POT FOR PENNIES BY PAT AND MIKE FROM M.U.D. This "how to" guide represents 20 years of personal experience in every phase and involvement with pot imaginable. While we in no way advocate the breaking of any laws, we seek to offer assistance and guidance to those who, for their own reasons, desire to "grown their own." a selection from "HIGH TIMES Cultivation Tips" WINNING YOUR OWN PERSONAL WAR ON DRUGS The most threatening problem before us is the War on Drugs. The increased penalties, forfeiture of assets, $10,000 fines, harsh prison sentences, and loss of constitutional rights are all attacks on the "drug user" as well as the "drug dealer." The only way to take the heat off the user is to eliminate the true source of conflict: the "drug dealer" and his enterprise. By drug dealers, we mean those who buy and sell with the sole purpose of making money--not even using the product they push. Drug dealers make obscene profits--amounts so large that corruption cannot be held in check. These "bad guys" cause a drain on our economy through money-laundering, evading taxes, and by removing large chunks of money from circulation. Later the money circulates back in the form of "big ticket" investments, the financing of revolutions and private armies, real-estate speculation, luxury items, even government bonds, none of which benefits the people who make the whole business possible, the consumer and the farmer. We believe the ultimate "weapon" in the War on Drugs (which was created and exists because of bad laws) is the return of certain inalienable rights. By growing our own we reduce demand, price and profitability, and corruption. Great harm is caused by current drug policy; efforts to stop drug use are counterproductive. Enormous benefits, such as tax revenues, import and excise taxes, licensing and the control of drugs through health and safety agencies are lost. If purchasing drugs from drug dealers is equivalent to supporting the murders committed by them, as some would have us believe, then growing our own absolves us. A grow system is the most effective "weapon" in the War on Drugs at our disposal. We mean that literally. This article presents systems built with disposables--items most people throw away, or are willing to give away. These items, we feel, are as good as the best you can buy. We know the people who can least afford to buy an expensive system are the people who most need to grow their own. At today's prices, the financial drain on the average person's income for bud can be considerable (not to mention the bother, anxiety and danger of having to deal with drug dealers). But the rewards of growing your own transcend material comforts. The freedom from dependence on others brings about a wondrous change in the grower. It used to be hard for the inexperienced grower to produce top quality bud, especially indoors. But, with advances in grow technology and the exchange of information, this is no longer the case. In fact, if good seed is provided, we can practically guarantee a successful "crop" on the first try. YOU DON"T NEED A SEWER PIPE TO GROW GOOD BUD When we started growing, we faced this problem. Not only did grow systems cost a lot, but the price was more than we could afford to pay. But we had time and ideas: our own and others'. This, along with pocket change, was enough. The system which we will discuss is similar to the Buddy(TM) grow system designed by Kyle Roq, a regular contributor to HIGH TIMES. The main part of this system consists of a large diameter (4"-6") PVC sewer pipe, in which the roots of the plants are suspended and fed with aerated nutrient solution by a flood and drain cycle. This seems to be state of the art. While we in no way copied the Buddy(TM) system (in fact, it had yet to appear in HIGH TIMES), we took a similar approach. Our system was unique in design, evolutionary in nature, and solved problems encountered in earlier systems. In one system, essentially a large Phototron(TM), we grew plants in one-gallon containers of perlite, vermiculite and lava rock. The pots sat inside plastic trays, with drain tubes for the runoff from the drip emitters, which supplied nutrient to each of twelve pots. Between plugged emitters and plugged drains, we found the whole affair too time-consuming for our lifestyles. Not that it didn't work; in some ways it was a remarkable system, especially the side lighting principle. For those who enjoy spending a lot of time with their plants, we can see many reasons for recommending it. In a still later system, we eliminated the above problem by setting our trusty one-gallon pots on a tray which was flooded and drained twice a day. Our tray was 4' x 12', utilizing two 400-watt metal halides and four 150-watt high-pressure sodium lights. We ran 150 one-gallon pots