The Grind Magazine: 5th Edition - Autumn 2013

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MEGA PXL 2013 streetwear

BANDLIFE

On the road with a black metal band

FEATURE

PRODUCTS

INTERVIEW

GUIDE

Closed Environment Agriculture

Roof-Qube Homebox PAR+

Dub Phizix Break

Room or Tent?

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THE GRIND MAG TEAM

WELCOME

Editor: Laura Middlehurst Grow Editor: Jeffrey Winterborne Copy Editor: Pascale Winterborne Art Director: Nick Cordell Online Manager: Emily Wright

I’m not sure about you but isn’t 2013 flying by! Summer seemed short lived, it was hot which allowed for some great times, however the hot temperatures kept people away from their grow rooms.

Don’t fear, Autumn is here and The Grind is getting you ready for the months ahead ensuring you are fully prepared for Winter as we all start heading indoors and back to what we love.

We have great articles again this issue, from how best to deal with the sudden temperature changes to an informative article on how to utilise those unused spaces around the house.

As always we are covering lots, including our regular feature from the Professor himself Jeff Winterborne where he continues his informative introduction to Closed Loop Environments as well as the regular Music feature from our secret reporter.

Fishing is an integral part of the ‘growing lifestyle’ so we have more great information and tips from our Fishing Guru as Winter is around the corner and No.6 is back again with an overview on Common Law and freeman on the land, be sure to have a read!

Keep up to date with The Grind Facebook page for our regular competition instalment.

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Sales Manager: James Walton Operations Manager: James Walton Advertising Sales: James Walton 0(+44) 7787 565 650 sales@thegrindmagazine.co.uk Copyright 2013 The Grind Magazine. ISSN 2050-2141 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without written permission of the authors. The authors assert their moral rights. In recent years, it has come to our knowledge that some people use information and equipment related to the subject of hydroponics for illegal activities. The authors, producers and publishers do not advocate breaking the law, nor is this publication (and corresponding website) intended to encourage or promote the use of illegal substances or activities. We do not accept responsibility for any errors although we attempt to ensure all information is accurate at time of publishing. The views of our contributors do not necessarily reflect those of The Grind Magazine. Note: Every effort has been made to obtain permission of the copyright holders of articles and artwork used in this publication. We apologise for any instance where permission has not been obtained and invite the copyright holder to get in touch with us. Disclaimer: The articles in this magazine are for educational purposes only and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors, publisher or advertisers.

Our sole aim is to stimulate rational debate and discussion of the important issues of our time. We do not endorse any treatments, medical or otherwise, and encourage our readers to continue with their own research and consult a health professional if they are ill.

The Grind Magazine does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The Grind Magazine cannot be made liable for claims, actions, legal and/or court fees brought against oneself in connection with any use of this publication or products ordered from our websites, catalogues, cd roms, dvds, advertising or other media.

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CONTENTS

CONTENTS 10

42 62

FEATURES

ARTICLES

10 Friendly Fungi 22 Closed Environment Agriculture (CEA) 28 Ask the Grind Guru 38 The Explosion of Lure Fishing in the UK 62 Don’t Get Caught Cold

18 Meet Dub Phizix 30 Stuck?

36 Mega PXL 42 Fishing Guru 44 No Room to Grow?

48 Freeman on the Land and All That 52 Break 68 Bandlife 72 Fill the Room or Fill the Tent?

76 Music News 78 Vintage V Retro Trainers 80 Grand Theft Auto V Some Final Acceptance?

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18

PRODUCTS

12 Exhale CO2 Bags 14 Easy Grow Fabric Pots 16 Alien Hydroponic Systems 56 Cocogreen 58 Like Water off a Duksbak 66 Spray-N-Grow

HYDROPONICS

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friendly fungi Beneficial Bacteria and Mycorrhizal

By Jeffrey Winterborne

Some 100,000 species of fungi have been described scientifically, and experts estimate that over a million still remain to be discovered.

Fungi have influenced our lives in many ways.

Fungi have an aptitude for symbiosis, for establishing cross-kingdom relationships that feed the fungus sugars and at the same time, an ability to give new powers to its partner. Under natural conditions plants live in a close symbiotic relationship with a group of soil organisms called mycorrhizal fungi. These fungi colonize plant roots and extend the root system into the surrounding soil. Estimates of amounts of mycorrhizal filaments present in growth media associated with plants are astonishing.

The relationship is beneficial because the plant enjoys improved nutrient and water uptake, disease resistance and superior survival and growth. It is this association between plants and mycorrhizal fungi that keeps the whole show rolling in natural environments and can now be an important tool for hydroponic growers.

Approximately 90 per cent of all land plants 10 | WWW.THEGRINDMAGAZINE.CO.UK

depend on the mycorrhizal fungi that radiate from their roots and feed on their plant sugars. In return, the fungus delivers nutrients to the plant such as phosphorus, calcium, nitrogen, iron and life giving water. The mycorrhizal relationship is ancient and fundamental. In fact, in natural habitats, the presence of mycorrhizal fungi on the roots of plants is as common as chloroplasts to the leaves of plants.

Botanists believe that plants may never have made the leap onto land some 460 million years ago without the assistance of Robigus and its mycorrhizal assistants. This mutually beneficial association between fungus and plant provides the fungus with constant and direct access to carbohydrates, such as glucose and sucrose produced by the plant in photosynthesis. The carbohydrates are transferred from plant leaves to the root tissues and then to the fungal partners. In

Right tomato plant treated with Beneficial’s, left plant untreated

return, the plant gains the use of the mycelium’s very large surface area to absorb water and mineral nutrients from the soil, thus improving the mineral absorption capabilities of the plant roots.

plant roots and aid in the uptake of soil mineral nutrients. These mycorrhizal fungi are the best understood of the soil microbe families — and potentially the most useful to growers.

Mycorrhizal mycelia are much smaller in diameter than the smallest root, and can explore a greater volume of soilless media, providing a larger surface area for absorption. Also, the cell membrane chemistry of mycorrhizal fungi is different from that of plant roots. The whole length of the mycelia is capable of absorption as compared to just the tips of the roots themselves.

Nearly all important crops form the mycorrhizal relationship, with notable exceptions which include the mustard family, canola, broccoli and sugar beets. Mycorrhizae attach themselves to plant roots and grow thread-like hyphae out into the surrounding soil, siphoning amino acids, nutrient molecules and water back to the plant. A grower benefits from mycorrhizal inoculation as it increases the effectiveness of added fertilizer and protects the root system from fungal fiends.

For more information please visit www.hydroponicist.com.

Plants grown in sterile soils and growth media often perform poorly without the addition of spores or “propagules” of mycorrhizal fungi to colonize the

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PRODUCT FLASH

T C U D PRO ASH FL

ExHale CO2 Bags

ExHale CO2 bags cultivate CO2 24 hours a day with no need to refill bottles or use expensive CO2 production units. The power of exhale lies in the mycelial mass inside the vented cultivator, this cultivates CO2 continually for up to 6 months.

ExHale comes complete and is cultivating CO2 even before you get out of the checkout line. No need to turn it on or off, simply place Exhale in your grow space and leave it alone to do its job.

Placing the ExHale cultivator slightly above the level of your plants will ensure they receive the CO2 they need 24 hours a day for up to 6 months.

This is a revolution in indoor CO2 production systems.

Maintenance free, no heat, no electricity, just CO2!

For more information visit: www.easy-grow.co.uk/exhale-co2-bags

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PRODUCT FLASH

T C U D PRO ASH FL

easy grow fabric pot

Roots grown in an Easy Grow fabric pot do not wrap around the outside of the container. In an Easy Grow fabric pot the roots air prune; forming multi branched networks of roots and root hairs making strong and efficient root systems.

The Easy Grow fabric increases oxygen to the root zone and increases root mass versus growing in traditional containers. The fabric releases heat and cool roots which means faster growing roots. Stitching on the reverse of the fabric pot prevents decay. This is a highly sourced rolled fabric which increases aeration and reduces drainage.

Natural growth for a bountiful harvest.

For more information visit: www.easy-grow.co.uk/easy-grow-fabric-pots

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PRODUCT FLASH

T C U D PRO ASH FL

ALIEN HYDROPONIC SYSTEMS

Alien Hydroponic Systems are the latest manufacturers to hit the hydroponic scene and are rapidly becoming the system of choice across the UK and Europe.

The company was founded by a consortium of expert growers and electronic engineers who had become frustrated with the inherent problems incurred using the current systems on the market. Having identified the flaws, Alien Hydroponics decided to design a product that would not only resolve the issues associated with modular flood and drain systems but also drastically improve the yield and quality of plants.

Previously, flood and drain systems have used mechanical float switches that can be bulky, inaccurate and disabled by debris, and their moving parts are often unreliable with disastrous results when they fail.

To overcome these failings, Alien Hydroponics have designed an ‘Electronic Control Unit’ (patent pending) that utilises probes to electronically control the nutrient solution levels. Alien Hydroponics have also managed to address the cause of pipe blockage, either by roots or a medium such as clay pebbles. The advantages of using their faster flowing pumps means a flood and drain cycle can be completed up to 3x faster than any current system on the market.

This more efficient process has proven to produce not only healthier plants but also a higher yield as the roots are only submerged for the shortest possible time.

Alien Hydroponic flood and drain systems have been designed to be whisper silent whilst in operation.

They have also designed a range of Recirculating Deep Water Current (RDWC) Systems. This product range allows for abundant root growth due to the heavy-duty pots sized at 20 and 27 litres.

This is the evolution of hydroponics.

Check out their website for further information on the flood and drain and RDWC systems. www.alienhydroponicsystems.co.uk / 01403 888276

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MUSIC

c i s u m view r inte

meet Dub phizix

We caught up with the hilarious legend that is Manchester producer and DJ Dub Phizix, lauded by Toddla T, Rodigan, Skream, Mistajam and the drum and bass elite.

It was his ‘Marka’ release in 2011 that cemented his position as one of the most exciting beat makers in the DnB scene.

The Grind was lucky enough to grab this funny read before he continued his relentless touring schedule.

You’ve worked with Strategy on many musical projects. How did you meet?

“He was working as a waitress in a cocktail baaar”… Someone told me he could rap. He can’t. By the time I worked that out it was too late.

Your single ‘Marka’ was a huge hit. Were you surprised when the video became a YouTube sensation?

Yeah a bit. We knew the tune was going well and the video was just made to go along side it. We didn’t think people would get into that side of it like they did.

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Your music videos are always refreshing and cleverly low budget. Who comes up with the ideas and how does the creative process happen?

The videos are never story boarded or any of that.

We just work out what we want to do. Maybe buy a few props and get together on a day.

Strats came up with the theme for ‘Marka.’ ‘Never Been’ came from me and Chimpo doing shit karate on the way to do the shop. The stuff in the video is obviously after loads of training so you can’t tell.

How did it feel when Rodigan championed ‘Marka’ and made a Damian Marley VIP? It was an honour and still is to have someone like Sir David support your music. The guy is a hero. We play a lot of the Ram Jam shows now too. Got a lot of love for everyone involved there. >

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MUSIC

What has been the most memorable moment for you as a DJ so far?

Getting everyone in Fabric room 1 to put their shoes on their heads. True story.

Although you are known for making DnB, you’ve written house, dubstep and hip hop amongst other styles. Do you plan to release more non-DnB in the future?

