[Grower Бот]

Отзывы об интернет-магазине Rastishki - который занимается продажей таких товаров как: семена конопли (семена марихуаны, семена каннабиса, семена травы и тд). оборудование для гровинга (освещение, вентиляция, гроубоксы и тд.) мы за независимые отзывы, поэтому все отзывы строго модерируются администрацией, но все же обратите внимание на количество сообщений пользователя, дату его регистрации и на манеру донесения информации, если человек вставляет ссылку на магазин, это его первое сообщение на форуме и он всячески пытается убедить вас купить тут - возможно это реклама самого продавца! ! также если магазин есть в спонсорах портала - вы можете с большим доверием отнестись к покупке в нем

Отзывы об интернет-магазине Sovoc - который занимается продажей таких товаров как: семена конопли (семена марихуаны, семена каннабиса, семена травы и тд). мы за независимые отзывы, поэтому все отзывы строго модерируются администрацией, но все же обратите внимание на количество сообщений пользователя, дату его регистрации и на манеру донесения информации, если человек вставляет ссылку на магазин, это его первое сообщение на форуме и он всячески пытается убедить вас купить тут - возможно это реклама самого продавца! ! также если магазин есть в спонсорах портала - вы можете с большим доверием отнестись к покупке в нем

Отзывы об интернет-магазине SpbSeeds - который занимается продажей таких товаров как: семена конопли (семена марихуаны, семена каннабиса, семена травы и тд). мы за независимые отзывы, поэтому все отзывы строго модерируются администрацией, но все же обратите внимание на количество сообщений пользователя, дату его регистрации и на манеру донесения информации, если человек вставляет ссылку на магазин, это его первое сообщение на форуме и он всячески пытается убедить вас купить тут - возможно это реклама самого продавца! ! также если магазин есть в спонсорах портала - вы можете с большим доверием отнестись к покупке в нем

Отзывы об интернет-магазине JahSeeds - который занимается продажей таких товаров как: семена конопли (семена марихуаны, семена каннабиса, семена травы и тд). удобрения для конопли мы за независимые отзывы, поэтому все отзывы строго модерируются администрацией, но все же обратите внимание на количество сообщений пользователя, дату его регистрации и на манеру донесения информации, если человек вставляет ссылку на магазин, это его первое сообщение на форуме и он всячески пытается убедить вас купить тут - возможно это реклама самого продавца! ! также если магазин есть в спонсорах портала - вы можете с большим доверием отнестись к покупке в нем

Отзывы об интернет-магазине HohlandSeeds - который занимается продажей таких товаров как: семена конопли (семена марихуаны, семена каннабиса, семена травы и тд). мы за независимые отзывы, поэтому все отзывы строго модерируются администрацией, но все же обратите внимание на количество сообщений пользователя, дату его регистрации и на манеру донесения информации, если человек вставляет ссылку на магазин, это его первое сообщение на форуме и он всячески пытается убедить вас купить тут - возможно это реклама самого продавца! ! также если магазин есть в спонсорах портала - вы можете с большим доверием отнестись к покупке в нем

Отзывы об интернет-магазине Supersemena - который занимается продажей таких товаров как: семена конопли (семена марихуаны, семена каннабиса, семена травы и тд). мы за независимые отзывы, поэтому все отзывы строго модерируются администрацией, но все же обратите внимание на количество сообщений пользователя, дату его регистрации и на манеру донесения информации, если человек вставляет ссылку на магазин, это его первое сообщение на форуме и он всячески пытается убедить вас купить тут - возможно это реклама самого продавца! ! также если магазин есть в спонсорах портала - вы можете с большим доверием отнестись к покупке в нем

Отзывы об интернет-магазине SantaPlantas - который занимается продажей таких товаров как: семена конопли (семена марихуаны, семена каннабиса, семена травы и тд). мы за независимые отзывы, поэтому все отзывы строго модерируются администрацией, но все же обратите внимание на количество сообщений пользователя, дату его регистрации и на манеру донесения информации, если человек вставляет ссылку на магазин, это его первое сообщение на форуме и он всячески пытается убедить вас купить тут - возможно это реклама самого продавца! ! также если магазин есть в спонсорах портала - вы можете с большим доверием отнестись к покупке в нем

Отзывы об интернет-магазине WeedSeeds - который занимается продажей таких товаров как: семена конопли (семена марихуаны, семена каннабиса, семена травы и тд). мы за независимые отзывы, поэтому все отзывы строго модерируются администрацией, но все же обратите внимание на количество сообщений пользователя, дату его регистрации и на манеру донесения информации, если человек вставляет ссылку на магазин, это его первое сообщение на форуме и он всячески пытается убедить вас купить тут - возможно это реклама самого продавца! ! также если магазин есть в спонсорах портала - вы можете с большим доверием отнестись к покупке в нем

Отзывы об интернет-магазине SmileSeeds - который занимается продажей таких товаров как: семена конопли (семена марихуаны, семена каннабиса, семена травы и тд). мы за независимые отзывы, поэтому все отзывы строго модерируются администрацией, но все же обратите внимание на количество сообщений пользователя, дату его регистрации и на манеру донесения информации, если человек вставляет ссылку на магазин, это его первое сообщение на форуме и он всячески пытается убедить вас купить тут - возможно это реклама самого продавца! ! также если магазин есть в спонсорах портала - вы можете с большим доверием отнестись к покупке в нем

Отзывы об интернет-магазине BobMarley - который занимается продажей таких товаров как: семена конопли (семена марихуаны, семена каннабиса, семена травы и тд). мы за независимые отзывы, поэтому все отзывы строго модерируются администрацией, но все же обратите внимание на количество сообщений пользователя, дату его регистрации и на манеру донесения информации, если человек вставляет ссылку на магазин, это его первое сообщение на форуме и он всячески пытается убедить вас купить тут - возможно это реклама самого продавца! ! также если магазин есть в спонсорах портала - вы можете с большим доверием отнестись к покупке в нем

Отзывы об интернет-магазине SuperSeeds - который занимается продажей таких товаров как: семена конопли (семена марихуаны, семена каннабиса, семена травы и тд). мы за независимые отзывы, поэтому все отзывы строго модерируются администрацией, но все же обратите внимание на количество сообщений пользователя, дату его регистрации и на манеру донесения информации, если человек вставляет ссылку на магазин, это его первое сообщение на форуме и он всячески пытается убедить вас купить тут - возможно это реклама самого продавца! ! также если магазин есть в спонсорах портала - вы можете с большим доверием отнестись к покупке в нем

Отзывы об интернет-магазине BlowGrow - который занимается продажей таких товаров как: семена конопли (семена марихуаны, семена каннабиса, семена травы и тд). оборудование для гровинга (освещение, вентиляция, гроубоксы и тд.) мы за независимые отзывы, поэтому все отзывы строго модерируются администрацией, но все же обратите внимание на количество сообщений пользователя, дату его регистрации и на манеру донесения информации, если человек вставляет ссылку на магазин, это его первое сообщение на форуме и он всячески пытается убедить вас купить тут - возможно это реклама самого продавца! ! также если магазин есть в спонсорах портала - вы можете с большим доверием отнестись к покупке в нем

Отзывы об интернет-магазине Семяныч - который занимается продажей таких товаров как: семена конопли (семена марихуаны, семена каннабиса, семена травы и тд). мы за независимые отзывы, поэтому все отзывы строго модерируются администрацией, но все же обратите внимание на количество сообщений пользователя, дату его регистрации и на манеру донесения информации, если человек вставляет ссылку на магазин, это его первое сообщение на форуме и он всячески пытается убедить вас купить тут - возможно это реклама самого продавца! ! также если магазин есть в спонсорах портала - вы можете с большим доверием отнестись к покупке в нем

