TABLE OF
CONTENTS
PREFACE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Types of Cannabis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
CHOOSING WHICH TYPE OF SEED
IS RIGHT FOR YOU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Regular cannabis seeds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Feminized cannabis seeds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Autoflowering cannabis seeds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
QUICK GUIDE TO THE STAGES OF
THE CANNABIS LIFE CYCLE. . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
INDOOR CANNABIS CULTIVATION. . . . . . 22
Setting up. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Lights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Fans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Ventilation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
What to do with male plants. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
How to germinate cannabis seeds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
The cannabis light cycle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Watering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
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Transplanting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Determining the sex of a cannabis plant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Vegetative growth techniques, or training techniques. . . . . . . . . . 52
Soil maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Nutrients and feeding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Pruning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Air and ventilation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Temperature. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Humidity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
The flowering stage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Dealing with pests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Common diseases of cannabis plants. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Securing your indoor grow room: Growing cannabis discreetly. . 84
Best strains to grow indoors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
OUTDOOR CANNABIS CULTIVATION. . . . 89
Pros and cons of outdoor cultivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Soil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Germination and sowing seeds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Weeding. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Light. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Nutrients and feeding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Temperature and weather . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Outdoor Flowering. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Pests and predators. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
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Growing eco-friendly weed outdoors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Companion planting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Homemade compost tea. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Sprouted seed tea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
How to secure an outdoor grow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
5 Best strains to grow outdoors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
7 MOST COMMON PROBLEMS
AND DISEASES OF CANNABIS PLANTS. 128
ALL THINGS POST-GROWTH. . . . . . . . . . . 138
Harvesting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Trimming. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Drying. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Curing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Storage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
DIY cannabis products. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
EPILOGUE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
WEEDSEEDSHOP GROW BIBLE
PREFACE
Cannabis genetics and cultivation is at the heart of what WeedSeedShop
does. We believe that in the heart of every good cannabis grower is a
passion for every stage of cultivation. That’s why we’re proud to give what
we know about growing cannabis to our customers.
Growing weed is a rewarding endeavour, not just because of the harvest,
but because cultivation is what spawns the next generation
of strains. It’s where every WeedSeedShop grower and geneticist started,
and now, we are one of the most reputable cannabis seed producers in
the world.
It is the love of all things cannabis that drives the cannabis legalisation
movement around the world. However, despite the spread of cannabis
legalisation, there still exist many obstacles for growers. In many parts of
the world, cannabis is accessible legally, but is still illegal to grow. Needless
to say, it’s a shame, because cultivation brings people closer to the
essence of what cannabis actually is.
The relationship between cannabis and us humans is almost mysterious.
Despite how much we know about how our ancestors used and loved
cannabis, the last 100 years of cannabis history have been full of
controversy and debate.
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Preface
A century of worldwide prohibition has unfortunately led to a lack
of scientific inquiry into cannabis, its constituents, and its potential
as a therapeutic agent. Science is only just beginning to catch up
with the cannabis legalisation movement. For that reason, the
medical understanding of cannabis is still in its infancy.
Your journey with growing cannabis is bound to be an adventure!
Whether you are growing for personal use, or whether your plan is to be
the next producer of research cannabis, there is a long journey ahead.
Don’t be disheartened by mistakes or failures — this happens
to every newbie grower!
There are some things this grow bible won’t teach you, things you can
only learn from the experience itself. They are the secrets of the craft,
you could say. What this grow bible will do is adequately prepare you for
growing cannabis, and will serve as a resource for you throughout every
stage of the grow cycle.
Remember — when you’re confused about what to do next, how to deal
with pests, or how to recognise diseases, this guide will most likely have
the answer for you! We hope your growing endeavour is successful, and
we hope you like growing cannabis as much as we do!
- The entire WeedSeedShop team -
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6
Types of Cannabis
TYPES OF CANNABIS
Cannabis is an umbrella term for multiple different species that share
many characteristics with each other. Cannabis taxonomy is complex,
extremely tedious, and rife with contention. Many of the terms used in
the cannabis industry, such as indica and sativa, are not scientific terms.
Rather, they are colloquialisms used to define different effects caused by
different strains.
However, there are at least two true species of cannabis; Cannabis sativa
and Cannabis ruderalis. The first is the one that most cannabis growers
are interested in, as Cannabis sativa varieties are typically grown for their
medicinal or industrial uses. Cannabis ruderalis is only usually grown for
genetic and breeding purposes.
Let’s have a look at some of the different types of cannabis.
Cannabis sativa / Marijuana / Weed
Cannabis sativa is the most common species
of the Cannabaceae family. Every strain on all
the shelves of coffeeshops and dispensaries
are different strains of Cannabis sativa. It
typically grows on a tall, woody stem, has
sparse leaves, and forms the kinds of flowers
that are ideal for human consumption.
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Types of Cannabis
Cannabis sativa is rich with cannabinoids and is a highly psychoactive
variety of cannabis. It is mostly grown for its THC content, although there
are many high-CBD strains of Cannabis sativa available.
Hemp
Hemp, though another variety of Cannabis
sativa, is legally defined in Europe as a cannabis
plant that contains a maximum of 0.3% THC. It
looks a lot like regular cannabis, but its flowers
are usually lighter and less dense. It typically
contains higher levels of CBD, but negligent
levels of THC. It is not psychoactive to the same
degree as marijuana.
Industrial hemp is grown for a number of reasons, but primarily for fibers
and CBD products. The fiber can then be used to make rope, fabric, fuel,
and plastic. More recently, hemp-derived CBD products have accounted
for a large part of worldwide hemp production.
INDICA
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SATIVA
RUDERALIS
8
Types of Cannabis
Indica
Like we mentioned before, indica is a
colloquial term used to describe a group of
effects caused by a strain of cannabis. Indica
strains tend to produce sleepy, couch-lock
effects for the user.
Indica strains tend to grow shorter and bushier than other kinds of
cannabis. Because of their affinity for mountain sides and harsh climates,
indica strains form thick resinous trichomes on the flowers.
WeedSeedShop’s most popular
indica strains:
Northern Lights
WSS Skunk
Feminized
AK48
Feminized
Automatic
Automatic
Automatic
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Types of Cannabis
Big Bud
Top 44
Feminized
Feminized
Critical Mass
Automatic
Automatic
Automatic
Auto CBD
Automatic
Sativa
Unlike indica varieties, sativa strains grow
taller and thinner. They commonly cause a
cerebral, energetic high rather than a fullbody stone.
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Types of Cannabis
In general, sativa strains grow in equatorial climates where there is a lot
of sun. It’s for that exact reason that they tend to grow taller than indica
strains!
WeedSeedShop’s most popular
sativa strains:
OG Kush
Diesel Haze
Feminized
Pure Power Plant
Automatic
Automatic
Feminized
Mexican Haze
Gorilla Haze
Feminized
Feminized
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Types of Cannabis
Ruderalis
Ruderalis is a lesser known species of
cannabis. It isn’t commonly grown by
cannabis enthusiasts, as it doesn’t generate
the kinds of buds that humans have come
to love. Rather, ruderalis is grown by
geneticists and breeders for some of its
unique genetics. For example, autoflowering
strains have ruderalis to thank for the fact
that they autoflower. Autoflowering strains
wouldn’t exist without ruderalis.
Ruderalis has the unique ability to autoflower, without needing a change
in daylight hours. Autoflowering strains were pioneered by selectively
breeding this gene from ruderalis and incorporating it into regular
cannabis strains.
Medicinal and recreational cannabis
For all intents and purposes, medical and recreational cannabis
are the same. They are made up of the same constituents, and they grow
on the same plant. What makes them different is the way that they are used.
In some parts of the USA, for example, the law differentiates between
medical and recreational cannabis use. Medicinal cannabis can only be
obtained with a medical marijuana card, and is only approved for certain
medical conditions. Recreational cannabis, on the other hand,
is available to anybody over the age of 21.
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Types of Cannabis
In California, for example, medical marijuana is
afforded to those with a medical marijuana card, but
recreational cannabis is legal for anybody over 21
years old. Medical marijuana users are often granted
extra rights, such as growing rights. In another
example, citizens of Florida do not have access to
recreational cannabis, but those with a medical
marijuana card are able to obtain medical cannabis.
Ultimately, cannabis varieties contain
differing ratios of cannabinoids and terpenes.
These are the compounds that make
marijuana both medicinal and recreational. In
this way, there’s no real difference between
medical and recreational cannabis when they
are on the shelf.
The distinction happens when it’s off the shelf and in the customer’s
hands. A recreational user might only use cannabis sporadically, whereas
a medicinal user might use it regularly. A recreational user might enjoy
a joint with friends, whereas a medicinal user might take CBD oil every
morning with breakfast. Same root product, different ways of using it.
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CHOOSING WHICH
TYPE OF SEED IS
RIGHT FOR YOU
Once upon a time, the only way to come across a cannabis seed was to
scavenge through a bag of weed searching for it. Now, thanks to decades
of research into cannabis genetics, there are more choices than there ever
have been when it comes to choosing seeds.
There are 3 main varieties, and it’s important to know the difference before
choosing your seed. All 3 varieties are available on WeedSeedShop, and
many strains are available in all three kinds.
REGULAR
FEMINIZED
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AUTOFLOWERING
14
Choosing Which Type of Seed Is Right for You
Regular cannabis seeds
A regular cannabis seed is exactly the kind
you might find in a bag of weed. There’s a
50% chance that it will be female, and a 50%
chance that it will be male.
Regular cannabis seeds typically appeal to two kinds of growers: those
who want access to cheap seeds and those who actively choose to
have male plants in their gardens. Male plants are necessary for future
breeding projects and developing new strains and seeds.
WeedSeedShop’s most popular
regular strains:
Holland’s Hope
Top 44
Big Bud
Buy Now
Buy Now
Buy Now
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15
Choosing Which Type of Seed Is Right for You
K2
Master Kush
Swiss Miss
Buy Now
Buy Now
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Feminized cannabis seeds
As the name suggests, feminized cannabis
seeds have been specifically bred to yield
only female plants. Interestingly enough,
this happened as the result of a genetic
experiment with cannabis, whereby
female plants were pollinated with
other female plants that were forced
into hermaphroditism.
The result? Feminized seeds that yield female plants up to 100% of the
time. These seeds are ideal for those who want to grow for the harvest
and don’t want to deal with male plants in the garden. Very few seeds
in feminized varieties grow to be male plants, although roughly 1% of all
feminized seeds will develop to be males.
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Choosing Which Type of Seed Is Right for You
WeedSeedShop’s most popular
feminized strains:
Critical Kush
Big Bud
Amnesia
Buy Now
Buy Now
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WSS Skunk
White Widow
Super Skunk
Buy Now
Buy Now
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Autoflowering cannabis seeds
Finally, autoflowering cannabis seeds
were born out of a genetic experiment with
Cannabis ruderalis. Unlike other varieties
of cannabis, ruderalis doesn’t respond to
daytime and night-time hours.
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Choosing Which Type of Seed Is Right for You
Ruderalis plants begin to flower based on their age rather than the position
of the sun in the sky. Breeders saw this as a unique opportunity and
integrated this genetic characteristic into many strains. They are known as
autoflowering varieties, or automatics, or simply “autos”.
Autoflowering varieties tend to go from seed to harvest faster than
regular or feminized varieties. Plus, the grower doesn’t have to switch
from vegetation to flowering. Rather, the plant automatically enters
the flowering stage. If planned correctly, this allows growers to achieve
multiple harvests per year.
WeedSeedShop’s most popular
autoflowering strains:
Northern Lights
Automatic
AK48 Automatic
Big Bud Automatic
Buy Now
Buy Now
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Diesel Haze
Automatic
Critical Mass
Automatic
Top 44 Automatic
Buy Now
Buy Now
Buy Now
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18
QUICK GUIDE TO
THE STAGES OF THE
CANNABIS LIFE CYCLE
Before we officially start guiding you on how to grow weed, it’s important to
go over the different stages of the cannabis life cycle. Terms like “vegetative”
and “flowering” will come up often, and it’s good to be able to put these into
context. On average, an indoor grow will take between 3 and 5 months.
1
0-2 WEEKS
Seedling
As the name might suggest, your plant is in
the seedling stage when it has just sprouted
from its seed. It’s still an itty-bitty little plant
with no characteristic leaves of cannabis.
Basically, it’s a baby.
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Quick Guide to the Stages of the
Cannabis Life Cycle
2
Vegetative stage/
Vegetation
3 WEEKS - 2+ MONTHS
A couple of weeks after planting,
your plant is officially vegetating. The
vegetation stage is all about getting bigger
and bigger and growing a lot of leaves to
photosynthesise. No flowering takes place
in the vegetative stage.
3
Pre-flowering
5-6 WEEKS
Pre-flowering is the short period between
vegetation and flowering. Plants are starting
to show signs of their gender and are
producing the first tell-tale signs of flowering.
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Quick Guide to the Stages of the
Cannabis Life Cycle
4
6 WEEKS - 16+ WEEKS
Flowering
During the flowering stage, plants are putting
a lot of energy into producing flowers. Buds
continue to grow bigger and denser. If you’re
experimenting with genetics and have male
plants in your garden, this is also when
pollination can occur.
5
Harvest
The final stage of growth is actually about
you — not your plant. It’s the harvest.
Though it’s about you, the plant shows signs
that it is at the end of its life cycle. If you
don’t harvest now, it will begin to degenerate.
After harvest, it can take anywhere from 2.5
weeks to 1.5 months for drying and curing,
but we talk more about this in the Post
Harvest section of this grow bible.
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INDOOR CANNABIS
CULTIVATION
Depending on where you live in the world, indoor cultivation might be your
only option. There are a lot of growers out there who are apprehensive
of indoor cultivation. It can be expensive to set up, and requires a lot of
preparation. But at the same time, as a grower, indoor cultivation gives
you complete control over all stages of cultivation — not a luxury that
outdoor growers enjoy!
At the end of the day, indoor grow ops are not subject to some of the
most common outdoor pests: cats, dogs, wild animals, neighbours, etc.
Basically — it might cost a lot to get started, but there is probably a lesser
chance of losing your entire harvest to unforeseen weather or pests.
If you live in Northern Europe, like WeedSeedShop geneticists, the cold
winters and temperamental summers can make it hard to grow. But
WeedSeedShop does sell some strains that are expected to perform well
in colder weather.
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22
Indoor Cannabis Cultivation
In any case, the WeedSeedShop also stocks seeds that are optimised
for indoor growth. So if you’re opting for an indoor grow, make sure
you choose an appropriate seed. In this section, we’ll cover everything you
need to know about setting up your indoor grow space, and maintaining
it over the grow cycle.
Setting up
Unfortunately, you can’t just stick a pot of
cannabis under the kitchen sink and expect
it to grow. Like everything in this world,
cannabis plants need light and nutrients.
On top of that, they thrive in certain
environmental conditions, specific humidity
levels and perfect temperatures. If you’re
imagining all of this correctly, you should be
thinking lights, fans, irrigation, etc.
So yes - there are quite a few things to think about. But it’s not as hard as
you might think! Let’s get started.
Choose a growing medium: Soil or water?
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Indoor Cannabis Cultivation
Before setting up your indoor grow room, you’ll need to decide whether
you want to grow your cannabis in soil or water. This is called the
growing medium. In fact, there are multiple options when it comes to
growing mediums, each with its own advantages and disadvantages.
Choosing a medium will all depend on what kind of grow you want to
achieve, how much money you have to spend on resources, and what
you’re comfortable with. We’ll have a look at the different options so you
can choose the growing medium most suitable for your grow room.
