New Medical Grow Starting in California...

SgtStadanko

SgtStadanko

Member
March 17, 2011 After both my brother and my best friend developed stage 4 cancer, I started paying attention to marijuana. Haven't been able to smoke it because of my job (I fly, not Law enforcement), and still wont be able to...But I decided I can probably make a huge difference in their lives (and the lives of about 100 others) and started plans two months ago to start a plot. Some background.... I have a background in horticulture, and your articles here have been tremendous. Was going to go small, and decided that the local medical dispensaries would probably love to have somebody like me to supply them. I can grow 130 lb pumpkins, so why not a good pot plant. I have hundreds of acres, but have picked a spot in my grape orchard. This site is literally totally and completely secure, from all angles; the only hope for anybody to find it would be for someone to climb several adjacent land's barb wired and posted property and then would still have a hard walk just to reach the deer fence. Unless they were Lance Armstrong, they would be half dead before they found this place. It is irrigated, and my plan is to plant in the walkways between the grape vines. My main concern is air surveillance. So I'm hoping that the vineyard offers plenty of cover in the way of color offset. Anybody that knows what to expect from Airborne Surveillance in Northern California (populated) areas would be greatly appreciated. Here's my main questions: I can grow 5, 50, 100, or 200 or even more plants. I have nothing stopping me from growing upwards of 300 plants (although I only have 50 clones currently in my possession). 1) What is really the "breaking point" for when I should worry about air surveillance. 50 plants, 100, 300? 2) The land is not mine. It is a friends who gave me the go ahead to use this place, and he retains the "I didn't know there was a damned guerrilla farmer on my land defense. But how aggressive are the Feds in Nor Cal at finding 100 or 200 plant farms. If its found, I would just end up with a wasted investment. Nothing to tie me to the space, other than my shoe prints. 3) When I show up at a dispensary with 20 lbs of pot, should I have anything beyond my basic Tax information. I will be registering with the state to pay taxes, but the dispensary may need advanced warning... THIS IS WHERE I NEED THE MOST HELP. I would like to get this to the people that need it. 4) How many different variants should I use? Should I plant 30% sativa, 30% indica, 30% hybrid, or just stay with my hybrid (which is potent, robust, and productive. 5) I have surveillance video, so I don't even need to visit. But I can be there in 20 minutes. Any thoughts on security? Deer seem to be my major concern, but I put up 10 foot deer fence and odor repellent yesterday. 6) Any other thing you might think I didn't cover for a big grow? I will post pictures and diary this project, as I have been getting information off of this site for months now, and hope to pay it forward with some pics. I'll also share with you some of my tips, as I'm going 70% organic (one acre) and 30% chemical fertilizers 1/2 acre on another. As math is my "thing" I hope to provide an analytical approach to yield. That and I want to try to get a plant that exceeds 1LB regularly. We'll know by September! Blessings to all of you! El Diablo
 
BubbaKusher

BubbaKusher

Member
Hows it going, I'm in the same situation, but more on a medical scale > 6 plants. But having these answers would benefit me greatly. I don't see any comments, did you find out any information on these topics?
 
treemansbuds

treemansbuds

Well-Known Member
Sounds like your trying to turn a bit of a profit showing up to the dispensary with 20+ lbs, or is that free meds? OOps, showing up with tax info, don't sound like free meds to me.
Do you have a dispensary in mind? I could use some free meds, that's right, no free meds.
If you get Doctors prescriptions for the people your growing for, and you don't grow over 99 plants, you should be good to go. But sounds like your going more guerrilla style which gives you no protection under prop 215.
I think if you were truly doing this for your sick friends, then 6 plants each done right will supply them with plenty of medicine.
Good luck-
TMB-
 
doublejj

doublejj

Well-Known Member
You need to bring in a partner, with grow experience. There's an awful lot to know, to get top shelf med's.

Good luck, and welcome to RIU

peace
doublejj
 
Snow Crash

Snow Crash

Well-Known Member
100 plants is a federal "pound you in the ass" prison situation. 99 plants though is a state matter. Given the recent actions of the DEA on dispensaries I wouldn't fuck around with it. 99 plants is a lot of work anyway, especially with the proper amount of training, and without at least 2 other people helping out it could be more than you bargained for. The irrigation will help, but I think you know that you don't just drop a giant pumpkin seed between some grapes and get a state fair winner. It takes specialty and focus to get the good stuff from the earth and the sun and the seed and the drop.

