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www.softsecrets.com/gb/ | Issue 2 - 2020 18+ For adults only. Soft Secrets is published six times a year by Discover Publisher BV Netherlands
AMSTERDAM
Cannabis compound discovered by scientists could be 30 times more powerful than THC
white berry • sensi-star • delahaze • pandora • belladonna • wappa • allkush • atomical haze • ice cream • nebula
Findings may explain why especially potent types of marijuana have a more powerful impact than can be explained simply by THC levels
CBD may offset some of the damaging effects of THC, such as paranoia and memory impairment.
A cannabis compound has been
Italy, said: “In cannabis varieties
The farming and selling of canna-
found to be potentially 30 times
where THC is present in very low
bis was barred under legislation
New resin production techniques
more powerful than THC (tetrahy-
concentrations, then we can think
which dates back to the 1990s,
in Morocco and Europe have
drocannabinol), the plant's main
that the presence of another,
but contradictory court decisions
boosted levels of THC but not CBD.
psychoactive constituent.
more active cannabinoid can
since then have generated uncer-
explain those effects.”
tainty around the law. Shops that
In Britain alone, THC levels in
sell low-strength “legal weed”
herbal cannabis remained rough-
A study, published in academic journal Scientific Reports,
At the end of last year, Italy’s
- with only minute quantities of
ly similar between 2006 and 2016,
involved giving a fairly low dose of
Supreme Court ruled growing
THC - are widespread in Italy.
but police seizures indicate they
the newly unearthed compound,
small quantities of cannabis at
known as THCP (tetrahydrocan-
home for private usage to be legal
Cannabis resin typically contains
bis resin.
nabiphorol), to lab mice.
in a landmark verdict.
CBD (cannabidiol) as well as THC.
These mice responded less strongly to painful stimuli and also behaved like they had consumed THC, moving around leisurely. Italian scientists have not tested THCP on humans, so it is yet to be established if the new cannabinoid will get users high. But the researchers said THCP could be the reason why certain especially potent strains of the drug have a more powerful impact than can be explained simpy by the THC content. Dr Cinzia Citti, the report’s lead author, of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia in
have increased steeply in cannaSource: independent.co.uk
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New wedding cake
find your nearest wholesaler or retailer
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new releases collect
www.barneysfarm.com
tropicanna banana
dos si dos 33
purple punch
GLOOKIES
orange sherbert
Blue gelato 41
gorilla zkittlez
STRAWBERRY LEMONADE
Barney’s Souvenirs BV | Haarlemmerstraat 98, 1013 EW Amsterdam | Wholesale enquiries : 0031 20 41 17 249 | info@barneysfarm.com
3 Page
12
Breeding Talk With Trichome Jungle Seeds
Page
15
Outdoor Grow Guides 2020
Starting Your Outdoor Grow, Indoors!
Page
22
How To Make Your Own Cannabis Seeds At Home
With the master, Stoney Tark
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29
Certificates for the Cannabis Industry
Strawberry Lemonade Barney’s Farm www.barneysfarm.com
Page
33
7 Top Tips On Bigger Yields
4
Strain Report
Sunset Paradise A Luxury Scoop of Gelato from Paradise Seed
Sunset Paradise is Paradise Seeds’s version of the super popular Gelato, an exotic indica that has been one of the most popular strains to emerge from the USA in recent times. Paradise Seeds has taken its time to present its own version, but fans of the Dutch seed bank will know that the company never rushes these things and will only release a strain when it is satisfied it is ready. The result is a luxury scoop of Gelato with Thin Mint GSC and Sunset Sherbert in the genetic mix. The Paradise version combines a refined blend of terpenes and meditative flow, with an indica relaxation that is potent without dragging the user into a couch lock stupor. As such, this strain will hit a note with medical users and those indica fans looking for a more easy going and vibrant ride.
Germination and Vegetative State Two Sunset Paradise feminized seeds were germinated by test grower, The Doc. They were placed into a soil mix and both seedlings required less than 2.5 days to break through the soil’s surface. The seedlings were put into veg state for 4
weeks, during which time they exhibited robust growth and also began to display some distinctive elements of this strain's unique personality. Unusually for an indica the growth was not as dense or bushy as most, with both plants displaying quite a distinctive open growth pattern. Reaching the end of the veg stage, both plants began to show their true colors
- quite literally - as the Doc noted in his grow diary that, "stalks and leaves have started to turn red and purple-blue. It seems as if this is gonna be a colourful affair…" They plants stood at just 37 and 40 cm in height as the switch was made to flowering.
Flowering Stage Both plants continued to show great uniformity in form as they entered this phase and again this unique indica showed distinctive characteristics which were clear for both plants. Again, unusually for an indica, there was significant stem elongation and after four weeks in flowering both plants had doubled in size to 80cm a piece.
5 slight lavender taste that melted into a fruity sweetness (with a spicy hint of skunk) that tantalized the palate and lingered on the tongue. Just one toke delivered a tingling sensation on the temples, the second started something brewing in the forehead and the third brought a rushing wave of euphoria. From the second half of the joint the buzz became a physical one, with a strong body stone that relaxed tired limbs. The effect was described as a blissfulness in the head and relaxation in the body, complementary feelings which provided a real sense of well being. The Doc noted that the effect was long last effect too - the sensation lasted for over two hours.
Verdict Sunset Paradise is an indica dominant plant that brings calm and relaxation without taking you out of the game - a mellow indica stone that doesn’t weigh tons. Its unique color show and insane resin count is impressive, as is the dizzying combination of elements that makes up its scent. A stimulator for the taste buds and the appetite, the soothing happiness delivered by Sunset Paradise will win fans amongst medical and recreational users alike.
Cultivation data: Genetics
Sunset Paradise (indicadominant)
Vegetative stage
Floweringstage
4 weeks (after germination) 56 days / approx. 60 days in general
Medium
Plagron Grow Mix soil, 1
pH
6.2-6.6
EC
1.2–1.8 mS
Light
up to 12 x SANlight S4W =
1 litre pots
1680 watts
The color show, first noted in the veg stage, continued to present itself, with main stems and lateral branches turning red in the upper half while dark shade leaves turned from green to purple-blue to violet. Adding to this color spectrum was an early build up of resin manifesting in a generous glistening of silvery white trichomes. Flower formation was impressive with plenty of calyxes developing (with a high calyx to leaf ratio) and conglomerating into roundish thick clusters. This was accompanied by more development uniformity with the presentation of rock hard corpulent buds and a massive injection of resin in the second half of the flowering period. This resin production saturated the buds but also saw significant spread out to the shade leaves.
Accompanying this spectacular resin festival was a bewitching sweetish floral scent that filled the grow room. The Doc described this as "boasting complexity, with notes of citrus fruits, berrylicious sweetness, skunky spiciness and a dash of lavender which is very fitting, given that purple-blue leaf colour". Harvest time arrived after exactly eight weeks of flowering, yielding an impressive amount of fat nuggs dusted heavily with trichomes. Final heights for the two Sunset Paradise plants were 84 and 89 cm.
Harvest Yield The final yield of these plants (dried harvest) was a combined 225 gms.
Smell and Smoke Report The unique personality of this plant carried right the way through to the harvested buds which the Doc described as "real eye candy" thanks to their exotic blue-ish appearance (and generous trichome coating). He noted in his diary, "They’ve got that certain something, setting themselves apart from many other strains." This extended to the exquisite distinctive aroma that came with the lavender element pushed to the foreground, deliciously blended with fruity notes of orange and raspberry, plus a bit of skunky piquancy. To test the effect, half a gram of Sunset Paradise was rolled with a little tobacco. The first puff delivered an instant package full of flavor: that lavender scent translated into a
Temperature
19-28°C
Air humidity
40-60%
Watering
by hand Organic Bloom Liquid +
Fertilisation
Organic More PK from Green Buzz Liquids Living Organics, More
Additives/
Roots, HuminSäure Plus,
stimulants
Big Fruits, Fast Buds and CleanFruits from Green Buzz Liquids
Tools
CleanLight Pro for mold prevention
Height
84 and 89 cm
Yield
together, 225 grams
www.paradise-seeds.com
7
growing Words & Pics: Green Born Identity – G.B.I.
Barney’s Farm strain story
Purple Punch: A purple dream of resin There are only a few cannabis strains that have buds which go purple when grown in indoor rooms with regular, warm temperatures. That’s why this highly attractive strain is quite a rare case to behold indoors. Few growers are willing to lower the night temperatures significantly below the optimum - to enable their plants to produce the purple pigment anthocyanin in large amounts, and who can blame them. The anthocyanin acts as a kind of anti-cold and anti-freezing agent for the plants. But there’s a handful of strains with a special genetic makeup that allows for ample generation of anthocyanin with regular indoor cultivation temperatures.
Such a strain is Purple Punch from Barney’s Farm, which owes its purple flower garment to its noble mother Granddaddy Purple, a very popular Californian cross of Purple Urkle and Big Bud released in the year of 2003. The father Larry OG, as powerful as he is famous, originated in California, too, so Purple Punch, the elite offspring of these two, is another case of top-shelf West Coast genetics from California. The basic data of this 90% indica variety sounds equally promising: it requires merely 50-60 flowering days to create opulent indoor yields of up to 600-700 g/m2. The bushy, multibranch plants exude resin in vast amounts and grow to a medium height indoors, up to 90 cm. Purple Punch is highly suitable for
outdoor cultivation as well, finishing in the second to third week of September under natural light and being equipped with a strong resilience against all kinds of mould. Fabulous yields of up to 2 kg per plant are accomplishable outdoors given an optimum environment, with the plants not becoming taller than 1.5 metres! The effect corresponds to the 90/10 indica dominance, depending on
dosage ranging from relaxing and stress-combatting to heavily sedative or narcotic. Aroma-wise, Barney’s comes up with something super exquisite: Purple Punch is supposed to smell and taste of “baked apple pie with cloves glazed with caramelised blueberry and cherries” – now if that doesn’t stimulate your senses nothing will!
Very bushy uniform indica growth The two seeds were sown quickly germinated without any problems, and after two weeks of growth, The Doc wrote into his grow diary: “Just as expected, they’re growing markedly indica-like, with wide leaves and short internodes.” Due to their 90/10 indica dominance, he gave his two Purple Punches five weeks in veg, extra long. At the end of this period, he reported: “I’ve moved them into flowering now. They’re still displaying a shrub structure, looking like 100% indica even. With heights of 40-45 cm, very homogeneous!”
