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

• 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 growing a couple of plants.
  • Control access to your Garden to eliminate pests and improve security.
  • A foot bath and/or a change of clothes/footwear before entering the grow space is warranted to avoid pests. Don’t let the pet in!
  • 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 mould growth. Positive air flow!
• Light (your yield is directly proportional to the light your plant receives)
  • Indoor Production: We recommend High Pressure Sodium (HPS) but Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs)  are OK if you want to reduce electricity costs and the heat sink.
  • Don’t switch from one type of light in Veg to another in Flower, keep them the same.
• Water
  • Clean, fresh water is crucial in maintaining plant health (tap water should be fine , but always let it sit for 24 hours in a large covered bucket before using it and add a bubbler to increase O² levels in the water).
  • Always flush with clean water 2 weeks before cropping to eliminate fertilizer residue in your crop. 
  • Test your water for pH (5.5 is optimum), calcium, chlorine, etc. and adjust it/filter it for optimum plant growth .
• Soil/Growing Medium
  • Sometimes simple is best! We use a peat/perlite/humus hand mixed growing medium.
  • Just like wine, growing in different soil types produce different flavours and improves terpenes.
  • 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/
• 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). Use one fertilizer for the vegetative stage and another for the flowering stage.
  • Organic or not is your choice, the important factor is to make sure your pH is balanced and don’t over fertilize. Flush with water 3 weeks before harvest to rid the plant of chemicals.
  • High nutrient soils require less fertilizing which is preferable and requires less flushing.
• Pest Control
  • If you get pests (thrips, spider mites, or aphids) at anytime during your crop, immediately eliminate the crop, sterilize the space with bleach, change filters and after 72 hours start your plants again.
  • Fungus gnats and fruit flies can be eliminated using natural sources
  • 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.
• 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 14-21 days
  • Vegetative Stage ~40 days (depending upon height wants and cycle)
  • Flowering Stage ~70 days (depending upon strain)

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

http://www.growweedeasy.com/home

If you want a copy of the complete Grow Instruction manual email the Cannabis Green Team