Cultivating your Cannabis can be easy, especially if you prepare ahead of time. A successful garden requires the following:

Seeds or Clones: Seeds can vary, just like our children, no two are alike – even twins. Clones are almost always the same although after 50 generations we have seen some strains start to fail and need to be retired. Clones will always have the same terpene, cannabinoid and flavonoid values, whereas seeds can be totally different.

To choose a phenotype for cloning we plant 4-6 seeds and grow them up. We document growing style, leafage versus bud, height, flowering time, dried weight and how the cannabis smokes – the Entourage Effect. Making sure to label and document along the way.

Choosing which pheno stays and which goes can be an easy or difficult proposition. We had two phenos of Super Lemon Haze (SLH) growing for years, they were both great and we couldn’t decide which to get rid of, so they both stayed. Recently we aren’t happy with the pheno we have for SLH, so it will be retired and a search for a better pheno will start.

So for us Cloning and giving our clients clean free clones is the way to go. We know that strain will be identical and the client will be happy.

Regular Seeds can be male or female when they pop. These produce the strongest of offspring but the males must be culled ASAP or the whole crop will have seeds. We have seen male plants show in the red cup phase and not until they are in final pot, so be careful! If you can collect the pollen in a brown paper bag for future use. Make sure to put it in a labelled glass vial and put it in the freezer.

Feminized seeds will only become female plants. Note: if they haven’t been feminized properly Hermes plants (Female with male pollen sacks) will occur resulting in seedy pot. These seeds are to be thrown out. Only but seeds from a reputable seed seller or create your own female seeds. 

Auto Seeds will produce a small plant very quickly not requiring a flip of light schedule to flower. They are crossed with Ruderalis. Note: large buds on the autos can be mold filled. 

Fast seeds are still feminized seeds but have a much shorter flowering period. We grow an Early Vixen hybrid which is 56 days in flower.  

Thrown Seeds: If you are growing female plants and you get one or two seeds they are produced by the plant self pollinating. These seeds will be feminized and are ok to use.

