Nirvana Shop - Do They Rip Off Their Affiliates??

I used to recommend Nirvana-Shop, in the Netherlands, for all my seeds. I’ve given them a lot of business over the last couple of years, and I’ve recommended a lot of my friends to purchase seeds from them. Nirvana Shop (in the past) has always been a company that sent out a great product, they’ve sent out cannabis seeds in very secretive packaging, Nirvana Shop has sent those marijuana seeds out very quickly (and Nirvana Shop is a seed company that sends to the U.S.A.)…so I have had no complaints about this seed supplier until now.

Nirvana Shop is a marijuana seed grow shop I simply have to complain about. If I was review Nirvana Shop they would get a negative review of two thumbs down!!

Why? What changed? Well, one thing changed that actually cost me a lot of money. They ripped me off, in fact! I will explain it simply, and I hope my readers understand where I’m coming from.
- Nirvana Shop offers an affiliate program. Because I loyally promoted their product anyway (to my friends), I figured I might as well make a few extra dollars by continuing to promote Nirvana Shop on the web. So I signed up!
- I started placing my affiliate links everywhere I could. I would blog about Nirvana Shop here on this blog in fact. I would also link to their site whenever I mentioned a product they sold. I was working hard for them - because when I would create sales for them, I would be credited a percentage!
- I gained enough sales in their affiliate program that on 8-5-08 I was supposed to receive a payment from them of 53 Euros. Great! I was excited.
- I waited.
- I waited. No check, and no deposit in my bank account.
- I waited. I checked my info to see if they had the correct info. They did.
- I waited. No money…so I sent them a message. No response.
- I waited. I sent the affiliate program manager another message. No response.
- I waited some more. Now it’s October! I sent a message to their forum admin, asking them to put me in contact with the affiliate program manager. No response!

So, months later, I still haven’t received the money owed to me from August. Nirvana Shop does not pay affiliates as far as I can tell. And to add insult to injury, the affiliate links are still sending Nirvana-Shop traffic, and people have bought more seeds from this company because of me. So the amount of money I am entitled to has increased…until now.

I have changed all the affiliate links I could find to now point to Sensi Seeds. You can probably understand why I’ve done this, and if you know anything about seed banks you know how reputable Sensi Seeds is, and how long they’ve been around. So I have no qualms about promoting them and they seem to have their act together when it comes to their affiliate program. But sadly, it seems that Nirvana Shop does indeed rip off their affiliates.

I hope, if you’re reading this, you see why I am upset and I request that if you want to help me out that you don’t buy from Nirvana-Shop, and I would appreciate a bit of love if you are buying seeds for you to buy via my Sensi Seeds affiliate links.

Also, feel free to comment to this post and tell me your experiences with ANY seed banks out there! It would help EVERYONE if we all let each other know who is reputable and who is not. Thanks!!

“Early” Seeds For First Time Growers

If you’re a new or beginning grower, you’ll probably want to grow something easy as opposed to something hard. After all, you just want to have a successful grow, and learn how to do it - and then move on to some different varieties that might be more of a challenge. Allow me to make a recommendation here: start with some hardy seeds that bud fast. Might I suggest a couple of varieties of “early” seeds.

Early Girl

As the name indicates, this one tends to take a short time to go from planting to budding. They don’t call it Early Girl for nothing. And the level of difficulty is rated as “easy” or good for a beginning grower.

Early Pearl

Another good choice in this vein is the Early Misty which is a cross between two other varieties, and it is a “medium” THC level plant.

Early Skunk

This is one I have grown a few times and it is extremely easy. You plant it, water it, and let it go. In the hot humid summer where I live, I end up with some bushy buds. Early Skunk is an easy grow.

These are just a few suggestions on good strains for beginners to try. Good luck, and happy growing!

Growing Progress For Durban Poison After Ladybugs

It’s now been two weeks since I’ve tried ladybugs as a pest control method. For a while, my Durban Poison was getting absolutely RUINED by some kind of pests. So, I ordered a quantity of ladybugs from a plant supply company and enacted my plan.

First, I moved my plant out of the garage. It was in a pot under lights. Durban Poison is an outdoor plant, so I went ahead and just put it into nature.

Second, I unleashed the ladybugs. As I threw them out and about, I sprayed them with a mixture of water and sugar-water. That way, I thought it might dry and stick their wings closed so they would “stick” around for a while (and hopefully lay some eggs).

