AC360° Covers Public Land Grow-Ops
June 15th, 2009 by Rick
AC360° Correspondent, Randi Kaye ran a report on the apparent growing trend of growing marijuana in national parks and public land. No, it’s not being done by a roving group of dead-heads or Phish fans hiding out in the bushes. The people that are doing it, now cultivate 80% of outdoor marijuana growth in these places.
Supposedly, the squatters of our wonderful national parks who are tending pot farms, may be illegal immigrants that were brought over the border by the Mexican drug cartels. Many are forced to work as farmers; taking care of the seeds, fertilizer and anything else needed to continue the green garden.
It seems it’s a win/win for the cartels. They already know all the drug-smuggling routes and possibly have bribes in the wind that help them gain access to the United States so it makes sense that they would bring over illegal immigrants to “work” in America. If the illegals become captured, they scratch that cultivation, find more illegals and then start over in another area — all of the locations of a certain cartel will not be raided, so something will make it to the black market, thus bringing back money to the cartel.
The adventure for Kaye and deputies from the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department begin with a ride in a helicopter to Los Padres National Forest in California, just two hours from Los Angeles. The pilot slowly hovers over roughly 7,000 marijuana plants — Kaye says the aroma was overwhelming with an estimated $3.5m worth. She watched as the officers uprooted the plants, destroying the crop. As the deputies watched over, armed and ready for action, Kaye herself pulled up a plant with ease. Stalks were broken in two to ensure unrecoverable damage.
After informing Kaye and her team that sometimes the growers stayed nearby, armed with AK-47s, hiding in homemade underground bunkers, the deputies and team pushed a bit deeper into the forest and found the “hooch” (or camp) that the growers use from Spring to Fall, the optimal time for a harvest. The deputies went through it looking for any drugs or weapons and then destroyed it.
Time to go home, and with no growers being found, the team hiked back through the forest to a ridge and caught another chopper ride, all knowing deep inside that the physical and monetary damage that was done today will be recovered later down the road by the cartel.
Watch Randi Kaye’s full report tonight on AC360° @ 10pm ET or more than likely tune into tFS for a video of that broadcast.
Grow Rooms: Design and Setup
February 5th, 2009 by SilvioOK, that’s it. You’re sick and tired of buying weed from people you don’t really know or trust. Maybe your just like knowing exactly what strains are being packed in your pipe. Either way, the time has come to grow your own crop.
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?
Tough Choice: Seeds or Clones
January 15th, 2009 by SilvioThat’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!
YouTube Gem: Grow Weed & Make Hashish
November 20th, 2008 by AlexWho wants to kill some time and gain some knowledge? Well, here’s your chance.
While digging through YouTube I ran across a classic 4 part series titled – How to Grow Weed & Make Hashish.
This calmly narrated series covers the whole spectrum of growing. Let’s break down the contents:
- Part 1 – ideal set-up, grow room preparation and soil mixtures
- Part 2 – further soil prep, seed interaction and plant sexing
- Part 3 – plant care, maturation, pruning, drying and cloning
- Part 4 – hashish, sifting and baking
Overall, this series is kick ass, and the techniques are timeless. It’s definitely a good watch.
Catch the other 3 parts after the jump.
They Finally Have a Weed College? Hooray!
September 30th, 2008 by PerryAfter years of prayer, it turns out someone was listening.
In Oakland, Ca., Oaksterdam University operates as America’s first official “Weed College” (apologies to Chico State and Humboldt).
Richard Lee, who by his own accord, has dedicated his life to the end of marijuana prohibition. He recently opened a university aimed at educated individuals on not only the legal aspects of marijuana cultivation and commerce, but also its history and movement. Described as part school and part political movement, the university is definitely something the informed smoker should know about.
