THE [TAC] GROWING GUIDE After receiving many requests for growing instructions we decided to write this small guide and make it available to everyone. We cannot stress enough that growing Cannabis is illegal in most countries. These instructions (as well as the seeds we supply) are intended only for export purposes to countries where the cultivation of Cannabis is permitted. We strongly advise to not break any laws, our plants are grown by private growers in the Netherlands! There are many reasons for growing your own Cannabis, even in the countries where it's use it's not prosecuted prices are high! The quality of the product you buy is never known, Hash is often adulterated in some ways, theoretically there could be anything in it. With Weed the problems are similar, if it's imported from the third world it might be contaminated with toxic substances supplemented by the DEA (just think about Paraqat!). While this is quite rare commercial weed is often treated with sugar (which is suspected to be carcinogenic when smoked), (wrong) chemical fertilization also makes the smoke more carcinogenic. Given the worldwide status of Cannabis it's likely that the product you are buying (legally) at some points was in the hand of the Mafia, and you are supporting them with every Joint you smoke! As you see there are plenty of reasons to grow for your personal consumption, price and Mafia surely being the most important factors. Both outdoors and indoors growing are discussed this small guide, but we will discuss only organic cultivation. We think that the bouqet of organically grown weed can't be beaten. Beside destroying the bouqet of the weed, chemical fertilizers will also definitively make your weed more carcinogenic. Many ecological problems are connected with chemical fertilizers and incorrect usage can easily kill a plant. Go Organic! This guide is by no means complete or "ultimative", but it should tell you everything you need to know to grow a healthy crop. If you want to know more about a specific subject we suggest to invest in one of the excellent growing guides available on the market. We can recommend everything by Ed Rosenthal and Mel Frank (than newer than better), they won't give bad advice. The Usenet and the High Times magazine are also good sources of information. There are no illustrations in this guide due to severe space limitations on our Server. If you would like to give this Growing Guide a new home just send me an E-Mail! (alcastellosa@access.ch) Printed copies are also available on request! --------------------------------------------------------------------------- COPYRIGHT INFORMATIONS This guide is the exclusive property of [TAC] and it's members! You can copy and distribute this guide as much as you want, but: - You are not allowed to charge money (in any way) for this guide. - - You are not allowed to make (or distribute) printed copies of this guide. - - You are not allowed to use excerpts from this guide without our permission. - --------------------------------------------------------------------------- GENERAL INFORMATIONS This section contains some basic facts about Cannabis which you should know wheter you chose to grow Indoors or Outdoors. It's the biggest chapter of this guide, the other two chapters (Outdoors & Indoors) just concentrate on the differences between outdoors and indoors growing. For example: the way to harvest your plants is always the same, so it will be described in this chapter. The Indoor Supplement for example tells how to trigger flowering in Cannabis, usually this is of little interest to the outdoor grower since mother nature will do the work for him. GENETICS OF CANNABIS While the debate about whether the genus Cannabis is constituted of only one highly variable species (Cannabis sativa L.) or various different species (most famous being C.sativa, C.indica and C.ruderalis, however other possible species were mentioned), for our purposes we should distinguish between the two main types Indica and Sativa. Contrary to popular belief both species can produce excellent Cannabis, however industrial hemp (for fiber, paper,...) is usually Sativa. Sativa plants tend to grow very tall and their leaves are narrow. They also tend to mature quite late and produce small yields. Indica's tend to stay small and bushy with very broad leaves. Indica's tend to mature early and produce thick, fat buds. Generally Indica's are also much more resinous than Sativas, for this reason Haschisch is almost always produced from pure Indica plants. The two species also differ in the effect they produce: the Indica is very sedating, almost narcotic, there's a lot of body to the high, in other words it makes you "stoned". Sativa's on the other hand give you a very active and cerebral effect, they make you "high". What you prefer depends from your taste, however today most strains lie somewhere inbetween. Skunk #1 for example (50% Colombian, 25% Mexican, 25% Afghani) mathematically is 75% Sativa, the effect is also that of a Sativa. However the plants tend to stay small like an Indica and produce large yields. Thanks to accurate breeding it was possible to produce strains which incorporate the best qualities of their ancestors. The difference between: TRUE BREEDS, STABILIZED HYBRIDS, F1- and F2-HYBRIDS should also be explained: True Breeds are plants which have developed naturally over many, many years, Afghani, Colombian, Mexican, Kerala, Swazi, Durban,... are all such strains. If two plants of such a strain are crossed to produce seeds, the offspring will be very similar to their parents. Changes in growth characteristics and potency occur only slowly after many generations. F1-Hybrids on the other hand are the first generation of seeds produced by crossing two totally different strains (Afghani x Colombian for example), the offspring, in the ideal case, will be a plant with the best characterstics of it's parents. Generally F1-Hybrids also show faster growth and produce bigger yields, this is called "Hybrid Vigour". However if you produce seeds by crossing two F1-Hybrids (of the same strain) you will get F2-Hybrids. These plants will be extremely variable, out of 100 plants 40 will be like the mother (Afghani), 40 like the father (Colombian), 15 will be different in some way (due to recessive genes) and a couple will have the similar properties to the original F1-Hybrid. For this reason F1-Hybrid seeds are more expensive than conventional seeds. Stabilized Hybrids is what you get when you select the best F2-Hybrids and cross them for many generations. After many generations the strain will become uniform and (hopefully) still retain most of the F1-Hybrid characteristics, an example for this is the world famous Skunk #1. Producing High Quality Seeds is not as easy as you might believe, wrong breeding programs can destroy a strain in a couple of generations. Also remember that even if you are producing seeds from a true breeding strain you should replace your stock after a few generations since the plants tend to adapt to their environment. Cannabis indica from Afghanistan has shown a clear tendency to become "sativa" after many generations of growing in northern latitudes. Some botanists argue that this is the prove that the genus Cannabaceae is constituted only of Cannabis sativa L. (beside Humulus lupulus). If you are interested in serious breeding start by consulting Mendel's laws of genetics, in addition the book "Marijuana Botany" by R.C. Clarke can be highly recommended. LIFE CYCLE OF CANNABIS At the beginning of it's life cycle Cannabis needs long days in order to grow vegetatively. When the days are long the plant doesn't produce flowers, it just grows more leaves and gets bigger. Botanically speaking we say that it grows vegetatively. Plants under continous light eventually can be prevented from flowering for an indefinite amount of time. The female (pistillate) plants will start to flower as soon as they get a given amount of darkness. For equatorial Sativas longer dark cycles are required (11-12h) than for Indicas (12-14h). The duration of the light cycle is not important for flowering, what counts is just the period of uninterrupted darkness. Flowering, like many other aspects of Cannabis, is not yet totally understood. It seems that during complete darkness, Cannabis starts to synthetisize an hormone which is quickly destroyed by light. When a sufficent amount of this hormone accumulates in the plant flower formation is started. The light present during a clear full-moon night is enough to inhibit flowering, a flashlight switched on for five minutes will do the same. So it's of uttermost importance that you don't interrupt the dark cycle of your plants. If your (outdoors) garden is located near a street illumination another location is suggested. When growing Outdoors knowledge about the life cycle is not particularely important, you just need to select a strain suited to your latitude. However, when growing Indoors knowing how to trigger the flowering mechanism is of uttermost importance. Check out the Indoors Section for further details. SEED GERMINATION Germination is not problematic, High Quality (HQ) Seeds should have a germination rate of about 95%. Cannabis seeds keep viable for a year if stored in a dark and relatively cool place. After two years the germination rate will have dropped to 50% and so on. The biggest problem when buying or importing seeds is the transport. Unfortunately sometimes it happens that seeds arrive at their destination completely sterile, probably this is mainly due to X-Rays, but stressing of the seed may also play a role. Do not freeze your seeds, it will kill most of them and the survivors will take an eternity to sprout. Best storage temperature for seeds is at about 4-5 degress Celsius. In our experience using paper towels is just a waste of time, we regularely achieve 95-100% germination by planting directly in the soil. However it's of uttermost importance that the soil is kept moist until the seeds germinate, drought during germination usually kills the embryo. Cold temperatures slow down (or even inhibit) germination, ideal temperature is around 21-23 degrees Celsius. Also remember that some seeds may take up to two weeks to germinate, so don't give up too soon. Usual germination time lies between 4-7 days, soaking the seeds in water for 24h before planting speeds up germination a little bit. Fill a pot with some loose soil which drains well, soil for germination doesn't need to be fertilized since the seedlings will be transplanted very soon. However it's important that the soil is lose enough to allow healthy root growth. After filling your pot with soil water it, make sure that the soil is thouroughly wet. Now the soil is ready for the seeds, just plant them about 1,5cm (1/2 inch) deep and bury them (without applying too much pressure). To assure faster germination (3-4 days) you can plant the seeds with the pointy side up, but this is not of big importance. When growing outdoors we suggest keeping the pots with the seeds indoors or in a covered place until they germinate. Heavy rain will usually destroy (rot) the seeds. SEEDLING TRANSPLANTATION To minimize shock, your seedlings should be transplanted after about 3-4 days of vegetative growth. As long as they are young they will have only one small main root which is easy to handle, when grow larger you risk injuring the delicate lateral roots. Transplanting seedlings is very easy, just dig out the seedling together with a ball of soil (the soil should be moist for this purpose) and put it in it's new location. Just be sure to plant the seedling at the same height as before, this means that the stem should not be buried. After transplanting press the soil around the seedling and water the pot thouroughly. After watering press the soil again a little bit since it tends to become lose again. Of course you could also plant your seeds directly in jiffy pots to ease transplanting, but in our experience this is not necessary at all (jiffy pots can even inhibit root development). You should not transplant more often than absolutely necessary. Transplanting, especially when the roots are well developed, always shocks the plant. Beside inhibiting growth for some days, stress can induce Hermaphroditism. SEX DIFFERENTIATION As you surely know there are both male (staminate) and female (pistillate) plants. To produce High Quality Sinsemilla it's absolutely necessary to kill all male plants before they can spread any pollen. A single male can ruin an entire Sinsemilla crop. It's very difficult to accurately describe the difference between staminate and pistillate plants. I highly suggest getting some photographs of a male plant, various pictures are available on the Internet. However if you've ever seen a harvested Marijuana Bud you will know how the female looks. Just let the flowers develop until you are sure about the gender, you have plenty of time before the male flowers open. A simple (but sure) way to spot females is to look for two "antenna's" growing from the flower (a small bulb). The staminate and pistillate bulbs are nearly identical, however only the staminate (female) plant will have two "antenna's" growing out of them. The first flowers are always located on the main stem, at the same point where the fan leaves and lateral branches are attached to the stem. Note that the first flowers which appear are not a certain way to identify the gender of a plant. It happens quite frequently that plants which developed a couple of female flowers turn out to be male. What you do with the male plants is your business, just keep in mind that the potency of the leaves doesn't change with sex. So if you keep female leaves you can as well keep the small male leaves. The male buds are already quite smokeable if the strain is good, they are about 3x - 4x more potent than the leaves from the same plant. The flowering mechanism of males is not as exact as that of females, usually at some point they will start to flower even when grown under continuous light. However the maturation pattern of the males depends mainly from the strain, some react exactly like females, others seem totally unaffected by the light cycle. If you killed all male plants but your plants still produced seeds there are four possibilities: 1. You missed one male plant (happens with in large cultivations). 2. You live near another Cannabis cultivation and the pollen has spread with the wind (Outdoors only). 3. When you killed the staminate plants some flowers had already spread their pollen. 4. Some of the plants developed hermaphroditic traits. The last possibility is the most dangerous. Many strains tend to always grow some male flowers on the pistillate plant. Fortunately this usually happens when the plants are near maturity and pollination does not occur anymore, usually the male flowers are also located on the lower branches. Usually these plants can't be identified as hermaphrodites before harvest, however others are clearly hermaphroditic. If the latter is the case I suggest to kill (or completely isolate) the plant. An unidentified hermaphrodite can produce catastrophic results. It's interesting to note that it's not yet known how the gender is determined in Cannabis. There are two theories, the genetic and the environmental. The genetic theory says that the sex is already determined in the seeds. The environmental theory says that the sex is not determined in the seed but by the environment. The second theory is surely wrong taken alone, but the genetic theory also doesn't explain the experimental results. Probably the answer lies somewhere inbetween, but I'm absolutely certain that the gender is at least partially genetically determined. The main problem with the genetic approach is that it can't explain hermaphroditism, especially since this trait is known to be genetically determined. The Low-THC strains used for fiber production are uniformely hermaphroditic, other strains (rarer) never develop hermaphroditism under any circumstances. Generally speaking the male/female ratio in Cannabis is 1:1 (50% males and 50% females), as would be expected if the genetical theory is correct. However some High-THC strains tend to develop about 80% female plants (the opposite can also happen), which suggests again that there's something missing in the genetic theory. FERTILIZATION As mentioned previously we can only recommend the use of organic fertilizers. The section below was taken from the Positronics 1996 Catalogue, we can only agree with them! --------------------------------------------------------------------------- THREE REASONS TO GO BIO (from the 1996 Positronics Catalogue) Biologically grown Marijuana yields the best quality, as you well know! Just picture a greenhouse full of tomatoes; one half in the full earth, while the other half is in rockwool and fed with minerals. Everyone knows that tomatoes grown in earth give more flavor, and top quality. The same goes for Marijuana. Only top-quality Marijuana is worth growing; everyone can remember their best smoke ever, and all average qualities sink into oblivion. Bio is safer. Check out the Soft Secret reports, 80% percent of busted growers got into trouble because they caused water damage or got complaints about bad odors. Plants grown in water give off more evaporation than plants grown in soil. That's why plants grown hydro-style smell a lot more. Hydro plants smell the whole time, even while they're growing. Plants grown in soil actually only smell during the two weeks they're in bloom. So there's much less chance of causing trouble with unwanted odors. Pumps, tubes and valves can be interesting, especially for salespeople, but are risky for the smoking grower. Something always goes wrong and then you and your neigbors are all inconvenienced by water damage. Growing in soil, you only water the plants while you are there, which is much safer. Artificial fertilizers are bad for the environment. The concentration and intensity is so high that most of the fertilizer rinses through and ends up in the ground water. The production of these fertilizers is damaging for the environment, half of the Cadmium in the Dutch environment comes from a handful of fertilizer factories. Professional growers have access to expensive nutrition-computers that keep track of the nutritional value of the liquid in their greenhouses. Home growers cannot afford this luxury, and have to regularely refresh their nutritional liquid, weekly rinse away a great amount of unused fertilizer through the sewers, creating an extra strain on the environment. ROCK WOOL, GLASS WOOL AND OTHER MAN MADE FIBERS (MMFs) Asbestos is highly carcinogenic, causing lung cancer. In itself it's not poisonous. You can even eat it. The danger is brought by the size and diameter of the small parts that form the material. When these parts have a certain diameter and lenght, they cause lung cancer. These parts are called Stanton parts, after the man who discovered them. Asbestos is intransitive and largely made up out of Stanton parts. Most MMFs contain 20-30% Stanton parts. So it would be logical to assume that they have the same effect. Though rockwool parts do deteriorate faster when they're in the lungs. The problem with lung cancer is that the illness doesn't manifest itself for 15-20 years, so it is hard to trace the cause and effect. The rockwool industry often parades misleading test results from Switzerland. In these tests, rats live in an atmosphere full of rockwool particles. After one year the animals are cut open and they joyfully observe that no lung cancers have developed. This, of course, is not so strange as we know this takes tens of years, and a rat just doesn't live that long. Even if you were to repeat this test with Asbestos you would not find any lung cancers. The only reliable method is to inject the material into the lungs of the test animals. The lung cancers do develop, in the case of asbestos as well as in the case of most MMFs. A grower in a professional greenhouse at least has plenty of space and fresh air around him. Most homegrowers work in attics and sheds, in non- professional surroundings. When you unpack boxes of rockwool, dangerous parts are released, regardless precautions! So, never use rockwool, not to grow and not to plant cuts in, it will take years off your life! --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Beside the cancer risk associated with MMFs there's also speculation about radioactive Polonium (coming from chemical nitrogen fertilizers) is the most carcinogenic part of Tobacco. Unless you are growing large scale for money reasons (in this case you woulnd't be reading this guide) there's nothing which beats Organic growing! It's possible to grow fully healthy crops (especially outdoors) without any additional fertilizing, however to increase yields, speed growth and reduce the chances of any deficencies occuring some fertilization is recommended. When preparing the soil for your plants always add a healthy amount of manure (chicken, horse,...) or guano, they contain almost everything the plants need for a healthy growth and they (especially the manure) release the nutrients slowly. In addition, after 2-3 weeks of vegetative growth we suggest additional Nitrogen fertilization to speed growth. Urine is a very rich source of readily soluble N. Just be very careful to not overfertilize the plants, finding the right amounts needs time, the following is a good test. Fertilize your plants in the following way: --------------------------------------------- Plant A: no fertilizer Plant B: double amount of fertilizer Plant C: normal amount of fertilizer If C is better than A and at least as good as B --> the amount is right! If C is better or equal to A but worse than B --> use more fertilizer! If C is similar to A but not worse than B --> use less fertilizer! If C is similar to A but better than B --> overfertilization! --------------------------------------------- One research team reported that high amounts of Nitrogen during sex produced 80% female plants, unfortunately this couldn't be replicated by other researchers. Generally speaking additional fertilization is not necessary, but using the method explained above you can always experiment with new fertilizer dosages. Do not fertilize when the plants are in flower (unless they show deficencies), the buds will assume a disgusting flavor. While the pH Level of the soil (it's acidity or alkalinity) is not nearly as important as with Hydroponics it could still be a problem in some instances. Heavy fertilization causes the soil the become acidic (pH below 7), in order to readily absorb nutrients the pH level of the soil should be between 6.5 and 7.5. If the pH is too high or too low the plants won't be able to absorb nutrients anymore. Explaining every nutrient for itself would take too much space, but below I've added two charts (excerpted from a book by Ed Rosenthal) which list some good organic fertilizers and all common deficencies. AMENDMENT N P K RELEASE SPEEDPARTS X MIX COW MANURE 1.50 0.85 1.75 SLOW ACTING 1:10 CHICKEN MANURE 3.00 1.50 0.85 FAST ACTING 1:20 BLOOD MEAL 15.0 1.30 0.70 FAST ACTING 1:100 DRIED BLOOD 13.0 3.00 0.00 FAST ACTING 1:100 WORM CASTINGS 3.00 1.00 0.50 SLOW ACTING 1:15 GUANO 2-8 2-5 0.5-3 VARIES A LOT 1:15 - 1:40 COTTONSEED MEAL6.00 2.50 1.50 SLOW ACTING 1:30 GREENSAND 0.00 1.50 5.00 SLOW ACTING 1:30 FEATHERS 15.0 ?.?? ?.?? SLOW ACTING 1:75 HAIR 17.0 ?.?? ?.?? SLOW ACTING 1:75 SYMPTOMS N P K Mg FeCu Zn B MoMn Overf. Yellowing of: Younger leaves - - - - X - - - - X - Middle leaves - - - - - - - - X - - Older leaves X - X X - - X - - - - Between