WATER / HYDROPONICS
If you’ve been talking to your friends about
growing cannabis, then you’ve probably
heard the term “hydroponics” thrown
around a few times. Hydroponics are
simply systems that allow plants to grow
in water rather than in soil. Essentially, the
water replaces the soil.
There are some obvious benefits to choosing a hydroponic grow system:
Your environment is sterile (there’s no soil), so there’s less chance
of contamination
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Indoor Cannabis Cultivation
Hydroponic grows, interestingly enough, use a lot less water than
conventional growing
Hydroponic grows, interestingly enough, use a lot less water than
conventional growing
To set up a hydroponic grow, you will need to purchase a hydroponic grow
system. There are multiple kinds of hydroponic grow systems, but the
best option for beginners is a Deep Water Culture (DWC) hydroponic grow
system. A typical DWC system will contain:
A box or reservoir for containing the nutrient solution
An air line and pump
The system works by having the roots of your plants suspended in the
nutrient solution. They are usually held in place by a styrofoam sheet.
As you can imagine, the nutrient solution contains all of the necessary
nutrients for your cannabis plants to thrive. The water then receives a
consistent oxygen delivery through the air pump. This is how the roots of
your plants continue to receive oxygen.
What you’ll find is that the DWC system is extremely easy to set up, and
then even easier to maintain. This is why it’s the most recommended
hydroponic system for beginners.
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Indoor Cannabis Cultivation
SOIL
Soil is the conventional choice for growing
cannabis — because that’s where it
originally grows! Many cannabis growers
choose to harness the power of soil rather
than try to mimic it with hydroponics. The
benefits of choosing soil as a growing
medium include:
Soil allows for the symbiosis between cannabis and
microorganisms in the soil, creating something like a permaculture
system in your grow room
It’s cheaper to buy than a hydroponic system, and easier to replace
when something goes awry
There are also some obvious disadvantages to choosing soil. For example,
it’s easier for soil to become contaminated with fungi, weeds, and pests.
Soil is the natural habitat for a lot of pests in the wild, and they are more
likely to find their way into your grow room if you have soil.
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Indoor Cannabis Cultivation
Just like with hydroponic grow systems, there are different kinds of soil.
The three kinds of soil are:
Sandy soil: as the name suggests, it’s made up primarily of sand.
Sandy soil drains water rapidly, and while they stay warm in the
winter, they dry up quickly in the summer.
Silty soil: Silty soil is made up of medium sized particles that hold
moisture very well. This soil is easily compacted, and blows away
easily with wind or rain.
Clay soil: Clay soil is, appropriately enough, composed primarily of
clay. It is very easy for clay soils to become waterlogged during the
rainy season, and then to dry out tremendously during the summer.
Loamy soil: Loamy soil is composed of sand, silt, and clay. This is
the most common soil that gardeners choose as it’s easy to work
with, drains well, and retains enough moisture to keep the soil soft
and fertile.
Cannabis prefers to grow in loamy soil. When you are choosing soil
from your local gardening store, be sure to check its consistency. It should
be loamy, containing roughly equal parts of silt and sand, and a little less
clay (roughly 40% sand, 40% silt, and 20% clay). It should be dark brown to
black, soft, and fluffy.
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Indoor Cannabis Cultivation
Lights
Without light, nothing would grow on planet
Earth, and cannabis is no exception. If you’re
setting up an indoor grow room, the next
most important element in your control is
lighting. Cannabis responds to something called
photoperiod. This is the number of daylight
hours versus the number of night time hours.
As an indoor grower, you will have complete control over the
photoperiod. Using the photoperiod, you’ll be able to switch your plants
from vegetation to flowering when you see fit — but we’ll get to this a
little later. For now, it’s time to think about which lights you should put in
your grow room!
What kinds of plants you are growing will determine the lights you
choose and how many of them you install in your grow room. The most
common, and the best choices for cannabis growers are:
High Intensity Discharge (HID) lights
Light Emitting Diode (LED)
Fluorescent grow lights
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Indoor Cannabis Cultivation
HIGH INTENSITY
DISCHARGE (HID)
Of all the lights that cannabis growers
use, HID’s produce the most lumens
(the measurement for light). They have
been used since the 90s, and as the
years have progressed, technology
has become better and more efficient.
However, these babies run hot, so
choosing HID lights means you’ll
also have to think about adequate
temperature control and ventilation.
LIGHT EMITTING DIODE (LED)
LED lights came on the scene more
recently, and there are a lot of growers
who are now choosing LEDs. While LEDs
don’t emit quite as much light as HIDs
(which means you’ll need more of them),
they are more efficient and less costly.
With the right LED setup, you can achieve
cannabis plants that are even more
superior to those grown under HIDs.
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FLUORESCENT/CFL GLOBES
Fluorescent grow lights are those twisty
light globes that you can find in pretty
much any hardware store. Growers
choose them because they emit pleasant
lighting for humans, and also because
they are cheaper than most other grow
lights. They produce a great light spectrum
for cannabis, and because they don’t
produce much heat, they can be used to
grow seedlings.
WHICH LIGHTS TO CHOOSE?
Now — the most pertinent question of all: which lights should you
choose? Well, that’s a hard question to answer. Most growers choose
based on preference, which you can only really know once you’ve tried
them all.
You can look at choosing lights as a balancing act. For example, if you
just want something that’s cheap to buy and run, then you might choose
something like fluorescent lighting. If you want lights with the greatest
light output, you’ll probably choose HID lights. At the same time, if you
choose HID lights, you’ll also need to install some fans to keep the
temperature down.
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As a general rule of thumb, the following table represents which kind of
plants might benefit from different kinds of lights:
Autoflowering
Feminized /
Regular
Seedlings
HID LIGHTS
LED LIGHTS
FLUORESCENT/CFL
Autoflowering plants grow
Feminized and regular
Seedlings are very sensitive
fast, and benefit from
seeds grow over a slower
to heat, and fluorescent
high-intensity lighting like
period of time. LED
or CFL lights generate the
HID lights.
lights allow for minimum
least heat. Therefore, they
energy expenditure.
can be placed close to the
canopy and used in smaller
growing spaces.
HOW MANY LIGHTS WILL YOU NEED?
There is constant contention over how
much wattage a grow space needs.
Commercial growers will try to push for
1000 watts for each square metre of grow
space. But for a home-grow, 400-600 watts
per square metre should suffice.
First, you will have to measure your grow space per square metre. Once you
have ascertained the size of the grow space, you can choose the number of
lights and their correct wattage. For example, in a room dedicated to growing
weed, you might have 10 square metres. To sufficiently light this room for
cannabis cultivation, you will need at least 4000 watts of lighting.
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In another example, where you might be growing in a grow tent, you may only
have 2 square metres of growing space. In this situation, you’ll only need at
least 800 watts of lighting.
Fans
Now you’ve got your lights. But a small space compacted with a lot of light
globes also leads to a lot of heat. And that’s why you need fans. You also need
fans because movement of air helps your plants to breathe better, and use
more of the CO2 in the atmosphere.
You don’t need to get worked up about buying fans. There are all different
kinds, such as ones that stand up, floor fans, wall fans, and small clip fans. You
just need enough of them to keep the air moving in your grow room a little,
and for maintaining the temperature correctly in your grow room.
The ideal temperature for growing cannabis
differs for each growing stage, but broadly
speaking, you should be able to maintain
temperatures between 18°C and 30°C. We go
into greater detail about temperature in the
Temperature chapter of this grow bible.
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Which fans you choose will depend heavily
on the size of your grow room. If you’re
growing in a grow tent, you probably don’t
have floor space for a floor fan. In that case,
a small fan that clips into the top corner of
your grow tent might be sufficient. If you’re
growing in a bedroom or larger space, you
probably need at least a couple of floor fans
to keep the air circulating.
As a pro tip — don’t put the fans directly on your plants. Let the air circulate
around the plants or underneath them. This will prevent a drop in humidity
and moisture.
Ventilation
Ventilation is a step up from fans. If you plan
to continue to grow weed in the future, it’s
probably best if you choose a comprehensive
ventilation system rather than just simple fans.
An extractor fan system allows you to circulate
cool air in the room, while removing hot air from
the grow space.
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Since hot air rises, it’s important for the extractor fans to be located
somewhere at the top of your grow space. If you are growing in a
small space, such as a grow tent, you need roughly 1 15 cm extractor
fan per tent. If you are growing in a room, then you will need roughly 1
15 cm extractor fan per 30 cm of grow space.
To minimise the travel of smells in and around
your house, you can also add a carbon filter
to the exhaust part of your extractor system.
Carbon captures virtually all smells so that you
don’t exhaust smelly-cannabis-grow-room-air into
the rest of your house or your neighbour’s yard!
What to do with male plants
Cannabis is one of few plants that are
dioecious. This means that the male and female
reproductive parts express themselves in
different plants. It also means that two plants
— one male and one female — are required for
pollination and seed production.
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Of the two, female plants are generally the ones that growers are
interested in because they are the ones that produce the THC-rich
buds that cannabis users love to consume. But that doesn’t mean that
male plants are useless. After all, there would be no cannabis seeds if
it weren’t for male plants and their pollen.
So then, what do you do with male plants in
your grow room? Firstly, you should remove
them from the area in which your female plants
are growing (which we’ll discuss in the ‘Separate
male plants from female plants for harvest’
section of this grow bible). Then you can keep
them for a couple of reasons:
You can use them at a later stage to pollinate your female plants
and produce cannabis seeds
You can grow and harvest them the same way you would for
female plants, and use them for other reasons
If you won’t be using your male plants for genetic purposes such as
spawning the next generation of amazing cannabis strains, there are still
uses you find for them around your house. Here are a few examples:
You can juice them and enjoy fresh cannabis juice
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You can make cannabutter with them (it won’t be as potent as
cannabutter made with female plants)
You can use them as compost
How to germinate
cannabis seeds
Before you officially plant your cannabis
seeds, you should first germinate them. This
is essentially the process of letting the seed
sprout before putting it in the ground. The point
of this is to correctly ensure that your seeds
germinated and to minimize wasted energy on
defective seeds.
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SOW THE SEEDS
The first way to germinate cannabis seeds is to… let them germinate in
soil! This is the most traditional method, and many growers still swear by
it. It’s as simple as putting the seed in the soil and making the soil wet.
Cannabis seeds require moisture to germinate, although they do not
require light. For this reason, they can be put directly in the soil. It’s worth
keeping in mind that if you are going to use a hydroponic grow system,
you won’t germinate your seeds in soil.
However, this method doesn’t allow you to ascertain which seeds are
defective. You can continue to water your seedling tray every day, and
there may or may not be any activity happening under the soil. So while
this method still works for good seeds, it makes it harder to discern which
seeds are defective and which are good.
THE WET PAPER METHOD
The most common method for germinating
cannabis seeds is the wet paper method.
This involves wetting two paper towels and
sandwiching the cannabis seeds between
them. They should be kept somewhere
quiet, as seeds need peace to germinate.
They shouldn’t be located somewhere
people often walk past or where there is a
lot of movement.
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After a few days, your cannabis seeds should be germinated. They will
show that they have germinated by showing the beginning of a taproot. It
is a small white root that emerges from the seed. Once this happens, the
seed can be planted.
PLANTING GERMINATED SEEDS
If you’ve decided to germinate your seeds
in soil, then you won’t need to officially
plant them. They can go on to become
seedlings in their seedling tray without
you having to relocate them. However, if
you’ve germinated using the wet paper
method, you will then need to plant your
germinated seeds.
Germinated seeds should go into the soil with the root facing down
towards the ground. This speeds up the process for the seedling as
the seed does not need to reorient itself. It can be planted a couple of
centimetres below the top of the soil in a seedling tray.
Seedling trays should be watered and kept under lights in the grow room.
Once the seedling emerges, it will need light immediately, so it’s better to
have your grow room set up before you start germinating.
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The cannabis light cycle
Every being has a circadian rhythm — even
plants! The growth and development of every
living organism depends on the revolutions of
the sun and the moon. Cannabis is certainly no
exception to this rule. How cannabis vegetates
and flowers is dictated largely by the number of
day and night hours, and this goes on to be a very
important factor for indoor cannabis growers.
The rule of thumb: your cannabis plants continue to grow bigger and
bigger during longer days, and start to produce flowers when you give
them more darkness.
Since hot air rises, it’s important for the extractor fans to be located
somewhere at the top of your grow space. If you are growing in a small
space, such as a grow tent, you need roughly 1 15 cm extractor fan per
tent. If you are growing in a room, then you will need roughly 1 15 cm
extractor fan per 30 cm of grow space.
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THE SEEDLING STAGE
Though this is not technically a stage in the
cannabis life cycle, it still pertains to indoor
growers as a period of long daylight hours.
While your plants are still just seedlings, they
will need 18 - 24 hours of light each day.
THE VEGETATIVE STAGE
During the vegetative stage, your plants
continue to get bigger and bigger — which
will produce more zones where flowers can
grow. The vegetative stage also requires
long daylight hours, as in order for the
plant to continue to grow in size it needs
to photosynthesise. During the vegetative
stage, give your plants 18-24 hours of light
per day.
Some growers opt for 24 hours of light during the vegetative stage,
although not all growers agree with this. Plants also need night time to
grow, so working on an 18/6 schedule (18 hours of daylight and 6 hours of
darkness) is appropriate for the vegetative stage.
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THE FLOWERING STAGE
In the wild, cannabis begins to flower when
the night time hours begin to increase. This
is because this would typically represent the
arrival of the winter, in which case plants
should flower and produce seeds in order to
reproduce the next season. With this in mind,
a plant will not begin to flower until there are
at least 12 hours of uninterrupted darkness
each day. So, to switch your plant to flowering,
you must switch the light schedule to 12/12.
Sometimes switching from vegetation to
flowering is called “flipping”.
AUTOFLOWERING VARIETIES DON’T RESPOND TO PHOTOPERIOD
For those indoor growers who don’t want to worry about light schedules,
you can opt for autoflowering seeds. These plants will switch to flowering
based on their age rather than the light schedule.
WHEN TO SWITCH FROM VEGETATIVE STAGE TO FLOWERING?
Theoretically, indoor cultivators can leave their plants to vegetate for
as long as they like. It can be as little as a few weeks, or as long as a few
months, depending on what the grower is trying to achieve. With that said,
there are still other factors to consider, such as the plant’s age and size.
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It is important to remember that your plant will increase in size by 2 or 3
times during the flowering stage, from the moment you switch the light
schedule to 12/12. Size does matter, because if you’re growing indoors,
you are limited by the size of your grow room.
A cannabis plant needs at least 3 weeks to vegetate before it can be
successfully switched to flowering. However, most growers will allow
around 8 weeks for vegetation. Therefore, it’s important not to switch to
flowering too early.
Watering
One of the most common mistakes that newbie
growers make is over-watering. It’s generally
accepted that cannabis plants consume a lot of
water, and they do, but probably not as much as
first-time growers think.
Cannabis plants need different amounts of water during different stages
of their lives. Over-watering and under-watering are both detrimental,
so it’s important to keep the moisture levels of your soil balanced
throughout the grow.
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If you are growing in a hydroponic system, you literally do not need to
worry about watering. Your plants will have constant access to water
because their roots will be suspended in water, and the aeration of the
water chamber will ensure there is also access to oxygen.
THE SEEDLING STAGE
The easiest time to over-water is during
the seedling stage. In general, the smaller a
plant is, the less H2O it needs. It’s extremely
important not to let the soil get soggy,
and because the roots are still so shallow
during the seedling stage, only the top few
centimetres of soil needs to be moistened.
