out_of_his_mind in Dubai - First Grow Diary

Hi guys and gals,

I'm a "noob" and I thought I'd briefly introduce meself to the great community here. At the same time, this will be the start of my journal. I'm now over 35 (ugh!), been smoking for twenty years now, on and off it because I travel a lot for my work and some countries are a bit retard when it comes to Mary Jane. I've settled a bit in the past few years, but unfortunately in a Middle-East country where penalties for puffing are harsh and the stuff is hard to come by and risky to get at. Shame when I think I am originally from a country where since recently the thing has been depenalized to carry and grow (two plants and/or 30 grams (an ounce) will not get you in trouble no more!).

So hey, here I am, stuck in this country most of the year. Not that I totally dislike it here. Weather is sunny most of the time, kinda too hot for 4 months in the summer, but other than that it's ok. It's just a few hours flight from Europe, Africa and Asia. On the down side, people drive and behave on the roads like pigs and the majority is kinda retard and uneducated.

Anyway...missing something here...I've always wanted to grow the thing meself and I thought that since I can't buy it here, this would be the right time to start something. By the way, that's how I thought of my nickname, when I told to my friend from UK what I wanted to do, he said "you out of your mind, mate!". So I thought this would be a kewl totem! Well, yeah, he is kinda right, if I get caught playing these games here, I'll be in serious trouble...but what the hell: I can always build my closet and get ready, and decide later if I want to go ahead...otherwise I'll have to move somewhere else. Anyway, had enough of these nuts with them kitchen towels on the head chasing me on the roads with them fuckin' 4x4 way too powerful for the amount of brains they got.

So here I go. Started to read away Greg Green's Cannabis Grow Bible (respect, Greg!), and I decided based on that to get myself a 600W HPS and seeds to start with. On my way back to the homeland for Christmas, I did a quick trip to tulip country and bought the light and some White Russian seeds from Serious Seeds.

Back to the Middle-East. The trip back was a bit tense, since all the security and customs were curious about that massive bulb and-what-is-that-big-metallic-mass-in-your-suitcase-Sir? (ballast)... Fortunately, nobody did a full body search to find the seeds...

Then surfing, I found the salvaged Overgrow FAQ (what a fantastic resource!!) and then stumbled upon ICMag and cannabis.com, and here I am, boys and gals, yours truly! So now I have to start to build my closet, and that is where I realize my first noob mistakes: 600W is probably overkill and hard to cool for less than a square meter (10 sqft)...600W MH conversion bulbs are hard to come by...White Russian stinks like hell...Anyway... the plan is to make a cabinet with about a square meter for vegging/flowering with SCROG and an Ebb and Flow system. Ideally, I would have the reservoir in a separate compartment underneath the flowering one, but that might be hard to do. All has to be easily accessible and I am thinking of mounting everything on sliding trays to get it all out of the closet at once for easy access. Need to be able to quickly and easily disconnect the reservoir from the Ebb/Flow tray. Other than that, I need a chamber for cloning and seedlings and to keep a few bonsai mothers, all under CFL / tubes. The cloner will be bubble or wick or maybe just moist rockwool cubes. The seedlings will be started in rockwool. And I really don't know what to keep the mothers into, but I know I want them to survive when I am not there. I'd like to do away with soil, but... or maybe I can do without mothers by just starting clones regularly and/or keeping them in stasis when I am away? I'll have to figure that out. The cabinet has to be stealth. For ventilation, I am thinking of these Panasonic WhisperQuiet fans. I am not yet sure whether I will exhaust the carbon scrubbed air through a window or inside (I am in an apartment). This will be a major enterprise. There is no such thing as a Home Depot with everything in one place here. I have to run the souks to find everything bit by bit. I made phone calls...uh? no speak English...click...what you want? rockwool? what is? don't know! no have!...I am sorry Sir, we do not carry the Whisper Quiet line of fans...

So that's where I stand just now. I will post pictures as I go and share it all with you, like you all have done with me. I want to thank the whole community for sharing their experience and their ideas and their terrific ingeniosity . I want to send respectto the victims of the stupidity of the authoritiesin these matters. A particular one to the OG people who taught me so much, although their site was defunct already when I came around.

