Marijuana Horticulture: The Indoor/Outdoor Medical Grower's Bible

a large sativa rootstock would be an interesting experiment. The larger root system could easily supply water and nutrients to the smaller indica plant. The resulting plant would be drought resistant.

Stress
    Cannabis grows best and produces heaviest when it is given a stable environment. Stressed plants produce less than unstressed plants. Stress-induced trauma include withholding water, photoperiod fluctuation, low light intensity, ultraviolet light, nutrient tox-icities and deficiencies, cold and hot soil, ambient temperatures and mutilation. In addition, any overt applications of growth hormones such as B9 hormone, gibberellins, cytokinins, abscisic acid, ethylene, colchicine, etc., cause stress.

Gently remove a portion of the soil from the root ball. I like to remove the part in the center of the root ball where few roots reside.

Once 30-40% of the soil has been removed, lay a base of fresh soil in the bottom of the container and fit remaining root ball on top of it Fill the container with fresh potting soil and gently pack in place. After transplanting, water heavily with a Vitamin B1 solution.
    Stress can cause plants to produce more resin, but it simultaneously causes odd and/or reduced growth. For example, Felix, a Swiss outdoor grower, grew a field of cannabis at 900 feet (300 meters) and another at 4200 feet (1300 meters). The upper field suffered stress, because it is exposed to cooler temperatures and more ultraviolet radiation. Plants there produce about 25 percent more resin-packed THC than plants in the lower field. But, plants that grow at 900 feet (300 meters) yield at least 25 percent or more dry weight than plants at the 4200-foot elevation.
    Removing large green shade leaves allows more light to shine on smaller leaves, but it also causes growth to slow and harvest to diminish. Remove only leaves that are more than half damaged by pests or diseases. Often, partially yellow leaves green up once stress is eliminated. Removing spindly, dimly lit lower branches stresses plants much less than removing leaves to speed growth of upper foliage.

Insides of pots have been painted with Griffin’s Spin-Out containing copper hydroxide to prune roots.
    Mutilating plants by breaking the trunk, driving a stake through the trunk, torturing or slapping them around might increase resin production, but most often the stress retards growth and causes other problems.Withholding water may also cause more resin production, but it impairs growth and diminishes leaf, stem, and flower production. Water stress slows or stops clones from rooting. If clones have too many leaves and are too busy transpiring, root growth is very slow. Conversely, waterlogged rooting mediums harbor no air, and rooting is also slowed to a crawl.

This close-up of a root ball shows a spot scraped away with roots behind. This demonstrates the roots will not grow into the copper hydroxide coating.

This photo of the foot-long fibrous mass of roots was taken after Uncle Ben shook off much of the semi-dry soil.

    Stress can also affect plants’ sex. See Chapter Sixteen, Breeding , for more information.

Stressed plants with wounded stems and vegetation grow slower and invite pests and diseases.

This little plant, nicknamed “Lola,” was stressed and stunted by lack of water. Although a beautiful little female, the harvest weighed in at a meager 0.08 ounce (2.3 gm).

Chapter FOUR
FLOWERING

Phyllotaxy - Branching changes when a seedling enters the flowering stage. The vegetative plant on the left has symmetrical branching. Branching changes to asymmetrical when plants enter the flowering growth stage.

Introduction
    Cannabis must flower and produce seeds to successfully complete its annual life cycle. Marijuana is a dioecious plant, being either male (pollen producing) or female (ovule producing). However, hermaphrodite (bisexual) plants with both male and female flowers can also occur.
    In nature, cannabis flowers in the fall, after the long hot days of summer. The long nights and short days of autumn signal marijuana to start flowering. Plants are normally either male or female. Cannabis produces male or female pre-flowers after four weeks of vegetative growth. For more information, see “Pre-flowering” in this chapter.

Plants grown from seed support symmetrical branches during seedling and vegetative growth.

Asymmetrical branching occurs as plants grown from seed begin to flower.
    Growth patterns and chemistry change during flowering: