, it works out well indoors to have two separate
areas; one that is used for the initial vegetative state and one that is
used for flowering and fruiting. There is no other requirement other than
to keep the dark cycle for flowering very dark with no light interruptions,
as this can stall flowering by days or weeks.
Once a plant is big enough to mature (12" or over), dark periods are
required for most plants to flower and bear fruit. This will require
putting the lamp on a timer, to create regular and strict dark periods of
uninterrupted light. In the greenhouse, the same effect can be created in
the Summer (long days) by covering it 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 vegatative growth.
Outdoors, Spring and Fall, the nights are sufficiently long to induce flowering
at all times. Merely bring the plants from indoors to the outside 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.
Give flowering plants high P plant food and keep them on a strict light
regimen of 12 hours, with no light, or no more than a full moon during the
dark cycle. 13 hours light, 11 dark may increase flower size while still
allowing the plant to go into the flowering mode. Use longer
dark periods to speed maturity toward the end of the flowering cycle if
speed is of the essence. (8-10 days) This will however, reduce total yield.
Two shelves can be used, one identical to the other, if strictly indoor
gardening is desired. One shelf's lights are set for 12-13 hours, and one
is lit continuously. Plants are started in continuous light, and are moved
to the other shelf to flower to maturity after several weeks. This
flowering shelf should be bigger than the "starting" or "vegetative" shelf,
so that it can accommodate larger plants. Or, some plants can be taken
outside if there is not enough space on the flowering shelf for all of them
near harvesting.
A light tight 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, and can be velcroed down in place to make sure 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.
Flowering plants like very high P level foods, such as 5-50-17, but
10-20-10 should be adequate. Nutrients should be provided with each
watering when first flowering.
Trace elements are necessary too; try to find foods that include these, so
you don't have to use a separate trace element food too. Home improvement
centers sell trace element solutions rich in iron for lawn deficiencies, and
these can be adapted for use in cultivating the herb. Prices for these mass
produced fertilizers are significantly cheaper than the specialized hydroponic
fertilizers sold in indoor gardening shops, and seem to work just fine.
HYDROPONIC FLOWERING SOLUTION, per gallon:
1 tspn high P plant food, such as 15-30-15, or 5-50-17, etc.
1/2 tspn epsom salts
1 tspn Oxygen Plus Plant Food (Optional)
1 tspn Trace Element food
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.
A green light can be used to work on the garden during the dark period with
no negative reactions from the plants. These are sold as nursery safety
lights, but any green bulb should be OK. It is best to keep the dark hours
a time when you would normally not wish to visit the garden. Personally, I
like my garden lit from 7pm to 7am, since it allows me to visit the garden
at night after work and in the morning before work, and all day long, while
I'm too busy to worry about it, it lies unlit and undisturbed, flowering
away...
Flowering plants should not be sprayed often as this will promote mold and
rot. Keep humidity levels down indoors when flowering, as this is the most
delicate time for the plants in this regard.
Early flowering is noticed 1-2 weeks after turning back the lights to 12
hour days. Look for 2 white hairs emerging from a small bulbous area at
every internode. This is the easiest way to verify females early on. You
can not tell a male from a female by height, or bushiness.
3-6 weeks after turning back the lights, your plants will be covered with
these white pistils emerging from every growtip on the plant. It will
literally be covered with them. These are the mature flowers, as they
continue to grow and cover the plant. Some plants will do this
indefinately until the lights are turned back yet again. At the point you
feel your ready to see the existing flowers become ripe ( you feel the plant
has enought flowers), turn the lights back to 8-10 hours. Now the plant will
start to ripen quickely, and should be ready to harvest in 2-3 weeks. The
alternative, is to allow the plant to ripen with whatever natural day
length is available outside, or keep the plants on a constant 12 hour
regimen for the entire flowering process, which may increase yield, but
takes longer.
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 vegatative growth, and final flowering will occur regardless. 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 pull the males, right?) to swell with resins. When most of
the pistils have turned color (~80%), 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.
HYDROPONICS
Most growers report that a hydroponic system will grow plants faster than a
soil medium, 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 therefor, take less time to
grow. One report has it that plants started in soil matured after
hydroponic plants started 2 weeks later!
Fast growth allows for earlier maturation and shorter total growing time
per crop. Also, with soil mixtures, 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
repotting if rockwool is used. (Highly recommended!)
By far the easiest hydroponic systems to use are the wick and reservoir
systems. These are referred to as Passive Hydroponic methods, because they
require no water distribution system on an active scale (pump, drain, flow
meter and path). The basis of these systems is that water will wick to
where you want it if the medium and conditions are correct.
The wick system is more involved than the reservoir system, since the wicks
must be cut and placed in the pots, correct holes must be cut in the pots,
and a spacer must be created to place the plants up above the water
reservoir below. This can be as simple as two buckets, one fit inside the
other, or a kiddie pool with bricks in it that the pots rest on, elevating
them out of the nutrient solution.
I find the wick setup to be more work than the reservoir system. Initial
setup is a pain with wicks, and the plants sit higher in the room, taking
up precious vertical space. The base the pot sits on may not be very stable
compared to a reservoir system, and a knocked over plant will never be the
same as an untouched plant, due to stress and shock in recovery.
The reservoir system needs only a good medium suited to the task, and a pan
to sit a pot in. If rockwool slabs are used, a half slab of 12" rockwool
fits perfectly into a kitty litter pan. The roots spread out in very desirable
horizontal fashion and have a lot of room to grow. Plants grown in this manner
are very robust because they get a great deal of oxygen at the roots. Plants
grown with reservoir hydroponics grow at about the same rate as wicks or
other active hydroponic methods, with much less effort required, since it
is by far the simplest of hydroponic methods. Plants can be watered and
feed by merely pouring solution into the reservoir every few days. The pans
take up very little vertical space and are easy to handle and move around.
In a traditional hydroponic method, pots are filled with lava/ vermiculite
mix of 4 to 1. Dolite Lime is added, one Tblspn. per gallon of growing
medium. This medium will wick and store water, but has excellent
drainage and air storage capacity as well. It is however, not very resuable,
as it is difficult to recapture and sterilize after harvest. Use small
size lava, 3/8" pea size, and rinse the dust off it, over and over,
until most of it is gone. Wet the vermiculite (dangerous dry, wear a mask)
and mix into pots. Square pots hold more than round. Vermiculite will
settle to bottom after repeated watering from the top, so only water from
the top occasionally to leach any mineral deposits, and put more vermiculite
on the top than the bottom. Punch holes in the bottom of the pots, and add
water to the pan. It will be wicked up to the roots and the plants will
have all they need to flourish.
The reservoir is filled with 1 1/2 - 3 inches of water and allowed to recede
between waterings. When possible, use less solution and water more often,
to pull more oxygen to the roots faster over time. If you go away on vacation,
simply fill the reservoirs full to the top, and the plants will be watered
for 2 weeks at least.
One really great hydroponic medium is Oasis floral foam. Stick lots of
holes into it to open it up a little, and start plants/clones in it,
moving the cube of foam to rockwool later for larger growth stages.
Many prefer floral foam, as it is inert, and adds no PH factors. It's
expensive though, and tends to crumble easily. I'm also not sure it's
very reusable, but it seems to be a popular item at the indoor gardening
centers.
Planting can be made easier with hydroponic mediums that require little
setup such as rockwool. Rockwool cubes can be reused several times, and are
premade to use for hydroponics. Some advantages of rockwool are that it is
impossible to over water and there is no transplanting. Just place the
plant's cube on top of a larger rockwool cube and enjoy your extra leisure
time.
Some find it best to save money by not buying rockwool and spending time
planting in soil or hydroponic mediums such as vermiculite/lava mix.
Pearlite is nice, since it is so light. Pearlite can be used instead of or
in addition to lava, which must be rinsed and is much heavier.
But rockwool has many advantages that are not appreciated until you spend
hours repotting; take a second look. It is not very expensive, and it is
reusable. It's more stable than floral foam, which crunches and powders
easily. Rockwool holds 10 times more water than soil, yet is impossible to
over-water, because it always retains a high percentage of air. Best of
all, there is no transplanting; just place a starter cube into a rockwool
grow cube, and when the plant gets very large, place that cube on a
rockwool slab. Since rockwool is easily reused over and over, the cost
is divided by 3 or 4 crops, and ends up costing no more than vermiculite
and lava, which is much more difficult to reclaim, sterilize and reuse
(repot) when compared to rockwool. Vermiculite is also
very dangerous when dry, and ends up getting in the carpet and into the air
when you touch it (even wet), since it drys on the fingers and becomes
airborne. For this reason, I do not recommend vermiculite indoors.
Rockwool's disadvantages are relatively few. It is alkaline PH, so you must
use something in the nutrient solution to make it acidic (5.5) so that it
brings the rockwool down from 7.7, to 6.5 (vinagar works great.) And it is
irritating to the skin when dry, but is not a problem when wet.
