Trouble reading today's article? Click here: Issue #541 - Sunday, September 4, 2022 Dear Fellow
Grower, In today's issue... - Cannabis conferences have lots of good information, but they have two major issues: They cost a lot and they're boring! Imagine if you could get all the info of a 3-day information conference condensed into one way-more-entertaining newsletter...and for
free! That's what you're getting today, and friends, believe me when I say we had to pay the price to bring you this piping hot batch of cannabis information.
- How long does it take to grow weed? 3-5 months on average, but it depends a bit on your strain, setup, and goals. Today I share a tutorial to break it down, plus an infographic I made!
- This week, we're all taking a step
into a green wonderland. Some of our fantastic readers sent in pictures of their outdoors plants that all seem to be about the same age and although that sounds like it has the potential to be boring, it's freaking awesome instead! Check out the Trophy Pics in the appropriate section below and I bet you'll also be impressed by the fine works of our readers.
Nebula Haze & Sirius
Fourside (founders of GrowWeedEasy.com) "Forward, as occasion offers. Never look round to see whether any shall note it... Be satisfied with success in even the smallest matter, and think that even such a result is no trifle." ~Marcus Aurelius
I Went to A Cannabis Conference So You Don't Have To... 👩🏫➕🏫➡🌳
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As I mentioned last week, Sirius and I recently attended the Cannabis Conference in Las Vegas. This enormous annual marijuana event featured hundreds of plant-touching cannabis businesses and involved 3 days of classes about numerous subjects related to running a cannabis business or grow operation. With so many talented growers under one
roof sharing their knowledge and experience, I knew I had to attend. I was certain I’d learn new cannabis-growing discoveries by industry growers and be able to share the latest knowledge with home growers who unfortunately rarely get access to that kind of information. I sat through 3 days of classes and talked to scores of growers so you don’t have to. I’m so glad we went because I learned a lot. I confirmed theories and dispelled myths. Anyone who reads our weekly newsletter knows that we run a lot of side-by-side home growing experiments and I’m excited to learn that commercial growers are
getting many of the same results as us. So without further ado, I’d like to share some of the most significant information I learned that is relevant to home growers. This knowledge will help you take your cannabis garden to the next level because the fact is, home growers can produce better cannabis buds than a dispensary if they have the right information and use the right equipment. 1.) THC or CBD Percentage
– How do you increase it? This is something we’ve been testing lately at GrowWeedEasy.com, and findings from commercial growers seem to nearly all agree with our results.
How are growers increasing the percentage of THC and other cannabinoids in their buds? This seems to be the overwhelming consensus when it comes to increasing THC and other cannabinoids: - #1 Factor is genetics – a plant can only produce as much THC or CBD as its genetic potential. In order to produce high-THC or high-CBD. This is pretty standard knowledge, but the growers I spoke to re-iterated this over and
over.
- Light intensity is key – Higher light intensity is associated with higher THC in buds (unfortunately I wasn’t able to confirm whether this is true for CBD). This confirms recent findings we’ve had in our side-by-side experiments.
- THC levels are greater on the buds higher up on the plant – I have found this to be true, but I thought it was because buds near the top get more light. I spoke with one grower who had been conducting tests. He
explained they used supplemental side lighting to determine if they could get lower buds to produce as much THC as upper buds, but the location of the buds still had an effect. Even if the lower buds got the same amount of light, the upper buds were still more potent in lab tests. I got this information from just one grower, so I’d take this with a grain of salt for now. But this is definitely an area I plan to investigate further with lab testing.
- Light type makes a
difference – HPS vs LEC vs LEDs can all affect cannabinoid percentages even if everything else is the same. However, more study is needed, as different strains seem to respond best to different light types. HPS is consistent for producing high cannabinoids, LEC is relatively consistent for producing higher terpenes, and LEDs vary greatly depending on the particular model, form factor, and spectrum.
- Light spectrum makes a difference – I already suspected this
from previous tests. For example, whenever I grow with HLG R-spec lights, I seem to get higher levels of THC than growing those strains under some other types of lights. At the conference, I had multiple growers confirm light spectrum makes a difference to cannabinoid production. The problem…. it depends on the strain. For example, some
strains tend to produce higher levels of THC but lower yields if they receive a lot of far-red in the light spectrum. But other strains get lower yields without the increase in THC. Part of why this can be such a confusing topic to test is that every strain is different. We will definitely be investigating this in more detail.
