First, good seeds of a named strain are best, but if you bought some killer bud that had seeds, they are quite acceptable. (The cannabis snobs will tell you different, but I've had great results with GOOD bag seed.)

Yes, you can get FEMINIZED seeds- they will give you all females, but they are more expensive. All good seed banks have them. If you plant regular seeds, you will get males. If you have males around, you will get seeds. Depending on your view point (and the quantity), seeds can be a good thing or a disaster. (I tend to look at them as a good thing) If you cull (kill) the males but still get a few seeds because you weren't quite fast enough, it's not a big disaster and you have replacement seeds for the next grow. If you have a huge number of seeds, potency will be affected, but not too much. DON"T USE MIRACLE GROW!!! It has the wrong formulation for pot! Check the forums for better soil mixes (Fox Farm, etc).

Harvesting, well you need to get one of those cheap microscopes from Radio Shack. You can make "ghetto" slides by using a paper punch to make holes in a piece of cardboard or a 3x5, then using clear tape to hold the bit of pot in place. You want a mix of clear and amber trichromes (they look like little mushrooms). The more amber, the heavier the high (couch-lock).

You can spread out your harvest by picking the top buds (which will ripen faster) and leaving the bottom "popcorn" buds to ripen for another week or three. Or you can just whack the plant off at the roots and hang it from a closet hanger rod. Light damages THC, so you want it to dry in the dark. When it has hung for a few days (the amount of humidity in your area affects drying time), snip off the buds and put them in jars. Open the jar every day for a while each day to let the moist air out. Watch for mold! As the buds cure, they will improve! They loose that "green" smell and their own unique flavor comes through. (Don't worry, there are lots of threads on curing and they will walk you through it.)

What to do with the leaves and stems. Well, you could make "Green Dragon", an alcohol based extract, or (for the leaves) run them through a blender and make brownies. Lots of uses! Good luck on your grow and TELL NO ONE ABOUT IT! - Granny:hippy:
Storm Crow Reviewed by Storm Crow on . HELP ME-1st time grower-where do i begin!! So i've never grown before and just recently moved to houston and the weather is PERFECT. i have a great place to plant on my property but i just have so many questions :( I read a shitload of stuff on the internet and i still don't fully understand. BUT i joined this forum hoping to get some help from yall! First- what kind of seeds should i get? i want sativa since indica is mainly indoors but i could be wrong about that too. Just anything anyone has used that they liked. I would like Rating: 5