HOMEGROWN GREEN

Light and Love Make for a Good Combo

Wacky tobacky, pot, mary jane, ganja, bud, doob, maui wowie No matter how
say it, marijuana is all around us. Now think about how satisfying it'd be
to really get grassroots (pardon the pun) about the whole thing and cut out
the middle man. That's right - grow your own. Stephanie Brown relates how.

Firstly, ask yourself, "Where should I plant it?" Since most of us live in
apartments, I wouldn't suggest trying to grow weed outdoors in your
allotted square of earth. Indoor growing also raises concerns, though.
There must be adequate space (plants can grow up to six feet and are bushy
as hell), it must be hidden from prying eyes (like your visiting mother or
the 5-0), and it should be a confined space with good air-circulation
because the plant has a strong eau-de-weed smell.

An on-campus expert recommended planting your seeds in soil. It's cheaper
and much easier than trying to follow the hydroponic path. To obtain a seed
to plant, simply break open a bud, and if the seed's intact, you're good to go.

There are two main stages to the growth. There's the vegetative stage when
the seed needs about 18 to 20 hours of light per day. This is followed by
the budding stage (the technical term is actually the "best stage"). The
plant now needs only 12 hours of light per day and sooner or later the buds
will appear. It takes roughly five to six months to grow the weed, and one
month to dry and cure it.

One hazard to watch out for is over-heating the confined space where you're
growing your weed. Over-heating might burn your plants (and that would be a
true disaster) and cause a fire (another, lesser disaster).

Be advised that the information listed above came from one person's
experience with weed growing. There is a whole slew of information
available on the web. Overgrow.com was recommended to me, and I also found
hempfiles.com useful. The latter provides many links to expert sites and
it's definitely worth taking a look.

So happy growing, but keep some advice in mind. If you are living with your
parents or, even worse, elderly grandparents, growing weed is probably a
no-no. Also, patience is a virtue. Your baby buds will take some time and
lots of tender loving but they should eventually flourish. And after all,
isn't everything so much more satisfying once you've earned it?

Stephanie Brown is a U0 student who does not grow weed in her apartment. No
need to send the narcs around.