veins - - - X - - - - - X - Old leaves drop X - - - - - - - - - - Leaf curl over - - - X - - - - - - - Leaf curl under - - X - - X - - - - X Young leaf tips burn - - - - - - - X - - - Old leaf tips burn X - - - - - X - - - - Young leaves curl - - X - - - X X X - - Necrosis - - X X X - X - - X - Stunted leaf growth X X - - - - - - - - - Purplish stem/leaves - X - - - - - - - - - Pale leaves X-- - - - - - - X - - Mottling - - - - - - X - - - - Spindly growth X - - - - - - - - - - Soft stems X - X - - - - - - - - Hard/brittle stems - X X - - - - - - - - Growing tips die - - X - - - - X - - - Stunted root growth - X - - - - - - - - - Wilting - - - - - X - - - - - PRUNING Over the years hundreds of techniques which are said to improve yield were proposed. Unfortunately most of them do not do any good and some also harm the plants. However pruning is a very effective technique when used in the right situation. Pruning basically involves cutting the top of your plant after 5-6 internodes (leaf sets). The tallest growing top produces an hormone (called Auxin) which inhibits growth in the lower branches. For this reason the lowest branches (which are far away from the top) are the most elongated. By cutting the top of your plant the hormone is evenly distributed over the two lower branches, the result is that you will have two main stems instead of one. You can repeat this process up to 3-4 times if you think it's necessary. This technique does not increase yield per se, however there are situations where a large but very bushy, plant is more useful than many small plants. Pruning is also a good way to keep fast growing plants shorts. Since every strain has a characteristic growth pattern, pruning will produce different results. Pruned plants will indeed yield more than their unpruned counter- parts, but they will also occupy more space, so the yield per space unit will remain the same. Instead of cutting the top cola you could also bend it downwards with a string, this will produce the same effect without shocking the plant. One of the most persistent urban legends is that you should remove the large fan leaves from the plants. This is total nonsense, the fan leaves are sugar- factories which produce energy for the rest of the plant. If you don't believe that you can make a simple test: find a spot on the stem where two lateral branches are growing opposite to each other. Remove one fan leaf and leave the other, you'll see the difference very soon! Also do not prune your plants during flowering since this will reduce yield. HARVESTING One of the most Frequently Asked Questions is when to harvest the plants. Opinions on the subject differ widely, the grass will produce a different effect depending from when it was harvested. When the plants ripen, they also begin to convert the THC to CBD which is much less psychoactive. Overripe plants will contain only an insignificant amounts of THC but very high amounts of CBD. The ratio of THC to CBD changes with the ripeness of the plant, so it's our goal to harvest when the THC has reached peak accumulation. This is pure theory, what you prefer depends from your taste. Just remember that (over-)ripe weed weighs more and that's what commercial growers want, but it's not what you might want. The differences (in effect) between Sativa and Indica weed are also mostly due to their different THC:CBD ratios. In other words: if you like Sativas producing a cerebral high you should harvest your plants early, when they contain barely no CBD. If you like smoking Haschisch or pure Indica strains you should consider harvesting somewhat later, when some of the THC was already converted to CBD. You can see when the THC begins to deteriorate by looking at the resin glands with a magnifieing lens. At first the resin is clear, with maturity its color changes to brown. The latter is the sign that most of the psychoactive Cannabinoids were already converted to their less active counterparts. The best method of timing the harvest is to observe the pistils. At first they are white, this means that they are still fertile and ready to be pollinated. With age they will start to wither and turn brown, when about 50% of the pistils have turned brown the buds are around peak potency. If you want a more cerebral high you can harvest when 30-40% have turned brown, if you like the sedating effect of Haschisch harvest when 75-80% have turned brown. Harvesting ealier or later would imply a considerable loss in potency. Overripe buds will be more resinous and smelly but not more potent, lots of commercial Colombian grass is definitvely overripe! DRYING Drying Cannabis correctly is an art in itself and it requires more patience than growing the beauties. There are literally hundreds of ways to dry Cannabis, most of them are good to acceptable, some will produce catastrophic results. Preparing the plants for drying is time consuming but easy. The quickest way is to just strip the large fan leaves and hang the entire plants upside down for drying. However with huge bushes this becomes difficult, you can also cut all the branches off your plants and hang them upside down without the main stem. It's always recommended that you cut the big fan leaves when the plants are still fresh, this becomes quite tricky when they are dry. SLOW DRYING Slow drying is surely the best way to cure your crop, it's the only way to preserve all the potency and flavour. However it requires a lot of time, about 10-20 days depending from the environmental humidity. THC and the volatile oils which constitute the bouqet are destroyed mainly by: Light, Air and Heat (in order of importance). So ideally Cannabis should be dried in a dark, cool and dry place, wrapped in a paper bag (or something else) to minimize air exposure. When done correctly this produces excellent results, but I've also seen rotten crops after this process. For practical purposes it's totally sufficent if you hang your plants (or their branches) in a cool place which isn't exposed to any direct sunlight. The difference in quality won't be noticeable even by a connaisseur, but there's nearly no risk of mold infection and the crop dries a bit faster. Perfectly dried buds should still contain a bit of water but not too much, your crop is dry when the stems of the buds crack when they are broken. Dry Cannabis buds should weigh about 25% of their fresh mass. QUICK DRYING Quickly drying a crop may be very useful in some situations. It's clear that after months of caring your plants you can't wait to try out the end product. Unfortunately quick-drying always implies a loss of potency and flavour. It's our goal to minimize these losses, the end-product will still be of excellent quality. Quick-drying is especially recommended for small quantities, your big harvest should be dried by using traditional methods. Of course you can dry your buds by just putting them in the Oven or the Microwave, but the result will be: extremely dry, no flavour, harsh on the throat and about 1/3 - 1/4 of it's original potency. Here are some of our suggestions on how to dry weed quickly. 1. Using an owen or microwave is not recommended even at it's lowest temperature, however you can: a) Switch on the owen for a couple of minutes, b) Switch it out and wait until it reaches about 30 degrees Celsius c) Put in your buds and wait until the owen is cold (about 2 hours). d) Start again from a) until your buds are dry. This is quite labour intensive, but it produces very acceptable results! 2. Another way to use an owen at it's lowest temperature is the following: a) Put your buds on Alu-Foil (or something else) and cover them with a layer of fan leaves. b) Put this in the owen at it's lowest temperature (usually around 50 degrees Celsius). c) Check after a while and replace the leaves when they are dry. d) Repeat from step a until your buds are dry. The layer of leaves will protect the buds from excessive heat and evaporation, in my experience nearly all the bouqet is conserved with this method. In addition your buds will be fermented (Fermentation Section) at the end of the process. 