- Strategic defoliation in the flowering stage seems to increase THC percentage – We recently found this ourselves in a defoliation side-by-side experiment, but I had this idea confirmed by more than one grower. Every major commercial grow operation I spoke to uses defoliation in the flowering stage as part of their plant care.
- Stress the last 1-2 weeks before harvest seems to increase THC – Many growers I spoke with have a strategy of trying to keep
plants perfectly green and healthy until about 2 weeks before harvest. Then growers do things like lower the humidity below 40% RH, increase air circulation to the point that branches may start waving around a little (not too much as too much wind can damage trichomes), and other stressors to improve bud quality, increase the amount of purple, and potentially increase THC. We recently ran an experiment on a 3-day dark period before harvest, which found that the THC seemed to increase after plants were left in the dark for 3 days, though it was a last-minute experiment without a clone as a control plant. We will be doing another experiment on the 3-day dark period with clones, and after the conference, probably be testing other types of pre-harvest stress as well. However, too much stress
will hurt yields and may discolor or damage buds (no one wants brown burnt buds), so it’s important to be strategic and avoid going overboard.
I thought this was interesting and possibly worth looking into: - Buds that get too big may “dilute” the cannabinoid percentage – A plant biologist conducted experiments with light intensity. He kept increasing light levels while keeping cannabis plants healthy. He found higher light
levels increased THC and yields… to a point. After a certain amount of light, the percentage of THC actually started going down in buds even though the yields continued to increase. He suspected that this is due to dilution. It makes me wonder… could it actually be that too much light is the culprit? Or is he right that buds reach a point where they’re making more mass but not more THC? And if it’s that the buds are getting too big, what is the “ideal” size of buds, and does
that vary from strain to strain? So many questions…
Does it decrease THC percentage if buds get too big? It's possible… 2.) Yields – How do you increase it? Every cannabis grower wants the best yields. What have growers discovered about improving yields? Keep reading to learn how to increase yields, plus what growers are saying about nutrients and supplements, surprising developments about bugs and viruses and several other interesting tidbits of growing information!
Electric Sky ES300 LED Cannabis Grow Setup & Tutorial
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I've tried a few different LED grow lights and so far the Electric Sky ES300 is my favorite all-around light. It produces fast healthy growth, and big yields, yet seems much less likely to stress out cannabis plants than other LEDs I've tried. The only downside is it is heavier than most LEDs, which doesn't matter once after you've hung it in your grow tent. Since I like it so much I put together a guide on how to get set up with one to get the best results.
Check it out!
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How Long Does It Take to Grow Weed Indoors? [3 to 5 months]
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This is one of the most common questions we receive from curious soon-to-be indoor cannabis growers: How long does it really take to grow weed? What’s the growing timeline? It’s actually a really good question! Every new marijuana grower should know how much work they’re signing up for! The short answer is… The Average Indoor Cannabis Grow Takes 3-5
Months Check out this article to learn more!
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"Have a blessed day and look forward to all your guys advice that you all provide the community." ~John Every day feels a bit more blessed when you grow your own weed 😂 ~Sirius
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"Love your content! I've learned everything from you guys! On my 3rd run!" ~Lola I'm glad to hear it, make sure to send us pics and show us how your 3rd run goes 📸 ~Sirius "Excellent issue!" ~Jeffrey I'm glad you liked it. We think this week's issue is pretty tasty too,
so make sure to check out the whole article. ~Sirius
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"Major Stamen to ground control, I planted this in the ground AFTER I defoliated it many times, and tied stems down, then I unleashed her to Mother Nature, but I still defoliated and tied down. Although her trichomes HEADS are cloudy, I would like to fatten her up like big ears of corn for the winter ahead. I do NOT want to crop too early ! I appreciate you two." ~Major Stamen (To
the tune of David Bowies "Space Oddity") Ground control to Major Stamen: Your plants looks healthy and the pictures are spot on 🚀📸👨🎤 ~Sirius
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"Somewhere in the hills of New York, a flower grows...actually oodles and oodles of flowers!" ~Mr.
