In the People vs Patrick Kelly the California Supreme court agreed with the defendant Kelly that having limits set on patients was unconstitutional. These guidelines were a part of SB 420 that was passed in 2003. This came about because the Compassionate Use Act (prop 215) was a voter intiative and only a voter initiative could amend or change prop 215. The court also stated that patients could possess and cultivate "reasonable" amounts of cannabis to treat illnesses. The problem, of course, is what is "reasonable". Given that the court also stated that patients can be arrested for "probable cause", it still may not be a good idea to carry around large quantities of cannabis with the intend to sell.
http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/People_v._Kelly
At this point it's safer to follow the SB420 guidelines of 6 mature, 12 immature and possession of 8 oz. dried flower, for each individual patient. Below I have a list of counties and cities that have different ordinances in place. If you have any questions you should contact your local city officials and ask for copies of the ordinances.
Please feel free to update me on anything new or anything that may be incorrect.
Arcata
Recently the city council of Arcata passed an ordinance allowing no more that 50 sq. ft. for cultivation of cannabis. Patients must grow in their own homes in mostly residential areas. Dispensaries can not use more than 25% of thier for cultivation. These ordanances only apply to counties outside the coastal zone.
Berkeley
Outdoor gardens that are observable are limited to 10 plants. Berkeley voted on measure JJ in 2008.
Butte Co.
6 mature or 12 immature plants and no more than 1 lb of dried processed cannabis.
http://www.buttecounty.net/da/215.htm
City of San Jose
No quantity limits have been established.
Del Norte
Leaves it up to law enforcement to decide what's "reasonable"..suggestion is to follow the state guidelines of 6 mature, 12 immature and 8 oz. of dried female flowers.
Ft. Bragg
http://www.scribd.com/doc/28930069/Fort-Bragg-cultivation-ordinance
Humboldt County
The county guidelines allow patients 100 sq ft and 3 lbs with no limit to plant numbers. The cities of Eureka and Fortuna follow the 6 mature/12 immature and 8 oz. of dried flowers.
Lakeport
calpotnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/861-2007.pdf
Mendocino County
allows gardens of up to 99 plants with a license. Without a license it allows 25 plants per parcel
Nevada Co.
allows 6 mature female plants or 75 sq ft of canopied space and possession of up to 2lbs.
Oakland
allows 72 plants indoors with a max of 32 sq ft. growing area. allows 20 plants outdoors with no area limit. Possession of 3lbs of dried cannabis per patient. Collectives are imited to 3 patients.
Redding
Allows a maximum of 100 sq ft of canopy and 10% of home or garden area.
San Diego
No outdoor grows are allowed in S.D. unless they are in a greenhouse. Patients are allowed 24 plants in 64sq ft.
San Francisco
allows patients 8 oz of dried female flower (bud) Patients can grow 24 plants or use 25 sq ft of canopy.
Santa Cruz
Patients and caregivers are allowed 99 plants in and up to 100 sq ft canopy.
Sebastapol
The gardens can cover up to 100 square feet, with a maximum of 30 plants. Patients and caregivers can also possess up to three pounds of processed marijuana at the site of the garden. The town will also allow two 750 sq ft gardens for dispensaries to grow and 2 more gardens for patient collectives. The gardens must either be indoors or enclosed with solid or opaque 6 ft. walls and the gardens must be able to be locked.
Shasta Lake
Collectives must require a permit from the city to grow. Patients can grow up 100 sq ft inside a garage or adjacent bldg. Outdoor growing is limited to 25 square feet on a half-acre parcel, 60 square feet on a parcel between half-acre and one acre and 240 square feet on parcels larger than one acre. Outdoor grows must also be enclosed in a 6-foot high, non-climbable fence with a locking gate.
Sonoma Co.
Patients can have up to 3lbs for possession and for growing the maximum is 100 sq ft for cultivation with 30 plants or less.
Tehama Co.
gardens can be no more than 12 mature or 24 total plants on parcels of 20 acres or less.
Part I - Indoor Vs. Outdoor
Marijuana grows well in many places on the North American Continent
and other parts of the world. Some excellent marijuana is grown
outdoors in places as far north as Alaska, Canada, Northern Asia,
Northern Europe and as far south as Australia, New Zealand and South
Africa. It will even flourish in places the temperature doesn't rise above
75 degrees. Most cannabis strains prefer temperatures around 80
degrees. There are two possibilities when choosing a place to grow
cannabis, indoors, or outdoors. Outdoor growers can raise large crops
as oppose to indoor growers which are limited by the size of their
room. Since indoor growers are limited by the size of the space,
amounts of cannabis grown will be larger if grown outdoors. Since
monitoring a smaller area is easy to work on, the quality of cannabis
grown indoors is almost always superior. Growing indoors enables the
grower to achieve the optimal environment for cannabis plants.