Yeah defo. I’ve been talking to a few labels about that and obviously I’ll be doing an album at some point so I’d probably include some in there.

What is it about Manchester that makes it such a melting pot for musicians?

No-one here wants a real job.

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Are there any new Manchester based artists or genres we should look out for?

Chimpo. He makes Benchill bass. It’s proper sick.

Finally do you have any forthcoming releases or any gigs and tours we should know about?

I’ve got a tune coming on the next Critical compilation. I’m building a statue of myself out of onions and I’m playing in your shed on Thursday.

YEAH G!

HYDROPONICS

Closed Environment Agriculture (CEA)

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Merging Nature and Technology Even Closer Together

Closed Loop Horticulture

By Toby Berryman and Jeffrey Winterborne

This method is also known as: Closed Growing Environment (CGE), Sealed Room, Closed Loop Environment or the Perfect Room Esoteric Hydroponics are proud to announce that due to demand, we are now specialising in what is clearly becoming the next level of indoor horticulture techniques, and are now fully stocked and selling the best products available on the market for creating the perfect closed environment grow room.

Closed rooms are used by the best commercial growers for large scale applications. But can easily be down sized for the enthusiast and hobby grower as well. There is no better way to grow, and you will be asking yourself why you didn’t convert sooner, when you realise how much easier your gardening life becomes.

If you are tired of temperature spikes in the hot days of summer, tired of having to heat or have cold periods during the days of winter, frustrated with going through endless bottles of CO2, or 22 | WWW.THEGRINDMAGAZINE.CO.UK

furious with having to tackle various pests, spores, moulds and airborne diseases finding their way into your grow room and attacking your beloved plants, then read this article, follow our advice and join the rapidly growing movement which is simply the future and next level of indoor growing methods.

Traditional grow rooms here in the UK and across the globe have for many years been a fairly basic concept. Running numbers of HID light fixtures in a confined space to mimic the intense light of the sun, coupled with powerful intake and extraction fans to combat the massive amounts of heat generated by the lamps and ballasts and other equipment in your room, whilst also allowing fresh air to flow through the room providing your plants with CO2 and oxygen; this is the basic concept of a traditional grow room. However, this concept is flawed. All indoor growers that know what they are doing are all basically aiming for the same ideals: optimal temperature ranges between 22-25°, optimal humidity levels of approximately 50% when in the blooming stage of growth, and as little

to no temperature and humidity fluctuations as possible. But what do you do when the temperature outside is higher than the desired levels within your grow room? Or when it’s particularly humid outside? You sit there scratching your head, and basically pray that the temperature or humidity levels drop before too much damage is done to your plants. What we are getting at here is the entire concept of the traditional grow room which has been practiced and built upon for all these years, all around the world, is fundamentally flawed, because despite the money you spend on massive loud extraction fan systems, environmental controllers and everything else in between, the outside conditions are always dictating the conditions within your grow room. If it’s 25° outside, then it is literally impossible to maintain the desired temperature within your grow room. And there is only one answer to solving these problems, whilst having absolute control of every aspect of your indoor grow room, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. That answer is; pull down those fans, get rid of that messy ducting, seal up all of those holes and create a totally perfect closed off grow room - create your very own garden of Eden: A CLOSED GROWING ENVIRONMENT! A Closed Growing Environment is an indoor garden that is totally, you’ve guessed it, closed! And we aren’t just talking about light proofing here. We mean air-sealed. There are no holes, gaps or vents to anything outside of the indoor garden. The name of the game here is to create a totally controlled environment where every aspect of the plants’ production can be manipulated and customized to produce the optimum results. Setting up a closed indoor garden is more expensive but, if done correctly, it should give you the maximum ability to dictate and control temperatures, CO2 levels, humidity and disease - 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

I bet at this point, some of you are scratching your swede and thinking to yourself, “if I totally seal off

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my room and exchange no air through extraction, isn’t my room going to get really, really hot and my plants suffocate to death through lack of fresh air?” This is where the three main parts to a closed room come into play. The three central organs of a closed grow room are: air conditioners, dehumidifiers and CO2 generators. With these three items replacing your fans, you can have a perfect room, plain and simple.

Now let’s break it down. Firstly, air conditioning.

There are many types of air conditioners available - portable units, both single hosed and dual hosed, window units, commercial sized spot coolers and more. All of these will provide some cooling power, but unfortunately these units tend to be very inefficient and most types actually use air from within your room to cool the internal compressor and this totally defeats the object of keeping the room sealed, as they will be sucking some air out of your room which will create a negative air pressure within your room and will waste precious CO2. The only units we would advise using, which we stock, are split air conditioners and water cooled air conditioners, A split air conditioner exchanges no air with the outside world, they are, as their name would suggest, split, into two units, an indoor air handler, and an outdoor condenser unit with a pre-charged and sealed umbilical line which can be installed without the help of a qualified expert. These units are the best available, from lighter mini splits, all the way to commercial units that can cool 24 600 watt lights, are guaranteed for easy do-it-yourself installation.

In simple terms, the indoor air handler would be placed within the grow room, it will pull air from within the grow room across a heat exchanger with incredibly cold refrigerant running through it, and the heat within the air is then transferred down the tubing through the refrigerant to the outdoor unit where the heat is expelled. So, no air is being removed from the room, only the heat within the air is removed before the air is blown straight back to the grow room. Likewise, water cooled > WWW.THEGRINDMAGAZINE.CO.UK | 23

HYDROPONICS

air conditioners can be self installed and are very efficient in terms of power usage, and can transfer heat very efficiently and send it down the drain into the sewers, they do not require an outdoor air handler, which will be appealing for a lot of situations, but the downside to water cooled units are they will use incredible amounts of water.

Another added bonus of using air conditioning in a closed room is the benefit of dehumidification; the air conditioner not only cools but also dehumidifies as it cools, and in a sealed off room as your plants transpire, there will be an abundance of humidity created, which for the most part can be perfectly controlled with your air conditioner. Now air conditioners are rated in BTUs (British Thermal Units). This represents how many BTU’s of heat they can cool per hour. They can also be rated in tons and kilowatts. The basic rule is simple - 12000 BTUs is the equivalent to 1 ton of air conditioning which is 3.5 kilowatts, so to calculate cooling requirements all we need to do is calculate how many watts of heat we need to cool per hour -1000 watts of light is generating 3412 BTUs of heat. Now there have been several methods of calculating air con size over the years in the world of closed rooms; previously people were advised to account for room size, ballasts in the room etc. but there is an easier way to calculate. But this is only applicable when using the proper, made for the job systems that we stock.

This is tried and tested. 1000 watts of power is 1000 watts, bulb and ballast combined, regardless of the bulb or ballasts’ efficiency. Combined, they are generating 3412 BTUs of heat and in the case of an old magnetic coil ballast, the light generated may be less efficient and the ballast producing more heat, but combined they are still 1000 watts and still creating 3412 BTUs of heat. A modern digital ballast has a much more efficient way of operating creating a brighter more efficient burn of the same lamp, resulting in a hotter bulb, but a cooler 24 | WWW.THEGRINDMAGAZINE.CO.UK

ballast, but combined, they are still generating 3412 BTUs of heat. With all of this in mind, we must allow 4000 BTUs of cooling power per 1000 watts of light. This allows for the room size and CO2 burners, the heat from dehumidifiers etc. So one ton (12000) BTUs of cooling power for every 3000 watts of light, these calculations can be downsized by 10% if ballasts are placed outside the grow space and by another 20% approximately if the lights are air cooled. But since not all appliances are 100% efficient we should also factor in maybe 20% extra power to play it safe and account for other variables like outside temperatures and also allowing our air con to not have to run at 100% all day long, prolonging the life of the units and components within it. So when sizing your air con, just remember to allow 4000 BTUs of cooling power for every 1000 watts of lighting or 2400 BTUs for every 600 watts of lighting. Only expect these calculations to work if you are using a proper, made for sealed room applications unit.

The second thing we have begun to tackle but not entirely is humidity. While air conditioners are dehumidifying to some degree, they are doing so as a by product of the way in which they function in order to cool the air. So when the lights come on or go off with only an air conditioner in the room, you will have massive spikes in humidity, as the air con ceases to need to cool the lights to maintain the desired temperature. When the lights go off, it will also stop dehumidifying, and since the room is sealed with no ventilation, the humidity will rapidly climb to 100% due to transpiration and evaporation. This is why we would employ a dehumidifier which will automatically kick on and off as required to maintain the desired level of humidity within the room, 24 hours a day. Now, there are rules in sizing a dehumidifier just as there are in sizing your air conditioner and as far as sizing the dehumidification volume of your dehumidifier is concerned, we recommend

approximately 1 litre per plant per 24 hour period.

Ensuring that the de humidifier has a decent air flow rate of at least 300 m³/h, for small set ups and at least 1500 m³/h for large set ups. i.e. a dehumidifier that can pull 150 litres per 24 hours that has an air flow of 1500 m³/h can handle a room of up to 150 plants, where a dehumidifier that can pull 32 litres per 24 hours with an air flow rate of 300 m³/h can handle a room with up to 32 plants. It is imperative that you get a dehumidifier that can move a lot of air, buying one that will pull 150 litres per day but with an air flow rate of 200 m³/h just won’t cut it. The reason we need such powerful dehumidification in a room of this type is this. A large mature plant in a hydroponic system can consume up to a litre of water per day; very large plants can drink even more, and

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almost all of the water consumed by a plant will enter back into the atmosphere of the room through transpiration, and other variables such as evaporation from tanks and water vapour created by your CO2 generators all add up as well.

This article will be concluded in our next edition, when you will find out about how to calculate your dehumidifier requirements, the benefits of reverse osmosis water, the optimum temperature for closed room environments, how to effectively use Activated Carbon filters, how to choose your cooling system and more.

For more information about this topic please visit www.1-hydroponics.co.uk or call 01483 596484.

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GRIND GURU

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ask the grind guru

Dear Guru, I have everything right in my grow room, temperature, humidity, correct ratio of nutes and fantastic air flow. But, three weeks into my flowering cycle I started to notice small spots of rust developing, I knew this was not a fungus as I used a sulphur burner earlier in the cycle. By week 6 of flower, 50% of each plant’s leaves had ‘rusted’ and dried up. I still cannot figure this out. What happened? Jim from Manchester Hi Jim, this is a fairly common problem amongst growers, especially in soil based grow set ups.

In a nutshell, it is a deficiency of nutrients. One of two things may be true, you either re-used your medium - and it is lacking essential micro nutrients. Or, if using a brand spanking new medium, you have omitted a regular EC 0.0 flush.

Thus, salt residue slowly builds up, locking out essential micro nutrients. Usually, ‘rust’ first occurs on leaves dues to a lack of Iron (Fe), Calcium (Ca) or Magnesium (Mg). The most basic solution to this is to use a micro nutrient additive, Mag-Cal from Plant Magic works wonders! Flush your medium before-hand, and it is as simple as that. The upshot is, that extra Calcium aids the absorption of your PK boosters, increasing overall yield. Everyone grower can learn from this for next time.

Hi Grind Mag, just recently I have had horrendous heat in my grow room, temps have been reaching +40C. My plants really slowed their growth down.

