Indica or Sativa?

[SpeesCees]

Cannabis D'Indica
- One of the most talked about plants on earth. 'Used' on a large scale - and usable for many things -


This page is not intended for experienced growers; they already 'know all this since long'. This page is intended as information for the ordinary grower and smoker. In clear language, without difficult formulas, details or 'highspeak'. This page is meant to bring us a little closer towards the soul of the plant, no more and no less! The plant as it exists nowadays can be very confusing; Indica, Sativa, Ruderalis, hemp, marijuana, weed, Skunk etc. Quite some names indeed for one single plant! Yes, all these names refer to something, but it's more important to become aware of the origins of that plant, and once discovered those, to take a look at the details. Are you coming along?


Cannabis has a history that can be traced back very long, through many different cultures. Nevertheless there is only one place where the plant was found originally. The plant that got us so enthusiastic, Cannabis D'Indica, is indigenous in roughly the territory of North-western India. You should realise that on very old maps of India this territory was much larger than it is nowadays, including some Himalaya states which now no longer exist, so we can safely assume that on the Southern flanks of the mountainrange cannabis was also found. Here we find the natural habitat of the plant, the place where it could reproduce itself naturally. As a matter of fact, all the other cannabis plants in the world (apart from subspecies) are Sativa's. If you take seeds from India and grow plants from them, it's amazing how readily these plants adapt themselves to their new environment. Through the centuries whole cultures of cannabis have appeared on the other continents, very often typical Sativa's, well adapted to their environment.


But the original plant is the Cannabis D'Indica and originates in the ancient North-west of India. Indica's can be recognised by their deep, green colour and the broad, overlapping 'fingers' in their leaves. For example Kush and Afghan plants are clear and pure Indica's. K2, White Widow and Northern Light plants look strongly like Indica's, but are crossed, so they are Sativa's. But uhhh… I'm getting carried away, and besides, I'm not a botanist. Let me take you to the land of how, where and why!!

So much rubbish is being told about this plant that I can't resist the temptation of being an authentic wiseguy here…


The plant was found in a territory where it's extremely hot during the day and cools down dramatically during the night. These differences can be quite extreme in these mountains. If we take a good look at these plants and consider how they survive and reproduce, you'll find some awesome and ingenious tricks of nature. That they turn out to be very pleasant for us, is quite a bonus of course! Very early in it's vegetative stage the plant, especially the females, develop a number of glands that cannot be counted with the bare eye. When you hold the plant against the sunlight you'll be able to see them. They look like millions of little hairs, but in fact they're all glands.


In that gland the resin is produced that has to protect the plant, the flowers, and most important of all, the seeds. A coating of resin emanating from the glands concentrates around the most sensitive areas, such as the flowers and seed lobes. This resin prevents the plant from dehydrating during the day; the sun causes the resin to get syrupy, so the resinous substance we know in a concentrated form as hash, flows all over the buds. At night it turns very cold and the resin gets hard, thus protecting the plant from cold. During the day, in the hot sun, the resin starts flowing again and continues to protect the plant… The lump of resin in which the 'wild' seeds are enveloped when they drop from the plant, takes care of protecting the seeds until the next spring. Clever little plant, isn't it!?


If you take a look at other cultures, you'll find a completely different story. In Morocco, for example, you can sieve the resin from the plants so easily because the climate there causes the plant to act differently. In these parts it's not as cold at night, nor is it as hot during daytime. The temperature differences aren't that extreme, apart from the fact that we are dealing with a different environment and duration of the cycle. Here the resin doesn't flow out and cover the buds, but remains sticking to the gland as a droplet. After drying, this droplet readily drops off and is easily sieved. The dry powder is not as dry as it seems at first, as becomes apparent when you start pressing. By heating and pressing the cell walls of the dried resin break, everything flows together as a result of the heat and pressure applied, and the result is a compact mass we call hash.

Well yes, the resin contains a certain percentage of THC. Sometimes much, sometimes little. The point is, that smoking the resin results in a high or stoned effect, which can be very pleasant and mind-expanding. Medicinally good instead of criminal goods! But uhh… you don't get stoned from THC!!! The antibodies your body produce against the invading substances (most of all THC) make you high or stoned! So literally speaking, it's not the THC that is responsible for these effects!! This also explains why most people who smoke for the first time hardly ever notice anything; the body simply doesn't recognise the substance and doesn't yet produce the antibodies… But you better try some good pot, and uhhh…. Welcome to the club!!!!


Stay cool, high and take time to fly
SpeesCees (Mr. XX.) / No Mercy Seeds

 

[Sinista2006]

Re: Indica or Sativa ?

In Morocco, for example, you can sieve the resin from the plants so easily because the climate there causes the plant to act differently. In these parts it's not as cold at night, nor is it as hot during daytime. The temperature differences aren't that extreme, apart from the fact that we are dealing with a different environment and duration of the cycle. Here the resin doesn't flow out and cover the buds, but remains sticking to the gland as a droplet. After drying, this droplet readily drops off and is easily sieved. The dry powder is not as dry as it seems at first, as becomes apparent when you start pressing. By heating and pressing the cell walls of the dried resin break, everything flows together as a result of the heat and pressure applied, and the result is a compact mass we call hash.

...been smoking hya hya all mah life !

 

[SpeesCees]

Re: Indica or Sativa ?

Did you "spiek" on my website ? hahahaha...
You're right...completely right !

 

[Sinista2006]

Re: Indica or Sativa ?

nope... just been smokin' it whenever i got some from my mountain-bound hashassin friends...

 

[SpeesCees]

Re: Indica or Sativa ?

...been smoking hya hya all mah life !

I don't see "the clou" in this one....please wake me up ?

 

[Sinista2006]

Re: Indica or Sativa ?

hya hya... also known as twizzla...

 

[Akornpatch]

Re: Indica or Sativa ?

Great post SpeeCees! Thank you!

 

[SpeesCees]

Re: Indica or Sativa ?

Great post ?

Hahahjahahaaaa....I'm just having some fun to post a few photo's and put down some lines for the folks.
Tsssss...You should see me if I should start to post serious grow info...it would surprise you I guess...lol
The big manko is....my english is that poor that the "critics" here on the this forum should blow me away with a lot of "wisdom".
And to sit here....posting with my reading glasses on and a dictionary in my hand.....hahahaha...would look foolish.
But hé...who know's,...up to now I enjoy to pass by a few times a week, so maybe I become a taste like....let's tell them how to grow them "high" !
For now....let's see or I can deal with the American way of using a forum, and let's see or they can deal with my Dutch "arrogance" if it comes to growing and breeding.
Offen, because of misunderstandings, communication problems are there which wouldn't have to be there, so I better shut my big mouth a little and look or they can stand it that I'm ....a breeder who's growing at least 1 gram per watt and by the time they're interested to learn such also...and by the time they can accept my poor english.....by that time I'm too much a Cannalogist to shut up and the posting will flow in here automaticly.
For now....first stop laughing because of my Dutchy English....hahahaha...!

www.nomercy.nl

Whatever they do, whatever they say...remember that you're in control !

 

[Urdedpal]

Re: Indica or Sativa ?

I have a hard time growing 1/2 a gram per watt so I am all ears and ready to learn. I do know a few things. Some from experience some from books and this forum. But I am always the student and a breeder like you is like talking to a celebrity.
I love little posts like this because it helps bring a little history of the plant and how it has and can adapt over the ages.

Can you get a 1000 grams with a 1000w hps?

 

[SpeesCees]

Re: Indica or Sativa ?

Yes...I would say YES.
With the biggest butterfly shade it must be possible to grow 1 to 1 !
Sure, the conditions must be right and then you will have to work with seedplants instead of clones. But I would make a bet on it.
Most important would be the ventilation. If the ventilation is good enough to refresh the air in a way that it would be almost a copy of what's happening in nature...then it would work.
Enough fresh air is like 80% of the job.
Always remember 4 basic points and it will bring you on the road :
A/ light is weight.
B/ measure is know-how.
C/ superabundance do harm.
D/ enough fresh air is a must.
I strongly advise you to start making a short study of my website. On my site You will find hardly commercial "crap"...but for 90% grow and breeders info.
No commercial pop-ups, no banners, no flikkering lights and/or bells.
Reading my website will show you that I'm a Cannalover in the first place and that I never would sell my Cannasoul for money.
And more important...in a language that every regular person can read and understand since we're not all a biologist.

Stay tuned on the coming contest. You become a chance to win one of the 10 packets with 100 seeds. No bullseed but Desert Queens. https://www.nomercy.nl/en/framesets/fs-prod-seedbank.html

Desert Queen: a crossing between a sudden death # master ice and an everest queen # WK
Fast, strong, lot of weight, a deep high, soft spicey, though sweet taste.
Many good genetics have been gathered in one plant.
Not to be smoked during daytimes.

Stay cool, high and take time to fly !

 

[MadameCrash]

Re: Indica or Sativa ?

Some pics from SpeesCees gallery-

 

[SpeesCees]

Re: Indica or Sativa ?

It will look as it has nothing to do with this topic....but be sure...in part two of this story you find out why it's placed here.
Heve fun with this real happened adventure by SpeesCees.

- A report of 2 parts from Highlife, spring 1999 / part 1-

A commentary about the backgrounds of the so-called organized crime in Holland according to cannabis. Goal of this commentary is to sketch a view of the people in the illegal circuit, who take care for the hash and hemp on our market. From the big bosses until the small home-grower: Highlife’s special reporter Charlie Stone, tries to enlighten all aspects of the underworld.

(Cees/mr.XX/Cannaplant) is a former hash-smuggler from the south of Holland, who transported for many years lots of hash from Morocco to Holland, Germany and Scandinavia.

Interesting is the fact that Cees was living in Morocco, and he was not only responsible for transporting, but also for growing hemp en producing hash. So Cees had everything, from sowing on the fields to delivering to customers, in his own hands. He had a perfect construction and was only caught when he was in back in Holland again. His ex-wife, who worked together with the IRT to get a residence permit, betrayed him.

Cees went to jail and lost all his money by the Ministry of Justice and Taxes. Nowadays he lives a withdrawn life and he is doing his favourite thing: improving the hemp-plant. You can read everything about the bizarre way of life in the smuggling-business and Cees’s life in Morocco in this Highlife.

Highlife: Cees, can you tell something from your background?

I was born and raised in Brabant, but went to Amsterdam when I was 16 years old. It was in the early seventies, time of the hippies, flower power and peace & love. I felt very attracted to the hippie-thing. I was smoking since I was 14 years old. In those days, that was very absurd. Besides I was living a fast life and tried, the same time, all kinds of dope, like coke and heroine. That did not work out and before noticing I was addicted as hell. Fortunately I knew very soon, I was going the wrong direction and when I was 21 I volunteered to a clinic. Because I had the right character to survive, the treatment was successful and I became completely clean.

But it took over seven years - and then I mean especially mentally - to take the influence of two and a half years of heroin away. Since then I never took that shit anymore. I came in contact with the authorities for the first time by using heroine.

What did you do?

I cracked a safe-deposit. Those were the days of Aage M., the famous burglar and safe-deposit cracker. I saw him as an example. I learned how to make a thermic lace and I used it. The crack went okay, only I left behind a track, so the police was at my back quickly.

Were you professionally busy doing hash business in those days?

No. I always had a hemp- garden, outside, but you could not call that professional. But I was very much interested in the hemp-plant, and I still am. You can say that I was and am really obsessed by it. If I had somewhere a little piece of ground empty, than I planted a few plants immediately.

That was only meant for growing your own stock?

Yes and no. The magic you experienced when you smoke this little plant, intrigued me some much, that I wanted to know how a plant like that grows. In those days there were no grow-shops and growing under artificial lights was unknown. That was only for a very small group of people. Good books were also seldom, I remember. Only hemp in gardens or pottery on the balcony was grown. My garden was always full of this. Later on, I specialized on growing in Morocco, and not only because of the great climate.

How did you get there?

I met a Moroccan girl, to whom I married. I was living 5 Years permanent in Morocco with her.

Was that only because of the plants?

Yes and no. I liked it here in Holland, but it was not exactly what I wanted in my life. I wanted to grow plants or start a shop, but you have to have a lot of money for that. I decided to sell hash. I had seen something of that world, and I liked the world of smoking people compared to the hard-drugs scene. I began the first deal with 150 guilders of my own and the rest I borrowed and I paid 370 guilders for an ounce of Afghan. With that I doubled my money. It was really good stuff. The result was that half a year later, I realized I really did make good money. I thought: a few more deals, and I can start my own shop. I began to think a lot over this subject. Where did it come from? Where could you get the best? In Morocco, became clear to me.

How old were you when you started dealing hash?

I was 21 years old. When I was 22 I went for the first time to Morocco. I went looking for people I met in Holland. I knew then who to contact for this business. The second time I drove up there, I had rebuilt my battery so that it was possible to hide four kilo of stuff. Nowadays we laugh at four little kilos, but in those days it was a lot. The prices in Holland were five of six thousand guilders for one kilo. You took four kilos only, but it was big in those days. In Morocco it costs 1.200 guilders for top quality. You sold it in Holland, besides one kilo for own use, and went back to Morocco for the next kilos. So I drove five or six times a year to Morocco.

Did you bring more and more every time?

Not at first. Although the battery was getting bigger every time. On a certain moment you could hide almost seven kilos. We drove two years up and down, only for those seven kilos. And whatever Customs thought or felt, they could never prove something, because we were never discovered. If you removed the buttons of the battery, you saw ordinary fluid. And the battery also did his normal job. The car started by it, although he was giving one-third of his amps, the voltage stayed 12. It went wrong only once, and then I was not there. Later on the battery was changed by Diesel-tanks. Then the boats and containers came and that is where it went wrong.

Did you drive alone or with company?

Most of the times with the two of us. On a certain moment we grew bigger. At best you can take 40 or 50 kilo. And Customs were checking more careful.

So they knew the exact weight of a certain car, and then they put the car on a scale. They even had infrared equipment. They got so advanced, that it was almost not possible to keep doing this. Besides, more and more farmers and businessmen sold their clients, after making a deal. Then they were waiting for you in Spain.

Then we switched to boats. We had in Morocco two speedboats, each of them with four Mercury-motors of 240 HP.

Were those your boats?

Our boats. In that time I had a companion, someone of there. By boat we transported between six and eight hundred kilos. Then you were lying on the beach, waiting, with the stuff buried in the sands. At ten o’clock in the evening you could dig it out and wait. If the weather turn out to be bad, you could bury it again until the next night. It had to be a quiet sea, without a full moon.

How did you contact Morocco?

In those days I lived in Morocco, half of the year.

Did your Moroccan wife know about your business?

She knew I was busy with kif, but she never asked. It is not done, over there, a woman does not usually ask about her man’s business. A man, who tells his wife everything about this, is almost abnormal.

Was the stuff you smuggled meant for the Dutch market?

It was mainly meant for the German and Scandinavian market. My first big money I made was for instance in Cristiania, the community for hippies in Copenhagen. Every two weeks we transported to that place. And those were transports of 80 to 120 kilos.

Did you sell your product yourself?

