In America, weed smoking may be for medicinal or recreational purposes. In Canada, they take their herb quite seriously. So seriously, in fact, that they have decided to welcome the entire international community to the 2010 Winter Olympics by hoisting a giant doobie above the stadium.

Yes, your eyes don’t deceive you. It’s not a scalpel statue, or an electric toothbrush, it’s a joint. A majestic, three foot, aerodynamic, joint. And it’s lit. Or it will be, in any case, when it makes its 21,000 mile journey all over the country of Canada as it is carried by over 12,000 canucks. This gives new meaning to the term “Puff, puff, pass.”

According to the torch relay director, Suzanne Reeves:

It’s quite magical. Most people’s reactions are emotional.

As it should be! After all, wouldn’t you weep before a nationally constructed fatty-to-end-all-fatties?

Banana Bread is an all-time classic, easy to produce even for the most novice of cooks. In our version of this tasty treat, like always we’ll kick it up a notch and add some extra kick using our homemade Cannabutter. If you didn’t get around preparing your own cannabutter yet, you can use hash resolved in butter, too.

So today, we’re making Canna-Banana Bread; let’s get to it!

Breakdown:

• Prep time: 30 mins
• Baking time: 60 mins
• Difficulty: Easy
• Price: Affordable

Ingredients:

• 1 cup walnuts or pecans, toasted and chopped
• 3/4 cup granulated white sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup cannabutter, melted and cooled
• 3 ripe large bananas (~1 lb.), mashed well
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 350ºF (180ºC) and place adjust rack to the middle position.
• Butter and flour the bottom and sides of a 9 x 5 x 3 in. loaf pan.
• Place the nuts on a baking sheet and bake for about 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly toasted. Let cool and then chop coarsely.
• In a large bowl combine and incorporate all the dry ingredients.
• In a smaller bowl thoroughly mix the mashed bananas, eggs, melted (but not hot!) cannabutter, and vanilla.
• With a rubber spatula or wooden spoon incorporate all the wet ingredients into the bowl with the dry ingredients. Do not over whisk the mixture. If it becomes too runny and smooth, the Canna-Banana Bread will be very cheewy, and not fluffy at all.
• Now scrape the batter into the prepared pan.
• Bake for approximately 55-60 minutes.
• The bread will be ready when you insert a toothpick into it, and it comes out clean, without any unbaked batter sticking to it.
• Don’t attempt to get the bread immediately out of the pan while it’s still hot. It will most likely fall apart. Set it aside to cool down for some time.

The potency is depending on the potency of your Cannabutter. You can freeze the bread, too, just in case you’d like to enjoy some later, way later. It will last three to five months in a freezer. It is advisable to cut the loaf into slices, and wrap them individually in saran wrap. Like that you don’t have to unfreeze the whole loaf, if all you want is a slice.

Bon Appetit!

A basic ingredient for almost all recipes with marijuana is cannabutter. This article will give you all the details you need to produce your very own cannbutter. It’s easy. It’s cheap. And it’s an essential in the realm of cooking with cannabis.

Breakdown:

• Time: Prep: 3 hrs, Rest: 4 hrs
• Difficulty: Easy
• Price: Cheap

Ingredients:

• Butter: 0.5 lb
• Water: 1.5 li
• Marijuana: 1 oz bud or shake

Instructions:

1. Only use very dry plants. Grind buds thoroughly until they turn into fine dust.
2. Heat the butter and the water.
3. Put the plant material in the pot.
4. Let the mix simmer for about four hours. Do NOT allow it to boil.
5. Make sure the plant doesn’t settle at the bottom of the pot. Stir every now and then.
6. Filter the contents of the pot through a sieve, lined with cheesecloth. Catch the butter / water in a bowl.
   
7. With a spoon or a potato masher squeeze all the liquid out of the plant matter.
8. Rinse the content of the sieve with boiling water, in order to wash all the remaining butter out. Catch the rinse-off in the pot with the other butter.
9. Allow the greenish looking liquid butter to cool down over night.
10. The water and the now hardened butter are now separated, allowing you to easily remove the butter from the top of the bowl. You can discard the water, there is no THC in it.
11. The best way to preserve the cannabutter is to freeze it. So cut it into smaller pieces, wrap it into saran wrap, and freeze it.

