Marijuana Hydroponic Garden Explained
Wed, 30/Sep/20
Before embarking to the hydroponic growing quest one must acknowledge that it is not very easy, despite the popular belief not easier than the other ways of indoor weed growing. And at the same time it is NOT a rocket science, and anybody can construct it or buy a ready one.
How to make a hydroponic garden at home
Organic components of your hydroponic fertilizer
Any technological solution has advantages and disadvantages and your future hydroponic garden is not an exception. Hydroponic farming is an aged technology proven by time, since 1600s, yet it requires certain efforts to design your way and setup it, scientific efforts if you wish. Invest your trial-and-error and you may win a beautiful solution, avoiding something you chase to avoid and gaining benefits you want to gain.
In general, the idea is as simple as putting Valentine flowers into a jar of water. Technically speaking it is already the simpliest hydroponic system (static one, without a pump).
The head image of futuristic hydroponic garden by eddie-mendoza (deviantart)
Who invented the Hydroponic Farming, and When?
Hydroponic cultivation method is now used widely everywhere: at home for indoor weed, and by NASA for Mars.!
All thanks to Sir Francis Bacon for the Hydroponic Marijuana we enjoy now
Growing marijuana hydroponically is growing without a soil at all, using the ability of plants to absorb nutrients thru water: roots get exposed to the nutritious liquid and – voilà! – no soil, no dust, less pests or even none of them, the room is cleaner, the weed is in the pocket. The hydroponic garden certainly serves well for those who do not feel much a farmer, it’s technological solution. I like thinking it is a laboratory, you design it, and it’s fun.
Practically the hydroponic method works well enough to any terrestrial plant, and consequently to marijuana. First discovered by Sir Francis Bacon, the 17th century brainiac, philosopher and poet, the legal advisor of Queen Elizabeth I of England, Lord High Chancellor of England. Alike many noble master minds of that time he experimented in many fields of knowledge, including hydroponic farming and cultivation for plants.
Later John Woodward continued the research counting more discoveries in the hydroponic matter, and later the German botanists Julius von Sachs and Wilhelm Knop, in 1859–1875 finally resulted the solid technique of the soilless cultivation which we already know as hydroponic cultivation. Now used widely everywhere: at home for indoor weed, and by NASA for Mars.
Hydroponic Weed Farm Advantages
The best of the best advantages is that it keeps all very very CLEAN. And you can leverage it by locating your garden anywhere where you would never locate a farm, producing soil dust, pests and requiring enough of access for working with soil. That is what the technology gives. Faster yields and healthier plants go as a free bonus then.
Hydroponic Weed Farm Disadvantages
Hydroponic farm requires to be constructed (scroll down to below how to do that) and this may course a reasonable increase in price. But if you are up to a hydroponic marijuana growing you’ve heard a lot about, to taste all the advantages why not count as an effective investment rather than a disadvantage. As for the construction, as always, once well done, will work Swiss-watch-cool, trouble free, and the whole system will last long or even forever giving joy to your heart! — do not underestimate this importance of construction.
How to Build The Hydroponic Farm at Home
It’s not too easy, yet it’s not hell difficult and sure-sure not a quantum ducking astro physics, don’t be scared, keep going, make a try! The engineering nature of your mind you will need to use and it’s a great fun. And of course there are ready-made hydroponic systems in the market.
It can be any shape, even as vertical as those prehystorical Semiramide Hydroponic Gardens! Only your fantasy is the limit. Think as if you are building a weed supply for a future Moon station if you wish:
How Simple a Hydroponic Garden Works! And how to make it
You take a pot (pot as container) totally perforated, that it almost has no bottom, only for the purpose to hold the medium replacing soil to keep the plant fixed, letting water go through easily. Usually peeps use for medium small rocks, gravel or clay pebbles. The stem and the upper part of roots will be developed in those pebbles and that is how the plant will be fixed.
The idea is that you poor water into pot (pot as container) and the water goes through, you make it often or constantly, usually by a small pump and a timer, and the plant roots being always moistured are taking the nutrients in as the water pass by. The “used” water is collected underneath in the tank, and you pump it up again into pot from top, and repeat and repeat. Mind that plants will not take away all nutriens by one iteration. Also tune up the timer for better automation considering other conditions, like room temperature, natural humidity of the surrounding, etc.
The idea is in delivering water, yet giving air to the roots, by this you cut up to 20-30% of total yielding time and gain your buds faster, that is why the pebbles or small rocks or gravel play the role perfectly. It can be any material, not toxic, but not necessarily natural, following the only idea of giving a perfect touch to water and oxygen.