Yes, I did the whole thing: from the fields of Morocco to Holland and though to Germany and Scandinavia. At a certain moment we were so big that we did everything ourselves. We sowed and gathered it ourselves. We made nice packages of it and smuggled ourselves. We had our own sales-spots in Scandinavia. You can imagine what kind of money we made. But it took years to come this far, and sometimes those were hard years.

Why did you grow there?

The law over there is as following: If a local girl marries the Muslim way, and the father of the girl has already died, then she gets her heritage just after she is married. Because the father of my wife was dead, we got 11 acres of ground in the Rif-mountains. I was married to her the Muslim way. When we divorced, we also divorced the Muslim way, I had to go back to Morocco for it. My given muslim name was Abdel Camel.

It was a kind of a business-marriage?

Yes, but we agreed to it with the whole family. They agreed. We build a farm on a piece of our ground. I stayed for five years and sowed and gathered it for five years. And I went completely crazy of living in the mountains. Because it really gets to you.

Why?

When you come from here, you cannot live there. There is no electricity, no shower, and no toilet. And no privacy. You can last for five years, until you know what you want to know, and then you leave quickly.

What did you want to know?

Everything about these plants, haha. To give you an impression: in those days you had as a tourist no allowance to come into the neighbourhood where I lived. And don’t talk to me about Ketama. Ketama is just a little village at the front, for the tourists. So they can show you where they have been. That’s all. If you go into the mountains, then you can see the real fields. As far as you can see. And in the middle of that area, I was so lucky to build that farm.

You took your knowledge there?

I came to learn. The first year I did not say a word, I just looked and learned. What they did and why they did it like that. After a year I told them some ideas of mine. At that moment I was very respected, because I already had shown them I could estimate the kif on value. I always bought the plants, never stuff. I never bought hash there, only at the beginning, with the cars. Later we only bought plants. And we hired people to riddle. That meant you also kept the second quality. And the third quality. If you buy there hash, then you buy a certain quality and everything what comes out of the riddle, the farmer keeps for himself. If you use your own people to riddle, it is all for yourself.

What did you learn the best, the first year?

To see how badly the Moroccans treat their plants. They are also not interested to enlarge the quality. The plants are growing, if Allah wants it, if not, they do not grow.

Tell us something about your grow-activities?

You sow in February, when the rain-season is starting and you gather in June/July. After sowing you remove the males, except for a few, for the seeds. But there are so many plants sown that they barely survive on their space. There is also not enough rain to let the plants grow freely. The Moroccans throw seed on the ground and see what will happen. They are very lazy. Extremely lazy. The only thing they did was throwing a lot of artificial fertiliser. But that also has his repercussion on the ground. The quality of the plants was getting less. And you need 100 kilos of dried plants to make 300 - 800 grams hash of a different quality. If you make a good quality, then the leftovers are not too good. So this is often difficult for the farmer.

Did you make a lot or good quality?

You depend on a lot of things and in those days I was not busy improving. What I tried was to give the plants more space, to develop better. But it turned out that it did not make a lot of difference. The farmers were right about that. You should have a system of giving the plants enough water, which was the solution. But that was not possible in the mountains. That means they had to invest into a system and that this has to be noting more that a pipe going up and a pump down the mountain. Then you let some people dig some little canals, what cost almost nothing. Then you would be ready. But such thing costs money, so they don’t do it. You cannot let them invest some money, you can forget that.

Did you not have trouble with the authorities?

No, no, it was completely covered. After a year the Governor was a close friend of mine, together with the local police officer. If you only knew what money I spend to bribe in those years, it is really a lot. There were moments that we in the Governor’s Mercedes, with police in front of and at the back of the car, drove for 800 kilometres to the boat, together with 800 kilos stuff in the trunk. And we just drove on to the boat. The Governor has always a free way.

Why did you come back to Holland?

I couldn’t stand it any more. You cannot survive those circumstances. No electricity, no water, no nothing. Most of the year you couldn’t come to your own place with your car. You had to go by horse or donkey. After a while you have had that. There was also no communication at all with the people around me. I spoke Arab, but too little. It seems that those people come from another planet, anyway. After five years you crawl back into yourself, that is no good. And I knew everything that I wanted to know. And I did not have to stay there for the money too; I had lots of it. So that is why I went back. There also came more and more people from Holland to me. They knew I knew the people and knew who was to be trusted or not. I got more often approached to do things for people. In the beginning you do not realise where that can lead. Because those people want more and more. And then you get obliged and have to deal with situations where also you must be responsible for. So I packed compete containers for others, and had to take care for the price and quality. I did not want that any more.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This interview appeared originally on Highlife On Line, in the spring of 1999. We thank the publisher and editor for their contribution. Copyright 1999 'Highlife'

Go on to part 2 >>>

 

[SpeesCees]

Re: Indica or Sativa ?

A Dutch Muslim
- A report of 2 parts from Highlife, spring 1999 / part 2 -

Highlife: Did you in those days have a lot of money?

Cees: I had so much money, I did not learn at school to count that much. I swear to you. Don't ask me where it all has gone. A big part I lost when the IRT got me. They took money all the way from Morocco to Stockholm. And put 37 people in a cage (in jail), me included.

How did you go on in Holland?

I put two brothers of my ex in the farm in Morocco to keep it on going. And it was just going on, only I wasn't in Morocco any more. They exploited the farm for a certain percentage.

How often did it go wrong, transporting by car or boat?

With cars, only one time, with boats never. But one time is one time too many, off course. And although I was not there myself, caught is caught, it does not matter who is in the car. I know that people think, as long it is not my money, it is not wrong. But I think that is bullshit. If you get caught it is wrong. Certainly in those countries. In Holland you can think quietly in your cell if it was worth it. In those countries you find yourself in hell. Even more when you are alone. And that happens a lot more often than you think. The guys who get caught are most of the time very sour. Most of the times you are left to your faith. There are very few people who think of you when you really are in jail.

Did your containers never get caught?

The IRT regularly passes them through Customs. I worked for Dutch people, where I really did not know anything of, do I did not know for whom these containers would be. But I know how many of these are caught or send through.

Explain ...

Look, my own lines were never caught. It went wrong, just when someone of the IRT was placed in my own organization, in Holland, to catch me. That was in the early nineties, that was when the net was closing.

What happened?

In those days, I owned a casino in some place ( Arnhem) in Holland. I had a disgusting lot of money that I did not know what to do with it. I was starting to gamble and spend two million a year. At a certain moment, I got so sick that I could not win the game, so I thought: I am at the wrong side of the table. So I bought myself a casino. And one, which was doing very well. I was the manager, only on paper, and earned 1500 guilders a week, I had someone else made director. But I kept all the shares myself. In that period I pulled on all the lines of Stockholm, and worked very hard. To make a long story short: one of the people I worked with was sent to me by the IRT. He was offering me hash, which was stolen by the people of the IRT themselves from the 'passing trough' actions. They were looking for a good way to export the hash to other countries, which the IRT was not watching. So that was what they were offering me through this guy, who they forced working with them.

It was not meant to catch you, but to earn money with it?

Yes, that is how it started, and that is how it slowly went wrong. The hash was offered to me for 200 guilders less than the regular price of that moment. I had enough space and buyers. So, there went three times 500 kilos. At the third time I had a phone-call from somebody — later on, he was shot — who said 'Look out, you are buying hash from the IRT'. So I did my thing with it. I was shot at in that period, on the highway, and I know it was the police.

So, how did they eventually catch you?

Those guys knew so much of me, that they used the girl I had married in the meantime, an Tunesian girl. We had a bad relationship, and she did not have a permanent residence permit when I getting a divorce. To certain that residence permit, she talked to the cops. She really talked a lot. And she still is in Holland, although we are divorced. She made a deal with the cops. She exchanged a residence permit for information.

What did she reveal?

