HighGrow

HighGrow is a freeware computer program popularized on the Internet chiefly by numerous cannabis enthusiast sites [http://www.google.com/search?q=HighGrow+marijuana] that invites a user into "Legal Marijuana Growing" on a computer screen. The program, compatible with Windows, takes a form similar to the popular virtual pet games whereby players "care" for their pets by feeding, watering, and playing with them on a regular basis. In HighGrow, a player's objective is to grow marijuana, and does so by "planting" virtual seeds, and then regularly watering, fertilizing, adjusting the light height and timing, and numerous other plantkeeping tasks. The documentation included with the program teaches a player about the cannabis plant's life cycle and how its stages are controlled through the timing of lighting.

Overview

The authors of the game have attempted to design the game to behave consistently with real marijuana growing experience. Growing a virtual marijuana plant with HighGrow takes a similar amount of time as growing a real plant - several months. Each day, the plants grow a small amount, but there is no activity observable in real time. Staring at a virtual plant is much like staring at a real one - it just sits there. A neglected plant dies, just like a virtual pet, if its owner fails to tend to the chores such as regular watering.

An animated character named Rasta Robbie appears throughout the game "teaching" the player how to grow marijuana effectively. For example, some of the advice Rasta Robbie gives includes "Never water or fertilize your plants every day" and "Never allow the lights to touch the tips of the branches, the heat will be too much for the young leaves to handle". Also, while the program is running (or "while you are visiting your grow room", as the program would describe it), a selection of MIDI-based music is played in the background.

The program comes with a selection of 30 different marijuana seeds. According to the program documentation, it is possible for a grower to pollinate their plants and produce additional offspring seeds. These seeds can be exported to a file and planted in someone else's "grow room" by importing the file.

During installation, the program warns the player not to tamper with the PC's internal clock in order to speed up the growing process, or else the program will refuse to run. Nevertheless, one site suggests that changing the system time using the system's BIOS setup screen will not be detected by the program [http://highgrow.pc.cheatplaza.nl] .

Versions

HighGrow has been through four major revisions. The most recent version is numbered 4.20, a number widely associated with cannabis. Preceding it is version 3.0 and 2.0.

References

# http://www.highgrow.us - HighGrow home page.
# [http://www.winsite.com/bin/Info?500000029436 WinSite Featured Software] describing HighGrow as an "educational program". Note that the download offered is not the latest revision.
# http://www.highgrow.pl - HighGrow official Polish language site.