Before I moved to Colorado and got MMJ paper work, I lived in Georgia and kept a 400 watt HPS in my closet with anywhere from 6-to-9 plants in flower at all times for a little over 2 years before I moved. A few things kept me safe, I lived in a VERY rural area on 30 acres of thick hardwoods and had no visible neighbors. I lived about 500 yards off the highway behind a chained gate, and the double wide trailer I lived in could not be seen from the road. I NEVER EVER kept the gate unlocked, unless I knew I had a UPS delivery coming and I only had about 4 deliveries a year, and I always knew the exact day the delivery would be and the time window of the day it came.
I was SUPER SECRETIVE about my grow, never talked about it to anyone, never had any company, always kept my carbon filter fresh and running 24/7 inside my closet, always kept at least 6 of those ornamental cinnamon scented wall hanging brooms with one in every room, I never answered my land-line phone and always used my pre-paid cellphone to take in-coming calls, I always paid my electric bill a week before the due date and which was also never high because I only used a single 400 HPS for 12 hours a day, just for flowering.
Also, whenever I smoked I always went into my bathroom and shut the door and I had an empty plastic milk jug with about 40 lemon scented dryer sheets wadded up in it with a few small holes poked into the bottom of the jug so that the exhaled hits I took off my pipe would be filtered through the dryer sheets. I took every measure possible to keep my use and grow of herb a well kept secret.
I also kept my 400 HPS set to always come on at 7:00 pm and go off at 7:00 am , because all the planes that I ever saw or heard flying low would always fly in the daytime and I was always aware of FLIR technology, but then again I never had a huge grow set up, just a single 400 HPS, but I still treated my grow as if it were huge. I kept NO TRESPASSING signs all over the perimeter of my property as well.
I always shredded up the root balls left over from a harvest out of my 3 gallons containers with a pick axe, then black bagged them twice because a lot of tell-tale signs of herb growers who use soil is the huge amounts white perlite as well as the cannabis roots. I lived so far out into the county that everyone had to take their own garbage to the county dumpster facility, I would take my used soil that was black bagged and always using my welding gloves to keep from having fingerprints on the black plastic bags, and take it to the county dump in the back of my truck but I'd have my kitchen trash bagged up and sitting on top of it.
I would get rid of any stalks and leaves by digging a hole with post hole diggers 3 feet deep and breaking the stalks up into 6 inch sections and drop them into the hole as well as the leaf trim junk I had, then dump white garden lime in the hole, then put about 1 foot of dirt on top of the lime that was in the hole. I knew the lime would help decompose the stalk and leaves a lot faster.
I also bought bulk bags of black pepper from Sams Club that I kept sprinkled around the edge of my double wide trailer just to throw off any law man's K9 if they ever brought a drug dog down there to snoop around my place, it would end up with a burning nose.
I'm glad I don't have to go through all that shit I used to go through just to keep my small personal grow hidden well. Most people wouldn't go to all that trouble I went through over a small closet grow.
Another thing is, I always smoked by myself, when I started growing , I had a few cousins who I used to smoke out with in the years previously , if anyone ever mentioned herb around me I always said "used too, but gave it up". I always presented a clean cut well-spoken poster image of a strong conservative, even though I kept my neo-hippie beliefs and practices well-covered. It would've been super hard to bust me, but I hated always covering up everything I done. That's why I packed my shit up and moved to Colorado where I can grow in a relaxed environment and be around a bunch of potheads like me
A lot of times when a detective calls someone like that, someone the cops have pinched has brought up your name. In a situation like that...I'd move to another county at least out of that jurisdiction and then set my grow back up. It's really best if you grow in a state that doesn't have MMJ protection to not let ANYONE know you even smoke herb.
only one way to put your mind at rest, ignoring them will make you look guilty of nothing at all!
