a begginers guide

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eginner's Guide to Growing Marijuana

Indoor Marijuana Cultivation

Introduction:

Growing marijuana indoors is fast becoming an American Pastime. The reasons are varied. With the increased interest and experimentation in house plant cultivation, it was inevitable that people would apply their knowledge of plant care to growing marijuana. Many of those who occasionally like to light up a joint may find it difficult to locate a source or are hesitant to deal with a perhaps unsavory element of society in procuring their grass. There is, of course, the criminal aspect of buying or selling grass; Growing marijuana is just as illegal as buying, selling, or smoking it, but growing is something you can do in the privacy of your own home without having to deal with someone you don't know or trust. The best reason for growing your own is the enjoyment you will get out of watching those tiny little seeds you picked out of you stash sprout and become some of the most lovely and lush of all house plants.

Anyone Can Do It

Even if you haven't had any prior experience with growing plants in you home, you can have a successful crop of marijuana by following the simple directions in this pamphlet. If you have had problems in the past with marijuana cultivation, you may find the solutions in the following chapters. Growing a marijuana plant involves four basic steps:

1.

Get the seeds.

If you don't already have some, you can ask your friends to save you seeds out of any good grass they may come across. You'll find that lots of people already have a seed collection of some sort and are willing to part with a few prime seeds in exchange for some of the finished product.

2.

Germinate the seeds.

You can simply drop a seed into moist soil, but by germinating the seeds first you can be sure that the seed will indeed produce a plant. To germinate seeds, place a group of them between about six moist paper towels, or in the pores of a moist sponge. Leave the towels or sponge moist but not soaking wet. Some seeds will germinate in 24 hours while others may take several days or even a week.

3.

Plant the sprouts.

As soon as a seed cracks open and begins to sprout, place it on some moist soil and sprinkle a little soil over the top of it.

4.

Supply the plants with light.

Flourescent lights are the best. Hang the lights with two inches of the soil and after the plants appear above the ground, continue to keep the lights with two inches of the plants. It is as easy as that. If you follow those four steps you will grow a marijuana plant. To ensure prime quality and the highest yield in the shortest time period, however, a few details are necessary.

Soil

Your prime concern, after choosing high quality seeds, is the soil. Use the best soil you can get. Scrimping on the soil doesn't pay off in the long run. If you use unsterilized soil you will almost certainly find parasites in it, probably after it

is too late to transplant your marijuana. You can find excellent soil for sale at your local plant shop or nursery, K-Mart, Wal Mart, and even some grocery stores. The soil you use should have these properties for the best possible results:

1.

It should drain well.

That is, it should have some sand in it and also some sponge rock or pearlite.

2. The ph should be between 6.5 and 7.5 since marijuana does not do well in acidic soil. High acidity in soil encourages the plant to be predominantly male, an undesirable trait.

3. The soil should also contain humus for retaining moisture and nutrients.

If you want to make your own soil mixture, you can use this recipe: Mix two parts moss with one part sand and one part pearlite or sponge rock to each four gallons of soil. Test your soil for ph with litmus paper or with a soil testing kit

available at most plant stores. To raise the ph of the soil, add 1/2 lb. lime to 1 cubic foot of soil to raise the ph one point.

If you absolutely insist on using dirt you dug up from your driveway, you must sterilize it by baking it in your oven for about an hour at 250 degrees. Be sure to moisten it thoroughly first and also prepare yourself for a rapid evacuation of your

kitchen because that hot soil is going to stink. Now add to the mixture about one tablespoon of fertilizer (like Rapid-Gro) per gallon gallon of soil and blend it in thoroughly. Better yet, just skip the whole process and spend a couple bucks on some soil.

Containers

After you have prepared your soil, you will have to come up with some kind of container to plant in. The container should be sterilized as well, especially if they have been used previously for growing other plants. The size of the container has a great
deal to do with the rate of growth and overall size of the plant. You should plan on transplanting your plant not more than one time, since the process of transplanting can be a shock to the plant and it will have to undergo a recovery period in which growth is slowed or even stopped for a short while. The first container you use should be no larger than six inches in diameter and can be made of clay or plastic. To transplant, simply prepare the larger pot by filling it with soil and scooping out a little hole about the size of the smaller pot that the plant is in. Turn the plant upside down, pot and all, and tap the rim of the pot sharply on a counter or the edge of the sink. The soil and root ball should come out of the pot cleanly with the soil retaining the shape of the pot and with no disturbances to the root ball. Another method that can bypass the transplanting
problem is using a Jiffy-Pot. Jiffy pots are made of compressed peat moss and can be planted right into moist soil where they decompose and allow the passage of the root system through their walls. The second container should have a volume of at least three gallons. Marijuana doesn't like to have its roots bound or cramped for space, so always be sure that the container you use will be deep enough for your plant's root system. It is very difficult to transplant a five-foot marijuana tree, so plan ahead. It is going to get bigger. The small plants should be ready to transplant into their permanent homes in about two weeks. Keep a close watch on them after the first week or so and avoid root binding at all costs since the plants never seem to do as well once they have been stunted by the cramping of their roots.