During the seedling stage, spraying water on to the top soil is sufficient.
Creating drainage will likely cause the soil at the bottom of the bot to
become soggy, which can become a problem for growing roots.
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THE VEGETATIVE STAGE
Even when your plant is no longer a
seedling, but is still small, it can easily
become over-watered. At the beginning of
vegetative stage, while the plant is still small,
water around the stem rather than directly
on top of it. This will mitigate the possibility
of over-watering and drowning the roots of
the plant because of a lack of oxygen.
As your plant gets bigger, you will need to give it more water. However,
you should not let the soil become soggy or stay wet for too long.
The best way to check if your soil needs watering is by putting your finger
in the top few centimetres of soil. If it’s still moist, there’s no need to water.
Once the top few centimetres are dry, then the soil can be watered again.
THE FLOWERING STAGE
Watering during flowering is very similar
to watering during vegetation, although
the nutrient schedule will have changed.
We address nutrients and feeding in a
later chapter.
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As with vegetative growth, watering should occur when the top couple of
centimetres of soil have become dry. As long as your soil drains well, you
should not be experiencing sogginess at the bottom of the container and
dryness at the top. Be mindful of overwatering during flowering as this can
limit the growth of buds.
TAP WATER, SPRING WATER, OR DISTILLED WATER?
There is some contention over the viability of tap water when it comes to
growing cannabis. Many local governments chlorinate the water to clean it.
Theoretically, too much chlorine can also have an effect on the permaculture
of your soil, and it can kill a lot of the beneficial bacteria. However, most tap
water doesn’t contain enough chlorine for this to happen.
In the event that you believe your tap water is too heavily chlorinated, you can
add some table salt to the water before you give it to your plants. This binds
to the chlorine, disabling its ability to destroy the beneficial bacteria.
To maintain maximum control, some growers will use spring water or distilled
water. If your tap is set with a reverse-osmosis system, that’s fantastic. But
otherwise, it’s important to think of the environmental impact (and the cost)
of purchasing distilled water or spring water. That’s a lot of plastic and a lot of
money spent just to water weed!
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Transplanting
If you’ve germinated your seeds and put them
into small seedling trays, they will eventually
need transplanting. Transplanting is important
for 2 reasons:
1
If small plants are in pots that are too big, they can easily
become overwatered and overwhelmed
2
If plants become too big for their pots, they get root-bound
and start to lose vigour
It’s therefore important to keep your plants in size-appropriate pots, which
means there will be multiple stages during the grow cycle where you will
have to transplant.
WHEN TO TRANSPLANT?
You should transplant your seedlings before
they become root-bound. But how do you
know when exactly that is? As a general rule,
the moment the leaves become as wide as the
pot itself, it’s time to transplant.
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HOW TO TRANSPLANT?
To transplant, you will need to remove your plant from its current container
and relocate it to a bigger container. To do this, you should have your new
container already prepared with soil inside. A hole should be dug out to
accommodate the transplant.
If your plant is still in the seedling tray, you can remove the entire thing (soil
and all) from the container and transplant it directly into the new pot.
When plants are bigger, it can be a little bit more complicated. If you can
repeat the procedure for seedlings, this is best, as it minimises damage to the
roots. However, if you cannot remove the entire contents of the container,
you must “dig” your plant out of its current pot. Be careful - don’t remove too
much soil, or that the roots might be too exposed. This will minimize the risk
of transplant shock.
Once the transplant is complete, moisten the soil gently so that the soils can
mingle, integrate, and meld together.
TRANSPLANT SHOCK
Cannabis has a strong taproot (a single,
obvious, and important root) off which
many secondary roots appear. If the
taproot is damaged during the transplant
process, your plant can suffer massively.
The most important part of the plant to
keep intact during transplant is the taproot.
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If your plant starts to show strange symptoms immediately after a
transplant, you can be pretty much certain that those symptoms were
caused by the transplant itself. Browning and yellowing of the leaves,
wilting, or curling are all signs that your transplant might have been a little
too much for your plant to handle.
Transplant shock is a common occurrence, so make sure you handle the
transplant with extreme care.
Determining the sex
of a cannabis plant
As we touched on before, male plants can have
an unpleasant impact on a grow that is made
specifically for the harvesting of flowers. Even if
you want to keep male plants around for future
breeding projects, it’s important to determine the
sex of the plant.
Pre-flowering can begin before the grower manipulates the light
schedule at all, so plants will begin to show signs of their sex before
flowering. In general, the males tend to enter pre-flowering earlier than
females. This is because male plants must produce pollen in time to
pollinate the female flowers. For this reason, male plants also tend to
grow taller than female plants.
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MALE CANNABIS PLANT
FEMALE CANNABIS PLANT
Buds and pollen sacs can look very similar at first glance. However, the
single characteristic that differentiates male and female flowers are the
white, hairy stigmata that grow on female flowers. When male flowers first
begin to pre-flower, they look a lot like buds, but are actually little pollen
sacs. When female plants enter pre-flowering, they first develop white,
hairy stigmata near the nodes of the plant — on the sites where flowers
will continue to grow.
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This is the only definitive way of determining the sex of your plant.
However, you can try to determine the sex of a plant before it enters
flowering using the following method.
1
As soon as your plant is old enough (at least 3 weeks into
vegetation), you can take a cutting from it.
2
Using cloning techniques, clone the plant, and put it
somewhere away from the other plants. Make sure you label
which plant you took the cutting from.
3
Force the clone into flowering by switching the light cycle. As
soon as you force flowering, the plants themselves will begin
to flower. It may take up to a week for the plants to show
characteristics of their gender. Males will begin to form pollen
sacs and females will develop small white stigmata.
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HERMAPHRODITISM
It is possible for a plant to express both
sexes. In this scenario, the plant is called
a hermaphrodite, or a hermie. It will likely
produce both parts, and self-pollinate,
resulting in seeds. These seeds will generally
produce hermaphroditic plants.
This most commonly occurs to plants that are under high stress, and
is more likely to occur at a later stage of your grow rather than during
the initial stages. If you notice early on that a plant is a hermaphrodite,
you should keep it with your male plants or remove it entirely from your
indoor cannabis operation.
SEPARATE MALE PLANTS FROM FEMALE PLANTS FOR HARVEST
If you’re growing your cannabis plants for a harvest, then you need to
remove male plants from your grow area the minute you identify them
as male. The longer they stay in the grow room, the more likely they are
to pollinate your female flowers, which will make them produce seeds
rather than buds. And this is definitely not good if you’re after a harvest
of luscious flowers.
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It’s also very important that if you choose to keep the male plants, you are
very careful when handling both sexes. It is extremely easy for pollen to
travel on clothes, in hair, on shoes, and pretty much anything. Don’t wear
the same clothes in your “male” plant room as you do in your “female”
plant room.
For tips and tricks on what to do with your male plants, refer to the What
To Do With Male Plants chapter of this grow bible.
Vegetative growth techniques,
or training techniques
Once your plants are out of the seedling stage,
they will spend most of their lives peacefully
vegetating. As an indoor grower, you don’t
have to let them peacefully vegetate, because
ultimately, you’re in control of how they do that.
You can introduce some vegetative growth
techniques to encourage the plant to grow
taller, bushier, and ultimately create more zones
where flowers might grow.
There are multiple techniques that growers apply to encourage
vegetative growth. You may not want to use these techniques on your
first grow while you’re still learning how to handle the plant and mitigate
problems. However, these techniques might come in useful on your
second and third grows and beyond!
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Sea of Green (SOG)
The Sea Of Green (SOG) method is particularly
useful when you have a lot of female clones that
you would like to harvest. Alternatively, SOG
can be used with autoflowering varieties which
typically enter into flowering much earlier than
other varieties.
SOG is performed on plants that have very little time to vegetate
(sometimes as little as a few weeks). When the plants are switched to
flowering, they are placed quite close together and allowed to flower.
The lower branches are trimmed to encourage maximum growth at the
top of each plant.
The fact that no training or pruning is required for SOG makes it an ideal
technique for new growers to employ. It’s easy, and there’s very little
room for error. This is a basic step-by-step on how to perform SOG.
1
Germinate your seeds and let them become seedlings.
2
Keep them in the vegetative stage until they are about 25 - 30
cm tall. In the vegetative stage they should be on an 18/6 or
24/0 light cycle.
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3
When they are 25 - 30 cm tall, space out the plants to 1 or
2 plants per square foot. Change the light cycle to 12/12 to
initiate flowering.
4
Once a canopy of buds forms, trim the branches below the
canopy to encourage the plant to send all its energy into
producing buds at the top.
5
Harvest when it’s ready.
This technique allows for a faster harvest, a good yield, and optimum
bud formation in a small amount of time. Remember, this technique is
best used when there are a lot of female plants around or when you
have many cuttings or clones to start with.
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Screen of Green (SCROG)
The Screen of Green (SCROG) method is similar
to SOG, except that it requires training and has
the potential to dominate SOG in terms of yield.
The primary concept of SCROG is that instead
of having a single cola at the top of your plant,
you can turn every branch into one that yields a
primary cola. This is done using a screen, cable
ties, and some training.
Essentially, a screen that looks like a chicken fence but with bigger holes
is placed over all of your plants. As the branches grow, they are pulled
down and tied to the screen. This creates the opportunity for light to
reach all of the branches evenly, as there is no lower canopy.
Even though this is a vegetative technique, as the plant grows during
flowering, you will likely have to continue tying branches to the screen.
You end up with a stem that has multiple branches that flatten out into a
single, non-layered canopy of buds.
SCROG REQUIRES PRUNING
Because you’re trying to create multiple sites for cola formation using SCROG,
it’s important to trim the larger leaves off the plant so that they do not block
light from reaching your budding sites. Don’t trim all of the larger leaves, as
the plant still requires them for photosynthesis. Just remove the ones that are
blocking light to your major budding sites and leave the rest.
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Low Stress Training (LST)
The Low Stress Training (LST) method is a lot like
SCROG, but without the screen. It follows the
same principle of creating more budding sites by
manipulating the shape of the plant. This is not a
technique that is restricted to cannabis, but has
been used by horticulturalists forever.
By “tying” down the main branches of your plant, you expose more areas
to light, and therefore create more places where buds can grow. To
perform the LST method on your plants, you will need:
Soft plant ties (regular string won’t do as it often damages
the branches)
A hand drill
Bamboo stakes or thin wooden sticks
To begin the LST method:
1
Start by drilling a hole in your pot where you would like to
attach your branches. Alternatively, you can put a bamboo
stake in the soil where you plant to attach your branches.
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2
Starting with the apical, dominant branch, slowly and gently
bend it towards the edge of its container.
3
Using the plant tie and the hole you drilled (or the bamboo
stake), attach the branch to the side of the container.
4
Using the plant tie and the hole you drilled (or the bamboo
stake), attach the branch to the side of the container.
The duct tape is really in case any accidents happen and you have to tape
your stems back together. But hopefully you won’t be rough enough to
break any stems!
LST REQUIRES PRUNING
With LST, you want to maintain a flat, horizontal canopy where no branch is
taller than the others. This ensures that all branches have adequate access to
light. Therefore, pruning is necessary.
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When new shoots appear, it’s important to “bend” or “train” them away from
the main stem. Shoots will continue to emerge from the main stem, and using
the technique we described above, they can be manipulated to create buds
so long as they are trained away from the main stem.
Soil maintenance
There are certain aspects of soil that should
remain constant over the period of your grow.
Moisture levels, pH and nutrients are the most
important of these factors, but we will give you an
entire section on nutrition and feeding. So let’s
have a look at maintaining soil moisture and pH.
WATER AND MOISTURE
Earlier, we talked about the dangers of over-watering and under-watering
your plants. Aside from having negative effects on your plants, over and
under-watering can have negative impacts on your soil, which will in turn,
damage your plants.
If the soil is watered too often, all of the nutrition you give your plants will
essentially get drained out of the soil, and be rendered completely useless. If
the soil is allowed to dry, then the roots of your plant will be starved, and so
will any beneficial bacteria or microorganisms that live in your soil.
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One of the best ways you can maintain your soil is by keeping moisture levels
balanced. We mentioned how to do this earlier; stick your finger in the top
couple of centimetres of soil. If it’s moist, don’t water. If it’s dry, it’s time to give
your soil a drink!
ACIDITY OR PH
Cannabis plants require a slightly acidic soil pH to thrive. The optimum pH
for cannabis grown in soil is 6.0-7.0, although plants will survive if the pH
goes slightly out of this range. The optimum pH for cannabis grown in a
hydroponic system is 5.5 - 6.5.
To accurately test the pH of your soil, you will need to purchase a pH reader.
This is an easy-to-use device that you simply dip into your soil. It will give you a
digital reading of the acidity of your soil.
If you find that your soil is too acidic or too
alkaline, it is increasingly important to adjust it.
If it is below 6.0 for soil or 5.5 for hydroponic,
you will need to add an alkaline solution to
your soil. If it is over 7.0 for soil and 6.5 for
hydroponic, you will need to acidify your soil.
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NATURAL WAYS OF MAINTAINING SOIL ACIDITY
If the pH of your soil has not gone dramatically outside of the recommended
6.0-7.0, you can use some simple, household products to return the soil back
to neutral. However, if it ventures quite far out of this range, you may have to
consider buying a pH adjuster from your local garden store.
If the pH drops below 6, you can add some agricultural lime (a.k.a. aglime,
garden lime, or liming, can be purchased from your local garden store) to
neutralize acidity.
If the pH rises above the optimum level, you can consider adding lemon
peels, wood ash, ground coffee, and cottonseed meal to the soil. You can also
add sulfur or phosphoric acid to reduce pH.
There are multiple different acidity regulators that can be purchased from
your local garden store. They often come with instructions on how to
return your soil to neutral acidity, such as how much to use in different pH
situations. Remember that you will consume your final harvest, so don’t use
anything in your soil that would contaminate your plants
SOIL PH SHOULD STAY RELATIVELY CONSTANT
The most important time to measure the pH of your soil is before planting.
This is because your soil will maintain its pH unless there is a drastic change
to the environment. For example, in very hot, humid climates, soil acidifies
over time due to leaching from rainfall. If your soil has the correct acidity
levels for planting, you can assume that the soil will remain at that pH for the
length of the grow.
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This doesn’t mean that you should not test it intermittently throughout the
grow cycle. However, if it happens to change drastically, it usually means
that the nutrition you give your plants has affected your soil pH (chemical
contamination), or the environment in your grow room has changed so
drastically that even your soil has responded to the event.
SIGNS OF PH DISTURBANCES
If the pH of your soil drops for too long or increases for too long, your plant
will start to show signs of stress. It is sometimes hard to diagnose pH issues
as they typically represent as nutrient issues. And they are nutrient issues.
When the soil pH is unsuitable, plants cannot efficiently absorb the nutrients
in the soil. Ultimately, they become nutrient deficient.
Plants may start to present droopy, yellowing leaves and stunted growth. As
we will discuss in the next chapter, Nutrition and Feeding, symptoms of pH
disturbance are very similar to malnourishment symptoms. So how do you
know whether you’re not giving enough nutrients or whether the pH is out of
whack? Well, before you go trying to diagnose anything, you should pull out
your trusty pH reader.
If you find that the soil is unsuitable, it likely isn’t a problem with feeding, but a
problem with the soil pH. Adjusting the soil pH should help your plants return
to normal. Once you’ve added your pH adjuster to the water, “flush” the soil
with the pH-balanced water. Flushing means running water through your soil
multiple times and allowing it to drain multiple times.
