The place you would grow your plants
would have to be adequate for your plants overall ending size. For most plants
this can tend to be anywhere's from an area of 1'x1' floor space and 3' of height
to, for much larger growths, 4'x4'x10' for each plant. But you will most
likely need 2.5'x2.5'x6' for each good healthy plant. You do not need to sprout,
grow and mature your plants all in the same spot. Be sure that your plants get
plenty of air circulation and that with lights, any heating equipment, and any
other sources nearby, that the room will stay at approx. 65-80 degrees Fahrenheit
(optimal growth range 73-78). Beware of the smell of your plants drifting into
your neighborhood, as it is illegal to cultivate this misunderstood plant. Also,
be sure to include outlets for lighting and cooling.
CO2: CO2 is an entirely optional system for helping your
plants growth. If there is enough air circulation there should not be any need
for such a system, as you could possibly kill the plants with to
much. But, if you do choose to use this option, CO2 can be obtained
from
local gas supply companies. A tank can be obtained for around $100-200 with
refills generally costing about $30-50.
LIGHTS: I feel that the best
lights you can use are fluorescents. 25-watt 4-foot tubes are most likely the
optimum lights, period. Using normal shop lights for your growth stage and warm
"bathroom/kitchen" lights for maturing will be excellent for home
personal-use ganja growing. In the seedling stage I prefer to use 75-watt
halogen "Plant-Lights" to wake 'them up. You may want to purchase more
expensive lighting, such as HID systems and High-Pressure Sodium lights, if you
plan on more than one crop and/or larger crops. But, it is still better to keep
a low profile with low energy using lighting and cooling.
SOIL: Your soil should be clean of contaminants and of high quality. Sand
is something you should keep away from. Most store bought soils will work fine
in this case.
PLANT FOOD: Your plants will need supplemental food other than what is in
the soil, so buying supplemental nutrients is a very good idea. For the
sprouting stage you do not truly need food unless you want to baby your plants.
If you do, the sprouting stage requires a NPK'S ratio of approximately 12-8-12. NPK'S
stands for Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium. These are the basic
nutrients required by plants, and most plat foods have other added nutrients,
that the makers feel improve plant growth. For your growth stage you will need
food with a NPK'S ratio of about 15-5-5 and in the flowering stage of 10-30-10.
CONTAINERS: It is best to transplant as little as possible to ensure
female turnout, so my method has to planting steps: Once to a "Jiffy
Pot" and then to a 5-gal. bucket. At most growing stores you may purchase
"Jiffy 7 peat pots", or another look-alike brand, for a reasonable
price. The entire body of these cups is made of a bio-degradable material that
the roots of the plants easily grow through, allowing you to put the entire
and plant, no pun, directly into the next growing bucket. Be sure to sterilize
the buckets before using them for your plants.
WATER: The water you use should be sterile and of a ph level of 6-6.5. In
other words, the 25-cent per gallon water from Wall-mart will work fine. A spray
bottle for water will work excellent for helping your plants receive water.
INSECTICIDES: DO NOT USE SYNTHETIC AND/OR CHEMICAL INSECTICIDES!! They
WILL kill your plants, and if you smoke your plants, they may kill you.
You should use your own best judgement on what seeds to use, but, the basic things you should keep in mind are as follows:
To sprout your seeds, get a kitchen plate and two paper towels. Place the first paper towel on the plate and soak the towel with water. Then, put the seeds you want to sprout onto the paper towel at least 1 cm apart. After that, place the other paper towel over the plate, and add more water to soak the towel. Now you may place any food you have for sprouting stage in the plate or add nutrient supplemented water. Place plate under growth lamp, on a 24-hour schedule, and add water daily, to keep soaked. In about one week, or often in less time, you will see the sprouting of your babies. You may now go to Stage 2.
