Thoughts from the void: Cannabis Home Growing First Study 2020

I decided to grow cannabis plants at home for multiple reasons including:

getting to know the plant and its growth cycle better
trying to use the seeds that I had collected over the years to do my bit to revive and sustain as many cannabis varieties as I could
reaching sustainability in terms of my relationship with the plant by growing my own organic plants and cutting out the commercial angle.

The year 2020 offered the ideal circumstances since I was able to spend long periods of time in one place and so provide dedicated attention to the process of growing the plant. I have tried to describe the journey below.

Log date 07 June 2020
Seeds were sown in three containers, two plastic and one clay pot containing soil taken from Kerala and Bengaluru mixed with leaf compost in a mixture of approximately 2:1.

Out of around 120 seeds sown through the third week of March till mid April, two seeds sprouted around the first week of April in the clay pot. They grew to saplings of about 6 inches in height before they were transplanted a month later to two separate grow bags in the first week of May. I have called them B2020A and B2020B. The nomenclature is what I have decided to follow for plants that I grow. The first 'B' stands for the location where I am growing the plant which in this case is Bengaluru. '2020' is the year of planting. The alphabet after the year is to distinguish one plant from another. So B2020A is a plant that sprouted in Bengalure in 2020 and the first one for which the letter A has been assigned. The grow bags were also filled with soil and compost in the same ratio as in the nursery pots i.e. 2:1.

In the first week of June, the plants are looking healthy after transplant and have grown to a height of approx one and a half feet each. B2020A appears to be growing slightly faster than B2020B though the difference is a few millimeters. B2020A also appears to be a different variety from B2020B. I am drawn to this conclusion by the fact that B2020A is showing a different growth pattern to B2020B. B2020A, after the initial two leaves sprouting for the first few weeks, started branching out in a three branch pattern while B2020B, after the initial two leaf sprouting, is branching out in a two branch pattern currently. B2020A showed the five leaf pattern earlier while B2020B initially showed a three leaf pattern but eventually started showing the five leaf pattern after growing a bit.

Watering throughout, till date, was sprinkling half a mug water i.e. about 300ml, for each of the plants in the morning and sprinkling about 150ml of water each in the evening. This was done daily from the time of sprouting till date i.e. first week of June when the monsoon rains have started.

Log date 24th June 2020
Around the 17th of June to 19th of June, I missed the daily watering of the plants for about two and a half days. This period was in the middle of a 10 day spell of no rain. When I checked the plants on 19th June evening, B2020A was partially drooping while B2020B was almost completely drooping. I watered both the plants with about half a mug each about three times and followed this pattern for the next couple of days, doing this twice a day i.e. in the morning and evening. There were three spells of rain, on 21st and 22nd, when it rained for about half an hour each as medium showers and then light rain on 24th early morning for about two hours. These spells of rain along with the increased watering revived both the plants. B2020A has regained near full strength whereas B2020B has nearly straightened out fully, albeit with a number of dry leaves. Both plants shed a few leaves, with B2020B shedding the majority. I gathered these leaves and dried them. I smoked a little bit of the leaves on 24th morning and they immediately had a soothing, analgesic and clearing of the head effect. As I write now nearly two hours later the feeling of calmness and euphoria persist. With the watering interruption, B2020A is now taller by about 3-4 centimeters compared to B2020B. Both have surely lost some of their growth momentum due to this. B2020A now stands almost at wall height. They still look like they have a few more months to go to flower.

