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For adults only. Soft Secrets is published six times a year by Discover Publisher BV Netherlands - Issue 2 - 2006

An indoor grow space in your outdoor garden Underworld

The pilot who landed in jail The ideal cross and the best conditions for raising it Made in Holland Lots of products Reader’s photos And much, much more…

Malcolm Lowry Strain Guide Jack Herer

Get up & Grow

Dear SSUK

Grapefruit

Strain Reports

Soft Secrets

Editorial

Green Leaf Legalization campaigners have often been accused of living in Cloud Cuckoo Land if they believe the herb is ever going to gain legal acceptance via the usual democratic process. But events in Israel of all places suggest that, within a proportional representation system at least, it might happen. There is excitement among young, urban, secular Israelis as SSUK goes to press with pollsters saying pro-pot party Green Leaf could win two seats in the 120-member Knesset in the March 28 election. The party, whose platform includes legalizing marijuana, gambling and prostitution, has twice come close to gaining access to the halls of power. In 2003, it was just 7,000 votes short of a place in parliament. This time they promise to break through. The party’s past election campaigns have included a jingle with the national anthem played over a house beat. During Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza last summer, they recommended settlers roll up a joint and relax. Leader Boaz Wachtel says the prospect of his party getting into parliament is no a pipedream. “If I didn’t think we had a chance of getting into the Knesset, I wouldn’t be wasting my time,” he told Associated Press. He said his party represents an alternative culture of people who care about the environment, civil rights and personal freedom. But he acknowledged that weed is the great unifier for his rainbow coalition: “The common denominator is the love of cannabis.” With a dovish attitude toward Palestinians, Green Leaf has remained firmly on the fringes, and public opinion experts say legalization of marijuana is not a campaign issue in Israel. According to a recent survey, only 16 percent of Israelis say they had tried soft drugs.

Page 3 Girl Power Plant ® Powerplant (mostly Sativa) was developed in 1997 from new South African genetics. This strain has been inbred only, never hybridised. Very rich in THC. It is a strain with an enormous grow potential. Indoor as well as in a greenhouse the plants have an enormous yield. Indoors flowering starts already one week after turning back the lightcycle to 12 hours. Outdoor, flowering starts late, but the plants ripen very fast. This variety is very uniform. Strong “up high”, very soft smoke.

THC: 15% Flowering period: 8 weeks Harvest time outdoor: 2nd week Oct.

47-year-old Wachtel is hardly your typical hippie. Educated in the U.S., he is a respected lecturer on the Middle East water crisis. In the 1980s, he was the assistant to the military attaché at the Israeli embassy in Washington, and served on a team of Israeli representatives to Ronald Reagan’s ‘Star Wars’ program. It was there he first became interested in alternative drug-abuse treatment, and in 1999 he established Green Leaf. He stressed his party does not promote drug use, only its Dutch-style decriminalization, enabling a growing number of cannabis plants for personal use, or buying it at special shops located in industrial areas, open only in the evening hours.

Table of contents From the editor Page 3 girl Dear Soft Secrets Product Flash Weckels: The ideal cross Column Joe Kane Strain Report Malcolm Lowry Shop reviews Indoor/outdoor Weckels outdoor Cannabis Investments Product Flash extra PC Games What happened to weed Jorge Cervantes Poster: Peacemaker International growers White Pearl Seeds Hot Wax Made in Holand The Greenhouse Report Grapefruit, part II Strain Report Column LazyStrain Basel LSD Symposium Report: Meth Underworld Column Dr. Dee Extra products News from the UKCIA Trimmed for you Ganja Man comic Colofon Index of ads

3 3 5 13 21 22 23 26 29 30 33 38 39 41 43 46 50 53 54 55 56 58 61 62 65 67 67 68 70 73 73 75 77 90 94 94

Israel is no stranger to political fringe parties. Other candidates vying for parliament this year include an ex-spy chief representing pensioners, a fishmonger and a puppeteer campaigning to do away with bank fees for transactions. In the past, single-issue parties have also run, but none has got as close, or attracted as much attention as Green Leaf. To gauge how political pressure is fairing in this country, the Legalize Cannabis Alliance held its seventh annual conference at the University of East Anglia in Norwich on March 18. Besides delegates and candidates from across the country, speakers will include former smuggler Howard “Mr. Nice” Marks and “Cannabis Gran” Pat Tabram, just days after the start of her trial. Good luck to her, and if anyone went to the conference, do let us know the highlights. While we’re bigging up, let us pay our respects to the loss of a long-time member of the stoner community: Sir Paul McCartney. He’s fine BTW; but at wife Heather’s insistence he’s said to have knocked his toking on the head after 40odd years. He’d been given an ultimatum by Ms. Mills back in 2002 prior to their wedding. “Him and Linda smoked it every day for the whole of their lives together,” Mills McCartney revealed,” but I would not get married to him if he was taking drugs. I hate it.” The former model was keen on Macca to set a good example for his family. Like, being a much-loved gazillionaire dope smoker and survivor of the Sixties was not a good enough example. Jeez, these straights…

Original breeder: Dutch Passion

Soft Secrets

Readers Stu ff PoBox 17250, 1001 JG, Amsterdam, Holland or E-mail SSUK@softsecrets.nl

Dear Soft Secrets

Bubblegum; easy to grow, looks good, smells amazin, and is one of the best smokes. DWC Hydro grow using Hesi nutes, HPS lighting, and 10wk 5days in flower! P., Wales

John, Norfolk Big fat fucker, this one… (The plant that is). Well done!

Bolton Budhead Excellent looking plant, fine strong stem… But we’re a bit dissapointed. Why didn’t the missus take ‘em out for the lads here?

Hi Guys, Here’s a Northern Lights Cross, grown in a 15ltr Autopot with a coco soil mix and under a 600wt HPS. A little bit of nute burn from Big Bud and yield reduced because the flexible airstone in the aircage blocked. I’ve now made larger holes with a pin and this should sort it out for the next grow. However they’re still frosting up nicely and will be chopped next week. Zippy Hey there, sweet cheecks… We love your butt first and foremost and then we love your very stable pot. In such a pot roots can develop in a very healthy way.

This crop went very well and these two ladies were harvested at 8 1/2 weeks 1 Sensi Star and 1 White Widow grown in compost under 2x250watt HP lamps. R&A, Ireland Looks like a Power Plant to us, this. Why? Because of the ‘warths’ on the flowers. PP is used by thousands of growers as a cross breed.

Attention Guerilla Growers! Dear Soft Secrets, Here are some photos of my Chronic which is in its 8th week of flower. Will need another week til harvest. Grown in 11lt. pots using Canna coco with Canna Aqua Flores, Dr Hornby’s Big Bud and Carbo Load and watered every other day by hand. Grew 9 beauties from seed, with the same great results.Wish I had taken some cuttings now! Gonna buy more seeds as this is a fantastic strain. Didn’t feel confident using coco but will continue to use it now for sure with these cracking results. Keep up the good work SSUK! Wouldn’t have been able to do it without you. Andy, Newcastle Dude, why don’t you drink Heineken instead of that cheap local piss?

Fancy a FREE packet of High Quality Seeds? Then send us a picture of your garden, including a visible copy of SSUK, and we’ll send you the seeds. BUT: should your garden happen to feature your topless girlfriend or wife, you even get a pack of Black Label stock, the label of the champions! NEW! Editor’s choice of the month will receive 3 packs of choice of prime Black Label stock, so you better start snappin’ away! Send all entries to Soft Secrets, PO Box 17250, 1001 JG, Amsterdam, Holland, or e-mail them to SSUK@softsecrets.nl NOTE: All entries are handled with the utmost discretion. We don’t publish out of focus pics, and we don’t like photos of plants in veg stage. It’s fat buds & hot tits (or ass!) we want to see!

Soft Secrets

Here’s one of my 10 AK48, 44 days into bloom. This is my second time growing AK, fucking love this plant. Hey maybe next harvest I’ll pursuade my missus to get them out. Maybe bribe her with cash, that would work... The Green Brothers Hey, you can bribe most women with hard cash… If it doesn’t work try the “Honey, I love you”- scam.

Sent in by the good elf of www.hotpotpixie.com

Hello Soft Secrets Here is our first crop together. What a pair of beauties!! One on the right is California Orange Bud, unsure of the other. Both grown organically on B’cuzz under 800watts. Hugo Hugo, the leaves are curling up, that means the temperature is too high. The plant tries to vaporise humidity to avoid overheating. 33°C. is really a maximum temperature in any grow room. But try to keep it safe at 27°C.

Not sure what her name is… Sorry luv!

Dear Soft Secrets. I hope you like my Blue Moonshine. They have suffered salt burns and recovered nicely. I have tumours on my spinal cord and the relief I get is almost miraculous but the system still wants to drug me up with morphine. I’m sorry there are no tits (no one wants to get them out for a bloke in a wheelchair), but some good medicinal seeds that could touch my pain would be appreciated. I used to soley rely on the doctors for my medicine then one day I got hold of some cannabis resin and it was as if a midget was inside me untying all my knots aswell as stopping a lot of pain, I could physically feel my stomach changing shape. I have spent many years tensing my whole body up every time my spine went into extremely painful spasms, sending many sciatic pains down my legs. Come on all you politicians; tell me to my face to suffer! A. from Warwickshire Looking fairly well, dude!

Firstly, a massive load of big ups to all the Soft Secrets crew for a top newspaper. You lot are SAYING it. Trust. Well, heres a well wet 1 for you. Its Armageddon, 4 weeks into flower, nourished on Sensi Bloom only, and flushed with Atazim on a drip-feed system in Coco peat Medium. There was 40 plants in a 1m x 2m area with 4 x 600w lighting and managed 102 ounces. This beautiful lady blazes wicked and is the buzz word on the streets of Robin Hood county. As we say, “ dis ting is PENG!!”. (“Peng”, derived from ‘Cushunpeng’, as in, ‘pass the cushunpeng, pass it over’, from the legendary reggae artist Frankie Paul. It means ‘stinking weed’ ). Peace! Junglemaniac, Notts A tidy and very good looking grow room. The plants are grown on a plateau, so that they don’t touch the cold and windy floor. The table is not placed totally straight, so that redundant water drains to the drainage system (at right in the photo). There’s plenty of space for the grower to tend to his ladies. And nets help cope the plants with their buds. All in all: top job, guys!

Soft Secrets

Greetings from cold Finland, the land of Santa Claus! This christmas Santa Claus didn’t remember us with toys.This christmas was the best of em ever. As you can see on the picture I have been working really hard all winter here before christmas.. And as you see in that picture my bathroom reminds everyone of a jungle..I can’t even bath properly coz the bathroom is so full of plants. FinSaM Hey dude, you better take a dump somewhere else. Your ladies do not like your aroma…

Hello friends! This is me with my first outdoor grow! I put one nice White Widow outside in a styrofoam 30 liter container and fed it with fresh spring water and Hesi ferts using your fine guidance. It ended up having 3 huge heads with multiple tops, looked like a MIRV missle. Natalia (Spain) What the fuck is a MIRV missile and how come you know? Your leaves are turning yellow, add calcium to the substrate!

Here are some super sexy shot’s of some awsome buds and the plants are NLxShiva. Grown 1200w with 1400 cm. out and 700 cm intake. Keep the nice even in the warmest summers. Carbon filter 1 meter and all the toys helped to make some super tight super dank nug’s. I love the mag and get every issue I can find in the growshops and coffeeshops. Crash, Holland Bubble boobs Airbags are a very good idea to carry around in the grow room… Once the wife bumps into one of our sacred plants, the airbags will do their job and save our plants from harm!

Finally a fullblooded Dutch diva in SSUK! Hello little girl, would you like to suck on our lollipops?

Bolton Budhead Nice job cutting of the leaves in this last stage of the bloom period, now this lady will get a lot of stress and henceforth she’ll produce more THC. Nice tits too!

INDOOR

OUTDOOR

Original Haze x Skunk

Afghani Hindu Kush

Four Way Specials

South India x Skunk

Swazi x Skunk

Super Thai x Skunk

This F1 hybrid has the good qualities of Skunk #1. It’s a big plant, producing leaves with 11 or 13 fingers and hard buds. Sweet-sour taste.

Afghani Hindu Kush is a very strong Indica. It has strong buds and the smoke is very heavy. Tastes like sweet hash.

Four Way Specials consists of Indica, Sativa, Ruderalis and Skunk. It’s very easy to clone and resistant to most diseases. Well-balanced taste and effect.

South India Skunk produces long, slim female plants. That’s why they can be planted closer to each other. Nice T.H.C content, tastes sweet.

Beautiful strain from Swaziland, mainly Sativa. Sweet hash-like taste and a great flower to leaf ratio with very tall buds and a very nice high!

Plant Height: Tall; Mostly Sativa Buzz Type: Pleasant Psychedelic Sativa High T.H.C. Level: Strong; 15-20% Weeks Flowering : 10-12 Yield

Plant Height: Short; Mostly Indica Buzz Type: Stoned; Indica Body Buzz T.H.C. Level: High; 15-20% Weeks Flowering : 7-9 Yield

Plant Height: Buzz Type:

This Sativa from Thailand has a surprising high. It’s a tall and slender plant with a nice herbal flavour. Well suited for outdoor cultivation because of it’s very early flowering.

Plant Height: Tall; Mostly Sativa Buzz Type: Mild Cerebral Sativa High T.H.C. Level: Moderate; 5-10% Weeks Flowering : 9-11 Yield

Plant Height: Tall; Mostly Sativa Buzz Type: Mild Cerebral Sativa High T.H.C. Level: Modest; 5-10% Weeks Flowering : 9-11 Yield

(Dried grams per square meter in a Sea of Green): 300-400

(Dried grams per square meter in a Sea of Green): 350-450

Harvest Month:

(Dried grams per square meter in a Sea of Green): 300-400

(Dried grams per square meter in a Sea of Green): 400-500

Harvest Month:

October - November

Short; Mostly Indica Stoney yet High, Cerebral and physical T.H.C. Level: Medium; 8-15% Weeks Flowering : 7-9 Yield (Dried grams per square meter in a Sea of Green): 350-450

September - October

Harvest Month:

E 16.-

E 18.-

September - October

October

(Dried grams per square meter in a Sea of Green): 350-450

Harvest Month:

E 18.-

E 16.-

E16.-

September - October

E 16.-

Original Californian Orange Skunk

Northern Light

Skunk 3 x A2

Original Highway Delight

Original Hawaiian Maui Wowie Skunk

South African Durban Poison x Skunk

This strain is ideal for the inexperienced grower. It’s very easy to cultivate under different conditions. Orange hairs will cover the buds. Tastes as sweet as candy.

This short, powerfully built strain with compact buds and good yields is a very lucrative plant. Nice resin production, great variety.

Skunk 3 x A2 plays a strong role among modern indoor strains. This short but full plant performs well indoors and in a greenhouse. Great smell, fantastic taste.

This is one of our strongest outdoor varieties. It can withstand lower temperatures. It’s a short but strong plant with wide growing leaves.

Large plant with thick round leaves until it reaches maturity. Real Hawaiian characteristics, a tropical smell and taste.

This strain is an F1 cross from Durban, South Africa, which grows very tall. The plant has huge leaves and long sticky buds with many offshoots.

Plant Height: Medium; Indica/Sativa Mix Buzz Type: Stoney yet High; All-Around Buzz T.H.C. Level: Medium; 8-15% Weeks Flowering : 8-10 Yield

Plant Height: Short; Mostly Indica Buzz Type: Stoned; Nice Indica Body Buzz T.H.C. Level: Strong; 15-20% Weeks Flowering : 7-9 Yield

Plant Height: Short; Mostly Indica Buzz Type: Cerebral and physical High T.H.C. Level: Medium; 10-15% Weeks Flowering : 6-8 Yield

Plant Height: Tall; Mostly Sativa Buzz Type: Stoney yet High; All-Around Buzz T.H.C. Level: Medium; 8-15% Weeks Flowering : 8-10 Yield

Plant Height: Tall; Mostly Sativa Buzz Type: Sativa High; Great Cerebral Buzz T.H.C. Level: Medium; 8-15% Weeks Flowering : 8-10 Yield

(Dried grams per square meter in a Sea of Green): 400-500

(Dried grams per square meter in a Sea of Green): 350-450

(Dried grams per square meter in a Sea of Green): 400-500

Harvest Month:

(Dried grams per square meter in a Sea of Green): 400-500

September - October

Plant Height: Buzz Type:

Medium; Indica/Sativa Mix Stoney yet High; Cerebral and physical T.H.C. Level: Medium; 8-15% Weeks Flowering : 8-10 Yield

September - October

(Dried grams per square meter in a Sea of Green): 400-500

Harvest Month:

E 24

E 18.-

(Dried grams per square meter in a Sea of Green): 375-475

Harvest Month:

September

Harvest Month:

September - October

Harvest Month:

September - October

E 18.-

E 27.-

E 24.-

Bob Marley’ Best

Original Big Bud Super Skunk

White Widow

Durban Poison Amazing Special

Outsider

Purple Tops

This classical F1 hybrid is an absolute winner! A strain that needs to take well taken care of. The result is a large plant with a hazey taste and a great high.

Great Skunk hybrid, a must for all commercial growers because of its very high yield. Big buds with a sweet taste.

This legend appears in all coffeeshops. It’s the first “White” strain and it grows very tall. This is a high quality plant and a big prize winner!

This is a beautiful strain from Swaziland, mainly Sativa. It grows in to a big plant with large buds. Mild high, often used by less frequent smokers.

This very popular purple strain can be cultivated successfully outdoors in cold, wet climates. A unique plant with purple buds, sweet taste and a real Sativa high

Plant Height: Tall; Mostly Sativa Buzz Type: Sativa High; Best Cerebral High T.H.C. Level: Strong; 15-20% Weeks Flowering : 10-12 Yield

Outsider can stand cool temperatures. It’s a very strong, powerful plant which can be harvested early. The large buds taste delicious. Winner of the Highlife Cup.

Plant Height: Buzz Type:

Plant Height: Medium; Indica/Sativa Mix Buzz Type: Best High yet; All-Around Buzz T.H.C. Level: Strong; 15-20% Weeks Flowering : 8-10 Yield

Plant Height: Tall; Mostly Sativa Buzz Type: Light Cerebral Sativa High T.H.C. Level: Moderate; 5-10% Weeks Flowering : 9-11 Yield

(Dried grams per square meter in a Sea of Green): 325-425

(Dried grams per square meter in a Sea of Green): 400-500

Plant Height: Medium; Indica/Sativa Mix Buzz Type: Stoney yet High; All-Around Buzz T.H.C. Level: Moderate; 5-10% Weeks Flowering : 6-8 Yield

Plant Height: Tall; Mostly Sativa Buzz Type: Sativa High; Cerebral Buzz T.H.C. Level: Moderate; 5-10% Weeks Flowering : 6-8 Yield

Harvest Month:

Medium; Indica/Sativa mix Psychedelic and Cerebral Sativa High T.H.C. Level: Medium; 8-15% Weeks Flowering : 8-10 Yield

(Dried grams per square meter in a Sea of Green): 300-400

Harvest Month:

(Dried grams per square meter in a Sea of Green): 450-550

October

Harvest Month:

September - October

E 30.-

Winner Highlife Cup High Times Cup

September - October

E 41.White Rose

Ordering form

October

Plant Height: Tall; Mostly Sativa Buzz Type: Pleasant Sativa High T.H.C. Level: Moderate; 5-10% Weeks Flowering : 9-11 Yield

(11 seeds, *10seeds)

VARIETY

PRICE PER PACKAGE:

Original Haze x Skunk

E 16,-

South India x Skunk

E 16,-

Swazi x Skunk

E 16,-

Super Thai x Skunk

E 16,-

Afghani Hindu Kush

E 18,-

Four Way Specials

E 18,-

Original Highway Delight

E 18,-

Original Californian Orange Skunk

E 18,-

Original Hawaiian Maui Wowie Skunk

E 24,-

South African Durban Poison x Skunk

E 24,-

Northern Light

E 24,-

Durban Poison Amazing Special

E 27,-

Skunk 3 x a2

E 27,-

Purple Tops

E 27,-

Bob Marley’s Best

E 30,-

Original Big Bud Super Skunk

E 30,-

Outsider

E 34,-

White Widow

E 41,-

Early Girl

E 41,-

White Rose

E 47,-

Ghandi

E 47,-

Northern Pride (female seeds)*

E 92,-

White Pearl (female seeds)*

E 114,-

AMOUNT:

This mostly Indica with a very high yield is well suited for hydro or similar systems. This “white” variation with lots of resin tastes sweet, with a high T.H.C. level.

PRICE:

Plant Height: Medium; Indica/Sativa Mix Buzz Type: Strong Indica Body Buzz T.H.C. Level: Strong; 15-20% Weeks Flowering : 8-10 Yield

Name: Address: Postal code

(Dried grams per square meter in a Sea of Green): 350-450

Town:

Harvest Month:

Country:

September - October

E 47.-

Telephone number:

October

E 27.-

Winner Vincitore Highlife Highlife cupCup High Times High Times cupCup

(Dried grams per square meter in a Sea of Green): 400-500

Harvest Month:

September

E 34.-

Early Girl

Ghandi

Early girl is a perfect strain for beginners, being highly resistant to diseases. It finishes outdoors in late September. Nice high.

This F1 cross is bred for outdoor cultivation but also gives amazing results in a greenhouse and indoors. It’s an easy to clone, pest- and mouldresisting plant.

Plant Height: Buzz Type:

Medium; Indica/Sativa Mix Stoney yet High; Mild All-Around Buzz T.H.C. Level: Moderate; 5-10% Weeks Flowering : 6-8 Yield

Plant Height: Medium; Indica/Sativa Mix Buzz Type: Stoney yet High; Ideal cross T.H.C. Level: Medium; 8-15% Weeks Flowering : 7-9 Yield

(Dried grams per square meter in a Sea of Green): 400-500

Harvest Month:

September

E 41.-

September - October

E 47.-

(Dried grams per square meter in a Sea of Green): 400-500

Harvest Month:

September

E 27.-

99% Female Northern Pride This Northern Light-Haze hybrid is one of the most popular Northern Light selections. It takes a bit longer but you’ll get the best results. Intense high. Plant Height: Tall; Mostly Sativa Buzz Type: Divine Sativa High T.H.C. Level: Strong; 15-20% Weeks Flowering : 10-12 Yield (Dried grams per square meter in a Sea of Green): 300-400

Harvest Month:

October

E 92.-

Date:

White Pearl Method of payment:

Total

3,-

Like our White Rose, White Pearl is a great and famous strain from the “White” family. The buds are white with T.H.C. glands, even on the larger leaves higher on the plant. A very nice Widow variation with an excellent high.

Bank

Before we ship the seeds, you need to ensure that we have received the full payment for your order. Payment can be made in the following ways: • Cash; send cash together with your order. • Bank; you transfer money to Rabobank Veghel-Erp, Account No. 1148 65 868, in the name of Snorkel BV. IBAN: NL72Rabo0114 8658 68 SWIFT / BIC: RaboNL24

Subtotal Shipping expenses E

Cash

www.highqualityseeds .nl

Copy the order form and mail your order to: High Quality Seeds, P.O. Box 362, 5460 AJ VEGHEL, Netherlands Telephone: 0031-(0)73-5479916 Fax: 0031-(0)73-5479732 We don’t send seeds to countries where it is illegal to possess or mail cannabis seeds.

High Quality Seeds, P.O. Box 362, 5460 AJ VEGHEL, Netherlands Telephone: 0031-(0)73-5479916 Fax: 0031-(0)73-5479732

Plant Height: Medium; Indica/Sativa Mix Buzz Type: Stoned; Strong Indica Body Buzz T.H.C. Level: Strong; 15-20% Weeks Flowering : 8-10 Yield (Dried grams per square meter in a Sea of Green): 350-450

Harvest Month:

September - October

E114.-

Soft Secrets

Editor’s choice! Dave, West Mids

Mick, London Type unknown, grown in soil & grit & sand mix, hand watered & fed. Totally 100% organic! Final yield was about 3 ounces. Mr. K, Bristol

Mick, we hope these buds are hanging out to dry in a dark place, not in full light like this… The plant reminds us of a Skunk #11, correct?

Sensi Star, by Chavez & Rich Mc, HULL, UK

Got a week old plant (and 2 issues of SSUK) as a gift, didn’t think it would come to much, couldn’t be arsed with complicated hydro stuff, lighting, breaking the law etc, but it’s easy. Now I’m smokin’ for free, and no more fucking nasty soapbar! I used soil and a 125 watt 6400K Envirolite , then 200 watt 2700K Envirolite for 7 weeks. No chemicals, no expensive equipment, just some water and iguana shit. Got 2 oz of smooth tasting, heavy stone weed. Your mag was a big help, learned a lot , next crop will be shit hot! Dr Fishface , N.E. Scotland. Well Dr. Fishface, we hate to break it to you, but your plant really looks underdeveloped! If you’d have used a stronger lamp, your harvest could easily have been doubled…

Dear Soft Secrets, Here’s a few pics of me bitches. They’re both Warlock and ready to be chopped. They’re all done in organic soil with Bio Canna and Vita-link Boost in flower. They are very tasty and very sticky-hicky. Nigel Sticky hicky stains of cum are covering every inch of our desk now, mate…

Soft Secrets

Heres some pictures of my last effort, they are of Ruderalis Indica which I know the seeds were bought from Sensi Seeds in Amsterdam about 12 years ago for about a tenner - bargain. From the first plant successive cuttings have been taken ever since without holding a mother. I’ve heard this shouldn’t be possible with an autoflowerer? They were grown SOG, one half under a 250HPS & the other half under my new 180W CFL (with no divider in between so the middle plants had a xover of light) The ones directly under the CFL although lighter in weight made up for in quality & harvested about 5 days earlier, the photos are of the last of the HPS grown ones. A few years ago I had a bad car accident which ended up with titanium pins holding my bones together, I have found that using dope means that I don’t have to use as much morphine, your paper (& also Jorges bible) has been very helpful in improving my growing technique to achieve what I need & I’d like to say a big thankyou to you all. Weedgirl, East Anglia (Yes I’m female & no I’m not going topless - growers perogative!) Weedgirl, who said we wanted to see you topless? We want to see you naked!

Kevin, Warrington Kev, you’re scoring some serious points here… Let us have that beautiful butt, you can have the smokes!

Michelle, West Midlands

The strain is called Catsui and Skunk #11. I think the Skunk #11 has the most fruitiest tatse I’ve had and the Catsui is just crystally and strong say no more. (Unreadable) The plants on the right are too yellow, probably due to overfertilisation. We hope the various strains need the same bloom time.

Here she is!! The queen of al my plants! Without her love and attention our baby’s would never produce these lovely buds. “DOH”, I think the secret’s in the paper! Bolton Budhead All skinned up and ready to torch her huge joint… What an Xmas it must have been over there guys!

Dude, sticking a bud up your arse gives an awful lot of stress to your plant… The poor little thing is clearly suffering, and a shitty smoke is all you get as a result…

Soft Secrets

Hi guys n girls, These are pics of my first hydro grow. Taken at weeks 5/6 flowering. Grown under 600watt HPS in Atami 10 pot system with coco in grow room of about 0.7m2. Had bad heat problems (ie average temp was around 30-32 C!) Used Ionic grow and bloom for coco plus Super Thrive. Results as follows : 1x NL x BB – 4.5 oz bit harsh, but strong smoke, 1x Top 44 – 3.5oz very smooth n quite sweet, not that potent though, but nice pure buzz, & 1x Hindu Kush – 3.5 oz weird earthy/meaty taste yuck! Not that strong either. Dead easy to grow though. Just started flowering next crop in my brand new grow room:- 2.6 m2, mylar, better ventilation and better nutrients (also hidden behind secret wall). They’re monsters! Dr J and his faithful wench

Adrian, London

Dr J, stop babbling away about nutes and lamps, your wife obviously is in clear need of some attention! Now if you don’t give it to her… we just might!

Grew these Northern Lights under a 450w SON-T, 50/50 soil perlite, in wardrobe. G-Y-R Posse growers, Machen We wouldn’t even bother cutting these buds.. Use them for a space cake, is our advice.

Dear Soft Secrets I’m using 2 x 600w and 1 x 400w lamps with a variety of White Widow and Power Plant strains. The levels of paranoia are at an all-time high, as I’m taking a huge risk with so many plants (80!). And who says Coventry doesn’t care… Coventry Not us, mate!

My first time growing with hydroponics. They are Afghan #1 x Superskunk. Room size was 10 x 10 m. which I filled with 3 x 6 ft. Ebb & Flow trays consisting of only 10 plants. Nutrient I used was Canna Veg and Flower, Bud Link Spray, Power Boost to swell the buds which worked very well. 9 weeks veg and 9 weeks flower. 10 plants gave me an astonishing 44oz. of tasty bud. Peko

Dear Soft Secrets Thanks for a top class read that helps me grow a top class weed! Modelled by my lovely wife, White Russian from Serious Seeds getting ready for the cure. Grown in NFT under 600watt HPS, used Canna nutrients with Bud Link & Bcuzz Bloom stimulator. Real smelly medicine! Daz & Shaz, Lancs Send prize to Tony Blair, 10 Downing Street, London. Jay from Kent Tony sent his regards, the gesture was well appreciated.

www.softsecrets.nl Funny S.O.T

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Products

Circular growing with Pi Rack One of the best visited stands at the last Highlife fair was without doubt that of Pi-Technics. This fair first-timer was a smash hit with its circular growing system, sweeping off with the first prize in the Best Product category. The name of the system is a reference to the number Pi (/), or 3,14, that gives the relationship between the circumference of a circle and its diameter. The surface area of this system for growing high-flyers even comes to exactly 3.14 m2. The Pi Rack embroiders on the growing drum principle, but sorts out, according to the makers, all the drawbacks that are a function of such systems, such as problems with the feed water circulation and the air flow. The basis consists of the Pi Rack itself, which offers room for 382 pots of 3.5 litres that are supplied with water via a cunning irrigation system.

Freely mountable air humidifier with deep breaths

For those who already have some of the necessary equipment, there is also the possibility of selectively completing the Pi Rack with various modules in order to put the rack into service: the Pi Grow, Pi Dose and Pi Control packets. The Pi Grow packet deals with the lighting, and consists of three vertically mounted 600 Watt lamps with cool tubes, complete with all the necessary switch and control equipment. With Pi Dose the user can supply his plants with a regulated dose of CO2, with which in the right circumstances incredible results can be achieved. The Pi Control nutrient- and climate computer finally completes the grow circle. The Pi Rack and all the associated components comes (discretely, if desired) delivered as a quickly (un) erected self-build package, and is remarkably light considering its eventual dimensions when erected.

Air humidifiers are – especially during the early days when the plants are still small – of vital importance. For large scale growers the market does have (expensive) solutions on offer, but the small and medium-sized grower has until recently had to make do with humidifiers that were essentially meant for household use. This cool-looking Fog Dispensor A05 is the alternative to rinky-dink domestic humidifiers with their too small water reservoirs. The machine creates a very fine (noncondensing) mist op with the aid of an ultrasonic vaporising element and a built in ventilator. The great advantage of this machine is that that you can attach to it any volume of water reservoir you like. As for technology, all the stops have been pulled out in order to improve on the reliability of the domestic models, and the advanced components are of industrial quality. What is also pretty neat is that the mister can be mounted on the wall and you can place the spray pipe at just the right height. More than one machine can be attached to the same water reservoir, which means the system is also useful in larger growing operations. A single A05 unit is sufficient for a space with three 400 Watt lamps in it. The machine won a well-deserved Second Prize in the Best Product category at the recent Highlife awards.