I fear that my Habanero Peppers will lose a lot of flavour in the end. What can I do? Many thanks, Bill, Exeter 28 | WWW.THEGRINDMAGAZINE.CO.UK

Bill, your problem is a serious one. Plants slow their metabolism right down in high temperatures, and put their energy into transpiration. This is the plants attempt at cooling itself. If the temperatures go higher still, the plant stops growing altogether.

The most realistic way for you to reduce your grow room temperature is to increase the size of your extraction fan. This all depends on how many lights you are running. A small air conditioning unit can always help as you can actually select a desired temperature and the unit will do the work for you.

Hope this helps. Keep us posted.

Hello Grind Guru, I am thinking of starting four mother plants for me and my friends to use for clones. What is the best way to go about this? Do I simply start from seed and grow the plants or is there a knack to doing this? Cheers, G. Louth from Lancaster This is an interesting topic, breeders will tell you the same thing: simply starting from seed is not a good idea. You have to look for the ideal genetics.

Seed genetics can be equated to human genetics.

If you have a blonde mum and a brown haired dad and they have five children, the likelihood is, the children will have a range of hair colours ranging from blonde to brown and everything in between, so you have to find the ideal mix in the next generation of seeds. Then it will be worthwhile having a mother plant with those genetics. It is therefore a fairly drawn out process. But if you put in the work the rewards are there. Buy five or more seeds and take a cutting from each one, when

they are ready for it. Keep the cuttings in vegetative stage until you have flowered the seedlings and have chosen your desired genetics. Then mother your chosen clone and your friends will thank you as you will be the only one with the ideal mother plants. Nothing is worse than giving your friends cuttings from a mother that has not been tested to see what the fruit will be like.

Hi All, I need help urgently, my plants have been in for 4 weeks now, 3 of those in the veg stage.

Everything seemed to be going fine, but just recently growth has really slowed down and the lower tier of the leaf canopy has started to go yellow. I have tried to supplement and give the plants more feed on top of my schedule of feeding every day. But this has not resolved my problem. I am using 400W bulbs and growing in bat mix.

Del from London Del, stop what you are doing! By the sound of things you are giving your plants way too much water! If you water your plants too much the soil will become water logged and you will suffer oxygen starvation, thus slowing metabolism and photosynthesis dramatically. In this instance giving your plants more nutrients will not solve the problem, as they are starting to use less and less, progressively. Dry your medium out for a few days, this will give your roots more oxygen. Then re-start your feeding schedule. Also, if you want your plants to use more nutrients and turn those nutes into big fruit use higher powered lights such as 600W or 1000W bulbs. Nutrients will be transformed into fruit mass much quicker.

Dear Grind, I am growing on a hydro system and I don’t know whether it is the fact that there is standing water or constantly wet coco coir, but it gives off a hell of a stench. I have tried every air freshener possible, but when I come back in the room, I can smell rotting water through the air fresheners. Please help! Kevin, Swansea

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Hi Kevin, odour can be an issue for some growers as you are dealing with a lot of organic materials.

There are two ways to actually kill bad smells.

Firstly, get a bigger carbon filter so that you can filter out those nasty smells. Also, introduce an ozone generator into your room. Ozone physically destroys all known organic odours. It really does work wonders and your neighbours may thank you for it. I would recommend visiting www.odair.co.uk.

They have a full range of ozone solutions. I hope this helps, remember the key is to keep your grow room clean!

Dear Guru, how do I make sure that I get the most out of my chilli plants? I am growing the Ghost Naga variety and I am trying to max out their heat production. Do you have any suggestions? Ian Futcher, Bognor Regis Ian, top quality fruit is what every grower aims to achieve. Whichever fruit you are growing, you will always be able to push the plant harder indoors, with the right conditions of course. Generally speaking, the longer you leave the fruit to ripen on the plant the better it will taste. This is true up until the point of degradation, where fungus slowly sets in and the sugars in the fruit start to react. So it is more about the perfect time to harvest after all the hard work is done. You really want to be harvesting just as the leaves on your plants start to turn yellow in colour. This way you know that the minerals and pigments in the leaves are starting to break down and flavour is added to your fruit.

This however, is a generalisation. Chillies increase ‘heat’ right towards the very end of the fruit’s life as a mechanism of defence against fungus. So again, pick the right time to harvest. If you are looking for something you can add into your feeding schedule, try House & Garden Shooting Powder, it is amazing stuff. It is a Phosphorus and Potassium additive and works by causing a secondary flowering of your plants when they are almost at the end of their normal flowering stage.

We look forward to hearing about your results.

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LIFESTYLE

E

L Y T S LIFE

stuck?

By Everest Fernandez

What’s happened to my mates, my proper mates — the ones I grew up with?

I assume they all hate me, but the sad truth is… I don’t know.

My closer friends ignore my emails and shun my text messages. The others, those miserable bastards who don’t even bother to keep me upto-date with contact details, humiliate me further by ignoring my Facebook friend requests — not even an explicit rejection, just a tacit ‘fuck you’. The dearly beloved social network evidently logs each and every one of these electronic tumbleweeds and offers me consolation in the form of advertisements for mail-order Ukrainian brides.

Everybody knows I’m sad.

I used to have lots of friends and a fairly ebullient social life. Sometimes I’d host parties at my home — pretty good parties I might add — they’d rev up on a Friday night and then, all of a sudden, it was Monday — not in a Rohypnolesque sense — all selfadministered. Anyway, I quit my job, shut everything down and buggered off travelling. Looking back, I think that marked the beginning of the end.

I guess there was a general expectation for me to return to Blighty — in nine months, a year, maybe 30 | WWW.THEGRINDMAGAZINE.CO.UK

even two if I properly eked it out. Of course, I did my best not to give that impression right from the offset.

“How long you going for?” they asked.

“Indefinitely,” I’d reply.

Nobody liked hearing that — made me sound like a bit of a twat. Perhaps they imagined me heading off indefinitely with my Deuter backpack with a shoeboxfull and languishing in ThailandLaosVietnamCambodia (say it like it’s one word for bonus twat points) for a bit too long, you know — living the life they secretly longed for — the unrestrained and deeply twattish expression of freedom.

They forgot about me almost immediately — easier to forget than to endure endless tales of forays into hedonism. Who wants to picture my sweaty manchild body gratefully receiving a dose of tropical fellatio after a full moon party ensconced >

“There’s nothing to mourn about death any more than there is to mourn about the growing of a flower. What is terrible is not death but the lives people live or don’t live up until their death. They don’t honour their own lives, they piss on their lives. They shit them away. Dumb fuckers.

They concentrate too much on fucking, movies, money, family, fucking.

Their minds are full of cotton. They swallow God without thinking, they swallow country without thinking. Soon they forget how to think, they let others think for them. They look ugly, they talk ugly, they walk ugly.

Play them the great music of the centuries and they can’t hear it. Most people’s deaths are a sham. There’s nothing left to die.”

Charles Bukowski

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LIFESTYLE

“The man who dies before he dies, does not die when he dies.”

Abraham á Sancta Clara

in a hut on a palm-fringed beach in Thailand whilst they are simultaneously nudging their way along the M6 on a cold, grey and dismal Monday morning in a car that needs a service, still with > 36 months of repayments remaining, heading to a jobby-job they despise but paying just enough to imbue them with a fear of leaving? Nobody.

Now — I concede that putting thousands of miles between myself and my mates doesn’t seem like the most secure friendship maintenance plan — but let us not forget the modern practicalities.

Can’t we email? Don’t like typing. How about Skype? Not installed it yet. Phone call? No answer.

(Busy watching telly, no doubt.) Useless bastards, all of them.

I started a blog. Twat. Posted ‘selfies’ stood in front of a vibrant Malaysian street scene. Twat.

Lived in Australia for a while. Upsidedown Twat.

Not forgetting New Zealand. Hobbit Twat. And the Californian chicks went crazy for my accent, especially when I “Hugh-Granted” it up a bit.

Twat. Twat. Triple fucking twat! (”Gosh, I think I love you!”) Twat.

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Perhaps now it’s all too clear. I’m pushing forty and still enjoying myself far too much. In other words, I’m a twat — in my mates’ eyes at least. I refuse to tolerate a shit job, deferring a mythical future life until retirement. In fact I have no career to speak of save this typing malarkey. No assets. No ISAs. No debts. Whereas they’re all up to their eyes in it — sallow-skinned, greying, bitter and jaded — just like the old folks we swore we’d never become. But somehow they’ve become worse. They’ve forgotten to live at all, lost in the economic carousel, all in the name of preparing for the next holiday and ultimately a fiscally graceful death.

You may want to remind me that we have to work and it’s not supposed to be fun. Perhaps you accept that ‘modern life’ is intrinsically, brutally and relentlessly hard. But what is ‘modern life’? What does the term really mean beyond a euphemism for ‘putting up with the same plebeian bullshit as the others’? The idea of modernity goes way back.

Of course, I could have chosen to remain in that shit job a decade ago and, theoretically, I might

still be there now in a parallel shitverse. A quick Google search confirms that my ‘boss’ (grand chief twat) is actually still there — poor fucker! He offered me more money to stay — a permanent contract with a pension plan and a generous holiday allowance. The bank would’ve thrown a mortgage at me and now I could be living a glorious life in negative equity, a modern slave trying to convince himself that he’s chosen to sign a death deed committing him to twenty-five years of abject monotony — five days on, two days off…

It’s such a horrible life — this merely ‘economic’ existence we’re somehow conditioned to accept as normal through years of ‘state education’ and mainstream media prattle. We acquiesce to the governing classes as they herd our four and five year old darlings, barely out of nappies, swiftly into uniform and endless days of relentless routine, loathsome lessons and Pavlovian bells.

School is a disgusting place — and it needs to be — what else will prepare us for the ‘world of work’? The state education system was arguably designed to facilitate the growing labour demands

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of the industrial revolution. Our malleable minds slowly learn to accept the normalcy of slavery.

I remember, back in the day, hatching my own escape plan, not realising that the whole battle was taking place in my head. I bought a grow light.

Then another. And another. Badass. A microherb enterprise perhaps, sir? Basil. Coriander.

Wheatgrass. You name it. But most of us aren’t in it for the pesto. We’re blagging it — merely using our newfound interest in horticulture as a shield to hide from the monstrousness and absurdity of the world we already think we know too well. The reality of our cowardice haunts us like a spectre and we inexorably become slaves to our escape plans.

Most never materialise.

So don’t get stuck — especially in plans and certainly not in perceived obligations — a job, mortgage, grow room, house, town, country, partner, friends, any of it. Let them all go. Start afresh. This is your life — a time to call the bluff of fear and follow your heart. You’ll be amazed, so amazed, how it feels when you actually start taking risks again.

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FASHION

N O I H FAS

mega PXL

When a brand boasts fans such as Wretch 32, Tinie Tempah, Ed Sheeran, Example and Pendulum, you can feel confident that it’s worth a look!

If you have heard of Dacre Bracey, you may associate him with the UK music industry. However, he is also the name behind PXL, an exciting streetwear brand that takes inspiration from the world of digital and social media.

His appreciation for street culture was ignited in the early 90s as the UK scene began to take shape. Determined to combine his passion for design with his love of music, Bracey’s artwork first gained notoriety on flyers for legendary club nights including La Cosa Nostra and Sun City in the late 90s.

Since then he’s worked on artwork for an exhaustive list of music artists from Wiley to Tinie Tempah, 50 Cent to Pharrell, Beyoncé and Kelis.

