Some information from Greg Green's grow Bible, posted by KP for your perusal

[kindprincess]

from marijuanahydro.com

Simple Breeding
Your approach to breeding will depend on what you ultimately hope to achieve. Do you want to create a new strain; create seeds that are similar to the parents; or cross two plants to create a simple hybrid strain?

Continuing a Strain through Seeds
Say you purchased $120 worth of Silver Haze seeds and you want to make more seeds without any interference from another strain. That's easy. Just make sure that the male and female plants you breed with are from the same strain batch. In this instance the same strain batch would be Silver Haze from the same breeder. If you use Silver Haze from different breeders then the offspring may express a great deal of variation.This is because most breeders create their own versions of a popular strain. Their variety may have dissimilar characteristics from those of other breeders who have bred the same strain.
If you only have Silver Haze from the same breeder in your grow room, then all you need are a group of males and a group of females. Let the males pollinate the females and you will get more Silver Haze seeds, but you will loose some of the features of the original parent plants unless the strain you have is an IBL or from a very stable inbred pure line.

Making a Simple Hybrid
Again, making a simple hybrid is easy. Just take a male plant from one strain and a female plant from another, for example Big Bud and Skunk. The result will be vBig Bud x Skunk', but there will be differences in the offspring. Some of the plants will exhibit more Big Bud traits and some will exhibit more Skunk traits. Genes not expressed by each of the parents may also appear in the offspring.
If you want to breed for specific traits by eliminating variations, ultimately creating uniform plants or even an IBL, then you should start with a basic knowledge of plant genetics.

INTRODUCTION TO PLANT GENETICS
Genetics can be somewhat difficult to understand at first so we'll start by explaining a few rudimentary concepts and the basic terminology. The explanations for the words below can be treated as a glossary for your benefit.

Genes
Genes are the units of heredity transmitted from parent to offspring, usually as part of a chromosome. Genes usually control or determine a single characteristic in the offspring. There are genes responsible for each feature of your plant to be inherited, including leaf color, stem structure, texture, smell, potency, etc.

Gene Pairs
All of life is made up of a pattern of genes. You can think of this pattern as being similar to the two sides of a zipper. One side is inherited from the mother and the other from the father. Each gene occupies a specific locus, or particular space on the chain, and controls information about the eventual characteristics of the plant. So each gene locus contains two genes, one from the mother and one from the father. These gene pairs are usually denoted by a pair of letters, such as BB, Bb, Pp, pp, etc. Capital letters refer to dominant genes while lower case letters refer to recessive genes. By way of example, B can represent Big Bud while b can represent small bud. Any letter can be assigned to any trait or gene pair when you are working out your own breeding program.

Chromosome
A threadlike structure of nucleic acids and proteins in the cell nuclei of higher
organisms that carries a set of linked genes, usually paired.

Locus
A position on a chromosome where a particular gene pair is located.

Allele
Alleles are any of a number of alternative forms of one gene. For example the gene for purple bud color may have two forms, or alleles, one for purple and one for dark red.

Homozygous
Having identical alleles at one or more genetic loci, which is not a heterozygote (see below) and breeds true. Your plant is said to be homozygous for one feature when it carries the same gene twice in the responsible gene pair, which means both genes of the gene pair are identical.

Heterozygous
Having different alleles at one or more genetic loci. Your plant is said to be heterozygous for one feature when the genes of the responsible gene pair are unequal, or dissimilar.

Phenotype
The phenotype is the summary of all of the features you can detect or recognize
on the outside of your plant, including color, smell and taste.

Genotype
The genotype is the genetic constitution of your plant, as distinguished from the phenotype.The genotype characterizes how your plant looks from the inside. It is the summary of all the genetic information that your plant carries and passes on to its offspring.

Dominant
Dominant is used to describe a gene or allele that is expressed even when inherited from only one parent. It is also used to describe a hereditary trait controlled by a gene and appearing in an individual to the exclusion of its counterpart, when alleles for both are present. Only one dominant allele in the gene pair must be present to become the expressed genotype and eventually the expressed pheno-type of your plant.

Recessive
Recessive describes a gene, allele or hereditary trait perceptibly expressed only in homozygotes, being masked in heterozygotes by a dominant allele or trait. A gene is called recessive when its effect cannot be seen in the phenotype of your plant when only one allele is present.The same allele must be present twice in the gene pair in order for you to see it expressed in the phenotype of your plant.

Dominant/Recessive and Genetic Notation
Assume that the dominant'B'allele carries the hereditary trait for Big Bud, while the recessive xb' allele carries the hereditary trait for small bud. Since B is dominant, a plant with a Bb genotype will always produce Big Bud.The B is dominant over the b. In order for a recessive gene to be displayed in the phenotype, both genes in the gene pair must be recessive. So a plant with the BB or Bb gene will always produce Big Bud. Only a plant with the bb gene will produce small bud.
Now that we have explained the basic terminology of plant genetics, we can move on to the next step: rudimentary breeding concepts as laid out in the Hardy-Weinberg law of genetic equilibrium.

THE HARDY-WEINBERG MODEL OF GENETIC EQUILIBRIUM
An understanding of plant breeding requires a basic understanding of the Hardy-Weinberg law.To illustrate the value of the Hardy-Weinberg law, ask yourself a question, like: "If purple bud color is a dominant trait, why do some of the offspring of my purple bud strain have green buds?" or "I have been selecting Indica mothers and cross-breeding them with mostly Indica male plants but I have some Sativa leaves. Why?" These questions can be easily answered by developing an understanding of the Hardy-Weinberg law and the factors that can disrupt genetic equilibrium.

The first of these questions, reflects a very common misconception: that the dominant allele of a trait will always have the highest frequency in a population and the recessive allele will always have the lowest frequency.This is not always the case. A dominant trait will not necessarily spread to a whole population, nor will a recessive trait always eventually die out.

Gene frequencies can occur in high or low ratios, regardless of how the allele is expressed.The allele can also change, depending on certain conditions. It is these changes in gene frequencies over time that result in different plant characteristics.
A genetic population is basically a group of individuals of the same species (cannabis Indica or cannabis Sativa) or strain (Skunk#l or Master Kush) in a given area whose members can breed with one another.This means that they must share a common group of genes.This common group of genes is locally known as the gene pool.The gene pool contains the alleles for all of the traits in the entire population. For a step in evolution â?? a new plant species, strain or trait â?? to occur, some of the gene frequencies must change. The gene frequency of an allele refers to the number of times an allele for a particular trait occurs compared to the total number of alleles for that trait in the population. Gene frequency is calculated by dividing the number of a specific type of allele by the total number of alleles in the gene pool.

Genetic Equilibrium Theory and Application
The Hardy-Weinberg model of genetic equilibrium describes a theoretical situation in which there is no change in the gene pool. At equilibrium there can be no change or evolution.

Let's consider a population whose gene pool contains the alleles B and b.
Assign the letter p to the frequency of the dominant allele B and the letter q to the frequency of the recessive allele b. We know that the sum of all the alleles must equal 100 percent, so:
p + q = 100%
This can also be expressed as:
p + q = l

And all of the random possible combinations of the members of a population would equal:
p2 + 2pq + q2
WHERE:
p = frequency of the dominant allele in a population q = frequency of the recessive allele in a population p2 = percentage of homozygous dominant individuals q2 = percentage of heterozygous recessive individuals 2pq = percentage of heterozygous individuals
Imagine that you have grown a population of 1,000 'Black Domina' cannabis plants from seeds obtained from a well known seed bank. In that population, 360 plants emit a skunky smell, while the remaining 640 plants emit a fruity smell. You contact the seed bank and ask them which smell is dominant in this particular strain. Hypothetically, they tell you that the breeder selected for a fruity smell and the skunk smell is a recessive genotype. You can call this recessive genotype Vv'and use the formula above to answer the following questions.
QUESTION: According to the Hardy-Weinberg law, what is the frequency of the Vv'genotype?
ANSWER: Since 360 out of the 1,000 plants have the Vv'genotype, then 36% is the frequency of Vv' in this population of 'Black Domina'.
QUESTION: According to the Hardy-Weinberg law, what is the frequency of the Vallele?
ANSWER: The frequency of the Vv'allele is 36%. Since q2 is the percentage of homozygous recessive individuals, and q is the frequency of the recessive allele in a population, the following must also be true:
q2 = 0.36
(q x q) = 0.36
q = 0.6
Thus, the frequency of the Vallele is 60%.

QUESTION: According to the Hardy-Weinberg law, what is the frequency of the NV'allele?
ANSWER: Since q = 0.6, we can solve for p.
p + q = l
p + 0.6 = 1
p = 1 - 0.6
p = 0.4
The frequency of the VV allele is 40%.
QUESTION: According to the Hardy-Weinberg law, what is the frequency of the genotypesN W and 'Vv'?
ANSWER: Given what we know, the following must be true:
VV = p2
V = 0.4 = p
(p x p) = p2
(0.4 x0.4) = p2
0.16 = p2
VV = 0.16
The frequency of the genotype NVV is 16%
VV = 0.16
vv = 0.36
VV + Vv + vv = 1
0.16 + Vv + 0.36 = 1
0.52 + Vv = 1
Vv = 1 - 0.52
Vv = 0.48 or 48%
Or alternatively, NVv' is 2pq, therefore:
Vv = 2pq
2pq = 2 x p x q
2pq = 2 x 0.4 x 0.6
2pq = 0.48 or 48%

The frequencies of V and v (p and q) will remain unchanged, generation after generation, as long as the following five statements are true:
1. The population is large enough
2. There are no mutations
3. There are no preferences, for example a VV male does not prefer a vv female by its nature
4. No other outside population exchanges genes with this population
5. Natural selection does not favor any specific gene
The equation p2 + 2pq + q2 can be used to calculate the different frequencies. Although this equation is important to know about, we make use of other more basic calculations when breeding. The important thing to note here is the five conditions for equilibrium.
Earlier we asked the question: "I have been selecting Indica mothers and crossbreeding them with mostly Indica male plants but I have some Sativa leaves. Why?" The Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium tells us that outside genetics may have been introduced into the breeding program. Since the mostly Indica male plants are only mostly Indica and not pure Indica, you can expect to discover some Sativa characteristics in the offspring, including the Sativa leaf trait.

THE TEST CROSS
Some of you may be asking the question: "How do I know if a trait, such as bud color is homozygous dominant (BB), heterozygous (Bb) or homozygous recessive (bb)?"
If you've been given seeds or a clone you may have been told that a trait, such as potency, is homozygous dominant, heterozygous or homozygous recessive. However, you will want to establish this yourself, especially if you intend to use those specific traits in a future breeding plan. To do this, you will have to perform what is called a test cross.
Determining the phenotype of a plant is fairly straightforward. You look at the plant and you see, smell, feel or taste its phenotype. Determining the genotype cannot be achieved through simple observation alone.
Generally speaking, there are three possible genotypes for each plant trait. For example, if Golden Bud is dominant and Silver Bud is recessive, the possible genotypes are:

HOMOZYGOUS DOMINANT: HETEROZYGOUS: HOMOZYGOUS RECESSIVE:
BB = Golden Bud
Bb = Golden Bud
bb = Silver Bud
The Golden and Silver Bud colors are the phenotypes. BB, Bb and bb denote the genotypes. Because B is the dominant allele, Bb would appear Golden and not Silver. Most phenotypes are visual characteristics but some, like bud taste, are phenotypes that can't be observed by the naked eye and are experienced instead through the other senses.
For example, looking at a mostly Sativa species like a Skunk plant you will notice that the leaves are pale green. In a population of these Skunk plants you may notice that a few have dark green leaves. This suggests that this Skunk strain's leaf color is not true breeding, meaning that the leaf trait must be heterozygous because homozygous dominant and homozygous recessive traits are true breeding. Some of the Skunk's pale green leaf traits will probably be homozygous dominant in this population.
You may also be asking the question: "Could the pale green trait be the homozygous recessive trait and the dark green leaf the heterozygous trait?" Since a completely homozygous recessive population (bb) would not contain the allele (B) for heterozygous expression (Bb) or for homozygous dominant expression (BB), it is impossible for the traits for heterozygous (Bb) or homozygous dominant (BB) to exist in a population that is completely homozygous recessive (bb) for that trait. If a population is completely homozygous for that trait (bb or BB), then that specific trait can be considered stable, true breeding or'will breed true'. If a population is heterozygous for that trait (Bb) then that specific trait can be considered unstable, not true breeding or 'will not breed true'.
If the trait for Bb or BB can not exist in a bb population for that trait, then bb is the only trait that you will discover in that population. Hence, bb is true breeding. If there is a variation in the trait, and the Hardy-Weinberg law of equilibrium has not been broken, the trait must be heterozygous. In our Skunk example there were only a few dark green leaves. This means that the dark green leaves are homozygous recessive and the pale green leaves are heterozygous and may possibly be homozygous dominant too.

You may also notice that the bud is golden on most of the plants. This also suggests that the Golden Bud color is a dominant trait. If buds on only a few of the plants are Silver, this suggests that the Silver trait is recessive. You know the only genotype that produces the recessive trait is homozygous recessive (bb). So if a plant displays a recessive trait in its phenotype, its genotype must be homozygous recessive. A plant that displays a recessive trait in its phenotype always has a homozygous recessive genotype. But this leaves you with an additional question to answer as well: are the Golden Bud or pale green leaf color traits homozygous dominant (BB) or heterozygous (Bb)? You cannot be completely certain of any of your inferences until you have completed a test cross.
A test cross is performed by breeding a plant with an unknown dominant genotype (BB or Bb) with a plant that is homozygous recessive (bb) for the same trait. For this test you will need another cannabis plant of the opposite sex that is homozygous recessive (bb) for the same trait.

This brings us to an important rule: If any offspring from a test cross display the recessive trait, the genotype of the parent with the dominant trait must be heterozygous and not homozygous.

In our example, our unknown genotype is either BB or Bb.The Silver Bud genotype is bb. We'll put this information into a mathematical series known as Punnett squares.
We start by entering the known genotypes. We do these calculations for two parents that will breed. We know that our recessive trait is bb and the other is either BB or Bb, so we'll use B? for the time being. Our next step is to fill the box in with what we can calculate.

The first row of offspring Bb and Bb will have the dominant trait of Golden Bud. The second row can either contain Bb or bb offspring.This will either lead to offspring that will produce more Golden Bud (Bb) or Silver Bud (bb).The first possible outcome (where ? = B) would give us Golden Bud (Bb) offspring.The second possible outcome (where ? = b) would give us Silver Bud (bb) offspring. We can also predict what the frequency will be.
Outcome 1, where ? = B:
Bb+ Bb+ Bb+ Bb = 4Bb
100% Golden Bud
Outcome 2, where ? = b:
Bb + Bb + bb + bb = 2bb
50% Golden Bud and 50% Silver Bud
RECALL:
Homozygous Dominant: Heterozygous: Homozygous Recessive:
BB = Golden Bud Bb = Golden Bud bb = Silver Bud
To determine the identity of B?, we used another cannabis plant of the opposite sex that was homozygous recessive (bb) for the same trait.