In a new era where giant industrial growrooms are becoming the norm, we thought it would be valuable to get back to our outlaw roots this month. Specifically, we’re going back to our growing roots—in a closet, tent, garage or unfinished basement. Despite more and more states legalizing and regulating cannabis, there are still many people that need—or want—to grow a few plants stealthily in their own home, for legal or economic reasons. Here are the steps you need to know to grow great cannabis at home. Locate a Space Nico Escondido The first step is to find a space that has good airflow. This is usually a room with a window or exhaust to the outside. If you are growing in a warm climate, you will want to use a space with built-in air conditioning, as this will keep your plants cool during the warmer days. The logic behind airflow is to replace the warm air in the space with cooler air, as cannabis plants tend to like a temperature around 76°F with humidity at around 60%. It is important that you have fans both pulling warm air out of the space and drawing cooler air in. Nico Escondido Typically, you want to have negative pressure, which creates optimal airflow. A sign that you have negative pressure would be when you close a grow tent and the sides buckle slightly inward. (For our purposes here, we will often use the example of a grow tent to describe the garden space. Not only are grow tents relatively cheap these days, but they also come in every size imaginable to fit any space in a house. On top of that, grow tents can be sealed, making it easy to control light and atmospheric conditions, and they come with nooks, hooks, and ports for garden equipment such as fans, filters, and lighting.) When calculating what kind of exhaust fans to use, make sure that the amount of cubic feet of air they move into the tent is about a third of the amount they move out of the tent. This way you will achieve the right negative pressure. Nico Escondido Most grows these days make use of fans, which are great for moving air in and out of the garden, but this will never make up for atmospheric pressure, which occurs in nature in the form of high- and low-pressure weather systems. This pressure is vital for the plants to breathe properly. Plants breathe through respiration, and this pressure makes it easier for the leaves to transpire. Even in a small tent or growroom, this principle is important as it will give your plants the optimum environment in which to grow. Garden Lighting Nico Escondido/ НT Next, consider lighting. If temperature and space are less of an issue, it is recommended that growers use standard high-pressure sodium (HPS) lighting. Traditionally, HPS lights come in the form of a hood and bulb connected to a ballast. Nowadays, lights like Gavita-brand DE fixtures have a ballast attached. Based on how the light is shaped, you will need at least 4-5 feet of height from the top of your canopy to the ceiling to have enough room for the ballast and light to fit. Otherwise, you could risk burning your plants. Also, be sure to use the appropriate wattage depending on the size of your space. Usually, a 5′ x 5′ tent can handle a 600-watt light. Another option would be to use LED lights. Modern advances in LED technology have helped them catch up with their HPS counterparts. However, don’t expect your yields to increase with the use of an LED lamp as the PAR (photosynthetically active radiation) from an LED lamp is generally much less than that from an HPS light (PAR is the radiation given off by the lights that plants can absorb and use during photosynthesis). Nonetheless, we’ve seen buds produced under the newest LEDs, and they’ve finished with a firm, hard structure. Usually, the benefit to the home grower is that LEDs use less power and give off less heat, making it easier (and less expensive) to cool your tent or small room. However, the newer LED models that compete with HPS or metal-halide (MH) lamps often lose these advantages, adding more diodes that create more heat and pulling a lot more power to the lamps in order to achieve competitive light output. LEDs can produce nice trichome coverage, and the cannabinoid and terpene levels produced have been tested at comparable values to HPS lighting. These lights can also be hung closer to the plants in case height requirements are an issue, and they also offer a longer life cycle in terms of bulb replacement. It should be noted, though, that the best LED lamps on the market today are much more expensive than their MH and HPS counterparts. System & Medium Type Nico Escondido You next need to decide what medium to use and how to grow your plants. Unless you are an experienced cultivator, using potting soil and a light organic nutrient solution would be the best and most forgiving choice. Make sure that the soil is well aerated. This means finding a brand that has a decent amount of perlite in it. Perlite opens up the dirt, allowing more air to pass to the roots and preventing it from forming a muddy pool. Using cloth pots is also recommended—the logic being that if you are going to veg your plants for a while you should use bigger-size pots. Depending on veg time, you can use up to a 2- or a 5-gallon pot. If plant count is an issue, stick to a long veg time and grow a bigger plant. This way, when it comes time to flower, you will end up with a much bigger yield. Nutrients like Mother Earth Tea or Iguana Juice Bloom from Advanced Nutrients are simple organic nutrients that work well and give your finished flower a great taste. The reason for choosing a simple medium and nutrient plan is that it’s hard to overfeed and the medium acts as a buffer, so it will be easier to maintain the pH of the water. Potting soil is one of the easiest mediums to use because it’s so forgiving. The biggest issue that you might have is over- or under-watering. Make sure to feel the weight of your plants both when they’re thirsty and when they’re full of water so you can get a sense for how much they are drinking. This will ensure that you don’t over-water. When in flower, cannabis plants prefer a pH in the range of 5.8-6.5, and they don’t like to be overfed. The best advice is to keep it simple. This also goes for nutrients. It’s always best to start off with half the recommended dose and build your way up. Make sure to pay attention to your plants in the process. If the leaves begin turning yellow, then your plants are experiencing a burn and you will need to lower the amount of nutrients you are using. Always be on the safe side and remember the motto: Less is more. Genetics, Seeds & Clones Nico Escondido/ НT Now it’s time to choose what genetics or cultivars to use. More often than not, clones are more readily available, especially in legal states where dispensaries are allowed to sell them. However, this doesn’t mean that clones are the best choice. As was discovered recently through several news stories and secret-shopper lab tests in California, many pesticides are systemic and are passed from mother plants to clones. This means that unbeknownst to you, the final buds you end up with might be contaminated with unhealthy pesticides. Seeds are always a better choice in that respect. Clones can also bring pathogens into a grow, as that’s often how powdery mildew (PM) or spider mites enter a clean garden. Even if your clones look clean, PM is systemic and can be carried from the mother plant. With the right environment, it could explode in your garden and leave your head stash ruined. In a pinch, choose feminized seeds as they will provide you with the most females. However, be warned that many feminized seeds will be hermaphrodites, meaning that there’s a good chance of finding trace amounts of male pollen and eventually a few seeds. Watch your plants closely and look for any balls forming right at the points where the stems merge with the central stock of the plant. Remove those plants before they release their pollen. Nico Escondido We also recommended that you use a simplified integrated pest management (IPM) protocol. Traditionally, oils have worked very well at combating various garden pests. Specifically, use neem oil and fish oil, in the form a product called Organocide 3-in-1 Garden Spray. At low doses, as long as you spray in the dark, you will be fine. However, with an infestation and at higher doses you will want to rinse the oils off your plants after spraying. This might seem counterproductive, but the oils will still do their work and at the same time you won’t clog the stomata of the plant. Green Clean is another popular product that can work well against pathogens and doesn’t require a hazmat suit to spray. Small pump-action sprayers are available at most grow shops and Home Depot. For the more adventurous cultivators, use large paint sprayers in the garden as they really wash the plants better than the handheld units. However, this could be overkill for a small 5-plant tent garden. Harvest: Drying, Curing & Beyond Nico Escondido The final step, once you have grown out your plants, is the drying process. Using the same tent you grew in, cut down your plants and hang them upside down. Wait 5 to 7 days, checking the moisture daily. The ideal temperature should be around 75°F with humidity around 60%. When the stems begin to snap, it’s time to trim up your head stash. It’s best to trim your buds over a screen, which will allow you to capture the trichome heads. This is known as dry sift hash or kief, and it is an excellent reward for the grower. There are many different types of screens available on the market, including a product called the Trim Bin by Harvest More, which has a screen built in on the bottom and is perfect for collecting hash. Once your buds are trimmed, you should then store them in a cool, dark place in glass mason jars. It’s best to burp these jars daily, which means opening them up for a few minutes at a time. Once you’ve done this for a few days, your buds should be at an ideal moisture level and ready to smoke. The Future of Home Growing Nico Escondido It is always interesting to look ahead and see what the future holds for the home grower. Based on how technology has developed, specifically in the form of self-contained, app-controlled growrooms, the future is here. There are even small tabletop units being sold at stores like Ikea for small herb gardens. These boxes could be the future for home growers and hobbyists as they democratize the process of growing cannabis, putting it within the reach of the average person. A new unit geared specifically to discreet, indoor home cultivation has come on the market. The Cloudponics GroBox is 24 inches deep, 31 inches wide and 6 feet tall. It fits seamlessly into a living room or kitchen and can hold 1-6 plants. The heart of the unit is an advanced aeroponics system that is controlled by a computer, which monitors the temperature, humidity and nutrients and keeps the light schedule. This computer, in turn, is connected via an app to your phone. This connectivity gives even a new grower a leg up as the environment is controlled automatically. Normally, buds coming out of such boxes have been disappointing, but in our test case it appears improvements have aided in turning the corner. As a result of the dosing computer, the hydroponic setup, airflow and lighting, the buds actually had a solid structure to them. The flowers were produced by a grower with limited experience, which goes to show that with the right setup, a proper hydroponic system with exacting environmental controls can really produce a quality harvest. Newer grow boxes like these will take a lot of guesswork out of growing moving forward.

The City of Los Angeles has begun accepting license applications for cannabis growers, manufacturers, and test labs, after months of delay. The city’s Department of Cannabis Regulation began accepting license applications through its web portal on Wednesday. LA Slow To License Cannabis Industry Los Angeles has been the subject of criticism for the slow pace of licensing commercial cannabis businesses in the city. So far, the city has only granted approval to about 150 retail shops. No cultivators, processors, or testing facilities have yet received permission to operate in Los Angeles. Other major cities including Oakland and San Diego began the licensing process months earlier. Commercial cannabis activity became legal in California under Prop 64 on January 1, 2018. But before businesses can begin operating legally, they must first obtain approval from the state and the local jurisdiction in which they are located. The delay has been a burden for many of those who wish to operate a cannabis business in Los Angeles. Many have been paying thousands of dollars in rent each month for commercial space that they are not yet able to use to generate income. Donnie Anderson, a cannabis retailer and cultivator, told the Associated Press that it has been difficult to wait out the process. “We’ve been hanging on by the skin of our teeth,” said Anderson. The lack of licensed growers and manufacturers in Los Angeles has meant that the retail shops that have been licensed must look elsewhere for the product to fill their shelves. Aaron Lachant, an attorney specializing in cannabis law, said that “the retailers have had to figure out new supply relationships with licensees across the state.” Phase 2 Of Licensing Process The applications being accepted in the current Phase 2 licensing period are limited to businesses that were operating prior to January 1, 2016. The applicant must have been a supplier to an existing medical marijuana dispensary prior to 2017 and must qualify under the city’s social equity program. Applications will be accepted for a period of 30 days. Phase 1 license application processing, for retail businesses that had been operating in compliance with the city’s medical marijuana ordinance Proposition M, closed in early March. The department will begin accepting licenses to operate cannabis businesses from the general public in Phase 3 of the licensing process. The date for the beginning of Phase 3 has not yet been determined by the Department of Cannabis Regulation. The Los Angeles Department of Cannabis Regulation has not determined when the first licenses for cannabis growers, manufacturers, and test labs will be issued. Cat Packer, the executive director and general manager of the agency, said last month that the city was still in the process of creating regulations and did not want to commit to a deadline. Ballot Measure For New Cannabis Taxes Pulled In more good news for the Los Angeles cannabis industry, on Tuesday the city council decided against a ballot measure that would have added new taxes to the city’s marijuana businesses. The council had planned to put the Cannabis Reinvestment Act on the ballot for November’s election. Had it passed, the ordinance would have levied on one percent tax on cannabis businesses’ gross receipts, and a $5 dollar tax on each lab test and cannabis event ticket. Instead, the council instructed city staff to return within 45 days with new proposals to fund the Department of Cannabis Regulation.

Look closely at your developing buds and you will notice small cat-claw to mushroom-like, jelly-filled protrusions coating the surface. These are trichomes—protective structures filled with what are referred to as secondary metabolites (SMs), which include terpenes and cannabinoids. These compounds give cannabis the powerful psychoactive and medicinal characteristics that make it a prized species of the plant kingdom. These structures begin to form in the early stages of the flowering cycle, but it’s not until the last few weeks that they really begin to swell. If you want your plant to fill these trichomes to capacity, you need to understand how your nutrient feed affects their development. Understand Your Product Label Every nutrient company gives you a different recipe and rarely explains why. There are 13 major nutrients plants use to grow, but most of the time it comes down to the three primary macronutrients: Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P), and Potassium (K). Let’s start with one frustrating detail about nutrient labels: P and K values as listed on the package do not indicate what is available to roots. These values are inflated by outdated labeling laws, and represent a theoretical amount of potassium oxide and phosphorus pentoxide. It will give you a headache trying to understand why they are labeled as such, but you should know that less than half the P listed is available to roots. Get Acquainted With Your Water Tap and well water contain a tremendous amount of minerals that complicate your ability to maintain pH levels and provide a balanced feed. Minerals carry either a positive or negative charge. Those that are positive share the same uptake channels and ports on the root surface, which can lead to competitive uptake. Calcium, magnesium, and potassium all have a positive charge and therefore when one is present in excess, it can restrict uptake of the others. Contact your municipal water supplier or get your well-water tested so that you know what minerals your plants are receiving in addition to your nutrient feed. Another option is to use a reverse osmosis water filter. Courtesy of Eli Coye Macronutrient Requirements Change As Buds Mature When you’re growing a seedling, a heavy dose of nitrogen (N) is good because it will encourage accumulation of leaf area, which allows more light interception to produce the real food: carbohydrates. Potassium (K) is critical during this time because as the stems and leaves grow, K forces water into these tissues causing them to expand rapidly. However, once you reach the later stages of bud development, your buds aren’t expanding anymore. Now they are accumulating SMs which requires a moderate amount of N to maintain photosynthesis and a small amount of phosphorus (P). Most know that Cannabis needs a lot of P during the later growth stages. However, plants are inefficient at taking up P so if you dump a huge dose into the roots, most of it will either flush out or become bound with another nutrient and become unavailable. Courtesy of Eli Coye Grow Trichomes, Not Leaves and Stems The primary (vegetative growth) and secondary (cannabinoids and terpenes) metabolism of plants share the same energy resources and your nutrient feed largely decides which one takes the lead. As nitrogen concentration increases, there is an exponential increase in growth and SM accumulation. However, there is a point when more N increases growth, but SM accumulation begins to decrease until it ceases altogether. In order to focus growth on trichomes, you should feed a moderate amount of N and P to sustain photosynthesis without deviating energy into vegetative growth. Bud Quality Is Destroyed by Over-Fertilization If electrical conductivity in your feed solution or root zone is too high, your plant’s ability to draw water into its roots by osmosis is restricted. One thing that happens far too often is a high nutrient dose in the second half of flowering. This encourages a straw-like flavor, reduced cannabinoid and terpene content, and a high chance of having bugs or mold attack your plant. Contrary to popular belief, there is no secret sauce when it comes to nutrient formulas for crops. There are countless ways to bring a plant from the seedling stage to fully ripened buds so long as you stick to some of these central concepts.

Light-emitting diode (LED) fixtures have improved dramatically since they were introduced a few decades ago, but you still need to know how to grow in innovative ways to get the most for your investment. Replacing conventional high-intensity discharge (HID) lamps like high-pressure sodium and metal halide with an LED fixture requires an LED with proper spectrum and spacing between leaves and lights, and even distribution over the grow space. Spectrum and Fixture Form Have Come a Long Way Plant growth is driven by the light spectrum available. The shape of the light fixture (fixture form) has a huge impact on how light is delivered to the canopy. Higher amounts of blue light make plants shorter, darker in pigment, and richer in cannabinoids and terpenes. Red light is a powerful driver for photosynthesis, whereas green, orange, and yellow light provide only a fraction of energy to a plant. Some LEDs emit specific wavelengths as an attempt to conserve electricity by providing isolated colors. However, this neglects the capacity your plant has to absorb a wide range of spectra. It is also important to understand that you cannot take down an HID fixture and place an LED in the same spot and expect the same results. An LED fixture can deliver a huge amount of light, but the light intensity drops quickly when moving away from the fixture. This is the reason many LED fixtures disperse light evenly over a large area, as opposed to one small crowded center of light as with an HID. The best approach is to use a fixture with a large surface area and a complete spectrum (“narrow band” wavelengths are more likely to light-burn leaves), and place it close to the canopy. Light Penetration is About Spectrum Courtesy of Sam Brugner Light does one of two things when it is intercepted by a leaf. It is absorbed as energy for growth or it is perceived as a signal (inducing flowering, producing protective compounds, etc.). Red and blue light are absorbed rapidly by the top leaves, with little passing into the lower canopy. Green, orange, and yellow light drive growth, but are weakly absorbed and pass through leaves easily. Since most of the red and blue light is absorbed by the upper canopy which can only provide so much energy for the plant, it is critical to provide these “middle” wavelengths that allow the entire canopy to photosynthesize, as opposed to relying entirely on the top leaves to support growth. Heat from LEDs is Different from HIDs Since LEDs give off almost no radiant heat, you can grow close to the fixture without heat stress. Some of the best fixtures allow you to get as close as six inches. With a balanced spectrum and even light distribution, you can safely move your lights close to the canopy, drastically increasing your light intensity. There is a common misconception that radiant heat is simply the warmth from a light fixture. Radiant heat is light in the form of infrared radiation (IR), an electromagnetic wave just like red, blue, and green. When this IR is absorbed, energy is released as heat by the object. LEDs hardly put off any IR, but HIDs emit a huge amount of IR that increases the leaf and room temperature. This is why you can’t place HID fixtures close to your plant canopy, but you can with LED. Wattage Does Not Indicate Amount of Photons Courtesy of Sam Brugner Wattage is the amount of electricity a fixture consumes, not the amount of energy supplied to plants. In HIDs, much of this electricity is converted into IR, which does not contribute to growth (although it can be used as an inefficient heater). Many light manufacturers use the value photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD) to indicate how much light emitted from the fixture is used by plants. When selecting a fixture, look for this value coupled with the footprint of the light to determine how much energy you will supply to your plant. This will help you make a fair shopping comparison. Use Your Grow Space Efficiently Courtesy of Sam Brugner When designing your grow, consider the possibilities of properly used LEDs. HIDs put off a huge amount of light, but they also create excess heat, the spectrum is limited, and you need more space to grow. The right LED fixture will allow you to grow in confined spaces at a much lower energy cost, without compromising growth rate or quality.

The City of Flowers Common wisdom in the cannabis-cultivation community has it that as growers scale up the size of their grow space, the quality of their product inevitably suffers. Indeed, it is quite difficult to produce A-grade flowers in a massive warehouse, but it certainly can be done. Photos Courtesy of House of Cultivar Consider House of Cultivar, the largest marijuana-production facility in greater Seattle, at 40,000 square feet with the capacity for 852 flowering lights. Even with all of that space to manage, the expert horticulture team at Cultivar produces many pounds of connoisseur-quality flowers and top-shelf concentrates. Part of the company’s motto includes the statement “To do right by this plant—seed, root, flower and leaf—every step of the way,” and Cultivar’s clearly devoted to maintaining integrity and best practices throughout the process. CEO and founder Jason Hutto explains that he and his staff are committed to growing great strains the right way—without pesticides, watered and trimmed by hand, and slowly cured to perfection. So much so that House of Cultivar recently won best indoor grow in Washington State at the 2017 Dope Awards. Cultivar’s commitment to excellence and genetic diversity differentiates it from many others, proving that craft-quality cannabis can be produced on a large scale. Located in the heart of Seattle, in a previously derelict shipping facility in the SoDo neighborhood, House of Cultivar holds a Tier III indoor-production/processing state license. The company also maintains a strong focus on sustainability and lowering its carbon footprint. When it comes to lighting, water and waste, the House of Cultivar team is always looking for ways to diminish its impact on the environment. The company has even worked with the city to reduce its electrical load by 46 percent off baseline. Passion for Strains Another aspect that sets House of Cultivar apart is the team’s commitment to growing and stocking a wide variety of different strains. Between its mother-plant library and its tissue-culture laboratory, Cultivar possesses over 350 unique live genetic specimens. The company’s large stock of seeds comes almost entirely directly from the original breeders. The list of varieties that it grows is staggering, far too many to print here, but suffice it to say that it is vast and filled with gems including OGs, Cookies, Diesels, Chems, Lemons and Sherbets. These aren’t watered-down versions of these varieties either. The crew that hunted these genetics down did their due diligence, because each and every one of the varieties represents the unique and robust terpene profile that matches its name. Whether it’s something gassy, fruity or earthy, the strains grown at House of Cultivar are the perfect rendition of their potential. Cultivar’s Chem Mint Cookies and Super Glue are two of the most fragrant, potent and amazing varieties I’ve ever sampled. In particular, House of Cultivar prides itself on its archive of Chem Dog family strains—Chem D, Chem 91, Guava, Snowdog and many more—and the Cultivar staff has searched for the phenos that test high in THC and have the most essential-oil production. As a longtime Chem-strain fan, I was impressed by the quality and quantity of Cultivar’s archive. Tissue-Culture Lab Although it still employs traditional cloning techniques, House of Cultivar also maintains a completely sterile tissue-culture laboratory in order to preserve, improve and micropropagate its vast library of genetics. The facility has a magnetic locking-door system to avoid cross-contamination and state-of-the-art equipment for clean regeneration practices. House of Cultivar’s director of lab operations, Mike Hydro, gives me a guided tour and explains exactly what he and his team are looking to accomplish by using tissue-culture technology. Think of tissue culture as cloning, but on the cellular level. A tiny fragment of an emerging node, a callus the size of a pinhead, is carefully cut from a plant and then suspended in agar inside a test tube. These disease-free plantlets can then be used for a variety of purposes depending on the needs of the laboratory. The benefits of utilizing tissue-culture techniques include ridding plant stock of pests, diseases and pathogens. Mold- or insect-damaged genetic material that would normally have to be discarded can be cleansed and restored to its true original and robust potential. Topical issues such as pest damage can be handled in one generation while bacterial and fungal issues may take multiple generations of micropropagation to mitigate. In this way, House of Cultivar’s genetics can be preserved in vitro and stored for many years in its cryogenic freezer and even improved upon over time. Another advantage of micropropagation is for rapid multiplication of plants. One healthy mother plant can produce thousands of explants, which are then coaxed into rooted cuttings ready for the vegetative stage of growth. Conventional cloning produces just a fraction of these amounts. I’ve seen tissue-culture labs in action all over the world, but this was the first time I’ve witnessed commercial cannabis production using micropropagated plants. Watching the team at House of Cultivar put this cutting-edge technology into practice gave me a glimpse into the future of cannabis cultivation. Growing Cultivars The cultivation chambers at House of Cultivar are climate-controlled using a full dew-point-managed HVAC system with HEPA filtration and advanced biocontrol. Flowering plants are lit with a combination of multi-spectrum ceramic metal halide (CMH) lighting and double-ended high-pressure sodium (HPS) fixtures. The use of the CMH systems reduces energy consumption by over 50 percent! The plants, grown in a blend of RHP-certified organic Cloud Coir coco and perlite, clearly love the mixed-spectrum lighting. They glisten with swollen glandular trichomes whose bulbous heads are filled with the essential oils. These terpenes, cannabinoids and flavinoids are what give the stellar strains their aromas, flavors and effects. Whether growing for flower or concentrate production, the proper preservation of these pungent and potent organic compounds is what separates the best from the rest. The vegetative and flowering areas are in opposite areas of the complex to ensure that their environmental conditions are optimal for each individual stage of plant life. Water passes through multiple filtration treatments including RO (reverse osmosis). Facility architect and vice president of operations Matthew Gaboury takes me through the various parts of the House of Cultivar complex and explains how it all works together to produce high-quality cannabis and concentrates. The eight 90-light flowering rooms are staggered at two weeks apart, allowing House of Cultivar to harvest perpetually. This ensures that a fresh product reaches the marketplace in a regular and timely fashion. The rooms are filled with plant beds on rolling trays. Plants in coco cubes sit on top of the coco-perlite mix, eliminating the need for individual plastic pots and reducing water waste due to runoff by over 20 percent. Pest Control Washington State cannabis regulations don’t allow growers to use pesticides of any kind. House of Cultivar uses a system of OMRI-certified organic IMP (integrated pest management) consisting of only biological controls including predator mites, nematodes and beneficial fungi that outcompete powdery mildew (PM) in the root zone. The predatory mites attack the larvae of fungus gnats, thrips and root aphids as well as full-grown broad, spider and russet mites. Harvest All plants are flushed for 10-12 days from harvest with only plain water and natural enzymes. Plants are hung to dry whole and intact to preserve the “nose” of the flowers. Drying takes place in hermetically sealed chambers with antimicrobial wallboard and their own HVAC system to dial in environmental controls. At the perfect temperature and humidity levels, terpene preservation is at the maximum. Leaves are left on the plant during the drying process to protect the fragile trichome glands. Humidity is kept at 56-60 percent to slow the process. The flowers then undergo a dry trim. No machines are used. All of the colas are hand-trimmed with scissors by a crew before being placed into containers to cure. Drying takes place for two weeks and curing takes one to two weeks minimum. At the moment, Cultivar is pulling approximately 75-85 pounds of dry flowers per room. Products and Packaging Only the premium nugs go into flower packages. Trim and smaller buds are saved for processing into extracts and Goldfinger pre-rolls, which are infused-flower joints painted with a sticky distillate/terpene-honey mix and then rolled in dry-sifted trichome glands. This results in a dipped and dusted slow-burning, flavorful spliff that can get a whole roomful of smokers quite high. They’re currently available in five different flavors with more soon to come. House of Cultivar’s vice president and head of processing, Alex Parisi, shows me a few of the company’s processing and extraction capabilities. Cultivar produces hydrocarbon extractions for distillates and strain-specific CO2 vape carts using an Eden 20-liter CO2 machine. A hydraulic press also provides award-winning rosin squeezed from flowers and dry sift. House of Cultivar has become known throughout Washington for its flavorful and potent concentrates. Ultimately, I learned that the crew at House of Cultivar are true connoisseurs. As aficionado-level cannabis consumers themselves, they want the best pot products they can find. As committed cultivators, they’ve adapted to the challenges of growing big. What they showed me confirms that growers in larger spaces don’t have to sacrifice quality, as long as they emphasize strain selection, proper growing techniques and a passion for the plant, from seed to sale.