There are a lot of ways to guerrilla and to grow outdoors. If you need it to look "unprofessional" to protect the land owner then do what you gotta do, but personally I think I'd focus more on producing an ample amount of good medicine for the people close to me. If all three of you are registered as patients/caregivers that'd allow you to have 18 plants completely within legal allowance and being less visible from above than hundreds of plants. A greenhouse in an uncultivated area might be a better way to go about this if you can get the land owner on board. Probably good to hire a lawyer for a day to mediate these discussions and provide critical information regarding the legal side of things.

18 plants grown skillfully in a good northern Californian summer can harvest dozens of pounds of bud depending on strain and care. Like 30, 40 lbs is no problem if you're doing it right, with the potential for 100 or more when things are really dialed and you have 8 foot trees with 7 foot diameters holding 10lbs each like HumboldtLocal (google Humboldt Local's 2010 outdoor and shit your pants). At that point they look less like cannabis and more like Japanese maple trees :).

Rather than growing a couple stick-like "ditch weed" style plants in an irrigated vineyard you could really do this right, with less exposure, and still generate a huge harvest. You're really cutting it close with the season, but if you don't as many plants then you can source everything as clones. This saves you from having to yank males later on. Keep them cruising indoors until it seems like those April/May showers are finally subsiding and the night temperatures aren't dipping much lower that 60 on the regular. The greenhouse would be good for this as well.

Since this is an agricultural land anyway, with a vineyard, a standard greenhouse in a place like that shouldn't stand out as suspicious at all. Keeping everything under a permeable ceiling would keep prying eyes out, not raise suspicion, and be the best place possible for growing in. IMHO, this is definitely a better option.

Either way, I'm sure you'll do what is right for you, but don't feel like you need hundreds of plants to get a good harvest. A single plant can be trained and manipulated to produce more quality bud than 10 similar plants which had been untouched and unloved.
 
SgtStadanko

SgtStadanko

Member
Thanks Snow...Great Post...The 99 plant limit was probably the best advice I've heard.
Which works well, as I damned near dropped dead after digging my holes. I probably wont get to 99, just due to the sheer labor, but I did get 75 done. I believe your thoughts on doing a better job on a smaller scale makes sense. I think there's going to be alot of empty holes anyway.

Here's a full update. Today I am doing my calculations for soil amendments. For the Holes: Going with EB Stone Organic Soil, Worm Castings, Bone and Blood Meal, and a small bit of perlite for drainage. PH of the soil in the ground is 6.6, and could be used along with the Organic Amendment. Funny story...last week when I met with the professional at the nursery to discuss my project (which I told him is a 60 x 100 raised bed organic vegetable garden) and we started discussing everything soil. I even have drawings of where my Basil, Tomatoes, Potatoes, Bok Choy, and so on all designed and shared it with him. These pictures were from my real life garden, which is not organic (but I can dream). So after about 20 minutes I must of used a phase or two from this site, because he looked me straight in the eyes and said "If you just start with rooted clones, in this mix, and with proper pruning, your yield will be fantastic". I'm pretty sure he was discussing a pot farm, but I could just be ultra paranoid.

I never did mention it, but the 40 plants I have were started indoors two months ago from Female Clones, and are in one gallon pots. Was told that this is the strain that he has always grown, and he loves it. But he called it Fox Farm, which is, as we know the name of the soil. So anybody know about a variant called Foxfarm. Another called GrandDaddy? They are about a foot tall and incredibly healthy, having already had one pruning. These are the Sat/Ind hybrid I spoke about. I am looking to get more of these or recommendations for other outdoor variants.

On the site there is a frame for a former greenhouse. The kind you see in nurseries with the arches, not the little type. I'm sure it would take nothing to cover it, so I may divert some of the outdoor plans to this enclosed space, putting them in 7 gallon pots. This if I can raise the money to get the arches recovered. I could use just plain plastic, but that kinda spells obvious from the air (or am I over thinking).

