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This first installment of advice from Dr. Good Bud deals with the first of the trinity of essential aspects of
growing: soils, lighting, ventilation. We appreciate your letters, comments, and criticism. Dr. Good Bud will
answer your growing questions in a Q&A session in each future issue, along with the next installment.
Dr. Good Bud has been growing in soil indoors for over 20 years, and even the police who popped him
said: "man, these plants should definitely be the centerfold for High Times". Yes, our Dr. Good
Bud has been arrested with distinction! To start your closet/home grow system, we begin...
Let's start out with containers, moisture, soil, and fertilizers. Next column will be lighting, then after that,
the all-important, often under-rated, ventilation.
In considering the size of your grow area, I usually allot a four foot by four foot space for each plant.
That's a fair bit of space, I know, but as the plant hits the bud stage (at 4 months), it'll need space and
a lot of CO2 (air) circulation. So for a closet, two plants is about tops; a small room, maybe 4 to 6 plants.
I'm recommending a long 7-month cycle for maximum yields. I've got up to three pounds (cured) of smokable
material from a generous cycle single plant.
I use 15 gallon buckets (big!), with drainage exits, with a two inch reservoir (your overflow tray
under the bucket). At the bottom of this bucket is a layer of pea gravel, a little higher than the reservoir
(excess water) line, so maybe 3 inches of pea gravel. Then I use Black Gold potting soil mixed
thouroughly with vermiculite or perlite, in a 3 to 1 ratio, three parts Black Gold, one part perlite. Then
you've got nutrient rich, loose soil for root extension.
The fertilizer is a tablespoon of liquid Alaska Brand Fish Fertilizer mixed with each gallon of water, so a small
amount goes a long way.
If you can get a cutting, that is preferable to a seed. The reason for this is that a mature cutting (of a good
strain) has firm genetic features that are assured. It's also likely to be female or, rarely, hermaphrodite,
rather than male. With seeds it's 50/50, and it'll take you about 3 months to find out which. For the
benefit of complete amateurs, male marijuana aplants have no smoke value--these are the plants used for
industrial fibre, cord, paper, etc.--only the female plants contain the THC active ingredients that make
smoking such a joy. Naturally, you need to know someone with a good mature plant so that you can
get a section of a shoot to transplant into your soil. It doesn't matter if it's the top or bottom of a plant:
any healthy four to six inch shoot off the stem or a branch will suffice. Transplant quickly into your soil.
Seeds, of course, in B.C., are harder to find here than anywhere else in the world because of the extent
of indoor hydroponic/indoor soil growing with cuttings. I know of some plants out there that are beyond
the 100th generation of cloning (started in 1969!), and contrary to some opinions, the strains do not get
weaker if properly supervised. This may be the only place in the world where seeds never come with
dealer-bought pot. With Ontario, the Prairie, Asian, Mexican, South American, or Jamaican weed,
there's always plenty of seeds. Hell, the complaint in Ontario, for example, was that there are too
god-damned many seeds in an ounce. But not here in BC: most times you won't find a one,
because some people have a vested interest, shall we note the obvious, in deterring their
clients from growing their own. However, be patient. Sooner or later, seeds or a cutting will become
available if you are a very trustworthy and decent person.
With seeds, the quality of strain is usually unknown, unlike a cutting. A cutting is a clone of an adult plant.
A seed will be more affected by your environment, its genetic code is in its infancy. A negative factor
in your ventilation, lighting, or soil can really affect your outcome using seed, whereas a
cutting will compensate more for adversity. But if your are using seeds, you can at least eliminate
defective seeds. A good seed will be shiny, fat, and its shell will contain no cracks or imperfections.
Occasionally it will have stripes or characteristics which are good signs. A moist, bulbous, shiny,
darker seed are the healthy characteristics that might give your germination prospects a bit of an edge.
Before we place seed in soil, we need to germinate it (them). Soak seeds in distilled pure water
(bottled water). In about 3-7 days, your seeds will sprout.
These germinated seeds should be placed a quarter to half an inch below the soil surface, pointy/shoot
end up. Within 3 to 4 days, it should break the surface and shed its seed coat by day 4 or 5.
All the equipment and supplies I suggest are commonly available. Black Gold all-purpose soil is
available at any nursery or garden supply store. Remember, the sterilized pea gravel goes in first. It
prevents water from sitting at the bottom of the bucket by letting excess water go into the overflow tray
(reservoir) so it can be reabsorbed when the soil/roots require it. A 50 pound bag of pea gravel is very
cheap, about $3. You certainly don't need 50 pounds of it, but it doesn't come in small quantities.