Immediately, I noticed that they started to crawl on all my plants including garden plants. They were there for many days, but each day less and less of them were evident.

Now, they are all gone. But my Durban Poison plant finally seems very healthy and bushy. Unfortunately, yesterday I saw the return-signs of pests on a leaf. I hate to use pesticides - so I think I may just get another shipment of ladybugs!

How Marijuana Can Help You Medicinally

There hasn’t been much study done on the benefits of marijuana as a medicinal plant, but regardless of that, people have known about it and used it to heal or alleviate their ailments anyway. Yeah, that’s what the drug companies hate - I know. And people will laugh at you if you ever mention (out in public) that you think marijuana is useful as a healing plant. But so what? It still is - no matter what the current popular public opinion may be.

A couple of examples should suffice. And I like the examples I’m bringing up, because they are very easy to verify and almost common knowledge.

1) Marijuana alleviates headaches. If you’ve ever suffered from a migraine or from a severe sinusitis headache…well, you know that aspirin or acetaminophen just don’t cut it. You’ll still be laying in the dark on the bed, holding your eyes, and wishing you were dead an hour after popping the maximum recommended dosage. So what most people do (if they’re chronic sufferers) is go to the doctor and get heavy-duty drugs with scary side-effects. But another option is to simply smoke a joint. Most people at this point will scream “But that’s illegal!” and recoil in horror - but thinkers will quickly see that it’s no different and possibly much better than getting the synthetic drug out of a bottle. Plus, it’s cheaper.

2) Appetite stimulation. It’s also pretty commonly known that cancer patients who are undergoing chemotherapy suffer from weight-loss due to not being able to eat and hold food down. If you can’t eat, you can’t get nutrients. You probably get depressed and weak much faster, and all that can do is lessen your chance of survival. Yes, there are drugs that are administered for the purpose of stimulating appetite, but once again - marijuana does this and it’s quite well-known. It’s an obvious choice to be used to help someone feel hungry. I don’t know about you, but if I am high I sometimes get voraciously hungry and as I’m eating I feel like the food is the best it’s ever tasted. Image what that can do for people who need to feel that way so they can simply eat at regular intervals.

So why aren’t people able to benefit from marijuana for these reasons? It has a lot to do with people predetermined/preconceived ideas regarding marijuana. It has much to do with government and industry interests. And it has everything to do with people everywhere choosing ignorance over common sense.

Let’s hope this situation changes soon. It will only help everyone.

Marijuana Pests

One of the unavoidable hassles of growing your own marijuana is pests. Pests could be people of course, but I’m talking about the insect kind. The pests that do things like suck the juices out of the stems and eating the leaves of your plants. The pests that kill the leaves and ruin your seedlings. The pests that destroy your crop.

There are a few ways of combating pests, and they fall into “natural” or organic methods and chemical methods. I prefer using natural solutions. But it’s not always possible. So here’s what works:

- Ladybugs. For some reason at a previous residence I had ladybugs show up in the room where I was growing. I don’t know how/why they got in the room and stayed, but they did. And now I know that they must have been eating the aphids or whatever pests might have otherwise destroyed my precious cannabis plants! Because I rarely found any evidence of damage to my plants.

- Soapy water. One of the common “cures” for pests is spraying down your plants with a solution of dishwashing liquid soap, vinegar, and water. I can’t vouch for this, but many people swear by it. Supposedly it will keep away many types of pests.

- Poison. Yeah, I would avoid this - because who knows what will make it into your final product? You don’t want to smoke weed that has pesticides in it. (At least, I don’t.) However there are some products that are labeled as “good for organic gardeners” and safe for food plants which might be okay. If used, I would recommend using them before budding just to make sure no residue remains on your plants, and you don’t smoke something that you don’t want.

There are, by the way, a couple of brands available at your local big-brand hardware store that are labeled “Safe for Organic Gardening”.

Marijuana Pests & How to Solve It

Obviously the best option would be to populate your grow area with natural pest predators. If this is possible with your grow area, you can usually get ladybugs from a local garden center. Call around - you may find a gardening supply shop, “feed store”, or similar place that has them.

