It’s very exciting to grow your own first crop of dankity smoke, but many people get carried away and forget some common-sense precautions. There are several key areas you need to pay close attention to at all times. They are:
- Blabber
- Light
- Smell
- Exhaust Heat
- Sight
- Trash
- Utility usage
Blabber
Neglecting any one of these areas can get you busted, but blabber is the worst. If you tell one person, they tell 3 people and then the whole world knows you are growing within a day or two. Then it’s only a matter of time before somebody’s mom, a pissed-off ex-girlfriend or jive-ass punk tells the facist robot enforcers where to find you. Some jerks will even break in and steal it…
Don’t tell anybody. Period. I know you are very proud of your work, but pride always comes before the fall. Ponder this. If somebody asks you where you got your dank bag, just say it came from your buddy’s cousin in California who has a permit. Or whatever – It’s a little white lie 🙂
Light
Most people are not very perceptive in their everyday life. If they’re not in a huge rush to get somewhere, they are walking around in a stupor just waiting to get laid or win the lottery. However, if somebody walking thier dog at night glances up and sees powerful blue light coming through the slats of your attic vent or basement window, they might decide to drop a dime. Why? It makes people feel important to get others busted and there might be some money in it for them. You must always assume this about human nature and apply it to your growing activities. Make every effort to light seal from the inside and outside before you start.
Smell
This is one that is tough to handle but is a dead giveaway. You can buy or make carbon filters and even use Fresh Step cat litter crystals (cheap!) instead of carbon if you make one yourself – check the online forums for plans to make filters.
Don’t think that you can “seal in” the smell or have it “just blow away” or cover it up. The smell from just one large pot plant can easily permeate mylar plastic, foam, wood and drywall in a matter of minutes. In budding, it’s insanely powerful, of course, but even in veg, there is a sour stink that many people will recognize even if they don’t grow or smoke. If you have a “sealed room” you’ll need a recirculating filter and if you run exhaust, you’ll need to keep something running even with the lights off to maintain a vacuum on the grow space and keep all exhaust going through the filter. There are odor absorbing gells you can put in small grow-ops that will do an OK job of reducing the smell, but barely.
Also consider that when you attempt to cover up the smell with air freshener, the oders will actually seperate as they drift away from the house. So people (and dogs) will catch a whiff of air freshener and then a seperate whiff of marijuana. Not what you had in mind right?
UV ozone generators can be very effective when placed in an exhaust duct, but keep in mind that ozone is toxic to humans – causing rapid lung damage – and will oxidize metals just like bleach does. For these reasons, it has to be treated as BAD stuff and not allowed to hang around unside your house or get vented into the garage.
Exhaust Heat
Depending on where you live, sometimes the facist robots will drive or fly around with an infrared camera looking for hot exhaust plumes. In some states it’s illegal for them and in other states, they don’t have the budget. But, if you live in Texas, for example, where the active drug interdiction budget is HUGE, they can and DO nail people like this. Consider exausting to a crawl space (vented!) or under your porch or into a furnace chimney – something clever (but safe) that won’t expose a 6″ circle of 150 deg air to anybody driving or flying by. This looks like a beacon on infrared.
Trash
Cummonnnnn! You gotta be crazy to put ANYTHING related to growing in your trash. If you live in a newer area with updated plumbing, you can use the toilet and sink disposal for smaller organic stuff – NOT STEMS, THOUGH! If you live in an older area with crappy sewers, sometimes contraband can overflow into your front yard or gutter in front of your house… Doh!
It’s best to have a bucket for organic trash and a bucket for plastic/other trash (such as grow cube plastic wrappers, fert bottles…) and keep them in the grow space to maintain security. Wear gloves when handing any trash or trash container that can hold a good fingerprint and compress it all into 3 (layered) black hefty bags, then cram that in a cardboard box or used 5 gallon paint bucket. Tape it up really well and take it to the dump or find a dumpster at a construction site. There are generally ordinances about using other people’s dumpsters, so don’t break the law when disposing. Also don’t dispose of the grow trash along with anything that can identify you like pieces of mail. Duh! Don’t litter by leaving in a field, but you COULD bury it. Be nice to the earth, but don’t risk your safety.
The organic stuff can be broken down pretty well by moistening it then shaking a generous amount of powdered dishwasher detergent or powdered draino over the pile (dangerous!). This is why I keep it all in a bucket… After a day or two of that, you will have a nasty glop of half-digested brown goo that can be gotten rid off in various, environmentally safe ways. Don’t get any on ya! Neutralize it with vinegar before disposal for the safety of the environment and your skin/eyes. Add vinegar SLOWLY so it doesn’t boil over. I’m serious about that.
Sight
I’m all for civil disobediance, but if you are going to grow indoors seriously, do not proudly display a 10 foot plant in the backyard. Also, make sure to close up the blinds before moving plants around the house if you have to. It’s best not to allow any behavior that will alert the neighbors to your general substance use because if you piss them off, they’ll call the cops just for the hell of it. If the cops come and there is a leaf on the floor or a bong on the living room table, they have every reason to tromp trough the entire place, poking into stuff until they find something worth filling out paperwork for. More busts means more money for the department, which means more overtime pay and cool ninja toys for the facist robots to play with. Don’t give anybody a reason by making it obvious.
Utility usage
In this day and age, it’s hard for the small grower to raise any eyebrows but it pays to be careful. Up to 1000 watts, the automated system would never recognize a pattern unless you neglect to pay your bills for a while and a human pulls up your account. Depending on the area, some electric companies my have a federal budget for recognizing suspicious power use, so going up to 2 or 3 1000 watters is moving into uncertain territory. Consider using the multiple new Ceramic Metal Halide 400w units and staggering your 12/12 times to use less peak power if you can figure that out.
Within a few years, we will be able to use LEDs and power and heat will no longer be an issue, but right now, you gotta deal with it. Go solar/wind if you can!
Above all, think like a detective. Observe your house and area from the outside and get a good idea of the impression that it gives. Is it suspicious? Does it stand out or annoy people (barking dogs, broken cars, etc.). If you were an uppity old lady, would you call the cops on yourself? Observe the situation objectively and act accordingly.