BEFORE THE MARIJUANA CULTURE BEGINS

HOW TO GROW MARIJUANA

BEFORE THE MARIJUANA CULTURE BEGINS

The marijuana is a notoriously sturdy and fast growing bad herb that survives extreme heats, to light frosts, to drought, and to the floods. Few diseases affect seriously the marijuana, and the insects and animals generally have few impact on the growth and the total productivity of the plant as soon as the vulnerable step of sprouts starting is passed. The simple survivability of the plants, nevertheless, is not the question. Your goal is to grow strong, powerful and fully mature plants.

Every seeds contains a certain potential for the growth, the total size, and the power. Depending on a given seed potential, the environment determines the size and the real power of the plant. In an ideal environment, certain varieties of marijuana grow until 5.5 meters of heigth in only six months, and produce more then 2.2 kg of buds.

In interior, there is rarely enough spaces or light to support a such sturdy growth. Consequently, the interior plants are a lot smaller, somtimes attaining only 90 cm to 1.2 m of heigth, and they produce about 200 grams of buds, although much more bigger plants are often and easily cultivated in interior.

OVERALL LOOK AT THE MARIJUANA LIFE CIRCLE

The marijuana is annual; a simple season finishes a generation and all the future hope are in the hands of the seeds. In the nature, the seeds germinate when the spring heats and rains encourage the start of a new season and a new life circle. The first pair of leaves appearing on a sprout are entire (they have smooth edges), and they were part of the embryo contained inside the seed. The apparition of the second pair begins with the germination. The sprout leaves differ of the embryonic leaves because they have saw teeth edges, and are bigger. The first leaves generally have a simple paddle, in spear form. With the next leaves pairs, every leaf get bigger, and generally have three paddles. A basic model formed itself: every new pair of leaves is bigger and have more paddle by leaf, until the leaves attain a size and a number of maximum paddle generally 9 or 11 (although 19 paddles on a 45 cm long leaf were seen).

The germination growth step is finished in 4 to 6 weeks. Now begin the vegetative growth (step of the life environment). This is the moment of the maximum growth, during which the branches appear and develop the plant in his distinctive form. After some weeks, the pairs of leaves that are opposed to each other (opposed phyllotaxie) begin forming themselves in a spread out position along the stem summit (alternated phyllotaxie), a sign that the plant gets ready for the beginning of the sexual maturation.

The marijuana is "dioecious", which means that the male and female flowers appear on separated plants, and that every plant is considered as male, or as female. During the step before flourishing, (a period of 2 weeks before the blooming), the plant goes through a rest period; the quick growth slow down while the plant gets ready for the flower growth.

Briefly, the males produce flowers carrying pollen, and the female one produce flowers carrying seeds. The female are the favorite plants for the marijuana because their flowers (the buds) are more powerful and because they produce better marijuana than the male plants. The familiar commercial herbs buds are in fact hundreds of individual female flowers assembled together that develop in masses.

THE LIMITING FACTOR CONCEPT AND THE GROWTH

The marijuana grow better in a fertile and well drained soil, when it has a lot of waters, when it is exposed to a brilliant light, and in a well-ventilated hot atmosphere. To reduce the environment complexities in factors on which farmers can maintain a certain control, think about the environment as if it consisted of four basic growth factors: light, air, water and soil. The plants live and grow using:

(1) the light energy to make food and biological energy for the growth from the
(2) carbon dioxyde (CO2) and oxygen contained in the air,
(3) water coming from the air and soil and
(4) minerals (nutritious or fertilizer) absorbed from the soil.

Each of these four growth factor is like the link of a chain, and the plant does not grow more quickly than the weaker link allow it. For example, if there is not a lot of light, the weak light limit the growth even if the water is abundant or if the soil is fertile. In the same direction, if the soil nutritious are not very abundant, the growth is limited by the quantity of nutritious, no matter how much light, air, or water there is.

Of course, no farmer know exactly if all the four growth factors are in perfect balance, but there is not need to know it. This is only after the farmers watered and fertilized the plants close to excess that they need to recognize that the weak light is the reason their plants do not grow quickly. I saw farmers flooding their plants or poisoning them with too much fertilizer while they were growing them under a bulb of 60 Watts and could not understand why they did not reach 3 meters of heigth.

A farmer need to have a balance feeling and a general sensitiveness regarding what makes a plant growing. Let us hope this blog will help you obtain this comprehension and this sensitiveness. A brief reading should relieve you from exaggerated worries or false ideas, and help you persuade your self to avoid things like excessive watering or fattening. A reading of some lines, a little observation, and common sense should be all a farmer needs to cultivate a sturdy and powerful harvest.

A last thought on what constitutes the common sense applied to the plants. Do not exaggerate! A lot of death plants comes from the farmer trying to force results. If the fertilizer instructions say it require one coffee spoon, will three coffee spoons be three times better? No! The plants do well enough when a reasonable care is given, just help them do what is natural and never try to force them.

The first harvest is always an apprenticeship experience and even when the harvest is a wonderful success, every farmer know that the next one will be better, and generally it is true. Every harvest becomes easier, because the questions obtain responses and the doubts disappear progressively, until the care process of your harvest becomes a second nature and that you have more fun cultivating them than smoking the harvest. All experienced farmer will probably say, "there is no other places i could be and things i could do than sit among my plants while giving them some KLC. (kindness, love, care)".

SECURITY

The security is the first consideration when installing a garden. The farmers must take a special care for their garden and their lights so they are not visible from the exterior or not accessible by non desired visitors. Even where the marijuana culture is legal, stealing is a major interest. The farmers must carefully consider the consequences before speaking to someone about their garden, and must exercise prudence every time that someone come see them. An unfortunate fact of life is that the craving, vengeance, cupidity, and the poorly placed morality make your knowledge or former friends possible thieves or denunciatory. (By the way, don't start being paranoid)

To the sun opposite, the electric lights cost money at the purchase time and at the usage time. First, consider the minimal cost for a modest fluorescent garden, or a garden expenditure for multiples HID. The electric lights garden necessitate more frequent cares than the sun gardens; From another side, they can be maintained to any moment since they are in the interior, and the lights can be lit at any moment depending on the planning of the farmer. The electric lights gardens are perfect for the inhabitant working in apartment.

You can hide the electric lights gardens in closed pieces, basements, attics, placards or garages. Even when they are hidden, the big HID gardens can awake suspicions among your electric company. The big mettalic iodides lamps (the MH), the principal light source for a lot of farmers, consume almost 1 100 Watts each. If three lamps or more are used, the electric company will possibly want to know why your electric bill suddenly increased so high, and they could want to do investigations on your electric usage or investigate a possible short-circuit or another problem on your lines. If we questionate you, the best excuse is telling them you installed an electric heating system or a conditioned air central.

The big HID gardens can be noisy. The ballasts can strongly hum, and the light balancers (if you have some) can cause vibrations.

The commercial farmers that are concerned by their marijuana perfume can choose to use their lights and their airiness during the night, when their neighbors sleep. Consider all these problems first, before installing your system, especially if this is a big commercial operation. The small gardens don't need special security precautions. But do not talk about your garden to anybody, and keep it hidden from non desired visitors.

The marijuana culture is pleasing, and more lucrative than you can imagine.

Good luck and happy harvesting.

- HOW TO GROW MARIJUANA