True Living Organics: The Ultimate Guide to Growing All-Natural Marijuana Indoors

This is my 9th season of outdoor organic gardening, and I've started growing cannabis indoors and outdoors since it became legal here last December. This book has a lot of good information in it. Probably the best book available for growing organic marijuana. Unfortunately, that's not the same as saying it's the best book on organic growing. Like other grow guides I've read, this one if full of product placement, and the few recommendations I've followed have been hit or miss. For example, the wax vape he recommends works great but burns through $25 coils every few weeks. Ungood. Also, he's pimping Hannah ph meters as the gold standard, but the reviews on Amazon tell a different story (I'd recommend going with the cheap one that recalibrates and get some storage and calibration solutions myself). So, there's that. Another thing this book has in common with other grow guides is a smattering of misinformation so boneheaded it leaves you scratching your head wondering what this guy was smoking and where you can get some. Like the warning not to crank your CO2 too high or you might suffocate from it. I think what he's thinking of is carbon monoxide: CO, not CO2. Which you can't buy in tanks at the grow store, and will kill you. In the impossibly unlikely event that you managed to get CO2 levels high enough to kill you with a tank or generator, you would start to feel the panic response you feel when you hold your breath too long. That is evolution's gift to mammals: when we get too much CO2 in our bloodstream, it tells us we need to get to a place where there's more oxygen to breathe ASAP. On the other hand, don't be like the trog in Johnston RI who killed his family by plugging up his furnace exhaust because he thought it would up his CO2 levels. That will put carbon monoxide into the air supply, which will lull you to sleep and kill you. One little oxygen atom in the molecule makes a bit dif. Also, he recommends Gardner and Bloome Blue Ribbon potting soil repeatedly, then cautions against using a potting soil with a peat base when mixing your soil because it will drive your ph down in the long run if you recycle your soil. The thing is, Gardner and Bloome's first ingredient is peat. There are reasons not to use too much peat: it's not sustainably harvested (coir is) and it tends to turn to a brick if not sufficiently cut with coir, perlite and vermiculite. PH isn't one of them. Peat moss has a naturally low ph but most any soil mix you buy at the garden supply store will be ammended to a ph of around 6.5-7, and since peat is organic material that's been broken down in a peat bog for hundreds of years, the ph isn't apt to change much by the time it finds it's way onto store shelves. He's right about it being reasonably priced though, it's cheaper than the local Coast of Maine I use. On the other hand, the soil recipe is good. I used it as a basis for my composted amendment recipe I used in the outdoor garden this summer. I tweaked a couple things, different brand of bloom fert and I added a bit of organic epson salt (the only dif is mined vs manufactured, otherwise it's exactly the same compound). However, I used it as a super soil, lining the bottom 1/3 of the hole and mixing just a taste (about 10% of the mix) into the rest of the soil. It worked great except the N was high in the beginning: got a little leaf curl on the less hungry girls and the tomato blooms weren't coming on or setting great until some of the N worked out. So I'll cut the blood meal in 1/2 next time (blood meal is the "quick" nitrogen in the mix). Overall, if you want to grow organic cannabis, I'd recommend this book + a standard grow guide + a healthy dose of skepticism towards product placements, knowing that like many books on growing plants these will be a mix of science and the opinions of the grower. The latter is true of many books on growing plants, not just cannabis grow guides. I recently read an organic farming book that claimed peat moss will raise your soil PH too much if you're not careful. Maybe that guy and the Rev should get together, split the dif and arrive at the correct answer: peat ph doesn't really change over time 'cause it's already pretty much completely broken down from the centuries in the bog. Bottom line: it's a good place to start for organic cannabis growing, but keep reading other books on organic vegetable growing to round out your knowledge, and if something seems fishy do your research and see if you can confirm from other reliable sources. And keep a journal: there's no substitute for experience, and no better way to guard against forgetting than writing stuff down. Good luck! BTW, further reading has turned me onto the fact that peat is quite sustainable here in North America: we are currently harvesting from less than 1% of peat bogs here (Coleman, The New Organic Grower). Peat does hold onto water tighter as moisture levels drop and like any carbon based medium it will be compacted by microbes breaking it down if you're growing organic, so be sure to keep it well watered and cut it with plenty of vermiculite and perlite. I do 2 parts peat, 2 parts coir, 1 part worm castings, 1 part perlite, 1 part vermiculite for my potting soil base (before adding composted amendments). Also, huge containers: I'm using 15 gallons of container size per plant for plants that veg for 8-9 weeks. Also, if height of your grow space is tight, google nebula haze mainlining. Each plant has 8 uniform tops, and my 7 week plant's canopy is only 1 foot high. Rev seems to think that this will affect taste or potency. I can only say I've grown both tomatoes and cannabis with and without lots of pruning and training, I've not noticed any difference in taste, only yield (higher yield with training and pruning).

