How You Can Develop Cannabis To Do What You Want

[CharlesU Farley]

Check out my sig tag to understand my history with cannabis. I’ve been able to accomplish some fairly remarkable things in the 50+ years I’ve been developing it. This thread is going to illustrate how I’ve taken a reverse engineered Sensi Northern Lights 10 pack of seeds, obtained from Gypsy Nirvana in 2000, and altered its basic characteristics through generational change, in order to make it better.

This is the only type of cannabis I’ve grown since then.

The techniques I use can be used by anyone, regardless of growing medium but hydroponic processes I am totally and completely ignorant of, so they might not work for those growers. I haven’t been able to grow outside for almost 40 years now, thanks to a vindictive ex-wife and living in a strongly Prohibition state, so I highly doubt my techniques will be of any use in that environment.

My growing environment is one 8 x 4 tent, one 4 x 4 tent, one 2 x 5 seedling/clone closet, a 2 x 3 closet for emergency/overflow clones, and an outside deck for sprouts in spring. I use SMB LED lights and enough exhaust and interior circulation fans to make the tornado in the Wizard of Oz seem like a fart. I use fabric pots which, imnsho, are the best innovation since LEDs for the indoor grower. I fertilize with Peters/Jacks 20-20-20. I use whatever quality, peat based potting soil is on sale. Used to be Miracle Grow but with things so expensive, I switched to Sta-Green this spring. I recycle the soil every spring and mix in a couple bags of Black Kow which is composted cow crap, throw in a couple handfuls of dolomitic lime, a tiny handful of Epsom salt and mix it all around.

I have not, do not, and will _never_ use any type of chemical to alter or enhance the natural, sexual reproduction of the cannabis plant. I love my staminate plants as much as my pistillate plants and use them both. So obviously, any feminized anything is unacceptable. Same with Autos, if you can’t figure out how to turn on and turn off a light, this is not the thread for you.

I have not, do not and will never sell anything cannabis related, to anyone… ever. Like all Boomers back in the day, I’d pinch a bag as a “carrying” charge, so I could get high too, but I have never, ever sold cannabis.

This is what works for me. I’m not advocating _anyone_ use my methods or try to copy what I do. And not to sound arrogant and condescending, but don’t try to convert me to any of the methods you use. See the Why Do Experienced Growers Use Plastic Containers to understand.

If you’ve read this far, this may be a thread you will be interested in.

Let me tell you who this thread is _not_ for:

• Anyone looking for the “best” _anything_, including seed, fertilizer, lighting, etc. recommendations, that sort of thing.
• Anyone who has less than 5 years of cannabis growing experience because you need to be concentrating on your plants and not trying my techniques, which are more “cannabis whisperer” than an A-B-C process to follow. You should be using your time to understand your plants, not trying what I do.
• Anyone who is intimidated by “big” words they don’t know and are unwilling to “Google It”. I don‘t spoon feed anyone info, get it on you own. Highlight the word you don’t understand, and select the Search function.
• Anyone with an “axe to grind” because I’ve pissed you off in another thread and you want to Troll me.

If get a whiff of a Troll, I will do what we used to do on Usenet, which is essentially “your dead to me on any forum activity/posts’ and I won’t see/respond to any of your posts or the posts of people who respond to you on. If you don’t like what I post or what I say, the solution is easy; hover/highlight my Barney The Dinosaur avatar and select Ignore.

I’m posting this primarily for all those people who “lurk” and never or almost never post, because they are here for _information_ and not drama. They want to develop the very best cannabis they can, in the most efficient way they can, for the lowest possible cost. If you have the patience to stick around and follow this thread I’ll guantee you’ll learn something, as will I. Stick with it and I’ll show you how to take this:

And this:

And turn it into this:

 

[Creeperpark]

Check out my sig tag to understand my history with cannabis. I’ve been able to accomplish some fairly remarkable things in the 50+ years I’ve been developing it. This thread is going to illustrate how I’ve taken a reverse engineered Sensi Northern Lights 10 pack of seeds, obtained from Gypsy Nirvana in 2000, and altered its basic characteristics through generational change, in order to make it better.

This is the only type of cannabis I’ve grown since then.

The techniques I use can be used by anyone, regardless of growing medium but hydroponic processes I am totally and completely ignorant of, so they might not work for those growers. I haven’t been able to grow outside for almost 40 years now, thanks to a vindictive ex-wife and living in a strongly Prohibition state, so I highly doubt my techniques will be of any use in that environment.