Info: Pi-Technics; www.pi-technics.com

Info: Shenro Trading; Tel: +31 (0) 162 671 195; shenro@xs4all.nl

IGS, for all your fire prevention needs In these crazy times for the cannabis industry it is nice to see that there are companies such as IGS, that take vary seriously the fire safety of the grower and his environment. According to IGS boss John, a significant proportion of the fires that are started in the Netherlands these days come from a hemp plantation. This is obviously not something that does any good for the already sullied reputation of the home grower. IGS has already written history with its TNO-checked (Kite marked) FirePro fire safety system, that comes fitted as standard in all the grow cabinets that the company produces. But now growers working in a self-built grow space too can secure themselves against the ultimate nightmare of every home grower. Thanks to the steel fuse box that IGS launched at the Highlife Fair, the chances of fire breaking out in a grow room is pretty much eliminated. Almost always when a fire breaks out in a growing operation, it starts with the ballasts of the lamps, and more specifically in one of the condensers that are inside them. The steel case with ballasts (up to 10 per case) that IGS delivers is equipped with the FirePro fire extinguisher system, that can snuff any fire out - while at the same time ensuring that you don’t lose all your other ballasts. So don’t scrimp on the wrong things, because as you all know: safety first! Info: Inventive Grow Systems; Tel: +31 (0) 499 496 090; Fax: +31 (0) 499 496 091; www.igrow.nl

Atami brings out new B’cuzz Premium Plant Powder Liquid nutrients are mostly delivered as an A and a B component. One of the important ingredients in any nutrient is Calcium. This substance can absolutely not be kept in the same can as the other ingredients, hence the A + B. By the same logic, the 1-component soil nutrient does not contain any Calcium. This is possible because in soil substrates there is sufficient Calcium present for the plant. When growing in hydro or coco this is a different story. The unique thing about this B’cuzz Premium Plant Powder is that thanks to a certain technique (the chelating of the raw materials), it can. All raw materials including Calcium are offered in one package in powder form (A + B = PPP). This exclusive new line is available in three varieties: B’cuzz Premium Plant Powder Hydro, Coco and Soil. As well as the above-mentioned advantages the product has a number of other strong plus-points. Thanks to the use of EDDHA iron chelate, the plant can make optimal and effective use of the nutrition at both high pH levels and low ones. Ideal for growers who don’t like to measure! Thanks to an optimal balance between the trace elements, the uptake of (for example) iron and manganese is more easy for the plant. There are also micro-organisms in powder form added that are activated at the moment that they come into contact with water. These make sure that there is an optimal soil life and add oxygen to the substrate during the digestion of for example dead root remains. This is all to the good of the growth of the plant. The packaging offers advantages during its transport too, with less weight and volume. The empty packaging can simple be tossed in the garbage. So no unnecessary risks then. The plant will be kept healthy and its buds will develop more quickly with more bloom cells. In short: more weight, and that matters, since to weigh is to know! Info: Atami; Tel: +31 (0) 73 522 3256; Fax: +31 (0) 73 521 3259; www.atami.com

Soft Secrets

Eastern wonder ball puts an end to all stinks

Fast and odourless drying with the Klikquick At the fair we saw these terrific drying cupboards. The Klikquick Dryhigh has a load capacity of about eight square metres. The drying cupboard is further equipped with two built-in filters and a ventilator, so that drying is always accomplished quickly and smell-free, where ever and when ever you want. This innovative design can be easily unbuilt, it is compact and can be simply clicked together in just five minutes. Then just stick the plug in the socket and get drying.

One of the most pleasant surprises at the Fair were the mysterious lightemitting Air Revitalisators from DReal. The bulb-shaped objects serve to neutralise unwanted odours, and when it comes to squashing stenches its operation is extremely broad. Giving off a fresh smell (there are a number of different ones all made from natural ingredients available), it soon makes short work of cooking smells, rumbling stomach gasses, drainage pongs, tobacco smoke and weed stench. There are various models available, including one that can be plugged in to the cigarette lighter of a car. With the ever increasing stringency of traffic controls these days, it is a handy thing to have if you are travelling with a suspicious package... And as if that was not enough, the wonder ball also combats - also using aromas (and so in an environmentally friendly way) - spint, dangerous bacteria and moulds. What’s more, as a bonus the odour-busting ball has a marvellous effect on the allergies and air passage complaints of people in its vicinity. So, multiple applications on a number of fronts. Info: R-eal; www.r-eal.nl; www.growtradecentre.nl

Elf Electro will sort it for you! One of the most innovative products at the fair was de EPES control unit for switch panels from Elf Electronics. With a splendid, openedup model on show, the numerous setting possibilities were clearly demonstrated at the fair, something that you do not often see with such complicated bits of kit. The EPES unit controls from four up to a maximum of 2000 lamps in an intelligent and programmable way. So the lamps can be set to switch on and off according to the needs of your plants, in various combinations. In the beginning of the grow cycle, when the clones are still delicate, it is best not to let the full glare of your lights shine on them, but to allow a few of them to shine their rays in rotation. For an even illumination of the whole field of plants in each case it will need different (programmable time) periods. Temperature control in the summer months is another area in which this unit shows its worth: if the temperature rises so high that even the air pump can no longer keep it under control, the computer switches lamps off, for as long as it takes for the temperature to return to within acceptable limits. Should the temperature rise again, then other lamps will be switched off too, so that plants do not suffer too much from large variations in the levels of light. Should one of the phases on which the air pump sits be knocked out for some reason, then the control box switches the air pump over automatically to a lamp’s phase. Better one lamp fewer than no air extraction. The system is also upgradeable with fire security, which will switch off the whole electrical system if a pre-determined maximum temperature is reached. For many growers this control unit represents a very interesting – and above all, safety-increasing - addition to the range of control units on the market.

Info: www.klikquick.nl

Grow cabinet chameleon One of the sharpest-looking grow cabinets we’ve seen comes from Hi-Tech Grow Systems, which delivers various models. In our opinion, the company with its cabinets perfectly disguised as elegant items of real furniture, deserves the highest praise. There are various models available that all look incredibly like the real cupboards you might come across at a furniture showroom. So artfully are the little doors and drawers on the swing doors of the furniture pieces fashioned, that it is amazing when you try and pull one of the drawers open only to discover that it is totally not what you thought it was. The quiet-as-a-whisper cupboards are available in consultation in a variety of (super fast to put together) executions, and can be customised to meet any whim of the client. Hi-tech Grow Systems products can be ordered online, by telephone and at various grow shops. On the web site you can see in a Flash movie how easily you can put together such a cabinet. Info: Hi-tech Grow Systems; Tel: +31 (0) 6 5267 5543 / +31 (0) 6 2461 3788; www.hi-techgrowsystems.com

Adjust-A-Wings Large

Info: Elf Electro; Tel: +31 (0) 36 537 1870; Fax: +31 (0) 36 532 7520 www.elf-electro.nl

The Adjust-A-Wings Large is the bigger variant of the Adjust-A-Wings Medium and incorporates all the latter’s well known good qualities. It scatters the light from your lamps better by way of its parabolic suspended hood. It is adjustable in all directions in order to perform exactly to your wishes. The aluminium has a glass coating which gives the whole thing a higher reflective value. Thanks to the Super Spreader, the lamp can be positioned closer to the plants and the light is therefore more intense – something your plants will make appreciative use of! This hood can be fitted with two bulbs of 400 or 600 Watt, or with a single 1000 Watt bulb (ballast and 1000 Watt bulb can also be delivered by High Five). Finally, Adjust-A-Wings Large can be give your lamp up to four square metres of illumination! (1.80m x 2.20m) Info: Growshop Highfive; Tel: +31 (0) 36 531 2666; www.growshop-highfive.com

Soft Secrets

Wet Betty and Organic Wet Betty from Advanced Nutrients

Wolf Rolling Trays

Advanced Nutrients from Canada have been distributed in the UK for two years now and have been well received by many appreciative growers. The success of Advanced products is a result of extensive research and development. However, much of the credit could also be given to their marketing team. Advanced have a massive range and crank out new products at an incredible rate, usually with sexy names like Piranha, Voodoo Juice - or in this case, Wet Betty. In some cases it can be hard to see what connects the name to the function of the product, but more importantly the products jump off the shelf when put next to competitors’ products with such bland names as Grow and Bloom or Growth Enhancer – how dull. Wet Betty is no exception; in one sense it is just a wetting agent, but Advanced gives it a jovial name and a picture of bikini-clad girl assuming the position and it becomes a more exotic and sexy “Plant Penetrator”.

More info: Wolf Productions, Tel.: +44 (0) 131 556 8144 www.wolfproduction.net Email: info@wolfproductions.net

New fibre glass grow cabinets from Hypokweker

Wetting Agents are added to foliar sprays to make them more easily absorbable by the plant. It is a common assumption by beginner growers to think that the plant absorbs water and feeds through its leaves. In fact the leaves are waterproof (pour water on a leaf and watch it roll off) and are designed to absorb and process light rather than nutrients, usually. A wetting agent breaks the surface tension of the water droplets allowing them to seep into the leaves’ pores rather than being repelled. Without a wetting agent added to a foliar feed it will simply roll off the plant and be of no use. In true high-tech Advanced style, Wet Betty Organic is beefed-up with multiple organic transfectants and even naturally occurring steroidal saponins to develop stress resistance in plants, while the regular Wet Betty is a special surfactant formula isolated out of hundreds tested by Advanced. Foliar feeding can be regarded as mainlining nutrients into a plant. By using a surfactant such as Wet Betty the leaves can take in much more nutrition. In fact Advance claim there is a consistent 3-6% increase in yield from using just Wet Betty alone without any actual foliar feed, such is the improvement in the permeability of the plant’s leaves. It is virtually impossible to keep up with all of Advanced’s extensive range but if there is a product you need for your plants the chances are Advanced do their version of it; and you know what? It’s probably better than the one you were going to try. Available from Ikon International Tel. +44 (0) 1925 822 503, or check out www.advancednutrients.com

Smokers in the UK have been enjoying a surge in the paraphernalia market, especially as the English policy towards cannabis has eased slightly in the recent years. Wolf Productions is one company taking advantage of the more open trade and is now offering the Original Roll Tray to skinner-uppers everywhere. Varnished wooden rolling trays and boxes are finely crafted and combine clever functionality with unique natural wood grain, hinged lids, and removable secret compartments. Wolf’s five varying sizes range from the T1 pocket-sized box with lid (140mm/50mm/30mm) to the larger of the two open-top trays, the J2 (300mm/200mm/40mm). Of all related merchandise currently available, Original Roll Trays are much classier on the coffee table, and the boxes are convenient for pockets and glove compartments! Skins, roach tips, tobacco, and of course your smoke all fit conveniently into each of the separate compartments, and the company has even included a “V Tray” in each set that nestles your waiting rolling papers and creates the perfect crease in which to fill your spliff. Easy to use, easy to transport, nice to look at, and quite affordable as well. You have no excuse for not including Wolf Productions in your smoking sessions from now on! (KS)

The Hypokweker from Zoetermeer has launched an excellent new series of grow cabinets. And we are not talking re-purposed book- or garden tool cabinets, but specially developed grow cabinets made from fibre glass. As their starting point, The Hypokweker has used data gathered by the regular horticulture industry, such as light reflection, temperature development and disinfection. This is reflected in the design of this series of grow cabinets, that distinguish themselves from others on the market with their superior harvest thanks to their superb light reflection. Naturally the cabinets are fireproof, and each model can be fitted with an integrated water vat and irrigation system. Of course, various grow systems can be used in all the grow cabinets. The grow cabinets are easily erected yourself in 15 minutes and come with carbon filters and a pre-mounted vacuum extractor as standard. With the Hypokweker and Medikweker models you can choose to have 400 or 600 Watt lighting. The Minikweker (stackable, with two separate grow spaces) uses 400 Watt as standard. All models come delivered with a starter set consisting of a pH- and ec meter, pH and nutrients and a growing system of your choice (soil, mapito, coco), so that you can set to work the moment it arrives at your home. The Hypokweker model has the following dimensions: 140 cm (D) x 118 cm (B) x 170 or 193 or 215 cm (H). For the Medikweker these are 118 cm (D) x 96 cm (B) x 170 or 193 or 215 cm (H). the Minikweker (stacked) is 118 cm (D) x 96 cm (B) x 220 cm (H). Info: Hypokweker Tel: +31 (0) 79 331 1000 www.hypokweker.com

Primea Heat The Broes Lee Hy Jumbo-net, the ventilator-heater improved version! Now let’s look at this

Waterproof Pen pH Tester

The Primae Heat does its name credit. It is a primo electric heater with a ventilator. It can be used in two ways: as a ventilator and as heating. In addition you can also choose from a heating capacity of 1500 Watts or 3000 Watts. With its built-in thermostat you can be certain of a constant environmental temperature. The apparatus is used as a stand alone unit and can be placed simply on the floor or fixed to a wall thanks to the brackets it comes equipped with. The ventilator heater is delivered with a Dutch users’ manual.

Hy-Supply has again come up with an exciting offer: the pH-901, a waterproof test pen in a splendid case. Important qualities: - Testing range: 0.00 – 14.00 pH. - Resolution: 0.01 pH. - Accuracy: < ±0,05 pH. - Working temperature: 0 - 50 ºC. - Calibration: 1-points (next to battery holder). - Batteries: 3 x 1.5 V.

consignment of super cheap spray heads. Complete with pivoting head (revolves through 180 degrees), soft grip (keeps nice and tight) with input nipple (no fuss with met long clasps), extendable (70-105-cm) and an adjustable dosage button (for controlled water throughput). For everyone with a need to spray, now there is this blue, no-nonsense Broes “Lee”. (Broes is Dutch for spray heads – Ed.)

You already know them well: the practical, large drying nets from Hy-Supply, with their eight layers in which your harvest can dry out so exceptionally well. Each layer is 20 cm high and has a diameter of 58 cm. And once you’ve finished using them they fold down into a small, handy package. Now there is an improved variation. The simplicity of just taking it out of the package, pulling it open and hanging it up? That simplicity is still there. The first novelty that catches the eye is are the enlarged openings, through which everything goes in and out with greater ease. That in its own right is a good improvement What is perhaps less obvious, though in fact it is much more cunning, is the extra loop attached to the other end of the net. Simply flip it over and hang it anew, without having to scrabble about with all the contents, shake the thing, and what have you. If that is not practical...

For more information about these product, contact: Hy-Supply, Tel. +31 (0) 481 452 290; Fax +31 (0) 481 452 910; info@hysupply.nl; www.hysupply.nl

Soft Secrets

The Mobile Grow Unit In the world of growers & smokers this fantastic piece of gear is also known as the ‘MGU’. It’s a terrific apparatus, standing 1.20 metres high and as described by the makers, quiet as a whisper. With a bit of attentive cultivation, at least two kilos can be cropped out of it. It is delivered with a grow schedule for various lines of nutrients. The energy use is also minimal: 2x 600 Watt. You could pretty much stick one in your bathroom next to the washing machine. The cool tube is one metre long. Domestic growing could not get any more convenient. Info: Dutch-Connection, Tel: +31 (0) 180 649 894; Fax: +31 (0) 180 649 430; www.dutch-connection.nl

Grow Tub A little less advanced than the mighty MGU, but a nice product from Neill none the less. This grow kit is delivered as a very simple self-build unit. The handy instructions make putting it together a total breeze. With a height of 1.10 metres and a width of 1.23 metres, there is enough room inside for 216 plants. And you can put it up in just ten minutes! Info: Neill; Tel: +31 (0) 314 359 267; Fax: +31 (0) 314 359 268; www.neill.nl

B’cuzz Bloom & Root Stimulator B’cuzz Bloom and Root stimulator is soon available with sealcap. This means an improved security for consumer and an improved product quality. B’cuzz Root and Bloom Stimulator is by far the most famous and most sold product of Atami. B’cuzz Root stimulator ensures a strong growth of the roots and reduces the chances of root diseases. B’cuzz Blomm stimulator will give you full, huge and compact buds. It stimulates the grow of the flower cells, increases the production of sugar molecules and their transport around the plant. Tel: +31 (0) 73 522 3256; Fax: +31 (0) 73 521 3259; Internet; www.atami.com e-mail; info@atami.com

Enviroglow air scrubber There’s nothing so frustrating as top rot. The air above your crop can quickly become foul with mould and bacteria. The result: top rot. The good folks from Green Diamond have now brought out an air scrubber that goes a long way to eradicating all that hassle. The Enviroglow is available in four versions. To decide which is best for you have to take account of the size of space you’re dealing with. Never put two air scrubbers to work in the same space because if you do they will between them produce too much ozone and that is pretty unhealthy. That is why there are four different versions. Their use is simplicity itself. Switch it on, plug it in and off you go! Info: Green Diamond, Tel: +31 (0) 36 521 6704; Fax: +31 (0) 36 521 6705 www.greendiamond.nl

Banish floods from your grow space or home Prevent your feed water tub from overflowing for ever with the ‘overflow alarm’. This handy gizmo gives an alarm signal once your vat is full, or when the desired volume has been reached. The apparatus is easy for the user to install and set himself. Info: De Groene Oogst; Tel: +31 (0) 13 535 6717; www.groeneoogst.nl

Regen-a-Root from Canadian Xpress USE TO INCREASE ROOT MASS AND TO PREVENT AND CORRECT ROOT DISEASES One of the biggest problems that we face as indoor growers is the constant battle against the myriad of diseases that are waiting to attack the roots of our plants. Have you ever had the experience of admiring your flowering crop one minute and then the next minute you’re wondering what’s wrong with it? Well if so you can bet your bottom dollar that you are suffering from a root disease such as Phthium, Fusarium or Phytophthora. These are particularly common in indoor growing and until now have been very difficult to deal with. Regen-a-Root actually stimulates the plants own immune system so as well as creating the most impressive mass of white healthy roots, it will literally regenerate dead roots making them continue to grow throughout the entire flowering cycle! This allows for superior uptake of nutrient from start to finish and first class protection against root diseases. Use at 1ml/l throughout the entire cycle and experience the most powerful root additive to hit the market to date. For more information visit www.canadianxpress.com Available from all good grow shops including www.progrow.co.uk Tel 01392 276998

Soft Secrets

shopreview

BioBizz :

Organic is simply better For almost 15 years, BioBizz has been a name everyone in the growers’ world is familiar with. From the very earliest days of home growing in the Netherlands, the products of this company in Groningen have been the standard by which the competition is measured. Which grower is not familiar with the durable reputation of All Mix or the penetrating odour of the Fish-Mix? In a line of business where hypes come and go, BioBizz has over the years remained faithful to its principle: producing an organic quality of great purity. You can call it idealism, if you like. But the kind of idealism mixed with a good deal of Groningen common sense and a healthy dose of international ambition. Power through simplicity: an impression of a strong brand that sets great store by service and proven quality.

Still, real lovers and connoisseurs of top-class cannabis products know that superior quality marihuana can only be grown organically. You tell immediately by its taste and the effect, but also in the well-being of the plants: they just thrive best on purely natural materials. Indeed, ‘it’s quality that matters, not quantity’, is what they say at BioBizz.

Ultramodern Although the farm was replaced two years ago by a streamlined professional operation on an industrial estate in town, BioBizz has lost none of its quality. On the contrary: the high-tech production line guarantees an even better quality inspection than ever before. And of course, the prestigious marks of quality the company has been awarded underline that BioBizz

The roots: the former BioBizz farm Garmerswolde.

Technical director Jetze in the BioBizz lab.

This bottle of Bio-Grow is ready for its journey across the world.

When in 1992, BioBizz founder Jetze started his company on a farm in Garmerswolde, growing cannabis had mainly been associated with the

mid-nineties, the number of nutrients for the cultivation of cannabis grew explosively, and it seemed as if only few people cared about what really

Connoisseurs have known it for years: superior quality marihuana can only be grown organically. prevalent counter-culture. ‘Organic’ was a familiar concept in those days. But as the cannabis culture became increasingly professional, these idealistic ideas faded more and more into the background. In the

went in the plant food. The only thing that counted was how to make the highest profit with as little investment as possible. The tasteless Dutch ‘water tomato’ had found its match in the Dutch-grown cannabis (Nederwiet).

Organic and dynamic: commercial director Luis.

also practises what it preaches: the recognition by OMRI and SKAL leave little room for doubt. What BioBizz claims is thus confirmed by the strictest international inspection bodies, and that is more than any other manufacturer can say. From the smallest ingredient to the hygienically packed end product, the quality of the BioBizz line reveals its organic origin. A comforting thought. And it is the home grower who will benefit, who will be able to enjoy an honest natural product without having to worry about chemical ‘time-bombs’. And he is of course rewarded with a vigorously growing and thriving plant.

Fresh Despite BioBizz’ leap forward into modern times, the family feeling of the traditional farm in Garmerswolde has remained. All employees, for example, regularly do their bit in the production process to make sure they do not lose touch with their roots. This also applies to technical manager Jetze, who can usually be found behind the scenes in the company lab. Commercial director Luis is originally from Portugal but he speaks better Dutch than many a local. Thanks to this dynamic, internationally trained professional, marketing has become a serious business and the name BioBizz has become even better known. All BioBizz food products are made in house, which is not as obvious in this line of business as you might think. Since the measuring and mixing of the raw materials takes place just a couple of yards from the office, it is possible for production and logistics to be geared to demand. As a user, you are assured that BioBizz products are always ‘fresh’ from the shelves. Through the years, the product range has remained basic, without all kinds of superfluous frills being added, which only serves to benefit the end user – simplicity is after all the hallmark of truth. Intensive personal contacts with buyers, detailed info sheets and an attractive website provide the essential support and service. Although food is currently BioBizz’s core business, the earth line is still going strong. Elsewhere in the region, the ingredients for the All Mix and Light Mix are fermented and mixed under strict supervision. A recent newcomer in the assortment is the 20litres baby-packing All Mix, already a big success in many countries. For the future, BioBizz still has several sensational surprises up its sleeve. More about that in a future issue of Soft Secrets. Meanwhile, in an increasing number of countries, BioBizz has gained a reputation of reliability, sustainability, and respect for nature. Because, let there be no mistake about it: BioBizz is a world brand; the company is represented in no less that 41 countries on 5 continents. And from Australia to South Africa, the most demanding growers know that the secret of real organic quality hails from Groningen. Because whatever way you look at it: organic is simply better!

BioBizz P.O. Box 9569 9703 LN Groningen Netherlands (i) http://www.biobizz.nl/ (e) info@biobizz.com (t) +31 (0)50 541 46 50 (f) +31 (0)50 542 52 23

Soft Secrets

weckels world of

21 Grow with W eckels

wonders By Weckels

The ideal cross and the best conditions for raising it In this article we are going to be taking a look at a very interesting cross, namely that between a Top 44 and a Skunk Special. This THC-rich plant is a variety I can recommend to every grower. Top 44 comes originally from the town of Arnhem in the East of Holland, and the area around there. The growers there have had good results with it and these days it is a variety that has found its way into many a grow space. Skunk Special was especially well liked in Amsterdam and the surroundings area, but even today you still come across the name a lot. Even so, most growers chose (and still do) for Top 44, mainly because it gives considerably earlier harvests. With Skunk Special a good rule of thumb is that it is ready for processing with the shears around the 9-10 week mark, while the Top 44 is already quivering to be harvested within seven weeks (44 days). Time savings such as this are all to the good for the commercial grower, since more harvests can be fitted in per year and that in turn ensures nice full wallets. So this has historically been the main reason why Skunk Special has had to play second fiddle to Top 44.

This new cross produces not only a very strong odour; even on the large leaves THC glands start to develop during the bloom phase.

Combination Fortunately there are enough growers who get their biggest kicks from developing a new strain or creating the perfect cross fertilisation. So it was not long before the combination of the two plants was thought of and that resulted in an ideal plant. This new cross, going by the name of Top 44 x Skunk Special, produced a weed that completely blew away many a smoker. The weed has a very sweet taste, and is incredibly poptent; just a couple of drags for the inexperienced smoker is enough to guarantee a trip around the world – an effect dubbed in Dutch the ‘hamertje (little hammer) effect’. For many a Dutch coffee shop owner, the potent cross had the effect of drawing whole swarms of tourists inside, who were overwhelmed merely on opening the weed baggie. This new plant (Top 44 x Skunk Special) also produces such a strong odour that just a tiny amount of it is almost equivalent in smell to a whole plantation without carbon filters.

Another big advantage of growing on tables is that you can make the set up slant a little, so that overflowing excess irrigation water can be easily controlled. In this way the plant only takes up what she needs from the water, and she does not end up with too muddy an undersoil as the excess water flows away. We can catch this excess water with a drainpipe leading to a collection vat (preferably a large one), which we equip with a float. A float is essentially nothing more than a sensor that (in this case) activates a pump if it comes into contact with water. So the float is positioned just under the lip of the collection vat (on the inside) and prevents the overflow water (in the collection vat) from overflowing, because it will trigger the pump in time to remove water from the vat. A float like this is essential, certainly when you want to rinse out the irrigation tubes and water dripper nozzles with enzymes to clean them, thereby keeping them clean and free of salt accumulations. Back in the day (when no floats or sensors were used) you had to sit and watch the whole cleaning process, because the collection vat would now and again overflow (with all the dire consequences attached). A simple but good sensor (i.e. a float) can therefore save you a whole lot of sitting around waiting.

Lime The table top is lined with a layer of polystyrene, with a sheet of pond liner on top of that. On top of this we spread a layer about 10 cm thick of medium mix (so below the soil is a layer of pond liner, then polystyrene, then the table top). So the medium mix serves as the base of our soil layer. Next we enrich the soil mix with lime, worm castings and seaweed-based fertiliser and dry humus (in powder form). I always add some lime to my mixtures as it ensures a good uptake by the plants of the fertilisers and also helps create a nice, neutral pH value for the whole mixture. We can safely use quite a large amount of the worm manure. It contains precisely the right concentration of the important fertilisers; the concentrations are so right in fact that you could safely grow your plants on a base of worm castings alone. However, I would not quickly advise you to do so, as with the mixture that I have described you will get way better results.

Filters Staying with the topic of filters, to begin with these must be not only very thick when you grow Top 44 x Skunk Special, there must also be more than enough of them in your grow space. For a space of 12 metres we can easily use eight filters, placed a metre apart, which will give you an air scrubbing power of 8000 cubic metres per hour. Maybe this sounds like a lot, but bear in mind that you will need a lot of capacity in order to suck a really strong odour through thick filters and expel it outside. On top of that, you will also need to replace the carbon granules in the filters at least two times per year, if you can want to continue to enjoy an unpunished life as a grower.

should be about 75 cms in height. This might sound a bit on the low side, but it can not be much higher because then the tops of your plants are at some stage going to get dangerously close to the ceiling. Once the plants start to develop at full pace, they will pretty soon shoot up in height and then it will become increasingly difficult to position the lamps above them without burning the plant tips.

Roots

Just one of the very many lovely buds. The weed is well known for her sweet taste, along its the so-called Hammer Effect.

As for the lamps, I reckon 12 of them, each of 600 Watts, is a good investment for a grow space of 12 metres. Fewer lamps will lower the eventual harvest considerably, and that is a shame, even for the non-commercial grower.

Irrigation The plants themselves are placed on a table, thereby creating for ourselves a convenient working height – something your back will thank you for. The table

To return for a moment to the layer of polystyrene (on the table top), this serves as an insulating layer. Were we to bring cold fresh air (in Winter especially) from outside, sucked in under the table, then the roots (without any insulating layer) would be cooled down too severely. In this way the cold air can do considerable damage. A marihuana plant has a real thing against a cold undersoil, and when it is exposed to this, it will create an enormous retarding effect on growth, the consequences of

Soft Secrets

Column

Medical cannabis: yeah, right By Joe Kane

So here’s the story: I’m lying here in my bed with a fucking chest drain in place, horrible yellow fucking gunk that looks like piss trickling out a hole in my ribs and into a plastic bottle. Somehow, I’ve ended up with a load of bad health shit coming down on my handsome head. I dunno, maybe it’s Karma, eh? The doctors have told me it’s this or it’s that: pleurisy or pneumonia with “complications”, whatever that means. I’ve had a collapsed lung and I feel like a collapsed lung. And they keep bitching at me to go into hospital so they can take care of me properly. Yeah, right. The way these places are these days I’d come out in a fucking box. I’d have less chance of croaking it if I hung out on a leper colony. Anyhow, they’ve been giving me these big, fuck off intravenous shots of super antibiotics, and man alive, these boys show you what a bad trip really is. It starts off okay; I’m drowsy, seeing some after-images and trailers, hearing voices like they’re far away. A bit like getting a buzz on with Benylin cough mixture when you’re a kid and you’ve got no dope left. Then it’s the total hab-dabs with disembodied heads, bleeding walls, screaming and all that kind of shit. Ever taken ketamine and it’s all gone a bit pear-shaped? Then you’ll know what I’m talking about. Conventional medicine? Conventional poison, more like. Let’s try some traditional herbal remedy.

and then. Ah, Mr Death, nice of you to come and visit. Don’t take a seat though, cos hopefully you’ll not be hanging around. After all, it’s only cannabis I’ve been smoking and everyone tells me that, one, it’s harmless, and two, it really hits the spot when you’re ill. That’s why I’m having a near-death fucking experience right now and feel like some fat bastard is standing on my chest. At least it’s not the weed that put me in this state to begin with. Sorry, what’s that you’re saying Doc? The weed certainly didn’t help matters much cos the smoke has irritated the lining of my already pretty fucked-up lungs? No shit. Wait ‘til I tell the medical marijuana boys about this. That’ll rain on their fucking parade and no mistake. To be honest I’ve always had a fucking problem with all the “cannabis is good for you” stuff that zillions of people I’ve run into over the years have spouted. Absolute bollocks. It’s like booze: say what you like, delude yourself as much as you like, but the bottom line is this: IT’S NOT FUCKING GOOD FOR YOU! If you’re gonna use the stuff, then just do it, but don’t, and I mean DO NOT try and tell me you’re doing it for health reasons. So now I’m back on the evil modern Babylon medicine, the shitty hallucinations have passed, I’m getting better and probably won’t have to lose half of one of my lungs. Sorry for all the bad vibes negativity, readers, but you’ll have got the idea by now that I’m not in a happy place at the moment. Think of all the above as the medicinally induced ravings of a man who is terminally sorry for himself. Hopefully I’ll be back with the funny stories next time Maybe see you later.

So I thought that smoking a goodly amount of Amsterdam Spinach might be a good thing, but readers, I got to tell you it wasn’t one of my better ideas. Whoever came up with the idea that weed is medicine clearly never had a collapsed fucking lung in mind. Two draws and I thought I was going to shuffle off the mortal coil there

which we will soon appreciate. The roots can be damaged by the serious fluctuations in temperature and then they will not function as well as they should, or even die off altogether. The result of this is at worst, a soil full of dead roots, which can be a real playground for all sorts of mould and pests for the other, non-affected plants. So I was just talking about the air being drawn into the grow space from outdoors, under the tables. We do this so that we can be sure that the whole grow space is refreshed with new air. In order to give this process a helping hand, we let a ventilator draw the air upwards and then use a number of other ventilators or fans to blow this air through the whole grow space. In this way we ensure that the air circulation is good and that is important in the pursuit of an optimal growth and eventually a good harvest. For a space of about 12 metres we usually use three ventilators, which is sufficient to keep the air in constant motion, which in turn benefits the sturdiness of the plants as well. We allow the ventilators to blow about 40 cm above the tops of the plants, so that the air moisture content there does not get too high. Especially we when blow dry air (air with a low moisture content) above the buds, this can reduce the risk of dangerous moulds to almost zero. This is also one of the reasons why growers always manage their best crops during the winter months. The air at this time of the year is particularly dry and that makes it particularly easy for the grower to keep the air moisture levels in his space nice and low. This is a different situation to the Summer months, especially after a heavy rainfall, when it is necessary to get all hands on deck to work and keep the plants protected from high air moisture.

