Handicapped Growing Discussion Forum

[Jon]

One Easy as Hell Idea for the Wheelchair or Handicapped Grower

Everyone has their opinion on autos vs photos. But for many of us in chairs, autos have certain distinct advantages which make them very viable choices.

First, you can grow them anywhere. And secondly, connected to that, is the fact that they are not light sensitive as photos are. You won’t hermie an auto if the dark time is not perfectly sealed dark time. Finally, it’s pretty easy to size them to whatever your space allows, and many stay or can be kept small enough that they’re perfect for tight spaces. All of these factors make not only growing autos very easy, but also makes setting up an infrastructure for them easy as well.

Here’s an example of just how easy it can be. This is my latest setup, for the last plant to finish out my current Winter Grow journal. I’m growing an auto here. This is a NextLight 420h, a used piece of crappy furniture, a used floor liner from an old tent, and some duct tape. I set this up entirely by myself. It took about ten minutes. Only other thing I’ll add is a fan. And even the liner is unnecessary, I just had it so I used it.

This works with any light that doesn’t overwhelm the space. All you have to do is find a way to hang it. In this case of obviously the light just sits on the shelf frame, but all it takes is something as simple as two heavier bamboo stakes under the light and supported by anything tall and solid enough.

To me, this is about as easy and free as it gets. And it has no access issues. No matter what chair you’re in you can likely reach everything. You simply shop vac out your drip tray so that you don’t get runoff water all over your bedroom floor. (Lol!)

Ease and access. These are two very important factors in wheelchair growing.

Hopefully someone finds this useful!!

 

[bluter]

you're an inspiration to others.

 

[Jon]

Hints for the Wheelchair Grower

We have all kinds of chairs, right? Manual, crappy electric carts, nicer electric wheelchairs that rise and recline, etc.

I’ve searched far and wide and I can’t find an electric rise chair that lifts more than 16”. The one I have rises 12”. This is great for doing dishes or our own laundry. But when it comes to growing big plants (or more specifically, tall plants), wheelchairs are simply problematic. You just can’t get high enough vertically to truly work the plant the way you want to if it’s any taller than 3 - 4’ tall. I haven’t yet found a way around this.

So the trick is to grow as big a plant as you can, as LOW as you can.

We can discuss training in detail in a later post or if anyone asks a question, but for now I just want to hopefully get someone started thinking in a productive direction.

The hints for this post are easy:

1. Always top your plants.
2. Use the lowest nodes as you train instead of chopping them and get your production from the lower part of the plant.

Topping will keep the plant shorter. Often I will top above the 4th node and create the flat canopy right at that level. It’s not too hard to create a 2 1/2 or 3 foot wide canopy on a plant that’s only 18” tall, but topping the main stem is the first step.

By using the lower nodes you can get equal production as anyone else who chops the first, second or further nodes as many do. Many growers believe the first node is a waste. This is a myth. Often you will find first node branches to be the most productive on the entire plant.

This idea is to create a productive plant that can be accessed regardless of what type chair you may have.

Bonus hint: (lol) - put your plants on wheels always. Spinning the plant to work all sides is key for us! Wheels make it simple.

I will answer/respond always to anyone who may have questions about this or would like further information - it’s heartily encouraged! Lol. Thanks for stopping by.

 

[bluter]

all of my plant finish by 3 - 4 ft. i use shelving units to lift the plants up in the grow room for easier access.

 

[Jon]

all of my plant finish by 3 - 4 ft. i use shelving units to lift the plants up in the grow room for easier access.

Are you in a chair @bluter?

 

[Jon]

all of my plant finish by 3 - 4 ft. i use shelving units to lift the plants up in the grow room for easier access.

Mine usually do too, and you’ve seen the variety of items I use to lift plants up for access. Good stuff.

 

[bluter]

Are you in a chair @bluter?

no. i just grow micro style. there's a member here that has everything on a rotating platform in the tent for easy access. also a good idea.

 

[Azimuth]

no. i just grow micro style. there's a member here that has everything on a rotating platform in the tent for easy access. also a good idea.

@meffa 's Layz-susan

 

[Jon]

no. i just grow micro style. there's a member here that has everything on a rotating platform in the tent for easy access. also a good idea.

That’s sort of a long term dream of mine, only in a big grow room with huge rotating diases.

 

[Jon]

Hello Wheelchair Growers -

I have recently set up a piece of infrastructure that easily allows 360 degree, and upper and lower access, to work a scrog.