My growing environment is one 8 x 4 tent, one 4 x 4 tent, one 2 x 5 seedling/clone closet, a 2 x 3 closet for emergency/overflow clones, and an outside deck for sprouts in spring. I use SMB LED lights and enough exhaust and interior circulation fans to make the tornado in the Wizard of Oz seem like a fart. I use fabric pots which, imnsho, are the best innovation since LEDs for the indoor grower. I fertilize with Peters/Jacks 20-20-20. I use whatever quality, peat based potting soil is on sale. Used to be Miracle Grow but with things so expensive, I switched to Sta-Green this spring. I recycle the soil every spring and mix in a couple bags of Black Kow which is composted cow crap, throw in a couple handfuls of dolomitic lime, a tiny handful of Epsom salt and mix it all around.

I have not, do not, and will _never_ use any type of chemical to alter or enhance the natural, sexual reproduction of the cannabis plant. I love my staminate plants as much as my pistillate plants and use them both. So obviously, any feminized anything is unacceptable. Same with Autos, if you can’t figure out how to turn on and turn off a light, this is not the thread for you.

I have not, do not and will never sell anything cannabis related, to anyone… ever. Like all Boomers back in the day, I’d pinch a bag as a “carrying” charge, so I could get high to, but I have never, ever sold cannabis.

This is what works for me. I’m not advocating _anyone_ use my methods or try to copy what I do. And not to sound arrogant and condescending, but don’t try to convert me to any of the methods you use. See the Why Do Experienced Growers Use Plastic Containers to understand.

If you’ve read this far, this may be a thread you will be interested in.

Let me tell you who this thread is _not_ for:

• Anyone looking for the “best” _anything_, including seed, fertilizer, lighting, etc. recommendations, that sort of thing.
• Anyone who has less than 5 years of cannabis growing experience because you need to be concentrating on your plants and not trying my techniques, which are more “cannabis whisperer” than an A-B-C process to follow. You should be using your time to understand your plants, not trying what I do.
• Anyone who is intimidated by “big” words they don’t know and are unwilling to “Google It”. I don‘t spoon feed anyone info, get it on you own. Highlight the word you don’t understand, and select the Search function.
• Anyone with an “axe to grind” because I’ve pissed you off in another thread and you want to Troll me.

If get a whiff of a Troll, I will do what we used to do on Usenet, which is essentially “your dead to me on any forum activity/posts’ and I won’t see/respond to any of your posts or the posts of people who respond to you on. If you don’t like what I post or what I say, the solution is easy; hover/highlight my Barney The Dinosaur avatar and select Ignore.

I’m posting this primarily for all those people who “lurk” and never or almost never post, because they are here for _information_ and not drama. They want to develop the very best cannabis they can, in the most efficient way they can, for the lowest possible cost. If you have the patience to stick around and follow this thread I’ll guantee you’ll learn something, as will I. Stick with it and I’ll show you how to take this:

View attachment 18977781

And this:

View attachment 18977782

And turn it into this:

View attachment 18977785

Thanks for the post friend. Very interesting read.

 

[CharlesU Farley]

Thanks for the post friend. Very interesting read.

Doubt this thread is going to get a lot of activity, just documenting what I've done and am doing with cannabis. With all the bullshit narratives about the history of the various varieties of cannabis, I thought it was time for somebody to actually document what they've done, why they've done it, what the results were.

I figured since I'm writing it for the website, might as well post it in here, for all those speed reading lurkers.

 

[CharlesU Farley]

These are the guiding principles that have worked for me and this is a cut and paste from the website but I'm going to clean it up. I use profanity... a lot. And someone I respect very much indicated to me that it made translation/understanding from Americanized English to a different language most difficult. I'm going to clean it up for ICM, so it'll be worded a bit different than it is on my website and make it easier for everyone to read:

I am currently on my F11 generation and from F1 on, for the last 22 years, the plants have:

1. Only received pure, mountain spring water

2. Never, ever been FIM’d, ScrOG’d, topped, mutilated, or butchered to increase yield.

3. Never been subject to any chemical or hormonal manipulation for sexing or inducing polyploidy.

4. Only received massive amounts of HID lighting from both MH and LED lights.

5. Been grown in standard, cheap potting soil (currently Scott’s because it was on sale) and receive absolutely no fertilizer initially. During subsequent grows (as I recycle the soil) I use of Peter’s 20-20-20 when needed.

