Lowenfels - DIY auto-flowering cannabis: an easy way to grow your own

Praise for DIY Autoflowering Cannabis

For the first time, short-blooming cannabis varieties are available in seed form that put easy cannabis growing within reach of gardeners anywhere in the United States. Jeff Lowenfels DIY Autoflowering Cannabis provides everything you need to source seeds, grow, and harvest your first cannabis plants!

SHANGO LOS Shaping Fire Podcast

DIY Autoflowering Cannabis is an approachable and necessary guide for dedicated beginners and gardening ninjas alike. Lowenfels book is the ultimate course load: history, biology, chemistry, Latin and home use (yes, there are recipes!). Readers are actually encouraged to skip class to experience things first hand. I learned an incredible amount about autoflowering cannabisbetter yet, I was inspired.

JULES TORTI editor-in-chief, Harrowsmith magazine, and author, Free to a Good Home: With Room for Improvement

DIY Autoflowering Cannabis is the book to read for anyone who wants to be at the forefront of cannabis cultivation. Jeff Lowenfels weaves together the science and hands-on cultivation of this new breed of cannabis into an informative, enjoyable, and often humorous, good read.

LEE REICH PhD, scientist, farmdener (more than a gardener, less than a farmer), and author, The Ever Curious Gardener

At last, something easier and faster, and gentler than habanero peppers to satisfy our lust for home-grown satisfaction. Always loved Jeffs plain-spoken enthusiasms, but this easy, beautiful book is a fantastic inspiration for enjoying this alluring breakthrough plant!

FELDER RUSHING NPR host and founder, Slow Gardening

Jeff Lowenfels is the best go-to author for cannabis information that I know. At a time when the internet is filled with myths, rumors, or downright inaccurate information about this plant, Jeff provides accurate, useful, and accessible advice that all cannabis growers can use.

C.L. FORNARI author and co-host, Plantrama Podcast

Its an honor to have such a legendary author write an entire book on a plant so near and dear to our hearts! We commend you Jeff for bringing the attention of others to this amazing plant that we love so much! The use of plant history, growing information, and garden humor makes this book an enjoyable gateway to the autoflowering cannabis plant that can be enjoyed by anyone!

MEPHISTO GENETICS

Copyright 2020 by Jeff Lowenfels

All rights reserved.

Cover design by Diane McIntosh.

Cover image by Harold Frazier, New Breed Seed

Printed in Canada. First printing October 2019.

Inquiries regarding requests to reprint all or part of DIY Autoflowering Cannabis should be addressed to New Society Publishers at the address below. To order directly from the publishers, please call toll-free (North America) 1-800-567-6772, or order online at www.newsociety.com

Any other inquiries can be directed by mail to:

New Society Publishers

P.O. Box 189, Gabriola Island, BC V0R 1X0, Canada

(250) 247-9737

LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION

Title: DIY auto-flowering cannabis : an easy way to grow your own! / by Jeff Lowenfels.

Other titles: Do it yourself auto-flowering cannabis

Names: Lowenfels, Jeff, author.

Description: Includes index.

Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20190145153 | Canadiana (ebook) 20190145161 | ISBN 9780865719163 (softcover) | ISBN 9781550927085 (PDF) | ISBN 9781771423045 (EPUB)

Subjects: LCSH: CannabisPropagationHandbooks, manuals, etc. | LCSH: MarijuanaHandbooks, manuals, etc. | LCSH: GardeningHandbooks, manuals, etc. | LCGFT: Handbooks and manuals.

Classification: LCC SB295.C35 L69 2019 | DDC 633.7/9dc23

New Society Publishers mission is to publish books that contribute in fundamental ways to building an ecologically sustainable and just society, and to do so with the least possible impact on the environment, in a manner that models this vision.

Seedling GBD/DAZ MEPHISTO GENETICS

S O MANY THANKS to Judith Hoersting for letting me go into the writers rabbit hole and putting up with me. Kudos to Harold Frazier at New Breed Seed, Fred Gunnerson at SoFreshFarms, Gdb/Daz at Mephisto Genetics, Sebring Frehner, and Full Duplex for their help and fantastic photos.

This book is dedicated to Tom Alexander, unsung hero for all he has done for the cannabis movement, and for kindling my interest in Autoflowering Cannabis, the next tomato!

Flower HAROLD FRAZIER, NEW BREED SEED

D IY AUTOFLOWERING CANNABIS , An Easy Way to Grow Your Own, introduces a brand new plant to gardeners, one that is easy to grow, beautiful, and useful too: Autoflowering Cannabis. Why me and why Autoflowering Cannabis? I have been writing a newspaper garden column every single week (without fail) for nearly 45 years. If there is one thing I have learned from writing all those columns, it is that gardeners, even the most casual, are always looking for something new and different to grow.

This is why breeding new plants for the home gardener is a huge industry. Every spring, new varieties of roses, pansies, petunias, hydrangeas, and more appear in box stores, greenhouses, and nurseries. For most gardeners, the new plant introductions are the best part of the catalogs that come out each year. However, it isnt often that a whole new category of plants becomes available to the home gardener.

Now that Cannabis prohibition is ending, you would think there would be lots of interest in growing Cannabis in home gardens, and on porches and decks. Unfortunately, there are a number of really big obstacles that prevent regular Cannabis from becoming a popular home garden plant.

First, the biggest barrier is that regular Cannabis plants are dependent on daylength to bloom. Actually, it is night length, but either way, this is known as photoperiodism. Nights must be more than 12 hours before flowering will start, and it is the flowers that are harvested.

This is not a problem in and of itself, but shortening days are accompanied by cooler weather in most places around the world. In many, frosts kill the plants before they are ready to harvest.

Not so with Autoflowering Cannabis! Autoflowers (for short, also called Day-Neutral Cannabis and, sometimes, Automatic Cannabis) do not flower based on a photoperiod. They can flower anytime, indoors or outdoors, regardless of how long (or short) nights happen to be.

This kind of Cannabis evolved in Northern climes where the growing season is extremely short. To survive, plants must grow very fast and produce viable seeds before they are killed by the chill. Over time, some evolved so that genetics trigger timely flowering, not a change in photoperiod.