Grow Colorado - January 2011

January 2011

™

Cold Water Extraction a step by step instruction with a set of Boldtbags.

Centennial Seeds find out what it takes

to become the only certified seed company in Colorado

Supreme Beans Hawaiian Cannabis Genetics

Beneficial Bugs

Q & A with M & R Durango Insectary Owner, Lee Anne Merill

Strain Reviews

Q&A with M & R Durango Insectary Owner, Lee Anne Merill

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Contents Features Published By COW MOUNTAIN MEDIA

50: Cold Water Extraction step by step instruction

Publisher & Editor Eric Sligh Co-Editor Alex Kardos John deiker Art Director Vanessa CHandler

32: Strain Reviews a closer look at popular strains

High Outside 72: High Outside: A pictorial focuserd on the joys of outdoor growing.

56: Beneficial Bugs Q & A with M & R Durango Insectary Owner, Lee Anne Merill

Regulars 14 Spirit Gardening with Ol’ Swampy 15 Federal Agents raid Vegas’ Dispensaries 16 Marijuana in the News 28 Strain reviews 44 Seattle Hempfest 58 Cypress Hill smokeout 76 Propogation 101 78 Cannabis Manipulation

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Contributing Writers John Deiker Jesse Cretaro Mark Weinstein D. Bridges T.A. Sedlak K.Y. Shek Contributing Photographers Tom Green

Advertising Alex Kardos - 720-448-0393 Tim Degroot Email: akardos@humboldtgrow.com Grow Magazine assumes no responsibility for any claims or representations contained in this magazine or in any advertisement nor do they encourage the illegal use of any of the products advertised within.

No portion of this magazine may be reproduced without the written consent of the publisher.

2010 © GROW CALIFORNIA MAGAZINE COW MOUNTAIN MEDIA

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Intelligence/United States

When the Majority Says Marijuana Should Not Be a Crime the Law Loses Its Legitimacy.

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It is hard to imagine that Eric Holder’s letter threatening to “vigorously enforce” federal law if California votes for legalization of marijuana is serious. It seems timed to manipulate voters in California, but in this year when political elites are hated it is likely to backfire and lead Californians to vote to end the failed marijuana war.

During one of the greatest failed experiments in American history, alcohol prohibition, a turning point was when New York told the federal government it would no longer enforce laws against alcohol. That left it to the federal government to enforce the law. Instantly “the feds,” as they were then and now derogatorily known, were hated in rural areas where alcohol was often produced and the feds came in and disrupted their commerce. Then, the biggest urban area refused to enforce the law. The result, alcohol prohibition ended a few years later.

Attorney General Eric Holder last week promised: “We will vigorously enforce the [Controlled Substances Act] against those individuals and organizations that possess, manufacture or distribute marijuana for recreational use, even if such activities are permitted under state law.”

Does he mean that the federal government will start enforcing laws against possession of marijuana? Or, be looking in people’s homes to see if they are growing or using marijuana? That they will be searching people’s backyards for their marijuana victory garden?

It is hard to believe that in a nation where half the murders go unsolved that the Department of Justice would make marijuana a priority after the people voted for legalization. It is hard to believe that an attorney general who decided not to enforce laws against torturers and lawyers who enabled torture would instead prosecute people for marijuana offenses.

The police and the courts depend on the cooperation of communities to keep order. If a majority of Californians vote for legalization of adult use and cultivation of marijuana what kind of legitimacy do the laws against marijuana have? Already, large numbers distrust law enforcement; the feds will have no legitimacy if they are enforcing a law the majority opposes.

I realize that Holder has the responsibility of enforcing federal law. But, continuing on autopilot with aggressive marijuana law enforcement is a

disservice, indeed an injustice. Passage of Prop. 19 is an opportunity to begin a national discussion of how to better control marijuana. Prohibition has been a failure, the marijuana war has been expensive and damaging; there are better ways.

Proposition 19 is an opportunity for law enforcement officers to help lead the country in the direction of a more just and fair society. As long ago as 1972 a federal commission appointed by President Nixon, the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse, recommended decriminalization of marijuana. And, this was restated in 1982 by a commission of the National Academy of Science in their report “An Analysis of Marijuana Policy” which urged consideration of legalization.

Experts have continuously argued throughout the eighty year war on marijuana that our government has been taking the wrong approach; now the citizens, the voters, are showing they agree.

The U.S. criminal justice system is already seen by many as a system of injustice. Why? Because the United States with 5% of the world’s population has 25% of the world’s prisoners. One in 31 Americans is either behind bars, on probation or on parole; for African Americans it is one in 11 adults. This mass “criminal” population in “the land of the free” shows that something is terribly wrong. What drives a system that results in 7 million Americans behind bars, on probation or parole? No doubt, one of the driving forces is the war on drugs, and marijuana is the driving force of the drug war, with a marijuana an arrest taking place every 38 seconds, equaling approximately 840,000 annually.

Hopefully, Attorney General Holder will re-think his plan to escalate federal enforcement if a majority votes for ending criminal laws against marijuana. He should instead lead the nation to laws that are consistent with the essence of justice, i.e. being righteous and fair. Is it righteous or fair to enforce laws that the majority says should no longer exist?

Attorney General Holder - America needs real just leadership. We need a leader who will help the country face up to its mass incarceration problem and its misuse of law enforcement to incarcerate people who grow a plant or smoke an herb. Mr. Attorney General you can do better than just saying - we’re going to ignore the people and keep arresting people for something they think should no longer be illegal.

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Intelligence/GARDEN Spirit Gardening with Ol’ Swampy

Bringing Heart and Soul to the Art of Farming Fine Cannabis

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ow to Speak to Plants

Welcome to the second installment of Spirit Gardening.

Last issue we discussed the key concept of Spirit Gardening: That your plants are listening to and interacting with you on many different levels. If you need to get caught up on the basics, refer to Volume 1, Issue 3 of Grow Colorado Magazine available free online. As promised, in this issue you will learn some basic techniques on how to communicate directly with your plants.

These techniques are fun and easy to use.

However, before you get started you should make a few preparations. Set aside plenty of time to practice. This way you and your plants will not feel rushed. Your garden should be generally well kept, tidy, and pleasant to work in. Some nice tunes and a pipe packed with some of your finest flowers will help set the proper ambiance. And now, Spirit Gardeners, you are ready to go to work.

When you enter your garden, take it in with a fresh set of eyes, a renewed awareness, a clear mind, and a few deep breaths (air or ganja works well). Resist the temptation to let your mind race ahead to all of the day’s garden chores… just take it all in. No need to pull that one dying leaf off, start checking soil moisture, clicking through timers and thermometers, or thinking about nutrient needs. Slow down and simply be with your plants. Have a puff and let the smoke roll out over the canopy of green leaves, watching the shadow and light dance as the plants sway in the breeze. Notice how incredible they really are. Admire their beauty.

Realize your plants carry out their own lives while you are off living yours. Absorb the overall character and vibe of your garden. At the same time, take note of your own state of being as

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you relate to your garden. Approaching the garden in this way is a great start to your daily work. It will help you to be more relaxed and more perceptive to the state of affairs in your garden. It also opens up the doorway to a direct Q&A with everything from a single plant to an entire crop. This practice is really the beginning of fostering an energetic connection with your plants.

As you may find, this process is mostly about getting your own mind out of the way of the clear conversation between human and plant.

This conversation is simply between one life form and another life form. Remember, matter is energy and energy is matter. Our concepts of separateness, of plant and animal, of verbal and nonverbal communication, are just that; they are concepts. We made up these rules and then forgot that we made them up to begin with. To speak to your plants, I suggest letting go of what you assume is possible. Now it is time to turn awareness into action.

Here is my straightforward method of how to talk to and listen to plants. Begin by trying this with a single plant, and as you become more familiar with the techniques you can involve more plants in the process. This method can be used for plants at any stage of growth and any type of growing system or environment.

Step 1. Focus in on one plant, if possible take it aside so it can be near to you. Vibe the plant the same way you did with your whole garden.

Simply be with this life form. Relax your mind by letting your eyes be soft, and allowing them to roam over the leaves, stems, and flowers.

Let the palms of your hands be soft, open, and facing towards the plant. As you take the plant in, remember that half of its life force is in the roots. Bring the whole root zone into your awareness as well.

Call up a feeling inside of partnership with this life form. For some it is a feeling of love,

compassion, wonder, beauty, or qi/prana/life force/spirit. It does not matter what internal message you use, what matters is that you feel a shift in your body to greater openness towards this plant. The one that works for me is to say in my mind to myself and to the plant, “We are doing this together.” A strong sensation will enter your body, especially your hands, as the plant’s energy comes into focus. Like tuning in a radio station; out of the fuzziness, static, and jumbled sounds comes clarity. This is the feeling you are going for. The conduit is now open.

Step 2. Now you may ask most anything you desire to know from your plant. Asking the question in the proper way is the trick. Start as simply as possible, with yes or no style questions. “Would you like water today?” “Are you too hot?” “Do you have enough food?”

“Are you ready to be re potted?” Whether or not you actually speak the words is irrelevant.

Intention is everything. Ask the question clearly whether you speak or just send an energetic message. As you get better at listening for the plant’s reply, you can ask more open-ended questions, and collect information much more varied than yes and no.

Step 3. Listen for the reply. The reply comes in the form of a clear body sensation. I can be sure that you will experience this sensation because you experience it all the time. A yes or no from your plant will feel similar to the yes and no we receive from other people on a daily basis. Recall, through sensations in your body, the feeling when someone really agrees with you and supports you. It is the feeling of being boosted, lifted up, inspired. Your energy will rise upwards as if you could float off the ground. This is “yes.”

Your plant’s “no” will, likewise, feel like the no’s you experience on a regular basis. Recall the feeling you have inside when someone opposes or disagrees with you, or simply says

“No thank you.” No does not imply something bad, it just has a very distinct feel from yes.

The body sensation of no is generally a sinking energy, it can also feel deflating, and is much more reserved and still than the exciting call to action of yes.

One other possibility in the yes/no scenario is ambivalence. This response feels very much like “I’m not sure.” Recall a time when you have felt indecisive or confused; this is ambivalence.

This reply [happens far less often than you may think. Though we may feel confused sometimes, the plants rarely are. If you get this response try asking another time.

Step 4. When you have the reply, act. For example, let’s use the question “Would you like water today?” If you get a no, thank your plant, close communication with it, and know that non-action is just as valuable as action. If the reply is yes, then water, but always notice the plant’s reaction. Always notice the “thank you.” Notice how your plant responds to being communicated with, listened to, and then tended to, versus you telling the plant what to do. You will find it is quite satisfying for all happy life forms involved.

What are the benefits to this art of crossspecies speak?

You will now be able to communicate directly with your plants on a daily basis as well as around their most important life events. Use these techniques to prepare your plants for cloning, repotting, bending, pruning, staking, and harvesting. You may notice certain varieties vibing you quite strongly. Take this into account. I have taken garden tours with different growers, and been able to almost psychedelically “see” the energy flowing between a grower and their favorite variety.

This is a sign of plant-human soul mates, which have finally found one another.

Cannabis plants have many stories to share with us. I have had certain plants practically jump up and shout at me that they should be selected as a new mother plant. I have had certain plants tell me when they were ready to be retired. I have also received powerful energetic messages, which could not even be grasped by my logical mind, from the shimmering resinous peaks of cannabis flowers. These exchanges go far beyond a simple yes or no. The possibilities for communication are limitless.

Gardening in this way will improve your health as well. We are entering a meditative, self-induced hypnotic state so that we can communicate directly with a vastly different life form. Spending time working in this way will encourage relaxation, clarity, and a deep sense of soul and spirit. You may even find yourself having more effective communication with all the other beings you encounter in your life as well. And, of course, you will produce healthy, energetically balanced, sensuous medicine of the highest possible quality.

Grow with your spirit. Partner with your plants.

Ol’ Swampy out.

Intelligence/las vegas, NV Federal Agents Raid At Least Five Las Vegas Medical Marijuana Dispensaries

Advocates underscore need for dispensary regulations, end to federal enforcement.