6. Gone through extensive wet/dry cycles where the soil is allowed to be occasionally saturated and to dry out as well.

7. Never been subjected to 24/0 lighting or rushed/forced flowering in less than 90 days of vegging. I don't abuse my plants for any temporary, short term gain. Sensi’s current website says the flowering time for Northern Lights is 45-50 days, SouthEast Lights would not be anywhere near completion in that time frame. There’ve been times when I could barely even sex a plant 45 days after flip, and I know what to look for.

8. Never been babied, coddled or otherwise given any type of special care, whatsoever. Most growers would be mortified at how brutal I have been with not only clones but sprouts as well. I'm reminded of a Saturday Night Live skit from the 70's comparing Lamaze birthing with SNL's version, which were just a wee bit different. No sterile cuttings of clones, no reduced lighting during germination or rooting, no support poles or netting, nothing that treats cannabis like a fragile violet instead of poke sallet. SouthEast Lights is a Terminator version of cannabis that will take whatever abuse, neglect or mismanagement a dumbass grower can give and still survive.

Notice what I haven't mentioned? Nothing about THC percentage, terpine profile, smell, color, resin coating, leaf/calc ratio, etc. Know why? I don't care. It doesn't matter to me if my cannabis smells like a "sweet blueberry forest after a spring rain at sunrise" or like SouthEast Lights... almost odorless. I also don't care whether it's gold, green, red, purple or is organically grown with pure, unadulterated bat guano that has been mined by gnomes and elves in forests of the Pacific NW. What I care about is how SouthEast Lights makes me feel. And this should come as no surprise I'm sure, but it makes me feel... _good_, and that's what matters to me.

Most importantly, I’ve not only taken care of, but I have _cared_ for these plants, for many years now. They have decades of love, care, discriminative selection and complete attention in an ideal yet very challenging environment. As Owsley Stanley said so many years ago, “…the Princess of the plant world, who gives us a wonderful gift in return for our care and attention.”

I’m a bit more direct and less eloquent than zBear so I'm not sure how to end this post. Should it be, "I take care of the plant that takes care of me." or "When the plant is not forced to do things unnatural, it will become what you want it to be."

 

[CharlesU Farley]

This is a cut 'n paste from the website because it appropriately illustrates one of the most important aspects of what I've been able to accomplish with SouthEast Lights. It has been developed to be a type of cannabis that grows in a wide variety of temps and humidity, doesn't need to be coddled or babied to _thrive_, and can take pretty good amounts of abuse and neglect yet continue to thrive.

It is a Terminator type of cannabis.

For those who might be wondering why I never use direct HTML links to the website, I don't believe in spoon feeding every bit of information I'm trying to communicate. I think _intellectual curiosity_ is vital, so I want everyone who visits the website to put forth at least a _minimal_ amount effort to receive the information I've created.

Inquiring minds will know to click my avatar, then click again and select the About section, where the website address is located. From the website:

The pics below illustrate just how vibrant and viable SouthEast Lights seeds are. The first one shows two seedlings that I didn’t use, that were left in the damp paper towel, for over a week, in complete darkness. The next one is a survivor sprout that I discovered next to the house, right next to the dirt pile. The last one I found when I went to the north side of the house where the recycled dirt is kept. I had no earthly idea this plant even existed, it grew that way totally on its’ own, with no human intervention. That plant is the pistillate basis for my current F12 generation of SouthEast Lights.

One thing I’m certain about after all these years of developing cannabis is; if you take care of the plant, it will take care of you. Most growers tend to forget that a cannabis plant is a living thing, that responds not only to its “breeding” but to the environment as well. That’s why I have _never_ understood why growers top, FIM, pinch, or otherwise abuse their plants “cause I’ll get more yield”. If you’ve ever actually observed a healthy, vigorous cannabis plant after it’s been topped, you can visually tell it adversely affects the plant. It just kinda sags and growth slows dramatically. I think I could effectively argue that the quality of the “high” you get from these types of plants is gonna suck, just like industrially grown cannabis purchased at a dispensaries.

But that time is not right now because this entry is going to be about how I don’t coddle, baby or otherwise spoil my cannabis plants. One thing I learned from Vic High’s work with Blueberry is I did _not_ want a plant that was fragile, required a perfect environment or was overly sensitive to common fertilizers.

