Re:

Trichome is the crystalline monstrosity on a flowering top, sometimes referred to as a resinous gland. Tiny in size still visible by eye. Trichomes contain plant’s resin which is rich with psychoactive components if it is a cannabis plant. Monitoring trichomes is important for cultivation of better buds and a higher potency

The List of Mistakes that Beginner Growers make

Wed, 22/Feb/23

These are not exactly mistakes when you are into growing marijuana on your own because they are more likely a learning process. However, we have a list of most common mistakes that beginner growers make. And, applying these few simple rules shall give you a unique opportunity to commit greater mistakes on the further stages. There’s plenty of space for this in marijuana growing, haha.

How long does it take to grow a marijuana plant?

Patience you need to grow a marijuana plant – the otherwise is an often mistake, but you should not hurry at no stage of marijuana growing. In general, the full growing cycle takes about 4 to 6 months for a solid marijuana plant to ripe, where the term depends on many variables of the equation. Commercially offered seeds may give fruits as fast as 4-8 weeks.

How to decrease the marijuana growing term?

– Outdoor or indoor, where for the latter you can alter the term by changing the light regime: as soon as you set your light regime as 12 and 12 hours the plants immediately react ending the vegetation and just start flowering (producing buds that we smoke). Do not do that too early.

Apparently, for the outdoor, you cannot change the Sun astronomy, as it is the main and only source of light for the outdoor marijuana.

However, what you can do is select a proper date in the calendar when you plant seeds to have the Sun rolling over the sky in a 12 on 12 mode right when you need your future weed to flower. The very reason why some countries enjoy two harvests of marijuana per year.

– The genetics of seeds that you use influence the how-long question too. Autoflowering seeds are independent of the light regime but they take a certain amount of time for vegetation and then start flowering regardless of where the light is.

Autoflowering cannabis grows as fast as 4-5 weeks.

Feminized cannabis grows as fast as 6-8 weeks.

Autoflowers offered in the market usually need a shorter period from seed to weed and are considered to be the easier effort for beginner growers.

– Playing with nutrients for your marijuana plants, and this includes building a hydroponic garden, ease your waiting too. May it be a harder way to learn and perfect your skills, however the “plants on steroids” (enforced nutrients) shall perform fast similar to you wishing to grow your body promptly in a gym adding proper nutrients.

– Using clones shall make the vegetation shorter just logically. Doing so you skip the seed germination stage and seedling at all. There are pros and cons and a lot of arguments about growing marijuana from clones. We suggest it is not bad to use the clones but just using the clones is a different business and it certainly delivers a shorter growing term for your marijuana.

This or that, or a combination of the listed, but you are to accept that all plants are naturally slow, including the marijuana plants.

Being a first-timer, you’d better not cut the growing term too much but let it go the natural course for a cannabis plant to grow taking as long as it needs under the current environmental conditions.

The obvious exception is choosing an autoflowering seed or another kind of seed (like Ruderalis) with a genetically modified growing term (or should I better say a milder gene editing? Yes, this one as it reflects the idea of feminized seeds better), either embarking on a quest of growing your marijuana from a clone. The latter shall never grant you knowledge about how to germinate, nor what a seedling is, but we still recommend exploring the natural cycle before you alter it.

Note that the light regime alteration and leveraging on the chemistry of the nutrients are the advanced techniques.

How to grow marijuana easy

There is an easy way to stay away from the common growing issues. For this, you may treat a marijuana plant just as a regular plant, as if it’s no different from a potato or a tomato. You may lose a bit in quality (depending on what you count as “quality”) but this is the very idea of how you may grow marijuana easy, no stress, no sweat.

In all cases taking care of soil is the best efficient way, as it requires less effort compared to all other issues soil deficiency may produce; but you only once mess about soil making a DIY mix, then only watch how the magic happens for your joy.

How’s that possible to grow marijuana easy?

Because a marijuana plant is a natural thing and, after millions of years of evolution it can survive and give fruits without your assistance. Hence you may help weed to grow herself, and she’ll as high as in an Amsterdam coffee shop but in your household, satisfying.

At least this list of mistakes beginner growers gives a good idea where you look at along the whole process of your a hustle-free growing.

There are almost no bothering neither boring things in growing marijuana, apparently the mysterious fragrance shall encourage you every time you enter the grow space 😉

How to grow marijuana for free

One word: Soil.

Soil is the very source of everything for marijuana plants, all that they need to flourish well, yet the soil is too often underestimated by the first-timers; myself included.