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as Vegas, NV -- The federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) conducted raids earlier today on at least five medical marijuana dispensaries in Las Vegas, Nevada, and reportedly seized patient and financial records, but made no arrests. According to the Associated Press, Natalie Collins, spokeswoman for the local U.S. Attorney’s office said that the federal search warrants and “supporting affidavits stemming from what she called ‘an ongoing law enforcement operation’ were sealed by federal court order.” The dispensaries raided today by federal agents and local police included: Happiness Consultant, Salvation Haven, Nature’s Way, Organic Releaf, & Holistic Solutions. The federal raids come nearly a year after an October 2009 Justice Department directive issued to U.S. Attorneys in medical marijuana states, deprioritizing enforcement against medical marijuana patients and providers. The Las Vegas raids occurred less than two months after another spate of federal raids in July against state-compliant patients in California and Michigan. “The federal government should never be called on to enforce local or state medical marijuana laws,” said Caren Woodson, Director of Government Affairs with Americans for Safe Access (ASA), the country’s largest medical marijuana advocacy group. “The federal DEA must abide by the Justice Department policy and stay out of the enforcement of local and state medical marijuana laws.” In July, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman stated publicly on local television that allowing dispensaries was “a very legitimate goal,” and that, “If doctors say that it does a patient some good and gives relief to somebody that has a dire need for it, I’m all for it.” Nevada failed to consider the issue of

distribution at the time of adopting its medical marijuana law in 2000. Although the state allows “Designated Primary Caregivers” to supply medical marijuana to patients, the qualifications are stringent and require “significant responsibility for managing the well-being of a person diagnosed with a chronic or debilitating medical condition.” Nevada’s effort to address the need of sick patients to access local distribution of medical marijuana mirrors the efforts in other states like California, Colorado, Michigan, Oregon and Washington. Both Maine and Rhode Island have amended their laws to include state-licensed distribution similar to the medical marijuana laws of New Mexico.

The trend to ensure safe access to medical marijuana by establishing licensed distribution facilities has even extended to states currently deliberating new medical marijuana laws, such as Iowa, Kansas, Maryland and Wisconsin. “A failure to regulate the much-needed distribution of medical marijuana by states such as Nevada should not be seen as a green light by the feds to conduct raids,” continued Woodson. ASA has and will continue to work with both federal officials in the Obama Administration as well as local and state officials in Nevada to address the safe distribution of medical marijuana as a public health issue. The DEA is currently being directed by Bush-appointee Michele Leonhart, who served as deputy under DEA Administrator Karen Tandy; both were responsible for more than 200 federal raids in California and other medical marijuana states during the Bush Administration. Against objections from medical marijuana advocates, President Obama nominated Leonhart to head the DEA under his Justice Department, but her Senate confirmation has yet to be scheduled.

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Intelligence/grow Verticalponics

Getting the most out of your grow space

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he best ideas are always the ones that make you say, “why didn’t I think of that?!” Once invented, explained, or shown, they seem so obvious that you find yourself wondering, “how come this advancement took this long?” Well, that is precisely what everyone will be asking themselves when they hear about and see the new “Verticalponics” systems created by Supercloset, Inc. Supercloset, not content to be the best in cabinets alone, but to also be the trend setters for the newest advancements in design and technology pertaining to the hydroponics community, have used their industry experience and know how to bring you the greatest thing to happen to your grow room since…well... ever. The Research & Development crew at Supercloset, lead by Kip Andersen, CEO and inventor of the Supercloset, sought to find a way to maximize yields in a confined space.

The design of grow rooms were dissected down to the very basics and the questions finally arose, “How can we get more out of the same square footage of space?” “What if we took the grow space off of the ground?” “What if we grew on the walls?” This notion may sound ridiculous, but this simple, and somewhat silly, idea is what has lead to the greatest industry advancement in sq. ft. x sq. ft. yields since… well...ever.

Traditional grow rooms or setups have a few obvious norms; plants on the floor, lights on the ceiling. These fundamental design elements are not even thought about, but why would you place a light above your plants when half of the wattage is then just being reflected off of the ceiling? Why would you waste all of that energy!? Why would you position your lights in such a way that the entire bottom third of

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your plant gets little to no energy from them!?

This lower third gets virtually no light because it is shaded by the upper two thirds of the plant, making this portion of the plant a blatant waste.

“Well,” you may say, “you have to grow this way because plants grow up to the sky.” But is it a plant’s desire to grow straight up, or towards its energy source? Aha! Plants grow towards their light source, wherever it may be. So, what if we took that light source and instead of installing it horizontally above the plants, we took it and ran it vertically down the center of your grow space? What if we then made the four tiered walls of the grow room the location of the seated net cups? What you, in essence, will get is a space equivalent in square footage to your old room, but with 4x the growing space, and one that doesn’t waste a single bit of your bulbs output.

Welcome to Vertical Growing. Vertical growth systems are tiered hydroponics systems that contain 4 multi-shelved walls of net cups nested in horizontal basins situated around a centralized light column, which extends from floor to ceiling. The effect of this amazing set up is four lush walls of flora all growing towards the center of your space. Supercloset’s design, called the “Big Buddha Box,” takes these design elements and throws in their own twist.

Their unit employs “Verticalponics,” which combines vertical growing and “Superponics” (more on this in a minute), as well as providing everything that you need to start growing immediately, including the all important 4-sided net trellis, which hangs between your plants and the light they are eagerly reaching towards.

It gives you the ability to support, train, and tie down your plants, ultimately creating more robust, thick, and bushy plants. You will be the creator of four healthy, dense, floral walls that will not only hold the greatest yields you have

ever received from your space, guaranteed, but also the eye candy that will have you calling your friends and saying, “You have got to see this!!”

As if this concept alone wasn’t enough to have you already planning on how to convert your grow room, it gets even better. The “Big Buddha Box”” comes with Supercloset’s own “Superponics” system. All industry experts know that there are currently a few “best practices” in hydroponics growing. There are some time tested strategies and processes that are widely recognized as being the best in the business. Supercloset has quantified these, put them together, and dubbed the combination of them all as Superponics.

Superponics, put simply, is a synergy of hydroponics technology. It is the technical term that combines all of the best hydroponics growing methods into one system that grows plants up to 2x-5x faster than traditional methods. Superponics systems fuse different combinations of Top Feed, Deep Water Culture, Ebb N’ Flow, Bubble, and Aeroponics all into one automated system allowing you to grow the fastest, easiest, and most you possibly can in your allotted space. While everyone knows that plant roots need nutrients and water, average growers often neglect the most important element, the oxygen. In order to reach their full potential and completely thrive, plants need the nutrient rich water to also be rich in oxygen. The “Big Buddha Box” Superponics system utilizes two methods to achieve maximum oxygenation of the roots, Ebb n’ Flow and Bubble, Aeroponics. The fully automated pumps slowly raise and lower the water level in each lateral tank, which ensures that the roots achieve equal quantities of oxygen throughout the day. The

air diffusers that run along the floor of each tier also consistently shoot continuous streams of air bubbles towards the roots. The result is a tightly knit network of the silkiest white root clusters you have ever seen. Once again, you will be on the phone proclaiming to anyone who will listen, “You have got to see this!”

Supercloset currently has three product lines that feature the Verticalponics design: The “Buddha Box,” which measures 4’x4’ (6’x6’ with the complete tent package), the “Big Buddha Box” (6’x6’, 8’x8’ with tent), and the Super Grow Trailer.

The Super Grow Trailer is enough to make any grower start to drool. This marvel is proof of the adage, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” This discreet towable trailer looks like any other from

the outside, but we all know that it is what is inside that counts. While these trailers are custom made to order and are capable of supporting a wide array of growth systems, the Verticalponics Systems, which we suggest, will give you the most bang for your buck. The 16ft. Super Grow Trailer can fit two full-sized Big Buddha Boxes allowing you to harvest up to 144 plants and up to 14 lbs. of most dried herbs and flowers. The clean and simple design provides the utmost stealth coupled with maximum yield. Now you can quite literally “Grow on the Go.” Utilizing both Verticalponics will literally turn a single, average grow room into an unprecedented four.

This cutting edge design will double to quadruple any yields per watt, per square foot,

than any traditional growing method as well as achieving perfect light distribution and quality from top to bottom. Achieving 3 – 7 lbs. of dried herbs or flowers in a space of this size is almost unheard of, but now entirely plausible. The Superponics system will also grow your plants 2x – 5x faster than current, standard systems. Supercloset has already begun to see the outrageous demand for these new systems. Commercial growers are contacting them looking to convert entire rooms over to this cutting edge design and system. Can you imagine your 6’ x 6’ room now producing the yield of a room with 144 square feet of space?! It certainly does sound too good to be true, but it is a reality thanks to the brains behind Supercloset.

In addition to all of these benefits, the SuperTent

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The Complete Big Buddha Box Grow Rooms Comes with All the Following: 1) Fully automated, turnkey Superponics/Verticalponics system 2) Discrete, simple, clean, and lightproof 3) Added air flow with inline vortex fans 4) Attach-anywhere internal circulation fans for added airflow 5) Reflective coating on the interior of the tent for

added light distribution.

6) A completely controlled light and dark environment.

7) An industrial grade carbon based air filtration system,

effectively reducing noise and odor.

8) The ability to add in optional CO2.

See your harvests increase by 30%! comes with everything you need to get started: A year supply of nutrients, pH testing kit, internal circulation fans for added airflow, TDS meter, rock wool cubes, clay rocks, temperature gauges, timers, surge protectors, and pumps. You can quite literally get started as soon as your portable room arrives. Once everyone gets a chance to

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see this system in action, they will all be asking themselves the question, “why didn’t I think of that?!”

Supercloset is a company based out of San Francisco that over the past ten years has primarily been focused on creating the perfect

“all-inclusive,” fully automated hydroponic grow cabinet. They have been largely successful in this endeavor, as evidenced by their numerous awards and accreditations given by such high profile publications as High Times. … As Kip would say, “Happy Growing.”

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Intelligence/marijuana in the news Around the World

London U.K.:

A new study has shown that cannabis and its proposed links to short-term memory loss could be less pronounced, or understood, than we think. The results did not rule out a relationship-correlation between smoking cannabis and short-term memory loss, but did find that it was only in one particular strain of marijuana tested—“skunk-type strains”— that participants in the experiment exhibited marked impairment; whereas people who smoked hashish or blended (hybrid) strains did just as well, either stoned or sober.

Michigan:

There are Tons of Patients—But where is the Pot? As a state with over 28,000 registered medical marijuana patients, Michigan is only behind California and Colorado in cardcarrying-cannabis-enthused citizens. However, the burgeoning bud scene in Michigan has one massive logistical concern: Where are these patients supposed to get their medicine? There are not nearly enough marijuana dispensaries within the state to supply the demand for meds, with ambiguous regulations and irregular lawenforcement practices limiting the number of potential business-collective owners. As Keith Stroup, founder of Michigan’s NORML Chapter has said, “Running a dispensary in Michigan, under current law, is very risky, and I would advice against it.”

Colorado Springs, CO:

The Department of Homeland Security has an eye in your sky Colorado Springs. It’s

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been revealed that on April 9th of this past spring, Metro Vice, Narcotics and Intelligence Task Force launched—literally, launched—an investigation into a series of buildings in the city that were suspected of housing large cannabis grow operations. To facilitate their efforts in uncovering the truth behind their hunch the Task Force brought in the aide of a Department of Homeland Security plane, which, with heatsensor technology on-board flew from Canada to Colorado Springs in order to investigate the buildings from high above. The plane was a Swiss-produced Pilatus PC-12 Specter that cost 7 million dollars to build. As for the outcome of this investigation? After the excessive show of force and complete waste of time and tax dollars, the results, well, they hardly turned out to be spy-plane worthy: the Task Force arrested a resounding six people, who were later charged with cultivation.

Sacramento, CA:

On October 1st, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed Senate Bill 1449 into effect, reducing the punishment for adultpossession of less than one-ounce of marijuana in the state from a misdemeanor to an infraction with a maximum punishment of a $100 fine.

Though he doesn’t support legalization of marijuana, the Governator does believe that Bill 1449 will save the courts money and time, stating: “Prosecutors, defense attorneys, law enforcement and the courts can’t afford to expend limited resources prosecuting a crime that carries the same punishment as a traffic ticket.”

San Francisco, CA:

Beer VS. Buds! The battle against Prop 19 rages on. The CBBD—California Beer and Beverage Distributors—have been actively spending money (campaigning, that is) to stop Proposition 19, California’s November 2nd marijuana-legalization legislation.

As reported by the Huffington Post, the CBBD donated $10,000 to Public Safety First, a group opposing legalization. However, there are those within the beer community who do not agree with the CBBD. California-based micro brewing companies Sierra Nevada and Stone Brewing Co. have both been outspoken about their opposing position—they are fine with the idea of finely crafted brews and buds coexisting. For their courage to go against the frothy tide, Grow recommends you go out a buy yourself a six-pack of Sierra’s Pale Ale or Stone Brewery’s fine lager to support these righteous brewers.

Aurora, CO:

State officials are developing, or proposing to develop, a system to be implemented that could enable the state to track medical marijuana sales more precisely. There are a growing number of officials in state and local governments who fear that some patients are buying large quantities of marijuana from local dispensaries and then re-distributing it on the green-black market. In light of these concerns, Big Brother could be poking his invasive head into our kind, new industry in the form of computer placement and video monitoring within all dispensaries, as well as by maintaining a record of all the state’s medical

marijuana patients by keeping their fingerprints in a database!

