How to Grow Marijuana – Chapter 4 – Flowering and Curing Marijuana
Marijuana is a wonderful herb that grows naturally all over the planet. Unfortunately it is still illegal to grow marijuana in many countries. Please check your local laws before growing marijuana. With that said, let’s get growing!
It’s been a month and a half and you are finally ready to flower! The first thing to understand is that some of your plants may be male plants. The female plants flower, yielding herb to smoke. The male plants grow pollen sacks which impregnate the female plants, creating seeds. Unless you want seeds for future grows it is important to pick out the male plants as soon as they show signs. The first step to flowering is changing the light pattern. Your plants are used to either 18 or 24hrs of light a day. In the wild, plants flower when the light of day shortens, so to stimulate flowering, change your Grow lighting to 12hours on and 12hours off everyday. Also flush your nutrients and switch to flowering measurements. In the first week you have to keep a very close eye on the sex of your plants. Male plants grow little balls that eventually open up with pollen. Female plants grow flowers. You can detect a female plant early because it will have hairs growing out of the calyx located on flowering branches.
Flowering time varies depending on the strain. Typical times fall somewhere between 8 and 12 weeks. Make sure to routinely flush the water and keep your PPM’s according to the schedule on your nutrients. Your herb will be ready for harvest when at least 30% of the pistils (hairs) turn from clear to red/orange. If you have a microscope, take a look at the trichomes. These look almost like little mushrooms under magnification of 50x. Just as the hairs turn orange, the tops of the trichomes turn from clear to white. A count of 30% + white-top trichomes also signifies the readiness to harvest. It is also important to note that harvesting early leads to more of a head high, whereas harvesting late with more orange hairs makes for more of a couch lock effect.
In the last week before harvest it is also important to flush out all nutrients. It is optional to keep watering during this time. The plant will have an excess of nitrogen as well as several other elements and the halt of nutrients causes the plant to use up all the excess. This makes for a tastier and smoother final product. It has also been theorized that keeping the lights off for the last 3 days of the plant’s life increases thc content. This theory makes sense because plants stress out whenever something unnatural or threatening happens. Thc is the natural defense mechanism for cannabis so it really couldn’t hurt to give it a try.
Its harvest time so first cut each of the flowering branches close to the stem. Discard the leaf branches and main stem. Take your collection of flowering branches and cut all fan leaves out. Get a nice pair of clippers and trim down the leaves to where the flowers are mostly exposed. Hang these trimmed branches upside-down in the dark, in a well ventilated area for 3-5 days. Wait until the plants have exhausted most of their water before removing them from the room.
Now that the herb is cut and has been dried for a few days, it’s time to cure. This is the most important step in the entire thing. Any shortcuts here will undermine your months of patience so don’t get too ahead of yourself. Your herb is good but still has an excess of chlorophyll and amino acids. Curing brings out the full flavor and helps the herb actualize its potency. Thc is the chemical that gives you desired effects, but before the herb is cured, the thc exists coupled with amino acids. The more time you cure, the more cannabinoids detach them self and become active thc.
Collect your herb and trim to your liking. Put the herb in a sealed jar for one month. Every day you should open the jar three times for about 20 minutes. In a month you will have some killer herb.
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How to Grow Marijuana – Chapter 3 – Vegetative Growth and Cloning Marijuana
Marijuana is a wonderful herb that grows naturally all over the planet. Unfortunately it is still illegal to grow marijuana in many countries. Please check your local laws before growing marijuana. With that said, let’s get growing!
Start by placing your seeds in the middle of a paper towel. Fold the towel around your seeds, sealing it. Spray down both sides of the paper towel so that it is very moist. Take your wet paper towel and place it inside of a zip loc bag. Seal the bag and place somewhere dark for 2 days. It’s very important to keep the bag sealed the entire time because those seeds will only pop if it is nice and moist.
So a couple of days have gone by and it’s time to check out the seeds. Don’t be surprised if they haven’t popped just yet. It may take up to five days total to sprout, and it’s almost inevitable that a few won’t pop. Once your seeds have a little white chute sticking out of them, wash your hands and then take the seed out of the paper towel and put the seed into your grow medium with the chute facing down because this turns into the root.
For the first 5 days of growth don’t add any nutrients just run straight water. In the first 2 weeks of life be very gentle with your nutrients. Use either an 18 hour on and 6 hour off, or 24 hour light cycle during the whole vegetative phase. Follow the nutrient package’s instructions carefully because you can easily end your plant’s life with heavy nutrients. The first 6-8 weeks you should steadily increase the nutrients to a max of 600 PPM. In this time the plant is building up and maturing and it needs a good amount of nitrogen to flourish. Nitrogen is a key building block because it helps establish a good root system and a strong core.