Most of the most common mistakes that beginner growers make. The wrong soil can ruin everything. The proper soil can make all your efforts easy going all way up to growing your weed for free, or almost free, and it is as important as a seed itself.

The list of what you need to grow marijuana for free

1) Seed. Once upon a time we have picked a couple of seeds from street marijuana, and it has worked, and we’ve got high. This was an effective experiment of growing marijuana both successfully and free of charge. However, if you allow yourself a few buck investment taking a “professional seed” from a seed bank you’ll just gain a better chance to succeed.

Acknowledge that as a beginner grower, you may fail. But using a professional seed from a seed bank your odds are higher. But a free marijuana seed shall give you free knowledge of trial and error.

TIP! Pay the most of your attention to the cannabis seed germination stage. This is when the whole thing starts, and a seed gives a small root out of itself, such is called germination. Before you even send a marijuana seed into the soil you make it germinated in a Petri Dish. Very important.

2) Soil. Again, you can take a professionally mixed soil which is not a million bucks in price. But you can also use soil from your garden and it shall perform too, reasoning that a marijuana plant is a natural thing, while “wild soil” already contains hopefully an amount of desired nutrients for cannabis plants as long as other plants do grow in it all the way.

TIP! A rule of thumb is that random soil usually is too dense for a marijuana plant. You require to make it loose by mixing it with sand or crushed brick, which are also free of charge. Such shall allow more oxygen to come to the roots of your marijuana plant, also giving a better way for the nutrients.

3) Indoor or outdoor? Well, this depends on the climate overall and the current season in your region. We mention herein how to grow marijuana for free supposing you take the right season and climate.

In our experiment about using random seeds of street weed, we have put two already germinated marijuana seeds into flower pots but we have placed one pot on a balcony and the other we kept at home. The balcony plant went stronger and it reached its ripe. But the room plant went weak and sick too early and died after a few weeks.

The reason? The more natural environment makes a cannabis plant naturally stronger, as long as it is exposed to wind and rain and a temperature range it lives a normal life, so to say.

4) Water and light are very important for your future success with marijuana growing as a beginner grower. Please about further on in this post.

Finding the right soil for cannabis

We have mentioned above how important the soil is. It delivers all nutrients through the roots through your whole marijuana plant all way up to the buds. Therefore you pay the most attention to finding the right soil for cannabis, and here we share a few tips:

1) Where from? Once you have excavated a potful of soil from your garden, consider also taking other soil from “somewhere else” if you have several marijuana plants for your beginner’s effort. This is for seeing the difference between this and that soil.

2) Make the soil loose. Except that you’ve purchased a professionally mixed soil, in all other cases for a DIY soil you always make the soil loose by adding sand or crushed clay brick, some people use carbon for the purpose.

Loose and crumbly soil is always better for marijuana as soon as it provides better access for water and oxygen to the roots of a marijuana plant.

3) Ventilation. Make holes in your pot for better ventilation, and for the excess water to go out easily. Such shall prevent the roots of your marijuana plant from rot and a lack of oxygen.

4) Mites vs worms. Keep an eye on who else lives in your soil. There are useful beasties living in soil, and there are harmful ones (yet another reason to take soil from different places into different pots to see how marijuana plants shall go on growing in this and that case).

A tip? Worms are good, they provide better ventilation of your soil, also they process the soil elements into what plants “eat”. The other beasties such as mites and insects are not good and you’d better get rid of them, either take care of avoiding them from the start.

There are “professional” worms existing on the market, you can buy them to enhance your soil mix. We suggest they are not expensive.

5) PH level, also referred to as “acidity”, is important for marijuana growing. We suggest in wild soil the PH level is already fine, especially if you make it outdoors in your garden. But for the indoor growing, and in a case you are going to use nutrients hard, you keep an eye on a PH level.

For a marijuana plant the PH level is in a range from 5.7 to 6.2 for hydroponic or indoor, and up to 7.0 outdoor. There are relatively cheap PH meters in the market, designed either for aquariums or specifically for growing, both types may fit.

Otherwise, to keep your experiment as free as possible, you use that wild soil, as we mentioned, and you go outdoors (or balcony) so the plants are taking the most of nutrients from nature. Once you add nutrients the PH level is going to change, then you need to be checking on it periodically.