About getting a partner to help...Mark Twain said only two people ever could keep a secret was if one was dead. I am never bringing anybody on site, but I use alot of assistance away from the site. Including information found here. I can see that pruning and cultivation are going to be a huge issue that might bring me to reconsider this option.

I am going over to Oakland today to get into some more some seminars, and discuss some applications with dispensaries there. I ran into a guy that supplies Sacramento, and he's going to give me some inroads on selling to the dispensaries. So far I have 4 cardholders for which I am applying as caregiver, and will probably be to 7 in the next 3 weeks. Anybody doing anything like this would love to hear it.

And yes Treeman, I hope to make some money out of this, but I'm going to do it as legitimately as I can. I've got upwards of $3000 spent on this already, and I see another $3K next month on Seminars, supplies and legal bills. But its all going to patients and dispensaries, not to my neighborhood dealer. I intend to pay myself as if this was a job, which it is. This is hard work. Anybody don't believe me, go into your back yard and dig a 2 1/2 foot hole. :-)
 
BubbaKusher

BubbaKusher

Member
I'm in the bay too. Any seminars locally you've been to that you recommend? I got to start making connections with dispensaries as well.
 
dirrtyd

dirrtyd

Well-Known Member
a seminar is a waste of money most dispensaries have certain days they accept new vendors. Go and ask the dispensary owner when he/she is accepting vendors would be easier. Most places I have dealt with want at least a lb to even talk with you. dirrtyd
 
treemansbuds

treemansbuds

Well-Known Member
SgtStadanko said:
Thanks Snow...Great Post...The 99 plant limit was probably the best advice I've heard.
Which works well, as I damned near dropped dead after digging my holes. I probably wont get to 99, just due to the sheer labor, but I did get 75 done. I believe your thoughts on doing a better job on a smaller scale makes sense. I think there's going to be alot of empty holes anyway.

Here's a full update. Today I am doing my calculations for soil amendments. For the Holes: Going with EB Stone Organic Soil, Worm Castings, Bone and Blood Meal, and a small bit of perlite for drainage. PH of the soil in the ground is 6.6, and could be used along with the Organic Amendment. Funny story...last week when I met with the professional at the nursery to discuss my project (which I told him is a 60 x 100 raised bed organic vegetable garden) and we started discussing everything soil. I even have drawings of where my Basil, Tomatoes, Potatoes, Bok Choy, and so on all designed and shared it with him. These pictures were from my real life garden, which is not organic (but I can dream). So after about 20 minutes I must of used a phase or two from this site, because he looked me straight in the eyes and said "If you just start with rooted clones, in this mix, and with proper pruning, your yield will be fantastic". I'm pretty sure he was discussing a pot farm, but I could just be ultra paranoid.

I never did mention it, but the 40 plants I have were started indoors two months ago from Female Clones, and are in one gallon pots. Was told that this is the strain that he has always grown, and he loves it. But he called it Fox Farm, which is, as we know the name of the soil. So anybody know about a variant called Foxfarm. Another called GrandDaddy? They are about a foot tall and incredibly healthy, having already had one pruning. These are the Sat/Ind hybrid I spoke about. I am looking to get more of these or recommendations for other outdoor variants.

On the site there is a frame for a former greenhouse. The kind you see in nurseries with the arches, not the little type. I'm sure it would take nothing to cover it, so I may divert some of the outdoor plans to this enclosed space, putting them in 7 gallon pots. This if I can raise the money to get the arches recovered. I could use just plain plastic, but that kinda spells obvious from the air (or am I over thinking).

About getting a partner to help...Mark Twain said only two people ever could keep a secret was if one was dead. I am never bringing anybody on site, but I use alot of assistance away from the site. Including information found here. I can see that pruning and cultivation are going to be a huge issue that might bring me to reconsider this option.

I am going over to Oakland today to get into some more some seminars, and discuss some applications with dispensaries there. I ran into a guy that supplies Sacramento, and he's going to give me some inroads on selling to the dispensaries. So far I have 4 cardholders for which I am applying as caregiver, and will probably be to 7 in the next 3 weeks. Anybody doing anything like this would love to hear it.