JK horribly_stoned_boy@hotmail.com

Plastic roof Nonetheless, a high air moisture does have its place in the grow cycle. During the growth or veg phase, a high moisture content is a good addition to creating the best circumstances. It is well-known that clones in their early life will start developing much more quickly given a high air moisture, and once established grow more quickly in a wet climate. The clones, and once they have matured, the plants, under normal circumstances must pump a lot of water / moisture out themselves in order to keep the air moisture level up. When they do not have to do this themselves, because we have given them a helping hand, then the plants can devote more of their energy to growing and developing their root system. We can do this by from the very beginning making a sort of roof over the clones. We make this roof out of see-through plastic (such as agricultural plastic) and this in turn ensures that the plants hardly have to do any transpiration themselves, since the roof keeps the air with high moisture content trapped among the plants. Keep the positions of the lamps in mind and don’t let them get too near the plastic or there is a good chance it will melt.

In this photo the see-through plastic roof has already been removed. The tensioned strings in the picture served as support for the sail (of see-through plastic).

It is worth emphasising, just to make sure, that you leave the sides open with no plastic hanging down. It you don’t then the air moisture can elevate to dangerous levels and you end up creating more of a humid swamp effect, which will hugely increase the chance of mould infections. Once the clones have had two to three weeks to develop into lovely big ladies and the buds (or the top shoots) are almost pressing against the plastic roof, we remove it. The flower heads of the plants now begin to develop rapidly and so a low air moisture level is preferred, in order to keep the risk of bud rot to a minimum.

Once the flower heads have begun to develop, a low air moisture content is very desirable..

Soft Secrets

Strain Guid e

Holland’s Hope -

was very happy with how well HH grew indoors. All the seeds where good with slightly more females than males. The seedlings were grown in a glasshouse then placed under 400w HPS.

Black Label by Mr. Muddle Environment:

Indoor 400w

Method:

Sea Of Green

Medium:

Atami Kilo Mix Soil

Nutrient:

Dr Hornby Iguana Juice

Grow time:

21 days

Flower time:

55-65 days

Plant structure: Short and compact Bud structure:

Dense and sticky

Scent:

Fruity skunk

Effect:

Cheerful heavy stone

Yield:

20-60g per plant

The Holland’s Hope seeds were freebies from Soft Secrets UK (good

people). Having overlooked HH as an ‘Outdoor’ strain before, everyone

Super Skunk by Mr. Clumsy Indoor 600watts +

Method:

Seed to Standard

Medium:

Bio Biz All Mix

Nutrient:

Canna

Grow time:

21 days

Flower time:

50-60 days

Plant structure: Short and compact Bud structure: Plump buds Scent:

Smelly skunk

Effect:

Happy with giggles

Yield:

20-50g per plant

Several years ago Super Skunk from Sensi Seeds had such a huge reputation among home-growers that we wanted to give the Super Skunk a grow in our garden. Super Skunk is a short and compact plant that produces

opposing internodes, large thick leafs, and a very pungent aroma of heavy Skunk. Seedlings grow very uniformed from the off with good results. In vegetative cycle the plants stay nice and compact; producing wide blades (the male plants grow slightly taller than the

El Nino (a.k.a. Godzilla) Green House Seeds by Mr. Forgetful Environment:

Indoor 400-600w sodium Method: LST and SCROG Medium: Bio Biz Soil Nutrient: Bio Biz Bloom Grow time: 15-20 days LST / 30day SCROG Flower time: 65-75 days Plant structure: Compact with large-fan leaf Bud structure: Elegant flowers Scent: Perfumed taste Effect: Heady-stone Yield: 30-60g per plant

The first HH plant put in bloom was female. She was slow to start budding, but had a very heavy fruity skunk smell that filled the room from the start. Short and compact with thick white hairs, you can tell that HH is an Afghan. At 5 weeks bloom the buds swelled up and stood out from the main stem.

females). The plants smell skunky very quick, so a filter should be used with this plant (we didn’t worry). Sexing these plants was easy, which makes it a good plant for beginners. The female plants were potted-on into 10 litre pots when sexed. In the main room the plants liked a low humidity and cold water (straight from the tap). We only fed the plants Canna nutes twice in flower because they were still very green.

Sensi Seeds Environment:

One plant was topped at 3-4 nodes before being placed into bloom. The other plants were kept in grow mode for a while. All the plants grew well and started to get big fan leafs and a skunky smell with age.

During flower the plants grew plump buds in the gaps between the blade-leafs so that the plants looked like one big cola. These main leafs were thick and rough to touch. The plants didn’t grow any wider than the pots and looked like little Christmas trees. We had no problems with mites or mold. At 6 weeks flower the buds picked up scent and started to get bigger and bigger. All the plants grew compact with x4 side branches a plant. The side branches matured earlier than the

El Nino has the nickname Godzilla because she’s a Monster! With her larger reptilian fan-leafs and dragon like flowers she dominates any garden. Growing outwards into bushes rather than up-wards into trees El Nino is well suited to closet and SCROG methods of growing. From seed El Nino clones and roots very well taking to many different mediums including peat cups and rockwool blocks. Initial growth (once rooted) is slow, yet when established El Nino finds her feet under 400w. Topped early and then placed under sodium lamps she produces nice lowriding plants with a good compact structure. Using LST method El Nino comes into her own at 3-4 weeks bloom. After setting herself, she starts to form elegant clusters of flowers,

Covered in white sticky resin. At 7-8 weeks bloom the top bud was ready to chop. The lower buds were left on the plant for a week more. Cleaning the bud took 2mins. The buds took a while to dry. And made the same fruity skunk smell as when in bloom. The other plants were grown for longer. They were much bigger. Topped as bushes, most were short and compact, very sticky, and smelly. A couple of the bigger plants had looser bud formation and less sticky resin. The harvest was good. More bud than leaf with HH indoor. Holland’s Hope got the thumbs up from everyone that grew her. HH is nice to smoke day or night. It tastes like it smells, Skunky! The Afghan x Skunk genetics are always there. Roll a fat one, watch a film and get ready for the munchies!

main bud, with thick orange hairs. We chopped some branches to test the crop. At 7 weeks half the plants were ready so we got the big scissor out and cut them down. At 8weeks the rest of the plants were ready to cut. By this time the whole room stank like a coffeeshop in Amsterdam. It was cool. We strung the plants on a washingline to dry with a fan. It took nearly two weeks to dry the big buds. The buds looked unreal, like toy Lego or something. Some of the lower buds were still wispy and didn’t have the same hit as the stuff off the top of the plant. But most of it was top quality dope. When we smoked it we were well happy. The smoke was thick and very tasty. It tasted like real Skunkweed. One joint gets 3 people battered and giggling like little kids. It’s really nice for smoking with friends and the people you like chilling with. Beware! carrying the buds can be a problem - Super Skunk smells so much!

really quickly! Her jagged leafs grow fatter and fatter and start to take over the garden. For this reason, individual plants need lots of room to spread out and do their own thing. Using SCROG method El Nino takes a bit of commitment. At one plant per m2 approx. removing the big jagged fan-leafs once a week allows light into the bud-sites below. Training El Nino is easy, but you have to do it every day to get a nice result. El Nino can be harvested as early as 60 days to produce a cerebral uplifting buzz. Harvested at 7080 days she turns into a monster. Godzilla! A later harvest gives for a heavier buzz for sure. Drying El Nino takes a while 10-14 days. The taste of El Nino is very pleasant, much like musky perfume with a flavour of skunk. A strain to grow again.

Soft Secrets

Books

Malcolm Lowry

By Feije Wieringa

The destructive drive to intoxication It is a great shame for a number of writers that they have been pigeon holed in our memories as the creators of a single book. History will long remember Aldous Huxley as the author of Brave New World’. The other 20 books he wrote are mainly read only by Huxley-nuts, psychedelic fans and historians. Malcolm Lowry is also such a writer. He wrote many books, butt is mainly remembered for ‘Under the Volcano’.

‘Under the Volcano’ is ultimate alcohol trip. Since it was written it has been transformed from cult novel to everseller, and is still seen in 2006 as a milestone in world literature. Lowry could drink and write like no other. It was he who once said: “There is no drop that I have not made sing, no sip that has not been transformed into pure gold.” Or words to that effect.

Louche dockside bars and third rate brothels First some background. Lowry was born in England the descendant of a well-todo family of ship owners, which had flourished in the 1920s. His brothers had taken care of looking after the family affairs, and Malcolm was also expected to follow the tradition, but fate decreed otherwise. As an outsider he directed his interests towards more creative facets. Jazz, which in those days had yet to reach a larger public, was the first outlet he found to express himself. He played banjo in an obscure jazz orchestra. Because there was not much to be done with the independent-minded Lowry, his father gave him the opportunity to take a voyage around the world in one of his ships. With this the seed of young Malcolm’s fascination with the sea was sown. Malcolm was seen by the ship’s crew as ‘the boss’s son’, and the journey thanks to this turned in to something of a prison sentence at sea. He was barely 20 when he fashioned his diary of the trip into his first novel: `Ultramarine’. It is the account of an outsider, an academic searching for his path in the world of louche dockside bars, third rate brothels, and above all, drink. Supposedly methylated spirits is the only alcoholic substance that he did not at some time consume. In the most extreme case he did manage to knock back a whole bottle of after shave.

Mexico `Ultramarine’ was not a resounding success, but within the literary circles of the day it did achieve some recognition as a work with potential. Lowry´s saviour and the source of eventual decline was the family’s huge wealth that allowed him to really develop his twin passions of writing and drinking. Preferably as far away from England, away from his stultifying roots. That is why he ended up in Mexico, in Quauhnahuac, a town nestled between two mighty volcanoes: the Popocatepetl and the Ixtaccihuatl. For the Mexicans, Lowry was the man who did nothing else except make a daily tour of the town’s many obscure bars. This habit he shared with many Mexican

locals. They were a bit used to it, but even so they managed to fall under the influence of the unquenchable thirst to consume of this outwardly proper British gentleman.

Demons of reality The main character in ‘Under the Volcano’ is Geoffrey Firmin, a former consul wrestling with the deep insights of his intoxication, who was fleeing the demons of reality by observing everything through the filter of alcohol. With an intense urge, Lowry knew how to convey the hellish and the lucid insights of his alter ego. He describes Mexico as a paradise in hell. ‘Under the Volcano’ is the description of the last day in the life of the consul. There is a circus in town, the day of the death is celebrated with a procession of chocolate skeletons. Knowing that it is pointless, his ex-wife Yvonne and her brother Hugh, a journalist who has maintained a cynical way of looking at things from his experiences in the Spanish civil war, attempt to drag the consul back again to reality. But Firmin has seen too much, and he has his own plan. Followed by a stray dog he spends the last day of his life in a wonderfully insightful state of alcoholic abandon…The consul leaves everything behind him, Yvonne, Hugh and the town. He loses his money on the big wheel, the coins mixed into the mud, symbolically. Touchingly, he indicates the money when street children come begging from him once more. Visions of his past rise to the surface, like a burning German U-boot. For the reader it is a mystery; for the consul, a familiar nightmare.

In addition to this, the book can be read as biography. The consul who is no longer in a fit state to even put his own socks on, that is the Lowry those around him knew. Hopelessly corrupted, not only in his clothing, but also his house and garden. Despite the ongoing plague of alcoholism, Lowry continued to search for the perfect form, with which to describe the effects. Mescal was the fuel for his life and his work. Strange, that every sentence is soaked in mescal, but perfectly formulated. When he finally dared to send the first versions of ‘Under the Volcano’ to a publisher, a fire broke out in his house, in which the manuscript and the material for ‘In Ballast’ went up in flames. Eventually Lowry managed to re-write it and get it out onto the market. But the promotion of the book was a gigantic flop: Lowry did not manage to stay sober when meeting a single journalist. Slowly ‘Under the Volcano’ took on the status it deserved: the absolute depiction of the necessity of and the destructive drive to intoxication.

The limits of intoxication But that was just one side of his life. What remained unseen was the unquenchable urge to write. He wanted to create something that was new, a work that broke free of the strict framework of ‘ordinary literature. Lowry was thinking of a trilogy under the name ‘In Ballast to the White Sea’. The subjects: no home, fleeing to the sea, and the boundaries of intoxication. Nearly every day was spent under the influence of tequila, whisky and mescal (mescal is a cheap Mexican drink, but mescaline too was also described as mescal), he worked with precision on his stories. Never happy, always polishing and working on content and form. The first versions of what later would become ‘Under the Volcano’ he wrote between periods of delirious visions (sometimes triggered by mescaline) and ascetic reclusiveness. It was an account of the effect of alcohol on a creative spirit, in a world with Hitler on the horizon, sliding towards chaos and uncertainty.

not represent a constriction of the consciousness, but opens instead the doors to a broader perspective. Mescal is the key to what he calls “The Hellish Paradise”. Whoever finds themselves there knows that there is no way back.

‘A nothing alcoholic Malcolm Lowry: “There is no drop that I have not made sing, no sip that has not been transformed into pure gold.”

No Time To Stop And Think The only hope is the next drink. If you like, you take a walk. No time to stop and think, The only hope is the next drink. Useless trembling on the brink, Worse than useless all this talk. The only hope is the next drink. If you like, you take a walk. Malcolm Lowry (from Selected Poems)

A razor-sharp pen With a razor-sharp pen and a terrifyingly acute empathic ability, Lowry sketches a reflection of himself and the chaotic world just before the outbreak of World War Two. ‘Under the Volcano’ can be read on a number of levels. As a cinematic picture of a particular day in Mexico, in which Lowry shows how poverty, escapes from reality and living on the edge unrelenting lead to an almost apocalyptic dénouement. Lowry also illuminates via various points of view the essence of intoxication, a delirious attempt to escape the bounds of reality. But for Lowry alcohol does

Charles Bukowski, also an alcoholic expert, once called Lowry a ‘nothing alcoholic’, because Lowry died in his own vomit. The consul came in a more spectacular manner to his end. After his visit to El Farolito, the most obscure cantina in Mexico, he was shot by Mexican rebels, who were busy sharing the coins held in a bloody handkerchief of a dying Indian. The consul tried to convince his attackers that he was only waiting for his house that, since the earth is round, had to be coming by sooner or later. Firmin was not understood. And Firmin did not understand the world. The Earth continued to turn, but not for the consul. Lowry wrote the most impressive passage at the end of the book: ‘A pandemonium of a million tanks, through the blazing of ten million burning bodies, falling, into a forest, falling - Somebody threw a dead dog after him down the ravine.’ This sentence glitteringly encapsulates Lowry’s unique talent. The shabby drunkard literally dragged the soul out of the bottle, and made a timeless document of it. It was not an ode to alcohol. But it was monument of imagination… ‘Under the Volcano’ was filmed by director John Huston.

Don’t try this at home Lowry’s work is available via Amazon or in regular bookshops. Not only ‘Under the Volcano’, but other titles, such as ‘Lunar Caustic’ for example, an impressive report of cold turkey. The film that John Huston made of ‘Under the Volcano’, with Albert Finney as the consul, is also well worth a watch. Huston does full justice to the book. Lowry’s books were often called difficult. Unfairly so. His style is direct, drama is interspersed with humour, and Lowry puts himself in perspective in an almost unassuming way. Are far as the drinking is concerned: “Don’t try this at home..”

Soft Secrets

Greenfinger Hydroponics Greenfinger Hydroponics was established 1995 in a tiny shop just down the road from the current Kingston location. “Loading was a nightmare,” recalls founder and director Nigel. “The shop was smaller than your bathroom.” They stuck it out for three years before a growing customer base allowed them to expand to the relative space of a (discrete!) warehouse site in Peckham (now moved to Bermondsey), and added another later in Kingston. “When I started there were no more than 30 shops in the whole UK. Now there are a staggering number, of varying quality and honesty,” says Nigel. He was prompted to get into the green business by “fascination – with the plant and the technical process of rearing it” - and a clear vision of the business potential. The company philosophy is simple: “Don’t rip people off, don’t treat customers like idiots, and never assume you’re doing them a favour.” Customers are typically London-based males aged 18-30, with plenty of repeat custom. “It’s especially nice to see old faces who we’ve been dealing with for more than 10 years coming back,” says Nigel. He describes the shops’ current range as ‘ridiculously large’, offering as they do the complete range from seed to harvest, for every conceivable growing method. Fortunately the six staff (all knowledgeable botanical enthusiasts) he has managed to recruit are

Tatanka, Amsterdam For years now, the Tatanka smart shop has been a striking presence in the bustling nightlife district around Amsterdam’s Leidseplein. Situated among countless restaurants and coffee shops and right by the Vondel park, particularly in summer Tatanka is a logical last point of call for many visitors who fancy spending a pleasant few hours experiencing a heightened vibe while chilling in the famous green space. The interior of Tatanka is definitely one of the loveliest in the city’s smart scene – just let yourself be enchanted by the hallucinogenic wall murals! Luckily, the wide range of products on sale is equally psychedelic, to the extent that you would have to be insane to leave here empty handed. On the way to the light - the amazing murals on the back wall – there is a good chance that you will be distracted by numerous display cases packed with the widest variety of goodies and must-haves. Because Tatanka has always explored the boundaries of the current smart scene and managed to supply a much wider range than just a selection of little tubes filled with capsules. Of course there are (seven different varieties of) fresh mushrooms – with a buy five, pay for four deal – and an essential selection of sex enhancers, energizers, herbals ecstasies and psychedelic herbs on their shelves.

De Sjamaan, Arnhem De Sjamaan (The Shaman) started out in the early 1990s under the inspirational leadership of ‘chief’ Ananda as a simple little shop in the Dutch border town of Arnhem. Since then the business has grown to incorporate a wholesale operation, a mail order company and two smart shops. In spite of this growth and the ban on exports of several products, De Sjamaan is still forging ahead with just as much Ananda from De Sjamaan in front of enthusiasm as in its pioneering days. a forest of cannabis plants raised from The name of De Sjamaan in not unknown in De Sjamaan’s seed catalogue. the UK; at the UK Hemp Fair De Sjamaan is a regular guest, while thousands of Brits know the shop from its web presence. At the last Hemp Fair De Sjamaan was mainly busy satisfying demand for its Libido Forte ‘lust enhancer’. “There is no other aphrodisiac that can match Libido Forte,” says Ananda. “It is a Chinese herbal mix with a ‘herbal viagra’ effect, except this actually works.” Even so, he stresses that it “should not be seen as a medication for impotence, but rather as a fun product that improves the quality of sex.” Quality is a catchword that comes back again and again with De Sjamaan, both in its large range of products and in its search for only the very best suppliers. And nothing makes it into the ranks of its product range before it has been thoroughly tested. It has to work, reckons Ananda. Also, good, clear instructions and information about every product is standard, and for those who want to delve more deeply in to the material there is a treasure trove of information on the web site.

Shroom alternatives “Fortunately there are enough interesting alternatives to shrooms, now that their sale in the UK is forbidden,” says Ananda. “Hawaiian Baby Woodrose, for example; that gives and LSD-like effect. Or the San Pedro cactus, which contains mescaline. We deliver it as a cutting, which can be consumed directly or used as a clone for growing it further yourself.”

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excellent. “I couldn’t have found a better informed and enthusiastic bunch,” says Nigel. Greenfingers was one of the first shops to start stocking C3 foil, and is currently a wholesaler of it. “It’s the only one that works,” says Nigel, and a cursory reading of the bust stories making it into the press should convince growers that anti-infra-red precautions are not a luxury any more. Those choppers overhead really are out to get you. Each warehouse has demo set-ups and showrooms, including a very novel variation on the multiflow garden (which is a big seller). Of course, like the rest of the country, organic soil growing is making a big comeback – much to Nigel’s personal disappointment: “All I see is bloody pallets of soil nowadays. It kind of misses the whole fun of growing, I reckon. It’s a bit of step back, soil, isn’t it? But I can see where people are coming from with wanting to grow in it.” The business has a great website due for upgrading and week now, with a comprehensive range of equipment and good deals, including second hand gear and free offers. Greenfinger Hydroponics Kingston: 16-18 Park Road, Unit 3 Park Works, Kingston, Surrey KT2 6BX. Tel: +44 (0) 208 546 3444; Fax: +44 (0) 20 8255 8999; Open: Mon-Fri 10.30am – 5.00pm; Sat 10.30am – 4.00pm. S. Bermondsey: Unit 59, T Marchant Estate, 42-72 Verney Road, London SE16 3DH. Tel: +44 (0) 207 394 0629. Open: Mon-Fri 10.30am – 5.00pm; Sat 11.00am – 1.00pm. www.greenfinger-hydroponics.co.uk

Do not miss their lovely hand-made silver jewellery, and certainly don’t overlook the collection of the latest models of pipes, bongs and other smoking paraphernalia. As an extra service there are two internet terminals for use by customers. What’s more, should you be struck down with a case of the munchies after all that shopping, then you can just pop across the road to number 74, Tatanka’s appropriatelynamed sister shop Munchies where you can load up on over-fresh sandwiches, smoothies and lots more tasty fare. As well as being a welcoming and accessible smart shop, Tatanka presents itself in the digital universe as a trusty international web shop. Perfect for a reliable and discrete internet shopping experience, wherever you are in the world. Tatanka also has a lot to offer as an international wholesaler: all the common energizers, magic mushrooms and herbal E’s are available for order in wholesale quantities at sharp prices. The unique trump card of Tatanka is the Macabooster, a product based on a long-kept secret of the Andean Indians who have used the maca tuber for centuries as a source of more energy, as a general health tonic and to stimulate erotic energy. So there you have it: three different routes for travelling into the colourful world of Tatanka. Let the trip begin! Tatanka Korte Leidsedwarsstraat 151, Amsterdam. Tel: +31 (0) 20 421 2139 • www.tatanka.nl Wholesale: www.tatankawholesale.com

In the same category of herbal psychedelics comes salvia, available as an extract and also as a cutting made from cultured tissue cells. It is a plant that with a little care and attention is easy to grow yourself, and fully legal. Less psychedelic but just as powerful is kratom, a herb popular in, among other places, Thailand, where it is strongly forbidden. “Kratom is very powerful, and the effect is a mix between drunkenness and the euphoria of the strong adrenalin-effect substances like amphetamine,” Ananda explains. According to him there is a lot of kratom on the market that contains barely any active ingredients, but De Sjamaan has searched far and wide among suppliers to find one that can deliver a product that meets their strict quality guidelines. Then there is also NXT-Phase, the ephedrine-free herbal XTC generation for the new Millennium. In the NXT-Phase line can be found the exciting effect of the original herbal E’s, but without the possible side effects of profuse sweating and hart palpitations that you often experience with containing-containing substances.

Champion weed A few years ago De Sjamaan signed an exclusive deal with the ‘discoverer’ of the world famous White Widow, and already by 2004 this had delivered the first honours. Since then every year has seen them hit the mark again. The Sjamaan Seeds collection now numbers 17 varieties, including such classics as White Widow and Peacemaker, and of course the Shaman’s High, that was honoured with Second Prize at the Highlife Cup awards in 2006. The seeds are very reasonably priced in comparison with other competitors, and as a bonus you get not the usual 10 but a garden-busting 12 seeds in each pack. Naturally, De Sjamaan has a lot more to offer besides the products that have been mentioned here. It is absolutely recommended that you check out their web site as soon as you can, where you find a whole lot more information and exciting articles. Info and orders: Consumer: www.sjamaan.com • Tel. +31 (0) 26 389 3819 Fax: +31 (0) 26 389 3818 • Email: wholesale@sjamaan.com Wholesale: www.sjamaanwholesale.nl De Sjamaan smart shops: Bloemerstraat 48 • 6511 EK Nijmegen • The Netherlands Bovenbeekstraat 3 • 6811 CV Arnhem • The Netherlands

B. t r a B h t i w Grow

Soft Secrets

An indoor grow space in your outdoor garden By Bart B

We plumped for Power Plant.

Outdoor growing For those of you who have a garden in which this is possible, you might decide to swap uncertainty for certainty and create an indoor space in your outdoor garden. You simply build a basic grow space of a size that is convenient and place the whole thing under a lean-to. We need to build a wooden construction that we can cover with black-white foil, and we have to make sure to make air holes which allow air in on the left at the bottom of the construction, and on the right at the top where air can exit, so as

than the many little ones that are grown together crammed into an indoor grow space. In fact, it is something completely different and you can learn a whole lot more than with a more commercial (indoor) cannabis patch, in which you will find it harder to discover the particular properties of a plant , because it has to be put into bloom in the shortest possible time. Because we are dependent on the weather when we grow outdoors, and because many a grower is kind of allergic to bringing outdoor plants

Unwanted light pollution will mess up the flowering of the plants. to ensure an ideal air flow. All materials can be picked up at the local DIY outlet for very little money.

The beginning of April to the middle of May is the time for letting outdoor seeds germinate, marking the start of a new outdoor season, with all the expectations and excitement that brings. The coming months will see many gardens filled once again with marvellous, giant-sized cannabis plants that will explode in size. Eventually it all comes down to waiting to see if the weather will allow us to realise a top quality harvest from our plants, raised with all due love and care. In this article we will be looking at how we can turn uncertainty into certainty… Many outdoor growers have managed to amass a decent collection of seeds either, by buying them, by breeding them themselves or by exchanging them with like-minded growers. There are always a few seeds left over from previous years, and you will have built up experience with various varieties and how they perform in your garden. Whether your plant patch consists of clones, or seed plants for indoors or outdoors, it matters little just so long as you grow a variety that you actually want to smoke. Every grower has his own favourites that have to be taken into account, but that is not always the right variety for your individual personality. Many varieties also get hyped as better than the others, only for you to grow them yourself and

as growers, because during these periods they can gain a huge amount of experience. The outdoor growing experience can be relatively forgiving, and it is not too serious if you screw up a few plants; just germinate a few more as replacements. When you grow indoors such a problem can be more serious, since your plants will probably have been in bloom for some time and you will not have enough time to give your new plants enough pre-growth. In short, any newcomers will always be behind the others. In a single outdoor season you can try out all the various techniques in one go. You can try bending and topping your plants. You can grow indica varieties and sativa

Outdoor growing is enormously important for those just starting out as growers, because during these periods they can gain a huge amount of experience without having to invest much in material costs. find that this was a strong over statement and in fact you would have been better off in retrospect having grown something else… By all of which I mean to say that the choice of seed is a very personal choice, because with all the breeding that has gone on in recent years in the pursuit of ever better varieties, the range of top quality seed on offer is so huge that it is hard to make a bad choice as long as you go to buy your seeds from a reliable seed merchant.

Various techniques Outdoor growing is enormously important for those just starting out

varieties and experience the differences between the two. You can try taking clones or practice your grafting technique. You can also practice pruning skills. You can get your use of nutrients off to a tee, and deliberately cause an over-fertilizing so that you can gain insight into just how much feeding a plant can take before this happens. You can try and make your own seeds or make your own crosses. You can try out different mediums, such as soil, coco or even hydro systems. And there is a whole lot more you could try out for yourself, a whole load more tests you can conduct - and all in one single outdoor grow season. Eventually, thanks to all this knowledge you will have a much better chance of starting a successful indoor grow patch.

indoors (thanks to the danger of possible unwanted guests that might ravage their pristine, pest-free indoor space), we are therefore going to use this ‘indoor space in your outdoor garden’ construction. We are essentially going to use the outdoor garden space as a growing room for our chosen top varieties to do their pre-growth in. In contrast to the indoor space where we mainly grow one single variety, because this is the easiest way of gaining the biggest harvest, here outdoors we are not bound by this, and so can enjoy sowing a rich selection of different varieties.

Since throughout our spring and summer we have a decent temperature outdoors we do not need to worry about the cold. Thanks to the CO2-rich outdoor air, which is usually fresher, then we can also keep the temperature better under control in the space than if the construction were really indoors. What is important is that we make absolutely sure that the whole thing is completely light-proof. Unwanted light pollution can and will disturb the blossoming process in the plants.

Seed or clone

But why would you want to build an indoor grow space outdoors anyway? The advantage of an outdoor garden is that you can raise ‘real’ cannabis plants that can develop themselves more freely

In the garden I had a few clones of Power Plant sitting around, some outdoor plants grown from seed and a few indoor plants also grown from seed. The plants grew steadily and without incident

When they were about 30 cms high the Power Plants were topped

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under the shining of the spring sun, which created temperatures above 20 degrees. If you are planning to keep the plants outdoors for the whole grow and blossom then we need relatively large pots for them – at least 30 to 70 and even up to 90 litres. The plants grown from seed and the plants grown from clones do have a bit of difference between them in this respect. The seed plants in my experience need larger pots than the clone plants, especially during the first few weeks of growth. If we are going to raise a few beauties outside then we are going to need relatively good quality soil that has been enriched with the essential feedstuffs. A cheap and effective method of achieving this is to get your hands on a bag of premix. You can get a five kilo bag of this for about 7.50 euros a bag, and you can get 100 litres of cheap soil from a garden centre and turn this into decent soil by adding and mixing powdered nutrients to it. It is not recommended that you immediately stick your seed plants in this mix and start raising them, because high concentrations of nitrogen can cause more male plants to develop (seed plants use the first few weeks to decide whether they are male or female). High nitrogen concentrations would possibly result in males making up the majority of your seed plants, when of course we would much prefer a majority of females. You do not get this problem with cloned plants, since they are already female because they were snipped off the side branch of a female plant. A seed plant has not yet made its choice of gender and is influenced by its environment. So keep this in mind and use only lightlyfertilized soils in their first few weeks when growing plants from seed.

absolutely sure then just put some of the plants (those you see as having the best potential) in your built space. In this way you will not end up with a sudden disaster if the weather does turn bad on you – because after months of patient waiting, that is guaranteed to bum your whole summer. Now at least you have a definite smoke at the end of things while you wait for the remaining outdoor plants to do their blossoming.

By mid August it was time to harvest the Power Plants that had been brought inside for blooming

The frequently raised ugly head of spint, that flourish during the hot summer months because they can multiple so incredibly quick in climates with warm, dry air, did not come and pay us a visit.

The stems of the plants raised in the open air can hold a massive weight of bud on them

What can also be a big shame is when the sun during the early Autumn does not shine quite as strongly as you had hoped, because then your enormous plants will never realise their full potential when they come to blossom. Buds such as those produced by Spanish growers, they will remain something you can only dream of, which is a shame. That is why this is an extra prompt to move some of your plants raised outdoors indoors to bloom sometime; just to experience the rich, heavy blooms that are possible. There was just a single whopper placed in my grow space, simply because the second one would not fit in. Given that the indoor space was outside, there were no problems (e.g. with pests) encountered by moving the outdoorraised Power Plant in to the space, because the natural enemies of the pests also had free access to the plant. The frequently-raised ugly head of spint, that flourishes during the hot summer months because they can multiple so incredibly quick in climates with warm, dry air, did not come and pay us a visit. Thanks to good ventilation there was constant fresh CO2-rich outside air passing through the space. Cannabis plants have no trouble at all with the heat so long as there is enough CO2 around. Insufficient ventilation or inadequate introduction of CO2-rich air is therefore one of the chief things you have to keep an eye on during the summer months.

