Staying Safe Inside: Story Supplement & Appendix

by Nico Escondido, Tue Nov 10, 2009

Editor's Note:

In our January 2010 issue we run a grow-related security piece entitled "Staying Safe Inside" (pg. 64). As part of our indoor grow-themed special we wanted to include an article that served the interests of every stealthy grower. Unfortunately, we could fit all the info into four small pages, so we decided to run the more technical (and boring) details here in an online supplement. The appendix includes a parts list (from the story) as well as step-by-step instructions on assembling the door locking device discussed in the article... plus a few installation tips! Wow. - Nico.

Additional Note: Crimestopper’s instruction manual for the CS-2000 III can be found here. This manual will aid you greatly when assembling the elecrical components of the …READ MORE

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The 22nd Cannabis Cup

by Nico Escondido, Mon Oct 19, 2009

Every year for the past two decades, the Who’s Who of Pot has gathered at the world’s Mecca of weed to compete for the crown as King of the Cannabis Kingdom. It is here, in this wonderfully sensuous city of Amsterdam, that the HIGH TIMES Cannabis Cup sets the benchmark each year for the best marijuana on Earth. And where else would we do it? After all, Amsterdam has been the world’s most progressive trendsetter for the legalization of the sacred herb.

Still, there have been rumblings and grumblings that perhaps that tide is shifting. California is now one of the world’s preeminent hotbeds not for just legalization routes, but also for growing and breeding. Could this signal a possible move for the Cannabis Cup, back home to its roots in the United States? Regardless of what the future holds, this year’s 22nd Annual Cannabis Cup will be held in the same place it has been for over two decades, and we …READ MORE

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Advanced Grow Feature – Spinning Lights!

by Nico Escondido, Thu Jul 30, 2009

tags: lighting, nico escondido, grow, potcast, september 2009 22    « add a comment

Light and the LED Zeppelin: Will LED’s Sink or Soar in the Growroom?

by Nico Escondido, Sun May 24, 2009

An Advanced Grow Feature by Nico Escondido

A Light Introduction

When people talk about indoor cultivation and the lamps they use to light up a growroom, some standard words and phrases come to mind. You have terms such as HPS and MH, referring to high-pressure sodium and metal halide bulbs, respectively. You have units of measurement such as wattage, lumens or lux thrown around to describe a particular lamp’s discharge or intensity. Lately, however, there have been a couple of three-letter words that are used more and more with relatively little understanding. But these words (which are actually acronyms for larger phrases) may play an even greater role in what takes place in growrooms in the very near future… Welcome to Part II of our Advanced Lighting Series.

PAR is a term usually synonymous …READ MORE

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Selena Roberts is a NARC!

by Nico Escondido, Fri May 8, 2009

Selena Roberts is, for starters, a NARC. But the gravity of her flaws run even deeper than that.

By definition, a NARC is technically a narcotics agent (federal or otherwise), who busts people involved in criminal activity surrounding illicit drug use or distribution.

We, as normal people, take that term and apply it in a broader sense to anyone who turns on - or "rats out" - others, usually to save their own ass or protect some other shameful self-interest. These people themselves are usually involved in a drug-related crime. They were busted and rolled over on someone else to save their hide, whether it be in terms of a job, school or with law enforcement in general.

With that said, where does Selena Roberts fall into play? Some might argue she is just a journalist doing her job. But, in fact, writing a potentially libelous, unauthorized biography about someone else is not actually a job - at least not in the traditional …READ MORE

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The Root of All Evil

by Nico Escondido, Fri Mar 27, 2009

Well, music lovers, if you haven't noticed, there's a new scam in concert tickets, but it's coming from an old source.

Ticketmaster has once again figured out a way to bang you in the head and somehow keep its grip on a monopoly that, for all intents and purposes, should be deemed completely illegal. But somehow the corporate giant has circumvented anti-trust and anti-monopoly laws and has now created a legitimate avenue of their own for ticket scalping.

Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce Ticketsnow.com - "a Ticketmaster Company." Have you tried recently to log-on or call-in when tickets went on sale for your favorite band? Phish and Dead fans have recently seen the horrors, as have older folks like our parents - trying to score tix for Bruce Springsteen or the Allman Brothers.

The tickets sell out in about three minutes and the system usually crashes multiple times during those minutes. The …READ MORE

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HIGH TIMES on Drugs in Sports

by Nico Escondido, Tue Feb 10, 2009

Well, here is some irony for you.

A drug guy, writing a blog about how wrong it is to do drugs.

I should qualify that statement. My arguement here is to all those who say, "So what, put all the 'roid users in the Baseball Hall of Fame - they're still great players."

Sorry, not quite. These guys are no greater than Hank Aaorn, Babe Ruth or Mickey Mantle. You want to put them in the HOF, here's how you do it - you make a Cheater's Wing.

READ MORE

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Let There Be Light

by Nico Escondido, Sat Jan 17, 2009

Understanding light seems simple enough.

We all learn about our good friend ROY G. BIV early on in our schooling and the basic processes of a plant and photosynthesis soon follow. But understanding just how exactly these two components of science work together to form heavy, resin-soaked buds is something that has been left out of most grade school curriculums… Go figure.

It’s a real bummer too, because with just a little bit more knowledge about plants and light an average growroom can become something extraordinary, something superior, something potent… get ready for one lesson you’ll never want to forget.

BULB BASICS

Consider this: In terms of sheer lumens (the actual amount of light hitting a leaf’s surface), sunlight can travel 93 million miles and still reach the Earth’s surface at 5,000 lumens per sq. foot. Now that may not seem like a big deal, especially with all the …READ MORE

tags: indoor growing, grow, cultivation, lighting, nico escondido, grow articles 78    « add a comment

Pot Pests

by Nico Escondido, Mon Sep 22, 2008

So what do you do when you’re facing an all-out, full-scale insect invasion? What if the attack is of microscopic proportions and you can’t even see your enemy? There are a lot of answers out there, but in the end the simpler the solution the better off your buds will be. You might even be surprised by some of our answers...

Enemy Forms

Growroom pests can take many forms. First up is the omni-present fungus whose spores are constantly floating throughout the air just waiting to settle down and nestle in. Once the right environment forms in the growroom the powdery white mildew creeps up the stalk and begins spreading onto branches and leaves.
Next there’s the microscopic bacteria, even more stealthy than spores, these particles are carried into your lab via shoes, clothes, hands or anything else transported from the outer world into the sterile confines of your grow space. Like the flu for plants, disease will wilt your …READ MORE

tags: pest control, cultivation, bugs, nico escondido, grow 15    « add a comment

ADVANCED AEROPONICS

by Nico Escondido, Mon Aug 11, 2008

With the advent of vertical grow systems, there has come a variety of choices for the indoor grower. These days, not only are space and efficiency prime concerns, but also system type and its direct correlation to weight yielded.

This is why advanced growers these days choose their systems based not only on standard considerations such as plant sites, system size and start-up costs, but also its accessibility and ability to be modified. Indoor growers, especially in urban areas, have been making huge strides in productivity—some turning out 20 or more pounds of high-quality ganja from a single-bedroom apartment.

How do they do it? Is there a catch? How secure are these systems in thwarting detection? What can the average grower do to take his or her own system to the next level? The questions come easy, but the answers are sometimes difficult to swallow.

In the Beginning
It starts in places …READ MORE

tags: grow, grow articles, cultivation, august 2008, nico escondido 43    « add a comment

The Never Ending Story

by Nico Escondido, Fri Jun 20, 2008

It's the gift that keeps on giving. Amsterdam.

Let me start with something that I never knew about Amsterdam. In the summer, the sun sets at 10 PM. It rises around 4 AM. There is a good 18 hours of daylight here right now. Does anyone see where I'm going with this? If not, you people need to start growing weed. An 18 hour veg cycle is ideal and with the power of the sun (rather than our trivial indoor lamps) imagine the plants - no the TREES - that you'd grow by summer's end! My mother always said that money doesn't grow on trees. Well, I am happy to say that it does here.

