There has been a lot of information going around about the need for legislative changes that would enforce some sort of oversight on caregivers. The quandary is who is best suited to be ones to do the overseeing??...???

Department of Agriculture wants to get involved for caregivers that have nursery size grow operations. They have a lot of leeway as well as they can inspect operations and things along those lines.  I just hope that they understand cannabis is not the same as hay or grain and thus their books may need some overhauling to become current. I also believe they just want to get their piece of the pie via their nursery licenses, everyone wants some green and everyone wants control.

DPHHS is the obvious choice I personally think that they should create a task force that could inspect ops and ensure they are up to code and operating in a safe fashion. As I understand it they already have task force units in the DPHHS that go around doing inspections and quality assurance in day cares. Anyone have the exact details on this please use the comments section to accurately enlighten us all.

The one that should ABSOLUTELY NOT be in charge of overseeing cannabis caregiver operations is the law enforcement agencies. They have screamed for dozens of years that cannabis has NO MEDICAL value, with that said they can NEVER be the ones to control and oversee medical cannabis, they themselves have said that medical and cannabis do not go together as cannabis has no medicinal values. That simple belief would completely hinder their ability to be unbiased and subjective to the operations they would be overseeing. I don't mean that in a manner that they would not overlook certain things, I mean in the fashion that they always be looking for the illegal aspects and not the aspects that truly need overseeing, such as the operations nutrients and pest control applications. The inspecting entity doesn't need to have a "I want to arrest you" attitude, they need to take the approach of helping ensure that the patients are getting quality medicine.

Do we see police officers going into Madison Foods in Ennis and arresting them because of outdated cheese or veggies that are really fuzzy and they're not supposed to be? Don't think so... betcha if we made the grocers have to pay a fine to the police stations that the LEO's would be in there writing tickets left and right. With that said, I ask you, is that want we need for medicinal cannabis???..??

The wheels are churning on how they can "control" cannabis, make sure you contact your local officials and be heard about how the best way to ensure caregivers are providing safe medicine, but not in a fashion that is meant to scare and intimidate.

We bagged and tagged the harvested cannabis and will let it sit in the brown paper bags another 24 hours or so and then the curing process can begin. We took a little different approach to the trimming this go round by taking almost EVERYTHING off when we harvested and thus only have to do a little touch-up trimming once they are just about finished curing.

We have deliveries in Missoula today, so it will be a long day!

Wishes to everyone for a wonderful Thursday, and an even better Friday!

Hi All, I hope every ones 2010 has been stellar thus far.

This evening we harvested a few mature plants. JTR, NL & BB. We are very much looking forward to our seeds arriving so that we may begin that process. It is not unheard of for the process to take 6 months depending on many different factors ranging from genetics to environment through out the process.

We are going to mature any males we get and save the pollen, we are in the midst of planning and building a "male room" to accommodate this process. I can't wait to have a freezer full of pollen and live seeds of which I personally know the genetics. Maybe some Madison Valley Chronic will grow from this breeding endeavor :)

Well fingers are still mega-sticky so I had better go scrub them again with mechanic's goo :)

Just finished a three, that's right 3 hour maintenance session in the operation with the wife. We drained all the reservoirs, cleaned them, their lids and the submersible pumps and reassembled. We filled w/fresh water and set the nutrients to the appropriate level, added some stress zyme and finally, set the ph to 5.8. Right now the ph down is in demand, out of the well our ph is 7.4. After we add appropriate nutes, we're around 6.3-6.5. Right now we are still running our Botanicare nutrients with molassas & Advanced Nutrients Hammerhead PK 9/18 in the flower units. The stress zyme is a cheaper alternative to the hygrozyme and other botanical solutions, albeit the stress zyme isn't cheap at Petsmart, but well worth what it does cost.