BTW, for those who wonder, the picture near my name is the logo of the CIRC, the French activist group for legalization. Support the CIRC!

I will finish work in a few days and off I go on holiday, so I won't be posting for a few weeks. Then I will work a bit again and then start the getting all the bits for the construction. See you all in a few weeks.

You got more balls than me man be careful.

As for ventilation, speak to building wholesalers. Rockwool can be found _at least here it can_ in most normal garden shops, plant/flower shops etc... some people use it for flower arranging etc, but I can appreciate you might have problems tracking such stuff.


Good luck man, remember you're only doing what the government is forcing you to do be careful and grow on.

Hey, Waydee,

Yes I can find fans, but I am looking for something efficient and silent and people in here were praising the Panasonic...not too worried, I'll find something else...

I've been chasing rockwool, but it doesn't seem available here. I contacted Grodan and Oasis and they do not distribute in the ME.

Yeah that there is going to be your biggest obstacle in my opinion... lack of access to a hydro shop. I lived in Dubai for 5 years so I feel your pain man, and I applaud what you are doing. Remember that Howard Marks (Mr. Nice) smuggled tonnes of hash through the Dubai airport in the 70s and didn't get caught. Getting small things into Dubai was never a problem for me, pretty lax security apart from the suitcase xray. What did you say about the ballast and light though? That's fucking great you got all that in man. I am stoked for you.

What souks have you been to? For the fan you are probably going to want to check the souk in Satwa where are the car shops are or maybe a little closer to computer street and the electronics souk. Do you know an Indian or Pakistani contractor type guy that could get you stuff? You won't have to hunt and won't pay stupid prices either if you do.

I'm not familiar with any flower shops there although there's supposed to be a good one near the end of the creek in Garhoud there. There used to be a water ski club near it but I don't know what's changed in that area in a few years. My advice would be to just order the rockwool or find something else.

Best of luck to you! I hope you can find what you need to get growing quickly and stealthily.

Thanks for the support swx2. I have had very little time to run the souks, but in one day I already laid my hands on an air pump and air stones, a 1.6m/1200l/h (5 feet/5gpm) water pump, hydroton, a relay to protect the timer against the light impedance, etc. I have looked at some fans, but I haven't decided yet. I can find super activated carbon. I have looked at a shower tub to use as an ebb/flood table, looks like it could do the job. Approximate size 1mx1mx0.2m (3.5ftx3.5ftx0.7ft). It already has a hole for the drain and it is built for purpose!! Can somebody tell me if they think that the pump can do the job of filling the tub in a decent time or do I need a second one?

I haven't looked for hydro-nutrients yet, but I expect diffculties there. Rockwool, I can always work around it or import it.

I will post pictures when I have time, might be a while.

Penalties here are four years to life, and death for anything over 500grams:jawdrop:...I will proceed only if I can make it total stealth. What are your experiences with negative pressure cabinets adequately filtered by active carbon? Can you really completely get rid of the smell?

Holy freaking crap! Best of luck to you. Watch your ass. If there is a place where the Golden Rule is most important, it's where you are. Don't tell ANYONE there what you are doing!

BTW, how private are internet connections in Dubai? I hope you are using Tor or some other anonymizing program. If not, go to EFF.org and get Tor.

Death over 1/2 a kilo? I don't know about that but 4-life is bad enough anyway. I heard a lot of things about drugs in your blood being considered possession there, and grace periods after you enter the country or something but who knows what is and isn't true. I haven't read their laws myself but I always heard you only got death for hard stuff like blow & china, and keys of it. Cannabis is 4 years for possession and 25+ for dealing. Don't let the laws scare you too much though. You have your shit together.

My friend went to jail in an entrapment scheme that would never fly in the west. If you give anyone hash/pot that is considered dealing there so keep it to yourself... not that you wouldn't anyway That's the only way you can fuck up really, as long as light & odours are contained.

swx2 said:

Death over 1/2 a kilo? I don't know about that but 4-life is bad enough anyway.

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There are lots of places that have the death penalty for large-quantity drug possession/trafficking: Iran, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Malaysia, China. I'm sure there are other places as well with the death penalty for drugs, too.