And yes Treeman, I hope to make some money out of this, but I'm going to do it as legitimately as I can. I've got upwards of $3000 spent on this already, and I see another $3K next month on Seminars, supplies and legal bills. But its all going to patients and dispensaries, not to my neighborhood dealer. I intend to pay myself as if this was a job, which it is. This is hard work. Anybody don't believe me, go into your back yard and dig a 2 1/2 foot hole. :-)
Click to expand...
Hey brother, I only wish you the best of luck......
Let me point out a couple of things.
There are thousands of pot growers in California now. And for you to grow a product that will be of high enough quality to be considered "medical grade" is not an easy thing to do. A lot of people in this state are hurting for cash, so I understand that part, but this task is a much tougher thing to do on your first go-around, and with 75 plants......you'll be in WAY over your head, and in the end you'll be working for nothing..
Also, if growing on your buddies property, I would be careful about too many plants. Believe me when I say this, less is better in your case. Do a GREAT job on 12, 18 or 24 plants, and have a A+ product for the dispensary. Hell, if done right, 12 plants can easily yield 25+lbs, and do you know the work involved in harvesting 25lbs? I think your better off understand the science of growing an A+ product, and then go big.
Sounds silly to me to invest so much time/money into a project that you know nothing about. Sure reading and research is all great, but get your hands dirty once or twice before jumping in so deep.....just my 2cents.

I was very PARANOID about growing at first, I went to the hardware stores with bullshit plans too at first. Then I renewed my medical card, there were dozens of people in there waiting to see the doctor. I got my renewal, upgraded to 50 plants, and 6lbs dried bud without even seeing the doctor. The fucken secretary did this shit! She's no fucken doctor, she just asked me if my prescription was enough, I said I could use more, and I was upgraded. Is everybody in the waiting room get the same treatment? How many plants is that? Then I realized, everybody is growing now, and I just tell those bastards at home depot that I'm growing a lil pot. I'm legal, no worries. (How brave am I, Home Depot is an hour away)
I grow 12 MONSTERS (6 for me / 6 for the wife), and there's no worries with the State, County, or city ......100% legal. (might be in violation of the canopy part of the law, O.K. 95% legal...lol) This is just my advise to you, know how to swim before jumping in the deep end!
Good Luck, I'll be watching...
TMB-1
 
doublejj

doublejj

Well-Known Member
You will more than likely have to front or 'consign' to the disp. & expect get lowballed.

Good luck, if it was that easy, everybody would be doing it. lol!

100 plants could bring dire consequences bro, and if your going to be "legal" anyway, shoot for something manageable.
Besides, you could grow plenty with 99 of these

peace
doublejj

 

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SgtStadanko

SgtStadanko

Member
Update. Tree I agree with you and have made a couple of changes. I now have two friends that are co-locating with me. They each have cards, as do their wives, and along with the cards I carry (as caregiver) we will never get to the size I previously spoke. Maybe 60, but the work is just too much.

So what have I been doing since last post? Education and Acquisition of Talent phase. Another Weekend at Oaksterdam. More Seminars. Calculations on soil mixes to go in the holes. Did I mention I dug over 100 holes? Lots are going to remain empty. Got a cloning room built in the greenhouse. I'll veg new clones to 2-4 weeks in there...move out to the "lit" portion of the Greenhouse for the adjustment period, then off into the ground. I'm acquiring 6 new clones a day of different strains. The original clones I acquired awhile ago (which are now super-cropped, topped, and super-cropped again) are outdoors but not in the ground. They are about 1 1/2 feet tall but about the same with and with multi-colas. I think im going to acquire 7 to 11 gallon pots and put the pots in the ground (a topic I'm going to post in a second).

BubbaKusher, I like the Oaksterdam classes, but their very expensive considering most of the information is in print or on the internet. It was nice to be able to ask a specific question or clarify something. But there are some excellent books out there...and I like reading at nite. Hey I should create a book review post to see whats good. Or I'll leave that to you Bubba, but that sounds like a great topic! I did just preorder Secrets of the West Coast Masters. Arrives on 4/20. Don't expect many secrets, especially after reading this forum so much, but who knows....

Love to all...I'll update later...