Purple calyxes and early trichome coating The two plants swiftly transitioned into flowering once the light was switched to 12/12, it took them only six days to display their first female preflowers. What followed was the start of an industrious mission to build buds – after just three weeks into flowering, there were tightly packed white-haired flower clusters everywhere. The branch elongation effect was quite restrained so the plants kept their dense compact shape. After four weeks of flowering, the Doc noted: “they’re making fast progress, still with a high degree of uniformity. The buds are
8
noticeably becoming thicker, with their calyxes – hooray! – having begun to turn purple. So much to my delight, Purple Punch lives up to its name. But there’s another reason to cheer, it’s absolutely astounding how heavy the resin production is at that early stage, those purple calyxes are already covered with loads of trichomes, it seems as if they’d explode with resin soon...”
Purple resin factories with copious yields When the eighth week of flowering was over – very much on time - the two Purple Punches were fully ripe so The Doc could harvest them, commenting:
“They’ve evolved into true resin factories, with even the upper fan leaves so widely encrusted in crystals it makes Purple Punch look like a ‘white strain’, a white strain though with a purple heart, sooo gorgeous! And they’ve remained pretty uniform until the very end.” Weighing the dry buds a few weeks later turned out to be another highlight since they weighed in at 83 and 86 grams given the final plants heights of only 59 and 64 cm, that was really something! Luckily, the Purple Punch nuggets had kept their violet colouring through the drying process which made them a fancy eye-catcher the visual fascination of which was increased by its thick-layered “bling-bling” resin carpet.
The Doc gets steamrolled by a heavy indica stone and sings “Purple Brain“ He went with an almost festive feeling to grind his first Purple Punch bud – excited about exploring the psychoactive aspects of this variety. He loaded his “Mighty” vaporizer and deeply inhaled a big first vapour cloud which he kept it in his lungs for a very long time. Three more clouds followed, and then it came rolling by, a huge hunk of an indica stone! “It ironed me completely flat“, chuckled The Doc.
“My whole body became as squashy as Jell-O, the tensions in my back were soon gone, giving way to a warm feeling of deep relaxation. The same happened in my head which
down-shifted into the gear of maximum relief, it was that buttery soft feeling again of total serenity and bliss.
www.barneysfarm.com
Cultivation data: Genetics
Purple Punch (Larry OG x Granddaddy Purple)
Vegetative stage
five weeks (after germination)
Flowering stage
58 + 60 days / 56-63 days in general
Medium
Plagron Grow Mix soil, 11 litre pots
pH
6.2-6.6
EC
1.2–1.8 mS
Light
up to 12 x SANlight S4W = 1680 watts
Temperature
19-28°C
Air humidity
40-60%
Watering
by hand
Fertilisation
Organic Bloom Liquid from Green Buzz Liquids
Additives/stimulants
Living Organics, More Roots, Humin Säure Plus, Big Fruits, Fast Buds and Clean Fruits from Green Buzz Liquids
Tools
CleanLight Pro for mould prevention
Height
59 + 64 cm
Yield
83 + 86 grams
10
Strain Report
MORPHEUS: RAPID
AND EXPLOSIVE GROWTH OF RESIN-FILLED BUDS Indoor monitoring of the Morpheus variety from Buddha Seeds Morpheus surprises for its speed, explosive growth, resin production and compact morphology at the same time, despite its short flowering period, as well as for its outstanding orange taste. Morpheus surprises for its speed, explosive growth, resin production and compact morphology at the same time, despite its short flowering period, as well as for its outstanding orange taste. It does not require great care, so it can be grown by beginners. This is how the user of Instagram @grow_and_med summed up his growing experience. Below are further details of the whole process carried out in an indoor setting in Argentina. Morpheus from the Buddha Seeds bank is an indica-dominant hybrid with relaxing and calming therapeutic properties due to its high CBD content. This strain stands out for its balanced THC and CBD, contained in a ratio of 1:1 and making up 20% of the total cannabinoid content. The experience with Morpheus is pleasant and introspective and reminds us of the mythological saying "to be in the arms of Morpheus", god of dreams. Morpheus invites us to plunge into a psychic journey without losing our lucidity. Its psychoactive effect is moderate while retaining a rich taste and an intense aroma with a touch of citrus. Let us see how this strain was grown in an indoor setting in Argentina by the Instagram user @grow_and_med, who decided to test grow Morpheus for its medicinal and therapeutic properties.
Germination
A Morpheus seed was germinated on 15 September 2019 and an excellent development was observed ever since the first days. After germination, the seedling was planted in a 25 litre Mad Roquet pot with the grower’s own substrate based on coconut, pearlite and reused substrate. Later, the plant was placed into a growing cabinet expressly fitted out for its growth and sized 1.60x0.80x0.80.
Growth
As for the type of lighting, warm LEDs with a power of 600W were used for the growth phase with a photoperiod of 20 hours of light (full-spectrum lamps) and 4 hours
11 of darkness. For the flowering phase, the following parameters were observed: a power of 615W, 300 warm LEDs and 315 light-emitting electrochemical cells (LECs), with a photoperiod of 14 h of light and 10 h of darkness.
candlestick-shape. Two nets were placed to accommodate all the branches and the entire lower part was pruned. When the plant was flowering, it had the strength to support itself on its own, so the nets were cut in order to rotate it inside the grow tent.
Temperature in the last months was around 33/37°C during light hours, with an average humidity of 60%. The rainfall had raised the ambient humidity level.
The central stem was also bent to allow light to filter through to the lower part of the plant and a double net was put in place to prevent it from exceeding this height, which was however limited by the size of the tent.
Flowering
The flowering of Morpheus is fast. In our case, it flowered after 46 days. On the 15th day of flowering, the buds were already in good shape and, after 38 days, they were already hard and compact. This stage ended with an explosion of hard, resinous and compact buds. Finally, the plant reached a height of 1.10 meters in total (including the 50cm of the pot). Throughout its growth phase, no plagues were detected.
Harvest
The harvest of Morpheus was generous, with a dry weight of 247g (not counting the lower parts). Before the harvest, roots were washed with the Flush fertiliser from Advanced Nutrients.
Personal assessment of the grower
Morpheus surprises for its speed, explosive growth, resin production and compact morphology at the same time, despite its short flowering period, as well as for its outstanding orange taste. Morpheus does not require great care, so it can be grown by beginners. The plant was fertilised with the Advanced Nutrients, Grotek and Mad Line product lines with a PH of 5.6 and an EC of 1.75 for a part of the flowering stage. The plant was also transplanted 3 times in order to obtain a good root ball. No pruning was done, so it spontaneously grew into a
As for its taste, Morpheus delights us with citrus and earthy notes. Its high is mild. But the most remarkable aspect was the good feedback it received when marketed in the form of CBD oil. Its 1:1 ratio is ideal for sleep disorders and stress. www.buddhaseedbank.com
12
Grow with Stoney Tark By Stoney Tark
Breeding Talk With Trichome Jungle Seeds
The diversity in Cannabis breeding is at an all time high, especially how marketing and branding play such a major role in the modern day market. Soft Secrets had the privilege to sit down with Banana Man from Trichome Jungle Seeds, to find out as much as possible about breeding, his philosophy, the current scene, his top tips and much more. SSUK: Can you tell us about your background and where did the name Banana Man originate from? I’m a UK breeder but live in Spain, who started Trichome Jungle Seeds in 2008 and moved to Spain about 7 years ago. The name came from the days of the forums, I liked the cartoon as a kid but the name was because I was spending
How important is working with regular seeds when making new lines? Back in the day I was big on regular seeds and would not use fems to breed with, but some of my newer lines are selected from female seeds and had great results. Also a lot of the elite clones that circulate the scene came from female seeds from random hermaphrodites.
Which desired traits do you look to enhance when starting a new project, and how do you know which are the best male and female plants to use? It all depends on the project most of the time, and if I want to add more unique terpenes, vigour or resistance. As far as the best male and females,I have a few sets of criteria they have to meet for females that bit is much easier. With the males, it all comes down to final testing and the results of the offspring. Unless it's a proven male and you know what it adds already and a simple stem rub and selecting a male from proven females is always good.
Which tests do you do on new seed lines once they are produced? Always stress test to see how they perform in low and high temp conditions, and also with different pH ranges to see how they cope.
How many generations of crosses does it take to achieve hybrid vigour? All depends on the genetics you are starting with, and if you are using true breeding plants. Hybrid vigour can be achieved in the F1 generation using two P1 parents.
So how important is resistance and you can explain more about it? Resistance is very important as I have seen a lot of breeders (pollen chuckers) over look it, and it shows in their seeds and crosses from their plants. I have also noticed a lack of resistance in plants grown in Morocco, from female seeds to mould and powdery mildew.
Can you talk us through how you pollinate females and what are your top tips for collecting, applying and storing the male pollen? Different lines will produce different trichomes and terpenes
more time picking bananas out of my friends female seed flowers .
What does breeding mean in your opinion and what is your philosophy? I just love to create new flavours and smells and always looking for something unique . Growing indoors and outdoors, allows me to test and see which plants are resistant to set things like insects, or mold which is a big thing also.
What do you think is a good number of seeds for a selection process, and when should a breeder start to label plants and make notes? A 100 seed count is great for working out the percentage, however can work from much less if you already know the genetics you are working with. From the day the seed is started, notes should be written from how fast or slow germination, was to how vigourous the seedling is.
Sometimes i'll do an open pollination and other times hand pollinate. It all depends but most of the time I will leave the male to do his thing naturally. As far as storing pollen, you can store your male pollen in the freezer as long as you dry it fully first and make sure it's totally vacuum sealed.
How important is the yield factor when making a new strain? I personally try to work with big yielding cultivars but have seen a drift towards more small tight solid nugs, than the old school big fluffy flowers from back in the day. So I try to have both type structures in my lines.