Use this in any recipe that requires butter.

Bon Appetit!

Ah, summer’s on its way — the time of the year, when you don’t have to make up excuses to eat enormous amounts of ice cream.

We here at theFreshScent want you to eat your ice cream and get medicated simultaneously. Get ready to enjoy the wonderful fresh flavors of lemon and orange, combined with the earthy taste of medical marijuana. Don’t be afraid to try it at home, even if it may seem complicated at first glance: it’s not. The result is something that speaks for itself.

Let’s get to it.

Breakdown:

• Time: Prep: 30 min – Freezing: 6 hrs
• Serves: 8
• Difficulty: Medium
• Price: Cheap

Ingredients:

• Sugar: 250 g
• Egg Yolks: 6
• Cointreau: 100 ml
• Lemons: 4
• Oranges: 4
• Cream: 600 ml (Regular. Not low-fat.)
• Hashish: 10-15 g
• Butter: 1 tsp

Instructions:

1. Crumble your hash into a cup with one teaspoon of melted butter, and mix it until there are no big lumps left. Add more melted butter if needed. (Note: Do not use margarine.)
2. In a pot bring the cointreau and crumbled hash to a very low simmer.
3. Add zest of the lemons and oranges. The white, inner part of the peel is bitter and will spoil everything. Add the juice of all oranges and lemons.
4. Let it cook for at least 30 min or as long as it takes to finish all the other steps. DO NOT ALLOW MIXTURE TO BOIL!
5. Whip the cream and set it aside in the fridge.
6. In a pot heat 2-3 inches of water. Put a bowl hovering over the pot with the eggs yolks and the sugar in the bowl. The bowl may not touch the water. All you need is the temperature of the steam.
7. You will have to whisk for about 5-10 minutes. You will see the best results if you do it manually. Even if it is a lot harder, don’t use an electronic whisk. Your goal is, to get as much air into the egg/sugar mix as possible. The steaming water ensures you are applying enough heat to melt the sugar, but not so much that you’ll cook the egg. You are done when you don’t feel any more sugar crystals crunching between your teeth when tasting the mixture and everything is creamy and fluffy. Don’t stop whisking, not for one moment. Switch arms if you have to.
8. Now hurry up. Get a pot the same size, or even the same one and fill it with very cold water and ice cubes. Put the bowl with the mixture you just whisked into the iced water and cool down the egg-sugar creme as fast as possible. Just whisk it a little bit, not as hard as before.
9. In the iced water, and in a fresh bowl, cool down the Cointreau mix.
10. You should now have:
    • One bowl with whipped cream.
    • One bowl with cold cointreau / sugar / fruit / hash.
    • One bowl with cold, creamy egg yolk and sugar mix.
11. Carefully and in small amounts, incorporate the cointreau mix in the egg yolk / sugar mix. Don’t whisk it too hard, just mix it together gently.
12. Even more carefully mix the whipped cream in there, too. Again, be very gentle. If you whisk too hard, everything will reduce down to a liquid, and will be unusable for ice cream.
13. Fill the mixture now into cups of your choice. The mix should produce eight units, so chose the size of the cups accordingly.
14. Cover the cups with saran wrap and leave them in the freezer for 6 hours or more. They’ll keep fine in there for at least three months.

You can serve these little ice cream bombs anyway you want. It’s advisable to take the ice cream out of the freezer 20 minutes before consumption, in order to get a softer texture.

Enjoy another tFS original, don’t forget to leave some feedback and suggestions.

Bon Appetit!

Today, I want to offer our readers the easiest and most cost-efficient way to grow marijuana indoors (that I know of.) It’s called Hempy Bucket and even for beginners it’s easy and cheap to do, yet very rewarding.

So on with the show, let’s get started!

You will need the following items:

Cups: I use plastic soda bottles, party cups, or anything more or less the same size. The vessel must be light proof. Go for 0.2 liter cups to start with, and transplant later on to bigger buckets.

Buckets: Choosing the size of the buckets is dependent upon your strain. A Lowryder will not need a 10 liter bucket. 5 liter will do. Just check your local hardware store for paint buckets or something similar.

Perlite: Some growers say to use a vermiculite/perlite mixture. I use perlite only. Personally, I like it more; it can be washed afterwards and used again.

