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In the early 1990s, when he was 18 years old, High Times Senior Cultivation Editor Danny Danko got his first taste of the promise of homegrow in the closet of a friend\u2019s Boston apartment.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy friend John had a 400-watt light, maybe ten or twelve plants flowering. It was mind-blowing,\u201d he reflected recently on a blustery morning at the High Times Manhattan office. \u201cHe also had a pumpkin plant in there. I haven\u2019t seen that to this day,\u201d he added with a chuckle. \u201cI thought you needed acres and acres of fields in South America. I didn\u2019t realize it was something you could do in a closet.\u201d<\/p>\n
In retrospect, that encounter marked an apt launching-off point for one of cannabis\u2019 most lauded and passionate documentarians, particularly one who has continued to advocate for a DIY approach to cannabis throughout a long and varied career.<\/p>\n
Danko\u2019s pot philosophy is crystallized in his new book, \u201cCannabis: A Beginner\u2019s Guide to Growing Marijuana<\/a>,\u201d released this September. The book caters to a rising breed of novice home growers; it is a return to the fundamentals of growing cannabis and a prime example of the old adage, credited to Albert Einstein, that \u201cif you can\u2019t explain it simply, you don\u2019t understand it well enough.\u201d<\/p>\n Delivered in eloquent and stately language and complemented with clean-cut illustrations, the book makes clear that Danko more than understands the material at hand.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are plenty of [complex] books out there that can be daunting to beginners,\u201d he said. \u201cI wanted something welcoming to this large group of people who are going to get interested in this hobby.\u201d<\/p>\n Danko attributes the rise in homegrow to two main factors: the expanding patchwork of states where homegrow is legal, and what he sees as the rising one-two menace of corporate cannabis and sketchy, large-scale growing practices entering the market.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy worry about buying joints from Miracle-Gro when you can grow it yourself and not be worried about [the\u00a0potential pesticides<\/a>]?\u201d Danko pointed out. \u201cYou can take yourself out of that equation.\u201d<\/p>\n In his new book, Danko draws on a myriad mix of knowledge to inform his readers, including his own experience growing and the innumerable grows he has visited on his travels, from Aurora\u2019s nearly one million square foot grow in Edmonton, Canada to an underground grow deep in the Bronx. He also pulls lessons from his gig writing the High Times advice column \u201cDear Danko<\/a>,\u201d which he inherited from veteran grower and author\u00a0Jorge Cervantes<\/a>, and his years judging Cannabis Cups around the world.<\/p>\n All experts learn from their mistakes, and Danko is no exception. \u201cErrors are where you learn things,\u201d he said. His initial attempts at growing were with\u00a0hydroponic systems<\/a>\u00a0and he forgot to monitor the water temperature, which led to root rot. \u201cIt didn\u2019t occur to me that water temperature could play a role [in growing],\u201d he explained. \u201cYou can misdiagnose and make it worse.\u201d In a nod to his book, he added: \u201cIt\u2019s important for people to slow down and get back to fundamentals.\u201d<\/p>\n When asked about his top suggestion for beginner growers, Danko\u2019s response was immediate: start with indica strains. \u201cThey aren\u2019t as stretchy [as sativas]. They have a shorter flowering time, they\u2019re decent yielders,\u201d he said. \u201c[You can] really get your hands into the dirt without having frustrations of difficult strains.\u201d<\/p>\n He also suggested starting out with affordable seeds; there\u2019s no reason to drop hundreds of dollars on the premium seeds before you know what to do with them.<\/p>\n But Danko\u2019s book isn\u2019t just for beginners. He hopes that more experienced growers will also be able to glean useful information from its pages. As he told me, no one has it all figured out. And the best advice he\u2019s received himself? \u201cNever put minor before major,\u201d he said. \u201cSometimes you walk into a grow and there are glaring problems, but the grower is focused on the minutiae, like one degree of temperature, but there are dead leaves, puddles of water, invitations for pests and mold.\u201d<\/p>\n A bit wistfully, Danko shared that he isn\u2019t currently growing any cannabis of his own. He is constantly on the road, visiting grows and offering advice at seminars and Cannabis Cups around the world. Furthermore, he said he\u2019s wary of growing in\u00a0New York City<\/a>, where homegrow isn\u2019t legal and his public persona puts both himself and his family at legal risk.<\/p>\n Like all of us, Danko awaits the day when Americans can grow legally across the country. In the meantime, however, his guidebook, as well as his do-it-yourself spirit, will hopefully inspire a new generation of informed and curious growers around the world. Danko himself put it best: \u201cGet growing.\u201d<\/p>\n TELL US<\/b>, have you ever tried growing your own cannabis at home?<\/p>\n Originally published in\u00a0Issue 35<\/a>\u00a0of Cannabis Now.\u00a0<\/i>LEARN MORE<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n The post Danny Danko Returns to His Roots With a Homegrow Guidebook<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
In the early 1990s, when he was 18 years old, High Times Senior Cultivation Editor Danny Danko got his first taste of the promise of homegrow in the closet of a friend\u2019s Boston apartment. \u201cMy friend John had a 400-watt light, maybe ten or twelve plants flowering. It was mind-blowing,\u201dContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":32331,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2169,50,6596,5,5485,7256,7257,7258,7259,85,7260,7261,593],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32330"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32330"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32330\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32332,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32330\/revisions\/32332"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Danny](\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/cannabis-book-danny-danko.jpg\")
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\nRead More: Danny Danko Returns to His Roots With a Homegrow Guidebook<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"