A new breed of home marijuana grower (LAT)

[sonomak]

http://www.latimes.com/features/home/la-hm-marijuana-growing-20101002,0,7335503.story

A new breed of home marijuana grower
Medical marijuana patients can legally grow their own plants, and many are happy to tend their semi-secret gardens. Businesses such as Otherside Farms and Golden State Greenery help set up grow rooms at residents' homes.
By Deborah Netburn, Los Angeles Times

Joanne Clarke, a legal secretary in her late 50s, leads the way down a pale green hallway in her modest Costa Mesa home, past a small guest room on the right and a blue tiled bathroom on the left. At the end of the hall, she opens a door, pushes aside a thick black curtain and ducks inside.

"Isn't this wild?" she says, gesturing to the high-tech marijuana grow room she and her husband recently installed. "This used to be my daughter's bedroom."

Wild is one word for it. Bright is another. Unexpected, yet another. What had been a teenager's tropical-themed room is now a beaming, humming, indoor plant laboratory complete with silver reflective bubble wrap on the walls, blinding grow lights, ventilation ducts hanging from the ceiling and marijuana plants in various stages of development neatly labeled with names such as Platinum Kush, Purple Diesel and Blue Cheese. "They are like our children," Clarke says, gazing proudly at the elegant fronds that look familiar and exotic all at once. "We talk to them."

Clarke's grow room is legal — in the state of California, anyone with a doctor's recommendation to use marijuana can grow it in limited quantities — yet it still feels clandestine. Although she's open about using pot (crushed and placed in capsules) to help manage the pain of rheumatoid arthritis, she and her husband haven't shown the room to any friends. "Ninety-five percent of the people I know are fine with it," she says, "but it's that 5% that I worry about. I don't want to make anyone uncomfortable." ....

[Uncle Joe]

1. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, sonomak.

[MineralMan]

2. I'm just winding up creating the 30-page text content for a big

online hydroponics, indoor gardening and grow light retailer's web site. Nothing in the content about growing weed, by design, but that's the clientèle. Eventually, it'll all be legal and I'll probably have to redo the site. It'll be easy.

Uff da! This has not been my favorite site to write. I should be done tomorrow.

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. Link??????

:rofl:

[MineralMan]

5. The site won't be up for a couple of weeks. I just do the

content. Next step is for the web designer to build the site.

[Mike Marble]

4. Marijuana is a significant driver of the economy here.

In my town of 8,000, we have four grow shops.

I drove out to the East Bay recently and passed a shopping center that was entirely vacant...except for a giant grow shop.

People are starting to get awfully busy around here about now as the outdoor harvest starts coming in.

There will be kids on the side of 101 in Mendocino holding signs saying "Have scissors, will trim." Wheee!