THE MARIJUANA GROWER’S GUIDE by Mel Frank and Ed Rosenthal Revised 1992 THE MARIJUANA GROWER’S GUIDE by Mel Frank and Ed Rosenthal Typed by Ben Dawson Revised 1992 Note from the uploader: I originally found this as a Word document. At this time there doesn’t seem to be any commercially produced copies of this work available on torrent sites so I’ve taken some time to format and convert it to PDF. It’s possible this copy was at one time translated from European Spanish, as the Word document was set to use the dictionary for that language although the spelling was in UK English which I’ve edited to American English Everything after this point is pretty much as I found it. Any editing I’ve done has been minimal as possible, mostly for changing spelling to American English. Most, if not all figures and illustrations are missing. I have managed to salvage some tables. I’ve spent about 12 hours making this readable. All notes from this point forward are from the original typist. January 2009 NOTE: Footnotes have been placed in double brackets (()). Numbers throughout refer to bibliography and are sometimes in brackets, sometimes they aren’t. All dates are for northern hemisphere only. Comments on pictures are in curly brackets {}. Please distribute this widely so we can all smoke better marijuana. Legalize marijuana. 4 October 1996 Copying this book was a mega-mission that took about 3 weeks in the September of 1993. Everything in the book has been copied - even the bibliography. Ben Dawson January 1998 Hyperlinks were added throughout the document for easy navigation. Also the text was formatted to be more readable. Alonso Acuña. August 1999 This File is currently available at http://www.mellowgold.com/grow As far as we are aware, it’s the only place online to find it, please distribute this file freely. Mellow Gold Staff CONTENTS Foreword Preface History and Taxonomy of Cannabis Cannabis and Ancient History Cannabis and American History Cannabis and: Species or Varieties Cannabinoids: The Active Ingredients of Marijuana Cannabinoids and the High Resin and Resin Glands Production of Cannabinoids by Cannabis Cannabis Chemotypes Before Cultivation Begins Choosing Seeds Cannabis Life Cycle Photoperiod and Flowering Inherent Variations in Potency Cultivation: Indoors or Outdoors? Indoor Gardening Introduction Artificial Light Features Sources Setting up the Garden Electricity Soil and Containers for it Pots and Other Containers Properties of Soil Preparing Commercial Soils and Mixers Buying Soil Components Digging Soil Growing Methods Maintaining the Correct Environment Requirements for Germination Light Cycle and Distance of Lights from Plants Water Air Humidity Gardening Techniques Thinning Transplanting Supports for Plants Uniform Growth Pruning Training Nutrients and Fertilizing Nutrients Application: Fertilizing Nutrient Deficiencies Soil-less Mixtures Diseases and Plant Pests Microbial Diseases Nutrient Diseases Plant Pests Maintenance and Restarting Outdoor Cultivation Choosing a Site Where to Grow Light Soil Types of Soil Humus and Composts Texture pH Fertilizers Techniques for Preparing Soils Guerrilla Farming Planting and Transplanting When to Plant Preparing to Sow Germination Transplanting Caring for the Growing Plants Weeding Watering Thinning Staking Pruning Gardening Tips Insects and Other Pests Biological Control Chemical Insecticides Common Pests Vertebrate Pests Flowering, Breeding and Propagation Genetics and Sex in Cannabis Flowering Sexual Variants in Cannabis Sexing the Plants Sinsemilla Propagation and Breeding Producing Seeds Producing Female Seeds Breeding Cuttings Grafting Polyploids Effects of the Environment on Potency Stress Nutrients Harvesting, Curing and Drying Harvesting Harvesting During Growth: Leaves and Growing Shoots Male Plants Harvesting Female Buds Weather Potency and Decomposition Timing the Harvest Final Harvest After the Harvest Stripping Grading and Manicuring Curing Drying Fermentation Storage Bibliography Foreword Marijuana, or cannabis as it is known internationally, is a plant whose presence is almost universal in our world today. Conservative international reports estimate that there are now 300 million cannabis users. Recent reports indicate that 10 percent of the adult population in the United States are regular users, a figure which is probably similar for many countries in Europe. Its use is also widespread in Africa, Asia, many Arab nations, parts of South America and the Caribbean, as well as Australia and New Zealand. In 1978, more than 5.2 million kilograms (12 million pounds) of cannabis were seized by police worldwide. Authorities estimated that this did not exceed 10 percent of the total traffic. What has been the response of officials around the world to the use of