So early on I set out to treat my cannabis plants just like the “weed” that it is. I allowed the soil I use to go through extensive wet to dry cycles. Speaking of soil, after a couple grows with expensive “organic” potting soil back in the early 2000’s, I decided to just use cheap, commonly available, peat based potting soil. After trying many “organic” fertilizers and various combinations of worm casings, bat guano and eye of newt or whatever other miracle product that was pushed back in the 90’s, I decided to keep it simple and use Peters (now Jacks) 20-20-20 fertilizer. I gave them as much light as possible and put that light as close as possible to the canopy. I’ve always provided as much air circulation around the plants as possible, not only to exhaust heat and humidity, but to provide additional CO2 uptake and O2 discharge at the leaf level.

A growing "guru" from the formative stages of Overgrow took this idea I developed and promoted on adpc and put it on OG, in his usual "aw shucks" manner, as _his_ idea, with the only change being using his buddies stolen Super Soil recipe. You will learn what the term "attribution" as it relates to Internet communication in my next post here and that's something that never took place.

I digress.

Most growers would be mortified at how brutal I have been with not only clones but sprouts as well. No sterile cuttings of clones, no reduced lighting during germination or rooting, no support poles or netting, nothing that treats cannabis like a orchid instead of hops. SouthEast Lights is a Terminator version of cannabis that will take whatever abuse, neglect or mismanagement an inexperienced grower can give and not only survive but thrive.

Next post I'll get into the term "breeding" and why it's bullshit.

 

[Prs2xs]

Notice what I haven't mentioned? Nothing about THC percentage, terpine profile, smell, color, resin coating, leaf/calc ratio, etc. Know why? I don't care. It doesn't matter to me if my cannabis smells like a "sweet blueberry forest after a spring rain at sunrise" or like SouthEast Lights... almost odorless. I also don't care whether it's gold, green, red, purple or is organically grown with pure, unadulterated bat guano that has been mined by gnomes and elves in forests of the Pacific NW. What I care about is how SouthEast Lights makes me feel. And this should come as no surprise I'm sure, but it makes me feel... _good_, and that's what matters to me.

At last!
All the BS you mentioned above drives me crazy too!

 

[CharlesU Farley]

You have to start with seed and this is how I ended up developing exclusively with Northern Lights

From the April 19, 2016 of the site:

In 1999, I take a cruise to Alaska via Vancouver. I had heard about a place called the Blunt Brothers from the BCGA forum, so I made plans to visit. I walked into the store, lurked around for a while then went up to the counter and asked if he'd seen Vic High around. He gave me a wft look but someone else asked how I knew Vic. I told them via the BCGA site and I was hoping he could hook me up with some BC bud I'd heard so much about. The guy gave me a real skeptical look, so I said, "Look, I didn't want to be the first dumbass American to get caught smuggling buds _into_ BC, so I didn't bring any of my own." He started laughing and told me where to go. A couple of streets down, I go into a basement area of a building, ask "What do you have for sale?" and the guy uncovers a display area with different kinds of buds and hash. Holy f***ing moly! I'll take some Skunk, a couple of grams of hash and what was my second choice from Jock, Northern Lights. After we get onboard, my wife and I completely agree, the Skunk smells better but the Northern Lights _is_ better. In fact, it’s even better than the hash.

After we got back to the States, I began to research everything I could find about Northern Lights. Now in 1999, that wasn't real easy. The only thing I trusted about High Times was the photography, so the BCGA forum, adpc and Sunny and Greenman’s seedbank review sites supplied the info I required. I discovered Sensi was the best seed bank for Northern Lights and when I found out Nevil sold his interest to Ben when he had to bail, I knew what I was going to do.

I was going to get Northern Lights seeds from Sensi Seeds.

The Seed Bank section of overgrow.com was kind of moderated by someone with the nym Gypsy Nirvana in 2000. He also sold seeds. Long story short, he would ship to the US and wasn't in BC or the NL but the UK, so no extra scrutiny from US Customs. He also guaranteed an unopened package of Sensi Northern Lights. A transaction was safely and successfully completed. Paid $120 USD for 10 seeds. They all sprouted, thrived and produced 6 females and four males. They were everything I was hoping they would be. Many thanks to Gypsy Nirvana for having the… ah fortitude… to mail completely sealed, expertly camouflaged cannabis seeds to the U.S. when almost no one else would!

