Need to know more about growing specific varieties of marijuana? If you read English, check out www.overgrow.com, the biggest marijuana grow site on the Internet (75,000 registered members). Click on “Strain Guide” at the top of the page. You will see a list of 760 different strains (varieties) of marijuana from 64 breeders. There are 529 reports by growers who have actually grown specific strains. The growers have posted more than 4000 images to augment the report of the varieties they grew. The “Strain Guide” has been on the site about 6 months and it already has more than 11 million hits! This specific information about growing individual strains from different breeders will help you make seed purchases and tell you how to grow the varieties you currently have.

If you plan to order seeds via mail, check out Green Man’s www.seedbankupdate.com. My friend, Green Man, has been updating the site every week for more than 6 years. Cannabis Internauts send him information about seed companies. He compiles this information and rates seed companies service, seed quality and tells you if they are rip-offs or not. Excellent site!

Plant seeds and take clones today if you have not started them yet. Move seedlings and clones outside. It should be warm enough in most of Germany to plant outdoors now. If not, plant in an unheated cold frame or a heated greenhouse. In fact, many Spaniards wait until the first of June to set plants outdoors!

Hot weather starts in June, causing outdoor plants use much more water. My outdoor plants are using 2-4 liters a day now! Put your finger in the pot until the first knuckle. It will be dry if the plant needs water. Pour a liter of water in the pot. At least 20 percent of the water should come out the bottom. The water should drain out the bottom of the pot within a couple of minutes. Continue adding more water until water drains out the bottom.

Hot weather also tends to make soil form a crusty layer on top and it makes soil shrink away from the pot creating a gap. The same thing also happens indoors. Cultivate the soil surface to break up the crust and fill in the gap around the perimeter of the container. This will allow water to penetrate evenly and wet all of the soil. Otherwise, the crusty soil will deflect water and water will run out the gap or crack along the inside of the container, too.

Shade plants during midday sun so they receive filtered sun. This will lower water consumption and keep plants cooler. Growth essentially stops after 30 degrees C. And the temperature inside leaves is usually 10 degrees higher than the surface!

Odor problems increase during hot weather. Remove odors with an activated charcoal filter.

Activated charcoal is charcoal that has been treated with oxygen to open millions of small pores between the carbon atoms. The result is a surface area of 300-2,000 square meters per gram! One of the uses of active or activated charcoal is used to absorb odors from air in indoor grow rooms. Odors in air bond to the surface of the charcoal and no longer smell.

How do you tell which activated charcoal absorbs the most odor and lasts the longest? You can do a simple test yourself to find out. Weigh out a gram of charcoal from two or three different filters. Place each piece of charcoal in a glass of water. Lower grade activated charcoal with less surface area inside to trap odors will sink to the bottom. Highly porous charcoal will float. The more space inside the better it floats. The best activated charcoal floats.

Humidity clogs pores in activated charcoal. Keeping your humidity at 50 percent or less will help keep your filter working efficiently longer.

Remember, a filter that weighs 100 kilograms when new can weigh as much as 300 kilograms when the activated charcoal is all plugged up with odors and moisture.

Did you realize odor could be so heavy?

Captions:

1. Big buds like this Jack Herer produce a distinctive tell-tale fragrance.

2. Grow beautiful Haze varieties like this one on your patio. Check out the Strain Guide on www.overgrow.com to find specific information on how to grow hundreds of varieties.

3. Activated carbon filters keep the fragrances in your room contained.

4. This mother and clone room produced more than 200 clones that are enjoying outdoor sunlight now.

Garden Calendar

Outdoors

Direct seed in ground after last danger of frost. Seeds planted now require more care and water to become established.

Transplant seedlings and clones outdoors. Bury them up to their first set of true leaves. The subterranean stem will grow roots.

Harden-off seedlings and clones. Move transplants outdoors for an hour the first day and increase the time by an hour every day. In 7-10 days, transplants will be acclimated.

Add water absorbent polymer crystals to planting hole. Crystals retain water and lessen irrigation frequency.

Protect seedlings and transplants from slugs, caterpillars, rabbits and deer. Apply snail/slug bait around plants. Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) to kill caterpillars. Cover tender plants with a chicken wire dome to protect from rabbits and deer.

Mulch plants to conserve and attract water.

Water needs increase substantially from June through the first week or two in September.

Fertilize with a complete granular mix containing more nitrogen than phosphorus or potassium. Apply a soluble fertilizer if able to water plants weekly.

Bend and tie plants down to avoid detection.

Shade pots exposed to direct sunlight to protect roots from over-heating.

Indoors

Keep indoor temperatures below 30 degrees for best results.

Humidity often increases indoors when temperatures rise outdoors. Keep nighttime temperatures 10 degrees cooler than daytime temperatures to avoid moisture condensation. Run the vent fan all night to reduce humidity.

Plants transpire more water and use the same amounts of nutrients in hot weather. Lower concentration of fertilizer to compensate.

Flush plants with a mild nutrient solution at least once a month.

Take clones to start a new crop as needed.

Inspect leaf undersides for spider mites and eggs. Spray mites and eggs with pyrethrum or neem as needed.

Harvest. Replace harvested plants with clones in perpetual crops. Have supplies and clones ready to move into the harvested room.

Remove odors from flowering plants with a charcoal filter.