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 SPEED PARTS 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 MEAL 6.00 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 Fe Cu Zn B Mo Mn 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?).


 CONTINUED IN PART II
(OUTDOORS & INDOORS SUPPLEMENTS)

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