They caught my line from Morocco to Holland and one from Holland to Sweden. I was for 37 months in jail, and nine months in isolation, even isolated from other prisoners, TV and radio. They also took everything I owned. After those 37 months they had to let me go with a verdict which was a smelly one. The punishment was the same as my detention under remand. They delayed the case for five times with all kind of poor excuses and I could only appealed to a higher court, when I was a free man again. During the hearing of the appeal they had not much of a case, but I already lost all my money. And than we are not even talking about taxes. That's really a big misery.

What was your verdict?

The import and export of hash, laundering my money and abuse. In those days I did business with an exchange-office, which was caught during a big police action. I was in the middle of it. But they did know so much of me, it was really impossible. That was all because of my ex-wife. They did not only catch me, but everybody around me too. The whole organization was broken.

Did you pick up the pieces when you got out of jail?

No, I've had it, I really did. For about ten times, I thought my life was over. There is a moment in your life, that you can't stand it any more. I was also abusing alcohol. I had seen things, and made decisions, which are really not OK. That, I did not want any more. Your life is under a great stress, you have to watch everything. You live with beepers, faxes and telephones. You have to move constantly and always check the people you are dealing with. You always have to watch your people, although you are working with them for years. To look if they are still honest with you. You are constantly making little traps for them, to look what will happen. You have to be paranoid to survive. You can't keep that up, because in that world are people who want to have your money, and sometimes they can only be stopped in one way. By showing that you are stronger and smarter than them. To always be one step ahead, to hit them, before they hit you. But if they didn't want to hit you, than you hit them without having rights for that. But, you can not think that way in that world. I just got tired of it.

You stopped because of your paranoia?
No, far more stings of conscience than paranoia.

Did you ever do something with heavier drugs than hash?

No, never. Fuck off with that shit. It never was an issue for me. I have seen them doing business, and big. But I also saw them come and go, in a fast time. For me the limit is hash and grass. I was very lucky that I was at a young age, when I met that hard shit, so I knew early what kind of a destroying effects that shit has. That I stopped early and that I have seen at a young age how fast people get destroyed by it. People, who I know that they are dealing heavy dope, I don't want to know at all.

Are you often stolen from in your career?

A few times. Once I have been shot when stealing from me. But eventually they run away with some little pieces of hash and my wallet with nearly 800 guilders. Really a shooting about nothing. I've never been molested heavier than that one time, so it is not too much. If you mean if I was betrayed, than it is very different. That was one out of ten deals. Because they constantly trying to betray you in that world. But you learn to estimate people at value when you are into that kind of business.

Did you have people to protect you?

Sure you pay people for your protection. There is one moment, you can't miss that.

Did you see the hardening of the hash-market?

Yes, and I have been so stupid to go along with it. I should have left that world earlier, only to grow and improve. I bought myself a gun, and I was carrying grenades to protect myself. In the old days, at the early seventies, something like that was unthinkable. I never experienced violence then. It was the time of flower power. But the hardening took place fast. Everything was going more commercial and harder and more violent. That was for me at the early seventies.

Do you still see people from your smuggling-past?

No, I never speak to anyone any more. I have given my past a place, where it hopefully finds some rest and work nowadays at an office, from nine to five. My life is entirely at the service of the little plant, because in my spare time I grow and improve, more than ever. It still is an obsession. That I will never let loose. But the cops know about it, I think, so I am busy with it as far as the cops think that it is OK. Because I really don't want any fuss, I really can't stand it any more.

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This interview appeared originally on Highlife On Line, in the spring of 1999.

Go on >>>>

 

[SpeesCees]

Re: Indica or Sativa ?

The Marocco-Story


Cees (Mr XX, Cannaplant, SpeesCees)
There are growers and growers in this world.
Most of them are professional growers, a few have truly fallen in love with the plant. On the XX-file page you can read what I was doing there, but within the ranks of Moroccan growers real marihuana freaks are hard to find even though they have quite an old history of cannabis culture…

Moroccan marihuana culture hardly goes beyond sowing, harvesting and selling. The many fields and natural cross-fertilising in the Rif mountains ensure strong plants. Typically I hardly encountered any hermaphrodites, often indicating degeneration of a species.

To give you this info I did wanne bring you up to date about my past.
Because I was married to a Moroccan woman, built a farm and lived there for almost five years, I have a lot of experience with Moroccan hash culture which I love to share with real marijuana freaks.

After I had been visiting Morocco for years on end to arrange my 'purchases', it was a weird experience to penetrate the misty Rif Mountains deeper and deeper in the select company of my fellow travellers. The ambience can be very spooky indeed in these mountains. No way back, I had decided to go and live there! The rented truck full of building material roared en shaked as if it really was tested to its limits. And that was exactly what was happening; at some stretches we only ascended at an alarming speed of 5 km/hour. But finally we arrived at Bab'Bebberet, where there was diesel and food for the last haul to Tamaroute Sahel, where we were to conquer the trails with our battered old truck. Halfway the 'path' to the piece of land of the family, things went wrong. The driver refused to go any further.

My uncle Abd Ali with son and two daughters; these are real Rif people.

We worked our asses off moving all the building materials on horseback to the construction site. Fortunately the reception by my wives uncle (whom I knew for a year already) was very warm en spontaneous. After a fat joint we decided that all of the family would help to move the goods to the construction site. 'Dear' uncle did nothing but yelling orders, drinking tea, smoking dope and generally bullying the others!? Later on I learned that such behaviour is quite normal for Moroccan men, as it is in kif culture. Women do all the physical labour, except for the sieving!

End of march: a valley in the Riff mountains.
The male plants already have been pulled.

For them it wouldn't make any difference whether they would grow for example corn. Kif means work, kif means money, kif is just an agricultural product. The Rif is an area that develops very slowly. These farmers are pretty hard nosed! Often they've had conflicts with the ruling regimes, because they would not accept any power from outside the Rif area. They have NEVER been occupied! Not by the French, not by the Spanish, never! They sat on top of their mountains and said: go ahead, come on up!! Hahhah, that was difficult, nobody managed to get these mountain people away or even under their thumb. And up till now this has never happened!

Early in the year fields full of kif... everywhere you go
The plough is made of wood, because an iron plough often breaks on the numerous stones in the soil. The largest stones on the surface have been removed, by the women of course. But what remains unseen on the surface, doesn't count and is not removed. Using a tractor for ploughing on these fields is not a real possibility. Seeds are strewn around loosely, and after that a horse with a harrow. Early sowing happens, as well as late sowing. It's a matter of having the nerves to take a risk, with a possible double harvest as a reward. The latter technique by the way is quite rarely used in the Rif.

Sometimes, no rain falls on one side of the mountain. Here you can see the result.
I've heard many tales from growers in the Atlas Mountains about two harvests. When the rainy season comes as it is supposed to come - as is usually the case - the farmer doesn't need to worry. From this point on only his eyes, ears and mouth are involved! The rest is up to Allah, his wife and daughters. The funny thing is, one side of the mountain can yield a marvellous harvest, while the other side - only two kilometers away as the crow flies - doesn't yield anything worthwhile that year. (see picture) This happens because on that side of the mountain simply not a drop of rain falls.

The slope of not to steep a mountain, in the right year with the right amount of rainy days and hours of sunlight, is ideal for reaping a record harvest. Of course there are 'some' other factors that deserve serious attention. Nutrition for example! You would be amazed to see how much chemical fertilizer is thrown over these fields. Large amounts of NPK are given, but unfortunately, the rest is forgotten, overcropping happens on an alarming scale.

