The Cannabis Grow Bible. Greg Green

your legal rights are?

      • Can gun ownership be used against you if you are caught growing cannabis?

      • Can other drug possession in your home be used against you if you are caught growing cannabis?

      • Can your children be taken from you and put into social care if you are caught growing cannabis?

      • Is your home safe to grow in?

      • Are there any pets around which can damage your crop or start a fire?

      • Can you deal with a fire?

      • Are you a relaxed tight-lipped person?

      • Do you really want to be another dull cash-cropper who wastes their lives just selling cannabis, or do you want to be a new wave frontier grower who grows to rid themselves of the connection to the black market in order to enjoy their favorite herb?

      • Do you want to grow?

      If you are hesitant on any of the points above, I suggest you resolve those issues before growing. Reading on should help you answer most of these questions.

      If, during the flowering stage, there are no males present to pollinate the female plants, the buds will grow larger and develop more resin glands. Resin may drop down on to the leaves, making the plant very sticky. The pistils on the buds will begin to thicken and cluster. The reason for the high increase in bud growth is that the female plant is trying her best to attract male pollen. This is the sinsemilla condition. Toward the last days of flowering, the pistils may change color, indicating that the plant is ready for harvest.

Cycle Times

      Given different breeds and the various stages of growth, it can take between 10 and 36 weeks for a plant to grow from a seed to full maturity. The most common grow time is three to four months. All this is dependent upon the strain that you have selected. Pure Sativa can run anywhere into the six to nine month bracket.

      This is Sensi Star from Paradise Seeds. There are many strains out there with many different flavors, colors, potencies, morphology, smells and flowering times. The varieties of cannabis are immense. Photo Paradise Seeds.

      How much of this strain is green? Look again and you can see that there are many other colors at work and green may not be the majority.

      Indica can flower in six weeks. As you can image, a Sativa/Indica hybrid plant will fall into the two to four month flowering period.

Let’s Get Growing

      You should now have a general idea of what to look for in a plant to produce a good-quality smoke. We are looking for non-pollinated female plants that have flowered, producing lots of buds with resin glands containing high levels and quantities of THC. We are also looking for plants that have been well cured and processed in a way that allows us to sample the full flavor, smell, and potency of the plant. Some people prefer plants that provide a high but do not cause drowsiness. Other people like plants that give a down effect and cause the body to become less responsive to stimuli.

      Another thing to note is that street cannabis may contain added drugs. For example, animal tranquilizer is a popular adulterate used to make black market hashish more potent. People who add other drugs to cannabis are not doing the cannabis community a favor. This is a good reason to grow your own pot.

       2

       Seeds: Selection, Banks, and Storage

      There are approximately 450 seed varieties of cannabis on the market today.¹ Out of the 450 seed varieties, 200 are worth considering, and out of the 200 about 50 are truly outstanding.

      A hybrid is the offspring of two animals or plants of different breeds, varieties, species, or genera, especially as produced through human manipulation for specific genetic characteristics. Stock lines with common parents are loosely referred to as a “cannabis strain” by cultivators. Stable strains have stable genetic traits, which means that the offspring will all be very similar. In fact, most cannabis strains are called cannabis strains because of their uniformity in growth and reduced variations in the offspring. Hybrids tend to be unstable, or genetically unpredictable, because of their “newness.” A good stabilized hybrid eventually goes on to become a strain.

      Out of the 450 seed varieties, we said that 200 were good. This leaves 250 that we have disregarded. Those 250 are usually very unstable hybrids. These hybrid plants are so unstable that their description is difficult because of the extent of the variations in the population.

      Most unstable hybrids do not find their way into the market and are found only among breeders who are experimenting with plant genetics. Seed producers tend to only produce strains in the following categories (bearing in mind the discussion in Chapter 1):

      • Pure Sativa

      • Sativa (mostly Sativa species with some Indica)

      • Pure Indica

      • Indica (mostly Indica species with some Sativa)

      • Indica/Sativa (50/50 cross between an Indica and a Sativa species)

      • Ruderalis

      Ruderalis is a problematic plant. It does not produce large quantities of THC or flower like the others. Ruderalis is considered substandard by most growers because it flowers according to age, not according to the photoperiod. This means that the Ruderalis cannabis plant will flower when it is mature enough to do so, and this flowering action of the Ruderalis plant is out of the grower’s hands, so to speak. Ruderalis is grown in countries that experience cold weather conditions—Russia, Eastern Europe, and Alaska are places where Ruderalis grows wild. It is an extremely sturdy plant for outdoor growing, however, the autoflowering properties of this plant make it hard to control. Trying to clone a Ruderalis plant is nearly impossible because it is extremely hard to force the clone to remain in the vegetative growth stage of the plant’s cycle. Photoperiod manipulation—the way growers control cannabis flowering with Indica and Sativa plants—does not work with Ruderalis plants. Photoperiod, an extremely important part of cannabis cultivation, is further explained in Chapter 8. One reason to grow Ruderalis is if you must grow outdoors, where the photoperiod is of no concern to you.

      Seeds develop in the calyx. Here you can see seeds coming out from the calyx while others have not yet emerged. Photo Paradise Seeds.

      Seeds that have just begun to germinate sandwiched in wet cheesecloth.

      This stash of seeds from Paradise Seeds is enough to create several gardens for the next season. Photo Paradise Seeds.

      Pure Sativa is a total head high. Pure Indica is a total body stone / couch-lock. A 50/50 cross will give a 50 percent head high and a 50 percent body stone. If an Indica plant is crossed slightly with a Sativa plant it will give a 60 percent body stone and a 40 percent head high. A Sativa plant that is crossed slightly with an Indica plant will give a 60 percent head high and a 40 percent body stone. The 60/40 ratio is the most common but breeders can also alter the ratio.