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Hello, I’m glad to introduce myself to the Strain Hunters Community

 

I am living in the so called flat part of western Europe.

I started growing cannabis 5 years ago.

 

Why I started growing cannabis is a very special reason. Also a story to tell. Hopefully it is interesting enough to read the complete story. If you want the short version. Here it is in a few lines. I did learn a lot about processing. Any process. This is mainly because of my profession.

Although I’m growing indoors for 5 years now, I see myself as an absolute dummy. In that context I’m very eager to learn and become experienced as much as possible. I'm willing to put a lot of effort and time in learning how to become a good amateur instead of a dummy. If you want to know the reason why, you will need to read the rest of my introduction story. Sorry for the length but I see it as relevant to understand why I'm so eager to learn.

 

Here it goes:

My wife died in 2001 age 38, leaving (blessed) me with two sons. 9 and 4 years old at the time. I decided to concentrate on my sons well-being, education and parenting. To be able to do this, I had to take two life changing decisions.

The first one was, not to have a partner or any other relationship for at least 15 years. This because any form of relationship asks for time and effort. And time en effort was reserved for my kids until my sons both would be able to live independently.

The second one was to resign from work and start my own company to be able to make as much time available as needed for my kids.

 

The 3 of us were doing very well for 9 years until my youngest son got Crohn's disease at the age of 13.  I was also diagnosed having Crohn’s disease when I was 17 years old.

At the age of 17 I was hospitalized for 3 years. After those 3 years, I was every year a couple of weeks in the hospital again. Because no cure existed, I had to undergo 12 surgical procedures.

At the age of 17, close to 18, I was a sportsman, competition sailing and skiing. Therefor living very healthy but from one day to the other it was game over. My weight went from 78kg (1m83 tall) to 35kg. I lost more blood than they could pump it up.

The doctors told my family that I probably would not survive. Only close family members who could control their emotions were allowed to visit me. This arrangement was made to not let me give up the battle for life.

In the end I won but what if I had smoked cannabis at the time?  Most presumably the Crohn's disease would never have become active.  You could say that living so healthy almost killed me.

Over the 12 surgical procedures my anus and 6,5 meter from the 8 to 8,5 meters intestines was removed. 

The operations marked me for life but now at least thanks to cannabis I have no problems anymore with the remaining part of my digestion system. Crohn's disease tends to pop up in another part of the digestion system. This is in reality from mouth to anus.  I get my most nutrients in my body by direct feeding them into my blood.

 

Then 8 years ago, just like me, my son was hospitalized for 3 year’s.  They could not find a suitable cure to control the Crohn’s disease and therefore I search everywhere for a solution and tried everything possible, like any father would do. After 3 years, when he was 16, I found studies done in Israel with a positive effect from cannabis on Crohn’s disease. Israel started with studies in the 1970 but the what substance of cannabis is affecting which system and how was discovered by dr. Rafael Mechoulam from the Hebrew Univ Tel Aviv, Israel in 1992.  This is relatively new you could say, certainly if you know that studies in the USA are done now on a very small groups of (10) patients with Crohn's disease and they do the study by having the patient smoking the cannabis. This is insane because you never know how much a patient is inhaling compared to another patient.  This level of amateurism is only possible in the USA because the Pharma Industry is paying billions of dollars to lobbyists in Washington and therefor are able to prevent state subsidized or governmental supported studies.

In my country, at the time, it was strictly forbidden to grow or even possess any cannabis at all. I could go to the Netherlands to buy it but I was reluctant to do that because of the, in my mind at the time, doubtful quality.  If you know nothing about cannabis, you are suspicious about quality when it is about a business where a lot of money is involved. The goal for me was also to get a clean bio cannabis and preferable a variable mix in THC and CBD.  I also did not want my son to start smoking or vaporizing at such a young age.  Thanks to my company, active in R&D for thermal and chemical processes, I was able to buy studies from Israel and me and my lead engineer studied for months on how to best process, mix and dose cannabis as a medicine. My lead engineer was a young WIZ kid at the time. He really has an incredible IQ with a couple of science masters under his belt. His father had skin cancer in the 4th stage. The doctors gave him a couple of months at max. Therefor also my lead engineer was super motivated to learn about scientific studies from Israel on the application of cannabis for diseases. My company developed processes to produce chemical/medical active components for major pharmaceutical companies. Therefor making very well controlled products that allow you to get the right dose of a cannabis mix every time and getting the specific ointment for skin cancer was not a problem. Growing the plant was the biggest obstacle for us.

 

I had no doubts 5 years ago. My son would get cannabis, end of discussion. The result is that I bought myself a growth tent, complete with all equipment included and started to grow THC and CBD rich plants. I made a diluted product to be able to dose more accurately with a mix. Right from the start I was able to use a Pipette Bottle to apply exactly the same dose every time. 3 times a day. After 2 weeks my son was getting better and after 3 months the Md from the hospital declared my son in full remission. He had his normal live back 100% thanks to cannabis. My son had no signs of Crohn’s disease in the last 5 years. He is now 21 and just finished high school and is starting in October to obtain his master’s degree in science (like his father “very big smile”)

 

Where everything else failed cannabis was working!!!

 

My problem however is that over the 5 years I had every time a yield of 60 to 80 grams (dried and cured) per plant and whatever I did, I was not able to get more grams from a plant than what I got when I just started. At first it didn't matter because I had enough for my family and I was not doing it for the money. There are 6 people in my family with Crohn's disease. It’s a record for my country but not one to be proud of.

