Letters to Rev – Weird Cannabis Growing Problems

Welcome to today’s article. This series is basically a Q&A with me (La Rev) regarding various issues that arise when growing cannabis. I have brought a slate of three questions today that are weird cannabis-growing questions, each in its own way.

The first question below is about space for selecting cannabis plants, the next one is about ants, and lastly, we deal with something I myself am quite familiar with, hairy buds with the wrong kind of hairs. The first question isn’t so much weird, as it is weirdly classic, heh heh.

Alright then earthlings, let’s rock and/or roll with today’s “Letters” to Rev…

Weird Cannabis Growing Problems, Question #1: Selection Space?

FROM: Donna Z.

“Hiya Rev! I read how you breed cannabis with limited space, and it was great info. I think maybe I way underestimated my working space. How do you possibly save the clones you need while using space to test various strains, or plants, in the space you have? I ran out of space before I added the latest clones, no joke! I can’t really tell much from the little plants, so they all need to get some size and it’s just crazy how many plants I end up with and how fast. Thank you in advance, peace.”

Rev’s Answer to Q1

Hiya Donna—heh heh—yup, weird isn’t it how 8 plants can become 18, in what can seem like the blink of an eye. The bad news here Donna, is simply what you said above, and everyone does it, you underestimated your space projecting into the future…

The good news is I can give you a tip that might help you out, especially when it comes to your utilization of existing space to multitask some stuffs. In the photo above you can see one of my growing zones under T-5 lighting. I recommend you have a T-5 lit zone yourself, these lights are powerful enough to get good growth in vegetative state while being mellow enough to give you some time, so they never get hurt fast. Plants can linger under T-5s for a long time while not totally happy and be brought back fast to full health with a transplant.

In the photo, you can see some selected clones that are moving forward in 6-inch pots. You can also see some clones in 3-inch pots that are set to be culled. These are extra clones and unfavorable plants. The clones that are extra of selected plants are tested here, while rootbound, and I drought stress them as well here. Never have dying plants in the same room as your garden because these plants will be a magnet to any parasites nearby. You can stress them just make sure you cull (kill) them before they get too badly damaged. Bottom line Donna, start fewer plants next time or plan to cull more earlier—wink.

Weird Cannabis Growing Problems, Question #2: Ants, WTF?

FROM: Dean “Budmaster”

“Greetings Rev, I have a really weird problem that keeps happening and I really need some help. Ants are the first part of the problem, then aphids soon after. I run all naturally using your living soil recipe (TLO) indoors. The ants always show up in Spring, and within a week or two there are aphids and ants, and the aphids are fucking up my garden. I know the ants aren’t a problem, I don’t want to use poison to kill the ants, I’m at my wits end Rev. Thanks man, you have really helped my garden thrive over the years.”

Rev’s Answer to Q2

Howdy Dean. Now that’s a problem you don’t see very often indoors, but I have seen it before, and I know how you can kick this problem right in the ass without resorting to any poisons. Here’s a link to some in a tub on Amazon: Tanglefoot. This stuff is basically tree sap, and it is INSANELY sticky.

All you need to do is, use a Q-Tip to place a (thin) ring of this stuff around the base of your mainstem, but make it high enough so soil particles won’t collect on it during watering. Do it about two weeks or even a month before you first see the ants checking out your plants. Boom, done dealio amigo. Ants “herd” aphids to plants and use them like cattle, drinking the sweet excretions from them as they suck on the plants.

Watch out with this stuff, you for sure don’t want to end up with any of this stuff on your good clothes, or in your hair, or you will really have a problem LoL. I have used this stuff several times in the past. No small crawling anything can get past this stuff, it lasts a long time, like a month easily, and it has never harmed my plants in any way I could tell. Just keep the ring around the base of the mainstem thin, it doesn’t need to be wide. Cheers.

Weird Cannabis Growing Problems, Question #3: Hairy Buds?

FROM: Mike B.

“Hello Rev., Longtime fan. I remember from reading things you have written that you have a lot of animals in a smaller place you also grow at. I am in a similar situation, I grow in an extra bedroom, and I use air from my house for air exchange as a passive intake. It’s all beautiful, a TLO paradise. Just one thing that bugs the shit out of me is all the fur from the animals. I always get fur in my sticky buds.

Because of my schedule and workload, I cannot, no way, vacuum every day, super thoroughly. I have to go through all my buds on a special mission to find and remove animal hairs from them. I have a feeling you know all about this step, what a huge pain in the ass. I’m hoping you can give me some advice here, what have you done about this weird hairy bud problem? Thanks Rev.”

Rev’s Answer to Q3

Hahahahaha…Sorry, yeah, that sucks, and as you correctly said, I do know all about removing pet hairs from buds. It makes me laugh because I recall how much I would bitch about this for years. Okay, well the good news is I can help you out by sharing how I deal with that issue these days. But another cool thing in my favor here was that I vape most of my flowers, and all our cats were healthy without any flea treatments or anything, so their fur was just fur. I didn’t have to be totally thorough removing the cat hairs, just good at it. Fur doesn’t vape, heh heh.

In the photo above you can see my robot for this exact purpose. We got it for less than $200.00 and it is well worth the moolah to us. My actual garden rooms are a bit too chaotic to allow the robot in there, but for the rest of the house, it’s easy as pie to (thoroughly) vacuum every day. These robots grab almost all the free-floating animal fur. I vacuum my garden rooms myself every month or so. Since the robot, I barely even get any fur in the vacuum after I’m done, and almost zero hairs that I don’t want in my buds.

Actually, we used to have 2 dogs and 3 cats, holy hell man! They have all passed on now, but of course, because I’m so smart (not) LoL, I got my girl another cat a couple of years ago, and of course, I got the furriest cat on the planet that sheds like crazy, but it’s all fine with the robot.

Afterword

In the first question Donna has some space problems, this isn’t so much a weird cannabis growing problem as it is a super (surprisingly) common one. At first, you’ll find yourself wanting to keep too many plants. You need to start less or kill more faster, Donna. You can multitask selection criteria along the way, like always taking advantage of something bad that happens. See who comes out fastest and best.

For Budmaster in the second question. You may want to seal off your room better from the outside to limit egress into your gardens by the little bastards. Also, as long as your plants aren’t touching each other, you can use that Tanglefoot like I said to keep Spider Mites from moving plant to plant.

Last but not least, two thumbs up for the robot vacuum. This little sucker has made a night and day difference in my fur levels overall, everywhere, and for sure on my sticky buds they rarely show up.

Okay peeps, I’m outty for now, back next Tuesday right here at SKUNK. Grab a copy of my True Living Organics 2nd Edition book, and swing by Kingdom Organic Seeds for some damn fine cannabis seeds. L8r G8rs…

• REv 😊