Growing Weed for Dummies: 10 Rules to Grow By

Tuesday, April 24th, 2012

Growing weed for dummies is actually a relatively simple affair, just plant some seeds in soil, at some water and in a few days, “presto-chango” you have your pot plants started. Cannabis is a very hardy plant that grows wild in many parts of the planet and it will do the same for you as well.

Even so growing growing it is one thing, but getting to pick the final product is something entirely different because everybody has heard of somebody who’s been ripped off. Then once you do get to pick it, having top quality but come from your project is another issue as well. Sure it’s nice to be smoking your own, but it’s even nicer when yours is the best around.

Plan Well Ahead of Time

So make a point of planning well ahead of time. Ask any successful gardener, horticulturalist or farmer for that matter and all of them will tell you the same thing. That is that they put the wheels in motion about a year ahead of time. Deciding where they were they were going to grow, gathering up what they were going to need, and doing initial preparations months before any seeds were planted.

Invest the Money that it takes

Add up the amount of money you’ve spent on buying your weed only over the last year alone and you’ll probably be in for quite a shock. Then if you’re like far too many people out there fro some reason you’ll started pinching pennies when it’s time to grow your own. It takes money to make money and a good full-size plant can yield up to a pound and even more, so always buy the best that’s available whenever you shop for your project.

Only Use Premium Grade Soil

For far too many first-time growers, “out of sight is out of mind” when it comes to root growth because they’re too busy focusing on the bright green growth. In all actuality however, any plant can only be as big and healthy as its root system. So only buy the best potting soil available and if you’re growing in containers don’t forget size does matter. Conditioners like vermiculite, perlite and lime also work to make for a healthy root system.

Hide Your Plants Well

Don’t be lulled into a false sense of security by growing in your backyard or upstairs on a back deck. Wede bandits are a determined lot and having a plant sitting out in the open outdoors is just like having $5000 sitting there for the taking. So make the extra effort to search out an area to hide them well in and then conceal them in with other bushes. Or if you’re doing it at your place pots on casters will allow you to bring them in at night.

Don’t Tell Anyone

It’s sad that people are the way that they are, but they are who they are and you can’t do anything about that. What you can do though is to make a point of not telling anyone what you’re up to. Now it might not seem like a big deal in the early stages of the growing season, but once your plant or plants get full-size and start in budding, if you did tell somebody you’ll wish that you could go back in time and change that.

Don’t Over Fertilize

Over fertilizing is one of the easiest mistakes to make when you’re in the initial growing need for dummies stage. Chemical fertilizers like rapid gro and miracle grow are acid-based, so it doesn’t take much to burn the root hairs. Also acid buildup by slightly overdoing over time can lead to root burning. So consider buying a spray bottle and learning how to foliar feed which is spraying it right on the plans.

Learn How to Deal With Rodents

If you’re growing outdoors then at some point you will be dealing with rodents. You may not realize it at first because in the early summer season there’s plenty of natural food to be had in the great outdoors. As the growing season rolls on though, and changes to fall natural food sources dry up for all the little critters, and it turns out that cannabis is one of their favorite treats. They like to munch on the lower plant stock, so learn the most effective ways for dealing with them.

Buy outdoor seeds for growing outdoors and indoor seeds for growing indoors.

Growing Weed From Seeds

There’s just so many choices now when it comes time to buy your seeds online and each one sounds better than the rest. Don’t get taken in by all the promotional hype because if you’re growing outdoors what you need is a good sturdy strain that could stand up to all the mother nature has to throw at it. Then if you’re growing in an area that gets cold in the fall you’ll need to make sure to buy a seed strain that buds up early enough.

“G13 Labs Midnight Kush is a mainly indica strain with an extremely psychedelic effect. This strain has the potential to grow large if given the space, she produces almighty rock hard resinous buds. She has a tendency to go a fantastic midnight purple colour in cold conditions. Due to one of the parents being an outdoor variety of Blueberry, Midnight Kush has a great resistance to mould.”

Don’t Harvest too Soon

The buds on the growing plant will appear far more mature and stronger while they’re still green and growing than they will be when they’re dry. Keep in mind that a lot of their weight is comprised of water, and also much of the smell goes out of them during the drying process. So conceal your plants well enough and don’t tell anyone so you can leave them out late in the fall. Pick them early and you’ll be surprised by how little weight you can end up with.

Dry Your Buds Properly

When you’re drying your final product you only have one chance to get it right. A cool sealed off dry area works best, so hang the branches in a closet or a closed up in dark room with the air conditioner on. The last thing you want is heat because warm air promotes decay and decay on drying buds means that your finished product will be brown it taste like Schwag. Don’t put a fan on them either or you you will lose all your smell.

The Bottom Line

If you’re just starting in learning about growing weed for dummies you have it made today. There’s just so much information available online now, so there’s absolutely no reason to experiment or be confused about anything that you do along the way. Take your time to study up on the topic and always remember that any money you spend buying weed can be much better spent growing your own.

How to Improve Your Grow Skills

If you thought this blog post was informative wait till you check out all the golden nuggets I put into my latest book. "How to Grow Marijuana Outdoors: The Ultimate Guerilla Growers Guide" is chock full of my tips and tricks from over 20 years of outdoor grow experience all boiled down into an easy to read grow guide.

Click the link below and it will take you to the page where you can get a free sneak peek via Amazon.

How to Grow Weed Indoors Fast: Handy Tips and Pointers

Sunday, April 22nd, 2012

How to Grow Weed Indoors Fast: Tips and Pointers

For the beginner, growing weed indoors is a tricky enough prospect as it is. There’s a whole lot of things that can go wrong and any one of them can slow down plant growth. So learning how to grow weed indoors fast, for the most part basically revolves around just getting everything right.

Once you do get it down though, and you finally learn how to grow weed indoors fast without any problems you’ll be surprised by just how quickly you can go from a small start to finished bud. Get it wrong though, and you can also be surprised by just how long you can be left waiting for your buds to finish up.

The Truth About Feminized Seeds

The seed strain that you choose will carry with it the genetics that determine what your buds will be like.

Talk to some experienced growers who truly knows how to grow weed indoors fast and every one of them with will you that they do it with clones.

When you grow with clones it eliminates the time frame in the start stage when you’ll have to let the small plants grown from seed show their sex.

It can take up to three weeks, so having a mother plant that you root female cuttings from means you can go non-stop from the start stage through growth cycle and right through to buds.

However, there is one small problem that comes with cloning, and that is that the mother plant has to be grown and the cuttings have to be rooted.

Both of which require a separate room aside from your main growing quarters and there’s just no way around that. So if you don’t have what it takes to set up a separate clone room and you still want to get away from the three weeks downtime required for sorting out male and female starts now there’s the option of feminized seeds.

“Feminized marijuana seeds were developed to spare cannabis growers the hassle of having to identify and separate male plants from the crop before they can fertilize the female.”

You can find them advertise online, and what they are is seeds that have an extremely high rate of female production. A new type of seed that can appear to be the perfect option for avoiding cloning and start sexing hassles. So then just how perfect a solution are they? The answer here is that they’re in fact not all that they seem because they do have some downsides.