Fertilizer

Marijuana likes lots of food, but you can do damage to the plants if you are too zealous. Some fertilizers can burn a plant
and damage its roots if used in to high a concentration. Most commercial soil will have enough nutrients in it to sustain the
plant for about three weeks of growth so you don't need to worry about feeding your plant until the end of the third week. The most important thing to remember is to introduce the fertilizer concentration to the plant gradually. Start with a fairly diluted fertilizer solution and gradually increase the dosage. There are several good marijuana fertilizers on the commercial market, two of which are Rapid-Gro and Eco-Grow. Rapid-Gro has had widespread use in marijuana cultivation and is available in most parts of the United States. Eco-Grow is also especially good for marijuana since it contains an ingredient that keeps the soil from becoming acid. 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 salts in your soil and to ensure that your plant is getting all of the food it needs you can begin leaf
feeding your plant at the age of about 1.5 months. Dissolve the fertilizer in worm water and spray the mixture directly onto the foliage. The leaves absorb the fertilizer into their veins. If you want to continue to put fertilizer into the soil as well as
leaf feeding, be sure not to overdose your plants.

Remember to increase the amount of food your plant receives gradually. Marijuana seems to be able to take as much fertilizer as you want to give it as long as it is introduced over a period of time. During the first three months or so, fertilize your plants every few days. As the rate of foliage growth slows down in the plant's preparation for blooming and seed production, the fertilizer intake of the plant should be slowed down as well. Never fertilize the plant just before you are going to harvest it since the fertilizer will encourage foliage production and slow down resin production. A word here about the most organic of fertilizers: worm castings. As you may know, worms are raised commercially for sale to gardeners. The breeders put the worms in organic compost mixtures and while the worms are reproducing they eat the organic matter and expel some of the best marijuana food around. After the worms have eaten all the organic matter in the compost, they are removed and sold and the remains are then sold as worm castings. These castings are so rich that you can grow marijuana in straight worm castings. This isn't really necessary however, and it is somewhat impractical since the castings are very expensive. If you can afford them you can, however, blend them in with your soil and they will make a very
good organic fertilizer.

Light

Without light, the plants cannot grow. In the countries in which marijuana grows best, the sun is the source of light. The
amount of light and the length of the growing season in these countries results in huge tree-like plants. In most parts of
North America, however, the sun is not generally intense enough for long enough periods of time to produce the same size and quality of plants that grow with ease in Latin America and other tropical countries. The answer to the problem of lack of sun, especially in the winter months, shortness of the growing season, and other problems is to grow indoor under simulated conditions. The rule of thumb seems to be the more light, the better. In one experiment we know of, eight eight-foot VHO Gro-Lux fixtures were used over eight plants. The plants grew at an astonishing rate. The lights had to be raised every day. There are many types of artificial light and all of them do different things to your plants. The common incandescent light bulb emits some of the frequencies of light the plant can use, but it also emits a high percentage of far red and infra-red light which cause the plant to concentrate its growth on the stem. This results in the plant stretching toward the light bulb until it becomes so tall and spindly that it just weakly topples over. There are several brands of bulb type. One is the incandescent plant spot light which emits higher amounts of red and blue light than the common light bulb. It is an improvement, but has it drawbacks. it is hot, for example, and cannot be placed close to the plants. Consequently, the plant has to stretch upwards again and is in danger of becoming elongated and falling over. The red bands of light seem to encourage stem growth which is not desirable in growing marijuana. the idea is to encourage foliage growth for obvious reasons. Gro-Lux lights are probably the most common flourescent plant lights. In our experience with them, they have
proven themselves to be extremely effective. They range in size from one to eight feet in length so you can set up a growing room in a closet or a warehouse. There are two types of Gro-Lux lights: The standard and the wide spectrum. They can be used in conjunction with on another, but the wide spectrum lights are not sufficient on their own. The wide spectrum lights were designed as a supplementary light source and are cheaper than the standard lights. Wide spectrum lights emit the same bands of light as the standard but the standard emit higher concentrations of red and blue bands that the plants need to grow. The wide spectrum lights also emit infra-red, the effect of which on stem growth we have already discussed. If you are planning to grow on a large scale, you might be interested to know that the regular flourescent lamps and fixtures, the type that are used in commercial lighting, work well when used along with standard Gro- Lux lights. These commercial lights are called cool whites, and are the cheapest of the flourescent lights we have mentioned. They emit as much blue light as the Gro-Lux standards and the blue light is what the plants use in foliage growth.