Choosing a seed

Many sources say, growing marijuana from an anonymous seed may be flooded with surprises and may hard your efforts, this is partly true. However, as soon as you’ve got a seed from weed that you’ve just smoked that makes your seed not that far anonymous, but yet.

Taking a seed from a trusted seed bank is still a good option and a minimal investment indeed. At least you shall know for sure that a possible fail shall not give credit to the seed. On the other hand, why not try, and more important the seed is a living thing, so shall be the future cannabis plant, you can just let nature go its way, otherwise buy seeds from a seed bank.

If you have decided to have a “some weed seed” consider the following advice

1) Ripe. The marijuana seed for planting should be ripe. That shall mean the color of a cannabis seed must be dark brown, not black, not green. Also, it must have curvy stripes on its surface.

2) Solid. The marijuana seed should be solid, bearing no cracks. Yes, this is a sort of obvious, but we saw beginner growers being so desperate that they take a damaged seed. The effort is doomed even before they got started.

3) Germination. Pay the best attention to germination, this is when a seed shows a small root. Read the easy way how to germinate weed seed below:

How to germinate weed seeds

– To germinate a seed you put a cotton cloth on the bottom of a shallow and wide cup or a container made of neutral material. That may be a plastic container used in the food industry, or a glass Petri Dish, that we find most convenient. No metal due to its acidity, and no possibly toxic material.

– Generously moisture the cloth with water. Use clean water. Do not be too greedy about the amount of cloth, have it clean, made of cotton, and let it form a sort of a bed for a seed.

– Place the seeds into that cloth. It should not be lying on a surface but be deep into cloth.

– Moisture another piece of cloth and cover the seed, or the seeds if you have few, with it.

– If you have a few seeds in one container give them space for sending out roots freely, for that place them apart from each other.

– Let the oxygen penetrate the container. Open it up once a day to ventilate, but you keep it in a dark warm place all other time.

– The whole germination may take a week, up to two weeks, so you be patient.

– Add water periodically to keep the micro-environment well moist, but not flooded.

Once your seed germinated you have a good chance to succeed. Weed may outcome being not of the best quality if it is a street weed seed, but what shall make that weed so important is that it shall be your weed.

What else do you need to know picking a random seed from street marijuana

The existence of a seed defines that it was a hermaphrodite plant where you found that seed. Professional growers only grow female plants, and those have no seeds at all. The offspring of your anonymous street marijuana plant, where you picked your anonymous marijuana seed, shall have a great chance of being a hermaphrodite too.

Such may result but not necessarily a lower THC level and poorer trichomes but be sure it’ll give you some high anyway. The logic is simple: you have already got high from weed wherein you have found that seed.

Marijuana overwatering

Marijuana overwatering is a very common mistake for beginner growers, especially for first-timers. Cannabis plants do not require a lot of water.

The good growers’ advice on watering your cannabis plant is: you put your pointer finger one inch down into the soil – until you feel moisture or see your finger is moist as it is off the soil, you need no more water yet.

Do not over-water your marijuana plant under no circumstances. Such may kill your whole plantation.

LED lights for growing marijuana

Light is essential for marijuana plants, as it is for any plant. If your plants grow indoors, then you need LED lights designed for growing and there is no other way. This is pretty much an investment. The whole LED lights set may cost you 200-400 dollars and shall add a ton to your monthly electricity bill for a few consequent months.

Besides, you can be f**ed by a wrong LED lights vendor delivering a wrong specter of light. You’d better learn about it before you buy any lights, and read comments about how reliable is the vendor you pick.

How do we decrease weed lighting cost?

The sunlight is the best for plants, better than anything artificial like LED lights, and it’s free. You try being outdoors in the garden or on the balcony, but make sure you are at the right season when it’s warm enough outdoors.

More important: marijuana plants switch from vegetation to flowering when the light regime becomes 12 and 12 hours. It means the Sun shines 12 hours a day and it’s dark the other 12 hours.

The light regime is the worst beginner growers’ mistake. You shall need to switch your LED lights into the 12/12 regime at a proper moment, and for outdoors you’d better check for the Sun’s astronomy in your region to gain the 12/12 sunlight regime at the end of the vegetation stage.

How do we avoid light-related problems the easiest way?

1) Use autoflowering seeds from a seed bank or a friend, because the autoflowering seeds do not rely on the light regime but they are designed to start flowering by time and not by light change. We have already mentioned, that the autoflowering seeds feature a shorter growing term overall.