OUTCOME 2 TELLS US THAT:
â?¢ Both parents must have at least one b trait each to exhibit Silver Bud in the phenotype of the offspring.

â?¢ If any Silver Bud is produced in the offspring then the mystery parent (B?) must be heterozygous (Bb). It cannot be homozygous dominant (BB).
So, if a Golden Bud parent is crossed with a Silver Bud parent and produces only Golden Bud, then the Golden Bud parent must be homozygous dominant for that trait. If any Silver Bud offspring is produced, then the Golden Bud parent must be heterozygous for that trait.

To summarize, the guidelines for performing a test cross to determine the genotype of a plant exhibiting a dominant trait are:
1. The plant with the dominant trait should always be crossed with a plant with the recessive trait.
2. If any offspring display the recessive trait, the unknown genotype is heterozygous.
3. If all the offspring display the dominant trait, the unknown genotype is homozygous dominant.

The main reasoning behind performing a test cross are:
1. When you breed plants you want to continue a trait, like height, taste, smell, etc.
2. When you want to continue that trait you must know if it is homozygous dominant, heterozygous or homozygous recessive.

3. You can only determine this with certainty by performing a test cross.
We should mention that, as a breeder, you should be dealing with a large population in order to be certain of the results.The more plants you work with, the more reliable the results.

Hardy-Weinberg Law, Part 2
The question may arise: "How do I breed for several traits, like taste, smell, vigor and color?" To answer this question, you will need to learn more about the Hardy-Weinberg law of genetic equilibrium.
If you breed two plants that are heterozygous (Bb) for a trait, what will the offspring look like? The Punnett squares can help us determine the phenotypes, genotypes and gene frequencies of the offspring.

IN THIS GROUP,THE RESULTING OFFSPRING WILL BE:
1 BB - 25% of the offspring will be homozygous for the dominant allele (BB)
2 Bb - 50% will be heterozygous, like their parents (Bb) 1 bb - 25% will be homozygous for the recessive allele (bb)
Unlike their parents (Bb and Bb), 25 percent of offspring will express the recessive phenotype bb. So two parents that display Golden Bud but are both heterozygous (Bb) for that trait will produce offspring that exhibit the recessive Silver Bud trait, despite the fact that neither of the parents displays the phenotype for Silver Bud.

Understanding how recessive and dominant traits are passed down through the phenotype and genotype so that you can predict the outcome of a cross and lock down traits in future generations is really what breeding is all about.

When you breed a strain, how do you know that the traits you want to keep will actually be retained in the breeding process? This is where the test cross comes in. If you create seeds from a strain that you bought from a seed bank, how can you be sure that the offspring will exhibit the characteristics that you like? If the trait you wish to continue is homozygous dominant (BB) in both parent plants then there's no way that you can produce a recessive genotype for that trait in the offspring, as illustrated in the Punnett square below.

In order to breed a trait properly you must know if it is homozygous, heterozygous or homozygous recessive so that you can predict the results before they happen.

Mendel and the Pea Experiments
Gregor Mendel (1822-1884) was an Austrian monk who discovered the basic rules of inheritance by analyzing the results from his plant breeding research programs. He noticed that two types of pea plants gave very uniform results when bred within their own gene pools and not with one another.

He noticed that the offspring all carried the same traits when they bred with the same population or gene pool. Since there were no variations within each strain he guessed that both strains were homozygous for these traits. Because the pea plants were from the same species, Mendel guessed that either the solid seed shells were recessive or the wrinkled seed shells were recessive. Using the genotype notations SS for solid seed shells and ss for wrinkled seed shells, he knew that they couldn't be Ss because one lot didn't exhibit any of the other strain's phenotypes when bred within its own gene pool.
Let's illustrate this using two basic Punnett squares where SS is pea plant #1 with the trait for solid seed shells and ss is pea plant #2 with the trait for wrinkled seed shells.

Up until this point, he didn't know which trait was recessive and which was dominant. Since all the seeds shells were solid, he now know with certainty that pea plant #1 contained the dominant genotype for solid seed shells and pea plant #2 contained the recessive genotype for wrinkled seed shells. This meant that in future test crosses with other pea strains, he could determine if a particular seed shell trait was homozygous or heterozygous because he had identified the recessive trait (ss).

The Second Hybrid Cross (the F2 Generation)
The offspring in the Fl cross were all Ss. When Mendel crossed these offspring
he got the following results:
F2 Cross

*Take special note of this offspring and compare with parents.
Mendel had mated two pea plants that were heterozygous (e.g., Ss) for a seed shell trait. In this group, the resulting offspring were:
25% of the offspring were homozygous for the dominant allele (SS) 50% were heterozygous, like their parents (Ss) 25% were homozygous for the recessive allele (ss)
In his first cross to create the hybrid plant, Mendel ended up with no recessive traits for seed shape. But when he crossed the offspring, because they were heterozygous for that trait, he ended up with some having the homozygous recessive trait, some having the homozygous dominant trait and some continuing the heterozygous trait. In correct breeding terms his first cross between the plants is called the Fl cross or Fl generation.The breeding out of those offspring is called the F2 cross or F2 generation.

Now since he has Ss, ss and SS to work with you could use Punnett squares to determine what the next generations of offspring will look like. Compare your results with what you have learned about ratios and you'll be able to see how it all fits together.

More on Genetic Frequencies
Take a look at the cross below between two heterozygous parents. If two heterozygous parents are crossed, the frequency ratio of the alleles will be 50% each. Remember the genotype can be Ss; SS or ss, but the allele is either VS' or Y.

We can see S S S S (4 x S) and s s s s (4 x s). This means that the frequency of the allele 'S' is 50% and the frequency of the allele V is 50%. See if you can calculate the frequencies of the alleles *S'and Y in the following crosses for yourself.

Recall that the Hardy-Weinberg law states that the sum of all the alleles in a population should equal 100 percent, but the individual alleles may appear in different ratios. There are five situations that can cause the law of equilibrium to fail. These are discussed next
1. MUTATION. A mutation is a change in genetic material, which can give rise to heritable variations in the offspring. Exposure to radiation can cause genetic mutation, for example. In this case the result would be a mutation of the plant's genetic code that would be transferred to its offspring. The effect is equivalent to a migration of foreign genetic material being introduced into the population. There are other factors that can cause mutations. Essentially a mutation is the result of DNA repair failure at the cellular level. Anything that causes DNA repair to fail can result in a mutation.

2. GENE MIGRATION. Over time, a population will reach equilibrium that will be maintained as long as no other genetic material migrates into the population. When new genetic material is introduced from another population, this is called introgression. During the process of introgression many new traits can arise in the original population, resulting in a shift in equilibrium.

3. GENETIC DRIFT. If a population is small, equilibrium is more easily violated, because a slight change in the number of alleles results in a significant change in genetic frequency. Even by chance alone certain traits can be eliminated from the population and the frequency of alleles can drift toward higher or lower values. Genetic drift is actually an evolutionary force that alters a population and demonstrates that the Hardy-Weinberg law of equilibrium cannot hold true over an indefinite period of time.

4. NON-RANDOM MATING. External or internal factors may influence a population to a point at which mating is no longer random. For example, if some female flowers develop earlier than others they will be able to gather pollen earlier than the rest. If some of the males release pollen early and then stop producing pollen, the mating between these early males and females is not random, and could result in late-flowering females ending up as a sinsemilla crop. This means that these late-flowering females won't be able to make their contribution to the gene pool in future generations. Equilibrium will not be maintained.

5. NATURAL SELECTION. With regards to natural selection, the environment and other factors can cause certain plants to produce a greater or smaller number of offspring. Some plants may have traits that make them less immune to disease, for example, meaning that when the population is exposed to disease, less of their offspring will survive to pass on genetic material, while others may produce more seeds or exhibit a greater degree of immunity, resulting in a greater number of offspring surviving to contribute genetic material to the population.

[kindprincess]

from marijuanahydro.com

Growing Marijuana (Growing Cannabis)
HOW TO TRUE BREED A STRAIN
Breeding and growing cannabis (growing marijuana) strains is all about manipulating gene frequencies. Most strains sold by reputable breeders through seed banks are very uniform in growth. This means that the breeder has attempted to lock certain genes down so that the genotypes of those traits are homozygous.

Imagine that a breeder has two strains: Master Kush and Silver Haze. The breeder lists a few traits that they particularly like (denoted by *).

This means they want to create a plant that is homozygous for the following traits and call it something like Silver Kush.

Silver Kush
Pale green leaf Hashy smell Silver flowers Short plants
All the genetics needed are contained in the gene pools for Master Kush and Silver Haze.The breeder could simply mix both populations and hope for the best or try to save time, space and money by calculating the genotype for each trait and using the results to create an IBL.

The first thing the breeder must do is to understand the genotype of each trait that will be featured in ideal "Silver Kush" strain. In order to do this the genotype of each parent strain for that same trait must be understood. Since there are four traits that the breeder is trying to isolate, and 4x2 = 8, eight alleles make up the genotypes for these phenotype expressions and must be made known to the breeder.

Let's take the pale green leaf of the Silver Haze for starters. The breeder will grow out as many Silver Haze plants as possible, noting if any plants in the population display other leaf colors. If they do not, the breeder can assume that the trait is either homozygous dominant (SS) or recessive (ss). If other leaf colors appear within the population, the breeder must assume that the trait is heterozygous (Ss) and must be locked down through selective breeding. Let's look closely at the parents for a moment.

If both parents were SS there wouldn't be any variation in the population for this trait. It would already be locked-down and would always breed true without any variations.

With one SS parent and one Ss parent, the breeder would produce a 50:50 population â?? one group being homozygous (SS) and the other heterozygous (Ss).

If both parents were Ss, the breeder would have 25 percent SS, 50 percent Ss and 25 percent ss. Even though gene frequencies can be predicted, the breeder will not know with certainty whether the pale green leaf trait is dominant or recessive until they perform a test cross. By running several test crosses the breeder can isolate the plant that is either SS or ss and eliminate any Ss from the group. Once the genotype has been isolated and the population reduced to contain only plants with the same genotype, the breeding program can begin in earnest. Remember that the success of any cannabis growing and breeding program hinges on the breeder maintaining accurate records about parent plants and their descendants so that they can control gene frequencies.

Let's say that you run a seed bank company called PALE GREEN LEAF ONLY BUT EVERYTHING ELSE IS NOT UNIFORM LTD. The seeds that you create will all breed pale green leaves and the customer will be happy. In reality, customers want the exact same plant that won the cannabis cup last year or at least something very close. So in reality, you will have to isolate all the ^winning' traits before customers will be satisfied with what they're buying.

The number of tests it takes to know any given genotype isn't certain. You may have to use a wide selection of plants to achieve the goal, but nevertheless it is still achievable. The next step in a breeding program is to lock down other traits in that same population. Here is the hard part.

When you are working on locking down a trait you must not eliminate other desirable traits from the population. It is also possible to accidentally lock down an unwanted trait or eliminate desired traits if you are not careful. If this happens then you'll have to work harder to explore genotypes through multiple cross tests and lock down the desired traits. Eventually, through careful selection and record keeping you'll end up with a plant that breeds true for all of the features that you want. In essence, you will have your own genetic map of your cannabis plants.

Successful breeders don't try to map everything at once. Instead, they concentrate on the main phenotypes that will make their plant unique and of a high quality. Once they have locked down four or five traits they can move on. True breeding strains are created slowly, in stages. Well known true breeding strains like Skunk#l and Afghani#l took as long as 20 years to develop. If anyone states that they developed a true breeding strain in one or two years you can be sure that the genetics they started with were true breeding, homozygous, in the first place.

Eventually you will have your Silver Kush strain but only with the four genotypes that you wanted to keep. You may still have a variety of non-uniform plants in the group. Some may have purple stems, while others may have green stems. Some may be very potent and others not so potent. By constantly selecting for desired traits you could theoretically manipulate the strain into a true breeding strain for every phenotype. However, it is extremely unlikely that anyone will ever create a 100 percent true breeding strain for every single phenotype. Such a strain would be called a perfect IBL. If you're able to lock down 90 percent of the plant's phenotypes in a population then you can claim that your plant is an IBL.

The core idea behind the true breeding technique is to find what is known as a donor plant. A donor plant is one that contains a true breeding trait (homozygous, preferably dominant for that trait). The more locked down traits are homozygous dominant the better your chances of developing an IBL, which does not mean that the line of genetics will be true breeding for every trait, but rather that the strain is very uniform in growth for a high percentage of phenotypes.

Some additional advanced marijuana growing and breeding techniques that will help you to reduce or promote a trait in a population are discussed below. Using these techniques may not create a plant that is true breeding for the selected traits, but will certainly help to make the population more uniform for that trait.

[kindprincess]

from marijuanahydro.com

HARVESTING AND CURING YOUR BUD

HARVESTING IS THE ACT OF REAPING YOUR REWARDS and is without doubt the most fun you'll have in your garden. Assuming that you have followed the guidelines for flowering times the breeder set forth and that your grow was successful, you should be in a position to harvest an extremely high-yield from your crop.

First of all, you should know that harvesting is smelly and dirty work. It stinks up the place extremely quickly, so keep this in mind. Also, resin rubs off on nearly everything. Your fingers will be covered in a mass of resin and this will stain everything from metal to plastic, clothes, furniture, paper, books, equipment and even other pieces of bud. Resin is sticky stuff that is very hard to wash off. It must be scrubbed off using a metal-type cleaning pad. Keep this in mind when you are harvesting your crop.
At the end of the flowering stage, examine your bud to see if it is ripe and ready for harvest. Here are some indicators to help you identify that it's harvest time; however, please note that not all of these indicators will appear on every strain.
â?¢ 50 percent to 70 percent of the pistils change color
â?¢ Plants stop producing crystals
â?¢ Plants stop producing resin
â?¢ The fan leaves and lower leaves have turned yellow and are starting to drop off
â?¢ The smell has reached a peak
â?¢ Bud mass has not increased in the past few days

Another good way to determine when to harvest is to create multiple tasters of the same bud. You can do this by harvesting plants from the same strain at different times. If you do not have enough plants to do this you can take selections of bud from a single plant.These samples can be tested to gauge the optimal harvest time for the strain.The next time you grow this strain you will know exactly when to harvest. It must be said however that breeders' flowering times are generally pretty accurate. The experience of growing a strain more than once will also undoubtedly result in a more accurate timing of your harvest.

THE HARVEST
There is really only one way to harvest marijuanaâ??anything else is just a variation on this theme. It should be noted that there are slight differences between harvesting an Indica and a Cannabis Sativa plant.
If you are growing multiple strains, you
should have a method of labeling which
strains are which before you harvest.
Otherwise, you will end up harvesting your
bud into one big pile. This means that your entire labeling process from seedling
stage to harvest will have been in vain. Keep your buds separate if you want to
know your bud strain type when it is time to sample the results of your hard work.