To pre-treat rockwool for planting, soak it in a solution of fish emulsion,
trace mineral solution and phosphoresic acid (PH Down) for 24 hours, then rinse.
This will decrease the need for PH worries later on, as it buffers the rockwool
PH to be fairly neutural.
Hydroponics should be used indoors or in greenhouses to speed the growth of
plants, so you have more bud in less time. Hydroponics allows you to water
the plants daily, and this will speed growth. The main difference between
hydroponics and soil growing is that the hydroponic soil or "medium"is made
to hold moisture, but drain well, so that there are no over-watering problems
associated with continuous watering. Also, hydroponically grown plants do
not derive nutrients from soil, but from the solution used to water the
plants. Hydroponics reduces worries about mineral buildup in soil, and
lack of oxygen to suffocating roots, so leaching is usually not necessary
with hydroponics.
Hydroponics allows you to use smaller containers for the same given size
plant, when compared to growing in soil. A 3/4 gallon pot can easily take
a small hydroponically grown plant to maturity. This would be difficult
to do in soil, since nutrients are soon used up and roots become cut-off
from oxygen as they become root-bound in soil. This problem does not seem
to occure nearly as quickly for hydroponic plants, since the roots can
still take up nutrients from the constant solution feedings, and the medium
passes on oxygen much more redily when the roots become bound in the small
container.
Plant food is administered with most waterings, and allows the gardener to
strictly control what nutrients are available to the plants at the
different stages of plant growth. Watering can be automated to some degree
with simple and cheap drip system apparatus, so take advantage of this when
possible.
Hydroponics will hasten growing time, so it takes less time to harvest
after planting. It makes sense to use simple passive hydroponic techniques
when possible. Hydroponics may not be desirable if your growing outdoors,
unless you have a greenhouse.
CAUTION: it is necessary keep close watch of plants to be sure they are
never allowed to dry too much when growing hydroponically, or roots will be
damaged. If you will not be able to tend to the garden every day, be sure
the pans are filled enough to last until next time you return, or you can
easily lose your crop.
More traditional hydroponic methods (active) are not discussed here. I don't
see any point in making it more diffucult than it needs to be. It is necessary
to change the solution every month if your circulating it with a pump, but the
reservoir system does away with this problem. Just rinse the medium once a
month or so to prevent salts build up by watering from the top of the pot
or rockwool cube with pure water. Change plant foods often to avoid
deficiencies in the plants. I recommend using 2 different plant foods for
each phase of growth, or 4 foods total, to lessen chances of any type of
deficiency.
Change the solution more often if you notice the PH is going down quickly
(too acid). Due to cationic exchange, solution will tend to get too acid
over time, and this will cause nutrients to become unavailable to the
plants. Check PH of the medium every time you water to be sure no PH issues
are occuring.
Algae will tend to grow on the medium with higher humidities in hydroponics.
It will turn a slab of rockwool dark green. To prevent this, use the plastic
cover the rockwool came in to cover rockwool slab tops, with holes cut for
the plants to stick out of it. It's easy to cut a packaged slab of rockwool
into two pieces, then cut the end of the plastic off each piece. You now have
two pieces of slab, each covered with plastic except on the very ends. Now
cut 2 or 3 4" square holes in the top to place cubes on it, and place each
piece in a clean litter pan. Now your ready to treat the rockwool as
described above in anticipation of planting.
If growing in pots, a layer of gravel at the top of a pot may help reduce
algae growth, since it will dry very quickly. Algae is merely messy and
unsightly; it will not actually cause any complications with the plants.
RECYCLING
Use pots made from squarish containers such as plastic water jugs, etc.
More plants will fit in less space and have more rooting area if square
containers are used. This makes your garden a recycling center, and saves
you tons of money.
2-liter soda bottles work great, but are not square.
13 will fit in a kitty litter box, and these will take a 3 foot plant to
maturity hydroponically. If you can get 4 litter boxes in a closet, you can
grow 52 plants like this vegatatively. Spread them out more for flowering.
Old buckets, plastic 3-5 gallon containers (food and paint industries, try
painters' and resturant dumpsters), paper paint buckets, old plastic
garbage cans of all sizes, and garbage bags have all been used
successfully by growers.
Do not use paper milk cartons and juice cartons for reservoir hydroponics,
since these are difficult to sterilize, and they introduce fungus into your
reservoir trays. Inert materials, such as plastic is best.