Yield Signs Take two pot growers and give them both similar equipment and the same strains. Check back after harvest time, and you’ll often see dramatically different results in the final quality of their buds and how they smoke. While some of the differences may occur due to growing practices and management, much has to do with whether the buds were harvested at peak ripeness, and how they were handled, processed, dried, stored and cured. Think of a properly ripened cannabis bud like a perfect moment in time—to be patiently waited for and worked toward, then finally captured and preserved. Any experienced toker knows that a well-ripened, -cured and -stored bud will smoke like a masterpiece over the same strain that’s clumsily processed and winds up with qualities more like hay than distinctive cannabis. Canna Obscura, Courtesy of House of Cultivar Winding Down the Crop Tasty buds begin with winding down the crop—rather than killing it on the spot when it comes to harvest time. After buds stop swelling and growing, there is still plenty going on, biologically speaking. Cannabis plants will spend the final days of their life cycle transferring stored energy into swelling calyxes with a healthy matting of trichomes (the tiny hair-like structures found in abundance on female cannabis flowers). Trichomes and the resin-filled gland heads they form are your key to identifying peak maturity to determine the optimal time to chop your crop. The process of winding your crop down to mature the buds should start 7-10 days before your anticipated harvest date. Canna Obscura, Courtesy of House of Cultivar Cannabis Maturity Triggers Lower day-night temperatures—ideally 75°F during light hours and 62-65°F during dark hours. Maintain dry air in the growing environment, both during light and dark cycles, i.e., 40-45% RH (relative humidity). Reduce or stop using nutrients or fertilizers, especially base fertilizers containing nitrogen. Reducing light intensity can promote tighter buds in some strains at this stage, i.e., raise the lights a foot or use your dimmer function. Increasing dark hours by decreasing light hours—i.e.,10 hours lights on, 14 hours lights off—can help speed up maturity. Remove remaining large fan or water leaves from plants for firmer buds; this will reduce your trim time later too. David Jewell, Courtesy of House of Cultivar Identifying Peak Maturity and When to Harvest There’s an old grower’s adage: “Once you think your buds are ready, wait a week.” While patience pays, it’s also possible to let your buds go too long, resulting in a decline in quality. Harvest before senescence, the period after peak maturity when plants start to go downhill. To capture quality at its finest, look inside the resin-gland heads on top of your trichomes at different heights on different plants in the garden. A magnifying glass works great—as does taking a clear close-up photo and zooming in on the screen for a closer look. Look to see if the majority of the glands are milky-white and opaque. Less-mature glands will appear clear, and are often not as large. If they’re past their peak, the oil inside will start to turn amber—before the head breaks off altogether. David Jewell, Courtesy of House of Cultivar Harvesting: A Well-Planned Attack As a small-scale hobby grower, you might be able to approach your harvest with some level of ease and relaxation—it’s a rewarding time and it can be therapeutic. For larger harvests, you need the right tools and number of hands on deck to take down and dry your crop. Harvest Fundamentals Five to 10 days before you expect to start cutting down buds, remove all the remaining large fan or water leaves. During harvest, will you be hang-drying entire plants or branches, machine-trimming (fresh) buds individually, or hand-trimming for racks and/or hanging? Decide ahead of time, because it will influence your material-handling process and what you need on hand. Ensure that your handling, trimming and drying areas are clean, sanitary, and free of obstructions or debris. You don’t want to be running shop vacs after sticky buds are already hanging. Make sure you have clean and sanitary bins or totes that are easy to handle. You’ll need some for moving cut branches, capturing trim (small bud leaves are often worth keeping for processing) and handling trimmed buds. Tip: In a pinch, clear and tall 1020 propagation-tray domes make great handling bins. David Jewell, Courtesy of House of Cultivar Harvest Whole, or Trim as You Go? There is no right or wrong way to trim buds—the final product is the benchmark of your growing and harvesting process. That said, how you trim will weigh heavily on final bud quality. Once dried, the trichome stalks that support the bulbous glands become more brittle, so resins are lost more easily during handling and trimming. For this reason, it makes sense to do the bulk of the handling that is required while the plant material is fresh. Harvesting branches is easier than lugging around entire plants. If machine-trimming fresh buds, the stems can be shucked of any remaining fan leaves before individual flowers are removed for the trimming machines. Alternatively, fresh branches can be hand-trimmed of any remaining fan leaves (making sure to collect any “sugar” leaves). Hand-trimmed branches can be hung to dry, or you can remove the buds for drying screens. Canna Obscura, Courtesy of House of Cultivar Fresh Tips Mature fresh-cut cannabis is very sticky. Make sure to wear gloves, keep your hair covered and avoid introducing debris from your clothing such as fibers or pet hair. Handling freshly harvested buds will produce strong smells, so be prepared to manage the extra odor levels—and consider that they may noticeable in places where air-purification equipment isn’t installed. Depending on your need for odor neutralization, you may do fine with some good masking agents or odor neutralizers distributed along the outside perimeter of your area. Activated-carbon filters with fans set to scrub the air perform well at keeping industrial-size smells under control. Chopping down this much biomass with almost 80% water content is going to release a lot of moisture into the surrounding atmosphere very quickly. Dehumidifiers can prevent things from getting too swampy while also creating a better environment to dry the flowers into tantalizing crystallized nugs. For smaller-size hobby crops, the extra moisture in the air should dissipate quickly enough on its own. Nose tip: Activated-carbon filters perform poorly at capturing odors in moist air, so keeping the air drier during harvest offers several benefits. Canna Obscura, Courtesy of House of Cultivar Machine vs. Hand Trimming Luckily for the modern cannabis grower, there are a wide selection of bud-trimming machines available to choose from. Trimming can be very tedious and labor-intensive—some trim jobs may be too big to do manually, even with a lot of people on deck. Machine trimmers can be big time-savers and, in some instances, can even improve the look of smaller buds compared with those that were hand-trimmed. All trimming machines are going to knock off some of the resin—on average of up to 10% of your total resin content. However, that resin is often well captured by the trimming-machine system, so it can be used for processing into hash. Canna Obscura, Courtesy of House of Cultivar Trimming Wet vs. Dry As the number of companies that offer “dry trim” machines increases, so does the debate as to what is best: trimming the buds fresh or dry. There’s good logic on both sides of that coin. However, the fact remains that trichomes become more brittle after drying, so it may be best to do most of the handling and trimming when the plant material is fresh, before the drying stage begins. Courtesy of House of Cultivar The Drying Process If you don’t do this right, you can seriously damage the aroma, flavor and smoothness of your final bud quality. Don’t be hasty—patience pays in the drying process. Consider that your final air-dried weight will be around 20% of your fresh harvest weight. Your buds need to lose a lot of moisture before they’re ready for the next step in the harvest process, the curing stage. If you dry your buds too quickly—for example, in just a day or two in very hot and dry air—they’ll likely lose their aroma and flavor and wind up smelling like hay. Furthermore, when buds are dried too quickly, they often wind up smoking harsh and not burning properly. Smooth-toking and high-quality dried flowers aren’t rushed. Conversely, wet plant material needs sufficient air exchange and moisture loss to prevent harvest diseases like rot or mildew. Ideally, in the first 24 hours after being chopped and trimmed, buds can be coaxed into losing a high percentage of their original water content, after which the rate of drying and water loss is slowed for the remainder of the process. This will keep quality high while reducing the chances for diseases that thrive in moist plant material. You don’t want buds drying in air warmer than 85°F or cooler than 65°F, with an ideal humidity range of 30-45%. Buds are considered to be dry and ready for the next step, curing, once the stems break rather than fold over. Usually this occurs 5-8 days after cutting plants down and drying. Be careful how you handle the buds, especially after they’ve dried—rough handling can reduce your final quality and resin content. Tip: Don’t rush to put dried buds into plastic bags or storage containers—just because the flowers feel dry after a few days doesn’t mean they are! Once in plastic, moisture that was inside the bud will “sweat” its way out too fast—leading to mold or undesirable aromas and flavors. Never put your buds directly in front of a hot-air source like a heater or dehumidifier, and never use the oven or microwave to dry them. НT Archive Curing & Storing Flowers for Quality Curing is an important biological process that brings out your flowers’ best qualities. After air-drying, closed containers are used to wick out the remaining moisture from inside the stem to the outer surface of the flowers. After gently placing your flowers into jars or bins, avoiding compaction, seal the lids for just a few hours. You’ll find that the flowers at the bottom will feel moist again. Gently rearrange the buds so that the contents from the bottom are now on top, and repeat this process until the buds no longer feel moist after the jar is closed for a day at a time. Indica strains tend to mature and decline quickly when it comes to quality and short-term storage conditions. Sativas will often improve after several months and hold their kick for longer, given the same storage conditions versus indica-dominant strains. Factors that will degrade stored buds more quickly include exposure to light, temperature fluctuations, exposure to air and, of course, if they were dried and cured properly to begin with. Glass mason jars are still great for keeping buds at their peak if kept out of light and maintained at or under 65°F. Turkey and Foodsaver bags are superior to regular food-storage bags, which do little to protect weed quality. Cannabis aficionados may seek out specialty bud humidors or specialty storage containers and/or bags that can regulate the internal humidity of your stash. For long-term storage, airtight locking containers blasted with nitrogen gas or CO2 can preserve that picture-perfect moment at which you captured your cannabis crop.