Breeding for yielding is not always the most important
As a UK breeder, what is your view on the European and U.S breeding scene, and what are your top 3 tips for someone new to breeding Cannabis? The Spanish scene is really gathering momentum but America is steaming ahead with legalization. I do like how the club system works in Spain and Barcelona is fast becoming the european center for cannabis. My top 3 tips are make your crosses and give those seeds out for people to test. Do not rush things and have a goal in mind, as we don't always start with a goal but we all start somewhere .Finally and most importantly...do what you love!
Massive Thanks for your time today Banana Man...where can our readers find out more about your social media and work you have done? They can see regular posts and lots of info on my instagram page and breedbay as for buying seeds simply souvenirs and attitude seed bank both have info on each strain also.
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15
Outdoor Grow Guides 2020 By Macky, Percysgrowroom.com
Starting Your Outdoor Grow, Indoors! Part 1 Are you thinking about growing cannabis outdoors this year? It seems early to be considering it, especially for those in the Northern Hemisphere, but starting your grow early, can massively increase the size of your plants come harvest time. Now, as it is so cold outside, any cannabis plant that is planted outdoors will not last very long. So, to get an early start on your grow this season, you will need to start your plants off indoors. Doing this, will ensure the plants start their lives in the right conditions. They can grow, and build up their strength before being placed outdoors to face the elements. Starting your outdoor grow indoors, will not only give you bigger plants, but it will also improve the chances of your plants surviving. It is much easier for an established plant to deal with a harsh environment than it is for a seedling, and the beauty of it is, you can start growing indoors with very little equipment, budget and space. In this guide, we will not only be explaining how to start your grow indoors, but also explaining the benefits of doing so.
When is the Best Time to Start Growing Outdoors? A cannabis plant growing outdoors will need a good stable environment to flourish. If temperatures reach below 15°c, your plants can stop growing, and shut down completely. If this goes on for prolonged periods, your plant could die. Most growers will plant outdoors, after the last frost has passed. This is some time at the end of March, into the beginning of April. But even at these times of year, in some places, it can still be too cold to plant young plants and seedlings outdoors. To do so puts them as risk, and they may die because it's too cold. The earlier you can plant outdoors, the better, but not at the risk of killing the plants. If you begin growing indoors first, your plant will be much stronger, and able to handle the outdoor environment. This will help the plant develop a good root structure, and make it more resilient to harsher environments. Planting an already established plant outdoors, gives you a much higher chance of survival than planting a seed or clone. Seedlings are not strong. They can be killed easily and they need a steady environment for the best chance of survival. This can be hard to achieve outdoors. Because of this,
many growers will not plant seeds directly outdoors, but sow them indoors, in small pots first. After a certain amount of time, the plant is planted outdoors. You can grow young cannabis plant indoors, easily, with a small space, and normal household light bulbs (CFL).
Start Your Grow Indoors If you plan to grow cannabis outside, it may be down to a few reasons. One, you don't have the space to grow indoors. Two, you don't have the budget for the equipment you need. Three, you do not want to take the risk of growing plants indoors, especially if you are growing illegally. These are legitimate concerns, but many growers don't realise how easy it is to just grow a few small plants indoors. You only need a small amount of space, and you will not need high intensity lighting. Because the plants will only be indoors for part of their life cycle, there is no need to go all out on the equipment. You can grow some young plants, for a few weeks in a small cupboard, chest of drawers, or wardrobe. There is no need to buy a grow tent, or HID lighting.
How Much Space You Need? Depending on how long you intend to keep your plants indoors before moving them outside, you will need a certain size grow space. Now, this can be a grow tent, or a grow room. Or you can make a small grow room out of a closest, cupboard, or even an old PC tower! You will have to take into account, how many plants you're going to grow, and how long you intend to veg them indoors for. Let's say you will be growing 4 plants this year. This will be a huge harvest, but growing outdoors can be risky. You don't have the same control over the environment as you do growing indoors. You have to account for this and expect to lose half your crop to bugs, mould, thieves, animals, or bad weather. To give these plants the best start in life, four weeks indoors would be recommended. But there is no reason why you cannot veg for longer!
Some professional outdoor growers, will start vegging their plants indoors, all over winter. You can do this too, but you will need more space, as the plants will grow very big after a few months indoors. Make sure you have the room for this if it's something you are considering.
source nature can provide, the Sun. But for now, whilst they are living inside, they will need a good source of light to get them started. This doesn't have to be something massively expensive, with amazing PAR and light penetration (unless you plan to veg for more than 4 weeks).
All you need, to grow four small plants indoors, is a 60cm x 60cm (2 ft x 2ft) grow space. You will not need a lot of height unless you plan to veg for a long time. If you intend to veg for longer than a few weeks, then you should consider getting a 1.2 x 1.2 m (4ft x 4ft) grow tent with at least a 400W Metal Halide HID light.
Cannabis plants will live happily under T5 Fluorescent lighting all the way through their vegetating period. It is a cheap light to run, cheap to buy, and very good for growing young plants. Also, a T5 will not push out a huge amount of heat, so you can get the bulbs within an inch of the canopy, which will help keep a plant short, and reduce stretch.
Be warned, the longer you veg indoors before going outside, the bigger your plants will be come harvest time. A single cannabis plant can grow 20 ft tall in the right conditions, and can yield many pounds of dry buds. Starting your grow indoors will create huge plants, that are going to be hard to hide from neighbors and any passersby. If you are not in a secluded location, then consider keeping the plants small, so you can be more discreet.
Lighting Eventually, your plants will be living outside, and they will have the best light
If you are going to start your grow indoors, and plan to veg for around 4 weeks, then a T5 would be perfect for you. If you are on a budget, and do not have the spare resources to get new lighting, then you may be able to use household CFL lighting for the first few weeks of your plant's life. These are much like T5, but not designed for growing. Though they will work for young plants, you have to use a lot of them to give an established plant enough light. For longer veg periods that will be more than 4 weeks, you will need more powerful lighting. After about four weeks, your
plant come harvest time, compared to planting a seedling outdoors. Not only that, but you give your plant a much better chance of surviving, as it will have a good root structure, and will be big enough to deal with the stress of the colder climate of April.
plant will be pretty big, and their need for light will have increased. At this stage you should be using a 400W Metal Halide Light, or LED lighting with an output equivalent to a 400w MH. There is no reason why you cannot veg your plant all over winter. But it will take up a lot of space. The more space you have to cover, the more light you will need, and this costs money! Not only with buying the lights, but running them too. For best results, in my opinion, it is good to go for a four week veg, under low intensity lights, just to give the plants a good start in life and make them strong enough for outdoors. Once planted, they will veg for 4 -5 months before they begin to flower! Even after four weeks, you will be shocked at how fast your plants will grow. You can imagine how big it will grow after four months veg.
Pots and Soils To start off any indoor grow, you should start in small pots. Half a litre is a great size to start in, and transplanting later on as the plants get bigger is good practice. To begin though you should not use normal soil. This can have a lot of nutrients stored up in it that can shock a new seedling and kill it. To prevent this from happening, it is a good idea to start your seeds of in a "potting mix". This will have less nutrients in it and will be more suitable for small plants. After a couple of weeks, the nutrients will start to run out in this soil, and it is a good time to transplant into bigger pots, around 3L in size. The plants will have a good root structure and will be able to take the stronger soil now they are more established. After transplanting, keep them in these pots for a few more weeks, and when they are ready to be transplanted again, they should go outdoors and be planted into the ground. If you intend on vegging indoors for longer than 4 weeks, you should transplant again, instead of going outdoors. This time, choose at least 15L pots, depending on how long you intend to veg for. Remember, the more you veg them indoors for, the bigger they will be after growing outdoors for months. Once the plant is planted outdoors, you will not be moving it again. The roots will dig deep into the ground, and the plant will live the rest of its life where it is. You can continue to grow your plants outdoors in pots, you don't have to plant them into the ground. But bear in mind, these plants will grow very big, and will need a lot of root space. If you intend to grow plants outdoors, for the whole grow season, you should use at least 30L pots! Big plants have big roots, they will need a lot of space.
As the grow progresses, we will continue to guide you. If you are going to grow outdoors this year, but you can't start indoors, don't worry. Our next guide will give you all the details on what you need to do to plant your seed outdoors, as well as finding a good spot for your plants to grow. So even if you have never grown before, 2020 is the year you can start, you just have to get the next few issues of Soft Secrets and follow these guides.
Nowhere to Grow, Try Guerilla Growing Preparing to Plant Outdoors After the veg period indoors, the plants will be strong, and nearly ready for life outside. It will be cold outside in early spring, a little too cold for a cannabis plant to be comfortable, especially when coming from a nice indoor warm environment. A sudden change in environment can shock the plant, and slow down growth. For best results, you should try and climatise your plants to their new environment. You can do this by placing the plant outdoors for a couple of hours every day for a week before you plant them outside. This should be done during the day time, when the sun is high, and the temperature is at its warmest. The cold will still shock the plants, but not as much. Extra care needs to be taken here. It is easy for your plants to pick up some bugs whilst outside, and you may bring them into the grow room when you bring the plants back indoors. Be vigilant, and if you suspect there may be bugs coming into the grow room from the plants, you should treat the grow room with a pesticide of your choosing to prevent any further infestation. Prevention is better than cure. Also, before planting outdoors, it is highly recommended that you dig a hole, and fill it with some good soil. The ground you grow in, may not have all of the nutrients a plant needs in it. To ensure your plant has what it needs to get a good start, plant it in soil. All you have to do is dig a hole, get a bag of your preferred soil, and empty it into the hole. Once it is full, take the plants out of the pots and plant them into this new soil.
When is a Good Time to Plant Outdoors As you can see from the calendar, you can sow seeds outdoors around mid-April. This is when temperatures start to warm up again and the days begin to get long
enough for vegetating plants. Because you have already started your plants indoors, they will be much stronger, and much more prepared for the outdoor environment. Once the last frost has passed, you are safe to move outdoors. Frost can kill a plant overnight, and at the very least, cause serious long-lasting damage to the plant tissues. To be sure that there will be no more frost, you should wait until mid-April before taking your plants outdoors, but you may be safe to do this a couple of weeks earlier, if the weather where you are is warm enough. If you are in the Southern Hemisphere, you will be fine planting outdoors from mid-October. Depending on what strain you are growing, the flowering period will begin from August, up until mid-September, and finish sometime between late September and early November. This means, that if you plant outdoors in early spring, your plant will veg for around 16 weeks before it even begins to flower. If you have started indoors, the amount of time you have been vegging for is even longer. Whether it is for a week, a month, or for the whole season, this extra time indoors will pay off with the overall size, and health of the plant.