2) Use Ruderalis, if you can find one, which I doubt. However, the autoflowering seeds mix the genetics of Cannabis Ruderalis to be independent of light. Cannabis Ruderalis is a wild plant originating from Sri Lanka and India, those have a lot of weed with strong genetics growing wild.

No panic if you still lack lighting or fail the regime setup. This shall give smaller buds, a weaker plant, but it shall give some buds and some plant. Of course, no great achievement if such happens, but this is your first try and you learn.

How much space do I need for cannabis plants?

Marijuana plants do need space for all three reasons: sufficient space for roots to avoid competition with other plants, a space for growing tall, and a space for growing wide. The latter is to prevent touching the neighboring plants too much.

1) For the roots: think about a big bucket, say, a 10 to 12-liter bucket (or a pot of this size) shall solve the problem. Do not forget to ventilate it as we mentioned earlier in this post. If you are planting marijuana outdoors give the same space wide, having no other plants (cannabis or not) just next to your weed.

2) For the tall: make it 1,5 – 2,0 meters over the soil level if you grow indoors or in a tent. You shall also need fresh air inside of your growing space, then you deliver proper ventilation to your plants.

There are certain techniques to use a smaller space by changing the geometry of the stems, but this is already an advanced level, and we talk here about beginner growers’ mistakes solely.

TIP! if you decide to buy commercial seeds from a seed bank, and you lack space yet, then you consider strains of a low height. There are very low ones in the market, as low as 50-70 cm.

Yet another tip: if you switch from a vegetation stage to a flowering stage by changing the LED light in your indoor growing space, then you can save on the height of that growing space by switching the light regime a little bit earlier. Plants shall continue growing when flowering but they shall not do that intensively as during the vegetation stage.

For the outdoors, there is no such issue, unless your neighbors are unfriendly. Use a fence for God’s sake, or, again, those seeds of low-height genetics. We should warn you about neighbors, should we?

3) For the wide: say, 2×2 meters is a bit wider than you need. Having lack of space, use 1×1 meter space. There is no strict rule about it, but just your marijuana plants should not be one by another.

Do not give too much care to your marijuana plants

Yes, this makes a certain problem more often than we can imagine, because you want your weed, and you value your efforts, but this is your first time and you know practically nothing.

Therefore, you’d better be patient, you’d better accept there shall be mistakes, you’d better watch to learn than expecting the frostiest harvest of all time from your first attempt.

Do not over-care your plants, give them time, wait and be watching more rather than doing, and don’t be too much of a mom to your plants.

A good example of over-care is over-watering, as we mentioned here, and the next two listed beginners’ mistakes are such as well:

Cutting marijuana leaves

You’ve heard of course that cutting marijuana leaves during the flowering stage may dramatically increase your future harvest of buds.

How does cutting marijuana leaves perform?

Once you cut tips of the marijuana leaves, either very tips, or up to one-half of the leaves, or just decimating the whole leaves of the plant, you save nutrients delivered into the leaves, as those get smaller in size, and the freed amount of nutrients goes all into buds making the latter bigger, higher, frostier.

However, this may form a real problem for a beginner grower due to the lacking experience. Many superior professional growers do not recommend for absolute beginners to use scissors to cut marijuana leaves at all on the first try, excluding maybe a few too obvious cases.

Do not over-dose the nutrients

Imagine that you have decided to use the nutrients, even though skipping it shall cut the cost even though requiring proper soil, proper light, proper space, etc. To use nutrients staying away from overdosing when you are a beginner grower there is a safe way:

Use a simple trick until you learn this science better: add nutrients in very small amounts carefully and watch how the plant reacts but give sufficient time for the reaction.

Any change in color of any part of the plant or any other change, anything seeming abnormal, may mean (but not necessarily) an overdose of nutrients or a nutrient. The overdose of nutrients may even kill a plant.

There are exceptions about the color change, like, “going purple” may reflect a too low temperature or another environmental issue, or stress (where overdosing is stress too).

Growing for the first time without nutrients at all or just tiny to small doses shall grant you a better understanding of the whole process. Because in case of an unknown issue you shall have less range of guess about what you’ll have done wrong.

Keep notes while you grow weed

A good piece of advice for a grower of any experience is to log whatever you are doing to the plants and whatever is happening to the plants. This shall help to learn the whole process, and to track the experiments, how your ideas, the weather, the season, and the nutrients influence the plants. You shall find these notes useful for your next trials, this is how the knowledge is accumulated.