Save it for later in your growing adventures.
Soil should not be sitting in water, so the pea gravel provides a water-porous intermediary. This pea gravel prevents toxification of the soil, or soil "souring", as it's called.
The Black Gold needs to be loosened up, thus the 3:1 ratio with perlite or vermiculite.
Fertilizer is added through the water. A tablespoon of Alaskan Fish Fertilizer in one gallon of water
is enough. You leave the water bucket around, you obviously don't add a gallon at any one time.
Alaska Brand Fish Fertilizer is about the best you can get, and it's available everywhere.
It's very mild (5.2.2), very forgiving, and useful throughout the first 14-16 weeks, the grow cycle.
A hazard with fertilizers is that people get a great plant going and, on the advice of friends, they hear
about some great fertilizer, the add it any they fry their roots, and they get very frustrated as the plant
declines from overfertilization. Be careful with fertilizers.
A natural way to keep your soil loose, enriched, and aerated is to add four or five earthworms to the soil.
If the earthworms thrive, likely your plant will also, as they are both sensitive to the same things:
fertilizer overdose, moisture excesses, and deficiencies and soil density.
By the way, an indoor grow cycle (the first 14-16 weeks) will have 18 hours of light, six hours of dark,
to reflect the optimum circumstances in nature. When you hit the bud cycle (at 14-16 weeks),
you cut back to 12 hours light/12 hours dark. In the case of a seed germinated plant,
this cutback on light can be done gradually over one week, an hour less light a day until at
12 hours light per day for the remainder of the plant's life. With a cutting propagated plant, cut to 12
hours light/12 hours dark immediately upon advent of the bud cycle.
To determine the moisture of your soil, get a hydrometer (a moisture meter/measurer). They're cheap,
maybe $15. At first, you may need to water only once every three weeks, but at the maturation
end of the cycle, maybe every three days.
The soil should go from very moist (when the plant is watered), which is 9 or 10 (blue) on the meter
through its entire drying cycle to the point of being dry (red, 3 on the meter). When watering, you stop
every now and then to see if it filters down to fill up your reservoir (overflow tray).
If you ever get algae, fungus, or water-oriented problems, it usually isn't inherent in the water,
it's usually bad ventilation. Your air circulation should keep your soil surface clean and dry, (but more
in future chapters, and see Advice from the Internet section).
A water meter is useful because the amateur grower puts his finger in the top layer of soil and goes,
"oh, it's dry, time for more water". But your bucket is 17 inches deep (15" diameter), and there's plenty
of moisture down where the roots are, but splash, more water, unnecessarily. The moisture meter can help
define when might be suitable to water.
At about four months, our grow cycle is complete. I'm an indica connoisseur, so a plant at this time, if
healthy, should be four feet tall, and about 4 feet wide or wider! A sativa plant, though,
could be six feet tall, and three feet wide. That's why we wanted that four by four space at the start.
Give it room to breathe. Always lots of air (more on this in part three).
By the way: for the novice, the distinction between indica and a sativa include these: indica is
generally more potent, and the way in which indica grows is a greater yield for your cubic space,
possibly twice or three times more smokeable material compared to the same area devoted to a sativa.
Male plants must be purged when you recognize them, at about 3 months. If you've taken a cutting
from a mature female plant, this won't be a concern.
Reproduction becomes the plant's motivation at 3-4 months. Male plants will develop distinct
characteristics:
This is the time to pull out your male plant. Good bye!
If you leave your male around, your female will produce seeds, which may be useful if you need or want
these, but I think not, considering the theme of our current discussion, ie., maximum THC smokable
produce.
We're in the bud cycle of our remaining female plants now. The bud cycle is the period from
week 15 or so to week 25 or 27. At this point, our fertilizer should change, and to repeat, our light is
cut back to 12 hours a day, immediately for a clone/cutting, gradually over a week in the case of a
seedling-originated plant. You now put Peter's Professional Brand Plant Food (10-30-20) in your
water. It's blue crystalline plant food, so you take a tablespoon full and dissolve in your gallon of water
and apply the water as is necessary. See the instructions on the side of the container.
Unlike our grow cycle fertilizer (Alaskan Brand), which is a forgiving one, Peter's Professional is more
harmful if the amount is too much.
By the bye, never buy any equipment with your credit card. Why take chances and leave a paper trail
behind you? Agreed?
OK, that's it this time.
Next column we'll discuss specific lighting and conditions, and a more
detailed description of how your plant should look at various times in the growth
and bud cycles. Future columns discuss pests, bugs, curing, ventilation, etc. Good growing!
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