Start Preparing Now! There is no need to plant seeds today! Take some time to look over some strains, and find what will be best for you. Prepare an indoor grow space, find some decent lighting and soil, and get a small fan. If you start your grow indoors at the end of February, you will be ready to plant some healthy cannabis plants outside in early April. It will not only give you a good head start into the season, but also give a head start to your plants too. Just by starting off a few weeks earlier in doors, you can double the size of your
If you would love to grow your own cannabis, but you don't have the resources, or the space, then there are still options for you. All you really need is seeds, and some soil. Cannabis seeds can be found very cheap, just check out some of the Soft Secrets affiliated seed banks, you will find seeds for a very low cost. You can also win free cannabis seeds, by entering competitions on forums, such as Percysgrowroom.com. Percys Grow Room has weekly comps, that always have seeds as part of their prizes. So if you are on a budget, Percys Grow Room may be able help you out, and help you learn how to grow too. You will find full guides on growing indoors, and outdoors, in many different mediums. It is a great site for new and experienced growers, so go and check it out and say Hi. Guerilla growing, is when a grower, grows their plants in a secret, secluded location, away from home. The plants will be left there, to grow and only be checked on a couple of times through the growing season. If a plant is to be left unattended, it needs to be strong enough to survive, and big enough to not be eaten by small animals. Pretty much the same principles apply to starting a guerilla grow as starting an outdoor grow. Start indoors, to give the plant a better chance of survival. But, when you are guerilla growing, there are many things you need to take into consideration to keep your crop safe from mould, bugs, pest, thieves, animals, and much more. So, start your plants indoors now, and pick up the next episode of Soft Secrets for the next part in the series, "Starting your Outdoor Grow!" Your plants will be ready to be planted outdoors by then. Thanks for reading everyone. Good luck! If you need any help, you can find me on Percysgrowroom.com, I am always happy to answer any questions you may have.
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Grow with Jorge Cervantes
By Jorge Cervantes – jorge@marijuanagrowing.com
CBD-rich Cannabis – Stiff Cannabis Competiton
Cannabis farmers today use tractors and other farm implements that do the work of many laborers.
Stiff competition continues to mount for hobby cannabis growers that want to grow for profit and growers who are selling their flowers. The price of cannabis is dropping and will continue the downward spiral until a marketto-production equilibrium is reached. Professional, well-educated farmers that own farms, tractors, farm implements, etc. are entering the legal CBD-rich cannabis marketplace to compete with established cannabis (THC and CBD) growers.
varieties, like autoflowering cannabis, all come ripe at the same time. These varieties are planted for agricultural production. Everbearing strawvberry plants (similar to ¨regular¨ cannabis) are most often grown by home gardeners.
the amount of sunlight plants receive. For example, sunlight is brighter during summer months than winter months because the sun is closer to the earth during the summer. Consequently a plant that is advertized to come ripe 75 days
specific amount of solar radiation units flowers at the the same time. Autoflower farmers can follow the planting and harvest agenda below depending upon climate and freeze dates. Plants may be smaller, but four harvests annually are posible. Plant in February, harvest in April Plant in April, harvest in June Plant in August, harvest in October Plant in November, harvest in January Photoperiodic sensative (photoperiod) cannabis plants, also known as ¨regular¨cannabis, initiates flowering when plants receive about 12 hours of darkness. These plants have a ¨trigger¨ to flower in the autumn, when days grow short. Photoperiod cannabis planted the first of May comes ripe in September through November, depending upon the hours of darkness received. Typically regular cannabis plants are in the ground 5-7 months before harvest. Such plants can grow very, very big and produce 5 kg. or more in dried manicured flowers. But, the harvest date is unknown and subject to hours of darkness and to a lesser extent, number of solar radiation units. Furthermore, many hours of of intensive labor are required. Regular (photoperiod) cannabis plants are great for backyard gardeners and some farmers because they offer the best value; harvest timing and replanting
These farmers are serious about profit and are set up to grow tonnes of CBD-rich cannabis in large sunlit fields. Farms are mechanized and do not rely on intensive labor. For example, I normally count 10 or more people working a hecacre of cannabis. When I tour a well-run CBD-rich farm, one person can easily manage a one hectacre farm. This fact alone will give the profesional farmer a 10-fold advantage! Many professional farmers that plant large fields are chosing to grow autoflowering cannabis rather than ¨regular¨ AKA long-season cannabis plants. Autoflowering cannabis is popular in Europe and becoming more popular in other parts of the world, especially among farmers who grow hectares. ¨Autoflower¨ is a term that is used by clandestine cannabis cultivators that has been employed so often that it is now commonplace. In botanical terms, ¨day(light)-neutral¨ is the correct term to describe autoflowering cannabis. If you have grown strawbery plants you purchased at the nursery, you are probably familiar with daylight-neutral plants as opposed to everbearing strawberry plants. Daylight-neutral
Crop of the CBD-rich variety Cherry Wine about midseason.
Maturity in day-neutral plants is based on the cumulative number of ¨days to maturity¨ (DTM). Days to maturity is defined as, the time from germination (when seed is first moistened) unil the time the plant completes it´s flowering cycle, harvest. Days to maturity is also influenced by
after germination, may reach maturity 10-15 days later during fall, winter and spring months when sunlight is less intense. Plants grown in the winter will also be somewhat smaller and produce less overall harvest mass. There is a direct correlation between harvest weight and number of solar radiation units. A dayneutral cannabis plant that receives a
are not as critical as when growing consecutive crops of cannabis in large fields. And, often the entire cannabis plant does not ripen completely at the same time. Flowers on the outside of the plant receive more sunlight and become ripe first. If climate permits, growers harvest the outer buds first and let the lower buds fully mature
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Drying an acre field of cannabis takes an entire greenhouse. Ben and Steve Rogers grew a test acre of CBD-rich cannabis to learn the ABCs of growing, harvesting and processing a new crop on their farm.
before harvesting a week or two later. Some varieties of regular cannabis are able to be harvested up to three times. Staggering the harvest over time may increase yield up to 40 percent. Laborintensive home gardens take advantage of these desirable qualities. In general, professional farmers find regular cannabis plants available today not suitable for large-scale production. Regular cannabis plants and plants developed for home growers lack strong stems to support large flowers and most often lack resistance to diseases and pests. And, regular, long-season cannabis plants are difficult to harvest mechanically. The cost of labor is one of the most important considerations for farmers. Labor when left unchecked, is the biggest single expense to grow cannabis. Greenhouse and indoor growers can control the photoperiod in the controlled cultivation área. Indoor growers simply change the light timer to give plants the desired 12 hours of darkness during a 24-hour day to trigger flowering. Flowers are ripe and ready to harvest in 7-12 weeks. Greenhouse growers cover the entire greenhouse with an opaque covering to ¨black it out¨ and create 12 consecutive hours of darkness. But, such tactics are cost-prohivitive to implement outdoors when growing large fields. Enter day-neutral cannabis. Many companies are developing new, acclimated, functional varieties of dayneutral cannabis. Currently, most of these
Ben Rogers from Oregon stands proudly in a field of fast-growig CBD-rich cannabis.
companies are developing outstanding CBD-rich varieties because they can grow it legally. They all have their sights set on growing THC-rich cannabis when it becomes legal. Cannabis seed prices are also plummeting. Companies such as https://oregoncbdseeds.com/ and Medicinal Botanical Seeds, LLC, Ontario, Oregon, are producing great seeds that sell for about $1.00 USD each, a far cry from the $5-10 USD prices growers are paying today. The profesional cannabis ¨breeders¨ and personnel heading these companies have degrees in biology, botany and genetics.
Plants were about 1.5 meters high at harvest. If plants grew any larger, they would be much more difficult to dry and process.
Gone are the days of making a great living growing cannabis in a small greenhouse or indoor grow room. Gone are the days of spending and countless hours and resources to produce cannabis. Growers can spend the extra time and money, but it will no longer be wildly profitable. For example, growers in Colombia, South America are producing finished dry flowers for about $0.05 USD per gram. Most farms in North America produce the same gram of cannabis for about $1.00. This gives Colombian farmers a 20-fold advantage. If you want to make a good living growing and selling CBD-rich and THC-rich cannabis, base your decisions on solid scientific princlples and lower cultivation expenses across the board. Growers who ignore current market trends should consider cannabis cultivation a hobby.
Dr. Clinton Shock (Medical Botanical Seeds, Ontario, Oregon) and Ben Rogers standing in a field of CBD-rich cannabis.
Jorge Cervantes is author of the Cannabis Encyclopedia (596 pages, 2,000+ color images, large A4 format) and Marijuana Horticulture (AKA the Bible). Booth books are available at all amazon retailers worldwide. The Cannabis Encyclopedia has an excellent chapter on water. Contact Jorge at www.marijuanagrowing.com.
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Grow Quiz
7. W hats the most popular form of germination? A. Keeping the seed between wet paper towels. B. Placing the seed in a glass of water. C. Placing the seed in a pot of media and nutrients. D. Placing seeds in wet coco under sunlight.
Seeds and germination 1. W hat does a good cannabis seed look like? A. Dark brown, lighter accents and a hard feel. B. Green, soft slightly spongy. C. All varieties look very different. D. Very soft and wet.
A. Indian, American, European. B. Feminized, Mixed/Regular, Autoflowering. C. CBD, THC, CNB. D. Outdoor, Indoor, all weather.
3. W hat are the 3 types of cannabis? A. Diesel, Skunk, Cookies B. Revive, Inspire, Relax C. Mellow, Heavy, Happy D. Indica, Sativa, Ruderalis.
4. H ow should you store cannabis seeds? A. You shouldn’t, grow it now! B. In a dry, dark, cool environment. C. In the freezer. D. In a warm greenhouse.
5. W hat does Germination mean? A. To bring to life. B. To destroy. C. To create. D. To multiply.
6. W hat 3 things are essential for a seed to germinate? A. Nutrients, Darkness, Soil. B. Water, booster, sunlight. C. Heat, Co2, clay pebbles. D. Water, Oxygen, Temperature.
