By Allen Town

I'll admit it. I have smoked marijuana recreationally as a youth. And now, 25 years later, I am still enjoying the high and the relaxation as well as the pain relief of past injuries it gives to both my wife and I.
I do not have, or have ever had, the urge to move on to the harder drugs. I do not consider myself a criminal for smoking - although the current law system does. In fact, the only guilt I really feel, is that I have supported the criminal element by having to buy my grass from an outside source. I have always wanted to grow my own from the day my friend’s older brother showed us some seedlings that he was taking out in the bush to plant. I once tried growing in an old army ammo box lined with tin foil with a 60W lightbulb mounted in it. My mom found it, and for some reason didn’t believe it was a science tomato project! Ah, memories!

The cost of buying is enough reason to grow, but the consistency of the strength and the flavour are also important to most smokers. Medicinally speaking, if one strain of marijuana will relieve pain on one or two puffs while the next takes 2 - 3 times that much for the same effect, which would anyone prefer? Isn’t any possible carcinogenic risk going to be higher, if one needs to smoke more? What if the grower used an undesirable amount of chemical fertilizers to increase his yield? When I recently moved to a smaller community, I decided the time was right to finally take the step and grow my own supply. A very generous friend gave me a plant of his favourite strain and set me up with some basic equipment (light, timers, and nutrients). I started with a 1000W light in a small room, but found the heat and the smell was too much for a house I was only renting, with frequent visitors often dropping by.

I had almost given up hope when I saw a small grow unit built to look like a kitchen cabinet. It had no smell and until it was opened I had no clue it housed 8 budding beauties ready to yield about 3/4 of a pound of top grade marijuana. Again I was inspired to try my hand at it. I converted an unfinished closet space in the basement into two individual ones. The larger (B) of the two is about 36” by 40” square and 60” high. The smaller (A) is 36 by 36” square and 40” high. In the B closet there is a 400W HPS bulb for budding and A closet has a 24” dual fluorescent fixture for rooting and early vegetative growth. The door on each has hidden magnetic catches with a nice wood trim framing a poster and a corkboard to help mask the fact of anything being behind it.

I started the project with a no smell/no see system in mind. Unlike the friend’s booth, mine would be out of sight and, hopefully, out of mind. So then the primary concern was the venting of any odours. I purchased a quiet, low vibration fan of 6” diameter and enclosed it in a homemade manifold I designed so that both rooms could vent with the same fan. The manifold is in B closet with a 4” flexible dryer hose going to A closet. The fan runs on A closet’s schedule, so B closet has extra venting even during lights-off for added fresh air/odour venting during flower time. I exhausted this to the outside wall of the house with a common dryer vent with a door flap that prevents insects from getting in. The closet doors are not airtight, but while the fan is on causing a negative pressure inside the closets, any

odour will be pulled out the vents and not escape into the house.  If the odour is detectable during lights-off time, I simply leave the fan on constantly. I wired (from experience) a power source to the closet that was not visible to the outside room, but had a hidden switch to cut the power to the closets at any time without having to open them. Then white plastic was stapled up inside for added illumination. (Measure, or take note of, stud points before the plastic covers them up, so you can anchor your lights securely).

For added protection against leaks and spills I made a lidless box out of tenplast (corrugated plastic used for sign boards, etc.).
I designed it to fit snugly inside the closet so the white plastic of the walls hung down into the box. I then taped all of the seams and staple points on the white plastic for additional leak proofing. The light ballast was hung high in the space with the idea of keeping the hot air up where the fan will immediately pull it out rather than passing through the space occupied by the plants. The light itself is hung on a chain to allow height adjustment as the plants grow. Finally, a power bar is mounted on the inside wall and a timer for each closet is set to appropriate schedules.

With this set-up I am able to grow 6 small plants very discreetly, and having the smaller A closet allows a continuous cycle with very little down time. It goes as follows:
Just before the B closet is ready to flower, 12 cuttings are taken and put into a lidded plastic bin in A closet for rooting. The B closet will then flower for 10 weeks. After harvest, I force the same 6 plants to re-vegetate for another 2 weeks, then flower yet again for another 10 weeks and a second harvest. By now the 6 best plants in A closet have had 22 weeks of vegetative growth and will now replace the A closet plants which have outgrown their pot size. Once started, the closets yield every 3 months and averages about 8 ounces per harvest.
The initial cost of this particular set-up was about $400, with average monthly costs of $10 for power and $10 for organic nutrients. This could easily be paid off in savings, 3 or 4 times after the first harvest.
You do the math and decide for yourself.

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