In the previous chapter, we've told you what equippment you need
to grow hemp. Furthermore you've been initiated into the secrets
of good climate control to reach an optimal result. Up until now,
we haven't said a word about the living material you can use to
'rise high'(!) . . . In this chapter, we'll look at the actual
cultivation. We'll leave sprouting cannabis from seed for what it
is. We'll talk about starting with clones. It's not completely
clear why the word 'clones' has been adopted by the weed grower;
we're talking, in fact, about 'cuttings'.
7.2. Cloning hemp
Cloning hemp is a cheap, quick way to get plants. The average
gardener has taken cuttings from his/her house plants at one time
or another. It's not much different with hemp. We only have to
make sure the carefully removed cuttings from the mother plant
are brought to root. A healthy mother plant can pass on her
THC-producing properties from generation to generation by means
of cuttings. Each cutting has the same properties as the mother
plant. A cutting can be taken from a cutting. And from that
cutting, yet another. There are growers who have raised 20
generations from a mother plant this way, without diminishing the
growing power of the plants. The yield from the 20th generation
is just as good as the yield from the first one! By then, the
original mother plant is long past use. Taking cuttings causes
trauma to a plant. The plant reacts by taking on a deviant form,
and by starting male branches. A third problem is regressive
mutation. The mother plant has been developed by cross breeding.
With regressive mutation, the carefully bred properties (to a
degree) are lost. The quality of the plant (and, of course, the
quality of the harvest!) decreases. For this reason, we replace
the original plant with one of her fresh, healthy daughters after
12 weeks at maximum. The ease with which hemp can be cloned makes
planting cannabis seed less attractive. In the first place,
sowing seed takes a lot more time than growing from clones. An
advantage not to be underestimated is the fact that you can
harvest much more often if you raise clones rather than grow from
seed. On top of that, you get males as well as female plants from
seed. The chance that a seed produces a male plant is just as
great as the chance a female will appear: 50% . . . To make hemp
cuttings/clones we need: - a high-quality mother plant; - sharp
scissors, or a sharp knife; - any commercial hormone mixture to
promote root growth; - something to start the cuttings in (a
cutting tray with rockwool plugs, a small grow-tank with washed,
rough sand, fine vermiculite, a soil-free mixture, or potting
soil); - phosphoric acid - a 'cool white 33' fluorescent
tubelight with the proper armature; - ventilation; - clean
working methods, and clean sur roundings; - 'green fingers' In
contrast to raising cannabis plants, for which we use 400 Watt or
600 Watt high-pressure gas lamps, clones develop their roots best
under fluorescent light. Fluorescent tubes emit light primarily
in the blue spectrum. Controlling the temperature when using
fluorescent lights is also less complicated, because fluorescent
tubes give off little heat. The fluorescent tube armature is
mounted approximately 25 cm above the tops of the clones. We're
going to illuminate the cuttings 18 or 24 hours per day. We keep
the light on 24 hours a day during the cold months. The
illumination times suggested here are a guide. What it actually
involves is allowing the climatological conditions to vary as
little as possible. You get the best results with an even
climate. It requires some experience to create the optimum
conditions . . . The hemp cuttings form their roots best at a
temperature of 25 to 26 degrees Celsius, and a relative air
humidity of 70-75%. Just as is the case with actual growing,
climate control is very important for cuttings. Moulds and pests
insects must never get a chance. Above all, mould spores can
cause problems if the climatic conditions aren't optimal. In
principle, every part of a hemp plant is suitable to use as a
cutting. But a single leaf with a few roots is of no use of
course In any case, a good cutting has a growth-point. The size
of the cutting doesn't matter so much; a 2 cm cutting can grow to
be a top-quality plant, just like a 10 cm cutting. Before you put
the cutting in the growth medium, you have to make preparations.
We're talking about raising cuttings in rockwool substrate.
First, the growing tray should be soaked in a nutrient solution.