Scrogs are a challenge for some of us. They are for me. As usual, the issue is access. Ina large tent I can’t get to the back corners or really work the undercarriage effectively. But I love Scrogs and they’re pretty good for yield as well as small spaces.

To do a scrog in a tent, we need it to rotate, and we need it to be accessible top and bottom.

Here’s a large version of what I’m referring to.

IMG_1349.jpeg

• Jon
• Aug 13, 2023

IMG_1348.jpeg

• Jon
• Aug 13, 2023

But simply scale it down for a tent. (This one is for outside). The base is a metal plant stand on wheels. The cross that supports it with the poles is just scrap wood screwed together to hold to the base. The poles are just old tent poles I saved. And the screen is a $4 hula hoop from the Zon that I simply pushed screws through and strung up. I’ll be improving the supports to keep the poles vertical and standing straight, but that’s it. I just tape the screen to the top of the poles.

This type of setup at maybe half the height (smaller support poles for the screen) will work great in a tent. It allows us to work a scrog effectively and allows us one more way to generate yield in a small space. With perfect access!!

I’m not getting any traction here but I keep hoping. So as I feel I have something relevant and potentially useful, I’ll keep posting. Just in case we have a silent audience I’m unaware of. Lol!!

 

[Jon]

Conserving Energy and Growing Styles

Hi guys! Wonder if there’s a single wheelchair bound person who has seen this thread yet. Lol. Well, here’s something I am just realizing is completely ideal for the wheelchair grower. I’m just getting into it and have a lot of learning to do.

Organic or semi organic growing. This is a possible path for wheelchair growers to reduce our work load. Is mixing nutes a pain in the ass? Does it cause many more back and forths and a lot more wheelchair manipulation as you negotiate your space and get to the nute table or whatever you use? It is for me. If I didn’t have to do that step my life would be significantly easier, physically speaking.

When you grow in a wheelchair I find it necessary to conserve my energy whenever possible. It’s already a load to just get through the day physically with all the wheelchair moving. An electric chair is perhaps not 100% essential but growing would be quite difficult if a manual is your only option.

Organic and semi organic growing takes all the nutes out of play. That alone is big for us. It also cuts down on the frequency with which you have to water, as this is a soil thing. Coco and other mediums are doable for us, I do them all the time, but anything other than soil and you need to factor in the increased workload. Simply eliminating the need to mix nutes and reducing watering frequency makes our lives a lot easier.

Bottom line: conserve energy, grow easy, and try to get yourself some form of electric wheelie if you can. More on this as I learn more and figure out other ways this style helps us grow more easily.

Thanks for stopping by!

 

[Jon]

I was looking around and came across this article, posted by @Truth Seeker a while back. This just happens to have taken place in the state I live in. But it could happen anywhere. I tend to verbalize all cavalier and such about breaking the rules. But the bottom line is that you being in a wheelchair or being otherwise handicapped is not going to necessarily save you from the popo. Be stealthy. Don’t assume the wheelchair makes you fuck with proof. It doesn’t. Thanks Truth Seeker.

FL Cops Raid Home Of Wheelchair-Bound MMJ Activist

Just after our story posted on the polling numbers and popularity of medical-marijuana, the following coincidentally happened to an activist mentioned in the piece: by Richard Dymond of the Bradenton Herald The Cathy Jordan Medical Cannabis Act will come before Florida legislators in 2013...

www.420magazine.com

 

[FortuneSeeker]

Thanks @KeithLemon - I always say at the end of the day, aren’t we all handicapped a little bit one way or the other?

+++++ and sometimes it's easier to be from waste down than nose up )

 

[Jon]

Wheelchair Growing and Taking a Hit
On The Emotional Game

Ok guys, this is sort of a philosophical, maybe a bit esoteric post, but I’m going to talk a little about the emotional reality of wheelchair growing. It might get dirty and gut level in here briefly, so there’s your fair warning. If you don’t want reality, read no further.

Caveat: this post is SPECIFICALLY NOT a sympathy post. None necessary. Not the point.

So here’s a reality of growing whether you’re in a wheelchair or not: sometimes you’re gonna take hits. A plant is going to go south. A light will fall. You’ll accidentally go too fast around the corner of your tent and your foot rest will grab the pole and bring it down (yeah, that really happened). Something will go wrong. Some times multiple things.