For instance for starters they’re expensive, so you can expect to pay upwards of $25-$30 per seed. That’s quite a bit if you’re looking to grow a room full of small fast-bud plants. Even then there’s no guarantee on them and the occasional plant grown from feminize seeds has been known to flip to male in leave a grow room pollinated.

LED Lighting or Standard Bulbs?

The differences aren't huge but the plant grown with LEDs on the right is taller, wider and has a thicker stalk.

If you’re just now in the planning stages of setting up your room and are looking to learn how to grow weed indoors fast before you put together then don’t underestimate the importance of your light source.

It’s the heart of your operation and pretty much the one thing that you can’t do without. So there’s a whole lot to learn about lighting.

The first thing you need to know for instance, is that if you can afford it you’re far better off going with LED lighting, particularly for a smaller indoor operation.

LEDs are a cooler source of light that puts out more of the blue and red spectrum range that’s so crucial to plant growth and budding. LEDs are also by the way quite a bit more expensive.

“Standard bulbs produce more than 80% heat while lighted thereby emitting heating instead of light. This kind of heat could be unhealthy for the plants. LED flowering grow lights will generate light in the proper wavelength. Moreover, the spectrum of red-colored and blue light can be well-balanced for ideal results.”

The nice thing about LED lights though, aside from the fact that they use about 75% less energy and put out better lighting, is that because they’re cool you can get them right down on top your plants. Close in without burning them and this alone can be a big help if you’re learning how to grow weed indoors fast.

Making sure that you have enough lighting for the square footage that you’re growing is also important. A 1000 W standard metal halide bulb hooked up to a rotating light fixture will cover about 1000 ft. Now you can get away with a little bit more square footage if you have 1000 W of LED lighting but not a whole lot more.

The Best Conditions for Fast Growth

It's all done with basic ingredients that you can find at your local nursery.

Then after you’ve made your decision on the most expedient method for producing starts and you’ve come to terms with what will be the best lighting for your grow room, learning how to grow weed indoors fast basically comes down to providing the best conditions.

Conditions that give them everything they need for optimal problem free growth.

So if you’re just starting out with your first crop you’re really better off using pots and soil rather than making things hard on yourself with a complex hydroponic system.

Now there are simple systems available on the Internet but if it’s your first crop you’ll still be going through a difficult process while you learn how to grow weed indoors fast.

“Whether your garden is large enough to feed a community or just big enough to supplement your everyday fresh greens addiction, at some point you will need a supply of potting soil.”

So hold off on the hydroponics and go with pots full of premium grade potting soil for your first run to make it easier on yourself. Only the best potting soil available and that would be supersoil or miracle grow potting soil, but before you fill your pots there’s a few things you need to do.

The first of them is that you need to bake that soil in a large metal pot in an oven to kill any insect eggs or larva that it might be carrying. Now potting soil heats up fast, so the individual pot loads won’t take a lot of time. Just the same, make sure that you cook it well so anything that’s living in it is killed.

Then after that blend in some vermiculite and perlite. Blend it so it’s about 60% potting soil, 20% vermiculite and 20% perlite. Perlite is great for holding air, and plant root hairs just love lots of air. Vermiculite leaches magnesium and also works like little sponges to hold plant nutrients, so both are great stuff.

Then finally make sure that you room as well ventilated to keep fresh air moving in and out, and also pay attention to temperature control. If you live in a cold climate and are growing in the winter you may want to bring a heater in your room to keep it warm because the optimal temperature for growing weed is about 82°.

Weed Growing Games: Learn How to Create and Publish Your Own

Thursday, April 12th, 2012

Weed growing games and the interest in them right along with products derived from the hemp plant are one of the off shoots of increased popularity of cannabis. Each new study as the results are made public reveals that more people are smoking it and that it’s also going mainstream.

That is that more of the folks who are smoking it now and they are decidedly getting older than they used to be in decades past, and they also have more disposable income. So of course weed growing games are becoming more popular, and not just with consumers either. This is because just as with any other other popular trend there has to be folks who operate on the supply end.

People just like you who design, copyright and market weed growing games. So if you’ve ever dreamed of getting in on the ground floor of a new marketing trend before the crowd shows up this might be the big opportunity you’ve been waiting for.

Your big chance because if you can design the right weed growing games that catch the public interest right now with the emerging market positioned where it is at the current time you could be in for a decades long lucrative financial joyride.

What About Medical Marijuana Laws?

A fine example of an offline weed growing game that someone came up with.

Medical marijuana is big now and it’s a trend that’s going to continue to stay at the forefront of public interest. What this means is that you may want to consider making it an aspect of any weed growing games that you create.

It will allow you to connect up with a substantial market sector that continues to expand but there’s also something else to consider here.

That is that when it comes time to market your finished product any medical marijuana related aspects included in will for sure work to lend legitimacy to any weed growing games.Just imagine the market potential if you can convince a major chain store for instance to carry your game?

“Deluxe Weed is an easy to learn strategy game where you, and the other players, compete to grow the most pot plants. Deluxe Weed includes all of the cards from the original Weed Card Game and 7 new characters.”

So it sure wouldn’t hurt if you became familiar with medical marijuana laws and how you might be able to apply them to players in weed growing games . They’re more complex than you may realize and once you understand these complexities you’ll be better able to factor them in.

Also keep in mind that medical marijuana laws do vary from area to area, so make a point of learning all you can about them where ever they have been implemented.

Not Just Any Marijuana Growing Guide

There's also some great online venues where you can pick up helpful info for free.

Then marijuana growing guide would for sure also be of help but not just any marijuana growing guide either. A basic marijuana growing guide just won’t contain enough information for weed growing games.

Rather to create weed growing games that contain enough excitement and intrigue to make them competitive in the marketplace you’re going to need a marijuana growing guide that covers the aspects of guerrilla growing.

Guerrilla growing will place your players in the wild outdoors planting and tending gardens that are subject to so much more intrigue than plants that are simply growing in someone’s backyard or in a grow room.

A marijuana growing guide that covers guerrilla growing will also provide you with the information you’ll need to have feature growing on a larger scale. After all bigger is better.

“You must choose an area to grow your plants where it will be highly unlikely, even impossible, for people to ever stumble upon it.”

Then finally don’t forget that risk and challenge in all its various forms provides the core element of any truly great game that is ever become popular and a marijuana growing guide that covers guerrilla growing can sure provide you with plenty of information you need for doing just that.

Game Publishing is a Lot Easier Now

Publishing weed growing games is the final step and it's much easier to do now.

Weed growing games all have to be published in the end or what’s the point in even doing it.

This is because if you’re looking for a game that you and your friends can play a part in it for the money there’s plenty of weed growing games already available for you to choose from.

So game publishing and all that it entails is something that you’re eventually going to have to learn about or all your creative work was for nothing.

Now prior to the Internet board game publishing was a far more daunting prospect so back then there really were very few weed growing games.

“You can now publish a game without making it fully public – handy if you simply wanted to try out your game online, or maybe to share a game with just a few friends. Simply select “Unlisted”, and your game won’t appear when browsing the site – only people who know the link will be able to see it (so it works in a similar way to unlisted videos on YouTube).”