Marking plants with small tags is a good idea too in any case, especially when you treat them differently, like, a different nutrient regime, different soil, light, genetics, whatever differently you apply to your marijuana plants.

When to harvest marijuana

Choosing when to harvest marijuana as a beginner grower you may miss the right moment, or cut the bud too early. The latter is coursed by impatience (of course, you already know how important is to stay patient in a plant business, do you?) and the former is merely greed about higher THC. Needless to say that losing a whole harvest at the very end after weeks and weeks of growing efforts is an “epic fail”.

Trichomes you watch to catch the right moment for harvesting your marijuana buds.

Some people advance to using a microscope to detect the best condition of the trichomes, but a 10x magnifying glass (jewelers use such and sell in their shops) fits well enough. Alternatively – a good pair of eyes, trichomes are actually visible.

For a beginner grower, the best time for harvesting marijuana comes when approximately 60% of trichomes are amber, and about 40% remain milky-white. There is an argument about how much trichomes should get ripe, which means amber color, and we suggest this is a matter of personal preference. We cut when amber to milky reaches roughly 60/40.

Ready to hit the road now?

As a rule of thumb you always keep in mind two simple ideas: “never panic” and a “no rush”, this is the best way to win in growing your marijuana.

We dare to say that no beginner in the whole world ever avoided mistakes that beginner growers make. That is why they are called this way. Just stay come and give time to your plants before you doom them to fixing a nonexistent issue.

Anything that may ever happen to your marijuana plants shall work for your experience. Your sticky frosty buds, which you are getting in the end, are the best in the world, because they are the buds, that you have grown.

Peace and love.


Easy tricks on Cannabis Soil you apply for better yields

Wed, 11/Aug/21

Mixing your own organic soil for growing marijuana is already a humble “scientific” job for a true hobbyist. Regardless of the expertise, you are having at the start, go on doing for in the end, your experience shall grow inevitably high along with the dope nugs, no doubt! If you are passionate enough, you shall be rewarded, this one always performs well.

This post contains the basic guidelines on how to design a soil mix for cannabis, what are the basic ingredients for the cannabis soil, and a few directions to keep it moving in the most enjoyable way possible. Do not forget to have a look at our guide on organic soil amendments to fertilize your soil naturally, and use the existing materials to rule the nutrition for your marijuana plants.

Any future buds start from soil:

“You will find only what you bring in.” – Yoda.

Ingredients for soil structure

Which ingredients do you essentially bring in soil to build its structure:

  • Sand and/or Silt.
  • Humus (this is soil per se).
  • Hydroton and/or crushed pieces of carbon.

The latter may be helpful in correcting a desperate situation of a heavy clay structure of the soil in your backyard, then adding sand may become even a harmful solution for the structural change.

How to make cannabis soil mix

The first and the most important step in making your own cannabis soil mix is the selection of the original soil, that you are going to modify. Don’t worry, this is not as sophisticated as it sounds. Just the best hint to picking a proper basic soil is to listen to what your heart desires. And, no, it’s not a master Yoda speaking again, but – you start from being comfortable yourself, also you utilize what you have read and heard about soil (called “unintentional knowledge” in brain-related sciences).

– Cannabis soil should be loose for the roots to strive in a comfort, and for oxygen and nutrients to reach the roots of marijuana plants freely. On the other hand, the soil should not be too loose to waste less water and nutrients dissolved in it but absorb everything properly. The extreme situation of water going through too easily is a hydroponic growing, a very different story.

– Cannabis soil should be rather coarse and grainy, and you avoid the fine ground. The fine ground, which may seem rich, loose, and of nice color, shall be tamped quickly with watering.

– Both provisions above work for water drainage. Marijuana plants have evolved mostly in dry regions, they hate over-watering. The water must go and still keep your cannabis soil moist.

If you buy the ingredients for your soil mix

In the market of the pro mix organic soils, even though all soils in grow shops are “cannabis soils”, some of them may fit your requirements or your character better, some are good for germination, another – for vegetation, and yet another – is for a lazy grower, etc. Pro mixed soils feature different contents and the purpose.

– Set eyes on the NPK of the soil, that will make your life easier then.

– Avoid clay soils. It’s hard to mess with this type.

– Loam soil is the best for marijuana.

– AP soil, all-purpose, of course, exists too.