Rockwool Cubes: Use the small ones you see in the picture above. 3cm x 3cm.

Nutrition: The brand that gave me the best results, is Dutch Formula and Superthrive.

Equipment: Use a syringe, or another type of measuring device. You can find them in pharmacies. The nutrition will have be mixed into the water. You are dealing with 1ml measures here and it’s essential that you get this precisely measured. This will be the only food your plants will ever get. There is nothing nutritional in the perlite itself.

Now you need an apparatus to catch run-off water. This can be virtually anything, because there won’t be a lot of excess water to collect. This basin is just there to catch water draining out of your Hempy buckets. You can use just about anything, from party plates to huge crate bins. Be creative.

The most expensive item on the list will be without a doubt, the nutrition. The set is made of three bottles. You will need them all and they will cost you around $70 for the set. However, they will last you through multiple grows. (Note: You will be measuring in milliliters.)

With Hempy buckets, there’s actually nothing to build. All you have to do is, make a hole in the buckets, about the size of a penny, more or less two fingers above the bottom and that’s it.

Prepare your seeds. Over night, let the rockwool cubes rest in water to moisten before use. Let excess water run off, but do not, ever, squeeze them. If growing via Hempy method, make a tiny hole (2-3mm deep) in the cubes, and drop a seed in there. Rip a little piece of the rockwool from a corner, and use it to cover the hole with the seed in it.

Leave them in a dark, warm place for one or two days. After that, put them on a windowsill into direct sunlight. Make sure they get as much sun as possible, and spray them with water every now and then. After 3-8 days, you will have a sprouting seedling. At this point, do not give it any nutrition yet.

After a few days on your windowsill, the plants should show some growth. Don’t lose patience. It can take up to two weeks until you see a 3-5cm tall seedling with some green, round leaves. Keep a close eye on the rockwool cubes. As soon as you see roots making their way out of the cube, it’s time to move your babies into their first home.

Preparing the Hempys: Before you move your seedlings into the Hempys, wash the perlite you’re about to use. There will be fine particles in the perlite, which can form clumps so use a colander and rinse these particles off.

That’s it. You have a successfully rooted seedlings in a Hempy Bucket. Feed them water only, for the first week. After that, you can start with 1/4 strength of Dutch Formula and work your way up to full strength. You should arrive at full strength after maybe four weeks. When watering/feeding your plants, make sure you don’t water the rockwool — water around it. There’s really no way to over-water, because the perlite wont hold any water for a long time, it’ll all end up in the reservoir at the bottom of the cup/bucket.

Growth will be slow in the beginning. The roots have to get to the water first. Once they do, you will see an explosion in growth. I transplant my ladies always just before flowering into a bigger bucket. But that also depends a lot on what strain I grow. Right now, I am only growing Lowryder. Since these plants stay very small, I never had the need for a bigger pot. So, they stay from seed to harvest in a 1.5 liter mini bucket.

Okay, class is over. As usual, fire away with any questions or comments or even share your own personal experiences with the Hempy method. Until then, happy growing… and Happy 420!

Until now, we’ve created dishes with the use of hash.

Today, we have a recipe that can be produced with the use of marijuana. You can virtually use the whole marijuana plant in this one. The main ingredient, dandelions can be found all over the place and it’s free! Dandelion + MJ Honey is also great to store, it will last for years without losing its potency or taste. Not to mention that it tastes fucking great!

Breakdown:

• Time: Prep: 10 min, Cook: 1.5 – 2 hrs, Rest: 24 hrs
• Difficulty: Easy
• Price: Cheap

Ingredients:

• Dandelion: (Only the yellow pedals.)
• Sugar: 500g per liter of added water.
• Lime juice: 1 tbs per liter of added water
• Marijuana: (As much as you want. For best results, use buds only.)
• Jars (For storage.)

Instructions:

1. Use a large enough pot half and fill with dandelion and marijuana buds. The ratio is really up to you and your budget. I always aim for 50/50.
2. Now fill the pot with water and cook for about two hours.
3. For every liter of liquid remaining in the pot, add 500 g of normal white sugar and 1 tbs of lemon juice.
4. Let the mix cool and set aside for a day.
5. Strain buds and flowers out.
6. Put the pot on maximum heat and let cook until you see foam building up. Reduce the heat and maintain the temperature.
7. On a small cold plate make the test if you have the desired consistency: After cooling down it has to look like, and behave like, thick honey.
8. As long as the honey is hot, fill it carefully into screw-top jars. Turn the upside down, and allow them to cool down. Before putting them away, I would strongly suggest labeling them. You never know.