Quick Bud Samples
Some growers just can't resist a tester but remember that these testers do not in any way reflect the final quality of well cured bud. Just take a fresh bud sample and put it on a dish. Place the dish in a microwave on medium heat for about two minutes. Check the bud to see if it feels dry and brittle. If it doesn't, heat it a bit more. Once it feels dry and brittle it can be smoked.The smoke will be harsh and the microwave heat will destroy a good portion of the cannabinoids in the bud but you should get something from your sample.

Another way of producing a quick bud sample is to take some fresh bud and put it into a sheet of paper. Fold the paper and press the bud down lightly. Place the paper on top of a working radiator and let the heat dry the bud. Check you bud later on in the day and it should be dry enough to smoke.

Expert Harvest Indication
There is a method that will allow you to determine precisely when to harvest. All
you need is a magnifying aid and a little experience.
As the pistils grow out from the calyx they form resin glands (trichomes), which gradually change in color before they shrink and wither. This withering of the trichomes affects the look of the pistils, which in turn fade and tend to look burnt and dry. This ^unhealthy' appearance of the trichomes is perfectly natural. The plant has completed the blooming period and the trichomes are no longer needed to gather pollen.The cannabinoid content of these trichomes is not lost, however. It is simply converted into other psychoactive cannabinoid compounds. THC will also degrade as it is converted into other psychoactive compounds. Eventually, exposure to light will further degrade these cannabinoid compounds to next to nothing if the plant is not plant harvested.
The trichome withering process does not occur rapidly. It can take up to two weeks before the plant has withered its trichomes and pistils entirely, but even then new trichomes and pistils can be found growing in among the faded pistils. Eventually the old pistils will die to be replaced by the new pistils. The process will continue until there is a change in the photoperiod or a cellular breakdown in the plant and it dies.

As the plant reaches its peak bloom many of the pistils will change in color. Using a magnifying aid you can observe this change in the trichomes themselves, which affect the overall look of the pistils. By checking these trichomes daily you will be able to detect when the plant is nearing peak potency.The more trichomes change color, the more some will start to wither.The ones that wither first are usually in the minority because they were the first trichomes to form on the first pistils during the early days of flowering.

As some of these older pistils wither the other pistils begin a visible transformation in color from white to orange, red or brown. At this point, you should be anticipating the 'harvest marker' of 50 to 70 percent. When 50 to 70 percent of the pistils change color, the plant will have stopped producing new crystals (trichomes) and resin (cannabinoids secreted from the trichomes), the smell will have reached its peak and the bud mass will not have increased in a few days. At this stage any of the major bud masses on the plant can be theoretically observed as follows:
1. Less than 5% of the pistils are withering.
2. Approximately 90% of the pistils have reached maturity.
3. Less than 5% of the pistils appear to be in the early stages of growth.
The 90% group is the one that you should gauge your harvest with. Compare these to the ones that have gone past their peak bloom and harvest the plant just before they reach this stage. You should note that this usually corresponds with the breeders' flowering times. In the case of a plant with an unknown flowering time, you can use this expert method to predict when to harvest.

It's all about careful observation of the trichomes and their comparison to withered ones. Don't forget that trichomes can be harvested early or allowed to grow past their peak in order to affect the eventual high of the finished product.

Cannabis Indica Harvest
Your one- to four-foot plant should be hacked at the base and picked up in its entirety.The weight of the Indica plant will probably amaze you if you have done everything right. Try not to let it touch the ground where the bud can gather up unwanted dirt or dust.The plant should then be hung upside down in a cool room with fresh air but no light.

When you hang the plants upside down the stems and branches automatically separate the buds, allowing space for air to flow around the freshly harvested flowers. The best temperature is between 60 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit. Relative humidity is best kept at around 55 percent. Light degrades the overall THC quantity and quality. Light can also change the cannabinoid composition in your bud. Your room doesn't have to be light-proof, but you should take care not to expose your harvest to any direct light. Most growers use the bottom branches of the plant as support when hanging them up. By tying some fishing line to the walls, you can snag the bottom branch over the line to hang your buds upside down.

Next, take a pair of clippers and remove as many of the fan leaves as possible. Then remove the secondary (eaves and put these into a separate pile. Last but not least gather some of the major trim marijuana leaf that can be removed easily from the bud. Trim refers to the small leaves that surround the bud and are usually covered in resin.This is a preliminary manicuring step only, designed to help ease the drying process. The real manicuring comes later. Leave the trim areas that are hard to remove alone for now. The trim you need to remove right after harvesting should pull away with ease. If there is no branch on the trim area you are trying to remove then leave it alone. Chances are it will not pull free without taking some bud with it and you do not want to do this.

Now you have four different qualities of weed to choose from.The fan leaf will be an okay smoke, the middle leaves a little better and the trim will be very good. The bud is the prime stuff though and this will give you the best quality high. Leave the plant like this until a branch can break easily between your fingers (it should literally snap between your fingers). This harvesting process takes about two to three weeks from start to finish, although some strains can take up to four weeks before the branches snap between your fingers.

Cannabis Sativa Harvest
Outdoor growers like growing Cannabis Sativa plants, which can grow up to 12 feet carrying more than 20 oz of bud. It is not uncommon for some Cannabis Sativa varieties to produce over 2lbs of bud per plant. These large plants are not harvested easily.

The process is similar to Indica except the harvest itself can be quite labor-intensive. You need a canvas spread or another means of carrying the bud. The plant should be chopped at the base and spread out on the canvas. The canvas is then rolled up and tied tight for transport. Obviously, if you have more than one plant you might need more than one canvas sheet.

The plant should then be hung upside down in a cool room, with fresh air and no light. Because of the plant's size and bushiness you may have to cut the branches and hang these up separately. Take a pair of clippers and remove leaves and trim as suggested in the Indica harvest section.

Fan Leaves, Marijuana Leaf and Trim
These are cured by letting them dry on a flat surface, away from direct light and with plenty of fresh air. The leaves will dry after three weeks and are easily smoked at that stage.Test them out to see what you like and what you don't like. Another thing you could do with the trim is to make hash from it. We'll talk about this in Chapter 17. Don't try to speed up your drying process with ovens or microwaves or heat. Let them dry out naturally and you'll cure yourself a much better smoke from the leaves. Cannabis connoisseurs will discard the leaves in favor of the more pleasing and potent bud that is also far less harsh to smoke. Remember though that even if you are a connoisseur the leaves can be used to make hash.

Manicuring
This is one of the most important parts of preparing your bud for the curing process. Manicuring is a type of aesthetic bud treatment that will also help you to separate the best from the rest. You will need a tray or two of some description depending on how much bud you have, a black plastic bag, a sharp pair of small fine scissors and some rubbing alcohol. Rubbing alcohol can be used to remove resin strains from your scissors, which after awhile will become sticky, dull and even jammed with resin.The manicuring process can take a long time so some people like to set up their manicuring system in front of the television. Manicuring will get your fingers covered to resin so prepare everything that you will need beforehand â?? food, drinks, joints, bongs, etc.
Take as much of your hanging bud as possible and place it down in a heap on top of your black plastic bag. Try to keep the strains separate and even label each heap so that you remember which strain is which. During the manicuring process it is easy to get buds mixed up. Place another black plastic bag over this lot to avoid light degrading THC levels.

Get your first plant out from heap and use your fingers to remove as many of the branches and leaves as you can. This is your chance to remove trim matter that you may have missed during the preliminary manicure step. Chop the remaining branches into convenient workable sizes for hand-held manicuring. Repeat this process with all the other plants until you fill your tray with the first-round, hand-manicured plants.

Next you will start the more precise, second-round manicure. Pick up your first piece of bud and clip away as much of the branch or stem as possible. Now work your scissors in between the bud and marijuana leaf. In one quick pinch you should be able to separate the marijuana leaf from the bud by snipping the cannabis leaf at the base. Notice that the stem of the marijuana leaf is covered in trichomes? Hang onto these leaves as they are very high quality trim. Repeat the process until you have removed as much cannabis leaf as possible. If you find that you cannot get at the cannabis leaf then simply snip as much of the leaf away as you can by sheering them in half or as close to the bud as possible.

Rotate the plant by the stem to gain access to the other side of the manicured bud. This rotation movement is the quickest way to access all of Uie leaf sites on the plant.
Take care when cutting not to remove pistils or calyx along with the marijuana leaf. To avoid pistil removal, try using the very tips of the scissors when you snip so that the blades do not go past the piece you want to cut. Repeat this process with the other first-round, hand-manicured pieces and you will eventually end up with very nice manicured pieces of bud that are ready for curing.

How much you remove depends on what quality of manicured bud you want to end up with. Undoubtedly the method above produces the best quality manicured bud from your harvest, however the weight of the overall product will be reduced. By leaving on lots of trim leaves these will actually dry in with the bud to create a medium quality manicured bud that weighs more than the best quality manicured bud. U Itimately it is your choice: you can manicure your bud for maximum weight or quality. ...

You will end up with several separate piles of leaf, both from the preliminary manicure step and the more intensive manicuring process. Some people dump this Marijuana leaf. Others smoke it. Still others will make hash from it. Most of the leaf will be harsh to smoke but will contain some cannabinoids.The better leaf will have visible trichomes. You can easily locate the leaf that is high in trichome content using a microscope. A microscope is a useful aid for separating the better cannabis leaf from the rest for hash making, especially if you are planning to use the cold water extraction technique using bubble bags described in Chapter 17. Of course, what you do with your leaf is entirely up to you.

CURING
As soon as the branches are brittle you should consider curing your bud using the canning method. Canning is a great way to get the most from your bud. Find a can with a removable lid. The more cans you have on-hand, the better.

Using a pair of scissors, clip your bud from the branch and place into the can. The branches and stems are not much good to you.They do contain THC, but only in small quantities. Most stems and branches go on the compost heap.

Now take the can and place it in a cool, dark room or cupboard.* Every day open the lid for a few hours (six hours is good) and then seal it again. Also, move the bud around a bit every couple of days.This is the most common curing technique, and it works best. Bud that is cured well smokes the best! I would give the canning process between three and four weeks before you should really sample your goods. Eight-week old bud can smoke extremely well and year-old bud is vintage stuff but can lose potency.

Fresh bud (eight-weeks canned curing) is the pinnacle point of cured bud. After that the THC cannabinoids rapidly change composition and lose potency. Fresh bud is far better than aged bud. You may hear of other curing processes, but canning does work wonders and is affordable too.

Canning also sweats the bud which causes it to retain its smell and flavor but also allows the bud to burn more effectively. By opening and closing the can at different intervals you can control how damp or dry you want your buds to be. Try and use cans that have a large opening at the lid â?? enough to allow your whole hand to fit inside. This is because some of the trichomes will fall from the bud into the bottom of the can. Use your fingers to get at these trichomes. You can gather these into a small mass that you can smoke later on.

Drying your bud helps to relax THC particles by removing water from the bud. This makes THC easier to burn and thus more psychoactive than when it is damp. Applying heat will also remove water but will affect the overall cannabinoid content of the bud. It is not a good idea to press bud or to pack bud tightly during the curing process as the bunching of THC particles makes them harder to burn.

Curing also helps to break down chlorophyll, which has magnesium-containing green pigments. Magnesium is responsible for the sharp and harsh taste in the back of your throat when you burn fresh bud. This is another good reason to cure your bud. >-,
If you over-dry your buds you may loose too much moisture and this results in bud that has less taste and aroma than it should. The best way to add moisture back into your buds is to introduce new fresh bud to your cans.The new fresh buds will share their moisture with the dried bud, bringing them back to a more even level of moisture and restoring their aroma and taste. Some people uses fruit slice to bring back moisture such as apple or orange slices.These fruit slices will also add their own aroma to the buds.
If you have dried your plants for three weeks hanging upside down you can subtract that time from the canning time. Although you can have good bud to smoke two weeks after your harvest it is better to wait for four weeks or more.
â?¢ Chop your plants at the base.
â?¢ Cut them into manageable amounts and hang them upside down in cool, dry and dark place.
â?¢ Clip/pull the major leaf away.
â?¢ Let dry until the branches snap between your fingers.
â?¢ Clip the trim from the bud.
â?¢ Store in cans in a cool, dry place away from direct light.
â?¢ Let the buds air occasionally and check for mold.

[kindprincess]

from marijuanahydro.com

Growing Cannabis Checklist


THE CANNABIS GROW BIBLE CHECKLIST
Through practical application of the information contained in this book the journey from novice grower to guru is attainable. This final chapter is designed to serve as a checklist summarizing the most important factors in achieving superior cannabis growth results. These factors are listed and discussed briefly below:
+ Good Genetics
+ Proper Lighting
+ An Ounce of Prevention
+ Air Circulation and Ventilation
+ The Right Medium
+ Optimal Pot/Container Size
+ Safe Fertilizers
+ 12/12
+ Avoiding Plant Stress
+ Carbon Dioxide (C02)
+ Labeling

Good Genetics
It goes without saying that a plant with genetic traits for low bud production and potency will not produce an outstanding crop. If you start with bad genetics you'll only end up with poor results, no matter what you do or how skilled a grower you may be. To obtain good genetics you should get your seeds from a seed bank that advertises strains from reputable breeders. A number of quality breeders enter competitions, such as the Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam. You should pay a visit to Amsterdam and sample what the breeders have to offer in the coffee shops. The coffee shop owners may tell you where you can purchase seeds from bud that you enjoy smoking. Most of the marijuana pictures in this book come from well-known strains that breeders have produced and can be bought through seed banks.

Selecting good clone mothers is also important. By selecting a good mother plant you can create a population of clone mothers that increases your overall yield. Obtaining good genetics is crucial for good growing results.

Proper Lighting
Light is a very important factor in plant growth and bud production. If you aren't getting the bud sizes that this book highlights, you should consider upgrading your lighting system.
Although results can be achieved using a 250-watt HID or fluorescent tubes, a 400-watt HID is better. A 600-watt HID will produce a much better crop than a 400-watt HID and a 1000-watt HID is the absolute best light available on the market. Of course, not everyone wants to grow large amounts of bud and a 1000-watt HID can be expensive to run. However, a 1000-watt HID light will improve your results.

Conserving light is also important. Use reflectors, white walls and Mylar to keep the spread of light even and contained in your grow room. Any light leaks mean that usable light is being lost and you are paying for it, so try and use as much of it as possible. Your plants will love you for it.
Try to keep lights as close to the plants as possible without burning them. Keeping the distance from bulb to plant to a minimum is very important. It increases overall yield and reduces internode length development. Keep those internode lengths down and you will get much better results.

An Ounce of Prevention
Prevention is better than cure. Any problem will stunt plant growth to some degree. Anticipating and preventing the problem before it happens entails knowing what problems to expect and being adequately prepared through advance planning. This book has explained some of the problems common to cannabis. Healthy plants are rewarding plants, so take good care of your plants' health and you will reap the rewards for doing so.
Check on your plants regularly. Spend time checking them for fungi and pests.

