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A field guide to growing, from zero

The Cannabis White Papers

Evidence-linked cultivation field guides, rewritten so a first-timer can actually follow it: every term defined, every claim cited, the working shown in diagrams. We self-review hard and flag what is solid science, what is grower practice, and what should be taken with a grain of salt when the literature is thin. If something looks wrong, report it on GitHub. Filter the 37 papers below, or press Ctrl K to search.

Propagation

3

Seeds & germinationFrom a dry seed to a thriving seedling: what a seed is, how to choose one, how to wake it up, and how to keep it alive through its most fragile three weeks.14 min read CloningTake cannabis cuttings that root reliably.12 min read Tissue cultureTissue culture grows a clean, vigorous, genetically identical mother from a speck of tissue off a tired or diseased plant.22 min read

Vegetative growth

2

Light acclimationLight is a curve, not a switch.11 min read Defoliation & trainingA beginner's guide to topping, low-stress training, trellising, lollipopping and defoliation: what each one does, when to do it, and how to avoid overdoing it.12 min read

Flowering

4

Flower week by weekA beginner's guide to the cannabis flowering stage: the flip to 12/12, the stretch, bud set, bulking, ripening, and reading the plant to know exactly when to cut.12 min read Coco & crop steeringCoco coir lets you talk to your plants through water.16 min read Rockwool & crop steeringRockwool is the most controllable substrate there is, and the least forgiving.18 min read The one steering lawCoco, rockwool, soil and plain water are not four separate skills.22 min read

Harvest, dry, trim & cure

2

Harvest, dry, trim, cureA beginner's guide to the full post-harvest process: when to cut, how to dry, how to trim, and how to cure flower so it is safe from mould and keeps its smell, we…14 min read GMP hash labHow to design a clean, compliant hash and extract factory from scratch: what GMP means, how rooms and people and product move, and how a batch earns its way to ma…18 min read

Environment & climate

6

Grow-room systemsA grow room is one connected system, not a list of gadgets.18 min read Lighting fundamentalsA from-zero guide to how grow light actually works: what to measure, what to aim for at each stage, and how to avoid cooking your plants.14 min read Airflow designEvery leaf sits inside a film of still air that limits how fast it can breathe.16 min read Under-canopy lightingUnder-canopy (SCL) and inter-canopy (ICL) lighting put photons where the overhead array can't reach.16 min read CO2 enrichmentCarbon dioxide is the raw material a plant turns into sugar.30 min read Scaling to high lightLight sets the demand.16 min read

Water, substrate & feed

5

Substrates comparedA from-zero guide to what cannabis roots grow in: how each medium holds water and air, how it handles nutrients, how forgiving it is, and how to pick one.11 min read Water qualityWhat is in your water before nutrients ever go in: tap vs RO vs well, starting EC, alkalinity and carbonates, chlorine and chloramine, hardness, and when reverse…14 min read pH managementA beginner's guide to root-zone pH: why one number decides which nutrients your plant can actually eat, what to aim for in coco, hydro and soil, and how to measur…14 min read Mixing nutrientsDissolve a full 25 lb bag of Athena Pro Line into a 50 L stock tank to make a concentrate you dose into your feed later.11 min read Deficiency diagnosisA beginner's visual guide to reading cannabis leaf symptoms: mobile vs immobile nutrients, deficiency vs toxicity vs pH lockout, and how to confirm and fix the re…14 min read

Plant health

5

Auckland medicinal IPMAn exclusion-first, residue-aware operating system for clean stock, pest and disease identification, lawful control selection, crop-cycle monitoring, CAPA, batch…55 min read Mould riskMould is the disease most likely to wipe out a harvest in the final weeks, and the one that can quietly make your flower unsafe to consume.15 min read IPM: pest managementA plain-language standard operating procedure for keeping pests and disease out of an indoor cannabis grow.14 min read Pest ID & controlA beginner's field guide to the eight pests that hit cannabis hardest: how to spot each one, understand its life cycle, monitor for it, and knock it down with bio…18 min read PPE & biosecurityCoveralls, hairnets, gloves and shoe covers do two jobs at once: they keep the human safe, and they keep the human's particles, microbes and pests off the crop.17 min read

Precision & automation

8

Root-zone state · TEROS-12A TEROS-12 capacitance probe measures three things in your pot.18 min read Smart watering · VRWEA grow room can water plants on its own by combining several sensor signals instead of trusting one moisture probe that might be lying.9 min read Signal & noiseTell a real change in your plants and root zone apart from random sensor wobble, and act only when it matters.14 min read The closed loopRun a grow room as one self-correcting system.17 min read Plant-state dashboardA grow-room screen should show what the plant is doing, not a wall of raw sensor numbers.13 min read F2 crop steeringRun an autonomous crop-steering irrigation controller day to day.18 min read Irrigation manualInstall, run, and maintain a sensor-driven crop-steering irrigation system on Home Assistant, explained from zero.14 min read DIY plant-biosignal sensorCommercial plant-biosignal sensors clip electrodes to a plant, amplify the tiny voltages it makes, and log the drift for education — not as a validated water/nutr…14 min read

Facility & quality

2

3D facility modelLay out rooms, equipment and airflow in a 3D model on your screen, and catch the expensive mistakes before anyone pours concrete.14 min read Daily checksThe best daily check is the one that mostly fills itself in.16 min read