Marijuana is a wonderful herb that grows naturally all over the planet. Unfortunately it is still illegal to grow marijuana in many countries. Please check your local laws before growing marijuana. With that said, let’s get growing!

It’s been a month and a half and you are finally ready to flower! The first thing to understand is that some of your plants may be male plants. The female plants flower, yielding herb to smoke. The male plants grow pollen sacks which impregnate the female plants, creating seeds. Unless you want seeds for future grows it is important to pick out the male plants as soon as they show signs. The first step to flowering is changing the light pattern. Your plants are used to either 18 or 24hrs of light a day. In the wild, plants flower when the light of day shortens, so to stimulate flowering, change your lighting to 12hours on and 12hours off everyday. Also flush your nutrients and switch to flowering measurements. In the first week you have to keep a very close eye on the sex of your plants. Male plants grow little balls that eventually open up with pollen. Female plants grow flowers. You can detect a female plant early because it will have hairs growing out of the calyx located on flowering branches.

Flowering time varies depending on the strain. Typical times fall somewhere between 8 and 12 weeks. Make sure to routinely flush the water and keep your PPM’s according to the schedule on your nutrients. Your herb will be ready for harvest when at least 30% of the pistils (hairs) turn from clear to red/orange. If you have a microscope, take a look at the trichomes. These look almost like little mushrooms under magnification of 50x. Just as the hairs turn orange, the tops of the trichomes turn from clear to white. A count of 30% + white-top trichomes also signifies the readiness to harvest. It is also important to note that harvesting early leads to more of a head high, whereas harvesting late with more orange hairs makes for more of a couch lock effect.

In the last week before harvest it is also important to flush out all nutrients. It is optional to keep watering during this time. The plant will have an excess of nitrogen as well as several other elements and the halt of nutrients causes the plant to use up all the excess. This makes for a tastier and smoother final product. It has also been theorized that keeping the lights off for the last 3 days of the plant’s life increases thc content. This theory makes sense because plants stress out whenever something unnatural or threatening happens. Thc is the natural defense mechanism for cannabis so it really couldn’t hurt to give it a try.

Its harvest time so first cut each of the flowering branches close to the stem. Discard the leaf branches and main stem. Take your collection of flowering branches and cut all fan leaves out. Get a nice pair of clippers and trim down the leaves to where the flowers are mostly exposed. Hang these trimmed branches upside-down in the dark, in a well ventilated area for 3-5 days.  Wait until the plants have exhausted most of their water before removing them from the room.

Now that the herb is cut and has been dried for a few days, it’s time to cure. This is the most important step in the entire thing. Any shortcuts here will undermine your months of patience so don’t get too ahead of yourself. Your herb is good but still has an excess of chlorophyll and amino acids. Curing brings out the full flavor and helps the herb actualize its potency. Thc is the chemical that gives you desired effects, but before the herb is cured, the thc exists coupled with amino acids. The more time you cure, the more cannabinoids detach them self and become active thc.

Collect your herb and trim to your liking. Put the herb in a sealed jar for one month. Every day you should open the jar three times for about 20 minutes.  In a month you will have some killer herb.