This is what cannabis gardening is all about and can quickly turn into a routine that you enjoy as you watch your plants grow strong and healthy.

Air Circulation and Ventilation
Air circulation is very important. Outdoor plants don't have this problem but growth of indoor plants can sometimes be stunted or slowed if they don't receive enough fresh air. Fresh air is important to replace any impurities that build up in your grow room. The percentage of different compounds that make up air can change or fluctuate if new air isn't introduced into the grow room and can cause problems with your grow. Heat can also build up in spaces that don't have good air ventilation, and a rise in temperature can cause stunted plant growth. Try to keep fresh air moving around your grow room at all times for the best results.

Air circulation brings a mild wind to your grow and this is very important for stem and branch growth. By stressing it slightly, the wind will cause the plant to react with thicker stem and branch growth. This is important for bud production, and the plant will be thicker, stronger and healthier overall. I've witnessed growers use fans in their grow rooms that can triple the width of a stem. On more than one occasion I've seen indoor stems that are two inches thick on a plant that is only four feet tall.These plants tended to produce the most bud in the same strain population too. The reason for this was because they were located very near to the main fan and placed directly under the light. In other words, the growing conditions were optimal for that plant.

Dust is also a problem for indoor growers. In a grow room you need to use ventilation to keep dust from settling on your sticky bud. Those tiny pistils are producing the resin that you want. A big blob of dust on a pistil will stunt its growth and reduce the overall effect the bud has when sampled.

The Right Medium
Soil is the most popular choice of medium. If the soil isn't suitable for growing cannabis, no matter how skilled a grower you are, your plants will not reach their optimum potential. You may have to experiment with soils before you find one that suits your cannabis plants. Never underestimate the importance of soil. Make sure the pH is right and the nutrients that your plant requires are present in the soil. Soils should hold a bit of water, but should also drain well â?? you don't want muddy or fast-draining soils. Aim for the middle ground and choose a soil that does both well.

Hydroponics is an important development in plant horticulture but requires more maintenance than soil growing. Growing in hydroponic systems can improve yields and speed up the growing time considerably. If you have the time and money give hydroponics a shot. It can be a wonderful way to improve your yields.

Optimal Pot/Container Size
A four-inch-square pot may be suitable for clones or SOG-type growing situations, however anything less than this can stunt growth because the plant roots will not be able to develop fully.'Pot bound'or Voot bound'plants can experience nutrient deficiencies as well. For these reasons most growers prefer to use three-gallon buckets, which are also commonly called three-gallon nursery pots.Three-gallon pots tend to permit enough root growth to allow the plant to flourish. To achieve even more effective results you should try using five-gallon nursery pots. Five-gallon nursery pots will help to produce very sturdy and strong plants with thick stems and plentiful node development.The problem with five-gallon pots is that they take up quite a bit of space, so less plants will fit into the grow room.

I once saw a plant in a five-gallon pot that was left in the vegetative growth stage for an additional three weeks after calyx development to encourage increased branch and node development. When flowered, the plant became a monster bud manufacturer and produced a much larger yield than any other plant in that particular crop. If you have the right genetics and the time to veg your plants a little longer, a five-gallon pot can make all the difference in the final yield.

Cannabis also tends to do most of its rooting during the vegetative stage of growth. As soon as flowering begins root development slows down considerably. Try to allow for good root development in the initial stages of growth by giving the roots plenty of room to grow. It is possible to produce colossal two-pound yielding plants in five-gallon pots with the right genetics, light and grow time.
For hydroponic set-ups you can buy net pots that usually range from between two and eight inches square. The most common net pot is the five- or six-inch type. This size net pot is suitable for simple hydroponics systems like NThe Bubbler'. For large Sativa plants, an eight-inch net pot is more suitable. Make sure that if you plan to grow a plant to yield more than one ounce, you should choose at least the five-inch type net pot to ensure adequate support for the stem and root mass.

Safe Fertilizers
If you provide the food that your plants require they will provide you with good
results. Cannabis plants like food but not too much food. You should also note that some fertilizers could change the taste of your bud. Many people claim that this is a myth, but if you smoke enough varieties from different grow techniques, you'll be able to taste the difference between natural outdoor bud and indoor bud that has been chemically treated. Some people have complained about headaches from smoking indoor cannabis that has been burnt through overfeeding. There are many potential reasons for this, but the main reason is that instead of using a feeding solution for food plants, the grower used one for plant appearance, like the kind used for roses. Some of these non-food plant fertilizers contain ingredients beyond the standard primary, secondary and micronutrients. These extra ingredients can often be toxic and a warning label on the side of the fertilizer container should indicate this. The same goes for pest sprays â?? another good reason to grow your own bud.

However if you have read this book then you know to stick to food fertilizers and sprays that can be used on food plants. If you get your feeding mixtures right you'll boost the overall performance of your plants and keep them healthier too.
Hormones can also increase the overall yield and vigor of your plants, but they can be expensive. In some countries hormones are banned because of the risk that they might interfere with a plant's genetics and yours. Research hormones thoroughly before using them, but note also that many growers have used reputable brand name hormones and achieved larger bud quantities.
Keep notes of feeding times and amounts to help you gauge your feeding routines. It is sometimes easy to forget when you last fed your plants and what mixtures you used. Keep these notes safely hidden from prying eyes.

12/12
If you use 12/12 and keep your flowering room completely lightproof, you will improve your overall yield. A 100 percent lightproof room will increase yields by as much as 30 percent more than a room that is only 99 percent lightproof. That is how important total darkness is to your plants during the flowering stage of the life cycle. Avoid interrupting this schedule and you will reap the rewards for doing so.

Avoiding Plant Stress
Multiple transplants should be avoided in order to minimize plant stress. By solving problems quickly and taking good care of your plants you will achieve much more effective results. Stress-related disorders are often responsible for lowering yields.
This book has covered many aspects of plant stress that can be avoided by simply implementing the good growing practices covered within these very chapters.

Carbon Dioxide (COz)
C02 supplements boost yields and should be employed if you have the resources. My experience has shown that 002 can naturally enhance yields to almost double that of a similar grow that does not include a 002 supplement.

Although you can produce great results without using 002 it does make all the difference. Growers who use 002 rarely ever turn away from it. It is a wonderful way of achieving very high yields with the right genetics.

Labeling
Never underestimate labeling. Label everything you can. This includes labeling seeds, seedlings, vegetative plants, flowering plants, clones, your harvest, your manicured bud and your stored end products.

Labeling prevents mix-ups from occurring. If you mix up your plants, you are left with the problem of trying to guess correct flowering times and strain type. Labels can be bought in most good grow stores. Plastic labels should be used in conjunction with a non-permanent pen so that they can be reused again.

My experience as a grower has taught me that the cannabis plant is so diverse that no one country, seed bank or breeder can claim to have all the best genetics. In fact the majority of high-quality genetics are available to ANY grower through the right seed bank. Not all seed banks send their seeds everywhere in the world but you will be able to find a few that do. There is nothing preventing good growers from obtaining what they need by checking a few things out.
If you understand and control the above points then you will achieve the goal of growing superior bud. We hope that this book has helped in some way and that you will continue to refer to it in the future.
Producing your own bud has never been easier. Hundreds of thousands of people grow all over the world both indoors and outdoors. Many of them have been doing this for decades and have kept it a secret by simply not telling people that they grow. They also only grow for themselves and this makes all the difference in keeping their pastime confidential. People who do not sell their produce are rarely ever discovered.

If you know people that have an interest in cannabis then tell them about this book. This is the kind of information that they need to make their own high-quality bud. The results are cheaper and better as you will see!

Remember: Do not break the law. Before you get seeds, clones or grow cannabis check your country's laws to ensure that your actions are not illegal. We would like you to grow cannabis but we do not want you to get into legal trouble.

[kindprincess]

IMPORTANT CANNABIS ISSUES
Effects of Cannabis

We are currently in an era of cannabis pseudo-science, in which scientists, documentary makers, doctors and other ^cannabis experts' speak extensively on the subject and impose their own interpretations, which are rarely supported with factual data. You must ask why some mainstream cannabis researchers use doctors as the only authority for their cannabis research? A doctor's authority is in medicine. Cannabis has other uses besides being a medicine, yet most people seem to think that doctors are the only answer to the cannabis question. This is a false assumption. Some doctors and medical authorities have made names for themselves by supporting cannabis prohibition; others have made names for themselves by supporting cannabis legalization. Unfortunately, we seem to hear from the former most often, while the latter are often silenced.

Here are a few of the pseudo-scientific claims that are commonly used to support the argument for cannabis prohibition due to the presence of stronger, more potent cannabis on the market.
â?¢ Cannabis is getting stronger
â?¢ The stronger the cannabis, the greater the health risks
â?¢ Hydroponics makes cannabis stronger
â?¢ New lighting technology means stronger cannabis
â?¢ Feeding products and growth hormones make cannabis stronger
â?¢ New extraction techniques make hashish stronger
â?¢ More crystals means moreTHC and stronger cannabis
In the pages that follow, we examine each of these claims, or myths. Growers will also learn something from this discussion.

Myth #1: Cannabis is Getting Stronger
The concept that "Today's cannabis is stronger than the cannabis of the 60s or 70s" is unsubstantiated by fact. Open any seed bank catalogue that has strains from the 60s and 70s in stock. Order them, grow them, sample your results and you will learn why they are still some of the most expensive seed lines on the market. Strains developed in the 60s and 70s are arguably still the most potent cannabis strains around.

Not only are people more informed as to what constitutes bad cannabis nowadays, but low potency plants are also less likely to be available and/or purchased. This does NOT imply a potency increase. What it does suggest is that people might need to USE LESS cannabis to get the SAME EFFECT as using a lot of bad cannabis. When you think about use in terms smoking it is easy to see that smoking less is far better than smoking more.
Consider this: If the cannabis of the 60s were weaker than the cannabis of the 21st Century, why would internationally known seed banks still advertise some of the oldest stabilized cannabis plants of the 60s and 70s as their most potent?
Haze strains, Thai and other Cannabis Sativa (species) strains of the 60s (imported largely from Asia) are landrace strains that were cultivated by locals for their high cannabinoid content and hemp material. They were bred for hundreds, maybe even thousands, of years.

The suggestion that hybridizing these plants in conjunction with breeding techniques has somehow made cannabis stronger is a false notion. What has happened is that a new species of cannabis has emerged on the market that was not previously widely available. This species is called Cannabis Indica and is the reason why cannabis may seem different, but is not necessarily stronger or more potent.

