How To Grow Medical Marijuana At Home Copyright © 2019 Danny Terpintine – Cannabis Knowledge Society, Inc. All Rights Reserved. ISBN xxxx-xxxx-xxxx All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing by the author. All translations of this work must be approved in writing by the author. Please contact Cannabis Knowledge Society, Inc. for permission to translate and distributions agreements. Printed in Canada. To order more copies for you or your team, go to CannabisKnowledgeSociety.com or contact Cannabis Knowledge Society, Inc. at CKS@CannabisKnowledgeSociety.com. First Edition – April 2019. How To Grow Medical Marijuana At Home • CannabisKnowledgeSociety.com 2 Contents: Preface (5) Introduction (6) Chapter 1 Cannabis Grow Cycles Overview (8) Chapter 2 In-depth Cannabis Grow Cycle (11) - A) Grow Cycles Overview - B) Germination & Seedling Stage - C) Vegetative Stage - D) Flower Stage - E) Harvest / Drying (& Curing) Chapter 3 Grow Environment (27) Chapter 4 Grow Room Design (30) Chapter 5 Grow Mediums (48) Chapter 6 Plant Nutrients: (55) - Macro Vs Micro Nutrients: - Organics Vs Synthetic (Non-Organics): - Water (Tap, Filtered, R.O., Well) - PH & PPM: - Mobile Vs Immobile Nutrients: - Structural Elements: - MACRO Nutrients (N / P / K) & Calcium, Magnesium ,Sulphur: - MICRO Nutrients (Iron / Manganese / Zinc / Copper / Boron / Molybdenum / Chlorine / Nickel / Cobalt / Silica / Selenium / Phytobiomes / Microbiome / Benefitial Micobes / Mycorrhizae / Actinomycetes / Trichoderma / Protozoa / Nematodes / Carbs & Sugars) - Applying Nutrients - Mixing Nutrients - Nutrient Strength & Feeding - Measuring pH - Measuring PPM - Comparing Different Nutrient Lines Chapter 7 Plant Problems (Deficiencies and Toxicities) (96) - Oxygen, Carbon, Hydrogen - Macro Nutrients: Nitrogen, Phosphorous, Potassium, & Magnesium, Sulfur - Micro Nutrients: Iron, Manganese, Zinc, Copper, Boron, Molybdenum, Chlorine, Nickel, Cobalt, Silica, Selenium - Non-Nutrient Related Plant Problems: Light Damage, Wind Damage, Heat Stress, Cold Stress How To Grow Medical Marijuana At Home • CannabisKnowledgeSociety.com 3 Chapter 8 Plant Diseases and Pests (115) - (pg. 115) DISEASES: o Algae o Alternaria o Bud Rot o Botrytis o Damping Off o Fusarium Spp o Leaf Septoria o Mold o Powdery Mildew (White Powdery Mildew) o Pythium Spp o Verticillium - (pg. 125) PESTS: o Aphids o Barnacles / Scale Insects o Broad Mites / Russet Mites o Caterpillars / Inchworms o Crickets o Fungus Gnats o Grasshoppers / Leafhoppers o Leaf Miners o Mealy Bugs o Slugs / Snails o Spider Mites o Thrips o White Flies Chapter 9 Plant Problems (Diagnosis and Treatment) (139) Chapter 10 Harvesting (144) Chapter 11 Curing (151) In Conclusion (157) Plant Anatomy & Definitions (160) How To Grow Medical Marijuana At Home • CannabisKnowledgeSociety.com 4 Preface: Danny Terpintine has been growing Medical Marijuana for over eight years. He has had the opportunity to help grow dank buds for thousands of patients, and in the process learned to produce top quality, clean buds on a consistent basis. Towards the end of high school in pursuit of an accounting degree and very close to achieving what he had been working so hard all his life to achieve, he was faced with the reality of living with multiple herniated discs. Despite being in a constant storm of chronic pain Danny was determined to finish what he had set out to do, get into University for Accounting. Though his journey was difficult to say the least, he found much needed relief and support through Medical Marijuana. After being given a cocktail of different medications, which were all accompanied by negative side-effects and minimal relief. When all hope was lost, Danny found much needed peace through Cannabis. At the bright young age of 16 Danny was granted a licence to grow Medical Marijuana. This was both ecstatic relief, and a stressful struggle… navigating his way through the Cannabis Grow Cycle attempting to produce High Times Quality Buds was much harder than it seemed. Heck even germinating seeds was a battle. Being dependent on Medical Marijuana, Danny quickly learned to improve the quality of his grows. Through hard work, dedication and an eagerness to help others, Danny managed a position helping a well-established dispensary of 25 years, grow and manage their Medical Marijuana Grow-Op. Danny translated the skills he learned managing a medical dispensary’s grow-op for thousands of patients into his own home grows. Harvest after harvest he learned to fine tune his skills and create systems to consistently produce the highest quality Medical Marijuana. This was his medicine after all, and it was meant to replace a cocktail of prescription medications! Today, Danny can say with confidence that he can consistently produce connoisseur grade, clean, top quality buds. To help others and share what he has learned Danny has created a fully intensive Grow Medical Marijuana at Home Program, to help teach others who may find themselves in a similar situation to the one Danny was once in. A place to learn how to grow Medical Marijuana from A-to-Z. A community to help each other, share tips and seeds, grow together, and enjoy the best Cannabis has to offer. How To Grow Medical Marijuana At Home • CannabisKnowledgeSociety.com 5 Introduction I never thought I would be growing Marijuana, definitely not at the bright youthful age of 16! Yet, when you are living in chronic pain and know how bad the alternatives are, it’s not the hardest decision to make. I didn’t know very much about Marijuana, just that it was supposed to help with pain. I actually purchased my first seeds before I purchased my first gram of bud! I did a lot of research and reading and still I kept killing my first seedlings. I was never very good at science or biology; in fact, it was one of my worst subjects in school. I also didn’t have anyone to show me how to grow good bud, or to tell me what mistakes I was making. Despite having troubles I knew I wanted to grow my own Marijuana so I stuck with it. At first I was growing small yields of mids, then bigger yields of mids. Then I started growing smaller yields of high-mids, then bigger yields of high mids. I saw images in High Times magazines and knew that is what I wanted to learn to produce. I knew I wanted to get better but didn’t really know how to. I had exhausted all the books I could find and was always researching ways to improve. I would talk to other growers and spend time at the local dispensary. I’d ask to work there on numerous occasions and always got turned down, heck I even offered to volunteer and got turned down. If you haven’t realized something about me yet, I don’t give up easily. I persisted and eventually an opening turned up, and I jumped at the chance to provide help taking care of their grows. I worked alongside the head grower and watched diligently. I took mental notes and asked questions. I made the most of the opportunity and am forever grateful to those who helped me and welcomed me in like family. I continued to read and learn and apply, research and apply, trial and error, grow after grow. For me it was never about gloating about having the best buds. I only had one goal, to provide myself with enough marijuana – clean potent marijuana that would help with pain and allow me to sleep peacefully through the night. It is truly important to have a clean consistent supply of medicine, of clean quality marijuana. I found even when people would say their bud was clean, they weren’t always honest. When you see and grow enough buds you know when bud is not clean, or worse, when you get moldy buds, or buds sprayed with chemicals. I created the Cannabis Knowledge Society to raise awareness for Cannabis, and to help teach people how to consistently grow clean, quality Medical Marijuana. I realized that it really isn’t all that complicated to grow great buds, and with a little guidance anyone can learn to produce How To Grow Medical Marijuana At Home • CannabisKnowledgeSociety.com 6 their own top quality buds. You should not have to pay ridiculous prices for great bud, or worse questionable bud! I wrote this book as a manual, an introduction to growing cannabis, and as a guide to refer to when you need help with a specific issue. No matter how experienced you are, it never hurts to go back to the basics. In this book we will outline all the important factors to consider when growing those High Times quality buds. How To Grow Medical Marijuana At Home • CannabisKnowledgeSociety.com 7 Chapter 1 Cannabis Grow Cycles Overview The beautiful Bud we all love starts from a tiny little seed. (In nature, a seed will fall off a pollinized female plant, into the soil, and if the conditions are correct the next generation of cannabis grows!) Once you have added water to your seed, you begin the step know as Germination. That is, you awaken the dormant plant, the embryo within the seed. Congratulations you have created life! The germination process normally lasts anywhere from 3 days to 10 days, although sometimes seeds can take up to two weeks. I’ve even heard from others who had to wait up to 3 weeks for seeds to germinate (But that is an extreme case.) Most good seeds should germinate and be ready to plant within the first two weeks. Having the correct conditions, and possibly even adding supplements will increase your