• Location
  • A clean & sanitary garden is important for the maintenance of  plant health. Consider growing in a small, dedicated, easy-to-clean room(s) or grow tent if you are only growing a couple of plants.
  • Control access to your Garden to eliminate pests and improve security. No pets!
  • A foot bath and/or a change of clothes/footwear before entering the grow space is warranted to avoid pests. Especially if you were at the Grow store; that’s where most bugs come from!
  • Air flow and filtration needs to be sufficient to eliminate the smell outside and keep the heat and humidity levels indoors within the limits needed for adequate growth and to prevent mold growth. Positive air flow!
• Light (your yield is directly proportional to the light your plant receives)
  • Indoor Production: We used to recommend High Pressure Sodium (HPS) for flowering and Metal Halide for veg plants, and Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs)  for clones. LED’s are excellent now for all growth zones, especially if you want to reduce electricity costs and the heat sink.
  • CMH (Ceramic Metal Halide) lights are intense in the middle and provide some UV for plant growth. We still have 2 CMH between the 2 Spider Farmers.
  • LEDs have improved immensely since this was first written. We use Spider Farmer now!
  • Ultra Violet  light is produced by HPS and CMH lights. We supplement our lights with dedicated UV lights that makes the plants produce more resin and terpenes. UV also kills bugs and Powdery Mildew. 
• Water
  • Clean, fresh water is crucial in maintaining plant health (tap water is fine if there is no fluoride in your water supply),  always let water sit for 24 hours to eliminate chlorine in a large bucket before using it and add a bubbler to increase O² levels in the water.
  • Test your water for pH (5.2 for hydro, 6.2 for soilless mixes), calcium, magnesium, etc. and adjust it/filter it for optimum plant growth.
  • If fluoride and heavy metals are in your water then an RO System (Reverse Osmosis) is mandatory. RO systems produce a lot of waste water so they are not very sustainable. If you have the space and knowhow an evaporation system is inexpensive to run. 
• Growing Medium
  • Sometimes simple is the best! We use a peat/perlite/local black soil hand mixed growing medium.
  • Just like wine, growing in different mediums produce different flavours and improves terpenes. The same plant grown in hydro and soil can be dramatically different in final taste and flavours this is called the Terroir.
  • Make your own from soil taken from; Biomass dehydrators, compost bins, worm bins or other high nutrient soil generators.
    • http://herb.co/2016/05/06/super-soil-2-best-soil-for-marijuana/
  • Hydroponics and aeroponics are probably the most efficient ways of growing cannabis and vegetables, but the water must be below 18C so growing in the summertime is not recommended unless you have a cooler for the water. Soil derived pests don’t happen in Hydro/Aero setups.
  • Coco is not sustainable, as it is shipped from tropical countries to, and it must be pH balanced before use.
  • Peat is not sustainable as digging up the peat bogs releases huge quantities of Carbon Dioxide that has been sealed up for millennium. 
  • Hemp blocks are a great medium to grow in as they don’t need to be pH buffered, and they are 100% sustainable! https://terrafibre.ca/product/4-hemp-growing-block/?v=5435c69ed3bc
• Nutrients
  • Cannabis plants require a lot of Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P), and Potassium (K), as well as other micro nutrients including (but not limited to): Calcium (Ca), Magnesium (Mg), and Sulfur (S).  We use one fertilizer for the vegetative stage (15-30-15) and another for the flowering stage (1-60-33).
  • Organic or not is your choice, the important factor is to make sure your pH is balanced and don’t over fertilize. We fertilize, fertilize and then water during the Veg and Flowering stages.
  • High nutrient soils require less fertilizing. 
  • For Hydro/Aero, empty the reservoir and fill with pH balanced water.
  • See Fertilizer section of website for recommended PPM of fertilizer for the different stages. 
• Pest Control
  • If you get pests (thrips, spider mites, or aphids) at anytime during your crop, immediately clean with Safer Soap, sterilize the space with bleach and then rinse with hydrogen peroxide, and change all filters.
  • Fungus gnats and fruit flies can be eliminated using sticky pads and HO sprayed on the soil. Proper watering will eliminate them, let the medium dry out before watering.
  • http://www.just4growers.com/stream/pests-and-diseases/how-to-get-rid-of-fungus-gnats-with-natural-predators-hypoaspis-miles.aspx
  • Unfortunately “Black Market Grows” do not throw out a crop that has pests, they spray them with harmful chemicals so that they can harvest the crop and make money. This is a major reason for not buying illegal pot as it can make you sick! When extracting cannabis that has a pesticide residue in it, the end result will not set properly and will appear milky. 
  • Bioline Beneficials are the best way to protect your garden,  https://www.biolineagrosciences.com/products/
• Time
  • If you start from seeds the process takes 6 months.
  • Your first harvest will be ready within that time and if you clone, each additional crop will be in  a 2 month cycle.
  • Seeds to first pot 21-28 days, Clones to first pot (1gal) 14-21 days
  • Vegetative Stage ~40 days (depending upon height wants and cycle) (2gal and then 4 gal pots)
  • Flowering Stage ~65 days (depending upon strain) from first day under flowering lights.

There is a lot of information online to help you plan and grow your Garden. The following books on Cannabis growing are excellent:

1. Grow Yer Own Stone: Created Especially for Canada (Alexander Sumach)
2. Marijuana Horticulture: The Indoor/Outdoor Medical Grower’s Bible (Jorge Cervantes)
3. The Cannabis Grow Bible: The Definitive Guide to Growing Marijuana for Recreational and Medical Use (Greg Green)
4. Indoor Marijuana Horticulture The Medical, Legal Cultivation Encyclopedia (Jorge Cervantes)

Here is a great website with everything that you need to know about growing cannabis! www.growweedeasy.com

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