58
K@MC K N ' M H D C @ ,
3OFT 3ECRETS
! ROOM FULL OF (AWAIIAN (AZE
and make use of the buffering qualities that good soil has naturally. You should just make sure that you give precisely enough that the plant should after a week show signs of a deficiency. And then in the days following this point you give exactly what the plant needs for the next five days. In short I would say that that I let the fertilizing with nitrogen (N) peak in the beginning, from the 2nd up to and including the 4th week, and then after this to slowly let it be phased out until two weeks before the harvest. I allow the phosphorous (P) to peak in the 2nd week, when the super growth begins, then in the same way to reduce to a minimum, and then gradually begin to raise it again from week four to reach its maximum in week eight or nine, a level I can maintain until the 13th week before stopping giving it a week and a half before the harvest.
*iÌiÀÊ` iÃÊ ÌÊÜ Ì ÊLÕLL iÃÊÊPart 7
4EXT AND 0HOTOS 3MILEY 'RASS
)N THIS SERIES FOR THE ORGANIC GROWER EACH ISSUE WE PUT A DIFFERENT WEED GROWER FROM THE .ETHERLANDS UNDER THE SPOTLIGHT )N THIS EPISODE WE ARE PRIVILEGED WITH A GLIMPSE INTO THE KITCHEN OF 0ETER A YEAR OLD FURNITURE MAKER FROM THE CENTRE OF 5TRECHT AND A GREAT PLANT LOVER (E ONLY HARVESTS ONCE A YEAR SOMETIMES TWICE "UT THEN WE ARE TALKING ABOUT PERFECTION "ECAUSE 0ETER HAS BUT A SINGLE GOAL EVERY YEAR TO NOT JUST RAISE (AZE WITH A SWEET HIGH IN AS ORGANIC AS POSSIBLE BUT TO ALSO MAKE THE BEST HOMEMADE "UBBLE (ASH IN THE .ETHERLANDS 3O HOW DOES 0ETER GO ABOUT THIS “My basic starting point is a good organic manure that I supplement with chemically pure fertilizers. For the de natural irregularities that go with the territory when you’re growing organically, I top up my plants according to their individual needs with, pure N, P and Ks. I do not really use all that many Boosters because I actually tend to have too many trace elements anyway. The addition of metals is something I keep more firmly under control, because having too high a concentration of trace elements is not a good thing, it’s overkill; twice during each grow – maximum - is enough for the whole harvest. If any deficiencies do develop, depending on the varieties you are growing, then these are easy to make up during the bloom. If you discover small white stripes between the veins of the leaves that means that they have been given a few too many trace elements and that you have to stop giving supplements to your plants. At the same time you learn that next time you grow this variety to go a bit easier with your hand.
> LÀ Ê,i` > ÀÊ I first started growing on my 18th birthday. First on my balcony; nice in the outdoors, and excitement all Summer wondering how the last few weeks of blooming would turn out: nice weather and an abundant harvest, or a wet Autumn and mould among your buds? Back in the beginning of the 1980s (grow shop pioneer) Wernard Bruining introduced me for the first time to smoking the “new” Nederweed, Skunk, it
was called, I believe. I was immediately smitten. And of course I got hold of a few clones as soon as I could, at first for my balcony. From those plants from the early days I have been growing their descendants for years. In the beginning I had selected two different genetic lines from the newcomers, one that was totally white and another that was more or less purple. A real dark red, something it most probably got from an ancestor of the Skunk, the so-called Fallbrook Redhair, names after the place between San Diego on the Mexican border and Los Angeles, so in California, and developed by the local farmers between the avocado trees. And take note – during the 1970s, because since Nancy Reagan kicked off the War on Drugs in the US you don’t find very much dope in Fallbrook any more, or if you do it’s come from the US Marines who have put some seeds to use in the wilderness surrounding their nearby Camp Pendleton. Seven years ago in the space of a day I lost my house and my wife (and so my balcony too), and I was forced to set up camp in a cramped attic. I had no room for more than a bed and a cupboard, and this is where I lived for a while. The cupboard had a footprint of about 60 by 60 centimetres – exactly big enough to be able to carry on growing my green friends, with a bit of help from some good lighting. And to make new crosses, of course. I began in the cupboard with 60 seeds and 20 clones that I allowed at the peak of their bloom to be fertilised by
a wonderful Mexican male, a Sativa in fact. Out of this I had one stroke of good fortune. A Haze, and a really strange one at that, that I went on to cross more times, made selections and bred from. The result was that I picked up First and Second prizes for organic weed and that my home made hash has now been voted a couple of years in a row by the Americans (at High Times) as the best Bubble Hash in the world. That plant is the Hawaiian Haze, the original, and developed by me, in a cupboard next to my bed. It really is a strange world.
> } }Ê Ì ÊÃ iÌ }ÊÞ ÕÊÜ> ÌÊ By determining yourself what levels of NPKs to add to your organic manure you can slowly get your plants to change in to something that you want. Agriculturalists and growers in greenhouses often give their products some extra nitrogen at the beginning of their crop; so you can assume, since growing under lamps creates conditions that are usually more extreme than in our domestic outdoor spring, that in the beginning you also need to give a lot of extra nitrogen to your plants too. The majority of A and B nutrients when used on soil are not sufficiently adequate, because they provide too fierce a transition for the as yet still young plants that are in a growth spurt. That sort of nutrient is really only suitable for use if your soil is really very poor, but then you are missing a good base and it is actually pretty pointless to grow in such soil. With soil you have to play around
I gradually apply potassium a bit more, actually throughout the whole cycle in relatively steady levels with a light peak in the middle of the bloom. During the ten to fifteen days before the harvest I only give my plants water, since the plant is barely taking up any nutrients, if any at all and so she has enough just with what still sits in the soil. In addition to that it is a nicer smoke for me and the consumer, because an excess of salts in the last week before the harvest gives the plant a sharp taste when it is smoked. I do not want to taste what kind of manure was being given the plant while I am smoking, thank you very much. And I’m assuming neither do you.
ÌÊ`i«i `ÃÊ ÊÜ >ÌÊÌ iÊÊ } À ÃÊ ii`oÊ I mix All-Mix with cloning soil in a 1to-1 ratio when I plant the young clones in small pots. I begin with giving them a bit of extra nitrogen and phosphorous so that I arrive at an Ec-value (salt value) of 0.9, working from the assumption that the mains water has an Ec-value of 0.6 as a base. I bump that up a notch at the end of the week to an Ec of 1.3. In the 2nd week I re-pot the young plants in the soil, that has a base with an Ec-value of 1.6. I enrich the first watering with a few crumbs of magnesium and a little nitrogen, due to the huge demand at that moment, to a maximum of 0.9 Ec. The second feeding I give a little more, up to an Ec of 1.0, and for the third a little more again, with an Ec of 1.1 or 1.2, depending on what the girls need. At that moment you can still jump in directly with fast results. My green girlfriends understand me, and I understand them... The soil that I have used for a second time has become pretty much depleted of nitrogen and trace elements during the first harvest I used it for and so I add extra to the old soil in order to be able to take a second crop off it. What I have a shortage of I make up with All-Mix. The Ec of this ready to use soil can vary a bit and tends to be between 1.8 and 2.4. if you start out with a heavy hand on your base and the Ec of your new All-Mix is a bit on the high side, then of course I don’t give any extra nitrogen and pay