Larger established publishing houses simply didn’t want to deal with them out of concerns for the public image. All that has changed though so now you don’t have to go through an established publishing house because he could do it on your own over the Internet.

It’s a simple matter really of just submitting your finished product to Amazon for review and publication but you’re also going to need a website as well because Amazon doesn’t get involved with any type of promotion, so that’s your job. So while you’re browsing around the net for a marijuana growing guide you may also want to pick up some type of information product, perhaps an e-book that covers web design and search engine optimization.

Search engine optimization or what is more commonly referred to as SEO is that means by which you entice the gods who rule over the search engines to position your site closer to page one. Page one in your case would be the first page that comes up on a screen when anyone types in the keywords weed growing games.

Keep in mind here that everything begins with a dream so if you don’t dream big dreams you’ll never accomplish anything big. Of course there will be the doubters who will try to bring you down as they did with so many other people over the course of history who set out to achieve financial independence. Just stick to your guns and don’t quit because there is a market for good weed growing games.

How to Grow Weed Outdoors in a Swamp

Thursday, April 5th, 2012

If you live in the flat area of the country, one that doesn’t have any mountains or thick forests you may still be in luck. This is because if there’s a swamp that you have access to you may be sitting on a gold mine for growing weed out doors.

They’re bright green, lush with growth, and full of water so that covers all the basics for guerrilla gardening. It’s just a matter of knowing what you need to do to get your plan going and then once your plants are in you’ll be surprised at how big and healthy they can get in a swamp.

Once you learn how to grow weed out doors this way though, you’ll find out that there’s just two glaring downside. One is that it’s expensive because everything has to be purchased package and carried in.

Then the second downside to swap growing is that it’s a lot of hard work, and the fact that you have to do all that work slogging around in mud doesn’t make it any easier.

Loading Your Basic Gardening Supplies

Who would ever find a garden entrance-way like this?

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that you need flat ground grow weed in a swamp because you don’t. You grow all your plants in big pots so I’ve even sat them down on milk crates in water that was up to my knees.

You see, it’s just like you’ve seen before with houseplants, the exact same principle. A plant in a pot that’s sitting in a dish of water only this time the dish of water is the swamp.

So the first thing you need to do is find a way in that won’t leave a trail because all you have to do is pass through the cattails walking in mud just once you’ll have a trail.

Look for a fallen log or tree hanging tree limb that you can climb on and walk down into the cattails and shrubs or better yet a body of water that you can walk through.

Or what about something like this if you have no water to walk through?

Water is perfect because you could slash through it all you want all summer long and leave no indication you’ve ever been there.

You’re going to haul in large bags of premium grade potting soil like super soil or miracle grow potted soil, large bags of vermiculite, and large bags of perlite. That’s what you’ll mix your growing medium from.

Then you’re also going to need some basic tools and perhaps some milk crates if you plan on setting your pots up in water. You’ll also need to take in a couple of 5 gallon buckets that you painted flat black or primer Brown.

Now the best time to get you materials in is the wintertime when the swamp growth has all died back. The reason here is that when springtime arrives all the new growth will come back to cover up the mess you made. Then lastly if at all possible find a place where you can throw everything you need to go in your garden up over the bushes so you have a nice clean entrance area that isn’t all torn up from your back and forth traffic.

Peat Pots Worked Best for Me

I’ve tried a few different types of containers over the years and in the end what ended up working out the best was giant peat pots.

They’re planting pots that are made out of peat moss that you can at your local nursery, and make sure you buy the large ones. They’re dull brown so the blend in perfectly against the brown mud.

Large means that they’re about 20 gallons. Now get ready though because they are expensive and I don’t how much they cost now but back when I was doing it the really big pots were about $15 each.

“The other proposal that I find very interesting is the fertilpot. These pots made ​​from plant fibers that can be used for both horticulture and ornamental nursery. They come in many shapes and sizes and have the distinction of being very flexible.”

I tried grow bags that I made out of green plastic garden fabric that I stitched together with fishing line but they were difficult to move around after they were full.

They’re too hard to pull up if they settled too deep in the mud or to shove around to a lower area when the water receded during the summer, and it usually will. You also can’t stand grow bags up on milk crates.

The super large peat pots are getting harder to find so you may have to improvise if they aren't available in your area.

Plastic pots are also non-biodegradable and it’s not that I’m some type of naturalist here either.

You see, after the summer is done and your plants are picked last thing you want to leave is a big mess of plastic pots sticking out like a sore thumb.

Also keep in mind here that you can’t re-use the soil the next summer because it will be crammed full roots and completely waterlogged.

I’ve tried it. With peat pots, after you pick and you’re done you can just stomp them into the mud or shove them into the water.

So take a screwdriver and stab about 20 holes in the bottom of each peat pot so you up plenty of access holes for the water to get in. Now don’t think that the water will soak through the pot cause they’re made with peat and some type of waterproof binder so it won’t. Also the four or five little square holes around the bottom edge just aren’t enough.

Next start looking around for places to arrange them and you’ll probably have a tendency here to scatter them far apart so they’ll blend in better. The problem here though is that you’ll be stuck having to tend and water them and the more you walk in the mud the deeper the channel gets, and it gets tough.

So try to keep them close together in groups and don’t worry because I’ve flown over a swamp garden an airplane and the plants blend in perfectly. They’re the exact same color as cattails in the type of trees and foilage it grows around marshes.

They even lean over a little bit like marsh foliage tends to, so it’s only towards the end of the season when the cattails start to die back that they’ll be visible from the air.

Final Set Up and Away You Go

So if you’ve done everything according to plan springtime will roll around and you’ll have all your material tucked away in your swamp, up on dry ground or sitting on a wooden pallet that you carried in to store things on.

You’ll also have a nice supply of healthy female starts all ready to plug in. Young plants that are about a month or so old, about a foot or so tall with nice healthy stalks.

So pour about a half a bag of potting soil into a pot, add in a good dose of perlite and then mix well. The perlite holds air so it will make sure that the soggy area towards the bottom that will contain plenty of air for the roots during the summer.

The Aztec Indians of Central America farmed on water using this same basic method centuries ago.

Add some more soil, along with the a little more perlite but this time start mixing in Some vermiculite because vermiculite works like little sponges to suck water up and store it.

Now I have tried using straight potting soil without doing this vermiculite perlite, mix and the differences are glaring. The plants don’t turn out as well and the top end of the pot that’s exposed to the air will be noticeably dry.

Mix in the vermiculite and perlite though and you’ll have nice moist soil at the top of the pot, healthier plants. Then after you pick them you can hack into the soil and see that towards the bottom the roots really like the air that the perlite provides.

So fill your pots up this way making sure that you don’t compact the soil, plug a nice healthy female start in each one and give it a good dose of water. Don’t flood them when you water them though because when you do that it will force all the air and nutrients out of the soil.

Carry a bucket of water over and use a dipper to dose the water on gradually. Or if you’re lucky you can set up some type of hose system so you aren’t stuck carrying heavy buckets of water.