Now we come to the question of intensity. Both the standard and wide spectrum lamps come in three intensities: regular output, high output, and very high output. You can grow a nice crop of plants under the regular output lamps and probably be quite satisfied with our results. The difference in using the HO or VHO lamps is the time it takes to grow a crop. Under a VHO lamp, the plants grow at a rate that is about three times the rate at which they grow under the standard lamps. People have been known to get a plant that is four feet tall in two months under one of these lights. Under the VHO lights, one may have to raise the lights every day which means a growth rate of ate least two inches a day. The only drawback is the expense of the VHO lamps and fixtures. The VHO lamps and fixtures are almost twice the price of the standard. If you are interested in our opinion, they are well worth it. Now that you have your lights up, you might be curious about the amount of light to give you plants per day. The maturation date of your plants is dependent on how much light they receive per day. The longer the dark period per day, the sooner the plant will bloom. Generally speaking, the less dark per day the better during the first six months of the plant's life. The older the plant is before it blooms and goes to seed, the better the grass will be. After the plant is allowed to bloom, its metabolic rate is slowed so that the plant's quality does not increase with the age at the same rate it did before it bloomed. The idea, then, is to let the plant get as old as possible before allowing it to mature so that the potency will be a high as possible at the time of harvest. One relatively sure way to keep your plants from blooming until you are ready for them is to leave the lights on all the time. Occasionally a plant will go ahead and bloom anyway, but it is the exception rather than the rule. If your plants receive 12 hours of light per day they will probably mature in 2 to 2.5 months. If they get 16 hours of light per day they will probably be blooming in 3.5 to 4 months. With 18 hours of light per day, they will flower in 4.5 to 5 months. Its a good idea to put your lights on a timer to ensure that the amount of light received each day remains constant. A "vacation" timer, normally used to make it look like you are home while you are away, works nicely and can be found at most hardware or discount stores.
Energy Emissions In Arbitrary Color Bands
40 Watt Flourescent Lamps
In Watts and Percent of Total Emissions
Daylight Cool White Gro-Lux GroLux WS
Light Type Band Watts % Watt % Watt % Watt %
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~
Ultra-Violet -380 0.186 2.15 0.16 1.68 0.10 1.42 0.27 3.16

Violet 380-430 0.832 9.60 0.72 7.57 0.70 9.67 1.07 12.48

Blue 430-490 2.418 27.91 1.98 20.78 1.96 27.07 1.22 14.29

Green 490-560 2.372 27.38 2.35 24.67 1.02 14.02 1.24 14.49

Yellow 560-590 1.259 14.53 1.74 18.27 0.10 1.42 0.83 9.77

Orange 590-630 1.144 13.21 1.69 17.75 0.44 6.05 1.36 15.93

Red 630-700 0.452 6.22 0.81 8.47 2.86 39.55 1.86 21.78

Far Red 700-780 0.130 1.53 0.07 0.81 0.06 0.80 0.69 8.10
==================== =========== ========== ========== ==========
Total 8.890 100.0 9.52 100.0 7.24 100.0 8.54 100.0

Temperature and Humidity

The ideal temperature for the light hours is 68 to 78 degrees fahrenheit and for the dark hours there should be about a 15 degree drop in temperature. The growing room should be relatively dry if possible. What you want is a resinous coating on the leaves and to get the plant to do this, you must convince it that it needs the resinous coating on its leaves to protect itself from drying out. In an extremely humid room, the plants develop wide leaves and do not produce as much resin. You must take care not to let the temperature in a dry room become too hot, however, since the plant cannot assimilate water fast enough through its roots and its foliage will begin to brown out.

Ventilation

Proper ventilation in your growing room is fairly important. The more plants you have in one room, the more important good ventilation becomes. Plants breathe through their leaves. The also rid themselves of poisons through their leaves. If proper ventilation is not maintained, the pores of the leaves will become clogged and the leaves will die. If there is a free movement of air, the poisons can evaporate off the leaves and the plant can breathe and remain healthy.

In a small closet where there are only a few plants you can probably create enough air circulation just by opening the door to look at them. Although it is possible to grow healthy looking plants in poorly ventilated rooms, they would be larger and healthier if they had a fresh supply of air coming in. If you spend a lot of time in your growing room, your plants will grow better because they will be using the carbon dioxide that you are exhaling around them. It is sometimes quite difficult to get a fresh supply of air in to your growing room because your room is usually hidden away in a secret corner of your house, possibly in the attic or basement. In this case, a fan will create some movement of air. It will also stimulate your plants into growing a healthier and sturdier stalk. Often times in an indoor environment, the stems of plants fail to become rigid because they don't have to cope with elements of wind and rain. To a degree, though, this is an advantage because the plant puts most of its energy into producing leaves and resin instead of stems.

Dehumidifying Your Growing Room

Cannabis that grows in a hot, dry climate will have narrower leaves than cannabis grown in a humid atmosphere. The reason is that in a dry atmosphere the plant can respirate easier because the moisture on the leaves evaporates faster. In a humid atmosphere, the moisture cannot evaporate as fast. Consequently, the leaves have to be broader with more surface area in order to expel the wastes that the plant put out. Since the broad leaves produce less resin per leaf than the narrow there will be more resin in an ounce of narrow leaves than in one ounce of broad leaves. There may be more leaf mass in the broader leafed plants, but most people are growing their own for quality rather than quantity.