3. You can use your growing lights to dry your buds. Unless you are using some huge 1000W System the surface temperature of the reflector will be acceptable for our purposes. This even works when using Fluorescent fixtures, depending on the setup it will take 2-3 days to dry the buds. 4. If the weather allows it, of course you can also sun-dry your crop, as with all other quick-drying methods this will destroy some THC and flavour but not very much so. The UV-Light of the sun will also ferment the material a litlle bit. MANICURING This is a very time consuming but essential task, it can be performed both on fresh and (semi) dried buds. Manicuring is removing all the leaves which grow out of the bud. While these leaves are fairly potent (since they are covered by resin) they influence the bouqet and aspect of your buds. How many leaves you remove is your choice, some growers like to leave the small leaves, other prefer completely "naked" buds. The way you manicure the buds will also greatly influence the yield. As mentioned above, the small leaves are quite potent. You can smoke them in lack of anything better or you can use them for cooking or oil production. If you have access to a device called "Pollinator" (tm) you could also produce 6-10% of their weight in Haschisch. The Pollinator (tm) is a machine which separates the resin glands from the leaves, the result is a super-potent easily pressable powder. FERMENTATION Fermentation is a process which is used by many commercial producers, most commercial Marijuana is indeed fermented. Contrary to popular belief fermentation does not increase potency, but (in opinion of some) the product will be better tasting. Fermentation is the metabolization of chlorophyll by microorganisms. The chlorophyll is what gives Homegrown Weed it's characteristic taste. Until some years ago quite anyone agreed that fermented weed was superior in taste to unprocessed weed. When Home-Grown Netherweed first became available (in the Netherlands) people didn't know what the hell it was because it was green (instead of brown)! Today many people prefer good unfermented grass, during fermentation beside chlorophyll various volatile oils are destroyed. Fermented weed always has a very characteristic taste, in my opinion it's neither worse or better. An experienced smoker should have tried out both, if you happen to like fermented weed here's how you can produce it yourself. As with drying there are numerous ways to ferment a crop, however they all include a risk factor, especially when done in small quantities. To induce fermentation basically you just need: a) The material which you want to ferment needs to be fresh (contain water). b) Put the material in an air-tight container. c) Put the container in a dark place. d) Take out the material each day and let evaporate the moisture for about 10 minutes. e) Repeat from step a) until your material is nearly dry. f) Proceed to air-dry it completely. As you might suspect the danger with fermentation lies in rotting of the material. If your material starts to get warm and stink it has started to rot. Taking out the weed daily and evaporating moisture is essential. STORAGE Every smokers dream is to grow enough to cover personal consumption, if you achieve this goal you will have the necessity to store your crop for a longer period of time. If kept openly (unpackaged) weed will start to lose potency about after one month, however the bouqet will be lost much earlier. Freezing Cannabis is possible, potency is preserved for decades if not centuries, however it will ruin the aspect of your buds. You surely remember from school that: a) A solid (ice) occupies more space than a liquid (water) and b) every cell is filled with water. When you freeze your buds the volume expansion will rapture the cell wall, this ruins the aspect of your buds. For this reason freezing is not recommended unless you really need to store the weed for a very long time. The worst enemies of THC (as mentioned previously) are: Light, Air and Heat. Light and Heat are easy to avoid, store your buds in a dark and cool (but dry) place. Darkness is the most important factor, the ideal storage temperature would be around 4-5 Degrees Celsius. Air is more difficult to avoid (unless you have a Vacuum Pump), Ziplock (or Minigrip) baggies help somewhat but they are not ideal. In our experience potency and flavour is best preserved by storing the weed in glass Mason Jars. Of course when using airtight containers the grass should be sufficently dry to avoid rotting. A very inexpensive but quite good container are empty rolling (or pipe) Tobacco bags. They were constructed to preserve the moisture and flavour of Tobacco, they will do the same for the Herb. Stored in a good container in a dark place at room temperature your weed will stay good for at least one year (apart from minor inevitable losses of etheric oils). If you store it at the recommended temperatures (4-5C) it will stay fresh even longer (3 years?). --------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE [TAC] GROWING GUIDE SECOND PART After reading the first chapter you should already have a good knowledge about Cannabis. This part of the guide includes all the differences between Outdoors and Indoors cultivation. If you want you can skip the chapter which isn't of interest to you, who cares about lighting systems when you live in an equatorial climate? OUTDOORS GROWING Outdoor growing is surely much easier and inexpensive than it's indoors counterpart. If you have the possibility to grow your plants directly in the soil in full sunlight you will also have bigger yields than indoors. Until about a decade ago outdoor weed also tasted a lot better than indoor weed. Unfortunately there are a lot of drawbacks to outdoor cultivation. Detection is the biggest problem with outdoor crops, since we assume that you are growing in a country where it's permitted we are not speaking about discovery from law-enforcement but from people who steal your crop. Outdoor plants will grow bigger and yield more, however they take about six months to grow from seed to harvest. Indoor plants can be grown from seed in just three months. You are limited by the weather. This means that most people can grow only one crop each year and only the varieties adapted to the local climate. In addition bad weather around harvest time can induce mold in the buds and heavy rainfalls wash away lots of resin. Various pests can become a problem if precautions aren't taken. Cross pollination from other Cannabis fields: this is not a problem yet for most of us, but it could become one very soon. An industrial hemp field growing in the range of about 20km from a Sinsemilla Cultivation will surely completely ruin the crop. In addition the seeds from the plants are worthless since they resulted from random cross-pollination with low-THC hemp. Of course the opposite could also become a problem for Hemp farmers, but the second possibility is much more unlikely. CHOSING A PLACE We are assuming that detection by law-enforcement is not a problem, so this won't be discussed. When chosing the place to grow your outdoor crop you should keep in mind some things (in order of importance): Light exposure Your plants should get at least 4h of direct sunlight. If they get less light they won't reach their maximum potential, shaded locations are totally unsuitable for Cannabis growth. Consider using pots if light exposure is a problem. Soil quality You can't grow a good crop in dirt, your ideal soil should retain moisture but drain well. Note that soil is especially a problem for Guerrilla Farmers, good spots are often located in the mountains where there's