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He has also worked on campaigns for Jay Z, Levi’s, Adidas, Nike and more.

Two more big names that have been part of Bracey’s journey are Scott Langton and Jay Z. Together they produced the pioneering streetwear brand, Artful Dodger, with PopUp Showroom. After the success of this clothing line, Bracey launched his own brand, PXL. Made for ‘hackers, bloggers, geeks, Keek freaks, nerds, neaks... Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube, Redtube, Vimeo and Vine fiends’ all PXL clothing is produced in short runs which means they do not mass-produce and you know you are wearing a unique and quality garment. To see the AW13 collection, and buy, visit www.pxlclothing.com.

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SPORT & LEISURE

G N I H FIS

The Explosion of Lure Fishing in the UK – Part I

By Rob Kanfer

Over the last ten years, lure fishing has exploded in much the same way as hydroponics in the UK and, indeed, globally!

Lures come in so many different shapes and sizes, colours and patterns. Some, in particular plugs, look as pretty as a real fish! They most certainly do catch, but half of the time they only catch the anglers and not the fish! So any serious lure fisherman has to pick out the most effective lures and discard the rest. This, of course, is easier said than done.

If you are just starting out, the first rule of thumb would be to completely ignore the cheap and nasty lures out there. For example, the ‘four lures for a fiver’ offers that you may get. They are not balanced and have not been tested in water.

Although they may look like the real deal, they most definitely will not behave like an injured baitfish and will not attract the attention of the predator fish. If anything, the predator species may be spooked by a bad action on a cheap lure. So, stay away from those.

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The trick in lure fishing is to find out what works, when and why. A good starting point is to choose a reputable brand such as Rapala or Yo Zuri lures.

Quite simply, you get what you pay for with these lures. Each and every one has been expertly tested in a water tank prior to leaving the factory. So you know when you throw one in the water and start to retrieve, it will behave like a poorly bait fish, easy pickings for any predator species. Whether fishing for trout, salmon, pike or bass, they all know when a bait fish is vulnerable and when it can be outpaced.

The next question to ask yourself is where are you fishing? What is the ground like? How deep is

the water? With a lack of preparation, one can be prepared for a poor day’s fishing. Firstly, the correct lure needs to be chosen for the conditions and environment you are fishing. If the water is deep, then you have to find a deep diving plug or heavy spinner. It is very important to find out what your chosen predator’s primary source of food is in the particular stretch of water. Try and match this as closely as possible with your lure. That means everything from the pattern of the lure to how it behaves in the water and how deep it will run.

Working the lure deserves an article of its own and, again, it all depends on the day and its conditions. Let’s focus on fishing correctly in the right conditions. Of course, seasonal changes will influence where your target species will be at any particular point. For example, in winter pike stay

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on the bottom whereas in the summer period, they will migrate to the shallows. You can often see pike basking in the sun in shallow water on quiet stretches of water. Thus, you will need to choose your lures accordingly. Conditions on the day affect everything, which is why any angler needs to be prepared for any eventuality with a good selection of lures. Generally speaking, if the weather is overcast and water visibility is low then bright lures are the obvious choice. Something like a Rapala J-11, in white and blue colour pattern, is perfect. Very dark, almost black lures tend to stand out too. Natural patterns with silver and chrome effects work well in bright, sunny conditions.

In the last few years, Storm Chug Bugs have been making their way onto UK shelves. These are surface poppers and mimic distressed or injured > WWW.THEGRINDMAGAZINE.CO.UK | 39

SPORT & LEISURE

fish. In the right conditions they are an absolutely killer lure and can be used to target almost any predator species. These are best fished in calm conditions, to break up the surface of the water and attract attention. As with anything, there are many variations of the popper lure these days, so it is up to the angler to find which works best or better and stick with it.

Generally speaking, the biggest fish are caught either at dawn or during the night so, again, highly visible lure with an exaggerated action tend to give results. Don’t forget that the predator fish can feel the vibrations of their prey in the water, so they can strike on that basis alone. Night time lure fishing can be tricky, if not dangerous. So it might be best to work out a route prior to starting. In this case, you have to know your spot and where the fish usually feed. In daylight, it is a different story altogether.

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Take the fight to the fish and you will be surprised with the results!

When lure fishing you have to travel light and stay on the move in search of feeding fish. This is part of the excitement of the sport. I tend to use the ‘three casts and move’ rule, especially when trout fishing in a river. Although a slight exaggeration, it works: cast a few times, try different rates of retrieve, and then move a few meters upstream. This way you are covering a lot of ground and taking your imitation bait to the fish. It is all too easy to stand and cast your lure aimlessly in the same spot in the hope of a big fish swimming past it.

SPORT & LEISURE

G N I H FIS

fishing guru

With the recent and sudden drop in temperatures, I think it would be a good time to talk about carp fishing in the winter. Winter is probably the most difficult time of year to catch carp. This is because the winter temperatures slow the carp’s metabolism, resulting in the fish being less dependent on eating as regularly.

Many people still think carp fishing in the winter is not worth trying. But with the popularity of long stay fishing and the advancements in protective clothing and camping equipment, the assumptions that catching carp in the winter is difficult are slowly changing. Carp are most definitely catchable in the winter months, so bear with me. In my experience, carp tend to feed only for short periods of time. Occasionally, just like in the summer, on a lot of waters the feeding periods are quite distinct, so it’s difficult to estimate exact feeding times. On a lot of European waters I have found that the feeding times are generally between 10am and 12am and/or 1pm and 3pm.

Most people assume that in winter the carp are

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always in the deepest area of water: this is simply not true. The fish will generally hang around snags or other areas that feel safest. Don’t avoid the areas you have caught carp during the summer, as there may be a good supply of natural food that keeps the fish in that particular spot. I’ve caught pretty large carp in shallows as deep as four feet during the winter, in lakes with depths of 12ft.

I tend to adopt different tactics when carp fishing in winter. When fishing new water and you are not sure where the carp are located, I would advise you to cast on rod to a likely looking spot. Then use a second ‘roaming rod’; this essentially entails using the second rod to try a variety of different areas on

the water. I usually do this for about thirty minutes to an hour – depending on the size of the lake – to get a good indication of where the carp might be most active.

Always have the tips of your rods raised: this can register line bites – where fish hit the line. If a line twitches it’s usually a good indication as to whether you are in a good spot, even if the fish aren’t feeding yet. Also, bites in winter can be very small, so it’s worth keeping an eye on the tips. I put white tape around the ends to make them easier to watch.

Try and make sure you have your rods made up before you leave; this will save you from getting cold while setting your rods up next to the lake, and it will give you more time to fish.

sometimes the carp will jump or roll – even in winter. This can give you a good idea of the location of the carp when you next come to fish. The most important thing about winter fishing is that you must have the right protective clothing. If you are cold you will not fish well. You will be too busy trying to stay warm and might miss things that could help you put that big winter fish on the bank.

Winter fishing has some advantages in that the banksides are empty, so you can pick where you want to fish without competition from other anglers. Some waters in winter have a beauty all of their own: just being there makes you feel good, even if you don’t catch. Winter carp fishing is without doubt a big challenge, but the rewards in beating the odds are great.

A good time to visit carp water is at dusk, as

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HYDROPONICS

cs

oni p o r d

hy

no room to grow?

Just look up!

We often hear the same thing from growers… “I haven’t got anywhere to grow” or “I need MORE space to grow more”. Well, the solution has finally arrived, and it’s above your head! Why not grow in your attic? The Roof-Qube grow tent, from Green-Qube, has been specifically designed to slot neatly into loft spaces for those who are looking to maximise space in their home.

With an angled roof of 42 degrees, the UK average roof pitch, and standing at 1.8m high the RoofQube is the world’s first grow tent which has been specifically designed to fully utilise all available space in attics, lofts and even basements.

Loft Benefits Growing in your attic isn’t just a perfect space saver – it also means that your tent and equipment are safely out of the way: ideal if you have children. Plugs, dangerously hot lights and lots of water aren’t the best recipe for a safe environment for children, so growing up and out of the way is a great way to keep your house secure.

If the noise radiating from your tent drives you – or your partner – insane, then slotting it away in your attic keeps the noise at bay, and your relationship out of danger!

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You also have constant darkness in attics, so you can regulate the light exposure – and there is no light leakage into the wider world.

The other major benefit is that attics have a more stable temperature than rooms within your house or garage. No central heating to inflate the surrounding temperature or cold drafts from under garage doors.

Best of all, you don’t lose a room in your house: imagine all the things you could do with your spare room if you could actually get in it! A games room, a playroom or maybe even a new party pad?

Regulating Temperature When growing in attic spaces, one of the most important areas to focus on is regulating temperature. This actually isn’t as difficult as it sounds. If you have a tent with micromesh vents, such as the Roof-Qube, this should help keep the temperature stable for you. For extra protection, why not go for thermal blankets too? These clever little things help keep the tent cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. Also available from Green-Qube, they come in a pair with a base that slips underneath the tent and lid insulating the top. The best bit is that they don’t cost much and, as they help make your tent more efficient, they cut your energy bills, saving you money.

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Hydroponics When growing in the attic, something that we recommend is a gravity-fed water system like AutoPot or IWS. This means that you don’t have to worry about accessing your tent on a daily basis to get water and feed to your plants. A handy little feature that comes with all the Roof-Qube tents is the uplift bar. This allows water systems to be fed into the tent completely flat through a specially designed inlet. As the water tank is outside the tent you also save valuable floor space within your tent, maximising growing space.

A very neat way of watering and feeding your plants without any hassle.

Diamonds in the Sky Another way of regulating the temperature within your tent, if you are growing in the attic, is opting for a tent with diamond cut Mylar. This has 99% light reflectivity, and the Roof-Qube tent utilises this revolutionary material. Studies show diamond Mylar is more reflective than the top of range white sheeting; it really is the most light reflective fabric out there. The diamond part is where it gets interesting because thousands of tiny > WWW.THEGRINDMAGAZINE.CO.UK | 45

HYDROPONICS

diamonds are imprinted onto the Mylar which spread light more evenly, giving superior light dispersal. This reduces the number of hotspots, therefore reducing the risk of damage to your plants and yield. The combination of both of these elements means that you can turn down the power of your lights, saving you energy, money and helping to regulate your tent’s temperature.

Stop Environmental Change Within Your Tent By opting for a tent with a viewing window, you can keep an eye on your plants without having to open up your tent. This means you don’t change the internal environment by regularly opening and closing the doors to check how your plants are doing. Even better if you have a water system too, as you don’t have to open up your tent at all!

Haven’t Got An Attic?

If growing in an attic isn’t an option then the GreenQube Sky tent is an ideal solution to maximise your growing space. It is the tallest fixed frame on the market, measuring 2.3m high, giving you more growing space without taking up any more floor space. Genius! Also designed for Gavita lights so you can hang them higher for a greater light spread which, in turn, increases the light that reaches your plants, increasing your yield.

Diamond cut Mylar has 99% light reflectivity

Tallest fixed frame tent in the world

Is Attic Growing The Future?

So, while growing in the attic isn’t for everyone, for many it offers a brand new safe space to grow, with lots of added benefits that maximise yield and reduce growing costs. With three sizes, there is a Roof-Qube to fit all attic and basement spaces.

A very neat solution for growers looking for a new place to grow.