In the Middle East, some of the common execution methods: hanging, beheading with a sword or axe, firing squad, stoned to death (not the good kind: they bury you up to your waist and them have 100+ men pelt you with stones until you are dead...it takes about 10 minutes for you to die).

Even if you don't get sentenced to death, you may be subject to corporal punishment in addition to jail time: publicly cut off a hand, foot, nose or ears with a sword or knife, no anesthetic; maybe a public flogging.

Like I said, watch your ass!

No matter how much Westerners may bitch and moan about how draconian our drug laws are (they're not draconian so much as they are just oppressive), we have it many times better than most other countries.

krustytheclown said:

There are lots of places that have the death penalty for large-quantity drug possession/trafficking: Iran, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Malaysia, China. I'm sure there are other places as well with the death penalty for drugs, too.

Click to expand...

I have lived in both Dubai and Saudi Arabia. Let me just say that the Saudis come to Dubai to fuck Russian whores and get drunk legally. They are wildly different countries. When you enter Singapore on your landing card in big red letters at the bottom it says "DEATH TO DRUG TRAFFICKERS UNDER SINGAPORE LAW" ... again very different from the UAE (especially Dubai). We are talking about cannabis here and Iran does NOT execute people for cannabis... believe me I have smoked joints in parks in Tehran. I don't have experience with drugs in China (well, not the mainland and HK is different) and haven't traveled to Malaysia so I can't comment on the situation there. The UAE is strict but for the middle east they are quite western-minded.

Maybe you have had different experience in your travels than myself.

krustytheclown said:

In the Middle East, some of the common execution methods: hanging, beheading with a sword or axe, firing squad, stoned to death (not the good kind: they bury you up to your waist and them have 100+ men pelt you with stones until you are dead...it takes about 10 minutes for you to die).

Click to expand...

I'd probably hate being hung, shot, and decapitated as much as being lethally injected or electrocuted. I fail to see your point. Stoning in Dubai? Not very likely!

krustytheclown said:

Even if you don't get sentenced to death, you may be subject to corporal punishment in addition to jail time: publicly cut off a hand, foot, nose or ears with a sword or knife, no anesthetic; maybe a public flogging.

Click to expand...

Now you're just being silly man. We are talking about the UAE. They don't cut off your hand for stealing or anything like that there. I think you are making some very irrational sweeping generalizations without any real knowledge of the places you're talking about. At least that's how it sounds. I'm not saying the UAE is a pinnacle of justice or that things like that never happen, but you are just telling horror stories with nothing to back them up now with this talk of cutting off noses and ears and public floggings.

(Sorry for dragging this out in your thread out_of_his_mind... I didn't mean to steal the thunder away from you getting some plants growing I promise)

Hey looks like youve gone through alot just to get this grow started. Good luck with everything and stay safe. Lets see some pics

swx2 said:

I have lived in both Dubai and Saudi Arabia. Let me just say that the Saudis come to Dubai to fuck Russian whores and get drunk legally. They are wildly different countries. When you enter Singapore on your landing card in big red letters at the bottom it says "DEATH TO DRUG TRAFFICKERS UNDER SINGAPORE LAW" ... again very different from the UAE (especially Dubai). We are talking about cannabis here and Iran does NOT execute people for cannabis... believe me I have smoked joints in parks in Tehran. I don't have experience with drugs in China (well, not the mainland and HK is different) and haven't traveled to Malaysia so I can't comment on the situation there. The UAE is strict but for the middle east they are quite western-minded...

Now you're just being silly man. We are talking about the UAE. They don't cut off your hand for stealing or anything like that there. I think you are making some very irrational sweeping generalizations without any real knowledge of the places you're talking about. At least that's how it sounds. I'm not saying the UAE is a pinnacle of justice or that things like that never happen, but you are just telling horror stories with nothing to back them up now with this talk of cutting off noses and ears and public floggings.

Click to expand...

Great perspective!

PM sent.

Hey thank you all for all the reassuring words! For whoever was asking, yes I am all anonymized and encrypted of course...now back on topic!

No too worried about getting caught if I manage to control odors. Is it possible to exhaust the cabinet inside the room or is exhaust to outside a must? how good are carbon scrubbers in your experience?

I will post pictures when I start the construction.