If you find that the soil pH is in the optimum range, it’s likely that the
nutritional problem is due to underfeeding, in which case you can fix it by
adding more nutrients.
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Nutrients and feeding
Just like people, plants need certain
nutrients in order to continue to grow.
Though this is generally accepted as “plant
health”, it’s actually more about “soil health”.
If your soil is infused with the correct
nutrients, your plants will know what to
do with them. Plus, if you give the soil the
correct concentration of nutrients, the pH of
your soil should not go out of whack.
Cannabis relies on three primary nutrients:
nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium.
(K) Virtually every fertiliser or soil comes
with an “NPK” value. This is the ratio of
each nutrient that is available in that soil or
fertiliser. Other secondary nutrients include
magnesium, calcium and sulfur.
Again, just like people, cannabis plants need
different nutrients depending on what stage
of their life cycle they are in. Let’s have a
look at the different ways to give your plants
nutrients and how those nutrients should
differ between life cycles.
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NUTRITION FOR THE VEGETATIVE STAGE
During the vegetative stage of growth, cannabis
plants require an N value that is equal to or
greater than the P and K values. Basically,
vegetating plants need a lot of nitrogen. Before
you purchase a fertiliser or liquid nutrient,
make sure to check these values.
If you opt for fertiliser, you will need to mix
it into the soil before you put your plants in
there. If you opt for a liquid nutrient solution,
you can simply feed it to your plants with water.
NUTRITION FOR THE FLOWERING STAGE
During the flowering stage of growth,
cannabis plants need a P value that is
higher than the N and K values. You might
have guessed — flowering cannabis plants
consume more phosphorus!
The same thing applies for the flowering
stage as the vegetative stage — if you
choose fertiliser, mix it into the soil before
planting. If you choose liquid solution, you
can feed it to your plants along the way.
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CONSIDER A FEEDING SCHEDULE IF NUTRIENTS CONFUSE YOU
OK — we heard you. It can all be a little bit too much when you’re growing
for the first time. It’s ok, because a lot of other people heard you too. There
are plenty of different companies that manufacture “feeding schedules” for
cannabis plants. They are often sold as liquid nutrient solutions that are
optimised for different parts of the grow cycle.
For example, you may buy a liquid nutrient solution for the seedling stage, the
vegetative stage, and the flowering stage.
This ultimately means you don’t have to read NPK values or mix nutrients or
do anything. You simply need to use the right feeding schedule for different
stages of your grow.
HOW TO GIVE NUTRIENTS CORRECTLY
Though fertiliser is an option, liquid nutrient feeding is the best way to
maintain optimum nutrition for your cannabis plants. At the same time,
you should never give your plants concentrated or undiluted nutrients. You
should always dilute your nutrient solution to 50% and give them to your
plant once a week.
If all is fine, you should be able to continue on that same regimen of nutrient
feeding. However, cannabis plants are very susceptible to nutrient burn. This
occurs when too many nutrients are given. In this scenario, you will have to
“flush” your soil with water to remove all of the nutrients remaining in the soil.
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IDENTIFYING NUTRIENT DEFICIENCIES AND HOW TO RECTIFY THEM
Of nutrient deficiency and nutrient burn, nutrient burn is easier to fix. All
you have to do is flush your soil with water and hope that your plants don’t
become stressed by all the water.
In the event of a nutrient deficiency, you have to closely inspect your plants to
identify which nutrient is lacking.
Finally, when it comes to maintaining nutrition, it is increasingly important to
maintain the pH of your soil. When the pH is unsuitable, your plants don’t
have access to all of the nutrients in the soil.
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Signs of nutrient burn
If your plant is suffering from nutrient
burn, the very tips of the leaves begin
to turn brown and dry. They may also
begin to turn upwards or downwards.
Nutrient burn can also present itself as a
very deep green colouration, rather than
the bright, vivid green that healthy plants
would express.
In the event that you have identified a
nutrient burn, you should flush your soil
with pH-balanced water.
Signs of nitrogen deficiency
Nitrogen deficiency usually expresses
itself as the yellowing and dropping off
of the lower, older leaves. This happens
because the younger leaves are essentially
“stealing” nitrogen from the older ones,
causing them to yellow and fall off.
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It is normal for a few of the older leaves to fall off here and there.
However, if you find that many of your plant’s older leaves are turning
yellow and beginning to fall off, you probably have a nitrogen deficiency. In
severe cases, the yellowing will travel up the plant rapidly.
If you’re regularly feeding your plants with nutrients, you probably won’t
encounter this problem. You’re more likely to encounter nutrient burn.
However, if you used fertiliser to begin with, your plants might need some
extra help along the way, and this might be one of the ways it tells you so!
It is normal for your plant to show nitrogen deficiency late in the flowering
stage. This is because your nutrient schedule changes during flowering,
where nitrogen is not required as much. Don’t get overzealous with the
nitrogen during the flowering stage if you observe a nitrogen deficiency.
Signs of phosphorus deficiency
It is not common for phosphorus
deficiencies to occur. If they do occur,
it is usually because the pH of your soil
is over 7.0, in which case you must first
rectify your pH problem.
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Phosphorus deficiency expresses itself primarily through the petioles
(leaf stems) of the plant. They begin to turn purple, especially on older
leaves, and as the deficiency progresses, the leaves begin to take on
a dark purple or blue hue. Dark purple or dark copper spots can also
begin to present on the leaves, indicating a phosphorus deficiency.
Again, this is unlikely to occur if you are feeding your plants nutrients
regularly. However, if you suspect a phosphorus deficiency, you should
first test the pH of your soil. If you find a disruption in pH, amend it, and
then feed your plants again. If you don’t find an unsuitable pH, then you
perhaps just need to give your plants more nutrients!
Signs of potassium deficiency
Of all the deficiencies, potassium is
perhaps the hardest one to diagnose
because it looks a lot like nutrient burn.
To put it simply, without potassium, your
plants can’t grow. Their growth will be
completely stunted, and flowering will be
drastically reduced. They will also become
more susceptible to pests and diseases.
Signs of potassium deficiency include burnt, rusty-brown leaf tips and
curling of the leaf tips. Yellow and brown spots may appear on the older
leaves. If the deficiency progresses, the younger leaves will begin to curl
and the leaves will appear burned.
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If you notice this happening and you’ve tested the pH of your soil, you
first need to assess whether you are dealing with a potassium deficiency
or nutrient burn. You will be able to deduce this by the feeding schedule
you’ve given your plants. If you have been giving them nutrients regularly,
then it might be a case of nutrient burn. If you’ve forgotten to give your
plants nutrients for a while, it may be a deficiency.
Pruning
It’s important to give your plants a haircut from
time to time. It keeps your plants fresh, plus
it reduces the chance of your plant wasting
energy on lower growth that isn’t important to
you as a grower. At the same time, it’s very easy
for newbie growers to get a bit excited with the
scissors, so don’t do that either.
The basic purpose of pruning is to direct your plant’s energy to where
it’s best used. For example, you might prune some of the lower shoots
because the buds of your plant will form at the top of the stem. If you
already have multiple branches that seem to be performing well, you may
choose to prune some of the lower shoots to encourage energy to travel
to your already well-performing branches.
You can also use pruning to remove any dry or yellowing leaves. Again, this
saves your plant the hassle of trying to save its dying leaves. It will instead
direct energy to creating new leaves or producing flowers.
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Air and ventilation
Earlier in this grow bible, we talked about
setting up your indoor grow room with
fans. It’s imperative to do this because
fresh air is just as important to plants as it
is to humans. For an indoor setup, opening
the door to get a breeze into the room
simply won’t suffice. Most indoor growers
choose indoor due to unsuitable climates
to grow outdoors. Opening the door could
completely disrupt the perfect temperature
that you’ve worked so hard to create.
With that in mind, keeping your grow room flowing with fresh air means
you must have fans. If you’re still confused about how to set these up,
then refer to the Fans and Ventilation sections of this grow bible.
Temperature
Another important quality that air flow brings to
your grow room is temperature control. Cannabis
thrives in daytime temperatures between 20°C
and 30°C. During the night, or dark hours, it is
okay for this to drop a little bit. However it should
never drop below 16°C in your grow room.
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When you think about cannabis out in the wild, it is usually vegetating
through the spring and summer months. It doesn’t begin to flower until
the summer is ending. With that in mind, the optimum temperature for
the vegetating stage and the flowering stage are different.
During vegetation, the temperature in your grow room should be slightly
warmer — between 20°C and 30 °C. During flowering, you can aim for a
temperature range of 18°C to 26°C. This mimics the temperature changes
that wild cannabis would experience.
WHAT HAPPENS IF THE GROW ROOM GETS TOO HOT?
Although cannabis plants don’t typically dry
out in conditions that are too hot, it can
stunt the growth of your plant or cause it to
grow much more slowly. In extremely hot
conditions, the leaves will begin to curl in
at the sides, causing a cupped look to the
leaves. This is especially important during
the flowering stage, where plants need
to be kept under slightly cooler conditions.
Temperatures warmer than 26°C will stunt the
growth of buds, reduce potency, and cause
the buds to become airy rather than dense.
Depending on the size of the grow room and the amount of lights in there,
fans may be sufficient. In the case that they aren’t, the only way to reduce the
temperature in a grow room is by using an air conditioner.
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WHAT HAPPENS IF THE GROW ROOM GETS TOO COLD?
Ultimately, cannabis plants hate the cold.
Temperatures lower than 16°C will stunt plant
growth in much the same way as extremely hot
temperatures. But freezing temperatures can
completely shock or kill a cannabis plant. Your
grow room should never drop below 16°C.
Humidity
Humidity is the measure of how much
moisture is suspended in the air. In general,
you should be able to assess the relative
humidity of your grow room by how
comfortable you feel in it. If it’s too humid in
there, you will instantly feel it. If it’s too dry,
it might be a little bit harder to pick up.
Cannabis enjoys different humidity levels throughout its grow cycle. During
the vegetative stage, optimum humidity is 40% - 60%. During flowering,
optimum humidity is 40% - 50%. During the final weeks of flowering, the
optimum humidity is 40 % - 45%.
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HOW DO YOU KNOW THE EXACT HUMIDITY IN YOUR
GROW ROOM?
The only way to know the exact humidity in your grow room is to purchase a
temperature and humidity monitor. This will always tell you the temperature
and humidity in the room. Short of this, there’s no way of measuring the exact
relative humidity.
HOW TO CONTROL HUMIDITY WHEN IT’S TOO HIGH OR TOO LOW
Achieving the correct humidity is not all that difficult, although maintaining
it can be something like a balancing act. Keeping the humidity at a constant,
correct level might mean changing the way you use your fans throughout the
day. For example, you might notice that certain times of the day are more
prone to a fluctuation in humidity. These would be the moments that you
might need to switch the fans on or off, or switch a dehumidifier on or off.
There’s no one-size-fits-all when it comes to maintaining humidity. You have
to be constantly monitoring your grow room at different times throughout
the day, and taking the necessary steps to increase or lower humidity. Let’s
have a look at some of the ways you can do that.
1
My grow room is too humid
a. Dehumidifier
If you find that the relative humidity of your grow room is
getting too high, it’s time to introduce a dehumidifier.
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A dehumidifier removes moisture from the air and stores it. Be mindful
that when it gets full, it will automatically turn off and you will have to
empty it before you can use it again. There are special models that can be
connected directly to a drain so that they don’t have to be switched off.
b. Ventilation
If you find that the relative humidity of your grow room is getting too high,
it’s time to introduce a dehumidifier.
2
My grow room is too dry
If you should introduce a dehumidifier when humidity is too
high, then it’s only logical to introduce a humidifier if the
humidity is too low. Our recommendation is to purchase a
humidifier with a big holding tank (20 L). If you purchase a
smaller one (3 L), you will have to refill the holding tank several
times a day.
The humidifier takes the water that’s in the tank
and pumps it back into your grow room. This
can also help to reduce temperatures if the
excess heat is what is causing your grow room
to dry up.
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The flowering stage
At last! You’re finally up to the stage where
you’re about to start reaping the fruits of your
labour. But don’t get too excited just yet. You will
still have to monitor your plants closely during
flowering, as problems can still occur. Plus, this
is the final stage of growth for your plant, and so
any problems that occur in this stage can destroy
your entire harvest.
If you haven’t already separated your male plants from your female plants,
then it’s time to do so (unless you want them to pollinate to create your
own seeds). If you don’t know how to determine the sex of your plant,
then refer to that section of this grow bible. If you plan to harvest buds, you
should separate male and female plants as soon as they show signs of
their gender.
HOW TO FORCE FLOWERING
For indoor (non-autoflowering) plants, you must force them into flowering
by adjusting the light cycle. As we mentioned earlier in this grow bible,
vegetative plants use an 18/6 day/night cycle. Some growers will go for
24/0, but this is less common. To force flowering, there needs to be at
least 12 hours of completely uninterrupted darkness each day. So all you
have to do to force flowering is switch the light regimen to 12/12.
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It’s important to remember that even the tiniest bit of light during the
dark hours can keep your flowers in the vegetative stage. It’s therefore
important to block out your room from nearby light as much as possible,
whether they be windows or door jams. The room should be completely
sealed so that when you turn the lights off, it is completely dark in your
grow space.
You will notice that when your female plants begin to flower, they will start
to grow bigger, more branches and leaves will be produced, and buds
will start to appear. This is also an important time to switch your feeding
schedule. If you don’t know how, refer to the Nutrients and Feeding section
of this grow bible.
You should also remember that if you have chosen an autoflowering
variety, what you do with the light cycle doesn’t really matter that much. It
will automatically enter flowering based on its age, without you having to
change the light schedule.
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Dealing with pests
As an indoor grower, you will confront
considerably less pests than an outdoor
grower would. But that doesn’t mean you’ll
never have to deal with pests. They can
still find their way into your grow room and
upset your plants, so it’s important to keep
your eye on them.
The most common pests you will find in an indoor grow space are aphids.
However, indoor plants are also susceptible to spider mites and fungus
gnats. Dealing with them often means using pesticides that you don’t
want to put all over the buds that you’re going to ingest at some point,
so prevention is the best method of control. We’ll talk about some of the
ways you can prevent pest infestations before we give you some tips for
dealing with them.
For a more comprehensive list of the most common pests that might
make their way into your grow room, refer to the Pests And Predators
chapter of Outdoor Cannabis Cultivation.
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PREVENTION
Prevention is better than a cure — so they say. To start with, you should
treat your whole house as a grow space. Anything that enters your house
can find its way into your grow room. That means:
Never leave doors or windows open without a screen
Don’t wear the same clothes in your grow room as you do in your
outdoor garden
Don’t use the same tools in your grow room as you do in your
outdoor garden (including gloves)
Short of sterilizing yourself every time you enter your grow room, this
can be really difficult. The best thing you can do is always wear the same
clothes in your grow room. You can store them somewhere near your
grow room so that you can easily put them on and take them off as you
enter and leave.
HOW TO DEAL WITH AN INFESTATION
Unfortunately, creating a permaculture system in an indoor grow
operation is difficult. The best and safest way to deal with pests is to
introduce other insects or plant species that will deal with them for you.
But it might be difficult to bring ladybugs into an indoor grow room.
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The problem with fungus gnats, for example, is that they often bring
ants with them which can create another infestation for you. So it’s really
important to deal with them before it gets too late. Of course, you can
purchase a pesticide from your local garden store, but some might be
apprehensive about doing this because you will finally ingest your buds.