Los Angeles, CA:

Leaders of the SEIU—Service Employees International Union—the largest labor union in the state, have given their support to Proposition 19, believing that the revenue streams brought in from marijuana taxation could help the state of California avoid making more cost cuts to programs such as education, employment, health care, home care, and elderly care programs.

Seattle, WA:

In early September, Canada’s Prince of Pot, Mr. Marc Emery, seed bank-extraordinaire, finally had to face the music. After fighting extradition from Canada to the US for nearly five years, U.S. District Judge Ricardo Martinez threw the book at Emery, sentencing him to five years in a Federal Prison after being charged and convicted of selling millions of cannabis seeds via phone and internet purchase orders.

We wish Mr. Emery the best and hope his stint in the big house is as short, and harmless, as possible.

USA:

A new report has shown that the war on marijuana seems to be somewhat of a war exclusively enforced against minorities. The report’s findings, which were collected by the Marijuana Arrest Research for the Drug Policy Alliance and the N. A.A. C. P., found that minorities are, and have been, more prone to being arrested for possession of marijuana.

“In the last 20 years, California made 850,000 arrests for possession of small amounts of marijuana, and half-a-million of those arrests (have occurred) in the last 10 years. The people arrested were disproportionately African-American and Latinos, overwhelmingly young people, especially men.” In the city of Los Angeles, for example, the report claims that law enforcement has, “arrested blacks for marijuana at seven times the rate of whites.”

Santa Rosa, CA:

A budding artistic community is emerging in the hills of Sonoma County. On a 120-acre site, two nonprofit organizations—American Medicinals and the Life is Art Foundation— have established the first cannabis-artist colony—a pastoral piece of heaven where pot grows beside paintings underneath pergolas.

On the grounds, medical marijuana is grown in compliance with Prop 215 to enable the colony a modest subsistence. This nonprofit haven was founded by Kirsha Kaechele and her partner, John Orgon with the goal of sharing art with the public while also providing solace and creative peace for artists seeking both sublime scenery and safe access.

Washington, D.C.:

Federal intervention is imminent! On October 18th, in what seemed to be a fear-tactic to dissuade the voters of California from passing Proposition 19, U.S. Attorney General-Drug Czar Eric Holder Jr. outlined his attack on

legalized marijuana, if the state were to vote in favor of it come November 2nd. Holder, under orders from the Obama administration, has been delightfully laissez-faire about the proliferation of medical marijuana, particularly when compared to the Draconian cannabis code enforced under the Bush administration.

However, Holder is defiantly against marijuana legalization, and if the Golden State passes Proposition 19, Holder has vowed to bring the federal government to California. “We will vigorously enforce the Federal Controlled Substances Act (Federal Law) against those individuals and organizations that posses, manufacture or distribute marijuana for recreational use, even if such activities are permitted under state law.”

Colorado Springs, CO:

The coffers of Colorado Springs are being filled by cannabis revenue. As reported by the Gazette, “sales tax revenues from medical marijuana have risen to about $50,000 a month, allowing the city to mow grass medians and consider restoring some Saturday bus service.” And most ironically, the Colorado Spring’s Police Department, those men in blue who have been so embittered by the presence of marijuana in their town, will now be re-vamping their poorly funded force. “After years of budget cuts, the Police Department’s rebuilding efforts appear to be starting with medical marijuana money.” Therefore, whether you are for or against medical marijuana Mr. and Mrs. Colorado, there is empirical data that cannot be denied—it can be a money maker for your fledgling city, county, and state economies.

British Columbia, Canada:

Black bears and Bud? This is a first. There are many ways to guard your garden, and at Grow we have seen and heard about nearly every one: trip wire; electric wire; dogs; barbwire and the fully loaded all-night lookout. But never have we come across a garden being guarded by gigantic Black bears, which, is exactly what Canadian Mounted police conducting a raid on a marijuana farm found—And they were alarmed, to say the least. Yet these bears were docile, calm and not hostile, almost amicable...

All ten of them! “They were tame, they just sat around watching. At one point one of the bears climbed onto the hood of a police car, sat there for a bit and then jumped off,” said Mounted Police sergeant Fred Mansveld.

Boston, MA:

On September 19th, thousands of beadyeyed Bostonians converged upon the Boston Commons (large park in the middle of the city) to participate in a pro-marijuana legalization rally. MassCann, the state’s NORML chapter, hosted the 21st Annual Boston Freedom Rally.

Boston police were on the scene and their presence resulted in the issuing of 34 civil citations for possession of marijuana.

Intelligence Trenton, NJ

T

renton, NJ: Medical cannabis advocates are criticizing draft regulations circulated by the Department of Health that seek to implement the New Jersey Compassionate Medical Marijuana Act. Advocates, including the act’s chief legislative sponsor, believe that the proposed measures are unduly restrictive and are not responsive to patients needs.

The proposed regulations call for the state to begin overseeing the distribution of medical marijuana to state-authorized patients by July 2011. The manufacturing of medical cannabis would be limited to two licensed facilities. The proposed rules also restrict the percentage to THC that may be present in the plant to no more than ten percent, and limit the varieties of cannabis that may be produced to no more than three strains.

Four additional state licensed facilities would be permitted to dispense cannabis.

Patients would be authorized to possess no more than two ounces of cannabis per month, and would not be permitted to grow their own marijuana or share it with other registered patients.

Patients who possess unauthorized amounts or strains of marijuana will still be subject to arrest and criminal prosecution under the law.

Democratic Senator Nick Scutari, who sponsored the Compassionate Medical Marijuana Act, said that the regulations significantly alter state law, which mandate a total of six marijuana cultivation and distribution centers to be licensed throughout the state.

Chris Goldstein of NORML New Jersey and the Coalition for Medical Marijuana – New Jersey also criticized the draft regulations. “Rather than create a reasonable set of regulations, the Christie Administration is playing politics with the lives of New Jersey’s most severely ill residents,” he said in a prepared statement.

“Instead of opening a pathway to safe marijuana access these draft regulations only create more barriers.”

Health regulators have 60 days to review the regulations and accept public comment.

According to the Department of Health’s website, patients may begin applying in November to participate in the program.

Speaking at a town hall meeting on Tuesday, Republican Gov. Chris Christie said that he “would not have signed the law,” which was approved by former Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine.

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Genetics:

(Blueberry X Haze Plant) Sativa-dominate hybrid.

Grow Info:

Blue Dream is a sativa-dominant hybrid (70-80% sativa), which means in the right hands she can be a high-yielder outdoors, and can yield as much as one pound indoor, per plant, per 1000-watt light.

This strain produces dense, medium-sized buds (colas) tinted a light, limey green and blue, with flaming orange—not red—hairs interspersed throughout.

Taste/Smell:

Tropical, fruity taste and smell, similar to its Blueberry-tinged ancestors, but with a hint of the piney-menthol smell and taste akin to Haze plants.

Effect:

Blue Dream is becoming very popular because of its hybrid-high. Being a sativa-dominate lady, physiologically she is very cerebral, but, the Blueberry genetic ancestor adds a mellow, indic-ated, creeper-effect into the equation.

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Genetics:

F1 cross of a secret sativa strain selected from a garden in the vicinity of Durban, South Africa—hints, its name—and a Dutch-seed skunk plant.

Full-bodied sativa: 80-90%.

Grow Info:

Durban Poison’s flowering time is 8-9 weeks. She is a medium-to-high yielder, and is excellent for beginning/novice growers because of her resiliency.

Taste/Smell:

1stMarijuana Growers page describes the Poison’s taste perfectly: “Imagine drinking a minty-herbal tea from a glass that has a little bit of soap left in it.”

Effect:

Durban produces a very mellow sativa high. She is very similar in nature to the functional, cerebral, and studious buzz Sour Diesel and Snowcap has on the smoker.

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Genetics:

It is widely known that Trainwreck was proliferated in the Humboldt County coastal town Arcata, California, but what nobody seems to truly understand are the genetic ancestors of this plant. She has similar smell and after-effects of Snowcap, Jack Herer, and Haze plants, and based on these growing and smoking traits, it is generally agreed upon that Trainwreck is a full-bodied sativa plant.

Grow Info:

Trainwreck is a very high-yielding plant both indoor and outdoors, however, growers must not forget that she was given her namesake because of how gangly, and unpredictable, her growth patterns can be. The end result outdoors, though very fruitful, can often look like a‌ Trainwreck.

Taste/Smell:

Falls somewhere between the extremely mentholated-sweetness of Jack Herer and the lemon pine-zing of stellar haze and skunk phenotypes

Effect:

Sativa-dominate: giddy, giggly, hungry.

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Genetics:

(California Indica Pheno X Kashmir Pheno) Indica-Dominate

Grow Info:

Hashberry is a low-to-medium yielding plant with large, dense, kush-like colas. (Kashmir is an indica-dominate landrace strain from Kashmir, India). She has an 8-9 week flowering time, and is usually grown indoors,

Taste/Smell:

Old school genetics equates to an old school flavor—skunky,, kushy earth tones. This is a funky smelling plant with slight floral notes.

Effect:

Indica-dominate: Sedative, sleepy, heady, excellent for pain relief and snow-ins.

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Genetics:

(1970s California Skunk #1 X Unknown Haze Variety) Sativa-dominate, this plant was given her name because she was originally grown and stabilized on Vancouver Island, and because she is the offspring of Skunk #1, which, back in the day, was commonly referred to as “Sweet skunk.” Alas: Island Sweet Skunk

Grow Info:

Very popular within grower circles, ISS is a high-yielding, manageable plant to grow indoors and outdoors, producing beautiful tall, long buds, often with extremely high THC contents. Flowering time: 8-9 weeks.

Taste/Smell:

Sweet-meets-skunk: An unbelievably strong smelling plant.

Effect:

One of the headiest, stoniest sativa plants on the market, ISS, though sativa-dominate, can easily be mistaken for an indica plant.

Couch-lock is imminent.

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best of the summer With the fall in full-swing, winter nearly upon us, and summer now all but a distant memory, the staff at Grow Magazine would like to take a trip down nostalgic sunshine lane by highlighting some of this past summer’s strongest album releases.

Each summer music fans are privy to some of the year’s best releases. It’s the time of the year when weather permits bands to tour upon albums they’ve recently released, trecking the globe so their record label can cash in on this season of commerce, when parents and their home-from-school children are most apt to find themselves avoiding the heat and each other’s company by spending unthinkable amounts of hard-earned money on unnecessary expenses they purchase under the air-conditioned conduits of conglomerates like Best Buy, Target, Wal Mart, Costco, Walgreens and Ticketmaster.

This past summer was a fruitful one for all music fans— across the entire spectrum of musical genres were a plethora of potential masterpieces. Here’s a rundown of what this critic found to be the most impressive albums of the past summer.

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Arcade Fire: The Suburbs

(Best Alternative-Indie Rock Album) No band in 2010 faced more follow-up pressure than the Arcade Fire, the critical darlings who live and create in the evolving musical mecca that is Montreal, Canada. The band’s first album, Funeral, is now an official landmark, a turning point in indie-music history; an album that was so universally acclaimed and super-music-fan-adorned its impact on the shape of music to come can still be felt now, almost six years past its 2005 release.

The band’s second album, Neon Bible, though a massive success, was a darker, more brooding album—which, when one considers the title of their first album (Funeral) would seem hard to do. But they did: Arcade Fire went dangerously dark on Neon Bible, going beyond family dysfunction and teenage angst and moving into politics, worldaffairs, and other real messy big picture issues that artists tend to stay away for sales and marketing reasons. Nonetheless, in the end, though it was not as popular as their eponymous debut, Neon Bible was another total success, going 2x platinum and ending up on many musical press 2008 best-of-album lists.

So for their third album, the whole indie world, Arcade Fire fans and critics alike, were waiting for the failure, the flop, or, at least, for a disappointing affair. But, when the album dropped this past summer, none of the aforementioned adjectives could apply: The Suburbs is an album that one-ups almost everything the Fire have done to this point.

Depending on the day and your mood, it will rival, or exceed, any personal emotive out pours inspired by Funeral.

The Suburbs is a scathing take on life in Levittown; on growing up in those treelined, church filled, fringe cities Americans have come to know, love, and loathe, as the suburbs. Lead singer Win Butler, and his multi-instrumental brother-band mate, William Butler, are both from a suburb twenty-miles north of Houston, Texas known as The Woodlands. The Woodlands is a corporate owned entity, and is one of the largest master-planned suburban communities in the United States. After finishing high-school in this uber-bubble-burb, the Butler brothers quickly evacuated the place in favor of art-school in Montreal, where, Win soon met his future wife and band mate, Regine Chassagne, and where Arcade Fire, the band, was born. But Montreal music scene aside, I believe it’s worth noting that though they live and work in Montreal, this is not an urban Canadian band, as their sound, the critics, and your psyche may have led you to believe—Arcade Fire’s key song writing component is a product of the suburbs, and on this album he takes dead aim at everything he and his brother disagree with regarding their master-planned upbringing.