For both home and commercial growers alike, managing garden space while maximizing yields can be a difficult task. This is especially true in urban areas, where the demand for marijuana is high—but so are the costs associated with renting, buying or building indoor space for cannabis cultivation. For decades, the indoor horticulture industry has looked for ways to best utilize indoor garden space to maximize yields. Whether it be the giant flower farms of Holland, the sprawling vegetable greenhouses of Canada or the massive indoor commercial cannabis operations in the United States, many indoor growers are using vertical grow formats, whose popularity has been on the rise over the past few years with a new demographic: home growers. System Types Vertical grow systems are typically not do-it-yourself or build-your-own systems. Rather, commercially available vertical systems are purchased from hydroponic shops or wholesale distributors and then modified to the grower’s specific needs and space. Just like typical horizontal or flatbed grow systems, vertical grow systems can be used with almost any type of indoor grow technique, from hydroponics and aeroponics to soilless-medium methods. The latter is the least likely example one might find, though, as the weight of soil mediums—as well as the sheer volume—can make for cumbersome maintenance, less flexibility and lower functionality (more on this in a bit). In traditional vertical grow systems, lights are hung vertically, usually on chains, with the plants placed around them in a cylindrical arrangement from floor to ceiling. A primary benefit of this arrangement is a better utilization of light, both in terms of energy efficiency and light absorption, by the encompassing plant canopy. The removal of reflectors creates a direct path for light energy, or photons, from bulb to plants and eliminates the conversion of light into heat that occurs when photons bounce off reflectors or are otherwise absorbed elsewhere and not by the plants. Additionally, when the vertical string of lights in these systems is adequately cooled (either by air-cooling tubes, water jackets or AC units), the plant canopy can sit within inches of the lights, thereby increasing the energy delivered to the plants. While most vertical grow systems utilize this cylindrical arrangement to take better advantage of light placement and full photon absorption, alternatives to grow cylinders are becoming more popular, especially in large-format grows. Vertical rack systems are frequently used as commercial indoor growers look for lightweight, stackable grow systems that can deliver water and nutrients to plants quickly and effectively. These vertical grow systems mimic smaller horizontal hydro systems that can be stacked one on top of another from floor to ceiling with the required lighting placed in between each stackable tray or plant bed. Additionally, some vertical grow manufacturers claim that larger, shared beds in rack systems allow for better root systems, leading to larger yields. However, while the extra root-zone space lends itself to more developed roots, it also means each plant must share its food and water—and potential pests and diseases—with the other plants in its bed. How They Work Vertical grow systems work the same way horizontal systems do, as the principals of horticultural are constant. Rather, it is the logistics that change with the footprint of the system in the room. The smaller footprint, which can range in size from 6 to 8 feet in diameter for cylindrical units or can wrap around the room for wall units, allows for more garden space in a single room as all the area is utilized, from floor to ceiling. This is why many of the original (as well as some current) vertical grow systems deploy a cylindrical shape, as this allows for several units to be placed in a single room. And because there is no space lost to overhead lighting, all the space from floor to ceiling is dedicated to plant canopy. In cylindrical systems such as the well-known Coliseum, plants are placed in netted pot containers held in place by plastic tiers, angled slightly downward toward the center light channel. Behind the tiers is a thick wall that can hold spray misters, foggers or irrigation tubes for drip lines. At the bottom of the system are larger reservoirs to catch the runoff, just like hydroponic table systems. Other systems can be more of a hybrid between a cylindrical system and a wall system. Wall systems use either premade wall frames or the walls of a room to attach hanging grow systems. The EcoSystem, for example, uses a cylindrical plant arrangement with vertical lights down a center channel and doors that swing open to provide access to the grow chamber. However, instead of housing the system mechanics within its chamber walls, growers attach slabs of rockwool, hung vertically around the sides, to grow their plants. Spaghetti lines run directly to the medium, and the vertical chamber is run as a top-feed hydroponic system. Other vertical grow systems abandon the cylindrical geometry altogether and use structural walls, stackable racks or premade elements such as metal-pole frames from which to hang vertical grow systems. These systems range from NFT (nutrient film technique) and top-feed hydro systems to root mister/aeroponic systems. Normally, wall systems utilize narrow trays or troughs hung in a square arrangement on three or four walls with lights hanging vertically down the center, the same as cylindrical grow systems. All of these systems, whether square or cylindrical in design, do better with hydroponics rather than with soil systems, and each utilizes standard reservoirs and pump systems to deliver water and nutrients to plant sites. Walls of Green Aside from the physical characteristics that vertical grow systems share, they also utilize common grow theories and techniques. In almost every vertical grow system—and especially in cylindrical units—a “sea of green” (SOG) technique must be utilized. SOG gardens comprise many smaller plants, rather than fewer larger plants. This style of growing was developed primarily for indoor and greenhouse growers who have less space to work with than outdoor farmers. In theory, having many smaller plants is a way to mitigate the smaller yields when not growing huge trees outdoors that can produce several pounds of cannabis each. Instead, indoor growers cultivate hundreds of densely packed smaller plants that, when taken as a sum, can actually yield as much or more than an outdoor garden (and with a few more harvests per year to boot). In SOG gardens, plants are propagated either from seeds or cloning and then allowed to develop roots and vegetate for a week or two, and then moved right into flowering, thereby keeping plant size much smaller. To aid in this technique, cannabis growers keep internode lengths shorter, which is the distance between branches on the main stem. Having shorter internode lengths means more branching, which leads to more flowering sites for budding and better plant yields. To do this, growers use bulbs heavier in the blue spectrum, which helps plants develop good branch stacking and keeps them squat and bushy. During the initial propagation phase and before transplanting into a vertical grow system, growers keep nursery plants under fluorescent bulbs, which emit light from the blue spectrum. These lamps also use less power and run extremely cool, allowing plants to remain very close to the light source. Once the plants are ready to vegetate, growers will utilize metal-halide (MH) bulbs for the veg cycle. MH bulbs are much heavier in the blue spectrum than high-pressure sodium (HPS) bulbs, which are used during the flowering cycle. Growing Up While the most compelling argument for vertical grow systems is the increased efficiency in vertically integrated, 360-degree lighting, as well as the smart use of growroom space, some of today’s more modern vertical grow systems have inexplicably abandoned the vertical lighting element. Whereas cylindrical and wall-based systems continue to utilize vertical lights with the surrounding garden, some rack systems in use at large-format, commercial-grow facilities utilize vertical space simply by using racks to stack trays and lights, one on top of another, with several layers of trays and lights in each vertical column. While these rack systems tend to maximize space, they are less effective in maximizing the efficiency of lighting systems. One likely culprit for the dismissal of vertically integrated high-intensity discharge (HID) lighting is the growing popularity of LED lamps. While these lighting systems offer convenience in size, energy consumption and reduced heat by-product, they lack in both light quality (spectrum) and quantity (strength), thereby lowering yields significantly. However, newer LED models have begun to offset these factors by increasing both spectral range and light intensity. Still, these units are costly and bulky, and they lack many of the typical advantages associated with LEDs such as low power draw and heat emission. Still, some newer LED units are being fashioned to fit into vertical rack systems, but at a much higher cost, with the counterargument being they save money in the long run by not needing to be replaced nearly as often as HID systems. Other rack systems feature banks of fluorescent lamps, especially in nurseries, while large rack systems utilize HID lamps hung overhead with two or three levels of garden beds. The latter option is only realistic for large warehouses with high ceilings. Another problematic issue shared by most vertical grow systems is the difficulty posed by bulb-to-canopy distance. Traditional gardens, as well as some large-format rack systems, that use overhead hanging lights can be adjusted to maintain the distance between light and canopy as the plants grow taller. But in vertical grow systems, where the lighting systems are stationary, growers must take extra care to ensure that lights are kept cool to touch, so that as plants grow closer to the light source they do not suffer light burn or overheating. Keeping the bulb-to-canopy distance consistent throughout a plant’s life cycle provides for more a natural and stable grow environment, a benefit that is often lost in vertical grow systems. In vertical systems with stationary light systems, the distance from bulb to plant inevitably changes as the plant grows and changes shape. This can cause problems in a plant’s physiological development and biorhythm. This is why it is important for growers to choose strains that grow short and squat and to pay close attention to how they raise their young seedlings and clones through the vegetative stage. Plants that remain squat will do much better in vertical grow systems with a fixed bulb-to-canopy distance. Making Up the Difference In order to work well with the height limitation on plant growth and the impact it might have on yields, good vertical grow systems offer the ability for plants to develop expansive root systems. As a complement to the SOG technique, vertical growers should choose systems that offer ample space for a garden’s root zone. The root structure acts as energy storage for the plant. While the plant is creating food (glucose) during the light cycle via photosynthesis, the roots are storing that energy for use during the dark cycles and for developing buds during the flowering cycle. The size of the root structure is directly proportional to the yield potential of each plant. Vertical grow systems utilizing fixed medium sizes such as rockwool slabs may limit the garden’s ability for larger yields. Many of the most successful vertical grow systems utilize open-air walls, allowing for extensive root systems to grow out from each plant site and down throughout the back side of the system, sometimes reaching the reservoir or floor at the bottom of the chamber. Other mediums that limit root growth are not as desirable as well. Plant sites that use netted pots and allow roots to grow out into the air will be more successful in terms of yield than a system which limits root growth either by limited medium volume or too much medium. Packing a cylindrical unit with a soil or soilless medium not only affects where the roots can grow, but it also significantly cuts down on oxygen in the root zone, which roots need to grow healthy and strong. Five Important Considerations for Vertical Grows By Hue Gielder There are essentially five issues to keep in mind that the heedless grower will quickly discover about vertical grows. Knowing them in advance will improve system design and results. Clean Your Dirty Pipes: Reservoirs should always be fully clean in order to guarantee that your plants are not being fed garbage (salt buildup, algae, etc.). System designers who would prefer to automate their watering should expect to replace all plumbing between the reservoir and spigots every few cycles in order to ensure a clean delivery of nutrients and desired biologicals. To facilitate this, use as much low-cost flexible tubing as you can. Also, when dealing with vertical hydro systems, it is important to note that pinching irrigation lines can severely impact a system’s water pressure. This is especially true with a vertical “backbone” pipe, where lessening the width of tubing (for example, via T-joints or clamp valves) beyond most pumps’ half-to-full-inch output will limit the pressure seen at each vertical grow tier incrementally, as the water ascends. It’s best to reduce the line width at the actual spigots (if absolutely necessary) and abide by the pump manufacturer’s recommendations when pumping vertically. Ditch the Dirt on the Dank: When growing vertically, there is always a risk that fluids or wet media will spill over onto mature or otherwise innocent buds below. Whether or not this is an issue will largely be determined by the watering system’s throughput and the medium’s rate of fluid absorption, as well as how the tiers of grow sites are stacked. Shared beds filled with soil will drain better by adding perlite, while hydroton (HEC) may be too heavy for some shared-bed systems. Are You Penetrating Your Canopy? All plants prefer to be isolated and alone so that they can hoard all of the resources they desire. When growing plants within a confined space, anything that can be done to penetrate the canopy in an even manner in terms of light, carbon dioxide and fresh-air exchange will maximize individual plant health and yields. T5s vs. Light Skirts: Plants need evenly distributed low-intensity lighting during transplant to minimize transplant shock. Shade cloths can be wrapped like skirts around grow lights or tubes, but this plastic material also easily melts. To avoid melting plastic and potential house fires, the vertical grower can create a ring out of electrical conduit or non-electrical flex wire to wrap the shade cloth around and drape down the lighting tube. However, this approach may not block sufficient light to fully eliminate transplant stress if a grower is firing numerous bulbs of high wattage. An alternative approach is to strap fluorescent T5s to the light tubes for the purpose of maintaining the proper photoperiod during transplant with much less light intensity (not to mention pretty broad spectrum as well). How Hard Is It to Swap Your Spectrum? Vertical growers use light tubes to move bulb heat up and out of the room before it can affect canopy temperature. However, chains of lights in glass tubes can greatly complicate the swap of bulbs that frequently accompany the switch to flower. The problem is that light tubes are generally not designed for ease of access. When connecting together individual light tubes to create a single light string, it’s recommended that the grower pay special attention to the creation of a custom system of access that is convenient for maintenance. Attaching light tubes to rails of light movers so that they can slide in and out of vertical systems is a good idea. Another consideration is to fully veg plants before transplanting them into vertical systems and give them only a few days of veg cycle (using your HPS bulbs) before flipping to the 12/12 flowering stage.