supplied with starts by air-layering four "mother" plants in another section. Based on the "Sea of Green," it incorporated ideas pioneered by the good folks at Hydro-Farm(TM). Flooding plastic tubes filled with Geolite(TM), as opposed to "watering" from above, made it possible to grow three or four large plants in an 18" x 24" pot. Later on, Hydro Farm(TM) developed flooded trays with rockwool slabs and blocks as a grow medium. This, we suspect, was to accommodate the trend towards many small, individual flowering plants. Being deathly afraid of rockwool for a number of reasons, we looked for a way to flood many small individual containers without expensive and complicated piping. Before we tell you what we found, we'd like to share with you a few of the "most for the least" principles we achieved. Some we figured out through 20 years of fooling around, others we happened upon while reading "Ask Ed," but mostly we just got lucky: (1) for fast growth, feed them often--just like a person who eats constantly and doesn't do any work, they're gonna get fat; (2) just as important as fresh air (C02) is to the upper portion of the plant, oxygen (02) is to the roots (over 1" a day under a moderate light intensity of about 25 watts/sq.ft.); (3) utilize hydroponics to deliver 02 and nutrients--it's the most desirable approach for indoor application; (4) make operations low-maintenance and trouble-free so that you don't have to visit the grow area more than once every week or two; and (5) give each plant an individual unit, in order to maximize growing space, light placement, plant size and growth stage--no wasted space. BUILDING A CHEAP, EFFICIENT, TROUBLE-FREE SYSTEM We can best act as your guides by telling you our story: what we did, how we did it, and why we did it. Within our story is the seed of an idea. We hope it falls on fertile ground. Just as I hit on the idea for a cheap, efficient, trouble-free grow system, my partner Mike popped in the door, holding a two-liter Coke bottle upside down, exclaiming, "This is it" over and over. It would be a while before we could say, "It works, we got a system." Once we got started, it didn't take long to become confused about whose idea it was in the first place: Mike ended up damn near perfecting much of the system in ways I was too blind to see. For example, originally, our method for attaching the bottle to a piece of 3/4" PVC delivery-piping was accomplished by heating the neck of a "T"-fitting and inserting the bottle cap into the opening. This proved impractical for a number of reasons, the main one being that the caps came loose after repeated use. Water consumption and leakage were problems in our system. We solved them by attaching the bottles to a male-threaded coupler which screwed into a "T" with a female-threaded neck. We heated the pipe end of the coupler to make it pliable, dropped in a piece of screen to keep our medium from falling into the piping, coated the bottle threads with PVC cement and shoved it home. The "T"s were joined with short lengths of 3/4" PVC pipe. The configuration we found most suitable for us was what we call the "4 x 4" or "quad"--four rows with four "T"s per row. (We made it 3' x 3' for use under a 400-watt metal halide light.) Later, a 1' x 4' rack with two rows of six staggered bottles proved ideal for starts, utilizing 4' fluorescent side lighting, or a 150-watt overhead. Meanwhile, I got the pots together by first removing the black bottoms of the bottles (with a hot water soak they pull off easily). Next, using a razor blade, I cut off the bottoms of the bottles. A hole about 3" in diameter resulted, to serve as the top of the pot. (This opening is necessary to fill it with grow medium. The tops must all be a uniform height as well.) With a one-inch hole in the center, the black bottom became the cap, and gave rigidity to the now complete "Pot for Pennies." We put it together for the water test, on a cold night with no heat in our shop. It was just past Christmas, and the leanness of the season was intensified. With absolutely no funds available, Mike and I did what we do best: We used what we had on hand and adjusted our ideas accordingly. The thrill we experienced as we saw an old swamp-cooler pump flood 16 two-liter "grow bulbs" to overflowing is not to be conveyed in mere words. Suffice it to say that our Christmas present that year, though a little late, was one that still hasn't stopped coming. To finish off the system, we added an overflow pipe which prevented what we had been so happy to see earlier and a fill pipe to make it happen. Our first reservoir was four 3' x 5" x 1/2" pieces of plywood joined at the corners. With the pump and float valve mounted to the cover (another piece of plywood), and heavy-duty plastic draped inside the 