Some smaller farmers exploit a plot of land that is small enough to be fertilized by the dung of their cattle. In these cases the fields are flat and usually close to their farms. The best kif is still produced on this type of field, but there are too little of them to be of substantial meaning for the total production. It has to be said these farmers use this method not because of ecological ideals, but only because for them it's the cheapest way to operate. After a good year they usually invest in chemical fertilizer for the next harvest. At little expense reasonably good irrigation systems could easily be installed in most areas of the Rif. Water and generators are available, add some pumps and some tubes, and go! But, no. To set up something like this money has to be spent, and that is the last thing a Rif farmer will invest. When the seed is sown, the rest is up to Allah, and that's it! I have to say Allah has done a pretty good job the last couple of years. I've never seen a people that so readily weeps and complains while seated on top of a mountain of money because they are supposedly so poor. On the other hand, there may be some cultural component in this behaviour I haven't been able to fully understand. The will to remain independent and the saving of funds for possible bad times to insure this, definitely are part of the equation.

From the beginning to the end of July it's a pleasure to dwell in the mountains…
Just imagine the smell!

When the worst part of the rainy season is over, there is still some rain falling, but not so much that it causes powerful streams of drain water, and the plants develop quickly. The light green color of Moroccan seedlings is simply amazing! A sativa, and actually a proper variety, but a fast flowering variety at that. Grown for so long in this culture, the plants you find in the fields of the Rif are a long shot from the original Indica species. The same thing can be observed with 'our' plants in western grow culture, but the big difference is that we actively grow and select, while in Morocco nobody gives a damn about that and leaves selection to mother nature.

Sometimes the seedling just rapidly shoot up, sometimes they grow laterally before they shoot up. These variables have to do with temperature, humidity and hours of sun. Farmers prefer to see plants initially grow wide before they shoot up, just like we do. But the strange thing is, in the end it really doesn't make a big difference in weight, as long as no extreme droughts happen.

Before sieving, the kif is left for an hour in the sunshine
and becomes more easy to sieve.

About 50 to 60 days after germinating the women enter the field to pull out the male plants. Here and there one is left, because pollinating is supposed to supply the farmer with seeds for the next season. Apart from that, it's virtually impossible to spot all the males in a field this big, not to mention the neighbouring fields. In other words, I have never succeeded in growing sinsemilla in Morocco. The plants that are used are not suitable for growing indoor under bulbs. Although the plants produce lots of resin, are easy to sieve and usually have pretty potent resin, it would do no good trying to grow them indoor at home. Once the plants have survived the storm of 'male-killing women's hands', they receive a little more space and light, and once the weather has improved, the growing starts to go real fast. Some fields are sold already before the harvest. Sometimes because the plants look exceptionally well on a terrain that has not yet been exhausted by overcropping, mostly because the farmer needs the advance badly to maintain his family.

Harvesting is mainly a job for women and children. Using a simple sickle, the plants are cut at the base of the stalk and left to dry in the field. Sometimes (too often actually) they are pulled out with the roots and left to dry, which usually results in lot of soil spilling over the plants. It is not just probable this is done on purpose: it is absolutely sure, because the extra weight the sand brings along is more than welcome. After three days of drying and turning, the kif is bundled and brought to the drying shed, sometimes using mules or horses, but mostly on the backs of women and children.

Together with uncle Ali, 5 years of only the best!


The drying shed is a space that is easily shut off from light. There are wooden pallets on the floor to avoid cold or humidity creeping up. The bundles of kif - weighing between 1 to 1,5 kilo dry weight - are put on the pallets in an interwoven pattern and piled up all the way to the ceiling. A fermentation process takes place, even though the plants have been left for three days in the field. Fortunately the farmer knows exactly when the kif is too humid for stapling. However, the taste of Moroccan is absolutely impressive when it is pure and well sieved. For me it remains one of the best!


After three months the kif is ready to be sieved! But usually the farmer is more interested in waiting a little. Kif that has been stored for about a year, is riper and fuller and less 'wild' when sieved. More potent I wouldn't say, but it's absolutely a lot more pleasant to smoke. Compare it to freshly harvested indoor grass, which is also wild, which improves after a week or so of drying and becomes riper, more relaxed and more tasty. Just like wine, the product we produce from our little plant needs time to mature. Usually the farmer will only commence sieving when he is sure he can sell. Sometimes he sells plants, sometimes hash.

Sieving in full motion. The system is far easier than many imagine.

He needs the seed, so it is important the sieving takes place at home, and he is guaranteed to get back his seeds. He prefers to sell to 'smart asses' for a particular sieving. When he sieves it, and the client agrees with the quality and price, the remaining kif is his. That's not the stuff tourists will take back home, because they usually think it is disposed product. But you will be amazed to see all the things that happen with this kif. It really brings a lot of money to the farmer, which he doesn't get when he sells his plants. How the sieving takes place you can see in these pictures, where me and some locals are sieving at uncle Abd Ali's.

The bowls are made of plastic, the sieve is made of synthetic fabric they usually buy in a local store. It's a strong and very closely woven fabric, so you can only see through when you hold it up against the light. Very fine, but quite strong as well. The fabric is stretched over the bowl and tightened with crumbled up pieces of paper. The bowl is placed inside a big plastic bag, measuring 2-2,5 meter deep. At the bottom, the bag is knotted, because these bags come from a large roll, which allows cutting to measure. Now you grab a bundle of kif, stick it into the bag, while you hold the part where your hand is at the entrance of the bag. The plastic is wrapped around this part of the stalk like a 'handle', so that the bag is completely sealed. The stalk inside the bag is held exactly over the sieve.

And voilá! That's in the pocket.


Then you use a sturdy stick to hit the bush of kif inside, and only the stalks remain. With one gracious but above all swift movement you pull out the stalks, and leave the plastic bag closed for a while to capture the free floating particles inside. A good siever is capable of sieving 600-700 grams of zerozero a day, a real pro will be able to do one kilo in the same amount of time. Usually there are groups of sievers, mostly all of them young men who aren't married yet, and get paid by the day. These guys are so incredibly stoned they won't notice a thing if they would smoke a joint. They snort the best hashpowder all day long… but their sieving is top rate!

After five years I dare say it. Whenever you'd ask me what is the best possible Moroccan hash, I have the definite answer. Before sieving very large quantities of kif, the floor, walls and ceiling of the workspace in which the sieving takes place, are covered with plastic foil beforehand, so you work in a kind of tent. When Allah agrees, and the weather was nice and dry and the plants were well dried, you will be able to scrape the finest of the finest from the ceiling after the work is done. These are the tiny little drops of resin that had only just started to grow.

The kif, the powder and the hash. Ready for transportation.


This stuff you find in concentrated form is called Chrystal hash. The following story illustrates the quality of this stuff. Once I was arrested in my hometown in Holland for alledgedly 'mixing *** with hash'. What happened? I had just returned from Morocco, and shared a big fat chillum filled with this Chrystal hash in the local youth centre with some local boys & girls. As they say, 'we lived happily ever after', but it sure was a land of dreams that was located very, very far away. Geez, even me myself had never smoked the stuff in a chillum and… extremely powerful is probably too weak an expression to describe the effect... Way too powerful if you weren't warned in advance!

The farmer only knows one word when it comes to kif: KIF! Hash is kif, seed is kif, the plant is kif, the stuff is kif! Their choice of words is rather limited, and as long as something is in any way related to the plant, it's called kif! He distinguishes 4 clearly different qualities. Those who think the farmer is only calculating and therefore tampers with his hash, makes a mistake. The average farmer is more than happy when he can receive the current market price for his plants and doesn't care for tampering the product.

He distinguishes: Spoetnik The best!
Zero-Zero Without plant particles
Première Normal but honest quality
Trash Known by everyone (including the farmer, unfortunately)

For all clarity: so called 'soaps' or 'mirrors', this supposedly beaten stuff, is simply made of garbage and preparations. Sorry, my dealer friends, but I've seen TOO much of what they do to get this quality. Quite disgusting actually! You better smoke your own homegrown than that stuff, believe me. Why don't you try Santa Maria, my favourite gal!