chance of germination, as well as the time it takes to germinate. Don’t worry about supplements right now as they will only complicate an otherwise simple process. The Second step in the Grow Cycle begins after your seed has hatched. Once you have a small root (Referred to as the Tap Root) coming out of the seed, about 2-3 inches long, it is ready to be planted into its medium. Once the plant begins to grow your will see two tiny circular leaves. These are known as the Cotyledons. Congratulations you official have a Seedling! (That’s what we call a baby Cannabis Plant!) During this stage as a seedling and as the plant grows leaves, it is in the Vegetative Stage (commonly referred to as “VEG”). This is controlled by the lighting cycle as you will soon learn. In VEG. it is Paramount to have your environmental conditions as perfect as possible! At this delicate stage in your plants life you want as little stress as possible! (You always want to employ measures as to not unnecessarily stress the plants – unless using advanced training techniques which you would not use during the Seedling stage.) How To Grow Medical Marijuana At Home • CannabisKnowledgeSociety.com 8 It is absolutely crucial to keep your Humidity and Temperature in Check! Over and Under watering will be your Biggest Battle during this Stage of Growth. During this stage plants need little to no food at all, in most cases the soil contains enough nutrients to help a growing seedlings establish itself. After About two Weeks your Seedling should be “grown up” and less susceptible to minor watering or nutrient errors. You are still in the Vegetative stage but you can begin to treat the plant like a young child and not like a baby. A seedling does not need much food at all, you would not want to feed 600PPM nutrient solution to a seedling, just as you would not want to give a 5 month old baby a t-bone steak. Provide ideal conditions and you will see your plants Flourish! Some growers may skip the vegetative stage altogether and jump straight into the flowering stage, however it is highly recommended to veg your plants if you want a decent yield. It is recommended to allow your plants at least 2 weeks of vegetative time prior to flowering them. If you veg up to a month you will increase your root structure, plant size, and as a result get a stronger yield. You can for-go the vegetative stage if you are using advanced methods for a variety of reasons (breeding, sexing, etc.) If using advanced training methods, you may opt to increase your vegetative time. Once you are Satisfied with the size of your plants you can begin the Flowering Stage. During this stage your plant will begin to produce “Marijuana Flowers” (Bud). The Flowering Stage is initiated by reducing the “Lights-On” time of your light cycle. The longer dark period induces flower. This is similar to what we see in mother nature, outdoor crops and vegetable gardens – Planting is done during spring and summer taking advantage of the long summer days and heat, then harvested after flower usually into the august/September months where the days are known to get darker much quicker (Less sunlight in the day). Flowering is induced when your light cycle is changed to 12/12. The Length of Flowering time will be dependent on the Strain you’ve chosen to grow. Air Flow, Temperature and Humidity are absolutely crucial during Flowering, especially so during the last few weeks of your grow. You have almost completed the Grow Cycle! There are three steps remaining, well, really only two (Drying, Curing, Trimming). Drying & Curing can be bunched into one Step, as they essentially share the same goal – To Rid Your Bud of Excess Moisture or Water. How To Grow Medical Marijuana At Home • CannabisKnowledgeSociety.com 9 It is absolutely critical that you maintain reasonable Humidity levels during the Drying Stage! The last thing you want is to ruin your crop and have all your hard work go to waste. If your plants have not given you a problem with Odour yet be happy, but be prepared. The Drying Stage will be the smelliest part of the entire grow process (next to Trimming). How To Grow Medical Marijuana At Home • CannabisKnowledgeSociety.com 10 Chapter 2 In-depth Cannabis Grow Cycle A) Grow Cycles Overview The FOUR Stages of the Cannabis Growth Cycle: a) Germination & Seedling Stage (#1) b) Vegetative Stage (#2) c) Flowering Stage (#3) d) Harvest - Dry (& Cure) (#4) These four stages are the base for your Grow! It is absolutely essential to understand these 4 Stages (Germination & Seedling, Vegetative, Flower, Harvest - Dry & Cure), what occurs during each stage, and most importantly what environmental conditions you must maintain in order to produce the highest quality medicine possible. These Four Steps occur in this exact order – in certain circumstance it may be appropriate to revert backwards to a previous stage (I.e.: From Flower Back to Vegetative), but you want to avoid doing this, as it is an extra unnecessary stressor. You can think of growing high quality medicinal cannabis much like a machine or car. Every aspect, the motor, the oil, the tires, the spark plugs, the gas, all play a role in the overall quality of the drive. You can have the best car, the best engine, but if your tires suck your car will not perform to its full potential. Likewise, every aspect of your grow (lights, soil, temperature, strain, harvest time, etc.) that is not ideal can be considered a stressor. One or two may not be the end of the world, but as these stresses stack they can reduce your overall quality, yield, or worse, cause a beautiful Female Plant to become a Hermaphrodite! So if you want to produce high quality, clean medicine, make sure to set the optimal grow conditions for each stage of the Cannabis Growth Cycle. B) Germination & Seedling Stage Germination is the First part of the Grow Cycle. This section will be divided into two parts, Germination, and the Seedling Stage. How To Grow Medical Marijuana At Home • CannabisKnowledgeSociety.com 11 Germination: Germination is the process of “hatching” a seed. Germinating a seed can be very easy and very simple, or extremely difficult. It all depends on how you Germinate the seed, and how Ideal you keep your Grow Conditions. As the dormant seed soaks up some water it will begin to crack open, exposing a tap root. It is extremely important not to damage the tip of this root! (That can potentially kill your seed.) As this root grows, the other end will begin to shed the seed casing showing two green little leaves, known as the cotyledons. If you are not putting the unhatched seed directly into a grow medium (soil, rock wool, etc.) then you will want to Carefully plant the seed into soil before the cotyledons appear. It is very important to keep your temperatures in check. Too hot and you will fry your seed, too cold and your seed will take significantly longer to germinate, or may not germinate at all. Most seeds should germinate within 7 days. Some may germinate sooner, while others can take up to two weeks. I’ve even left old seeds germinating, that did not crack open until 3 weeks. For tough seeds/strains that do not seem to germinate we can mimic mother nature by “scuffing” up the seed slightly. (In mother nature, a seed falls from a plant. Nature then moves it around rocks and soil which helps scuff the shell.) Scuffing the Shell helps the shell absorb water into the seed. This is achieved by using a light-grit sandpaper inside of a small container. Seedling: Once your seed has surfaced through soil, you will notice it may still be attached to top of the stock, holding closed the cotyledons (first set of baby-leaves, the circle leaves). You can use a spray bottle or a drop of water from a syringe to lightly dampen the seed shell to help it moisten, this should help it come loose. Do not pull or force it off, as this may damage your delicate baby seedling if you attempt this too early. Ensure you have high Humidity levels, since the baby seedling lacks a sufficient root structure it will need high humidity to take water in through its leaves. Do not be quick to jump and feed nutrients, the seedling has enough nutrients to be self- sufficient for the first two weeks of its life! The soil should also contain enough for the seedling to stay alive for at least a week. (That’s not to say that you cannot add very light dosage of nutrients or additives, but leave this for the advanced users, as seedlings are extremely delicate and don’t necessarily need food. We will talk more about nutrients in the nutrients section.) How To Grow Medical Marijuana At Home • CannabisKnowledgeSociety.com 12 A seedling needs light, but not very much light at all! If you are using a stronger light like MH or Real LED’s then make sure you keep an appropriate distance from your seedlings. (We will talk about this more in the lighting section.) The greatest factor of death when it comes to caring for a seedling, especially so with newer growers, is over-caring or over-loving. You may want to look at this beautiful girl every minute of every hour, you’ll want to make sure she is comfortable, she is fed, she is watered, she is fed, she is watered, she is happy… and in doing so you will often over-feed or over-water resulting in killing the plant! Ensure to follow a schedule and use the techniques and tips in the Nutrients