How to choose the basic soil for the mix

Basic soil in your mix plays a vital role: (1) Potentially, it may contain (with luck) a fairly balanced set of nutrients, like silt soils; (2) Apparently, some types are close to impossible to pull through, like clay soils. For the case you have no intent to pick a commercially available mix of soil, but you wish to excavate a batch of random soil “from the garden” and make a perfect soil mix of your recipe, such may work, and for this, we have criteria:

  • Extend your search a little beyond your backyard. Better soil at your starting point shall require fewer soil ingredients (like sand, clay, etc) and fewer amendments (like nitrogen, magnesium, etc).
  • Skip the previous provision if you are sure about your garden soil, wish to experiment with the particular soil or any other reason you have for that.
  • Color and texture: the best colors are dark brown or almost black, dark red, and tan. The brown or black color of the soil indicates there is a high amount of organic matter, which is the main ingredient (humus) with all the NPK in it.
  • Test watering: pour a glass of water and watch how it’ll drain itself. There is no certain know-how but your own experience in comparison to different kinds of soil. Water should not disappear too quickly, and should not stay as a paddle on the surface.

Adding sand to cannabis soil for drainage

The dominating majority of the commercially distributed cannabis soils from the grow shops already contain sand mixed into them. Cannabis loves sand! Why do you need to add sand to your cannabis soil? Sand regulates the drainage properties of cannabis soil: the water should not transit easily, and it should not get stocked either.

Amending sand to cannabis soil prevents water stocking, as exceeding water may block roots from access to oxygen, then roots start rotting. Apparently, too sandy soil may lead to frequent watering, then, if your nutrients are dissolved in water, you risk wasting them as water goes through, and eventually impact your bill. If you have nutrients in the soil in a form of organic matter, like manure or coffee grounds, then the transiting water may wash out from the soil what should be kept.

That is why you need sand.

Grains of sand should be of a fair size.

F* that sand if its grains are almost flour.

Btw, if your approach is the laziest and the cheapest way (I did it a couple of times, and all went smooth) then – whatever soil you find, consider adding sand essentially. The only exception is clay soil, and there’s no other choice, and you skip adding sand, or end up with cement!! Read further to find out what to do then.

Adding silt to cannabis soil

Silt shares the properties with sand, except that it is mud. Silt shall not hold water for too long, just like sand saving you from over-watering, but not like sand it keeps nutrients much better. The pro mix organic soil ingredients are essentially sand and silt.

Due to its structure – minerals and organic particles – silt is fertile and helps your organic soil mix to stay moist with no excess water in it. Thus, silt soil is one of the best types of soil to start from. Also, idyllic for germination.

So, once you amend sand to your organic soil mix, then it should not be all sand, and silt shall be your next consideration. There is no universal bullet-proof recipe, anyway. To make the close-to-clay soil loose and moist I’ve amended a few handfuls of crushed carbon pieces once.

As a first-timer, do all your mixed soils wisely. If you have several pots, or several spots in the open air, like a garden or a backyard, consider differentiating the techniques for each plant. Then make notes and watch how your growing expertise produces the perfect recipe for the weed soil mix.

Clay pebbles aka hydroton for cannabis

Clay pebbles (hydroton) are multipurpose. A well-known fact they are essential for hydroponic marijuana, apart from that they serve perfectly the same purpose as sand in the soil mix. Hydroton pebbles are made of clay by heating it to a few thousand Fahrenheit, then clay fills with bubbles and transforms into small round units.

Hydroton clay pebbles for marijuana

Hydroton / Clay pebbles

Clay pebbles (hydroton) pros for cannabis

  • Clay pebbles, clay pellets, aka hydroton are offered in the market in various sizes, from 4mm to 16mm in diameter.
  • Clay pellets are easier than sand to apply: they weigh a few times lighter than sand, are relatively clean, and are practically designed to do the job nicely.
  • Pores in each such clay ball work for a better distribution of nutrients, water, and oxygen; compared to natural gravel which has no pores, does not allow water and air to go through.
  • Hydroton supports plant position, which is especially crucial if you mess with clones.

For normal weed growing (not hydroponic) fill in the bottom of the pot with pebbles at first. For outdoors, you can make a pit and fill the bottom with clay pellets. Such shall add to drainage, anyway.

Clay pebbles (hydroton) are in many ways better than sand as soon as they are designed for this.

Should there be any cons to clay pebbles?

The Moon, of course, has the dark side, and so do the clay pebbles for cannabis.