Be sure to sterilize all containers before each planting with a clorine
bleach solution of 2 tbspn. of bleach to one gallon of water. Let
container and meduim such as rockwool soak for several hours in the
solution before rinsing thouroghly.
PLANTING OUTDOORS
Outdoor growing is the best. Outdoor pot by far is the strongest, since
it gets more light, it's naturally more robust. No light leak problems.
No dark periods that keep you out of your grow room. No electricity bills.
Sunlight tends to reach more of the plant, if your growing in the direct sun.
Unlike growing indoors, the bottom of the plant will be almost as developed
as the top.
Outdoors, outside of a greenhouse, there are many factors that can kill
your crop. Deer will try to eat them. Chipmonks 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. For this reason, indoor pot can be
better than outdoor, but the best smoke I ever tasted was outdoor pot,
so that tells you something; nothing beats the sun.
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, since
hydroponics will be less reliable outside 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 opaqued plastic, PVC, Filon, 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.
Dig a big hole, don't depend on the plant to be able to penetrate the clay
and rubble unless your sure of the quality of topsoil in the area. Grassy
fields would have good top soil, but your back yard may not. This alone can
make the difference between an average 5' tall plant, and a 10' monster by
harvest time. Growing in the ground will always beat a pot, since the plant
will never become root bound in the ground. Plants grown in the ground should
grow much larger, but will need more space for each plant, so plan accordingly,
you can't move them once they're in!
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: build the roof BEFORE the plants are sticking over the fence! Or
train them to stay well below it. Live and learn...
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 presure 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.
GUERRILLA FARMING
Guerrilla farming 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 adjacent 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. Teknu is a
special soap solution that will deactivate poison oak before it has time to
create a reaction. Apply Teknu immediately after contact and take a shower
30 mins. 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 chipmonks, squirles 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" and another at 3' will keep most
deer away from your crop.
Gopher Granola is available for areas such as the N. CA mountains, where
wood rats and gophers will eat your crop if given any opportunity to do so.
The best fence in the world will not keep rats away from your plants!
Do not use soap to keep dear away, it will attract rats! (The fat in the
soap is edible for them.) Put the poison grain in a feeder than only
small rodents can enter, so that birds and deer can't eat it. Set out
poison early, before actual planting. The rats must eat the grain for
several days before it will have any effect on them. Ultimately, you may
find it's easier to grow in a greenhouse shed in your own backyard rather
than try to keep the rats from eating your outdoor plot.
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 vegatative 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" 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. If
spotted inroute to the grow area, burying a dead cat may be a good
excuse for being in the area. Few people would demand to see the rotting
corpse!
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!
SOIL GROWING
Use Super Soil brand in California, as this is the only known soil on the
West Coast that is guaranteed to be good. Many other brands are mostly wood
products and have very few nutrients, are too moist, etc. Add vermiculite,
pearlite or sand to Super Soil to increase it's drainage and aeration.
Organic gardeners use their own compost prepaired from a mixture of
chicken, cow or other manure and household food waste, leaves, lawn
clippings, dog hair and other waste products including urine, which is high
in nitrogen. Dog hair is not recommended for guerilla gardeners planting
off their property where police could find it. DNA tests could prove it was
YOUR dog's hair!
Use P4 water crystals in the soil to give the plants a few days worth of
emergency water reserves. This substance swells up with water and holds it
like a sponge, so that roots will have a reserve if harsh drought makes
constant watering necessary. Go real easy on this stuff though, it tends to
sink to the bottom of the pot and suffocate bottom roots (new growth roots)
and stunts the plant. Use in extreme moderation, let it swell up for at
least an hour before mixing with other soil.
Plant size in soil is directly related to pot size. If you want the plant
to grow bigger, put it in a bigger pot. Usually, 1/2 gallon per foot of
plant is sufficient. A six foot plant would require a minimum of a 3 gallon
pot. Remember, square containers have more volume in a square space (like a
closet).
Planting in the ground is always preferable when growing in soil. The plants
can then grow to any size, unlimited by pot size.
Bat Guano, chicken manure, or worm castings can all be used to fertilize
organically in soil. Manures can burn, so they should be composted with
the soil first, before planting, over several weeks. Sea weed is available
to provide a rich trace mineral source that breaks down slowly and constantly
feeds the plants.
If growing outdoors in available soil, look around for leaves and other
natural sources of nitrogen and work them into the soil, along with some
dolmite lime and composted organic fertilizer. Even small amounts of
plant food such as Miracle Grow can be added to soil at this time. (Organic
gardeners frown upon this practice, however. Toxic wastes are produced by
commercial fertilizer production.) Mulch can be made from leaves and spread
out over the garden area to hold in moisture and keep down weeds near the
plants.