That’s it, that’s all the magic. You can enjoy your Dandelion + MJ Honey now whenever you want; on pancakes, waffles, toast. You can use it as a substitute for sugar when baking, to sweeten tea or just about whatever peaks your fancy. Fancy, yeah I said it.

Bon Appetit!

This recipe is as easy to do at home as it is delicious. Only a few ingredients are needed, so your wallet will like it, too. It’s best if you prepare it one day before you want to enjoy it, so plan ahead.

Tiramisu is a typical Italian dessert dish, you’ll find it in almost every Italian restaurant you visit. But probably isn’t created with the same magic we use here at tFS. The keys to good tiramisu are time and proper ingredients. So in order to get the best results, stick to the following ingredient list to the letter.

Breakdown:

• Time: 20 min. to prepare (+ 12 hrs. to rest)
• Serves: 4
• Difficulty: Easy
• Price: Affordable

Ingredients:

• Mascarpone – 2-8 oz. cups
• Egg yolks – 2
• Ladyfinger Cookies or Savoiardi – One full bag
• Sugar – 2 oz.
• Vanilla sugar – 1 pack / 1 tbs
• Coffee – 1 pint
• Amaretto
• Cocoa Powder
• Butter – 1 tbs
• Hash – 4g

Instructions:

1. First make coffee. Let it cool completely. Do not use warm or hot coffee.
2. Into the coffee, pour some Amaretto. Not too much, just enough so you can taste it. Do not add sugar to the coffee.
3. In a bowl mix mascarpone with egg yolks, vanilla sugar and normal sugar.
4. Heat the butter so it becomes a liquid. Into the butter, crumble the hash. Stir and let it dissolve. Then mix into the bowl.
5. Find a dish big enough for your Tiramisu. There will be three layers of cookies (biscuits.) The dish should not be higher than that.
6. Now dip the biscuits one by one into the cold coffee. Make a layer of them in the dish. They should be soaked all the way through, but not fall apart. If they aren’t soaked well enough, the tiramisu will taste dry. Make sure you cover the whole dish, leaving as little room for air as possible.
7. On top of the soaked biscuits, evenly distribute a third of the mascarpone mix. Use a wet spoon to make a smooth and even surface.
8. Now pick the dish up a few inches, and let it slam on the table. Repeat 5-6 times, until you are sure there is no air locked inside. The point is to get any/all air bubbles out.
9. Repeat the last three steps two more times, so you end up with three layers of biscuits, and a top layer of mascarpone.
10. Cover the tray with saran wrap, put it in the fridge and let everything sink in over night. Don’t serve to soon, allow the tiramisu to soak all the way through.
11. Now the final touch: Coating the top with cocoa. Put a tablespoon of cocoa powder in a small sieve / strainer and dust the tiramisu with the powder. (Note: If you would do this step the night before, the cocoa powder will be soaked into the top layer of mascarpone. That is not desirable.) So, coat the tiramisu with cocoa just minutes before serving.

It’s also recommended not to dust the whole tiramisu in one go. This way you eliminate the chance of a disappearing tiramisu after an over-indulgent late-night snack attack.

Bon Appetit!

Hash and marijuana can be consumed in many different ways. For a little variation and some culinary pleasure, eating cannabis can be a nice change of pace. The cooking itself is fun, good results are relatively easy to achieve and the high will last considerably longer compared to smoking.

The first dish we’ll be cooking is Spaghetti Cannabonara. Carbonara is a typical Italian pasta dish. Its name is derived from earlier days, when workers from carbon (coal) mines in the the northern part of Italy came home at night, in need of some serious stick-to-your-ribs grub that’s quick and affordable. But this is Cannabonara, Carbonara with weed in it. We thought it was clever too.

In this dish, the grease of the bacon and the fat of the cream will help the hash dissolve nicely into the sauce. No need to make any cannabutter for this recipe. The taste will go perfectly with the bacon, parmesan and the cream.