Many hands, light work.


One hundred kilos of kif produces about 400-600 grams of zerozero, discarding rare exceptions. Just like here, you can easily fool yourself in Morocco if you start to calculate before the harvest is done! Some fields yield a lot of hash from plants that didn't look so good at first, sometimes beautiful plants yield next to nothing. Many factors are involved. The orientation of the mountain, high or low, much or little rain, temperature, nutrition, time of sowing, too densely or too loosely sown etc. 100 kilos of kif can yield 1-1,5 kilo of premiere quality, but then there is no more zerozero, and only rubbish remains. When the farmer prepares sputnik or zerozero there is always something good left to process later on. As long as the kif is not sieved (but is stored dark and chilled) the resin remains of surprisingly good quality, and it definitely seems time can influence quality positively. Once sieved a decaying process starts. Sieved powder can be kept very long, but once pressed, quality decreases every day. Freezing is an option. The reason of this degradation is that with pressing you heat the resin, open the core of the drops by breaking the outer shell, and press it to one mass. The protective layer gets broken, and degradation sets in.

Our press gave a lot of hand work but was very effective!


Since we are discussing the subject, I'd like to tell some of you to stop talking rubbish, which irritates the hell out of me. I'm talking about people who refer to 'seeing' THC on plants. The plant does not show visible THC! The stuff you can see is resin! And inside that resin you find a percentage of THC! And the amount of resin doesn't say a whole lot about the potency!

An old law says kif may be grown in the Rif on certain conditions. The king tried to get around this law, but nevertheless the farmers still refer to this old law, and with a lot of success. It remains a fact that you can't simply force your will on the Rif people. It has to do with culture, a culture that nowadays hardly survived in the rest of Moroccco. Rif people don't care at all for government policy. They don't say so, but they act that way. The are allowed to sow, harvest en sell. But - at least according to the letter of the law - not to sieve! Either are they allowed to enter the 'asphalt road' with kif. When you know this situation, you realise the farmer has a problem; selling his merchandise without taking risks.

500 kilos of hash, 250 kilos of primo quality!


He REALLY makes money when he gets involved with an organized transport abroad. But… that means he'll have to wait for his money and be prepared to share the risk. If he's not prepared to do so he will not get his hands on Big Bucks. As long as the farmer wants to stay away from the 'asphalt road', he will only reap the going kilo price for kif. To avoid problems on the asphalt road there are plenty of possibilities. They have one thing in common: they cost money, a lot of money! It's not simply a matter of 'bribing', but more like: we feed each others children. The relation with a district governor IS important to 'be able to feed each others children', and thus supposedly help each other. The situation has improved, the regular farmer is not as suppressed as he used to be, but I've witnessed briberies that were really quite disgusting. However, if you don't have money in Morocco, there's only one advise: GET OUT!

Until this very day it's not advisable to enter the area where I built my farm. Quite some people in Tamaroute have never looked any further than the mountain they view from their homes. And uh… many tourists have returned empty handed from the area. Stripped of everything! That is the Rif: first make sure you have the right contacts, or they'll get you. Nobody is waiting for you and your little camera to come shooting their field of kif! Those are rough nature folks with a strong survival instinct. And 'money' is a magic word to them. Most of them need it very badly indeed. Don't forget the average farmer has quite some mouths to feed! But, Inshallah, there will be many plants next year! More and more actually. And Allah smiles benevolently upon the Moroccans. After battling fiercely through the ages the Rif people come out as a people that never were conquered. As a matter of fact, lately the region slowly shows signs of development, but entering Tamaroute Sahel as a tourist… that's still not an option! The tourist board may be planning their little policy safely in Casablanca, but rest assured… that's something the Rif people don't read!

This chicken lives on hempseed and water… So speedy you'll never get hold of it!


Of course, it is 'important' to know how they manage to cultivate ever more territory with kif?! Judging from the paperwork from uncle George's war on drugs, the cultivated territory is slowly decreasing, stimulated by hefty subsidies. But in the real world the territory that is cultivated with kif expands every year. It works like this: A farmer has three sons, who probably like to continue their fathers business. This causes a land problem, so land has to be gained, but how? They simply strike a deal with the forester, burn a piece of forest and secretively sow for a couple of years until they receive a users permit that is accepted by the authorities, which by the way, is simply for sale. Once the forest is burned down, there is kif, and that's it! In the meanwhile, the forester was occupied with something else. The word of this forester, who makes a living for his family, is never written on paper, but is taken bloody seriously. The families know exactly who has burned which part, and leave each other in peace.


Ok....it did need this story to let you understand how I became a known breeder and grower.
This...because after this adventure I was going underground to grow and to breed like never before.
At some point I had 182 X 600 watt lamps in 6 growrooms.
In fact...I'm not that long back on the open earth....and ready to share my grow and breeding info with YOU...YOU...and YOU !

Why ? Well...quit simple >> There should be more grass on this world instead of money !

SpeesCees
www.nomercy.nl

Stay cool, high and take time to fly !

 

[SpeesCees]

Re: Indica or Sativa ?

On march 26th Cees will go to Nepal, joined by Winnie from Germany's 'Grow' magazine. Another friend will come along for shooting video footage. It's taken quite some time to find out in which part of the Himalaya mountains wild cannabisplants can still be found. Armed with this knowledge No Mercy Supply will take soil samples ASAP and, once back in Holland, get these analysed. The samples will be taken at the exact moment when the seeds are germinating on the spot that has previously been localised. Older local farmers are convinced that the local plants that are growing and reproducing in the wild here still look the same as the plants that were found in this area fifty years ago. I could not have imagined a stronger clue…

Purposes of this trip:
1 - Use the results of the soil analysis to compose an seed and cutting soil
2 - Find pure Indica seed of wild plants

In april we will show a complete report of our Nepal trip in this site.
Our guide Lakpa Sherpa>>> Yahoo Small Business - Cheap Domains, Web Hosting, Website Builder, Ecommerce Solutions

SpeesCees

 

[SpeesCees]

Re: Indica or Sativa ?

Female Seeds — Dream or (almost) Reality?

Since seeds have been outlawed, there has been a steady and wide-spread increase in the use of cuttings. The reasons are obvious: After all, this method is just as illegal and a lot of growers chose for the advantages of using cuttings. The question remains, whether this method is really that advantageous and if not, whether there are any alternatives. Grow! Looked around in the Netherlands, where the cutting-method was received with open arms twenty years ago. In a stat of highest euphoria the Dutch growers threw their seeds overboard at the time ad lovingly embraced the little baby-plant. In the meantime harsh reality has caught up with most of them and made them understand that cuttings do not only have advantages. Their obvious disadvantages are the reason for half of Holland being on the look-out for the alternative: 100% female seeds.

In this article we will review both, advantages and disadvantages of either method. We went to visit Cees of `No Mercy Supply`, who succeeded in producing 100% female seeds. He has no secrets and tells us openly how to manipulate the plant in order to achieve this result.
The fotos we were allowed to take at his place are unique and haven´t been published in any German magazine before. As weird as they may look at first glance, they are originals and have not been manipulated on the computer.

