How To Grow Marijuana

Harvest

Depending on the strain it will take 45-70+ days of budding. I like to cut my plants down when 2/3rds of the hairs turn red. If you look at the crystals (trichromes) under a microscope they should look like tiny little mushrooms. If the trichromes turn grey or brown you have waited too long. Half cloudy white and half purple is perfect. When the hairs are 2/3rds red is usually just about perfect for those without a microscope. The swell is another thing I look for. I want the bud (catalist SP?) to swell like it could have a seed in it. If not then its probably not ready and will be air bud if you cut now.


Getting close to harvest time!


This buds for me!

Manicure

Once I have cut my plants I try to single out the branches. It makes it easier to handle when I cut the branches down to workable sizes. I start with the plant upside down. I try to cut all the big fan leaves off at the stem. Then I cut all the smaller leaves even with the bud itself. The leaves you are cutting off are not trash. They are full of thc crystals. You can use these leaves for making hash. I cant tell you how many pounds of leaves I threw away not knowing any better. Till my buddy turned me on to bubble bags. Hash oil is easier to make but thats an article on its own. I'm sure I will post that one up at a later time.

A blue berry bud.


A white widow bud or northern lights. I cant remember. lol.


A nice beuquet of buds.

Curing

This is one of the most important steps. Usually what I do is tie up some string in a closet. 50% humidity or less. I hang the buds on the strings and let them dry for 3 days. They shrink a lot, its pretty sad. But after my 3 days the outside of the buds are a little crisp but the center of the bud is still real wet. I take either a paper bag or you can use plastic or I sometimes take my special buds and put them in my 1 gallon jar. Rubbermaid containers work good too. If you use a bag wrap the buds up in it, seal it or whatever. This draws the moisture out of the center of the bud and allows the bud to dry evenly. You will have to open the bag a few times daily. This is very important. If you don't you will probably get moldy weed. So open it up a couple times a day. It doesn't have to be for very long but you just need to get rid of the excess moisture. After about a week of this it will be cured. I like my stems to snap when I break them. It lets me know its dry in the center. You want to keep a close eye on things cause you don't want the buds to get too dry where it crumbles to dust when you break it up. That makes it a harsh smoke. Not good. You can spray some water on them and repeat the process if you dried them out too much. The slower you dry the buds the better the smoke usually is. You want to give the sugars time to break down. Honestly my way is probably too fast but it smokes good and taste great. More than likely if you dry it out faster than this your bud will taste like a fresh cut lawn. Not good.


Buds hanging out to dry in the closet.

Final statement

Well I hope you enjoyed my little "how to grow weed" article. I would like to say that I am not a profesional. Im not a scientist nor doctor. I am just an average guy that grows weed as a hobby and for some side money. I have read a lot but I am not exactly up to date with all the latest grow trends. I started experimenting with growing weed at about 16 years old. It took me a year to get my first crop to finish. I probably went threw 5 crops and just killed them every time. What a loser. Lol. Now (15 years later) I consider myself somewhere in between average and advanced. Some people can just pick it up fast and some people struggle for years. I hope this article helps you guys pick it up fast. If so then how about sending me a couple ounces of appreciation. Hehehe. j/k. But seriously I want to win this contest. I have been staying up all night writing this for days. I type slow like a stoner so its even harder for me than a normal person. Hehehe. Thanks guys!

Here is some more pictures for you guys. Here you can almost see the entire life of the plant...

As the days go by...


Day 1: I use root tone for my clones and a root enhancer. At a very low ppm. Maybe 25 ppm if not just plain water. I have my ph at 5.5. After about 5 days you will need to water again. Pick up your tray and if its real light then it needs watering.


Day 14: On the second water I raise my ppms to 100. If I have a third watering it will be at 250 ppm. These are the kind of roots I like to see.

Day 15: My roots look good so they are now ready for dirt. I start feeding them around 400 ppm and place them in cups. Make sure the cups have good drain holes. Now that we are in soil our ph is around 6.2.


Day 20-30: My plants are drinking really fast now. Every other day. I need to get these is bigger containers already. At this stage I am around 500-600 ppm.

Day 40-50: These plants are getting real close to going over to the budding room. They are getting 600-1000 ppm. They drink every 3 days now that the pot is a little bigger. Probably one or two more weeks untill we change to the budding room. We should probably get even bigger pots now.


Day 60: We change over to the 12/12 light cycle room. We give half strength grow and a full blast of bloom nutrients. 800-1000 ppm. You can tell we are hitting them a little too hard here. You can see some burning in the leaves. Well I could atleast.

Day 80: Our buds are starting to show. We cut most the grow nutrients out and are mainly feeding them bloom now. 1000-1200 ppm. This is when the odors really start.


Day 95-105: Buds are starting to form. Same ppm as before.