virtually no soil. Proximity to water You absolutely need a water source in proximity of your crop. It's just not feasible to carry water to your growing spot, these plants need lots of water during hot summer days. Detection Growing great plants is of no use if they are stolen at maturity. The security of your garden should be absolutely guaranteed. SEED SELECTION Your seeds must be planted after the last frost, in northern Europe this means about April-May. The plants need long days to grow vegetatively, when the days get shorter around August they will start to produce flowers. Planting your seeds earlier won't produce earlier maturing plants, just bigger bushes. It's very important that you chose a strain adapted to your latitudes. What this means depends from where you live. Here in northern Europe (45-55 degrees north) you need a strain which will be able to fully mature before the weather becomes too cold and the days too short. Practically speaking this means that you won't be able to grow tropical (Jamaica, Mexico) or even equatorial (Colombia, Indonesia) strains. However unless you live really far in the north most of the strains can still be succesfully grown outdoors. Various strains from Afghanistan, North Africa and South Africa are suited for outdoor growing at these latitudes. Beside these traditional strains there are numerous American and Dutch breeds which mature early (Skunk #1, Northern Light) or very early (Early Girl, First Girl). If you live on the equator you have another problem. These early maturing plants need long days to grow vegetatively (over 14 hours), in an equatorial climate they will never get more than 12h of light and will start to flower when they are still small and undeveloped. Generally speaking plants with a high Indica content will mature early (good for temperate climates) and plants with high Sativa content will mature late (good for equatorial climates). SEEDLING TRANSPLANTATION As soon as your seeds germinate they need light and should be placed outdoors in the sunlight, this is extremely important even if the weather is rainy. If the seedlings are kept indoors probably they won't get enough light for healthy growth and become tall and spindly. Do not worry too much about them, Cannabis is a hardy plant, even seedlings. Of course if the weather conditions become extreme (storm, snow, frost,...) you should place them indoors as soon as possible. Since you decided to grow outdoors hopefully you are able to plant directly in the soil. Plants which have lots of space for roots tend to grow much bigger than plants restricted by pots. Just consider that by using a pot of one foot (30cm) diameter at the top the plants can grow to about 1.70m - 1.80m (some Sativas can grow over 2m even in pots). Of course by using a giant pot the plant would reach the same size as if it was growing directly in the earth, however most of the time such pots aren't practical. If you are limited to pots (for example because you decided to grow a small crop in a sunny window) I suggest using many small pots instead of few big ones. The yield of many small plants will be larger together than the yield of a few large plants. On the other hand pots have the advantage of being transportable, if you have to move the plants it's possible. The best yield for the space can be achieved by cultivating both in the earth and in pots. Pots can be moved in places where it's not possible to grow in the ground (lawns for example), they also can be moved to optimize light exposure. You will need to experiment a bit in order to find out how you can maximize the yields per space unit, what works best always depends from your growing location. When growing in the earth another question arises: how much space should be left between the seedlings? The answer is the same as above, if you give them plenty of space they will grow to huge bushes which can be over 2m in diameter. If you plant them close together they will grow less branched and develop mostly one main bud. However when making the decision always keep in mind that 50% of the plants (the males) will be killed in August. In countries like Afghanistan and India there's the tendency to cultivate big plants, in Lebanon and Morocco (where Haschisch is produced on industrial scale) the plants are cultivated very near together and they tend to produce only one main bud. VEGETATIVE GROWTH Once the seedlings are transplanted basically you just have to wait. Their growth speed will depend mainly from the weather and soil fertility. For the latter we recommend adding a good quantity of compost and some manure to your growing spot each spring. Additional fertilization is rarely necessary when the plants are in the ground. If you are using pots for your plants add a good amount of manure (chicken or horse) or guano to the soil before transplanting the seedlings. The manure/guano will supply everything which is necessary for growth during the first months. It's even possible to grow a fully healthy crop without using additional fertilizer, however growth will be slower and yields smaller. After about a month (the plants should be well established, at least 1 foot tall) you can fertilize them with Nitrogen which is essential for healthy growth, an excellent (and free) source for Nitrogen (N) is urine. Be careful with nitrogen fertilizers, it's always better to use less than more! How much water your plants need depends from the temperature, but outside it's very hard to give too much water. Just water when the soil feels dry, this could very well mean every day! When growing outdoors it's extremely important to use something against snails, they can easily destroy the entire crop in one night. Unfortunately chemical products seem the only thing which works. If you've done everything correctly in a couple of months you'll have some beautiful, strong and healthy plants in your garden. FLOWERING After about three months (depending from the strain and daylenght) it will be time to pull out the males. Shortly after killing the staminate plants the pistillate plants will also start to flower. When growing Indoors you can switch the light cycle directly from 18h to 12h, Outdoors the daylenght decreases slowly. For this reason plants will take longer to flower outdoors than they do indoors. During flowering there's not much which can happen to your plants (beside being stolen), but you should look out for any signs of mold growing on the buds. In a humid environment the tight buds are very susceptible to mold infection, some strains are more prone to mold than others. Unfortunately there's not much which can be done about mold, if the situation is really catastrophic you'll have to harvest early. Generally speaking the mold on Cannabis is harmless (and the THC content is never affected by it), but there are some kinds of mold which can be lethal when smoked or ingested. Ideally you would harvest your plants when they are at peak potency, during the early morning hours. However when growing Outdoors (unfortunately) it's often necessary to harvest earlier. Beside mold and robbers, bad weather conditions are the most frequent problem. Needless to say that rainfall washes away lots of resin, so it's best to harvest the plants after a couple of sunny days, however the right maturation point is much more important. INDOORS GROWING Indoors growing has many advantages, you can completely control the growing environment. You can force your plants to flower when they reach the desired size. You can grow all the year around and haven't to worry about bad weather or robbers. As mentioned previously Indoor crops can be matured in three months instead of the usual 6-7 months. However you will have to invest about 300$ in equipment, which of course will have paid off itself after the first harvest. Electricity consumption, space and heat are also a problem for some growers. CHOSING A PLACE When chosing your growroom consider the following: 1. Space - It's possible to grow almost anywhere, people are growing Marijuana in closets, toilets, trashcans, shelves, and many other places. Of course it's not possible (and doesn't make sense) to use a 400W HPS lamp for growing on a small shelf. A HID lamp doesn't make sense if your plant can't reach at least 1,20m at maturity. If you have less place consider using fluorescents, fluorescents and natural sunlight or growing outdoors. With limited space you will also get limited yields, growing in very small places produces good yields only if clones are used instead of seedlings. However don't give up, any small place is better than nothing. 