For more information visit: www.green-qube.com/roofqube Use a viewing window to check your plants without changing the internal environment 46 | WWW.THEGRINDMAGAZINE.CO.UK

NO. 6

No.6 Freeman on the Land and all that…

By No: 6 “I am a free man”

There was a lot of interest in one of my previous articles about knowing your rights and the common law. In this article, I thought I would give you an overview of the common law and the freeman on the land movement.

In a Nutshell How did all of this come about? In 1215, after many years of corrupt rule, the Magna Carta was created, laying down the constitutional rights of the English people, and making sure the crown did not fall into these ways ever again. This document was drawn up to ensure that those in power could not take advantage of the people, and that they kept this oath. The crown (whether king or queen) took an oath to uphold the rights of the people and to protect the people’s best interests. In return, the people agreed to be ruled by the crown. This formed a contract between the crown and the people and became the law. The crown had to uphold these rights and the common law, as did the people. The main principles of this contract were not to cause death, do harm to or cause loss to another, nor to be fraudulent in their contracts, ie to be honest, truthful and good citizens and rulers.

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In 1689, the Bill of Rights was introduced – combining some of the rights laid out in the Magna Carta plus a few more. Both these important documents contain English common law and form the law as we know it. They are fundamental parts of the English constitution. It has been claimed that England has no constitution, but the Magna Carta and the Bill of Rights say otherwise.

If the people felt that these rights were being abused by the powers that be, as stipulated by article 61 of the Magna Carta, they could petition the crown to resolve any problems that had arisen, and that the crown would have 40 days to fix the problem, or to dissolve parliament. If a resolution was not forthcoming, the petitioners could lawfully go into rebellion against the crown and parliament until a satisfactory resolution has been reached.

As the constitution cannot be repealed, this is still a valid law.

So, if this scenario were to take place today, the first thing needed would be an affidavit, which would be sent to the queen. An affidavit is a written statement confirmed by oath or affirmation. This would need to state that the crown, or the ruling power acting for the crown, were breaking the constitutional contract and ask for it to be resolved within 40 days. This would need to be witnessed and counter signed, then sealed by a credible witness such as a solicitor. If, in 40 days, there had been no satisfactory resolution, a second affidavit would need to be sent to the crown, stating that there has been no satisfactory resolution and thereby the crown (or the government acting for the crown) has broken the contract with the people.

Therefore, you would no longer be obliged to obey or be ruled by a corrupt crown or governing body and would be in lawful rebellion.

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Of course, you will be told that this not lawful; but it is a binding oath sworn before God (and the witness). It is your right, and everyone’s right, to do this… but only if there is a genuine breach of contract. In the case of Thoburn v Sunderland City Council, Lord Justice John Laws stated, on 18th February 2002: “the special status of constitutional statutes follows the special status of constitutional rights. Examples are the Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights 1689, the Acts of Union 1707.

Ordinary statutes may be impliedly repealed.

Constitutional statutes may not…”

Lawful or Legal?

What is the difference between the two? On a very basic level, anything in our constitution, including common law, is lawful (ie true) law. Acts that parliament have passed are legal, and these will be in the form of acts or statute laws. However, >

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NO. 6

these legal acts should not contradict common law or what is laid down in our constitution. As there was already a legal framework in place that could not be changed (common law and our constitution), and parliament wanted to pass new legal acts, it needed to find a way of doing so and making it enforceable. It came from a surprising source. The Royal Navy already employed a legal system called Admiralty Law. This ensured the chain of command and set of rules were obeyed once on board ship. All members of the Navy had to swear an oath to obey this law, which became a legal contract, and thereby enforceable. This law only applied to ships and within the Navy, but worked very well. As there was a process already in place, parliament adopted a version of Admiralty Law and this was how parliament was able to make new, ‘legal’ laws.

In order for it to work, people had to think it was lawful. But none of us has ever sworn an oath to parliament or the crown to be in the Navy and obey Admiralty Law, so there is no binding contract between legal acts or statutes and the people; we have been hoodwinked into obeying them.

A statute law or act is defined as “an act given the force of law by the consent of the governed”: note the word ‘consent’. If you don’t consent, there is no contract between yourself and the other party, so it is not law.

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So, now that we’ve covered the history of common law we can move on to the principles of the Freeman on the land movement.

The Main Principles of the Freeman on the Land Movement These only cover the main principles, as the debate is still ongoing as to what exactly are the principles, and how they work. This movement is still evolving: so, as research into the law and how it is applied, and the results thereby achieved, continues, it is difficult to lay out a complete set of principles. However, there is a general consensus of the main principles, which are as follows: The common law of England and Wales is wholly applicable to these people, namely ‘natural persons’ within this jurisdiction. These ‘natural persons’ are armed with several inalienable and God-given rights, and described as ‘Freemen on the land’. On the other hand, civil or statute law, which in the most part is a fairly recent development, is not always applicable in every instance, as it is based on Admiralty Law and is dependent on a contract between two parties. The first party is the state, the second is a legal fiction representing a specific individual. The mechanism that is used to represent a specific individual entering into such a contract with the state is a birth certificate. Therefore, the validity of such a contract is contentious because the contract, as

represented by the birth certificate, is entered into between a minor (who cannot legally enter into an agreement or contract) and the state, and thereby consent is assumed as opposed to confirmed.

So, if this contract were considered null and void, it would be feasible to sever the ‘natural person’ in common law from the legal fiction in civil law.

This could produce a scenario where the birth certificate is evidence of a legal fiction entering into contract with the state, and that this birth certificate is not the same as the ‘natural person’ as represented by the living individual.

Freemen are specific about the difference between the name of their legal fiction, for example William Hope, and their natural name. This natural name takes many forms, but is commonly conveyed as William: as commonly called of the family Hope, William: Hope, or non capitalised ie william hope etc. Freemen make reference to the legal fiction as a man of straw and assert that is possible for the ‘natural person’ to manage the man of straw as a legal fiction for contracting with third parties, whilst at no point entering into liability on behalf of the ‘natural person’.

Furthermore, it is suggested by some that it is feasible to procure documentary evidence of this disassociation between the ‘natural person’ and the legal fiction by completing and serving a succession of sworn affidavits upon the crown. One of these affidavits would state that the crown has been unlawfully and falsely influenced to unlawful effect, to legislation that has contravened common law and continues to do so, with the suggestion that the safety and care of the individual under the said laws, which are their inalienable birthright under common law,

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are now imperilled without prospect of redress, and that unless the crown dissolves parliament and provides this redress, then the individual will withhold any and all allegiance and obedience to the crown and its representatives. As mentioned previously in this article, there is a 40 day period in which the crown has to provide a resolution.

If this is not forthcoming, the second affidavit is delivered, confirming the statements of the first affidavit, along with a declaration that the concerned individual is subject solely to common law. There is also the alternative scenario where the affidavit is sent to the prime minister, which is similar except that the individual establishes him or herself as a freeman and invites the PM to respond. If this is not done, a notarised Notice of Fault and Opportunity to Cure is sent which, if not responded to, is followed by a notarised Notice of Default. Of note is that this last default statement is held to be a “bona fide lawfully binding agreement/contract” between said individual and the government. Freemen have cited many legal sources to corroborate their position eg, Magna Carta 1215, Bill of Rights 1689, Charter of Liberties 1100 etc.

Next time, I will talk about how these principles are applied, and the reactions to the application of these principles.

Please note that nothing in this article is intended as legal advice for any person or situation, nor is it intended as an endorsement of any of the individuals featured herein. This is simply an item of interest and is intended as a forum of free and enlightened discussion.

Be seeing you…

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MUSIC INTERVIEW

c i s u m view r inte

break

This month we caught up with the Maverick of the DnB scene Charlie Bierman, better known as Break, to talk about his plans for his Symmetry label, upcoming releases, and impressions of the Bristol music scene.

You have a label called Symmetry: how did it start, and how long has that been running?

It’s been running since 2006. I started it because I’d put out a lot of music on other people’s labels and was interested in taking control of the whole thing and trying to run it as my own business as well. I had the music and albums in the pipeline at that stage; it felt like if I get a few singles out it might be a good place to put the album. That was a dream, to put out an album on my own label. So I think it was a natural progression once I had done the rounds in dnb, so to speak.

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How long have you been DJing for?

I have been DJing for about fifteen years since I was 15.

What night got you started?

I don’t think it was a night, more from watching the DMC competitions. Once I had seen scratching I wanted to get into DJing. I wanted to scratch so I went out and bought one deck and went home before I realised you needed two decks!

In a scene where it is hard to get endorsement, which big producers/ DJs supported you from the beginning?

A-Sides was the first DJ who picked up on me and put my first record out on his label, East Sides.

Once I got on there that opened the door to other drum and bass people that he knew. That was the starting point for me to get into the scene, which I think is the same for a lot of other genres. You just need hopefully one or two people that know to recognise what you’re doing and then it does open a few more doors.

Being in the scene for fifteen years, do you think that it’s changed a lot in that time?

I think it has and it hasn’t. Lots of other genres and styles have come and gone but drum and bass/jungle has stayed there since I was a kid.

So, in some respects it’s almost kept its essence and its coolness, sort of up and down throughout the years, and it’s still here at the same level.

Little things with the whole music industry have changed and I think that has affected drum and bass like any other genre, which is where most of the change has come from.

What is happening with your label at the moment? Do you have any releases that we should know about?

I’ve a single out at the moment called the ‘Music is Better’ and the flip side is called ‘Celestine‘ which has been doing really well. Xtrah, who is a

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new up and coming artist, has an EP called ‘Lost Time’ which is featuring MC DRS, Codebreaker and myself, and that’s one of the big records we’re putting out for the year which has lots of different styles which will appeal to hip hop and dubstep people alike.

You’ve mentioned Xtrah; your label has also featured artists like Enei and Emperor too. How important is it to bring through new artists?

I think it definitely helps. I was one of those guys once, and I know what it’s like to be in that position.

I’m always keen to give someone else that leg up that they need and often deserve. Especially when they’ve put all that hard work to get you that demo you like. I’m always looking for new guys who haven’t been found yet who are talented with the music to back it up.

Do you think there are any new trends/ styles emerging in drum and bass?

I think so. The track featuring MC DRS on Xtrah’s new EP is half speed drum and bass which gives it a hip hop feel, because it’s more or less the same speed which used to happen a lot back in the jungle days. I like it because you can always mix it in to drum and bass, but for someone else they my not even realise it’s dnb. We like to mix it up, so there’s the straight rolling drum and bass that Symmetry is known for too on the EP to keep all bases covered.

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PRODUCT FLASH

CT U D O PR ASH FL

cocogreen

By RM Hamilton

Cocogreen is the largest producer of professional grade Coco Coir in the world. 172,480.000 plants are grown in Cocogreen’s Coir every single year on a commercial scale, so when I found out that they had produced a premium grade Coco Coir for the Hydroponics market, I couldn’t wait to get my green fingers on a pallet or two to try out for myself.