For two decades, Advanced Nutrients has led the industry when it comes to cannabis-specific plant foods. Learn the incredible story of how owner Michael “BigMike” Straumietis founded the bud-building brand as well as Advanced Nutrients’ plans for the future of cannabis cultivation, extraction, lab testing, packaging and delivery. Advanced History Courtesy of Advanced Nutrients Advanced Nutrients was founded by Michael “BigMike” Straumietis in 1999 when he saw an opportunity to create plant foods designed especially for marijuana growing. A cannabis cultivator since he was 23 years old, BigMike knew that the products available for feeding pot plants weren’t optimized to their full potential. As a co-founder of Canadian Soilless Ltd. in 1996, BigMike recognized that the hydroponics industry was stagnating and, as he was soon to find out, terrified of any connection to pot growing. Ever since the DEA’s Operation Green Merchant, an offensive in 1989 that targeted marijuana-growing-equipment suppliers, companies refused to acknowledge that their products were being used to cultivate cannabis, even though they thrived on the business. “It all happened because of fear and ignorance,” BigMike tells me. “We hired scientists to develop products explicitly for growing cannabis, and all of our competitors got nervous and boycotted us. Some of it is still happening to this day.” Over time, BigMike revolutionized the hydroponic-nutrient business entirely, building Advanced Nutrients into a hundred-million-dollar-a-year company with current operations throughout North America, Eastern Europe, Germany and Spain, as well as sales in over 100 countries and growing. Advanced Nutrients now has 25 PhDs on staff who design and test cutting-edge marijuana-growing technologies, all backed by an unprecedented 100 percent money-back guarantee. Along with Tikun Olam in Israel and GW Pharmaceuticals in the United Kingdom, Advanced Nutrients in Bulgaria is one of only three companies in the world with a federally licensed permit for cannabinoid research. Courtesy of Advanced Nutrients Now on their seventh generation of nutrient lines, the scientists at Advanced Nutrients continue to create new pot-growing systems for farmers looking for consistently huge yields. As BigMike explains, “We don’t just provide nutrients—our line is a complete cannabis growth-manipulation system. We’re seeing growers achieve up to and over four pounds per 1,000-watt light!” What separates Advanced Nutrients from its competition? “Science and research,” BigMike tells me. “Our products are made to grow cannabis, so they are tested on cannabis by scientists who specialize in it. None of this ‘tomato’ bullshit you hear from other companies. For example, it’s a complete myth that pot plants need a ton of phosphorus during flowering. We’ve been growing legally for over a decade and have discovered many marijuana-specific nutrient needs and fulfilled them. Our team is on the cutting edge and always looking for new breakthroughs in pot-plant growing technology.” Giving Back Courtesy of Advanced Nutrients The philanthropic work done by BigMike and Advanced Nutrients shows that they truly care about the growers and patients without whom the company couldn’t exist. This isn’t mere lip service but real financial help for those in need. After the recent fires that devastated growers in the northern part of the state, Advanced Nutrients donated $100,000 in cash and $100,000 in nutrients to the California Growers Association. Contrast that with Scotts Miracle-Gro CEO Jim Hagedorn, who reportedly gave $250,000 to the Aviation Hall of Fame the same month and nothing to the growers of NorCal. Advanced Nutrients also launched the Cannabis Care Program 15 years ago to distribute over a million dollars’ worth of nutrients to needy pot growers. In Bulgaria, and now in Los Angeles, the company’s Holiday Heroes program provides necessities to destitute and homeless people and toys for their children. Legislative efforts are also an important part of BigMike’s agenda. Through the Cannabis Freedom Fund, Advanced Nutrients is fighting to reduce regulations on consumption at events, and the company champions the social use of cannabis and the release of nonviolent marijuana offenders as well the expungement of their criminal records. Advanced Nutrients is backing Gavin Newsom in California’s gubernatorial race because, as BigMike says, “He’s sincere in supporting our community in a big way!” By never turning his back on the pot growers that supported him, BigMike built a brand that now does over $100 million a year in sales and is expanding into a variety of ancillary businesses and nonprofits. His newest efforts include a world-class research laboratory the likes of which doesn’t exist anywhere. Lacturnus Labs Courtesy of Advanced Nutrients Named for the Roman god of crop protection, Lacturnus Labs, based in Los Angeles, is a $20 million facility designed by PhDs in conjunction with scientists from Harvard and MIT. The lab’s million-dollar Shimadzu Nexera unified-chromatography machine can analyze for particles down to single parts per billion. “You can’t hide anything from us!” BigMike tells me. “Diseases are carried in the vascular bundle of the plant. We can test for these pathogens and viruses in cuttings and let the grower know immediately what they’re dealing with. The biggest names in cannabis research are chomping at the bit to work with our equipment.” The 50,000-square-foot Lacturnus facility will act as an incubator for top scientists with a shared intellectual-property agreement. Once up and running at capacity, the Lacturnus grow operation will be the largest in the world and will provide distribution, volatile and nonvolatile extraction, tissue-culture cloning, packaging and delivery. The lab will also contain a full commercial kitchen for developing and producing best-in-class edibles with consistent microdosing. Cannabis Future Courtesy of Advanced Nutrients BigMike believes we’ve only scratched the surface of cannabinoid research. (On a personal note, he finds that cannabigerol (CBG) greatly reduces intraocular pressure. Having gone through three corneal transplants, he uses CBG-rich edibles to provide significant relief for his eyes.) The goal is to achieve an outcome-based recombinant product, meaning a consistent, precise and standardized medicine that’s nontoxic with no heavy metals present. BigMike sees a big future in microdosing with cannabis. “It’s not just about getting high,” he tells me. “A therapeutic dose for a first-time user should be small enough to bind with their cannabinoid receptors without getting them too blitzed. I don’t like to see someone’s first experience with pot being a huge dab that messes them up and has people laughing at them. That’s how you lose a patient for life instead of gaining one.” To that end, he’s starting a house brand under the moniker BigMike’s Blends that will provide pre-rolls, vape pens, edibles, tinctures, creams and much more. BigMike is planning an international rollout with distribution to the 2,100 dispensaries in California as well as to Europe, South America and Asia. “We want to partner with strong existing cannabis companies in a joint venture to help them scale their businesses up and take them to the next level,” he says. “We’ll even ‘white label’ products for qualified dispensary partners or other retailers.” BigMike would also like to see licensed producers in Canada and beyond start using Advanced Nutrients instead of mixing their own salts. “Depending on their order size, we’ll provide them with access to our many services at Lacturnus,” he says. “We can test their young plants’ leaves and let them know the future cannabinoid profile of their genetics. If they have a problem they need solved, I will put one of our expert botanists or entomologists on a private jet today to help them solve it!” I ask BigMike what it means for him to be on the cover of НT magazine. “It’s pretty damn cool! I’ve been reading the magazine all my life and consider it the gold standard, so it’s quite a big deal for me,” he says. “Advanced and HT have been working together for years to educate people on growing and using cannabis, so it’s an honor to finally be recognized by the best pot publication on earth!” Justin Cannabis