Once you see the sprouts it is time for the sprouting stage. Fill the Jiffy Pots close to the rim. Push your finger into the center until your finger is half the way in the soil. Carefully place one seed in the hole with the root pointing up. This will help to build strength for you baby. Lightly cover the seed with soil and place under intense light. Soak the soil with nutrient supplemented water. If the plant does not get enough light, it will grow tall too quickly and the plant will not be strong enough to support itself and will quickly die. Put the cup on a saucer and put water in the saucer daily. The and soil will soak up the water for the plant. You can spray water on the plant to help it and to create a little humidity. The plant will first grow two round leaves, followed by two longer textured leaves on each side. We will call these sets. One more set of two may appear. After that two sets of three's on each side. After that, sets of five, and, when the plant feels it's strong enough, sets of seven on each side. If your growing conditions are the best those plants strain have seen, or pretty close to it, you will see nine leaf sets. But all of that is yet to come. When your baby grows the three leaf sets you may move to stage 3.
Cut hole for drainage in the bottoms of the buckets and place them on trays to collect the water. Fill the bucket up to 2-4 inches from the top. Dig out a hole in the center big enough to hold the entire Jiffy Pot. Soak the soil with nutrient supplemented water. When the plant reaches a height of about two feet, you should go to the flowering stage.
In the fruiting stage, your plants will double their size from start of flowering to maturity, when you can trim, dry, and smoke. You will need to change the lighting schedule from 24 to 12 on - 12 off. You will also need to change the NPK'S of the food to 10-30-10. In anywhere from a few days to a few weeks you will be able to see the buds begin to form. They will look like the buds on a tree, only greener. In a few weeks you will be able to tell sexes. The females will grow two little pistils in the shape of a V out of the end of the little bud. The males will not.
You should keep the females away from the males. The reason for this is that the males mature faster and will pollinated your plants too early. When this happens the entire female bud will be full of seeds.
It is a good idea to pollinate your
females, not only to get seeds for another crop, but also because if you are
growing with seeds from a local bag, they will most likely grow at least one
hermaphrodite, that is one with a male bud or more growing among the females.
When the males mature and begin to open and distribute pollen. When this happens
you should collect the pollen with a Q-tip and store it in a glass container
until the last 3-4 weeks of the females flowering stages.
The pistils of the females will be white until they are ready to snip. When the
plant has reached around twice their size in the first part of the flowering
stage, look for the white pistils to begin to darken to a greenish-brown. When
you first see this happen, you should pollinate the bud. When about 60% of the
pistils do this the bud is ready to clip.
Clipping should be done with a sharp razor, if you plan to keep growing the plant. If not, cut the branch with a sharp pair of scissors. Either way, you need to trim the leaves and other excess "shake". Drying should be done as slowly a possible. Place the buds on a screen and place the screen in a dark cool place, at about 60 degrees Fahrenheit, with plenty of fresh air movement. Check on them daily, turning them over, to distribute the drying, and checking for an ammonia smell. If you smell that, there is mold on your crop, and can minimize your yields very quickly. If you smell this, quickly find the source and isolate it from the rest of the crop. Mold can spread of entire yields in less than 24 hours, so beware! When your buds feel like you know they should feel then they're ready to smoke. An easy way to figure on the best dryness is to roll up a big fatty. If it stays lit, It's ready to go!
can have an excellent effect on
your . If curing is done correctly, your smoke will have a better smell and a
premium taste. It can also make it a much smoother smoke and a more potent bag
of weed. If done incorrectly, the disadvantages can range from a nasty taste and
a weak high to being so infected with mold, that it can prove fatal. If you
smoke local city , it usually is never cured, so doing so can be a very nice
smoking experience for all whom try your weed.
To begin curing your plants fruit, you will take a paper bag and a plastic bag.
The paper bag will provide the darkness required for the process, while the
plastic will keep the paper from absorbing the precious THC. Line the paper bag
with the plastic bag. Place a few of your buds in the plastic bag until it is a
little less than half-full. Roll it down, lightly, so it is not to suffocate
them, and roll the paper bag down. Check it daily, smelling for ammonia and
turning the buds to distribute the "cure". What will occur is that
inside the plastic bag, the moisture that is left in the center of the buds will
work its way to the surface, kind of like as if your plants were sweating. This
is what I believe is what creates the better, smoother smoke. If you smell
ammonia, or anything that doesn't smell like buds for that matter, you probably
have an infection of mold another like fungus. Once you feel you have mastered
basic curing, you can try experimenting with things like adding a piece of fruit,
to try to flavor it a little, or any thing else your demented mind can think of.
CLOSET GROWING GUIDE