I personally find that the emotional cost of messing up a plant, for example, is far greater when you’re wheelchair bound than not. If for no other reason than the workload. It’s simply…more. We have to bend at the waist up and down constantly. Try lugging a five gallon bucket without a system. If you’re in a chair, it’s likely that other of your muscles are affected beside your legs - I only have half my stomach muscles operating, for example. Every single thing takes longer and most everything requires a plan. Etc etc. And if I’m being really honest, every time I bring a plant home successfully it’s the opposite. I’m way higher in it than I would be with legs. Each successful plant is winning. Winning this weird, forever, daily battle with the reality of the situation. It’s almost as if, when I harvest, for that couple hours of chopping and hanging, I’m not even in a wheelchair. Just sitting in a chair like anyone else. It is transporting. For me it’s transforming. I would suggest that this feeling of success and positive accomplishment is something that is among the most important things growing can be for handicapped growers. It beats the crap out of getting outside yourself with drugs, or tv, or social media, or whatever. And isn’t getting outside ourselves, if only for a little while, when we feel the most alive? It is for me now. Maybe always has been, idk.

I do not feel I am alone in this. I think any grower with a significant handicap, wheelchair or not, feels some version of this. Otherwise I wouldn’t post. This is not a Jon’s journey thread.

It’s the times when you get multiple hits in the same grow you gotta watch out for. Depression is always bubbling just below the surface, right? No matter how well you’ve “dealt with your handicap,” physically and emotionally and spiritually? It is for me. It’s not as if you can ignore it. Or forget it. I’m happy to be able to be relatively normal and lead a relatively steady emotional and hopefully spiritual life. I’m grateful my brain still works, sort of. Lol. But that doesn’t mean you can ignore your reality, or the daily million things that are now a pain in the ass. And it certainly doesn’t mean it’s not joyful as hell to forget about yourself - to get outside of yourself - via growing.

I just had a clone turn out to be male and a photo go hermie within days of one another. That sucked. And it took me a couple days to get over it. That’s a helluva lot better than it was when I started. It’s just a reality. Hits like that hurt. And maybe a little deeper than for non-compromised people. So you gotta deal with it. It’s all too easy sometimes to let those tiny vestiges of self pity you still hold take center stage. Try to not let that happen. Whatever means necessary.

I like to plan for all contingencies when possible. Including potential emotional pitfalls.

It’s important if you’re in a chair or compromised in some other way to have a plan to deal with this shit. Maybe you have a quiet place you go to meditate or relax. Maybe you throw a baseball with your kid. Maybe it’s push-ups or therapy. Whatever it is, it serves you well to both accept the possibility of, and have a plan for, the potential emotional pitfalls when growing.

They simply hurt us more. Lol! So the bottom line is you better man up, put on your big boy pants, and DEAL with it. You will come out stronger on the other side. Next time it will hurt less.

The other option is to never make a mistake and always grow perfect plants. I’m working on that one.



Thanks for stopping by.

 

[Bill284]

It effects us all Amigo.
Your more susceptible due to volume , not capabilities.
If you only grew 1 plant 1 way you would be 100 for 100 , but bored.
We love your enthusiasm and veracity.
Don't let it get to you, your a legend.
You just don't realize it.


Stay safe
Bill284

 

[con]

Wheelchair Growing and Taking a Hit
On The Emotional Game

Ok guys, this is sort of a philosophical, maybe a bit esoteric post, but I’m going to talk a little about the emotional reality of wheelchair growing. It might get dirty and gut level in here briefly, so there’s your fair warning. If you don’t want reality, read no further.

Caveat: this post is SPECIFICALLY NOT a sympathy post. None necessary. Not the point.

So here’s a reality of growing whether you’re in a wheelchair or not: sometimes you’re gonna take hits. A plant is going to go south. A light will fall. You’ll accidentally go too fast around the corner of your tent and your foot rest will grab the pole and bring it down (yeah, that really happened). Something will go wrong. Some times multiple things.

I personally find that the emotional cost of messing up a plant, for example, is far greater when you’re wheelchair bound than not. If for no other reason than the workload. It’s simply…more. We have to bend at the waist up and down constantly. Try lugging a five gallon bucket without a system. If you’re in a chair, it’s likely that other of your muscles are affected beside your legs - I only have half my stomach muscles operating, for example. Every single thing takes longer and most everything requires a plan. Etc etc. And if I’m being really honest, every time I bring a plant home successfully it’s the opposite. I’m way higher in it than I would be with legs. Each successful plant is winning. Winning this weird, forever, daily battle with the reality of the situation. It’s almost as if, when I harvest, for that couple hours of chopping and hanging, I’m not even in a wheelchair. Just sitting in a chair like anyone else. It is transporting. For me it’s transforming. I would suggest that this feeling of success and positive accomplishment is something that is among the most important things growing can be for handicapped growers. It beats the crap out of getting outside yourself with drugs, or tv, or social media, or whatever. And isn’t getting outside ourselves, if only for a little while, when we feel the most alive? It is for me now. Maybe always has been, idk.