And ultimately, you don’t want to ingest pesticide.
Many growers recommend neem as a natural bio-pesticide that can be
used on your plants. It can be purchased at your local garden store.
You can also try some other home remedies before you go purchasing
expensive pesticides:
Garlic and onion spray
Salt spray
Eucalyptus oil
Chrysanthemum flower tea (this contains pyrethrins, which are a
contentious topic on the matter of pesticides, so be careful with
this one)
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YOU MAY NEED TO FORCE FLOWERING
If pests are becoming an ongoing problem in your grow room, you may
need to force flowering. Once you have cleared the infestation, switch the
light cycle and start flowering. Hopefully, you can harvest before another
infestation. This is important because you should not use pesticide or
insecticide during flowering. You will otherwise end up with harmful
chemicals in your buds, which will finally end up in your bloodstream.
GROWING ECO-FRIENDLY WEED INDOORS
The reality of growing weed indoors is that it’s not typically environmentally
friendly. Using lights, fans, air conditioners, and humidity controllers all
consumes a lot of power, especially for something that can be grown
under sunlight and rain. But there are ways you can minimise the footprint
of your indoor grow space.
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Mycorrhizae — symbiosis between cannabis and fungi
Mycorrhizae is a kind of fungus (or
mushroom) that has a very interesting
relationship with cannabis. Well, to be
honest, fungi in general do a lot for the
regeneration of virtually every plant in
the plant kingdom. But for cannabis
in particular, mycorrhizae is the one.
When mycorrhizae is added to the soil
your cannabis plant is growing in, they
essentially expand the surface area that
the root system of your plants can access.
On top of this, they also help cannabis plants to break down nutrients so that
they are more easily absorbed. They even help to ward off pests. You can add
mycorrhizae to your soil by purchasing a mycorrhizae-rich nutrient solution.
Steer clear of chemicals
Any chemicals you use on your cannabis
plants will eventually end up back in the
earth, whether as run off from your grow
room or when you dump your soil back into
the compost after harvesting. There are
a lot of options for organic pesticides and
fertilisers that won’t harm the environment.
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Use light efficiently
Remember when we talked about SOG
and SCROG? Well, these aren’t techniques
just to help your plants grow better.
They also help you use your light more
efficiently throughout the grow process
so that all parts of the plant receive light.
The long-term effects might mean that
you have to grow less weed because your
yields are so high!
Grow seasonally
At the end of the day, heating your grow
room during a European winter consumes
a lot of energy. Keeping the grow room
cool during a ridiculously hot, southern
European summer also consumes a lot
of energy. Choose those times of the
year when the temperature is mild so
that you can easily and efficiently
maintain temperatures.
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Common diseases of cannabis plants
Aside from nutrient deficiencies, which we outlined in the Nutrients and
Feeding chapter of Indoor Cannabis Cultivation, there are also some
other common diseases that marijuana plants might face.
Because these problems are not exclusive to indoor or outdoor
cultivation, but can affect both, we’ve created an entire chapter on the
common problems you might confront with your cannabis plants. Refer
to the Most Common Problems and Diseases chapter for a full low-down
on how to deal with some of those problems.
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Securing your indoor grow room:
Growing cannabis discreetly
Security is a huge thing to contend with,
even if growing cannabis is completely
legal where you live. At the end of the day,
cannabis is sought after but not everybody
has the means to grow it. More than that,
there can be nosey people around who
simply don’t approve, and will go to great
measures to sabotage a grow operation. It
doesn’t matter who you are, or where you
are growing, it’s important to secure your
grow room:
Tell nobody
The first rule of securing your grow room
is don’t tell anybody! The only people
who need to know are the people
who live in the same house as you. As
exciting as it might be to tell everybody
you know that you’re growing weed, you
shouldn’t. You can keep it as a surprise
when you finally harvest.
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Keep the smell
under control
By using carbon filters, you can keep the
smell of your grow room under control.
This will ensure that your neighbours
don’t know that you are growing cannabis.
This is especially pertinent if you live in an
apartment block.
Think about noise
Having fans going constantly (especially if it’s not that hot outside) can get
alarm bells ringing from your neighbours.
Remember: you get to choose the day and night hours of a grow cycle.
Streets and neighborhoods tend to be the loudest during the middle
of the day, thanks to traffic, schools, workplaces, etc. Have your fans on
during the loudest times of the day so that their sound is drowned out.
This is especially easy during the flowering stage, when it is only “daytime”
in your grow room for 12 hours.
You can also consider putting your grow room somewhere in your house
that is relatively far from your neighbours. For example, if your bedroom
shares a wall with your neighbour, it is perhaps best not to put your grow
room in your bedroom closet. You get the idea.
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Best strains to grow indoors
Choosing the right strain means everything. Some strains thrive in the
indoor growing environment, so choosing a suitable strain will help you
immensely. There are lots of things to think about when you’re choosing a
strain for indoors. For example — how tall does the plant grow, and how
big is your grow space? Is the yield high enough for you to keep energy
costs down? All of these things contribute to why we chose the following five
strains as our favourites to grow indoors.
Northern Lights
Northern Lights is a European favourite,
and WeedSeedShop stocks this strain
in a feminized and autoflowering
variant (for those who can’t be bothered
with light cycles). It has an extremely
heavy yield, and grows to an average
height. It’s easy to grow and has a short
flowering period.
This indica strain is well known to relax the muscles and the mind,
giving an all round sense of relaxation. It gives the kind of euphoric
laziness that helps people overcome insomnia or pain.
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Big Bud
As the name suggests, Big Bud produces
really big buds. It’s also an extremely easy
strain of cannabis to grow. Just like Northern
Lights, Big Bud is available in a feminized
and autoflowering variant. It has one
of the biggest yields of all of our available
strains, and doesn’t grow to be too tall.
Big Bud is an indica, giving the user a
deeply physically relaxing experience.
Amnesia
Although Amensia is a sativa variety, it’s
a very compact plant. It doesn’t grow too
tall or too wide, making it perfect for those
who have a small indoor grow space. You
might have guessed by its name what kind
of effects it has! Don’t be surprised if using
this strain makes you forget about all of
your problems!
Amnesia is available in a feminized variant.
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White Widow
White Widow (feminized) is one of
the most renowned strains of medical
cannabis available. It’s a sativa/indica
hybrid with an average height gain and an
average flowering time. But it has a huge
yield. You’ll enjoy watching the dense layer
of white trichomes form on the buds and
flowers of White Widow.
Super Skunk
Super Skunk (feminized) is special
because it grows like an indica but it feels
like a sativa. For those indoor growers who
are limited on space, but like the effects of
sativa, Super Skunk satisfies. It has a large
yield, doesn’t grow too tall, and doesn’t
mind if it’s not too hot in the grow room.
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CULTIVATION
Outdoor cannabis cultivation is much closer to the natural “way” of things
than indoor soil or hydroponic setups. There is a lot of contention over
the value of true sunlight versus synthetic light, but at the end of the day,
sunlight is the fuel for all plants to grow. Cannabis is no exception.
Pros and cons of outdoor cultivation
Outdoor cultivators obviously confront problems that indoor growers
don’t have to such as pests (cats, dogs, squirrels, etc). But there are a lot
of issues that outdoor growers don’t have to deal with — like the cost and
work involved in setting up an indoor grow room. Plus, outdoor growers can
harness the free power of sunlight instead of paying for electricity to give
their plants light.
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Although indoor growing can be set up in a manner that reduces the
carbon footprint, it will never be as ecological as growing cannabis outdoors.
This is especially true if the outdoor cultivator doesn’t use chemical
insecticides or pesticides in the process. So for those who are aiming for a
truly ecological grow, outdoor cultivation is the best choice.
Growing outdoors also means that you’re limited by the seasons. You can’t
have an outdoor all-year-round grow op unless you live right on the equator
and enjoy equatorial climate all year round.
Plus, without control over the light cycle, you have to pay careful attention
to the patterns in daylight versus night time hours where you live. For most
of Europe, it’s the same, but in northern Europe such as Denmark, Sweden,
The Netherlands and Norway, the summertime often gets up to 20 hours of
daylight. In some parts of northern Norway, there is only 1 hour of darkness
in the summertime.
With all of that in mind, this is the definitive grow-guide for those who want
to hand over all the hard work to nature and grow outdoors. It doesn’t
mean that there won’t be any work for you to do — because there will be!
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Soil
There’s no choice about the growing medium if
you’re growing outdoors. The growing medium
is soil, whether they will be in pots or whether
you will plant in the ground. But there are still
some important factors to talk about when it
comes to soil.
As we talked about with indoor growing, cannabis prefers a certain kind
of soil. It prefers loamy soil, which is a combination of sand, clay, and
silt. The soil should be fluffy, and a dark-brown to black colour. If there is
too much of one aspect, the soil is compromised on its drainage and its
ability to dry out. So it’s important to check the quality of the soil you’re
using before you begin.
If you live in the suburbs or in the city, but still want to grow outdoors,
your best option is to use pots. For those who live on large properties,
it’s still feasible to put your plants directly in the soil, providing you know
the quality of your soil. But even still, there are many different factors to
think about before you decide whether you’ll use pots or plant directly in
the ground.
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THE BENEFITS OF USING POTS
The benefits of using pots are obvious. To start with, if you live in a busy
European city or suburb, chances are you don’t have a spare few square
metres of soil to get planting. Pots help you mitigate this. You can even
grow on your balcony if you use pots. Some of the advantages of growing
in pots include:
Much more flexibility in the place your plants can go
You can “save” your plants from unforeseen weather by bringing
the pots inside during a storm or extreme heat
You don’t risk not knowing the quality of the soil or what’s going
on underneath
You have, overall, more control over the growing medium
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THE BENEFITS OF GROWING IN THE GROUND
If you live on a farm, a larger property, or a house with a garden, growing
in the ground is a real option. The biggest disadvantage of growing in the
ground is that if some really bad weather should roll by, there’s no way
of protecting your plants short of putting a screen around them. In that
way, you could lose all of your plants in one day or night of bad weather —
which, let’s be honest, isn’t all together uncommon in Europe.
But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible, and if you can pull it off, it’s extremely
satisfying. Some of the benefits of growing in the ground include:
You have the benefits of microorganisms and worms living in the
soil that can nourish your plants
Your plants may have much better access to nutrients because the
soil will retain them
You don’t have to worry about smell (the wind will carry it far away)
You get a chance to nourish the soil on your property for future
growing endeavours, even if it isn’t weed
You get a chance to nourish the soil on your property for future
growing endeavours, even if it isn’t weed
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Overall, growing in the ground is more
holistic because it allows you to treat the
soil in such a way that potentiates future
growing operations. Growing plants can
nourish your soil as much as it nourishes
you! And that paves the way for all of your
future growing endeavours.
Germination and sowing seeds
Germination is the same whether you
plan to grow outdoors or indoors, so for
all intents and purposes, you can follow
the instructions given in the Germination
chapter of this grow bible. For outdoor
growing, timing of planting is imperative
because of the movement of the season.
We will address this later in the Light
chapter of Outdoor Cannabis Cultivation. In
terms of germination, we have some handy
advice for you.
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START INDOORS, IN SEEDLING TRAYS
Because seedlings are so sensitive to weather and wind, it’s best to start
your germination process indoors. Whether you will use the wet paper
method, or whether you will put them directly in soil, let them sprout inside.
Allow them to pass through the seedling stage next to a window until they
have developed a few characteristic cannabis leaves.
TRANSPLANT INTO A POT BEFORE PUTTING IT IN THE GROUND
Even when plants have just started vegetating, they are still extremely
sensitive little beings. When your plant is a few centimetres tall, transplant it
into a small pot. Weather permitting, you can leave the pot outside to soak
in the sunlight. If the weather turns bad, you can bring the pot back inside.
Once your plant is 10 - 15 cm tall, you can transplant it into your soil (if that’s
where you’ll be growing).
Weeding
Depending on exactly where your outdoor plants
will be located, weeding may be a task you will
have to repeat multiple times throughout the
grow cycle. If plants are in pots, they are much
less susceptible to developing weeds, although
wind dispersal of seeds can easily send weeds
into your pots.
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Weeds often consume many of the nutrients in soil, blocking your plants’
access to those nutrients. Everything becomes competitive. Sometimes,
such competition is necessary, such as in the case of companion planting
(which we’ll get to later). But for the sake of grass or other unnecessary
weeds, it’s important to remove them from your garden.
When you are removing weeds from the soil your cannabis is growing in,
it’s important to pull those weeds out from the roots. So long as the roots
remain in the soil, plants will still be competing for nutrients and water.
Light
Earlier in this grow bible, we talked about
the cannabis circadian rhythm. Cannabis
responds to the changes in the number of
light and dark hours in a day. As the dark
hours increase, cannabis begins to flower.
For indoor operations, the light cycle is
completely at the mercy of the grower.
However, for outdoor operations, the light
cycle is completely at the mercy of the sun!
This means that outdoor growers have to be meticulous with timing
when it comes to planting. If cannabis begins to flower as the winter
approaches, it means that it should be planted in the mid spring to early
summer. This is because as the winter approaches, the number of night
time hours will increase, and therefore initiate flowering.
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For those who live in Northern Europe such as Norway, Denmark, Sweden
or The Netherlands, planting can even take place later into the summer.
This is especially true if you have a fast-flowering or autoflowering strain
of cannabis. Daylight is long during the summer in Northern Europe, and
taking advantage of this can maximise vegetative growth.
For growers in Southern Europe, planting will generally take place in
April, with temperatures rising in the months after. Cannabis plants are
photoperiod-dependent, so planting them in April gives them plenty of
time to vegetate until June 21. After that day, the nighttime hours will
begin to increase.
For growers in Northern Europe, planting may have to begin much later
than April. In fact, for growers in Northern Europe, it is best to choose an
autoflowering or fast-flowering variety of cannabis. This is because even
after the summer has begun, the temperatures are still too cold to put
plants outside. However, growers might get away with planting in June, so
long as the strain goes from seed to harvest quickly.
Examples of strains with a short flowering period are:
Top 44
WSS Skunk
Critical Kush
Feminized
Feminized
Feminized
Automatic
Automatic
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Northern Lights
Feminized
Diesel CBD
AK48
Automatic
Feminized
Automatic
Growers in Northern Europe who want a longer vegetative stage can start
their plants indoors under lights, and move them outdoors when the
weather starts to warm up.
Nutrients and feeding
Outdoor cannabis plants require the same
nutrients as indoor plants. The three main
nutrients are Phosphorus, Potassium, and
Nitrogen. We talked about the importance of
these nutrients in the Nutrients And Feeding
chapter of Indoor Cannabis Cultivation. And all of
that is applicable for outdoor growing.
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However, those who are growing cannabis outdoors in the ground (not in
pots) should consider the quality of their soil. Soil that has become too dry,
undernourished, or has been drained from years of cultivation won’t be a
happy camping spot for cannabis plants. The soil would need to be treated
before planting. Another thing to think about is that feeding nutrients to
an entire garden isn’t as easy as feeding nutrients to pot plant. This is why
compost is the best nutrition for an outdoor cannabis garden.
PREPARING SOIL FOR PLANTING WITH NUTRIENTS
Everybody has heard of compost, right? Well, that’s how you can organically
get nutrients into your soil from the very beginning of your grow.
If you’re organised, you will have been preparing compost for months
before the growing season has begun. This gives your compost a chance
to ferment, break down, and essentially turn into organic, nutrient rich soil.
