In less than 2 months we will be entered into a new era in Illinois. Patients will be finding relief for the first time while being able to find some comfort and therapeutic benefit from keeping a medical cannabis garden. While it may seem daunting and intimidating, there are plenty of resources out there for patients to find information, and so here are some of the best books for growing cannabis!
If you are like me, I love having a physical book in my hand. I can read it wherever I go, I can easily reference a page number rather than domain name, and I can leave it in the grow room to be ready any time I need.
I’ve put together a short list of the books I feel new growers may find most helpful and motivating. These books are fun, they are smart, yet easy to read and understand, and they help to take away the fear and uncertainty with growing your own weed.
With a strong knowledge base and a determined motivation and willingness to fail, learn, try, and practice, anyone can grow the best weed in the world!
1. Marijuana Horticulture: The Indoor/Outdoor Medical Grower’s Bible by Jorge Cervantes
This book covers it all! When it becomes apparent that a cannabis plant needs a bit more TLC than most plants, this book turns into one of the best resources for a new grower wanting to know everything they may need to know in order to pull off a first (second, third, etc) crop.
Well laid out in easy to reference, topically based chapters and well illustrated with photographs and drawings, it has a lot of visual content for the folks who may not be keen on jargon associated with horticulture or find visual learning to be more effective. This book covers details related to soil building, hydroponics, lighting requirements, pest control, post-harvest, environmental requirements, even some extraction explanations.
I nearly tore this book apart reading it cover to cover when I was first getting into the notion of cannabis cultivation. This book, along with overgrow.com were invaluable resources for accurate information. Along with Jorge’s easy to understand explanations, his methods and anecdotes offer a glimpse into a time when clandestine floral horticulture was the norm and to google “cannabis” “growing” or “marijuana” was a daunting prospect in and of itself.
2. Marijuana Horticulture Fundamentals: A Comprehensive Guide to Cannabis Cultivation and Hashish Production by K, of Trichome Technologies
The folks at Trichome Technologies were doing some groundbreaking work researching, cultivating, and breeding cannabis indoors long before other folks were figuring out how to pull large yields of primo herb from inside a walls and a roof. They helped lead the way in maximizing efficiency while never compromising on quality, and now they are helping to teach the rest of us!
With a 4.20 rating at goodreads.com, it is clear that this book is well regarded as one of the best for folks looking for an easy to understand, mindfully formatted and illustrated, yet need a comprehensive set of reference for any situations.
3. Marijuana Botany: An Advanced Study: The Propagation and Breeding of Distinctive Cannabis by Robert Connell Clarke
Marijuana Botany: An Advanced Study: The Propagation and Breeding of Distinctive Cannabis was THE first book to be written on cultivating medicinal cannabis.
Within this book one can read the first documentations of growing cannabis indoors under supplemental lighting rather than sunlight, and subsequently the discovery of cannabis’ photoperiod requirements for induced flowering.
Researching and writing from both New York and California during the height of drug war hysteria, Robert Connell Clarke details medical cannabis botany in a way never seen before and it is a book that would find itself to be appealing to both home cultivators and academics alike. This book goes into the details on how the plants really ticks, and is a must read for anyone looking to really hone in their intuition relating to cannabis gardening and looking to add deep knowledge and accurate research to their garden problem-solving skill set.
This book cannot be overlooked.
4. Teaming with Microbes:
The Organic Gardener’s Guide to the Soil Food Web, Revised Edition by Jeff Lowenfels & Wayne Lewis
Teaming with Microbes is a book dedicated to organic practices. In this book, Jeff Lowenfels explains the concept of ‘living soil’ and what it means to feed the soil, and not the plant.
By growing organically we are able to live more sustainable lives. By reducing purchased nutrient inputs, we can help reduce the waste and runoff from these inputs, and we also grow higher quality herbs, fruits, and vegetables. Jeff and Wayne explain how by living with nature and helping to foster a symbiosis between the earth, microbiology, and our plants, we can also become healthy and whole people who find the greatest comfort in nature.
These organic practices are especially important when growing herb outside where one wants to improve, nourish, and cherish the land where their medicine grows. With organic, living soil practices one improves their soil year after year, receiving abundance year after year.
Because of the need for low cost, high quality herb for medical cannabis patients, I feel that this is a vital book for Illinois medical cannabis patients looking to grow their own and bypass the dispensary next year.
#5 The Cannabible 1-3 by Jason King
So I may catch some flack for this but I will put The Cannabible 1-3 by Jason King as #5. Not only do I think this may rub some the wrong way because this book does nothing to explain growing ganja, but it may seem Jason’s take on history, folklore, and a few general presumptions may seem a bit off when reading through this book, as fact checking by more knowledgable heads would seem to present some contradictions in the origin stories of some popular cultivars.
When the reader begins to thumb through the coffee table sized book they find striking high resolution color images of ganja buds paired apt descriptions and often humorous personal opinions on the buds, and occasionally Jason’s presumptions of the growers character, based solely on they quality of the smoke. So as you gaze upon these gorgeous photos find yourself amused and sometimes well informed by what our guide has to say while taking in the literary ambiance of modern day ganja folklore.
This book is perfect for just getting all excited about growing, whether or not you have any in the ground or not.
This series is available as single full sized 1, 2, & 3, or in a box set of books which are reduced in size but nonetheless interesting.
