I know the most important secret when it comes to growing pot — how to cut out the males at an early age — and the second-most important secret; how to vastly increase the yield.

I mean, if anyone's interested.

As I understand it, in certain states that now recognize medical marijuana, it's okay to grow a specific amount at home, so that's who I'm directing this to.  I wouldn't want anyone to think I was, you know, promoting illegal activities or anything.

What will make this fun is that you, yourself, are going to have to do a little investigative work, as I'm remembering this from my pot farm that article I read in High Times about 30 years ago and a few of the details are fuzzy.  But I'll give you enough to go on.
 

Sexing The Plants

There's a 1- or 2-day window somewhere between 3 and 4 weeks old where one of the sexes sprouts a tiny leaflet right in the top of the crux where the branches meets the main stem.  Or, it might be that both sexes sprout something at that time, but one stands up and the other lies flat or whatever.  I don't remember what the exact dif is, but I do remember the 3-4 weeks and something distinguishable happening at the crux of the branch and stem.  Given that roughly 60% of all plants are male, weeding them out at this stage is serious business.
 

Increasing The Yield

This isn't near as much of a 'secret' as the first one is, but it's surprising how many growers don't practice it.

The Coleus is a flower.  Throw a bunch of Coleus seeds in a pot and you get this:

Just another hodgepodge of flowers.

Now check out this Coleus 'tree':

This is the result of what I call 'cross-pinching'.  A Coleus can be forced to grow in different directions depending upon which baby branches are pinched off.  It affects the branch opposite the cut, forcing it to become a real branch, whereas otherwise it just would have flowered into one cluster where it was.

Interestingly enough, pot reacts the same way.

At each node, usually the bigger bud sprouts into a real branch and the smaller one just clusters where it is.  By pinching off the leaf under the larger bud, you force the smaller one to turn into a real branch as well.  That doubles your yield right there.

And you can do the same thing to the node areas on the branches, forcing them to start growing as real branches, rather than just clustering where they lay.  You might have to use twine at some point to keep the heavy branches from snapping off from the weight.

What I don't remember is exactly at what stage to snip, but the information should be readily available in any good pot — or Coleus — grower's handbook.
 

Other Tips

• Females can and will go hermaphrodite on you, pollinating the buds and turning the crop to shit.  I saw it all the time in my pot farm that High Times article.  Once they reach full height and start to go into the budding phase, you have got to start paying attention, looking for pollen sacs sprouting at the nodes, usually on the upper branches.  If you find one, carefully slip a big garbage baggie over the whole plant, close it at the bottom, cut it down and get it the hell away from there.  At very least, cut off the entire branch and keep a sharp eye out.
   
• When it comes to fertilizer, give them about three times what the standard directions call for.  Pot is a 'high energy' plant compared to the average flower.  Push them right to the point of burning.  Do some experiments and sacrifice a few, just to test the upper limits.  Just make sure you occasionally water the hell out of them to flush away any residual buildup in the soil.
   
  On the subject, the ratio of the three main fertilizers changes as the plant enters fluorescence, so adjust accordingly.
   
• There's also a point not long before picking time that you'll want to cut back on the water.  The reason the plant is producing resin in the first place is to keep the seeds from drying out, so slowly decreasing the water supply over the last week or two will tell the plant to start producing resin by the bucketful.
   
• If the plants are inside, buy a decent dehumidifier and run it for the last two weeks.  It'll suck the moisture out of the air and kick the resin production into high gear.

  
And, speaking of secrets, there's one more little thing:

Scissor scrapings.

After the buds are picked, they'll have to be manicured to get rid of the extra leaves.  You'll use special scissors for this operation (and for nothing else), about three or four inches long, like found at a fabric shop.

Nearby you'll keep a single-edge razor blade and a small plastic box for the scrapings.

As you trim the buds, the sides of the scissors will get sticky with resin.  Looked at under a microscope, you can see the round globules of resin pressing against each other.

It is the purest thing you will ever smoke.

So, as part of the trimming ritual, every now and then you'll stop to clean the scissors, scraping the goods into the small plastic box with the razor blade, or whatever little container you have that you can easily access (unlike a small bottle) because the stuff is obviously sticky.

If you put too much in the pipe, prepare for a nice long coughing spell.  This'll take the toughest smoker down.  I saw it read about it in that High Times article over and over again.