Question and Answer Dialogue

[Detained]

Table of contents:

Post# - Subject

2 - Re: Blooming, Seeds

3 - Re: Closets, Lighting, Sexing, Cloning

4 - Re: How to Determine Sex

5 - Re: Growth (rate, appearance, size, etc...)

6 - Re: Male v/s Female, Seeds

 

[Detained]

Blooming, Seeds



ATTN: Growers I have 3 plants growing at the current time. here's the history: the three were started from seeds. These babies are kind. They were started under a grow light and then placed in a window for about three weeks, and then replaced under the light. One is about twice as high as the other 2. The tallest being about 9 inches tall. The tallest one is also starting to bud. 1) What is wrong with the other two? 2) What is the best thing to do for the budding plant? 3) How do I go about harvesting these properly for a) smoking purposes b) seeds for future plants

If you after five weeks have plants that are only 9 inches tall, I would suggest you do something drastic about your light setup.

What I suggest, is that you get a 400 W High Pressure Sodium lamp. These babies are bright! And you can expect the plants to love it. They will grow approximately half an inch a day. But I reckon your current plants are beyond redemption. If you want to really get into growing your own stuff, light is essential. But there are other things to take into consideration. Write me back, and I'll give you some suggestions on how to get an excellent all-year setup, that works great.

As for your questions:

1) Maybe the seeds come from different strains. Some seeds are good, some bad. Shit happens. To ensure good crop from one female plant, you need to plant at least 12 seeds. Some won't come up, some turn male, some dwindle and die on you. As I mentioned earlier growing conditions are essential.

2) If you want to get the plant to bloom, you have to give it good blooming conditions. First of all you want to cut light back to 12 hours a day. 12 hour dark, is optimal for flowering. But it has to be PITCH black, or else your plant may turn male, which is... well, not as good as female. It can still be smoked, mind you, but you won't get prime buds to send you into orbit, like female buds will.

3) To get seeds for new plants, you have to have both female and male plants. The male have to germinate the female, which then becomes pregnant with seeds. But it's much more convenient to get seeds elsewhere. The seeds you get from a plant has to rest and dry for at least 6 months before you can plant. The seeds have to be brown and spotted, not small and green. For your smoking enjoyment, cut plants, and hang them to dry in a dark place. When semi-dry (which should take about 3-4 weeks), cut the leaves and smoke. Good luck. Send a po(s)tcard

There are some excellent books on this enlightening hobby. There is one called "Indoor Marihuana Horticulture" by Jorge Zervantes (or something along those lines) that thaught me almost everything I know. Try to get one of those. Be sure to get back to me, if you *really* want the lowdown on what to do. Tom <LINK href="style.css" type=text/css rel=stylesheet>

 

[Detained]

Closets, Lighting, Sexing, Cloning



Hmm. Well. I'd like to get a better light, but I AM at college, and privacy is hard to come by. I don't need anything as bright as the sun getting me narced on.

I see. Well, I live in an appartment, and I have this closet in a room. The closetdoor is always ajar, or else it would get way too hot in there. The light *is* bright. But I always keep the curtains shut, and even when it's dark outside (which it is most of the time in Norway this time of year), it doesn't look suspicious at all from the outside. Of course in a college it would be different. You probably don't even have a closet. Or do you?

If you do, you could get some fluorescent light. I used to have that before I got my HID-light, and although the result were nothing compared to what I have now, it was of course better than nothing at all.

You should get like 4 fluorescent tubes of the VHO (I think it's called) kind. The strongest you get. You'll want two ordinary bright white, and two a special kind of ultra-violet grow-light. Mount them on some kind of arrangement that can be lowered from the ceiling of your closet on small chains or something alike. A closet-shelf works great. that's what I used. Get the lamps all connected to a 24 hr timer. Give the plants 18 hrs of light and 6 hrs of dark. That would speed things up a bit

Instead of seeds, what do you think about cloning? Is it hard to do?

I have never tried cloning. But it seems quite hard. You have to be really into it if you want to clone. First of all, you'll need certified females. No use in cloning males, since the THC-levels of those babies are significantly lower than the sinsemilla (a female that hasn't been pollenated).

You can tell the difference in female and male plants mainly on their flowers.

The male plant usually (but not always) grow tall and lanky. The flowers come in small clusters that start at the base stem. Usually at the top of the flower, working its way gradually downwards. The males start to form flowers two to three weeks before the females. The flowers look like a little green bellshaped deal, hanging on a tiny little stem. They come in clusters of ca. ten flowers. When you can see the little...well, it kinda looks like a scrotum...dangling on the plant, is when the THC-content is the highest. The THC-production peters out after that, so that's when you want to yank the plant. You have probably heard some old wives-tales about sticking the roots in boiling water to get all the resin out in the leaves. Don't bother. It sounds cruel to me, and it doesn't even work, since the resin in the stem contains no THC worth mentioning.