Cuttings aren´t always such great shakes.
A bit of history: In the seventies it was absolutely normal for the handful of people in the business of growing cannabis to grow their plants from seeds. Smoking grass wasn´t all that popular at the time and the grass one did smoke usually came from very far away. If one bought a little bag full occasionally, it would mainly contain stems and the few tops in it would hold a rich quantity of seeds. Everyone knew someone, who had tried to grow these seeds in their garden eventually, usually with the same result: firewood. But when the Americans came up with their sensimilla-seeds (which their legal situation still allowed them to grow undisturbedly back then), this was an eye-opener for many Dutch growers as well. Best known among them is Ben Donkers, cannabinologist with heart and soul and founder of the Sensi empire. He immediately recognized the importance of good quality seeds. And while all the others kept themselves busy with growing, he concentrated on seed-production. After a few years, cuttings made their entrance, still known as ´clones´. That seemed to be a great discovery, saving time and warranting success as well. Prices were about the same as those of seeds, but with every purchase one would usually get 10% extra to make up for those plants that wouldn´t come out. When the prices for cuttings dropped this generosity was brought to an end, but since the method still had its advantages, nobody complained anymore after a while. Growing from cuttings had started on a large scale. Funnily enough, it wasn´t done by cannabis-smoking connoisseurs, but rather, by people who had only one thing in mind: making loads of money fast. In their relentless pursuit of riches, these people didn`t shrink from using pesticides or oher substances that were potentially harmful to plants and humans alike.

Up until today the cuttings trade is still in the hands of those cowboys, because the real lovers of a good smoke prefer to let their plants bloom. Unfortunately reality is this, that most of the big grass-producers are profit-oriented Scrooges, who look at the plant merely as a chicken with golden eggs. Most of them have never smoked and they don´t give a monkeys about the quality of their produce. They find it completely normal to spray the plants right up until the last week and the health consequences there of certainly don´t give them any sleepless nights.

Internationally, the Dutch way is often seen as exemplary, but it definitely isn´t the only way. Other growers should learn from the twisted situation that has developed in the Netherlands. We are now ten years futher down the road and meanwhile have learned that the use of cuttings does definitely have its disadvantages.

The disadvantage of cuttings is that they are produced by humans, the biggest minus point being the desinterest and lack of knowledge of the producers. They only want one thing and that is a huge production. Usually, they start their plantations with cuttings they have simply purchased in a grow-shop. In other words, the genetic material of the motherplants is often geriatric, at the cost of everything we want in a plant: potency, taste, health and, not in the last place, a good harvest. As was already mentioned, the producers mainly want to fill their pockets, so one mustn´t assume that they would invest time and money to grow new motherplants from seeds. As long as the cuttings are still growing roots and have a greenish colour to them, these gentlemen think everything is fine. And in times of scarcity the growshops will even buy this junk.

Another problem quite common in the Netherlands are the different sorts on sale. The assortment contains almost 100% commercial rubbish, like `Elfjes´ or bad Skunk. One must consider the fact that the main part of the Dutch production is for export purposes. "They´ll buy everything in other countries", is the prevailing thought and the prices asked and paid for this spinach are indeed ridiculous. Consequently, there is hardly any good grass to be found in the Netherlands anymore.

The next difficulty: It happens reguarly that People receive plants of a variety they haven´t ordered. Even worse, often the grower only realizes by the end of the flowering phase, that he has nurtured more than one variety, all with different time schedules, shich isn´t exactly making him happy, eighter.
Yet another big problem is the supply of cuttings. During the summer months it is virually impossible to buy good material, becuase the producers usually are more family men, who simply go on holiday with their wife and kids. After all, their profits want to be spent and that is why during the summer, there are more cuttings-producers to be found in Spain than in Holland. Upon their return it naturally takes them a few weeks to get their production going again. During those times of scarcity the prices of the cuttings still available rise into the astronomical. Those happy few who could lay thier hands on a few little plants run the risk of arriving at home with some limp leaves, because the heat has destroyed the plants in their carton box.

Plants may get ill as well — especially the motherplants that have been topped off for years and all the while have been rooting in ground, which is infested with the leftovers of all kinds of chemical garbage. If the motherplant has contracted an infection or developed root rot, these deseases are passsed on to the cuttings as well.

It simply isn´t possible to produce top quality on a rotten basis, the proverbial green fingers notwithstanding.

Female Seeds — more advantages than disadvantages?
What we perceive as the disadvantages of the use of cuttings, are, generally speaking, the advantages of the seedling-method. First of all, the harvest results are significantly higher than with cuttings. Seedlings are much stronger and therefore less susceptible to diseases. The assortment is quite varied and all those great plants from long ago are still available as seeds. The juridical situation concerning seeds is different as well. After all, seeds may be bought and sold freely in the Netherlands. (Though it remains to be seen, whether it will stay that way for long, editor´s note) And one does drive much more peacefully with a little bag of seeds in one´s pocket than with a back-seat full of moist cuttings in cartons, which steam up the windows and exude a very recognizable aroma...

A grow-shop only needs a small freezer in order to provide seeds all year round. And yet, with the Dutch growers cuttings have prevailed over seedlings for three simple reasons: low prices, no more fiddling with male and female plants and a shorter growth period. Only after a few days, cuttings are content with less than twelve hours of light; seedlings simply need more time than that.

How realistic then is the assumption that cannabis-growers will return to the seedlingmethod and when may this change occur? One person who may be able to answer these questions is Cees. That is why we went to Capelle in the Dutch province of Zeeland, where this excentric manipulator of genes resides.

Cees has gathered some fame in Holland through his firm ´No Mercy Supply`, which supplies grow-shops all over the country with CO2 tablets and Bacterial. Particularly the CO2 tablets, which are added to the water, have ignited hot discussions among the Dutch growers, because until recently nobody thought it was possible to supply the plant with CO2 through the root system. The method Cees uses to produce female seed isn´t that new at all. American cannabis guru Mel Franks already wrote about it in the seventies and it has been applied in gardening for the longest time.

Grow!: "Cees, we are very curious to hear your story. Let´s start at the beginning: What does "XX-plants" mean?"

Cees: "XX means absolutely, totaly female."

go for part 2 >>>

 

[SpeesCees]

Re: Indica or Sativa ?

Female Seeds – Dream or (almost) Reality? (part 2)

Grow!: “Can you tell us what motivated you in all those years? In dealing with such complicated matter you must have invested a lot of time and also experienced some setbacks, haven´t you?”

Cees: “I have indeed experimented for years, before eventually getting some results. But that´s me – I just won´t let go once I´ve sunk my teeth into an interesting subject, especially if it entails some unanswered questions for the rest of the world. All the setbacks I experienced on the way have only strengthened my will to succeed. The only disadvantage of all those years of experimenting was that I hardly produced anything smokeable. Believe me, this is not a matter for people who only want to produce their own blow. Fortunately, this phase is now behind me.”

Grow!: “Why did you spend so many years on the production of female seed and what are your plans, now that you have cracked the formula?”

Cees: “My object was to extract a healthy natural amount of female seed from really potent XX-plants. When I achieved that after virtually endless experiments, I started to go on cultivating these seeds, to find out whether there´d be any decay after a certain amount of ti-me. During that process I found out that the agent I used also made the plants bloom faster and more fully. But we will discuss this later, for me personally it is not of such great interest. Particularly, because I would only help the ´bread-winning growers´, who for simple monetary reasons often use pesticides and such. Because coincidence only plays a minor role in my perception and because other members of the scene entered the market with female seeds as wel, I didn´t want to keep my knowledge from others interested in this matter. In other words, I´d like to explain that the agent I use is non-toxic and still works very well.”

Grow!: “We´re all ears, so go on telling your story.”