Now the beauty of learning how to grow weed outdoors in swamps is that your plants won’t need regular watering, and in fact you can go as long as three weeks without seeing them, what a surprise you’ll get too.

You can get phenomenal growth in the full sunlight of a swamp so three weeks can mean 3 feet of growth, and even more. Believe me, it can be quite a shock to come back to six-foot tall trees when the last time you saw them they were little 3 foot tall bushes.

They will need to be fertilized though, and also you’re going to find that you”ll be pretty busy each visit cutting back the swamp growth.

It grows lush too end the bigger your plants get the more room there going to need so make sure that you have a long bladed razor knife or some other type of sharp knife that you can use to cut back cattails and foliage.

Rodents are also huge problem in swamps and even if they don’t bother you in the beginning, they’re still there waiting and watching.

Just as soon as late summer arrives their natural food source of tender shoots will be gone, and that’s when they’ll turn on your plants to start chewing on the stocks. So be generous with blocks of rat poison that you break up spread around. You could buy at your local ranch supply store.

Then your last bit of advice here is to carry all of your trash out after you finish setting up, all the empty potting soil bags. Now it can be real tempting in a swamp to just stomp them down into the mud, but don’t.

Pack them up and carry them out because they don’t break down, and all it takes for an animal to carry a piece of plastic from potting soil bag out of your grow area, and for someone to find it and your cover will be blown.

How do You Grow Weed: 3 Common Myths Debunked

Friday, March 23rd, 2012

How do you grow weed is a question that more people are asking today and fortunately for all of them answers are more readily available than they’ve ever been before. Hey!, this is the age of the Internet so it’s all out there for anyone who cares to look.

Not only answers to the question “how do you grow weed” though, but also just as importantly information on how not o grow weed.

Info to debunk so many of the common myths that have been floating around out there for too long. Myths and misinformation that can not only get in the way of the quality of your final product but interfere with the “quantity” as well.

So just keep on reading and see if any of them sound familiar to you because hopefully at least some of the information that you pick up here will stop you from making these three all too common costly mistakes.

Plucking Growing Pot Plants Leaves Stimulates Growth

See for yourself that the shade leaves are intact on these nice, heavy, resin encrusted buds

Now this one has been around for too long and it’s time that it got put to rest. It’s a real problem too because when you’re first going through the initial “how do you grow weed” stage you can get sucked in by this bad habit.

You plucked a few leaves off to create more room and light for new shoots to grow up… and they do.

“Basic requirements – Marijuana plants need water, light, nutrients and suitable air , ventilation and temperature. However you choose to grow weed you should bear these basic requirements in mind and ask yourself at each stage how can I improve what I offer my plants”?

Then when the plant starts budding you pluck out more leaves and even more little shoots come out.

The problem here though, is if you just leave the growing pot plants alone everything will come up anyway, only “bigger and better”.

So never ever pluck any leaves off of a plan for any reason. The leaves of the plant are where it creates and stores its growth energy and if you take them off you’ll end up with dwarf plants.

Growing Marijuana Plants Prefer a Hot Climate

Fields like this one in Michoacan Mexico used to be the only source for domestic consumption.

Now anybody who’s taken a trip down into Mexico or further on into South America knows all too well how this myth got started.

It’s “hotter than hell” down there in the summertime and for decades before the market in domestic product took off, pretty much all the smoke came up from that direction.

So folks simply put two and two together, and decided that growing marijuana plants preferred a hot climate.

So then just what type of climate do growing marijuana plants do best in? It turns out that the ideal temperature for growing marijuana plants is about 82°C.

“Movement of the air keeps the temperature from getting too hot. Make the inlet near the bottom of the room and twice as big as the outlet located near the top of the room.”

The temperature that you’d experience outside on a perfect spring day, when it’s not too hot, and not too cold. T-Shirt and shorts weather. Now you can’t control the temperature outside but you sure can control it if you’re growing indoors. So do your best to keep your plants happy in the climate that they prefer and they’ll reward you well when it’s time to produce some premium grade bud.

Over Fertilizing Will Stimulate Growth

Yellowing leaves and stunted growth are the classic signs of too much fertilizer.

Take a look at yourself in the mirror after the holiday season has passed and you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure out the over consuming “stimulates growth”.

So then what about when it comes to growing weed? Can you get more growth out of them if you over fertilize?

Now up until only recent years the myth was then if you jolted your plants with extra 0-10-10 Bloom at budding time it would give them a kick in the butt that they needed to get on with the job.

“Fertilize after first 2 spiked leaves appear follow the label. DON’T FERTILIZE EVERY TIME YOU WATER!!! Start with 25% and work your way up! Leach the plants with lots of pure water every 2-4 weeks. Organic growing is recommended. Its tastes better and burns much better. If the leaves suddenly twist or fold under, Leach and Spray with pure water for several days!”

In reality though, over fertilizing your plants “at any time” during any stage of any growth cycle will only lead to burnt root hairs and in turn stunted growth.

What you need to understand here is that chemical fertilizers contain acid, so the roots can only handle so much at any given time.

Now folair feeding on the other hand is another story altogether because the fertilizer never even touches roots when it’s sprayed on the leaves.

Even so, before you go spraying a bunch of chemical fertilizers on your plants you need to study up a little bit on foliar feeding techniques to make sure that you don’t do more harm than good.

Growing Marijuana: Understanding Medical Use Laws

Wednesday, March 21st, 2012

There’s a reason why a bag of weed that you buy cost so much and it’s not because it’s difficult to grow, it’s not. The reason why people charge the amount of money that they do for the pot they’re selling is because the risks that they have to take. So keep that in mind if you are considering growing were about to grow it, and that even goes for medical marijuana

So your job is to minimize the element of risk as you go about your business because if you approach it with “daredevil” or “caution to the wind” attitude eventually your number will come up. Now been arrested and charged with cultivation is for sure a great learning experience but the load of information that you’ll pick up can just as well be learned from others who’ve already gone through the system.

Information like how not to get caught in the first place because if you ask anyone who’s been arrested for growing they will always have at the very minimum a short list of things that they should have or shouldn’t have done.

Areas where they became complacent that left the door open for the authorities come in to make a case on them. Then another thing that’s surprising for a lot of people who get caught up in the legal system by way of a cultivation charge is just how corrupt the judicial system is.

Growing Medical Marijuana: 101

Not all states in the US have medical marijuana use laws in place.

The problem most people who start in growing marijuana under a medical marijuana clearance have lies in the fact that most people just have a minimal fundamental understanding of how all laws work.

In simple terms, any law is only as viable as those who enforce it are able to do so.

So now you might be wondering what medical marijuana laws allow. The answer here is that in general they tend to be vaguely written.

What too many states medical marijuana laws allow for as they are written today is for people who are sick and have a doctor’s recommendation  to use cannabis as part of their treatment, and California is a fine example.

As of writing this it’s still illegal for people to buy it in California because the law doesn’t account for that, and it’s also illegal for them to grow it because the law doesn’t specifically account for that either.

“The report contains both a summary and an in-depth review of current medical marijuana laws; an overview of the history of medical marijuana policy; and MPP’s model medical marijuana legislation.”