A. Plants will bear less fruit. B. Risk of rot and fungus. C. Seed will dry out. D. Plants will wilt.
15. W hat is the first sprout from the seed called? 8. H ow wet should the seed be kept? A. Soaked thoroughly at all times. B. Watered once a day. C. Damp but not sodden to increase O2 levels. D. Seed wet but surrounding area dry.
A. Primary root. B. Seed Vein. C. The tap root. D. Root tail.
16. W hy are rooting sponges great for transplanting? 9. W hy should you keep the seed in the dark?
2. W hat are the 3 types of cannabis seed types?
14. W hat happens is temp and humidity are too high?
A. To keep humidity lower. B. So the temperature is lower. C. So the plant grows in search of light. D. Light has a negative effect on germination.
A. Allow you to see the root develop. B. Cheap and re-usable. C. Light weight, easy to move. D. Make for a stronger plant and root system.
17. H ow deep should you plant a germinated seed? 10. H ow long should a typical seed take to germinate? A. 1-3 days. B. 1-2 weeks. C. 7 days. D. 12 hrs.
11. W hat is the temperature “sweet spot” for germination of your seed? A. 15-19C B. 21-26C C. 50C D. 70-80C
12. W hat is the perfect humidity for your seed to germinate? A. 40-50% B. 30% or lower. C. 70-80% D. Over 80%
13. W hat happens if temp and humidity are too low? A. Slower, less successful germination. B. Plants will be smaller. C. Plants will have less roots. D. Plants will look stretched and weak.
A. 75% of the depth of the pot. B. 1-2cm deep. C. Just under the surface. D. Twice the length of the seed.
18. C annabis seeds germinate in a process called? A. Epigeal. B. Cotyledon. C. Hypogeal. D. Radical.
19. W hat spectrum of light encourages seedling growth? A. Green. B. purely red. C. A mix of red and blue. D. A mix of white and blues.
20. W hat is the best light fixture for seedlings? A. HPS Dual spectrum. B. 315 CDM lamp. C. Fluorescent T5 strip light. D. A household lamp.l
That's it! For answers see page 38
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Grow with ED ROSENTHAL
HAWAIIAN LEGAL I met Jason at a marijuana and health conference in Oahu this past January. He invited me to visit his farm located on the North shore of Oahu. It serves about 100 patients. With each patient allowed 10- plants Jason Care Facility grows about 1000 plants . It’s all done in a 40 x 60 foot (12 x 18m) structure, a total of 2400 square feet (731m2). It has metal and wood framing, and is clad 6 mil double polyethylene. The side walls are 10’ (3m) high and the peak reaches 17’ (5m). The main purpose of the greenhouse is to protect plants from rain and wind. The temperature range here on Oahu is considered mild so the major problems are rain and moisture. The lowest temperature occur in January when the thermometer dips into the high 60’s (20OC), but most of the time it range between the 70’s (21OC) and low 80’s (26OC and the temperature rises no higher than the high 80’s (31OC) during the summer months of June, July and August. To prevent the “greenhouse effect”, when heat generated by sunlight heats up a closed area, the sides of the greenhouse are lifted up during the day for airflow. They are closed at night and on rainy and windy days.
Oahu is at the 21st latitude and there is only slight variation between summer and winter day length. On June 22, the longest day, there are just under 13.5 hours of light. On the shortest day, Dec. 21, it is Just under 11 hours. As a result, almost all plants start to flower soon after germination unless the length of the light period is extended. Lighting the plants to prevent flowering is accomplished using CFL fluorescent lights that are hung over the plants. They are controlled using a timer that turns the lights on most of the night. Since it is so easy to manipulate the flowering cycle, there are plants in all stages of growth creating a continuous
Young plants in 5-gallon (19-liter) containers are growing vegetatively.
supply and continuous work-flow without requiring “bulges” of temporary workers. Jason’s farm manager, Brody mentioned that the week around the full moon has a slight effect on flowering, holding the plants back a bit. I didn’t think that was the case until I looked at the full moon that night. The moon, rather than being at an acute angle in the sky is much closer
to being straight overhead. It is much brighter than it is at the 37th parallel, where I usually view it. Jason is trying out many varieties, and is especially impressed with a Chem Dog x d Durban Poison, Greenpoint Seed’s Indiana Bubblegum x Stardog and their house strain Blue Dream x Gogi OG. Patients request those varieties the most.
Now is the time to take clones of your favorite plants for sowing outside in a month or two. Do you or any of your buddies have any plants that you think is truly outstanding? They may be good candidates for growing outdoors. Give the clones only 18 hours of light a day with a 6-hour dark period so they don’t go into shock and immediately start to flower when placed outdoors. Give the clones moderate light until they start developing roots, about 10-15 days. Then transplant them into bigger containers. Plants in the last stage of vegetation before turning the auxiliary fluorescent lights off.
22
Grow with Stoney Tark By Stoney Tark
How To Make Your Own Cannabis Seeds At Home Creating your own hybrid of Cannabis is a life changing experience, and will allow you to set a goal at the very beginning. Knowing what that goal is, and which plants you will work with, and what desired traits you wish to enhance can come down to many variables. Below is explained how to make your own seeds, selecting parental lines, how to pollinate and what to know before diving head first into your first breeding project of 2020! What Will I Need Before I Start? The main thing is to have a set goal in mind, the reason why you are making the cross in the first place. It could be you are
Regular Seeds The reason why regular seeds are used is to find both male and female plants. Feminized seeds will not produce a male plant, as they are genetically created to grow with only female chromosomes.
leaf shape, internodal space, aroma, root mass and any other notes that are relevant. By doing this it will get you into the habit of being very meticulous in your research and will have written notes to
Another reason why you have taken the time to make notes and reference points for each plant.
How To Sex Plants The moment you will be waiting for, and that is to see which of your regular seeds are male or female. There are a few ways to tell what sex your plants are early on and that is with pre-flowers. The first time these will appear is late into 18/6 or 12/12 has been initiated. Male pre-flowers will appear at the internodes of the branches, and
Female pre-flowers are a little easier to spot once they do show themselves. You need to look for a very small thin white hair refer back to when breeding with your cross later on in the future.
Grow Light and Timer What is great about making seeds is that it can be done in a very small space using little plants, and a basic grow lamp. If you are growing in a bedroom cupboard or small tent, then you will need a light and timer to switch between vegetative and flowering to sex the plants.
Selecting The Best Male and female
These seeds are mature and in excellent condition
making seeds of a clone only strain and wish to preserve that cultivar as closely as possible with a similar strain. You may be focused on enhancing yields, creating new terpene profiles, increasing or decreasing flowering time, growth structure, cannabinoids, potency, CBD, resistance to wind, pathogens, or maybe creating something the general public is asking for. Once you have your reason for making the cross, you will need to obtain the following list: • • • •
A pack of regular sex seeds Plastic pots and sticky labels Pen and notepad Grow light and timer
From 10 seeds, for example, you would expect to find half male and half female plants...give or take.
Plastic Pots and Sticky Labels It is very important to carefully label each plant pot with a number according to the breeding programme. So if you are working with 20 seeds, you would write 20 labels that would say “ Skunk #1 - Skunk #20. Over time you will eliminate some plants based on observation, appearance and lack of vigour.
Pen and Notepad This is an excellent way to catalogue all of your numbered pots, and to make weekly notes based on size, appearance,
Once at the stage where you have the plants growing in their numbered pots, you will have an idea of which plants stand out the most in terms of size, vigour, and appearance. When it comes to choosing the best plants to use, it can often be best to choose something that matches up with the female in some way, shape or form. If you imagine it as a related by structure, terpenes, leaf pattern, colour pigment or cannabinoid profile. Often times plants that are well matched will generally pair up, with an enhanced hybrid vigour. You will also find the F1 (First Generation) offspring will grow uniform and homogenous, without displaying too much instability in variation and phenotypes. Of course you will not know which plants are male or female, until they exhibit pre-flowers late into the 18/6 period or early on in 12/12.
produce miniature green clusters. To the untrained eye, it can be very easy to miss, however when you know what to look for you will stand out a mile away. Basically if there is not a white hair emerging, and there is any signs of miniature balls then you will have a male. If you flower the plants, the male flowers will grow very fast and begin to open around week 3 of flower. This is the time where you will see how productive the male plants are, and if they throw out resin . Female pre-flowers are a little easier to spot once they do show themselves. You need to look for a very small thin white hair. This is the pistil and first signs of the female flower. If you notice that your plants have both male and female pre-flowers, then you should wait sometime just to confirm, and then discard that plant and make notes in your pad. What is great about working with a large number of regular seeds, is seeing the difference in phenotypes and which ones are the keepers. You may have some plants flowering very early, with resin forming around the leaves, or you may have some slow growing plants that are not doing anything special just yet. This is the time where you can make notes describing each plant in terms of height, width, structure, resin profile, terpene profile, stem size and overall appearance.
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Breeding for purple plants is becoming more popular
This stage may be too late to pollinate a female plant
Pollination Techniques 1. Open Room Pollination This method is generally the best for beginner breeders, as it ensures a total pollination and will produce a high number of seeds. The aim is to leave the desired male with the chosen female plant, and allow nature to take its course. As long as you have an oscillating fan, pollination will occur from weeks 3-5. Otherwise a helping hand and gentle
shake, will quickly dust your entire closet, tent or grow room with male pollen. The advantages of this are you will end up with a plant full of seeds from top to bottom, meaning you will have a large amount of first generation seedlings to work through Top Tip: If you do choose this basic method, be sure to clean the grow room out after wards with hot water and bleach. Pollen can get anywhere and everywhere, so taking the effort to keep your tent sterile and clean for your next breeding project is essential.
1. The Paint Brush Method This method is best suited for experienced growers, who are familiar with male and female plants. You will need to extract the male pollen off the plant and take it away from the female. Once you have the dried pollen sacs wrapped in parchment paper, you can now take a very fine paint brush and begin to dab the female flowers that you wish to pollinate. The advantages of this method are
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you can limit the amount of seeds you are making to a small amount, and it also allows you to pollinate the same female using multiple males, if you are well versed and clinical with your approach. You can store the pollen away in a dry environment, or place it in the freezer if you have long term plans. Good luck making your very own strain at home, and we hope this guide will help you on your way to producing the next cup winner!