The pH value must be 5.8, the EC value 0.8 to 1.0. To reach a pH
value of 5.8, you best use phosphoric acid. The advantage of
phosphoric acid is that it helps the cuttings develop roots. We
fill the tray for the cuttings with the nutrient solution and
drain it off again. We do this several hours before taking
cuttings from the mother plant. The cuttings are clipped, or cut
with a sharp knife or scissors. Take care not to leave the ends
frayed. A clean cutting loses less sap than a cutting with a
frayed end. Moreover, there's the risk that ravelled parts of the
plant will rot. Directly after clipping or cutting, we dip the
clone first in water, and then in rooting hormones. Then we stick
the cutting into the rockwool plug. The growing tray for the
cuttings must then be saturated for 3 or 4 days with nutrient
solution. Good hygiene is very important when getting cannabis
cuttings to root. Work as clean as possible. Always clean your
scissors, knife and growing trays with a medical disinfectant
(i.e. Dettol) after you've used them. Check the clones daily for
possible rotting parts. Rotting leaves or stems must always be
removed, so that moulds won't get a chance. It's also important
not to put the clone tray in a bed of water. That makes rooting
more troublesome, and the roots will be of less quality. Also, a
too wet clone tray causes root rots such as pythium afungus on
the roots. Just like all plants, hemp cuttings also need fresh
air containing CO2. We have to ventilate the clone room, too.
Sometimes, ventilation is necessary to keep the temperature
stable. When using a ventilator, you must try to create an
optimal climate without exposing the plants to gale force 9. The
cuttings can dry out as a consequence of too much air movement.
When you have all the climatic conditions under control, you can
start waiting for roots to develop. It takes about 10 days before
you see the first results with healthy plants. After a fortnight,
healthy cuttings will have enough roots to be transplanted. In
principal, approximately 80% of the cuttings will root, if you
control the climate well. Allow the cuttings which have no roots
after a fortnight one more week. These cuttings can produce a
plant of lesser quality. If no roots have grown after 3 weeks,
you can throw those cuttings away. Don't count on all the
cuttings taking root; plant about 20% more than you ultimately
intend to keep. Planting rooted clones is a tedious job. The root
systems of the young plants are very tender, and can easily be
damaged. The extremely small root hairs are very important for a
healthy plant. Many splendid cuttings have been ruined by rough
transplanting The roots of plants don't like light (they grow in
the dark), and air (they dry out quickly). The young plants will
now go to the spot where they will spend the rest of their lives.
For plants, transplanting more than once is just as traumatic as
making people move house twice a month . . . Now, the plants must
become accustomed to their new surroundings. They must get
sufficient water, but not yet the full amount of light. After a
few days, the real irrigation schedule can begin, and the plants
go under the full light of the high-pressure gas lamps. The
vegetative, or growth phase begins . . .
7.3. The vegetative phase
In this phase, the plants are illuminated 18 hours per day, and
kept in darkness 6 hours per day. If all aspects are in order,
(sufficient light, proper ventilation, good temperature, enough
water and nutrients, in short: complete climate control), the
plants will grow quickly; up to 5 cm per day. The duration of the
vegetative stage is strongly dependent on the control of climate.
The better the climatic conditions, the earlier the cutting takes
root. The vegetative phase lasts from 3 to 10 days at maximum.
We'll discuss growing 15 plants per square meter. If we want to
use the surface area to the maximum, then we must prune the
plants; - break off the uppermost part. pruning is possible only
with plants that have rooted and begun to grow. If this is not
the case, breaking or clipping the tops off should be postponed
for a couple of days. By pruning the plants, we ensure that they
not only grow tall, but wide, as well. After cutting off the
tops, we leave the plant in the vegetative stage (18-hour cycle)
for a few more days. When the off-shoots have grown 3-4 cm, we
start the generative phase. If all goes well, three or four large
tops will then form on each plant. Then we're ready to get around
50 tops per square meter. To get a wider plant, you can now break
off the top-most part of the plant. Further pruning is not
necessary. Pruning makes the plant grow fuller. That's not to say
you get a bigger plant, because you've also taken something away
. Since the vegetative phase lasts only a short time, the plant
must quickly make up for the damage. After pruning the top, two
new branches will appear from the budding sight just under the
spot where the top was. Be very careful with pruning; it's a more
painful experience for a plant than trimming your own nails After
pruning, it's not unlikely for growth to be delayed for a few
days. It needs no further explanation that a clean, razor-sharp
knife or garden scissors should be used. Actually, we can only
think of one good reason for pruning. When branches don't grow
well, or are sickly or too thin, in short; unhealthy, you can, of
course, carefully remove them. With pruning, it always involves
the removal of the whole branch. Take care to touch the leaves as
little as possible. That can easily disturb the workings of the
stomata in the leaves. Some people swear by removing leaves in
order to allow more light to reach other leaves. This is
necessary; moreover, part of the growth capacity is lost. It's
also unnecessary to remove dying leaves. You only have to clear
these away after they've fallen off the plant. Picking them off
earlier might again cause damage to the plant . . .