Distributed solely by Century Grow Systems, Cocogreen professional grade Coir is now available in all good Hydroponic shops throughout the UK. Having over 20 years of growing experience using coco as my primary substrate/growing medium I must say I’ve seen them all; the good, the bad, the ugly and let’s be honest, the ridiculous. I was therefore pleasantly surprised to find, that in setting up all the pots ready for transplant, that the coco was consistently light, fluffy, moist and of equal density from bag to bag and from pallet to pallet which in my experience is unheard of. One of the other features which I really like and which attracted me more to the product is the technical information which is clearly displayed on each 56 | WWW.THEGRINDMAGAZINE.CO.UK

bag. I feel this is a necessity in today’s modern growing world as most of the other cocos on the market seem to think that slapping ‘PREMIUM’ across the front of the bag is enough. Everybody who has used coco knows that some of the brands out there may claim to contain 50 litres on their bags, but on usage they only manage to fill up 40 litres of pots! Cocogreen however, backs up its claims on volume and the bags actually reach the EN11580 standard, which is reassuring as I know I am getting my full money’s worth.

The other useful information presented to you on the bag helps to give you a calculative point from which to start your growing, which is fundamental

for getting the most out of every plant information such as the following: • Dry Matter 15-20% • EC<0.2mS/cm • Organic Matter 85% • PH (water) zone 5.5-6.5 • Water Retention 8ml/g • Triple washed and buffered In addition to these points, I also discovered that Cocogreen’s pro grade Coco Coir is Calcium Nitrate Charged, which gives the plant the best possible establishment and growth throughout Transplant, Veg and Flower.

Veg Throughout the entire Veg period I found that the plant was taking up a lot more stable nutrients than I have seen in all the cocos I have used previously. The plants were vibrant, fresh, healthy and full of vigour and vitality proving that the Aerobic Rhizosphere was as healthy as could be.

I veg’d for four weeks and by the end of those four weeks I had what can only be described as a sea of monster plants!

of 50% dry (around 70% in veg), it is important to make sure that the roots have oxygen as well as food. I think that this is one of the biggest rookie mistakes people can make when growing with coco. It is a common mistake to think that you must keep the coco wet at all times. It is easy to get the nutrients into the pot but the trick is in getting the nutrients into the plant and I cannot stress enough that by getting more oxygen to the roots you will massively increase an even nutrient uptake into the plant, and more nutrients in equals bigger fruit out.

So, to wrap it up, it was a great success and well worth the extra couple of quid per bag - the biggest, healthiest, most fruit rich plants that I have ever had in my 20 years of growing.

Job done! Someone put the kettle on…

For more information visit Century Grow Systems www.centurygrowsystems.co.uk.

Flower The flowering stage was a whirlwind affair with me trying to manage such rapid growth and heavy fruiting. The increased nutrient uptake of the plant carried on throughout the whole flowering stage, costing me a little more in nutrients and a few unscheduled visits to my local Hydroponics store, but I didn’t mind, as I found there were more flowering sites on the plant and the fruits were consistently larger right from the top hanging light rich fruit, down to the base. When feeding the plants in flower I would water them at a minimum

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PRODUCT FLASH

T C U D PRO ASH FL

Like water off a duksbak

By Bedlington Oxfordshire

You’ve heard the phase. Well, that seems to be the motto for a new British company making weatherproof clothing and equipment aimed primarily at the angling/fishing market.

When a couple of guys came up with the idea of starting a company making a range of products that suited their lifestyle – and that of many, many other UK fishermen – they soon realised they were in for stormy weather. Hours were spent in the lab, on riverbanks and even out at sea to develop a product range they were truly proud of. While following their dream they had everything thrown at them: from the elements during product testing, to scorn from wives and friends who said they couldn’t do it. But it just ran off their backs and, even in this country’s inclement economical climate, it looks like they might actually have done it.

They launched the aptly named Duksbak™ at the start of the year and, right now, their warehouse is packed with innovative, exciting products. Reviews from the press have been glowing, and the guys are glad they persisted with their dream. So, why do we think they’ll succeed, and what makes their product different from the hundreds of other weatherproof gear manufacturers in this country?

Well, it’s clever and has a sense of humour. From the ingenious Dukshell™ Fishing Umbrella – which just has to be the easiest shelter ever to erect and which, cleverly, has no central pole to get in the way – to the brilliantly subliminal camo patterns 58 | WWW.THEGRINDMAGAZINE.CO.UK

that cover their clothing… these guys are just taking stuff a step further. We at The Grind love the camo pattern (or Pornoflage™, as they call it). At first glance, it’s the omnipresent woodland pattern but, on closer inspection, you’ll see naked women based on 70s soft porn intertwined with the oak leafs and ducks of the company’s logo. “We spent a lot of time looking at erotic mags”, says Duksbak™ designer Carey Hunt.

So we reckon, even if the closest you get to a fish is when it’s battered and wrapped in newspaper, you probably need some Duksbak™ clothing.

Choose from complete waterproof jacket and trouser combo with its advanced breathable fabric and AquaGuard zips, to the dryweather Zip-Off Pornoflage Combat pants in lightweight 100% cotton rip-stop weave. Keep dry and stay cool down the pub this weekend!

Duksbak™ are also offering The Grind’s readers a 10% discount off all purchases from duksbak.com – just enter this code at checkout – THEGRINDUKDB – offer applies to orders placed between 28 October and 31 December 2013.

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Duksbak™

STAND OUT WHEN YOU’RE BLENDING IN. Duksbak™ creates clothing and equipment to shield, shelter and protect you from the British weather. Originally designed for the demands of the Angler, the functional garments in our own trademarked Pornoflage™ camo work just as well in the pub as on the riverbank.

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Whatever the weather.

HYDROPONICS

don’t get caught cold

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By Danny at Buddhas tree

It doesn’t seem like 2 minutes since I was speaking to growers about Summer heat issues, but I’m sure I wasn’t alone in walking out the front door early the other morning to get a surprising shiver and feeling the familiar chill of Autumn return again.

My mind immediately turned to thoughts of the multitude of indoor gardens possibly being affected by the changing ambient temperature.

Not to mention the significant amount of worried gardeners there will be, when the nighttime lowest temperature reading on their digital thermometer says 13ºC. Cue panic!

The sudden downward change can catch growers out. Sometimes it’s simply through inexperience and not anticipating the change, and sometimes because of a simple oversight in your air exchange setup, or because it’s a grow space that is new to you and in a colder location than you’re used to. Most of the time, however, it boils down to not knowing exactly when a temperature drop will occur. I mean, if the temperature plummets suddenly at 3am while you’re fast asleep, there’s not a lot you will know about it until you walk into your grow space. Unless you’re lucky enough to own an expensive climate control setup (which most of us certainly don’t) the fresh air in your 62 | WWW.THEGRINDMAGAZINE.CO.UK

grow space is being brought in externally, and the temperature is dictated by the outside air. This means that most of us have to deal with cold air coming into our grow spaces when the season changes, and it must be controlled if isn’t to become seriously problematic.

When it comes to our warm climate species, cold temperature affects them in a number of ways. In general, warmer temperatures allow cellular processes to speed up and growth to be at a maximum. As the temperature decreases, so does the plant’s circulation, and elements move through the roots, stems and foliage more slowly. The transportation of nutrients and elements around your plants is affected, and some elements essential for healthy growth need to be above a certain temperature to be mobile or uptaken by your plants at all. This effect is most pronounced in the root zone, where low temperatures have the most dramatic effect on the movement and uptake of nutrients and other

enzymatic processes. It also negatively affects the activity of any soil micro herd by suppressing their activity and changing the symbiotic balance of micro-organisms and beneficial soil life.

So what can we do to deal with it? Well, there are a number of things you can do to get things back on track. Are the cold temperatures in the daytime cycle or the nighttime cycle, or both?

Low temperature not only significantly affects the growth of your plants directly but also really affects the growing environment, which can lead to other problems. Most of you understand the relationship between temperature and humidity. Simply, the warm air can hold more of the water that your plants release. The cooler the air, the less moisture the air can hold before reaching a high relative humidity. The adverse effects of high humidity are wide ranging. It slows the rate your plants can photosynthesise and exchange gases, and affects plant size. It also causes the plants to stretch, which they do in a last ditch attempt to increase the airflow through their canopy as they struggle to release moisture. Fungal pathogens and diseases also thrive in high humidity and, coupled with cold temperatures, are almost guaranteed to invade large, dense flowering tops if your grow room conditions remain cool and damp.

If your temperatures are low in the daytime cycle, look at your setup. Do you have air-cooled hoods?

If so, switch off their extraction and remove the glass, or swap them for normal shades to increase the warmth. Look at your intake airflow. Where is it coming from? Can it be rerouted to an adjoining room, or is there somewhere else you can draw air from internally that is pre-warmed before it enters your grow space?

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Plummeting nighttime temperatures can be harder to deal with, especially if you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have the ability to pre-warm the air coming into the grow room. The problem is that airflow is needed during the night cycle, especially at the end of flowering, to maintain health and ward off rot and other issues. In this situation it takes a slightly different approach. Firstly, you need to largely reduce the cold airflow entering â&#x20AC;&#x201C; either by reducing it with >

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a fan speed controller or using a segment timer (both will be available at your local hydroponics shop) set to exchange the air for 5 minutes, once every couple of hours. The grow space might still need a little helping hand to stay warm, with the addition of a low energy tube heater or small fan heater (be cautious with cheap fan heaters being on for long periods of time and overheating, not the best solution: make sure it’s good quality and has a safety cut-out). A small dehumidifier may be needed if the humidity climbs between your air changes and remember to keep oscillating fans on to keep the air circulating.

If any of the other options don’t suit your situation, or aren’t possible, just try and concentrate on the root zone first. A cheap horticultural heat mat for your pots or an inexpensive water heater for your hydro tank will keep the roots warm and can be

the difference between some level of success and failure. In fact, the plant body and foliage are more tolerant to cooler temperatures and can still function to some extent as long as the root zone is kept warm.

One other thing to consider if you constantly battle the cold when the seasons turn, is your strain.

A good quality Silicic acid supplement is also a useful tool to help your plants resist attack from pathogens when cooler conditions increase their likelihood. Insects are also looking to make their way inside from the cold at this time of year, so be vigilant. In any event, go and have a chat with your local grow shop and they will have some useful kit and solutions to make sure you don’t get caught cold. It happens to us all at some point, but don’t beat yourself up – just be ready for it so you can make sure you are not caught out. Peace

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FEATURE

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INTERVIEW

GUIDE

Closed Environment Agriculture

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Room or Tent?

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W W W.T H EG R I N D M A G A Z I N E . C O . U K FEATURE Closed Environment Agriculture

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HYDROPONICS

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Spray-N-Grow Organic Based Micronutrient Complex – Use with your regular hydroponic nutrient solution for More, Bigger, Better plants!

The Spray-N-Grow Story More than thirty years ago, Bill Muskopf, a chemist and avid horticulturist, developed Spray-N-Grow Micronutrient Complex.

The Muskopf family started selling Spray-N-Grow Micronutrients from their Houston home. With full time jobs, they worked evenings and weekends; the tiny company relied on high school students to pack orders in the warehouse (the garage) and a friend to help in the office (the spare bedroom).

Growers across the USA soon experienced the difference Spray-N-Grow made to their plants and, with the business expanding rapidly, the Muskopf’s moved to a real office/warehouse in 1985 and waved goodbye to their day jobs.

In 1988, several small hydroponic stores began selling Spray-N-Grow to their customers. The response was tremendous. Spray-N-Grow has now been used by hydroponic growers and hobbyists in the USA for many years.