We recently started using the black mixing pan from Lowes, or rather, "High Density Polyethylene Large Black Mixing Tub", to hold all our reservoirs and they are working out great!! They keep any dripping water contained for easy clean up, the dripping can also be overcome by using contractor bags, but we prefer to capture the little that did leak using these tubs. Before we started using these, I hated walking in and the floor had a puddle. Water and all that light equates to algae, something we don't want or need in our op. All in all I am pretty happy with the set up these reservoirs & tubs. We planned things out from the get go and one of the primary things we spent a lot of time thinking about is WATER. The real, and only in our opinion, downside to hydro. There are many stories online, and I have heard a few from other patients/caregivrs, telling the tale of moldy carpet, ruined subfloors and structural framing from leaking hydro set ups. It is well worth it to plan it out and think it through before taking on a hydroponics grow!

Curing meds look good, still quite wet after 24 hours in the sealed mason jars. We let them air out for 20 minutes this evening and resealed them. The JTR is SOOOOO stinky, and in such a good way :)

Hygrozyme & Hammerhead PK 9/18, From Local Hydro Shop or online. Planet Natural is my local hydro shop, they ROCK!

Stress Zyme, From Petsmart, in aquarium department. 

High Density Polyethylene Large Black Mixing Tub from Lowes, < $12 bucks now, they were $13.xx, price mark down - Yipee (I bough two (2) today, so I know).

We'll just finished harvesting the newly named #4 rack, all but the NL#5 looked nice and ready in the Jakks eyeclops scope :) We harvested 2 Jack the Rippers, 3 blueberries and 2 mental floss. For the cultivation system we use, one of the JTR's got as big as a soil grown one would have, just amazing.

Trimmed/pulled all the large fan leaves off and hung them to dry whole. We have such low humidity here in SW MT that I normally have to have my humidifier on high to keep my relative humidity between 46-55% but with winter I don't have to run it as often so there is no chance of drying to fast with these ladies.

Tomorrow I'll check the NL#5 again with the scope and see what the trichomes look like then.

We'll post some pictures tomorrow as well.

Until then - :)

We are very proud to be listed in the Grown in Montana directory and take great pride in growing our cannabis in Montana for Montanans. We utilize local retailers for our cultivation needs and enjoy knowing the money we are circulating back into the economy is more likely to stay local with our efforts.

The Made in Montana/Grown in Montana directory is a Montana Department of Commerce program that showcases products that adhere to their guidelines for being manufactured or cultivated in our great state.

The directory serves as an excellent resource for folks interested in helping to support our fellow Montanans, something we all should take into consideration when we are spending our hard earned money.

Our listing can be found here:
http://www.madeinmontanausa.com/prod.asp?Type=Detail&RecordID=1560&WebReferer=hopecaregiversofmontana.com

We are listed under the Health/Medical Supplies category.

We take great pride in providing a Montana grown product, we politely ask you to do the same!

We recently harvested a very petite purple urkel, two actually, but one is so petite I do not believe we will get more then a couple grams from it (a primary reason i am no longer carrying this strain).

We also harvest and just finished final trim on a nice Blueberry plant, very dense buds with a lot of trichomes (trich·ome pronounced: trik-ohm, trahy-kohm)

In the next few days we will harvest the remaining few plants in the #1 unit. The remaining plants include Jack the Ripper, Mental Floss, NL #5 and another Blueberry, her trichomes were not cloudy enough for me so she wasn't harvested with her sibling last week. The humidity this time of year is nice from the summer. I haven't had to run my 24 gallon humidifier at all in the last couple weeks as compared to filling it daily in the summer, I'll save that for another post :)

All in all this harvest is looking very nice, I will post pictures of the JTR when I harvest it, it is enormous, especially if you take into consideration my aeroponic/NFT cultivation system that utilizes no growing medium and just lets the roots grow into a root mat in the net pot rails. I'll blog about my specific operation shortly as well to educate folks interested in growing a perpetual supply for their own, or their patients, medicinal cannabis needs.

A dedicated caregiver stops at nothing in their attempts to grow perfect medicine, one grow at a time.

Trichomes, Sugar Coating, Coating, Powder, Sugar-Donut, whatever you call it, it is what matters most to the patient, as it contains the medicinal attributes of the cannabis plant.