7.4. The generative phase
After one weekat maximum, we will shorten the illumination time,
and adapt the irrigation schedule accordingly. We keep giving
water 6 times per light cycle. Give water and fertilizer during
the period that the light is on, and not during the dark period.
In the flowering, or generative phase, the plants are in the
light for 12 hours, and in darkness for 12 hours. We imitate a
shortening of the day in autumn; a sign for the plant to start
flowering and forming seeds during its last phase of life. In the
generative phase, the plant's emphasis is less on growth. Less
chlorophyll is produced and in the flowering phase, we often see
fewer fingers forming on the cannabis leaf. The plant needs less
blue light during the flowering phase (that was important for
chlorophyll production in the leaves), and it needs more red
light. The autumn sun produces more red light, because the autumn
sun is lower in the sky.That doesn't mean that you must now use
only the sodium lamps. With only red light, the plants lose their
vegetative leaves (they turn yellow and fall off easily), while
the stem of the plant is lengthened. The distance between the
branches (also called the 'internode') increases. When we just
let the mercury-iodide lamps supply the plants with blue light,
this effect won't occur so easily. The supply of water and
nutrients continues. The time between irrigations is shortened,
so that the plants are still irrigated during each light cycle.
Not in order to push the plants to grow as fast as possible, but
to keep the metabolism at level, and to produce resins. The
female plants will show their first flowers after a week or two.
The following period lasts at least 60 days, depending on the
variety. With some of the plants, the blooming period lasts up to
90 days. It's worth the trouble to be patient for the full
flowering period before you start harvesting. Harvesting during
that time stresses the plants, which can ultimately cause a
decreased yield.
7.5. Harvesting and drying
In this book, we assume you've raised female cannabis plants from
clones. When you've sprouted male as well as female plants, there
will be some work sorting them out. The males flower earlier than
the females. If you leave the males with the females, the females
will be fertilized. The females then form seed, causing the tops
to be smaller. The yield is lower (why did we start growing in
the first place?). If you've sprouted males, you have to be sure
to harvest them before the pollen reaches the female plants. When
you grow only females, you don't have this trouble. There are
various methods to harvest cannabis. Some people cut the whole
plant down, then hang it up to dry. Others break the largest
leaves off several days before harvest, so there will be less
waste. Hanging the plants, or the tops, upside down has no effect
on the THC content in the tops. The resin doesn't flow. What's
important with cannabis is the even drying of the THC-containig
parts of the plant. What's also important is patience. Generally,
drying goes quicker if you remove the stems which contain the
most moisture. Using a microwave, or an ordinary oven, a hair
dryer, or a fan does make drying faster, but usually also causes
a (much) sharper taste. Even drying in air prevents as much as
possible the loss of THC, and produces evenly dried buds with a
soft taste. Controlling the climate also remains important after
the harvest. Many harvests have been lost due to spider mites and
mould. For the THC glands so important to us, light, heat, and
friction are the most important things to avoid. Once dried,
marijuana can best be kept air-tight in a reasonably cool, dark
place. Air-tight glass jars are ideal.
7.6. Skuff
We'll talk about 'skuff'. This is the sifting of dried tops. When
you sift your dried harvest first through a rough, then through a
fine sieve, you remove all the remaining plant remnants, and get
balls of resin (thus; THC) left on the sieve. It's a fairly
simple, but time-consuming job. Sift the dried harvest first
through a size T-44 sieve. The THC falls through (with a little
extra material). We have a T-77 size sieve under the T-44. You
must carefully rub your harvest through the T-77 sieve. Then you
have THC in it's pure form without chemical processing
skuffsieve
7.7. Setting up the garden again
After the harvest, you must make sure you can literally start the
following growth with a clean slate. First remove all the
leftover plant parts. These go in the trash or in the organic
waste, unless you have a compost heap. Then remove all the
rockwool material. The rockwool still contains a lot of water.
old rockwoolslab in the wringer
Tip: see if you can use an old wringer, or a centrifuge. That
will decrease the volume of the disposed rockwool by half. The
following step is to disinfect the equipment. Any commercial
disinfectant will do. Read the label to see how much to dilute
it. Clean your irrigation system with disinfectant, and always
thoroughly rinse afterwards. Possible calcium build-up on your
humidifier should be removed. Cleaning lamps and reflective
material is the next step. The lamp should be off, and completely
cooled. Don't touch the lamp with your hands, because bodily
acids can easily burn them. Result: shorter lamp life. Everything
is now ready for the next growth. Lay out new rockwool material
and wet it. It's time for new planting, so the timer clock goes
back to 18 hours, and the irrigation to once every three hours.