section to keep your seedling happy, healthy and growing! C) Vegetative Stage During the vegetative stage our plants grow, focusing on root growth and foliage growth. More and bigger roots, great leaf sizes and more nodes of branches and leaves. As the plant matures it will strength it’s stems/branches which will later support dense heavy buds. Once a plant has reached maturity in the vegetative stage it will also show pre-flowers – that is tiny pistils if female, or pollen-sacs if male. The vegetative stage begins as soon as your seed has germinated. It is controlled by the light cycle (unless growing an “auto-flower” strain). In nature, Marijuana is planted in the Spring/Summer and harvested in the Fall. During the summer months the sun rises early and falls late, signifying longer days. During the fall the sun comes up later and sets earlier, days become shorter. Likewise, we emulate the long summer days (Vegetative Stage) indoors by keeping longer light cycles. In Veg. (Vegetative Stage) we use a light cycle of either 24/0 or 18/6, where the lights are either on for 24-hours-7-days-a-week, or lights are on for 18 hours and off for 6 hours. Some people will argue that 24 hour light cycles give greater growth, but you are using an extra 6 hours of light (and energy) which does add up in your electricity bill. In this stage, Nutrients are focused towards providing adequate nitrogen for lush green growth (we will elaborate more in the nutrients sections). How long the Vegetative Stage lasts depends on a multitude of factors. This is when it helps to have previously grown the strain, or know someone who has (although it is not a big deal if you don’t). How To Grow Medical Marijuana At Home • CannabisKnowledgeSociety.com 13 Upon ending the Vegetative Stage, and switching to the Flowering Stage you will experience a period of what is called “Stretch”. A final growth spurt during the adjustment period from Veg. to Flower. You must also take into account that your plants will grow in Flower as buds are growing, you can expect plants to double or triple in size by the time they’re finished growing. An Indica plant may only double, depending on strains sometimes not even that much stretch may occur. Whereas with Sativa Strains you can expect a strain to easy double or even triple in size. It is not just the roof you must watch out for, don’t forget that you must leave space between the top of your lights and your Canopy (top of your buds). If your lights are too close you will burn or light-bleach your buds (more on this in the plant problems section). During the Vegetative Stage you will have to Transplant (often referred to as Up-Potting) as you find your roots have out-grown their pot. The pot you started your germinated seed and seedling in will have become too small for your plant within 2-4 weeks (depending on the plant size, growth, light strength). As you find your roots have reached the bottom of the pot and just begun to start circling the pot, it is time to Transplant! That is, it’s time to take them out of that small pot and put them into a slightly larger pot. You normally transplant 2-3 times in your plants life, although you could transplant more or less than that. Growers will usually start plants in a red party cup, then move to a 1gallon, then 3gallon, then finish in a 5 gallon. (Some growers will skip the 1gallon pot in that process.) Once you transplant you may lay off nutrients (or ease up slightly) for the first couple watering’s as your soil should supply enough nutrients for a little while. You should never need to transplant in Flower. Plants really only focus on root growth in the vegetative stage, so transplanting after the 2-week stretch period in the Flowering Stage will only be an unnecessary stressor. Start with your germinated seed in a Red Party Cup (or a pot around that size). As your Seedling grows in that Red Party Cup and you notice roots have reached the bottom, you move to the next size pot, usually a 3-gallon-pot. Then finally a 5-gallon-pot. (Some advanced growers may even go up to a 7 or 10-gallon pot, however this will require a longer vegetative time to allow roots to fill the pot before switching to flower.) (Cool Tip: Using a clear cup for your seedling and putting it in a red party cup will allow your roots to have the light protection they need, but will also allow you easy access to look at root growth through the clear cup.) [Red Party Cup -> 3 Gallon Pot -> 5 Gallon Pot] How To Grow Medical Marijuana At Home • CannabisKnowledgeSociety.com 14 Plant Training Introduction: The great thing about Cannabis (Marijuana) is that you can grow it in almost any space, whether it is a 2ft. x 2ft. x 2ft. box or a 6ft. x 6ft. x 6ft. room! It is during the Vegetative Stage that you will control your plants according to your grow space. Now we know that after that vegetative stage, during the stretch period, we can expect the plant to grow up to 2-3 times its current size. So you can simply switch the light cycle from Vegetative to Flower once you have reached a size you are happy with, or you can begin to train and manipulate the plants allowing a greater plant size, larger buds, and a greater yield! Plant Training may seem intense or extreme, especially to newer growers (Although it doesn’t have to be). Hopefully you will see the great benefits to applying these techniques and you may explore them for yourself! There are two basic types of training, High Stress Straining and Lower Stress Training. Let’s take a look at both! Low Stress Training: Low Stress Training is simply that – Training and plant manipulation which places minimal or no stress on the plant. Sea of green, screen of green, and low stress training (LST) are all examples of types of training which place minimal stress on your plant. SOG (Sea of Green): Sea of Green is packing as many small plants in a space as possible, with a short vegetative time. The goal of this method is to produce quick grow cycles and squish as many plants in your grow space to maximize yield. SCROG (Screen of Green): Screen of Green is creating an even Canopy using a Screen or Trellis above your plants. You weave or train your plants through the screen in the vegetative stage filling about 80% of the screen, then using the stretch period between your vegetative and flowering light cycle to finish filling the screen. This will allow your plant even light distribution across the entire room. Also, providing an even canopy height allowing you to position lights to a more precisely tuned distance from your canopy top, and producing more cola’s evenly spread out. How To Grow Medical Marijuana At Home • CannabisKnowledgeSociety.com 15 LST (Low Stress Training) : Low Stress Training requires tying your branches down and outwards, allowing light to reach the inner buds more evenly. This can also spread your plant out so it grows over a larger space, allowing greater air flow and light penetration to buds. High Stress Training: High Stress Training methods are more aggressive and place a greater amount of stress on plants. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Plants can respond very well to certain types of high stress training, resulting in more buds and greater yields. TOP: Topping or to Top a plant requires simply pinching off the top node of the plant. Now the plant cannot grow from that top node, it reverts it energy to the two adjacent nodes where the pinched node is missing. This results in two new tops, versus the one top you had before pinching it off. Thus we call this process topping. The more you Top, the more Tops (Or Colas… Bud Sites) you create! Just note not all strains appreciate being Topped, most can be – the breeder description will usually specify if a strain will not react well to topping. FIM: FIM is essentially the cousin of Topping. It is when you go to top a plant, but you miss the entire node and only pinch about 50-60% off. “F**K I Missed = FIM”. This half pinched node will eventually continue to grow, but that plant may act as if it was Topped – resulting in 3 new nodes, 3 tops for 3 new bud sites! How To Grow Medical Marijuana At Home • CannabisKnowledgeSociety.com 16 Crop/Super-crop: Super-cropping is an interesting technique that may seem intense to new growers. This occurs in mother nature, when an animal comes up to eat or pull on a plant, or if a human tries to break a branch. Stress occurs, the plant focuses energy and juices (reinforcements) to the stressed area, and you get stronger thicker stems, and more energy to those bud sites in the future. (Similar to how when you go to the gym… working out and stressing your muscles stresses and tears them, they then build up bigger and stronger!) Super-cropping can be used to help Control Canopy height when plants are getting too tall. Although it is recommended to keep training to Vegetative Stage, super-cropping can come useful in Flower if you’re buds are getting too close to the light! (It’s better to bend over the branch than it is to light burn the branch!) So what is it? Super-cropping involves bending your branch over, almost as if you were to bench a skewer in half without it detaching! See, if the wood is completely dry it will shatter, but if the wood is somewhat moist it will be more pliable and will be less resistant to bending. The same goes with your