I do not feel I am alone in this. I think any grower with a significant handicap, wheelchair or not, feels some version of this. Otherwise I wouldn’t post. This is not a Jon’s journey thread.

It’s the times when you get multiple hits in the same grow you gotta watch out for. Depression is always bubbling just below the surface, right? No matter how well you’ve “dealt with your handicap,” physically and emotionally and spiritually? It is for me. It’s not as if you can ignore it. Or forget it. I’m happy to be able to be relatively normal and lead a relatively steady emotional and hopefully spiritual life. I’m grateful my brain still works, sort of. Lol. But that doesn’t mean you can ignore your reality, or the daily million things that are now a pain in the ass. And it certainly doesn’t mean it’s not joyful as hell to forget about yourself - to get outside of yourself - via growing.

I just had a clone turn out to be male and a photo go hermie within days of one another. That sucked. And it took me a couple days to get over it. That’s a helluva lot better than it was when I started. It’s just a reality. Hits like that hurt. And maybe a little deeper than for non-compromised people. So you gotta deal with it. It’s all too easy sometimes to let those tiny vestiges of self pity you still hold take center stage. Try to not let that happen. Whatever means necessary.

I like to plan for all contingencies when possible. Including potential emotional pitfalls.

It’s important if you’re in a chair or compromised in some other way to have a plan to deal with this shit. Maybe you have a quiet place you go to meditate or relax. Maybe you throw a baseball with your kid. Maybe it’s push-ups or therapy. Whatever it is, it serves you well to both accept the possibility of, and have a plan for, the potential emotional pitfalls when growing.

They simply hurt us more. Lol! So the bottom line is you better man up, put on your big boy pants, and DEAL with it. You will come out stronger on the other side. Next time it will hurt less.

The other option is to never make a mistake and always grow perfect plants. I’m working on that one.



Thanks for stopping by.

Very well put Jon, nothing but respect for you & others (all) 420 members, disability can suck some times i know it changed me drastically but better to carry on than be gone

 

[420always420]

Great thread and info @Jon. I'm not in a chair but your tips can be applied to everyone I've found. Thanks for sharing these tips and I hope this thread gets more traction. I'm sure there are more people who are some way handicapped and just are silent observers. I wish I could get my grows half as good as yours. Keep on keeping on and sharing your mishaps so others can help avoid them.

 

[Zeefarmer]

 

[Zeefarmer]

Being in a wheel chair sucks ass, everything on the floor is in the way, doorways are a bitch too, they are too narrow,
Got a few holes in the wall where i cowboy with electric scooter.

My leg. doesn't always fit.... If i sleep without a shrinker then it can take 30 minutes to get my leg in it.
Then sometimes i think its clicked on but its not .. yep hurt my stump .. I was hurt in the fall of Saigon ,, i was on a ship.
Its all bad ....

My girl friend is not pleased at being nurse maid for 10 days .
Hey wtf so big deal I am on my knees taking care my babies. I do what it takes to live or have any quality of life.. guess thats a pretty selfish statement.
I can walk,, but not having a leg or legs makes everything a challenge.

I have two 4x8 tents and a walk in closet

 

[Jon]

Being in a wheel chair sucks ass, everything on the floor is in the way, doorways are a bitch too, they are too narrow,
Got a few holes in the wall where i cowboy with electric scooter.

My leg. doesn't always fit.... If i sleep without a shrinker then it can take 30 minutes to get my leg in it.
Then sometimes i think its clicked on but its not .. yep hurt my stump .. I was hurt in the fall of Saigon ,, i was on a ship.
Its all bad ....

My girl friend is not pleased at being nurse maid for 10 days .
Hey wtf so big deal I am on my knees taking care my babies. I do what it takes to live or have any quality of life.. guess thats a pretty selfish statement.
I can walk,, but not having a leg or legs makes everything a challenge.

I have two 4x8 tents and a walk in closet

YES!!! THANK YOU!!!! I know damn well I’m not the only handicapped grower here and it brings me great joy to see this. What an effort too. Two tents that big ain’t easy at all. And look at all the MCGuyver-ing you’ve done! Very very impressive. Thanks for sharing. This is exactly the kind of spirit and attitude I’d like to encourage. We are so much more capable than people think. But more importantly, most of the time we are way more capable than WE think. The battle is with ourselves, yes? Every time I do something I didn’t think I could do I win another battle in that war. Bravo my friend.