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

are safe from burning. He places a portable greenhouse over the plants. The compost keeps plants warm while the structure protects foliage. This works exceptionally well to coax a spring harvest.

Dig big, deep planting holes and backfill with amended soil.

Place a board at the bottom of fast-draining soils to hold water longer.

Make raised beds up to 3-feet (90 cm) tall. Layers of fresh plant debris below decompose and release heat as a by-product
    Another grower prepares a vegetable garden by dumping three cubic yards (90 cm 3 ) of finished compost and manure with a dose of dolomite lime into a raised bed, then he rototills and plants. When the vegetables are growing well, he transplants hardened-off clones to blend in alongside vegetables.
Mulch
    Mulch attracts and retains soil moisture and smothers weeds. Mulch is a layer of decomposing foliage, straw, grass clippings, weeds, etc. and/or paper, rocks, plastic, etc., laid around plants.
    Native foliage is an excellent and convenient mulch. My favorite mulch is dry grass clippings, which are free. Fill your backpack with lightweight grass clippings before every trip to the patch. Always pile the mulch as high as you can (6-12+ inches (15-30+ cm), because it biodegrades over time.
    Biodegradable plastic breaks down into frayed strips that flap in the wind after continued exposure to sunlight. Plan to use it one year only and remove it before it shreds into unsightly pieces of long plastic.
    Rock or rock dust makes excellent mulch. Use rock mulches where they are readily available. They become hot to touch on sunny days, but they still protect the soil from evaporative moisture loss.
    Newspaper or brown paper shopping bags make excellent mulch. Slightly wet paper is easier to work with and less likely to blow around. Inexpensive and readily available, newspaper layers should be at least six pages thick (preferably a dozen or more), before adding a soil or mulch covering to hold it in place.
    Woven weed barriers or strips of scrap carpet let water drain but will not let the weeds grow through. Cover these barriers with rock or bark chips.

Planting in a thick layer of mulch is a good way to conserve moisture.
    Cover the entire garden bed with black plastic and cut holes through which seedlings are planted. A soaker hose can be laid underneath the plastic to irrigate. Make sure to cut large enough holes so that plant stems do not touch the plastic. Black plastic gets very hot during the day but actually warms the soil very little. When a young, tender plant stem touches the hot, black plastic, it will literally cook at the soil line.

Fertilizers
    Plants can be fertilized enough to make them respond and grow well within a temperature range of 60-90°F (15-32°C), reasonable humidity, adequate sunshine, and moderate wind.
    Be sparing with fertilizer the first month after transplanting. Depending upon the fertilizer, application could be as often as every watering or as seldom as every week or two.
    If fertilizing with every watering, you may need to dilute the food to half-strength or less until you figure out the proper dosage.
    Fertilize with a mild, soluble flowering solution for germination and seedling growth. Change to a high-nitrogen formula during the vegetative stage and back to a “super-bloom” when the long nights induce flowering.
    Use granular concentrated fertilizers or organic fertilizers that are lightweight and not bulky to transport and store.
    Build organic soils using different natural substances. Always use the most readily available form of the element. See Chapter Eleven, “Water and Nutrients,” for complete information on fertilizers.
    For more complete information about soil, see Soil Science Simplified, by Helmut Kohnke and D. P. Franzmeier, Waveland Press, 4th edition.

Water
    Clean rainwater is the best for irrigation. To make sure it is not too acidic (acid rain) and harmful to plants, take the pH and parts per million (ppm) reading from collected rainwater before using.
    Sodium-heavy water builds up in the soil causing slow growth and shorter plants with smaller leaves. At low levels, sodium appears to benefit plants and may even make up for potassium deficiency, but too much leads to “sodium stress.” Roots lose the ability to absorb water and other nutrients and will dry out even with heavy watering. It is very important to test your water for sodium and other dissolved solids and take appropriate action if the reading reaches