Breakdown:

• Time: ~15 minutes
• Difficulty: Easy
• Price: Affordable

Ingredients:

* indicates per person.

• Spaghetti — 125g*
• Bacon or Pancetta — 50g*
• Cream — 100ml*
• Egg Yolk — 1* (Only the egg yolk.)
• Parmesan (Freshly ground is a plus.)
• Italian or Regular Cilantro — For garnish. (Optional)
• Hash — As much as you want. (For starters, try 1g*.)
• Ground Pepper
• Salt (Optional. Bacon should provide all the salt needed.)

Instructions:

1. Heat a pot of water on the stove, add a few pinches of salt for seasoning.
2. In a hot, pre-heated frying pan cook the bacon. Don’t use oil, don’t use butter.
3. As soon as you put the bacon in, put your spaghetti in the boiling water. Not steaming, boiling.
4. When the bacon is nice and crispy, remove the pan from the stove. At this point, it’s time to get your special ingredient. If you’re using hash, wait until the fat has cooled off a bit. If you can put your finger in the pan for 5 seconds without being in serious pain, that’s cool enough. Stir the hash around, and watch it dissolving into the bacon fat.
5. When the hash has completely dissolved, put the pan back on the stove. Wait until the pan is hot again, and put 2/3 of the cream in. Let the mix simmer on a very low setting. Keep an eye on it, you don’t want the cream to over boil!
6. In a bowl, mix the egg yolk(s), the parmesan and the remaining cream together.
7. Now everything will go very fast, so be prepared and get some plates ready.
8. Check if your pasta is cooked: taste it or go by touch. The pasta should be “al dente.”
9. Drain the pasta. (Do not rinse!) Throw the pasta in the pan with the bacon/cream in it.
10. Immediately add the parmesan, egg yolk and cream mix you set aside in the bowl. At this point, turn the flame off!
11. Now mix! Mix like the wind! The goal is to mix the contents of the bowl with the spaghetti without letting the egg yolk actually cook. If you see bits of scrambled egg, you over did it. It has to be creamy.
12. Put pasta on dish, sprinkle cilantro as garnish, add light dusting of some fresh ground black pepper and voila. You are ready to serve.

You should get the first effects within 30 minutes of consumption, just in time for dessert. Yes, a dessert recipe will be coming soon.

Bon Appetit!

Choosing a strain to grow can be overwhelming considering the massive amount of good plants out there. In order to get the most out of your grow, you should ask yourself a few questions before ordering the first strain you come across.

1.) Are you going to grow INDOORS or OUTDOORS?
Before you decide to go shopping for seeds, you should make your mind up about this question. Indoor growing will give you more control over the environment. Outdoor grows always depend on the weather, but don’t require expensive equipment and don’t drive your electricity bill through the roof. There are pros and cons for each. Find out what suits you best.

2.) What are your targets?
Are you aiming for a short and compact growing plant with high yields (Indica), or do you prefer a Sativa strain (tall, high quality buds and lower yielding). Then, there’s of course plants that combine both varieties.

3.) After what kind of high are you?
There are two basic types to chose from: The Indica high, which will knock you off your feet, gets you couch locked and keeps you there for a while. Or the trippy, head-based cerebral high you get of a Sativa.

4.) How potent do you want it?
On first impulse, everybody would probably say: as potent as humanly possible. And right you are. But every strain has different effects, too. They range from mellow to happy over to paranoid and thought provoking. Investigate before you invest money.

5.) What’s your budget?
How much are you willing to spend on your babies? Prices vary from as little as $20 for 10 seeds to as much as $150 for 5.

6.) How important is yield to you?
Some strains will give you the most amazing buds, but only a small amount. Others are rewarding in yield and quality, but the seeds will cost you accordingly.

7.) Will smell and odor be a problem in your grow area?
Some strains smell a lot, some are almost not noticeable.

8.) Once you picked a strain, hit the internet and do some research.
Look for grow journals, pictures of your chosen strain. Read how others experienced the grow. How much yield did they get? What medium did they use? How much light, and what nutrition did they use.

9.) Read about seedbanks.
Find out where the freebies are. Most seedbanks will give you free stuff.

If you have any more questions, feel free to ask here.

We’ve already talked about soil options, so that’s a good start. In this article, i want to show you, how you can setup your first grow room. You can use this information for both hydro or soil, although hydro will require more work (and definitely more money).