Since the resin in the marijuana plant serves the purpose of keeping the leaves from drying out, there is more apt to be a lot of resin produced in a dry room than in a humid one. In the Sears catalog, dehumidifiers cost around $100.00 and are therefore a bit impractical for the "hobby grower."

Watering

If you live near a clear mountain stream, you can skip this bit on the quality of water. Most of us are supplied water by the city and some cities add more chemicals to the water than others. They all add chlorine, however, in varying quantities. Humans over the years have learned to either get rid of it somehow or to live with it, but your marijuana plants won't have time to acquire a taste for it so you had better see that they don't have to. Chlorine will evaporate if you let the water stand for 24 hours in an open container. Letting the water stand for a day or two will serve a dual purpose: The water will come to room temperature during that period of time and you can avoid the nasty shock your plants suffer when you drench them with cold water. Always water with room temperature to lukewarm water. If your water has an excessive amount of chlorine in it, you may want to get some anti- chlorine drops at the local fish or pet store. The most important thing about watering is to do it thoroughly. You can water a plant in a three gallon container with as much as three quarts of
water. The idea is to get the soil evenly moist all the way to the bottom of the pot. If you use a little water, even if you do
it often, it seeps just a short way down into the soil and any roots below the moist soil will start to turn upwards toward the water. The second most important thing about watering is to see to it that the pot has good drainage. There should be some holes in the bottom so that any excess water will run out. If the pot won't drain, the excess water will accumulate in a pocket and rot the roots of the plant or simply make the soil sour or mildew. The soil, as we said earlier, must allow the water to drain evenly through it and must not become hard or packed. If you have made sure that the soil contains sand and pearlite, you shouldn't have drainage problems. To discover when to water, feel the soil with your finger. if you feel moisture in the soil, you can wait a day or two to water. The soil near the top of the pot is always drier than the soil further down. You can drown your plant just as easily as you can let it get too dry and it is more likely to survive a dry spell than it is to survive a torrential flood. Water the plants well when you water and don't water them at all when they don't need it.

Bugs

If you can avoid getting bugs in the first place you will be much better off. Once your plants become infested you will
probably be fighting bugs for the rest of your plants' lives. To avoid bugs be sure to use sterilized soil and containers and don't bring other plants from outside into your growing room. If you have bets, ensure that they stay out of your growing room, since they can bring in pests on their fur. Examine your plants regularly for signs of insects, spots, holes in the leaves, browning of the tips of the leaves, and droopy branches. If you find that somehow in spite of all your precautions you have a plant room full of bugs, you'll have to spray your plants with some kind of insecticide. You'll want to use something that will kill the bugs and not you. Spider mites are probably the bug that will do the most damage to the marijuana plants. One of the reasons is that they are almost microscopic and very hard to spot. They are called spider mites because they leave a web-like substance clinging to the leaves. They also cause tiny little spots to appear on the leaves. Probably the first thing you'll notice, however, is that your plants look sick and depressed. The mites suck enzymes from the leaves and as a result the leaves lose some of their green color and glossiness. Sometimes the leaves look like they have some kid of fungus on them. The eggs are very tiny black dots. You might be wise to get a magnifying glass so that you can really scrutinize your plants closely. Be sure to examine the underside of the leaves too. The mites will often be found clinging to the underside as well as the top of the leaves. The sooner you start fighting the bugs, the easier it will be to get rid of them. For killing spider mites on marijuana, one of the best insecticides if "Fruit and Berry" spray made by llers.
Ortho also produces several insecticides that will kill mites. The ingredients to look for are Kelthane and Malatheon. Both of these poisons are lethal to humans and pets as well as bugs, but they both detoxify in about ten days so you can safely smoke the grass ten days after spraying. Fruit and Berry will only kill the adult mite, however, and you'll have to spray every four days for about two weeks to be sure that you have killed all the adults before they have had a chance to lay eggs. Keep a close watch on your plants because it only takes one egg laying adult to re- infest your plants and chances are that one or two will escape your barrage of insecticides. If you see little bugs flying around your plants, they are probably white flies. The adults are immune to almost all the commercial insecticides except Fruit and Berry which will not kill the eggs or larva. It is the larval stage of this insect that does the most damage. They suck out enzymes too, and kill your plants if they go unchecked. You will have to get on a spraying program just as was explained in the spider mite section.

An organic method of bug control is using soap suds. Put Ivory flakes in some lukewarm water and work up the suds into a lather. Then put the suds over the plant. The obvious disadvantage is it you don't rinse the soap off the plant you'll taste the soap when you smoke the leaves.