K As Mark Twain wrote, "There's gold in them thar hills!" 🌳🌄🌳~Sirius "Before and after; defoliation was done in week 2 of flowering" ~grampawookiee They look fantastic after a plucking. I'm anxious to see how they turn out! ~Sirius
Don't Let Scammers Get You Down!
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This is me answering my 10th "warranty spam" call this week.
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"Hi, we're calling about your car's extended warranty!" We've all received the "extended warranty" spam call a few times. In fact, it's one of the most prevalent robocall scams operating today, next to Amazon and Microsoft scams. Although it seems like no one would fall for it, we all still get these calls because they work on enough people for it to be profitable. We can keep ourselves and
each other safe by remembering that some scammers aren't after you personally, and by helping to protect those that they are targeting. According to the US credit agency, Experian, Gen-X, Millennials, and Gen-Z are scammed most frequently while Baby Boomers are scammed for the most money.
Together, we can become an inter-generation, anti-scam team by keeping those around us safe from these life-destroying tricks! Remember when it comes to buying seeds: Real seed businesses don't contact you. They let you contact them. If anyone messages you to sell you seeds on social media, look out! It's possible they will take your payment and send nothing. Always take a
second to think before sending money to anyone, especially if they contact you (whether by DM, text message, phone call, email, etc.). Recommended Cannabis Seed Sources
These sources have gotten great reviews from our readers:
- Seed Supreme – California, United States
- ILGM (I Love Growing Marijuana) – California, United States
- Herbies Seeds – Europe (seemingly out of the UK and Spain)
We encourage you to forward this email to a friend in need!
GrowWeedEasy.com has hundreds and hundreds of pages! Check out some articles you may not have seen... Nebula’s Cannabis Grow Journals & Experiments (Side-by-Side Tests) - Nebula is a testing machine. She couldn't stop doing side-by-side experiments even if she wanted to! This page details all of her documented grows up to date, and the list will keep growing as Nebula keeps
thinking of new crazy things to try. And since every test gives her ideas for ten more tests, I think this page has a lot more content coming. Nebula’s Cannabis Defoliation Experiment - This experiment has been surprising. It's not that the results are totally unexpected, it's just weird to do the tests and see how it unfolds in real life. I got to see the whole thing unfold over months as the grow progressed, but you get to check it all out in a few minutes with some weed and/or coffee. Does a 3-Day Dark Period Before Harvest Increase THC? - Never mind what I said about the last page, THIS one was surprising. I've been growing cannabis for over a decade and I always thought this was a just a myth, but this test run by Nebula is definitely making the idea seem more legitimate. More tests to come!
Check Out Our Grow Community!
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Check out our friendly growing community to ask questions, discuss your grow, share pictures, or otherwise talk about growing cannabis with other real growers!
Ask Questions & Talk with Other Growers!
Please note: We let each person in manually, so please be patient after you request to join. We'll let you in as soon as possible!!
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Who Runs This
Newsletter? |
Nebula Haze:
When I first started growing, I struggled. Now, it is my mission to make it easy for new growers to get started while helping advanced growers get bigger, better yields with less time and money. We update/add articles every week. Anyone and everyone can grow if they want to!
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Learn which seed sources are recommended by Nebula Haze |
Sirius Fourside:
Sirius Fourside is a hobbyist grower who has gained the bulk of his experience growing in water as a medium (deep water culture, bubbleponics).
"Growing cannabis can be a relaxing hobby in and of itself, but it also saves you money and keeps you from having to deal with shady characters. Cannabis is much easier to grow than people give it credit for, and growing in water doesn't increase the difficulty much, if any. But whether you want to grow in water, coco, or a different medium, we'll show you how easy it can be!"
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Disclaimer: Grow Weed Easy only recommends products that we've either personally checked out ourselves, or that come from people we know and trust. For doing so, we may receive a commission. Nothing in this e-mail should be considered personalized Financial, Legal, or Medical Advice. The contributors to this magazine grow
legally under their local laws but are not lawyers or medical professionals. Any decision to grow marijuana should only be made after consulting with an experienced lawyer or other legal adviser. Any medical decisions should only be made after speaking with a doctor. Be safe!
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Date: September 10, 2022
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