Intro:
Growing enough good quality cannabis to supply you and few mates is easy. Anyone can do it. YOU can do it. I've got a lot to learn about growing, but if you haven't grown before, this will give you enough info to get started. Remember - the plant WANTS tio grow. Just look after it a little and it'll be fine.
You can grow on a sunny windowsills indoors, in your back garden, in a closet with lamps, in waste ground, forest clearings, anyhwhere with soil and a bit of sun. I know one case where cannabis was grown - and survived till harvest - on a busy traffic roundabout!
Growing your own means you aren't giving money to some very shady characters. Commercial cannabis in Ireland is mostly run by violent people, the quality is often not great, they mix stuff in with it and you have no control over what chemicals were used or even if the farmers who grew it were getting a fair deal. I've looked into government links to the drugs trade and by buying commercial cannabis, I reckon we are probably funding some crazy stuff being run by the CIA or other governmental crazies.
I base this information on my own experience, that of other growers I know, and on the detailed "Marijuana grower's guide" by Mel Frank. The entire text of the book is on the web at:
If you have any comments, suggestions, tips, questions, we'd be delighted to hear them.
Selling cannabis growing equipment is now big business, and what you see advertised may not always be the best thing for you. You can make perfectly acceptable subsitutes yourself, with a little ingenuity. Companies advertise cannisters of CO2 (carbon dioxide) gas, as CO2 makes plants grow faster. But you can get the same effect by putting a few jars of fermenting home brew beer or wine in with the plants. Hydroponics tanks are advertised, but you could easily build one yourself, and buy a cheap aquarium pump to circulate the water. Relatively expensive HID lamps are sold, but fluorescent bulbs are cheaper and easier to buy. On the other hand, if you want a low maintenance garden that you can leave alone for a week or two, the catalogues will sell you everything you need to have an automated growing space.
The biggest obstacle I personally have faced in growing cannabis is a tendency to get too stoned to look after them properly. I mention this as it may be of help to some people reading this.
The Law: There are a lot more tokers in this country than Gardai. It's 11,000 gardai and at least a quarter million tokers of various descriptions. If you include occasional tokers and past tokers, I wouldn't be surprised if it was pushing the one million mark. The point is - there's a lot more of ‘us' then there are of ‘them' though in reality, ‘we' are ‘them' and ‘they' are ‘us'.
Many cannabis smokers in other countries have staged smoke ins. This often involves a group of people going into a police station. The inevitable result is that the cops refuse to arrest them and tell them to go away. Why? I think it's because the cops can't handle the embarassment factor. And because there isn't nearly enough prison room to hold all the people who use cannabis. (I tried to organise a smoke in one time in Dublin, but scared that no-one else would turn up, didn't turn up myself. Respect to Eanna and to anyone else - who did turn up.)
Horris is a grower in Navan, who despite several busts, continues growing, and defends his constitutionl right to do so in court. He lives a hundred yards from the police station, the Gardai know he is growing, but he is mostly left alone. He reckons that the court is like a theatre, that it's a play being put on for the benefit of the public. Asked by the judge "I suppose you're still growing", Horris agreed that he was. The local newspaper didn't report that bit.
One grower - who was growing to supply sick people who used cannabis as a medicine - was busted and prepared to defend his right to grow cannabis. The prosecution tried to tell him that he wouldn't be able to call any of the witnessess that he wanted to call, but they offered him a deal at the same time: plead guilty and you won't go to jail - which is what happened in the end. I think that because he was preparing to defend his case, and call in witnessess who would testify that cannabis was beneficial to them, the prosecution were worried. After all, the court is a play, and that wasn't the script they wanted to hear. Normally, somone growing that amount of cannabis would get sent to jail, but because he was prepared to defend his case, he got away.
I personally have visited my local Drug Squad, told them I believe cannabis should be legalised and given them a detailed summary of the evidence I have found linking various politicians and governments to the drugs trade. I haven't had any hassles from them in the three months since then. (But then, I didn't have hassles before then, either) I will be going in to the Gardai soon with more information on drugs corruption, written permission for the Gardai to tap my phone and search my property and tell them that I am growing cannabis for my own personal use.
The point I'm trying to make is that let's not get freaked over cops,and getting busted and whatnot. And if anyone is setting up a smoke-in or smoke-out, let me know. I'll be there - this time!
Respect for the earth: Using artificial light to grow plants which can
be grown better using natural sunlight is not good for the planet. The
only way I can justify it to myself at the moment is that it means I can
grow throughout the year, instead of having just one harvest in the autumn.
I do plan - as from next year's harvest - to stick to growing using
natural light. Other reasons for using lights include security, convenience.
In Holland, the cheapest cannabis is that grown outdoors - they believe
that outdoor plants in northern Europe will not be as strong as indoor
plants grown under artificial lights. But I urge anyone reading this to
try to grow using natural light.
Basic growing guide:
Seed:
IT IS NOT ILLEGAL TO BUY SEEDS OR POSESS THEM.
If you get good seed, you'll get good plants. You can grow seed from grass that you've smoked and liked. Don't forget to take the seed out of the grass before you smoke it! Very dark or cracked seeds are unlikely to grow.
You can buy hemp seed in pet shops or health food stores - sometimes even supermarkets, which will grow. It will produce very low THC plants, though there's a slight high off them, and supposedly after a few generations, the plants revert back to being a normal THC cannabis plants.
You can order seeds by post from suppliers in Holland or England, or if you're travelling, bring some back over with you. Remember - they are not illegal. As far as I know, there are no suppliers of cannabis seed anywhere in Ireland. It's around £2 per seed, usually in packets of ten or so. There's a list of suppliers on our links page.
Germination: Warm and moist are the key words to think. Don't
let them dry out. Try them in damp tissue paper - a layer above, a layer
below. Make sure they are always damp - tho' not swimming in water. Plant
them out - carefully - when they start to sprout. Or just put them in a
centimetre below the -watered - soil in a pot. Put the pot in a plastic
bag to reduce water loss. Keep em warm in a hot press or similar. 70 to
90 fahrenheit are best for germination. You get most of them coming up
within a week, but older seeds might take up three weeks.
Soil: If you have a good garden, the soil from that will do. Take out any weeds or weed roots. You can buy composts, mix them with expanded rocks, and sand and whatnot, but it's not necessary. If you're using garden soil, crumble it up. You definitely need drainage in the pots, or the plant will become waterlogged. I've used the big two litre tubs of milk - with drainage holes - to grow decent sized plants, or you can buy or make your own pots. Unless you are growing hydroponically, the bigger you want to grow the plant, the bigger the pot you want. If a plant you have isn't growing as big as you want it, try repotting it in a bigger pot.
You can try mixing in seaweed into the soil to act as slow release nutrient.
Hydroponics: As I understand it, the plants are grown in a constant trickle of water. They are in pots standing on a table with a flow of water on it. The roots will make their way out of the bottom of the pots and along the table. You can provide something for them to grip on - I reckon a piece of natural fibre would do. You can buy a product for this. The water should be circulated reasonably regularly - this can be done with a small aquarium pump.
Nutrients:The water contains a balanced mix of nutrients and provides nourishment to the plants. You can either buy your nutrients from a growing supplier or make up your own mix from horse dung, netlles, seaweed, etc, diluting the juice with water to get the best growth. You'll know if your mixure is too rich - the symptoms of nitrogen overload are:
Construction of hydroponics set up. I've bought a commercial model, which is a plastic tank about a foot deep, 3 foot wide and five foot long. The tank has a flat top with a gap on either end to allow water from the tank to circulate. The plant pots are placed on the flat top, and a pump is put sitting in the tank with it's nozzle pumping water onto the top of the tank. The water makes it's way across the top and falls back into the tank. It is necessary to keep the water circulating so it gets oxygen to keep the plants going.
All you need is a tank, a pump and a growing surface which drains
the water back into the tank (preferably with a drop into the tank, so
the water gets aerated as it splashes into the tank below). This can be
rigged up with materials to hand.
