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MARIJUANA HORTICULTURE by Jorge Cervantes

MARIJUANA HORTICULTURE

The Indoor/Outdoor Medical Grower's Bible

by Jorge Cervantes

Pub Date: Feb. 1st, 2006
ISBN: 187882323X

A sticky, satisfying vade mecum, and a horticulturally sound guide to producing tasty bud–for medical purposes only, of course.

In these complicated times, the Cultivator’s Handbook of Marijuana (1986), favorite of the Whole Earth crowd and an erstwhile bible, all simple line drawings and hippie encouragement, gives way to Cervantes’s careful science ("Near the end of normal vegetative growth, plants grown from seed develop pre-flowers. This is when female calyx formation initiates, and it is not contingent upon photoperiod") and consumer-advocate field testing ("Be careful when purchasing ballasts that are made in China or Asia, in general. . .. Cheap transformers, capacitors, and starters are cheap because they are of inferior quality"). The prose is rich in information but never dense or unreadable, while the photographs are a blend of High Times and Playboy, with a touch of THX 1138 thrown in for good measure. (We’re talking the white Visqueen that lines the grow room, man. Don’t freak. And whatever you do, don’t think of Soylent Green.) Of course, Cervantes knows that the sap-dripping, ever-so-healthy plants thus portrayed are no-nos, which explains his helpful checklist for avoiding The Man: Keep to a regular schedule, be pleasant but brief with the neighbors, use a friend’s car to visit the grow store and "Never open the grow room door for anybody!" It takes more than all that, though, since The Man has access to all kinds of technological sniffing and profiling toys, so Cervantes includes some nifty tips for shielding the grow room from escaping light, heat signatures, ozone smells and all those other cannabis-related giveaways. And the portraits of various hydroponic and grow-light setups are a real inspiration to do-it-yourself types.

Full of hard facts, good science and excellent illustrations, this is the bomb–and just the thing for crafting the stuff of righteous bombers. For medical purposes only, of course.