Pruning

We have found that pruning is not always necessary. The reason one does it in the first place is to encourage secondary growth and to allow light to reach the immature leaves. Some strands of grass just naturally grow thick and bushy and if they are not clipped the sap moves in an uninterrupted flow right to the top of the plant where it produces flowers that are thick with resin. On the other hand, if your plants appear tall and spindly for their age at three weeks, they probably require a little trimming to ensure a nice full leafy plant. At three weeks of age your plant should have at least two sets of branches or four leaf clusters and a top. To prune the plant, simply slice the top off just about the place where two branches oppose each other. Use a razor blade in a straight cut. If you want to, you can root the top in some water and when the roots appear, plant the top in moist soil and it should grow into another plant. If you are going to root the top you should cut the end again, this time with a diagonal cut so as to expose more surface to the water or rooting solution. The advantage to taking cuttings from your plant is that it produces more tops. The tops have the resin, and that's the name of the game. Every time you cut off a top, the plant seeds out two more top branches at the base of the existing branches. Pruning also encourages the branches underneath to grow faster than they normally would without the top having been cut.

Harvesting and Curing

Well, now that you've grown your marijuana, you will want to cur it right so that it smokes clean and won't bite. You can avoid that "homegrown" taste of chlorophyll that sometimes makes one's fillings taste like they might be dissolving. We know of several methods of curing the marijuana so that it will have a mild flavor and a mellow rather than harsh smoke.

First, pull the plant up roots and all and hang it upside down for 24 hours. Then put each plant in a paper grocery bag with the top open for three or four days or until the leaves feel dry to the touch. Now strip the leaves off the stem and put them in a glass jar with a lid. Don't pack the leaves in tightly, you want air to reach all the leaves. The main danger in the curing process is mold. If the leaves are too damp when you put them into the jar, they will mold and since the mold will destroy the resins, mold will ruin your marijuana. you should check the jars every day by smelling them and if you smell an acrid aroma, take the weed out of the jar and spread it out on newspaper so that it can dry quickly. Another method is to uproot the plants and hang them upside down. You get some burlap bags damp and slip them up over the plants. Keep the bags damp and leave them in the sun for at least a week. Now put the plants in a paper bag for a few days until the weed is dry enough to smoke. Like many fine things in life, marijuana mellows out with age. The aging process tends to remove the chlorophyll taste.

Editor's Note and Important Warning:

This pamphlet was written about 8 years ago. While the facts, figures, and methods described here are still valid, an
mportant note must be added concerning the purchasing of equipment and supplies. The information age is upon us and and increasing amount of data is being kept about all of us whether we realize it or not. With the war on drugs in full effect, the D.E.A. is using this information at every possible opportunity. When you make a purchase with a credit card, every last bit of information regarding that purchase is filed away into a database, both at the store and with your credit card company. Not only the price, but the exact date, location, and items purchased are recorded and stored away. Many stores and credit card companies routinely sell their databases of customers and transactions to anybody who can afford it. The D.E.A can certainly afford it. After all, they're using your tax dollars. The D.E.A. as well as other government agencies DO purchase these databases for their own uses. They feed them into their computers and the computers spit out a list of anybody with "suspicious" purchases. Any purchases that could be associated with drug production, use, or selling could be flagged for further investigation. These "suspicious" purchases include unusual chemicals, medical supplies such as syringes, lights and timers, and even potting soil and fertilizer. The point is, if you are planning on purchasing supplies to grow marijuana don't take any chances. While the average home grower, who is simply growing enough for his own use, would probably never be flagged by the computers, you never know. If you are purchasing equipment or supplies, PAY CASH! In addition, many supermarkets and discount stores now have some sort of "Preferred Customer" cards. When you buy something, regardless of how you pay, you give them your card to scan and all your purchases are recorded. They then send you some sort of coupon depending on what and how much you purchased each month. It sounds like a good deal, but you wind up having all of your purchases recorded and sold just like with the credit cards. DON'T use one of these cards when you are purchasing anything that might be deemed suspicious. For that matter, don't use them at all. They just result in a ton of junk mail and a lot of people knowing exactly what you buy and when you buy it.

How to Grow Marijuana

Cannabis

is the botanical name of a genus of annual flowering plants in the Cannabaceae family. There are over 150 species and 10 genera included in the Cannabaceae family. Besides cannabis, the hop plant (often used in the production of beer) is also part of the Cannabaceae family.

Plants in the cannabis genus are commonly referred to as hemp plants, but the term hemp is more appropriately used to describe cannabis plants that are cultivated for commercial purposes (like clothing, fuel, etcetera) rather than for drug purposes.

Some species of cannabis (indica and sativa) produce fairly large amounts of a chemical known as Tetrahydrocannabinol (a cannabinoid commonly called THC). Cannabis plants that are grown for their THC content are referred to as marijuana plants.

Marijuana

is used for spiritual, medical, and recreational purposes. Normally, the dried flower tops (buds) are smoked to produce a high, but the extracts are sometimes mixed with food and eaten or added to alcohol and made into a drink.

THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) is the main active ingredient in marijuana and other cannabis products like hashish and hashish oil. Good marijuana will contain 5% THC, or more.

Hashish is a concentration of trichomes from the marijuana plant, the trichomes are a rich source of THC. Hashish is usually made by hand rubbing or sieving marijuana plants. Good hashish will contain 20% THC, or more.

Marijuana

grows wild in many parts of the world, and is cultivated in Mexico, Vietnam, Africa, Nepal, India, South America, etc. Most of the marijuana sold in the United States was grown here.

It is estimated that at least 50 per cent of the grass on the streets of America is homegrown. The next largest bunch comes across the borders from Canada and Mexico, with smaller amounts filtering in from Panama, South America, Africa, and other areas of the world.

Marijuana prices in the United States are a direct reflection of the laws of supply and demand (and you thought that high school economics would never be useful).

A series

of large border busts, a short growing season, a bad crop, any number of things can drive the price of marijuana up. Demand still seems to be on the increase in the U.S., so prices seldom fall below last year's level.

Each year a small seasonal drought occurs, as last year's supply runs low, and next year's crop is not up yet. Prices usually rise about 20-75 per cent during this time and then fall back to normal.

There is one surefire way of avoiding high prices, getting ripped off, and getting low quality product, that is to grow your own marijuana. This is not as difficult as you may think it is. It does take some work, but nearly anyone willing to spend some time learning how to grow marijuana can succeed.

There are

two possibilities when choosing a place to grow marijuana, indoors or outdoors. Outdoor growers can raise large crops while indoor growers are limited by the size of their grow room. Indoor growing occurs in a limited space so the amount of marijuana grown will be smaller in comparison.

But because a small area is easy to monitor and work on, the quality of marijuana grown indoors is almost always superior to marijuana grown outdoors.

Growing indoors allows a person to control the environment in a way that can't be replicated outdoors. An indoor grow area will allow you to provide optimal temperature, nutrients, humidity, and other factors that are important to the plant.

If you

want the best quality marijuana in quantities large enough to supply your personal needs, indoor growing is recommended. If you plan on producing as much marijuana as you possibly can in order to sell it, growing outdoors is recommended.

If you grow 10 plants indoors with a 400 watt high pressure sodium or metal halide grow light, each plant will yield about 1 ounce of marijuana. A single plant grown outdoors will yield about a pound (16 ounces) of marijuana.

After you have decided to grow indoors or outdoors, the next step is to obtain a strain of marijuana seed that is suited to be grown in your intended environment. There is no sense planning on growing if you can't get seeds.

The best marijuana

seeds for the novice indoor grower (either with soil or hydroponics) are mainly indica strains like one of these. As you gain experience, you could move up to an indica/sativa mix. When you are confident in your growing ability, you may wish to experiment with growing a mainly sativa strain.

An outdoor grower should start with a strain like early girl or early bud. Both types of seed mature quickly, produce a large yield, and don't grow too tall. They are good strains for growing outdoors in an area where the temperature will drop to freezing in or prior to november (this includes many parts of the northern hemisphere including the USA and Canada).

In fact, strains that mature quickly should be used to grow marijuana outdoors anywhere there is a winter where temperatures fall below 40 degrees, freezing weather will destroy a crop. If, after harvesting a crop or two you notice there is still time left for plants to grow, you can get a strain that takes longer to grow for next years crop.

Growing Marijuana Outdoors

Outdoor marijuana growers should read this section, while indoor growers should read the section about indoor growing located further down this page.

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

Some excellent marijuana is grown outdoors in places as far north as Alaska, Asia, Northern Europe and as far south as Australia, New Zealand, South Africa. In most cases, growing marijuana outdoors is done with soil. Advanced outdoor growers may wish to try using hydroponics to grow marijuana outdoors, but beginners should use soil.

A good source

of information for someone looking to grow marijuana outdoors using hydroponics would be marijuana new school outdoor cultivation. About half the book shows how to design, build, and maintain an outdoor hydroponic system. The rest of the book discusses growing marijuana outdoors with hydroponics.

Light exposure is important when locating a site for an outdoor plot, privacy and other factors will enter in as well. Try to find a spot that gets sunshine for the longest period from mid morning to mid afternoon. A place that gets direct light from 10am-4pm is very good, 8am-5pm is excellent.

You can use winter sun as an indicator of lighting exposures but the sun changes position in the sky as the season changes. Usually the south side of a hill gets the most sun. Also, large areas open to the sun on all sides will provide marijuana plants with ample exposure to sunlight.

Water should

be close by, or close to the soil surface, or you will have to carry it to your plants when the amount of rainfall is low. 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.

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

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

Plants started

indoors can be allowed to grow for a while before being placed outside. This will speed the growing process and the plants will be ready to harvest sooner. However, transplanting outdoors is stressful and may kill the young plants. Seeds started outdoors do not have to be transplanted.