Cees: “In order to produce XX-seeds, one needs a 100% XX-plant. It shouldn´t prove too difficult to find out, whether the plant in question really is exclusively female. A dead-sure method to uncover hermaphrodites is interrupting the cycle by creating shocking light-effects. The shock treatment works best, if one also feeds the plant some extra CO2. One mustn´t forget to add some trace elements as well, though, I have noticed that all the extraordinary events make the plants use up a lot more of those, particularly magnesium. After having found one or more purely female plants, these become the basis of the variety to be cultivate. However, one has to be extremely careful, because there are only very few purely female plants, strange as it may sound. If you find one...be sure she's a mutation ! Be aware that a Cannabisplant does have the factor Herma in her system by nature !
Careless cross-breeding, especially with Asian varieties, has produced a lot of strong genetic hermaphrodites in the past. Therefore, hermaphrodites may still show up, even after a number of ´clean´ generations. So, if the plant isn´t exclusively XX, the pollen can´t be, either. That can be very frustrating, because in that case all your work is domed from the beginning. But okay, let´s assume that we have found a XX-plant and go on from there. After years of pottering about, searching and experimenting I finally reached a point three years ago, at which I could make a XX-plant pollinate itself. But it wasn´t a real breakthrough yet, because the lenght of the cycle was disappointing in relation with the harvest result.”

Grow!: “Most people would have jumped holes in the air getting only that far. But if I understand correctly, you had merely started, hadn´t you?”

Cees: “Yeah, it gave me a kick, something like “And now let´s get going!”. In the meantime I have solved the cycle problem. At this point, I can bring a pure XX-plant into any state I may chose. The fotos show that very well. Here you see a plant that blooms in three different ways on three separate twigs. It´s a strange and unnatural view, but very exciting for me. Because this was the path to good, strong female seed. But also - as I found out later – to 30-40% more flowers on the ladies and a shortening of the growing cycle by one week. This also proves that it is possible to treat the individual twigs of a plant differently. As you see, I can make the XX-plants grow nice full tops of male flowers, which still produce a lot of pollen. When one or more of its biological sisters are in full bloom, this manipulated lady is put in their midst for pollination. Now, pollination only takes place when the plant is in full flower and will therfore produce a lot of seeds. One only needs a single plant with some good tops of male flowers to pollinate a whole room full of plants.”

Grow!: ”But how does such a treatment work and which miracle potion do you use? What you have told us up to now has only made the matter even more mysterious to me.”

Cees: “The plants I spray have to be topped off first, because it is important that the plant is wide open at the top. Otherwise the pollen can´t reach all the flowers and the seed production won´t be optimal. The right moment of the flowering phase is also very important. If you spray too early, there will only be a few seeds. If you spray too late, most flowers will already have withered and then the result is quite meagre as well. So at exactly the right moment I spray the plants with my solution. It has taken me more than ten years to get a grip on all this.”

Grow!: “All very well, but the question remains: How do you get male flowers on a female plant? We have been waiting long enough now and would like to know what agent you use. Please, do tell!”

Cees: ”I don´t want to tell everything, but quite a lot. One thing I´d like to keep to myself is the proportional ratio of my mixture. There are various substances to manipulate the plants with. I have decided to use GIBBERALIC ACID. But currently there are five different variations for that substance available and it is very likely that the manufacturer will come up with new ones. I have chosen this agent, because I had it tested by Dr. Alink, toxicologist at the School for Agriculture in Wageningen. The result was handed to me in writing and it said in black on white, that this agent will harm neither humans nor animals. The test was done without questions or resistance, which makes it clear that anybody could have substances tested for their harmfullness. In other words, it is very well possible to work with less toxins than was thought to be viable until now. The costs? Zero point nil. Gibberalic acid in itself is highly toxic though, and I am surprised that it hasn't been added to the list of pesticides harmful to the environment.”

Grow!: “But can you just spray that stuff onto the plants?”

Cees: “No, that would be too simple. Of course it needs to be dilluted first. Dilluting a heavy synthetic acid like gibberalic acid is a story in itself, and used to be even more difficult in the old days. Currently, I use natriumhydroxide, a rather aggressive substance that is used to unstuff clogged-up pipes. Natriumhydroxide breaks down very quickly and therefore is not dangerous from a toxicological point of view. The next difficulty is finding the right mixture, only to realize afterwards that the state of the plant sometimes requires a specific composition, that is only variable many points behind the comma. The balance is so sensitive, that things won´t work out, unless one is able to weigh such tiny measures. The exact quantities are so small that dosing them is more than just precision work. Maybe it would help to have a pharmacist as a friend, but even they can often only weigh up to 0.05 grams. But the biggest difficulty of all is determining the right moment!”

Grow!: “If this is all true, then it´s only a question of spraying and there´s your XX-plant?”

Cees: “That´s more or less what it comes down to. Of course, reality is much more complicated, but I already gave away most of the secret. I do this, because I think the smoking community has a right to know what´s going on. That´s why I´m sharing my experiences in this area with you. I hope that people who are into manipulating plants will have the substances they use to do so toxicologically tested. It doesn´t cost anything and the tester doesn´t ask annoying questions, either. In my opinion, the only right method of informing the consumer about the contents is printing them on the wrapping. And the days, in which growers ´had to´ work with very toxic substances are long gone, damn it!”

Grow!: “However, many growers will probably want to continue working with cuttings, because they feel it takes too long for seedlings to mature. Is this a disadvantage we simply have to live with or is the difference in time not so big after all?”

Cees: “Growing from seeds doesn´t have to take that much longer, if you only pre-grow the seeds. About three weeks before I want to put the plants into my garden, I sow them under neonlights (Cool White). The lamps have to hang very closely above the plants, but mustn´t touch them at any point. This makes the seedlings strong and thick and one doesn´t need to fear that they will topple over. Moisture is an important factor, but cannabis is no waterplant. Therefore it is extremely important that the medium the plants are rooted in is moist enough, but can still take in some oxygen. The ideal temperature is 25° C during both, the light and the dark phase. Like the Americans, I stick to a lighting cycle of twenty hours, but eighteen may do as well. All this requires only little space and no great investments. Then I put my seedlings into the harvested and cleaned-up garden and leave them to grow for another two weeks. Then I let them bloom within twelve days and so the whole thing doesn´t take more than a week longer”.

Grow!: “When will your seeds be on the market and how much will they cost?”

Cees: “We have cultivated and tested more than 2.000 seeds and all plants have turned out to be female. The harvest result was much better than with cuttings. If I speak of 30% more produce, I am still being modest. People will be able to try for themselves not too long from now. And I don´t even mention compare this with healthy cuttings; as we both know, those hardly exist. About the price I can only say that ist won´t be much higher than that of cuttings and that I will try to synchronize it with the price of cuttings as soon as possible. But that will only work, if I can further increase my production, because currently people´s interest is so massive that I can´t satisfy the demand. In the meantime, the first production has been harvested and will be on the market this coming summer.”

Grow!: “So, if I may believe you, we will all grow plants from yor seeds shortly, and there will finally be some good grass in the coffeeshops again?”

Cees: “I don´t know about your first point, because others will bring seeds to the market as well. But I am sure that we will return to the seed-method. And that would indeed mean that there will be good grass again, which, after all, is a good thing for everyone. But I notice that you´re still looking at me in disbelief; I will give you a little bag of seeds to try for yourself.”

Grow!: “Thank you very much! If you were right, we´d be the first ones to congratulate you, because the advantages you´re talking about are music to my ears!”

So far the story of this interesting and inspired man, who want to share his knowledge and to warn against the dangers of pesticides without any financial motivation. At the end of the interview we received a handful of seeds to try out. We will keep you posted about this project.

The Amsterdam seed-company `Dutch Passion is the world´s only commercial supplier of female seeds, the right address for our questions about the use of toxic substances to spray the plants. Company director Henk van Dalen:
“We had gibberalic acid tested as well; it is a substance commonly used in gardening. Gibberalic Acid is a hormone that only very slightly influences the male flower and which has some adverse side-effects on the plantgrowth. We don´t use any hormones at all, because the plants react in weird ways to that. The agent we use is a simple chemical substance, like f.ex. a salt solution, and is absolutely free of toxics.

Stay cool, high and take time to fly !

SpeesCees
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