  • If you leave the whole system dry, the hydroton balls shall dry out too, and – when you add water back again – they’ll absorb the enormous amount quite quickly leaving nothing to plants. Watch it, also mean it when watering for the first time or after a dry period.
  • The real con is the price, but for smaller home systems it works.
  • Clay pebbles (hydroton balls) need to be sterilized once reused. This is critical.

Clay

Clay pebbles are fine, now let’s find out what is useful in natural clay for your marijuana crop. Clay is basically made of fine-grained rock material with a little quartz, fully loaded with aluminum and magnesium oxides. Clay is plastic when moist and hard when dry, it hosts the roots of your marijuana plants badly, including – due to the lack of ventilation.

If clay dominates in the soil of your garden or backyard, such is very close to a disaster. But clay works well as an ingredient in your perfect weed soil mix. You amend clay as little as 5-10% of the total soil mass to manipulate the overall ventilation property.

Well, what if you face a struggle, and there is no option but clay soil? Do not think you can just add sand, and voila, as you’ll only create an artisan cement.

– Add more humus to decrease the amounts of clay.

– Use crushed carbon and/or hydroton instead of sand.

We do not mean it is all clay as it is, but a heavy quantum of clay in your soil. Some plants are still growing in it, just marijuana plants are rather whimsical, and we need to please them.

Loam soil

Loam soil is a champion soil. It already combines sand and silt with smaller portions of clay and humus, of course. Loam soil is what you try to achieve when making your DIY organic soil mix, having no ready loam soil around. Needless to say, loam is the most desired weed soil to pot marijuana. It features good oxygen levels and excellent drainage properties, neutral PH, also naturally fertile.

Humus and manure

Humus is a “usual soil”, what we think when saying “soil”. Humus is the mix of organic matters like roots and dead plants, rotten to an end. Any normal grow shop, either oriented to marijuana or not, offers humus as the basic soil. Humus is the essential ingredient for your cannabis soil mix, and it takes the major share of the overall mass of your pro soil mix for marijuana. Hydroponic is an exception, of course.

If you are thinking to buy some ingredients for your soil mix, but not all, to leave space for the experiments, then a good investment would be buying humus – the basic soil ingredient.

Sometimes humus is called compost, but indeed compost is the mix of humus and manure. You amend both into weed soil if you have them around. Manure is worth looking for it. Bovines are poor digestives: they absorb roughly about 1/5 of what they intake, and the rest 4/5 of “yummy stuff” (including the NPK nutrients) goes into manure — marijuana plants shall be thankful!

Also, manure is great for making worm casting.

Worm castings for weed

Worm castings for weed (also vermicast or vermicompost) are earthworm’s poo. As worms travel through there under the surface they consume soil sending it through their digestion system, and what we get at the other end of a worm is what your marijuana plants would love to have!

You can buy worm castings as a ready thing in a grow shop, otherwise, you can pet worms in your place to produce worm castings for weed, or we call it vermicast. Compared to compost worms casting is easier to produce: worms require lower temperatures and deliver no smell. Despite that they are already crawling literally in bull sh*t, what we call manure, however, the additional smell is none, which we can hardly say about compost. Also, making worms casting is a significantly faster process rather than making compost, and requires less space.

Worms casting for weed is rich with elements, such as nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, and calcium. And you can apply worms casting directly to plants, compared that you mix manure with mud before you put it to plants. Messing with worms casting for weed is a cleaner job overall.

Common earthworm species used for the purpose are:

1) Red Wigglers, or Red Californian Earthworm.

Worm casting for marijuana, Red Californian Earthworm

RED WIGGLER WORM

2) Night Crawlers, these are larger.

Worm casting for marijuana, Night Crawler Worm

NIGHT CRAWLER

Worm castings improve the germination and all the weed growing;

Fertilizers you use with less fear about damaging the plant;

Worm castings hold water and nutrients;

Worm castings provide microorganisms and minerals to the soil, increasing the disease resistance greatly!

These worms are in the market, and they are good guys.

No PH problem ♥

For the marijuana plant soil PH level, where the best value is 5.5, the soil plays an important role. Especially indoors, where you emulate an unnatural system to be as natural as possible. Thus, a proper mix of soil may clearly demonstrate the concept “Just add water!” as it shall require significantly less (or not at all) nutrients. Even though adding some you only double-check on PH once in a while.

Just another reason to think about humus to buy, if you are a first-timer: the proper nutrients in humus from the beginning, may eliminate or reduce the marijuana plant soil PH level problem in the future. Nobody is there on the clouds with a PH-meter every time before it starts raining in the wild nature, because the natural soil “mix”, where the wild weed grows, is already perfect. Once you succeed with mixing the soil for your cannabis plants you’ll probably never come back to the “easy peasy way” anymore.