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Grow with Mr. Jose Mr. José / info@pestovat.cz
Water and plants
root system under ideal conditions. Overwatered plants or root pests can rapidly lower the ability of roots to absorb water and thereby transfer nutrients to aboveground parts of your plants.
Water distribution throughout the plant Water and nutrient reach other parts of the plant through the root system. Two physical phenomena have impact on its speed – diffusion and osmosis. Diffusion means that particles from places with higher-concentration move spontaneously to places with lowerconcentration and are replaced by water in the original location. What happens here is spontaneous equal distribution of particles in water. Try to imagine your plant as a vase. If you place the nutrients in a soluble form on the bottom and pour water into the vase, thanks to diffusion the concentration of nutrients would be the same in all parts of the vase. Nutrients would rise up and water would go down. However, this is only theory; in practice diffusion is effective only for a very short distance up to about one centimeter. It means that, under real conditions, the same nutrient concentration would be only in a short distance from the original nutrient location. Consider this example only as an illustration of diffusion.
With a proper water regime, plants develop healthy and strong flowers.
Water is imperative to so many plants’ functions, that without it, there would be no plants. 70-80% of fresh plants’ weight is made up by water, and it plays a key role in their various metabolic reactions, including photosynthesis. However, up to 98% of absorbed water is transpired back into the atmosphere. In this article, you will learn how plants work with water and to influence the water regime during growing. Water is fundamental for the transport of substances in plant organism. It dissolves nutrients and transports them to places where plants need them. It can also cool down the plant in case it is necessary, or prevent its temperature from going down rapidly. In summary, water has thermoregulatory function, which can be used by growers as an excellent way to increase CO2 presence. In an ideal scenario, water flows continuously inside the plant from the roots up to the leaves, where it leaves the plant and is released into the atmosphere in the form of vapor. It would not be possible without significant surface tension of water, enabling capillary elevation, transpiration and root buoyancy.
Water intake Cannabis plants absorb water via their root system, mostly through thin hairs on the surface of the roots called root
hairs. They are visible to the naked eye – and the best time to observe them is when germinating seeds on germinating paper. If you want the roots to receive the necessary amount of water, you need to create optimal conditions for them – this means achieving the right temperature and providing enough oxygen. If the temperature is too low or too high in the root region, the water uptake capacity decreases. With extreme temperatures the capacity is blocked completely. With cannabis, the ideal temperature in this area is around 21 °C. Above-ground parts of plants thrive best at daily temperatures around 25-28 °C. Therefore it is necessary from time to time to lower the temperature in the root area. This typically happens when growing in cultivation systems where only a small amount of growing medium is used, such as aeroponics or some hydroponic systems. The nutrient solution can heat up to about 25 °C in such cultivation environment
and needs be cooled to the optimum temperature. Nonetheless, since growing in these systems allows for excellent availability of oxygen, the cost of cooling is definitely worthwhile. Healthy roots are essential for proper water regime and plentiful harvest. Cannabis plant can develop a very rich
Osmosis in plant cells.
Osmosis is a process similar to diffusion, but there is a new player called semipermeable membrane, which permeates water, but particles do not pass through it. It means that if you place a semi-permeable membrane on the nutrients from the previous example and then pour water into the vase, the results would be much different. Yes, water molecules would penetrate the membrane into environment with nutrients, but the nutrient particles could not move in the opposite direction. Consequently, there would be an increase in the volume and dilution of the solution under the membrane, as well as certain loss of water. However, there would no nutrient enrichment of the water above the membrane. To a certain extent, plant cells form an osmotic system with a fully permeable cell wall and a semipermeable plasma membrane and cytoplasm. The plasma membrane permeates the water into the vacuole where the cell juice is concentrated. The vacuole is getting bigger
26
Majority of water is absorbed through root hair. and pushes the cell walls. This pressure is named turgor. If the vacuole is fully saturated with water, the plant has the necessary compactness. If the turgor lowers, the stalks and leaves weaken and the plant begins to wither. In the above-mentioned case, osmosis works to the benefit of the plants and to the joy of the grower. But it can also do quite the opposite. Cells are receiving water provided its internal environment contains a higher concentration of substances than the external environment. Otherwise, water will flow out of the cell and a process called plasmolysis would occur, which means shrinking of the protoplast and its separation from the cell wall. Should a situation like this arise, i.e. with a high mineral salt content in the growing medium, then the concentrated environment would significantly slow the absorption of water and rather drain it from the plant instead.
Transpiration To transport water over longer distances, cannabis uses blood vessels and catheters. From the roots, water enters the vessels of the stem and branches until it reaches the leaves. Here it leaves for the atmosphere. It is a transpiration stream, which is caused, in addition to the above mentioned surface tension of water, mainly by transpiration, which is evaporation of water from plant parts above the ground, and partly by root buoyancy. Despite the fact that transpiration is an essential mechanism for any plant, it does not cost any energy, since evaporation of water is the result of exposure to sunlight. Water can leave the plants through their epidermis (cuticular transpiration). Plants cannot control this “leak” in any way. However, most of the water leaves through special vents – stomata. We are talking about stomatal transpiration, which can be controlled by the plant by opening and closing the stomata. Stomata are the ventilating tissues of plants. In cannabis and other dicotyledonous plants, we can find them mainly on the underside of leaves.
Because of their size of 0.02-0.03 mm, you will not see them with naked eye. Despite the fact they are so small, even when fully opened, they cover approximately one percent of the plant's surface, and more than 90% of absorbed water leaves the plant this way. Stomata are formed by dividing one cell into two guard cells between which a pore is formed. The opening and closing of the stomata depends primarily on the water content of the guard cells. Once the vacuoles of cells are filled with water, the stomata opens. Similarly, when the amount of water decreases, the stomata closes. But that’s not all, opening and closing of the stomata is also influenced by many other factors – potassium cation concentration, light, etc. Indeed, it is a very complicated process. Transpiration speed depends, among other things, on the difference in water vapor pressure inside leaves and in the surrounding environment (VPD). Inside the leaf, there is always 100% humidity and the water is present in liquid form. Before transpiration into the atmosphere, the water under the leaf surface turns into steam. This creates above mentioned pressure because the steam requires much more space than water. The level of the water vapor pressure inside the leaf also depends on its temperature. The VPD pressure value is determined by the temperature and relative humidity. The following VPD values a re recommended for optimal transpiration speed. For cloning and early growth stage 0.4–0.8 kPa, for ending growth stage and beginning of flowering stage 0.8–1.2 kPa and for second phase of flowering 1.2–1.6 kPa. Plants release 98% of absorbed water via the transpiration stream, while consuming mere 2%. This process supplies all cells with water in order to maintain their turgor as well as transport nutrients from roots to leaves, protection from overheating and sufficient supply of CO2, which enters the plant through open stomata. These are four good reasons (not the only ones) to support transpiration at every growing stage. The process is an integral part of photosynthesis. If water content in the leaves lowers, the stomata close and the CO2 intake is significantly reduced. This inferior water regime negatively affects plant growth and, of course, the yield. When the plant is overheated, the stomata open to accelerate the transpiration stream and cool down the plant. This principle is applied in closed grow rooms to enrich air with carbon dioxide – the temperature is kept slightly above 30 °C.
the night when the leaves are not warmed by sun or lamp. Root buoyancy plays an important role also during the development of first leaves in freshly germinated plants.
Summary Under ideal conditions, the water balance, i.e. the ratio between water intake and
affected by the lack of water during the whole growth stage and during the first phase of flowering stage. Healthy plants grow fastest in this period. Contrariwise, in the final stage of flowering period, it is possible to make plants increase the production of secondary metabolites by moderate water stress, however you should be particularly careful.
Open and closed stomata. output, is in equilibrium. There are two possible cause of the lack of water in plants: Insufficient water supply (water stress), or excessive water evaporation (water deficit). Both of these situation lead to the wilting of your plants. Even if the plants return to their original shape after restoring the optimal water balance, they would be negatively affected by any previous wilting. Cannabis can be most
Since water is of utmost importance to plants, growers should take a great care of its quality – especially when growing hydroponically or aeroponically, or when growing in controlled environment of greenhouses of enclosed indoor spaces. Water filtration for small home grow rooms is not so costly and can be obtained for reasonable price.
Everything You Ever Needed to Know About Indoor Cannabis Growing
Root buoyancy Transpiration makes possible a very fast and energy-efficient way of transporting water throughout the plant. Contrary, root buoyancy is an energy-demanding and very slow way to bring water from the roots to the above-ground parts of your plants. They use it when there is little or no transpiration. This can happen when the relative humidity surrounding the leaves is 100%, or during
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Grow with Rich Hamilton
Certificates for the
Cannabis Industry What Legal looks like Although Cannabis is now legal in Canada, those who wish to get involved in the cultivation and selling of its products face a real uphill battle before they can get started on any kind of cannabis related endeavour. This includes everything from the selling of seed, right through to the end retail sales of flower and edibles. The seven-stage application process to obtain a licence is not for the faint of heart and the demands of the regulatory submissions are very difficult to meet. It is a very complex process, requiring a lot of information, a lot of money and a lot of time, with the entire application process taking more than a year to complete. Many consumers are lucky enough to only see the end results of this landmark legal ruling. I thought it would be interesting however to look behind the scenes and see just what it takes to bring legal product to the end user. Not only this but also the challenges that surround the buying or selling of seeds which you would think from outside looking in, would be a simple
transaction when in actual fact it is not! The Cannabis Act came into force on October 17, 2018, from which date applications for licences could be submitted to Health Canada. The application is a difficult task in itself with many businesses re-applying after being rejected the first time around. One applicant described the process as costly with no guarantee of favourable
results. These would-be cannabis producers spent about $75,000 on consultants and lawyers for their first application. This was on top of the hundreds of thousands of dollars that had been spent on fully fitting out a facility for cultivation. Recent changes in regulations state that those wishing to obtain a cannabis cultivation licence must have a facility that meets Health Canadas regulations, ready to go, before they even start the application process!!