The seed plants have in my experience a need for larger pots than clone plants, especially during the first few weeks of growth. Power Plant In any case the Power Plants were topped when they had reached 30 cms in height, so that they would grow more compactly and wider, rather than increasing in height. This was done to prevent the plants from becoming colossal and during their bloom period outgrowing the growing space. The headroom is limited after all, and it is more productive to encourage the plants to expand outwards, than upwards. The strength of light from a sodium lamp will only penetrate to a certain depth of the leaf cover. Lower lying buds develop less well the further removed they are from the lamp light. Gigantic tall plants are therefore not making the optimum use of this light. Around mid June, the Power Plants had had enough growth with one and half months and had achieved a good enough size to be moved into the bloom space. You can also decide to take your chances with the weather and leave them where they are, but if you would rather make

Harvest time

The result could well be rock hard super buds

By mid August it was time to harvest the Power Plants that had been brought inside for blooming. It was a wrench to take the scissors to such a strapping lady. It seemed like it would never end. The strong, woody stems (strengthened by the outdoor winds) can definitely support heavier buds than the smaller ones on indoor plants. And this is something that makes the plant a pleasure to trim - and to be seeing one rock hard super bud after another, trimmed nice and short and laying side by side. Because the autumn months also have reasonable weather, with a bit of sun here and there, the buds of the purely outdoor plant also reached a pretty decent size.

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weckels world of

Outdoor

wonders Text & photos: Weckels

Outdoor growing –indoor blooming (part 1) In this article we will be taking a look at a completely new form of outdoor/indoor combination growing. The technique involves having the marihuana plants spend their growing period out in the fresh air and, once they are fully grown, being taken indoors to complete their blossoming. Since in this way we are able to create the most ideal conditions for blooming that can be technically achieved, it is a good way of raising really top varieties. What many growers do not appreciate is that when you allow your plants to do some pre-growth outside, once you have brought them indoors they will produce a super quality weed (the buds will be well covered with a thick layer of THC crystal) and in doing so produce a much higher yield. Just how we achieve this will be the subject of this article, and of the following articles.

We first let the seedlings start their pregrowth in small flower pots (minimum 18 to 20 cm high). Make sure that the seedlings are stood in a sunny spot right from the start. This promotes a good development and a compact growth in the plants.

One of the seedlings came under attack at an early stage from slugs. Fortunately, only the uppermost growth shoot was munched. The seedling developed into a doubleheaded plant.

The same seedling a month later As you can see the plant was forced to develop a double headed stem. Plants like this can later, once they have been brought inside for blooming, produce top harvests!

We drill extra holes in the base of the flower pot. In this way we ensure an optimal water drainage and there will also be sufficient oxygen on the underside where the roots are going to be.

Many growers will be asking themselves why we don’t just let the plants do their pre-growth indoors, since this is where we’ll be bringing them into bloom anyway, right? The answer to this is easy. The climate outdoors, where the living conditions are determined by the strong sunlight and also the wind, is by far the superior climate for selecting the strongest and best indoor varieties. In terms of levels of light, no lamp can match the power of the sun. And thanks too to the wind, the stem of the plant and its attendant side branches can develop themselves into amazing dimensions. Thanks to the strong gusts of wind outdoors the main stem and the branches are forced in all directions to develop strength.

greater weight of flower heads than they as an indoor variety had originally been bred for. When people grow indoors they often use an air fan blowing on their plants to achieve something of the same effect, namely a strengthened stem and side branches. Even with these aids though, it is impossible to create the same conditions as you would get outdoors.

By giving our marihuana plants all the advantages of a pre-growth in the fresh, sunny outdoors, once these same plants are moved inside for their blossoming they are bound to provide a few surprises. What is more, allowing the plants to pre-grow outside will save you a huge amount of electricity compared with having done it all indoors. Also, this method is less risky, because four or five well-developed and fully-grown plants will often yield just as much end product as a small field of less well developed individuals indoors. Furthermore, the outdoor conditions will provide the ideal selection mechanism to ensure that only the strongest and fittest will survive to make it indoors and the reward of being allowed to bloom.

But before we actually go as far as to bring the plants indoors, it is a good idea to make sure that we actually have a suitable place indoors to which we can bring them. And this is far from being as easy as many might sometimes think. When we are also active in growing indoors under artificial light, of course it is not a problem. Then the only thing we need to pay good attention to is the height of the ceiling in which the plants will be brought (that determines the eventual maximum height of the plants), the dimensions of the grow space and the timing schedule. The indoor space also needs to actually be empty at the time you need it and for the whole period that the plants will be indoors.

These are the moments at which the outdoor grower can only look on with apprehension. Thanks to the strength of some wind gusts there may well be small rips in the tissue of the plants (especially where the side branches meet the main stem), which in turn stimulate the plant to make new tissue in order to repair the small wounds. This process actually takes place throughout the life cycle of the plant (although during the bloom period the plants will be indoors), and thanks to this process the plant that is grown outdoors can achieve an incredible strong main stem and strong side branches. These attributes are just what the plant needs if she is going to produce a high yield of bud too. The main stem and the side branches of the plants, the ones we’ve brought indoors to bloom, must after all be able to support a much

To come back to my earlier point about the ideal amount of light we get from sunlight; the great quantity of light that comes from all sides is ideal for the growing of a thick cover of leaves. What is more, the powerful sun rays create many times more energy reserves in these leaves, which the plant can draw on later when it blooms to ensure the optimum development of its buds. The sun’s rays create an effect whereby the leaves are provided with an everincreasing quantity of sunlight. Put in an other way, the leaves keep being given energy boosts, since every few minutes the sun’s rays strongly illuminate the leaves (as the sun emerges from behind a cloud, for instance) only to then fall off again (as the sun goes back behind a cloud). Indoor growers also try and imitate this effect by fitting lamps on a special rail, along which the lamp(s) can move back and forth. In this way the indoor plants also get given a strong dose of light followed by a fall in light level, as the lamp moves along the rail and its light directly illuminates first one plant then the next plant. Despite this ingenious and above all expensive mechanism, it can still in no way compete with the sun!

As for the choice of which variety to raise, there are now boundless opportunities, given that we no longer have to worry about the early blooming marihuana types. After all, we can now take our pick of the very popular indoor varieties, the ones that since they often bloom for eleven weeks produce lovely white buds, These varieties would never be growable as pure outdoor varieties, because they would not be ready to harvest before the end of November. Because of the fact that we are whipping them indoors in good time, before the plants start to produce their bloom hormones, we no longer have to worry about the cold, wet Autumn. In short, the plants can enjoy a nice long growth period and then bask in the best indoor environments that we can provide for them. The plants will not only be grateful for this; they will amply reward us too!

If you really have no possibility of bringing them indoors and you are dependent on fellow growers, then it is a really good idea to have everything discussed and agreed upon in advance. Your fellow grower is running a certain risk at the moment that the plants are being hauled inside his gaff, given that the whole neighbourhood can enjoy the spectacle. Of course there are always alternatives and the risks can be kept to a minimum; I will not be going in to them here, but I will (in a later article) come back to the issue (once we really are ready to bring the plants indoors). Make sure in any case that you do have access to an indoor space before then. If we fail to take care of this and it starts to look as if the plants are not going to be able to go indoors in time, then you can already book front row seats to your first drama. Real indoor varieties left outdoors almost never produce any decent results since the outdoor growing season is way too short for the bloom time they need.

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transporting, and this height is also about right for most grow spaces too. As for other dimensions, the plants can be as fat and bushy as you like. In fact, such a well-developed plant is actually essential if you are going to eventually get a big harvest. Once we have got our hands on the right sized growing pots, the first thing we do is to bore a few extra holes in their bases. In this way we can ensure both that they get an optimal water drainage and that the underside of the pot where the roots are concentrated gets sufficient oxygen.

Once the flower pots have sufficient holes, we can start making preparations for fertilizing the soil mixture.

As my soil mixture I use a medium mix; a mixture of soil to which all kinds of fertilisers have been added. I also choose to add some additional perlite, worm castings, lime (in the form of seaweed extract), compost made from the remains of hemp plants, wood ash and just a tiny amount of blood meal. To a single 20 litre pot I add two dessertspoons (or large soup spoons) of lime, one dessertspoon of blood meal, two litres of worm castings, two litres of compost made from the remains of hemp plants, three litres of perlite and about two litres of wood ash. Mix all these thoroughly together, for example in a large bucket or alternatively in a wheel barrow. Now we add the medium mix that we have put together to each (20 litre) flower pot so that it is filled completely to within 2 cm of its rim. By stopping here we leave enough space so that the feed water does not run over the edge when we water the plants.

We pour the soil mix in to a large tub. Then we add lime (in the form of seaweed extract), worm castings, wood ash, perlite, compost made from the remains of hemp plants and bone meal. Then we mix them all thoroughly together.

A wheel barrow is also a good solution for making your soil mix and adding the various fertilisers in. Once it has been well and truly mixed we can start to fill the pots with it.

If we look at what form of growing best suits the circumstances, then the obvious choice is to go for a flower pot with a content of about 20 litres. We deliberately keep our pots on the small side so that later when they have a fully-grown plant in them they can still be relatively easily hauled indoors. What is more, by using a smaller pot, then the plants will remain limited to some extent in the size they will reach. A three-metre high mega-bush might look impressive, but for flowering indoors they are often not best suited.

This is primarily because thanks in part to their immensity they are almost impossible to transport. What is more, you would also need to have access to a grow space with a four-meter high ceiling. This is because you still need to hang your lamps a safe distance above the plants. The ideal height for our plants in this ‘outdoor growing – indoor blooming’ experiment is at the highest 1.80 metres. This is about the ideal height too for fitting in a large rental van for

Before we fill the flower pot with the soil mixture, its additives all well mixed through it, give the mix a final last churn so that it is nice and airy and richly provided with all the important raw materials our plants will need. This final mix is best done in a large tub or wheel barrow.

The first six flower pots are filled with a richly-fertilised soil mixture. Now we can plant the already somewhat developed seedlings to them.

space that will be at their disposal later on when we bring them in to bloom. Try and picture in your mind what a well developed plant will look like when it is about 1.50 metres high and about the same in girth, and see how much space that will take up. Four of five of these pumped up beauties will be more than enough to fill a reasonably sized indoor space pretty snugly. Some growers will have smaller spaces at their disposal and may have to be happy with just a single well developed plant. Of course, there are also plenty of growers who are in the position to be able to just go out a fill a whole field with them, but for the majority of us that is never going to be the case. To keep pressing on briefly with this issue of numbers, once we have finally decided on, say, four plants to bring inside for final blooming, it is still advisable to allow more than four to

Once the pots have been filled with our soil mix then we can choose a variety of marihuana to grow in it. Of course we could just choose to grow the same variety that we have always grown outdoors. These varieties too will produce super yields if they are brought in to ideal blooming conditions indoors. But to do so would be a shame. Since the plants are going to be finished off indoors anyway, it is far more interesting to try and raise a real indoor variety. In this way we can get to work nicely and at the same time get acquainted with a new variety as an alternative to the tried and trusted ones we’ve become familiar with. This is a great way for the outdoor grower to get to quickly know the pleasures of the indoor varieties! Personally, when growing in this fashion I have used the White Shark variety. This plant variety produced by the Greenhouse has, thanks to her wonderful white buds (rich in THC), her ravishing smell and great high, produced many great surprises for me. The number of plants we choose to set to growing in the open air is of course dependent on the size of the indoor

A couple of days before the re-potting we give the young plants some room temperature water (about 21°C) with some root stimulator added to it. We place the young plants in a dish so that they can soak up the water from below. This promotes the root growth outwards (out of the pot) considerably.

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In order to re-pot the young plants, just prior to the operation we give them a good dash of water. Then we hold the pot upside down and tap softly against the sides. The whole sod comes free easily.

In this photo, nearly all the plants have been re-potted into their final destination, namely a flower pot with a volume of about 20 litres. We care for them well, thanks to which they will develop into lovely, compact plants.

The plants are beginning to develop rapidly.

The same plants a couple of weeks later. I shift the pots around (with the plants in them) during the day. In this way they can get full sunlight all day long.

undertake pre-growth outside. Between the plants that we have raised from seed there are bound to be differences, variations that make them more or less well suited to taking the trip indoors. So perhaps one plant will grow much quicker than the other, while another plant will develop much more in girth than the others. We should also pay attention in advance to the fact that there will be a number of males among the plants we raise. It is usually safe to assume that half of the plants you raise from seed will be males. In stating this of course I am ignoring the case of the 100% female seeds. But the vagaries of genetic fate may even see you end up with perhaps eight out of ten plants turning out to be male. Bearing all this in mind I usually go for a good ten to fifteen plants. By having as many as this, we can be absolutely sure that we will get sufficient female plants, and we will be able to make a selection of the best developed ones to boot.

If we then choose to remove the male plants, then we will not be able to fill their spaces with fresh plants. This is because the seed has to be germinated and will have too great a time penalty to be able to catch up with the ones already in pots. Of course, we could take clones from the remaining females. The drawback here is that these clones too still have too great a distance to make up to catch the existing mothers that were raised from seed. What’s more, it is far more interesting to raise a number of mothers from different varieties of seed and then let them bloom, so that you can observe the differences during the blooming period in the appearance of their buds and use this as your selection criteria. A plant that looks great in terms of size, leaf coverage and suchlike is not always guaranteed to also follow through and produce loads of lovely, white buds. Sometimes it is the case that you have two mother plants that both produce near enough the same weed in terms of appearance and taste, but where one produces a heck of a lot more of it than the other does. Especially since it the combination of appearance, the smell, the high and the taste as well as the total yield and the price you can get (if selling it) that make it all worth while for the grower, then growing and letting bloom a number of different mother plants is a great way for any grower to work out some of these mysteries of nature. It is by experiments such as this that we can find and use our favourite mother plants to get the golden results we want. Since we do not need any giant plants, as these would not be best suited to blooming indoors, then it is not necessary to go starting our grow in February or March. We can better wait until the beginning of April to germinate our seeds, so that they can be started off in their pots in mid-April. Should it still be too cold by mid-April, then we can best just put the young seedlings into smaller pots to start with and keep them on the windowsill. As long as the plants get their three months in the open air and as long as the sun has had a reasonable chance to do its job, then the plants can not fail to develop sufficiently and reach the required size (not higher than 1.80 metres and nicely developed in girth).

Once we have placed the pots in a nice, sunny spot, the seedlings begin to grow. At this stage we give them very little water in order to stimulate them to set off themselves to find it. This little bit of gentle plant abuse works a treat, provided that you keep a close eye on things. If it happens that April is especially warm (it happens) and the sun is beating down on your little seedlings, then we do need to give them enough water. Often the weather at this time of year is still wet and damp – something that will be to the benefit of our leaf cover growth and development. It is not for nothing

that indoor marihuana growers use professional air humidifiers in order to let the plants to grow as fast as possible. I hope I have given you a bit of a picture in this article of the advantages of growing outdoors and bringing the plants in to bloom. In the coming articles I will be looking at the experiment step by step. In the very next article I will be giving a lot of attention to how we get our mother pants to grow to roughly the same height. How we can do this and why it is a good thing you can find out in the next edition of Soft Secrets!

The well-fertilised soil mixture and the abundant sunlight soon make sure that the plants develop into lovely, compact adults.

Once we have allowed the seeds to germinate and we have put them to start with into small pots, the young seedlings can start to develop. These small pots should have a minimum height of 18 to 20 cm, so that the tap root (main root) is not hindered in its growth. It is of course important that the plants are stood in a sunny spot. In doing so they will develop much quicker. What’s more, a shadow-filled spot is not suitable because in one, we are not giving the plants that extra something, that something they are going to need once they are indoors if they are going to produce that great harvest. The young seedlings will just shoot up likes rockets if they are put in a shadowy spot (in search of more light), and thanks to that will never develop into well-developed plants.

Here are all the plants once more, in a row. There are obvious differences between them, in size, in compactness and circumference. This is because these White Shark plant did not come into the world as clones, but were raised from different seeds.

Soft Secrets

Report

Bulls, Bears, and Buds at CannabisInvestments.com Looking for a less conspicuous way to spend the profits from your garden? CannabisInvestments.com is a brand new website where you can introduce yourself to the stock market from a pot perspective. With more companies offering stock options to their employees as incentives these days, CannabisInvestments presents an opportunity for the “self-employed” of the cannabis industry to invest in their own futures. By Kristie Szalanski

If you’re like most growers you’re probably far less interested in shares and portfolios than in strains and yields. However with the modern hemp industry enjoying a rebirth and the (albeit slowly) growing acceptance of medical cannabis worldwide, there’s no better time than the present to investigate related investment opportunities. Think of it as a legal alternative to your preferred income with the added benefit of financially supporting worthy industries and companies. CannabisInvestments.com helps the layman understand all the current possibilities of investment plus keeps its followers updated as to new cannabis and hemp businesses on various stock exchanges. You can learn about corresponding stock symbols, find out who is listed on which boards, and narrow your search for investment to various genres such as industrial hemp companies or drug producers. The site was begun as a way to collect like-minded companies and present them in an easy-to-participate format. You don’t necessarily have to have any experience with the jargon of the market in order to successfully find an interesting opportunity. Activists, growers, hemp producers, and regular old smokers will all benefit from CannabisInvestments.com. One way to keep the canna-businesses running is to buy weed, bongs, vaporisers, etc. With the contacts and info offered by this website you can also now invest amounts as small as what you’d pay for a few packs of skins up to, of course, the dough you’d drop on expensive lights and other growing equipment. Some of the companies listed on the site are already active members of various boards. Omega Pharma is responsible for the dispensation of medical cannabis in the Netherlands. This government-supported

group will likely be one of many to be posted on the market as this industry faces current changes. Recently medical patients in the Country of Cannabis were shocked to learn that their insurance would no longer cover their precious herbal alternative. As the first country to legalise cannabis for distribution in pharmacies, the Netherlands has been offering higherpriced and more strictly controlled cannabis to its ailing. No doubt the industry will expand or at least evolve as a result, not to mention offering a business plan of sorts for other countries attempting to legitimise medi-weed. After all, there is plenty of money to be made from those greenhouses…. Speaking of the plants, Amigula Inc. is another medical group with membership to CannabisInvestments.com. These kind folks are producing gardens full of medicine for prescribed patients in Canada. Worldwide the Canadian government is gaining a reputation for its tolerant attitude towards the medical movement. Although the laws are still more punitive in the Great White North for recreational users, they are nowhere near as severe as those of Canada’s neighbours to the south. That’s not to say, however, that there isn’t a heavy hemp and cannabis representation from an American perspective on CannabisInvestments, as well as many international conglomerates that form a global representation. Solvay S.A. “is an international chemical and pharmaceutical group… [which] employs more than 30,000 people in 50 countries.” This coalition produces a wide range of drugs for markets ranging from HIV/AIDS to OCD. A subsidiary of Solvay, Unimed Pharmaceuticals Inc., produces a synthetic form of THC called Marinol. The drug is given to patients with a wide range of ailments

from Crohn’s Disease to AIDS Wasting Syndrome. Solvay also produces a synthetic cannabinoid for use by another listed group, Nektar Therapeutics. Incidentally Nektar also manufactures the containers in which Solvay distributes some of their own drug products. These sorts of industry connections are bound to grow and create a distinct corner of the stock market, which is very good news for not only CannabisInvestments.com but also canna-investors as well. One company in particular on the site has already enjoyed both celebrity and conflict within the media. GW Pharmaceuticals is an UK firm credited with creating a popular yet controversial drug within the medical community, Sativex. Popular to cannabis advocates due to its uniqueness: the drug is the first of its kind as an actual plant part medicine (as opposed to one synthesised in the model of the cannabinoid structure of cannabis.) The drug, which is available (but not yet widely) in Canada and England, is controversial due to multiple setbacks and politics concerning its release. GW Pharm is also a fantastic source of information and support for medical patients as well as a respectable and professional face of the medi-weed world. As we all know, however, medicine is not the only use for a cannabis plant.

bedding and cage liner for animals as small as mice and hamsters to as large as horses. Yet another is Ecofibre Industries Association, which educates the public as to various eco-friendly alternatives for fibre-based technologies, including the optimisation of oil palm residues and fibres as mulching, etc. The group was founded in 1998 after five years of research compounded with that of a group called Forest Research Institute Malaysia. While much public attention has been placed on rainforest products, hemp technology, and alternative fibres for cotton-based products, some of the companies on CannabisInvestments are even less plantoriented and more financially focused. One such firm is the Golden Opportunity Fund, a mutual fund set up for investing in Prairie Plant, established in 1988 as a “privately held plant biotechnology company with a focus on research and development.” Their site includes information on cannabis and other plants, contract propagation, and medical cannabis.

Hemp clothing is also represented for possible investments in the form of Hemp Town, Inc. Since 1998 Hemp Town has been producing wearable and desirable clothing and now offers a wide range of cosmetics and toiletries as well, plus other favourites like Dr. Bronner’s soaps. Their website offers product samples and even celebrity endorsements. Hemp Town can accommodate wholesale orders for, say, retailers and decorators. Other hemp clothing manufacturers are likely to follow suit as popularity and investment opportunities spread.

One of the main benefits of keeping up with CannabisInvestments.com is its uniqueness. The first of its kind, the site supports an immensely unexplored and young facet of stock markets worldwide. Another plus is something followers of stocks know- markets can be unpredictable but it’s just common sense to realise the explosion canna-businesses have the potential to make. Advocates have always believed that the plant was unfairly prohibited, not for harming the health but rather for purely economic reasons. We know that the plant has the power to turn various industries upside-down: fossil fuels, pharmaceuticals, paper products, petrochemicals, etc. Why not jump in now and perhaps make a little money for a change? Or think of CannabisInvestments. com as a more productive way to launder your garden money….

Not everyone on CannabisInvestments is listed on an exchange, yet alternative investment possibilities do exist. For example, Hemp Plastic Ltd. will enlighten you as to the myriad of non-petrochemical plastic products that are possible today. You may have seen hemp plastic herb grinders, scales, CD trays, and even musical instruments and now you can learn how to invest through their website. Another non-listed yet hugely successful business is HempFlax B.V. Located in the Netherlands, HempFlax produces animal

Recommended Websites: www.CannabisInvestments.com www.omega-pharma.be www.hemptown.com www.gwpharm.com www.amigula.com www.solvay.com www.nektar.com www.hempplastic.com www.goldenopportunities.ca www.hempflax.com www.prairieplant.com www.ecofibre.com

Product Fla sh

Soft Secrets

By Chris Marchand

ONA Block and ONA Gel New to arrive in this country from the Canadian grow scene are these ONA products. ONA stands for Odour Neutralising Agent and that exactly what they do: neutralise odours, in particular the overpowering aroma of fresh growing ganja in full flower. They work on the very scientific principles of molecular bonding whereby two odours can offset one another when they combine to form a bond. The active ingredient in both the blocks and the gel are made up from a blend of 32 essential oils and other plant-derived compounds. Each bonds with different odours so by having so many a wide array of unwanted odours can be neutralised giving overall security. ONA Gel can be applied to misters and humidifiers or otherwise simply open the lid and let it do its work. The producers of ONA helpfully advise that for stronger odours open the whole lid otherwise increase or decrease the surface area e.g. lid half on, half off according to the severity of the odour. The ONA Blocks are recommended for placing discreetly in hallways and adjacent rooms to the grow room to neutralise background odours. Another worthwhile use for the blocks is to place them inside the ducting of your ventilation system. This way all the air passing over the block will pick up the aromas of the 32 essential oils and either distribute them into the room or neutralise the odours as the air is extracted leaving the neighbours non the wiser to your stinking plants. ONA Block and Gel are available from Greens Horticulture Tel: 0044 (0) 117 971 3000 www.greenshorticulture.co.uk

J-day Ireland 2006 sees Dublin joining in with the impressive list of 183 cities from across the world already participating in the Global Marijuana March taking place on May 6. Taking the form of gatherings, rallies, marches and festivals, the intention is to draw attention to the out dated laws relating to cannabis. The day will include music, informed speeches, comedians and other entertainers such as jugglers and fire breathers as well as product and information stalls. Bands, Quoizi Modo with their aptly named song ‘Smokers and Jokers’ and Crossroads have already been confirmed to play. Prominent Irish politician, Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan is set to make a speech in tune with the theme of the day. Anyone interested in participating or simply attending please contact through the website at jdayireland.blogspot.com

Strain Report

Northern Light High Quality Seeds by Mr. Muddle // Photo by Agnes from France Environment: Indoor 400-600watts Method: Medium: Canna professional soil Nutrient: Grow time: 21 days Flower time: 55-70 days Plant structure: compact with large fan leaf Bud structure: dense flowers Scent: perfume/vanilla Effect: heavy buzz Yield: 30-60g per plant

Aqua Flakes from House and Garden House and Garden have developed Aqua Flakes to be a complete nutrient for use in circulation systems that use rockwool flakes, often called Mapito, and traditional rockwool blocks. Rockwool flakes have been used for years in Dutch grow rooms, but as yet they’ve not been so popular in the UK. Much of the UK suffers from hard water where high levels of calcium and magnesium are found. For this reason other mediums like rockwool and mapito flakes can be tricky to use as they retain a lot of the excess elements causing other related elements to be ‘locked out’ resulting in deficiencies. So it’s just as well that House and Garden have made Aqua Flakes from the purest high quality nutrients available on the market, including Eddha-Fe (iron). This enables the plant to absorb nutrients quickly and effectively. No bulking or binding agents are used in Aqua Flakes making it clean and reducing build-ups. This is particularly important in circulation systems where much of the piping and fittings that deliver the nutrient to the plant are very narrow and can become easily clogged. Aqua Flakes come in a lightproof bottle to prevent degradation and has a sealed lid ensuring freshness. Aqua Flakes is available from Thermal Grow UK Tel.: 0044 (0) 1354 696611

Sweet Leaf from Advanced Nutrients Sweet Leaf is a product unlike many we’ve seen before. Its primary function is to improve the flavour of your bud, not by adding an artificial flavour but by enhancing the plants own production of aromatic compounds with natural, organic additives. The range and depth of different flavours found in the buds of cannabis plants of all varieties is staggering, with infinite combinations of aromas and tastes unique to the plants particular genetics. As we all know, the enjoyment of smoking goes way beyond merely getting high; the pleasure comes from the exotic, intoxicating smells and flavours that combined with cannabinoids produce the overall experience we love so much. These flavours all come from essential oils produced by the plant known as phenolic and terpenoid compounds. It is these that Sweet Leaf works on by stimulating an increase in the production of essential oil and at the same time enriching it with higher concentrations of the flavour compounds. Sweet Leaf supplies four of the richest tasting sugars, namely: Raw Cane Extract, Malt extract, High-grade molasses and Corn Syrup. Along with amino acids, organic acids, esters and vitamins (including cranberry and grape extract) these pump up the flavour of your buds through flavour molecule precursors that build more aromatic compounds and therefore increase potency. And it is 100% organic. Another benefit of Sweet Leaf is that it gives the plant increased carbohydrate reserves that allows it to produce larger, heavier buds in the flowering stage. Not a bad side affect to have. There will be those that say there is nothing that can enhance the flavour of properly cured (i.e. months not weeks) bud that was well grown, dried and stored. The idea of adding a sugar solution may seem like sacrilege to some but if you’ve got a sweet tooth and don’t always have the patience for curing properly, Sweet Leaf might be what you’re after. Sweet Leaf is available from Ikon International www.ikon-international.com // Tel.: 0044 (0) 1925 822 503

Northern Lights is well known plant. Having grown NL before we knew what to expect and was more than happy with the result. The seed were soaked in water, and put into peatpellets. All x11 seeds broke out of the shells. Some seedlings looked longer in shape with thin fingers to the leaf. The others grew lowdown with big finger leaves. After 20 days they all cut at the top. After 21 days they then placed into 12/12 (into flower). The plants were slow to start, not showing any signs of the sex until about 20days 12/12. The men were taken away to leave x6 lady plants. One of the lady plants was cross-pollinated with another plant to make some seeds. At 40 days 12/12 the NL started to fill out with white hairs and a good

layer of crystals (and started to smell of skunk). The buds are close to the stem then. The amount of water given was cut right down to let the soil dry out a bit and we never gave any nutrients throughout the grow/ flower cause the Canna Professional soil is very strong. The effect was a heavy head buzz. It reminded me of smoking Northern Lights in a coffeeshop. Yield was 50g each. Some lady plants were good to chop down at 56 days. The other x2 with the thin fingers took longer (70 days) and more skunky than the others to smoke. The main NL flower are tight and very sticky with a vanilla ice cream scent. It took about 2 weeks to dry it. Very nice smoke.

Soft Secrets

Rome: Total War Render unto Caesar Rome is the third game in the Total War series, and I can assure you that it is by far the best. The new game engine is not just an upgrade; it’s a huge leap forward for the series. Returning players will be both pleased and impressed, and gamers picking it up for the first time will quickly become fans.

PC games coast of Spain, and the battle will take place on the beach with nothing but ocean behind your opponents and nowhere for them to flee. Besiege a city, and you’ll have to use siege towers and battering rams to deal with whatever walls and structures have been built there. Buildings destroyed in battle will be gone in the overland game as well, so you might have some expensive rebuilding to do.

Backing up the impressive visuals is some great sound. Perfectly orchestrated martial music accompanies your battles and scores the rumbling thunder of your marching legions. The voices are good, too, although a couple of them can’t quite conceal their Aussie accents. “Rome. It’s Australian for war, mate.” You can even learn a bit about your upcoming enemy from your General’s rousing speech to the troops. Everything I’ve mentioned thus far pertains to Rome’s lengthy Imperial Campaign mode. If becoming Caesar isn’t enough for you, you can also play a shorter Campaign as any of the game’s nations (once you unlock them), fight your way through ten different Historical Battles to try changing history, or take a swing at Rome’s multiplayer modes.

This is all done on the overland map of the Mediterranean and surrounding areas. You can play as one of three Roman families - the Julii, the Brutii, or the Scipii - which determines your starting territories and the focus of the missions the Senate assigns you. Your goal is to protect Rome and expand the influence and power of the SPQR across the known world. This all takes place a few hundred years B.C., just as the Roman Empire is rising to power. Eventually, you will need to fight your rival Roman factions in order to consolidate power for your family and declare the current head of your family Caesar.

There are only two ways to take on up to five other wannabe generals online: Single Battles that are usually resolved pretty quickly, and the more interesting and more tactical Siege Assault, where one player or team defends a city, while the other besieges it. Both offer decent fun and extend what is already a massive game.

Rome: Total War is really two games in one. Much of the game is played on the map screen, where the turn-based format plays a lot like Civilization. You must manage your cities, grow them, build roads and markets, tax them, use the money to recruit soldiers and other useful units, and march them around the map to the areas where they are most needed.

Controlling your cities, families and troops in what amounts to two different, fully featured games is pretty complicated, and Rome: Total War is clearly not for casual gamers. However, the game’s “Prologue” is essentially a very long and thorough tutorial. Fans of the series will probably be able to skip it, but everyone else will find it an excellent place to start and an essential way to learn everything you need to know to play a game as large, deep, and complex as Rome.

Spies and diplomats are sometimes more useful than force of arms, and the right bribe or the right assassination can sometimes do the job of a thousand soldiers. Of course, you should be careful what you do unto others - losing a key family member can be a crushing blow, because your dynasty is as important as the land you control. They are your generals and your governors.

However, for every Caesar there must be a Brutus lurking in the shadows, and for all its great strengths, there are still a couple areas where Rome could use improvement. The unit A.I. could use a few more I.Q. points. While your troops are generally pretty effective, sometimes they’ll have a hard time just figuring out how to run around to the other side of a house.

The game takes place over several generations, and your family members will age, marry, have children, and eventually die. All the members of your family also start with and gain different traits. Nero, the “Bureaucrat” and “Social Drinker,” might be best as a city governor near Rome, while Gaius might have a weakness for bribery, so you’ll want make him a general of an army at the far reaches of the Empire. As they age or win battles, your family members can gain new traits and grow their retinue; a Nubian Scout might increase their field of vision, while a Barbarian Turncoat can give you the advantage when you fight against barbarians. This gives the game an RPG flavor as you find yourself getting attached to your family members.