this plant by its citizens? Regrettably, the climate has been one of almost universal repression, hostility and open violence. Despite gains made in the United States and Europe throughout the 1970’s, a new wave of ignorance regarding the use of this plant seems to be sweeping the world. Predictably, the United States has sought to export this “neo-Reefer Madness” to other countries. A united Nations sub-commission of drug enforcement officials in the Far East released a report some time ago extremely critical of the efforts of some countries to decriminalize (i.e. remove criminal penalties for possession of a small amount) cannabis. The sub-commission stated that any such reduction of penalties would vastly increase use, and strongly urged that all countries continue to keep strict laws on the books even for possession of cannabis1. Others requested that publicity campaign be conducted in the media against cannabis, and that more funding be given to “scientific” work to prove that cannabis was harmful2. US officials, alarmed by reports of cannabis use among adolescents (which, although undesirably high, is in fact leveling off), and by political pressure from reactionary elements, have attempted to depict cannabis as the greatest threat since the atomic bomb. The results of this new hysteria have been great confusion among the public and a slowdown in the progress of cannabis law reform. The results have been predictable: in 1979, over 448,000 people were arrested in the USA for cannabis possession, 80 percent for simple possession. The estimated direct arrests cost to our increasingly debt-ridden government was over $600 million. But no one has ever attempted to account for the total cost of the immense law enforcement efforts against cannabis: for the salaries of Drug Enforcement Administration agents and federal and state narcotics agents and support personnel, the cost of incarcerating the thousands of people sentences to jail (estimated at 10 percent of the total arrests, or 48.000 people), the costs of the anti-cannabis media campaign, the secret grants from NSA/CIA for cannabis eradications, and the economic cost to society created by turning law-abiding citizens into criminals. When these factors are taken into consideration, the cost goes into the billions. By contrast, in the eleven states which have enacted decriminalization since 1972, millions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of court, police and administrative work-hours have been saved. What can the concerned cannabis consumer do to end this climate of hysteria and ignorance? First, we must stress that cannabis legalization would entail adult use only, and that social and legal restrictions on the use of cannabis would curtail, not increase, use by adolescents. Second, we must educate the public about the genuine effects of cannabis and stress moderate responsible use. This is what we stress about the user of society’s legal drugs - alcohol, nicotine and caffeine, and we should take the same approach toward cannabis. Third, the public should be educated about the limits of the law and the rights of citizens; we should not seek to regulate private behavior through the use of the criminal sanction. Laws protecting public safety, such as driving while under the influence of any substance, would still be kept on the books. However, as consumers we have an additional responsibility: we must begin to address the problems of supply and demand. It is essential that we take upon ourselves the task of proposing viable solutions to the current unworkable prohibition. With this is mind, numerous cannabis reform organizations around the world have begun exploring models for the legalization of cannabis. Under the auspices of the International Cannabis Alliance for Reform (ICAR), an international organization of cannabis law-reform groups, many of these organizations met in Amsterdam, Holland in February, 1980, at the first International Cannabis Legalization Conference to discuss legalization plans and proposals. The many plans presented reflected the various backgrounds and interests of the countries they represented some called for a totally open-market system run by cooperatives, others employed elaborate organizational systems with varying degrees of governmental control, and still others called for total control by the private sector. Emphasis was placed on the need for all groups to develop legalization models suited to their own particular climate and country and that a single, monolithic legalization plan was neither feasible nor desirable. However, virtually all the plans had one important element in common: every person would have the right to grow cannabis for his or her own personal use. This is the very minimum requirement upon which