2. Ventilation - You can grow Cannabis in just any imaginable container, as I mentioned some people are growing Marijuana in Trashcans using fluorescent lights. The only problem is ventilation, the lights develop lots of heat which needs to go somewhere, the plants also need fresh (CO2 containing) air for healthy growth. So, when growing in small places, ventilation is of uttermost importance. With the aid of an inexpensive ventilator quite everything can be converted to a "grow-box". 3. Detection - Even if Cannabis is legal where you are growing it probably you don't want to show your plants to everyone. Your location should also be as safe as possible in case something happens while you're away (fire, water spillage, thieves,...). LIGHT SYSTEMS The most important aspect of Indoors gardening is the light source. Theoretically every kind of light can be used to grow plants, but only a few supply a good spectrum for growth and are cost-effective at the same time. Below I will discuss shortly the most common types of light systems: INCANDESCENTS Incandescents are the classic light bulbs invented by T. A. Edison. They are absolutely not suited for plant growth, the light they emit is mainly in the red-spectrum which will cause the seedling to elongate too much. They are also highly inefficent, only about 20% of the energy is converted to light, the rest is emitted as heat. This also implies that they can't be placed very close to the plants. In other words: forget it! Beside having a stunted plant growth you will waste a lot of money (on electricity and bulbs). HALOGENS Halogens are pretty similar to incandescents in their light spectrum, they just convert more electricity to light than incandescents. Still not suited for our purposes! FLUORESCENTS Fluorescents is what most people call "Neon Tubes" (today they don't contain Neon gas anymore), they are what Indoor growers used until one decade ago. Fluorescent tubes are available in many lenghts, from one foot upwards. Of course you will need a fixture (and a starter) for the tubes, the fixtures can be found in any big supermarket or hardware store. The prices vary greatly depending on the design, no need for anything fancy. You could also build a fixture yourself for less than 1$ if you have the skills and time. Used fluorescent fixtures are also available from many places at very low prices. There's no need to buy expensive grow-tubes (like Sylvania), they aren't any better than the common shoplights. For an ideal light spectrum mix Cool White (Color 33) and Warm White tubes (in 3:1 or 2:1 ratio). Cool White is the most common (and cheapest) tube, it emits lots of blue light which is essential for leaf development. Warm White is also quite common and emits more red light which is necessary for flowering. While fluorescents do not put out very much light they are very efficent, almost no heat is produced. This makes them an ideal choice for closet growing in small places or to start cuttings. Since they do not develop much heat you can place them very close (one inch) to the plants, however you will need to adjust the height every day. You can grow perfectly healthy and potent crops with a very inexpensive fluorescent setup, but yields will always be very small. Plants grown under fluorescent light only get enough light to develop one main bud. You can grow two small plants under just one 1 foot fluorescent tube, but this is the absolute minimum. Than more light you have than better! There is also a kind of fluorescent tube which is thicker than the normal tubes (it has a larger diameter), it consumes about 8-9% more electricity but puts out about 40% more light. If you can find these tubes get them, they cost somewhat more but are worth their price. MERCURY VAPOR These lamps are often sold as "grow-lamps", but they are highly inefficent, for the same price you can get a much better light setup. Do not buy one of these at any cost, if you already have one try to use it, probably it will produce acceptable results but be highly cost-ineffective. A typical 400W MV Unit puts out about 22'000 lumens. HID LAMPS - MH & HPS These are the only lights recommended for the serious grower, both of them need a ballast and a fixture to operate. Modern growlights today are equipped with a remote-ballast which can be kept outside the growing room. Sulphur lights, while highly efficent are still way too expensive for the amateur grower and not discussed here. HIGH PRESSURE SODIUM (HPS) The most common type of grow-light today, these lamps emit a very bright orange light. It's the same kind of light used for illuminating the streets. HPS lamps are available in many sizes ranging from 75W to 1000W, however everything under 400W is just not worth it's price, a 250W HPS lamp costs only slightly less than it's bigger 400W cousin. These are also the most expensive lights, a 400W model usually costs around 250$ but they will have paid off after the first harvest. HPS and MH are the only kind of light suited for the serious grower! While both HPS and MH are quite similar in their way of functioning there are some differences. A HPS light puts our more red light, it's better suited for flowering but less for vegetative growth. HPS light and bulbs are more expensive than MH but they last longer and are more efficent. Today there are also special HPS (and MH) bulbs on the market, for example the Philips SON-T Agro which has 30W of additional blue. HPS lamps produce lots of heat and need a ventilator if used in a closet, they must be placed about 1-1,5 feet above the plants. METAL HALIDES Metal Halides emit much more blue light than HPS and are better suited for vegetative growth, the internodes will be shorter than with HPS. Plants which suffer from a blue-light deficency will look spindly and elongated. The plants under MH's will also mature about one week earlier but the yield be somewhat smaller. MH ballasts and bulbs are somewhat cheaper than HPS but they have two drawbacks: MH bulbs last less than HPS bulbs, in addition they put out less light. A 400W MH systems puts out about 32'000 lumens, it's HPS counterpart about 55'000 lumens. Today there are also conversion bulbs for MH systems which basically are HPS bulbs constructed for a MH ballast. In addition there's a new MH bulb (AgroSun) which has 30W more red than the regular bulbs. When chosing a light system consider all the points above, with a 400W HPS system you can grow about 12 small plants (Sea of Green) or 5-6 large plants. Fluorescent lights should be placed as close as possible to the plants, about one inch is a good distance. With HID (HPS & MH) lamps you should leave about one foot (somewhat less is still possible). If plants are placed too close to HID lights they won't burn (unless they are very close) but the buds will tend to elongate (run) instead of filling out. VEGETATIVE GROWTH As you know during vegetative growth the plants need long light periods, practically speaking this means 16-24h of light. Generally speaking than more light they get than faster they grow. However when using HID lamps (HPS or MH) giving them more than 18h of light doesn't do any good (but no harm either). With