When armies collide, the action zooms into a battlefield based on the map region. Trap your enemy against the

Without question, the sheer size of the battles will blow you away as literally thousands of soldiers battle it out at once. Arrows fly, spears clash on shields, and a well-placed cavalry charge can break the enemy lines, scattering soldiers like bowling pins and trampling them under horses’ hooves. All sorts of different terrain, weather conditions and even the omens of the gods can affect the battles as well. Powering this monster is a hugely impressive engine pumping out graphics that will wow even your nongamer friends. Sure, the soldiers are nowhere nearly as detailed as a Doom 3 marine, but they look great and are well-animated, and watching four thousand of them storm the walls of Alexandria is simply amazing.

For those of you unfamiliar with Total War, the focus is on historical accuracy and large scale warfare. As a tactical real-time strategy game, it plays more like Myth than Warcraft. Whatever armies you bring to a battle are all you have; you can’t just pop more centurions out of the centurion hut because you have enough wood, making battlefield tactics supremely important. Of course, against overwhelmingly superior forces, even the best tactics cannot save you, so it’s best to try to ensure that never happens.

And nowhere are your family members more at risk than on the battlefield. You’ll find them there a lot, because you can’t build an empire without busting a few heads. From the Greeks to the Carthaginians, there are plenty of other world powers out there who need to be taught a lesson or three about Roman might.

The weakest part of Rome is when you take to the sea. You’ll need some ships to ferry your troops around, but these can easily get stopped or blocked by any other boat - not just those of your enemies, which doesn’t make any sense. Naval battles are not playable and often resolve in strange, buggy outcomes.

Each of the game’s 17 different world powers has unique forces based on real historical armies. Roman troops are disciplined and strong, while the Gauls are fast and fierce. Bedouin warrior’s camels are tireless, but little can stand up against the charge of a Carthaginian war elephant. The variety and balance makes for all kinds of strategizing.

But despite these small complaints, Rome: Total War is a fantastic conquest. The power of the game engine has finally caught up with the developer’s vision of what a war game should really be like, and what a cool vision that is. It’s almost like getting two games for the price of one…and you can even just play your favorite. Turn on auto-management and you can forget about your cities and focus on the battlefield, or, if the Civilization thing is what you dig, you can let the computer auto-resolve all the conflicts so you can set about finding a suitable husband for Livia Julii now that she’s old enough. Frankly, this is a must-have for strategy gamers, history buffs and hardcore PC geeks. Why watch in on TV when you can have all the glory for yourself?

Soft Secrets

Background

What Happened to Weed? In the last issue of SSUK we asked the question ‘What Happened to Hashish?’ This naturally bought about the subsequent question. ‘What Happened to Weed?’ Much like in the case of hashish, the transportation, distribution, and consumption of imported marijuana formerly supported a multimillion-pound industry across the UK. More recently however there has been a noticeable decline in the availability of ‘Imported Weed’ (lets forget about ‘Dutch Import’ and ‘Homegrown Skunk-weed’ for just one moment). By ‘Weed’ we are talking about the landrace strains of herbal cannabis (formerly) transported into the UK. The stuff otherwise known as ‘Bush’, ‘Grass’, ‘Erb’ or ‘Ganja’. So what happened to Weed? By Lazystrain // Photos by DJS & Nas

Supply and Demand In order to talk about weed in its entirety, we must go back to a time before ‘Nederweed’ and ‘Skunkweed’ became the sole focus of cannabis culture within the UK. Flashback a decade or two and we enter a period when the UK’s Cannabis History was governed by landrace erb (and a good measure of hashish). Types of ganja would vary dramatically depending upon location and dealer. Ranging from excellent quality sinsemilla like Jamaican “lambs-bread”, Colombian “Gold” and high-grade Malawi. Through to low quality commercial, like seeded Colombian, seeded African and/or seeded Thai. In the past, things weren’t as simple as picking up a mobile phone and pressing some buttons to score something to smoke. Finding authentic weed involved a good deal of cultural investment, some travel, mindfulness, and mutual respect (all the things money cannot buy). Allow me to digress… During the 1980’s & 90’s, in every major city of the UK, there was a house. The name of “the house” varied from place to place, but its function was always the same. The house acted much like a coffeeshop for locals. Its patron would invariably sell landrace weed over a wooden counter (and sometimes hashish). People stayed there to smoke a spliff or two after work. Some of the houses also sold refreshments (chicken n dumplin’ and beer). There was no social problem! Everyone in the neighborhood (including the local CID) understood the function of the house, its visitors’ and its patrons’ intentions. Such houses provided then forgotten communities with a place to take refuge from the day to day hustle n bustle of city life. A

place to smoke a spliff of erb and reason upon the events of the day. As the elders passed away, the yout’ couldn’t find time for it, and many of the houses vanished... Since hashish was freely available back then, and ‘homegrown’ carried its own reputation as being “green”, the acquisition of landrace weed was where it was at. It was all about finding a good source of imported grass (one that would last). To say that everything was top quality would be a lie. Sifting the bush from the grass, the seeded weed from the sinsemilla, was all part of the task. The demand for supply, and the supply for demand, was, as unbalanced as ever. Yet all the same, everyone’s aim was to come home with a nice piece of clean sinsemilla in their’ pocket. The ‘cannabis droughts’ (c1995-6) didn’t help things much (and perhaps aided in the decline of ‘The Houses’ above). Weed supplies started to run-dry (quite literally). Unscrupulous dealers started to rep. seeded West African as “Jamaican sinsemilla”. They played commercial Colombian as “Gold”. Somehow, amidst the confusion, commercial (hermaphroditic) Thai weed gained its own reputation at street level. The world of weed had been uprooted and turned upside-down. Then some folks spat at it and it grew into fiction…

Transportation Once again we don’t intend to highlight methods of transportation in this section. The preservation of cannabis flowers is obviously an essential factor in haulage. Generally speaking (remembering that the preservation of THC is the aim) the fresher the weed the higher the quality - although this isn’t always the case. We shall attempt to explain:

Upon harvest cannabis flowers must first be dried and then cured. More often than not the second stage, the curing stage (with commercial crops) is conducted in transit. This allows two things. Firstly, it allows the farmer a quick return on his/her harvest (£). Secondly, the flowers will arrive at their destination in a saleable condition (increasing the overall value). However, if the process of drying isn’t complete prior to transit, then mold (Botrytis) may set in, and overall quality will be lost. On the flip side, transits that take too long to reach their destination may become brittle and dry, old and less profitable. Invariably, commercial weed is compressed into slabs or blocks to ease transportation. This also helps to preserve the flowers during their voyage from A to B. Good quality import is more often than not, sealed somehow in shrink-wrap or thermos film. Poor quality import is usually open wrapped in cling-film or plastic bags (this isn’t a rule). For example, under more local settings, landrace strains of cannabis often arrive loose in the UK. This type of ganja is usually of a higher quality because transportation is conducted on a much smaller scale (often for individual consumption). Transported with both care and compassion, it’s often a case of who you know, not what you know (see Demography), if you want be smoking ‘breadfruit erb’ or ‘blunt weed’ or something special like that in the UK. Oh yeah, one other thing. It’s not unusual for corrupt farmers to compress good quality flowers upon poor quality flowers in the same piece. So be warned!

the age/maturity and/or the sexual condition of a crop itself. Many of these factors depend upon annual methods of cultivation (employed by the farmer him or herself): usually related to individual perceptions around cannabis and its wider commercial value within “westernized” market-economies. Put simply, the seeded weed outweighs the sinsemilla, and weed farmers understand this! The best way to understand a piece of weed (besides smoking it and remembering the effect) is to study its physical condition; the anatomy of sepals, its phyllotaxy, the structure of leaf, its approximate age, the number of seeds represented, the scent, smell and taste. Then, with practice (and lots of hindsight), we can place a finger on the country of origin, perhaps even its former topography and treatment. For the majority imported flowers are usually of the ‘sativa’ type in the UK, with indica type flowers being much rarer. Identifying the topography of imported weed isn’t easy. It’s a subject about which very few can profess to be expert – those that ‘can’ often can’t remember everything off-hand, and those that ‘do’ usually rely upon hearsay. We could go on to discuss the many different varieties of landrace erb once available within the UK. This might include Ganja from SE Asia (India, Laos and Thailand), Bush from Africa (Gambia, Kenya, Malawi and Swaziland), Marijuana from the Americas (Mexico, Colombia, Jamaica, and the Caribbean). All of which have been smoked, at one time or another, during the past decade in the UK.

Topography and Treatment

Weed Politics

Traditionally, different types of weed descend from different types of landscapes. In this way, weed holds its own topography. Weed is often named in accordance with its place of origin, like say ‘Colombian’ and its appearance or its sexual condition e.g. ‘sinsemilla’. Localized names like ‘Thai Sticks’ and colloquialisms like ‘Lambs Bread’ may also indicate the quality and treatment of an individual type of grass pre/post harvest.

Weed politics stretches the globe - from Kenyan Bush Masters to Jamaican Hill-farmers, from Indian Holy-men (Sadhu) to Colombian Gorillas. The political implications of weed cultivation and consumption therefor cover some distance, few religions, and many an undisclosed motive.

The texture of the weed may range anywhere from fresh sticky buds to

As an embargoed product, even where the consumption and sale of imported weed is tolerated (places like Holland), the importation of the same weed is often forbidden. For example, European Law stipulates that one E.U country may

The selection of landrace weed available these days in the UK largely depends upon a need for supply, as opposed to a need for demand. This means that scoring landrace weed has become more a speculative hobby than an enjoyable pastime old powdery leaf, with many grades of texture in-between. Likewise the coloration of imported weed, (which may depend upon a number of different things including soil type, the use of fertilizer, methods of curing and transportation) can occur in many different shades, anywhere from emerald green, to earthen red, from gray/black to mustard yellow. The ‘Harvest’ of landrace weed is directly related to topography. Factors such as, microclimate, procreation techniques, and ancestral practices often influence

not hold an economic monopoly over a neighboring E.U country, by trading in a product that its neighbor cannot. A case of “unfair” economic trade would exist. The Dutch could say, for example, legally import flowers from, lets say Cambodia, and sell the same flowers in a coffeeshop at profit. The next country, lets say France, would get pissed, because the French would be tempted to go spend their weed money in Holland…(such is the situation at present). Economic bureaucracy is then one of the main reasons why imported cannabis is

Soft Secrets

The future:

“tolerated” in Holland, yet remains as an “illegal” product to import, and sell (and that’s not to mention any form of taxation)! Basically, for imported cannabis flowers to be made ‘legal’ within the UK, weed would also have to be made legal to import into every other country within the E.U. In the places where cannabis grows wild there’s really very little control over what is grown where and by whom. (It’s not like Nature can be shackled behind bars for growing cannabis). This is where those countries that support systems of legislative discrimination towards a native species of flora fall constitutionally on their dumb faces. You can’t stop people walking into the wild and picking flowers! Politicians then place all emphasis into stopping people from growing the same flowers in neat little rows; by burning them or spraying them (and everything else in the vicinity) with chemical herbicides. Intoxicated beneath their own sense of grandeur the same politicians then proclaim in an invective tone, that their work be “Progress”. The subject of weed politics is then not only frustrating but equally a very silly debate in places… bound by corruption, misfortune, and false-good.

Weed Demography (?) Despite resent media efforts to polarize cultural opinion within the UK, it exists that we live within a multi-cultural society. The seasoned stoner will appreciate multi-culturalism for its true worth. Understanding that demographic relationships are advantageous, especially when it comes to smoking grass. It therefore goes without saying that the person down the road (the person that doesn’t look like you) could well be holding some of the finest imported cannabis flowers you’ve ever had the pleasure of smoking. The real trick here is never to judge a book by the book that sits next to it…

The future of landrace weed in the UK is quite frankly bleak. Perhaps one of the main reasons why cultivation has become so popular amid home-growers more lately is due to the lack of landrace cannabis available at street-level. Then again, perhaps it’s the fact that most smokers have developed a taste for imported Nederweed. Either way, people these days like to smoke ‘skunk’. Ask a dealer for a weed and he/she will give you a bag of skunk. At this point the serious ganja smokers might want to pack their suitcases and book a flight to Amsterdam, Acapulco, New Delhi, Kingston, Phnom Penh, or some other place where the grass is still green (or yellow, brown, red). The first signs of weed demography are usually airborne. A subtle sense of smell is then all that is required in order to lift the weed scent from the Skunk. When out and about, at the local festival, the carnival, dancehall, or any cricket match against the West Indies, both experienced and inexperienced smokers will promptly notice the translucent aroma of an almost familiar scent, one you can’t quite find. The smell of nice cannabis flowers within any crowd usually escape the reefer to which they belong (which is bloody annoying at times), but none the less its always fun trying to find out which smell came from which spliff. This is also one of the best ways to make new friends at social gatherings and parties. The second signs are always visible. Usually, the people that keep themselves to themselves in one corner or another are there for good reason (!) The occupier of a coned shaped spliff, a clay-chalice, those little wooden stash boxes and/or coconut-pipe always figure high on the ‘erb in hand’ list (if not they know a hand that has). So do smokers whose ethic or religious perspectives differ from our own. Please note that this isn’t to say that people should be pulling the vest-strings of every-other Rasta!

R & B Hydroponics, Grimsby

It’s a pleasant job, reviewing shops for SSUK; every owner has a different story and they all share an enthusiasm for their business that is infectious. But the story behind the shop front of R & B Hydroponics in Grimsby is a whole new league. Roy and Bill started R & B nearly three years ago now. Roy was born with cerebral palsy which affected the movement of his legs. He wasn’t working, hanging around with some pretty dodgy individuals. “I wanted to get in to work, but I didn’t want to do some desk job behind a computer like the employment agencies were keen to push me into,” he says. He’d been interested in hydroponics for 12 years. “I can’t stand on a spade, so hydroponics represented a gateway to a world new world for me. It really stimulated my brain.” He’s grown flowers, peppers, a banana tree – you name it; it’s all been a transforming experience. His partner-to-be Bill had worked in Israel for six years on the drip technology hydroculture used out there. Why didn’t they combine their passions in a business? “People just laughed at us and said we’d never do it. Now my old mates from back then avoid me because they’re jealous of our success,” says Roy. They got a small grant from the Prince’s Trust Fund, qualified for test trading (whereby he got to keep his dole for 16 weeks and plough takings back into the business), and Roy sold his pride and joy, a touring bike he’d

Neither does it go to presume that all Hindus follow the path of Lord Shiva! Remember that for many, the erb is a plant used in sacrament and meditation as much as recreation. Weed is then, in places, very much a part of the day to day. Let’s not disturb this with our over-zealously. In other places, weed demography is bound by cash-money. The best quality weed (usually) goes to the highest bidder. In a market economy, there is very little avoiding this. Finding imported landrace weed then involves dispelling many a myth and crossing several boundaries – the boundaries that are designed to keep one person from chilling with another. Radicalization is a dirty word! So is Cannabis! Such is society’s demise. In ganja circles prejudice is coincidental to shared opinion. Many an older wiser smoker, that doesn’t find reason in procreated cannabis, finds reverence in wild populations of weed. Be it an organic issue, one of false manipulation, or simply the admittance that cannabis naturally sets root in and descends from the ground. Many of these people find a familiarity in imported weed that cannot be found elsewhere, and in many cases this helps bridge the gap between young and old, rich and poor.

The selection of landrace weed available these days in the UK largely depends upon a need for supply, as opposed to a need for demand. This means that scoring landrace weed has become more a speculative hobby than an enjoyable pastime. There are however, many species of landrace cannabis now available for retail in seed form. Many growers on the other side of the Atlantic have aided this motion by isolating some of the more popular strains of cannabis floating around the world during the 1960s and 70s. This means that it is quite possible to recreate whatever it was that got you high all those years ago. Likewise those that have never tasted cannabis flowers at their best are free to do so in the peace and serenity of their own garden. Whilst it was always possible to collect seeds and grow your own grass either from the dope you’ve been smoking, or from a retail source, there is something special about smoking cannabis flowers that descend directly from their region of origin. Weed that has been generatively nurtured, in the same foothills, since cannabis cultivation in that part of the world began is a trip unto itself. A transcendental journey that skunkweed, somehow, doesn’t, wouldn’t or couldn’t somehow match…

Shop review

traveled around Europe on. Along the way, he found his confidence transformed. “I discovered out I’m a really good salesman; it has really turned me around.” A strong stutter has all but disappeared. “It’s the best job in the world; the hydro industry is filled with really nice people, and I’ve had a great time at various hemp fairs in the UK,” says Roy. Doctors had once said he would never manage to walk. “I’ve always been a fighter and a doer.” His transformation has been helped all along the way by the medicinal qualities of the herb his gear can be used to raise, he’s happy to point out. “It helps me every day,” he says. Along with a number of other customers, with trapped nerves, suffering from car accident trauma, etc.” The Prince’s Trust and test trading people now use his case as a testimony for how well their schemes can help. “They came to us and said: this is exactly the sort of thing we’ve been trying to do.” Roy and Bill nowadays not only run a successful business; it’s a mini-Green University and social drop in as well. “We’re here for people to come and have a coffee with and a chat, says Roy, mentioning the complete ignorance in the area as to what hydroponics was and what you could achieve with it. He has fulfilled an almost evangelical role to the locals, nurturing them through the simplest set ups, while catering for those who start to spread their wings a bit. Now the business is established, he’s keen to pass on to other kids, especially those with disabilities, the joys of hydro. As for stock, Roy and Bill started out with virtually nothing: the bare bones minimum to get a working display up and running of what hydroponics was. Lettuces in fact. Today, R & B stocks the full range of soil and hydro growing essentials; soils, mediums, equipment, nutrients, and stock seeds from Hemcy Seeds. Currently flying out of the door, says Roy, are Nutriculture’s Wilma all-in (8, 10, 12, 20-pot) systems. “They run themselves and are very popular with people who don’t have all day for fiddling around: people in work, with kids, people who don’t want to be knocking on some dodgy geezer’s flat any time they want to chill out.” R & B Hydroponics, 78 Durban Road, Grimsby, NE Linc's, UK. Tel: +44 (0) 147 224 1114 Open: Mon - Fri 10.00 am - 6.00 pm; Sat 10.00 am - 4.00 pm. www.r-b-hydroponics.co.uk

tes n a v r e C e g r o Grow with J

About Grow Rooms Basement

Law enforcement cannot use the electricity bill as sole grounds for a search warrant. But, they can use it along with other “evidence” such as remnants of indoor growing visible outdoors, thermal image heat signatures, snitch testimony, etc., to secure a search warrant. As long as the marijuana grown is not sold or shown to a snitch, there should be no reason for any suspicion. Thermal image technology is easy to outwit. Just keep the lights on during daylight hours to confuse the technology. Or, cool exhaust air and expel it under the well-insulated grow house so it does not leave a heat trail.

This cutaway basement grow room shows a real scenario. Plants on tables stay warmer and are easy to maintain.

window, and build a box around the things so a natural scene is visible from the outside. At night, bright light leaking through a crack in an uncovered window is like a beacon to curious neighbors or bandits.

Take a little time to set up your grow room so all the space is used efficiently.

This barrel full of water shows that cannabis will grow only as fast as its most limiting factor. Light is most often the factor that limits growth indoors.

Air 20% Temperature Humidity CO2 and O2 content Light 20% Spectrum (color) Intensity Photoperiod (hours of light per day) Water 20% Temperature pH EC Oxygen content Nutrients 20% Composition Purity Growing Medium 20% Air content Moisture content Although less common, there are even grow rooms on wheels! Some innovative growers have remodeled trailer houses and buses into grow rooms. One of my favorite grow rooms was in a tricked-out trailer. Another was in a 60-foot (18 m) sailing yacht! The grow room’s size determines the size and the number of lamps. High intensity discharge (HID) lamps that work well to grow marijuana are available in wattages of 150, 175, 250, 400, 600, 1000, and 1100. Smaller wattages from 150-400, work well in closets or spaces with 9-21 square feet (0.8-2 m2) of floor space. Use 600-watt and larger bulbs for larger areas.

Outbuildings, garages, and barns not attached to homes are some of the worst places to grow cannabis. Thieves and law enforcement often do not regard entering a barn or garage as a crime, though they would not consider entering a home. Security is much better when the garden is within the home.

The most productive setups utilize two rooms. The first room is for vegetative growth, mother plants, and rooting clones. This room should be about one-quarter the size of the flowering room. When the flowering room crop is harvested, plants from the vegetative room are moved into the flowering room. Super productivity is achieved with a perpetual crop. Several clones are taken every day or every week. Every day a few plants are harvested. For every plant harvested, a new cutting takes its place.

The best location for a grow room is in an obscure corner of a basement, where the temperature is easy to keep constant year round. Basements are well insulated by concrete walls and soil. A basement room can be enclosed and camouflaged with junk, a double wall, workbench, or shelving. Added security is afforded by installing a false door in a closet. The grow room is located behind the secret door. Another good secret location, except for the possible heat build-up, is the attic. Few people venture to an attic that is difficult to access. Some growers locate their gardens below a trapdoor covered with a rug.

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The drawings show several grow room floor plans. As the floor plans demonstrate, there are several basic approaches to grow room design and production. Most growers start out with a crop grown in a single room. After they harvest the crop, they introduce a new batch of clones. The photoperiod is switched back to 18 hours, and the cycle continues.

This indoor setup has a big flowering room, a vegetative room, and a clone chamber.

A single 1000-watt metal halide can grow enough mothers, clones, and vegetative plants to support 4000 watts of flowering HID light. This design allows pungent odors to waft upward before being evacuated via roof fans. A third area in the attic is used as a heat buffer in hot climates.

Setting Up the Grow Room Step-by-Step Set up the grow room before introducing plants. Construction requires space and planning. A grow room under construction offers a terrible environment for plants. Once the grow room is set up and totally operational, it will be ready for plants. Step One: Choose an out-of-the-way space with little or no traffic. A corner of the basement or a spare bedroom are perfect. A 1000-watt HID, properly set up, will efficiently illuminate up to a 6 _ 6-foot (1.8 x 1.8 m) room. The ceiling should be at least five feet (1.5 m) high. Keep in mind that plants in containers are set up at least one foot (30 cm) off the ground, and the lamp needs about a foot (30 cm) of space to hang from the ceiling. This leaves only three feet (90 cm) of space for plants to grow. If forced to grow in an attic or basement with a low fourfoot (120 cm) ceiling, much can be done to compensate for the loss of height, including cloning, bending, pruning, and using smaller wattage lamps. Step Two: Enclose the room, if not already enclosed. Remove everything that does not pertain to the garden. Furniture, drapes, and curtains may harbor fungi. An enclosed room allows easy, precise control of every-11 thing and everyone that enters or exits, as well as who and what goes on inside. For most growers, enclosing the grow room is simply a matter of tacking up some plywood or fabricating plastic walls in the basement or attic and painting the room flat white. Make sure no light is visible from outside. If covering a window, do so discreetly–it should not look boarded up. Insulate windows and walls so a telltale heat signature does not escape. Basement windows often are painted to look like the foundation. Place some stuff–books, personal effects, household goods, etc.–in front of the

This closet grow room has everything necessary to grow a crop–lights, fans, and cannabis! A 400-watt HID lights the 3 _ 4- foot (90 _120 cm) flowering room above, and two 55-watt CFLs in one reflector illuminate mothers and clones in this perpetual harvest setup.

This attic grow room has access via a retractable ladder. The grower uses the dead airspace above the room for his ozone generator to exchange air before expelling.

Step Three: Cover walls, ceiling, floor–everything–with a highly reflective material like flat white paint or Mylar. The more reflection, the more light energy available to plants. Good reflective light will allow effective coverage of an HID lamp to increase from 10 to 20 percent, just by putting a few dollars worth of paint on the walls. Reflective white Visqueen® plastic is inexpensive and protects walls and floors.

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Step Four: See “Setting Up the Vent Fan” in Chapter Thirteen. Constant air circulation and a supply of fresh air are essential but often inadequate. There should be at least one fresh-air vent in every grow room. Vents can be an open door, window, or duct vented to the outside. An exhaust fan vented outdoors or pulling new air through an open door usually creates an adequate flow of air. An oscillating fan works well to circulate air. When installing such a fan, make sure it is not set in a fixed position and blowing too hard on tender plants. It could cause windburn and dry out plants, especially seedlings and clones. If the room contains a heat vent, it may be opened to supply extra heat or air circulation.

Step Five: The larger your garden becomes, the more water it will need. A 10 _ 10-foot (3 x 3 m) garden could use more than 50 gallons (190 L) per week. Carrying water is hard, regular work. One gallon (3.8 L) of water weighs eight pounds (3.6 kg); 50 _ 8 = 400 pounds (180 kg) of water a week! It is much easier to run in a hose with an on/off valve or install a hose bib in the room than to schlep water. A threefoot (90 cm) watering wand attached to the hose on/off valve makes watering easier and saves branches from being broken when watering in dense foliage. Hook up the hose to a hot and cold water source so the temperature is easy to regulate. Step Six: Ideally, the floor should be concrete or a smooth surface that can be swept and washed down. A floor drain is very handy. In grow rooms with carpet or wood floors, a large, white painter’s drop cloth or thick, white Visqueen plastic, will protect floors from moisture. Trays placed beneath each container add protection and convenience.

This attic grow room is insulated with Styrofoam and reflection/anti-detection barrier foil available at www.hysupply.nl, which keeps the heat signature from showing.

In this simple Sea of Green layout, there are ten plants in each tray (80 total plants) illuminated by a single 1000-watt HID. Each week one tray of ten plants is harvested, and ten new plants are started.

A vent fan and an oscillating circulation fan are essential to maintain a healthy environment.

These plants are growing in 3-gallon (11 L) pots and spaced on 6-inch (15 cm) centers. The 5-foot (2 m) high walls are covered with white Visqueen plastic.

Step Seven: Mount a hook strong enough to support 30 pounds (14 kg) for each lamp. Attach an adjustable chain or cord and pulley between the ceiling hook and the lamp fixture. The adjustable connection makes it easy to keep the lamp at the proper distance from plants and up out of the way during maintenance. Step Eight: There are some tools an indoor gardener must have and a few extra tools that make indoor horticulture much more precise and cost effective. The extra tools help make the garden so efficient that they pay for themselves in a few weeks. Procure all the tools before bringing plants into the room. If the tools are there when needed, chances are they will be put to use. A hygrometer is a good example. If plants show signs of slow, sickly growth due to high humidity, most growers will not identify the exact cause right away. They will wait and guess, wait and guess, and maybe figure it out before a fungus attacks and the plant dies. When a hygrometer is installed before plants are brought into the grow room, the horticulturist will know from the start when the humidity is too high and causing sickly growth.

Keeping heat inside the room is as important as keeping it out! Insulation will keep heat out, and the heat generated inside the room will be easy to control.

Step Nine: Read and complete: “Setting Up the HID Lamp” at the end of Chapter Two. Step Ten: Move seedlings and rooted clones into the room. Huddle them closely together under the lamp. Make sure the HID is not so close to small plants that it burns their leaves. Position 400-watt lamps 18 inches (45 cm) above seedlings and clones. Place a 600-watt lamp 24 inches (60 cm) away and a 1000-watt lamp 30 inches (75 cm) away. Check the distance daily. Hang a precut string from the hood to measure distance.

This drawing shows how to install a vent fan. Adding rubber feet or padding around the fan will dampen noise. This is an excerpt from Marijuana Horticulture: the Indoor/Outdoor Medical Grower’s Bible by Jorge Cervantes, 512 pages 1120 full color photos and drawings, ISBN1878823-23-X. The book is available in English and will be available in Spanish, German and Italian in the fall of 2006. For More information see: www.marijuanagrowing.com.

Did you know that garlic is an exceptionally good basic insect repellent? If we boil up some garlic and then press it well and then let the liquid cool down and sieve it, we can fill a plant sprayer with it. It is a 100% organic substance that works really well against all kinds of gnawing beasties.

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PEACEMAKER

Original breeder: De Sjamaan Seeds Photo by Bertrand & Magali, France

Internationa l Growers

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English grower Sticky Buds

A gram per watt

By Bart B

The English grower Sticky Buds is a big fan of hydro cultivation, especially the NFT system. Every new system needs a bit of getting used to, and despite set-backs you can still get very good results while getting to grips with it. Sticky Buds tells us more about his way of growing and is more than happy to share his ‘Blockhead scrog’ grow technique with SSUK. “I started growing in March 2002, so I have been growing for a good four years now. The stimulus to begin with it was seeing the grow op of a friend of mine. Prior to that, back in the ‘80’s, I had grown a few cannabis plants, but looking back at that period I can now say that I knew practically nothing about growing cannabis. I even think I did not know what a bud was back then. My friends and I just tore the big leaves off the plants and smoked them when we had run out of Moroccan hash once again. I can not say that we ever actually got really stoned from them, but it seemed to us better to smoke ‘something’ than just stay straight the whole time. But yes, of course it was not very nice to smoke, dried under the grill as it was. Plus it was really irritating on the lungs.”

Super grow “So as soon as I saw that super grow of one of my mates, I was immediately smitten, and just knew that I had to start up something similar myself. My mate was busy growing some Bubblegum in a hydroponic system, and the plants were about four weeks into their bloom, so about half way. It was a gorgeous grow room, filled with little buds that were developing rapidly. After I had asked him a few questions I felt I had all the information that I needed to be able to set up my own grow op, and I spent the whole trip back home with my head full of ideas. The only thing I needed for my first grow was the initial investment to be able to equip myself with the necessary materials. Living on the dole in England this seemed impossible, but I managed it by splitting the costs with a good friend. The plan was to split the first harvest in two and share it, and hopefully with that I would have earned enough to pay my mate back his half of the investment.”

No pesticides “No sooner said than done. I absolutely love cannabis; it’s just something that that feels right. It is really something for me. The chances are great that if you get hold of decent weed to smoke in England you have probably been smoking hash only for years. The fact that I can now grow the very best quality cannabis possible, and that I know for sure that what I smoke is free of pesticides and other undesirable additives, makes it all more than worth the effort. As well as that, it is of course a huge plus that the stuff I get to smoke is practically free, once you have taken off the nutrient and electricity costs.”

Grow system “To date I have only raised four varieties. These are White Widow, Blueberry, Blockhead and Lifesaver. I have another

ten varieties sitting around that I have not yet tried to grow. My favourite at the moment is the Spice of Life Blockhead. The other three varieties also have their qualities, but the Blockhead does it for me every time. And it is also the variety that my friends tend to turn down because it is a little too strong for them. I love to grow it from clones on stone wool in an NFT system. Once the clones are well rooted in their stone wool blocks, I start giving them quarter-strength nutrient (700-900 ppm, Canna Flores) until they are fully settled in the system and I can observe sufficient growth in the plant and in the roots. Once this point is reached I raise the dosage of the nutrient to 1400 ppm, which is around half strength. I stick to this throughout the whole grow cycle. In the reservoir I just let the quantity of water fall until I need another 30 litre batch. Then I add enough nutrient for 30 litres at half strength to the reservoir and top it up. The more time that elapses, the greater the chance of salt accumulation, but this usually does not occur until the end of the grow cycle. Then it is a good time to rinse the whole set up, and I do not need to spend too much time and attention on it.”