Here is a pic, and this is not a pic of the seeds I received, I got it from Sensi's forum section before they shut it down:

I think this may be the best advice I could give to someone who is ready to make the move from grower/cultivator to developer. I almost never use the word _breeder_ . There's a quote from Nevil on the Mr. Nice forum somewhat along the lines of... 'if you don't have access to at least 1000 plants, you can't call yourself a _breeder_.

What works is getting the best available strain of cannabis seeds that make you feel the way you want to feel when you use cannabis. Then you work with that strain to optimize its' potential, by providing an environment that enables the growing plant to thrive, develop and transform. It really isn't that difficult. The difficult thing is to develop a hybrid mating of varying strains of cannabis into something that is truly unique, yet _standardized_ and _reproducible_. See the Strainhunters website forum and search for posts by NL Seattle Greg to understand what went into the creation of Northern Lights. It took years, not a few grows of pollen slinging with the newest Cannabis Cup winner.

The next post I'll get into the specifics of where I learned to develop cannabis, what I wish I knew then versus what I know now, and what you should really look for when developing cannabis.

I'll give ya a little hint... it doesn't have anything to do with resin/trichomes, color, smell, or taste.

 

[CharlesU Farley]

I've got very few "axes to grind" in the cannabis "online scene" but this post is going to be about one of them. There is quite literally a _pioneer_ in cannabis cultivation and development (remember what I said about the word "breeder") who is hardly mentioned in any of the various cannabis fora now, or even that much back in the day:

Vic High

This nym established the very _first_ online, web based cannabis forum (like the one your viewing/using now) and shared his vast knowledge of developing cannabis with a _world_ wide audience. He established a "knowledge cooperative" of cannabis cultivators known as the British Columbia Growers Association (BCGA). It was quite revolutionary at the time because it included growers from not only Canada but the EU, OZ, NL and the US, among other countries.

Unlike the various cannabis fora of today, the discussions were civil, educational and informative... without politics, ego, and most importantly, _selling_ anything.

I am _so_ not a name dropper but if you use your intellectual curiosity and explore the links I'm going to provide, you see names like Mr. Soul, Chimera etc. You'll see intelligent and insightful discussions by people who know/knew what they are/were talking about, _disagree_, and present their logic and experience to validate their positions, in a non-confrontational, non ego-driven manner.

As Owsley Stanley posted frequently on thebear.org... I digress.

Here's how I learned to develop cannabis:

What is an F1

Inbreeding Overview

F'ing Around

And one I disagreed with and never used:

Creating All Female Seeds

Fun reading, uh?

Now let me show you the absolute best, most simple breeding advice I've ever read. Shantibaba of Mr. Nice seeds is a true _breeder_, because he's managed 1000+ plants in breeding environment, Google his history, he is the OG'ist of the OG's of cannabis _breeders_. This was posted by Musashi, the forum admin of Mr. Nice:

The last sentence above is what is known as _attribution_... giving the person who _originally_ comes up with an idea or posts something they didn't _create_. You give credit where credit is due and don't act like you came up with an idea or concept all by yourself, because you're just _so_ smart and brilliant.

That is what you do, give attribution, at least if you are honorable.

 

[CharlesU Farley]

I give absolutely no advice about seed selection, ever. I just don't have the experience and knowledge to speak about the various seeds that are currently available, advantages versus disadvantages, ease of growth, that sort of thing. I'm going to repeat a phrase that I've already posted in this thread because it's one of the foundations of any cannabis development project:

What works is getting the best available strain of cannabis seeds that make you feel the way you want to feel when you use cannabis. Then you work with that strain to optimize its' potential, by providing an environment that enables the growing plant to thrive, develop and transform.

This is not rocket science, or even botany. It's just plain, common sense.

So, you've experimented with a lot of different cannabis varieties and think you have got the "strain" (another term I loathe but have to use for ease of understanding) that you want to develop. What do you do next? You've got to find a retailer who has that strain. I am totally and completely ignorant about the various seeds available and the differing vendors who hawk 'em. In an ideal world, here are some of the questions I would ask of a “breeder”

• How long have you been developing cannabis, not growing it, but actually using male and female cannabis plants where the primary purpose was to produce _seeds_, not consumable cannabis?
• Do you actually use staminate and pistillate plants for seed production or do you use chemicals to genetically modify the sexuality of the plant?
• How, when and where did you obtain the initial seeds that were a part of this development, and how many actual seeds did you use in the initial grow? How many plants were there and were they uniform in color, shape and size?
• What is the growing/developing environment for the cannabis that you develop for seeds? Do you use older, traditional HID lighting such as HPS/MH or do you utilize LED? Organic or chemical fertilizers? What growing medium… hydro, soil, coco?
• What typical number of plants do you grow to develop seeds and what is the largest number of plants you've ever had complete responsibility for?
• How many generations of plants have you used to standardize and stabilize this variety of cannabis and what methods did you use?
• What chemicals, hormones or insecticides have been used in the maintenance of your plants? In addition, what type of water is used for your cannabis, have you had it tested, and if so, how long ago?
• What is the general frequency/percentage of hermaphroditic plants you have experienced and what do you think the cause of them might have been?
• Who else has grown these seeds, were they provided free of charge by you for a review, and how did you determine the exact length of the flowering cycle.
• Are you the only source of the seeds I’m interested in or are there other vendors who trust you skills as cannabis “breeder” enough to sell your product?

Notice what I didn’t ask about? THC percentages, THC/CBD ratios, terpene profile, etc. You want to know why? It’s because they just don’t matter, at least to me. When someone can logically explain to me how you can test x _grams_ of buds to determine those numbers for a harvest/product that is measured in multi, _kilo_ grams. There’s no way in Hell a couple of grams of bud, picked from, as John used to say to Paul, “the topper most of the popper most” of a plant and have it be representative of the _entire_ plant, much less the entire _harvest_ measured in hundreds of kilograms.

Will anyone be able to ask these questions of the person who actually did the _work_ in developing a strain? Nah, that’s not the current market.

I would absolutely love to see how the asshat from Authentic Genetics would answer these questions, especially with his “Northern Lights". Hopefully, you now have some seeds that aren’t from that type of “breeder”, so now you want to know what to do with them.

The next post were gonna get into the dirt I use and why I use it.

 

[gypsyeyes]

Good solid questions. Separating the men from the boys. Thanks for your work @CharlesU Farley.

 

[Marz]

1000 plants theories are far from Nevil or other cannabis breeder, it comes from etno botanical standards and processes, completely unnecessary for marijuana breeding, specially for the ones out of landrace studies. Fit the techniques for your situation is most important than just follow a rule blind folded.

It's known as breeders equation.

The Breeder's Equation

Problem is using common sense. It's botany.

 

[SlangZaddy]

@CharlesU Farley Thank you, this is generally inspirational & personally somewhat affirming.

 

[CharlesU Farley]

Reading back on what I've written so far, I have left out the most basic principle that is needed before you start a project to _develop_ cannabis:

Why are you joining two disparate types of cannabis and what are you trying to accomplish with the union?

I have to kinda chuckle when I see people posting about various combos of cannabis they're wanting to create, when they are _all_ multi-poly-hybrids with no uniformity and/or stabilization performed by the developer. It’s easy to think you’ve got a special “pheno” (a plant that looks different from the others), if there’s no homogeneity to begin with!

My first couple of generations of Sensi’s NL looked _exactly_ the same, there was almost no variation in structure, color, or potency. This is the genius of what Nevil accomplished with what NL Seattle Greg (NLSG) had created. He standardized and stabilized the best versions of NLSG’s work and created one of the most foundational varieties of cannabis in history. When I get the time, I’m going to cut ‘n paste a post I did on RIU here to ICM about the real, true story of how NL was created, actually _written_ by both Nevil and NLSG, on various cannabis fora that are now deleted. It’s conflicting and contradictory, to say the least.

So, what am I trying to accomplish with the developmental work I’m doing?

After growing for decades in the 2 x 5 closet, when the political situation changed dramatically here in the U.S., Harley (my wife's nym, Harley Farley ) and I were consuming so much cannabis that we were starting to have to smoke less than desirable parts of the cannabis plant. Since we’ve got a large, unfinished basement, it was only logical to increase production by utilizing tents downstairs. That environment is nowhere close to the ideal environment I could control in the 2 x 5. Started having problems with botrytis and PM almost immediately. Imagine having buds like this and seeing them rot because of fungi and mold:

