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Vaporizer
Marijuana Seeds
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Hydroponics
Growing Guide
If you live near a clear mountain stream, you
can skip this bit on the quality of water. Most of us are supplied
water by the city and some cities add more chemicals to the water
than others. They all add chlorine, however, in varying
quantities. Humans over the years have learned to either get rid
of it somehow or to live with it, but your
marijuana plants won't
have time to acquire a taste for it so you had better see that
they don't have to. Chlorine will evaporate if you let the water
stand for 24 hours in an open container. Letting the water stand
for a day or two will serve a dual purpose: The water will come to
room temperature during that period of time and you can avoid the
nasty shock your plants suffer when you drench them with cold
water.
Always water with room temperature to lukewarm water. If
your water has an excessive amount of chlorine in it, you may want
to get some anti- chlorine drops at the local fish or pet store.
The most important thing about watering is to do it thoroughly.
You can water a plant in a three gallon container with as much as
three quarts of water. The idea is to get the soil evenly moist
all the way to the bottom of the pot. If you use a little water,
even if you do it often, it seeps just a short way down into the
soil and any roots below the moist soil will start to turn upwards
toward the water. The second most important thing about watering
is to see to it that the pot has good drainage. There should be
some holes in the bottom so that any excess water will run out. If
the pot won't drain, the excess water will accumulate in a pocket
and rot the roots of the plant or simply make the soil sour or
mildew. The soil, as we said earlier, must allow the water to
drain evenly through it and must not become hard or packed. If you
have made sure that the soil contains sand and pearlite, you
shouldn't have drainage problems. To discover when to water, feel
the soil with your finger. if you feel moisture in the soil, you
can wait a day or two to water. The soil near the top of the pot
is always drier than the soil further down. You can drown your
plant just as easily as you can let it get too dry and it is more
likely to survive a dry spell than it is to survive a torrential
flood. Water the plants well when you water and don't water them
at all when they don't need it.
If you can avoid getting bugs in the first
place you will be much better off. Once your plants become
infested you will probably be fighting bugs for the rest of your
plants' lives. To avoid bugs be sure to use sterilized soil and
containers and don't bring other plants from outside into your
growing room. If you have bets, ensure that they stay out of your
growing room, since they can bring in pests on their fur. Examine
your plants regularly for signs of insects, spots, holes in the
leaves, browning of the tips of the leaves, and droopy branches.
If you find that somehow in spite of all your precautions you have
a plant room full of bugs, you'll have to spray your plants with
some kind of insecticide.
You'll want to use something that will
kill the bugs and not you. Spider mites are probably the bug that
will do the most damage to the marijuana plants. One of the
reasons is that they are almost microscopic and very hard to spot.
They are called spider mites because they leave a web-like
substance clinging to the leaves. They also cause tiny little
spots to appear on the leaves. Probably the first thing you'll
notice, however, is that your plants look sick and depressed. The
mites suck enzymes from the leaves and as a result the leaves lose
some of their green color and glossiness. Sometimes the leaves
look like they have some kid of fungus on them. The eggs are very
tiny black dots. You might be wise to get a magnifying glass so
that you can really scrutinize your plants closely. Be sure to
examine the underside of the leaves too. The mites will often be
found clinging to the underside as well as the top of the leaves.
The sooner you start fighting the bugs, the easier it will be to
get rid of them. For killing spider mites on marijuana, one of the
best insecticides if "Fruit and Berry" spray made by Millers.
Ortho also produces several insecticides that will kill mites. The
ingredients to look for are Kelthane and
Malathion [erowid
note- Malathion may be very toxic to humans, should be handled
very carefully, and is certainly not intended for indoor use.
It
also seems highly preferrable to avoid spraying pesticides or any
chemicals on plants that will be smoked without being washed
thoroughly first.] Both of these poisons are lethal to humans and
pets as well as bugs, but they both detoxify in about ten days so
you can safely smoke the grass ten days after spraying. Fruit and
Berry will only kill the adult mite, however, and you'll have to
spray every four days for about two weeks to be sure that you have
killed all the adults before they have had a chance to lay eggs.
Keep a close watch on your plants because it only takes one egg
laying adult to re- infest your plants and chances are that one or
two will escape your barrage of insecticides. If you see little
bugs flying around your plants, they are probably white flies. The
adults are immune to almost all the commercial insecticides except
Fruit and Berry which will not kill the eggs or larva. It is the
larval stage of this insect that does the most damage. They suck
out enzymes too, and kill your plants if they go unchecked. You
will have to get on a spraying program just as was explained in
the spider mite section.
An organic method of bug control is using
soap suds. Put Ivory flakes in some lukewarm water and work up the
suds into a lather. Then put the suds over the plant. The obvious
disadvantage is it you don't rinse the soap off the plant you'll
taste the soap when you smoke the leaves.
We have found that pruning is not always
necessary. The reason one does it in the first place is to
encourage secondary growth and to allow light to reach the
immature leaves. Some strands of grass just naturally grow thick
and bushy and if they are not clipped the sap moves in an
uninterrupted flow right to the top of the plant where it produces
flowers that are thick with resin. On the other hand, if your
plants appear tall and spindly for their age at three weeks, they
probably require a little trimming to ensure a nice full leafy
plant. At three weeks of age your plant should have at least two
sets of branches or four leaf clusters and a top. To prune the
plant, simply slice the top off just about the place where two
branches oppose each other. Use a razor blade in a straight cut.
If you want to, you can root the top in some water and when the
roots appear, plant the top in moist soil and it should grow into
another plant. If you are going to root the top you should cut the
end again, this time with a diagonal cut so as to expose more
surface to the water or rooting solution. The advantage to taking
cuttings from your plant is that it produces more tops. The tops
have the resin, and that's the name of the game. Every time you
cut off a top, the plant seeds out two more top branches at the
base of the existing branches. Pruning also encourages the
branches underneath to grow faster than they normally would
without the top having been cut.
Harvesting and Curing
Well, now that you've grown your marijuana,
you will want to cur it right so that it smokes clean and won't
bite. You can avoid that "homegrown" taste of chlorophyll that
sometimes makes one's fillings taste like they might be
dissolving. We know of several methods of curing the marijuana so
that it will have a mild flavor and a mellow rather than harsh
smoke.
First, pull the plant up roots and all and
hang it upside down for 24 hours. Then put each plant in a paper
grocery bag with the top open for three or four days or until the
leaves feel dry to the touch. Now strip the leaves off the stem
and put them in a glass jar with a lid. Don't pack the leaves in
tightly, you want air to reach all the leaves. The main danger in
the curing process is mold. If the leaves are too damp when you
put them into the jar, they will mold and since the mold will
destroy the resins, mold will ruin your marijuana. you should
check the jars every day by smelling them and if you smell an
acrid aroma, take the weed out of the jar and spread it out on
newspaper so that it can dry quickly. Another method is to uproot
the plants and hang them upside down. You get some burlap bags
damp and slip them up over the plants. Keep the bags damp and
leave them in the sun for at least a week. Now put the plants in a
paper bag for a few days until the weed is dry enough to smoke.
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