WEED DEALINGS - INDOOR OR OUTDOOR?

You don't have to be an aficionado to use cannabis. I'm not. You don't have to totally geek out about it. I don't. And likewise, you don't have to consume idly. Sometimes it's difficult to know how or where to set your standards. There isn't much to go on. But, if you know what goes into weed, and how those different components affect you, you can develop a basis for establishing standards. Herein lies a collection of facts you can ask about, think about, or ignore next time you get some medicine.

The Indoor/Outdoor Conundrum

All weed is either grown indoors or outdoors. Every plant starts either from a seed or from clones. Typically indoor utilizes clones and outdoor uses seeds, but this is by no means always the case. Clones are exact genetic replicants grown from cuttings taken from a specific plant (phenotype) selected for having great genetics. These plants are commonly referred to as "mothers." Every seed from a given plant will display slightly different genetics and produce a number of phenotypes. The extent to which a grower "weeds out" different phenotypes plays an important role in the quality of the plant's flowers. Indoor weed and outdoor weed have different cannabinoid balances, different potencies (indoor is higher on average), and they live very different lives. Here's a short list of crucial facts concerning the cultivation of marijuana.

Indoor

Indoor weed is usually grown to about 2 or 3 feet, with 10's or 100's of plants grouped together beneath HPS (High Pressure Sodium), MH (Metal Halide), or LED (Light Emitting Diode) light arrays. HPS and MH are HIDs (High Intensity Discharge, or super bright) bulbs. They operate hot, and may burn plants. LEDs operate cool. Lights are usually operated by an automated switching system.

The lights are operated on two different cycles: Vegetative, and flowering. In the vegetative state plants are grown under as much light as the grower sees fit. This varies considerably from farmer to farmer. Some use 24 hour light, some 23. Some use different odd patterns of on/off, some use even patterns of on/off. When plants start flowering, lighting becomes much more consistent: 12 hours of light and 12 hours of darkness, always.

Indoor plants are grown either in soil or hydroponically in a rocky medium like rock wool on lava rock. In most cases--soil or hydro--plants are fed from an automated water reservoir and given a number of nutrients. Nutrients come from natural compounds, chemicals, or any combination thereof. In addition to being fed, the plants may need treatment with pesticides, fungicides, or other compounds. Ailments range from insects invasions, funguses, burns from lights, etc. Just as some hamburgers get dropped on the floor in the hamburger factory, some plants get hamburgers dropped on them in the grow room.

Before the plants can be harvested they must be flushed. This involves depriving the plants of nutrients, keeping them thoroughly-watered, and sometimes adding compounds to the water to help flush out nutrients and minerals.

Flowers from indoor plants are usually very dense, extra shiny/crsytally, and have a more astringent smell. Outdoor plants, on the other hand, smell mustier. Indoor flowers have a higher THC content on average and usually feel much more potent. These higher potencies don't necessarily translate to better highs. The conditions they're grown in produce a different cannabinoid balance from outdoor, which may contribute to indoor's rapid and intense onset.

Outdoor

Some outdoor weed can grow to outrageous heights over 20 feet, while other plants stay as short as 3 or 4 feet. It all depends on the strain, the setting, the grower, and the season. The only light that is used comes from the sun. In some cases, growers use greenhouses. Greenhouses are used to combat the weather or to control the vegetative and flowering light cycles. The vegetative cycle is usually around 4 months while the flowering cycle is roughly 2 months. Unlike with indoor, outdoor is subjected to a light cycle determined only by the Earth's orbit. In the cases where a grower uses a green house to control the flowering light cycle, the farmer may start the flowering cycle earlier or later depending on their needs.

Plants are either grown in the naturally occurring soil or in transplanted soil. Transplanted soil may or may not be specially crafted or fortified with nutrients by the grower. These soil specialists mix various substances together and ferment them over the years, months, weeks, or days leading up to the grow. Some growers prefer to buy bags of soil straight from Home Depot. Outdoor plants may or may not be treated for pests, funguses, and various other ailments with either safe or unsafe remedies. Just like indoor plants, outdoor plants must be flushed using the same process described above.

Flowers from outdoor plants are usually less dense, but often much larger than indoor plants. They have a more earthy, musty aroma, and are usually less shiny/crystally. Their cannabinoid balance usually produces a high that sets in gradually and and with less volatility.

I don't think it's important for everyone to memorize this process. As a consumer it's up to you to decide what--if anything--is important to you. It's a matter of how neurotic you're willing to be and how much you want to know about the weed you smoke. Knowing what your standards are is important. I'm not gonna say, like, "smoking bad fertilizer chemical weed is gonna kill you." It could, but it's unlikely that you're about to croak from smoking something that seems smokable. That said, you can definitely get a headache from weed that has absorbed the wrong things. You can even experience adverse affects if weed hasn't been properly flushed of the good things it's absorbed. Or, maybe you're unaffected by it but your buddies all get headaches. Whatever the case, all I advocate is that you know what you're smoking (or ingesting, or applying topically).

ZACHARY G MOLDOF

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