Cannabis Indica and Cannabis Ruderalis where not common in 60s America and Europe, which was then a mostly Cannabis Sativa market. Cannabis Sativa by its nature gives a head high effect. Cannabis Indica gives a body down effect. This has to do with the plants' flowering times and cannabinoid contents. Cannabis Sativa and Cannabis Indica can be bred together to produce a hybrid plant that is a 50/50 mix, mostly Cannabis Sativa or mostly Indica. However this does not increase potency. Potency is genetically determinedâ??you cannot GENERATE new genes that where NOT THERE in the first place.
New breeding techniques give growers and breeders more control over plant characteristics but this does not lead to a potency increase. If seed banks could breed plants that were even double in potency of the strains of the 60s, they would be selling them. What we have gained over the years are strains that produce more flowers, and therefore higher yields, but this has nothing to do with the intoxicating properties of the plant.
Fact: Big plants do not equal more potent plants quite simply because the traits for yield and potency are governed by different genes.
Myth # 2: The Stronger the Cannabis, the Greater the Health Risks
Cannabis is a very controllable recreational and medical drug to use.The effects of cannabis are not as unpredictable as some 'authorities' may have you believe. Calculating how much to take is easy because similar amounts from the same strain should produce the same effects. In fact most experienced cannabis users can recognize the subtle variations of the different cannabis species.
Long-term users experience something called tolerance. If you smoke cannabis every day your tolerance level will increase within a few days. You will notice that you will need to take slightly more to get the same effect that you experienced when your tolerance level was at its lowestâ??when you first started using cannabis. This does not mean that you will have to keep increasing the amounts that you take in order to experience an effect. Your tolerance levels will eventually peak and the amount that you need to take in order to experience the effect will remain at this fixed level. Increasing the amounts that you take will no longer heighten the effects of marijuana, but merely sustain them for longer. Usually, cessation of use for a week or two is enough to bring your tolerance back down to its initial level.
Other recreational drugs, like alcohol, can be pushed past your peak tolerance by consuming more. The effect of alcohol consumption increases vigorously with the amount taken and it is possible to exceed tolerance levels to the point at which users can even develop ^alcohol poisoning.'The effect of cannabis consumption is very much dependant on your tolerance levels. Through experience you learn to respect your limits for cannabis.
So what is the worst possible scenario with regards to taking too much cannabis? Even using large amounts of the strongest cannabis strain on its own (without alcohol) will only result in apathy followed by sleep for the novice user: Sweet dreams!
Another health-related misconception is that "high THC levels mean higher volumes of smoke being held in the lungs for longer, which is equivalent to smoking lots of cigarettes".
THC levels, percentages and concentrations do not equate to more smoke. In any given volume of smoke there is a ratio of THC-related compounds to other gases, such as carbon monoxide, that are released during the burning process. One ounce of poor quality cannabis will give off the same volume of smoke as one ounce of high-quality cannabis. Also many people do not smoke cannabis in joints but take the healthier carbon-monoxide-and-tar-free route by using vaporization techniques. Smoke-free vaporization is discussed in detail later in this chapter.
Myth #3: Hydroponics Makes Cannabis Stronger Hydroponics is a method of cultivation whereby soil is replaced by a soil-less substrate, such as rockwool, Oasis, perlite or vermiculite. The plant is placed in this soil-less substrate and fed an aerated nutrient solution. This method allows the plant to receive the optimal levels of water, air and nutrients it needs in order to survive and thrive.
Trie very nature of hydroponics allows the plant to expend less energy in the pursuit of nutrients, air and water, and to divert more energy towards plant growth. This results in increased plant size, better health and bushiness (plants grown in hydroponics tend to produce more nodes because of the optimum growing conditions involved).This does not result in increased potency.
Why? Because potency is determined at a genetic level. The environment may influence the final expression of the gene but it certainly does not change the gene to increase potency. Potency cannot increase past the gene's threshold with any known type of growing method, growth hormone or stimulant.
A plant's genotype (what is encoded as the plant's D.N.A.) is expressed in the plant's phenotype (what you can see, smell, taste, etc.) when the plant is growing. Phenotypes are genetically governed but are also influenced by the environment. Even in optimum growing conditions the plant will never increase past its threshold for potency levels, or size contained in its genotype.
It is also worth noting that hydroponic growing does not guarantee that you will automatically increase your overall yields. Many new soil-based methods can achieve the same or better results. The notion that hydroponics somehow increases cannabis potency.
Myth #4: New Lighting Technology Means Stronger Cannabis HID lighting has indeed changed the world of indoor growing over the past twenty years. HID lighting like MH (Metal Halide) lights and HPS (High Pressure Sodium) are the choice of professional indoor cannabis growers the world over. However, all these lights do is provide the optimal lighting conditions plants require in order to live up to their full genetic potential. It does NOT improve potency, which is genetically determined.
Also, HID lights may be a good replacement for natural light but natural light is still the best light you can use for cannabis cultivation. Geographical and environmental conditions prevent growers from having complete access to this light for at least six months of the year. Some Cannabis Sativa plants require up to six months flowering before they reach their full potentialâ??which, after three months of vegetative growth, adds up to nine months growing time! Lighting is clearly important to achieving optimal growth, but the notion that new lighting technology had led to stronger marijuana is flawed.
Myth #5: Feeding Products and Growth Hormones Make Cannabis Stronger
Most feeding products contain primary nutrients, secondary nutrients and micronutrients. None of these nutrients, in any combination, will increase a plant's potency. They are simply elements that the plant needs in order to grow and thrive.
The only way in which a growth hormone can affect marijuana potency is if the hormone causes D.N.A repair malfunction, which can lead to a mutation of the plant's D.N.A. However this type of mutation is not controllable and the chances of it happening and resulting in increased potency are very slim. In addition, the plant may exhibit other side-effects that could be negative. So even if you did succeed in increasing the potency via a growth hormone or a D.N.A. repair mutation, you could end up with a sickly or inferior plant on your hands that is hard to grow or reproduce. The notion that feeding products and growth hormones make cannabis stronger is flawed.
Myth #6: New Extraction Techniques Make Hashish Stronger
The reason why hash may seem stronger is because it is not always pure. In fact most mass-produced hash contains traces of adulterates like tranquillizers, opium, heroin and even commonly purchased medicines to help add spice to the product. This is very common with imported cannabis products but does not mean that cannabis produced at home is not adulterated too.
The black-market creates an incentive to produce and sell adulterated marijuana products. Remember that there are absolutely no content restrictions on illegal cannabis and most people have no way of knowing what it is they are taking. Hashish can be cut just like other drugs during production so that the drug manufacturer can sell its product for more money because it is better. Cannabis prohibition fuels that!
In Amsterdam, where cannabis is legal, nearly 100% of all cannabis consumed comes from local, regulated cultivation companies. The bud and hash they produce is not contaminated with any foreign drugs.
New hashish extraction methods, like cold water bubble hash extraction (the best of methods), do not increase potency; they simply reduce the amount of foreign bodies (leaf, stem, dirt) in the hash. The objective of the extraction method is to try to produce almost pure THC.This does not make the product stronger, or more potent, per se. It makes it more concentrated and pure, so that smaller doses are needed to achieve an effect. The notion that new extraction techniques make marijuana stronger is flawed.
Myth #7: More Crystals Means More THC and Stronger Cannabis
Crystals are simply indicators of trichome development on the flowering pistils and its surrounding leaves and stems of the female cannabis plant. Under close observation these crystals look like mushroom heads on a long stalk.That is why they are also known as stalked capitate resin glands. The head of the trichome and stalk contain the highly prized cannabinoids.
Trichome growth and potency levels are two very different traits. You could have an extremely frosty plant with low cannabinoid content in the trichomes or you can have a plant with hardly any trichomes that are extremely high in cannabinoid content.
Although high trichome numbers do not mean high potency levels, breeders generally try to stabilize high trichome numbers with high cannabinoid levels for aesthetic and manicuring purposes intended for the final product's presentation. The notion that more crystals means more THC and stronger cannabis is also flawed.
SO, IS CANNABIS GETTING STRONGER?
Hopefully I have made some headway in explaining how cannabis has changed since the 60s and 70s. The bottom line is that, to-date, nothing on the market has proven to beat the potency levels of the strains of the 60s and 70s. However this does not mean that plants with hyper-cannabinoid levels do not exist. They do "if you can find them" and then set about either cloning the strain or stabilizing them.
THE TRUTH ABOUT HYPER-POTENT CANNABIS
Random mating of plants may eventually lead to the emergence of a plant with the right genetics to contribute to a breeding program for hyper-increased potency.
â?¢ Most new traits are discovered accidentally, and not always by people with breeding knowledge who can harness the trait and continue it.
â?¢ If you did discover this trait, you would have to grow extremely large selections of test offspring to breed such a plant. You would have to test each and every plant to find the trait and stabilize it so that all of its offspring would produce the same hyper-potent trait. This could take a matter of months or a number of lifetimes to achieve.
â?¢ Sometimes the authorities get to it first, bringing your hyper-cannabinoid breeding program to an abrupt halt.
â?¢ The strains of the 60s and 70s still have not been beaten for cannabinoid levels because these old strains have been selected by generations of local growers compared to our mere 40 years of marijuana cultivation and breeding agendas.
â?¢ It is less common to find poor strains being produced by breeders these days.This means that nearly all commercial & medical marijuana is potent in some way shape or form.
â?¢ Only a handful of cuttings (clones) in the world exist which have proven to be hyper-potentâ??Cali 0, MTF, Champaign, Chemo and G13, to name a few.
â?¢ Clones are not sold by internationally known seed banks, perhaps because clones are difficult to ship around the world.
â?¢ Only good (not to mention lucky) breeding techniques or GM (genetically modified) crops can make cannabis genetically stronger, or more potent.
â?¢ The only group to claim to have truly hyper-potent cannabis plants is the U.S. government, which conducts experiments into genetically modifying marijuana. They have never released them to the public.
So, What Has Actually Changed?
Maybe now would be a good time to list some actual changes that have taken
place over the years.
1. The introduction of Cannabis Indica species has led to the development of hybrid plants that combine the head high effect with the body down effect.
2. Good cannabis breeders have eradicated poorer forms of cannabis from the gene pool in their breeding programs.This includes hermaphrodite plants that can never produce sinsemilla crops.The net effect is that there are less poor cannabis plants on the market so nearly every type of home grown marijuana is good to some degree as long as it has been grown, flowered, harvested and cured correctly.
3. Sinsemilla crops are flowering female plants that do not bear seeds because the males have been removed before pollination occurs. This does not increase potency. It does increase yield because the plants can divert energy from seed production towards flower production.
4. There are many variations of cannabis on the market with different tastes, smells and high types. The Cannabis Sativas of the 60s and 70s are very strong and are not really suitable for the novice smoker.
5. Imported hashish usually contains adulterates. It is rarely, if ever, just cannabis.
The bottom line is that since the marijuana plant first started being used by humans the gene pool has not undergone some form of a major potency increase. What has changed is our ability to stabilize traits in a plant population and to ensure that traits are continued in the offspring.
Laws against cannabis have also brought about serious and harmful change. If you look at the facts you will learn that we humans have been using the plant for thousands of years without any major problems. Cannabis prohibition also prevents people from accessing a useful crop and potential fuel source. It also fuels terrorism, extortion, misinformation, scare tactics, murders, beatings and child labor. It allows criminals to control the cannabis black market where they sell their own inferior or adulterated product to adults and children. It puts innocent people all over the world in jail or in jeopardy.These are major problems and we need to get cannabis back under our control. Prohibition does not improve livesâ??it destroys them...and this FACT cannot be disputed. Given these negatives, how can there be a logical reason for marijuana prohibition?
Having said this, there are some health risks and social issues associated with cannabis that should be part of a healthy, open discussion on the subject. Some of the issues are addressed in the section that follows.These should not be treated as reasons for cannabis prohibition, because regardless of cannabis prohibition these issues still exist. A few key issues are addressed in the section that follows.
How to Avoid Taking Cancer Causing Agents
Is cannabis a carcinogen? The answer is yes if you smoke it using a flame directly in contact with the cannabis, which causes a process called combustion. This is because carbon monoxide is released during combustion and carbon monoxide can be deadly to humans.
Whatever way you look at it, regular inhalation of carbon monoxide will eventually destroy your lungs. If there is a history of cancer in your family then chances are that constant, prolonged inhalation of carbon monoxide will cause cancer to develop in you. The risks are staggering if you think about it. Most people who ^ breathe in a lot of carbon monoxide die from carbon monoxide-related diseases. 1 Of course, pollution from modern society (cars, industry, etc.) has produced much ; more carbon monoxide than cannabis smokers ever have or will.
Nicotine was also recently discovered to be a carcinogen. It was thought for a long time that it was just the tar and carbon monoxide that were carcinogens, but the more we look at less suspicious substances, the more we find that they are indeed carcinogens as well.
At the moment it is not known if cannabis is a carcinogen because cannabis is made up of so many different types of materials, including cannabinoids and their thousands of related gases that are released during combustion. The number of compounds we need to analyze to be able to say for sure probably runs in to the ten of thousands.
So before anyone discovers carcinogens in these compounds, we might as well assume that some of them are bad, and are actually the result of the combustion process. It makes good sense to remove the risk of contact with carbon monoxide from the equation.This is easy to do: you can either cook with cannabis or use a process known as vaporization.
Cooking with Cannabis
Non-smokers can enjoy marijuana without the effects of carbon monoxide. The Marijuana Chef Cookbook by S.T. Oner, is a great cannabis cooking guide for all marijuana lovers. It covers the basics of cooking, cannabis drinks, desserts, vegetarian marijuana meals, main marijuana courses, starters and soups. It contains quite a number of recipes for you to choose from.
Cooking with cannabis is a healthy way to enjoy marijuana. Many cannabis users have found that cannabis foods are just as delightful as smoking a joint or using a vaporizer. If you like marijuana you should give cooking a try.
VAPORIZATION
Vaporization is the key to the future of smoking cannabis. The vaporization technique simply uses heat instead of a flame to convert your cannabis matter into a fume rather than smoke that contains carbon monoxide.
Imagine placing a small amount cannabis on a knife and gradually heating the knife over a stove. As the knife heats up, the marijuana begins to heat up as well, but it does not burn or catch fire right away. As the knife heats up, a vapor drifts out from the bud. After a while the knife will become very hot and the cannabis will catch fire (if there is still some matter left) and give off a plume of gray and blue smoke.
There is a point at which the cannabis is converted into fumes without releasing carbon monoxide. It will only start to release the cancer-causing agent when the temperature of the knife increases to the point at which cannabis reaches its combustion threshold and starts to burn. In other words, you do not need to burn cannabis in order to smoke it. All you need to do is heat the knife to the point at which THC vaporizes. This is what a vaporizer does.
Like a bong, hookah or any glass pipe, the vaporizer holds the vapor or fumes in an enclosure before you inhale. Most vaporizers are electric and require charging before the heating element is ready for the application of cannabis. Since the temperature of the heating element never rises above the threshold of THC combustion you do not release carbon monoxide. The boiling point of THC is 200°C (392°F). Between 200°C and 300°C will release THC more quicker. Between 300°C and 400°C carbon monoxide may be released along with THC. Between 400°C and 500°C carbon monoxide will be released along with THC. Temperatures of 500°C and above result in complete combustion with maximum carbon monoxide emissions. Everything burns up, leaving very little ash. Vaporizer users stick with 200°C (392°F) to achieve the desired effect of keeping carbon monoxide levels either at zero or to natural levels present in air.
Vaporizers can be bought in all sizes, shapes and forms. Pharmaceutical companies spend hundreds of thousands on industrial vaporizers in order to reduce carbon monoxide emissions from their factories. Make sure that your vaporizer has an adjustable temperature function so that you can choose how hot you want the element to get.
Before you buy a vaporizer you may want to check out the low-cost, do-it-yourself method described below. Remember though, that you are much better off buying a professional vaporizer to ensure that no carbon monoxide is released.
The Light Bulb Vaporizer
The light bulb vaporizer is a simple vaporizer that you can make using common household products. It allows the user to smoke cannabis without inhaling carbon monoxide in the process. This is one of the safest ways you can consume marijua
ITEMS NEEDED:
1. A screw-type 100-watt domestic light bulb
2. A normal plastic screw-type bottle top
3. Two straws or a 10 cm glass tube and a 3 cm glass tube
4. A multipurpose pocket knife
5. Water
PREPARATION:
Be careful when you hold the bulb that you do not break it. Very little pressure is needed to complete this procedure. Hold the bulb in a thick cloth or use padded gloves for protection if you need too.
Step 1. Prepare the items as shown in the above picture.
Step 2. Use the knife to cut the base of the bulb at the last screw-threading groove. The knife should sink in easily because this metal is very light.
Step 3. After cutting the base of the bulb it should come off easily.

Step 4. If you look into the bulb you will notice some glass in the way of the element.
Step 5. Push down on this area very gently with a knife, turning the knife as you do so.
Step 6- With very little pressure, the glass inside will crack and the element will become dislodged. The knife will pass all the way through.
Step 7. Empty out the contents. There will be broken glass here so be careful. If you have trouble getting the element out, keep tipping the bulb back and forth until a wire protrudes through the opening. Catch this wire and you will be able to pull the element out.
Step 8. Using the knife, churn out any remaining glass still present on the rim of the opening.
Step 9. You now have a bulb which has the end cut away and all the inside contents removed. Look inside to make sure that all the glass has been tipped out.
Step 10. Give the bulb a rinse with water to remove any of the remaining dust particles or glass. If your bulb is not the clear type, then this process will wash away the inside coating, making your bulb transparent. Make sure to let the bulb dry before using it again.
Step 11. Take the plastic bottle top and make two holes in it using the pocket knife. By using the screwdriver part of the knife you can easily make a hole.
Step 12. Insert your straw or glass tubes into the holes in the bottle cap.Glass tubes last longer than plastic tubes.
Step 13. Screw the bottle cap with the straws attached into the bulb. The bottle cap should easily screw onto the bulb's grooves.
Step 14. If you are using straws you can cut them down to size to match the example. You will notice that one of the straws is smaller than the other. This smaller straw is just an air-flow straw. It simply allows air to enter the bulb as you inhale cannabis fumes through the top straw.
Step 15. Unscrew the cap and put some bud in before sealing.