Sonically speaking, the sound on The Suburbs is great-- large but warm. With the aid of more money from the label, the Fire invested in a bottomless bucket of vintage instruments, and the band’s sound has gotten noticeably larger, more fleshed out, even arena-rockish in certain areas (But not too arenarockish; this isn’t the Kings of Leon). Primarily, The Suburbs is a quiet, mellow, hunky-dory album. Even when the lyrics are brooding, the sound and feel of the album is quite relaxed, and with the exception of a few tracks, most the sonic structures are not dead-on rockers, but low-key affairs with a lot of subtle, unfolding layers of exceptional art.

Standout Tracks: Modern Man; City With No Children; Suburban War

Flying Lotus: Cosmogramma

(Best Electronic-Experimental Album) Flying Lotus is the brainchild of electronic auteur Steven Ellison. Ellison lives in the border zone between Silver Lake and Echo Park, two of Los Angeles’ most musically colorful neighborhoods. On his debut album, Los Angeles, Ellison—aka Flying Lotus— took the sounds, feels and textures of his neighborhood-locale and translated the angstriddled, smog-filled contemporary urban zeitgeist in to an electronic sound collage that perfectly encapsulated the mood of the city by deftly creating an electronic union between Tinseltown’s darkest and brightest ethos. On Cosmogramma, Flying Lotus has put together his definitive opus, to date. Only two albums into his career as proper studio musician, it’s hard to believe the albums weight: Cosmogramma is an album so dense and intrinsic it commands multiple headphone listens before truly revealing the depths of its vast aural layers. Within its sonic landscape the album hits on a bit of everything, nearly every genre is employed at one point on the album, with Flying Lotus carefully crafting his creations between an army of organic instrumentation and digitally transferred samples. On paper, if it had to be genre-defined, it couldn’t be, but for starters, the album is part electro-pop, noise pop, part avant garde experimentation, jazz fusion, Detroit techno, industrial, part kraut rock, part IDM, and there is even something for the kids, as Cosmogramma has splices from a number of video game sequence patches in its production as well. The album features some high-profile guest collaborations, one with Thom Yorke of Radiohead who takes vocals on one track, and the other with Ravi Coltrane, who peppers his saxophone-genius throughout. Both guest appearances are welcomed, and good, yet, in hindsight, their contributions, though great for sales, seem slight in scope when seen from within the total package— superfluous, even—only tiny pieces out of the millions that seem to unfold themselves from within the massive electronic empire that is Cosmogramma.

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The Black Keys: Brothers

(Best Bluesy-Rock n Roll Album) The Black Keys are the new The White Stripes! There: I said it. I’m not one for comparison.

I know it’s foolish and it’s all a matter of taste. And I know that both groups have their own sound and unique individual merits. But, I also know that both these bands were ascending towards the same Delta-blues moonlight, at the exact same time, and know today, very unfortunately, that though it was great to have them both around, one of them seems to be fading away.

Yes, indeed. Where once we looked towards Jack and Meg—the canonized candy cane duo from Detroit—for consistently, face melting bluesy garage rock, today, with that twosome all but dissolved, the new forerunners of the fuzz-toned, garage-moaned, white-rhythm-and-blues-group-circuit are, unequivocally, The Black Keys.

Over the course of six albums, aforementioned Keys have austerely stuck to a rock-solid, rudimentary formula of minimal, catchy, blues inspired tunes.

And after seven albums, the duo is only getting better.

Because, Brothers, the band’s seventh LP, is their finest effort to date; a fifteen-song classic of an album which Rolling Stone instantly declared a “masterpiece.” (Which, technically, in today’s world, doesn’t say much, but even the Rolling Stone still gets it right occasionally; and here, they did.)

For the production of Brothers, the Akron, Ohio based two-piece took their vintage sound to the most vintage studio left in the country: Muscle Shoals Recording Studio, a place where, in the past, on any given day, you could find heavyweights the likes of Willie Dixon and Aretha Franklin honing their craft. It was within the confines of this boggy backdrop that The Black Keys would create this dirty, romantic, almost sloppy, Exile-In-Alabama-Sort-of-Album.

Brothers is, like most great blues albums, written in the shadow of relationship discontent. (The drummer had just suffered a rough breakup) The albums central theme is love and loss, with lead songwriter/guitarist Dan Auerbach writing a cannon of poignant love-hate songs under the broken-hearted spell of his band mate, and, probably, his own personal demons to some degree. The record’s primary recurring lyrical themes navigate this ship like a love-sick compass over the rugged waters of jealousy, longing, love, lust, and betrayal—see song titles: “Next Girl;” “The Only One;” “Too Afraid to Love You;” “I’m Not the One;” “Never Gonna Give You Up.” Yes, it’s apparent, down at Muscle Schoals heartbreak was in the air, and thankfully for the fans, there was a lot of it: fifteen tracks worth!

Which, when compared to contemporary-album-recording-time-standards should, technically, make Brothers a bloated mess; it is, almost a double-album of material released all at once. But, to be releasing this amount and type of music in the age of ten-track, thirty-minute albums packaged in cheap plastic cases and produced on cheaper Pro-Tools budgets, actually, makes Brothers.... A bloated blessing.

Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti: Before Today

(Best Psychedelic-Pop Album)

Ariel Pink is currently gaining some real public notoriety, but he is hardly a newcomer to making music: the mysterious analog-man has been prolifically producing music for over twenty years now, and since 1996 he’s released a slew of underground CD-R albums and analog cassette tidbits. His music is, to say the least, an acquired taste. In many sections, Pink’s vast, sprawling catalogue of warped freak-folk experimentation is damn near unlistenable, and I’m a fan of his music, and unlistenable music, so that’s saying a lot. But the introverted, bedroom-tape-extraordinaire from Beverly Hills has continued to gain steam over the years—his fan base has grown considerably as his music’s listenabilty has evolved from its formerly acutely schizophrenic psychedelic lo-fi stages, to the current, less pronounced, only severely manic-depressive psychedelic lo-fi stage its in today.

But, evolving music aside, things really began to turn in Pink’s favor three years ago when he was signed to the small indie label, Paw Tracks, which is owned by the equally challenging band, Animal Collective—who, had handpicked Pink as the first musician to be signed to their label, and who are huge fans of his tunes. He released one album on Paw Tracks in 2007 that was noted, if still challenging and primarily undiscovered.

And then on June 8th, direct in the middle of this past summer’s high tide, Mr. Pink and his newly minted band mates dropped a near perfect piece of sun-soaked, sandy psychedelic music on the indie music underground with the release of Before Today.

Before Today is Ariel Pink’s first real attempt at making a sort-of-proper-album: It captures Pink’s innate knack for writing catchy, melodic pop-songs, but, unlike its predecessors, the album was not produced to fail, i.e. Before Today does not sound so ill-or-under produced as to be intentionally non-commercial. (On prior albums, critics, even those who lauded Ariel Pink’s musical chops, had been split over what to call his production sound: some labeled it under super Lo-fi, others preferred to call it no-fi.)

Regardless, whatever you wish to label his fashion and look (cowboy-junkie-hipster-New-York-Doll?), and however you choose to label his music (lo-fi, nofi), today, what matters most is that his sound is being discovered— Before Today was a bona fide underground success. The album was received well by most of the open-minded music press and midsummer Mr. Pink even found himself gracing the cover of Fader magazine opposite another colorful, oddball genre-defying talent, MIA. 38 •grow colorado

Wavves: King of the Beach

(Best Psych-Punk Rock Album) Wavves is a three-piece punk outfit that writes catchy, two-minute, sunshine-psychepunk anthems for the apathetically inclined cannabis cretins of the world. The band, only two albums in, is still very much in its nascent phase, and only recently have they truly became a band—previous tours and recordings were centered on Nathan Williams, singer and primary songwriter, and whatever two musicians he could find to play with, and put up with, his oft-erratic on stage antics. (See his: “I’m on Ecstasy,” Barcelona Primavera Festival freak out footage on Youtube for a glimpse at the darker side of this young showman) Williams created Wavves at his home in San Diego; it initially began only as a series of analog four-tracks recordings Williams did alone for himself, but since the indie-hyped release of his first self-titled debut album, and the more recent, King of the Beach, almost overnight, the 23 year old has gained an underground audience, and in this critic’s eyes has earned himself the title of SoCal’s stoner-punk-laureate.

For his latest LP, King of the Beach, after having gained some notoriety in the indie-press, Williams had the option of cleaning up his sound and image; luckily for his fans, he didn’t.

King of the Beach was written and produced under the same spirit of abrasive, DIY punk aesthetics that all of William’s recordings have had, so the record, though released by a substantial indie label—Fat Possum—still resides in the barren soundstage of his early, raw demo tapes, minus some slight EQ work done to his vocals (On certain tracks, you can even understand what he’s saying). As for the song writing here, it remains the same as well, continuing to traverse across the catchy-as-hell, who-gives-a-fuck, three-chordprogressions that have made him into a unique, contemporary punk novelty.

LCD Soundsystem: This is Happening (Best Dance-Electro Pop Album)

For his third outing as ringleader and head songwriter of the electro-pop band, LCD Soundsystem, James Murphy packed up his microphone, record crates, mixing boards, computers and that elephantine musical brain of his, departed from his longtime DFA base in New York City, and headed for the hedonistic sunshine and sand of the far west. Murphy and his band relocated, or moved into, the sprawling, sunshine imbued, paradisiacal-studio-Xanadu that is the estate of famed producer Rick Rubin. “The Mansion,” as Los Angeles music-lore has come to know it, is located at the crest of Laurel Canyon Road, a daunting and beautiful pass running over the Santa Monica Mountains linking West Hollywood to the Valley. Over the course of nine months the mansion served as LCD base camp, the home and studio where Murphy and company would produce whatever electric debauchery they were cooking up.

And!... This time around, after the critical and commercial success of his sophomore album, Sounds of Silver, on this record, Murphy—the successful artist, the proven hit— had gained the two most valuable commodity chips an artist can obtain from their label: Murphy had more money; and he had more time.

Which, in many ways, could have been disastrous, it could have resulted in a 360 degree turn towards the indulgent and over-compensating album, towards the hot mess of too much: too much fun, too much money, too many outside influences, too many drugs, too many hanger-ons, too many sounds; too much sunshine, too little vision. After all, Los Angeles is, like no other city on this planet, littered with tales about the ruinous toll Hollywood hedonism has taken on the relocated artist; and on the album they inevitably produced loaded or stung-out, and then the career that ended shortly thereafter. This city can be dangerous, creatively toxic, for newcomers and Murphy came here knowing that on this album he had more to lose than ever before (Every critics undying respect and a worldwide audience of hard core fans, for starters). So, the point being made: It was a bold move on Murphy’s behalf to choose to produce in LA and leave NYC, and it very easily could have ended in a sleek, glittery disaster.

But it didn’t.

Yet, again, Murphy proves too smart, too witty to ever become a cliché, to be, even for a instant... Lame. He embraces his lame side on stage; he rediscovers old clichés and makes them sound new again, and remixes new cliches to make them sound old again, in the studio. He is analog-hip, the guy with the thin black mobster tie and five o’ clock beard. And after this summer’s release, he became the unequivocal electro-pop king. On his third album LCD prevails yet again: This is Happening is a masterpiece. For fans it is everything you had been waiting for; an album that transcends the most perfectly synchronized heights of either its predecessors.

Released on May 18th, this album of future upbeat electro-dance pop standards sounds like a party at Rick Rubin’s mansion—This is Happening is a truly fun album, and even when the lyrics are bleak, Murphy’s wry delivery seems to trivialize and assuage the resonance of any darker implications. At the beginning of a contemptuous summer, on the oil slicked streets of LA, This is Happening set the perfect tone for creating a warped, careless summertime vibe. It is an album so enticing many white males were, and still are, seriously trying to dance to it. grow colorado • 39

Cannabis Culture/Essential Reading

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Essential Reads for the Marijuana Enthused

Marijuana Horticulture: The Indoor/ Outdoor Medical Grower’s Bible

The Psychedelic Reader

All growers, from the first-timers burning a single bulb in their closet, to the commercial grower pulling off a generator, should have in their garden, an accessible version of this book. In cannabis cultivation circles across the green lands it is referred to as the bible—the absolute best bud book on the planet. Jorge Cervantes, master-grower and book author, has been growing cannabis for over thirty years, as well as scavenging the globe for new and evolving strains and growing techniques.

