It’s somewhat legal in Virginia now but it doesn’t interest me.
Nope.
Frankly it’s more difficult to grow high quality product than most people probably think. The plants need a lot of care and can be susceptible to attack by mold and similar life forms.
As for the it still being completely illegal on the Federal level, it’s remarkable that, other than some well known prosecutions of individuals in the early MMJ period (e.g. Raich v. Gonzalez), the Feds have pretty much been condoning the MJ market in the legal states. From what I’ve read they do step in when te local state laws are being violated, or when it’s shipped or transported from state to state, it’s been pretty much hands off. No state would ever have gotten away with legalizing alcohol during the Prohibition era.
OR is an ABC state with regard to spirits; i.e. they are only available in state run liquor stores. There are more establishments near me selling the ingredients for a joint than there are those selling the ingredients for a martini.
I liked the stuff I was smoking in the 70’s; which was certainly not high quality product by modern standards. If I were trying to sell it, I’d need to grow high quality by modern standards; if I just want to smoke a little weed once in a while, I don’t actually care if it takes me more hits to get me where I want to be, or if the percentage of usable material on a plant is low – NY’s legal three plants would probably still get me way more than I’d ever use.
And I’m pretty used to discouraging mold in other crops I grow.
I wouldn’t grow my own because I’m too lazy.
Same here. Not just the growing part. I love that I can get professional rolled joints right off the shelf. Plus, we only smoke 3 or 4 times per year, so growing would be a lot of work for little gain. I don’t grow my own tomatoes or corn either.
This keeps coming up. Growing marijuana, good quality or not, isn’t easy. It takes a lot of care. If you’re already growing award winning tomatoes, you’ll probably be just fine. As for the rest of us, there will be a learning curve difficult enough that it won’t be worth it.
Sheesh. Hemp (for instance) grows rampantly on roadsides. Smokable versions can’t be that tough if basic attention to water and fertilizer is provided.
We:re not talking about growing bonsai here.
Spoken with such authority from someone who’s never tried to grow and presumably never spoken about it with someone who has. Yet many experienced people in this thread have said the opposite.
If the comparison to growing tomatoes is valid, it’s not a huge challenge. Even if the weed you wind up with is not “prize-winning”.
I’m referring mainly to outdoor growing. People with little to no gardening experience messing with grow tents and high-powered lighting might well run into difficulties.
On the one hand, I knew people growing marijuana in the 1970’s, and they didn’t report any great difficulties with the actual growing portion of the process, despite having to grow in concealed locations which probably didn’t have great air circulation.
On the other hand, the pictures I’ve seen of modern plants show hugely oversized and very tight buds, which I’d expect to be more susceptible to mold. Probably some strains are more so than others.
I have a neighbor who grew his three legal plants last year and didn’t have any trouble (he does have some gardening experience, and they were grown outside.) I saw them growing midseason; I didn’t see them just before harvest – they were outside, but at the back of his kitchen garden and not immediately conspicuous.
I am still not growing my own, but a friend started last year and I like messing around with, so I’ve been involved in the process. Her success has been limited by the local wildlife (who would have guessed that Pronghorns liked weed), but one of the wins we have had was planting catnip around the pot.
Catnip is a very hardy plant that gets fairly bushy. It has pretty flowers and when it is in bloom, it reeks like weed. Now the rabbits dig under the fence to get the catnip and don’t go further to get to the weed.
Indoors is indeed significantly more difficult but has the advantage of being able to start whenever you want and having an artificially short season.
Outdoors isn’t as easy as plant it in the Spring and forget about it until the Fall. It’s certainly easier than it was back in the day since you can get a guaranteed female clone. I think it’s fair to say that if you can manage tomatoes, you can manage cannabis but most people can’t manage tomatoes.
There’s already an unending list of things that I consume that are legal to grow that I do not bother growing my own, add weed to the end of the list. If it’s legal it will always be more cost effective to let someone else grow it for me.
That is true of anything in gardening. Most worthwhile pursuits in life require at least a bit of care and attention, which is much easier given an affinity for them.
There’s essentially no such thing as a “green thumb”.
I’d never attempt an indoor grow without a dehumidifier running 24/7.
I’m lucky enough to have friends who put in the time, energy and knowledge into indoor grow operations. They’re quite complicated. I wouldn’t want to smoke crap I grew in my backyard. I also enjoy wandering around the local dispensaries and seeing what there is.
I’ll plant anything just for fun to watch it grow, and I’ve always been curious what a pot plant looks like.
I probably would not bother with all of the additional effort needed to make it actually produce useful bud. I understand it can be quite a hassle.
Psst. There are photos on the internet.
Hello! It’s Weed!
No not with 7 recreational weed stores in town and some advertising $60 oz.