Log Date Aug 3rd, 2020
In the month after the last log, rain and watering of the plants have been regular with no serious interruptions as in the case of the previous month. B2020A has grown to about five feet from the ground. B2020B seems to have recovered from its drying up and now stands just a few centimeters short of B2020A. Due to the watering interruption, both plants now exhibit different foliage patterns. B2020A stands tall and slender with a wider foliage mid-canopy. B2020B sprouted new shoots after it had stooped over in June. It now has more foliage closer to the base and grows slender above a certain height. Both plants appear to have more slender leaflets as they grow taller. It appears that the broader leaves are an earlier part of the growth cycle to help capture more sunlight and as the plants grow taller more slender leaves sprout will the broader leaves eventually dry up and fall away. More and more slender leaves appear to sprout closer to the stem in both plants. B2020A appears to have a nest of some kind where an insect seems to have taken residence. I initially thought that it was starting to flower but later realized that it must be an insect nest. B2020A bends in the strong winds of the monsoon season while B2020B appears to be more sturdy, possibly given its denser foliage closer to the base. I applied some compost of dry leaves and flowers mainly around July 17th. Other than that it is the spells of rain and controlled watering that seems to be nurturing the plant besides the sun and soil. The long spells of light rain seem to especially benefit growth as both plants seem to have growth spurts following the same. Occasionally I spot spiders, ants and wasps resting on the plants which makes me think that they are feeding on the smaller insects. Sometimes the long durations of stillness that these larger insects display makes me think that they are also enjoying the plants itself. I continue to pick up the occasional leaves that dry up and fall and smoke them. This gives me mild, pleasant returns and enhances the joy of watching these plants grow.

Log Date Aug 10th, 2020
I saw the first flower today. Interestingly it is on B2020B, the plant that was fully drooping in the third week of June. Buds have started appearing in the past week at the top of the stem, growing close to it. They are tiny pale green and about the same size as the seeds. The flower is tiny with numerous petals and of a light greenish color. There are signs of smaller and smaller leaves and bunching together of these tiny leaves and filaments on the tops of the branches on both plants. B2020A remains 4-5 centimeters taller than B2020B. There is a set of leaves turning yellow at the height at which the plant B2020B had drooped earlier.

Log Date Sep 15th, 2020
B2020A has become taller than me by a few centimeters. B2020B is almost at my height now. That's about 5ft 8 1/2 inches. I am of the impression at the moment that B2020A is a male plant and B2020B is a female based on appearances. B2020A looks slender and light with narrower leaves and a foliage that begins about half way and tapers to the top. It has not flowered yet. B2020B appears heavier and now seems to resemble a candle stand with one main stem growing upright and about a handful of branches rising from close to the bottom of the stem. The stem shows most flowering for about a height of a foot and a half while the branches have flowering tips varying in length from a couple of inches to eight inches. The mother leaves appear broader and fewer in number than B2020A. The tips of the branches of both plants appear reddish in color. Leaves have been drying and falling out in more numbers since the last week of September. Many of these leaves were from areas of the plants that had dried up in June. Watering has reduced considerably following the rains through August end and in the first weeks of September. The leaves that I have been smoking since the last month appear to hold more punch than the ones I was smoking earlier. This could be because of the increase in cannabinoid compounds as the plants have grown and also because there is more cannabis leaf in the mixture I smoke these days.

Log Date 16th November, 2020
B2020A stands at about 6 ft height and B2020B at about 5 and a 1/2 feet height. My earlier speculation that B2020A was male and B2020B female has now changed. B2020A has a number of primary leaves, but the number of secondary leaves, called sugar leaves are growing more in number. There are no signs of flowering as far as I can see. B2020B now contains mainly the secondary leaves or sugar leaves, with flowers and seeds. Quite a number of seeds have appeared, especially at the base of the lower stalks. Flowering is present at the tops of stalks, with a number of buds, but these still don"t appear extensive. I get the impression that B2020B still has some more weeks to go to reach full maturity. When i try to pluck what appears to be dry sugar leaves, they show resistance, much more than the dried primary leaves of B2020A.

Some flowers on B2020B do appear to have dried but this is only on some parts of the stalk and not entirely. The large portion of the secondary leaves are green. At the part of the plant, where it had drooped in the dry days, there appear to be a number of what looks like tiny aphids to me that are living on the plant. I have seen large ants appearing to feed on these aphids whose numbers seem to reduce when the weather is dry and sunny. I found a green caterpillar feeding on B2020B a couple of days back. Today I saw a small praying mantis at the top of B2020A. All these sights are nice to see, as the plant providing nutrition for a number of insects is a pleasant thought.