How did an outlaw weed farmer from Oklahoma become a medical-marijuana grower in California and produce hundreds of pounds of premium estate-grown cannabis in a sustainable and environmentally conscious facility? Take an insider’s tour of THC Design’s massive indoor marijuana garden in the heart of Los Angeles and see just what it takes to grow large quantities of weed without sacrificing quality. It all starts with the desire and determination to create a new pot paradigm… Grow West, Young Man Courtesy of THC Design Ryan Jennemann fled from Tulsa, OK, to Los Angeles with a dream to grow pot in relative freedom. He had seen how medical cannabis helped his ailing father with debilitating headaches and how the lack of it contributed to his dad’s demise at only 47 years old. The ongoing harassment, persecution and prosecution of his family by Oklahoma law enforcement led him to seek greener pastures out West. Now he’s a co-founder and the chief cultivator for THC Design, overseeing all of the company’s growing facilities and ensuring that the medicine it produces is as clean and as effective as possible. From the moment I meet Jennemann and his crew, I realize there’s a palpable emphasis on family. Jennemann’s brother Seth is THC Design’s president and CFO, and much of the company’s staff are trusted friends from Oklahoma who migrated out to California to be a part of the team. Seemingly every worker I encounter on my tour looks happy to be there and shares with me a pride in being a part of the company and community. Courtesy of THC Design The facilities at THC Design capture, reclaim and reuse between 1,500 and 2,000 gallons of water per day from dehumidifiers and central air conditioning. The growers follow strict Oregon Tilth organic standards, which are much more stringent than federal OMRI certifications. THC Design’s focus on renewable resources is driven by a constant desire to reduce its carbon footprint, and the company has increased its energy efficiency by 40 percent over the last four years. THC Design also provides a unique veterans-outreach program, hosting a 12-week paid internship for retired military members to learn the various aspects of the cannabis-growing business. I asked Jennemann why the company has gone out of its way to hire vets. “Well, first off, I think they’re good people and hard workers, and I have a tremendous amount of respect for their achievements,” he says. “I’ve hired people in the past and then watched them come in at least a half hour late every day, complaining about the traffic, acting entitled. Veterans are not that way at all. They are here on time and to work. Their training and experience make them dependable, trustworthy and able to meet obligations and accomplish demanding tasks. There’s always something to do here, and the vets we’ve brought in inherently understand that.” It certainly helps the company’s public relations to reach out to ex-military people, but it also sounds like it helps the bottom line. “Veterans are an amazing untapped talent pool,” Jennemann says. “So in addition to giving back to those who have done so much for us, our internship program also makes great business sense.” Jennemann certainly puts his money and his effort where his mouth is. Unlike some producers, THC Design advocates full legalization of cannabis and supports the National Cannabis Industries Association, Americans for Safe Access, the California Growers Association, the Drug Policy Alliance and many other superb law-reform organizations. Jennemann meets with legislators and plays an active role in community relations, and THC Design has programs in place for outreach to seniors, the LGBTQ community and those who live on skid row. The company hosted the first cannabis booth at DragCon and the first cannabis float at the Long Beach Pride Parade. The Grow Courtesy of THC Design The main THC Design facility I’m visiting boasts a total of 20,000 square feet. Nine flowering rooms, each 1,000 square feet, are timed so that each week a different room is ready to be harvested. Each room is lit by 27 1,000-watt Gavita lights with a footprint of 35 square feet per double-ended HPS (high-pressure sodium) bulb. Rolling trays hold the plants and can be moved easily so that workers can reach every area of the room. Moisture-monitoring sensors are installed in each zone to ensure proper humidity levels. Mother plants grow in a soil mix and are fed aerated-compost tea. They’re lit by 315-watt LEC CMH (ceramic metal halide) bulbs (with plans to switch over to new, more efficient 600-watt versions) and pampered with tender loving care by a crew of devoted workers. The company’s even experimenting with utilizing aquaculture, with an 800-gallon tank growing carp. Black soldier fly larvae feed the fish while the waste from the carp feeds the moms. The plants get nitrogen from the fish and calcium and magnesium from the flies! Using fish guano instead of bat guano also protects bat caves from over-harvesting. The nursery for clones is kept at 80-86°F with 80 percent relative humidity in order to replicate the natural spring planting season. Clones are cut from healthy mother plants, dipped in rooting hormone and then gently placed into rockwool cubes. Once rooted, they’re ready for the next stage: vegetative growth. Rooted clones are transplanted into a mix of coco coir over perlite as they begin the vegetative stage. Containers are covered with FloraFlex caps and drip-fed with Mills Nutrients Basis A and B as the base. Tea brewers are employed to steep Bokashi compost teas as well. Watering and Fertigation Courtesy of THC Design Previously, THC Design discovered fungal growth in some of the reclaimed water from the HVAC systems and dehumidifiers. To eliminate it, the company uses inline UV lighting in the ducting and air handler in order to sterilize the liquids, a system similar to what’s employed in hospitals. Today, more than two-thirds of the water used at THC Design is reclaimed—a significant reduction in the company’s water footprint. This unique watering system rivals any I’ve ever witnessed. In addition to the UV lighting in the ducting and master reservoir, a mesh filter is used on the incoming condensate line from the HVAC to the reservoir to filter out any particulates. Each vegetative and flower room has its own reservoir that’s mixed twice per week. The moisture-monitoring sensor in each zone triggers the water pump to irrigate just that zone when necessary. In the vegetative stage, watering is limited to two hours after the lights come on and no sooner than four hours before they go off. During flowering, watering starts four hours after lights come on and ends four hours before they’re turned off. All excess water is recaptured and filtered for reuse. Courtesy of THC Design This leaves just a four-hour window in the middle of the “day” for nutrient solution, and Jennemann has found this to be the best way to ensure the perfect moisture capacity in the medium for rapid root and plant growth. The wet/dry cycle encourages tremendously healthy plants that yield huge colas. The closer the plants get to flowering, the more the medium is allowed to dry out before watering again. Jennemann tells me that dialing in this “plateau in the irrigation window” for each individual strain is the key to heavy harvests of buds saturated in essential oils. The balance between what he calls the “nurturing and torturing phases” produces glandular trichomes swollen with terpenes, cannabinoids and flavonoids. Plants go through a 22-day vegetative stage before they’re induced to begin their 56-63 days of flowering. No synthetic plant-growth regulators (PGR) are used at any time. THC Design’s integrated pest management (IPM) consists of foliar applications of Regalia bio-fungicide, Venerate bio-insecticide, activated aerated tea, Big Time Exterminator and kelp hydrolysate. Additionally, garlic, lemon and fish oil, along with natural enzymes and bacteria, are used to combat pests before they get a foothold and before extreme measures even need to be considered. The Harvest Courtesy of THC Design THC Design’s flowering rooms are timed to be harvested one room per week. After an aggressive weeklong flushing period using only plain water on the plants, they’re finally ready to crop. Every Wednesday, the THD Design harvesting team takes down an entire 1,000-square-foot room, managing to process an average of 2.7 pounds per light. That’s more than 70 pounds of dry flowers per week, and yet each premium estate-grown cannabis flower is trimmed entirely by hand. “We take our time with the harvesting process,” Jennemann says. “It takes us 10-14 days to dry the whole plant with the fan leaves left on and all. A dry trim using workers with scissors is labor-intensive and costly but well worth it for the quality we achieve in the end.” THC Design’s drying-room philosophy is simple. Cool air keeps the smell down and preserves volatile oils. The air conditioning is set at 70°F, a humidity fogger at 60 percent and a dehumidifier at 55-58 percent. It reminds me of that old Steven Wright joke: “For my birthday I got a humidifier and a dehumidifier… I put them in the same room and let them fight it out.” Either way, drying slowly in cool conditions kept at the optimum level of humidity results in a flawless flower that perfectly captures the potential of each cultivar grown at THC Design. Post-harvest, each flowering room is cleaned thoroughly with hydrogen peroxide from top to bottom. Only then, with the area empty and devoid of plants, sulfur is burnt to discourage outbreaks of powdery mildew (PM). After the sulfur dissipates, the rooms are repopulated with vegged-out plants and the whole process begins again. Courtesy of THC Design All of this hard work pays off in the creation of a product that’s top-shelf, even though it’s produced in large quantities. The quality also extends to the packaging, with eighths and pre-rolls provided in classic tins and containers worthy of a high-end premium product, along with Boveda packs for humidity control and preservation. The pre-rolls come as six artisanal cones totaling 3.5 grams per box with independent test results included. 5 THC Design Strains XJ-13 This is the company’s signature strain and the one it’s most known for throughout Southern California. A sativa-dominant cross of Jack Herer and G-13 Haze, XJ-13 relieves pain, anxiety and depression, and it’s a wonderful piney and lemony daytime smoke. Courtesy of THC Design Dosidos This strain has been making a ton of noise and it’s no surprise as to why. Dosidos boasts a whopping high potency, testing between 28 and 30 percent in THC. It’s got a sweet, minty aroma with hints of lime and pine, and it comes on strong and seemingly lasts for hours. Courtesy of THC Design Space Oddity This one is a cross between Space Queen and Blue Dream for the perfect hybrid of desirable sativa and indica traits. Fruity, with just a hint of spice, Space Oddity heals the mind and body. Take a few hits, launch into the universe and try to contact ground control. Courtesy of THC Design Strawberry Banana The THC Design pheno of this Crockett Family Farms classic produces some of the best hash oil I’ve ever tasted. The flowers aren’t too shabby either, with intoxicating and sweet fruity aromas and a euphoric buzz worthy of a trip to a museum or a walk through the park. Indica lovers appreciate the relaxing effects. Kosher Kush The house version of DNA Genetics’ outstanding OG-related strain packs quite a punch. Testing at over 29 percent THC and exhibiting that well-known raw, earthy fuel scent and flavor, Kosher Kush is classic “couchlock” weed. Medical patients appreciate this heavy indica’s numbing effects on body pains. THC Design’s Premium Estate-Grown Cannabis I leave THC Designs impressed with the fact that at least some cannabis growers are at the forefront of creating “greener” weed. With cultivation inevitably getting bigger and more corporate, it’s inspiring to see people at large facilities concerned about reducing their carbon footprint and engaging with their communities and legislatures. Besides that, it’s clear that the cannabis THC Design produces in large quantities is clean, flavorful and potent. Let’s hope more large-scale cultivators follow its lead in creating premium estate-grown cannabis.

You’ve grown your cannabis plants for months and the time has finally come to take them down, dry and cure them. Even though you’re in the final stretch, a proper harvest is the single most important factor to ensure you get the most from your marijuana. Drying, trimming and curing the right way will determine whether you’ve wasted your time growing crappy mids, or triumphantly created aficionado-quality pot. With this in mind we present to you, The Connoisseur’s Guide To Harvesting Weed Plants. Guide To Harvesting Weed Plants: When and How When it comes to harvesting cannabis, timing is everything. If you take your plants down too soon, they’ll be immature with underdeveloped resin glands containing less of the vital essential oils that give pot its flavors, scent and potency. Chop down too late, and THC will have degraded and converted to CBN, resulting in a more lethargic stone. Just because a seed breeder says that their product matures in 60 days of flowering doesn’t make that an accurate date for cropping. Some companies will under-report flowering times in an effort to get you to purchase their beans. You must also take into account any downtime your plants spent recovering from the stress caused by transplanting or other aggravating factors. Sometimes this can add weeks to your flowering stage and push your harvest time back significantly. The amount or percentage of red hairs is also not an accurate way to judge the proper time to harvest your plants. It’s true that these pistils darken from white to orange and then red as the buds ripen, but it’s only an indicator that harvest is approaching and not the best determining factor. For a true guide to harvesting weed plants, you need to look closer. You Must Magnify! Get a close look at the trichome gland heads. The best thing you can do is to get a magnification device such as a loupe or microscope that will give you a closer look at the actual trichomes on your buds. Along with a guide to harvesting weed plants, you need the proper tools. Sometimes referred to as “crystals,” trichomes are actually glands filled with essential oils made up of cannabinoids, such as THC, CBD and CBN, as well as flavonoids and terpenes. They look a little bit like tiny clear glass mushrooms with a stalk and a bulbous head. It is these gland heads that are separated and pressed together to make hashish. As harvest approaches, the gland heads will turn from clear to a cloudy or “milky” white, and then eventually turn amber as they begin to go beyond ripeness. If you harvest when most of the gland heads are clear and cloudy, you’ll get a more uplifting high. If you wait until most are amber, the effects will be more lethargic. It really comes down to personal preference, but most people prefer the cloudy and that is when the THC levels are at their highest with no degradation. Trimming Wet or Dry? Should you trim wet or dry? Trimming wet means taking off all the fan leaves and sugar leaves before drying and trimming dry means hanging your plants up with the leaves intact and then removing them after the branches have dried out. Basically, it comes down to personal preference how you wish to accomplish this but both methods have their drawbacks and advantages. Even in a guide to harvesting weed plants, there are choices you need to make based on the pros and cons. Trimming wet is easier because the leaves are still turgid and their rigor makes them stick out from the flowers more. After drying, leaves will droop and curl closer to the buds and it makes it a bit more difficult to clip them off. So the wet trim can be more convenient. On the other hand, if you wait to trim dry, the plants will take a bit longer to dry out due to the water in the leaves. Slower drying can make for a smoother cleaner smoking experience because the longer it takes to dry your crop, the more it will lose the “green” chlorophyll smell and taste. My advice is to use the best of both worlds. Trim off any large fan leaves and big sugar leaves that protrude out from the buds but leave behind some of the sugar leaf to keep the drying slow and protect your flowers and their essential oil-filled trichome glands. Then, after the branches have dried and snap instead of bending, do your second more thorough trim just before starting the curing process in glass jars. The Connoisseur’s Trim Trim closely to ensure a proper burn. Take off the large fan leaves first. Be sure to remove them at their base (where they meet the branches) to avoid leaving thick stalks within your flowers. Trimming entire plants can be quite cumbersome depending on their size, so remove individual branches to make them easier to trim. I like to do this from the top down as this creates “hooks” out of the branches, which makes them easy to hang up to dry. Holding the individual branches at their base, keep your scissors angled upwards and clip off any plant material that protrudes from the buds. This includes the tiny “crows feet” leaves that start at the base of each flower. Rotate the branches with one hand, while you snip with the other. Use the tips of the pruning shears or trimmers to get in deep between the nuggets for a proper manicure. Remove everything that isn’t covered in glandular trichomes. If you’re trimming wet, now is the time to hang up your trimmed branches to dry. If you’re trimming dry, you can now remove the trimmed buds from their branches and put them into glass jars to cure. Just remember to clip as close to the buds as you can. Soon you’ll be enjoying the ultimate aficionado experience—consuming properly trimmed cannabis! Hang Dry Vs. Laid Out On Racks Photo by Canna Obscura The drying room is a place that must be carefully monitored. Keep in mind that your plants will be giving off a large amount of moisture into the room as they dry. It’s important to pull wet air out and keep air circulating in the room without actually having fans blowing right on your hanging branches, which can dry them out prematurely resulting in a harsh taste and burn. Also, growers in dry places such as Colorado struggle to extend their drying time with humidifiers, while farmers in more humid climates such as Northern California use dehumidifiers to pull water from the air in order to avoid mold growing on their buds. The ideal temperature for a drying room is between 65 – 75 degrees Fahrenheit and humidity between 45 – 55 percent in a dark room. Within 6 – 10 days your branches should snap instead of bending and the buds should feel popcorn dry on the outside. This is the time to cut the individual buds from the branches and put them into glass jars to begin the curing process. Connoisseur Curing and Storage Keep jars in a cool dark place. After hanging to dry, your flowers must be cured in glass jars to slowly remove the remaining moisture and reduce the “grassy” smell and taste of chlorophyll. When cannabis is properly cured, subtle scents and flavors are revealed and the finished product gains in depth and complexity. The experience of consuming cured flowers will convince a true aficionado to never smoke commercial-grade uncured cannabis again. When the drying branches snap instead of bending, place the buds into sealed glass jars kept in a cool dark place. Heat and light will quickly degrade the essential oils containing the precious terpenes, cannabinoids, and flavonoids. Open the jars daily to “burp them” releasing the moist air and replacing it with fresh air. After a few weeks or more of curing, your buds will taste and smoke perfectly. The Final Hit: Connoisseur’s Guide To Harvesting Weed Plants Photo by Canna Obscura So now you know how to harvest your weed plants the right way. It’s your job to ensure that you put this knowledge into practice and don’t try to skimp or cut corners on the process. Once you’ve consumed properly dried and cured pot, you won’t want to ever go back to smoking commercially-produced buds. And be sure to share our guide to harvesting weed plants with anyone you think will benefit from this information so that the quality of cannabis will improve worldwide!