Using your light bulb vaporizer:
Use a naked flame to heat the bulb just under the bud. Swirl the flame around j a circular motion like a scientist. Inhale through the longer tube. After about fif teen to thirty seconds you will taste some vapor. This vapor contains varioil cannabinoids without carbon monoxide. You can inhale this without inhaling ca bon monoxide. As you continue to heat the glass, more vapor will be relea However the longer you heat the glass, the more the temperature will increase-eventually passing the boiling point of THC so that carbon monoxide is relea You will see this clearly in the glass because it will begin to fill with smoke. Yo will also taste the difference.The taste of carbon monoxide mixed with cannabi-j
noids is like hay. Do not inhale this if you want to stay healthy. Although this!
:|
smoke does contain cannabinoids, it also contains carbon monoxide. Have a tis-f sue nearby to wipe the glass after you are finished. Unscrew the cap and dump out the used bud. A black residue will develop on the outside of the bulb. This is the result of the flame coming into contact with the glass. You can wash your bulbs out after a few uses and start all over again.
Conclusion
Vaporization is a safe and effective method of smoking marijuana as long as yout do not release and inhale carbon monoxide. Regulating the flame can also help^ prevent the bud reaching temperatures that cause carbon monoxide to be; released. Professional vaporizers are more controllable than the light bulb method because the temperature of the heated bud can be kept well below the point of carbon monoxide release.
CANNABIS LEGALIZATION AND SOCIAL ISSUES
Cannabis and Young Adults
Many parents and teachers are opposed to cannabis decriminalization and legalization because of concerns about risks to the health, the wellbeing and future of children. This is very understandable.
Most adults agree that children should not use drugs and most cannabis users and enthusiasts recognize this. In fact many shops, web sites and message board forums related to marijuana actively seek to prevent children from using or growing cannabis.
Although this cannot achieve 100% effectiveness, it does demonstrate that many cannabis users take the issue seriously. Sadly though the same cannot be said for some of those who deal cannabis on the black market, which is a result of prohibition. This is yet another reason to bring cannabis back under our control.
If you have seen the Academy award-winning film Traffic then you will probably understand that there is also a need for closer parent/child communication with regards to drug education. The concept that cannabis decriminalization or legalization will lead to more (or less) children using cannabis is flawed. But then, the illegality of cannabis doesn't seem to stop them from using it either. Cannabis is a very popular recreational drug.
So ask yourself this basic question: if my child is determined to get hold of cannabis would he be better off procuring it from the black market or from a controlled, regulated manufacturer or retailer?
We should be dealing with the cannabis issue in terms of REALITY and not in terms of myths that are propagated by anxiety or fear, most of which is the result of pseudo-scientific or political misinformation.Too many people let their emotions be their guide instead of relying on reason where marijuana is concerned. The fact is that your child can buy drugs whether or not cannabis prohibition exists. A storefront does not make cannabis any more or less accessible than it already is to your child, right now, in reality. It does, however, make it less dangerous.
CANNABIS IS A REALITY
Cannabis does not disappear because it is prohibited. Cannabis is a very common illegal drug, and most users who experiment with illegal drugs are bound to try cannabis at one point. Most of these users are totally unaware of the effects of cannabis because prohibition stifles proper education and research. There are well over 15,000 scientific papers on cannabis and a lot of them explain how cannabis is used and what effects it has on the user without using scare tactics or fear to induce a psychological block with regards to cannabis information. Scaring people can prevent people from doing something, however it does so by controlling them, not educating them.
Some people suggest that cannabis is only taken for euphoria. However there are many other reasons why people take cannabis. Some take it for medical use. Others take it to feel more relaxed and not for its euphoric properties. Cannabis is a substance that has many more uses than getting you high.

THE ALCOHOL VS. CANNABIS DEBATE
Even though Alcohol is water-soluble and is cleared from the body at the rate ofl one unit per hour (the amount in half a pint of beer, a single whisky, or a glass of| wine) it can still kill you.* A drop of pure alcohol is enough to send any grown! man to the local ER ward. Some will even die if the problem is not treated soon! enough. That is why there is a legal limit on how much percentage of alcohol isf allowed per bottle. Go above this limit and you can seriously hurt people if not kill1 them outright.
Alcohol poisoning is common. Upward of 5,000 people die from alcohol overdos-1 es every year in the United States alone. People die because of alcohol poisoning. â?¢]
\
50% of THC is still present in the body five days after use and 10% after a j month. Traces can be detected in hair and urine for months after that. However this does not mean that the psychoactive effects of cannabis are still active in the
=3
brain. It simply means that the body is disposing of THC in its own way, over time, j
Cannabis does not directly kill people. Unlike alcohol, pure, concentrated THC will not kill you unless you have some rare allergy to it. There are more deaths associated directly with alcohol than there are indirectly with cannabis. The only deaths associated with cannabis are either indirect (cancer from smoking) or avoidable (car crashes or other accidents), and even the chances of getting cancer from THC can be avoided by using alternative medical smoking methods or eating cannabis.
Animal testing has shown that extremely high doses of cannabinoids are needed to have a lethal effect on the animals. At this moment the hypothetical toxicity amount needed to cause death derived from these studies is 1:40,000 for cannabis. That means that you would have to consume 40,000 times as much cannabis as you normally would in order to reach the hypothetical toxicity amount that causes death.
In the annals of medical history no one is ever reported to have died from a cannabis overdose. In the annals of medical history hundreds of thousands have died from alcohol overdose or alcohol poisoning. Alcohol abuse will damage more vital organs in the body than cannabis use. In most cases cannabis-related damage (mainly lung disease) can be reversed by discontinuing the use of the drug or taking it in another form (unless cancer is contracted in which chemotherapy is usually the treatment option).* With alcohol, most damage cannot be reversed and damaged organs can only be replaced via a transplant operation (if you can afford one or afford to wait for one).
Deaths recorded in the United States** in any typical year are as follows:
Tobacco deaths 400,000
Alcohol deaths 80,000
Workplace accidents that result in death 60,000
Automobile accidents that result in death 40,000
Cocaine deaths 2,200
Heroin deaths 2,000
Aspirin deaths 2,000
Cannabis deaths 0
The Califano Report from The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University is also worth noting.
Far more people are hospitalized for alcohol-related illness than cannabis-relat-ed illness even though we know that cannabis is the third most commonly used drug in the Western world. Also there are more types of alcohol-related illness than cannabis related illness to deal with.The burden on taxpayers to solve alcohol related-illness is significantly higher than cannabis-related abuses, even in countries that have decriminalized or tolerate cannabis use.
Any type of drug abuse can cause a different personality to emerge. Abusers can become stubborn, cannot manage themselves properly, find it hard to deal with disapproval and feel misinterpreted.This is common to all types of drug abuses and should not be singled out with cannabis alone. Mobile phone addiction, Internet addiction, computer game addiction and television addiction can also cause these types of personality disorders to emerge and yet mobile phones, computer games, the Internet and television are not illegal. All these things have suspected or proven health risks associated with them too.
With regards to cannabis addiction there are no signs or evidence of physical addiction. Many major pharmaceutical companies have tried to develop pills, to help cure cannabis physical addiction, however these drugs have never been approved by medical boards because the pharmaceutical companies have been unable to prove any physical addictive properties associated with cannabis. There are many pills, on the market however that help deal with the physical addiction of other drugs like tobacco, alcohol and hard drugs.
Psychological addiction* is treated by psychiatrists and not doctors of internal medicine (who are used in the treatment of other drug abuses like alcohol and hard drugs) and for personalities who express psychological cannabis addiction, treatment is administered through psychotherapy and perhaps occupational therapy alone.
DRIVING WHILE UNDERTHE INFLUENCE
Cannabis has been brought into the intoxicating driving debate. The bottom line to any debate is that you should not do drugs and drive, period. Even though some people have suggested that cannabis causes more road accidents than alcohol, this is certainly not reflected in reality where the majority of DUI road accidents are the result of the driver's use of alcohol. This is why the government actively uses alcohol detection methods in its attempt to prevent driving related crimes.
LIBERATE THE HERB, LIBERATE THE INNOCENT, AND FREE SOCIETY
The Federal Bureau of Prisons estimates that they have house roughly 170,000 inmates for any given month. Out of these roughly 84,000 (55%) are in their drug related offenses. This is more drug-related incarcerations per capita than any other nation in the world. Since 1965 America has arrested more than ten million people for marijuana-related offences.**
In 2002 the annual report on the state of the drug problem in the European Union and Norway concluded that: "Use of illegal substances is concentrated among young adults and particularly males in urban areas, although some spreading to smaller towns and rural areas may be taking place."***
Recent cannabis use (last 12 months) was reported by 5 to 15% of young adults in most countries. Recent amphetamine use was reported by 0.5 to 6%, cocaine use by 0.5 to 3.5%, and ecstasy use by 0.5 to 5%.
Lifetime experience of cannabis is reported by 10 to 30% of European adults, while amphetamines, cocaine and ecstasy have been tried by about 1 to 5%.
Cannabis use increased markedly during the 1990s in most EU countries, particularly among young people, although in recent years its use can be leveling off in some countries. Cocaine use may have increased in recent years in some countries, although this trend is less clear.
There is an incentive for individuals who are subjected to drug tests to choose harder drugs as their form of recreational drug because these substances disappear from the system more quickly. Again another indication that drug testing does not help the cannabis problem in any way.
Cannabis remains one of the most confiscated drugs in the world and makes up almost a whopping 80% of all illegal confiscations even though it is considered a less problematic drug than alcohol or harder drugs. If cannabis were legalized tomorrow drug enforcement agencies would automatically loose 80% of their figures, which are used as a basis for government budgeting on drug enforcement programs. On many levels, cannabis prohibition could be more about money than most government officials would care to admit.*
CANNABIS AND VIOLENCE
This is the original myth used to support cannabis prohibition (think Reefer Madness). Cannabis prohibition has not reduced acts of violence or crime. It has increased after cannabis prohibition. No study has shown a link between cannabis use and crime. Likewise no study has shown a link between cannabis use and violence.
A notable incident occurred in the U K. A British member of parliament and labor government minister, Johnathan Prescott, debated the issue that cannabis causes people to become violent and should therefore remain illegal. He did this on national television and without any evidence to support his claim. Shortly after making this statement Minister Prescott punched a man twice for throwing an egg at him during a political rally. Since then he has earned the nickname "Two-jabs" Prescott from the media and surprisingly managed to retain his position as a government Minister.
CANNABIS AND BRAIN DAMAGE
There is no scientific evidence to suggest thatTHC damages the brain** in any way, shape or form. Animal asphyxiation experiments, using monkeys, were conducted in the 70s and subsequently used to prove that cannabis kills brain cells. Monkeys were gassed to death with cannabis smoke over a long period of time. The monkeys had electrodes implanted in their brains to monitor the effects of cannabis smoke exposure.The monkeys died and the brain cells were counted. A healthy monkey was also killed as a control experiment and its brain cells where counted.The U.S. government was brought to court on this issue to reveal the experiment under the "Freedom of Information" act. When the hoax was exposed (and the unnecessary animal deaths) the U.S. government never used these findings again.The study was harshly condemned for its inadequate sample size of only four monkeys, its complete failure to manage experimental prejudice, and the misidentification of the monkeys brains as "damaged".
Two noteworthy studies were conducted in 1977 and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). These studies showed no evidence of brain damage in heavy marijuana users.These facts have never been disproved. In the same year as these studies were released, the American Medical Association (AMA) officially proposed decriminalizing marijuanaâ??a proposal that was ignored by the American DBA.
MEDICAL CANNABIS SHOULD NOT BE A LEGAL ISSUE
In cancer terms one joint is thought to be the equivalent of five cigarettes. However joint smoking is a mostly western phenomena. Prohibition prevents good scientific investigations into the prohibited substance from occurring unless it is considered acceptable for medical use. Many fear that the medical use of cannabis will result in good scientific investigations of cannabis, which will result in many of the current cannabis prohibition laws being repealed.
Cannabis prohibition is currently a very profitable business for some but not all! Many jobs would be lost if cannabis prohibition was discontinued. However far more jobs would be created in the scientific, agricultural and production sectors if prohibition were lifted.
Also, there is nothing new about medical cannabis. Medical cannabis has its roots in western civilization dating back to the 1700s and even before. It is only in recent times that medical cannabis has been prohibited but only because of legal issues and not its medicinal values.

Cannabis and the Immune System
Cannabis use may affect the immune system. For some illnesses it is advised that you discontinue cannabis use until the illness has passed. Consult your doctor for further information.This is because cannabis may cause fewer white blood cells to be produced, which are used in the fight against some diseases. Discontinuing cannabis use will restore the immune system to its previous condition before cannabis was used.
Cannabis and Sexual Dysfunction
Sperm production may also be decreased with cannabis use. Discontinue cannabis use and sperm production should return to normal levels again.There is no scientific evidence to suggest that young men will develop breasts if they use cannabis. This is a red herring associated with a testosterone decrease in some individuals who use cannabis. There is absolutely no evidence to support a case that this decrease is permanent. Cannabis tolerance can also occur, bringing levels back to normal again even though cannabis has not been discontinued.
Cannabis and Pregnancy
Babies that are born to cannabis-using mothers may have some abnormalities like being small, hyperactive and show certain types of behavioral problems. There may also be an increase in leukemia with children born to cannabis using mothers, however none of this is definitively proven. However, the bottom line here is the same advice that has always been administered to pregnant women: only take drugs that your doctor recommends when pregnant. It is your duty to discontinue cannabis use if you are pregnant.
Cannabis and Human DNA Repair Malfunction
There is no scientific evidence to support the case that cannabis directly causes D.N.A repair malfunction in human beings. D.N.A repair malfunction results in a mutation at the cellular reproduction level. A D.N.A repair malfunction type mutation is usually random and can result in anything. There are no specific conclusions to random D.N.A repair malfunction although scientists can cause certain types of malfunctions to appear using specific techniques. However these techniques may result in other types of uncontrollable mutations from occurring alongside the controllable one. The notion that cannabis can cause a certain type of, or any type of, D.N.A repair malfunction in human beings is not scientifically proven.

SO WHY IS CANNABIS ILLEGALTHEN?
With the underwhelming amount of evidence to support the fact that cannabis is dangerous, you might wonder why it is then illegal. Cannabis is illegal because the U.S. government incorrectly classed cannabis as an opiate during the opium wars and this notion has been adopted throughout most of the rest of the world.

The prohibition campaign was also backed by the cotton industry, which wanted to see an end to the cannabis hemp industry for its own gain and profit. The cotton industry financially backed politicians who made statements to the newspapers and public about cannabis.

Cannabis-related violence was used as the main reason for cannabis prohibition. Violent crimes did not decrease after the prohibition of cannabis. They increased if anything. During WW2 the prohibition of cannabis was lifted so that cannabis could again be used to help the war effort. George Bush Senior's parachute was made from cannabis when he ejected safely from his burning plane.

Shortly after WW2 cannabis was again prohibited because it was claimed that it would make men docile and unable to fight the communist threat.There has been a complete turnaround in the reasons for cannabis prohibition over the last 60 years. This is because there have never been logical grounds for cannabis prohibition. This is the very reason why intelligent people can see through the hoax while others are fooled by it.
Consult the book The Emperor Has No Clothes by Jack Merer, for a full disclosure on the real reasons for cannabis prohibition and how the hoax has been maintained. The book contains lots of information with regards to the inaccuracies of some pseudo-scientific approaches to cannabis prohibition.

PEOPLE ARE NOT SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS
It is a lie to suggest that in all of history, no young people have ever taken marijuana regularly on a mass scale. This occurs all the time in countries that have never prohibited cannabis use. Therefore the implication that our youngsters who use cannabis are somehow guinea-pigs in a tragic experiment is absolutely flawed. THC receptors evolved naturally in the human brain and are proof of our long-term association with the cannabis plant. We have been using cannabis throughout our entire evolution.

