Pubdate: Sat, 28 Dec 2013
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Copyright: 2013 The Denver Post Corp
Contact:  http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Author: Claire Martin

GROW YOUR OWN?

Advice for Colorado Gardeners Who Want to Cultivate Marijuana

Once you've exhausted the jokes about green thumbs, red eyes, and the 
hilarity of growing weed instead of blooms, the questions remain 
about how to go about growing your own marijuana, if you want to.

Amendment 64 allows home cultivation of marijuana, up to six plants 
per adult. (Denver's rules allow a household of two or more adults to 
cultivate a total of a dozen cannabis plants.) That's going to appeal 
to those partakers who are old enough to be leery about openly buying 
a substance that still remains, on the federal level, strictly illegal.

And it's going to appeal to many who live in a Colorado town or 
county that doesn't allow retail stores - and there are quite a few 
of those, especially on the Eastern Plains. Even within the county of 
Denver, the retail marijuana scene is a confusing patchwork: Legal in 
Glendale, but not in Englewood; legal in Denver but not yet in Edgewater.

Even in jurisdictions that don't allow retail marijuana shops, it's 
legal to grow your own on your own property, within the 
specifications of Amendment 64.

But for home growers, there's been the problem of where to acquire 
seeds or cuttings. Unless they received it as a gift, they couldn't 
obtain cannabis plant material without risking a step on the wrong 
side of the law. That changes on Jan. 1 when retail marijuana shops 
will open and can legally sell plants and seed.

Still, it's not like home growers can call a Colorado State 
University extension agent for growing advice; those experts are 
prohibited from answering any questions related to marijuana. Even 
though Amendment 64 specifically allows advice on growing marijuana, 
greenhouse and nursery staff often shy away from the subject.

"It's crazy," said Sharon Harris, executive director of the Colorado 
Nursery and Greenhouse Association.

"We started getting those calls when the bill first passed for 
medical marijuana, and our attorney advised us not to talk about it. 
It's legal in Colorado, but still a federal offense. We're waiting to 
see how the legal retail sales work out, but our position will not 
change until the U.S. attorney general says, 'OK, here's the deal.' 
It's quite a quagmire."

So don't expect help from the usual horticultural resources. Instead, 
look at hydroponic indoor gardening retail outlets, and start-ups 
like Cannabis University, which offers a $250 one-day class in 
possessing and growing marijuana.

Be advised: Under the law, growing your own marijuana requires 
keeping your plants in an "enclosed, locked space" that is not open 
or public. That's pretty broadly-written, but a safe interpretation 
would mean a basement room or closet that can be locked.

No more than three of your plants can be in the flowering stage at 
one time. And it remains illegal to sell marijuana you grow.

To answer basic questions for novice pot-growers (potters?), we 
interviewed George Archambault, owner of MileHydro, Ben Holmes of 
Centennial Seeds, and Michelle LaMay of Cannabis University.

Q: What will I need to start growing weed?

Holmes: The basics are one container per plant; potting soil; 
fertilizer; a good-quality grow light; and seeds.

Archambault: Ideally, you'll have a controlled environment, with 
fresh air coming in through a ventilation system and exhaust air 
going out the opposite end of the room, because plants don't do well 
in stagnant air. If you use a controlled environment like a tent or 
cabinet, you'll want a thermostat to make sure the room stays at the 
same temperature instead of getting too hot.

LaMay: A grow light with a vegging bulb and flowering bulb, a 
controlled environment, like a room or a tent; nutrient supplements; 
an outside air source; a carbon filter; a thermometer; an oscillating 
fan to move the air about; a can fan to pull air out through the 
carbon filter; timers; a PH tester for the water; a five-gallon water 
container; pots; growing medium; tarps for the floor, even with a 
grow tent; and only highest-quality extension cords, if you must use 
extension cords at all.

Q: So what'll that cost?

Holmes: For a very basic set-up, around $500. Figure $20 for the 
containers, $40 or so for the soil, another $40 for the fertilizer 
and nutrients, $300 for a decent grow light, another $100 for a 
vegging bulb and a flowering bulb. Figure on spending $5 to $10 per 
seed, but prices vary widely. Some seeds cost $1,000 apiece.

