An Anonymous Author writes:
>closet, a tad smaller than the one stated in the FAQ file. Anyway, he just
>started his little weed farm a few days ago and is wondering how long it will
>take for things to start happening. He is a bit impatient, so I am trying to
Two weeks or so for the seeds to sprout. But soil is not the best sprouting
medium. Try a moist paper towel folded around them. Be sure it stays
moist.
>get some facts to keep him at it. :) Also, his seeds are apparently what he
>called "red bud" seeds. Are these any good, or does that even mean anything?
Large, mature seeds are best. From what I understand "red bud" is pretty
mature.
>Also, he has them planted in two pots, one with regular "potting" soil (god
>I love that word, "pot"), and the other with some kind of soil made for
>cactus plants, which is kind of sandy.
Either should be good. The roots need both air and water, so be sure your
soil has good drainage.
>walls (in the closet) are covered with aluminum foil. He has some Miracle-
>Grow plant food (liquid), but I told him not to use it until I ask if it is
>a good idea. Is it? Has anyone out there ever had success with growing?
A high nitrogen fertilizer (such as Miracle Grow) is great for the
vegetative phase, but may inhibit flowering if continued into the floral
phase. What else is there to say? Follow the directions on the bottle.
14-24 hours of light for the vegetative phase, then once they get big cut
back to 9-12 hours to make them flower. Get a book with illustrations of
what male and female buds look like, and throw out the males as soon as
they differentiate (unless you want to make seeds).
>am quite interested in hearing any stories or comments on successes/failures.
All my stories are the ones I've read in "High Times". Pick up a copy.
Keith Lewis klewis@mitre.org "Mr. Cheap"
I don't dance to music; music dances to me. Email me for my PGP key.
The above may not (yet) represent the opinions of my employer.
============================================================================
In article <1992Nov25.024723.5353@seq.uncwil.edu> session@seq.uncwil.edu (Zack C. Sessions) writes:
>aoo@po.CWRU.Edu (Akinwale O. Olugbile) writes:
>
>Germinate your seeds first. One way I have done it to place them about an
>inch or two apart between several layers of paper towels in a flat pan.
>Keep the paper towels moist. Kep the plan in a non-cold place. Doesn't
>need to be really hot, just not cold. Viable seeds should be 1 to 2
>inch long sprouts in a week or two. Then plan the sprouts.
>
>--
>Zack Sessions
Key point here, and one that can't be
stressed enough - KEEP THE PAPER TOWELS
MOIST !!!
---
jdw%sniff.wfo.dec.com@decwrl.dec.com
I've a FOAF who carefully germinates his seeds in moist paper towels
(totally dark, warm place, towels constantly wetted, drop of bleach per
towel to fight mold), carefully transplants them to rockwool as soon as the
tip appears out of the crack in the seed (do *not* let them get "an inch or
two long"; this makes transplanting without killing the seedling difficult),
making sure he puts the seed in pointed tip up, then eventually to the
next step up of rockwool size, then eventually to a rock bed for hydroponic
growing.
Another FOAF sticks them in water-soaked pots of soil, 1/2" down, point up,
and keeps them in a warm dark place, wetting the top twice daily. Then he
just moves them under plain old cool-white flourescents, and they are never
transplanted.
FOAF #1 has decided to go with FOAF #2s germinating and starting technique.
Both were getting comparable results with the two methods (at least for
germination; #1 has a halide set-up and more space). For example: FOAF #2
just had five babies born yesterday, starting with five seeds. The babies
are doing fine, and will never suffer transplantation.
Two more tips:
A Russian study showed that seedlings with at least 4" of soil to grow the
tap root were more likely to go female. The source I'm quoting says "This
may be why some farmers get female/male ratios as great as 80%/20%."
Seeds do not last forever, although they can last years if kept in a light-
tight container. If you use either method above and get >50% germination,
get some better stock.
UCSD doesn't share these views. Hell, I bet they don't know a thing
about tomato farming.
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I recently saw a *very small* indoor garden that used 4 common shop lights.
The gardener was using two 12" x 4' shelves attached to adjacent basement
walls. They were remarkably discreet and almost entirely above eye level.
Above both shelves he had suspended a pair of 4' shop lights, which ran
parallel to the shelf, right next to each other. In these lights he used
both regular ol' 40W fluorescent tubes and the more expensive "grow lights".
The decision of which to choose was solely an economic one. Fluorescent tubes
can be found for a buck or two while the purple grow tubes can be rather
pricey.
The wall and ceiling above the shelves were covered with heavy duty aluminum
foil. Also hanging above the shelves, right above the edge, were several
homemade blinds. These "blinds" were simply a black sheet of vinyl and a white
sheet of vinyl which were attached a 4' piece of wood. The wooden strip had
then been fastened to the ceiling. The white vinyl hung to the inside and was
able to reflect light back onto the plants while the black vinyl hung to the
outside, making the whole set-up practically invisible. When he needs to
water, etc. the vinyl is rolled up by hand and tied with a short piece of cord.
And it can be held in its unrolled position rather nicely by a few strips of
velcro.
The ends of the shelves used a different homemade set-up. Using more vinyl
shades would have suffocated the plants. Instead, he cut a piece of cardboard
to fit the opening and into the top portion of this cardboard he cut a hole.
The inside of the cardboard was covered with aluminun foil and the outside was
painted black. Velcro was attached to the cardboard, the shelf and the ceiling
so that this panel could be easily attached and removed. Next, he hung two
small fans from the ceiling. (the clip fans cost him $6.00@ and were his most
expensive purchase) One fan hung on the outside of his little grow house and
one on the inside. One fan blew fresh air into the house and the other blew
air out.
On one of these shelves the lights were kept on 24 hours each day. Here he
germinated and grew his herbs to the budding point. The other shelf was
magical! The lights were cut back and his crop was allowed to reach maturation.
It was so simple! It was so beautiful! It was so small! It was so inexpensive!
A setup like this could work almost anywhere.
Stop participating in organized crime. Grow it yourself!
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> In article <1993Jan25.063528.16779@fuug.fi>, an2509@anon.penet.fi writes:
> >I've tried to start cannabis seeds several times, using the suggestions
> >offered in alt.drugs (germinate between wet paper towels, keep them warm, etc.).
> >I've gotten about 5 or 6 seeds to the point where the shell of the seed opens
> >and a small white shoot pushes out of the crack. But the seeds seem to dies
> >upon transplanting to soil. Is it probably just a bad batch of seeds (all of
Seed germination, be it with cannabis seeds or any kind of seeds, is a
delicate art.
The warm paper towels system works well, but I'd keep them in paper towels
until you have a bit more sprout than just a small white shoot. I would
wait until the shoot is a little more than 1/4" long.
When you transplant them into potting soil, use commercial potting soil
that has been well dampened before hand. Mixing a bit of peat moss into
the damp soil might be helpful.
Pot your seeds close to the surface -- I usually lay the seeds on top
of an almost full pot, press the shoots _lightly_ into the soil, and
then just sprinkle some more potting soil on top. Then water; all the
soil should be kept damp, but not wet, at all times.
Something I've found helps seeds in the trnasition from paper towels
to soil is to cover the pot with plastic wrap and put it in a sunny window.
Poke a few pinholes in the wrap so that air can get in, and check it
daily. Keep the soil damp -- this is crucial. Cannabis in particular
*loves* water. Don't drown it, and if it starts molding leave the
plastic off the pot for a bit, but keep it damp and warm and moist.
Once your shoots start up to where they're pressing against the wrap, you
can leave the wrap off. But again, keep the soil wet -- even one day dried
out can kill all the shoots.
Hope all this helps; I've only grown pot once, but I'm a chronic
gardener, and much of the same rules apply.
--
*********************************************************
Laura Lemay lemay@netcom.com
writer of trifles in shadows and blood
*********************************************************
============================================================================
Plants (and mj in particular) respond to different wavelengths of light
differently. The optimum wavelengths for chlorophyll production and
photosynthesis occur in the red and blue ranges, so any light in the middle
of the visible spectrum is good for vegetative growth. In short, ordinary
fluorescent lights work great; most incandescents are crappy because they
put out too much infared (wastes energy, produces heat) and not enough blue.
It has been suggested that THC is produced as a defense against short
wavelength ultraviolet light (UV-short). This would explain any truth to
the rumor that the best ganga is grown at high altitudes. As far as I know,
no studies have been done. Other botanists speculate that THC is merely an
insect repellant. Even so, the photochemical potential of UV-short cannot
be ignored.
Here are some spectral density graphs (simplified to ASCII)
from _IES Lighting Handbook_
250| Cool White (fluorescent)
| |
200| | | ****
| | |******
Power 150| | *******
(mw/10nm | | *******
/lumen) 100| | | *********
| | | *******************
50| | | |**********************
|**********************************
+------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
300 400 500 600 700 800
<--UV Blue Green Red IR-->
Wavelength (nm)
250| | Daylight (fluorescent)
| |
200| | |
| | | |
Power 150| | | **
(mw/10nm | | ****| ****
/lumen) 100| | | *************
| | | ****************
50| | |**|*******************
|********************************
+------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
300 400 500 600 700 800
<--UV Blue Green Red IR-->
Wavelength (nm)
|Incandescent Lamps (including tungsten-halogen)
| *********
| *****************
Relative | ***********************
Power | ***************************
| *******************************
| ***********************************
| ***************************************
| *******************************************
|***********************************************
+------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
300 400 500 600 700 800 900
<--UV Blue Green Red IR-->
Wavelength (nm)
[This is presumably for 3000 K incandesents. Higher temperatures would
produce this same black-body radiation spectrum shifted to the left. Of
course, you would then need UV protection. There are fluorescents available
that simulate *only the visible portion* of 6000-7000 K black bodies. Why
anybody would use incandescent light for growing when these efficient
fluorescents are available is beyond me.]
Mercury and metal halide lamp spectrums are concentrated in a few "spikes"
distributed through the visible spectrum. They would probably work fine for
photosynthesis.
The low-pressure sodium is pretty much a single spike in the yellow; high
pressure sodium has spikes from green to red (not much blue).
No regular lights put out significant UV-short, otherwise they would cause
skin cancer. UV-short lights are designed into special box-type devices
(such as EPROM erasers) for safety. If you do elect to experiment with
UV-short, do not allow any humans or animals in the room when the light is
on. Please post the results of any such experiment to alt.drugs. Inquiring
minds want to know.