I will post an entire article about hydroponics setups later, for now let’s cover the main points, regardless of grow medium.

#1) Keep It Simple

NOT Simple.

Let’s get one thing straight – growing weed isn’t that hard.

All your problems will come from over-thinking, or too much care. The same goes for your grow space. So stick to the basics. You will find out later where and how you have to modify your grow room in order to make it more efficient. But for now, stick with a simple setup.

Don’t start off with elaborate rigs or or way too many plants than you feel comfortable with. Just like any discipline, start off small, learn the ropes, and then expand as much as you want.

#2) A Suitable Space

A corner in your living room won’t do. The room has to be closed.

The first question to answer for any grower is, “Where can I raise my crop?”

There is no straightforward answer for this question. You can setup a grow room all over the places; a small cupboard, a whole room, in a garage or your attic space. Just be aware, not all grow rooms are created equally.

I prefer a whole room that isn’t being used for anything else. Just be creative. I have seen people growing pot in places you couldn’t imagine, with excellent results. However, make sure you have enough electricity sockets for lighting, an extractor vent (with carbon filter) and an air intake.

Don’t forget that your exhaust vents will produce noise. Think about visitors, maintenance work that may have to be done on your house in the future and every kind of emergency that will require anyone to access the room you grow in. Also, do not forget about your water source, and avoid carpeted floors. Carpets are an invite for all kinds of bacteria, mold and other forms of undesirables. Besides that, you will handle soil in there. That’s going to be one hell of a mess to clean. So, just say no to carpets.

The grow room has to be absolutely light-proof. We are talking pitch black here. No light in, because it will mess up your light cycles, and no light out. You don’t want your neighbors to ask stupid questions.

In order to maximize you’re light efficiency, you may want to line, or paint the walls. Some people use Mylar. I prefer white walls. Works just as well, if not better.

#3) Equipment

Let’s start with the obvious – you’re lighting system. I use only High Pressure Sodium Lights (HPS).

Strictly speaking, you would have to buy two separate ones if you plan on using the same room for both seedling stage and the vegetative/flowering stages. A weaker light for your seedlings, and a considerably stronger one for the later stages. This also means more money being spent on bulbs and ballast. So, in the spirit of keeping it simple, stick with a stronger one.

Here is a little chart to give you a rough idea about how strong your lights should be:

• 250 Watt HPS: very popular for a first time light, or for smaller areas like cupboards, still gives good yields
• 400 Watt HPS: very popular, good for vegetative plants, small grow rooms or larger grow rooms with limited headroom
• 600 Watt HPS: the most efficient and popular size. Gives optimum light and good depth over an area of 4 foot by 5 foot or more
• 1000 Watt HPS: Extremely powerful light systems that are best utilized on light rails where they will cover an area of about 9 foot by 5 foot

HPS Bulb with ballast and reflector.

You will also need a thermometer. I use a digital one that shows humidity and temperature. This will cost you about $20, but it’s well worth it. If you want to make sure your plants will always get the best water quality possible, don’t forget a pH meter. That will cost you another $20, but in my opinion it’s essential.

A good thing to have is duct tape. I will not go deeper into details about pots, soil brand and nutrition. There is far too much to say, and it’s far too important for a little foot note. We will deal with this in future articles.

A little tip for soil though: everything you can use for tomatoes, will work perfectly for weed. As far as electric equipment goes, you should be ready to go now.

#4) Air

Extractor vent + filter.

I can’t stress enough how important it is that you make sure to have efficient air exchange.

Air has to come in and move around, and air has to get out of the room. For air intakes, you can use something as as simple as a pc vent, and a hole in the wall.

Getting the air out, and all that dank smell, will be a bigger problem. Most likely you are aware that your plants will develop odor, and lots of it. Put 5 Trainwreck plants in a room and the place will smell like an Amsterdam coffeshop. Not good.

I (and most likely everybody else who is serious about not getting caught) am using a carbon filter with my extractor vent. To move air around the room, use a standard ventilator. Anything will do, as long as you provide permanent air movement in the grow room.

#5) Water

Yep, that’s a tap.

You will need water. Well, not you, your plants.