 

Now the yield becomes a big problem. My father has Parkinson and my mother wants to use it for psoriasis. On top of that I have very good friends with Crohn's disease who are begging for help but for the moment it is impossible because of the limited production. I just started dating 3 months ago and have a new partner to cherish, the first date and partner (April 2018) after my wife died in 2001. I have known my female treasure for 20 years as a good friend but a couple of months ago suddenly friendship became a lot more. She is a wonderful woman but has also Crohn’s disease and was on medication that worked fine until a couple of weeks ago...

 

I need more cannabis and I need it fast.

 

On top of that I am a board member of a non-profit organization for people with Crohn’s disease.  There are potentially hundreds of patients (from the thousands in our database) that could benefit from cannabis and in the end a want to help all of them who want to be helped by using cannabis.

I was a board member 25 years ago, that is why I have still good friends with Crohn’s disease from those early years as a board member. Friends who I first met more than 20 years ago.

I left the organization when my wife died 17 years ago (2001) but they asked me to join the board again, now 2 years ago.

Of course most of the current patients/members do not know that I was a board member long time ago. There is no one from the current board that knows my involvement with cannabis and I cannot tell them anything because for the moment I am not able to help them in anyway with the cannabis cure.

In time, I hope that I have the capacity (quantity and quality) to help them all.

 

That is the reason why I became a member of this forum. First to help good friends in need. Second , to help other people in my country with medical cannabis on Crohn's disease. Right now, those who can afford it pay a contribution to cover some of my costs. Those who cannot afford it get the product for free. Of course I’m losing money every month but for me it is worth every Euro, if it works.

The goal for the future is the same, I do not want to make money with the end product, first of all I want to help people.  It is a hobby and like any other hobby there is a price to pay but I cannot think of another hobby that gives me more satisfaction and pleasure.

My son I helping me without any other reward than the satisfaction of helping people.  He knows even more of the growing part than I do but I’m catching up with his and hopefully with the Strain Hunters Community’s help.

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Hello Cure and welcome to forum, 

 

Wow, it's a really shocking story. I'm glad to know that everything is going well now and you're starting a new relationship.

Thank you for visiting the forum and becoming a part of it. But, here you are not allowed to buy/sell/change marijuana. It's grounds for expulsion. 

No one can give marijuana, even for a charity, is totally forbidden. So in that respect, you will not get help in this forum.

To share experiences, solve questions, talk about life.... you are welcome.

 

Cheers

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Hi Cure man thats some story I am glad you now have cool runnings again.

Your definitely in the right place to learn more about growing and to get help in the different sections of the forum, you can learn a lot by checking out peoples grow journals as well as getting stuck in and asking questions, you will definitely have something to contribute that will be useful to someone with less experience, considering you already have 5 years experience under your belt.

With regards to increasing your yield the easiest method to increase yeild is to FIM your plant/s to break their apical tendency so the plant shares her love amongst all her stalks so they all become colas, instead of focusing her energies on the main stalk and one main cola where the plant has that typical Christmas tree shape.

I&I prefer to FIM my plants rather than top them, because it is less stressful for the plant/s, some strains can be sensitive to being FIMed, for example I have 2 Exodus Cheese autos that I FIMed and within days they started to flower, yet a Jack Herer auto I was able to FIM a few times as each new node appeared before it started flowering.

You can also do a bit of low stress straining as well, this is basically tying down the stalks to stress them a little this makes them beef up the stalk and the nodes which in turn helps the plant to consume more water and feed more effectively.

Some people actually get a lot rougher and deliberately damage the stalks to achieve the same goal, but they will need time to recover so it will slow things down a little.

Hope this helps, happy growing.

Gasmeter

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks Gasmeter,

I certainly will follow this recommendation.

I must admit that I already learned a lot from the forum. If you look for it, I cannot imagine a better source for info on questions I have.

I realize now that I will be able to grow enough to help all the people I would like to help. These are only people that have zero benefit from traditional medication.

It is perfectly acceptable and even absolutely necessary that there is no trading on this forum for cultivation. What I do not understand is that nothing is done to finance or even allow scientific R&D in my country.  You have to be in Israel to get the knowledge in depth on medical use. 

For growing there is no difference in plants for medical use only therefor this is the best Forum ever.

Happy growing, for whatever purpose,

Cure with mariju

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hi Cure

Just wanted to say hello and I am with you Brother. Life can be cruel and harsh but being strong gets you through life.

I don't have Crohn's disease but Diverticulitis which, has some simular symptoms and is a real game changer.  It took 10 years to find the right Consultant to operate on me. Previous surgery did not cure me and only created more issues. I lost part of my bowel and bladder from infection. I went critical 3 times during the last surgery due to blood loss and lasted 8 hours. That was two and a half years ago and waiting for a resection to get it all running autonomously again. My Consultant saved my life for sure!!

I am currently in good health but am worried disease will return.

I have grown several strains so far ( northern lights and a haze/CBD hybrid) organically in a polytunnel and makes me feel good. BUT I am not sure IF these particular strains will prevent a recurrence of Diverticular Disease.

I am looking for that strain.

Has any strain really helped you and your family?

I do know there are similarities between us with inflammation and pain.

But what I have been told is with me it's the immune system breaking down that triggers a massive attack and hospitalisation and where the antibiotics just don't help.

Anyway I am here to chat if it helps.

 

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