Nutrient Film Technique “I now have so much growing experience that I can see when there is overfertilizing going on. If I notice it then I make sure to the whole set up a good rinse through with a whole reservoir of water. I have only had to do this once, with a variety that apparently preferred a lower dose of nutrient than the regular varieties I tend to grow, namely Lifesaver. On top of the normal bloom feed, in the fifth week of blooming and for two to three weeks (depending on the variety), I add pk 13-14 to my feed mix. But whatever variety I am growing, I always stop giving all feed additives at least ten days before I plan to harvest the plants. The plants then have sufficient time to use up the remaining nutrients. The system that I use is called NFT, or Nutrient Film Technique. To explain it in simple terms, your plants stand on a gently sloping surface just above a reservoir. A pump sucks feed water out of the reservoir and it then flows in a very thin layer over the surface and over the roots, after which it flows back in to the reservoir. This is kept up continuously.”

With ‘scrogging’ we try to keep all the buds at the same height and fill the entire square metre. We spread out and tie the branches over the whole surface area.

These pearls of Blockhead have been blooming for three weeks.

After 27 days we have a sweet little garden.

“But whatever variety I am growing, I always stop giving all feed additives at least ten days before I plan to harvest the plants. The plants then have sufficient time to use up the remaining nutrients.” watt lamp). My last grow was one of the very best to date, with a yield of 1.2 kilos. Step one is to make some clones. Step two: the clones are ready to go in to the system three to four weeks later. Step 3: once they are in the system they are given ten days’ of pre-growth, after which they are put into a 12/12 lighting regime and they begin to bloom. The time it takes for the clones to be ready and the harvests are coincidental, so once one harvest has been gathered then new clones can be put

straight in to the system. This means that there is a period of twelve weeks between each crop. I don’t really have an average yield per plant, because one plant in an NFT system can yield three times that of another. Why this is so I have no idea. Sometimes I might get one single bud that increases to an amazing size and all the other plants in the space are just looking at it. The only plants that I can give an accurate average yield for are the plants I have growing in soil. I reckon that they each give about 85 grams.”

Coning “These days I try to meet all my personal needs by using two NFT systems (scrog) and a few plants grown in soil. When my clones get going without any trouble, which is what happens 99.9% of the time, then I can always reckon on about a kilo dry weight of bud for every 1000 watts I use (in the form of a 400 watt plus a 600

After 47 days of blooming there’s nothing but cracking good buds.

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the whole crop and hang it up to dry keeps me occupied for about eight hours flat. That is why I try and spread it out a bit, doing a few hours a day for a couple of days. As for problems stench problems, I have never really had any – as far as I know, anyway. Just smoking a joint creates more nuisance than trimming the whole crop. If I have to combat the smell, I use the circulating air fresheners. The extractor sucks the air straight out of my grow room and away. The only time that I smell anything is when I turn off the lamps, but even then it just smells like the grass has just been mowed.”

After 63 days of blooming it is harvest time. The plants look fantastic.

Deep Water Culture “The only problem that I have ever had was during my first grow. I’ve got a tip: growing on an NFT system only works with clones. My first grow came straight out of seeds. The plants were given two months pre-growth and the mass of roots was so huge that the plants all began to strangle each other. Half way through the bloom period they all began to die off, to the extent that I was happy in the end to get anything to smoke at all. I had 170 grams off ten feminized White Widow seeds!

“A tip: only grow with clones when you’re using the NFT system.” So the first system that I used was NFT, but I have also grown on a DWC system (Deep Water Culture). After the first disastrous grow, the one I was just talking about, I was keen to step over to DWC. But I thought I’d just give the NFT another go first, this time a test with clones, and the end result was completely different. This second attempt gave me nearly a kilo and the plants stayed healthy throughout the whole grow. That convinced me to carry on with NFT. The system has

“Good question. I can only compare my growing with that of friends who grow the same varieties as I do. And to be honest my plants look a damn sight better. The big difference between us is that I have built a dedicated grow room, with ventilation and so on. While they have more, erm, sort of thrown something together in their attic.”

“Find a good web site and read, read and read until you’re sick of it. Much of the information you take up will at first not mean much to you, but once you have actually got down to growing then all this basic information will mean you have a good chance of raising something pretty decent at your first attempt.” What do you think about the laws in England? “Well, in England cannabis has been downgraded from a Class A drug to a Class C, so the punishments and what not have become less severe. That is a good step in the right direction. But to be honest it makes little difference to me. We will all just continue to smoke cannabis quietly at home without worrying too much.... but what about growing? That is more important to me. Hopefully it will not be much longer now before a limit is set out as to how many plants we can grow without being branded as a dealer or a criminal. Until that day comes I will continue to have no trust in or respect for the law...”

Day 63: A top-down view of the right hand side of the Blockhead plants. Mmm.

been up and running for two years now and I can not imagine growing my weed any other way. At least, as long as the system continues to work so well for me. There are many systems for growing hydroponically, but personally I find that that this one makes for more oxygen in the water than others.”

Harvest time “At the moment I have just a single main growing room, and a small cupboard where I have a few lamps hanging for keeping my mother plants in and for keeping clones I’ve taken. When the time comes for harvesting I roll a few joints, make something to drink, set off in the direction of the bloom room and just set to it. To trim

White Pearl (99% female) – High Quality Seeds by Mr. Topsy-Turvy Environment: Method: Medium: Nutrient:

Indoor 600-1,200 watts Super-cropping Bio-Biz All Mix soil Bio-Biz Grow, Bloom, TopMax Grow time: 30 days Flower time: 65-70 days Plant structure: Tall and wide Bud structure: Carrot-like colas Scent: Mild honeycomb Effect: Stoned Yield: 45-65g per plant

White Pearl is a hardy feminised strain that geminates well indoors. All 10 seeds hatched. The seedlings raced in height from the start. Some

Is your growing method different from that of other growers, do you reckon?

What tips do you have for your fellow growers?

showed longer nodes than others. The overall structure of White Pearl (in veg) was tall and slim for a “White” strain. As WP matured she

The eventual yield of smokables from all the hard work: 672 grams from 600 watts.

was super-cropped by twisting the branches, and removing the tops to control height. The removed tops were cloned. WP is feminised, so plants were placed into large pots early on - giving them a good start. WP developed a nice healthy root system. As cuttings WP works really well using Sea Of Green method. The result is single cola plants that need little trimming. In bloom WP is very slow to start, with little difference in bud growth between 21 – 28 days. At 30-40 days 12/12 WP starts to flower-up and grows fast buds. Two plant types were noticeable. A sativa type with thinner leaf-blades and an indica type with wider fan-leaf (our favourite). All the seeded plants were about the same height (4ft tall). Each plant took up lots of water. Some of the sativa type WP didn’t like too much heat and started to “fox-tail”. To combat this a 600w lamp was removed from the garden to reduce temps.

Strain Guid e The smell of WP when growing is quite strong (especially when rubbing against the plants). The flowers fill out well and there are few gaps in the structure. The buds form long carrot-like colas covered in THC. The hairs turn deep red at harvest. Seeded plants yielded around 50-60g on average. Cloned plants slightly less. Drying and curing, WP gives off an unpleasant ammonia smell (typical of the “White” strains). The indica types smelt sweeter than the sativa types. All improved bouquet after curing in mason jars (giving a musky honey/orange scent). WP has a medium to high resin content with average size trichomes. To smoke White Pearl has a musky flavour with sour undertones. The buzz is quite heavy - ideal for hangovers, vaporising and generally getting stoned.

Soft Secrets

SEEDS

seeds

By Lazystrain Photos: DJS & Nas

Seeds sit at the roots of cultivation and propagation. At the base of every plant, and the beginning of every clone, sits a seed. In Nature mechanisms of seed dispersal, seed dormancy and seed development are a habitual affair, governed by the seasons and individual microclimates. As horticulturalist the scenario isn’t always so simple. Cultivated seeds tend to come in paper packets, the origin and treatment of which often remains unknown by the grower. These seeds are, after-all, procreated by hand. A basic understanding about seed physiology and morphology therefore sits at the foundations of gardening success. In this issue we shall take a brief look at mechanisms of Seed Dispersal, Seed Dormancy, and Seed Development.

Seed Mechanisms Many of the mechanisms behind the sowing of seed are often taken for granted by horticulturists. It is normally accepted that seeds are seeds (much and much the same); that one seed-line can/ should be treated as another seed-line, under the same controlled conditions, to the same result. That failure in the garden is the result of a “poor breeder”, a “bad seed packet”, and/or an “infertile seed-line”. Here we hope to highlight the fact that: individual seed-lines, and in some cases individual seed, seek slightly different methods of treatment in order to trigger the best patterns of growth. Seeds are unique. Upon sowing, each seed, no matter how closely related to its siblings, becomes an individual in its own right. Let’s not forget that from seed, seedlings grow into adult plants (each of which has slight if not major differences from the next plant). During the earliest stages of seed development and germination even the smallest alteration in microclimate can manipulate the physiology of a seeds potential. In this way, under artificial conditions, individual seed (and collectives) alter their metabolism in accordance with their climatic surroundings (the condition beneath which they are kept and sown). To understand these processes we shall consider seed mechanisms against the order that they occur in Nature.

Seed Dispersal As an annual plant, and as a means of propagation, Cannabis sets-to-seed from female flowers once a year. As the nights get longer, the pollinated (seeded) flowers ripen. At this point seed dormancy begins! The swollen sepals, which are at this stage seed laden, begin to split and the seed are aired. Some seed are cast from their shell-pods onto the ground, whilst some seeds remain hidden far deep within the flowers themselves. Whilst related to plant size, the number of seed per plant is often relative to subspecies and microclimate. For example, with lowland species of sativa the number of seed per plant often exceeds the number of seed per plant found in highland species of indica. During winter and spring, thawing ice and snow aid the dispersal of highland species over distances, whereas under equatorial climates, monsoon rains aid the dispersal of lowland species over local landscapes. This reflects a need for competition in certain subspecies and/or an inherited mechanism of seed dispersal in others. Those seed that are

not disturbed by beast, bird or human return to the earth from whence their origins began. As an inherited mechanism of seed dispersal, animals play an extremely functional role in the dispersal of seed for several reasons. Firstly via digestion animals transport seed into new locations. Whole seed are passed into smelly prefertilised piles of guano/manure. This give seeds a nice home to over-winter in (a place where seed aren’t likely to get eaten by birds). In this way a population of seed can easily find way uphill or across river. This also provides the ideal conditions for dormancy. Secondly, large herbivore (yak, deer, bison) churn-up the ground surrounding the plants upon which they browse. This creates a perfectly ‘tilled’ environment, upon which new seed can compete with establish weed species. Thirdly, seed-feeding bird hold no-bounds and may carry seed hundreds, if not thousands of miles on the wing. Finally, humans transport seeds for both food and cultivation. In wild populations, microclimate plays the most important role in seed dispersal by governing the rate of soil morphology itself (the way a soil moves). This dictates the location of seed populations across landscapes and encourages the uptake of natural selection. Seed that descend from higher ground will naturally be washed into lower-ground. Some seed float while others tend to sink (ever wondered why this was?). Seed that readily float will be washed the furthest away from the source of the parent plant by heavy rainfall/snow. Likewise, strong winds aid seed dispersal by literally blowing seed from calyx and stem. Floods, storms, landslides, earthquakes, de-forestation, periods of drought and/or urban development may all contribute towards the process of seed dispersal across any population, within any environment. There are quite literally thousands if not millions of variables involved. Where/when wild populations are subject to human intervention and/or unnatural methods of procreation, the natural ebb and flow of Nature, and natural seed dispersal, is dramatically damaged. Those warning signs that read - “Please do NOT pick the wild flowers” are there for good reason. And must be perpetuated if wild populations are to remain.

Seed Dormancy Seed dormancy is a naturally occurring ‘survival factor’ found within many species of plant. Under ‘natural conditions’ the dormancy of cannabis seed is quite

normal. The “over-wintering” of seed is then a naturally occurring phenomenon. That is, when under dormancy (even where perfect germination conditions exist) a seed will NOT germinate! Under “artificial conditions” cultivated plants tend to display lower levels of dormancy. The seed of cultivated plants, especially those used for food, have an unnaturally shallow dormancy period. The ‘survival factor’ has quite literally been bred out of popular cultivar in order to ensure a homogeneous crop/harvest. There are three different types of seed dormancy - Exogenous Dormancy (external), Endogenous Dormancy (internal), and Combined Dormancy (external and/or internal): Exogenous Dormancy is governed by the external covering of the seed itself (the seed coat). With Cannabis the seed coat is relatively thick. The seed is slowly permeable to water via a fissure line in the shell. This mechanical resistance inhibits dormancy. A period of warmth, followed by a period of cold usually encourages germination. Endogenous Dormancy involves the internal development of the seed embryo (both morphological and physiological). Whilst internal seed morphology is aided by ‘warm stratification’, both small and immature embryos are always found in combination with another type of dormancy (mostly physiological). Physiological endogenous dormancy is the most common type of dormancy found in nature. An inhibitor inside the embryo and/or an incomplete chain of chemical reactions imposes dormancy. Annual species such Cannabis experiences a relatively ‘shallow dormancy’ period. Shallow dormancy can be overcome by “after ripening” (drying seed). A period of ‘cold stratification’ is then required in order for physiological dormancy to be complete. Growers use cold-rooms and refrigerators for this reason. Combination Dormancy is displayed when several types of dormancy (often internal and external) are displayed in the same seed. This may involve exogenous dormancy (a seed coat), coupled alongside endogenous morphological resistance (embryo development), alongside physiological dormancy (a shallow inhibitor), all within the same seed structure. Cannabis seed display ‘combination dormancy’. The underdeveloped embryos MUST first develop into their full size during a period of ‘warm stratification’ before a period of ‘cold stratification’ can be effective.

The best way to test levels of ‘seed dormancy’ against levels of ‘seed viability’ is to play with seeds. Try keeping collectives of seeds under different conditions (dry, wet, hot, cold…). Then sow each seed group into separate trays of soil. Place each tray into a contrasting environment (dry, wet, hot, cold…) make note and record the results.

Seed Development Seed development is a funny old thing… it never ceases to amaze. The smaller the seed, the more amazing the transformation from genetic time capsule into seedling. Let’s face it, this is where the ingrained magic of growing anything begins. What the people in white coats like to call “plant science” is in fact just Mother Nature doing her own thing. Now people may call on the traditionalists, but seeds like things best in soil. There is just no escaping this. With ‘paper towel’ and ‘glass of water’ methods people can look, touch, and prod the seed as it germinates (and we’d like to think this is one of the best ways to learn about the habit of seeds). Seed development is however an extremely delicate process. For this reason seed development is often perhaps best left untouched by hand. The germination and viability of seed is foremost governed by patterns of seed dormancy. Only once the natural cycle of embryo development is complete will the germination of seed successfully begin! Fresh seed are usually far less viable than those that have been subjected to dry conditions (warm stratification) followed by cool conditions (cold stratification) prior to sowing. Only following a period of dormancy can then true seed germination and accurate measurements of seed viability begin. Before this seedlings tend to be weak.

After thoughts… Always remember that mechanisms of seed dispersal, seed dormancy, and seed development hold a direct influence over the seeds that grow and the seeds that don’t. Seed may have travelled a long way from the hands of the breeder to the hands of the gardener. Any number of climatic and/or environmental factors may then have already inhibited and/or aided the initial stages of seed dormancy and seed development. It all depends upon the condition(s) beneath which the seed have previously been kept.

Soft Secrets

music Robert Love - ‘Ghost Flight’ (One Little Indian)

Ten years on from the formation of notoriously successful underground cult bandAlabama 3, front man Robert Love aka Larry Love embarks on a parallel project with a new band, ‘Ghost Flight’ being their debut album. A true Rock n’Roll group and as unorthodox as Beefhheart, the sound is not so much a fusion of styles as a debauched baptism into a session of sleazy rhythm n’ blues (original stylee), twisted country outback swamp, dysfunctional edged folk and psychedelic strangeness. The contemporarily bardic tunes relating to misfits, misuse and misadventure, sometimes elegiac yet soulfully comforting, sometimes wax-lyrical eulogies of free spirit and the gospel according to oneself are either composed by Robert Love or by a collaboration with Brendan O’Connor multi-instrumentalist with punked up country outfit, Messengers of God. At they’re best playing live, like the early Velvet Underground at Andy Warhol’s Factory parties; the band charge the atmosphere, spawned by the familial collection of nutters and scutters with a heightened sense of deranged excitement. Roots Manuva ‘Alternately Deep’ (Big Dada)

A collection of cuts made during the recording of ‘Awfully Deep’ but not used on that album, ‘Alternately Deep’ is no meagre offering of seconds. Some of the tunes are previously unreleased, some have been used as downloads, B sides or exclusives, all carry the same unmistakable, infectious Manuva bite and are brought together in this value for money compilation. With a raw, stripped down feel pervading, the album displays Rodney Smith’s aka Roots Manuva’s natural ability to flex with an impressive array of musical styles and come through with a sound that is very firmly his own. In ‘Mean Street’ poetically tuff hip-hop vocals and bashment ride astride a minimalist bhangra bass line resulting in a punchy and enticingly distorted hot-steppin’ tune almost reminiscent of the Detroit techno sound. Displaying the intrinsic influence with utter pride and respect for his family upbringing which was deeply immersed in the pantheon of Black Music and always dealing with issues from his local environment of South London, this lyrical gangsta and soldier of roots and radical rhythm never fails to deliver insightful poignancy with a groove and a twist to the dance-floor front line.

HOT WAX By Kaz Peet

A STONED SELECTION

generation there exists that moment when only the sound of Massive Attack can suffice. Hugely influential and capable of such works of genius as ‘Unfinished Sympathy’ they have forged an irrevocable spot in the collective headspace. At last, some of their finest moments are brought together. Fink - ‘Biscuits For Breakfast’ (Ninja Tune)

Scrap Killar Road Movies - ‘Scrap Multimedia Release 1’ (Scrap Records)

his capabilities. However, Reggae and Bashment lovers should keep their ear to the ground for further productions from this man. Compilation - DJ Derek Presents ‘Sweet Memory Sounds’ (Trojan)

A marvellous and comprehensive anthology of underground videos presented by the inimitable 2000 DS posse, now operating as Scrap TV. Covering a diverse range of artists from around the world, all the videos have excellent graphic and video work from the Criminals of Evolution, Killar Watts TV Productions and Beebop, graphic designer of Evocrim Creations. It features Pete Missing, an exile from the States, a former resident artist from the Tacheles art centre in East Berlin in collaboration with DJ Hazard. It’s a hard industrial / punk track called ‘Global Warning’ with video from a gig in New York, 1989. The British travelling scene is well represented with video from the Tremorgy festival, also 1989. 2000 DS themselves, in their heyday playing ‘ Dragons 2000’, a brilliant anthem about the travelling scene by the man from Cwm Bran, Gary DS. Other artists featured include, Headjam, The Dead Plants, Dead Silence, Theodora Bastard and many more, linked with some excellent pieces of footage from various sub cultural events around the world. All in all, an excellent and entertaining tour of innovative and powerful music. Any bands or artists interested in collaboration please make contact through the website at www.scraprecords.com Turbulence ‘Nah sell Out’ (Jet Star)

Most tracks are written by the man himself, Sheldon Campbell, AKA Turbulence, although there are a couple of co-written with Sly and Robbie. Although the lyrics are tough in themselves, the presentation is fairly commercial. This man has worked on an extensive international tip and with many renowned artists, but one gets the feeling that he hasn’t quite come into his own as a writer. He is capable of really hitting the spot, an example being top dancehall tune, ‘What The Hell’, but only one or two of the tunes here give you an idea of

Bristol quite uniquely in it’s historical tradition lies at the head of one of England’s great portal outlets and endemically associated with the worst aspects of negro slavery, the echoes of its sad history still resonate; the main thoroughfare between the new and old Bristol maintains its name, despite the pressures of political correctness, of Black Boy Hill. The residual post slavery demographic provided a long established and unique cultural crossover. Trojan highlights a beautiful expression of this diversity, DJ Derek a white bespectacled real ale drinking sartorially waist-coated ex-accountant has for forty years remained the apostle of Jamaican music from the earliest days till now. His legendary residency at the Star and Garter still reverberates in the current Bristol sound. This compilation amply displays his ear for a tune and natural ability to keep it rockin’. This is a just and mighty fine celebration of a life less ordinary, a visionary eccentric and complete Bristolian. Massive Attack - ‘Collected’ (Virgin)

Massive Attack provide the finest celebration of Bristol’s cultural spastic echo; the shadows of both the cities past and constantly oscillating future informing their body of work. An eclectic collective of musicians, singers and programmers both black and white, incorporating greats such as Horace Andy, that embrace a spectrum of musical forms including rap, dance, r n’ b, dub, jazz, electronica, avant-garde and pop. This greatest hits package draws material from all four albums starting from their epoch defining debut album, ‘Blue Lines’ through to their new single, ‘Live With Me’, a soulful lament franked by the sweet vocal of veteran Terry Callier. For a whole

In this, his first acoustic album, trip hopping Fink leaves the turntables for his excellently played guitar and presents us with nine closely personal songs that grow on the ears with each subsequent listen. A subtlety of definition creates a spaced out sound with a soft focus edge, which suits the blues and soul basic style of the music. The cleverly crafted songs have simple melodies and vocals resembling the twelve bar structure. Colourful lyrics are drawn very much from the artists own life and experience and have a descriptive attention to detail that give the songs a genuine and strongly human feel. “Pills In My Pocket” tells of an abortive attempt at a date while at the Glastonbury Festival. In “Hush Now” Tina Grace joins him with a vocal accompaniment that brings a richly sensuous and lush quality. Being likened to Massive Attack’s first album, “Blue Lines”, “Biscuits For Breakfast” is intelligently inspiring and emotively captivating. The Barbara Morganstern ‘The Grass Is Always Greener’ (Monika 47)

Continuing the German tradition for experimental yet pop electronic music heralded by the likes of outfits such as Kraftwerk, Barbara Morgenstern releases this new album three years after the critically acclaimed ‘Nichts Muss”. This time introducing the piano to her minimalist compositions several pieces are musical impressions of some of the places that she visited whilst on a world tour. The title track “The Grass is always greener” comes from San Francisco and “Die Japanische Schranke”(Japanese Railway Gate), from the squeaking sound of railway gates she heard in Tokyo. “Polar” Morgenstern describes as reflecting the “simple observation that even in moments of the utmost apparent luck (going on a world tour) one can still be unhappy. Other tracks deal with some of the eternal questions and aspects of life such as time and motion and the ability to enjoy oneself. Beautifully arranged, the overall feel of the music is light yet there is a depth of sonically shaped imagery that makes it really quite exquisite and anything but bland.

land l o H n i e d a M

Soft Secrets

Bio Henkie and mother “earth” Part 4

By Smiley Grass

In each edition of this series for the organic grower, a different grower from Holland is put under the spotlight. This time around it is Bio Henkie, one of the very first growing pioneers from the early days. This dyed-in-the-wool weed-lover based in North Holland really has growing in the blood. His father was a market gardener, and Bio Henkie is not averse to turning his hand to growing tomatoes and green peppers, something he reckons makes a good skills base for also getting good results from the cannabis plant.

and all their specialty equipment. De Goudnetel the shop was called, one of the very first to advertise in Highlife. BioBizz had in the meantime also begun to make organic compost for, among others, Positronics. Of course, they delivered other stuff too, but that was also supplied by Theo Grendt, the only guy who was importing the stuff at the time. I was kind of inclined back then to do things a bit cheaper, since I thought I could get hold the stuff for less. And by doing so loads of people started coming to my shop and these customers also bought other things, lamps and so on. We were all pioneers in organic horticulture. We used fish emulsion, seaweed extracts and “Maerl” - seaweed lime with more magnesium, instead of Dolocal lime from the Dolomites (which also happens to have magnesium in it). Afterwards the product range was heavily expanded, with Boosters and what not, which I’m still not sure really do what they are claimed to be able to do; there was so little in them that I had my doubts whether any of them worked. It was akin to believing in homeopathy.

Enriching earth with old soil In the beginning, all compost was standard RHP and no-one else was checking soils too. Bio Henkie loosening the peat

Bio Henkie: “I began more than 20 years ago with organic farming in my father’s greenhouse, in the Zuiderakerpolder, one of the oldest horticultural districts in the Amsterdam district. The Olympic village was supposed to have been built there and eventually they did build a new housing project on this once valuable greenhouse area. Nowadays it’s called Nieuw Sloten, out on the western edge of the city. In this greenhouse of my dad’s there was a bit of everything grown: from roses to grapes and tomatoes, various varieties of pepper from all over the world. It started out as something of a hobby that quickly got out of hand. I had got to know Wernard, from the former Positronics, and I began to experiment a bit in the greenhouse. We gradually got more and more professional. First with plants and later with compost. I began to collect addresses of companies that made organic fertilisers, and after a while I also set up in business as one of the first to start importing these in to the Netherlands. I owe a lot to a good friend of mine, Theo Grendt, who had all kinds of knowledge about organic farming that he shared with me. He later wrote a book on the subject, De Biologische Aanpak (The Organic Approach). Theo originally could not get his compost certified because in those days it was impossible to get an (Dutch certification – see box) RHP certificate for organic compost. These days it is a lot easier with certification marks awarded by EKO and Skal, but back then it was a right pain in the arse. The compost was really expensive, which is why I quickly decided to make my own. In those days I had a glasshouse in Aalsmeer where I set up a mixing

line. It was real basic: a cement mixer, a shovel and my bare hands. I even bought my own peat, with of course the base ingredients being white peat and black peat. Everything was done in the oldfashioned organic way, as taught to me by Theo Grendt. Theo had loads of lovely ingredients, such as fish emulsion and blood meal, the original stuff with which in those days many a pioneering grower got some fantastic results.

Experimenting with impunity I was able to experiment with my plant genetics quite freely in my greenhouse, sometimes with amazing results. Ed Rosenthal visited me once and was amazed with the number of varieties I had growing in that greenhouse. I had actually started out with very little knowledge and simply did all kinds of experiments with raw materials and nutrients in a search for the very best soil mix for this plant. I also owe a big debt of gratitude to Wernard, the first organic grower in the Netherlands. I actually bought my first grow lamp and my first plants from him. Because his Positronics was keen to help everyone learn how to grow, he was tremendously open about the business; how you could clone, which fertilizers need to be in your compost and so forth. He called this approach the Sensimilla Guerrilla. The advantage of all these experiments was that I was able to make every possible mistake, ones you can not even imagine. You learn immediately from them, because a plant is implacable; I have had plants with dark green leaves that actually looked blue and plants that were so yellow they were almost white. And come to think of it, every colour in between.

That’s why I have to give a little laugh when I read in our trade papers some expert of other going on about how he thinks that he has discovered how to recognize a deficiency in a plant and that he has a ready-made solution for it. So for example a certain deficiency that he has identified himself is called a potassium deficiency, while in actuality it is a shortage of a particular trace element, one which the cannabis plant needs a huge amount of. This also amazes the professional compost makers in the world of regular horticulture. I only found this out by accident when I was one of the first people to open a grow shop after Wernard – I was the fourth in the Netherlands, I believe – and brought out a new liquid nutrient that was very successful on the market.

The Goudnetel I actually started out making soil, after which with someone else I started to also make nutrient for use in hydroculture. Based around these two products I started a grow shop. I started to get a lot of requests from all sorts of grow shops for special earth for growing weed in. Such as “De Boerenwagen”, that is now Interpolm, which back then only stocked soils for the regular horticultural industry but was getting more and more requests from home growers for a special mix with the right pH. First it was just people from my district who came to visit my shop, then people from all over Amsterdam and the surrounding district, and slowly from the rest of the Netherlands. Also a lot of guys who went on to start their own business, such as Edwin from Atami and Roberto from V&L, for whom I now work. At the beginning of their growing careers they came along to me for advice

RHP was actually a drawback. You had to enrich the soil yourself by inoculating it with bacteria and if need be, by adding 5 % old soil compost too, but then of course it was no longer RHP. But at least then you did have a decent organic soil that was going to live its own life. With this you would only have to fertilize it and in principle it was fine to use as the basis of a full soil system. So no more filling pots, using them and then emptying them again, but choosing a fixed spot of earth to keep using and improving. There is a lot of biological life in old soil so it can always be used for inoculating new batches of soil, something like cofertilizing. If you use sterile compost, it will take a long time before a good soil life is up and running in it, stuff like antagonists and soil fungi. If needs be you can let loose some worms to burrow through and mix up the soil to enable it to be properly fertilized. In this way you establish a continuous process, because the worms improve the soil and thanks to this you automatically get a better root system. No booster could match this. The basic elements of pre-fertilized soil consist in principle of about 10 ingredients. One of the most important of these is phosphate. Back in the past we used natural phosphate in the earth mixes. This phosphate, as it happens, did not dissolve readily in normal soil, but only in somewhat acid soils – and that is not the pH we want; in addition to that, natural phosphate also contains a lot of cadmium which is a poisonous substance and therefore not something we want to see taken up by our plants. That is why these days we use a “living phosphorous”, a granulate from Italy that is extracted from for instance fermented grape pulp, and which is rapidly

Soft Secrets

absorbable by plants. Just as bone meal is also a slow acting phosphate. And bone meal, by the way, does not actually come from meat rendering plants, so you do not have to worry about Mad Cow disease / BSE; in addition the BSE-causing agents are too large to be absorbable by plants. That is why everything we use is now certified by the EKO Skal system. In addition, our soil is going to get potassium containing substances such as vinasse (sugar beet remains) and worm castings, compost, bacterial strains and a bunch of other things. And this is the soil mix that you go ahead and make up 5 % with old soil, which of course you should first put through a sieve.

Never acidify your water Soil that has just been mixed up needs to be allowed to ferment; the bacteria are setting to work, the fertilizers only slowly become free in the mix and there is biological life that needs to start flourishing. If you leave the soil alone for a bit to stand, it will only get better from it. And if you are working purely organically with soil you have made up yourself, then the soil needs at least three months to mature before you use it. The longer the better; through this the ground will become more balanced. Just-fertilised soil is often too strong, and this can burn your plants, make the leaves grow bent, and so on. You do need a fair bit of room for this process of maturation, such as a shed. My own soil has always had at least three months to ripen before it is ready for planting in.

pond liner have had their edges raised a good 30 centimetres. Nine plants per square metre is optimal, and by topping the plants one or two times during their growth I get lovely, full plants with more “candles”. Each time after I have harvested I then take a small top layer of earth along with the root remains out of the soil, fertilize a little and replace a fresh layer of soil mix on top and ta-da: the same raised bed is ready to grow in once again. And the soil will just keep getting better and better. The peat is airy enough, so if you just rake it through it a couple of times it is loose enough and not become compacted. You only need to add that 5 % old soil I mentioned earlier the first time you use the soil bed in order to inoculate it with its new beneficial life forms. And when it comes to watering I try not too let the ground get too wet, or else the soil can become too sticky. If you are worried that you soil might become compacted, you can introduce more aeration into it by setting some worms free in it.

Aeration and CO2 fertilizer CO2 is also an important nutrient for plants and comes from the fresh air that your grow space takes in. The technique of CO2 fertilization is too expensive and too complicated to do in small spaces, so you have to make do with the air you suck in. If you want more CO2, you are best off working with paraffin burners which also give off plenty off CO2.

Above 25 degrees and you will have to start blowing the air back out again, but that is simple to sort out with a thermostat. The most important thing is that you keep the temperature constant, without loads of peaks and troughs, and it does not matter so much whether this is a constant 23 or 26 degrees.

Insects arrive via clones The last time I grew was from mother plants raised from seed. There are a number of reasons for this. First of all, you can not just keep going on and on cloning

The challenge is to stay on top of all the latest developments and apply them in good time. Having been out of the picture for a while with a serious illness, I decided to throw myself back into the fray with my own compost. Even more improved, of course and even better attuned to what the plant really takes out of the soil. Because after all, I don’t want to just throw away all my experience and there is nothing nicer than watching plants thrive. What amazed me most in all my 20 years of experimenting with weed plants is that the things that to us are really quite ordinary are only just breaking through into the regular horticulture scene. Stuff like seaweed, fish emulsion and hummus acids for example, and that organic growing is now really organic. This is something you do not need a kite mark certification for.”