If you are going to start the seeds outdoors, plant them by dropping them in the place you want them to grow (minimum 3 feet apart) and cover them with a half inch to a inch of good potting soil. The soil should be kept damp but not wet until you see the plant start to grow. Once the plant has started to grow you can let nature take its course.

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

Seed trays

and mini-greenhouses are sold in nurseries, and stores with a garden section. The sprouting soil should be designed to be used during germinating and seedling stages of a plants life.

If you want to germinate and start the growth process in the same environment, get a mini-greenhouse with a heating element (about $50). They do a good job and can be used for years. The heat helps the seeds germinate faster.

When ready to transplant, you must be sure and leave a ball of soil around the roots of each plant. If you are transplanting outdoors, you should move the plant outdoors around sunset. This will allow the plant to recover from stress overnight. Always be gentle when handling the young plants.

After the plants are set in a hole big enough to accommodate the roots, you should water them. You can use a commercial transplant chemical like super thrive (also purchased at nurseries) to help then overcome the transplant shock.

The plants

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

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

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

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

Vegetative And Flowering Stages

During the first few weeks of life, the marijuana plant is in the seedling stage. After it has put down a solid rood system, the plant enters the vegetative phase of its life. This is the time when the plant grows faster than at any other stage. Keep an eye on the plants and make sure they get enough water and nutrients.

The next stage in the life of a marijuana plant is called the flowering stage. At this point, the plant will slowly stop growing and use its energy to produce flowers. This is when the plant produce the most THC.

The most important factor in when the plant will flower is photoperiod (length of day). A marijuana plant that gets a lot of light during the early stages of growth (in the spring and early summer) will start to flower when the number of hours of sunlight decreases in the late summer and fall.

Sinsemilla

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

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

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

Assuming all

the seeds are of the same strain, the male plants will probably start to flower before the females. The male plant will have small oval pollen sacks that the female lacks. Once you see these sacks, remove the male plants from your garden unless you want to produce seeds. In contrast, white hairs (pistils) will begin to develop at bud sites of female plants.

Male plants from some marijuana strains may be potent, while other strains are worthless for smoking purposes. If you remove male plants from your garden, try cutting 6 to 10 inches off the top of the plant. Dry it and try smoking, sometimes it's worth the effort.

Actual time till harvest will depend on the seed strain and growing conditions. It is very important that you learn how to identify when the best time to harvest is. If you do things properly, you should get about a pound of marijuana from each female plant you grow outdoors.

Growing Marijuana Indoors

The following info about growing marijuana indoors with soil. It is a good way for the first timer with a limited budget to start. You may also be interested in growing hydroponic marijuana. It shows how to grow marijuana indoors without soil. Some of the information can be applied to growing marijuana with soil.

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

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

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

Select a grow

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

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

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

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

Buy sterilized bags

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

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

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

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

The lighting system

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

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

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

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

Set your light timer

for 18 hours on and 6 hours off per twenty four hour period. Keep this light pattern for the first two weeks in the containers.

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

After about two weeks under the 18 hours on and 6 hours off light schedule the plants should have put down a good root system and grown a few sets of leaves. You can leave the light on from 18-24 hours a day at this point in the plants life (vegetative phase).

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

When the plants

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

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

With a

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

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

Temperatures should be between 70-80 degrees F when the light is on. When the light is off the temperature can drop 10-15 degrees and have no negative effect on the plant.

The temperature should never go below 60 degrees or above 90 degrees (even for short periods) or growth will slow down. If these extremes are exceeded the plant may be permanently damaged or killed.

Humidity should be between 40-60 percent relative humidity. Use a hydrometer to measure humidity if you think your grow area is out of range. A humidifier can increase humidity and a dehumidifier can be used to lower humidity.

Sources

Marijuana Seeds: There are plenty of seed venders online that you can use to order your seeds safely. Seeds are like most things in life, the more you pay the better you get. But thats not saying that if you bought cheap seeds that they won't be good plant's and a nice smoke.

Lighting: Depending on how far apart your containers are placed, you will need one or more fluorescent light fixtures. If you are growing under mh or hps light and want to provide fluorescent light for the first few weeks in the growing containers, get a fluorescent light fixture at a local store that sells lights.

Fluorescent light fixtures are commonly found in garages and kitchens, almost any store that sells lighting supplies should have them. A basic model with no cover is least expensive. The 48 inch size is the most common size for home use and should be fairly cheap. Get cool white fluorescent lights for your fixture. 30 to 60 watt bulbs will do the job.

If you are going to use fluorescent light through all stages of growth, look at lights that were made for growing plants with. These are available at most gardening stores but may be hard to find. If you can't find them locally, check out the fluorescent grow lights here.

A 400 watt hps or 400 watt mh light system will produce enough light to cover a 4 foot by 4 foot grow area. that is enough to grow about 9-10 plants in soil. A 250 watt hps or 250 watt mh light system will produce enough light to cover a 2.5 foot by 2.5 foot grow area. That is enough to grow about 6 plants in soil.