I have been watering the plants during dry spells of no rain, mostly on alternate days, about a mug of water at the base of each and sprinkling water on the leaves. The rains have been abundant this year with the North East rains picking up where the South West monsoons left off in October. This has reduced the need for me to water the plants myself over the last 4-5 months.

Overall, both plants shed or surrender sufficient dry leaves everyday for me to smoke one joint in the morning and one in the evening. This has been the case since mid-June, meaning that for about 5 months now I am getting a steady supply of pleasant cannabis leaves to smoke. And to think that before, there were times when i used to discard these leaves thinking that they were not useful. I am thinking now that to let the plant grow for as long as possible is beneficial to all. My plan is to harvest them only when I am really certain that the time is right. The leaves provide a nice pleasant effect which appears even more pronounced after a break of a day or two.

Log date 07 Jan 2021
By the second week of December, B2020B had shed most of its leaves and only a few leaves and seeds remained. It appeared to me that it had gone through its life cycle and was drying up. Looking at its entire lifecycle, the plant seems to me to be definitely of the seed bearing type whose leaves can be used as bhang. Its flowers are distinct from the other plant i.e B2020B has small pale green flowers with about 6 or so small petals and is of a size similar to teak flowers. B2020A on the other hand has flowering tops which resemble the pictures I have seen of cannabis plants with clumps of smaller leaves and flowering bunches at the top of each stalk with fine hair like stamens I think.

I removed the dried up B2020B plant and collected its seeds and few remaining dried leaves that provided me with smoking material for about a week. I was traveling from the end of the second week of December for two weeks. I believe this is the hemp variety of the plant but I am not sure if the same plant will grow differently under different circumstances i.e. become the small flower and seed bearing variety or bhang in some cases and the flowering bud variety or ganja in other cases. This is something that remains to be seen from further study of this variety.

At this point, B2020A looked like it was reaching its final flowering stages. The stamen hair was white in color. I had read that they need to be amber in colour when it was time to harvest the plant. I took one flowering stalk, the biggest one actually (he he) so that it would provide me the needed smoking material when I was out of station. It served the purpose and met my needs in the two weeks I was away. The smaller leaves were still green so I tried to dry it out while smoking the already dry mother leaves. I smoked the entire flowering bud in small quantities which were sufficient to give me a good feel. It especially helped me to recover from physical work related fatigue at the end of each day and kept me energized for the day's work each morning. I smoked three mini joints each day, one in the morning, one at around 11 am and the last one around 5.30pm after my day's work.

When I got back to B2020A after two weeks at the end of December, the white fine hair like stamens had turned the amber color that I was looking for. The plant had spent about two weeks without watering so I would not call this the ideal growing conditions. I would have preferred to water it right up to the end but circumstances did not permit that. I separated all the stalks from the plant and left them out to dry. I let them dry in the open both day and night for about a week . Of course, each day I helped myself to a little bit and found it very pleasant. After a week, the flowering tops appeared sufficiently dried and even had a characteristic tangy smell to it which made me quite glad. When I smoked this, the plant seemed to say in my head. 'I am ganja'. The final yield from B2020A I must say is not more than 20-30 grams from the entire plant. I believe that this may have been due to the minimalist approach I took to growing the plant, letting it grow in the natural sunshine and rain, without adding any additional nutrients, etc. other than the composted leaves and flowers that I collected from a copper pod tree that was within access.

As of now, I am quite pleased with my first experience with growing the plants and watching their entire cycle. I am especially pleased that I seem to have grown what appears to be both hemp and marijuana, male and female or bhang and ganja plants as classified in different places. Through this process, I am glad that I have brought alive in my garden two varieties of the plant that I hope to sustain in the future. B2020A had a life span of 9 months and B2020B of about 8 months.

Thoughts from the void

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