Inside this five-hundred page fifth edition the seeking stoner can find any piece of information they desire regarding growing: seeds, clones, lights, indoor, outdoor, soil, vegetative growth, flowering, nutrition, grow rooms, case studies, and harvesting, it’s all here.

Marijuana is a psychotropic drug, and though I cannot openly advocate the use of more acute psychotropic agents—synthesized or organic—I can point out to those who do take “the road less traveled” this hidden gem of literature from “the other side.” The Psychedelic Reader is the ultimate book for all psychedelic, psychotropic explorers.

Edited by some of the most knowledgeable names in the world regarding psychedelic and psychotropic agents, this book is a compilation of the finest writings from the golden era of consciousness, featuring contributions from all three heavyweight editors as well as Sir Julian Huxley, Alan Watts, Roy Bates and R. Gordon Wassen, among many others.

By. Jorge Cervantes

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Edited By. Timothy Leary, Ralph Metzner, and Gunter M. Weil

Reefer Movie Madness The Ultimate Stoner Film Guide

By. Shirley Halperin and Steve Bloom

Marijuana and movies is a match made in heaven. Marijuana can make the best feature film more poignant and the worst big-budget disaster a laughing riot. Like putting jam on your toast, once you’ve had a smatter of marijuana with your movie, you can’t image the experience without it. With that being said, this is every stoner cinephile’s golden guide to movies with a marijuana bend. Inside there are 420 movie reviews—quite fitting— covering nearly every genre of film: sci-fi, horror, B movies, pot comedies, action-packed adventures, dramadies, musicals and more.

Pot Culture The A-Z Guide to Stoner Language & Life By. Shirley Halperin and Steve Bloom

Just as the title could lead you to believe, Pot Culture is a complete literary guide regarding everything cannabis and cannabis culture. For the avid cannabis culture vulture, it’s an absolute must buy; perfect for the coffee table. Inside you get everything that there ever was to know about marijuana terminology, marijuana movies, history, lifestyle, clothing, music, etiquette, strains, pop icons, festivals, you name it, these two authors have discovered and covered every green fascination you could have, and put it all in one beautifully packaged product.

Orange Sunshine The Brotherhood of Eternal Love And Its Quest To Spread Peace, Love And ACID To The World By. Nicholas Schou

The history of the American counterculture movement in the 1960s is full of insane tales of drug dealing, drug taking, and mind-bending madness. Orange Sunshine, the latest offering from author Nicholas Schou, takes us into the world of one of the most notorious, and infamous band of rebels that existed during those strange days—a group of Southern California surfers who would come to be known as “The Hippie Mafia.” What once began in the mid-sixties as a peace-seeking brotherhood evolved into something entirely more far out once the small group was introduced to the decades biggest drug: LSD. Orange Sunshine outlines the turbulent years that followed the drug’s introduction as “The Hippie Mafia” grew into a worldwide smuggling ring of surfers, who, by decades end, were importing and selling more hashish and acid than any other criminal organization in the country. It’s a wild ride, and a great read.

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MOVIE REVIEW

Cash CRop

Take a California road trip into the heart of the Emerald Triangle, where marijuana is grown in lush and pungent abundance, where it is the number-one cash crop, and where it is often the mainstay of the local rural economy. The California Green Rush has taken root as the culture formerly known as the counter culture comes of age and is seen by many as a growing solution rather than a growing problem. The original Emerald Triangle counties of Humboldt, Mendocino and Trinity have expanded southward and east throughout California. In many areas, marijuana has replaced the once thriving timber and fishing industries.

Time Magazine noted in 2009 that “Pot is, after all, California’s biggest cash crop, responsible for $14 billion a year, in sales, dwarfing the state’s second largest agricultural commodity - milk and cream - which brings in 47.3 billion a year ...” In 2006, marijuana policy researcher Jon Gettman concluded that “marijuana has become a pervasive and ineradicable part of the American economy,” generating $35.8 billion dollars in business, making it the number one cash crop in 12 states and in the top three in 30 states.

After passing prop 215 in 1996, California’s breakthrough medical marijuana law, there are now similar statutes in 14 states, with decriminalization in others. On November 2, 2010, Californians will take a further step, voting on Proposition 19, the ballot initiative to legalize marijuana and allow the cash-strapped state of California to tax and regulate its sale.

Fourteen other states have similar proposals up for a vote. Yet, as director Adam Ross discovered, there is a lot more to the business of marijuana than just money.

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Cash Crop” follows the historic Spanish Camino Real up the California coast to the heart of the Emerald Triangle in an epic West Coast adventure to the heart of the American Dream. This endless summer of weed portrays unique and colorful characters; from people living off the land, hoping to keep the mom and pop spirit of their farming operations to a Mendocino County sheriff, tired of spending 30 percent of his time enforcing marijuana laws, who says “Let’s move on.” As plainly stated by a County Supervisor: “The fact of the matter is, Americans like their marijuana.”

“We began filming ‘Cash Crop’ in the summer of 2007. We tried to stay off the radar and our hope was to approach the subject without an agenda. We discovered that there were lots of tales to be told. I consciously set out not to make an advocacy film or a tedious didactic talking heads polemic. My interest has been to humanize these issues through the characters and their stories. I have let the characters speak their truth and take the viewer on a beautiful experiential road trip,” Ross explains.

“Cash Crop’s” California road trip begins at the Mexican border, traverses through San Diego, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, San Francisco and lingers in the counties of Sonoma, Butte, Lake, Mendocino, and Humboldt, exploring not just Californian but American culture. In fact, Ross says he was struck by how “quintessentially American these people, their stories and the issues are.”

The heart of ‘Cash Crop’ focuses on issues from states’ rights to entrepreneurialism, selfgovernment, freedom of choice, immigration, Mexican drug cartels, environmentalism and greed,” Ross says.

As one Santa Cruz activist explains, “The story we are talking about is not about marijuana. It smells like marijuana, it looks like marijuana but it is really not; it’s about civil liberty.” “’Cash Crop’ presents a microcosm of issues facing the nation,” Ross continues.

“For instance, as California has produced its own crop of marijuana, it has alleviated much of the need for imported Mexican cannabis and the violence and drug cartels that come with that. In terms of

medical marijuana, it begs the question of what is medicine exactly and who decides this? Pharmaceutical corporations, insurance corporations, or individuals with their caregivers? Sustainability has been central to areas in Northern California that have been exploited and ravaged by logging, fishing, government contracted chromium plating plants, and water use issues. The Emerald Triangle is the heart of the back to the land movement. Mendocino was the first county in the U.S. to ban genetically altered crops and animals and has our first organic winery and organic brew pub. So all these things are related to marijuana in California but they are also issues that, it seems to me, everyone can relate to on some level.”

A quality indie stoner flick is hard to come by these days, but GREEN is sure to be the next underground hit amongst marijuana-friendly movie lovers worldwide. The story follows Cole (handsome Nick Gregorio), a Philly hustler who tries to legitimize his operations by going medical in sunny California. Of course things don’t go as planned, so his often over-medicated best bud Ripp (hilarious Danny Myers) gets him a job pushing herb at a local dispensary. Things heat up once Cole discovers that Wes (veteran Johnny Hawkes), his dickhead boss, is now dating his ex-fiance Bailey (Ms. Hooters 2007 Michelle Nunes) who he is still in love with. Craziness ensues as desperation forces Cole to consider drastic measures to get even…did somebody say “stoner heist-movie?!?” Gotta check this one out, it’s got laughs, ladies, and luscious bud shots galore.

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Cold Water Extraction

A beginner’s Guide to making hash with bags

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There is nothing new about bubble hash.

It kind of seems outdated when considering all of the new extraction techniques that are starting to gain momentum. Commercial CO2 extractors and butane extractors of all shapes and sizes have been running in Colorado for almost a year; oils and tinctures have made their way into the mainstream cannabis consumer’s conciousness. Unfortunately, these chemical extraction methods come at a high cost as well as a significant risk of bodily injury. More than one house explosion has been attributed to extracting with butane.

With that being said, one often turns to their set of cold water extraction bags, an ice-chest full of ice, small garbage can and a drill; total price: $400. Why not? It might not be as pure as the chemical extractors but its cheap and you won’t burn your face off.

I have dabbled in the art of cold water extraction for many years

with mixed results. My techniques came from a hodge-podge of sources. A few tips from friends, a little research on the internet , topped with a little intuition has usually ended in mediocre product.

At a recent cannabis convention, during an afternoon session, I was passed a bowl of amazing hash. It had a nice even consistency to it, not too hard, not too soft and it smelled amazing.

I had to ask, “who’s hash is this?”, and “how did you make it?” A well dressed gentleman in his late 30’s, early 40’s leaned forward. and replied, “Bags.” He politely introduced himself as Jerry and we started talking about his techniques but I eventually hinted at the idea that we should do a full on photo shoot + article. Jerry agreed, and a week later there we were with a garbagebag full of trim and all of the essentail supplies. I was committed to finally get the technique down so I could actually do something with all that trim at the end of the run. (Continued on next page)

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Cold Water

Extraction

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What you’ll need: A set of bags

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We used Boldtbags.

There arte a lot of companies producing bags right now, but Boldtbags has a few features that make them a better buy. Boldtbags come with an extremely strong stitching and grommetts so you can hang your bags up while they are draining. Boldtbags are made in the U.S.A. and they are readily available at hydro stores and head-shops all over the country.

Drill

- you want a drill with a cord that plugs in so you have a consistent power supply. If you have a lot of material you are going to need it!

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2 Garbage cans / buckets

- the size of the garbage cans needs to be the same as the sety of bags you have. If you decide you only need a 5 gal. set of bags, then all you need is two five gallon buckets.

Ice

lots of it, if you plan on doing more than a kitchen bag’s worth of trim.

Trim / plant material You can use anything from water leaves to trim to full on bud. Jerry’s reccomentation: You’ll get a much higher quality hash if you spend a little extra time pulling out all of the foreign matter that you dont want to run through your bags: pieces of stalk, stem and any other foreign object that don’t have many resin glands on it.

Water

the final ingredient. Colder is better. You’ll need at least a few gallons. See page 38 for Jerry’s kief recipe that doesn’t require water.

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We began by setting up all of the bags. Take your garbage can and put the purple bag in first.

This is your last and finest screen. Wrap the top of the bag around the edge like a trash bag and then move on to the next bag. Layer each one of the bags into your garbage can until you have all of the bags set up in the right order.

Time to Pour

Once you have all your bags set up, it’s time to pour all of your materials in the bags.Put the Dont mix it too fast. You dont want to over agitate, Just enough to break the trichomes off the plant material.

It’s O.K. to use a drill, but be careful. You run the risk of breaking a hole in your bag.

Once you get the material in there, Put your mixing bit onto a drill. You dont need anything fancy. A cheap, $20 drill from the local hardware store will be good enough for this job.

Begin mixing the ice, water and trim together. Move the mixer around in the bag as if you were making a margarita; up, down, all around. Continue mixing for at least 5 minutes. When a nice froth has formed on the surface and your arms are starting to get a little stiff, you’re probably done. I’ll reach in there and bring the stuff on the bottom to the top. Thats where the tennis racket can come in handy.

A Tennis Racket? Sure. A tennis racket is great for moving large chunks of material around. After working the drill for a full ten minutes, bob stops and takes a look inside the bag. “Beautiful”.

If you mix it for 30 minutes you can expect to have some green material in there. The more time you spend mixing, the lower the quality. I usually run the drill for ten to fifteen minutes.

I had learned the hard way that using a drill inside the bag can result in rips or tears. Give yourself a one inch safety zone on all sides. Don’t get too close to the bag.

When we finished mixing, it was time to do a little bit of heavy lifting. The first bag you are going to pull is the blue bag, this your first filter. When you lift it out. Let the water completely driain out into the other bags. This could take a few minutes, so you should really have

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Let it rip!

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a strong partner help you do the lifting if you want to prevent any back injury. Once the first bag has drained out, set it into your second garbage can/ bucket for later. Once you have completed the whole process, you can add more ice and water, and mix it up a second time.

The next two bags that come after the blue bag are the green and red bags. The screen on these bags is pretty still pretty pourous, so you are not going to get any good hash out of these.

Use the card that comes with the bags or any other credit card shaped piece of plastic to scrape out whats left in these two bags before moving on to the more productive set that comes next.

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Cold Water

Extraction

Here is what to expect from each bag

Orange Bag This first bag isn’t going to yield much quality, just some personal stash. It is debatable wether or not you even want to keep this stuff

Black Bag A huge difference from the orange bag. The black bag is where you start to see some quality.

Yellow Bag This was our highest yielding bags.

Some really creamy, nice hash came out of this one.

White Bag Here is where the quality starts to go up and the yield goes down. The quality was even better than the yellow bag, but the yield was much less.