The Most Frequently Asked Question about Hydroponic organic nutrients
Well then. The most frequently asked question is about natural fertilizers to escape wrong taste of the hydroponic weed, and also run away from any other spooky hidden dangers, has surprisingly a very simple reply (thanks to homehydrosystems.com):
Plant “eats” inorganic materials, the ions. Regular salt, NaCl (natrium and chlor), dessolves in water into Na+ and Cl-, as well as based on salt hydroponic nutrients contain proper elements sufficient for plant, for its PH, and also able to dessolve in water well.
Being in the soil in a classic way the plants do not consume organic materials like dung or banana peel straight away, but as soon as those natural nutrients break down into inorganic and then pass into water, only then the plant can consume the resulting elements: the ions.
Hydroponic “Taste”
Therefore, the hydroponic salt (as soon as the base is salt) is basically the only possible and the proper nutrient solution, and there is no better way until another genius lord bacon invents a new one by yet another revolutionary discovery. And now — choosing the proper supplier, using the proper salt, one will like and one will trust, is what we can do with that “taste”.
How To Dry Marijuana Buds Guide
Wed, 15/Jul/20
You know how to grow and you’re sure you are good at it. Then you grow a nice clone-plant of nice sativa family full of positive genetics from the proper mother, containing proper number of trichomes and you know for 100% that you cut it right in time.
Well done! What’s next?
Marijuana Drying Techniques
It’s obvious that a true professional grower develops the relation with the every single cannabis plant. And it’s quite well-expected that the most active part of this development happens on the growing stage. Say, when the plant is alive, and it is kind-of very logical, but here we have another pot of puzzles to solve: the very professional cannabis growers all know that in the moment of cutting yet another extremely important period only starts — drying and then storing the cannabis product to have the best glorious pot out of it.
Why Drying / Curing is so important?
There is chemistry behind all this cannabis treatment always. Yes-yes, again that chemistry and as soon as we are dealing with the living thing, the carbon form of life, we never get rid totally of cannabis chemistry. It is the very same process why fruits get ripe after being harvested. The chemistry continues working.
There shall be NO! Light!
Cannabis is the complex organic matter. All organic thingies lose properties under exposure to the sunshine or another good light. Like, chlorophyll is giving green colour to the buds, and your buds will be ugly if you not hide them in the dark. And it’ll certainly loose the high components too, I think, not completely, yet we do not want it to happen, as we are to keep all! Easy to understand the conception, when you think about usual paper getting yellow and less elastic when exposed to the sun for long, or a paint on your walls or on your cloth: the sunlight is merciless, it gives everything and it takes everything, keep it in mind.
Mind THC when you dry cannabis plant
There is no pure THC inside the plant, but there is THCA which changes into THC when the temperature hits and then vaporizes. By curing you increase the effects and the amount of THC that shall work on you, means: better cure give more potent buds and less loss of the desired components.
While curing is technically the other process, it’s still very close by the idea. And the official difference that you cure it enclosed, that the plant (already dried as the curing goes after drying) gives away less of its moisture, rather than when is being dried. Under some conditions we can skip curing or combine it as one process (until you do it for yourself, not commercially, and can try this quality vs the other, experimenting).
Can it be too much of drying cannabis plant?
Anything can be too much. Many think weed and cash cannot, but they can, and the drying marijuana either. Many professional growers mention, that the best cured buds happen after a month or about of very proper curing. Never tried by myself tho, as my buds are burnt into smoke much earlier, all of them. However, one obvious problem of a ‘too dry’ is that trichomes start braking easily and you loose the potency. I think in time THC should start disappearing either, so you need to pick it up at its prime. Matter of XP (experience), no less, and I never heard about a stoner able to wait to long, which makes this issue theoretical, yet others are real.
External threats and issues for drying cannabis
Mold id the Enemy. Hopefully there is no mold around in your place, but you need to keep an eye, checking it carefully. It may also hit live growing cannabis plants too. See the head picture? It’s a mold on it! Bugs and pests are to avoid, and the other house animals, cats, dogs, also small children, elder brother maybe, and of course – a mom sometimes may ruin the harvest even worse than the others mentioned here, hahahaha ) ) )
Drying cannabis in One piece
There is a certain misbelief that drying a plant in one piece may allow more THC come up from the stem to leaves and buds. A total untrue. Among other reasons there is a simple fact that the water moves up in stems and branches, due to water surface tension, which is stronger than the gravity when it comes to micro pipes (and this is how water elevated from the ground to the very top of the cannabis plant.
And a complete total untrue for those couple of plants of indoor cannabis that you grow at home in personal-consumption volumes. Significantly longer drying is the only thing that may happen and you definitely do not want it. If you still feel explorer then try it and make your own conclusions.