plants, apply super-cropping techniques shortly after watering will help with bending the branches. You essentially “pinch” the branch back and forth as if you were pinching a baby’s cheek (NOT as if you are pinching off the node like you do when you Top/Fim!) Your straight branch now looks like a sideways “L”. In some cases, it will hold its own position sideways, other times it may want to fall completely down – in this case we will add a “splint” to help support it until it creates its own bandage. Another option would be to support the sideways bent branch with some string until it strengths and remains in the position on its own. As a result of super-cropping you may notice a “Knuckle” form at the apex of bend, which is the plants way of repairing and strengthening this area. This will help support heavy buds down the road! How To Grow Medical Marijuana At Home • CannabisKnowledgeSociety.com 17 Lollipop: Lollipop or Lollipopping plants can be done indirectly like when cleaning up some bottom foliage. However, the true sense of Lollipopping involves heavy defoliation of bottom leaves. You can remove about 50% of the foliage, all the way to extremely aggressive defoliation like removing 70-80% of the bottom growth. Removing this bottom growth forces all energy towards the top few remaining nodes, pushing all the growth upwards. It may look Scary at first, especially if you’ve never done this before, but give them a week and they will bounce back twice as great! Lollipopping also helps with removing bottom growth, that will towards the end of the grow produce pop-corn-nuggets and other leafy-scruff – instead of the plant focusing energy on this mediocre growth, all the energy is sent up towards the main Cola’s/Buds when you lollipop. Aggressive training like this is best kept to the Vegetative Stage as it can be too stressful in flower, causing plants to turn hermaphrodite. D) Flower Stage Let the FUN Begin! This might just be the most exciting part of the grow, aside from harvesting! Every day you will notice new growth, new changes, new bud sites, calyx’s growing, pistils forming, trichomes developing – let the Frost begin, pistils changing colours, pistils receding, How To Grow Medical Marijuana At Home • CannabisKnowledgeSociety.com 18 calyx’s swelling, the pungent aroma of some of the most beautiful intoxicating smells you have ever smelt! And that’s how a plant grows through the Flowering Stage! Exciting isn’t it?! The flowering stage is initiated by changing the light cycle from a vegetative cycle of 18/16 (or 24/0) to a flowering light cycle of 12/12. Now it’s not all fun and games, there is some Serious work to be done here! No need to panic it’s nothing crazy, just staying on top of your game, keeping environmental factors in check, keeping their food in check, and doing basic maintenance and what I like to call grooming! During the flowering stage, especially so towards the end of the flowering stage, it is extremely and I mean EXTREMELY important to keep your Temperature and more importantly your Humidity in the adequate ranges! The LAST thing you want to do is go to sleep 10 weeks in, to a beautiful garden, only to wake up to a musky dirty stench of mildew, or worse mold! The thicker and denser your Cola’s, the more tightly packed your Canopy, the more care and caution you will want to take environmental control! (Now, as long as you build your grow area to the spec’s according to the Grow Room Design section of this course, and as long as you control your environment with the tools recommended, you will not have to worry about these things!) These things can be a genuine concern believe me, I cannot count on one hand how many times I’ve come across dirty or contaminated buds (from outside sources and dispensaries), so it does happen. The news is always scaring people into thinking it’s some huge catastrophic epidemic, but the truth is, a little bit of education and you do not have to worry about coming across such problems! During the Flowering stage you will want to maintain a clean grow environment. This is what I was referring to when I said grooming - you will want to go into the brush and clear out any dead or crispy leaves. Sometimes leaves may seem okay, but will pull off the branch so easily as they were just about ready to fall off anyways. Remember that you do not want to do training. You do not want to do any major defoliation of healthy leaves in Flower. You can remove some of the larger fan leaves that may be seriously covering up some Cola’s. What I prefer is to simply tuck the big fan leaves underneath other branches. (Don’t forget that fan leaves are stores of energy and nutrients for your plants!) During flower we want to keep Stress to a minimum, we want to plants focusing all energy towards the growth and production of Bud and Trichomes! Now this part may be a little debatable by some individuals, I am here to say that it is absolutely important! Some argue that it may take away from yield, but I would much rather have a clean end product! Flushing is the process of getting your plant to use up most of the remaining nutrients it has stored, as well as to flush remaining salts and nutrients out of your grow How To Grow Medical Marijuana At Home • CannabisKnowledgeSociety.com 19 medium. Most people do at least a two week flush, however having spent time with a medical co-op they never do less than 3 weeks. So that is what I will recommend, a 21-day flush. Now many newbies often think flushing means taking excess amounts of water and drenching your plant. (Ie: they will run 25gallons of water through a 5gal container, call it flushed, and call it a day.) But how can this be adequate, how can you call this a flush? If it was a car engine, and we were flushing out the washer-fluid or coolant it might be adequate, however this is a living thing! There is no way you can flush out everything, what’s stored in the roots, the leaves the soil within a 20-minute flush. Thus watering with plain water for the last 3 weeks provides a clean and steady flush that results in a cleaner, smoother, better end product! It allows the grow medium to be washed of salts, it allows the plant to reach deep within itself to use the remaining stored nutrients it has. You will notice this when leaves begin to fade from deep dark greens, to lighter-green, to yellow. (Isn’t this what happens in the Fall season, in nature as well?!) Towards the end of flower, you may be very eager to try or sample buds, to cut buds off early to smoke. As tempting as this may be, it’s always best to wait until they’re done! Smoking wet and uncured bud is never as pleasant as a nicely finished product! And you’re cheating yourself out of yield, as that bud would probably still grow, and swell! Not to mention it’s probably still going through the flushing process! E) Harvest / Drying (& Curing) All your hard work accumulates to this final part of the grow! Harvesting is the process of cutting down your plants, the day is finally here! BUT WAIT! Before you do… you must make sure they’re ready! Then optionally, give them a two day dark period, which is supposed to increase terpene’s, smell! Keeping your humidity low and having fresh air is ultra-important here to prevent any mold or mildew! Keeping your Temperature and Humidity levels on-point will also insure that you dry your plants in an efficient time period. Too fast and you will end up with a harsh dry smoke! Too long and you may be bordering high humidity levels, which is a risk for mold! How To Grow Medical Marijuana At Home • CannabisKnowledgeSociety.com 20 Checking if They’re Ready: So we begin with the estimated harvest date. All breeder’s packs will come with an estimated harvest day (for example: flowering 49-53 days). This range can result from a variation of phenotypes, or simply breeder preference. Many new growers make the mistake of starting this countdown the day they flip their lights to the flower schedule (12/12). However, there is a 2-week transitional “stretch” period before you want to begin counting down your flowering days. Plants don’t really start budding until this stretch period is over. So wait 2 weeks or until you start to see pistils shooting out at most of the nodes, then begin counting the flowering days. This will give you a good idea when to harvest. Yet this is only one of the three main things to look for. The other two main indicators to look out for would be the Swelling of Calyx’s and Maturity of Trichomes. In most circumstance new growers will often harvest early missing these further signs. They say, when you think it’s ready, give it three more days! When you cut the plant early you miss the Calyx swelling and peak maturity of THC. You will be able to visibly see the Calyx’s (Buds) swell towards the end of the plants life, this is an indicator they’re ready! And Finally, looking at the Trichomes! The Trichomes are those mushroom looking things, you know, the ones you see in close up macro shots of super frosty buds! A jeweler’s loop or microscope will be needed to accurately judge the maturity of your trichomes. You will want to Harvest anywhere between 100% Cloudy to 50%Cloudy/50%Amber. Generally speaking, the more Amber the stonier the high will be as the Psychoactive THC is converted to the Non-Psychoactive CBN. Pistils can also aid in judging