As it stands currently, in order to be able to legally grow, sell or manufacture cannabis and its products, potential businesses may need 2 licences: 1 from Health Canada and possibly, 1 from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). You must have a licence from Health Canada (the Canadian government department that is responsible for national public health) if you intend to: grow cannabis commercially, process cannabis into finished products, sell
30 cannabis for medical purposes, conduct tests on cannabis or conduct research with cannabis. Additionally, holders of a cannabis processing licence who want to produce edible cannabis, cannabis topicals and cannabis extracts will require further amendments to their licences. Cultivators and processors also need to obtain a second licence from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) who are the equivalent of the IRS in the USA or HMRC in the UK. So, if you are lucky enough to be able to meet all the relevant criteria and successfully obtain a licence you may think that you are home dry but unfortunately
cannabis accessories or services related to cannabis. Even once you are fully up and running the compliance continues as licence holders for the cultivation and processing of cannabis, are required to submit monthly tracking reports. “The Health Canada cannabis tracking system” prevents legal cannabis from being diverted to the illegal market and prevents illegal cannabis from being introduced into the legal market. The system also tracks the movement of cannabis from cultivation, to processing, to sale. Health Canada currently uses a range of enforcement tools to ensure compliance with all areas of the regulation process and
Across Canada, the seeds offered by legal retailers mainly comprise of two indica-dominant varieties this is not the case. Registered businesses must also buy and apply cannabis excise stamps to their products. An excise stamp must be present on all legally produced cannabis products available for purchase, with THC levels of 0.3% or higher. As well as the mountain of paperwork the costs can really stack up with fees applying to most types of licences including; cultivation, processing and sales for medical purposes. Additional fees then also exist for pretty much everything else you can imagine, including the screening of licence applications, the conducting of security screening of key persons and the reviewing of applications to import or export cannabis for scientific or medical purposes.
those do not comply are at risk of having their licenses suspended or revoked, as well as possible prosecution. It is not just the finished products of Cannabis that are subject to licences or regulations either, just trying to get hold of seeds in Canada, whether you are a large scale producer or a potential home grower is riddled with issues due to legality and differing regulations from state to state. Canadian Federal Law states that you can only grow plants (where legal) using seeds legally acquired. Everyone over the age of 18 is legally allowed to buy cannabis seeds and grow up to four plants for their own personal use and the easiest place to buy them should be a legal dispensary.
So, once you finally have your licence you can look forward to… yep, you guessed it; more fees!! With their being further regulatory costs for processes such as, reviews of licence applications, issuance of licences, inspections, compliance, enforcement activities and Packaging and labelling requirements.
Legal dispensaries can only sell weed (or seeds) “in-province”, as each province and territory has its own law prohibiting import of either weed or seeds from elsewhere. Seeds are available from legal dispensaries but the selection is very limited. This is because dispensary owners are reluctant to push for more variety as it makes no business sense to sell seeds to the same people that they are selling weed too.
Packaging and labelling requirements within the legal sector are very strict and are designed to try and protect against accidental consumption, stop products from appealing to children and to give consumers all the information they need before choosing to use cannabis or not.
Across Canada, the seeds offered by legal retailers mainly comprise of two indicadominant varieties. Choice is very, very limited and whilst It’s not hard to find Canadians who grow their own weed it is virtually impossible to find any who bought seed from legal retailers.
Similarly, there is also a list of things that are prohibited from appearing on packaging, including any unauthorised promotion of cannabis,
There are Canadian seed dispensaries currently operating who are selling and shipping seeds both nationally and internationally but they are basically doing
so outside of the law as they do not hold licences. They manage to exist relatively unopposed, for now however, because for now the “illegal” selling of seeds is tolerated in light of licensed distributors not having enough supply. Eventually however this will change and there will likely be a crackdown on these online dispensaries.
is essential for seed production but is to be avoided at absolutely all costs when trying to raise plants for THC production as it could easily pollinate your female plants and destroy your final yield. Even if you yourself have a licence to grow cannabis you still “legally” need to buy your stock seeds or plants from a fellow
Another popular alternative are online “free seed hubs”. These are exchange forums set up online where people give away their seeds or cuttings to other growers in the same province. So long as no money changes hands, there’s nothing illegal about doing this. Price is a big factor also with buyers reluctant to pay higher prices for less desirable legal seeds than for the more desirable ones which are available on the grey market. Legal retailers sell their two varieties at $60 for a four-pack, while feminized grey-market seeds range from $40 for five to $65 for five. The lack of legal seed distributors is also partly down to the fact that many licensed producers have yet to make their seeds widely available through provincial distributors as doing so outside of their deals with the province(s) with which they are registered could jeopardise their licenses. Growing seeds is also a very specific business model that requires its own
licensed business whose licence permits this. However because of the lack of current legal seed supply as just discussed, this can prove to be a bit of a problem. There is a current loophole however where If you are a new licence holder for cultivation, Health Canada will permit you to bring in material from undisclosed sources for a short period of time. After this however you must carefully document that your seeds have come from a legal source. As in the case of the illegal seed
Licensed producers who are raising plants in tightly controlled conditions cannot afford to have pollen flying around separate facility. When licensed cultivators are growing in 30,000-square foot rooms, they are not going to take 100 square feet of that growing room and dedicate it to seed production.” This would not make sense financially due to the monetary return made on seeds versus cannabis products but also in a practical sense it is a huge risk. Licensed producers who are raising plants in tightly controlled conditions cannot afford to have pollen flying around. Pollen
banks however it is highly likely that once legal seed stocks are high enough that this loophole will close! I think it was widely assumed that legalisation would help to resolve all the issues surrounding cannabis and access to it, when in some ways it has evolved to created new problems of its own! Hopefully as time moves on these teething problems will be ironed out and the model of legality can be rolled out with success to more countries across the world.
A grow enthusiast before anything else, Rich Hamilton has over 20 years professional experience within the hydroponics industry. Rich is a widely published freelance author, specialising on all things Grow, from techniques and science to the latest business and market news from around the world. To further widen his media scope Rich has recently started “the Hydrochronicle” podcast which is a laidback conversational style pod cast featuring guests from all walks of the the Grow lifestyle. Available now on apple podcasts www.thehydrochronicle.com.
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Grow with Stoney Tark By Stoney Tark
7 Top Tips On Bigger Yields The Grow Light The starting point for the indoor grower and one of the most important pieces of equipment when growing Cannabis. Knowing which light is best suited for your particular growing needs should be down to how much power you are prepared to use, the grow space and the number of plants. Our top tip here is to invest in a light that you can use the entire lifecycle of the plant. Avoid using low powered H.P.S and try and stay away from low powered CFL and LED that simply do not have the power the plants require.
Organic or Hydro? When it comes to achieving the best flavours when smoking, many would say organic grown Cannabis reveals the full flavour. The same crowd will also say chemical grown flowers are not good for the environment and produce a minimal taste comparison to organics. Our top tip here is to decide if you are growing for numbers and to hit target yields, or if the flowers being grown are for your head stash and personal use. There are benefits to growing with hydroponics and even though an enhanced yield is certainly one, the downside on taste value can be lost.
Big Yielding Genetics There are genetics that are able to produce very large yields, however knowing which ones are best suited for you, should be down to research.
format with very little vegetative time. Then again decide if you will grow long flowering strains that take 12-14 weeks and hope to yield the same amount you would have over 2 grows. This decision should be based on logistics more than anything and most commercial growers will avoid anything that takes over 8 weeks, especially in the U.S.
Relative Humidity and Temperature Depending on which stage your Cannabis plants are growing at, having control of your humidity and temperature will make a massive difference in how they grow, photosynthesise and avoid pathogens and disease. When the plants are growing under 18/6 they should be exposed to a higher humidity of 75% with a consistent temperature of 24 degrees Celsius. When flowering under 12/12, then humidity must be lowered below 40% with the same grow room temperature. Our top tip here is to use humidifiers or dehumidifiers to actively control the amount of humidity the plants are exposed to. Stomata which are responsible for the uptake of CO2 perform more efficiently when humidity levels are highest during 18/6. Keeping humidity above 40% will encourage bud rot, powdery mildew and spider mites to infest the plants.
Topping plants encourages heavy harvests
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Longer Growing Periods Growing Cannabis plants for a long time during 18/6 is the best way to
Beneficial bacteria that live within rich, organic growing mediums need Carbon as a food source Strains such as Critical, Skunk, Super Skunk, White Rhino will all yield large dense buds within a time frame of 7-8 weeks. On the other hand if you are able to flower for up to 12-14 weeks, sativa varieties of Cannabis will produce enormous yields, yet must be given the full time to flower and ripen. Our top tip here is to choose in advance if you will prefer to grow 2 cycle using an 7-8 week flowering variety, where you would grow in a Sea Of Green
establish a large root zone, which the plants will depend on when flowering. During this time is when plant training can be applied to purposely stress the plants causing them to respond with a strong growth structure. Our top tip here is to try growing your plants under 18/6 from seed for at least 4 weeks. Cannabis plants will take a few weeks to really transition to flowering, which is usually displayed in the form of aggressive stretching. Plants with a bigger
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34 root system will always respond better than a plant with a small root structure.
What About Plant Training? Plant training is a great way to grow bigger, bushy plants yet there are a few factors to consider. Techniques such
Humidity and temperature play a key role as topping, low stress technique and super cropping require time to allow plants to fully recover and allow the canopy to grow in the desired shape. Our top tip here is to make sure that you do not cause too much trauma or stress by training the plants. Sometimes tying plants down or pruning too late can be counter productive and may cost you in terms of yield. We recommend that you keep the training simple, especially if you are working with a time frame of up to 4 weeks or less.
Using Molasses and Carbohydrates If you have ever purchased organic
L.S.T is an excellent way to open up the canopy nutrients, then you will have found most of the times the nutrient itself is a heavy, dense dark liquid. There are multiple products like this description on the market, ranging from unsulphured black strap molasses to sugar beet. Beneficial bacteria that live within rich, organic growing mediums need Carbon as a food source. Our top tip here is to think about feeding the soil food web, and not the plant.
Plant training is a great way to grow bigger, bushy plants yet there are a few factors to consider As long as you are supplying Carbon based foods such as molasses, honey, biochar, humic acids, fulvic acids and compost, then in return your Cannabis
plants will grow with symbiosis. The end result is a root mass that has the ability to grow up to 700% faster.
