By Thebudvisor.com
Planting time and strategies vary depending on the environment. Gardeners using natural light must take seasons into account.
Generally speaking, the longer your plants are in the vegetative stage the bigger your buds and overall harvest will be. This excludes auto-flowering Ruderalis hybrids, for they come and go as they please. In northern New Mexico and southern Colorado, the recommended time for planting outdoors is May 15 so check your locale and pay attention in case of late freezes. The summer solstice is June 21st, the longest day of the year. That means that your plants will be triggered to start flowering without any additional artificial light source to prevent it. Indica purebreds will finish flowering in about 8 weeks and Sativas about 12 weeks. Most growers have hybrids but those are good guidelines to follow. Your only alternative is to get started indoors prior to May 15 and get a jump on the growing season.
Seeds will take longer than clones to get going, a month to 6 weeks longer before they graduate from their juvenile stage. Remember that from seeds you’re going to need to sex them, identify the sexes and remove the males. Figure on 50% if their not feminized and even then you can get some males. Clones root in 2 to 3 weeks and can be transplanted to their new environment. So given the May 15th to June 21st scenario, your outdoor grow has a 5-week vegetative growth stage, a 1 month to the 6-week juvenile stage with seeds and 3 weeks with clones, so any additional time in Veg has to be indoors and before April 1st, April Fools day! You do the math.
Another way to look at planting seedlings or clones outdoors is when soil temperature three inches below the surface reaches 65 degrees in the afternoon and doesn’t get lower than 50 degrees at night. They can be planted when ground temperatures are lower, but growth will be slow until the ground heats up. Cannabis seed is best planted when the minimum soil temperature doesn’t go below 60 degrees. At lower temperatures the seeds absorb moisture but root and sprout initiation are delayed. This leaves the seed vulnerable to attack by fungus and yeasts. In areas where there are four distinct seasons, clones or starts should be planted at the same time as tomatoes.
Artificial light can be very helpful for outdoor grows. Supplemental artificial light can extend the vegetative stage and help the plants to maturity in the fall. At high latitudes and altitudes, the intensity of light plants receive from the sun in September and October is a fraction of the light in June. The amount of UV light is also greatly diminished. The sun’s angle changes over the season too, so plants that were in direct light in spring and summer may be in shadow in the fall. If your plants are in containers, you may be able to move them to get more direct sunlight. Plants that are in the ground and in shadow require supplemental light to grow and ripen properly.
When you encounter cloudy and overcast days the clouds absorb most of the light and delay ripening. Even sunny gardens require more light for the buds to fully develop. Supplementing plants with any light can be helpful in their growth and or in keeping them in the Veg stage of growth. T-5 fluorescents, HID <high intensity discharge> lights, LEC <light emitting ceramics> all are good lights to increase production and or keep them in Veg. Remember that light is a plants food. Sugar production is maxed when plant cells can’t increase the speed at which their electric charges combine carbon and hydrogen into sugar, the process known as Photosynthesis. That’s what creates the sugar that drives all living things. The nutrient systems you provide the plant provide the building blocks for the plant’s growth and production, not their food.
Most indices and Indica dominant Sativa hybrids are early ripening strains meaning they require the least amount of darkness to flower. Some strains trigger immediately when placed outdoors, for those the night length is long enough in both summer and winter to promote flower. So you need a strategy for taking advantage of this to grow plants indoors until they reach the desired size before you take them outside to flower as they can grow another 25-50% larger during their flowering period.
Sativas and Sativa dominant Indica hybrids are usually late-season varieties that require a longer dark period to flower. Some equatorial Sativa varieties do not start to flower until late September and don’t ripen until December or January. In winter, flowering is induced quickly, but the plants may continue to grow vegetatively for a month or more before they concentrate their energy on flowering. The result is that they can be planted any time of year. Plants transplant outdoors in spring and summer flower in late fall. Sativas set out May 15 ripen within 120 days and Indicas ripen in 60 days or less in flower. That’s why supplemental light can be so helpful.
If you’re just getting started you need to figure out what your water is made up of. If you have a water softener you need to shut it off, it’s adding salt, the wrong kind. In New Mexico, we have a lot of hard water, high mineral content. It’s often referred to as dissolved solids or salts. Like Calcium and Magnesium, which are expressed as parts per million <ppm> and can be tested approximately by measuring electrical conductivity <EC> of the water. A measurement of 125 -150 ppm of your water is a good place to start. That is a 50/50 mix of R/O and well water where I am in Santa Fe. Your local water company should be able to give you a breakdown for free or you can have your water tested fairly inexpensively it will be well worth it.
The PH is a measure of acid-alkaline balance and is measured on a scale of 0-14, 0 is the most acid, with 7 neutral and 14 pure alkali. Every point of increase or decrease on the PH scale reflects a 10-fold change in acidity or alkalinity. So if you go from 5 to 6 it’s a 10 fold increase, and from 6 to 7, it is a 100 times more alkali. Plants can’t absorb nutrients when the Ph is out of their comfort zone so you need to be sure your water is between 5.5 and 6.5 for hydro and 6 and 7 for dirt.
Plants grown in a nutrient-rich medium with compost, manure, or time release fertilizers may need no additional fertilizing when planted in a large enough container or outdoor garden. Additional nutrients can be administered in supplemental amounts if plants begin to show deficiencies. The demand for critical nutrients, such as nitrogen <N>, phosphorus <P>, and potassium <K>, varies with the growing conditions and changes during the plant’s life cycle. Marijuana uses more N during the vegetative stage before flowering than in the later stages. The plant’s use of P increases when it begins to flower, while the need for K increases after fertilization to aid flower formation and seed production. There are a lot of different nutrient solutions to choose from. A good hydroponic regimen will also provide the micronutrients your plants need. Vegamatrix is a good one and it is Organic and Veganic. You’ll also want to provide your medium with bacterial and microbial supplements like Veganic Special Sauce, Recharge, and Mycorrhizal all of which will boost your production.
Pruning is the re-channeling of the growth hormone auxin to where it will yield the desired growth. By pruning, we change the delicate auxin balances flowing from the growing tips. How much and from where it is pruned will influence future growth in the remaining foliage. We prune to get better shape, better quality, and higher yields. It’s playing a game of dominance with a plant. Growers have an agenda of trying to increase yields. A plant has a simple plan of trying to get as much leaf area out into the light as possible. A plant will create as many leaves as its resources will allow. The plan is to collect as much light energy with its leaves as possible. The plants objective is to store as much energy as possible so its flowers produce healthy seeds, something you do not want.
Early in the plant growth, you take off the bottom two branches, leave 4 branches and “top” the plant, you will open up the plant for more light and air and greatly reduce the growth of second-rate bud. Removing fan leaves at the time you start flowering and again 3 weeks later will also open up the plant structure and again allow more light and air to the bud sites, increasing yield and improving the flower structure. Pruning can also be used to prevent or repair physical damage. Excess top size, length or weight causes collapse. Broken and injured sections, if not pruned, reduce yield by sapping non-productive plant energy. Bonsai is the ultimate example of what pruning can do to a plant.
Everything we’ve discussed and a lot more information can be found online at TheCannabisClubHouse.com or thebudvisor.com where I show you how to do everything, and it’s free for now.
Whatever you do…Get Growing