HID lamps a light cycle of 17-18h is ideal, when using cheap light setups 24h of light are suggested. During flowering the plants need a period of uninterrupted darkness, this is not necessary for vegetative growth. Cannabis (and many other plants) do not need a dark cycle for healthy growth, interrupting the dark cycle also does no harm during vegetative growth. However some 100% pure Sativas (like the Original Haze) which tend to grow very tall anyway, should not be given more than 14-15h of light even during vegetative growth. If they get 18h of light or more they will stretch extremely fast. Also note that under artificial light the plants grow much faster than under natural conditions (given the longer light periods), this together with the absence of wind often causes the plant to grow an underdevelopded stem which can't hold the weight of the plant. If this happens support the plant with a stick, it will recover quickly. Shaking the plants lightly each day also favors stem development. It's your decision when to flower your plants, many growing guides say that seedlings can't be flowered until they are about one month old. In our experience this isn't true, of course you can't expect to succesfully flower a week old seedling, but as soon as they have grown three sets of leaves they can be flowered. Most growers switch the light cycle to flowering when their plants are about 30cm tall (1 foot). The main factor when making the decision of course is the space which the plants have available for growth. A plant flowered when it was 30cm tall will easily reach 1,5m at maturity. Consider that Sativas should be flowered when they are still very small since they stretch a lot during flowering. However space isn't the only issue, many growers think that big bushes are the way to go. Large Cannabis bushes are extremely beautiful and (of course) will yield more than one small plant. However the total yield per space unit will be bigger if you grow many small plants (Sea of Green). Under a 400W HPS lamp you can flower about 5 large plants or 12 small plants (which will yield more). The Sea of Green method works especially well when using clones instead of seeds. About one week after changing the lighting schedule the plants will start to show their gender. Procede to differentiate the plants as described earlier in order to produce Sinsemilla. Note that it might take you up to two weeks before you can differentiate the plants if you haven't any experience. FLOWERING When growing indoors it's necessary to artificially induce flowering in the plants. The plants were grown under 18h of light for fastest possible growth, to induce flowering a 12h light cycle is needed. 12 hours of darkness will suffice for nearly all strains of Cannabis. Strains from temperate regions can mature even with 10h of darkness, some equatorial Sativas on the other hand need 13h (of darkness) for good flower development. As described in the first section it's the uninterrupted darkness which triggers flowering and not the lenght of the light cycle. It's extremely important that your plants are shielded from any light during their dark period. Light reaching the plants will slow down (or even inhibit) flowering and the buds will be less tight. For practical purposes a dark cycle of 12h is perfectly suited for most Cannabis strains, however there are some exceptions to this rule. An experiment showed that plants grown under 12h of light (and 12h of darkness) had approximately twice the THC content of plants (of the same strain) grown under 10h of light. In other words, it would be ideal to flower a plant with the least number of hours of darkness necessary to induce flowering. For example and early flowering Afghani could be matured under 14h of light instead of the usual 12h to improve potency. Plants exposed to a longer light cycle (of course) will also grow bigger buds. The downside to long light cycle is that the maturation speed will slow down considerably. Plants grown under 8h of light (and 16h of darkness) will mature in about two weeks, instead of the usual two months. Of course the yield (and potency) will be much smaller. How long your plants take to mature depends mostly from their genetics. Some very early maturing strains (Early Green, Early Skunk, First Girl, Early Girl,...) will be completely mature in 40-45 days. Pure Sativas on the other hand can take up to 100 days (Original Haze, Haze 19) to complete flowering. For this reason even in places like Amsterdam strains like the Haze are extremely rare (and expensive). Only few Coffeeshops (like the Greenhouse) carry the Haze and it costs them about 9'500 Guilders the Kilogram, which for Dutch standards is extremely expensive. The maturation time also depends a lot from the light you are using, crops grown under HPS lamps will take about one week longer than their counterparts under MH lamps, but the yield will be larger. CO2 ENRICHMENT If you want to go professional and maximize yields you must seriously consider artificial CO2 enrichment. Plants breath CO2 and use it to perform photosynthesis (during the light hours). If the CO2 in the environment is limited the maximum rate of photosynthesis will not be attained. CO2 enrichment is not recommended until you get about 500g for each square meter with conventional methods. 1000W HID lamps are the minimum which makes sense when using CO2 enrichment. The systems on the market vary greatly in complexity and price, on the cheap side there's the simple pressurized CO2 tank, on the expensive side we have completely computerized systems (which cost way over a thousand Dollars). Theoretically you can also add CO2 with much less expensive methods, but they are all very labour intensive and yield quite small amounts of CO2. To enrich the environment with CO2 you can do the following: 1. A big room which can be ventilated thru a window once a day will at least have acceptable CO2 levels, especially if you live in the city. When growing in a closet a ventilator is of absolutely necessary since the plants will consume the available CO2 very quickly. 2. If humans or animals live in your growroom they will add CO2 to the environment. This can already make a big difference in growth speed. 3. You can spray your plants with CO2 enriched (sparkling) mineral water, however you will need to spray them a second time with fresh water to wash away the mineral substances. 4. You can produce CO2 in several ways, for example adding yeast to a solution of water and (lots) of sugar will produce considerable amounts of carbon dioxide. 5. Another easy way to produce CO2 is adding sodium bicarbonate (Baking Soda) to vinegar (or acetic acid). PLANT REGENERATION When growing Indoors it's possible to get multiple harvests from a single plant. To regenerate some leaves and bud material are left on the plant after the harvest. The stem can be left at (nearly) it's full height or cut back to a few inches above the ground. The plant should get 24h of light in order to start growing vegetatively again. Note that some strains regenerate easily while other don't, generally speaking you should see signs of new growth within two weeks after changing the light schedule. Regenerating plants is only rarely useful from an economic point of view. Regenerating small plants (flowered when they were one foot tall) is a waste of time, regenerating a huge bush grown under a 1000W Halide is another matter (more useful). Theoretically speaking you can get up to four harvests from one plant by using this method, however be aware that the health of the plants will decline over time. The plants also need heavy fertilization (especially Nitrogen) after every Harvest. Plants grown in small pots are very hard to regenerate, usually after the first harvest the health of the plant has already seriously declined. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------