So, what's the point. It's simple. If you don't already grow weed you need to. Look, a plant or four in your closet isn't going to ruffle any panties over at the DEA. And as far as any local police go, you're not the droids they're looking for. So stop making excuses because there are none that are acceptable. Be the change you want to see, don't live in …READ MORE

tags: nico escondido, grow, cannabis cup, marijuana seeds, amsterdam 15    « add a comment

Crazy Town, Holland

by Nico Escondido, Sat Jun 14, 2008

Well folks, I am happy to report that mushrooms are not the only thing that makes people go crazy and jump into the canals of Amsterdam... apparently, the Dutch like their futbol as much as they like their ganja!

As if this couldn't be a more lucrative trip, I find myself here amidst the 2008 Euro Cup - a Cup almost as prestigous as the Cannabis Cup here in November and one which has seen the Netherlands win their first two matches to advance to the quater-finals... but i digress, back to the buds.

After a week of touring the urban grow scene (which is strikingly similar to a lot of what we see in U.S. cities) there are some big plantation visits on the horizon as well as few rooms that boast over 600 plants. Make sure to follow the three-part series, "Road to the Cup", beginning with our October issue on stands this August. Each story will feature previews of what's to come for this year's Cannabis Cup as well as a few travel …READ MORE

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Live from AMSTERDAM - Road to the Cup!

by Nico Escondido, Thu Jun 12, 2008

Greetings amigos!

Nico here, hitting up the blog spot to give everyone an update on my journey to the other side. So here goes...

AMSTERDAM ROCKS!

As if you all didn't know that, but the truth about what's going on here is some raw behind-the-scenes action of the best breeders Amsterdam has to offer. The doors have been unlocked for your's truly so that I can get the scoop on the up and coming strains and gossip floating around the 'dam.

So far Delta-9 Genetics as well as Mr. Soma himself and the good fellas from THSeeds have been the most gracious of hosts. The D-9 boys are doing their thing with the straight up (and I mean way up) Sativas and Soma has his hand in a little bit of everything.

Part One of the series, scheduled to publish in the October issue of High Times, will reveal Soma's 2008 entries into both the Indica and Sativa categoreis of the Breeders' Cup as …READ MORE

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Turnkey Grow Boxes

by Nico Escondido, Mon May 5, 2008

I hate to admit it, but the tides are turning. In fact, they have turned and there’s no denying it anymore. I remember my first growroom system (circa 1995) was homemade and featured a large Utz pretzel barrel as my hydroponic reservoir. For years afterwards, I still preached the good word of handcrafted systems, using inverted Coca-cola bottles as grow pods and hanging (eek) 100-watt halogens over sprouted bag-seeds of Mexi-mid-grade… we have come so far.

These days, to be honest, there is little reason not to take a long, hard look at some of the prefabricated systems currently available in the market place. With prices manageable enough that after a harvest or two these systems pay for themselves, anyone from college students to home hobbyists can afford small to mid-sized growboxes that come complete with everything a novice gardener would need to produce a …READ MORE

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BREEDING IN BC

by Nico Escondido, Wed Jan 23, 2008

By Nico Escondido
You may have heard such terms as Beasters or beasty buds once or twice before, phrases referring to the thick, heavy sinsemilla grown in western Canada, in the Canadian province of British Columbia, or BC (hence the name). Over the years, the reputation of Beasters has climbed steadily as new varieties have been produced by BC breeders—strains that compete every year in the Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam, and whose seeds are now popular in seed banks in Canada and all over the world.

Not surprisingly, most of these strains are developed in, and well-suited to, outdoor climates. But you may be taken aback just a bit by precisely where and how some of these seed companies are doing it. As the New York City slickers from the HIGH TIMES cultivation department navigated our way from city to island, it quickly became evident that there was going to be a lot more here than we had previously expected.

For Starters
To …READ MORE

tags: nico escondido, seed company, grow articles, breeding, canada, march 2008 20    « add a comment