the maturity of your plant, however they may not be as accurate as the aforementioned methods. It is best to account for all harvesting factors when deciding on when to cut down your plants. Pistils will begin white, then eventually turning other colors, usually orange or brown, but sometimes more vibrant colors like pink or purple. They then shrivel up, and sometimes recede into the calyx’s. At this point they have completed their maturity cycle. Now that you know all the factors to consider, Calyx’s, Pistils, Breeder’s suggested time, and Trichome Maturity, you can use all them together to best judge when to cut your plants! (Don’t How To Grow Medical Marijuana At Home • CannabisKnowledgeSociety.com 21 forget to start a flush period 3 weeks prior to when you believe you will be cutting down your plants!) One last thing before you give them the blade! Giving plants 2 days (48 hours) in complete darkness has been debated to increase Terpenes and smells of the plant. You may want to give this a go! (If you do, make sure to keep your temperatures in check! Remember lights off means it may be colder than usual.) HARVESTING: Now you are ready to Harvest. Cut down the plant and hang them in your drying room, or the same grow space if that’s the space you will be using. You will want it to be complete darkness during the drying phase. Although you’ve cut the plants and you think they’re dead, they are actually still living, there is still enzymatic processes going on and until they have dried, they are still at risk for mold! So make sure to absolutely keep your temperature and humidity in check here! (Make Sure To Keep Your Temperature and Humidity In Check Here) You will want to make sure to have you air filters setup as the Drying process is the absolute smelliest part of the entire process! If you are using your grow space that we set up, you should have some type of fresh air coming in, and you will be exhausting your smelly (now carbon filtered, clean air) out of the space. This will keep a fresh flow of air coming in so that you don’t have stale air. How To Grow Medical Marijuana At Home • CannabisKnowledgeSociety.com 22 Finally having a gentle indirect breeze will keep stale air away. Using the “tornado” technique with one fan pointing up and one fan at the opposite corner facing down will provide good air movement within your room. (Note: If your humidity is too low you may want to for-go the use of the inline fans.) (Note: You never want to blow air directly on drying buds. This may cause uneven drying and may dry out your buds too quickly.) Check back every other day (or daily) to make sure humidity and temperature are good. (You can check more often, or even get wifi-thermometers that you can access on your phone or computer.) You may also inspect buds to make sure they’re looking good and that there are no signs of mold. Once buds feel dry and outer leaves feel crisp (usually 7-14days) they will most likely be ready to jar (aka Curing!) It is very important not to jar buds too early as this creates a High Risk for mold! While buds may feel dry on the OUTSIDE, there is moisture on the inside of the buds that must be drawn out through the curing process. If you squish a bud and it flattens like a pancake, it is definitely too wet to jar! It should expand back out like a dry-sponge! You are ready to Jar your Buds. Before you make this Final step, you must finish “harvesting” – that is Trimming your buds! While there are many methods available from manual, to semi- automatic, to completely automated methods, I will be detailing the good old fashion way. That is Scissors, which by far produces the absolute best quality cut while being the least disturbing to your precious trichomes. When you have to cut multiple lbs or hundreds of lbs there are other options available like automatic machine trimmers. [Side-Note] Can I trim the buds prior to drying them, as the leaves are still sticking out and easier to cut! YES and NO… Well, it’s really up to you, but I would suggest to do the way outlined above, that is to trim After drying. This is because the freshly cut leaves will leak chlorophyll onto the buds, giving more of a green/grassy taste to the final product. The leaves also contain moisture which when left on the plant will help slow down the drying process. Trimming your plants before drying them may make them dry faster than you’d like, resulting in a harsher or dissatisfying smoke. Bud dried too quickly may result in bud that goes out quickly and does not stay lit. So you may save some time, and it may be a little easier, but after putting in the time to grow such beautiful buds, don’t you want to take a little more care and produce the absolute best product you can? Now you’ve cut your plants, dried them, and trimmed them! How To Grow Medical Marijuana At Home • CannabisKnowledgeSociety.com 23 Finally, they’re ready to jar. At this point you can technically sample your medicine! (They are fully dried and ready to smoke.) However… Giving buds at least a 2 week curing period after drying will greatly increase the aroma and smoking experience (smoothness, etc.) of your medicine. Think of it like fine wine, the longer you cure the nicer the product (as long as you cure in the correct conditions!). The curing process continues to get the remaining moisture out of the bud. It is important to store buds in a cool, dark, dry place. Burping: Burping is part of the Curing Process. It is basically opening the Jars to “burp out the moisture” and let some fresh air into the jar. When you initially jar your meds, especially so if it’s your first time, check on them after 2-3 hours to ensure they’ve not gotten too wet. If they have they were too wet to jar, they need to go back to the drying step to allow them to air dry for another day! For the first week of jarring you will want to “Burp” your jars at least twice a day. After that you can move to once a day (for a few days), then every other day (for a few days), then every few days, then once a week. About 2 weeks of curing you can safely store you buds without having to worry about chronically burping them (although burping once in a while will never hurt!). Example of Caring for Curing Buds: Day 1 of Curing: Put Buds into Jars, properly dried and ready to cure Day 1 of Curing: Burped Jars Twice, once in the morning once at night. Checked jars every 3 hours to ensure moisture content and temperature were in optimal ranges (If buds are too moist, they come out of the jars for more air-dry time) Day 2 of Curing: Burped Jars Twice, once in the morning once at night. Checked jars every 3 hours to ensure moisture content and temperature were in optimal ranges. (If buds are too moist, they come out of the jars for more air-dry time) Day 3 of Curing: Burped Jars Twice, once in the morning once at night. Checked jars every 3 hours to ensure moisture content and temperature were in optimal ranges. (If buds are too moist, they come out of the jars for more air-dry time) Day 4 of Curing: Burped Jars Twice, once in the morning once at night. How To Grow Medical Marijuana At Home • CannabisKnowledgeSociety.com 24 Checked jars every 3 hours to ensure moisture content and temperature were in optimal ranges. (If buds are too moist, they come out of the jars for more air-dry time) Day 5 of Curing: Burped Jars Once – one time during the day. Checked jars twice a day to ensure moisture content and temperature were in optimal ranges. (If buds are too moist, they get a longer burping period. At this point buds should not be too wet to be jarred or you have been attempting to cure wet buds.) Day 6 of Curing: Burped Jars Once – one time during the day. Checked jars twice a day to ensure moisture content and temperature were in optimal ranges. (If buds are too moist, they get a longer burping period. At this point buds should not be completely dry, and just getting better from curing.) Day 7 of Curing: Burped Jars Once – one time during the day. Checked jars once a day (a different time from when you burp) to ensure moisture content and temperature were in optimal ranges. (If buds are too moist, they get a longer burping period. At this point buds should not be completely dry, and just getting better from curing.) After a week of curing buds should be okay to store without worry, but you should still continue to actively burp and cure for another week before long-term storage. Day 8 of Curing: Burped Jars one time during the day. Make sure temperature and humidity stay in optimal ranges (Buds in closed jars should maintain optimal humidity level, 62%RH) Day 9 of Curing: Burped Jars one time during the day. Make sure temperature and humidity stay in optimal ranges (Buds in closed jars should maintain optimal humidity level, 62%RH) Day 10 of Curing: Burped Jars one time during the day. Make sure temperature and humidity stay in optimal ranges (Buds in closed jars should maintain optimal humidity level, 62%RH) Day 11 of Curing: Burped Jars one time during the day. Make sure temperature and humidity stay in optimal ranges (Buds in closed jars should maintain optimal humidity level, 62%RH) Day 12 of Curing: Burped Jars one time during the day. Make sure temperature and humidity stay in optimal ranges (Buds in closed jars should maintain optimal humidity level, 62%RH) Day 13 of Curing: Burped Jars one