3' x 3' frame and tacked on the outside to act like a waterbed liner, our big day was soon upon us. Naturally, everything still needed to be done, but our starts were ready, even if the grow room wasn't (controls weren't, lights weren't). The day our "medium" arrived, nothing would do but to drop everything. Work would have to wait. For its light weight and porosity, we chose Geolite(TM) as a medium in our hydroponic system. (Lava rock works about as well at a much lower cost.) Mike filled the bottles with medium while I busied myself with hanging a light, fan and getting anything else together. Before long, it was time to fill the reservoir with water, add the nutrient and turn on the pump. Mike came into the room with a 5-gallon pail of water and news that it was dark outside already. Somehow we had lost all sense of time. It was an experience that we would have over and over again in the months ahead while refining and fine-tuning our grow system. It was the high that comes with making ideas reality. We watched the pots flood, from the bottom up, with water/nutrient solution. As the level got to within an inch or so from the tops of the pots, we could see solution flowing through the clear vinyl return hose, back to the reservoir. To our astonishment, as the overflow increased, it began to siphon the pots until they were dry. I looked at Mike, he looked at me. I said, "What the fuck," while he just shook his head. A second later it hit us: We needed a vent to break the vacuum caused by the overflow pipe. We had to try it. A 1/4" hole drilled in the top of the U-shaped top portion of the pipe broke the siphon effect and allowed the pots to remain flooded while the overflow was then allowed to run at pump capacity. I could tell you how, the next day, we placed the peat pellets containing our precious starts into the pots, with the tender shoots and leaves threaded through the 1" hole in the "black cup" which holds it all in place and prevents evaporation through the pot opening; or about the timer Mike made out of a cheap electric clock which feeds our "babies" 5 minutes every hour during the light period; or a light mover made out of an old barbecue motor. But that's another story. What I will say is what can be expected in terms of yield per square foot. Believe it or not, in an area 4' x 4', growing 16 plants, using a 400-watt metal halide light, we harvested 8-12 ounces of trimmed dry bud every 90 days. With two units, we could harvest over five pounds a year. At current prices, if we smoked that much, we would save ourselves $15,000 a year. That's about a half pound per month from an area 4' x 8'. With nearly a quarter pound of prime bud apiece every month, our "drug problem" is over. SEVEN STEPS TO GROWING POT FOR PENNIES 1. Go to the local nursery for peat pellets to start the seeds. 2. Select seeds from your best recent pot purchases. The seed is 90% of a successful crop, so be choosy. Try to select seeds from bud that contains only "a couple of seeds" here and there. Chances are these will be "female seeds." 3. Soak the peat pellets in water to expand them and plant the seeds 1/2" deep, one or two per pellet. 4. During the next several days gather the necessary items with which you will build your "state of the art" grow system: One "4 x 4"/"Quad" (16 pots) a. sixteen two-liter soda bottles $0.00 b. sixteen 16-3/4" male NPT X 3/4" PVC couplers ($0.25 ea.) $4.00 c. sixteen 3/4" x 3/4" x 3/4" female NPT T-fittings ($0.40 ea.) $6.50 d. six 3/4" x 3/4" x 3/4" PVC T-fittings ($25.00 ea.) $1.50 e. four 3/4" x 3/4" PVC elbow fittings ($25.00 ea.) $1.00 f. one 22' 3/4" PVC pipe $7.00 i) eighteen 12" sections ii) nine 2" sections iii) one 12"-14" section g. two 3/4" (male) faucet nipples $1.00 h. two hose-to-faucet couplers i. 6' hose to match (can be two sections of an old waterhose with female coupler) $5.00 j. six 3' x 5 1/2"x3/4"(1 x 6 pine #3 or#4, particle board, plywood, etc.) $9.00 k. 4' x 8' heavy plastic $5.00 l. swamp-cooler pump $10.00 TOTAL $50.00 5. Along with a few basic hand tools and some miscellaneous materials, assemble your grow unit by referring to the pictures and the text. 6. Find and read several books on hydroponics and growing pot. Or better yet, order half-a-dozen back issues of HIGH TIMES and tell them to include the Indoor Growers editions. For a complete understanding of what you're going to want to know, read The Marijuana Grower's Guide by Ed Rosenthal and Mel Frank. The best. 7. For complete plans and step-by-step instructions concerning everything you need to know about growing "Pot for Pennies," including construction of timers, light movers, and three low-cost systems, send $10.00 to Grower's Guide, M.U.D., PO Box 1156, Davis, CA 95616. One dollar will be sent to NORML for every guide sold.