Light: The most efficient (light per unit of electricity) lights are believed to be the high pressure sodium and metal halide lamps, as widely advertised by growing suppliers. A 400 watt lamp is now available for under £100. They have the disadvantage of being hot, heavy and more expensive to buy than fluorescent lights.
Fluorescent lights are readily available and produce a perfectly fine crop - I haven't grown with them myself, but I propose to do. In either case, be careful with the electrical wiring.
Of course the best light source by far is the sun - and it's eco-friendly. But it does mean that you can't grow during the winter.
Because the flowering of the plant is generally triggered by the amount
of light it gets, you'll need a timer as well. Fluroescents work on a normal
timer, but for HID lamps, you'll need to buy another bit of kit so you
can attach the timer.
Growing:
Vegetative stage - where the plant concentrates on growing leaves and
height. Plants need less than 12 hours of darkness per 24 hours to keep
them in vegetative stage. It is possible to leave the lights on for most
of the 24 hour cycle while they are in vegetative stage. After plants have
flowered and their bud harvested, they can be rejunvenated by keeping enough
leaves on them and putting them into the vegetative cycle, where they will
recover and start to grow again within a few weeks. You can decide how
long the vegetative stage is, depending on how high you want the plants
to be. Outdoors, they can grow ten feet or more, depending on variety and
sunshine.Indoors, you are restricted by the height of your grow room -
and the plants will start to burn if they are within six inches of HID
lamps, though they can grow right up to fluorescent lamps without burning.
One grower gives them 2-3 weeks in veg stage
Flowering stage - where the plant concentrates on producing flowers - the female flower is traditionally harvested as "bud" and is the part of the plant with the most THC. (However, most other parts of the plant also contain THC and can be used.) Flowering is usually triggered when the plants get 12 or more hours of complete darkness per 24 hour cycle. The plants should be ready to harvest from six to eight weeks after starting the flowering cycle. Some varieties flower earlier.
Sexing: The male flowers generally come first - they are like like tiny clusters of grapes, and the little balls open to release pollen dust. The females flower is tiny white hairs. It's reasonably common to get plants with both male and female flowers on them - hermaphrodites. If you want seeds from your plants, leave the male flowers on. If you don't want the females fertilised - this results in bigger buds - cut the male flowers off as soon as they appear. If you want to guarantee an all-female crop, take cuttings from a plant that you know is female.
Harvest:
I harvest when half the white hairs have turned brown.
You can harvest growing tips and leaves at any time, as long as it
is not
Yield: according to the High Times cultivation website (great site,
but the server was very slow when I was on it), you can expect a half ounce
of dried, manicured bud per square foot of garden.I saw some plants in
the Cannabis College in Amsterdam - they grew the plants to have an area
of a square metre or so, and were expecting 300 to 500 grammes of dried
manicured bud.
Drying: Careful oven drying works for (ahem) emergencies or sampling,
but a slow dry is best for the main crop. Hang up in cool dry place. Check
regularly for mold - if it starts, you need more ventilation. Remove moldy
bits.
Cloning: Once you know a plant is female, you can cuttings from it, so you know that those plants will all be female. I take the cuttings when they are in the vegetative stage. They need moisture and warmth, like the seeds, as well as light. Cuttings are tricky enough, and I'd be happy enough if half the cuttings I took made it to adult plants. It's a very nice feeling when the little cutting starts to take off and grow like crazy.
Regeneration: It is possible to restart a plant after it has flowered. When harvesting, leave as many leaves as possible on the plant. Put it under 24 hours of sunlight a day for a week or so, then back on normal daylight.
Pests:
Growing indoors, you probably won't get many pests. If your plants
start to look unhealthy, check closely on both sides of the leaf surface
for litle insects.And I mean little. If you find something, a home made
brew of tobacco and/or garlic and/or onions simmered with water should
get rid of them without exposing you to more toxic chemical pesticides
Nutrient deficiencies: There's a whole load of possible nutrients that
your plant could be missing. Something like seaweed will have a very wide
range of nutrients, including small amounts of ‘trace elements' which are
equally needed for the plant.
The outdoors option:
Coming soon. Tune in next week.