Purple Bag The final bag, the highest quality. This is the stuff that is most likely to bubble when you light it.

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After scraping out the green and red bags, use the same scraping technique on the rest of the bags. After scraping out all of the contents, place the contents of each bag into a seperate pile on a glass plate.

Now what?

After you have scraped out all of your hash, it’s time to drain out that last bit of water. You want to seperate the different qualities so you don’t mix your best hash with your worst. As you scrape the hash out of each bag, put it in a seperate pile on a glass plate. If you can, add a label to each pile indicating what quality it is.

Kief Hash101 If going through the process of cold water extraction is still too much for you, there is amother option. Kief hash has been a staple of many growers while they wait for

the next crop to finish. The first time I tried this method, I used a metal bowl and a t-shirt; to surprisingly good results. While the cold ice helps the trichomes break

off the plant material, there are still a lot of trichomes that will gladly break off and fall through your screen completely dry.

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Take the hash that you have scraped out of the bag and place it onto the pressing screen.

Make sure you collect all the hash in the center of the screen

Fold the pressing screen into a teardrop shape, where all of the hash has collected.

Twist the screen so that the hash becomes tightly packed within the teardrop. If you twist correctly, water will begin to pour out.

Once you have drained some water out of the final pressing screen, open it up and scrape out the contents. There should be some moisture left in the hash. Start working it with your hands. Apply lots of pressure, rolling and kneading the hash. After just a few minutes you should have some quality hash. Only your last two bags are likely to qualify as bubble hash (hash that is so pure and oily, it bubbles long before it catches fire).

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No water? No problem! If you are in a hurry and want something quick, you don’t have to use the ice method. With a one gallon kit from Boldtbags we were able to make a nice ball of hash in less than a minute. Take the 25 micron bag and throw in a few handfulls of trim or shake. Agitate shake the bag around for about 30 seconds. As you shake, you can actually see the trichomes dropping out of the bottom. Collect the kief with a plastic card. Heat the kief with a lighter and use your hands to apply some pressure. As the kief starts to stick to itself, rollit in a ball and continue working it in your hands.

Moments later, voila! You have a nice little ball of hash.

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Q&A: Beneficial Bugs Q & A with M & R Durango Insectary Owner, Lee Anne Merill

By Amy Heiden

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Grow: Primarily, I would like to focus on spider mites in an indoor setting and how to get rid of them in an organic way by using beneficial insects.

Lee Anne: One of the most important things for people to consider is the spider mites’ habitat. They love it hot and dry. And, light intensity can also be a big factor in their behavior. They’re super stimulated by strong light intensity, heat, and dry conditions. Breezes can exacerbate their reproduction, too. Different greenhouses have different settings. Some of them have totally enclosed conditions and they have artificial lighting. Others have intake vents, fans, and natural light with air moving in and out of the greenhouse. In those cases, the spider mites will be moved around a lot by the breeze because they’ll let out a thin webbing and float on the breeze from plant to plant. Mites can also be moved around on worker’s clothing, without them even knowing it, as they’re moving through the plant material because they’re just so minute and so adept at getting where they need to be.

Growers can look at watching their lower leaf canopies first because those are the areas that spider mites will begin to colonize and build up before they move into upper canopies. So, many times what you will hear from growers is, “Wow, I’ve been watching my plants and I haven’t seen a single thing. All of a sudden I have webbing all over the place and I have spider mites up in the tops of my canopies.”

Usually, that is because they got started down low, underneath the leaves in the really protected areas where they just weren’t noticeable and then they moved up.

Depending on the growing situation, if growers can move susceptible plants to cooler spots in the greenhouse, areas that have a little higher humidity, or a little more shade, then they will find that they will reduce the mites’ ability to reproduce as effectively. It’s not going to stop them but it will certainly help.

As far as biological control goes, getting started early is easier; performing routine maintenance level releases rather than trying to fight a fire once you do have webbing and a major outbreak.

Grow: What would you recommend for biological control considering that there are so many options out there?

Lee Anne: There are quite a few options. The one that I would the least recommend would be ladybugs. And it’s not because they’re not good predators. They will feed on spider mites, but ladybugs are wild field collected during hibernation.

They’re cool-weather loving insects and in natural conditions when the spider mites are prolific, the ladybugs are going to hate the conditions because they don’t like it hot and dry. They like it cool and damp. So, people turn to ladybugs because they’re easy to see and they’re large-bodied animals. Everybody loves ladybugs, but to be honest they can wind up really stressing the ladybugs out and having them just die, or try to get out of there, or go back into hibernation, thinking that they shouldn’t be awake. They spend about thirteen months of their life cycle asleep. In my opinion, it’s super unpredictable for a grower to depend on ladybugs as a biological control.

Depending on the grower’s situation, the question that needs to be answered to determine the right beneficial insect to use is: what are their environmental conditions?

The first things I would ask a grower are: Are you running on natural or artificial light?

What is your day length?

What is you light intensity?

What is your temperature and humidity range in a twenty-four hour period for a high and low?

When they can give me those kinds of answers, I can tell them what would be the most likely beneficial choice to use.

As far as the best options for spider mite control, there are two that I primarily rely on, assuming we are talking about Colorado greenhouses. The backbone of most of my programs revolves around a specific species of green lacewing. It’s a generalist predator. In the crawler stage for about eighteen days, it scours up down and all around plants. It’s also a nocturnal predator, and that’s a helpful thing because spider mites are daytime movers and at night they are sitting ducks. Green lacewing larvae, the species Chrysoperla rufilabris, are phenomenal predators against spider mites as well as about 250 different pest species, including a lot of the same pests that would be associated with most crops that

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have spider mites. Most of those crops also tend to have everything from aphids to mealy bugs to thrips. Thrips are also a real common one when spider mites are prevalent because they also like hot, dry conditions. Lacewing will prey on a wide variety of those pest species. I usually go in with them as the backbone of most programs and supplement if I need to with host-specific predators that only prey on spider mites. In Colorado, because of the variation in a greenhouse setting, usually you have fairly variable temperature and humidity from morning to night. In some cases it’s very controlled; with the greenhouses that are all enclosed and use artificial light, temperature control, and humidity control settings, then it’s not quite such a wide range. But, a lot of greenhouses will range from 40-50% humidity at night or in the early morning and then by late afternoon it may have dropped down to 15% and it jumps all over the place. There are a couple of species of predator mite that are really useful. One is N. californicus. It’s a little predator mite that will prey on a wide variety of pest mites. In Colorado, the most common pest mite species is the two-spot spider mite. Almost everybody knows about those and wants to turn to something called P. persimilis because it’s the most widely known predator mite. But, it’s probably the least useful in Colorado. It needs high humidity and moderate to low temperatures to successfully reproduce, meaning if a persimilis had it’s way it would have 70-90% humidity 24 hours a day and it’s temperature range would be between 70-80 degrees F, never higher than 80, seldom much lower than 70. And they’re also very specific to just two-spot spider mites and there’s one other species of a Pacific mite that they’ll attack.

They’re really not what I use in Colorado much. Californicus I use quite a bit because they can take a range of humidity from 40-60%, temperature from 50 all the way up to 100 degrees F. And then there is another species that is really good for spider mites in greenhouses here. It’s called N. occidentalis. It’s super and takes temperature ranging from 50 to 115 degrees F and humidity from 30 to 60%. That’s another one that I really like and I actually like it better in Colorado, when I can get it.

It’s just that the commercial availability fluctuates.

They’re a little more finicky to raise, and it seems that the population availability varies.

So, I tend to use both [californicus and occidentalis] quite a bit. There are others that will also do well; M. longipes is another one that can take a fair range of humidity, but it’s only for higher temperatures.

Depending on the setting, some people that have very controlled environments don’t have really hot temperatures, so they’re not dealing with the spider mites ability to aggressively reproduce. But, they can still have pretty intense problems. If their temperature is below 80 degrees F, then I wouldn’t use longipes at all. It just doesn’t like cool temperatures. And the same goes for N. fallacies, which is another predator mite that’s commercially available and commonly recommended. But again, both of those need 80 to 100 degree temps to really be aggressively reproducing and feeding.

“If growers can move susceptible plants to cooler spots in the greenhouse, areas that have a little higher humidity, or a little more shade, then they will find that they will reduce the mites’ ability to reproduce as effectively.”

Hairy and sticky plant material slows the predator activity because they constantly have to preen themselves and clean that sticky residue off of themselves while they are also out there looking for prey. When dealing with plant material like that, growers are going to need to go in with heavier release amounts per release and fairly frequent release timing. It seems like one of the most common mistakes people make is: “I’m going to release a few and see how they work.” And the truth of the matter is that I know they need to be considering routine introductions on a regular basis during their growing cycle to keep pest populations level rather than trying something once, and then when the pest manages to out reproduce them [the predator], finding they have a problem and saying, “It just didn’t work.”

Grow: Would the lacewings also eat the predator mites and can you use them together?

Lee Anne: That’s a good question. There could be some incidence of crosspredation. However, it’s interesting in that the predator mites are also a daytime predator. I have used them in conjunction with each other. There have been times I have felt that the predation potential was indicated and I 58 • growcoloradomag.com

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backed off and just used the lacewing. There have been other times when it’s appeared that we’ve had a symbiotic relationship going on, and it’s been in cases where there have been heavy spider mite populations that we needed to actually innovatively go in and knock back. The benefit of having them both in there at that point in time is that you get 24-hour activity against that one pest species. You have the lacewing preying at night and you have the daytime predators as well. But, to be honest with you, it is a good question and it is something to consider. It partially depends on the host availability. When times get tough and they’re both competing for the same food source and the food source starts running low, then there’s more chance of cross-predation.

The lacewing truly won’t necessarily be able to tell the difference between a pest and a predator spider mite. Typically the predator spider mites move so much more rapidly; though, I think that is one factor that maybe weighs in for a lower incidence of cross-predation between them. They just get out of the lacewings’ way quickly. A pest mite is a slow mover; they crawl around and don’t really move fast, and if you’ve ever seen predator mite activity they are just moving quickly. I think that helps. Interestingly, if a grower also has pests like whiteflies or thrips, a lacewing can actually feel the whitefly’s immature stage with its mouthparts. The lacewing can determine if a whitefly has been parasitized by a whitefly parasite and if it has they don’t feed on that one.

Therefore, the lacewing is very compatible with some other beneficial insects in a greenhouse setting where you would release both them and a parasite.

Grow: I have used lacewings before and I felt like they might be cannibalizing each other. I used the egg cards and it seems like when they hatch and see the other eggs there they eat them.

Lee Anne: You’re right in one regard. They will cannibalize each other if they don’t have a food source. On the egg cards, one thing to be aware of is that for every one lacewing egg on those cards there are 10 host food source eggs as well. They do stop and feed on that card and we have it that way on purpose because in the first 12 hours after they hatch they have to find food or they die.

They would also be capable of feeding on another egg that’s a lacewing egg, but we do put ten to one. So, you start out with 5,000 lacewing eggs on an egg card and you have 50,000 prey host eggs as well. They are feeding before they ever crawl off of that card, but chances are they’re going to end up nailing one of those food source eggs that we put on there.

Grow: I know that you can get the lacewing in different life stages. I thought it would have been better if my lacewings were hatched and ready to prey. In what situation would it be best to use eggs, larvae, or even adult lacewings?

Lee Anne: The way to look at it is: when you use the egg cards, you plan to use those only when you’re going in for maintenance level releases, just to supplement a situation that’s already under control, because it takes three to five days for the eggs to hatch. They get their first feeding right there on that card and then they move off the card to go scour the plants and look for hosts. But, in that first week they’re preying on the smallest of host availability that there is, which would be eggs of other pests like spider mites and also the very young nymphs or larvae of the pest species that they’re looking for.