One of the single most important factors of how well a marijuana plant will grow, and how much it can yield, is the health and strength of its root system. Below the surface of your growing medium, the root mass is comprised of a tangled web of roots that store sugars and starches (cannabis plant food) and transport needed minerals to the plant. The marijuana plants roots are covered in millions of small hairs that absorb water and minerals from the surrounding root zone. This root system sends minerals up through the body of the plant to leaves for use during photosynthesis, which in turn makes the starches and sugars the plant uses for food and energy. The bigger and more extensive the root system is, the bigger the plant will grow. In the root zone, moisture levels, temperature and oxygen directly affect growth. It is very important to remember that roots breath in oxygen, while the rest of the plant uses carbon dioxide (CO2). When growing indoors and using potted containers, the best containers to house your plants are those which are the most breathable, or permeable by air, so that oxygen can easily get into the root zone. If you grow outside, aerating your soil or grow medium by churning or tilling once every few weeks is also a good idea. How Marijuana Roots Work When starch is made via photosynthesis in the top portions of the plant, any excess plant food is sent back down to the root system for storage. The more energy the roots have stored up, the more nutrients they can send up to the leaves to be used in photosynthesis to make more food. It’s a cycle that, when all things are going well, can lead to excessive plant growth. When the plants are properly trained (via trellising or pruning), this growth or energy can be directed towards flower and resin (trichome) production. In the root zone, the quality of medium is also very important for these same reasons. The less energy the roots have to spend, the more they can use that energy to grow themselves and the plant above. The root zone is also where most of the plant’s water is taken into the plant. And 99 percent of this water is transpired through the leaves up top. Mediums that are airy and retain a lot of moisture are most ideal. Soil and soilless mixtures (such as peat or sphagnum-based) are also recommended as they offer excellent “buffering” for the delicate roots, which helps prevent burn from nutrient feedings and allows them to more effectively absorb the vital minerals needed to make sugars and starches internally. Four Tips for Healthy Roots A Deep Water Culture (DWC) system produces massive root structure. 1. Oxygen Roots use oxygen to convert stored starch to energy so make sure air can permeate. This energy is used to send nutrients up the plant, which in turn creates more starches. The circle of life begins here. 2. Temperature Roots grow mostly at night when the top portion of the plant has shut down. And they function most efficiently when they are warm. Roots in a dark, warm place develop rapidly and create good structure in the root zone. Dark period temps of 75–78 F are ideal. 3. Structure If possible, do not let roots become root-bound. If they cannot be allowed to advance, allow them to prune themselves via exposure to air. Some containers offer specialized coatings to stop roots from growing and strangling themselves while others have holes lining the sides. 4. More Air The top third of the root zone containers specialized roots that breath air; The bottom-third are “water roots,” which absorb H2O. Be careful not to over-water plants, especially near the top of the root zone, otherwise you may drown them. Stagnant water can easily kill a plant. Your roots should always be bright white and crisp.

Meet an award-winning team growing artisanal weed from Washington who’ve perfected large-scale indoor pot farming using a combination of careful strain selection, modern science and age-old wisdom. The City of Flowers Common wisdom in the cannabis-cultivation community has it that as growers scale up the size of their grow space, the quality of their product inevitably suffers. Indeed, it is quite difficult to produce A-grade flowers in a massive warehouse, but it certainly can be done. Consider House of Cultivar, the largest marijuana-production facility in greater Seattle, at 40,000 square feet with the capacity for 852 flowering lights. Even with all of that space to manage, the expert horticulture team at Cultivar produces many pounds of connoisseur-quality flowers and top-shelf concentrates. Part of the company’s motto includes the statement “To do right by this plant—seed, root, flower and leaf—every step of the way,” and Cultivar’s clearly devoted to maintaining integrity and best practices throughout the process. CEO and founder Jason Hutto explains that he and his staff are committed to growing great strains the right way—without pesticides, watered and trimmed by hand, and slowly cured to perfection. So much so that House of Cultivar recently won best indoor grow in Washington State at the 2017 Dope Awards. Cultivar’s commitment to excellence and genetic diversity differentiates it from many others, proving that craft-quality cannabis can be produced on a large scale. Located in the heart of Seattle, in a previously derelict shipping facility in the SoDo neighborhood, House of Cultivar holds a Tier III indoor-production/processing state license. The company also maintains a strong focus on sustainability and lowering its carbon footprint. When it comes to lighting, water and waste, the House of Cultivar team is always looking for ways to diminish its impact on the environment. The company has even worked with the city to reduce its electrical load by 46 percent off baseline. Passion for Strains Mindscape turns purple approaching maturity. Another aspect that sets House of Cultivar apart is the team’s commitment to growing and stocking a wide variety of different strains. Between its mother-plant library and its tissue-culture laboratory, Cultivar possesses over 350 unique live genetic specimens. The company’s large stock of seeds comes almost entirely directly from the original breeders. The list of varieties that it grows is staggering, far too many to print here, but suffice it to say that it is vast and filled with gems including OGs, Cookies, Diesels, Chems, Lemons and Sherbets. These aren’t watered-down versions of these varieties either. The crew that hunted these genetics down did their due diligence because each and every one of the varieties represents the unique and robust terpene profile that matches its name. Whether it’s something gassy, fruity or earthy, the strains grown at House of Cultivar are the perfect rendition of their potential. Cultivar’s Chem Mint Cookies and Super Glue are two of the most fragrant, potent and amazing varieties I’ve ever sampled. In particular, House of Cultivar prides itself on its archive of Chem Dog family strains—Chem D, Chem 91, Guava, Snowdog and many more—and the Cultivar staff has searched for the phenos that test high in THC and have the most essential-oil production. As a longtime Chem-strain fan, I was impressed by the quality and quantity of Cultivar’s archive. Tissue-Culture Lab A tissue culture specimen. Although it still employs traditional cloning techniques, House of Cultivar also maintains a completely sterile tissue-culture laboratory in order to preserve, improve and micropropagate its vast library of genetics. The facility has a magnetic locking-door system to avoid cross-contamination and state-of-the-art equipment for clean regeneration practices. House of Cultivar’s director of lab operations, Mike Hydro, gives me a guided tour and explains exactly what he and his team are looking to accomplish by using tissue-culture technology. Think of tissue culture as cloning, but on the cellular level. A tiny fragment of an emerging node, a callus the size of a pinhead, is carefully cut from a plant and then suspended in agar inside a test tube. These disease-free plantlets can then be used for a variety of purposes depending on the needs of the laboratory. The benefits of utilizing tissue-culture techniques include ridding plant stock of pests, diseases and pathogens. Mold- or insect-damaged genetic material that would normally have to be discarded can be cleansed and restored to its true original and robust potential. Topical issues such as pest damage can be handled in one generation while bacterial and fungal issues may take multiple generations of micropropagation to mitigate. In this way, House of Cultivar’s genetics can be preserved in vitro and stored for many years in its cryogenic freezer and even improved upon over time. Another advantage of micropropagation is for rapid multiplication of plants. One healthy mother plant can produce thousands of explants, which are then coaxed into rooted cuttings ready for the vegetative stage of growth. Conventional cloning produces just a fraction of these amounts. I’ve seen tissue-culture labs in action all over the world, but this was the first time I’ve witnessed commercial cannabis production using micro-propagated plants. Watching the team at House of Cultivar put this cutting-edge technology into practice gave me a glimpse into the future of cannabis cultivation. Growing Artisanal Weed Cultivars Golden Gage plants grow through the trellis. The cultivation chambers at House of Cultivar are climate-controlled using a full dew-point-managed HVAC system with HEPA filtration and advanced biocontrol. Flowering plants are lit with a combination of multi-spectrum ceramic metal halide (CMH) lighting and double-ended high-pressure sodium (HPS) fixtures. The use of the CMH systems reduces energy consumption by over 50 percent! The plants, grown in a blend of RHP-certified organic Cloud Coir coco and perlite, clearly love the mixed-spectrum lighting. They glisten with swollen glandular trichomes whose bulbous heads are filled with the essential oils. These terpenes, cannabinoids and flavonoids are what give the stellar strains their aromas, flavors and effects. Whether growing artisanal weed for flower or concentrate production, the proper preservation of these pungent and potent organic compounds is what separates the best from the rest. The vegetative and flowering areas are in opposite areas of the complex to ensure that their environmental conditions are optimal for each individual stage of plant life. Water passes through multiple filtration treatments including RO (reverse osmosis). Facility architect and vice president of operations Matthew Gaboury takes me through the various parts of the House of Cultivar complex and explains how it all works together to produce high-quality cannabis and concentrates. The eight 90-light flowering rooms are staggered at two weeks apart, allowing House of Cultivar to harvest perpetually. This ensures that a fresh product reaches the marketplace in a regular and timely fashion. The rooms are filled with plant beds on rolling trays. Plants in coco cubes sit on top of the coco-perlite mix, eliminating the need for individual plastic pots and reducing water waste due to runoff by over 20 percent. Pest Control Washington State cannabis regulations don’t allow growers to use pesticides of any kind. House of Cultivar uses a system of OMRI-certified organic IMP (integrated pest management) consisting of only biological controls including predator mites, nematodes and beneficial fungi that outcompete powdery mildew (PM) in the root zone. The predatory mites attack the larvae of fungus gnats, thrips and root aphids as well as full-grown broad, spider and russet mites. Harvest Plants are hang dried and cold cured whole. All plants are flushed for 10-12 days from harvest with only plain water and natural enzymes. Plants are hung to dry whole and intact to preserve the “nose” of the flowers. Drying takes place in hermetically sealed chambers with antimicrobial wallboard and their own HVAC system to dial in environmental controls. At the perfect temperature and humidity levels, terpene preservation is at the maximum. Leaves are left on the plant during the drying process to protect the fragile trichome glands. Humidity is kept at 56-60 percent to slow the process. The flowers then undergo a dry trim. No machines are used. All of the colas are hand-trimmed with scissors by a crew before being placed into containers to cure. Drying takes place for two weeks and curing takes one to two weeks minimum. At the moment, Cultivar is pulling approximately 75-85 pounds of dry flowers per room. Products and Packaging Quality only results from hard work. Only the premium nugs go into flower packages. Trim and smaller buds are saved for processing into extracts and Goldfinger pre-rolls, which are infused-flower joints painted with a sticky distillate/terpene-honey mix and then rolled in dry-sifted trichome glands. This results in a dipped and dusted slow-burning, flavorful spliff that can get a whole roomful of smokers quite high. They’re currently available in five different flavors with more soon to come. Final Hit: Growing Artisanal Weed House of Cultivar’s vice president and head of processing, Alex Parisi, shows me a few of the company’s processing and extraction capabilities. On top of growing artisanal weed, Cultivar produces hydrocarbon extractions for distillates and strain-specific CO2 vape carts using an Eden 20-liter CO2 machine. A hydraulic press also provides award-winning rosin squeezed from flowers and dry sift. House of Cultivar has become known throughout Washington for growing artisanal weed and their flavorful and potent concentrates.