So you need to keep all this in mind before you start in growing medical marijuana because if you’re in the wrong state you can still can be arrested and prosecuted for doing it, even if you end up being vindicated. Even so where you live, how much you grow, and the tolerance level for it in that area plays a huge part in the likelihood of it happening.

Try to understand that your local sheriff and district attorney have to be re-elected every four years, so they tend to craft their policies around the the public opinion of those who vote. Then another thing then one more thing that district attorneys take into account is how the local public opinion will factor in when seating a jury because in the end they have to find 12 people from the community who will unanimously vote to convict.

You see, a trial is an expensive and time-consuming process for a county, so even if the local sheriff and district attorney would love to arrest and prosecute medical marijuana growers unless they’re assured convictions they’re effectively barred from doing so.

So in the end in most top local law enforcement officials end up backed up against the wall by local public opinion on growing medical marijuana laws and are in turn forced to strike a “balance deal”. A deal with the public that involves holding up some numbers serve as a sort of line in the sand.

These numbers are the amount of plants that can be grown and, or the weight of cannabis that can be possessed by someone who’s been approved by a doctor. Go over those numbers and you run the risk of prosecution, and there’s something else to keep in mind here.

That is that growing for personal use is one thing but starting up a commercial operation that involves the sale of a marijuana is entirely an entirely different story. Get caught selling cannabis and you won’t fall under the same umbrella of positive public opinion as easily as you do for growing it for personal use.

Growing Medical Cannabis: 3 Things to Make it Safer

It's certainly not an affordable alternative if you end up saddled with legal problems.

So with so many gray areas where vague interpretations can be made in today’s medical marijuana laws it should come as no surprise that people still find themselves being arrested and prosecuted even after a doctor’s recommendation.

People who thought that they were free and clear for growing medical cannabis under the terms of the law who nonetheless found themselves in handcuffs fighting a case.

Just imagine their surprise too at having their crop torn up and all their equipment confiscated, then being taken for a ride down to the local jail the back of a squad car.

“Growing medical marijuana or medical cannabis has garnered a lot of both criticisms and praises to various medical groups and legislators. It has long been argued if marijuana can be used to treat or cure diseases and if it is safe for medical use.”

You see, there’s an important point to be made here that you should understand perfectly. That is that it’s surprisingly easy for the authorities to find a reason to arrest you even if they know they have no chance of obtaining a conviction.

Even so you still have to post bail, hire an attorney, and you still have to attend all court dates and possibly even have to pay your doctor to appear as a professional witness. Then after spending thousands of dollars, the prosecutor can simply drop the charges with absolutely no explanation. Now your equipment can be returned but you still be out that thousands of dollars you spent.

Safety Rule #1

So rule number one is to read and understand completely the laws pertaining to medical marijuana in your state. Far too many people fail to do this and they end up paying for it. Information is power and as long as you understand precisely what’s written in the laws and how it pertains to what you’re doing you will in turn better understand the parameters that you need to be operating within.

Safety Rule #2

Then rule number two is to do the research to find out what the policy is regarding  growing medical cannabis are your area. The local authorities will have some established quantitative numbers that they hold out to be the amount of plants and the amount of pot you’ll be allowed to produce and still stay safely under a legal umbrella. Go over that amount and you risk arrested and having to defend yourself.

Safety Rule #3

Then rule number three is understand that under any state law unless you are assigned caregiver you can only engage in growing medical cannabis for yourself. Then after you have the finished product in hand you still have to abide by state laws that cover the distribution of marijuana. Keep one thing in mind here too that you don’t have to charge anyone money to break the law. Even giving it away for free is illegal.

How to Grow Weed Fast: 3 Proven Methods that Really Do Work

Monday, March 19th, 2012

If you’re looking for ways to get the most out of your growing and flowering cycle your in luck because a whole lot of research has gone into doing just that. So to start out there’s now broad range of seed strains available online from plants that were bred specifically for a fast budding. Make no mistake about it too, spending the money that it takes to get the right genetics can make a huge difference in growth and budding speed.

Now when you think in terms of how to grow weed fast what you’re primarily thinking about is speeding up the time it takes for it to bud. Getting stock, stem and leaf growth on a plant is a comparatively shorter process, so it’s the budding cycle that can really drag things on.

So then the following is a list of three things that you can do to shorten the time it takes for you to see the seeds that you plant be transformed into quality bud. Proven techniques that are simple to do with materials that are easy to get and affordable to buy.

Adding CO2 Gas to an Indoor Grow Room

Do be careful because this stuff is dangerous to handle.

It doesn’t take long to see the results from adding extra CO2 gas to an indoor growing system because you’ll notice it the very next day.

If you’re in the growing cycle the leaves will be a darker green while the rate of growth at the tops of plants will also be noticeably more pronounced.

However, if your plants are in the budding stage you’re really going to notice the difference there. Particularly if you haven’t been venting your room well enough and as a result have air in it that may be lacking in CO2.

“Dry Ice is frozen carbon dioxide, a normal part of our earth’s atmosphere. It is the gas that we exhale during breathing and the gas that plants use in photosynthesis. It is also the same gas commonly added to water to make soda water. Dry Ice is particularly useful for freezing, and keeping things frozen because of its very cold temperature: -109.3°F or -78.5°C.”

Now if you’ve been following the news about greenhouse gases like CO2 and the Earth’s warming trend you might have go it stuck in your head that the air around you is just just chock full of CO2 gas now. That your plants have plenty. More than they could need.

The actual truth of the matter is that carbon dioxide which is the gas the plants breathe makes up a little over 300 ppm of the atmospheric air. So what this in turn means is that for every 3000 gallons of air in your grow room, “if you have one”, only one of them is carbon dioxide.

What I’m getting to here is that it doesn’t take much CO2 then to effectively double the total content of it in your room. Also you may be surprised to find out just how simple it is to do and how little it costs. All you need to do is locate a source for dry ice in your area and then go and pick up a block, being careful not to let it freeze your skin because it will, so take the ice chest and carry it in that.

Bring the block back to your home, wrap it up in a nice thick down comforter or sleeping bag to keep it from “fizzling out” to quick and then just stick it in the room.

It’s just that easy. Now it’s going to last about two maybe three days but in those two or three days, particularly if you’re in the budding stage you’ll be amazed at the difference that one block of dry ice will make. Now CO2 is a heavy gas so it will tend to sink to the floor of your room, so make sure you have a fan in there to keep the air “stirred up”.

Foliar Feed Just Once to Become a True Believer

A handy little one quart plastic pump sprayer covers a surprising amount of volume. They're easy to refill and cheap to buy too.

Over fertilizing plants is a common problem due to the ever present prospect of root burning.

Add to much and you can in fact be left with slower growth and once you have too much fertilizer in your soil it can take quite a while for it to work its way out.

So one great way that you can give your crop a “plant food boost” without having to be concerned about root burning is by foliar feeding.

Spraying the liquid fertilizer in solution directly on the leaves themselves.

Just like anything else though, you don’t want to overdo it because you can end up burning the leaves in the same way that excess fertilizer can burn the roots. Then another thing to consider here is that clear liquid on a plants leaves can like a “magnifying glass” to focus the light rays, which in turn can lead to burn spots.