time during the day. Make sure temperature and humidity stay in optimal ranges (Buds in closed jars should maintain optimal humidity level, 62%RH) Day 14 of Curing: Burped Jars one time during the day. Make sure temperature and humidity stay in optimal ranges (Buds in closed jars should maintain optimal humidity level, 62%RH) How To Grow Medical Marijuana At Home • CannabisKnowledgeSociety.com 25 At this point it is safe to store you jars long-term without having to worry about burping them. They should maintain a stable 62% RH. You may burp them once a week or once every few weeks initially to continue to aid the curing process. (You could optionally throw in a Boveda 62% RH Pack for long-term storage, but it is not necessary if your jars maintain 62%RH) How To Grow Medical Marijuana At Home • CannabisKnowledgeSociety.com 26 Chapter 3 Grow Environment Growing great buds requires knowing the four stages of the Grow Cycle. The reason for this is that each stage of growth has slightly varying requirements for optimal growth. That is, they require different PPM requirements of nutrients, light cycles, temperature and humidity. You do not want seedling temperature and humidity conditions during harvest time. You do not want to feed late flower feedings to seedlings. Keeping conditions optimal makes for happy plants, big yields, and dank buds! We discussed the lighting cycle in the past chapter and we will discuss nutrient requirements in the nutrients section. Here we will be looking at temperature and humidity requirements for each stage of the grow cycle. The four stages of the grow cycle are (1) Germination & Seedling (2) Vegetative Stage. (3) Flowering Stage. (4) Harvest and Drying (& Cure). During the seedling stage plants are can be very delicate and susceptible to over-watering, over-feeding, light burn and heat stress. During the seedling stage plants have a small root structure so higher humidity helps them exchange water through their leaves. For this reason, seedlings prefer an environment with higher humidity levels. You want to keep a moderately warm climate, not too cold and not too hot. You never want huge humidity or temperature swings during any stage of the grow cycle. Being in the middle of the recommended temperature and humidity range for each stage of growth is a great sweet spot to aim for. You do not want to go higher or lower than the recommended optimal temperature and humidity ranges. These are temperature and humidity range recommendations for lights ON – during lights off a temperature drop of 5-10C is acceptable, the less the better. (Ie: Lights ON temperature of 23C (73F) and a Lights OFF Temperature of 18C (64F) would be an acceptable drop from lights on to lights off.) Seedling Environment: [ Temperature for Seedlings: 20-25 C / 68-77 F ] [ Humidity for Seedling: 60-80% ] How To Grow Medical Marijuana At Home • CannabisKnowledgeSociety.com 27 As plants grow larger they gain tolerance to stress and are able to consume more resources, more light, more food, etc. At this point this will have some root structure so you will not need humidity to be as high as 80% like you did with your seedlings. Vegetative Environment: [ Temperature for Vegetative: 20-28 C / 68-82 F ] [ Humidity for Vegetative: 40-65% ] As you change your light cycle from vegetative 18/6 or 24/24 to a flower light cycle of 12/12 your plants will being to flower. They will now have different nutrient requirements and may benefit from a different spectrum lighting from that which was used in the vegetative stage. During this time buds will begin to bloom and can increase the overall humidity in the grow space. Having high humidity levels like that which you had during the seedling stage is highly unacceptable during the flowering stage, especially towards the end. High humidity in the flower stage can result in mold, mildew, and favourable conditions for other pests and diseases. You will also want to watch temperatures as excessive heat or light can burn and stress plants reducing yields and potency. Flower Environment: [ Temperature for Flowering: 20-26 C / 68-78 F ] [ Humidity for Flowering: 40-65% ] Once you have finished flowering, it is time to harvest, dry & cure your medicine! We will go into greater detail in the Harvesting Chapter, as well as the Curing Chapter. Keeping humidity and temperature at the right conditions are of great importance at this stage in order to slowly dry your buds for a smooth smoke, while preserving the precious terpenes which produce that unmistakeable dank aroma we all love. Harvest + Drying Environment: [ Temperature for Harvesting + Drying: ~21 C / ~70 F ] [ Humidity for Harvesting + Drying: 40-60% ] How To Grow Medical Marijuana At Home • CannabisKnowledgeSociety.com 28 How To Grow Medical Marijuana At Home • CannabisKnowledgeSociety.com 29 Chapter 4 Grow Room Design The Grow Room Basics - An Introduction: [Before Building Your Room, COMPLETLE THE ENTIRE Chapter] A grow space can be as simple as a closet, washroom or bedroom, to something specific for growing such as a built room, or grow tent, all the way to fully automatic industrial grows. We will be focusing on the first two – built rooms and grow tents, including closets and any other space in your home. To begin with, we need to understand what it takes to grow a plant. One must consider the 4 Elements of Nature – Water, Soil, Air, Light. Will your space have enough room to hang your lights and still leave enough space for the lights heat to have a buffer (as to not cause light burn)! Will you have a space or area to exhaust stale air or bring in fresh air? (You cannot grow a plant inside of a sealed fireproof safe…. It will suffocate without fresh air or oxygen and all that built up heat!) Now your grow medium, will you be able to bring dirt into this space? A carpeted room may not be ideal, or you may want to do some rearranging or maybe bring in a tarp or container or tent. And finally, all plants need water to grow, will you be okay getting water to your grow space? It would suck to have to climb multiple sets of stairs or carry lots of water long distances. (Now some equipment may make this easier, but you will still want to keep this in mind!) Don’t be overwhelmed by this information, it will soon become second nature, much like the tasks when you drove a car for the first time became mundane with experience. We will walk you through building the perfect room and you’ll know exactly how to build a room for your space! All these aspects, Water, Soil, Air, and Light, must fit into your grow space and act in unison with each other. Too much Light and not enough air circulation, and you will burn your plants to How To Grow Medical Marijuana At Home • CannabisKnowledgeSociety.com 30 a crisp! No air circulation and your plants will not grow to their potential and may die. We will help you pick the right lighting and fan, but first we must choose and build out our space! Building Your Room Step 1 – The Space: The first thing to decide is WHERE you want to grow! This will dictate much of your other parameters of your grow (lighting, plant count and size, fans, etc.) – The larger the space the bigger plants, more lights, more fans, etc. may be used. (Having a larger space can also allow you to have multiple rooms. Thus you can have one room for vegetative growth, and one room for flower growth (effectively shortening your grow cycle by up to 4 weeks, actually giving you and extra 4 weeks of vegetative growth time!) Or you may keep a separate room for clones, or drying, a male plant for breeding purposes, etc.) You can theoretically grow anywhere; in a closet, in a washroom, in a bedroom, living-room, washroom, basement, garage, attic, shed. You will be able to design the space to your needs. What you must keep in mind is; • It will smell, you will need fans and filters. Fans make noise. This air will need to be exhausted somewhere • Your grow medium (water and soil) may be messy. Getting water to your plants should be accessible, unless you want to be carrying buckets and buckets back and forth! • Depending on your lighting choice, it may create heat which will need to be exhausted • Depending on the size and amount of grow space you may need a dehumidifier which you will need to rid of water • Depending on your grow room size and temperature, you may need an A/C or Heater How To Grow Medical Marijuana At Home • CannabisKnowledgeSociety.com 31 Building Your Room Step 2 – Design: Now that you have decided Where you will be growing, it is time to decide What you will be growing in! But, there is one more factor to consider, that is, will you have multiple spaces within your Grow Room? You can choose to have your grow space be one room, or multiple rooms. Here’s the difference and why you might want to choose to divide things up! Single Room: In a single room you have your vegetative cycle, followed by your flowering cycle, and finally your drying cycle, all in this order. If you have a 6-week vegetative cycle, and an 8 week flower cycle, and a 2 week drying cycle, that is 16 weeks in total. Or 3 grows (3 harvests) a year. Double Room: Vegetative Room + Flower Room In a two room setup you have a 10 week vegetative cycle, and a 8 week flower cycle followed by a 2 week dry cycle. Since you have one room for vegetative growth and one room for