Female plants usually grow short and stocky, with lush green leaves. They start producing flowers about three weeks after you have spotted the first flowers on the males.

The thing to look for here, are two small white threadlike things called pistiles sticking out of the flowers in a V-shape. The flowers start growing close to the main stem, and they appear to grow straight out of the intersection between the main stem and the smaller stems. Later the flowers will appear on the small clusters of leaves on the lateral branches. This is a gooooood sign! That means you'll be getting some kick-ass pot. The more female plants, the better. These babies produce the THC like there's no tomorrow. And for the plant, this is true, since they are annual plants...

But back to the cloning bit. When you well have established that it is a female you are the proud owner of, you can think about cloning. You take a sharp blade, like a razorblade, and cut of one of the side-branches. Be sure to let there be at least a couple of leaves on the piece you're cutting. Dip the end in some rooting liquid or powder. (This is the hard part in Norway, since there is none available..) Plant these small rootlings in small pots. Now is the crucial moment. It can last up to a week-10 days. The rootlets have to get time to root. You have to create some kind of make-shift plastic tent, to get the humidity quite high, like in the 70-80%. The plants should be put under a tender agro-light. This is where the fluorescents are the best. They are strong enough to be birth-help, but not quite strong enough to give the best results once the plants are growing good. After two-three weeks the plants should be strong enough to be put under a stronger light. But this, I gather, won't apply to you, since your livingconditions at the moment prevents the level of clandestinity you would prefer. (Wow! That was some way of putting it! It might seem like I'm writing this right of a book, but I'm not. It's sunday afternoon, and I'm at work.)

So there you have it. Cloning works for those with time, patience and a lot of resources on their hands. We other have to rely on good seeds to get the pot we want. I think that's just as well.

Feel free to ask more questions. I'll be glad to share any info I can. I just started out with this rewarding and enlightening hobby myself, so I'm trying and failing, and gather experience as I stumble along. Anything I can do to let a fellow hemper avoid the many pitfalls of home-growing is info well spent. Well, there aren't really that many. I have'n really had any major problems. So good luck, and call back anytime.

Bye for now Tom

 

[Detained]

Determining Plant Sex



>You can tell the difference in female and male plants mainly on their>flowers.>The male plant usually (but not always) grow tall and lanky. The flowers>come in small clusters that start at the base stem. Usually at the top of>the flower, working its way gradually downwards.Hmm right now I'm most worried about telling the sex. I moved the plantesinto thecloset, and are now on a 12-12 light cycle using just a grow light.There are 2 plants, 2 9"ers and 1 15incher. the 15 inch one is budding likecrazy andhas about 2 flowers in bloom. the flowers are on a very short stem with 4small white pedals. hanging down are 4 greenish little things and in themiddle, a white/yellow thing with pollen. The buds start about 1/2 way andwork thier way up.

Yup! That's most definetily a male. The pollen is a dead giveaway, since that is what travels through the air to pollenate the females. You want to pull that as fast as possible to prevent more decline in the potency. The smaller 2 plants don't have any buds as far as I can see.

Then you could be lucky, since the females are late bloomers. (In the world of plants anyway

Let me know how you fare. BTW did I tell you about drying and curing? I will if you want me to. Tom

 

[Detained]

Growth (rate, appearance, size, etc.)



X-mas is looming up. Hope it brings everything you wish for.The tall one is the one I described, the other 2 are probably females.

Sounds great. There is really no way you can tell before the flowering starts. Some varieties grow tall and light green, some grow short and dark green. And some small and light green etc. etc

>I take a sturdy pair of scissors, and cut the plant at the very base of the>stem. This area is usually as thick as a thumb, or a bit thicker,Uhm.. No. I know there are many different strains or whatever of MJ.The stems on these babies are nowhere near thumb size. Not evenMcDonald's Straw size.

Well, the stem doesn't have to be as thick as a thumb. On my most prodigous plant it is thicker, but on some of the other it is thinner. No thinner than a pinky-finger, though. But don't worry about it. I only tell you what I experience, that doesn't necessarily make it right.

I know my growing isn't anywhere near perfect,and the plants aren't tall because of it. Again, this is just a test crop.

That plants are tall isn't necessarily for the better. What you want is lush growth, lots of leaves and lots of lateral stems, where the flowertops reside. In fact, the shorter the better. The plant then uses all its "energy" not in creating the stem, which is no good after all, but in producing resin filled yummy little buds Dark I can do. but 75-85 might be hard, because I have no control overtemperature.