What is in most composts that have been approved according to the “RHP” norms? RHP stands for Regeling Handels Potgrond (Compost Trading Regulation) and it is an organisation that checks all the compost making companies in the Netherlands for a number of properties to which they must adhere to in order to get the label ‘RHP checked’.

Bio Henkie inspects a test space

First of all there must be ‘compulsory’ artificial fertilizer added to the soil, the so-called PG-mix, usually between 1 and 2 kilos per cubic metre of soil. Plus there is a quantity of normal, cheap chalk added. Usually these composts are based on peat cut in northern Germany, Scandinavia, and the cheaper Baltic peat fens. Secondly, on the entire area where the production takes place there may be no substances such as compost, worm castings, organic fertilizers and suchlike. The RHP does not trust these things and what is more, their use brings you under B.O.O.M. law, which is so complicated that it goes over the heads even of supporters of organic farming.

What in any case you should never do is use the so-called A and B fertilizers in organically prepared soils, because these fertilizers will totally disturb the biological life. If you add them they will do more harm than good.

If there is an RHP certification on a bag of ‘organic’ fertiliser in other words, you can be certain that its contents are absolutely not organic.

Growing for a couple of years in the same soil By preference I grow in the full earth system by making beds, which with some

The problem is that if you do attempt to draw in more CO2 you will not only need control computers, but also that the relative air moisture content also becomes too high as well. So this becomes a bit of a palaver and getting a petrol heater to warm your incoming air is a lot easier. Or, if you are technically minded and can safely do electrical work, you can fit a heating spiral into the inlet pipe so that during the cold season you can heat the air before it enters your grow space..

because the genetic material weakens over time. Secondly, because it is almost always from incoming clones that you get insects in your space. Now of course you can always return the clones, which is very laborious and boring, or you can dip the clones in some substance, which is not very organic, to rid the clones of their unwelcome six-legged beasties. But I prefer just to make my own clones from my own mother plants that I know have been raised in a reasonably sterile space into healthy adult plants. And raised preferably a long way from my grow- and bloom-space, but that is more for legal reasons to protect my genetic material.

RHP en EKO

I still keep my hand in with a bit of regular horticulture; because the organic additives have really come on so far, they are also interesting to me for raising vegetables. In particular, tomatoes, grapes and red peppers can be played around with and experimented on to create new varieties and qualities. I mainly prefer to work with plants that can be raised inside under glass. Runner beans and potatoes have no real interest for me. Glasshouse plants are far more interesting, because you can do more to affect them and play with additives – just like weed, in fact. With my pre-fertilised organic earth you only have to add water; preferably osmotic water (from which all contaminants have been filtered out, including domestic salt and chlorides) or rain water with absolutely nothing in it. Zero water, you might say. But never acidify your water to get it to the right pH, which some growers do. If you do get problems or deficiencies, you are better off giving leaf fertilizer or adding some seaweed extract or guano to your water in order to give some (longer blooming) varieties just that little bit extra that they need.

You might be lucky and live near Heathrow airport or in the middle of a large city with lots of traffic; then you have lots of CO2 in the air, but elsewhere of course there is much less. So mostly you will need to draw in more air to your space if you want more CO2, but remember if you suck in too much you can lower the temperature too much, certainly in the winter.

Bio Henkie checks for breakages

EKO and Skal are certifications that guarantee an organic origin and are always safe for use (growing with) for products consumed. And let’s face it, weed is a food: a food for the mind.

The Greenho use Report

Soft Secrets

Strawberry Haze The 2006 “sweet sativa” experience After the 2005 High Times Cannabis Cup many started asking themselves what would be the new sativa flavour of the coming year. Many V.I.S. (Very Important Smokers) that were invited to take part in the first edition of the famous Green House Smoking Panel, back in June 2005, expressed a clear preference: sweet sativas with fruity backgrounds and a clear high. Amazingly enough, all who took part in the Green House Smoking Panel voted the same winner: Arjan’s Strawberry Haze. The video of this incredible event is available in the extras of the new “King of Cannabis” Part 3 DVD. Arjan’s Strawberry Haze is a very unique sativa, with a particularly sweet smell and flavour, one that really reminds of sweet strawberries and summer fruits. The high is clear, very uplifting, with a very powerful mental effect followed by a laugh phase, a true “positive energiser” that leaves you with a sweet, fruity flavour in your mouth. The aftertaste reminds of the more complex sativa flavours, like the rest of the Arjan’s Haze family. It is a type of weed that complements social moments and lets everybody flow into a contagious happy mood. The plant is not a very easy-to-grow one, but it does not require more attention than your average sativa, and the flowering

time is in the 12 weeks range. The productivity of the Strawberry Haze is somehow limited by its long sativa budshape and by the long internodes, but the high quality of the strain guarantees high market prices and very satisfied growers. The THC content is very high (around 20%) and the CBD and CBN are very low, allowing the effect a more cerebral side. At the Green House Seed Company we like to keep experimenting with our strains: we have tested the Strawberry Haze in soil and hydro system, with very good results in both situations. But the real question is: will our indoor results still hold against the outdoor trees that the Spanish growers will challenge us with? The outdoor season is about to begin in Spain, and after seeing the amazing buds presented at the Champions Cup last December in Madrid, we cannot wait to see what the results will be with this amazing new strain. Arjan’s Strawberry Haze has long nonoverlapping leaflets typical of a real sativa, and long internodes that give the plant a stretchy attitude (it can get really tall if not pruned or bent). The plant grows long branches that tend to stretch out of the plant profile reaching for the light, creating a very pine-like shaped plant.

The feeding solution for this sativa should not exceed the 1.8 EC, and the pH should be maintained at a 5-6_6.2 level, with a 6.0-6.2 range in the last 2-3 weeks of flowering. This will maximise potassium intake and the smoke will be sweeter and smoother. Also very important for the taste is the flushing of the feedings during the last 10 days of flowering, when just clean water should be applied to improve the taste of the final product.

Arjan created this new plant to give all sativa lovers the chance to grow a relatively fast sativa crop with a really new flavour. After the great feedback given by the V.I.S. in Holland it is time for the Spanish growers to try this great champion. The seeds are available in 10 and 5 unit packs, 100% guaranteed feminized and hermaphrodite-free! Visit www.greenhouseseeds.nl for a list of official Green House Seed Company dealers in your area.

Grow t s e T s ’ B Bart

Female Seeds’ Grapefruit Part II

By Bart B

In this follow up article about female seed, you can enjoy the first impressions and experiences I had with the Grapefruit variety from Female Seeds. Has the male macho-nightmare come true, or can we sleep peacefully and dream of a lovely – female – top harvest?

Soft Secrets

Grapefruits that contain more indica were at the beginning considerably quicker in their bloom development than the sativas, and they stayed quite a bit shorter. These should probably have been brought into bloom a week earlier than they were. The plants reasonably soon developed a nice white layer on their leaves, and the smell from them was formidable. In any case it seems that all the female seeds did indeed produce female plants. A fantastic result, given that with some brands in the past one used to often get male flowers sprouting between the buds of the plants. I reckon on about 10 percent of my plants I did find a single male flower that had developed during the pregrowth. These you just have to remove, and the male flower does not grow back. It seems that there is more chance of getting the odd male flower here and there if you give them too short a growing period. Tests have shown that by giving them a longer growth you can largely eliminate this.

Sensitive to stress Female seed is generally pretty sensitive to stress factors. But apparently this variety can stand up to it pretty well. I know because I had to pop away for a few days and made sufficient feed water up to last them through the period. So they were standing for a few days in a tub, I found out when I got back, filled with way too strong a feed water solution, which is obviously not a good thing to

in other words are comparatively stress resistant, something which again is something of a disadvantage as well as an advantage. It was a good test of the female seeds, which did not go all hermaphrodite (showing both sexes) on me. A few weeks later the plants were busting only with white hairs and not a male flower in sight. Fantastic!

Different sorts In the Alien grow shop in IJzendijke you can visit live female seed being grown in their showroom. Besides offering a good growing guide they also try and show their customers what the results can be achieved with the products they stock in the shop. In total their little garden consists of four different varieties of female seed, they being a Female Seeds Easy Bud, a Grapefruit, a White Widow and a Cinnemon. It’s lovely to be able to see what the different qualities of each plant are, and customers are able to observe for themselves the different growth- and bloom-patterns each variety displays. Because each variety does grow and bloom with differences and similarities to each other.

More growing power The seeds were planted immediately into their medium, which consisted of an earth mix - B’Cuzz soil, to be precise. After about five days the seedlings popped out. The easiest to spot were the Easy Bud, an indica with very short and fat stems that were rather bushy, so

The plants reasonably soon developed a nice white layer on their leaves, and the smell from them was formidable.

Young bloom.

The Grapefruit seeds have already been in bloom for a few weeks, and pretty white hairs are developing on the branches of each plant. It has begun; bud formation is in full flow. In comparison with clones, plants that originate from seeds take a bit longer to get to speed, probably due to their being brought in to bloom at an accelerated rate. After all, a clone is several months old already, while the seed plant has only just sprung into life. By giving more growth to a seed plant (allowing the plant a bit more time to age) the bloom development will proceed a bit faster. By way of compensation; once the seed plant does begin to bloom, it goes like a train, making up for the lost time.

that one time you will get more indica influence, while another time with the same variety you might get more sativa. Everything depends on the uniformity of the variety. The more stable the variety, the more similarity the plants will show that come from the seed. The

try and give any plants. In retrospect I should have just given them ordinary water with no added nutrients, but at the time it did not occur to me. When I got back the plants were obviously suffering from over-fertilising. But it was not very serious; I just had to flush them through to remove the excess nutrient, and the plants got straight back to a reasonably normal growth. A few plant did have some trouble from burning symptoms. The

showing typical indica characteristics. The White Widow was already a bit bigger, but less leafy, which also meant that the under-most buds got more light. It might be an idea when working with Easy Bud, if you think it’s necessary, to remove a few excess leaves. Then you have the sativas, which clearly have more growing power in them. That’s why I topped the Grapefruit, and it still became a really strapping plant.

Sativa The Grapefruit plants have had about a week and a half of growth and are showing reasonably clear signals of their phenotype. Given that Grapefruit is a sativa, around 70 percent of the plants show sativa, while 15 percent lean more towards the indica, and the remaining 15 percent are somewhere in the middle. But this can vary from grower to grower. So it is quite possible

An overview of a Grapefruit.

A topped Grapefruit.

Soft Secrets

Easy Bud

can get a bit monotonous can’t they? It doesn’t make much difference whether it’s a female or a regular seed. A seed plant is always unique, time after time. Consider this: with outdoor growing you are constrained in the number of plants you can raise in your patch, and if you really do like variety then it really is worth the trouble to instead of just planting the same old clones (and then having to smoke the same stuff all year), to once in a while plant some exotic female seeds. With regular seed after all your have to quickly raise up to four plants just to make sure that you have at least one female plant to make it into your garden.

White Widow.

If you have not got much headroom in your grow space, then this is a good idea to do, since Grapefruit has the potential to become really big. This plant does in fact produce a delicious grapey smell. That alone makes it worth the effort-to find a place in your garden for this plant sometime. If you like sweet and fruity, this baby is a winner. It is important to know also that particular varieties function in certain growing systems than in others. So it can depend on the system you plan to use or the number of plants you plan to raise whether you are better off using indica or sativa plants. Each type has its own qualities. The plants in any case were put on a 12/12 regime as swoon as they

germinated; they were not given any growth phase. Mind you, all the plants had turned out to be pure females, and had not shown a single masculine preflower. But just to be sure of course you must always check for yourself.

Unique The plants still have a few weeks of blooming ahead of them, and things are looking promising. The differences in bud formation between the indica and sativa Grapefruit are clearly visible. The sativa begins with a loose bud structure, which after a short period of time begin to bloom into each other and form a crown bud. The indica straight away makes a heavy bud. In any case, it’s great to be able to watch a seed set to work like that, because clones

Cinnemon.

In the next edition I’ll be giving you the final outcome of this experimental Grapefruit grow. Then in all probability I’ll make some nice water hash.

Did you know that it is not the number of plants but the total wattage of light that mo st determines the final size of the yield you get? So you can grow a large number of plants in your room of limited space, while your neighbour grows half the num ber of clones in the same sized room, and the eventu al yields both of you get will be nearly the same. In sho rt, don’t as a grower get too hung up on the number of plants you’re growing. Better to grow fewer plants that are healthy and can get access to as much light as they need than to cram as many in as possible. These would just end up smaller in size and competing with eac h other for light.

strain Repo rt

Soft Secrets

By Mr Hazy

AK47 – Serious Seeds Environment: Method: Medium: Nutrient:

Indoor 400watts Seed to Standard Ying Yang soil mix Bio Nova Soil Supermix + PK 13+14 Grow time: 21 days Flower time: 70 days Plant structure: Medium height, with lower branching Bud structure: Large grape like sepals Scent: Woody smell, sweet taste Effect: Lively, cerebral, trippy, strong but comfortable high. Yield: 20-60g per plant

After sowing out 15 AK47 seeds all 15 germinated within 3 days.

I put them into flower, after two weeks, removed 10 males, leaving

Nebula - Paradise Seeds Environment:

95w Enviro-light > 600w HPS Method: Standard Medium: BioBizz All Mix Nutrient: Bio Bizz range Grow time: 28 days Flower time: 56-65 days Plant structure: Short/squat Bud structure: Compact Scent: Sweet Taste: Sweet like mild honey Effect: Cerebral, enjoyable, functional Yield: 25-30g per plant

A great looking uniform plant with quality buds, good for SOG style. I sowed out a packet of 10. After 4-5 days 9 had germinated. The last seed failed to hatch. All 9 were healthy throughout the grow period, but due

probably to poor light, they grew slowly reaching only 15-20cm in 22 days growth/28 days (from seed). Placing the 9 plants into flower and all remained fairly uniform for the next couple of weeks. I had 5 males,

NL#5xHaze – Sensi Seeds Environment: 95w > 400watts Method: Bending Medium: Bio Biz All-Mix Nutrient: Bio Biz range Grow time: 14 days Flower time: 56-65 days Plant structure: Short/squat Bud structure: Compact Scent: Sweet Taste: Sweet like mild honey Effect: Cerebral, enjoyable, functional Yield: 25-30g per plant

NL#5xHaze is a good quality high yielding plant with vigorous characteristics. After sowing out 15 seeds all 15 germinated within 3-4 days. The seedlings started leggy with just

enough to support the main stems. In veg the plants look very dubious, until they were placed into flower. Then they started to shoot up and the stalks thickened. In flower all 15 of the plants

5 females. These females quickly filled the space - so much so that I had to remove the fifth plant after about a week to make more space. Two of the plants tripled in height and had more Afghani traits. The others kept on growing. In the end they multiplied in height five times, largely exhibiting sativa traits. Now heavy bud-set began to kick in. At sometime around 50 days though flowering, I made another decision regarding space and light. I removed 5/6 fan leafs which had formed a canopy over the buds on lower branches. This seemed to work well, allowing more light to penetrate downward, significantly increasing the amount of bud in direct light. Just after removing these leafs the remaining fan leafs died away, as did many of the shade leafs. In the

which I discarded, then re-potted the remaining 4 into larger size pots. After 21 days flowering, I noticed they were all very uniform in height and structure. They had roughly doubled in height to around 35cm and didn’t stretch much more than that. It seemed that at this stage, the most productive part of Nebula were the central colas (which at 2123 days had significant pre flowers already). After 28 days flowering, there was already a nice layer of resin built up on the buds, which had yellowish hairs, and pleasant sweet scent. The plants seemed very mature for their age, as if they only had a week or two left to flower, the change over the last two weeks was quite dramatic. Roughly from day 30 to day 60, the buds slowly matured, not really changing much, they just grew bigger in size, gaining resin consistently. By

were female. This worried me. I’d expected some males. Luckily I had just enough room in my garden. In the first 2-3 weeks of flower the plants grew and grew tripling/quadrupling in height. The plants looked healthy at this stage so I continued to follow my normal feeding regime. The leaf patterns were very sativa like allover, but some plants grew bigger than others. At 4-5 weeks I tied some plants down because they looked like they could cover more surface area. One plant exhibited double colas, looking like two separate plants? This plant grew massive and needed to be pinned down on both sides. This plant yielded 126g on its own. Some plants were smaller and grew lower, showing more of the NL like a 50/50 cross. These were similar to Jack Herer in structure. I found NL#5xHaze a tricky strain to judge. It fooled me into thinking

last few weeks of flowering a thick but not unpleasant stench of rotting vegetables/deadness developed which at its peak is pungent to say the least - this smell peaked, but then died down a little before harvest and didn’t really carry to the buds once dried. The buds were of a high quality. Swirls of dense pronounced sepals, like bunches of grapes. These had a good silver resin coating, orange hairs and a low leaf ratio. The effects were a quick, strong feeling, with a long lasting high. For me the high although strong, is at times trippy, cerebral, positive and comfortable. Out of the four, I found the two Indica phenotypes were slightly more heady and less focused compared with the sativa types. AK47 has good bag ability.

day 56 I had 4 plants, which were so uniform they could have easily been cuttings from the same mother. The plants had a high calyx to leaf ratio; resembling indica in structure and height. The smell which had developed further, was pleasant, but still mild in strength, with a unique sweetness like a tropical fruit salad. At 63 days I harvested them, but they could have gone even further. The buds looked high quality. They were fairly compact but not hard. They were covered in a heavy layer of golden trichomes. When smoked, the smell and taste were slightly sweet, more delicate and rounded like fruit salad than sharp or sickly sweetness. The smoke was of medium density, and very smooth. The effects were cerebral and functional, more pleasantly uplifting then intense. The effects didn’t really make me loose focus/ motivation, which meant I could use this strain happily all day.

it was done before it was ready. In reality it goes a long time. Some plants still didn’t look ready at 84 days and could go longer. The flower clusters are formed of pronounced sepals which string together to form the buds. The high calyx to flower ration means there was little, to no leaf. Limited trimming involved. With a sliver resinous coating on all flowers the buds smelt like a harvested meadow. Some plants had a hashier taste than others. Overall the plants took a long time to dry and gave off a milder smell than when growing. After a month curing the flowers picked up in scent. These were some of the biggest plants I’ve ever grown. The high was strong but not excellent for everyday smoking. Overall growing NL#5xHaze is a good choice for someone that wants to try a sativa type plant, but can’t wait for Haze.

Soft Secrets

Column

Cyber Idiosyncrasies

By Lazystrain

Recent developments across Cyberspace, most notably the downing of the Overgrow.com servers and affiliated websites during February 2006 has created unprecedented ripples across the online cannabis community! Whilst a figment in the imagination of many, the effects of result are in places very real for some. Vast tacks of cannabis cultivation related information have been formatted in what Politechnicals would term a ‘SnowCrash’. Literally, thousands of accounted online surfers have been uprooted, dethroned, and/or displaced. Still waters naturally run deep. Yet in the lowly shallows ripples have emerge as waves, disrupting many growers and many years of logical cannabis progression in their wake. On the one hand, many growers (mostly on the other side of the pond) up-rooted their plants and shut down their lamps! Adorned tin foil helmets and started to conspire upon the B/S they’d been fed. On the other hand, the vultures moved in (as vultures naturally do) to scavenge upon peoples misery and capitalize upon the morsel remains of fact (in most cases fiction). Between these two on-line adversaries there was perched timidly to the edge of their seats, scissors in hand, the home-grower- that fragile individual who enjoys nothing more than growing his or her-own strains of cannabis (what a shame). Tin-foil helmets and conspiracy theories to one side for a moment, something stinks (and we don’t mean the contents of the Moderators’ gardens)! As the bandwidth of similar cultivation forums became more and more congealed with a mass ‘exodus’ of Overgrow.com Refugees (or “OGers” as they are known) the truth gradually started to unfold? A melodrama involving various seed dealers, seed breeders, and general hangers-on (all of whom here shall remain unnamed), was played out upon various online forums, (all of which readily support cannabis decriminalization). Things started to get a bit heavy in places or ‘cyber-political’ to be correct. The cannabis know-it-alls started to claim it upon the cannabis show-it-alls (and visa versa). Naturally, this drew respective tribes

into respective camps (even in cyberspace some things never change). As certain collectives made new plans, others continued to do what they did best - Grow Cannabis! On the flip side however, many infamous growers (and breeders) quickly disconnected their phone-plugs, relocated their assets (perhaps adorned tin-foil helmets?) and haven’t been heard from since (!) Alas, the whole notion of an “online community”, be it with or without warning, had fallen into disarray (which is also a shame). Now, people that are lost, often take themselves too seriously. “Brag of their misery and like to live dangerously…they mutter small talk at the wall”. This is where we get onto the idiosyncrasies. The cannabis industry is full of them; people “claiming” to be something they are not. False idioms and plastic gangsterisms will habitually come, grow, and go. Unfortunately this has become part of the course in recent years. Conglomerations of any description are always hard to avoid when there’s cash money and a fist full of steel involved. However, in our neck of the woods, respect is something earned! Personally, the thou-greater-than –thee attitude of some individuals in the industry sickens us, and makes forlorn the progress, that so many in the past have worked so hard towards… (And it’s the dude/dudess that’s not in the game that ends up out of pocket!) Lots of changes are happening across the cannabis scene at present. An allegorical merry-go-round is about to begin (if it hasn’t already), and there isn’t no-way of telling where or when it might stop its spin. Whether or not recent online developments are emphatic of these winds of change remains to be seen. What is known is that there are many growers (and smokers) that are unhappy with the current situation, be they in cyberspace or in reality. Again this may have been the ulterior-motive of some individuals,,, who knows? We wouldn’t be surprised however if things got even more fantastical from herein. Which makes you think perhaps (?) Bob Dylan once said that “Power and Greed and Corruptible Seed, seem to all that there is”. And sometimes, some of us, would have to agree…

Report He made the usual case against The Agency (quite correctly) for their heinous mindfuck experiments and then asked the audience to show their appreciation for the underground chemists (Owsley, Nick Sand, Tim Scully, Richard Kemp etc) without whom we wouldn’t be having an LSD symposium. Cue massive applause, and that’s only right: these brothers served time in prison as a consequence of bringing Acid to the masses. Tim Leary got a rough ride from a number of speakers and - rightly or wrongly – was regarded as a catalyst for the criminalising of LSD. On the last day of the conference a lone voice (I think it was the para/ psychologist Stan Krippner) pointed out that without Tim this symposium almost certainly wouldn’t be happening either. Personally, while I think this is true, on the downside, Tim was highly irresponsible in his approach to LSD, proposing, for example, that kids should have access to it when it’s very much an adult drug, and even in the case of adults, well…

The Basel LSD Symposium January 13th – 15th 2006

Dr John Dee

Here I am in Basel, Switzerland, for the 100th birthday of the Daddy of LSD, Dr Albert Hofmann. The whole thing seems very civilised and laid back: I’ve been to a lot of drug conferences over the years, but they were academic affairs and totally unlike this. The mix of people is quite different, for one thing, respectable and not-so-respectable users, academics, interested parties, aging 1960’s hipster types. And hippies. Lots of hippies. So when Dr Hofmann entered the auditorium you’d think Jesus had arrived. The adoring throngs of hippies crowded around the venerable gentleman, disregarding the fact that this was a man who is 100 years old, and subject to the concomitant frailties In spite of Herr H himself saying on several occasions “I am not a guru” this fell on deaf ears as the hippies fell at his feet, threw petals in his path and kissed the ground

he’d walked on (seriously). Don’t get me wrong, I thoroughly appreciate the immense contribution Dr H has made to the culture, but it’s his elevation to divinity that gets me. The Hof was clearly mortified by it all and as he said himself, if he’d observed working protocol and done his job properly, observing health and safety regulations, worn protective gloves etc (and he had done the first time) then LSD probably wouldn’t exist. But, as most of us know, Acid came knocking at his door a second time and on that occasion he went with it. But even then, LSD might have just made a blip on the radar and dropped off the map. Martin Lee, the author of the excellent “Acid Dreams” spoke about the role of the CIA and their mind control experiments in turning a number of key players onto acid (e.g. Allen Ginsberg and Ken Kesey).

On the other hand, Tim certainly had a sense of humour (and that’s not to excuse his shortcomings) and humour – surprisingly – was something sadly lacking at this conference. In these pages and elsewhere, I’ve made reference to the nefarious activities of the CIA. At the risk of pissing everyone off and sounding like a heretic (neither of which will cause me sleepless nights, I should add), I’d like to add the CIA to the list of major players without whom an LSD symposium would have been impossible. Think about it for a minute: the Agency developed the method for making unlimited quantities of Acid because they bypassed the need for Ergotamine Tartrate (the most expensive part of the manufacturing process). Essentially they produced the formula that underground chemists would put to such effective use. I wonder if the hippies would kiss the ground I’d walked on for that little proposal? I’ll bet Herr Hoffman would agree with me though. And by the way, LSD isn’t actually an Acid. Comments? E-mail me at dimethyltryptamine777@hotmail.com

Soft Secrets

ence Meth preval

Yesterday Cannabis, Today Meth: the True Gateway Drug? “The use of [meth] in Honolulu had led to particularly serious physical and psychological problems and significant social disruption in poor working communities where it replaced marijuana which had become scarce and expensive due to eradication policies.” -NIDA ICE and Other Methamphetamine Use: an Exploratory Study Kristie Szalanski

While cannabis “criminals” continue to be targeted by the worldwide War on Drugs, methamphetamine use is quietly gaining ground as well as victims. Although cannabis may be the most widely used illicit drug in the world, Amphetamine Type Stimulants (ATS) are rapidly becoming national health problems for countries as far between as Canada and the US to MyanmarThailand. Emergency room visits may be quantified, but the actual consumption of and stats relating to ATS can be tricky, as for example Ecstasy pills are often mislabelled (or misadvertised), and research is generally quantified based on seizures of the drug or its chemical precursors. This piece is an attempt to compare the global impact of ATS and other related drugs as well as to show that the vicious eradication of what some consider the gateway drug, cannabis, is leading to a higher prevalence of far more dangerous drugs. Cannabis may be more widely used but several studies insist that ATS is one of the most attainable and available drug groups in any country. Judging by the number of people seeking treatment, statistically ATS is the largest problem drug in much of East and Southeast Asia. Western nations have difficulty predicting problem areas for these drugs as meth seems to know no social, gender, or economic distinction. “Soccer moms” in the States and Canada are slowly becoming the more public face of meth addiction; as anyone with prior experience can tell you, new users generally start to lose their grip on life in as little as one month. Within three years of use, patients are often unrecognisable to friends and family as the combination of household chemicals simply deteriorates the body from the inside. Many people claim that methamphetamines are addictive from the first hit, but medical studies indicate rather a very harsh withdrawal wherein the internal organs and even the skin hurts terribly. Compare that to smoking and cultivating the green ladies. Ganja obviously has a lower and less permanent impact on the smoker, but meth makers enjoy ease of manufacture, small capital investments, low precursor and equipment costs, and high volumes according to some research. In many places, the costs are much higher. As drug price does not necessarily denote drug popularity, methamphetamine use and production is not limited to any one income area and often the more middle-class neighbourhoods produce the clandestine lab bust stats the police dream of. From the early 90’s into the year 2000 in the US, cocaine, cannabis,

and heroin expenditures declined while spending on meth increased, partly due to its lower price but also the availability, and the risk of even simply purchasing and smoking cannabis, the only other drug to overtake the figures regarding worldwide seizures. Globally, the annual ATS expenditures hover around $65 billion and production rates are at about 410 tons per year plus roughly 125 tons of ecstasy, but these numbers may be rising again. The relatively low costs of production and high profits are coupled with easily hidden labs and manufacturing high volumes of drugs close to the retailers. These benefits have a small impact on the price of the final product, but consider that there is also a 12 to 15 times higher price variation for consumers around the world, especially in the Americas. Recently the global average price of meth has decreased (down to about $10 to $20 per gram). In Asia much of the amphetamine consumption is directly related to and affected by the tourist and prostitution industries, fueling the demand. While the producers are enjoying a 300% markup on their goods, they also must pay 20 to 50 times the cost of legitimate chemicals for their black market precursors, as the distribution of legal precursor chemicals is widely regulated and also monitored. The active War on Drugs is serving to eradicate home grows and due to the smelly nature of such operations, it is easier to consume and produce synthetic drugs rather than plant-based ones at home. This leaves cannabis smokers in a desperate spot while meth addicts are happily kept in supply. Statistics relating to cannabis are often quantified by multiplying the number of users by the number of joints consumed, times the average weight and cost of a joint. In the late 80’s figures, US cannabis cost around $375 per ounce, and by the early 90’s that price had risen to $500. Currently, an eighth (3.5g) can set you back up to $200 in New York City. Dutch cannabis runs between four and eight euros per gram, with a huge markup visible in the more commercial coffeeshops in central Amsterdam. Prices in the UK tend to be lower than in the States, but spliff smokers often must settle for low quality “soap bar” or other similarly cut products. When dealing with commercial cannabis, the chemical and carcinogen content effects a much more negative health impact on the user. Due to the clandestine nature of such gardens, a lack of communication and correct information seems to be leading to a higher volume of nasty and dangerous smoke masquerading as normal cannabis.

Drug tourists in much of Asia and many tropical holiday destinations would often rather snort a sneaky line of coke than risk being caught under a puff of weed smoke, and now global average ATS prices are generally low compared to cannabis, roughly $13 for 130mg of amphetamines and only $3.20 for 30mg of meth. Ecstasy averages around $10 for 100mg; however, pills can cost as much as $25 in the US. (Global prices are in US dollars due to the resources of this article.) This flippancy regarding the substances is often leading to an added naivety in younger generations regarding the differences between hard drugs and soft drugs, and this in turn creates a wider age range of substance abuse in the meth or ATS categories. In the early part of this century nearly 1000 metric tons of cannabis was consumed by Americans, and the DEA stepped up their fight, with 12 yearold meth addicts in some cities as a result. Worldwide, 40 million people are affected, or 1.0% of the entire earth’s population. Meth has come to be viewed as a cannabis substitute in many places, and abstinence only programmes (much like those about birth control issues) are counterproductive and dangerously misleading. Health consequences of meth and ATS are increasing, as the chemical components of synthetic drugs have devastating and permanent effects on the internal organs, brain, and biochemistry, compared to chronic bronchitis or lung disease as a long term effect of heavy cannabis use. Seizures of ATS have increased from about four tons in the early 90’s to just under 40 tons in late 2000. East and Southeast Asia experienced major increases in 1999 and 2000, although seizures of the drug have decline perhaps to better regulation of ephedrine distribution (a major precursor) as well as a successful reduction of manufacture in China. Precursor seizures in 2001 were 12 times higher worldwide than they were in 1991, and meth accounts for almost 75% of the seized ATS with ecstasy and amphetamines just behind in figures. Due to the increase in seizures, the size of secret labs is increasing, as many producers adopt a “make it count” type of attitude. Amphetamines are manufactured primarily (but not limited to) Europe, with much of the meth production taking place in Asia and North America. Over the last decade ecstasy trafficking worldwide has increased more than ever before. Worldwide incarceration rates are also increasing, with the most disturbing rates in the US where one pot smoker is arrested at the rate of every 41 seconds.