flowering growth, they can run perpetually (at the same time). This is why we have 4 extra How To Grow Medical Marijuana At Home • CannabisKnowledgeSociety.com 32 weeks of vegetative growth in this type of setup. It takes a total of 10 weeks to finish a full grow. That is 5 grows (5 harvests) a year. (TWO extra harvest per year versus a single room setup, and they will be larger as you have given them 4 weeks longer for Vegetative growth in each grow.) Perpetual Rooms: (Vegetative Room + Flower Room + Drying Room) Finally, a True Perpetual grow, the exact same as a Double-Room setup, but you have a Third Room used as a Drying-Room. This effectively saving you another two weeks on your grow cycle! In this method you can have an 8 week long vegetative room running the same time as the 8-week long flowering room. As the flower room finishes, it goes to the drying room. The vegetative room now at its eighth week of growth moves to the flowering room, and a new batches of plants are entered into the vegetative room! (with this type of setup, it is also easy to take clones before putting your plants into the flowering room. Or optionally, you can have a fourth small area for cloning.) With this method of Perpetual Grow your entire grow cycle would take a total of 8 weeks. That’s 6 grows (6 harvests) per year! Another version of Perpetual Grow is where there is room #1 for vegetative growth, room #2 for month one of flower, room #3 for month two of flower, and a separate area for drying. This making a true perpetual grow, where each room runs plants for 4 weeks each. You always have plants in vegetative stage, you always have plants in weeks 1-4 of flower, and you always have plants in weeks 5-8 of flower. With this method of Perpetual Grow where each of your rooms runs plants for 4 weeks each, you would be harvesting plants every 4 weeks... That’s 13 grows (13 harvests) per year! Now that you know where you are growing and how you are diving up your spaces, it’s time to choose WHAT you will actually be growing in. Here are the basics of What you can grow in. A) A Bedroom Tent Grow B) A Temporary/ Permanent Closet Grow C) A Custom Room Let’s Take a look at the first one, A) A Bedroom Tent Grow. Just because we are saying bedroom does not mean you must use your bedroom. You may set- up a tent in any space you have Chosen! (Bedroom, Office, Living-room, Closet, Garage, Basement, Attic Etc.) The mechanics will be the same regardless. Tents come in many different sizes ranging from 2x2, 3x3, 4x4, 4x8, 8x8, 10x10 and other shapes in-between. For this How To Grow Medical Marijuana At Home • CannabisKnowledgeSociety.com 33 example, we will choose a 4x8 Tent in a 10x10 room. We will also look at a 4x4 Tent in an 8x8 room. (I would recommend choosing a high quality tent, like a Gorilla Grow Tent. You can get a cheaper tent, but you may be throwing it away after a few grows… you get what you pay for!) Let’s Take a look at the second one, B) A Temporary / Permanent Closet Grow. In a closet grow space, that is an average closet size 3ftx6ft (8ft tall), you may not want to use it as a grow space forever, but you still want to optimize it for your grow. You can simply paint the inside walls White. Or you can get reflective film (poly/panda film, mylar) and use thumb-tacs on each of the four corners, which can easily be removed afterwards. [The limitations with a closet grow, would be that you will need to either exhaust air somewhere, or choose a smaller wattage (less heat producing) lighting system. If you are not exhausting air, smell may also be a major concern.] Let’s Take a look at the third one, B) A Custom Room. Maybe you want to build a more permanent option. Building a room in your garage, basement, or another space you choose fit can be great as it allows for complete customization! Or you may even convert a current room into a permanent grow room. You may still opt for a tent, but if you want something more permanent and sturdy, building a room may be for you. The easiest material to work with is wood. You can choose to build any size room you would like. (We will look at choosing lights and filters later.) The room can be extremely inexpensive with just Panda/Poly/Mylar-Film on the outside. Or you can completely finish the room with drywall, and insulation, and then add the reflective film on the inside. When building your room, keep in mind to leave space to exhaust air, and a space to bring fresh air in. You would build out the room as you would any room, so you may need some handy skills for this. If you plan to build this room as part of your home, I would suggest doing things absolutely to code or hiring a contractor/professional. BUT WAIT! Don’t be put off so fast! I built a really simple custom room when I was just Sixteen-years old! So I’m sure you can do it too! How To Grow Medical Marijuana At Home • CannabisKnowledgeSociety.com 34 I will also walk you through a “Stand-Alone” Custom Grow Room – my version of a fusion between a tent and a custom grow room. Stronger and sturdier than a tent, much cheaper than a tent, and it can be taken apart if you choose to! Step 1; The first step to building your Custom Room is rough-sketching your plans on a paper! Always measure first when working with wood! (Remember, Measure twice and cut once!) Most 2x4’s are sold in 4Ft. and 8Ft. lengths, so you may choose to use those dimensions and keep wood-work to a minimal. Or you can saw away and build your room precisely to your desired dimensions! Step 2; Once you have chosen your dimensions, it is time to start Framing! The second step to building your room. (I’m not going to go into how a contractor should build a room inside of a home in this book.) If you’re making my Stand-Alone Custom Grow Room, you would make your outside frames (two identical squares, which would be the lengths of your room) then attached them with more 2x4s (which would make the widths of your room) completing your box. You would finally add one more square that fits inside of your frame, to this square you add a set of hinges and VOILA, you have yourself a door! [Note: Go Review the Section on Lighting BEFORE moving to the optional steps for building a custom room, as your breaker & plugs configuration will depend on how big and what kind of lighting system you opt for.] Step 2.5; (OPTIONAL, only needed if building a custom room), would be to choose insulation. Your contractor may help you with this, there’s different options from spray-foam, Rockwool insulation, regular insulation used in homes. Each have pro’s and con’s and different pricing. (Also OPTIONAL) if you’re building a custom room, you may choose to then drywall your room. If you insulated it, at that point you should also drywall the room. Step 3; Now if you are building a custom room, you may choose to paint your walls white. (Or White Primer, so they are ready to paint in the future, but have a clean finish). I would recommend using a reflective film as a step up from paint. If you’re making a Stand Alone Custom Grow Room, after completing your frame, it is time to wrap your framing in reflective film. Then place a sheet on the floor and secure it to the sides, and finally place a sheet over the top and secure it to the sides as well. Remember to OVER-LAP any seems and DUCT-Tape them REALLY-WELL. [Note*: Light-Leaks are an absolute No-No! They can ruin a perfectly amazing crop with hermie (hermaphrodite) pollen and seeds!] How To Grow Medical Marijuana At Home • CannabisKnowledgeSociety.com 35 [NOTE: Your options for Reflective film include Poly/Panda Film (White on one side and Black on the Other). Or Reflective Mylar which is super reflective on one side (almost like a mirror chrome). The Poly/Panda Film is a little easier to work with, more forgiving to bends and kinks, and a little bit cheaper. Mylar is a little more reflective, slightly more expensive, and a little more delicate to kinks and bends. (If you fold Mylar, that bent area in the Mylar is less reflective than a nice straight piece of Mylar.] Step 4: You are almost complete your Room! The final step is your floor! If you are working in a bedroom, you probably don’t want to ruining your flooring, and if you are working over concrete you do not want that surface as the base for your roots! (It will most likely be too cold!) If you are making a Custom Grow Room you may opt to finish the floor, with a proper sub-floor and tile or hardwood/laminate. Or you can simply put in “flooring” like plywood which will be much cheaper but still maintain a more comfortable environment for your plant beds. If you are making a Stand Alone Custom Grow Room, for flooring, a simple, clean, easy flooring would be Foam-Tiles. The type used in children’s play-places, or gym’s. They’re easy to clean, and keep a comfortable space for your plants to sit on! Congratulations, you’ve now built your first room! (Well the shell for it at least!) (Now you have to hang your lights, fan and filter! We will look at choosing and placement of these things in the next chapters!) How To Grow Medical Marijuana At Home • CannabisKnowledgeSociety.com 36 Lighting: The Lighting System is one of most important items you will get for your grow room! Since you are indoors, your light system will be replicating the sun, so the better the system the better the buds! (As far as the maximum