It is only in the past 80 years that cannabis has been prohibited in some countries. Most of those who have taken cannabis all their lives will attest to the fact that they have not been adversely affected. Some believe that the Netherlands is a good example of how cannabis tolerance leads to an increase in crime. This completely misses the mark. The rate of marijuana use among Dutch teenagers is actually lower than that among American and European teens from countries in which cannabis is illegal.

CANNABIS AND THE INSTITUTE OF MEDICINE (IOM)
In 1998, 109 distinguished scientific researchers held a discussion on medical marijuana in New York. Their documents and deductions were published in 1999. They said that marijuana or THC do not qualify as safe or effective medication which aim at restoring or maintaining physiological functions of cells, organs and organisms. They have no place in a modern pharmacopoeia from which cannabis was eliminated in the first part of the century. However these 109 distinguished scientists' findings where voided by the Institute of Medicine soon after.

In March 1999, the U.S. government-sponsored Institute of Medicine (IOM) Report concluded that: "Until a nonsmoked rapid-onset cannabinoid drug delivery system becomes available, we acknowledge that there is no clear alternative for people suffering from chronic conditions that might be relieved by smoking marijuana, such as pain or AIDS wasting..." The U.S. DEA ignored this and has said: "Any determination of a drug's valid medical use must be based on the best available science undertaken by medical professionals. The Institute of Medicine (under the National Academy of Sciences) conducted a comprehensive study in 1999 to assess the potential health benefits of marijuana and its constituent cannabinoids.The study concluded that smoking marijuana is not recommended for the treatment of any disease condition." This is a lie and in direct conflict to the IOM findings.

CANNABIS AND HARDER DRUGS: THE GATEWAY THEORY
The suggestion that marijuana use leads to hard drugs is flawed from the outset. Most hard drug users have taken cannabis, however out of the 100s of millions of people worldwide who have tried cannabis, we do not find 100s of millions of hard drug users. In fact 1 in 100 cannabis users will likely try a harder drug however this is not because of cannabis use. How many bicycle riders grow up to become motorcycle drivers? The thing to note is that the majority of people who use cannabis will never do another illegal drug.

If a cannabis user cannot get cannabis then they may take a harder drug that is more readably available from a dealer. This is why drug dealers are also called drug pushers. The cannabis user may be pushed to buy something else because the dealer does not have cannabis available. This is very important and we find that most cannabis users come in contact with hard drugs as a result of contact with the same source who does not have any cannabis available. Drug dealers can also use this tactic to sell the user stronger and more expensive drugs. This is a major reason why cannabis should be disassociated with other forms of harder drugs. It is a problem that springs from prohibition.

In 1993 the Rand Corporation cannabis study concluded that hard drug abuse emergency room situations decreased in places that had decriminalized marijuana in contrast to places that did not. This has a name. It is called the "negative gateway" effect. It is a fact that cannabis legalization results in less hard drug abuse.

CANNABIS AND MEMORY
Cannabis does affect short-term memory until you terminate its use. Cannabis use does not affect short-term memory permanently, which is a misconception derived from the statement that cannabis impairs the short-term memory.

CANNABIS AND PAPER PRODUCTION
Most cannabis prohibition campaigners advocate that paper from trees is much cheaper than paper made from cannabis. Do you see the obvious lunacy in the suggestion that we should continue cutting down trees for paper instead of using a plant that takes a minimum of 3 months to grow to full maturity as opposed to 50 years for most trees?
The same argument goes for most types of linen too which are made from chemical and waste producing factories. In the long term it is far cheaper and more natural to use cannabis in many different types of fabric production.

CANNABIS AND ILLEGAL DRUG CLASSIFICATION
Incorrectly classifying cannabis as a hard drug has led some of the 1 out of every 100 cannabis users to believe that they can handle any hard drug because they can handle cannabis.This is a totally false notion caused by cannabis prohibition.
High percentages of hard drug users also use soft drugs however their preference is for hard drugs. 1 in 100 soft drug users may use hard drugs. 99 out of 100 soft drug users prefer to stick with soft drugs and will never use a hard drug.

The illegal drug classification system is nonsense in itself. Even doctors would admit that the drug classification system is only there to support incarceration and sentencing laws. It actually means nothing scientifically.

CANNABIS AND MIND CONTROL
That idea that "Drugs take control of your mind. No person can do thatâ??no parent, no teacher, and no friend. You can't make rational decisions" is flawed. Most companies, governments, education systems have policies in place that are geared towards controlling an individual or a population of people. Prohibition is used to control people's minds! The War on Drugs, Just Say No. What are these if not a form of propaganda and mind control?
To prevent cannabis from having an effect on your mind you simply discontinue using the drug. The effect goes away. This does not change your mind or personality in any way unless you develop a psychological dependency to cannabis. Very few people will develop this dependency because long-term cannabis use usually leads to boredom. Most people stop using cannabis because they get bored with it or do not have the time to use the drug anymore.
CANNABIS PROHIBITION HAS FAILED
With regard to alcohol and tobacco the idea that "If discovered today they would certainly be controlled drugs. Do we really want another legal drug like cannabis?" is flawed. Cannabis is clearly already there and being used by people even though it is prohibited. Prohibition sweeps the problem under the carpet and decentralizes control of the drug and hands it over to the black market instead.
We know that prohibition is a failed concept because all types of drug use are on the increase with all kinds and type of people of all ages. In 80 years, drug prohibition has done nothing to help this in any way shape or form. People use drugs irrespective of prohibition. People can easily acquire drugs irrespective of prohibition. People take drugs irrespective of prohibition. In some cases the very fact that something is illegal makes some people want to do it! This is one reason why cannabis is used more by people in America and the UK than in Holland.The Netherlands partially legalized marijuana with some restrictions in the 1970s. Since then, hard drug use has declined so substantially that the argument that marijuana is a "gateway" drug that leads to hard drug use has been proven invalid.

Reports on cannabis never seem to be consistent. Some will claim the drug is harmless, others will claim that it is dangerous and should not be legalized. Many scientists, doctors and cannabis users have come out and said quite openly that cannabis is not as dangerous as alcohol or tobacco. In fact such statements caused the Home Secretary in the UK to lower the classification of cannabis to a class C drug instead of a class B drug.
The War on Drugs was lost long ago. The war on drugs began by using jail as a deterrent. The reason for mixed messages, confusion and bewilderment in our youth is the fact that the war against drugs like cannabis has changed back and forth from "it will make you violent" to "it will make you docile."

Its reasons have always changed because science has pointed out the validity of pro-cannabis legalization statements. It changes to suit its own agendas and not to suit scientific facts. In the majority of cases, like the ones mentioned above, the war on drugs seeks to actively ignore scientific fact in favor of legal law enforcement agency statements on the issue which, in most cases, are in direct conflict with scientific advice and knowledge. See the 10M statement under the heading "Cannabis and the institute of Medicine (IOM)" in this chapter.

Harm Reduction is important.The very knowledge that a vaporizer exists will stop large numbers of cannabis users from smoking joints or inhaling carbon monoxide for the remainder of their lives. The idea that "teaching young people about how to use cannabis is bad because it is introducing people who will never use cannabis into cannabis" is flawed. In school, 85% of what we teach our children will never be used by our children again. It is there to educate them, to get them to think for themselves; not to brainwash them into doing what we preach as some would have you believe. In fact teachers who support the idea that teaching young people about how to use cannabis is bad are likely more concerned about making the student do whatever they tell them to do, rather than teaching the student to think for themselves.

Mo two politicians, doctors, scientists will ever cite the same reasons for cannabis prohibition. This is because there are no reasons for cannabis prohibition. This is the root cause of all mixed messages that people are receiving as a result of the cannabis prohibition hoax.

CANNABIS PROHIBITION AND LAWSUITS
Your hard-earned tax money is extremely vulnerable to cannabis prohibition compensation claims (there are lawyers waiting on every corner to give this a shot).
The government can end up owing cannabis prohibition criminals damages because of a hoax which may seem real at the moment but as it is exposed for the hoax that it is (currently happening now) things will eventually change. Should cannabis prohibition be deemed illegal based on scientific findings in the legal/political arena then your tax money may go to pay for compensation claims for those who have suffered any legal consequence of cannabis prohibition.

It is worth a thought that the professionals who deliver false, misleading and often downright incorrect pro-prohibition information should be the first to pay out for compensation claims before anyone else does because TH EY are the perpetrators behind the hoax. Would they support their cause if they where held accountable for the hoax?
Most cannabis prohibition campaigners currently enjoy diminished responsibility. Your hard-earned tax money is currently paying for their support of cannabis prohibition. In turn, your tax money is also going to pay for cannabis prohibition compensation claims should cannabis be legalized. Do you see how cannabis prohibition has totally made a mess of everything? You lose money either way. Prohibition is the cause of this. That is why cannabis prohibition is the wrong method of management for the cannabis issue. It always has been and always will be.

CANNABIS AND THE AUTHOR
I am a cannabis user and have been able to still write and compile this book for you to read. Does this look like the work of a disorganized/violent/docile mind?
I have never been involved in a crime other than using/growing cannabis. I have never even received a parking ticket. I have only met a police officer once in my lifetime and this was because he thought I was doing 40 mph in a 30 mph zone. I pointed out to him that I was wrong and that I was sorry and that I genuinely try to adhere to rules of the road, which I do. He understood and let me go. Fair play to that man.

I have never seen a violent cannabis-related incident except where black market hard drug money was concerned! I see far more violent alcohol-related crimes than cannabis ones. In fact I can safely say that I have never met a true stoner who wished another harm. I have seen black market hard drug dealers crack a few heads open though. I am sure many black market hard drug dealers have been killed or kill because of who they choose to be and what they choose to do.There is absolutely no reason that cannabis needs to be associated with this black market violence, yet many people still support cannabis prohibition! Cannabis prohibition is a human error without any justified scientific, moral or societal grounds.

[kindprincess]

How to make Hash
from growing Cannabis

HASH IS A COMPRESSED FORM OF CANNABIS, but it isn't just compressed bud. In fact, contrary to what many people think, compressed bud has nothing to do with how to make hash.
Earlier in this book, we discussed capitates trichomes and how these tiny stalked resin glands contain cannabinoids â?? the major compounds produced by the cannabis plant, which include the THC. THC is found in the male marijuana leaf, but the female produces THC in her leaves, trichomes and calyx. THC is rarely extracted from the male marijuana leaf because it is contained inside the cannabis leaf but since the resin glands can be wiped from the female plant it is much easier to perform THC extraction from a female. The gland heads, or rounded tips of the trichomes, secrete the major cannabinoids in an oil-like substance, often referred to as resin, in order to gather fallen pollen from the male plant. This resin can be removed by rubbing your fingers over the bud.

The stalks that support the gland heads are second to the gland heads in the amount of cannabinoids produced. Under certain conditions, the glands and stalks can burst. In the case of a strain like Afghani that is thick with resin, this explosive action of the gland is automatic. Strains that are prone to bursting their trichomes form ball-shaped pistil clusters rather than the usual straight or curled pistil shapes. These ball-shaped clusters are a good indication that a strain is a suitable candidate for resin extraction.

GATHERING THE STALKED CAPITATE TRICHOMES
Hash is made primarily from the collection of the stalked capitates trichomes. When the collected trichomes are compressed, they form the blocky mass that is referred to as hashish. There are many ways to do this, ranging from bulk hash production to rolling small finger-size quantities. Each method produces a different quality or grade of hashish. Some methods gather only the trichomes, while other methods gather trichomes and other subsidiary elements like cannabis leaf particles and branch shavings.

Water extraction is the best way to achieve trichomes-only extraction. We won't discuss older methods used for mass production, as these are somewhat substandard to the home methods mentioned below. The quality of your hashish is determined to a large degree by the genetics you started with in the first place. If you used plants that weren't very potent, don't expect to produce very potent hash.

SKUFF
When you harvest your bud you will have trimmed the leaves away from the bud. This trim is referred to as skuff. Skuff should be sticky; so whether it's on the stem, branch, cannabis leaf or bud; if it feels sticky then you can use it to extract the resin. If you really want to be a connoisseur, then you should examine your skuff for trichomes with a microscope. If none of the skuff parts have trichomes, discard them. You must take the remaining skuff and store this for 3 to 6 weeks, in much the same way as you would canned bud, before using the basic and advanced extraction methods detailed below.

SCREENING
BASIC METHODS Flat Silk Screening
Screening is a process much like grating cheese, but on a far finer level. A silk screen is stretched across a square wooden frame and nailed tightly to it. The screen typically has a pore size of between 120 and 180 microns. The smaller the microns, the higher the quality, but the less you will produce. Larger micron pores will result in larger sieved amounts but will allow some marijuana leaf matter and branch trim to drop through, degrading the quality of hash you smoke. Typical street hash is not nearly as fine or high in quality as the large pore screening method.

Here's how it's done: The bud is placed over the screen and can either be dragged across the screen manually or using a roller. Manual screening is much easier if you're using smaller quantities of bud, but for large quantities you should consider another method, like automatic tumbling in a drum machine. A sheet of glass placed under the screen is the best way to catch the matter that falls through. After the screening process is complete, the screen can be patted down to shake off any powder that sticks in the pores.

Flat Metal Screening
This is done much like the flat silk screening method but before the flat silk is used, the bud is subjected to a grating process. The grate is usually made from tough nylon or stainless steel and is of equal proportion in pore size to the silk screen. By first using the metal grate, you can remove more matter from the bud than the single silk screen would. The bud matter that passes through the metal screen can then be sieved through the silk screen by shaking the screen back and forth over a glass surface. You end up with two grades of sieved bud residue this way.

Multiple Screening Method
This is a refined version of the above two methods. Any number of screens can be used in this method but the average is four or five. Each screen running from start to finish should have a different micron measurement starting from the largest and running down to the smallest silk screen. The bud matter is sieved through the first screen, then down onto the second screen. The process is repeated with each new screen until most of the matter has passed through. You should end up with several screens that contain bud matter running down to the finer trichomes on the last screen. This is an excellent way to achieve the best results. You end up with several screens each containing different qualities of cannabis residue.

Advanced Screening
Now that you have an idea of what screening is about, we can look at it in closer detail. The following advanced technique can be applied to all of the above screening methods.
We stated that a metal or nylon screen could be used first, followed by a silk screen. Nowadays steel fabrics can be bought in sizes that have much smaller pores than even the finest silk screen. You should typically look for a metal or nylon screen that ranges somewhere between 100 to 140 lines per inch. The screen most commonly used by home hash makers has 120 lines per inch. A wooden frame is constructed to hold the screen in place and can be glued or nailed into position.
Take four small wooden blocks and place them over a sheet of glass or a mirror.

Place the screen over the blocks, leaving a gap of an inch between the mirror and the screen. Place a small amount of skuff on the screen and gently role it back and forth across the screen using a credit card or similar object. Do this very gently, over and back, over and back and over and back with very little pressure. You may have to push the skuff as many as a hundred times before you can see the tiny resin glands gather on the mirror below.

Once you have collected as many resin glands as possible, use the card to sweep them off the mirror and onto another surface. Take the used skuff and, this time; apply a bit more pressure as you roll it back and forth across the screen. With this little bit of extra force you'll be able to remove any resin glands that didn't fall through the first time, but you may also push through some material, such as branch shavings and cannabis leaf particles. This second round of pressing will result in a lower quality grade of skuff.
Skuff is skuff; from the time you cure your trim to the point where you sieve it through, it is still skuff. Your objective is to try and collect as much resin from the skuff as possible. You won't end up with hash, but you will end up with different grades of skuff that can be used to make hash later.

You can smoke the different grades of skuff there and then, but you may notice that it's hard to do so. Since this powder is so fine, it will easily fall from a joint or pass through the pores of a pipe screen. In order to solve this problem you must compress the skuff into hashish. This is covered later in the Chapter, after we've outlined three other advanced extraction techniques.

Drum Machines
A drum machine is an automatic screening device. You will probably have to build one yourself, but this is easy enough to do with the right materials. The size of the unit depends on how much cannabis you wish to sieve at a time. Most drum machines have a 1.5- to 2-foot diameter.

The screen is placed in between the two wooden cylinders and the cannabis trim is placed inside this screen. A small motor attached to the side rotates the drum. As it slowly rotates (at a rate of about two rotations per minute), the trichomes drop through the sieve onto the surface stand between the legs of the drum. A simple mirror or sheet of glass is used to catch the skuff. You can keep the tumbler rotating for up to one hour to get the most from your skuff without applying any pressure.

If you want to apply more pressure, simply place a small wooden ball (or anything that is slightly heavy with a smooth, rounded surface) inside the barrel of the drum. As the drum rotates, the object inside will add a little more pressure to the skuff as it comes in contact with the screen. Different sized screens can be used to extract different qualities of skuff.

BASIC WATER EXTRACTION
Resin glands can be removed from the cannabis plant by agitating the trim in cold water â?? typically ice cold water or water that has been chilled in a fridge overnight. The trim is placed in a bucket, which is then filled with cold water. The water and trim are swirled and mixed with a wooden spoon or an electric whisk. Let the mixture sit for a few minutes before scooping out the skuff floating on the surface. The remaining liquid is strained through a coffee sieve to collect most of the trichomes, as they won't pass through with the water. Let the coffee sieve dry and you've got excellent grade trichomes extract to use to make hash (how to make hash the right way). The basic idea behind this is that cold water breaks the glands away from the marijuana leaf matter. The glands eventually sink to the bottom of the bucket because they are heavier than water. The bulk cannabis leaf matter should stay afloat and can be easily scooped away.

ADVANCED WATER EXTRACTION
Developed by Bubble Bags, www.bubblebag.com, in Vancouver this is an excellent kit that results in some of the best quality hash. The kits come in four variations: one gallon - seven bag kit, five gallon - seven bag kit, twenty gallon -seven bag kits and five gallon - three bag kit. Whichever one you buy it will certainly be one of your best investments.

SUPERCRITICAL FLUID EXTRACTION
The ultimate way of making high quality hash oil with butane.
Solvents can also be used to extract raw cannabis oil from harvested cannabis flowers. Raw cannabis oil contains:
â?¢ Psychoactive cannabinoids in high percentages
â?¢ Plant tissue in low percentages
â?¢ Chlorophyll in low percentages
â?¢ Trace elements in low percentages (non-psychoactive water soluble matter)
Raw cannabis oil is best extracted from highly resinous strains like the Afghani cannabis plant. Strains that have a semi-dry or dry floral trait should not be considered candidates for cannabis oil extraction because the amount of oil extracted does not necessarily justify the procedure, although the end material is a very high-grade form of hash oil. With these dry strains you may have to perform the extraction process several times before a substantial amount of psychoactive oil is produced. Like any other cannabinoid extraction process, you are better off using a resinous strain to rationalize the end results.
Isopropyl, ethanol and acetone used to be popular solvents for hash oil extraction but the process for each one is time consuming, costly and material-intensive. They often result in smaller amounts of lower grade than you hoped for. There is a much easier and more affordable way to enjoy a purer form of cannabis oil. The process known as butane extraction produces better results in a much shorter time frame.

Butane extraction is the most popular form of raw hash oil extraction because it is based on an industrial process known as SFE (supercritical fluid extraction) and is very easy to perform. You should only use butane fuels that are recommended for flameless lighters (jet torch will also do). These types of butane are much cleaner and extract raw hash oil better than other butane fuel types that you commonly find at the drugstore or fuel depot. A good tobacconist shop should stock flameless lighter butane.

Butane is a very good solvent for hash oil extraction because it separates cannabis oils from most other useless plant/bud matter. This type of filtered oil is sometimes nicknamed ^Hash Honey Oil' because the results are like an amber honey. SFE can produce very fine and pure cannabis oil from resinous strains. It simply separates cannabis oils from plant tissue, chlorophyll and the other trace elements that we find in most raw hash oils. You can imagine the final weight of the butane extracted oil to be the equivalent of the total weight of anything sticky or oily on the plant separated from the rest of it.

Once you have obtained the butane, you need a pipe that measures 1.5 to 2.0 inches in diameter, is 16 to 24 inch long and is made from either polypropylene (PP) or polyethylene (PE). Basically, the bigger the pipe, the more bud it can hold. Do not use PVC piping because it can be a health hazard. Either PP or PE piping works best and can be found in any good DIY store. Each end of the pipe will need a cap. You should be able to get some PP or PE caps at a home improvement store or someone can make them for you. If you cannot find any suitable caps, you can try using large bottle caps and 'blue tackâ?? to hold them in place.

You need a stand to hold this pipe. A lab stand is perfect for the job but anything that will hold the pipe up off the ground is fine. You also need a filter. An extremely fine cloth filter, like a bandage wrap with pores or fine pipe gauze, will work well. Any filter that will allow oil to drop through but leave the plant matter in the pipe is ideal. Coffee filters will not work very well unless they have a large pore size. You also need a clear plastic measuring cup, a clean wooden stick (like a medical tongue depressor) and some nicely manicured bud. You should be able to use 1 oz or more of bud in the above pipe design.
In the diagram below you can see the parts in alignment without the stand. The parts are as follows: 1) Butane canister, 2) Top cap with hole for canister, 3) Tube for holding the bud, 4) Filter, 5) Bottom cap with perforations, 6) Cup to catch the oil and butane.

The whole unit should snap into place as follows.
NOTE: Butane is a fuel and will combust when ignited by anything like a spark. If you do not have a professional SFE unit with the proper ventilation, then use butane SFE extraction carefully, outdoors, away from any buildings and other people. Avoid inhaling butane or the exhaust from butane extraction by wearing a facemask.
PROCEDURE:
1. Drill a hole in the end of the first cap that allows the nozzle of the butane canister to fit neatly into it.
2. Drill six small holes near the center of the second cap.
3. Place the filter in this second cap.
4. Attach the second cap to the pipe.

HOW TO MAKE HASH
5. Fill up the pipe extremely loosely (never cram it in) with finely ground bud.
6. Attach the first, or top, cap to the pipe.
7. Mount your pipe on your stand and place it over your clean measuring cup.
8. Open the butane can and turn it upside down placing the nozzle in the top cap. Fill the pipe up slowly, allowing the butane to draw the oils down through the tube.
Butane Filter
9. Remove the butane canister when its weight stops decreasing (meaning it is empty) and move a safe distance away.
10. Wait fifteen to twenty minutes before approaching the apparatus even if the top cap has given up any viable signs of fume release. The butane should have evaporated away, leaving an oil/butane mixture in the cup.
11. Open the top cap to allow all fumes to escape. Butane will still be active in the cup and bud in the pipe so leave these two alone for another twenty minutes. The remaining oil in the cup is raw hash oil with some butane.
12. Any remaining butane can be evaporated by placing the cup into a dish of hot water.
13. You now have made raw hash oil. It should be ready to smoke in a few hours.

Tips for butane extraction
I have heard of numerous SFE accidents caused with butane. All of them happened the same way. Most SFE butane extraction accidents occur when the pipe is full of bud and butane is dripping down into the cup below. Any flame, spark or ignition will cause that butane to become unstable. Almost all of the accidents I have heard about occurred because a flame or spark ignited the butane. In most cases it was a smoker who caused this. Do not smoke when you are performing SFE with butane, period. If you can do that then butane extraction is actually one of safest methods of hash oil extraction available to the home grower.

During the SFE process the butane must be left alone to drain down into the plastic cup along with the raw hash oils that it collects on the way down. Vapor and fumes will come out through the top of the cap and the cup.

After about fifteen minutes, most of the butane will have passed through. There may be some remaining butane/oil extract near the filter and end cap but forcing this through (by blowing, tapping or pushing) into the tube may add unwanted matter to your extract. A brief shake is all that is needed to help the remainder into the cup. Use the wooden stick to wipe away any oil/butane mixture from the base of the filter. This butane/oil extract in the pipe and cup is still part of the SFE process and the butane will continue to evaporate.

Butane has a low boiling point (even evaporates at room temperature) and if you need to boil off any excess butane in the cup simply place the cup into a bowl of hot water (not boiling!) and watch the butane evaporate. This is why butane extraction is best done outdoors. Butane will eventually evaporate into the atmosphere instead of into your home where it can become a fire hazard. You should eventually be left with an amber-colored substance in the cup. This is your high-grade hash oil!

The butane should be completely evaporated by heating the cup of raw hash oil/butane in hot water. Your high-grade hash oil is sticky to touch and best smoked in small quantities because of its quality. Oil is best enjoyed by placing a small glob of oil on some foil and heating the foil lightly from beneath, causing the oil to boil and vaporize. This vapor should be then consumed using a Pyrex straw (plastic straws burn and inhaling burning plastic is not good). As a note: Cannabis oil is an excellent format for medicinal use because it is very pure. By vaporizing cannabis oil, the user can enjoy a pure form of cannabis without carbon monoxide.

Here are some other tips for butane extraction:
â?¢ After you remove the hash oil from the cup you can use some isopropyl (90 percent minimum content) to collect any residual oil that may by still in the cup. Add a small amount of isopropyl to your cup and swirl it around. Heat the cup at a very low heat (less than 200 degrees to avoid THC evaporation) to evaporate the isopropyl, leaving the remaining hash oil collected from the rim of the cup.
â?¢ You can perform a second extraction using the same procedure with the used bud to remove any excess oil that is still left in the bud. The bud should be mostly devoid of any cannabinoid compounds and should be disposed of.
â?¢ A slow release of butane into the pipe allows sufficient time for the SFE to take place, improving the quality of the process and the final amount. Try not to force all your butane in too quickly.
â?¢ The butane you use must be as pure as possible. Bottled butane is usually mixed with chemicals so that when it leaks you smell it. These chemicals can interfere with the butane/cannabis SFE process.
â?¢ Use a bud grinder to make sure that your bud is powered down as much as possible. The finer the mix the better the extraction results.
â?¢ You should be able to get between 5 and 10 grams of hash oil for every 1 oz of good quality resinous bud that you use.
â?¢ You can also process leaf or trim using butane SFE. You can expect about 0.5 to 2 grams of hash oil for every 1 oz of trim used. This depends on the quality of the trim.

PRESSING RESIN INTO HASH
Again, the quality of the resin glands will determine the quality of hash that you will smoke. In the first chapter we talked about Zero. Recall that hashish can be graded, based on quality, from high (00) to low (3). This is calculated based on a simple ratio of cannabinoids to vegetable material. Good quality hashish has a high ratio of cannabinoids to vegetable material. In Morocco, 00 is used to describe hash that has the highest level of cannabinoids to vegetable material achieved by the extraction process. You can well imagine that this is the finest resin available compressed into hashish. You may be pleased to know that compressing hashish is simple.

Take your extracted resin glands and put it into a cellophane bag. Fold it into a flat block shape and tape the ends of the cellophane to create the package. Try to create the best flat block you can by pressing it with your hands to make it more even. Using a pin, make a few holes on both sides of the bag. One hole per square inch is a good measurement to go by.

Get two or three newspaper pages and dampen them down with a clean cloth that has just been rinsed. Don't saturate or break the paper, just dampen it. Set an iron to low heat and place the newspaper over the cellophane bag. Hold the iron over the paper and press it down with medium pressure for about fifteen seconds. Turn the bag over and place the newspaper on top again. Dampen the paper again, as needed. Repeal the pressure for the same amount of lime. You should only have to do this once or twice per side.
Let the bag cool for five minutes and remove the cellophane. You should have a nice block of hash. In addition, your hash will be of a much better quality than the street hash you find on the market. Street hash tends to be made from the less fine skuff material in order to make more blocks of hash. If you smoke homemade hash then you'll probably understand why 90 percent of street hash is sold at rip-off prices. Those big ounce chunks probably only contain 10 percent of the good stuff, if any at all!

This technique of screening and pressing is used to make hash in many countries. As you can imagine, in order to produce bulk amounts you would need to use a lot of skuff in conjunction with numerous drum machines working around the clock. If you harvest more than ten plants then it is worth using one of two to make a nice chunk of hash or some oil for yourself. Since good homemade hash is devoid of marijuana leaf matter and other foreign elements it is a very pure smoke which guarantees a hit every time. Cannabis connoisseurs regard homemade hash as one of the best ways of getting the 'best' from the plant. Treat yourself to a little homemade hash at harvest time if you can. It is well worth the experience and who knows, you may just decide to produce a load of homemade hash instead of bud! Give it a whirl â?? you should be pleased with the results.

[brookerosebud]

wow, what a thread!!

[trichome city area]

You need to credit this work to "Greg Green" the author of, the Cannabis Grow Bible, The definative guide to growing marijuana for recreational and medical use...he wrote the book Princess...

[kindprincess]

it is mentioned in the beginning of the thread that these excerpts are "directly" from marijuanahydro.com. i took the time to organize that info into a thread (several, actually) here, for all to have quick reference to. thanks to bobbong, this thread now is consolidated and has table of contents.

my sole intent when performing this task was to help others. should i be faulted? or should i continue to spread the word that this info is here and available?

[kindprincess]

OFFICIAL DISCLAIMER

I DID NOT WRITE THIS GUIDE. I PUT SEVERAL ARTICLES FROM ONE WEBSITE TOGETHER, IN A DIFFERENT ORDER. I HAVE, HOWEVER READ ALL OF THESE ARTICLES AT LEAST ONCE, AND HAVE PUT ONLY THOSE THAT I DEEMED HELPFUL IN THIS THREAD. I DO NOT, NOR HAVE I EVER INTENDED TO TAKE CREDIT FOR THESE WORKS.

kp