The FBI reported a record high in cannabis arrests in the US, with 771,608 people now behind bars. The United States of America contains less than 5% of the world’s population but 25% of the 9 million people in jail worldwide. At the end of 2003 the US had nearly one in every 32 adults behind bars. The highest incarceration rate in the world (2003 stats) is actually the state of Texas (4,609 people per every 100,000 or 4.6% of adults), second is the state of Washington (4,350), and third place goes to Delaware (4,235). The US in general ranks third or fourth worldwide with 715 out of 100,000 as an average. The Russian federation follows the US, with the difference being that the majority of prisoners in the States were locked up due to non-violent drug crimes. Add to that the higher percentage of privatised prisons, and it’s easy to imagine why so many people are kept in jail. Is this preferable to having more stoned people than meth addicts in your country? If cannabis eradication doesn’t stop or at least slow down, plant drugs will become almost extinct or lose their inherent qualities, while synthetic drugs will become even more commonplace. Addiction rates will rise, deaths will increase, and long gone will be the days of smoking a cheeky spliff in the alleyway outside of work. Drugs will come only from basement labs, and the price of natural substances will continue to climb. Successful cannabis elimination campaigns will only serve to steer the consumers towards more dangerous substances. Resources: NIDA- ICE and Other Methamphetamine Use: an Exploratory Study ONDCP- What America’s Users Spend on Illegal Drugs 1988-2000 UNODC- Annual Reports Questionnaire UNODC- World Drug Report 2004 World Prison Population List 5th Edition UNODC- Ecstasy and Amphetamines Global Survey 2003

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Underworld

The pilot who flew dope …and landed in jail Part 17

Steve (not his real name) from the UK, had a very special story to share with us, as at press time he had been released from prison only a month prior. The charge? Smuggling hash via single-engine aircraft, traversing the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Spain, and Morocco. As all good things must come to an end, so did the airborne hobby of Steve. Soft Secrets UK managed to pin him down for a chat about his former career. By Charlie Stone

SSUK: Steve, tell us a little bit about yourself… Steve: Well, I’m 26, so I’m relatively young. I’ve been kind of, “involved” with the whole industry for about four and a half years. I really started out with a close friend of mine. I got my pilot’s license while in the States and learned to fly, and before long… he suggested, you know, why not fly some weed? Did you get your license as a hobby? Well, I’d always been interested in flying and when I was over in the States the cost of flying is cheaper compared to Europe. It’s literally one third. And where did you go in America? I was out in California. Before that I was studying, and I was working in the entertainment industry for a while. I was just getting kind of sick of it, you

Well, I had a friend, a very close friend of mine. Pretty much all he’d ever done was sell drugs. We got talking and he says, ‘You know, you’ve got a license and this would be a really good avenue for us to make some money by getting stuff into the country.’ I thought about it and he was keen for us to go to Holland, buy 100.000 pills, and trade it off. But I had told him right from the start when we talked about it that I would only do dope. Whether it would be hash or weed, that would be it for me. I wasn’t into Class A trafficking. So he said that was possible and we took a trip to Morocco. We didn’t really have contacts in Holland, and the price of weed there is really high. So, we took a flight to the south of Spain, took the ferry over to Morocco, and it was really just chat. My friend is quite an intimidating big guy, so he doesn’t really have problems with speaking to people. We hooked up a connection. But the problem was that

The guys that really score are the ones that are bringing it straight out in trucks, the commercial grade stuff. know. It was pretty much a regular nine to five grind for me. Flying, it’s really something you can only pursue as a career as an airline pilot, or a cargo pilot or in the military. But actually flying for yourself you need a great deal of money, fuel costs, maintenance. So flying dope was an opportunity for me to fly for myself and make money out of it, without making money for someone else. What kind of planes were you mostly flying? Right now I have a single engine rating, which is pretty much anything up to 350 horsepower. Tell us a little bit more about when you returned to the UK. You had a friend there who asked you to fly some weed. Is that how it went?

you can’t really fly out of Morocco. It’s really locked down, the Straits of Gibraltar; with private flying they really have it tight. They give you a transponder code when you leave, which is effectively a radar identification code that gives out position, altitude, and speed. They can pretty much track you until you land in Spain. There’s no way to smuggle something out by plane. I mean, you could air drop it out, but it’s difficult. Morocco wasn’t the ideal place but from the connection we made there we got a connection in Spain. So we went with that, and the prices, obviously, weren’t as good as in Morocco, but nevertheless it was worthwhile. Were you planning to fly the product yourself? Well, the idea was, we could get it into the UK, no problem. It’s really just like

a ten-, fifteen-minute flight from the continent across to England. My mate used to work as a mechanic, so he was quite well-skilled in the car department. We got a stash together and that’s how it started out. We bought a car, got it adapted. The first Spanish load was only for like twenty keys and then it gradually got bigger and bigger. The issue was the price. We weren’t going for soap bar; we had to get the highest value and volume we could and what we ended up buying was high quality pollen, because there’s a niche market for it in England and the UK. It’s almost on the par with the Dutch weed. And, uh, obviously with the space, you can’t get 200k of commercial grade hash in a small car, so we had to get the most expensive in volume. If you get it in the right season, you can get stuff that’s straight out of Ketama, and you can really do well… But again, it depends on the kind of year and whatnot. Didn’t you think this was a bit risky, to smuggle drugs from countries like Spain and Morocco? Yeah sure with the Spanish Guardia Civil, they really have it locked down there. It’s dangerous. I mean, we got pulled over so many times. And if you’re

And how many times did you do this? In total, in the last three and a half years, I think I’ve done it about eight times. And then, on the weed, that was my third one. Did these drops take place in the daylight, or was it night time, or what? It was always during the day. When you’re flying a plane, you have to make your flight appear like any other standard in-bound private flight from the continent. You have to follow all the relevant procedures, which involves the flight plan, communicating with air traffic control, who control the parts of the airspace which you have to transit en route to your destination. But as long as you do everything that you’re supposed to do, you don’t arouse any suspicion. I never had a problem with any of the controllers or anything. Did they never come to check in your aircraft itself? Well, what you have to do is fly to a small airport but notify them four hours in advance. I’m not talking about

A lot of people think running dope is kinda romantic and cool but when you’re doing it yourself…The bottom line is of course it took its toll on me. seen with Moroccan people down there, I mean white people with Moroccans, it’s not good. So, we left Morocco. With the EU now, with all the open borders, you can just drive from perhaps Spain, France. If you cross the borders at the right times, it’s really no problem.

Heathrow or anything. If you fly to a lesser main airport that has a regular customs presence they never really check on you.

Can you tell us how the security is for small airplanes?

No, the main thing is the flight plan for safety. If you don’t reach your destination within the time that you said, they send a search party out. And then, the customs is a secondary thing. Rich people flying private planes, people with money, it all doesn’t arouse too much suspicion. But because I was relatively young I had to be careful; had to dress well, have a shirt on.

When you fly there’s certain rules you have to follow, but generally you never get checked. So what you have to do is fly to a lesser main airport in the UK. It’s the Customs’ authority to check you when you land, but basically what we would do is put the pollen in 80-litre rucksacks and then we’d send GPS coordinates to my friend on the ground, and we basically just air-dropped the dope out to the specific location and land clean. You have to plan your route of flight, and it’s always below 5000 feet. We’d go and find a specific field somewhere with high trees, so you could come down low. In the middle of the countryside would be perfect- with not too many buildings, good access to a road. You just fly to the point, you come down, drop it out, and pull away. The hash must be packed pretty tight in the rucksacks. You have to bubble wrap it and really heavily insulate it. But we came down to within 80 feet of the ground. A small plane like the Cessna, with the full flaps extended, you come about 60mph, so it’s not too terribly fast on the approach. But, yeah, the bag hits the ground with a funny thud, let’s put it that way!

But don’t they ask you why you’re there or where you’re going?

What was your cut? I went 50/50 with my friend; we put half the money in each. There’s a lot of costs involved when you’re doing it yourself. You have to pay for a car, pay for it to get converted, you have to rent somewhere for de-stashing the gear out of the car; you’ve got road tolls, hotels; you’ve gotta pay the person to pick it up. The profit margins involved with Moroccan hash and pollen, it’s not really as high as people would imagine. The guys that really score are the ones that are bringing it straight out in trucks, you know, the commercial grade stuff. They have minimal overhead costs: they just pay the truck driver and that’s really it. But for us when you’re doing it relatively small there are a lot of costs involved. With regard to prices we were paying on the Moroccan pollen, I think it was 1,100 a key and then we’d sell it for about £2,800 to £3,000 a key when it was back home. It’s really three times your money at the top end.

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So this went well for a while? Well, there’s a lot of stress. You’re driving a loaded vehicle 2,400 miles. It’s 1200 miles from the South coast of Spain to Barcelona and another 1200 miles from Barcelona to the tip of Northern France. We’d take turns in driving. One time we had two cars, but there were a few things that went wrong. The car broke down once in France; I had to drive all the way to Germany to get my friend to help me and from then we had to take the gear out of the car and take the car to a garage to get fixed. That was about one of the worst things that went wrong, ‘cause, you have a loaded car and it breaks down. You don’t really want a mechanic to look at it, you know? How did you stash it in those cars? Usually my friend would cut a special section in the chassis and also in the fuel tank. We’d have a glass fibre section which was kind of moulded in; it pop riveted in, so basically the tank was split. We’d also use diesel cars for the fuel efficiency. So you picked it up in Spain and you drove it to France? Drove it all the way from Algeciras right up to the north of France where we’d rent a cottage. He would wait with the stuff in the cottage, and always fairly close to the small strip. I would go back to the plane in the UK, and sometimes the weather wasn’t good. This is the downfall when you’re running dope: there’s always so many things that aren’t taken into account until they actually happen. I remember once my friend had to wait a full week because it was so cloudy and raining I couldn’t get across. So you didn’t want to risk crossing from France to England with the car? No, exactly. If you put the loaded gear into the car and you go to Dover or through the Channel Tunnel it’s like rolling dice. Those customs people have it locked down. The pollen runs I did on and off for about three and a half years but I was getting sick of all the time and effort that was involved. So my friend wanted out- he wanted to get back to his hustleand I wanted out, too. I wanted to quit with Spain. Then I got speaking to a friend who was actually selling a lot of weed in England, he put me in touch with a friend of his and that’s how I got started on the Dutch weed. Of course, Holland’s so much closer to England and the UK, and also the weed sells a lot faster. How much approximately was your share per run actually? In pounds per run, it averaged. To begin with, I made maybe ten to fifteenthousand a run, and then at the top when we were doing well, maybe 20, 25. With regards to Holland, where did you get your contacts? Well, it was really my friend who set me up on the weed runs, the guy he

was getting his weed from was a fairly “big” guy. He had trucks running from Holland regularly, and was running something like 100 kilos a week at its busiest in England. When my friend set up the meeting with his supplier, his last three loads had been busted. He’d lost a lot of money and was looking to replace using the trucks with a plane. Now, this guy had the capital to invest in getting the right machine for the job, so I advised him of the airport situation in Holland, which is basically that you can’t fly out of Holland because of the police presence. There’s only four small airstrips outside of Rotterdam and Schiphol for general aviation planes. So how did you do it? Belgium was the best option because the airports are the same as in France- all the small airports that are basically just strips in fields and are unregulated and unlicensed, so you can come and go as you please. Eindhoven in Holland, it’s the same. They would all have a customs presence at the airport. Usually

How was your personal life at the time? It was fairly stressful; I mean, I didn’t like doing it. A lot of people think running dope is kinda romantic and cool but when you’re doing it yourself…The bottom line is of course it took its toll on me. I got stopped once in Valencia and I had 20 kilos in the chassis and 10 kilos in the rear seating board, and it was just a random stop and search. In situations like this you have to stay so straight and so cool. Luckily they just had a quick once-over search, and my stash passed the test and I was on my way. But ever since that happened I was keen to change the driving. You have to stay off toll roads, so we’d always take the “B” roads So, how and where did it all go wrong? My friend that hooked me up with the weed runs, he’d actually introduced me prior to one of the weed runs to a guy he knew that was interested

As long as you do everything that you’re supposed to do, you don’t arouse any suspicion. I never had a problem with any of the controllers or anything. if there’s a control tower at that airport, you have to speak to the controller and advise him of your time. If he sees you get in with four big hold-alls, they maybe call ahead to your arrival airport. Any possible chance of arousing suspicion was just not an option for me. What was it you were buying in Holland, weed or Nederwiet, and how much were you paying? It was weed, it was Skunk. Good Skunk! We were paying, I think, 2,800 a kilo on the Dutch weed. And then you decided to receive the delivery in Belgium… That’s right… We’d done a couple before and they’d worked pretty well. The problem with the weed in comparison to the pollen is volume. Even when they’ve double vac-packed and it’s completely compressed, the units are just so fuckin’ big! 50 or 60 kilos takes up almost all the space inside the cockpit. So you have to land with the weed. What was a bit risky for me: when I was coming back to England, you have to find a good place where you can land the plane, get the weed out, take off again, and then land at your destination airport. How many of those weed runs did you do? The third one I got busted. It was unfortunate because it was really after that one we were going on to a bigger machine that could take more. My partner, he was quite a wealthy man, he’d been in the business a long time and the plan was to get a Bell Jet Ranger [jet engine helicopter] after that, as that can comfortably hold 200 kilos. So it was a shame! I never got to get behind the controls of it, but such things happen.

in me bringing coke in for him from France. And it was from this meeting that everything went wrong. This guy had surveillance, and he basically offered me 75,000 if I would be interested in flying 20k of coke in from the continent for him as a trial run. And if that had worked, he would increase it to 50 and 100. I wasn’t interested in trafficking coke. It was a big opportunity for me to make a lot of money but if you got busted you really are fucked. So it transpired this guy was under surveillance, this big time coke trafficker and ever since then, when they heard there was a pilot and obviously from the meeting my partner was involved there was surveillance on us, and everything went downhill. So how did you get caught in the end? How did it happen? I’d arranged the pickup, and I’d specifically flown a different route. Rather than flying from England straight into Belgium, I’d flown through France and I’d covered my tracks fairly well, but it turns out they were monitoring my partner especially. He had a lot of money, he had a lot of businesses, and he wasn’t one of the people to hide his money. He always had a flash car, he always had the best of stuff; that automatically arouses a little bit of suspicion. I’d basically picked up the plane at the airfield in Belgium and it turned out they were monitoring the strip for three days straight until I showed up. What happened was the English authorities informed Belgium that there was a drug collection going down at the strip in Belgium sometime over the weekend. I had agreed to meet the driver, from the supplier on a Monday morning. So, when I showed up, they saw an English-registered plane. They

just held back. At six A.M. I went to the plane, I met the jeep, loaded the plane up; he took off. I was literally just about to start the engine when three black Audi estate cars, came out of nowhere, surrounded me, and there were about 10 or 15 plainclothes policemen with automatic weapons. Some came out of the bushes; there were laser sights on me and everything. How many kilos were with you at the time? I had 56 kilos just loaded in the back. [Laughs] I was blindfolded, I was handcuffed, I was hit a few times, and then I was hauled into the back of the car and driven to the police station. For me, because of the severity, the weapons they had, it was almost like a military drug squad. They obviously thought it was coke. I suppose from that perspective that nobody really uses planes to fly weed. What happened next? I just basically said I was in a lot of financial difficulty and admitted to what I did. I mean, I had 56 keys; I was caught red handed! They obviously wanted to know who I was working for, who I was working with. I think they would’ve gotten more people if they’d waited for the plane to go back to England. As it turns out, they just got me and the driver of the supply who was delivering it. So I said I didn’t have the person’s number. Basically, it was just a one-off, they seemed to buy the story. How long did your pre-arrest take, before you went to court? It took three months before I went to court. That was a lot of waiting because if I were caught in England, I would have been looking at a minimum of two years and that’s a long time. I really thought I was fucked. I thought in Belgium I would get a minimum of a year. But as it turns out my lawyer said, “Worst case scenario, you’re gonna sit six months.” And I was lucky: I got three and a half. I had to be grateful in some respect. If it was Holland I would’ve gotten out after a couple of weeks, maybe a month, tops. On the flip side: England, I’d still be in right now.

Did you know that nearly all growers trim their weed ‘wet’? By this I mean that they start to work on their buds with shears as soon as they are clipped from the plants. In this way they can get a much prettier, neater shape to the buds (because all the remaining rough edges will shrink when dried), than when they are first dried and only then trimmed.

Soft Secrets

Snakes & Ladders By Dr. John Dee So, here we are again and here we go again. A new report from the International Narcotics Control Board has appeared, and here’s what’s what: The UK is one of Europe’s biggest consumers of cannabis; the level of cocaine use here is running as high as in the USA; Methamphetamine is heading this way to wreak devastation and destruction to everything in its path; more heroin than ever is being consumed by Britons. All will be wrack and ruin, and we’re all doomed to the fiery pits of Hell. It’s the usual black picture being painted; it’s the usual old news being recycled as new, and it’s the usual “waste more money on strategies that plainly don’t work” responses we’ve come to expect from these people. A bit of background information: the INCB is some sort of United Nations quango, so loosely speaking, one could say that their remit is to push the American agenda on all things drug-related.

Column The president of “The Board” is someone called Professor Hamid Ghodse who, according to the INCB’s own website hails from The Islamic Republic of Iran. Hence we have not one, but two agendas being pushed. First, let’s consider the American agenda: drug free living as a realistic and attainable aim, bolstered by a War on Drugs which is being won through the efforts of dedicated and fearless people fighting the good fight backed by billions of tax dollars. Utter piffle. Who wants to be drug free? Plainly not the rank and file of the American public who manage to spend amounts on getting out of it so vast that they actually dwarf the not inconsiderable sums that are supposed to prevent them from doing so. After all these years of the Drug War, drug consumption overall in America makes what’s consumed in the UK look like what’s left on the table after an all-night party. So let’s cut the self-righteousness. The big problem with America is that it’s run by Christian fundamentalist zealots who appear to consider any form of unsanctioned enjoyment anathema (a good Biblical word, that). The second point for our consideration is this Professor Ghodse character. The very mention of the self-identifier “The Islamic Republic of Iran” says that here is a man who is wearing his heart on his sleeve. In which case, here is a man who regards the notion of people enjoying themselves in the same way as the American hierarchy, which is to say: enjoyment is irreligious, evil and a downright abomination.

Swiss precision trimming with Strippers At the Hemp Fair we came across the stand of Growside Maastricht, where the wonderful Strippers trim machines were being demonstrating. The Maastricht company is the importer and distributor of these Swiss quality trim machines. They come in three different formats, namely small, medium and large. Anyone who tries these trim machines will be immediately impressed by their efficiency, speed and the outstanding quality of the trimmed buds. The three models are fashioned from durable materials (plastic, stainless steel and aluminium) and they trim, respectively, eight (small), 14 (medium) and 20 (large) times faster than by hand. In short, who has any reason to trim by hand any more? Info: Growside Maastricht; Tel: +31 (0) 43 362 7990; Fax: +31 (0) 43 362 7651; www.growside.com; www.strippers.ch

Bio Ibo thinks of the little details Bio Ibo has always had a remarkable eye for detail. Next to the big black Hummer on the stand of this wholesaler from Gorkum there were also a lot of discretely unpretentious things to see, such as the cardboard boxes for carbon filters we showed in Soft Secrets in an earlier edition. Another smart gizmo, also made from cardboard, is Bio Ibo’s clone box, a sort of high-rise tower block for clones in which you spread (masses of) clones discretely over several ‘stories’ in plastic holders. Info: Bio Ibo; Tel: +31 (0) 184 654 466; Fax: +31 (0) 184 654 191 www.bioibo.nl

New fan controller Since the collaboration began between Blackfeet BV and Hollands Glorie there has been one novelty after another. This time it is the new BF11T fan controller that has been introduced. With this safe fan controller you can variably pre-set minimum and maximum speed. As with all products from this electro-technical wholesaler, the whole thing is fully guaranteed. Info: Hollands Glorie; Tel: +31 (0) 320 260 868; Fax: +31 (0) 320 262 052; www.hollands-glorie.net

Those of us indulging in enjoyment are sinners and will go to a bad place full of flames and torment… Let’s face it; they might as well try this line on drug users, as nothing else seems to have even the slightest impact. The INCB report said: “2% of Britons used cocaine”: big deal. “The UK had one of Europe’s highest rates of cannabis use”: so what? “Methamphetamine poses the biggest threat”: we’ve heard it all before. Listen: the vast majority of users of any drug one cares to mention probably won’t run into any big problems due to their use of said substance. The fact is that the most immediate hazards associated with the use of any illicit substance are the ridiculous laws cooked up by the God-bothering nuts who somehow manage to insinuate themselves into positions of power. If anything’s a health hazard, it’s fundamentalism of any sort. Incidentally, looking over this article I’ve noticed a rather amazing thing: American Christian Republicans and Iranian Islamic Republicans mentioned in the same sentence and agreeing on something. Isn’t it just sad that it couldn’t be over something more constructive and productive than stopping people enjoying themselves?

dimethyltryptamine777@hotmail.com

Product Flash FERRO - Tailor-made nutrients FERRO tailor-made nutrients, well known in the Netherlands, has its roots in the Dutch flower, fruit and vegetable industry and has expanded into the home-growers market. Some 15 years ago an original nutrient recipe was developed for home-growing. Over a two-year period FERRO developed and refined this recipe. Using in-house resources Ferro has developed a superior professional nutrient, using only the highest quality ingredients regardless of price. This is most notable in the quality of iron (Fe) used which, together with magnesium, is responsible for keeping the plant green. The type of iron used by FERRO is normally only used in the flower and vegetable industry if the cultivator has a problem with his crop. The cultivator can use the same iron as FERRO whenever necessary but is prohibited from so doing simply by the price. The price of high-quality iron can be 40 times the cost of normal iron generally used in the production of most nutrients. FERRO has two nutrient concepts: Standard nutrient, nutrient suitable for crops regardless of location, and Regional nutrient which is specially made for and corresponding to the analysis of local water from pumping stations. The great advantage of Regional nutrient is that all the elements are calculated, resulting in a completely balanced nutrient. Because of this the cultivator can work with a higher E.c. producing and retaining more dry material and therefore increasing the harvest. Using a balanced nutrient removes the necessity to rinse the growing medium (removing surplus nutrient-salts) simply because there are no excesses or shortcomings present during cultivation. FERRO nutrients: A complete nutrient line to feed your crop in a professional manner! FERRO nutrients can now be obtained in the U.K. via our distributor Acorn Wholesale based in Kent.

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Canada: RCMP dismantles an international drug distribution network on the internet MONTREAL, Feb. 28 /CNW Telbec/ - The members of the Marihuana Grow Operations Enforcement Team of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police concluded their first major operation when they uncovered a Montreal based criminal organization involved in the trafficking, importation and exportation of cannabis seeds, as well as in conspiring for the purpose of cannabis cultivation via the Internet. This operation was launched in November 2004 under the name “Courriel” and culminated with the seizure of 200,000 cannabis seeds and the arrest of seven persons. Project “Courriel” revealed that Richard Hratch BAGHDADLIAN, 38, from Marsan Street in Montreal, and six other persons operated the Heaven’s Stairway company. This company was on the web claiming to be the North American supplier for indoor and outdoor cannabis production. The cybercompany Heaven’s Stairway used the Internet sites hempqc.com, cannabisworld.com, overgrow.com, eurohemp.com, cannabisseeds.com, and cannabisbay.com. These sites were used to order cannabis seeds online and obtain information on cannabis cultivation. These Internet sites also suggested ways to outsmart the police. Richard Hratch BAGHDADLIAN was the instigator, head and main beneficiary of the illicit company Heaven’s Straiway. The other six accused acted as couriers and performed other duties for the company. They are Geoffrey CHAN, 33, Maria Cristina CIVITILLO, 32, Natalie BAGHDADLIAN, 40, Manuel Bento FERNANDES, 45, Christopher ALMOND, 38, and Teresa RODRIGUES, 39. They all live in Montreal except Christopher ALMOND who lives in Ville Saint-Laurent. The organization processed approximately 30 orders of cannabis seeds a day averaging $100 each. The seeds were sent to clients by regular mail. The seven people are facing 49 charges under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act and the Criminal Code of Canada. The offences were committed in Quebec, Canada, North America, the United Kingdom and elsewhere in the world between March 12, 1998 and January 31, 2006. Nine searches were carried out during the week of January 30, 2006 in order to gather evidence that criminal activities had been committed. The searches were conducted in Montreal and Laval, as well as in the residences of three of the accused, a business, three post office boxes, a vehicle and a safe-deposit box. These searches led to the seizure of 200,000 cannabis seeds, more than $183,362 in US currencies and $14,000 in Canadian currencies, both in cash and postal money orders, three one-kilogram gold bricks, a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, a Mazda RX8 and many purchase orders. Since the searches were conducted, 272 orders have been intercepted by the police. The amount of seeds seized during the searches could have made it possible to operate approximately 500 cannabis greenhouses of 400 plants each, which represent 42 million joints sold on the street. The seven accused are liable to 10 years’ imprisonment. Since the possession of cannabis seeds is illegal under Schedule II of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, clients of the network could also receive a visit from the police. It should be noted that Project “Courriel”, a first in Canada, is the fruit of the work of the new Marihuana Grow Operations Enforcement Team. This new drug enforcement team is one of the seven teams established by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police across Canada in 2004 to combat the scourge of marihuana. The main objectives of these teams are to interdict drugs before they arrive in our communities and to target and destroy the infrastructure and the networks used by criminal organizations involved in marihuana production. These organizations constitute a threat to public safety and well-being.

marily found in wood The substance potassium is pri t the plant develops a ash. Its presence ensures tha side branches. You will nice, sturdy stem and strong ent wood ash mixed in notice when you have suffici m of the plant and her with your soil mix that the ste structure. The stem and branches develop a woody stronger as a result and branches will be noticeably vier loads of buds! thereby able to hold much hea

UKCIA

Did you know that extra CO2 has a tremendo good influence usly on the develo pm ent of marihua plants? The ladi na es are mad ab out it and gro bloom as never w and before! Another benefit of arrang extra CO2 in yo ing ur grow room is that marihua plants have a na better toleranc e for slightly hi temperatures, gher because CO2 al so has a bene effect on this.. ficial

Ireland: Only criminals gain from drugs ban A DISTURBING trend has emerged in relation to recreational drug use in Ireland and the State’s response to it. It appears that a new hard-line approach has been adopted towards this issue. The U-turn on caution rather than prosecution for cannabis possession and the prohibition of magic mushrooms represent a step backwards in that it will do little apart from criminalise otherwise law-abiding citizens. Both of these substances are natural; they are plants that grow in the ground. From a philosophical point of view, there is an element of King Canute in the idea that humankind can ban a plant. Will the State prosecute landowners if this nefarious fungus is found growing on their property? The furore surrounding Trinity College’s research on ecstasy-users defies logic. How can we understand the long-term effects of this synthetic substance if we do not investigate these effects? Surely a study that may yield valuable data on the physiological, neurological and psychological effects of this substance is to be welcomed, not condemned. Debate continues within the scientific community as to the possible harmful effects of cannabis and mushrooms. For instance, the argument that cannabis use can lead to psychosis may have a degree of validity, but this is not a proven fact. What is beyond dispute is that humans have been using these and other drugs ritually and recreationally for thousands of years and the vast majority of recreational drug users do not suffer adverse consequences. Conversely, the prohibition of certain drugs results in a situation whereby supply is in the hands of criminals who will bulk up the substances with all manner of fillers, so greatly increasing the risk to the health of users. I am not so naive as to believe that recreational drug use is a risk-free and harmless activity, yet the matter of personal liberty and freedom over one’s own body must be taken into account. Does the State have the right to tell citizens what they can and cannot put into their own bodies? The patent failure of prohibitionist policies to reduce, let alone eliminate, illicit recreational drug use suggests that State interference in citizens’ personal lifestyles is a fruitless and costly activity. Resources wasted in this moralistic crusade might be better employed in assisting people through educational and public health programmes targeted at reducing the harm associated with drug use. Due to the potentially harmful effects of psychoactive substance (used until death), debate on this matter can be fuelled more by emotive reactions than rational analysis. One would not wish to cause distress to the families and friends of people who have died from drug-related causes, yet the argument that the prohibition of certain drugs might save lives is spurious given the availability of illegal drugs and the near impossibility of cutting off supplies. The issue can also be exploited politically because to be seen as tough on drugs is a potential vote-harvesting strategy. Neither of these reasons, however, forms a valid basis for the formulation of policy in this area. It seems now that the various organs of the State are implementing a ‘mammy knows best’ approach to this area of social policy and, in so doing, are driving drug-related problems further underground, wasting garda time and resources, criminalising drug users, and maintaining an Orwellian interest in the personal habits of citizens. Date: 13/02/2006 Source: Irish Examiner

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Never make the mistake as a grower of hanging your lamps too low over the clones when they have just been potted. If you do, the clones will dry out too much, with disastrous results. To prevent this we hang our lamps in the first few days as high as they will go. In this way the evaporation is minimal and yet the clones still receive enough light for them to develop nicely.

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Did you know that it is also a pity to throw away the big leaves from your marihuana plants after harvest? These contain all the important building blocks a new marihuana plant will need. Throw the leaves on a compost heap and after a couple of months you can use the digested earth/ compost for your new grow cycle. You will be amazed at the fertility of this compost!

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83 trimmed for you

Nitrogen is mostly found in worm manure and also to a lesser degree in bone meal. It produces fast, strong growth in the plant and is therefore essential for good development of the plant.

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Did you know that the temperature of the feed water (water with liquid nutrients stirred into it) is pretty important? The ideal temperature is around 21°C. The roots and therefore the plants will be most grateful for you aiming to hit this temperature!

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Colofon Soft Secrets is published by Discover Publisher BV P.O.Box 362, 5460 AJ, Veghel, Netherlands Telephone: +31-73-5498112 Fax: +31-73-5479732 E-mail: maryjane@highlife.nl Publisher: Boy Ramsahai Editor: Clifford Cremer Contributors: Jorge Cervantes, Jules Marshall, Kristie Szalanski, Kaz Peet, Bart B., Joe Kane, LazyStrain, Chris Marchand, Dr. John Dee, Weckels, Steve Davis, Smiley Grass et al. Translations: Jules Marshall Comics: Jim Stewart Editorial adress: Soft Secrets, P.O. Box 17250, 1001 JG, Amsterdam, Holland E-mail: SSUK@softsecrets.nl Layout & print: R&B Communicatie, Schijndel, Holland Advertisements: Dave, tel: +31(0)73 549.8112 or +31620626839 dave@highlife.nl Cover photo: Jack Herer(c) DJS & Nas, UK A word from the publisher: The UK government has embarked on a process of relative liberalisation towards the use of cannabis, and cannabis activists are engaged in broadening this engagement. Several local councils and police chiefs now actively support a Dutch-style coffeeshop system as a way of separating soft and hard drugs, as it has proven to do in Holland. Whether they are finding their way to new coffeeshops or growing for their personal supply, cannabis users are a menace to no one, and are causing no discernable social problem. Some politicians and commentators are calling for the outright legalisation of marihuana. Let’s wait and see how the debate develops during a period of relative peace between all sides of the argument. In the meantime, the publisher hopes Soft Secrets will show the public a positive side to the normalisation of cannabis use, and is anxious to offer a forum to both pro- and anti-legalisation advocates. This assumes that the publisher does not necessarily agree with everything that appears in articles and advertisements. The publisher therefore distances himself explicitly from published statements or images that might give the impression that an endorsement is being made for the use or production of cannabis. Nothing from this publication may be copied or reproduced in any format without prior permission from the publisher and other copyright holders. The publisher is not responsible for the content and/or point of view of advertisements. The editors take no responsibility for unsolicited submissions.

Soft Secrets UK 3/06 out: June 23 2006

Did you know that for measuring the pH-value of your substrate there are special meters available? By using one you will always know what the pH-value of the substrate you’re growing on is.

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