It is never a good idea to have your water source outside your grow room. Better said, make sure you can’t be watched carrying water from your source, to your plants. You will need plenty of water, and people seeing you carrying buckets of water inside a room every day for no apparent reason… well, it’s just one of the things that can get you into trouble. And avoiding it is easy.

So, a tap in your grow room is important. Another point is, in the winter, tap water will be cold. Very cold. In order to avoid stressing your plants out too much, keep a water supply in your grow area, to make sure it gets to the same temperature as your grow area. Your plants will thank you for that.

Keep an eye on the waters pH. Not higher than 7, and not lower than 6. You will have to adjust the pH if you are outside these numbers. Get a pH meter, a cheap one will cost you $20 (as I said earlier), and some adjustment fluid.

Ok everyone, that’s the basics. We will go deeper into every single point on this list. For now, this should give you a rough idea on how and where to start your own grow room. Feel free to ask questions, let’s get a discussion going. If you’re already had a grow set-up, how did your first experience go and what lessons did you learn?

Here’s a simple, quick way to create a marijuana edible on the go – THC pills – and we’re not talking Marinol.

You don’t have to worry about a 13-step recipe and a day of prep time with these guys. Besides, for anything that complex you should start off with CannaButter.

Follow “Chef Sparx” through a dimly-lit ‘How To’ with Emeril Lagasse-like flair. There’s even some highly specific dosing recommendations, kind of, so check out what might be the simplest edible swallowable on the planet to make.

That’s right, we’re going to cover the topic that caused quite the debate in the comments of my ‘First Time Growers: Common Mistakes‘ post.

As soon as you’ve started the process to grow your own crop, decisions need to be made. The first and most important one is what foundation to start from. Are you going to grow from seeds or rooted clones.

The decision is not an easy one, as both growing options have their respective advantages and disadvantages. You will have to think about growing space, crop risk and turn around time.

Here are some useful pieces of information that will help kick-start your journey to cultivating bliss.

Clones – Pros:

• The time factor. If you go for clones, you will harvest sooner, therefore more often and end up with more harvest.
• You will be able to turn one of your clones into a new mother plant.
• You will get to know what makes your plants grow faster and produce more yield.
• Every strain is different, but once you figured out what’s good for the one you grow, the results will get better every generation.
• If you really have to, you could start flowering a clone as soon as it’s rooted.
• Poor harvest, but very short turnaround time.
• If you make your own clones, you (almost) eliminate the risk of disease.

Clones – Cons:

• Unlike seeds you won’t be able to buy clones online.
• High risk of inheriting problems from the last grower: Root rot, spider mites, powdery mildew, etc. This can kill your entire crop, if not treated early and accurately.
• Unhealthy clones may die or remain in shock for an extended period.
• Shipped clones may be in shock and take weeks to recover. There are many stories of medical clones shipped without any protection and arriving flat!
• Clones are very, very sensitive. You can kill them easily with too much light, and too much nutrition.
• Since you will end up with almost only female plants, you won’t be able to breed new strains yourself. Plants going hermaphrodite is also possible with unstable clones.

Seeds – Pros:

• Seeds you bought off a seed bank will give you a very clear picture of what you can expect regarding strain, yield, quality and flowering time.
• You can try to breed your own super-strain since you will have some male plants.
• Even feminized seeds will produce a certain amount of male plants.
• Hybrid vigor. A female plant grown from seed, is known to produce more buds in most cases. Strains can lose potency over time, if cloned to often. Sometimes it’s a good idea to introduce a new plant into your garden, and start cloning again from there.
• Seeds should produce healthy plants, free of disease and pests.

Seeds – Cons

• Cost. Not only are good seeds not cheap, since they will take a lot longer to finish, electricity bills will be higher.
• There is always a chance you get ripped of if you chose to buy from the wrong seed shop. And seeds being seized by customs is also not unheard of.
• Not all seeds will germinate and only 50% of the unfeminized seeds will be female. Feminized seeds may produce up to 90% females. Only female seeds will produce female mothers, from which productive clones can be taken and flowered.
• It may take many seed packs to discover an excellent mother.
• Growing from seeds takes a long time, a lot of labor and money before you see good results.

Ok, that should give you a good idea on the pros and cons for both seeds and rooted clones. Now choose wisely, and go and spread your wings as a weed farmer!

Not a lot of people can claim they grow marijuana for the federal government.
Actually, only one person can.

Mahmoud A. ElSohly, 62, is a researcher for the National Institute of Drug Abuse, and oversees the only federally-approved marijuana grow operation in the United States. ElSohly grows over 100 varieties of our favorite botanical at the University of Mississippi “garden.”

The Marijuana Project started in 1968, provides marijuana to federal patients (four remaining from a program that was closed in 1992) and those select few corporations with permits from NIDA and the DEA to use marijuana.

The NY Times article is an interesting Q&A that touches on one subject we covered earlier this week – lack of government-grown strain potency.

Check out what Mahmoud had to say about genetics:

Q. SO OUT THERE IN RURAL NORTHERN CALIFORNIA, HAVE THEY BEEN IMPROVING THEIR CROPS WITH MODERN GENETICS?

A. They have been doing genetic selection for years. You can see the potency keeps going up. In the 1970s, the seized marijuana had probably 1 percent or less of the active ingredient. Now, it’s about 8 percent, on the average.

We know for a fact that THC content can reach as high as 25% on some strains, that’s not including hash, oils or crystalized trichromes. Still, this seems like a pretty cool gig, let’s hope he has some colleagues in a few years time.

COED Magazine, a web-based publication that hits topics 18-24 years olds are into, recently wrote about an experience working on a pot farm in Mendocino County.

The author covers some of the misconceptions about working on the marijuana cultivation business (longhand for pot farm), and even has comments on the more tedious tasks involved in weed farming – like trimming.

I can say from experience, trimming is almost worse than waiting for the crops to grow. Nothing is stickier than fresh weed plants and the frustration of gumming up your shears constantly is not made any easier by the fact that you know as soon as your done you’ll have to wait several more days for drying.

Then again, there are few things better than smoking a fat bowl of your own fresh herbs. If you live in the Bay Area and are trying to get your own job on the farms, this small list of true/false might just help you out.

Q: Why is it better to buy seeds? I found some seed in my last sack, can I use them?

Most people put a lot of effort into building a grow space. The same amount of effort is due when it comes to picking the seeds for your crop.

Sure, bag seeds will grow into a plant, but why play a guessing game? Especially if you plan to grow commercially, the process will be inefficient and unprofitable. You will end up with lots of different kinds of plants. And all of them will need a unique treatment. Flowering times will vary, so will height. Unless you have more then one grow space, this will be a problem.

Q: I am a first time grower – hydroponics or soil?

I truly believe soil is the all around better and more convenient choice. It may be right that hydro makes plants grow faster, but you will get better results from a good soil grow. Hydro should be attempted after you have a few successful soil crops under your belt. If you are starting from seed and growing for your stash only, soil is the better choice for you. If you plan on producing a constant harvest for commercial use, hydroponics is the way to go.

Q: Why are my seedlings stretching?

That’s an easy one: you need more light. Also provide a gentle wind and make sure to keep an eye on humidity.

Q: What lights should I use?

For your seedlings, use fluorescent tubes. For personal home growers, 400W metal halide or HPS (high pressure sodium) are a common choice. However, if you want to go pro, set yourself up with 1000 watt metal halide or HPS. Use at least 40 watts per square foot of grow space.

Q: How far should the lights be from the plants?

Put your hand under the light and check how hot it gets. If it feels too hot for you, the chance is high it’ll be too hot for a fragile plant. Other tips:

• Fluorescent Tube: tips of leaves almost touching bulbs
• 400 Watt Halide: two feet away from seedlings and one foot away from grown plants
• 1000 Watt Halide: four feet away from seedlings and two feet away from grown plants

Q: What’s a good watering schedule?

Once a week or once every two week for soil and twice a day with a hydroponic flood and drain system. When top 2 inches of the soil dry out. Occasionally provide periods of extra dry and wet soil. Allow 10% extra water to drain out of the bottom of the tray. This will prevent toxic fertilizer build up.

Q: How long do your seeds last and what’s the best way to keep them?

Seeds can last over 5 years if kept cool and dry. They may last up to 10 years if sealed and frozen, but fewer will germinate.

Ok, that’s covers every common item I can think of. Are there some questions I missed? There’s got to be, so let me know in the comments and I’ll be sure to help.