Then you simply spread it around the area in which you wish to grow, and it
will organically nourish your soil.
That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t keep a bottle of nutrient feed on hand
in case you notice deficiencies in your plants (refer to Nutrient Deficiencies
for Indoor Cannabis Cultivation). But being able to use compost is a huge
advantage, not just for your soil, but for your hip-pocket as a grower. You
won’t have to purchase fertiliser, and, well, those who use pots simply have
nowhere to put the compost!
INDOOR POTS, OUTDOOR POTS, IT’S ALL THE SAME
If you’re growing in pots, whether it’s indoors or outdoors, your plants still
need all of the same nutrients. So make sure you refer to the Nutrients and
Feeding section of Indoor Cannabis Cultivation to understand what nutrients
to give your plants, how much, and how often.
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Temperature and weather
This is where things can start to get
complicated for outdoor cannabis growers.
As we mentioned, the ideal temperatures
for growing cannabis are 20°C to 30°C.
In the flowering stage, the temperatures
should ideally drop down to 18°C to 26°C.
This is because flowering is typically initiated
at the onset of winter when temperatures
are starting to drop.
For indoor growers, the temperature can be completely controlled. But
for outdoor growers, it’s all about the mood the sun is in that day. In some
ways, it means that outdoor growers don’t have to think about it all too
much. If you plant at the right time, you should be able to harness the
power of summer — which is the whole point of outdoor growing.
But what happens when the weather goes awry? Will your plants still
survive if the temperature suddenly drops too low overnight? If you live in
the kind of climate that is prone to such fluctuations in temperature, there
are a few things you can do:
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GROW IN POTS!
We’ve mentioned this already, but if you know you live in
a place that is prone to fluctuations in weather, it is better
to grow in pots than in the ground. This safeguards you
against sudden storms or drops in temperature. When
these fluctuations occur, you can simply move your
plants back indoors until the weather resumes to normal.
CHOOSE ROBUST STRAINS
There are some strains of cannabis that don’t mind if
the temperature drops a little bit. Typically, these are the
kinds of strains that originated on mountainsides or at
high altitudes. These strains are also more robust and
are able to withstand harsher climates. For example,
Northern Lights and Top 44 auto will thrive in even
cooler climates.
GET A GREENHOUSE
If you’re absolutely certain you want to grow outdoors
but fear the weather, you can always purchase a small
greenhouse. Temperatures tend to stay warmer inside
the greenhouse, and in any case, your plants are
protected from excess rain and wind.
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Outdoor Flowering
Outdoor marijuana plants will begin to flower with the change of season.
As the night hours begin to increase, outdoor plants will begin preflowering. When there are 12 or more dark hours in a 24-hour period,
your plant will begin to bloom.
This is not true for all strains of cannabis. Regular and feminized strains
will respond to photoperiod (i.e. changes in hours of daylight), but
autoflowering strains will flower based on age rather than photoperiod.
Every autoflowering variety comes with an estimate of flowering time.
This gives growers the chance to plant based on weather, rather than on
the day or night time hours.
During flowering, you may give your
plants a nutrient schedule that is ideal
for flowering. We talked about this in the
Nutrients and Feeding chapter of Indoor
Cannabis Cultivation. This will encourage
the floral growth that will make up for an
awesome harvest!
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Pests and predators
An outdoor crop is much more susceptible to
an infestation of pests, or to be gobbled up by
curious wildlife. That’s why outdoor growers have
to be on top of things at the first sight of pests.
Just a couple of pests can very quickly turn into
an enormous infestation — which isn’t always
easy to deal with.
In this section, we’ll shed some light on some of the most common
cannabis pests, how to identify them, and how to deal with them.
Aphids
Aphids are the tiny green or white flies that seem to collect on the stems
and leaves of cannabis, among a lot of other plants. Depending on the
species, whether they have wings or not, and their age, they can also
appear black. Winged aphids can come and lay eggs on the plant, which
leads to a huge infestation of them. They use their tiny mouths to suck
the juice out of the stems and leaves.
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Basically, if you see any aphids on your cannabis plants, you need to get rid
of them quickly before they seriously damage your plant. But be careful not
to use any pesticides that can’t be used on edible plants. You can use neem
spray or another organic pesticide you find in your local garden store to get
rid of them.
Barnacles/Scale insects
Barnacles can be found on the stems or under the leaves of your
plants. They don’t often move around and will hang out in a spot for a
long time, making them easy to catch and remove. Interestingly, they
release a sticky, sweet sap called ‘honeydew’ that attracts ants and
aphids. So it’s important to make them go away quickly.
The best way to get rid of barnacles is with a single-handed, high
pressure spray. This gets rid of large numbers of them at the
same time. But be careful not to hurt your plants in the process.
Alternatively, you can, with gloves on, apply an insecticidal soap and
rub them off. Don’t let insecticidal soap get near your buds.
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Broad mites
It’s really hard — maybe even impossible
— to see broad mites with the naked eye.
They are microscopic little insects, and
broad mite detection usually happens
when you realise that your plant is looking
a little sorry. You know you have a broad
mite infestation when new growth is
twisted or curled, and the leaves might
look blistered, wet, or glossy. If your plant
is flowering, the bud might turn brown
and then die.
Most miticides won’t kill broad mites and in fact, this is one of the
hardest infestations to deal with. However, if you stay vigilant, you should
be able to help your plant. Use this advice to try rid your plant of a broad
mite infestation.
1
Remove the infected parts of the plant. If the infestation is
bad, you’re better off to remove those parts of the plant to
prevent spreading.
2
Spray, and spray every day. Neem oil is effective at
combating broad mites. Be sure to use a mister or a onehand pressure spray.
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3
Spray in the evenings. If you’re growing indoors, spray before
you turn the lights off. If you’re growing outdoors, spray in the
evening. This prevents the chance of your plant getting burned.
4
Repeat the treatment for up to 5 weeks after the infestation
has gone.
Caterpillars
You know you’ve got caterpillars when
there are nice, big holes chewed out of
your cannabis leaves. You can often find
them on the underside of the leaf and
they usually leave little black droppings
there. Basically, they love to eat cannabis,
and they will turn your beautiful leaves
into a holey mess.
Caterpillar BT Spray is a safe, biological insecticide that stops caterpillars
being able to eat and doesn’t harm any other beneficial insects on
your cannabis plant. It also kills the larvae to prevent more caterpillars
showing up.
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Crickets
Crickets often leave the same telltale signs
as caterpillars — holes chewed out of
the plants. It’s hard to deal with crickets
because they’re virtually everywhere.
That’s why the best method of dealing
with them is prevention. For indoor
gardens, preventative measures for
crickets might not be necessary, but they
will be for outdoor cannabis gardens.
Cricket traps or cricket baits are a great way to deal with crickets getting
onto your plants. It won’t stop them from showing up, but it might help
control the amount of them that get onto your plants. Organic insecticidal
soaps or sprays will also do the trick.
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Fungus gnats
Fungus gnats are the tiny flies that buzz
around wet and moist soil — exactly the
kind of soil your cannabis will be growing
in. Typically, plants that are infested
with fungus gnats look sad, droopy, and
overall unhealthy. The leaves are the
most common place to identify a fungus
gnat infestation.
The best way to prevent fungus gnats is to let your topsoil dry out
sufficiently between waterings. Fungus gnats lay eggs in moist soil, and
if your soil gets a chance to dry out, it will minimise the chance of them
turning up.
If you do find that your soil is infected with fungus gnats, you can do
the following:
Purchase a yellow sticky card from your garden store. This has a
special glue on it that attracts adult fungus gnats. This doesn’t help
you deal with the larvae, but it gives you an idea of how bad your
fungus gnat problem is.
Don’t water your plants for a few days.
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Treat the top layer of soil with neem oil or another insecticide
to kill the larvae. Be mindful to check the indications on your
insecticide to see if fungus gnats are included. If not, just spray the
top layer of soil with neem spray.
Everytime you give a treatment, you should use a fresh yellow
sticky card to see if there are less fungus gnats attached to it.
Grasshoppers
Grasshoppers will happily live on the
stems of your cannabis plant and very
enthusiastically chew away at your leaves
— sometimes to the point of breaking the
entire leaf. They’ve even been known to
chew the whole way through a stem!
If you spot grasshopper damage to the leaves or stems of your plants,
you’ll almost always find one or two grasshoppers hanging out on it
somewhere. It’s important to remove them fast, because these guys can
destroy your plants in no time.
You can use an insecticidal soap or organic pesticide to remove them.
Remember — don’t spray pesticide on your buds!
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Leafhoppers
When leafhoppers have been gnawing
away at your plants, they leave little
yellow/brown spots that can commonly
be mistaken for a disease. In any case,
you will notice them hanging out on your
plants if you find these yellow/brown
spots. They are especially prevalent
during dry weather, as they come out
seeking moisture from leaves.
Apply an insecticidal soap or organic pesticide spray to your plants, and
that should remove any leaf hoppers.
Leaf miners
As their name might suggest, leaf miners actually live inside the tissue of
your plants and consume the best parts of it. They leave squiggly tracks
behind them, a signature sign that you have a leaf miner infestation. You’ll
probably never spot a leaf miner because they live inside the leaf, but the
marks they leave on leaves are so characteristic that you should never make
a mistake when diagnosing leaf miners.
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The first thing you should do if you suspect
that leaf miners are living in your plant is
to remove the affected leaves. Then, you
can spray neem oil on the leaves (avoid
the buds), which will poison the leaf miners
inside the leaves. Alternatively, Spinosad
products can be used in soil to poison the
little pests from inside the leaf!
Mealybugs
Mealybugs look like tiny white patches of
mould, and they’re commonly mistaken
for mold. If you live somewhere cold,
you’ll probably never have to worry about
mealybugs. However, in warmer climates,
these guys like to come and hang out
on cannabis. Like aphids, they release
a sweet sap that causes sooty mould to
develop on plants.
Before you start using insecticidal soaps, you should try to remove as
many as possible by hand. You can do this with tweezers, or you can
simply spray the leaves with water to encourage them to stop clinging.
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Once you’ve removed as many as possible, you can use rubbing alcohol
to remove the rest. You can do it one by one with a cotton swab (if there
aren’t too many), or you can use the one-hand pressure spray if there are
more to deal with. You can use 1 part rubbing alcohol to 9 parts water.
You can also add diatomaceous earth to the topsoil. This kills mealybugs
in their tracks and prevents infestations in the future.
Slugs/snails
Anyone who ever grew anything knows
how annoying it is when slugs and snails
get on your plants. They leave a glittery
trail behind them, and don’t mind taking
a bite out of every leaf they go past. The
quickest way to know whether it’s slugs
or caterpillars that have been chewing
on your leaves is to look for that
reflective, glittery trail. Slugs and snails
most commonly come out for a feed at
night time.
There’s no real way to deal with slugs or snails, and most pesticides won’t
work. However, you can trap them with a beer solution to keep them off
your plants. Simply mix some stale beer and flour in a shallow tub and
leave it in the garden. They should collect inside. You can also replace
beer for sugar water, wine, or juice.
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Spider mites
So many cannabis growers report spider
mite infestations, but they’re still one of
the hardest to get rid of. The first sign of
spider-mites is small, yellowish specks
on the leaves. These are the bite marks
of spider mites. The insects themselves
are super tiny and are often found on
the back of the leaves.
If you’re growing indoors, you can protect your plants by having a
cool breeze on your plants. Spider mites like the heat and they hate a
windy environment. But you might not enjoy such liberties if you’re an
outdoor grower. For outdoor growers, you can use an organic pesticide
such as Spinosad.
Thrips
Thrips leave irregular silver or brown
spots on cannabis leaves. The marks
sometimes look like those left by spider
mites. Some people describe the look
of thrip marks as dried saliva. Typically,
adult thrips are dark coloured but the
nymphs are almost transparent.
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Neem oil and insecticidal soap are effective treatments against thrips.
Whiteflies
Whiteflies are tiny, white, moth-looking
insects. An infestation of whiteflies gets
out of hand really quickly because the
eggs are basically glued to the plant, so
they can’t be rubbed off.
Whether you choose neem oil or insecticidal soap, coverage is extremely
important. You have to cover all the affected parts of the plant to ensure
that you kill the eggs as well as the adult whiteflies themselves.
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Common pests other than insects
Insects aren’t the only things that want to gobble up your hard earned
harvest. Depending on where you live, there’s also wildlife to contend
with, as well as cats and dogs. And yes — you’d be amazed how many
animals out there really want to eat cannabis. These might include
livestock, deer, squirrels, foxes, and other small mammals.
There’s no effective or ethical way to stop these creatures from
eating your cannabis aside from putting your plants in nets or in a
greenhouse. But mammals probably won’t try to chew through a plastic
netting, so if you’re growing outdoors and there are animals around, it’s
really worth taking the extra step and covering them.
Growing eco-friendly weed outdoors
Outdoor growers have many more options when it comes to growing
eco-friendly or permaculture systems. The outdoor environment is far less
sterile than the indoor one, and although this has challenges of its own, it
also gives growers an opportunity to use permaculture techniques.
If you want to set up a permaculture system in your garden, you need
to do some planning before planting your cannabis. Permaculture
happens only when all the right things are in all the right places — it’s a
way of mimicking the kind of integration that you would see in a forest,
for example. There are thousands of species of plants everywhere, all
of which do their own specific job for the environment and the plants
around them.
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Let’s have a look at some of the eco-friendly techniques you can put in
place in your outdoor cannabis garden:
Companion planting
Companion planting is an extremely old agricultural technique that
allows cultivators to plant mutually beneficial species next to each
other. This creates a permaculture system in your garden. For example,
you may have plants that enrich the soil with certain nutrients and
others that repel insects. They create the kind of ecosystem that “takes
care of itself” — especially if it’s done with great care and tact.
Companion planting is the cheapest and most planet-friendly way of
protecting your cannabis plants from pests and delivering essential nutrients
into the soil. Companion plants drive mini-ecosystems in your garden that
don’t leave your soil — or the surrounding environment — depleted of
nutrients and minerals. The fundamental principle is biodiversity.
When it comes to growing weed, cultivators
are most interested in companion plants
that boost growth and yield, that repel
insects, and that fix nutrients like nitrogen
into the soil. This list of companion plants
can help your cannabis plants be happier
and healthier!
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COMPANION PLANTS FOR PEST/INSECT MANAGEMENT
If you plan your garden well, you might not ever have to use chemical
insecticides or pesticides. You can use these plants to naturally repel insects
and pests throughout the length of your grow cycle.
BASIL
DILL
The strong aroma of basil repels aphids,
This is another culinary favourite that can be
asparagus beetles, mosquitos and whiteflies.
used to attract honeybees, hoverflies, and
Plus, you can harvest leaves throughout the
beneficial wasps. It will even attract butterflies
grow season to use in the kitchen!
and caterpillars, keeping them away from your
cannabis plants. The smell of dill also repels
aphids and spider mites.
CORIANDER
MARIGOLD
Coriander is another strongly aromatic herb
Marigold is often confused with Calendula
that repels aphids and spider mites. Coriander
officinalis, whose common name is also
also attracts the kinds of wasps that will eat
marigold. But for companion planting, we’re
away at the bugs that come to munch on your
talking about Tagetes erecta. The beautiful
cannabis leaves and buds.
flowers of the marigold plant repel beetles
and leaf hoppers, while also attracting nectareating species of insect.
ALFALFA
PEPPERMINT
This delicious, nutritional powerhouse attracts
Peppermint, another herb garden staple, repels
ladybugs to your garden, which are one of the
aphids, beetles and mice. But be careful with
best natural forms of insect control!
peppermint — it’s extremely invasive and grows
quickly, so be sure to prune and pluck regularly.
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SUNFLOWERS
YARROW
Sunflowers attract many of the pests that like
Yarrow can be planted around the edge of
to consume cellulose and sap-rich plants. So
your garden (so it doesn’t compete for room
rather than them feasting on your cannabis
with your cannabis plants) to repel a wide
plants, they’ll be lured in by the sunflowers
range of insects and attract the good kind like
instead. Plant around your garden, but not too
ladybugs and wasps. It’s also said to increase
close to your cannabis plants.
essential oil content in the plants growing
around it, meaning more aromatic cannabis
plants for you! And aside from being a great
companion plant, yarrow is a staple for the
herbal medicine cabinet.
COMPANION PLANTS FOR SOIL QUALITY
As well as using companion plants to repel pests, you can also use companion
plants to enhance the quality of your soil. Some companion plants can fix
nutrients into the soil so that you don’t have to feed with synthetic nutrients.
ALFALFA
WHITE AND RED CLOVERS
Aside from repelling hungry insects from your
Low growing, these companion plants act as a
cannabis plants, alfalfa also fixes nitrogen
natural, growing mulch. All clovers fix nitrogen
into the soil. It also accumulates phosphorus,
into the soil, and if you see them growing
magnesium and iron around where it grows,
around it’s a good indication of the quality
making these nutrients accessible to your
of soil! As it decomposes, nitrogen becomes
cannabis plants.
available to your weed plants.
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HERBAL TEAS YOU CAN MAKE FOR YOUR CANNABIS PLANTS
Having companion plants growing alongside your cannabis is one thing — but
actually feeding your plants herbal tea is another thing. You’d be amazed at
how many different plants can be used as insect repellent, nutrient feed and
as a booster for growth.
CORIANDER
ALFALFA
A tea brewed from the seeds of coriander can
Alfalfa is quite obviously a necessity for any
be sprayed on your cannabis plants to control
eco-driven cannabis cultivator. You can brew
spider mites.
a tea from the stalks of alfalfa to create a
nutrient-rich solution to feed your cannabis
plants. It will stimulate growth and increase
the vigour of your plants.
Homemade compost tea
Compost tea is a brewed beverage for your cannabis plants. As its name
suggests, it’s made out of compost, and gives your plants a nutrient-rich
formula that protects them against pathogens and enhances their overall
health. Compost doesn’t just provide nutrients to your plants, but it also
introduces beneficial microorganisms to your garden. These might be
fungi, bacteria, or protozoa.
If you want to give your plants homemade compost tea, you need to have
access to compost, whether it’s your own or the compost of a friend.
Creating compost is a slow process, and can take anywhere between 6
months and 2 years to create a viable compost.
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Your compost needs to smell fresh, like soil
straight out of a forest. If it still smells like
mould or degenerating matter, then it’s not
ready to be used yet. Compost can often
be purchased from local farms or growers,
if they aren’t already using that compost
themselves. Just be mindful that for the
following compost tea recipe, the compost
needs to be ready to use, and can’t be still
in the process of breaking down.
Compost tea recipe
First, fill a container with 95 litres of tap water. Some recommend aerating this with a pump to
remove any chlorine, although chlorine is not typically considered to be dangerous to cannabis
plants — at least not in the concentrations typically seen in tap water.
Dilute 1-2 tablespoons of humic acid into two cups of water, and then add it to your container.
Mix ½ cup kelp into 5 litres of water. Add this to the container.
Add around 2.5 kg of compost to the container.
You should let this brew for 24-36 hours, delivering it a constant supply of oxygen with a pump.
This will help to encourage growth of beneficial microorganisms.
Use your compost tea as a foliar spray for the soil, all around your garden. Dispose of whatever
is left.
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Sprouted seed tea
Sprouts aren’t just good for humans —
cannabis loves them too. Sprouted seed
tea is a natural fertiliser you can use to
encourage the growth of your plants.
And for those who don’t have access
to compost, sprouted seed tea is an
alternative that’s just as good. All you need
on hand to create sprouted seed tea is
some seeds and some water!
What you’ll need:
50-60 grams of
barley seeds
Water
A sieve
A blender
A bucket
A large bowl
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How to make it:
Put all barley seeds in a bucket full of water. If you notice them floating to the top, give the bucket
a gentle tap and watch them sink to the bottom. Let them soak overnight.
You might notice a layer of debris on the top of the bucket after soaking. Use the sieve to scoop
it out.
Remove the soaked seeds from the water and put them in a jar for sprouting. Rinse them every
day, and allow a total of 3 days for sprouting. You will notice tendrils beginning to sprout from
the seeds — these are nutrient rich little organisms. By the third day, they’ll be long enough for
feeding to your plants.
Place your sprouted seeds in a blender and fill the blender halfway with water. Blend until you get
a soapy, white textured liquid.
Fill a 20 liter bucket with water. Strain your soapy seed mixture into the bucket using the sieve.
Mix well.
Spray on soil and on leaves for happy weed plants!
How to secure an outdoor grow
The most obvious difference between growing weed outdoors versus
growing it indoors is that everybody can see your plants! For that reason,
it’s much more difficult to secure an outdoor cannabis garden than it is
to secure an outdoor cannabis operation. Obviously, we don’t encourage
growing on public land. For starters, it’s illegal. And secondly, it’s nearly
impossible to maintain a grow on public land (multiple trips a week
carrying water and nutrients).
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You are able to provide some level of security to your cannabis plants if
you’re growing in your yard. If your yard is fenced, then it should prevent
neighbours from seeing right in. If you’re growing on your balcony, it can
be a little bit harder. But in any case, you can decrease the visibility of your
cannabis plants by… adding more plants!
If you’re growing on your balcony, you should line your balcony with tall
plants so that your weed plants will camouflage right in. Be careful not to
block your plants from receiving light, though!
Be mindful where you put it — it might be tempting to put your plants on
the roof of your building, but if you share the roof with other residents,
then it won’t be too secure. If your balcony faces out onto the street, this
is also a nosy-intruders-issue. The more hidden your outdoor grow space
is from the general public, the better.
The same is true if you’re growing cannabis in your yard. Don’t use the
front yard! The front yard is obviously where the street is, where many
people will walk and drive by every day. You are better off using your
backyard. Depending on how tall your fences are, you might not have to
camouflage your cannabis with other plants.
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Just like with indoor growing, the number one rule of securing your plants
is don’t tell anybody! Now, this can be hard if you like having garden
parties and your cannabis is freely growing all around your yard. But you
can be mindful of where you put your plants. You can hide them in places
that most of your guests won’t go. Or simply use pots, and relocate them
when your friends come over.
For outdoor growers, security is something you have to think about long
before you actually start planting. You should have a plan, including
protocols in case something goes awry. For example, if your neighbours
start to complain about your cannabis plants, will you have another place
to relocate them? These are the kinds of notes you should make on
security before you even begin.
5 Best strains to grow outdoors
Unlike indoor cannabis growers, outdoor cultivators are not bound by
space! That means your plants can grow as tall as they like. This gives you
a lot more flexibility with strains and you can pretty much grow any strain
of cannabis, weather permitting.
Most of the strains we recommend here are sativa, or taller growing
plants. And the only reason they are the best ones to grow outdoors is
because you often can’t grow them in small growing spaces. So it’s best to
use the space to your advantage and grow tall, luscious plants!
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Pure Power Plant
Pure Power Plant (feminized) isn’t just
a tall growing plant, but it’s powerful
when you smoke it too. WIth primarily
satva genetics, this strain grows to be
quite tall, with an XXL yield. Its flowering
period is average, so you won’t have to
wait too long for a harvest. However, this
strain prefers the sunny, mediterranean
climates of Southern Europe!
Super Silver Cheese
Super Silver Cheese (feminized) is
another tall growing sativa variety to add
to your outdoor garden. The effects are
more characteristic of a hybrid, although
its growth patterns err very much on the
sativa side. It likes sunny, mediterranean
climates, and has quite a long flowering
period. So make sure your timing is
impeccable when you plant this one!
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Mexican Haze
Mexican Haze (feminized) is an old
favourite of the Haze family. In fact,
virtually any Haze strain is perfect to
grow outdoors because they have
strong sativa genetics. Mexican Haze
grows to be super tall and can deliver
enormous yields if grown correctly. It
has an average flowering period, but
once it’s done, buds are covered in thick,
resinous trichomes.
NYC Diesel
NYC Diesel (feminized) is arguably one
of the most potent strains of cannabis
ever grown. And those who choose to
grow NYC Diesel won’t do it for the yield,
but for the experience of using this strain.
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The plant delivers a high yield (but not the biggest), grows quite tall,
and has an average flowering period. Not the easiest of strains to grow
for absolute beginners, but it’s worth keeping some seeds on the shelf
for the second or third growing seasons!
Trainwreck
Trainwreck (feminized) is one of our
favourite strains to grow outdoors. It
ticks virtually every box — it grows tall,
has a very heavy yield, and is extremely
potent to consume. The strain hails from
Mexican and Haze parents on one side,
and Afghan genetics on the other side.
So it’s pretty obvious what it might feel
like to use Trainwreck — and the name
gives it all away.
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7 MOST COMMON
PROBLEMS AND
DISEASES OF
CANNABIS PLANTS
Yes — there is a lot to think about when it comes to growing marijuana. And
even though we’ve spoken about nutrient deficiencies and pests, there are
still more challenges that you might face during the grow cycle.
It doesn’t mean that every grower is going to experience every problem
during every grow, but this is a grow bible after all. This section is here to
serve as a resource for you in case something is wrong with your plant and
you’re having problems identifying it.
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One of the hardest things you will have to do as a cannabis grower is decide
why your plant is looking a little sad. It’s essential to diagnose diseases and
problems early; if you don’t, you run the risk of losing your entire plant. But
if it’s your first time growing weed, how are you supposed to know what the
problem is exactly? Well — that’s why you’ve got this grow bible.
Whenever you notice your plants looking sad or sorry, you should refer to
this grow bible as a resource. It will help you to identify problems, and will
give you some guidance on how to rectify those problems. Hopefully you
can get through your grow without having to confront any of these issues,
but in case you do, remember to refer to this chapter for advice.
1
Bud rot or mould
Sometimes, the first sign of bud rot is that
some of the leaves have seemingly turned
yellow overnight. As you can imagine, bud
rot is something that forms on buds, so
you’re only likely to encounter this problem
during the flowering phase. When bud rot
attacks, the buds look as though they are
turning brown and disintegrating. What
characterises bud rot from other problems
is that it is isolated to the buds. While your
buds might look sick, the rest of your plant
looks totally healthy.
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If you suspect that bud rot is attacking your plants, you need to remove all
the affected buds immediately. Bud rot is caused by a fungus that spreads
extremely quickly. To save the rest of your harvest, you should sacrifice
any buds that might be infected.
To prevent bud rot, keep the humidity low and increase air circulation.
Fungi require very specific environments to thrive, and hot, humid ones
are perfect. If the humidity in your grow room is increasing, use another
fan or decrease the temperature.
To reduce humidity (especially in an outdoor grow), you can remove
some of your leaves. This is especially effective if the plant is very
bushy. Removing leaves will increase air circulation in and around your
buds specifically.
2
Leaf septoria
Leaf septoria is sometimes otherwise known
as yellow leaf spot. Like bud rot, this disease
typically happens in warmer, wetter grow
rooms. Spots first appear as bright yellow,
but slowly turn brown. It is caused by a
fungus or bacteria that slowly eats away at
your cannabis plants.
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Leaf septoria is more likely to occur in outdoor cannabis spaces or those
grown in organic soil from the garden. This is because the spores of the
fungus responsible for leaf septoria live in soil, remain dormant over the
winter, and then attack plants in the summer.
Just as is the case with bud rot, you should remove all the infected parts
of the plant as soon as you notice it. You can also spray your plants with a
copper-based fungicide.
For prevention of leaf septoria, keep humidity down and prune to
encourage air circulation. Weaker plants are also much more susceptible
to leaf septoria, so keeping your plants healthy and robust is a priority.
3
Root rot
Curled, droopy, and unhealthy leaves are the first sign of root rot. It
indicates that the roots are beginning to rot, and in turn, the leaves don’t
receive a healthy supply of oxygen. To double check that your plant has
root rot, you can gently remove it from the soil and inspect the roots.
Roots should be white and robust. If they are brown and slimy, you have a
case of root rot.
Root rot is caused by bacteria, fungus, or algae inhabiting your soil or
hydroponic system. With that said, it’s more likely to occur in hydroponic
setups, but it occasionally occurs as a result of overwatering soil, too. In
order to fix root rot, you need to address the roots specifically.
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If your roots are beginning to go brown and you’re growing in a
hydroponic setup, you can begin treating it by adding beneficial root
bacteria. You can use Hydroguard or Great White Root powder. These can
be added to your hydroponic medium, and should successfully get your
roots back into shape. You should also increase aeration to your water to
increase oxygen delivery to the roots and the plant as a whole.
If you are growing in soil and your plant is experiencing root rot, you
can transplant it into better aerated soil. First give the roots a wash with
clean water and try to remove any brown parts. It’s extremely important
to minimize damage to the main taproot. If this is damaged, your plant
may not survive the shock and may die. You should also consider using
beneficial root bacteria to the soil.
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4
White powdery mildew
White powdery mildew is a common
problem for cannabis plants, but the good
news is that it can be fixed easily — if you
catch it early. It presents as powdery patches
on leaves that look like someone has dusted
your plants with flour.
White powdery mildew is most commonly seen in indoor cannabis plants,
as it is a direct result of poor ventilation and humidity build up. It can also
spread via contact with other leaves, so if one of your plants is infected,
remove the affected leaves to prevent it spreading.
You can treat white powdery mildew easily:
1
Begin by cleaning off the white powdery mildew. With a wet
paper towel, simply wipe the leaves until there’s no more
“powder” left on them.
2
Begin by cleaning off the white powdery mildew. With a wet
paper towel, simply wipe the leaves until there’s no more
“powder” left on them.
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There are also some home remedies for white powdery mildew in case
the previous method doesn’t work (although it should).
Neem oil (4 teaspoons to 3 litres of water)
Baking soda (1 tablespoon to 3 litres of water)
Milk spray (1:9 ratio of milk to water)
Hydrogen peroxide (1 teaspoon per 3 litres of water)
5
Heat stress
Heat stress literally looks like burned leaves.
They begin to curl and brown at the edges,
and the most obvious parts of the plant that
will be affected are those closest to the grow
lights. It’s typically caused by grow lights
rather than sunlight, but outdoor plants that
are underwatered can also be affected. Even
if the leaves are not browning, they may start
to curl up and show signs of heat stress.
Outdoors, it is most common for heat stress
to occur when the humidity is very low.
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Plants that experience heat stress during flowering start producing buds
“on top of” the buds already growing. It gives buds a peculiar shape, and
the new growth is often airy with very little substance. It looks as though
it’s time to harvest, but new growth keeps appearing. Make sure to watch
lower bud growth to know when to harvest if this is the case, as the top
buds will be deceiving.
To treat heat stress, the most obvious thing you should do first is to
cool your plants down! For indoor growers, it might mean moving the
lights so they are further away from the plants, or even removing a light.
For outdoor growers, it means giving your plants more water. Keeping
the roots cool is the most important, so watering regularly (without
overwatering) is a good solution.
Outdoor growers can also increase shade where their cannabis plants are
growing. Water in the morning or evening, before the sun is at its peak.