After a solid 6 weeks have gone by you should have some good foot tall plants at least. It is always a good idea to take a few clones before you are ready to flower your plants. This ensures that if you grow a second crop, it will be at least equivalent if not better than the original grow. It also ensures you only female plants. Cloning is a slightly advanced technique but don’t be intimidated. It is easy to pick up and virtually a necessity for any green thumb. Look carefully and you can tell the two kinds of stems apart. Some chutes coming off the stem open up to make more and some just have one large set of odd-numbered leaves (usually 7). You want to clone only the stems that are producing more ends. These eventually will flower and grow buds. To clone grab a sharp knife and some isopropyl alcohol. Dump some of the alcohol onto a paper towel and wipe the blade over it to sterilize. Cut a few of the lower chutes at a 45 degree angle and place the cuttings in a glass of water with some root hormone filled only a couple inches high. This is the cheap way to clone and will work but for the best effectiveness you can build a clone box for about $20 with supplies from walmart. As soon as your clones are cut you can send your plants into flower!
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How to Grow Marijuana – Chapter 2 – Nutrients
Marijuana is a wonderful herb that grows naturally all over the planet. Unfortunately it is still illegal to grow marijuana in many countries. Please check your local laws before growing marijuana. With that said, let’s get growing marijuana!
Since you have chosen to grow with hydroponics (nice choice) it is important understand nutrients. There are several brands of nutrients to choose from. General Hydroponics is a great economical choice but if you can splurge a little bit pick up a Fox Farm system. Regardless of your nutrient choice, to grow marijuana you need to provide your plants with the right nutrients during the right cycles. Don’t feel intimidated, nutrients are easy to measure and add with a PPM meter so you should always be confident in knowing your plants have what they need. If you don’t already have a PPM meter hit up your local hydro shop or order one online. They cost around $20 and they measure the parts per million of total nutrients. With one of these meters you can keep your plants well fed and happy.
During the vegetative state your plants are going to be craving a lot of nitrogen. Nitrogen is a basic building block and helps the plant to establish a strong root system and a strong core. The vegetative cycle can vary but typically lasts 6-8 weeks. For the first 5 days of your plants life don’t even bother adding nutrients. At any given time, too many nutrients will cause leaves to burn and plants to go into nutrient lock, making it impossible for them to get any nourishment. Add a small amount of your stage 1 nutrients to the hydro tank for the first 2 weeks. Your PPM should stay a steady 50-150. Keep increasing the nutrient intake by 50-100 per week. You can feed your plants until you notice discoloration of leaves, at which point you should dilute your nutrient base. As you approach 6-8 week you will be adding more of the stage 2 nutrients. During the transitional phase plants need more phosphates. This helps them get ready for flowering. When you make the switch from 24 hour lighting to 12 hours on and 12 off, you need to change the flow of nutrients again. By this point your plants are ready for a steady dose of potassium. Your stage 3 nutrients should be administered at around 1000 PPMs to start with. Increase the dose by 50-100 per week and your flowering cycle will conclude in 8-11 weeks. The last two weeks of your flowering cycle change your basin to only purified water. Too many nutrients down the home stretch will give your bud a funky chemical flavor and diminish your smoking experience with harsh hits. The last 3-5 days of flowering your should pull the water out altogether. Since you are about to embark on the curing process, the water that is filling your plant is no longer necessary.
Always track your PPMs on a notepad for record and change your water at least weekly to avoid any algae growth. If your plant’s leaves start yellowing or burning, adjust your nutrients accordingly. When properly administered, nutrients will plump up your plants and they will erupt with luscious buds.
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How to Grow Marijuana – Chapter 1 – Lighting
Marijuana is a wonderful herb that grows naturally all over the planet. Unfortunately it is still illegal to grow marijuana in many countries. Please check your local laws before growing marijuana. With that said, let’s get growing!
It’s a general consensus that growing herb is best done with a good hydro system. Hydroponics is the process of growing a plant without soil. There are a couple of different ways to grow with hydro, but regardless you need to pick up some supplies. First and foremost you will need a light source to grow your herb. There are several technologies out there and I will break down the advantages and disadvantages of each for you.
The cheapest and most inefficient light source is compact fluorescent lighting (CFL). There are two different styles of CFL lighting. Some people grow marijuana with CFL light bulbs. You can pick these up at the grocery store and a splitter at your local hardware store. It’s a good idea to strive for at least the 100 watt bulbs because anything less is not giving off enough light. Keep in mind that these are not especially efficient so you may need as many as 8 or more to grow and flower 3 plants. The other kind of CFL lighting is the shop light style. These have a metal bracket used as a reflector and the bulbs themselves are long and cylindrical. This style of lighting is a little more efficient than the CFL bulb but still not ideal for growing marijuana. Whichever style of CFL bulb you choose, strive for the bluest temperature for vegetative growth and the warmest color light for flowering.
The next lighting type is Metal Halide (MH). You see metal halide lightsanytime you leave your house out night, as that’s what most street lights use. Metal halide lighting works by converting power with a ballast and then delivering it to an HID bulb. This lighting type is extremely good for vegetative growth but not so much for flowering. These systems use quite a lot of electricity and give off substantial heat so you should always use MH in conjunction with good ventilation.
High Pressure Sodium (HPS) lighting is arguably the best lighting for the money. Just like the metal halide system, HPS also uses a ballast and an HID bulb. The advantage is a fuller spectrum which plants will appreciate for both vegetative growth and flowering. While it is not quite as good as MH for vegetative growing, it is nearly ideal for flowering. This system also runs pretty hot so it should be used in conjunction with proper ventilation.