I am in the final interview stages for a new job, and for that reason haven't tried any herb with my card. I'm officially 100% THC free as of this post, but I plan on having a big brownie the evening after my pre-employment drug test.
 
Kevdogg5555

Kevdogg5555

Well-Known Member
depending on where you are, 6 mature plants is the maximum, but if you can get a couple buddies together with legal paper you and grow and much as you want as long and you have enough people to provide the paper work. Co-op=(cooperation) the way i put it, getting people together with cannabis lisences and growing your medicene. say you have 5 people. 5x6=30 plants. If you know what your doing that should be plenty for outdoors considering you can get each plant 5 ft tall or more
 
Snow Crash

Snow Crash

Well-Known Member
This thread is giving me chills.

It is so refreshing to hear a reasonable, higher than average IQ, approach to this. I think you're taking all the right steps in the right direction.

I warned you about all those plants though. Just soooo much work. Growing reminds me of working in IT. Some days there's just nothing to do. All the computers are working, no viruses to handle, backup systems are automated... *click* wait *click* wait... And then there are the days that some yahoo infects the entire company, servers are crashing, AT&T internet services are down and you're talking to a guy who was born Mahatma Shinravarapu but now goes by Michael Shreveport for 4 hours while pushing out patches and flashing hard drives.

Some days are *click*.... Some days are *AHAHAHHAHAHHHHH*... And you get to a point where there is just too much for one man to handle.

I'll be in Loomis around the weekend of May 20th if you need some help down there. I'm never shy about getting my hands dirty.
 
SgtStadanko

SgtStadanko

Member
Snow Crash said:
This thread is giving me chills.

It is so refreshing to hear a reasonable, higher than average IQ, approach to this. I think you're taking all the right steps in the right direction.

I warned you about all those plants though. Just soooo much work. Growing reminds me of working in IT. Some days there's just nothing to do. All the computers are working, no viruses to handle, backup systems are automated... *click* wait *click* wait... And then there are the days that some yahoo infects the entire company, servers are crashing, AT&T internet services are down and you're talking to a guy who was born Mahatma Shinravarapu but now goes by Michael Shreveport for 4 hours while pushing out patches and flashing hard drives.
Click to expand...
Well, my friend, we are both in the same business. 25 years. Yes...to be honest it was the project plan and digging the holes that started me thinking about scaling down. Then the excellent posts from my new friends. Then the Oaksterdam classes on Super Cropping, Topping, and Harvesting. Then I started thinking about pests. Best to just do 50 and make em MONSTERS. Legal Monsters. I just wrote a post on my insecticide I use...Look it up and see what u think....

PM me and I'll send you my email address...we can meet in a few weeks when I have something cool to show...

E.D.
 
dirrtyd

dirrtyd

Well-Known Member
I will tell you I been in the same field. If you are not taking a leave of absence how do you plan on trimming all of this product. It took two people thirty days 8 hours a day to trim only 8 plants they were all lbers. So I hope you have the time and energy. The growing is easy the trimming is the hard part. Good Luck dirrtyd
 
Gopedxr

Gopedxr

Well-Known Member
Ughhh yea trimming sucks and is tedious! My eyes hurt after two hours and all i see is green sucks lol
 
Snow Crash

Snow Crash

Well-Known Member
Dude!!! I just put two and two together.

I know you from another growing site (to remain nameless in order to preserve its awesomeness).

I carry the same sn over there like you do. Weird...
 
SgtStadanko

SgtStadanko

Member
dirrtyd said:
I will tell you I been in the same field. If you are not taking a leave of absence how do you plan on trimming all of this product. It took two people thirty days 8 hours a day to trim only 8 plants they were all lbers. So I hope you have the time and energy. The growing is easy the trimming is the hard part. Good Luck dirrtyd
Click to expand...
Do you mean @ harvest or just the trimming for growth? I was allocating about 40-60 man hours a week to tend. I have two people working on site, but told them about 40 hours of work. I think I have a miscalculation then.... Help me with this...8 hours a day for 30 days? What am I missing?

You probably have a super cropping/trimming strategy that works great...if that is the yield on your profile pic. Share it with me. Point me to a video if u can. All the books don't tell you "this will take x # of hours".
 
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