“The best temperature is about 72 degrees (when stomata on the underside of the leaves are open); at over 80, they may not be open at all. So, find the cooler part of the day if it is hot and the warmer part of the day if it is cold out.”

So if you’re indoors you need to turn off your lights before you do it or if you’re outdoors you’ll want to do your foliar feeding in the early or later part of the day.

Now you can buy fertilizer mixes that are specifically blended for foliar feeding online and they work great. On the other hand if you don’t want to sit around waiting for a special fertilizer blend to arrive in the mail you can use your standard water-soluble blend that you’ve been using. Do be careful that you don’t mix it up to strong though because you can always spray them again if you feel they need more.

Also make a point of adding six or seven drops of liquid dish soap to each gallon of mix to act as a wetting agent. A wetting agent prevents the liquid from beading up on the leaves and rolling off, it causes it to spread out in a thin even film instead.

Foliar feeding is great for promoting growth in the vegetative state but it’s not really something you want to do when your plants are in their budding cycle. So give them a good coat about every three or four days but but then eliminate it altogether about two or three weeks into the flowering cycle , so you don’t end up with any “crud” on your finished buds.

Now a nice thing about foliar feeding too is that you don’t have to wait to see the results because in about an hour or so your plants will be noticeably greener.

Growing Hydroponic Weed is Easier Than You Might Think

A simple system like this using buckets filled with aerated solution is leak proof.

Growing hydroponic weed is just an all-around better way to go because it not only grows faster but it grows thicker and heavier as well.

A hydroponic system is simply the means by which plants are grown in a fluid without any soil and it can be a straight fluid or something like pebbles in fluid that are holding the plants up.

Hydroponics can also involve a constant soak system where the plants roots continually submerged in aerated liquid, a “fill and drain” system where the container is filled and then drained or a trickle system that works by trickling it over the gravel bed.

There’s also a wide assortment of container styles you can use to grow hydroponic weed in. Containers that run the gamut from pipes with holes along the top that hold the plants, to trays to hold a series of plans, and individual pots, each one with a plant growing in it.

“These are plans to make a fairly portable, and very inexpensive water culture (advanced hydroponic) system. These plans only explain how to make the garden itself, and do _not_ explain how to use/maintain it. If you plan on using this garden, you should get yourself a good book on hydroponics, and look it over (especially the parts about what nutrient solutions to use, your garden vareity Miracle-Gro won’t do the trick).”

A hydroponic system does have one glaring shortcoming though, and that he is that you’re working with fluids so it has to remain sealed because you don’t want leaks, particular to growing indoors.

On the other hand as complex as a hydroponic growing system can be it’s relatively easy on the other end of it to put together a really quite simple growing set up. Perhaps a few pots that that you can put a few plants in out on your back porch or in a walk-in closet.

An easy set up to see for yourself what a difference this type of system are growing can make if you’re to try to discover how to grow weed faster. You see all you really need for a basic hydroponic system is a bucket full of gravel and a fish aquarium air pump with the airline running to the bottom of the bucket to aerate the fluid.

Or you can buy a simple enclosed bucket systems for hydroponic growing online. You can also buy the mix for blending the solution up from the same online sources. Now just like foliar feeding and adding CO2 you don’t have to wait long to see the difference that hydroponic growing can make in terms of speed and volume of plant growth. It about doubles it, so what you would get in terms of growth over a two-week period in standard soil you’ll getting in about a week with a hydroponic system.

How to Grow Cannabis in High Altitudes: 101

Sunday, March 11th, 2012

If you have as of yet not had the opportunity to sample cannabis grown in the higher altitudes of an alpine forest you really have been missing out on a special treat. The thin cool mountain air and less atmosphere to filter the sunlight combine for some unique effects on the finished buds.

Delectable bright purple hairs are pretty much the norm with the occasional plant that buds up with pink hairs and even sparkly pink toned sparkly resin dust. It’s the intoxicating effects that really make this unique perfumy and difficult to acquire type of bud so special though, a stimulating uplifting experience with colorful mild and audio visual effects.

So then why haven’t folks from all parts buckled on their hiking boots to climb up to the highest peak to find a place to plant? The answer is simple, and that is that learning how to grow cannabis in high altitudes isn’t easy because the high alpine forest environment presents a whole list of unique challenges.

Growing Cannabis Plants in a Short Growing Season

Fall brings on the colors of the changing seasons in a sheltered mountain valley.

Once you get up above 5000 feet in the mountainsthe growing season becomes shortened by roughly a month at each end.

It takes longer for the frost to break in the springtime and then freezing temperatures set in quicker in the fall to cut off flowering.

“Whether you are interested in car camping, RV camping or tent camping in America, you will find the type of information you need to have when planning a camping trip”.

Also up in the high-altitude where you plant can also factor into how short the season will be.

Grow them on an exposed ridge-top for instance and they’ll be hit with the higher wind-chill factor that comes with the stronger winds when fall sets in. That versus growing in the bottom of a sheltered valley where they’re less exposed.

Also keep in mind that the higher the altitude, the thinner the air, the slower the growth and what I’ve found is that seven thousand feet seems to be the limit.

Cannabis Seeds for Mountain Growing

Select the right high altitude seed strain and you will be rewarded well.

You’d be hard-pressed to find an area where the seed strain that you choose to grow with is more critical.

For instance sativas are pretty much out of the question because of the length of time they take to bud up.

So you’ll be looking for cannabis seeds of indica strains that are specifically acclimated for a higher altitudes, Afghani and hash-bud strains.

Hash buds in particular produce squat hardy fast budding plants that in my experience do particularly well up high, even if they tend to not be heavy producers.

“This is the strain for hashish lovers.It produces large amounts of high quality resin, ideal for hashish making. Its pure indica genetics make it highly suitable for indoor growing where you can maximise the excellent resin production. Alternatively you can grow it outdoors with excellent results.”

Even so if it’s grown in a properly prepared grow-bed and fertilized cared for well including foliar feeding hash bud plants can produce up to a pound. Plus about 30% of the time they’ll finish out a bright “grape juice” purple.

Get your starts growing early in the season in larger than usual cups or pots to account for the longer delay in getting them in the ground. Also before you take all your starts up to plant make sure that the temperature stays above freezing all night long or you’ll be stuck with dead plants on your hands the first night.

How to Grow Cannabis in Mountain Soil

The get soil that looks like this in high mountains you have to blend it up yourself.

Now a lower altitude coastal mountain range is one thing, it tends to have reasonably decent soil.

However, once you make your way up to the higher altitudes of a steeper interior mountain range like the Sierra Nevada’s on the West Coast of the United States for instance you run into some pretty crappy soil.

“Garden dirt or soil is one of those things that can be discussed and detailed to death. The dirt discussion can be so overwhelming, it turns off potential new gardeners. Do we call it dirt or soil?”

It’s geologically new, after having only recently been exposed to the surface, so what you’ll find in most cases is that you get a few inches of topsoil before you hit rock, packed clay, sand, and decomposed granite.

So what’s the solution? The solution here is that you need to carry in soil conditioners like pete moss, redwood mulch, vermiculite, and perlite to mix with (raked up) topsoil in your grow-beds or containers.

Now another thing worth noting here is that because mountain soil tends to be geologically new it lacks the natural occurring calcium carbonate that older lowland soils tend to have in them. So part of learning how to grow cannabis in the mountains is learning how to use lime to balance out the pH to the more neutral level that cannabis prefers.

Beware of Easy Water Sources

Locate a reliable year round water source then use it to supply a concealed water line.

Take a drive up into the mountains in the springtime and there’s water virtually everywhere.

Every bend in the road it seems brings one more valley with a small stream flowing in the bottom of it.

So the first impression you may get is that it’s pick and choose when it comes to finding lush overgrown areas to hide a garden in.

In reality though, the higher the altitude and the steeper the terrain, the faster these types of water sources are going to dry up as a summer moves on.

“Your drip system needs to run longer compared to your sprinkler system because it offer slow water delivery that will naturally take longer time. See the flow of your water coming out from your drip emitters, and estimate how much time it will take to soak all your plants.”

So the time to search out a secluded water source to supply your garden in a hidden area is in the late summer and early fall before your growing season to ensure that you have reliable water to last through the entire season.

Make the Effort to Hide Your Plants Well

Now if you’re flatlander who has already done some backyard or grow room gardening then you’ve never had to deal with serious aerial surveillance issues like you will in a mountainous region of the US in particular. Come mid-to-late summer, just about the time that you start to think that you’ve made it through scot-free you get your rude awakening.

Now if the picture in your head is of a couple of cops in an airplane flying around with a pair of binoculars looking down from 2000 feet in the air you are wrong. The real picture is a glass bottomed helicopter hovering just above treetop level methodically sweeping back and forth across the canyon sides, in fact so low that you could see their faces and even make eye contact.

So you need to make an extra effort to conceal your plants well in with the natural foliage and also make sure that you leave no trash in your garden. Then make a point of taking a can of flat black or primer brown spray paint in to cover anything like buckets hand tools, garden sprayer, etc, that you must leave there.

Growing Weed Indoors: LED Grow Lights Review

Saturday, March 10th, 2012

Indoor growing always been about technology and if you’re just starting in today it can be hard to imagine how primitive the options were just a handful of decades back. That compared to today’s fully stocked online venues where its “pick and choose” from all the latest high tech gadgetry to help you grow bigger, faster and better.

So now the new kid on the high tech block is LED lighting which in fact was first conceived of back in 1907. So really in that sense it’s not so new but what is new is its level of affordability. The big thing that was always holding it back. Also while there has been an ongoing stairway up of technological developments over the past century, it’s during the last two decades that the big ones come along.

Those would be the ones that finally made it possible for folks to adapt LED lights into their grow rooms, even if they are a more expensive option than the standard workhorse metal halide and sodium vapor lamps. In fact they’re a whole lot more expensive and if it weren’t for that fact metal halide and mercury vapors would be officially declared obsolete.

Breaking Down the Difference in Cost

Watt for watt LEDs are for sure "not" the least costly option.

So if you’ve been going over your hardware shopping list for an indoor grow you may have already checked out LED lights, saw the prices and choked.

Let’s face it, it is a tough comparison with standard lights having only gotten cheaper over the years. A 1000 metal halide about a decade ago would have run you between $60 and $80 and you can now pick up online for around $20, and even less online.

Compare that to up to $2000 for 800 W of LED light and we may have the mismatch of the century in this grow light pricing showdown.

“You won’t find any sales pitches or over embellished stories about LED grow lights here. Instead, what you will find is unbiased factual information backed by unquestionable scientific support data related to led grow lights.”

Oddly enough though, if you give your mouse a click it’s not hard to find any number of sites that showcase large commercial indoor grow ops that have changed over completely to LED.

So what’s the deal here? Are these just technology freaks who have more money than they do brains and, who are just clamoring onto the latest technological “whiz-bang” gimmickry? The simple answer here is “no they don’t and no they’re not”. They’re not doing it for just one reason either but rather it’s a whole series of good reasons, and one of them believe it or not is cost. Sound a bit confusing? Then just keep on reading.

Adding Up the Real Cost Difference

A whole lot of savings on "stuff" you don't need with and LED system

To start off with LED lights don’t require a ballast so you can scratch off $150-$200 right there. They also only use about 25% of the electricity than a metal halide or sodium vapor bulb, so if you’re shooting for 1000 W that will be about a $20 a month savings right there.

You don’t need a hood either with LED lighting, and if you’ve checked the price on quality light hoods then you know that you can scratch another $150 to $200 there.

“Full size HID plant growing lights are comprised of a remote ballast, a reflector for directing light down to the plants, and a lamp cord that connects the ballast to the reflector and incorporates the mogul socket that holds the bulb.”

LED lights also have a longer service life than metal halides and sodium vapors. As a matter of fact it’s a lot longer, with most being rated up around 50,000 hours.

Now if you check the rating on metal halides online don’t take rating numbers that they give to the bank because they die a slow lingering death. This in turn leaves most growers changing them out long before they’re actually used up.

Other Advantages of LED Grow Lights

It takes a lot of power to run a grow room with standard lights.

So once you do the math including the savings on electricity over the lifespan of the light you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to see that over the long term the LED light is the better deal.

As a matter of fact the electricity savings alone over the ten-year period that you can expect out of an LED light adds up to well over $3,000.

“There’s no question that they use a fraction of the power used by standard bulbs to produce the same amount of light and last up to 4 times as long.”

It isn’t just about cost savings though because let’s not forget the value of what’s being produced. So if LEDs under-perform in this comparison test the contest might end right there with standard bulbs scoring a sweeping victory by default.

Not only do they perform but they perform better in all areas, no matter what perspective you view them from.

LED Grow Lights Come Out on Top in Performance

Higher levels of the light-waves plants need to grow and bud.

For instance on average LED lights have double the photosynthetic radiation output in the blue vegetative wavelength.

Then in the infrared wavelength which is so critical in the budding stage, LEDs in fact produce five times higher.

So this in they are by far the better grower and for sure a way better bud producer too.

“Very specific wavelengths within the Red, Blue, & Infrared bandwidths provide the most beneficial light to your plants. The green, orange, & yellow spectra provide very little to no benefit to the development of your plants.”

They also run cooler too. A lot cooler as a matter of fact, so this does away with so many of the problems that come with hot standard lighting, particularly in warmer climate zones.

Cooler LED lighting also means that the prospect of CO2 injection is that much more conceivable because the room doesn’t require high-volume venting or a costly energy gulping cooling system.

No Heat Signature and the Option of Going Solar

A solar powered indoor grow means "normal" household power bills.

The fact that they run so much cooler also means that you can say goodbye to the high heat signature that’s always been a big downside of metal halides and mercury vapors.

“Today is the perfect time to get solar power for your home since state and federal governments are extending incentives. Not only can you start benefiting from your own solar panel system that is efficient and eco-friendly, but special programs can help pay for everything.”

Then if all the above isn’t enough the fact that they run on 25% of the power required for normal lighting opens the door wide open for powering your indoor grow off solar panels.

