Yo, what’s up my fellow growers? Dan here, ready to spit some knowledge on how to cultivate some dank-ass cannabis. There ain’t nothing more satisfying than puffing on some of your own high-quality bud that you grew with your own hands. And with the push towards legalization, more and more people are taking up the art of growing their own herb. If you live in a state where it’s legal to grow your own weed, then you know how tricky the process can be. But don’t worry, I got you covered with some tips and tricks that’ll make your journey a whole lot easier.
Germinating Your Seeds
First things first, every great harvest begins with a single seed. You wanna make sure you’re starting off with some viable seeds that’ll give you the dankest buds possible. Look out for seeds that have a brown appearance, feel hard to the touch, and occasionally have stripes and striations across their body. On the other hand, seeds that are weak, white or light green in color are probably undeveloped and considered unhealthy.
Germinating cannabis seeds can be done both indoors and outdoors, but indoor growing is where it’s at fam. You gotta make sure to limit exposure to temperature swings, pests, mold, and wind. Using a humidity dome will help foster quicker growth too.
Seedling Growth
Once your plants have germinated, they enter the seedling stage. At this point, keep your weed seedlings in moist conditions and relatively warm. Lighting should stay present throughout the course of the seedling stage (roughly two to three weeks, depending on the strain). During this time, small round leaves known as cotyledons will appear. At this point, your plant has entered its vegetative process.
To help facilitate healthy growth during the seedling stage, give your plants some steady temperatures between 72 and 79 degrees Fahrenheit. Low light intensity sourced from LED lights or low-wattage fluorescent bulbs will do just fine too. Keep them at a safe distance from lights to keep the plants comfortable. During this phase, it is important to keep your seedlings in a small pot with adequate drainage. Seedlings need only a small dose of nutrition to foster growth. Too many nutrients will quickly lead to nutrient burn.
Vegetative Growth
The vegetative stage is one of two primary growth stages for your cannabis plant. During this stage, your plant will develop the foundations that provide a bountiful harvest in the weeks to come.
After your marijuana has sprouted its first set of fan leaves, the plant officially enters its vegetative stage. As the plant continues to grow stems and leaves, its energy will focus on expanding roots throughout the growing medium. During this stage, weed will grow to the maximum height and size allowed for by its growing conditions. The larger your growing area, the more powerful your light, and the larger the container all impact the vegetative stage.
During the veg phase, you’ll make several important discoveries regarding your cannabis:
Determine Plant Sex – First and foremost, you need to know if you are growing a male, female or hermaphrodite plant. Female plants develop buds that are ideal for consumption while male and hermaphrodite plants do not. Male preflowers develop quickly and they are an easy sign of plant sex.
Calculate Pot Size – The size of your plants will be determined by multiple environmental factors including the size of your pot and nutrition that you deliver to it.
Control Humidity – Stable humidity in the 50 percentile area will allow your plants to prosper during the vegging stage of your weed.
Flowering Cannabis Plants
Now we come to what we’ve all been waiting for: flowering cannabis plants! As your marijuana begins to manifest buds, it is important to adhere to a strict schedule to maximize your potential harvest. This means carefully attending to lighting and nutrition programs for the final weeks of the plant’s life as they will have a massive impact on yield.
Initiation – Weeks 1–3
As you shift into your lighting schedule (12 hours on, 12 hours off) your plants will begin to grow and stretch dramatically. Plants can double and even triple in size during this phase. Pay careful attention to the white hairs known as pistils as they signal that a female plant has begun to produce its pre-flowers.
Mid Flowering – Weeks 4–5
At this point in the life cycle of your plant, your weed should have stopped growing upwards. Instead, you should now notice that the buds of your plant have begun to fatten up while the pistils themselves have darkened. To continue this prosperous growth stage, make sure to maintain a solid feeding schedule with appropriate nutritional changes as flowering demands.
Flowering / Ripening – Week 6–Harvest
The final few weeks of plant cultivation are when your buds will gain the most weight. Sticky to touch and ripe to nose, growers can basically taste their weed at this point. Depending on the strain, growers may notice white pistils with cream and brown striations. Trichomes may also change colors and these color shifts are indicators as when to harvest.
Time To Harvest – Week 8+
After eight weeks of flowering stage buds will finish fattening up. Trichome production will increase and pistils will change colors too. The final moment of harvest may change depending on desired effects and flavors by grower. Clear to milky white trichomes give a more energetic high whereas amber trichomes give a more sedating effect.
So there ya have it folks! Some tips and tricks for cultivating some dank-ass cannabis right at home! Happy growing!