Providing the indoor grow area with optimal temperature, nutrients,
humidity, and air circulation are very important to the plant.
Marijuana growing indoors successfully will require some simple
equipment or even better, a full hydroponic set-up. While you can
easily grow cannabis with a simple set-up the quality and amount
harvested will depend largely on the equipment you use.If you treat your cannabis plants
in a professional manner you will get outstanding results.
Your indoor set-up should consist of the following:
Soil or other medium like perlite. Cannabis growing indoors does
exceptionally well in soilless environments example: rockwool or
hydroton rock.
Growing lights. Final results will depend largely on the amount of
light. You can achieve reasonable results with fluorescent lighting
but growing marijuana under metal halide or high pressure sodium light
will give a far greater yield.
Watering system, you can use something as simple as a bucket with
water, or a timer and pumps, plants must be watered regularly.
Nutrients, if your not using soil, is absolutely necessary. Even with
soil you may need extra.
Ventilation is a must, all plants require fresh circulating air and
growing cannabis an indoor environment especially will
Part II - Soil vs. Hydroponic
A good way for a first timer to get started with a limited budget is
growing in soil. There’re many advantages to growing marijuana
indoors. Besides the apparent fact that it is much harder to have your
crop found, you can control the ambient conditions. The ability to
regulate them exactly how you want will enable you to get a premium
cannabis plant. Plants grown indoors will not appear the same as their
outdoor cousins. They’ll be smaller and may require you to tie them to
a growing post to remain upright. If you provide optimal conditions
the cannabis grown indoors will be far more potent them that of the
same strain grown outdoors. Plants will take longer to grow in soil
then they would in a hydroponic or aeroponic garden, but can be just
as potent. When selecting a grow area you want to lay plastic drop
sheets or tar paper on the floors to prevent any damage from water,
dirt, etc. The walls of your grow room should be painted white to
reflect light. Avoid using mylar which is reflective material that can
create “hot spots” in the room.
Containers for household plants can be used or any container that is
clean and never had chemicals or anything else toxic used in it. The
height of the container should be from 12 inches to 24 inches, 3 and 5
gallon containers usually do a good job. A general rule of thumb is
for every foot a gallon is needed. Make sure to provide drainage holes
in the container you are using to insure proper drainage. There should
be enough holes to allow excess water to drain from container. Buy
sterilized bags of potting soil from a gardening supply store. You
need potting soil that is designed for indoor use that is fluffy when
moist. Organic potting soil is a great choice, if available. Stay away
from anything that is clumpy and hard like clay or sand. Soil ph
should be between 6.0 to 7.0 range. Adding nutrients almost always
results in a more acidic ph. Get a ph meter to gauge the soil ph if
needed.
Metal Halide lights provide enough to grow potent cannabis and should
be used by any serious gardener. Make sure you understand lighting and
how it effects your grow room. If money is a problem and you can’t buy
and metal halide or high pressure sodium light fixture, fluorescent
lighting can be used instead. This a good start to growing but the
results will not be as good. The best are those designed specifically
for growing. Figure out about 1plant per 2 feet of fluorescent tube.
Fluorescent tubing should be about 3-6 inches from the top of the
cannabis plants. Cannabis plants will not grow as fast under a
fluorescent but will still grow very healthy. They may be mounted on a
rack and moved every few days as the plant grows. Once your grow
set-up is complete you can introduce seeds or clones.
Part III - Seed vs. Clone
If you have clones you can put them into the growing containers. If
you have seeds, you will need to germinate them before you stick them
into growing containers. Set your light timer for 16 hours or light
and 8 hours of darkness. However you want to make sure that there is
more light than darkness. Keep this pattern for two weeks in
containers. After about 2 weeks under 16 hours of light and 8 hours of
darkness the plants should’ve put down a good root system and grown a
few sets of leaves. Now you can increase light by an hour a day. You
can leave the light on 18-24 hours a day while the plant is in
(Vegetative growth stage). If you have a metal halide or high pressure
sodium now is the time to introduce them to your garden. As you
increase the light, the plants grow faster but the power consumption
increases. Low wattage lights like fluorescent lights don’t require as
much power thus don’t cost much to run however mh or hps lights use
much more power. The more power you use the higher your electrical
bill.
When the plants are at least 12 inches tall you can cut the light down
12 hours on and 12 hours off per day. This will force the plants to
flower. As the plants flower you will have to remove any male plants
unless you want to produce seeds. White hairs (pistils) will begin to
develop at bud sites on female plants.