Buy this book! The Rev has loads of good info and experience to share with you in this book as well as his others. If organic farming is your thing and you are looking for some direction on it, this book should serve you nicely. It doesn’t teach you how to grow these plants, it’s understood that you already have a good handle on this before opening it up. This is more of a roadmap to growing your plants using organic methods and techniques that the Rev lays down for you. Easy to read and an absolute wealth of information inside.

Loaded with the best information to grow any plant!!

easy and fun to readlots of not just pictures but helpful onesso long as you read it first

Awesome book! I learned alot from first edition, I personally haven't found a information source that covers more on organic cannabis cultivation. The 2nd edition does anwser alot of questions I had pertaining to first book. There is alot to know when it comes to true living organics and I think this author does a great job converting that knowledge into a 284 page book. I really appreciate this book and hope author makes another. I do wish book went further into detail on teas. I may have overlooked it but I just learned how important it is to sterilize brewing equipment and aeration. Only reason I say this is because I did not practice this. I also use a bigger bucket author uses and didn't realize how much bad bacteria can affect tea.

I am new grower. I knew from the start that organic is the way to go for me. As I did more research I kept seeing this book mentioned as the go to for organic growing. So I decided to get it and I am really glad that I did. It is a very easy read. Sure some things are repeated several times but it is done in a good way. This is also not a my way or the highway book. Many options are suggested and make sense. I have learned a ton about growing weed. If you are like me and don't like the idea of pouring chemicals on your plants this book is for you too. I can not recommend this book enough. Buy it and check out what the rev is laying down. You won't be sorry.

This book is fantastic. I have been growing medical for a year and have thought I was organic, wrong. I thought if I bought everything that had an organic label it was OK to use on my cannabis plants and every thing would be fine. Most of my grows worked out but stressful for me as my plants suffered, loosing leaves and poor output. Well, I decided I needed a system and started looking. I read about the Rev and bought his first book. About the time I got done reading the first the second book came out and I bought it too. I was also ready at this time to start a new grow. Even though I didn't have time to cook my soil I used B&G soil already. I used one veg tea, one flower tea, and just applied the finish tea. Here is a picture I took about a month ago. I have about 2 to 3 weeks to go. My cooked soil is ready and so am I. I am excited to finally find a system that will work for me and deliver the best grown medicine on the planet. Thanks Rev. Do not hesitate buy the book.

This book is fantastic for anyone wanting to TLO gardening. There are a few soil recipes to take the trial n error out of most living soil mixes. Beyond that the Rev really goes in depth on what each micro and macro nutrient is for and it's source. I also like how the book is written in a way where it can be a straight reference for Cannabis nutrients. If you are reading it do yourself the favor of going cover to cover though, the Rev got more than a couple LoL's outta me!Enjoy.

Got this today. Haven't read it all yetBut for me. Its worth the money.

Book came quickly, good quality. Thanks

Fantastic book full of information. Very easy to read and understandable even if you are a newbie and have no idea how to grow.

Very cool book a bit of a must have really ,, not for the complete beginner but not so far off !

Das einzige Buch mit ausführlicher Beschreibungen und Rezepten für den Anbau von Indoorpflanzen mit rein biologischen Mitteln..Blöd ist zwar dass ich die Hauptkomponenten der Rezepte für Erdmischungen und Dünger-Tees dieses Buches: Knochenmehl, Blutmehl, Fischmehl, Fischknochenmehl, Federmehl, Vulkanerde, Hartgestein-Phosphor und noch manches mehr hier in der Schweiz weder einkaufen noch in die Schweiz liefern lassen kann, da seit der festgestellten Ähnlichkeiten von BSE- und Alzheimer- Erkrankungen einfach nahezu alles Organische in der Landwirtschaft verboten wurde,Aber für den Anbau Indoors auf Erde ist es immer noch das brauchbarste Werk das ich bis heute ausfindig machen konnte.. man muss dann halt mit Biologischen Fertigmischungen zum Düngen aushelfen kann so aber bestimmt auch seine eigenen Rezepte entwickeln solange man mehrere Jahre dranbleibt und alles diszipliniert Protokolliert, damit man mögliche über- unter- oder Fehldüngungen feststellen und für's nächste mal korrigieren kann, wenn z.B. auf den Biodüngern nicht alle Nährstoffe oder mögliche Wechselwirkungen mit anderen Düngern ausführlich genug beschrieben wurden oder werden konnten.. am genauen Deuten verschiedener Mangelerscheinungen arbeite ich zur Zeit auch immer noch aber mit Zeit kommt Rat und im Buch sind alle möglichen Zusammenhänge erklärt damit man mal besser mit sichereren milderen Rezepten beginnen kann, die erste Ernte nicht gleich umbringt und dann experimental die Dosierungen steigern, ausprobieren und beurteilen kann, bis man für jeden Pflanzenstamm das optimale Rezept gefunden hat ;-)