Archambault: Five hundred is cutting a lot of corners. I'd say more 
like $1,000.

Q: Does it make more sense to try to grow hydroponically?

Archambault: I don't advise new growers to start right in with 
hydroponics. That means spending at least $1,000 on equipment, and 
that's a lot for a beginner. And you're out all that money if you're 
not successful.

Q: How much space would a $500 dirt set-up require?

Holmes: That'd be for a 4-by-4-foot area, so you'll need only one 
grow light, plus one grow light with a white-blue vegging light bulb 
and an orange-red flowering light bulb.

Q: What's a "vegging light bulb"?

Holmes: In indoor gardens, you mimic the spring and summer growing 
period with a light that's on the white/blue spectrum. In the vegging 
state, you're encouraging the plant to produce leaves, with a goal of 
growing the plant to half the size you want it to be when you harvest 
it. The rule of thumb is giving the plant 18 hours of light in the 
vegging [short for vegetative growth] stage. So if you want a 
3-foot-tall plant at the harvest stage, you want to veg it until the 
plant is a foot and a half tall.

Q: Then what?

Holmes: When it reaches half the size you want it to be, then you 
have to trick it into flowering by making the plant think it's fall. 
The flower is what people want from a marijuana plant, because you 
harvest the flower buds. So then you switch to the orange-red light 
bulb. That makes the plant think it's fall, and it will induce 
flowering. During the flowering stage, you'll want to give it 12 
hours of light on, and rest it in the dark for 12 hours.

Q: That sounds like a ton of work. Is it easier to start with cuttings?

LaMay: Cuttings are easily accessible from friends or the medical 
marijuana dispensary or, soon, the retail store. They are about $10 
each. They must be quarantined and doused aggressively with organic 
neem oil over 20 days.

Archambault: Start from seeds. I've never met anyone who bought a 
clone from a dispensary that wasn't infested with spider mites or 
powdery mildew. It's an indoor growing issue. The worst thing you can 
do is buy a plant that has a lot of insects.

Holmes: No! Start with seeds. We urge people not to buy cuttings, and 
my dispensary clients will hate me for saying that, but the worst 
thing you can do is buy their cuttings because they're infested.

Q: Where can I buy seeds?

Archambault: After Jan.1, 2014, you can buy cannabis seeds in 
Colorado without a medical marijuana card. Seeds, and cuttings, will 
be sold at state-licensed marijuana retail stores. But remember, you 
can't tell whether a seed is male or female. You have to wait until 
it germinates. It takes about a month to see the telltale signs of 
the first budding flowers. The males only grow leaves.

Q: Why does it matter whether the seed is male or female?

Holmes: Only the female seeds produce flowers, which is the crop you 
want. Some companies sell what they call "feminized seeds" that have 
a higher probability of being female. But regularly-bred seeds is 
what we recommend.

Q: Is growing marijuana comparable to starting tomatoes or other garden plants?

Holmes: Yes, it's like growing a tomato. Marijuana is a plant that's 
very sensitive to over-feeding. You need to lime the soil, because 
they don't like acid soil. And I just use Miracle-Gro. I use that on 
everything. If you ate my tomatoes or zucchini, or smoked my weed, 
you'd come back for more. You don't need to buy a lot of supplements 
and amendments and products. You need a bucket of dirt and a 
well-thought-out fertilizer plan, not 20 different fertilizers and 
nutrients. The best thing is to keep it simple.

Q: I have relatives who live in states that haven't legalized 
marijuana. Will they be able to tell I'm growing it?

Archambault: Well, the plants are still going to release that 
telltale aroma. Hydroponic stores sell odor mitigation systems. 
Carbon filters are the most effective. If your grow system is in a 
basement room that nobody uses, maybe they won't notice.

Q: What about pets?

Holmes: Cats will be kind of curious. Pets are disease-carriers, and 
your pet could infect your plants. Make your grow room off-limits to your pets.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom