Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

A friend of mine qualifies for growing medical marijuana here in Vermont. His mother is going to trial for growing it but not according to the law - the ridiculous/sad story is here: http://www.vpr.net/news_detail/89291/

It's extra crazy because a judge in the northern part of the state got caught with I think 200 plants & 2 lbs processed pot and got off with probation. There is some prosecutorial discretion which was not used in my friend's case. What a waste of tax payer money.

So (part of) the law is that you can only grow it inside. The mother didn't want to to get into hydroponics due to the chemicals, I think. Plus, she's a master gardener so she wanted to be able to use her strengths. Anyway, I of course suggested aquaponics. They are coming over this weekend so view my setup.

Does anyone have any thoughts? Does anyone here even grow it? Or maybe has a friend who grows it (aquaponically of course)?

Get caught growing it either aquaponically, hydroponically or in the dirt here means the dudes in blue shirts turn up
Apparently it has been de-criminilized but not legalized here in WA but

In WA being caught with 2 or less plants is just a fine and no crimial record (decriminalised) just like say speeding or not wearing a seat belt. You have to look like it is only for personal use though, I think two massive plants in Hydro or a large amount processed (even if it is only from two plants) and you will look like you have intent to sell or supply and will be prosecuted under the law accordingly. It would be an interesting test case to see if aquaponically grown pot would be viewed the same as hydroponically grown pot in the eyes of the law.

If you check that out simo I think you will find you can't have any in hydro

Thats what I mean Gnash, Hydro is a no no but when a cop mate saw my AP set up he commented that we could "in theory" grow two huge plants and because it technically is not Hydro but AP it would be legal, that is until it was harvested and packaged and then it would become a trafficable amount and we could be busted. I wouldn't want to be the first one infront of the magistrate trying to explain that AP is different from Hydro though.

I wonder if EB would testify as a expert witness

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Everyone thinks im growing it why??

Probably would if i was allowed to Grow By Law.... However here in vic your not allowed too.... just awaiting the cops to come checkout my shadehouse.... i reckon my neighbor will give them a buzz.

Your neighbour is a PITA.....go find a dead duck and place it on the exhaust manifold of his car

I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole until it's for sure that some less than nice cops or prosecutors can't send you up the river for it.

It grows ok in AP

If you check out some of the threads aquaddict posted in you;ll find some info on the subject... There was some pics of a system another member made specifically for "indoor growing".. Should be a link under here somewhere... search.php?author_id=104&sr=posts

California just had a proposition to fully legalize and tax it come up on the ballot. It failed with 46%.

It doesn't really matter cause it is practically legal already here. All you need is doctor's recommendation. It is really easy to get. They have clinics all over California where you go and say "oh my back hurts," or "I have anxiety when I don't have any pot." 15 minutes wait in the lobby, 5 minutes with the doc, $150 bucks out of your pocket, and you have a recommendation and card.

You have to buy it at the cannabis clubs(which number in the 1000s), not the doctor's office or pharmacy. It's more expensive than the stuff on the street, but the quality is top notch. They also have pills and edibles too.

The law for medical cannabis passed back in the 90's, but the old laws were continually enforced well into the 2000's. Within the last two to three years there has been a dramatic turn around. Most cases were won in the court system and many police departments have stopped messing with medical marijuana. There were a few cases where the police were ordered by the courts to return lbs of marijuana to it's owner. My friend just had a case against him dropped two months ago. It was the longest running medical marijuana case in the state.

Anyhow, it should grow in AP, though I have not heard of anyone doing it with great success yet. I asked that same friend what is the most comparable plant to cannabis and he said it was tomatoes, which thrive in AP. The thing is with cannabis is that the users are extremely picky (well, nowadays here in California they are, when I was a kid people smoked mexican dirt weed). So I don't know if anything grown in AP will meet the rigid quality standards the clubs expect. For example, some of the clubs won't buy anything grown outdoors because the patients only want stuff grown indoors.

I might do a few test plants in the future once my system is well established. I've got to grow some privacy bushes around my yard first though. I don't want any kids looking over my fence and yanking any plants.

Except the feds can then turn around and bust you, and the people selling it...

I struggle to comprehend how that can work.. Prohibition and zero tolerance policies do not work...

Obama has taken the feds off of the medical marijuana cases, as promised during his campaign. Not really a problem in California anymore. However, the feds are still prosecuting people growing 10k+ plants for non-medical commercial purposes but there is not enough resources for them to even prosecute all of those people. Every once in a while the feds will seize a plot in mendocino county with 50k plants and the people there will stage a protest because the feds are wasting resources going after the "small guys."

I wasn't able to add this in cause of the short timer on the edit button so I'll add it here.

Typically marijuana is dosed with mass amounts of phosphorus and potassium during the flowering stage in a hydroponics system to increase THC resins. It is then flushed for two weeks (given no nutrients, just plain water or water with a flushing solution) to give it a better flavor. Neither of these things can be done easily in an AP system, but they may prove to be unnecessary due to the organic nature of AP. The jury is still out on whether or not it will work well.

Good, I didn't realize that the heat had been taken off, watched a doco on tellie last year I think where the Feds were causing major dramas busting the shops and the customers.

Yeah it's been like that for many years. A lot of drama between the feds and the shops, but there were 10 shops being opened for every one they shut down. The situation has changed over the last year.

Here is a link to a news article about the Obama policy shift.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/1 ... 25426.html