EXCERPT FROM GROWING MARIJUANA INDOORS

 

Chapter one
Introduction

I wrote this book for my wife. We both smoke cannabis and have done so for most of our lives. When I started out buying cannabis it was almost affordable in those days if you smoked less than an ounce a month. But once you went beyond that amount, it was prudent to find some other way of obtaining “the weed” other than outright purchase. Some people dealt a little weed and subsidized their habit that way. Other people smuggled large amounts of herb into the country and pulled a bale out for their own use. Today both of these solutions can lead to hard time and financial ruin under North America’s seizure and forfeiture statutes. In Canada, a person can legally obtain a medical marijuana licence if they follow the correct steps. On the surface this would appear to be an intelligent way of obtaining marijuana. But the fact is, there is no guarantee a person will be approved for medical marijuana as most doctors refuse to sign off on the appropriate government forms, perhaps from fear of reprisals. A cannabis grow licence is even harder to get than a cannabis possession licence. Even if a person is approved to possess marijuana, they may still have to pay someone to provide it to them or to grow it for them. This can be done legally in Canada and in some states in America with a government medicinal permit that allows a third party to grow pot for you. For those who wish to do so in Canada you may contact the Health Canada website for medical marijuana access or write to Mariuana Medical Access Division, Drug Strategy and Controlled Substance Programme, Health Canada, Address Locator: 3503B, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 1B9.

In a dozen or more of the United States there are similar programs at State levels. Federal law in the USA opposes the State’s right to dispense marijuana or to issue marijuana growing permits, but more and more of the individual States are defying the Feds on this front. My own feelings are mixed about the growing permit solution because I do not and never have trusted governments. Governments often change or reverse their thinking and if that happens where does that leave any pot growers who have applied for a medical pot license? It’s too late to grow your pot surreptitiously once you have already outed yourself to the government. For that reason I have in the past used most of the generally known methods to access my pot including, smuggling, dealing, outdoor planting and indoor planting, in soil as well as with hydroponics. What I describe in this book is my preferred method of growing marijuana. It is the method that I have synthesized from all of my experience of growing pot. My growing system is fail proof – so fail proof that it could be called Pot Growing for Dummies. But since this book is primarily for my wife, I won’t call it that! The idea behind this handbook is that if for whatever reason I am not around my wife can decide for herself if she wants her “medicine” without having to rely on anyone else to get it for her. If you read through this book so can you.

Peace and love to everyone

Jay Carter Brown

BEGINNING INSTRUCTIONS

Let us start with some beginning instructions on how to start building your own marijuana garden. Those of you who already have a garden in place can skip to later chapters in the handbook to learn how to maintain it.

Conventional wisdom says that it is easy to grow marijuana. Marijuana is said to be a weed and as such, it is said to grow anywhere and everywhere without any help from man. This may have been true at one time, but only to a point. Marijuana has been cultivated throughout history and was carried by man wherever he went, so marijuana did not grow wild on its own accord for very long. Weed was always too valuable to be left wild and free without someone harvesting it and taking advantage of its bounty. Therefore, most marijuana in the world today is the result of careful breeding and gardening techniques.  Wild marijuana is said to taste better than cultivated marijuana but when grown indoors, wild marijuana is skinny and weak compared to designer bred indoor marijuana.  Although any type of pot can be grown indoors, every effort must be made to find the best genetic strain that will compensate for the disadvantages of indoor cultivation and be adaptable to lighting that is far weaker than the sun.

HYDROPONICS STORES

If I was a cop and I wanted to find out who was growing pot in the neighbourhood, I would either set up an undercover sting operation in a local hydroponics store or I might even start up my own hydroponics store. It would be relatively simple then, to set up a surveillance team to follow a marijuana grower to his grow-operation after he picks up a large load of supplies from the hydroponics store. I am certain this is done on occasion and I always make clear to the sales person behind the hydroponics counter that I only have a little indoor growing set up that I use for growing fresh herbs. For commercial cannabis growers, it would be wise to divide your purchase of supplies among several stores so as not to raise suspicions about the size of your garden. But now that I have alerted you to one of the dangers of pot growing, let’s forget the commercial aspects of pot farming and move on. Cannabis gardening is supposed to be fun. It is a rewarding hobby that puts one in a Zen space of peace and enlightenment. Move slowly as you go about your gardening chores and enjoy the moment. Spending a few minutes under the spectrum of indoor sunlight can be especially uplifting for those of you afflicted with darkness disorders like “SADS”.  Be careful about getting too comfortable (as in getting high) before gardening. It is easy to make mistakes in this condition.

Continued . . . .