Ron Strider
Well-Known Member
"It was Patton's laundry during the war", says Jim Camper as he explained the curious zig zag roof line of his iconic commercial building south of the Palm Springs International Airport.
"Those windows up on the roof were cranked open to let the steam escape." Today he operates a state-of-the-art horticultural facility for marijuana cultivation where once washers and driers resided. Inside conditions are carefully controlled, addressing every aspect of growing Cannabis sativa, Cannabis indica and its myriad hybrids.
The space is organized specifically for the life cycle of this one plant, a true annual that grows from seed to harvest in just one season. Here under artificial conditions the plants can be forced to flower at a designated time like poinsettias. Day length is the driving force in this process to stimulate first overall growth, then trigger the flowering reproductive process by adding more hours of light. At the pivotal point, day length maxes out at 20 hours. Unlike outdoor cultivation where plants are dependent on the sun's annual cycle for day length changes, these plants can be started and harvested continuously through staggered crops for year-round cultivation.
Scrupulous cleanliness and light reflecting white walls offer a naturally sterile environment. Camper is an elderly, old-school grower and founder of Organic Solutions. He explains why they are growing in potting soil, not hydroponic solutions.
"I strongly believe in growing in a traditional way with soil. It enhances flavor and there are more diverse elements in the plant itself than in solution. It's just like a home grown tomato which tastes better than a hydroponically grown one. The natural presence of microbes and mycorrhizae in soils makes the organic fertilizer solution entirely available to the rapidly growing plants."
As a foliage crop, the plants are heavy nitrogen users, particularly with an accelerated life cycle under lighting manipulation. Camper's method utilizes frequent mild feeding for even growth rather than the yo-yo effects of complex nutrient solutions. Organic fertilizers are blended into irrigation water, then applied by hand for precise application. Fertilizer blends are changed with longer day length settings to meet high nutritional demands of flowering. Nutrients like phosphorus and potassium fuel the switch from vegetative to flowering mode. Outdoors, this switch occurs at the summer solstice when vegetables bolt or begin to produce their crop.
Each room represents a different age in the growth cycle here. This provides ongoing replacement for the plants that reach the end of productivity. It's done in large batches to simplify care and separated into rooms where illumination can be strictly controlled.
The heart and soul of this operation are the mother plants of each variety, all grown in yet another space under a more natural light regime. Here they are being encouraged to live long without flowering to yield as much cutting material as possible. In the nursery business they are called "stock plants." These require much bigger pots for such a long life span and to support more rapid and generous vegetative growth. The mothers may be more like a backyard grown plant than those in production. Virtually every plant is progeny of these mothers as rooted cuttings (clones) that share identical genetics.
This is also where new seed grown plants and strains are raised up for testing. Many are landraces from Afghanistan and southeast Asia where indigenous varieties and rare species have been selected for centuries, even millennia. They increase the genetic diversity in breeding of plants to increase their vigor and adaptability for the future.
Cannabis is experiencing explosions of breeding with old heirloom strains of the sixties to modern hybrids. Because cultivation in America is still in its infancy, this is an area of future efforts to tailor and improve the various characteristics of individual strains.
Once I toured such amazing horticulture with Camper, I'm watching for more outdoor efforts to grow this crop in a far more economical and sustainable way. It is truly like the Luther Burbank days of the early 20th century when his new often unorthodox varieties were gobbled up by an eager market.
This building of General Patton's we wondered about for so long has been transformed. It's transitioned from a legacy of war into a nursery of incredible life. The contrast is striking. Wonder what's inside no more.
News Moderator: Ron Strider 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: The life cycle of a marijuana plant grown in Palm Springs
Author: Maureen Gilmer
Contact: Contact Us | The Desert Sun
Photo Credit: Maureen Gilmer
Website: The Desert Sun | Palm Springs and Coachella Valley news
"Those windows up on the roof were cranked open to let the steam escape." Today he operates a state-of-the-art horticultural facility for marijuana cultivation where once washers and driers resided. Inside conditions are carefully controlled, addressing every aspect of growing Cannabis sativa, Cannabis indica and its myriad hybrids.
The space is organized specifically for the life cycle of this one plant, a true annual that grows from seed to harvest in just one season. Here under artificial conditions the plants can be forced to flower at a designated time like poinsettias. Day length is the driving force in this process to stimulate first overall growth, then trigger the flowering reproductive process by adding more hours of light. At the pivotal point, day length maxes out at 20 hours. Unlike outdoor cultivation where plants are dependent on the sun's annual cycle for day length changes, these plants can be started and harvested continuously through staggered crops for year-round cultivation.
Scrupulous cleanliness and light reflecting white walls offer a naturally sterile environment. Camper is an elderly, old-school grower and founder of Organic Solutions. He explains why they are growing in potting soil, not hydroponic solutions.
"I strongly believe in growing in a traditional way with soil. It enhances flavor and there are more diverse elements in the plant itself than in solution. It's just like a home grown tomato which tastes better than a hydroponically grown one. The natural presence of microbes and mycorrhizae in soils makes the organic fertilizer solution entirely available to the rapidly growing plants."
As a foliage crop, the plants are heavy nitrogen users, particularly with an accelerated life cycle under lighting manipulation. Camper's method utilizes frequent mild feeding for even growth rather than the yo-yo effects of complex nutrient solutions. Organic fertilizers are blended into irrigation water, then applied by hand for precise application. Fertilizer blends are changed with longer day length settings to meet high nutritional demands of flowering. Nutrients like phosphorus and potassium fuel the switch from vegetative to flowering mode. Outdoors, this switch occurs at the summer solstice when vegetables bolt or begin to produce their crop.
Each room represents a different age in the growth cycle here. This provides ongoing replacement for the plants that reach the end of productivity. It's done in large batches to simplify care and separated into rooms where illumination can be strictly controlled.
The heart and soul of this operation are the mother plants of each variety, all grown in yet another space under a more natural light regime. Here they are being encouraged to live long without flowering to yield as much cutting material as possible. In the nursery business they are called "stock plants." These require much bigger pots for such a long life span and to support more rapid and generous vegetative growth. The mothers may be more like a backyard grown plant than those in production. Virtually every plant is progeny of these mothers as rooted cuttings (clones) that share identical genetics.
This is also where new seed grown plants and strains are raised up for testing. Many are landraces from Afghanistan and southeast Asia where indigenous varieties and rare species have been selected for centuries, even millennia. They increase the genetic diversity in breeding of plants to increase their vigor and adaptability for the future.
Cannabis is experiencing explosions of breeding with old heirloom strains of the sixties to modern hybrids. Because cultivation in America is still in its infancy, this is an area of future efforts to tailor and improve the various characteristics of individual strains.
Once I toured such amazing horticulture with Camper, I'm watching for more outdoor efforts to grow this crop in a far more economical and sustainable way. It is truly like the Luther Burbank days of the early 20th century when his new often unorthodox varieties were gobbled up by an eager market.
This building of General Patton's we wondered about for so long has been transformed. It's transitioned from a legacy of war into a nursery of incredible life. The contrast is striking. Wonder what's inside no more.
News Moderator: Ron Strider 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: The life cycle of a marijuana plant grown in Palm Springs
Author: Maureen Gilmer
Contact: Contact Us | The Desert Sun
Photo Credit: Maureen Gilmer
Website: The Desert Sun | Palm Springs and Coachella Valley news