Don't worry about getting the temperature exactly right. Room-temperature will do just fine. It takes a bit longer time, and there could occure a molding-problem if the humidity is too high. As long as the place is dark and DRY, you're fine. Also, I've noticed that the base and adjoining leaves are starting to showred viens.Is this normal, and what is the significance?

I'm not too sure about the red veins. Some of my plants have it, some don't. I just think it's how some plants look when they grow older. No problems connected with it.

None of the buds I have now are flowering, so I'll wait until one or two do before I snip the plant.

You want to wait longer than that. Just keep it flowering for weeks. the more flowers, the better. When it comes to female plants, that is. In a seed book I have from Holland, it says that the females should flower somewhere between 35-65 days! But that is of course under ideal conditions. If the plant flowers too long, it will lose potency.

The best way to find out if your plant is ripe to pick, is to watch those little pistiles sticking out of the female ovule. If they are getting brown and curly at the end, pull it. If not, don't.

Might you have the online growing guide? I got a copy via usenet a whileback, but it must be on my other computer at home.

Sorry, pal. I just have this book that I leaf through every once in a while. When I first started out, I read every word in that book religiously, but you know, things work out different in real-life than it does in the books. I mean, the text-book always want you to have optimal conditions for everything, and some of the pictures they show. Man alive! It's really discouraging. But then you get to thinking about that they probably put their best pictures in the book, so I'm not worred. As long as your dope works, that's it. Of course one can always strive to get the dope better (which I do), but don't break your back over it. It's just a nice hobby. That's all.

Bye for now Tom

 

[Detained]

Male vs. Female; Seeds



Hello, and seasons greetings to you, my friend.

Hope santa treated you nice this year, or rather last year, come to think of it. I thought of this as I woke up this morning. What's 4:20 ? I've seen it inHigh Times a few times and dunno what it is. Either baking temperature ortime? I have no idea. I have never heard of the expression. And when I see it out of context like this, there is no way I can kinda try to figure out what they mean.

Anyways, My friend and I smoked the kind I grew. We really didn't do enoughto feel much, but it was smooth and I felt the effects a little.

Good deal. It's like that the first time I guess. I mean, the first time I smoked my own home-grown I got kinda disappointed. I expected this totally king hell megabuzz, that I've felt when I smoked dutch pot, but no dice. There was something, but not that much.

The next plant were better. Both because I had lowered my expectations and also because I had let the plant grow for a longer time. By the time I got to my third and fourth plant, I knew I was doing the right thing, since my fingers got all sticky with resin when I handled the plant, the smell was also very penetrating. And the high. Man... All my smoking-buddies were equally impressed and stoned out of their gourds (sp?). And these were all MALE plants!

So you know that I'm excited as my first female plant is hanging to dry in my special drying chest.

As I may have told you I got 8 plants going some 8-10 weeks ago. Two of them started flowering real quick. Males, both of them. So I pulled them and dried them. And smoke them. But the effect is not really up to par. Therefore I deduced that the potency of MJ is proportional with age. The older the better. At least until the plant has flowered for a while. The best result I've got so far, is when the plants start to flower after around 6-7 weeks. They stand around 3 feet, and flower like crazy. And I leave them flowering for about 2-3 weeks. Or in case of male, until the little pouches open and drop their pollen. The female should be left flowering until the little tiny pistile-hairs are going brown at the tips. The main stem is sticky with resin, and the smell is overwhelming. That is something to strive for I think it's a worthwhile project to try and mass harvest them.

Anything that has do do with growing your own pot is a worthwhile project in my book. But correct me if I'm wrong. You had, what, three plants? That's not much to mass-harvest, is it? And I can't really see how you can pull off a, say, 4-6 plant operation in a college dorm. It will emanate a smell something close to cat-piss, and some unhealthy individual might see light slipping out from your closet and rat on you. The first thing I need is more seeds.

I don't know how it works over there, but I got seeds just asking two trusted pals of mine that like to smoke. Fortunately one of them had a couple of seeds that he wasn't gonna use. He had tried, but couldn't get the plants going. He just planted the seeds, and put them on a window-sill waiting for something to happen. The plants got to be three weeks, then just dwindled away. So he gave me the seeds. Same with a couple of other people I know.

And I just learned that although it is highly illegal to grow and smoke pot in Norway, it is no law against importing seeds from let's say Holland. Hello? There's a loophole if I ever saw one! I guess it's the same as it's not illegal to sell sugar and yeast, although some people use it to make moonshine

Oh well. Hope you get some seeds so that you can enjoy the pleasures of homegrowing even more in the future. I wouldn't dare to send you any, because US customs might grab a hold of them and then we'd both be in trouble. Until next time. Tom