Growing The Buds
OUTDOORS
Contrary to popular belief, grass grows well in many place on the
North American continent. It will flourish even if the temperature does
not raise above 75 degrees.
The plants do need a minimum of eight hours of sunlight per day and
should be planted in late April/early May, BUT DEFINITELY, after the
last frost of the year.
Growing an outdoor, or "au natural", crop has been the favored method
over the years, because grass seems to grow better without as much
attention when in its natural habitat.
Of course, an outdoors setting requires special precautions not encoun-
tered with an indoors crop; you must be able to avoid detection, both from
law enforcement freaks and common freaks, both of whom will take your
weed and probably use it. Of course, one will also arrest you. You must
also have access to the area to prepare the soil and harvest the crop.
There are two schools of thought about starting the seeds. One says you
should start the seedlings for about ten days in an indoor starter box
(see the indoor section) and then transplant. The other theory is that
you should just start them in the correct location. Fewer plants will
come up with this method, but there is no shock of transplant to
kill some of the seedlings halfway through.
The soil should be prepared for the little devils by turning it
over a couple of times and adding about one cup of hydrated lime per
square yard of soil and a little bit (not too much, now) of good water
soluble nitrogen fertilizer. The soil should now be watered several
times and left to sit about one week.
The plants should be planted at least three feet apart, getting too
greedy and stacking them too close will result in stunted plants.
The plants like some water during their growing season, BUT not too
much. This is especially true around the roots, as too much water will
rot the root system.
Grass grows well in corn or hops, and these plants will help provide
some camouflage. It does not grow well with rye, spinach, or pepperweed.
It is probably a good idea to plant in many small, broken patches, as
people tend to notice patterns.
GENERAL GROWING INFO
Both the male and he female plant produce THC resin, although the male
is not as strong as the female. In a good crop, the male will still be
plenty smokable and should not be thrown away under any circumstances.
Marijuana can reach a height of twenty feet (or would you rather wish on
a star) and obtain a diameter of 4 1/2 inches. If normal, it has a sex
ratio of about 1:1, but this can be altered in several ways.
The male plant dies in the 12th week of growing, the female will live
another 3 - 5 weeks to produce her younguns. Females can weigh twice as
much as males when they are mature.
Marijuana soil should compact when you squeeze it, but should also break
apart with a small pressure and absorb water well. A nice test
for either indoor or outdoor growing is to add a bunch of worms to the
soil, if they live and hang aroung, it is good soil, but if they don't,
well, change it. Worms also help keep the soil loose enough for the
plants to grow well.
SEEDS
To get good grass, you should start with the right seeds. A nice starting
point is to save the seeds form the best batch you have consumed. The
seeds should be virile, that is, they should not be grey and shiriveled
up, but green, meaty, and healthy appearing. A nice test is to drop the
seeds on a hot frying pan. If they "CRACK," they are probably good for
planting purposes.
The seeds should be soaked in distilled water overnight before planting.
BE SURE to plant in the ground with the pointy end UP. Plant about 1/2"
deep. Healthy seeds will sprout in about five days.
SPROUTING
The best all around sprouting method is probably to make a sprouting box
(as sold in nurseries) with a slated bottom or use paper cups with holes
punched in the bottoms. The sprouting soil should be a mixture of humus,
soil, and five sand with a bit of organic fertilizer and water mixed
in about one week before planting.
When ready to transplant, you must be sure and leave a ball of soil
around the roots of each plant. This whole ball is dropped into a
baseball-sized hold in the permanent soil.
If you are growing/transplanting indoors, you should use a green
safe light (purchased at nurseries) during the transplanting operation.
If you are transplanting outdoors, you should time it about two
hours before sunset to avoid damage to the plant. Always wear cotton
gloves when handling the young plants.
After the plants are set in the hole, you should water them. It is also
a good idea to use a commercial transplant chemical (also purchased at
nurseries) to help then overcome the shock.
INDOOR GROWING
Indoor growing has many advantages, besides the apparent fact that it
is much harder to have your crop "found," you can control the ambient
conditions just exactly as you want them and get a guaranteed "good"
plant.
Plants grown indoors will not appear the same as their outdoor cousins.
They will be scrawnier appearing with a weak stems and may even require
you to tie them to a growing post to remain upright, BUT THEY WILL HAVE
AS MUCH OR MORE RESIN!
If growing in a room, you should put tar paper on the floors and then
buy sterilized bags of soil form a nursery. You will need about one
cubic foot of soil for each plant.
The plants will need about 150 ml. of water per plant/per week. They
will also need fresh air, so the room must be ventilated. (however,
the fresh air should contain NO TOBACCO smoke.)
At least eight hours of light a day must be provided. As you increase
the light, the plants grow faster and show more females/less males.
Sixteen hours of light per day seems to be the best combination, beyond
this makes little or no appreciable difference in the plant quality.
Another idea is to interrupt the night cycle with about one hour of
light. This gives you more females.
The walls of your growing room should be painted white or covered with
aluminum foil to reflect the light.
The lights themselves can be either bulbs of fluorescent. Figure about
75 watts per plant or one plant per two feet of fluorescent tube.
The fluorescence are the best, but do not use "cool white" types. The
light sources should be an average of twenty inches from the
plant and NEVER closer than 14 inches. They may be mounted on a rack
and moved every few days as the plants grow.
The very best light sources are those made by Sylvania and others
especially for growing plants (such as the "gro lux" types).
HARVESTING AND DRYING
The male plants will be taller and have about five green or yellow sepals,
which will split open to fertilize the female plant with pollen.
The female plant is shorter and has a small pistillate flower, which
really doesn't look like a flower at all but rather a small bunch of
leaves in a cluster.
If you don't want any seeds, just good dope, you should pick the males
before they shed their pollen as the female will use some of her resin
to make the seeds.
After another three to five weeks, after the males are gone, the females
will begin to wither and die (from loneliness?), this is the time to pick.
In some nefarious Middle Eastern countries, farmers reportedly put their
beehives next to fields of marijuana. The little devils collect the grass
pollen for their honey, which is supposed to contain a fair dosage
of THC.
The honey is then enjoyed by conventional methods or made into ambrosia.
If you want seeds - let the males shed his pollen then pick him. Let
the female go another month and pick her.
To cure the plants, they must be dried. On large crops, this is
accomplished by constructing a drying box or drying room.
You must have a heat source (such as an electric heater) which will make
the box/room each 130 degrees. The box/room must be ventilated
to carry off the water-vapor-laden air and replace it with fresh.
A good box can be constructed from an orange crate with fiberglass
insulated walls, vents in the tops, and screen shelves to hold the leaves.
There must be a baffle between the leaves and the heat source.
A quick cure for smaller amounts is to: cut the plant at the soil level
and wrap it in a cloth so as not to loose any leaves. Take out any seeds
by hand and store. Place all the leaves on a cookie sheet or aluminum
foil and put them in the middle sheld of the oven, which is set on "broil."
In a few seconds, the leaves will smoke and curl up, stir them around and
give another ten seconds before you take them out.