SUBTREFUGE
Its interesting that pot 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' 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. Fence lines and groups of
several together are best. 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" 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...
PLANT FOOD AND NUTRIENTS
Plant foods have 3 main ingredients that will be the mainstay of the
garden, Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium. These 3 ingredients are
usually listed on the front label of the plant food in the order of N-P-K.
A 20-20-20 plant food has a Nitrogen level of 20%.
Secondary nutrients are Calcium, Sulphur and Magnesium. In trace
quantities, boron, copper, molybenum, zink, iron, and manganese.
Depending on stage of growth, different nutrients are needed at different
times. For rooting and germination, levels of high P nutrients with less
N/K are needed. Vegetative growth needs lots of N, and human urine is one
of the better sources, (mix 8 ounces to 1 gallon water), although it is not
a complete fertilizer unto itself. 20-20-20 with trace elements should do
it; I like Miracle Grow Patio food. Watch for calcium, magnesium, sulfur
and iron levels too. These are important. One tablespoon of dolomite or
hydrated lime is used per gallon of growing medium when a hydroponic medium
is first brought on-line, to provide nitrogen, calcium and magnesium. Epsom
salts are used to enhance magnesium and sulphur levels in solution.
Tobacco grown with potassium nitrate burns better. 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 Fish Emulsion or
some other totally organic fertilizer on these plants, at least in the last
weeks of flowering.
Most hydroponic solutions should be in the range of 150-600 parts
per million in disolved solids. 300-400 ppm is optimum. It is possible to
test your solution or soil with a electrical conductivity meter if your
unsure of what your giving your plants.
Keep in mind most disolved solids readings are usually on the low side,
and actual nutrient levels are usually higher. It is possible with passive
hydroponics, to get nutrient build-up over several feedings, to the point
the medium is over saturated in nutrients. Just feed straight water
now and again, until you notice the plants are not as green (slightly),
then resume normal feeding.
"Pumping" is when you use more waterings to make the plants grow faster.
This is dangerous if you proceed in a reckless manner, due to potential
over-watering problems. You must go slowly and watch the plants daily and
even hourly at first to be sure your not over-watering the plants. Use
weaker plant food mixtures than normal, maybe 25%, and be sure your
leaching once a month and running straight water through the plants at
least every other time you water. This applies mainly to plants grown in
soil mediums.
Use of light strength Oxygen Plus plant food (or Food Grade Hydrogen
Peroxide) allows the roots to breath better and prevents problems with
over-watering. Check soil to be sure there are no PH anomalies that might
be due to Hydrogen Peroxide in the solution. (One experienced grower told
me he would not use H2O2 (HP) due to possible PH problems. This should not
be a problem if your checking PH and correcting for it in watering
solutions.)
Be sure your medium has good drainage. At this point, if your watering soil
based plants once a week, you can water every 3-5 days instead if you plant
them in a medium with better drainage. Pearlite or lava rock will greatly
increase the drainage of the medium and make watering necessary more often.
This will pump the plants; they will tend to grow faster because of the
enhanced oxygen to the roots. Make sure the plant medium is almost dry
before watering again, as the plant grows faster this way.
An alternative is to use a standard plant food mixture (stronger) once
every 3 waterings. The nutrients are suspended in the medium and stored in
the soil for later use. The nutrients are washed out by 2 straight
waterings afterward and there is no salts build up in the soil. (Does
not apply to hydroponics.)
Stop all plant food 2 weeks before harvesting, so that the plants don't
taste like plant food. (This applies to hydroponics as well.)
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
disolved solids. Use straight water for one feeding in hydroponics if it
is believed the buildup is getting too great. Leach plants in pots every
month. If your plants look REALLY green, withhold food for a while to be
sure they are not being over-fed.
PH AND FERTILIZERS
PH can make or break your nutrient solution. 6.7-6.2 is
best to ensure there is no nutrient lock-up occurring. Hydroponics
requires the solution to be PH corrected for the medium before
exposing to the plants. Phosphoresic acid can make the PH go down; lime or
potash can take it up when it gets too acid. Buy a PH meter for $10 and
use it in soil, water, and hydroponic medium to make sure your not
going alkaline or acid over time. Most neutral mediums can use a
little vinegar to make them just this side of 7 ph to 6.5 or so.
Most fertilizers cause a ph change in the soil. Adding fertilizer to the
soil almost always results in a more acidic 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 s