My New Jock Horror (or White Widow) Grow

OK, so I just ordered some Jock Horror and some White Widow seeds from my favorite seed company, and - *gasp* - they got mixed up. So I can’t tell which ones are which! All the seeds look pretty similar, and the seedlings look fairly similar as well. So we’re gonna have to wait another couple of weeks at least before I can tell the difference.

The mix-up was my fault - I have to mention that. I ordered the seeds, they got to the delivery address in about a week and a half, and they were packaged “discreetly” (i.e. well-disguised). Yep, I got cannabis seeds shipped to my house in the U.S.A. all the way from Amsterdam no problem. And then I somehow managed to do the following:

Open both seed packets at the same time
Spill all the marijuana seeds from both packets onto my floor
Have a huge mix-up

So I wasn’t too thrilled. But I figured, “Hey, I’m gonna grow all of these anyway so what does it really matter?” and I just went ahead and picked four seeds and planted ‘em. They’re all marijuana seeds anyway. If the marijuana grows, it’ll be awesome whether it’s a Jock Horror plant or White Widow either way, right?

So I tried something new this time. Previously I used only natural light to grow my plants (last time it was Durban Poison not that it matters). Right now I am growing all my plants indoors (in a garage). Actually I follow this plan:

Plant the seed in a plastic drinking cup filled with Moisture Control soil
Keep it wet and sit it on a shelf in the garage until I see the plant sprout
Put the marijuana seedling outside in the sun during the day, and bring it in at night
When indoors, put it under a plant light
Keep alternating between indoors at night and outdoors during the day until the plant looks like a marijuana plant
When it looks recognizable as a marijuana plant, I bring it inside and put it under constant light (with a plant light) until I am ready for it to bud

Right now I have a Early Special plant and it’s getting big - and it’s probably four weeks old now.
I am fairly certain no one will see these, and eventually my plans will go “up in smoke”…as in, I will get to smoke some Early Special weed and eventually some of this White Widow and Jock Horror I’ve always heard so much about! There’s really nothing quite like growing your own pot.

I just wanna keep it to myself, grow quietly and secretly…and enjoy it. What more could someone ask for?

Marijuana - Easier to Buy or Grow?

If you’re afraid of getting busted buying pot from a shady dealer somewhere (such is the situation much of the time), you should seriously consider just ordering some seeds and growing your own plants. It is very easy to do, and once you have your seeds…all you have to do is keep your plants a secret. (Tell absolutely no one that you’re growing marijuana.)

A tip: do a search on Google for “marijuana grow guide”, “cannabis growing guides”, “how to grow marijuana outdoors”, “ways to grow pot”, etc. and I guarantee you’ll have more info that you even have time to read. But it’s really simple, even without a grow guide:

Order your cannabis seeds. Have fun shopping for just the right strain, and place the order. My favorite is Sensi Seeds but there are many very reputable seed suppliers listed here on our site.
Get your pot-growing supplies. Go to Home Depot or Lowe’s and get yourself some planters, some Miracle-Grow potting soil, a watering can, and (depending on if this will be indoors/outdoors) some lights. (The plant lights.)
Germinate the cannabis seeds. When you get your marijuana seeds, first put them in some paper cups (one each) in soil and get them to grow into seedlings.
Transplant the marijuana seedlings. Plant each successful marijuana seedling into a planter. Water it. Put it where you want it to grow (a good outside spot, or your indoor grow area).
Let your pot plants grow. When you see buds, trim off a few here and there and put them away to dry. Keep your plant growing, and just keep getting buds as they become ready.

When the buds are dried out after a week, smoke them.

That’s the abbreviated version of what you need to do! In my opinion, it’s really easy and way less risky (and way less expensive!) than buying from other people.

Baking Marijuana Brownies

A couple of weeks ago, I finally decided to try baking “space cakes” with some of my wacky tobaccy. I had a couple Durban Poison buds, but a ton of leaves and shake. So I decided to put it to use!

Following the “cannabutter” instructions I had read online (of which there are many variations), I got a stick of butter, and placed it into a small pot. Then I placed the pot in the pot. Then I placed the pot (not the pot in a pot), in another pot - a larger pot. This big pot was halfway full of water. So in essence I had a makeshift double-boiler.

I melted the butter and let it gently simmer for two hours. Then I strained it through some cheesecloth.

Then, I used the melted cannabis-infused butter as a substitute in my brownie recipe (thank you, Betty Crocker for the great recipe as well as the mix).

The result? Some of the best. brownies. ever.

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