Now Spray-N-Grow is entering a new chapter in the UK and Europe. Cheryl Reynolds heads up The Garden Parlour Ltd. Cheryl said, “As a keen amateur horticulturist I have used Spray-N-Grow for many years. Like everyone else I care passionately about what I use on my plants, but I also want the best growth and display. The opportunity came up to take over the UK distribution of Spray-N-Grow and 66 | WWW.THEGRINDMAGAZINE.CO.UK

put some passion behind the product to show what Spray-N-Grow can really do in hydroponics.”

What is Spray-N-Grow?

Spray-N-Grow is not a fertiliser, hormone or hydroponic nutrient solution. It is an organic based micronutrient complex made of naturally occurring elements that are essential for plant growth.

Fertilizers and nutrient solutions provide your plants with major elements necessary for plant growth. Some contain a few additional elements.

Spray-N-Grow provides your plants with essential minor elements (micronutrients) not provided by your fertiliser or nutrient solution. It is the only micronutrient product available with the balanced formula of micronutrients that causes these elements to interact with one another. With SprayN-Grow and a nutrient solution, your plants will have all the nutrients they need to grow and thrive.

Spray-N-Grow is completely nontoxic, and safe for people, pets and plants. It has been tested for toxicity by Still Meadow Inc of Houston, Texas using EPA protocol test procedures. You can eat fruit or vegetables picked the same day you apply Spray-N-Grow.

How does Spray-N-Grow work?

Spray-N-Grow is applied as a foliar feed. By incorporating foliar feeding into your growth program it delivers a more effective method of essential plant nutrition. You mix the Spray-N-Grow

concentrate with water into a spray bottle and then apply as a mist to you plants. Dispersed along the plant’s leaf surface are small pores called stomata. These pores are channels that gases and liquids pass through. They may occur on either side or both sides of leaves, but most plants have a larger number on the underside of their leaves. When sprayed on foliage, the nutrient ions of Spray-N-Grow pass through these pores and affect the plant’s physiology. Anything the plant is genetically capable of is greatly enhanced.

Together, this unique trio delivers amazing results for hydroponics.

Research/Field Trails Proven in hydroponic testing, Dr Lynette Morgan, PHD Hydroponic Vegetable Production, is one of the most respected experts in the field of hydroponics. As a proponent of foliar feeding, Dr Morgan is fascinated by Spray-N-Grow. The first trial was conducted in 2000, and the results were exceptional. Dr Morgan commented “Foliar feeding with Spray-N-Grow can result in not only improved quality, but also yields with the same crop – an important conclusion for any hydroponics grower”.

Coco-Wet Wetting Agent All-natural wetting agent that improves the results of your nutrient products. Add Coco-Wet to all your foliar nutrient sprays, including Spray-N-Grow, Bill’s Perfect Fertilizer or any other liquid nutrients to obtain maximum benefits. The addition of CocoWet will minimise run-off and evaporation and will ensure your plants receive maximum amounts of your product.

A professor at a major agricultural university stated that Spray-N-Grow “is a balanced system of micronutrients reacting synergistically with all components working together harmoniously that, in effect, perform as a single active ingredient.”

t. 0121 351 5090 e. sales@thegardenparlour.co.uk www.thegardenparlour.co.uk.

Bill’s Perfect Fertilizer 6-11-5 This is an organic bloom supplement that produces immediate results. Bill’s Perfect Fertilizer is a high phosphorus foliar fertilizer created to dramatically increase blooming, fruit set, root and plant growth. This highly effective foliar feed is a supplement that benefits plants immediately when they need a boost.

Spray-N-Grow Products now available in the UK from the The Garden Parlour Ltd.

Also available from our good friends at Angel Grow www.angelgrow.co.uk

Benefits Spray-N-Grow produces higher yields, larger leaves and fruit, increases brix and soluble solids, produces stronger plants, earlier harvests, higher vitamin content and significantly larger root mass – as well as quick results. Use with your regular hydroponic nutrient solution for complete nutrition.

Spray-N-Grow Products The core product is Spray-N-Grow, but Bill Muskopf, being the perfectionist that he is, created two other complementary products: Bill’s Perfect Organic Fertilizer and Coco-Wet Organic Wetting Agent.

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MUSIC

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bandlife

A DAY ON THE ROAD WITH A BLACK METAL BAND

By Hog Johnston Esq. of Black Metal Dispatches

Wake up, hangover raging. Band van suddenly feels like airless prison, haunted by airborne toxic events. Crack door open and high above a pigeon momentarily blacks out. Thievey-looking urchins turn to gawp at wretches spilling from battered van.

10.37 am

10.43am Food. Head to supermarket blearily but with stupid grin on face at not being at your low paid job unlike these other mugs.

11:02am Enter supermarket. Wander aimlessly, attracted to bright colours. Contemplate fruit for wholesome period but somehow arrive in queue with basketful of crisps, cheese, baguette and reduced deli satay sticks. Squinting baby in front trying to gurn-out words, drool cascading down chin. Beam encouragingly, recognizing kindred spirit, but glowering mother drags it away before mind-meld complete. Look down and realise flies are undone – is this what it was trying to tell you?

Mood: benevolent 11:40am Booze ebbing away, replaced by actual, unhappy senses. Set SatNav and check map for route to next gig. Estimated journey time 4.5 hours, load-in 5pm. Tear at bread, tear at cheese.

Mash together.

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12:00pm Set off. Allocated driver balances takeaway coffee between thighs and negotiates roundabouts with pathetic whimper. Some brave fool opens beer. Mood: cheerful 03:02pm Stop for services’ amenities. Counterintuitive coffee all round. Peruse WH Smith book chart – include superior exclamation at latest trashy successes before purchase of Viz and Capri Sun. Why do all their impulse-buy cuddly toys have neon blue fur?

03:19pm Off again. SatNav on blink and sucker unsticks and hurls it to footwell from where it returns with a different accent. Magazines swapped, boiling coffee pecked at. Mood: jovial 03:31pm Sucker given out and SatNav propped against broken FX pedal on dashboard, blinking and lolling in an astonished way and asking you to turn around in German. Facebook informs you >

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that headlining local legends Somethingorother have cancelled and you will now be required to provide an entire backline for all bands. Visions of children splitting priceless cymbals or drizzling watered-down lager into £3000 valve-driven amps conjure before all present.

03:45pm SatNav abandons you, apparently near Coventry which, in German, sounds faintly threatening. Mood: grim 04:00pm Ring promoter to say you’ll be late and this never happens. Map suggests off-track for last hour. No stops now so 2ltr bottles emptied for use as urinals.

05:00pm Map reading skills paying off.

Conversation about which member present you’d rather discover to be your new stepfather, pros and cons. Cans opened. Capri Sun neglected.

06:30pm Find venue in most terrifying street of strange city, obviously.

06:32pm Load-in. Irritatingly trendy, flapping 21year old promoter attempts to organize impossibly hot girlfriend and entourage into serviceable roadies – drummer delighted, guitarists nervous.

Meet bands who turn out not to be tots as prophesy foretold although ask to borrow breakables (snare, cymbals etc). Drummer’s mouth says yes but drummer’s heart, mind and throttled pint glass say otherwise. Mood: cautious 06:45pm Soundcheck. Hostile sound engineer declares passive aggressive war on guitarists.

07:30pm Doors. Networking attempts stalled by age gap and lechery over entourage so resort to advising drummer to bid farewell to kit as “that kid 70 | WWW.THEGRINDMAGAZINE.CO.UK

in the Obituary shirt has fists like claw hammers – must be the inbreeding”. Beer o’clock.

08:00pm - 10:00pm Bands play blandly. Set list hurriedly revised to win over heavier crowd (Diabolic Rhinoplasty Abortion Sauce substitutes for My Tender Daffodil).

10:15pm Hit stage with monitors providing exclusively feedback and, between songs, anonymous Metal that Sound Fool can’t / won’t remove. Nevertheless audience engaged and leave stage for the merch table shiny and full of hope.

11:05pm Hope quashed after sale of 1 EP and a discounted, beer-soaked skinny-t. Kids come up but only want to talk about their bands. Buy something or buy me a drink you anemic stool.

Arrange with venue to collect stuff in morning. Just killing beers now. Mood: woozy cynicism 01:35am Somehow you’re outside a chain pub with someone else’s cigarettes being talked at earnestly by the stool again. Someone suggests you’ve another gig tomorrow so it’s off to the van where the cans are free and stools fear to tread. Or will be made to fear to tread if they tread after you.

02:16am Result! Safely back at van and with bonus of stool’s cigarettes! Cans opened, general cheer. Apparently promoter will get us another show instead of paying petrol this time. £8 merch money has also escaped.

02:58am Can’t keep eyes open and tip half-full can over crotch. Deal with it in morning. Use coat as blanket. Drift off as SatNav springs back to life.

Mood: dinosaurs

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fill the room or fill the tent?

By Boris Bell Could PAR-optimised grow tents be set to give British tent growers the edge?

Why do some growers swear by the productivity of their grow tents while others dismiss them as a waste of time, money and space? Whatever your opinion, and despite their ever-increasing popularity in the UK, grow tents still leave some growers scratching their heads. They just don’t see the point of them, asking instead: “Why not just fill the whole room?”

All chuckles aside, cramming a room full of plants may seem like the logical path to maxing out productivity. After all, who doesn’t want to see their spare room jammed to the rafters with their favourite botanical specimens? However, it’s easy to get carried away and, as more experienced growers will caution us, reality often mocks our ambitions. Put another way, it’s one thing to pack hundreds of young plants into a given area, switch on some lights and start up some fans, but it’s quite another to illuminate them adequately and maintain an optimal growing environment so that they have half a chance of approaching their full genetic potential.

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Big Watts, Small Spaces So, is filling a room really the way forward? It turns out that converting even a modestly sized spare room into a place where light-loving plants can thrive right through to full maturity requires a serious investment in lighting, ventilation and cooling — and typically this task is grossly underestimated by new or rapidly expanding growers. An open growing area measuring just 5m by 3.7m requires upwards of 12 x 600-watt lights to illuminate it properly for full plant response.

Is that really feasible for most British growers, where most of us don’t have sufficient room to swing a cat, let alone set up a 7KW grow?

Incidentally, the average size of new builds in Britain today is just 76m2 or 818 square feet — that’s ten percent less than in 1980 — making our abodes the tiniest in Western Europe! And don’t forget, presumably we still need to find space for our propagation and vegging area, and potentially some mother plants too!

Enter the Grow Tent Before 2001, growers wishing to create intensely lit growing environments for light-loving plants had to fashion their own designs from wood, nails, reflective sheeting and staple guns. However, everything changed when the first commercial grow tent kits hit the market. The original portable grow tent was called the HOMEbox®, designed by a Berlin-based company, Eastside Impex. I remember at the time it was one of those “Why didn’t I think of that?” moments — an ‘out of the box’ growing environment, tool-less assembly, a place to hang lights, fans, filters, everything! It was a stroke of genius!

Indoors, every photon counts — however, in all but extreme cases, deficiencies in lighting typically only show themselves as plants enter the final third of their lifecycle, when their lighting requirements peak. Reflectivity, or proximity to reflective surfaces, is really important at this crucial stage, helping to increase overall efficiency and stimulate optimal plant response. This is where grow tents really come into their own.

Switch on the lights and fans, zip them up and you’ve got yourself an intense ‘nest’ of light where plants have access to all the photons they desire.