How much soil do I need to pot marijuana?

The roots of a cannabis plant require space. A common mistake is when roots go curving around in a narrow pot. You’d better give a lot of space, the first-class accommodation to your marijuana to flourish well. For one plant, the recommended volume of the pot is 2-3 gallons, which is from 8 to 12 liters. The pot is to be almost full of soil, so you need this quantum of soil mix for each weed plant on your marijuana plantation.


Delta-9 THC explained

Wed, 02/Jun/21

THC or Delta-9 THC represents the principal psychoactive compound present in marijuana. THC is an acronym, which unwinds to its scientific name “Delta nine tetra hydro cannabinol”. In the market, however, and in everyday speech, we use a popular handy nickname calling it simply “THC”.

Delta-9 THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) is there in marijuana to make us high when we smoke weed, eat weed as edibles, or otherwise consume it.

Impact of Delta-9 THC

A doodle of Delta-9 THC infographic formula

If you’ve just hit, and you suddenly start feeling an increase in imagination and an over-positive mood; troubles are far away; if a favorite movie involves you more than usual, or you desperately want to play a video game, or express your avalanching creativity in a drawing — it means the weed is good and rich with THC, and it’s kicked in.

Kenny McCormick, cheesing, Major boobage episode, South Park series

Kenny McCormick, South Park series

For more than 12,000 years, people smoke marijuana for creativity, spirituality, and merely fun, and also we leverage the outstanding medical properties of weed, just along with the general highness THC gifts to us.

Boaters smoke weed, filmmakers definitely smoke weed, game designers, artists, poets, executive managers, and craftsmen — everyone smokes weed. Yeah, the latter two need a lot of creativity to keep going! The software developers of this website, marketers, designers, and copywriters love toking as well. The whole world.

Is Delta-9 THC addictive?

It depends greatly on what you call “addictive”, but just… er… Everything is addictive: social networks are addictive, the morning coffee is way addictive, and the Sun in the sky is addictive beyond imaginable.

The Cambridge dictionary defines the word:

Addict /ˈæd.ɪkt/ is a person who cannot stop doing or using something.

I personally cannot live without software making, I’m also video game addict, and an oxtail soup addict (yes, I’m very serious about oxtail soup!)

How long does Delta-9 THC stay in the body?

Studies indicate that 80-90% of the total intake of Delta-9 THC is gone from the system within 5 days. The peak reached after smoking falls in 4-6 hours. If you are a “chronic stoner”, Delta-9 THC is never out of your system. It also accumulates in fats where its presence expands to an undefined time span.

Northern Lights Trichomes

The crystal monstrosities in the picture above are the trichomes on the cannabis plant magnified. The trichomes make buds look frosty, while the contents of trichomes (namely, Delta-9 THC) make us high.

When we puff…

At the temperature 220-235℉, it equals 105-112℃, carbon dioxide present in the trichomes of marijuana abandons THCA (the THC acid) changing it to Delta-9 THC. As heating continues the temperature rises very quickly to 350℉, which equals 176℃, and at this point, THC evaporates: it changes from solid-state to gas. We inhale it with smoke, then in the lungs, Delta-9 THC absorbs into blood, and heads towards the brain.

How Delta-9 THC works on the micro level

On the micro-level, the molecular of THC has a proper structure to interact with the cannabinoid receptors in the human brain. These receptors are part of our endocannabinoid system, and, loosely speaking, Delta-9 THC is incidentally “compatible” with it. So THC contracts those receptors of the endocannabinoid system and incentivizes the chemical processes, eventually changing our behavior and our way of thinking.

Anandamide in relation to THC

The “high” that Delta-9 THC performs is a natural condition, and we have Anandamide in the body for the purpose to make us happy, thoughtful, and creative. THC only stimulates it.

Anandamide and THC receptors

This is what goes on when we intake marijuana.

Who has discovered Delta-9 THC?

Dr. Raphael Mechoulam, Israeli organic chemist and professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel, was born in Sofia in Bulgaria in 1930. He discovered THC and its effects on the human body and also isolated THC, and fully synthesized it in 1969. Also, he has identified how Anandamide works concerning the chemical backgrounds of happiness, and how marijuana affects this condition in the human body.


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.

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.

Marijuana THC Drying Labeled Full Plants

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.