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Report By Rich Hamilton
KNOCK OUT WEED FROM MIKE TYSON
Being in the industry for as long as I have, as soon as I see or hear that a celebrity is associating themselves with the cannabis industry, especially the growing of the plant itself I’m always very sceptical as to their motives. When I found out that the legend that is Mike Tyson has move into the sector however I decided to look further in to it. Was Mike jumping on the “green rush” bandwagon or was his step into cannabis the real deal? I went over to America to find out.
The Tyson Ranch slogan is “Not all cannabis is created equal” and I couldn’t agree more. Mike’s philosophy coming into the cannabis ring is that he will only produce the very best ‘AAA’ connoisseur level “exclusive” cannabis and cannabis products for the market. I think there’s an important word there and that is ‘exclusive’. Mike is about as famous as it gets so it would have been all too easy a route from him to just put his name on something and take the money. Companies in the market would have no doubt paid untold millions for him to endorse their product but no, Mike and the team around him have done it the right way. They have invested millions in producing new and exclusive premium strains to the market. They have a team of master growers and breeders working around the clock behind the scenes to make sure that every batch is consistently impeccable. All of the Tyson ranch products are meticulously inspected at every stage of the process ensuring that everything that comes from the Tyson Ranch is of the highest quality. Let’s talk about the weed….well, every exclusive Tyson Ranch strain is grown in an indoor environment that has been specifically designed and tailored to get the maximum expression from the particular stain. They do not harvest on weight. They harvest when each particular strain has reached its peak of maturity. Following that the flushing, harvest and curing process take over 30 days to ensure that the flavonoids and the terpenes are at their maximum potential. Like all good quality cannabis, all of Mikes weed is hand trimmed to perfection. It is all lab test certified, clean and has absolutely no extra terpenes or other products added to the end flower to enhance it. The core of the company’s mission statement is Consistency and quality, bringing the consumer hand crafted better Cannabis. The bottom line is that Mike is a stoner at heart, it is something he does everyday and he believes that it makes him a better person. Believe it or not Mike doesn’t like the ruthless aggressive argent mike of days gone by. One of the first things he does when he wakes up is light up and he will consistently smoke throughout the day. Let me put how much of a smoker Mike is in to perspective. On an average month Mike and his team go through around $40,000.00 worth of weed. I don’t know what your weed bill is per month but DAAAMMM!!, that’s not messing about!
37 While on my visit I was give samples of Sativa (Tyson Sour Diesel), Indica (Tyson Triple OG) and a Hybrid (Tyson Rainbow cookies). The first thing that sprung to my attention was the packaging. It is beautiful. Smart, professional, screaming ’exclusivity’ and exuding utter class. It is clear that from the outside of the product, that the inside is something to get excited about. I’m a firm believer that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but this is a beautiful cover. Next comes the contents… the second I opened the first jar and peeled back the seal my senses were engulfed with an array of rich, pungent, deep, complex cannabis tones which you only get from true AAA 10/10 premium craft flower. Simply sublime. Let’s now break each strain I sampled down in a quick start to finish review.
Tyson Rainbow Cookies – Hybrid Round 1 - Firstly the smell is incredible, both sweet, sour, earthy and savoy. A nice firm bud That breaks up very easy, not to dry and not to wet.....just right. My fingers where covered it crystals with a powdery finish by the time I had finished breaking it down. The flower is mid to dark greens with lots of purple and orange flashes as well as being covered head to toe in crystals. I broke the flower down into a consistent ground. Broken down the flower is much more purple then before with white accents, which makes me very excited. The fruity notes coming of it are an absolute pleasure to smell. The stone from this strain is second
to none. Surprisingly, for me a much stronger stone then the others but with a lower THC content. The stone starts low and builds giving you both a head and chest high while giving your core and thighs a real heavy couch lock stone. It’s a long lasting satisfying stone which is both relaxing and exciting. It’s the type of stone that feels like it’s trying to separate you, Great for socialising or staying at home and play on your console. Super happy, nice, head lightness with that body heavy feeling. The taste profile comes through beautifully with a long lasting taste which slowly moves in to the feeling that snacks would be a great idea. Definitely a good weed to eat on as I did. Never has burger, fries and a chocolate milkshake tasted so good. Hands down a fantastic premium smoke, which I personally love. Round 1 goes to the Tyson ranch, exceptional.
Tyson Triple OG – Indica Round 2 – Straight off the bat this flower is much lighter then the others. It is a hard bud made up from light
the time I’ve broken the bud down to the consistency I want most of my fingers are covered to a rich pungent cannabis kief powder. I can tell this is going to be a very strong smoke. Warm on the throat the Tyson tripe OG hits hard and heavy. The stone is immediate and hard. It feels like
Was Mike jumping on the “green rush” bandwagon or was his step into cannabis the real deal? greens with a white like frosting of trichromatic crystals all over it. Almost no orange hairs at all. It smells very light and fruity with a background hint of spice. Breaking it down the odours come alive, there’s a richness and complexity which has been genetically balanced perfectly. It breaks down well with a sticky dry feeling to the touch. Every time I break the flower a surprising amount of trichrome crystals seem to jump off the bud. By
my face is so heavy it’s melting in to the back of my head. That sensation is then slowly echoed through the body giving you an impenetrable couch lock feeling. The pains I’ve been having in my back just fall away as the comfortable weight increases with every part of my body that is touching the sofa I’m siting on. This is a great stone, which makes you content with the world around you. Excellent for stress and pain relief. Round 2 goes
38 again to the Tyson Ranch. Triple OG is a first class Indica. If like heavy Indica strains, this is as good as it gets. 100% knock out weed.
Tyson Sour Diesel – Sativa Round 3 – As soon as the jar was opened the room was filled with a super deep, sweet, gassy, diesel super pungent smell that only comes from AAA flower that has been cured to perfection. This is clearly premium cannabis. The bud is tight hard and full of bright light green colours. Breaking it up by hand so I can get a real for it. It is full of crystals and very sticky. The smell hits you again in a fresh wave as it is being broken up. Truly beautiful. Musky, masculine, diesel, gassy, earthy and sweet.
The smoke was really smooth and tasty. Absolutely delicious! The stone is all in the head. A true head high that warms from the back of your head. As the stone moves forward it is face warming followed by a tingling feeling over the face. As that happens the stone comes on stronger and stronger. Exactly how it smelt is tastes. This is a true high, high. Everything seems brighter and lighter. My arms and shoulders feel so light. I feel real happy. I love this weed. If you get chance this is one not to miss out on. The THC levels in this strain are over 27%
and it shows with a very strong high. All 3 rounds goes to Tyson ranch cannabis. It truly is “better cannabis”
The Tyson Ranch flower range currently consists of 12 unique strains. •P ineapple upside down cake – Hybrid – THC 25.23% • Tyson Rainbow Cookies – Hybrid – THC 23.05% • The Toad – Indica – THC – 36.40% • Purple Urkle – Indica – THC 18.36% • Dos Si Dos – Indica – THC 18.98% • Tyson Cookies – Indica – THC 26.44% • Tyson Triple OG – Indica – THC 24.14% • Sticky Papaya – Sativa – THC 25.99% • Chiesel – Sativa – THC 28.68% • Rose – Sativa – THC 23.17% • Jillybean – Sativa – THC 18.04% • Tyson Sour Diesel – Sativa – THC 27.22% Mike Tyson is now expanding his empire to encompass more than just incredible AAA flower and concentrates by branching out with a range of edibles and CBD infused ‘DWIINKS’. I didn’t spell that wrong, that’s actually what the have called the range, DWIINK! A play on Mike’s speech impediment, which I personally find hilarious. It also shows the not often seen, lighter funny side of the Mike’s personality. The “Tyson Ranch” brand also has a range of Tabaco free blunt wraps and blunt cones which have been infused with the terpenes from the Tyson’s heavy hitting strain, ‘The Toad’. It doesn’t stop there for Mike however and he has further plans to expand into…. now sit down…..this is important, a 480 acre Tyson Ranch hotel/resort, which will basically be the Disneyland for cannabis!!! Drop the mic! (no pun intended) Take my money now! I’m in. It’s very clear having personally sampled the Tyson Ranch weed, blunt wraps and Dwiinks, that not only is he firmly and without doubt a credible part of the cannabis industry but that he is also heading toward becoming an industry leader and maybe even the heavy weight champion of the weed world!
Index of ads
Name Page 00 Seeds Bank
9
Mycologics 37
Barney's Farm
2
Paradise Seeds
1
Cannabis Indoor 2020
35
Paradise Seeds
33
Cyco 39
Procare 37
Dr. Underground
35
Royal Queen Seeds
13
Ed Rosenthal
17
Sweet Seeds
40
Funky Skunk the
29
Too Loud
37
Jorge Cervantes
24
Urban Gardening
23
Kosmic Kitchen
35
Colofon Soft Secrets is published by
recreational purposes. Several countries
Discover Publisher BV
legalised cannabis as a way of separating
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soft and hard drugs, as it has proven to
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the right to grow cannabis plants for
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Editor: Cliff Cremer
The publisher wants to highlight the process of normalisation of cannabis
Contributors: Jorge Cervantes, Stoney
use. This assumes that the publisher
Tark, Rich Hamilton, Mr. Jose, Green
does not necessarily agree with every-
Born Identity – G.B.I., and others.
thing that appears in articles and advertisements. The publisher therefore dis-
Comics: Jim Stewart
tances himself explicitly from published statements or images that might give
ANSWERS TO THE QUIZ: PAGE 20:
Photography: iStock
the impression that an endorsement is being made for the use and/or produc-
Editorial adress:
tion of cannabis.
readers@softsecrets.nl Nothing from this publication may be
1. A 2. B 3. D 4. B 5. A 6. D 7. A 8. C 9. D 10. A
11. B 12. C 13. A 14. B 15. C 16. D 17. B 18. A 19. D 20. C
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A word from the publisher:
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Soft Secrets is a bi-monthly free
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magazine which is published in The
The editor takes no responsibility for
Netherlands (called Highlife), Germany,
unsollicited submissions.
France, Italy, Spain, UK, Poland, Czech Republic and Chile.
The publisher has endeavored to reach all copyright holders of photos and/or
World wide there is a process going
images. Those who still believe they are
on of relative liberalisation towards the
entitled to these rights may contact the
use of cannabis, be it for medicinal or
publisher.
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