They’re not going to be out there feeding on massive numbers per individual yet because they’re tiny and they’re not going to be feeding on large prey, like adult winged aphids for instance. I always figure if I’m releasing eggs, I want to have about a seven to ten day window of opportunity for them to develop when I’m not worried about the pest getting ahead of them. In a case like that, they are the cheapest approach because they can be shipped by FedEx second-day air instead of overnight. And, they are also easy to use because you can separate those cards into tabs and hang them from the plants, so they’re easy to disperse. But, you do need that window; you need the three to five day hatch time frame and you need another three to five days for them to get big enough to really be aggressively preying. You need to know you’re confident that you’re not going to loose ground during that time if you wait for them. Often I will use both [the egg cards and the pre-hatched larvae]. I’ll use the larvae in any hot spot areas because often it’s a localized outbreak. I’ll go in with the live crawlers [pre-hatched larvae] in a case like that, and 1,000 of those live crawlers are enough to successfully treat 250 square feet of area where you need to get an immediate knock down. And they’re great because they are already hatched, they’ve already received their first critical feedings, they’ve already molted, and even though they’re still minute when you get them, they’re preying aggressively by that point. When you shake that bottle out over your plants or tap that larval frame and release the little larvae out onto the plants, they go to work the second they get out, and that’s really a convenient quick activity product to put out. In my experience, I’ve had very few times when

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I’ve felt like adult releases were warranted. The main reason is that in the adult stage of their life they are really finicky. If they’re in captivity, where you don’t have the natural pheromone activity of the outdoors to stimulate them, they are very touchy about temperature and humidity fluctuations. To give you a feel, an egg-laying adult, if their temperature is disrupted more than five degrees in 24 hours or the humidity more than 2% in 24 hours in a captive setting, it can disrupt the egg laying up to 80%. What’s really bizarre is that if you get them out in an alfalfa field in Eastern Colorado and the wind is howling and the temperature is all over the board, when it’s cold at night and it’s hot during the day like almost desert conditions, they’ll proliferate. And the only thing I can attribute to that is pheromone activity. They have all these different stimuli. They have native Chrysoperla rufilabris, the same genus and species of lacewing, out there. They also have native brown lacewing out there they have all these different pheromones stimulating them. As well as in alfalfa, they would have a nectar and pollen source for the adults and they proliferate. I don’t often release adults indoors because I know their variability in a captive setting.

Grow: As for as shipping the larvae, is that an overnight or an expensive process?

Lee Anne: Yes, the pre-hatched are sent by Fed-Ex priority overnight and that is expensive. One of the reasons is that I’m not shipping them from this insectary right now. We all have limited rearing rooms and so we all collaborate with each other at different times of year and depending on who’s raising what, that’s where we get it. I have them shipped directly to you from a producer that I am collaborating with. I still guarantee them and that’s partly because I know the quality control they have in-house. I used to be the chair for the quality control for our industry association, and that gives you an inside handle on everybody’s rearing practices; I worked with this company for over 25 years, so I’m confident that I can guarantee the product. It goes by Fed-Ex overnight and it comes out from California straight to you and that shipping is expensive.

I’ve seen it run between $55 and $65 for an overnight shipment. When people are really able to maintain things with the eggs, then that’s great. But if they have a high-dollar crop, it’s like insurance; it’s almost not worth risking the investment of raising that crop and then releasing eggs when you may have the stage set for a real outbreak. And then you’re trying to fight a fire.

get rid of the cardboard unit.

Grow: Is the larval frame the best option for plants with trichomes, since there is no carrier material to get stuck on your plants?

Lee Anne: Right. Yes, people really do prefer that. With any hairy-leafed crop or any plant that has sticky residue, it’s really helpful to not have carrier material in your way.

Grow: Can you tell me a little about M& R Durango?

Lee Anne: We’ve been in business 21 years. I’ve been in this industry over 25 years. We’re a family owned, woman owned and operated business and we’re very small but we have a pretty large outreach. We work with everyone from home gardeners and geodesic dome owners to large greenhouses and large agricultures. We’ve released lacewings on 18,000 acres of wheat and in a 10 x 10 foot garden, so no job is too big or too small. The goal of our business is providing non-hazardous, non-toxic, sustainable, environmentally responsible control options for growers.

Grow: That is why I wanted to get this information out to the growers. I know so many people that are using pesticides because they just don’t know that they can choose a natural control option by using beneficial bugs. I wanted to educate people on an organic and safe choice, rather than have growers continually assuming that they must buy dangerous chemicals.

“There is another species that is really good for spider mites in greenhouses here. It’s called N. occidentalis. It’s super and takes temperature ranging from 50 to 115 degrees F and humidity from 30 to 60%. “

Grow: How can you expect to receive the pre-hatched larvae?

Lee Anne: There are two ways to get the pre-hatched larvae. Different people like different ways. Some people like them in the bottle, which is an opaque plastic quart-sized bottle that has rice hulls and food source in with the lacewing and the lacewing hide in those rice hulls during shipment. They’re reclusive in the light, so they’re down in those rice hulls and they literally just have to take the lid off and shake the contents out over the plants and the lacewings fall out with the rice hulls onto the plants and disperse from there once the vibration is stilled and they calm down. Another really popular method is called larval frames. Those frames are verticell units; they’re cardboard units and they have organza cloth on each side and little tiny hex cell holes that have the lacewings in there, separated from each other so they won’t eat each other. And they have a food source in with them too, but there are no rice hulls or anything, so there’s no carrier material that gets on the plants when you distribute them.

The way you distribute them is you just pull the organza cloth off one side a little at a time, turn the unit upside down and tap on the back and the lacewings fall out onto the plants. Then, when you are completely through one side, then peel it off the other side, tap out any that you missed that you can see, and then and then leave that frame in the plant material for 24 hours or so, to allow the rest of them to crawl out. One behavior lacewings have is when there is vibration they cling. They will wedge themselves in the cracks and crevasses of those little hex cells and they’re so tiny and they can flatten themselves out and just cling. You’ll think that you got everything out of there, and then if you set it down and let it be still, it will be crawling with lacewing and they’re moving out from where they’ve been clinging and hiding. Then after 24 hours, you can just take a look and it would be pretty obvious that they’re all gone and you can

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Lee Anne: It’s a learning curve. It’s a paradigm shift in thinking in a many ways.

I remember 21 years ago when we first started this business, people would tell me they had an insect problem and I’d explain that they need to be considering releasing insects and they’d think I was from Mars. I’ve gone through the whole quarter century of people calling this industry voodoo and it’s like the way people feel about homeopathics and herbal medicine; they just don’t understand when they’ve always thought about antibiotics. They don’t understand that God has created tools that are right here that are very effective and we just need to consider our thinking a little bit. One thing that I think would be helpful is if people quit expecting aesthetically perfect looking plasticized food. It’s OK if you buy spinach and it has a few chew marks in it or a few wound sites where a thrip has fed a little bit; it’s not going to kill you and it’s a healthier plant. People have come to expect something that looks like it’s not even real and will never rot in the refrigerator while they dink around and don’t use it. We’ve got to broaden our view again and get back to reality.

Grow: I’m hoping that this article will help this process along.

Lee Anne: Well, I think that a lot of people do want to use alternative measures and they just don’t know about them. I’ve spent more time trying to help educate people than any other thing I do. It’s because I can’t handle having somebody just call and say, “I think I’ll order this and try it.” I would rather talk about what the situation is to determine whether this is what you really want to do and determine what you can expect and how soon. I like to set the stage so that you walk into this eyes wide open and you’re understanding your part in the whole scheme of things, know what to expect, and can make a wise decision about what you need to do.

Grow: Where can people get these beneficial bugs?

Lee Anne: They can get them from us; that’s a really easy source. There are also other places in Colorado, but not insectaries, since we are the only one other than the state insectary that is a research facility up in Palisade and not a commercial insectary. There are suppliers in Colorado that also have beneficial insects. People can go on-line to The Association of Natural Biocontrol Producers website, which is the industry resource for information, at: HYPERLINK “http://www.anbp.org” www.anbp.org. It’s our industry association where you can find a list of suppliers of beneficial insects and organisms and their phone numbers and web sites.

Grow: What is your company’s web site?

Lee Anne: Our web site is: HYPERLINK “http://www.goodbug.com” www. goodbug.com. If people do a search on-line and start perusing the different options, they’ll find different retail sites that will offer a wide range of natural controls and organic gardening options. If they plan to order, I would encourage people to ask questions and if one of the suppliers that they’re talking to has an issue with answering questions or tries to evade being specific with their answers, especially regarding species, shipping methods, or exact numbers of insects that people are paying for, then think twice.

When they say this is enough to treat X number of square feet, ask if they can tell you exactly how many you are purchasing. Those kinds of questions will help purchasers make a decision about whether they feel confident about ordering from that supplier or not. They should be able to ask questions and have them answered in a clear, concise way without anybody having issue with that so they will know what to expect and not have a bunch of surprises.

I can’t tell you how many calls I end up fielding when people call and say, “Well, no one ever told me that,” or “No one ever explained this to me.” That can’t be; there are a number of good suppliers out there that will answer questions in detail and if they’re not willing to do so, then people should consider whether they’re confident enough about their own knowledge base to just simply make the purchase and hope for the best.

Grow: Can beneficial insects be purchased directly from your web site?

Lee Anne: We don’t have an on-line shopping cart, but they can call our 800 number (800-526-4075). They can look at the web site and see what they’d like to consider purchasing and give us a ring and we can take the order over the phone.

Grow: You supply to many of the grow stores in the Denver area, so would that be a good way to save on shipping costs?

Lee Anne: Yes, if they have them in stock. But, I would ask questions whenever you buy any insects in stock from any retail store. Find out first if there is an expiration date. For instance, these lacewing larvae that we’re talking about (the live crawlers), whether they’re in the bottle or in the frame, they will have a use by date. They don’t have a very big window. For most retail stores, I encourage them to get their customers to place the orders and tell them they will arrive on Tuesdays and they need to pick them up and release them by Wednesday. If they place their orders that way, I have every degree of confidence that those insects will still be viable and healthy.

If they order them in on speculation, and they get them in on a Tuesday and haven’t moved them by the following week, then there may still be one or two fat happy crawlers in there, but there’s going to be a number of them that were eaten or are dead. And it’s the same with the lacewing eggs; from the day that we collect the lacewing eggs and prepare an egg card to ship to someone, that lacewing egg will hatch even in a 50 degree cooler, within 10 days. If it’s been more than 10 days, then they’re going to be dead or have all cannibalized each other and all the people will be buying will be a card that has leftover host food eggs and egg shells. People need to find out when the store got them in, how old they are, how soon hatching can be expected, and how to tell when or if they have hatched. I’m not saying that retail stores are not trying to do a good job. I just think that it adds an element there that can be difficult even for a retailer to manage. Another way to save on shipping is to get together with neighbors or other growers and order in volume to one delivery address and then they all split the cost.

Grow: I know many growers who are using pesticides and I encourage them to make sure they cycle that stuff out before they switch to beneficial bugs or their bugs are just going to die soon after release.

Lee Anne: Yes, and it varies depending on what pesticide too. Pyrethrums, if it’s low humidity in their growing environment, will take seven to ten days to clear out enough to release a lacewing and longer than that before they can release a predator mite. If it’s something stronger than a pyrethrum, depending on what it is, it can take two to six weeks before that residue won’t kill a beneficial insect. If people have been using chemicals, often it’s a good idea for them to give a ring and just let me look up the field trial information to tell them what the average time frame is that they need to wait. And e-mail is a really great way I can consult for people too and that’s: HYPERLINK “mailto:info@goodbug.com” info@goodbug.com.

I would like to thank Lee Anne for sharing all of this valuable information and look forward to a follow-up interview with M & R insectary as new and exciting discoveries are made in the biological control industry. –Amy Heiden

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Intelligence/cooking

7 questions with pot lucky chef Danyael Williams A “Pot Lucky” dinner. Let’s just say, I was delightfully surprised after I met our chef, Daniel Laughing Bear and feasted on a gourmet dinner which became a catalyst for one of the most euphoric cannabis experiences I’ve ever had.

1.

The hosts, Shawn & Veronica told me you’re, “an interesting cat, a Sioux Native American who was trained at Julliard, but plays in death metal bands & creates artisan jewelry.” I was intrigued, can you give us a little background...

(Danyael) Yes, Oglala Lakota Sioux I was born on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation in South Dakota and lived there until I was 12 when my mom moved us to Los Angeles for us to grow up and have a better life off the rez.

(Or was it. Ha HA) I am still very spiritual in the Lakota beliefs and ceremonial in all the art I make and create. I do make authentic Sioux artwork in the tribal ways and have done many special talismans for everyone from friends to others that needed the medicine healing properties of Shamans. Oh yea I also make silver and stones in jewelry in the native fashion but I do stray and do other custom silver work. I have been making jewelry for about five years but have been doing tribal artwork for quite sometime.

I grew up in the L. A. School district and went to school in a few different places in and around L. A. I did manage to make a few friends that were into bands back in the day and that’s kind of how I got started in the music scene.

I was friends with the guys in Slayer, Megadeath, Savage Grace from back in the early stages of what is known as Thrash Metal in L.A. I toured the world with a lot of these guys and started playing from being around them and just watching so I started playing guitar and getting pointers from them. As all bass players might add: Bass players are frustrated guitarists.

I have Majors in Professional Music and Performance from Berkeley College of Music 1992. I play Four & Five string, Fretless and Upright basses. Acoustic and Electric Guitars, Drums, blah blah blah, by that time I was already touring and playing worldwide with metal and punk rock bands and was recording and performing around the world.

I produced and engineered several artists albums for major & Independent record labels world-wide and worked in A&R and music business development for IRS records back in the day.