For smaller indoor grows in particular, something like perhaps a walk-in closet there’s just no comparison here.

The lower heat output and more even light dispersion rate really make the decisive difference. So all things considered it’s not hard at all to see why more indoor growers today are switching over to LED. They may be more expensive on the front end but the extra cost is more than made up for on the back end.

On a final note: If you’re waiting for prices to come down before you buy, they will. Not soon enough though to make a difference to today’s indoor grower.

It’s been a long drawn out series of smaller technological developments over the course of decades that has brought them to where they are today. A research and development trend that industry experts say is not expected to change.

A Cannabis Growing Guide for Backyard Gardeners

Friday, March 9th, 2012

Cannabis can be a deceptively easy plant to grow, and in fact just like roses and grapes it can actually be found growing wild in many countries around the globe.

But just like roses it’s important to keep in mind that in the end what you’re really growing is flowers. Then just like grapes to be made into wine there’s aesthetic, flavor, and aroma issues that need to be considered as well.

So for the backyard gardener whose operating without the benefit of a cannabis growing guide the prospect can be as easy as sprinkling some seeds around on the bare ground. They’ll get plants too, and just like a healthy well fed tomato plant the rate of growth can be surprising. Two and 3 inches per day is not uncommon.

When it comes time to producing flowers however, which is what the buds are comprised of, the final harvest can fall well short of what they may have estimated judging on the rate of plant growth. Then to top that off, the quality of the limited amount of bud they’ll end up with can also be sorely lacking. This in spite of a successful summer growing season.

Cannabis Growing Guide to Outdoor Seeds

The topic of cannabis seeds is not as simple as it used to be.

So it all begins with the seeds and the last thing you should do is plant seeds that you’ve picked out of a bag of cannabis that you bought, regardless of the quality.

The reason here is that over the course of the last few decades plant geneticists in places like Amsterdam have managed to successfully isolate a large variety of cannabis strains.

So that bag you have may in fact be grown from a specialized “indoor” hybrid.

“Hybrid is really a expression used to explain marijuana plant offspring created by crossbreeding two different ‘true-breeding’ parents. True-breeding marijuana plants will produce in keeping with type if produced using their own seed products, so different decades will share similar qualities.”

So the problem now is that just like any type of hybrid strain of plant or animal, along with the positives that were targeted or sought after during the hybridization or genetic isolation process come some negatives.

Things that were perhaps lost in exchange for perhaps better flavor and aroma. Genetic traits like a plants natural resistance to insects and root fungus.

Not to worry though because strains that grow better and produce a higher quality product “outdoors” have also been isolated and the good news is that they’re now easier than ever to buy online. So not only can you buy the outdoors seeds you need but you also have a very broad selection that allows you to pick out the size and the shape of the plants as well, along with the color and flavor of the finished buds.

Start Out With a Flat of Plant Starts

Then even though it’s now possible to order up a specific strain of outdoor seeds online, just like a litter of, say puppies from a specific breed, in spite of their shared genetics each one of those seeds can produce plants with their own unique subtle characteristics.

Even with a specified strain you will see subtle differences per plant.

Little differences that slightly separate each one from the others.

Little things like flavor, color and general health that make some more preferable than the rest.

So this is why you don’t want to just stick your seeds in the ground and go “with whatever” pops up. Instead what you’re going to do is plant about three times as many seeds in cups of potting soil than the number of plants that you intend on growing.

“Chrystal limit is a stable indica/sativa hybrid of two potential marijuana strains, Crystal and K.C. 606, and one of those cannabis which has no limits. Her highest qualities have been noticed – she won the first place at the HighLife Cup 2002.”

About a third of them will end up becoming males which will leave about twice as many young plants for you to select the best out of.

A Few Tips on Soil Mulching and Conditioning

Using lime to pH balance your soil can have you growing buds so thick and heavy that they look like broccoli.

Cannabis plants grow best in a well conditioned soil for deep rooting.

Then given the value of the crop that you’re going to harvest you may want to invest a little more money in higher priced soil conditioners.

Conditioners like Canadian sphagnum peat moss, vermiculite and perlite. Cannabis also does better in a pH balanced soil, so if you’re going to use the peat moss which tends to be a bit acidic you’ll also want to add some lime to the mix.

“Some garden experts suggest that lime is a soil amendment. Others claim that it is a soil conditioner.
These are both rather vague terms.”

Common lawn lime is also marketed as dolomite and it works just fine for sweetening soil. Or if you’re gardening in a mountainous region were soil tends to be naturally slightly acidic you’ll want to add some lime into the growing mix even if you’re not mulching in any peat moss in.

Also keep in mind as you’re preparing your grow bed that the volume of it will work to determine the size of the plant that grows in it.

Tips and Pointers for The Final Budding Stage

To get premium buds you need to get it right when your plants begin to flower

Then at the end of the summer growing season when early fall begins setting in, the initial budding stage becomes evident by small white hairs that start sprouting on the tips of the branches.

A time when the nutrient intake of the cannabis plant also begins to change with nitrogen intake going down while potassium and phosphorous consumption goes up to produce the flowers that will make up the buds.

So adjust your fertilizer blend accordingly and there’s also one other thing to keep in mind here.

That is that the large swollen heavy seedless buds that you’re cannabis plants will produce is an “unnatural process” because under normal circumstances the plant would be pollinated.

“If you’re growing outdoors during the summer, you can cover your greenhouse with a blanket during the appropriate times, so that the plants get about 12 hours of light and 12 of dark.”

So it in turn causes an unnatural level of stress on the joints of the branches where they meet the stock, that can result in them snapping off. So as the branches become weighted down by growth you’ll want to use tie wire to keep them from snapping off, particularly in a rainstorm.

Attach a piece of tie-wire about a foot or so out on each branch from where it joins to the stock. Then take the other end of that section of tie wire and run it back to the main stock about a foot or so up from the joint into the stock. When you’re done each branch on your plant will have its own supporting wire holding it in place in the same fashion as cables are used a suspension bridge to hold the road up.

Harvesting and Drying Your Final Product

You'll be surprised to discover that fresh drying buds burn your eyes like cut onions do.

Now the longer you leave the flower buds out on the plant to accumulate and get heavier, the more potent they’ll become, up to a certain point.

That is that you don’t want to leave them out too long at the end of the fall season if you live in an area that’s prone to wet weather because they are susceptible to mold if they stay wet too long .

Then another thing to keep in mind here is that once the buds stop producing white hairs at the tips, and the existing hairs begin to dry and turn brown, the flowered process has completed.

“Having spent time, money and effort growing your marijuana, it is a shame to let it all down by not drying and curing the harvest properly. Luckily it’s not a difficult thing to transform the sticky flowers into a good smoke, but there are a few rules.”

To harvest them simply cut the entire branches away from the stock and hang them upside-down from a string or wire strung across a cool dark room in much the same way as you would hang laundry.

A dark room so the chlorophyll in the buds will be dissipated is much as possible and also a cool room so the finished product will remain fresh smelling and flavorful. Then on a final note: finished cannabis buds keep best in a sealed plastic bag in a freezer.