I know everyone just loves those big, fat donkey dick sized buds but when the temp inside the tents is 80 degrees F and the relative humidity is 90+%, guess what becomes a problem? Researched the shit out of it and came to the conclusion that a khco3, veg oil, and Dawn solution was going to be best for my environment and style of developing cannabis. During flowering, it burns the shit out of pistils, turning them red but as you know by now, I don’t care about color, taste or smell of cannabis… it’s the “high” that I’m most concerned about. Tired of fighting the fungi, I decided to join one of my hard core Type II/Indica staminate studs, because I like the high that it gives, with a branching/dividing structured Type IV/Hybrid plant that seemed to be resistant to fungi. Here they are:

You’ll immediately notice the Type II/Indica staminate plant is quite old. That was done on purpose because I always use not only the oldest pistillate but the oldest staminate as well. It is part of my continuing effort to, and I mean this with no disrespect whatsoever, un-Dutch NL. Back in the day, a short flowering period that led to faster turnaround for growers was _essential_ for making money. Since I’ve never been in it for the money, I always felt like the Dutch “pump and dump” strategy wasn’t the best way to develop cannabis. So I’ve lengthened the vegging and flowering time, dramatically. I usually veg for 3-4 months and flower for 2-4 more.

I chose those plants because I wanted the larger, Type II/Indica buds that would branch out and up towards the light in a uniform manner like the branching Type IV/Hybrid. I wanted a canopy of buds that were large but _not_ massive and I wouldn’t violate my belief that a cannabis plant should not be topped, fimmed, hacked or otherwise abused just to increase yield. I’m not there yet but I’m getting pretty close.

Working on standardization and stabilization now because I’m still getting the occasional outlier.

Next post will be about why I use soil. As long as something more important like this post, which explains the very foundation of what I’m trying to accomplish with SouthEastern Lights, comes to mind.

 

[gmonster63]

Great stuff and looking forward to more. I'm a peat moss junkie with a jacks fetish. I love keeping it simple. You present things very well and easy to understand. Your my kinda writer. No bs...just straight up facts and tried true methods decades old. I'm lovin it. Can't wait for more. Thanks for sharing this info. I started in 2000. Love reading the old bcga postings.

 

[CharlesU Farley]

I grow cannabis in soil, specifically cheap, easily obtainable, peat based potting soil. In the mid 90's when I first ventured into the online world of cannabis discussion in the Usenet group alt.pot.drugs.cultivation, two of the “veterans” of the group were the nyms pH and NPKaye. They were exceedingly knowledgeable cannabis developers, who were strong proponents of hydroponics. They were heavily into chemical fertilizers, measuring pH, etc.

I won’t say they were condescending to those of us who utilized soil rather than water for a medium to develop roots in, but it was pretty close. Another of the knowledgeable veteran groups were militant, organic soil growers. They utilized soil but were adamant about using bone meal, blood meal, etc. _only_. Like the hydroponic group, they were also quite condescending, almost arrogant at times, about only using organic products and looked down on those of us who used regular, chemical fertilizers. So, I’ve got a bit of a chip on my shoulder for anyone who is adamant about there being one “best” way to cultivate and develop cannabis, especially if it’s hydroponic or organic. In all my years of growing cannabis, I have found there to be only one truth in regards to developing cannabis:

There is no _best_ way for developing superior cannabis because not only is everyone’s environment different but the genetics of the cannabis seed they use are variable as well.

So this is the system I’ve been using for utilizing soil as a medium for root development of the cannabis plant. If you explore a link to the BCGA website I’m going to give here in a bit, you will read about Vic High utilizing an ozone generator, to try and control gnats, that were attracted to all the bone meal, blood meal and chicken shit he used in his organic soil. I just never saw a reason to make things that complicated and difficult. I strive to keep things as simple as possible, so there are fewer variables for me to contend with.

This is another cut and paste, from one of my previous postings, under the Why Do Experienced Growers Use Plastic Pots subject thread, where I discussed soil:

"I'm a dirt guy, and I could bore you to death with how I came up with the system that I use. One time long ago, I extensively experimented with organic fertilizers. I tried more bone meal, blood meal, chicken shit ( I never got into bat shit ) than you can ever imagine. See this section of Vic High's website to understand all the stuff I tried and yes I was an active participant in these discussions under a different nym, because I was so paranoid I didn't even trust the Canadians:

BCGA Super Soil

And as Chris Farley used to say... "For the love of God and all that's holy" don't mention the name of the guy, who is now dead, whose name is usually associated with super soil.

What I ended up doing was taking the best that I had learned from pH and NPKaye (who were hydroponic fanatics) on chemical fertilizers and decided to just use regular, cheap ass potting soil but with chemical fertilizers. I used to argue with Vic when he started using ozone generators around his grow, just to kill the fungus gnats, that were attracted by all of that organic material.