Best Drying Conditions, Temperatures, Humidity for Weed
From 18 to 24 degrees Celsius (65 to 75 Fahrenheit). Humidity 45-50 percent. Darkness is essential for marijuana buds through all drying process. If all is done correctly then in 6-10 days the plant starts being dry. Check how far it is dry by tactile check and apply for the ultimate phase — curing.
How to make hashish
Fri, 12/Jun/20
Hashish (or Hash)
Hashish, and we also call it hash, is possibly the oldest marijuana concentrate we know, also can be made using none of any chemical solvents neither complicated machinery. It consists of trichomes, resin and oils. Take some frosty fresh buds, rub extensively with fingers, the substance left on your fingers is hashish. This way they do hashish in India, for example, they roll it into a big damn ball once scrabbed from hands, and keep it this way. Called charas.
In some countries, like in Kazakhstan, I heard, they make it for fun with a girlfriend running all over the cannabis field, it’s a sunny day and it’s hot, she sweats, and all top contents of the cannabis flowers (trichomes and resin) stick onto her body, and then — scrab and smoke.
Making Hash
Making hash is the extraction and preserving the psychoactive resin from the cannabis plant. This resin is HIGHly concentrated in the cannabis tops, in the buds, and is exactly the thing giving your nugs their “frosty” appearance. Smaller amounts of the psychoactive resin can be also found in the leaves and trim of both male and female plants, which makes the whole idea to learn how to make hashish HIGHly reasonable, to get the use of all parts the plant — extract hashish, we all love doing it, for real, an especially when it comes to consumption. In a long run, except of that it is the aromatic and the effective way to consume cannabis, it is also the HIGHly economic way to consume cannabis. And a re-use shake, leaves and stems, all remains of cannabis plants, yes, you make hash from it too, once extracted it’s same resin as good as that one from buds (of course shake contains less resin, yet in the other case we just throw it away, instead of having finest hashish, hm?)
Hashish is notable for having less smell (almost none) when you have it your pocket, may be important. Also less smell when smoking, and it is not that far famous smell, not all people know it, if compare to regular marijuana. Another great feature hashish is highlighting is small size, one finger tip block of hashish will last for couple of days, giving you less burning side products as you dub it, because of size of one hit. You can roll it with tobacco, or dub it, or use a small pipe, or use a can of Coca Cola, which is the best use for Coca Cola can, hahahaha )
Cold Method to extract Hashish at home
For this one we need a bucket or a smaller bowl (depending on how much harvest we want to “invest” into our hashish experiment), we put cold water into bucket, let’s make it half as we will need space for adding ice, so fill water with ice cubes and then we drop the quantities of Bud into there.
Then you use a blender or another similar tool, whatever you prefer, eventually you crash this bud when it continuously hits ice pieces because of blender, go on way untill the coctail-margarita state. Take away the remains of green plant material, it must be floating, and then separate the desired material by filtering out with paper screens. Dry it and it’s ready.
Don’t do anything to the buds before you put them into water. Crushing or grinding it in advance will only damage the trichomes, decreasing the potency of the final product. The marijuana buds you use should be dry and cured for the trichomes give out the maximum potency (while curing the THCA which does not make you high converts into THC which makes you high, the well cured stuff is more effective).
The whole process is extremely clean and creates a pure clean product, very high in effect, whitish color, extremely tasty, no plant structure in it and no chemicals. Cold keeps trichomes brittle, so they separate easily.
For the very first experiments we suggest playing with small amounts before mastering to the bucket size full of kief. You may lose buds if anything goes wrong. Think about coctail shaker for the start.
Kief
Basically Kief is the Moroccan way for saying “hashish”, they call weed that way and they smoke weed in a form of hashish preferably. However technics go different, so we distinguish one hash from another, yet it’s nothing wrong to call all other hashish as kief and vice verca to refer kief as hashish — Names of Marijuana.
Kief is the most basic types of cannabis concentrates, counting the oldest history back into thousands years ago. It’s made of the dried trichomes, which are the glands of the cannabis plant and contain the highest share of thc.
Kief is light green or golden or brownish in color, depending on the original material, the strains it is made of, it appears as a sandy or very fine grain powder pressed into a solid piece. You smoke one small piece (like half a nail size) of it by a pipe or a bong and you’re already high, thse are pure trichomes. The cold method above in the end produces kief. Very tasty as soon as buds you use for the extraction also contain terpenes, and you get the terpenes well-densed in your kief, very pure, no oils inside neither plant tissue, mild in smoking and HIGH as hell.
In the standard weed grinder there is that famous “third compatment”, where the trichmes are collected while you use the grinder for grinding weed long enough. It becomes dense there, the light green and yellow powder. This is kief.
Head image: The Dank Dutchess
★★★ Moroccan Hashish Candies, Alice Toklas’s Recipe