I also have extensive music business knowledge working and touring with major recording artists such as: Motorhead, Slayer, Megadeth, Death, Ziggy Marley, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Iron Maiden, Kiss, Black Sabbath and many more to list I was in The Legendary Thrash metal Band called Dark Angel and also in some other bands from time to time

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Dark Fucking Angel recorded the song in Bob Kulick (Kiss, Meatloaf) studio “Creeping Death” for the Grammy Award Winning CD “Metallic Attack” in 2005 and the song was released as a single from Big Deal Records, and I did get a Grammy award so that means that I got some recognition for being a musician. Dammit!

DFA was in the studio working on new music and set to tour the world once more until our singer was forced to retire from music. We recorded several tracks but never got to do any vocals and the project was scrapped and the Mighty Dark Fucking Angel Reunion was nevermore.

I have also been active in the Punk Rawk Scene Recording and Touring world-wide with such artists as: ZYKLON-B, Glue Gun, Ten Foot Pole, Inhale, Don’t NO, RaSh and Savage Tree Frogs on Smacks to name just a few and have been an active studio session player and touring bass player from time to time throughout the years.

When I first saw the menu, I was quite surprised. It was an interesting mix of down home favorites, but gourmet. How did you develop the menu?

2.

(Danyael) This whole thing really came about from one of my friends that mentioned that since I was really good at cooking, and have been baking for some time, I prepared a whole dinner made with Cannabis, and that started my thoughts about it. It was too bad too cause she didn’t make it to the dinner (Flake) .

As for the menu: Well I basically asked a bunch of my friends what they thought would be good and went from there. They were actually easy to prepare and since I love to cook I tried it and thought out my plan of attack.

HA HA

3.

Was the cannabis you used during the cooking process home grown or purchased at a special dispensary?

(Danyael) It was grown by me and my friend. I have been growing for some time: Blueberry Kush and Headband and I’d just been growing the natural sunlight way. I make the tinctures from my shake and Kief but I also use the buds for the special occasions. Like this one was.

4.

How long did it take you to prepare for the dinner?

7.

The cake was pretty special, any tips for home chefs baking with cannabis?

(Danyael) Well after I finalized the menu and got other responses about the dishes I just went shopping for the dishes the day before and started the preparation three days before making the tinctures for the dinner except for the Olive oil and the Rum. That process takes 30 days to infuse.

(Danyael) Yes, the cake was made sugar free and fat free as much as I can make it, so being cake, I wanted to make that the killer so I purposely made it as strong as I could and from everyone that had a piece of that testified that it kicked ass.

Everything was organic and I never use sugar or fats as I keep a healthy lifestyle and being a Diabetic have to watch out for that. But don’t tell everyone at the dinner that it was healthy. (Laughing)

There are so many things you can find about cooking with cannabis from the web as I did and experimenting is more fun so just go with it and share with others and it will be all good. You don’t have to use sugars and fats for so much of cooking now days so if you want to do cooking for diabetics or sweet tooth treats the possibilities are endless.

5.

There were about 20 people at the dinner, how much cannabis was used for the dinner?

(Danyael) I used about 2 ounces for everything: 1 ounce of each strain. From the RSVP list I had enough to feed 24 people only cause I always make more than enough.

6.

For at home chefs cooking with cannabis, would you recommend X grams as sufficient for a dinner of 2 or 4?

(Danyael) That’s hard to say because of the different strains and grade. I have been using my plants for awhile so I kind of know what the strength of the tinctures will be. When I do baking I usually use about a 1/8 per batch say for brownies. But also the leafs and shake are less potent than the buds but I’m sure everyone knows that. I experiment alot so that’s the fun in that and the not knowing is a plus..

I’m no chef just someone that really likes to cook and experiment with different dishes but I do share everything and ask a lot of questions on peoples tastes and just keep trying to come up with new things I like and if I get outside ideas I take them and flow with it.

Its so good to share with people and that being the circle of life for me, I’m just so happy I have good friends and meeting new friends so being able to cook and bake and everyone liking it (hopefully) that all the positive energy keeps me cooking and baking.

P.S. Wait till you try my Red Velvet Cupcakes with Rum Cream Cheese Frosting.... :-)

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High Outside Photos by Tom Green and Eric Sligh

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Tom Green.

Clockwise from top: Black Afghani, colored and ready for harvest in late September; Afgoo; Unknown strain grown in Denver; Green Crack grown without any chemical fertilizers 20 miles outside of Denver. 707 Diesel Closeup late in the season; 707 Diesel in late august.; Tom Green.

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Clockwise from top: 707 Diesel in 200 gallon Geopots; Maui on a misty mountainside; outdoor homestead. All photos by Tom Green.

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dvanced Growing

Propogation

101

Peak propagation requires little more of your day than taking a shower does; but for the vast majority of people trying, success is not favoring them. Back in the day, when walking into a garden shop to mention the word “clone or cut” was a plain give away, success was built on learning the hard way. We really don't want our readers to have such a hard time, so go ahead cut this page out post it on the wall, here is your free copy of Cannabis Propagation For Dummies. Let's get started....

The Mother: She should be in optimum health each time you take cuts. If cutting off your indoor /outdoor plants, just don't cut anything you wouldn't plus it keeps vigor in your stock. Spray House&Garden Magic Green or Technaflora Thrive Alive B-1 one day or up to three hours before you cut.

The Plugs, Dome, and Heat: Don't panic it's not blown glass anymore its the 100% organic iHort 35/65 plug with 72 cell tray insert or an equivalent like rapid rooter. These plugs have an ideal water/air ratio at the root zone and also release moisture evenly. The plug seems to sustain a clone for quite sometime once rooted with proper nutrition. Keep plugs at room temp(68-75). The plugs should soak for 1-2hrs to make sure there is consistent uptake of water. Spot water if needed using the water that you drain from the tray. Use a chop stick to poke a hole to the bottom of the tray. The Mondi propagation dome or equivalent with top opening adjustable ports for air transfer are essential. The vents should be open a bit. The seedling mat is universal and comes in many sizes and brands. Note: Oasis cubes need a little water 1/8” to ¼” in the bottom of the tray at all times.

H2O Soak/Starter Mix: 1 gallon of purified water. This means reverse osmosis, carbon filtered, Crystal Geyser or even a Brita pitcher. The machines in front of grocery stores are great! Mix 2ml of BioBizz Bloom, 1.1ml House&Garden Roots Excelluator or Humboldt Roots and 2ml of SM-90. If you have big bucks Advanced Nutrients Voodoo Juice also. Adjust pH to 5.8-6.0 Soak ½ gallon of this mix per tray. If you’re on a budget Liquinox B-1 and ¼ strength bloom nutrient of your choice.

radomag.com

Cutting Enhancers: So many....Dip 'n Grow, KLN, Olivias, are some of the classics, Clonex and Rootech gels are the trend. How you take care of the plants during the rooting process is the single biggest reason for success not the enhancer.

Cutting the clones: For the first stage of this miracluolus energy transformation there is a secret I would love to share with our readers. Select 4”-7” cuttings to allow a second cut in one day. Let up to 20 cuts per 8oz Dixie cup soak overnight in PURE water (R.O. or Machine filtered) mixed with Thrive Alive B-1 Organic at 2ml/gal. During this day change the water a minium of 4 times. Mist them with Advanced Jump Start 2x daily. The next day when you prep; cut and dip at

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by J. Dillion the new length(3-5”). If possible try to include node/ leaf sites towards the bottom of the cut. Believe it, no node needs to be on the stem section to have rooting occur. Now in order; cut any present node/leaf site off the stem to ~1/16”. Leave the top 2 leaves and cut the last 1/4” off the tip to help with transparation rate.

Then with a razor or new scissors, cut the bottom at 45* and 1/8” below any node/leaf site. Insert in your desired enhancer...and into the hole it goes.

Watering: Each day you should fill tray with 1/2gal of the watering mix let soak for 1-3hrs and drain. Roots Excelluator 1.1ml, BioBizz Bloom and every other day Hygrozyme then pH to 5.8-6.0. If you are propagating multiple trays and have time the run off of other trays could water the next set and so on. Saving water for the next day is not recommended.

Foliar Spray: Mist babies 1-2 times a day with Advanced Jump Start and/or Botanicare Liquid Karma. Every 5 days use SM90. Use according to bottle.

Environmental: Being Mother Nature can be quite hard with a large indoor room but in propagation we use a 17”x21” tray about a foot tall, requiring minimal light....this should be a breeze. Using a dome, or environment lid is highly recommended for at least the first 6 days since 70% relative humidity is required. Keep your temperature steady 74-78. You need a precise system to monitor the seedling mat. Purchase a temperature monitor with a probe that shares a plug spot.

This device will turn on/off the seedling mat when temperature range has been achieved. Your room should have some type of air exchange at least once per day to keep it fresh. After 8 days you can take the lid off if room humidity is above 45%. The light should be on at least 18 hours a day and 24 will only hurt your wallet, but the plants do like it. Cannabis is one of a select group of C3 plants that can grow indefinetly if given the opportunity. Rudearalis is the sole exception with a genetic auto flowing based on days growing, not photo period.

If you want roots like these, you should read this article.

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Light: Seedlings only need to recieve 250-300 foot-candles.

Using a standard 2’ floucesent fixture with a full spectrum (5-6500K) bulb per tray is ideal. Mount 2”-4”above humidty dome. This spectrum of light encourages root growth, leaf growth and stronger stems. If the hardware is all you have the cool white will have to do. If you are using HID light 400watts is more than enough and should be mounted 6’ off the ground. HPS light will slow rooting by a few days . grow colorado • 77

Advanced Growing

Cannabis

Manipulation

4-6 days after the first topping, 2 new mains show 2 nodes each and a inter-nodal stretch site perfect for the next topping

5 days after transplant and 6 nodes high on the main stem the A-Typical node was topped. This produced 2 mains.

A

s humans have domesticated animals, plants have been around for the ride as well. Humans have breed , hybernized and stabalized many food staples. Human contact and use of cannabis for thousands of years resulting have resulted in endogenous cannabanoids being produced in our bodies. That is quite a connection with a plant here on this beauitful planet.

To “Progressively Form” (PF) plants is the way I’ve come to know of ancient practices of plant manipulation applied to cannabis. Many growers are now just learning these techniques and others are perfecting it with practice and patience. The blending of bonsai pruning, tree standardizing, rose bush thinning, fruit tree thinning, branch selection, sucker shoot removel, intuitional and foresight perception. Topping,pinching, bending, stalling... all of these can lend to growing more squat uniform plants but can also increase your yeild if properly performed and timed, indoor or out. Growers are increasingly improving their attention to detail and time spent in the

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garden which is condusive to trying new ideas. It becomes contagious to play with the plants and see how they respond to the attention. PF does however create more work for the grower. If you grow SOG (sea of greeen) then I would not suggest manipulating anything but photo-period; but that is another article. Since most indoor growers do consider plant count; real SOG is rare.

The topping of a plant does change it’s life drastically. This is of course natural and therefore does not decrease the THC levels; as this is genetically decided. If you want main-branch colas with few laterals TOP early! This should be done as soon as you see your plants grow 1”-2” after transplant.

Manipulation of plants is an ancient art still performed throughout the world today.

This stunts your plants for 5-7 days with energy going towards root growth and plant apex adaptation. Some people’ bend the top of the plant over touching the soil or horizontal with the soil to induce the same effect as topping. When topped most plants will try to produce a 2-5 branched main base. They don’t look like main branches because they are 1”-2” tall but you need to be looking ahead(foresight), imagining what it will become is the trick. You must tell the plant as early as you can what it should focus it’s energy on. When you have a plant that put 2 mains up you need to top again as soon as each branch has 2 nodes; now you have 4 at the very top of your plant and you gave a chance for other lowers of making it to the top canopy. Topping your plants will induce growth in all directions and you will need to form and thin (PF) the subsequent growth in 5-7 day intervals in order to maintain the exact growth you desire. Using PF on your plants will correct

this. 4-5 days before inducing flower you must control the pattern of growth by forming and cleaning your plants.

This time is also the last for topping of the plant. Each main branch will show it’s self on the plant.

Clean up the nodes/branches until 4-6 nodes are visible from the branch tip.

Good goals for pot size to top ratio could be; 4-6 mains for a 3-5 gallon pot, 6-10 for 7-10 gallon pots and 12-18 for 15 gallon pots. This does not include side laterals of each main branch which vary from strain to strain. All strains show which laterals are being given more energy so thin the others leaving 1 on lower branches and 2-3 on the upper crown of main branch stems. Cleaning water leaves in the center when forming for air flow and spray coverage.

Weekly clean the DDD: dying(60%or more) dead, or diseased leaves. Good luck and have fun with playing with your trees.

Topping,pinching, bending, stalling, super cropping, FIM...

its ALL manipulation.

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