Another large, old, hairy grower who is now dead, took my method (that I strongly advocated for on adpc) and posted it on OG like it was his own idea. And never even mentioned my nym, because he knew I absolutely hated the flashy, blinky emoticons/smiley faces that were so popular on OG.

I digress... (zBear but absolutely fucking love that).

Here's the system I use, with pictures. I start with this, which is old soil with fan leaves and other non-bud material from the winter grow that I recycle:

Mix it in with a couple of bags of this, which is composted cow shit:

Add in a couple of bags of this:

Which is cheap ass Lowe's potting soil but it used to be Miracle-Gro before this inflation bullshit. Whatever the fuck was on sale and cheap is what I was interested in. There's a nym who participates here on IC, who I can't remember... imagine that... who frequently states that he grows in Miracle Grow just to piss people off, we are kindred spirits!!!!

This is the next thing I do, in extremis:

Massive, 10 to 15 minute streams of pure Blue Ridge mountain spring water, spend about 15 to 20 minutes mixing it all up with a shovel and a hoe... and my wife just now said don't call me a ho. And we're almost done.

This is not a product placement and I put it in another thread, but here is all I need after I prepare the soil:

Didn't take a picture of the two handfuls of dolomitic lime and couple of pinches of Epsom salts that I throw in, just for old time sake. Many years ago, I was broke as a fuck and had to reuse soil... a bunch. After many grows, things got funky as shit, discolored leaves, stunted growth, etc. I used a little bit of Epsom salt and some lime I had left over from the vegetable garden. Things got back to normal. Don't know If it was a calcium or magnesium deficiency but it cured the problem."

So that's why I use soil and chemical fertilizers... it just works well for me, in the environment I develop cannabis in and at this point I just don't see a compelling reason to not only change but even to experiment with hydroponics and organics..

 

[rolandomota]

Your a little too fancy for me I just use straight potting mix and miracle grow all purpose for veging. Fancy for me is adding perlite . Straight in the sand outdoors with miracle just one or two small scoops per gallon of water every watering is my preferred method .
Oh and And don't let the dogs piss on your plants I was wondering what the hell I was doing wrong but it's the damn dogs damnit

 

[Rgd]

I was going to get Northern Lights seeds from Sensi Seeds.

well it sure was good in 1989 ..when you could talk to Nevil on the phone..

 

[CharlesU Farley]

I know all you lurkers are wondering... "When is he going to get to the part where I can learn to have cannabis to do what _I_ want it to?" We're getting close. I was going to post about lighting today, because manipulating light is a technique I use to alter the structure of the plant. I've transformed Northern Lights from this (an outdoor plant, photo not mine) sourced from Google link that I can't remember now. I almost _never_ post pics that aren't mine but this is for illustrative purposes.

Notice the Christmas tree structure of the plant?

To this, taken today and remember, it's an _indoor_ plant :

Doesn't look much like a Christmas tree, does it? I accomplished that without decaptitating the plant (topping).

Notice the change in the _structure_ of the plant?

To accomplish that change in structure, I didn't top, fim, super crop, lst, or do anything else unnatural to the cannabis plant. That includes bondage, discipline, humiliation, ball gags, or even spankies. I don't even talk dirty to them, for fuck sake!

The lighting post is going to have to wait untill next time, so I can show you all some of the results of the latest run, which is 2-4 weeks away from harvest. Maybe that will give ya'll motivation to continue to read this boring thread.

The basic equation for cannabis, and any other plant for that matter, is roots + leaves = flowers.

Here's some roots:



Here's some leaves. These are from one plant, photo taken yesterday:

Next pic is the stem of a _leaf_.

And some flowers that are starting to let me know they are ready:

I'm not smarter or better than anyone else. I've just learned to _listen_ to what the plant is telling me and letting it know what I want it to do.

Stick with this thread boys and girls. You'll learn something you can use and you'll learn how to get cannabis to do what you want, I promise.

 

[ThievingDrugCriminal]

I just want weed that waters itself. Maybe it's time to learn these fancy electronicals.

 

[I Care]

Judging by this little NL I just aquired, you have showcased quite the effort. There’s no way I could ever manage a thing like this indoors.

Reading your posts makes me feel really bad about taking the easy way out and running 24h lighting.