The results tend to be chunkier, more productive plants. Of course, the growing environment needs to be managed but this is typically far easier when using grow tents as they provide ports for ducting and screened vents for fresh air input whilst

keeping out bugs. Grow tents also help to seal in relative humidity when required, particularly important for reducing transpiration stress on younger plants.

Plants Grown Indoors Typically Want More PAR and Less Heat!

Light is the first order of life and plants respond specifically to PAR — Photosynthetically Active Radiation — a relatively narrow band of the electromagnetic spectrum between 400 and 700 nanometres. The more PAR energy you can direct at your plants within this range, the more they will grow and bloom. >

Think of PAR watts as the fuel you put in your car.

No amount of fancy driving changes the fact that the more fuel you put in, the more miles you can potentially get under your belt.

PAR op timise d grow t ents d irect more usable light and le ss hea t at the pla nt can opy

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However, that earlier point about growing environment bears reiteration; just like your car’s engine, your growing environment needs to be maintained within certain tolerances to enable your plants to actually make use of that energy.

So, do grow tents create better growing environments? Well, they certainly help to facilitate better growing environments! It’s been over a decade since the first grow tents hit the market, and there have been several important innovations over the years: more brands of course, different models, heights, shapes and sizes, sturdier designs and extra ports to accommodate aircooled reflectors. Alas, cheaper, knock-off tents also mired the marketplace — some PVC-based models even off-gassed harmful vapours under the heat of grow lights and actually damaged plants! As a result, some growers disregarded grow tents altogether. No need for concern though, as the premium grow tents, only use plant-safe (and grower-safe!) materials.

One Room, Many Environments Another great advantage of grow tents is the ability to house multiple growing environments in just one room of your house. For instance, there’s no reason why you can’t have a mother plant basking under a 400W metal halide in one tent on an 18/6 photocycle, sat right next to an XXL sized tent dedicated to flowering on a 12/12 photocycle, with your cuttings and seedlings in yet another tent — yes, all in the same room! Previously it would have taken some serious dedication (aka plasterboard!) to create separate growing environments like this in such close proximity.

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PAR Optimised Grow Tents Of all the brands, the latest generation of HOMEbox® grow tents have, perhaps, the most exciting developments for the coming indoor growing season. It’s called PAR+ — a super reflective tent lining designed specifically for maximum plant production. Independent laboratory tests at the Electrotechnical Testing Institute in Prague successfully demonstrated that 91.8% of the growing area in a 1.2m2 HOMEbox PAR+ grow tent measured 80 PAR W/m2 (optimum energy levels for intense indoor growing applications) or more compared with just 69.4% in a same-sized competitor’s ‘silver-lined’ grow tent.

The engineers used a 600-watt Osram Plantastar lamp in an Adjust-A-Wing Avenger reflector fitted with a Super Spreader. The Super Spreader was incorporated to better test reflectivity rather than just direct lamp output.

Looking inside the PAR optimised grow tent from HOMEbox®, the inner lining appears to be white to the naked eye. However, under the bright glare of grow lights, the PAR+ material reflects more plantusable energy with fewer hot spots and less heat build-up compared with some popular silver-lined grow tents.

The combination of more plant-usable energy and less infrared heat promotes more photosynthesis and bigger harvests — but it’s not just about quantity, it’s about quality too. The slightly cooler temperatures observed in PAR optimised growing environments typically promote increased essential oil production meaning more flavours,

aromas and health benefits from plants. Growers know, when plants get too hot they literally shut down and go into survival mode, rendering any photons redundant!

So, could lining an entire room with silver be a thing of the past? Have we been inadvertently baking our plants all these years by reflecting more heat than actual plant-usable light? Time will tell. Certainly cooler, intensely lit growing environments make sense for growers whose plants favour these conditions. As we roll into the next indoor growing season, these new PAR optimised grow tents are already hitting the UK marketplace. Could these advanced indoor growing environments be enough to lure the old guard ‘room fillers’ into the grow tent market?

Time will tell.

STOP THE PRESS: HOMEbox® have also announced a MODULAR system that allows PAR optimised growing environments to be created in any shape or size! For more details visit: www. homebox.net Use this QR code or search “PAR+” on YouTube. to watch the video of the PAR grow tent lab test.

Test Specifications: PAR Watts measured at 49 points at 60cm distance from light source using AvaSpec-3648 Fiber optic Spectrometer. Light source: Adjust-A-Wing Avenger & Super Spreader with Osram Plantastar 400W lamp and Lumatek 600W electronic ballast on Superlumens mode.

Test conducted in HOMEbox® 1.2m2 PAR+ grow tent and competitor 1.2m2 “silver” lined grow tent.

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MUSIC

music news Rich Reason, founder of Manchester’s famous drum and bass night Hit and Run, has taken this one step further to create Levelz. Rounding up the best Manchester artists to create a collective of musicians, designers and other creative types to join him. Biome, Chimpo, Fox, Jonny Dub, Konny Kon, Skittles, Strategy and Dub Phizix are just a few of the names involved in this exciting new project.

The overnight viral phenomenon, Baauer’s ‘Harlem Shake’, rumoured to have saved Diplo’s label Mad Decent from folding, has amassed a whopping 438,450,000 hits — making the 24 year old’s track the most streamed song of 2013.

The buzz and hype continues about who will

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Manchester’s music scene continues to explode with many collaboration projects amongst the cities top DJs, MCs and producers.

headline the Glastonbury festival next year.

Bands hinting at the gig include Radiohead, The Rolling Stones, Mumford & Sons and Fleetwood Mac. Don’t underestimate Michael Eavis, however, as he loves the element of surprise. Outside favourites for the top spot include Pink Floyd, Adele and David Bowie.

Die-hard fans of the Arctic Monkeys will also be hoping they, too, will be on the Glastonbury line up next year. The band just released their fifth album, AM, in September, inspired by the Velvet Undergrounds 1985 compilation album, VU. To mark their 15th anniversary, Red Bull Academy’s famous Revolutions in Sound is back again on the 14th November at the iconic London Eye. This

year, each capsule will represent the club nights and clubs that built British nightlife. Hosts include Goldie’s Metalheadz, Danny Rampling’s Shoom, The Blitz Club, Bugged Out! Glasgow’s Sub Club, Bristol’s Motion, London Warehouse Events, Fabric and Yo Yo and Sheffield’s Jive Turkey. Now in it’s third year, RBMA will include the World’s first live stream of 30 stages simultaneously, via Channel 4’s 4OD and YouTube.

Finally this issue we’ve been searching the latest New Years Eve parties. Here is a quick preview of the latest NYE gigs to be announced. Nights that have caught our attention include London’s Hydra club, back with its bass heavy and extensive electronic programme. The line-up for their Bugged Out NYE bash is still a closely guarded secret, but expect

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some big names from the house and techno scene. Also mixing it up is Detroit techno DJ Derrick Carter, who will be playing a Disco set in Brixton for Slide and Get Diverted with special guests. With over 50 million records sales worldwide, three time Brit Award winners and six-time Grammy nominees The Pet Shop Boys will be kicking off the Edinburgh Hogmanay, headlining the ‘Concert in the Gardens.’ For those of you who are thinking of heading down under this year because you’re ‘travelling’ or simply loaded and can’t cope with the cold, Skrillex has announced he’s hosting the Australian festivities for Shore Thing. He is set to play the famous 2013 New Years Eve party on Sydney’s Bondi Beach from his very own spaceship, and will be choosing the supporting artists performing before the live show.

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FASHION

VINTAGE V RETRO TRAINERS? N O I H AS

By Joe Bloggs

F

Whether you were or are into football, music, skateboarding or hip hop, trainers were and still are the common denominator.

Different people wore certain types of trainers - Puma States beloved by the 1970s New York graffiti artists.

Big fat Adidas worn by The Beastie Boys and Run DMC, Vans and Adidas Gazelles by skateboarders, and most influential of all were the Casuals on the football terraces in the mid 70s, not just for their trainers but their fashion sense.

Then suddenly, things changed and trainers started to look very ugly, they started to get really big but in totally the wrong way. Although trainers could look â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;fatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; because of the types of laces and lacing styles that were used, and you could tell a lot about someone, not only from their trainers, but how they were laced; be they fat laces, criss cross, straight across or no laces at all - all very important stuff, there were no more neat little trainers that fitted under your jeans.

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And you couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t get the old trainers for love or money. It was a question of hunting around lots of small shops, charity shops and your local car booty.

Once the internet came about, things changed and you could find them fairly easily, until everyone caught on and the prices rocketed.

Then came the reissues, so that is the question,

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vintage sneakers or retro trainers? So vintage are the original trainers that came out in the 60s, 70s and even the 80s. Retro are the reissues, and these are met with either joy or disgust as some us remember what they really looked like, for example where the stripes went, or if the sole looks different to the originals!! The argument still rages, and this article will conclude in the next issue.

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COMMENT

nt e m com

Grand Theft Auto V Some Final Acceptance?

By Max Welks

Any cultural phenomenon incorporating vice, torture and misogyny that can make $800 million in its first day is going to attract some negative press.

But there finally seems to be some real, crossgenerational public acceptance of these games as not only technological but also staggering artistic achievements. But why have the immorality arguments seemingly fallen away?

One factor must be the age of the average gamer. At around 30, this customer base, as well as having lived through the development of straightforwardly brutal games such as Call Of Duty, will still remember the PC incarnation of GTA, a bird’s eye view rampage on the release of which the development company paid PR guru Max Clifford to ensure appropriate media outrage. This demographic has also become voters, investors and practiced, coherent voices in the debate over what qualifies as entertainment.

Another pivotal argument from fans of the franchise would be that this is Art and the deft execution of this extends not only through groundbreaking programming and graphics but even to the circumventing of the individual’s moral standard as a method of immersing them in the experience - high punching, Stockholm Syndrome psychology for a game in any age. And the core 80 | WWW.THEGRINDMAGAZINE.CO.UK

aesthetic also plays a strong part in this campaign around the player.

To date the franchise uses familiar techniques applied on that first GTA to skirt around the immorality argument – a residually cartoonish appearance and a wickedly honed wit diffuse and sap away the reality and, by association, the cruelty. By allowing the player a form of free will, Rockstar North have created the kind of pushand-pull relationship that, on anything other than a game, would be regarded as dangerously manipulative.

Discussing the business end of a creative endeavour can feel grubby but in the question of why GTA V has found acceptance across generations it could shed some light. In a time of such instability for investors, Rockstar has made real money in an unashamedly traditional gamble.

With a development budget allegedly exceeding $265 million and running alongside the crash and subsequent recession from 2008 to 2013, the stakes were high and a failure here could have

irrevocably altered future faith in the industry.

Moreover, knowing what the plot entailed and how much damage to the character of this game any great censorship would do, this was a truly brassy exercise in Capitalism during its greatest storm.

Cultural shift is an obvious but compelling final theory to explain the lack of fuss GTA V’s release has provoked. Since the trailblazing GTAIII came out months before 9/11 many of Rockstar’s biggest markets have been entrenched in wars, systemic crises and introverted debates on torture and moral responsibility. Perhaps, in doing so, we’ve gained a clearer perspective on the nature of adult themes within entertainment and, with actual loss, identified some new division in the breach between reality and simulated brutality.

It could be argued that this willfully immature game and its strange public acceptance act as a landmark in a collective cultural maturity.

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