You can also add kelp extract to the soil. It may take a plant a few weeks to
recover from heat stress, so prevention is truly the best cure.
6
Light burn
Light burn looks a lot like heat stress, except
that the only leaves that are affected are the
ones closest to the lights. The veins of the
leaves may remain completely green, but the
rest of the leaf is yellow. Unlike a nitrogen
deficiency, the yellow leaves won’t fall off on
their own and can’t be plucked easily.
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If light burn happens during flowering, the buds can sometimes look
completely bleached. They have no THC content, so these buds are of
no use.
If you’re having this problem, you obviously need to put the lights
somewhere else in the grow room or remove some of them. This is hard
to manage for indoor growers, as space is usually limited. However, it is
something to be mindful of when growing your plants!
7
Hermaphroditism
It sometimes happens that your female plant
all of a sudden starts producing pollen sacks.
Whoops — that’s no good. This is different
to pollination, where male plants pollinate
female plants to produce seeds. Even in the
absence of male plants, hermaphroditism
can still occur. Basically, you’re seeing white
stig everywhere (signs of female plants), but
you’re also seeing pollen sacs.
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Sometimes, hermaphrodites present as “bananas”. This is when small,
yellow, banana-shaped growth appears in the middle of your female buds.
It is a sign of hermaphroditism.
This can sometimes happen to plants that become stressed. It can also be
caused by inconsistent light schedules, too much light, or too much heat.
Essentially, these are all things that can stress your plant to the point of
hermaphroditism. And unfortunately, there’s no way of fixing it. The only
real way to deal with the problem is to remove the plant so that it doesn’t
accidentally pollinate any of your other female plants.
Your male plants can also start to grow female stigmata, in which case, the
seeds you produce are most likely to be hermaphrodites. So there’s no
use for the male hermaphrodites either.
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ALL THINGS
POST-GROWTH
Even when flowering is over, there’s still a lot of hard work to do as a
grower. Cannabis doesn’t go straight from the plant to the dispensary.
It undergoes another arduous process of trimming, drying, and curing
before it’s ready to be used. In this chapter, you’ll learn how to properly
undertake these tasks so that you don’t waste a perfectly good harvest.
In addition to trimming, curing, and drying, we’ll also give you some
advice for storage, and some handy things you can make with your
home-grown weed.
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Harvesting
You can breathe a sigh of relief, dear grower!
You have reached the end of the grow cycle, and
that’s something to be proud of. Even if there
were some bumps along the way, it’s now time to
start reaping what you sowed. And the first step
is the harvest.
WHEN IS IT TIME TO HARVEST?
Every strain comes with an estimate for flowering time. Some strains have
longer flowering stages than others, so make sure you have a rough idea
when you purchase your seeds. This will give you an idea of when you might
be harvesting. But aside from that, there are telltale things to look out for on
the buds that indicate that it’s time for harvest.
Watch the stigmata
The stigmata are the small, hairlike growths that come out of your buds.
These are part of the female reproductive organs of the plant. They
first appear as white, and this is an indication that the buds are still
immature and developing. They will begin to turn brown, at which point
you should begin inspecting your buds with a magnifying glass.
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Watch the trichomes
The trichomes are small, resinous drops that accumulate on your buds.
This is the primary site of THC production, and they will tell you when
your plant has reached maximum THC production. After you have
observed that your stigmata are beginning to turn brown, it’s time to
whip out the magnifying glass and have a look at the trichomes.
When the buds are still immature and producing THC, the trichomes
are transparent. As they mature, they turn opaque, or a whiter colour.
This is the moment where they have become saturated with THC. As
the buds progress, the trichomes will begin to turn amber, which is a
sign of degeneration.
It is time to harvest your buds when most of the trichomes are
opaque. Don’t let too many of them turn amber, as the THC potency
will be compromised. However, buds that are left to complete
maturity have a higher CBN content, if that’s what you’re looking for.
HOW TO HARVEST YOUR WEED?
You can simply harvest your cannabis by first cutting it at the stem.
You might then choose to cut branches, but ideally, you will have left
some of the nodes intact so that you can hang them off a piece of
string for drying.
Some people choose to trim leaves off cannabis as soon as the plant
has been harvested. See Trimming below for more information.
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Trimming
Not all of the parts of your weed plant
are ideal for consumption. By maturity,
the leaves primarily contain chlorophyll,
and very negligible concentrations of
cannabinoids. This is why trimming is
important. Some people choose to trim
leaves as soon as the plant is harvested.
This is because it’s much easier to trim the
leaves while the plant is wet, and before
the leaves have dried and curled up into
the buds.
For trimming, you will need a pair of sharp (and clean!) trimming scissors.
You want to remove all of the larger fan leaves, and if you choose, you can
remove the smaller, sugar leaves. These are the small leaves that form
around buds. These do contain THC — so don’t throw them away!
With careful attention, trim leaves right at the node where they grow. Your
buds should look “clean” after trimming, and be careful not to chop into
the buds!
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DON’T THROW AWAY YOUR TRIMMED LEAVES!
Even though you might not want to smoke the leaves that you’ve trimmed,
don’t throw them away! This is especially true if you have trimmed the sugar
leaves off your cannabis plants. They are rich with THC (less so than the
buds), and you can use them in a number of different ways.
If you’ve trimmed the leaves while they are fresh, you can throw them
straight in a blender and enjoy fresh cannabis juice — not a luxury just
anybody gets to enjoy!
If your trimmed leaves have become dry, save them and use them to make
edibles. Alternatively, you can use them as compost in your garden for the
next season of growing.
Drying
There are many different ways to dry
cannabis, all of which depend on how you’ve
harvested and trimmed your buds. Most
growers will hang their buds upside down
to dry — this is why we recommended
leaving some of the nodes intact for simple
hanging off a piece of string.
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However, if you’ve removed each branch separately, you can simply tie your
branches to a piece of string or a coat hanger. If you’ve trimmed all your
buds and only have loose buds to dry, you can spread them out on a drying
rack or a piece of cardboard. If you use cardboard, be sure to replace it as
the drying continues, as moist spots will accumulate under the buds.
The buds should not be touching each other while they are drying. This
will draw out the drying process, and could cause unwanted moisture
build up in some spots. Each bud should receive the same amount of
airflow so that they dry consistently.
Here are some tips for drying:
Humidity shouldn’t be noticeable. If it feels humid where you’re
drying, you should probably introduce a fan (but not directly onto
plants). Keep humidity at very normal or mid-range levels.
Make sure there are no buds touching each other.
Keep out of direct sunlight
WHEN ARE THE BUDS FINISHED DRYING?
Most growers will leave buds hanging for 3-7 days after harvest. After a
couple of days, you should inspect your drying buds to see where they are
at. Your buds have finished drying when the smaller stems snap off without
pulling off a string of plant material behind them. The bigger stems might
still be moist, but the smaller ones should be completely dry.
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The outside of your buds should also feel completely dry to touch (but not
brittle). The insides of the buds may not be completely dry — this is okay.
You don’t want them to dry out completely. You can try to break off one of
the smaller buds — it should come off clean. If the smaller buds still pull
plant fibers behind them, you’ve got a couple of days of drying left to do.
The buds should not be completely dry at the end of the drying period. If
they are allowed to dry out completely, the buds themselves become brittle
and may lose potency and flavour. The remainder of the “drying” actually
takes place as a different process called “curing”. Curing lets your buds dry
at a much slower rate, therefore allowing them to “lock in” a certain level of
moisture that we associate with good quality cannabis.
Curing
Curing is the final stage for your buds before
consumption. This process can take as little as 2
weeks or as long as 2 years, depending on your
preferences as a grower. Basically, it’s the last
part of the drying process, but it takes place in
glass jars rather than hanging on a rack.
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Your buds should not be completely bone dry when the curing process
starts (if that has happened, there is no purpose in curing). Only the
outside of your buds should feel dry to touch. For the curing process, the
conditions will be kept under strict control.
Transfer your buds to a glass jar, but don’t overpack the jar. The best
jars to use are wide-mouth mason jars that have a 1 L capacity. They are
sometimes called “quart-jars”. Bigger jars can sometimes lead to mould
forming in the buds which you definitely don’t want. Fill the jars to about
75% full. They should move freely when you shake the jar.
The temperature in the room or cupboard should be around 21°C. If this
temperature remains more or less constant, the humidity inside the jar
should remain at about 60-65% humidity.
Check on your buds during the curing process every day. You will
notice that moisture will accumulate inside the jar in the form of
condensation. Open it, and give them a couple of hours to air out.
Then close the jar again.
If your buds feel moist, or you smell something like ammonia, you need to
air them out a little bit before curing again. Depending on how moist they
are, you might just have to leave the jar open. Otherwise, you might have
to spread them out for an hour before returning them to the jar.
If your buds aren’t wet, but also aren’t brittle, that’s the perfect curing
zone. If the buds feel brittle, then they’ve become too dry!
You can try your buds at different stages during curing to see how it
affects the final experience of smoking it. You’ll know when they are
perfectly ready to be used.
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Storage
Finally, your buds are cured and they’re ready to be stored. Bud that’s
stored well can stay good for years — but if you’ve done a killer job
during the grow, they probably won’t last that long!
Storing your buds is really easy. There’s one basic rule: glass only! Don’t
bother storing your buds in plastic, as the plastic leaches into the buds
and can create an awful flavour when smoking. Plus, moisture tends
to accumulate inside plastic, which can rot your buds over time. As for
paper, it will suck all of the moisture out of your buds, turning them
really dry really fast. Paper is okay for short transportation, but for long
term, store your buds in a glass jar.
Like with curing, don’t overpack the jar. Give the buds some breathing
space. Keep the jars in a cupboard or a place that isn’t too hot and
doesn’t receive sunlight. Heat and light degrade cannabinoids and can
compromise the potency over time.
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DIY cannabis products
You can do a lot more with cannabis than
just smoke it. You can eat it, you can rub
it on your skin, and you can make potent
extracts with it. But you can’t just eat
raw buds — nor can you just rub buds
on your skin and expect your skin to
become super healthy. It requires some
processing that you can do at home with
basic kitchen appliances.
So in this section, we’re going to give you some tips on how to transform
your buds into a cannabis lotion, edibles, or tincture.
HOW TO MAKE EDIBLES
To convert cannabis into an edible form,
you need to dissolve the cannabinoids in
something edible! Cannabinoids aren’t soluble
in water, so a tea simply won’t do. However,
cannabinoids are soluble in fats! With that in
mind, you can dissolve your cannabinoids into
butter, or if you prefer to steer clear of dairy,
you can use coconut oil or copha!
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Just remember that whatever you use as the solvent for your cannabinoids
is what you will use to cook food with. So if you don’t know how to bake
with coconut oil or copha, choose something that you do know how to
cook with. It will form the “buttery” agent of any baking.
You will need:
250 g butter, copha,
or coconut oil
7 grams or ¼ ounce
of cannabis
A slow cooker or double
boiler system
A piece of aluminium foil
An oven
A herb strainer
To start with, you will need to decarboxylate your cannabis. This is the
process by which heat is used to convert THC-A to THC. You need to do
this because THC-A is non-psychoactive. Typically, the decarboxylation
process occurs during smoking, whereby heat is applied via the smoking
itself. However, for making edibles, this occurs as a separate step.
DECARBOXYLATION
Decarboxylation is really easy:
1
Preheat your oven to 100°C.
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2
Break up your cannabis into pieces as small as a grain of rice,
but not completely ground.
3
Slightly scrunch up a piece of aluminium foil and place it over
the tray. This ensures even heat dispersal over your buds, top
and bottom.
4
Place the tray in the middle rack of the oven. Leave it for
45 minutes.
5
Remove the buds from the oven and let them cool. They should
look lightly toasted and be a darker green colour.
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Making cannabutter
Grind up your buds in a coffee grinder until they are as small as you can possibly
get them.
If you have a slow cooker, melt the butter or coconut oil in the slow cooker and
then add the ground buds. If you are using a double boiler, melt the butter or
coconut oil in the double boiler and then add the ground buds. You can add
some water to the butter or coconut oil if you are using a double boiler. Be
mindful that the butter or coconut oil should never boil, so those using a double
boiler will have to constantly monitor. If you are using the double boiler, the water
will eventually evaporate.
Let the buds steep in the warm butter for as long as you can handle watching it.
Some people leave buds in the slow cooker for up to 20 hours. As little as 6 hours
will do the trick, but the longer you go, the stronger it will be.
Remove your mixture from the heat.
You will need to strain your buds out of the mixture, but you also can’t do this
until the mixture is cool enough to handle. Be mindful that you don’t want your
mixture to harden up while the plant matter is still inside.
Strain the plant matter out of your butter or coconut oil. Let it set in the fridge.
Use your cannabutter as a replacement for any butter in any baking!
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HOW TO MAKE CANNABIS TINCTURE
If edibles just aren’t your thing (not everybody likes the taste of cannabis),
you can go for tincture. A tincture is the product of dissolving the active
compound of a botanical product in alcohol. Tincture is even easier to make
than cannabutter, but requires more time than anything else.
You should work with the highest alcohol content that you can acquire. In
some parts of the world, you might only be able to find alcohol with a 60%
ethanol content. In other parts of the world you might be able to find rum
with up to 75% alcohol content. In any case, work with what’s around you,
but choose the highest alcohol content available. If all you can find is 40%
vodka, that’s OK.
Put all of your buds in the jar you plan to
create tincture in. Cover it with your chosen
alcohol. Give it a good shake, and leave it in a
cupboard for 8 weeks. You should agitate the
jar every day by giving it a good shake. You
will notice that it will start to turn a dark green
colour — that’s what you’re aiming for!
It does take about 8 weeks for the
cannabinoids to become fully dissolved in the
alcohol. If you have the patience, you can even
leave it for up to 6 months.
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HOW TO MAKE CANNABIS TOPICALS
Finally, cannabis can also be used on the skin. Making a topical is a little bit
more complicated than the other two methods mentioned above, but it’s
something everybody can still do in their kitchen.
There are many recipes available online for making creams and balms; they
don’t have to be cannabis specific. Some of them involve using a water base
(makes cream), and some just use fatty substances (makes balm).
If you want to make a cream, you will have to first make tincture. The tincture
will form the watery base for your cream. If you want to make balm, you will
first have to dissolve your cannabinoids in a fatty base in much the same way
you made cannabutter. But don’t use a fatty base that you wouldn’t rub on
your skin! Coconut oil is usually the fatty base of choice.
You could easily just make cannabutter with coconut oil and rub it into your
skin. But you can also make extremely lusciously textured balms by adding
lanolin, beeswax, candelilla wax, etc. As we mentioned, there are thousands
of recipes online you can access. Simply replace the fatty or watery base with
your cannabis-infused fatty or watery base!
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EPILOGUE
Thank you for reading this grow bible. We hope you found this information
useful and helpful, and we hope that it continues to serve you as a valuable
resource throughout your growing endeavours. But most of all, we hope
you loved growing cannabis as much as we do.
We would love to know how your WeedSeedShop seeds performed, so
please let us know what your journey was like. We love all things related to
growing, and are always excited to hear from our customers about their
growing experiences.
Remember — you can always purchase reliable seeds from
WeedSeedShop. Our range of strains suits every grower, whether growing
indoors, outdoors, in colder climates or in equatorial climates. It all
starts with a great seed. Well, two great seeds; one cannabis seed from
WeedSeedShop, and the seed of inspiration to grow weed!
Happy growing, fellow cannabis lovers!
- Your friends at WeedSeedShop -
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