possibilities go for this factor of your grow - 1000W’s of light used correctly will allow you to produce more than 600W’s of light used correctly. Poor grow mistakes however, will minimize your total results. On the other hand, using 600W of lighting optimally will produce better results than using 1000W of lighting in a small, hot tent, burning your plants.) There are many different types of lights you can use, and theoretically you can grow under almost any light! The light you choose however will affect how your finally buds turn out, and effect factors like quantity, quality, and density. So what are your options? CFL Lights, Fluorescent Lights, HID (High Intensity Discharge) in the form of HPS & MH bulbs, LED Lights, are you popular lighting choices for indoor grows. On the smaller end we have CFL and Fluorescent Lights. These are best for smaller grows, compact grows, and usually in vegetative growth cycles. (Although this is determined more by the bulb temperatures you choose.) In these types of situations, you can also use lower wattage led lights or (low wattage blurpes, being LED lights which emit blue/purple light). How To Grow Medical Marijuana At Home • CannabisKnowledgeSociety.com 37 It is best to use a color temperature of 2700k Bulbs in the Vegetative Cycle and 6500k Bulbs in the Flowering Cycle For those looking to jump straight into the main lighting systems, soughed out for their higher wattage systems that produce bigger danker buds, then HID or quality-LED systems would be the best road to choose. Now there are major differences between the two, HID and LED, and there are also a variety of types of LED lights on the markets. HID Lighting Systems are usually chosen as entry level lights. Most growers usually start with 400W, then move to 600W, and sometimes move to 1000W (if they didn’t settle on the 600). These larger lighting systems can also come with dimmable options, allowing you to run a 1000W system at 250W, 500W, 750W or the full 1000W. HIDs are cheaper to buy upfront compared to quality-LED systems. However, they do output more heat and produce a larger electricity bill. Due to this reason you may have to leave more space between the top of your canopy (plants) and the lights. Having one HID system may not be all that bad, but having multiple can produce great amounts of heat and electricity costs! HID systems do allow you to produce much larger and denser buds than CFLS and Fluorescent lights. So they are cheaper upfront but costlier long term! LED Lighting Systems come in a variety of types from cheaper “Blurples” (known to output a distinct purple hue of light) to better quality quantum-boards and cobs. If you plan to invest in quality and attend to be growing long term I would suggest investing in a good quality LED lighting system. Some LED systems come pre-built, other people choose to build their own to save money, or for the fun of it (like computer techies like to build computers!) LED Lighting systems do cost considerably more upfront for the comparable wattage HID systems (think WINDOWS versus APPLE computer pricing). The big difference is that you save over-time, as they are much more energy efficient – they will have a smaller electricity bill! LED lights also produce a lot less heat than a HID system giving you more space to have your plants closer to the lights, for more canopy penetration and denser buds! You also save money from having to exhaust heat with fans, or cool your room with AC. So LED systems are costlier upfront but cheaper long term! Now that you’ve seen the different types of lights systems you can get, there is one last thing to consider when getting your lighting system, and that is the Colour Temperature (Appearance) of your Bulbs. It is measured in degrees called Kelvins. You may have seen lights with this measurement before; 3000k, 3500k, 4000k, 5000k, 6000k, etc. How To Grow Medical Marijuana At Home • CannabisKnowledgeSociety.com 38 The lower Kelvin degrees tend to output more of a yellow/orange light, and the higher kelvin degrees tend to output more of a white light (5000k being Full Spectrum pure white light). In regards to growing Cannabis, in the Vegetative Cycle you want a whiter light which is promotes all around plant growth. Generally, you are looking for between 2700k to 3500k for Vegetative Stage of growth. You may have also seen these bulbs labelled as “Daylight” bulbs. During the Flowering Cycle you want a warmer Red-Yellow light which is more ideal for blooming plants. Bulbs are in the 5000k to 6500k range are best for Flowering Stage of growth. You may have also seen these bulbs labelled as “warm” or “soft” light bulbs. If you get an HID system, then you don’t have to worry about the Kelvin as much. You should however get a MH Bulb for Vegetative Stage of growth (Which emits a white spectrum light), and a HPS Bulb for Flowering Stage of growth (Which emits a yellow-red spectrum light). CAUTION! WARNING! STOP! BEFORE you work with ANY Lighting that is not out of the box plug-and-play (AND WITH any HIGHER wattage Lighting Systems!) always take EXTREME CAUTION. You are potentially working with High Wattages, and more importantly (High VOLTAGES) electricity, which can be FATAL! When unsure, it is always best to consult a professional electrician. Always make sure you total Voltage does not exceed the total voltage of the allotted breaker of it will trip, and can be a fire hazard in certain situations. If you are building your own LED system, or plan on using multiple lighting systems, make sure that the AMPERAGE (AMPS) of all of your systems is LESS THAN the AMPERAGE (AMPS) of the breaker that connects to all of the plugs in which your light systems are plugged into. If they ARE Greater, you should NOT use them. You will need another set of plugs on a New Breaker, or a new breaker panel (aka. Circuit Breaker Board). If you do not know what I am talking about, this is where you call a contractor or electrician, or take a step back and play within your means (get a smaller lighting system). You do NOT want to play with ELECTRICITY as accidents can be FATAL, especially when you are not 100% sure about what you are doing! Calculating Light Amount For Your Room: (LED = # watt per sqft. & HPS = # watt per sqft. ) Now to put it all together! You know the different types of lighting systems such as CFL’s, HID’s, LED’s, and the bulbs that are best for each part of the grow cycle. But you can’t just pack six 1000W HID systems in a 4ft x 8ft x 8ft room, as it would probably be OVERKILL. It would lead to massive heat problems, exhausting that heat would be extremely difficult, that heat would create humidity problems, and probably burn your plants to a crisp! How To Grow Medical Marijuana At Home • CannabisKnowledgeSociety.com 39 There are two ways to calculate this the amount maximum or optimal amount of light for your room. If you are using a tent then you may use the template below for simplicity sake, but you can still do the math if you like. The First Method is the easier method to calculate but it is a little less accurate in grow rooms versus grow tents. This method is that which gives a recommended lighting amount in Watts given the size of a room. This works in a tent where your canopy will most likely be the entire tent, or as big as your plant can grow. Where this First Method falters is at scale, or in larger or custom made grow room. In situations where you have space between plants, or if you left a walk-way in the middle of the room you will want to use the second calculation. This Second Method measures the recommend lighting amount in Watts based on your Canopy Size! The Canopy Measurement Method (2nd Method), gives you a Recommended lighting wattage based on your Canopy Size. On average you would allot a 2ft x 2ft (4SqFt.) space for each plant to grow in. On average you want 50-75W per plant. 65W being an Optimal Wattage per plant to aim for. The first step in Calculating using the Canopy Measurement Method is to find the Square- Footage of your Canopy. Let’s say for example your room is 20ft. x 20ft. (400 SqFt.). Inside that room we will leave some space around the sides of the room so that we can perform plant maintenance. We choose to grow in 10ft. x 10ft. (100SqFt.) area within the 20ft. x 20ft. room. This 10ft. x 10ft. space we will be using to grow is our Canopy area. We then take the Canopy Area, in this case 100SqFt. (10ft. x 10ft.) and divide it by the area of space we are allotting for each plant (in this case 2ft x 2ft = 4SQFT.) resulting in the Square- Footage needed per plant. (100SqFt. divided by 4SqFt. = 25SqFt.) Finally, we take the number we calculated for Square-Footage needed per plant, and multiple it by the optimal wattage per plant (which earlier we said was 65W). è 25 SqFt. Multiplied by 65Watts equals 1625W. Review of the Canopy Measurement Method; 1) Calculate SQFT of Canopy. 2) Divide Canopy SQFT by SqFT per Plant (4SQFT in general), giving you Square Footage Per Plant 3) Multiple Square Footage Per Plant by Optimal Wattage Per Plant (65W per plant optimal) è 10ft. x 10ft. Canopy = 100 SqFt. 2) 100SqFt. / 4SqFt. Per plant = 25SqFt. Per plant 3) 25SqFt. Per Plant * 65W= 1625W in Total How To Grow Medical Marijuana At Home • CannabisKnowledgeSociety.com 40
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