Light Timer: You will need a timer to turn your lights off and on at specific periods depending on the stage of growth. Fluorescent lights can be used with light duty grounded timers because they don't use much power.

Metal halide and high pressure sodium lights require a heavy-duty grounded timer. Light duty timers are available in most department stores. Heavy duty grounded timers used for supplying power to block heaters in cars are fairly cheap and can be used if they are rated above the load of your light source.

Light Hanger: As the plants grow, the light system will have to be raised in order to keep the height from the top of the plants to the light constant. You can figure a way to do this with items you can find at a hardware store or you can buy a pre-made kit.

Containers: Plant growing containers can be found at most stores. The height of the container should be from 12 to 24 inches. Width and depth should both be about 12 inches. Containers that are 3-5 gallons in size do a good job and are easy to find.

Soil: Because soil is heavy, you should obtain it locally. If you know what you are looking for, the garden center of a large department store usually has a choice of potting soil designed for growing plants indoors. Gardening stores will have a wide selection of soil and the staff should be able to help you locate soil that is recommended for fast growing vegetables.

Nutrients: Look for nutrients at a gardening store. Make sure to get plant food for soil use. You can use an all purpose nutrient through both stages of growth but separate types of vegetative (growth) and flowering (bloom) plant food are recommended.

Books And Movies: For someone growing indoors with soil or hydroponics, the movie ultimate grow is your best choice for an introduction to growing indoors. It shows how to set up a grow room and all the steps involved when growing marijuana indoors. A marijuana growing reference book or two will always come in handy. Must have item for the first time grower especially.

Temperature: Get a thermometer to measure temperature. Available at almost any department store.

Humidity: If you think humidity is a problem, get a hygrometer. You can usually find them in the housewares department of a department store. Some hygrometers have built in thermometers to measure the temperature.



Plant Problems
Always check the overall environmental conditions prior to passing judgment - soil around 7 pH or slightly less - plenty of water, light, fresh air, loose soil, no water standing in pools.

SYMPTOM

1. Larger leaves turning
yellow - smaller leaves
still green.

2. Older leaves will curl
at edges, turn dark,
possibly with a purple
cast.

3. Mature leaves develop
a yellowish cast
to least veinal areas.

4. Mature leaves turn
yellow and then
become spotted
with edge areas
turning dark gray.

5. Cracked stems, no
healthy support tissue.


6. Small wrinkled
leaves with
yellowish vein systems.


7. Young leaves become
deformed, possibly
yellowing.

PROBABLE CURE

1. Nitrogen deficiency
- add nitrate of soda
or organic fertilizer.

2. Phosphorous deficiency -
add commercial phosphate.



3. Magnesium deficiency -
add commercial fertilizer
with a magnesium content.

4. Potassium deficiency -
add muriate of potash.




5. Boron deficiency -
add any plant food
containing boron.

6. Zinc deficiency - add
commercial plant food
containing zinc.


7. Molybedum deficiency -
use any plant food with a
bit of molybdenum in it.


Books

Jorge Cervantes' Ultimate Grow DVD
Excellent movie for the person who finds video information easier to follow than reading. This DVD shows step by step instructions covering what is involved in setting up a grow room and growing a crop of marijuana indoors (with soil and hydroponics). It won't teach advanced techniques but it will help you set up your grow room and raise your first crop.

There is no information about growing outdoors, this is strictly for indoor growers. There is a section about making water hash. But you would have to buy a specially designed set of bags (for a few hundred dollars) to make hash the way shown in the movie. Running time is about 100 minutes. The star of the movie is none other than the author of marijuana horticulture (one of the best books about growing marijuana there is).

Jorge Cervantes' Ultimate Grow DVD

Marijuana Horticulture:
The Indoor/Outdoor Medical Grower's Bible
Over 500 pages with more than 1000 color images. If you were only going to get one book about growing, this book would be the best choice. Describes growing marijuana outdoors and indoors (with hydroponics or soil).

Also provides information that you can refer back to when things go wrong. A very comprehensive reference book for anyone interested in growing marijuana, either indoors or outdoors. Recommended for beginners and more advanced growers.

Marijuana Horticulture

The Cannabis Grow Bible:
The Definitive Guide to Growing Marijuana
for Recreational and Medical Use

A very good source of information covering all aspects of growing, from seed selection to harvest, curing and more. Over 300 pages with almost 200 color and black-and-white photographs, charts, and tables. Recommended reference book for indoor and outdoor growers.

A great marijuana growing and breeding guide. Includes chapters on seeds, propagation and germination, growing indoors, growing outdoors, hydroponics, pre-flowering and flowering, predators, pests and plant fungi, breeding, and more.

hi this info is from thctalk that someone copyed from a book but he never said what book thanks

[smokey0159]

thanks tokage i have said where i have got it from i thought u might move a few bits to the right place,s i just like helping people with info

[Guest Markus]

thank you for your work!

[mrgroovy]

thanks for the step by step explenation, keep up the good work