Light-Emitting Diode Technology (LED) is on the verge of becoming the best lighting technology to grow marijuana with. It is extremely efficient and a 90 watt LED grow light can give off as much usable light as a 600 watt high pressure sodium or metal halide system. NASA is fine tuning LED technology in hopes of sustaining life in outer space with LED farming. A good LED panel is a bit pricy but worth every dime because it gives off virtually no heat and uses less electricity than your television. Most systems use only blue and red light but surprisingly a marijuana plant will flourish with only those two colors of light.
Once you select your light source pick up some fans to help with circulation and heat. A good light source is the start of a successful hydroponic grow system.
Marijuana Hydroponics – How to Build Your Own Marijuana Hydroponic Garden
These are plans to make a fairly portable, and very inexpensive advanced hydroponic system. These plans only explain how to make the garden itself, and do not explain how to use or maintain it. If you plan on using this garden, you should get yourself a good book on hydroponics, and look it over.
I am intentionally leaving out those parts about plant nutrition, light cycles, etc. so as not to appear to be writing a guidebook for growing marijuana. It is also to make you seek out another source of information so your knowledge of hydroponics comes from more than just this article. I do not grow marijuana, and never have. I’m just a high-tech home gardener with information to share. If you are caught growing marijuana while using the system described herein, don’t even think of running to me, I didn’t tell you to grow marijuana. In fact, I’d suggest planting a crop of cherry tomatoes, which can be fooled into producing fruit indoors year round, and is a very easy plant to start hydroponics with.
Materials needed:
1 5-10 gallon bucket
2 Pieces of PVC or ABS pipe, 8-10″ long, 5″ or greater diameter.
4 Caps for PVC/APS pipe ends.
1 waterpump capable of about 50 Gallons per Hour (you will need a bigger pump if you choose to make this a larger system)
4′ of hose that will fit the waterpump (often 3/8″)
1 TEE joint (or Y-splitter) that fits the water hose
4 clamps for the water hose (one for pump to hose, and 3 for hoses to TEE fitting.)
1 Airpump, airstone, and some airline from a fish tank.
1 Can White epoxy based spray paint
1 Can Black Epoxy based spray paint
Procedure:
1. Everything must be made light tight. Paint all hoses, the bucket, the PVC/ABS and the lid of the bucket with a layer of black paint. Let it dry overnight, and then cover it with a layer of white paint to make it reflective, and reduce the temperature of the nutrient solution.
2. Take each of PVC pieces and drill a 1 inch hole on the side, about one inch from the end. Then epoxy the caps onto the ends of the PVC.
3. Drill the inlet/outlet holes; these should be located on the caps of the PVC. The inlet hole should be as low as possible or as close to the wall of the PVC, and the outlet-hole should be as high as possible.
4. Now cut two 5″ holes in the sides of the bucket (close to the top), and epoxy the PVC in place, so about 2″ of pipe (and the outlet hole) are inside the bucket, and the 1″ hole is facing straight up.
5. Oxygen into the nutrient solution, and not to dissolve CO2. CO2 can kill root systems. If you are growing outside, or not enriching CO2, then the pump can sit anywhere.
6. Place the water pump in the bottom of the bucket (assuming it is a submersible one) and attach a hose to it long enough to reach the top of the bucket. Cut a hole in the lid of the bucket for this hose to go through. Then attach the TEE fitting to the hose. Now attach hoses to the free ends of the TEE, and run them to the inlet holes on the end of the PVC pipes. Use clamps on the TEE fitting and on the pump itself, but use epoxy to attach the hoses to the PVC. This seal must be completely water tight. Let them dry for 24 hours.
7. Put some water in the bucket and turn on the pump. What should happen is the PVC pieces will fill with water, and then when they are full, they should begin to continuously drain out the outlet holes, and back into the bucket. If you are getting leaks anywhere, fix them immediately. If water is coming out of the 1″ hole on the top of the pipe, then either your pump is too strong, or your outlet hole is too small. Fix one or the other.
8. Empty the system (hint, remove the hose from the pump to drain the arms), and replace the water with some form of hydroponic nutrient solution (look in a hydroponics book for details on what exactly to use, or visit a gardening store, and ask)
9. Place your plants into the system. The best way I have found to do this is to take a 1 1/8″ garden hose and cut a 1″ tube off of one end. Then slit the tube down one side. Wrap the stem of your plant (just above the roots) with polyester fluff (available at aquarium stores, for stuffing into external water filters) and then wrap the garden hose around the fluff. Then force the hose into the hole at the top of the PVC arm. People also have used rubber stoppers.
10. Turn on the air/water pumps, and let your garden grow.
This is obviously just a small setup, but these plans can easily be modified for much larger systems, using longer pieces of PVC, or more than one pair of arms, and a larger bucket to hold the nutrients (I’ve seen one made with a 55 gallon drum, and 8 separate arms, each holding 4 plants)
I personally use this setup indoors (under a skylight in my apartment) to grow 2 cherry tomato plants. What you do with your own garden is your own business, and obviously I can’t be held responsible if you choose to grow anything illegal.
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