Seeing a plant grow, caring for it, watering it and taking care of it, day after day, is good for your mood. This applies to all plants, of course, but the satisfaction that comes from growing cannabis is priceless.
Growing marijuana plants is not an impossible task: you need to know a few rules and respect them, listening to the plant and learning to understand its needs. It's not difficult, but it takes practice and patience; start from the assumption that, as in all things, your first sowing will most likely not be the best! In this article you will find answers to the following questions
- Is soil or hydroponic cultivation better?
- Cultivation in Land: when to water?
- How to water the Cannabis plant?
- What happens if I use too much water?
Listen to the article while visiting our store
Listen to "How_and_quanto_annafiare_la cannabis" on Spreaker.
To best cultivate cannabis, it will be necessary to keep certain factors under control, which are fundamental for the success of the operation: air, light, substrate, nutrients and water .
These are parameters that acquire more or less importance based on the type of cultivation chosen. For example, light takes on a fundamental position if we think about indoor cultivation , and obviously we are talking about artificial light; the intensity, spectrum and position of the lamp play an important role in the overall vigor of the plant.
Manipulating the photoperiod in each phase of the growth cycle is essential for the success of both the vegetative and flowering phases.
Irrigation is one of the great dilemmas of the novice grower , it is the first problem that arises before us and it is the easiest to solve, but getting something wrong can lead to the failure of the entire enterprise. Cannabis plants can be watered by hand or irrigated with advanced automated systems.
The water supply must always be controlled and balanced, even in outdoor cultivation. Like many other plants, Cannabis needs both the water it receives and the soil in which it takes root to be at a precise pH , which must be constantly monitored and regulated by the grower.
Growing in soil or hydroponic?
Choosing to grow your plants in pots or in a hydroponic system greatly changes the methods and times of irrigation. Let's shed some light on the two types of crops.
Soil cultivation is the most immediate, closest to the habits of a novice grower and, certainly, less demanding than hydroponics. It takes longer than hydroponic cultivation, but it seems to give the final product a better flavor.
Have you ever tried light cannabis grown in Italy? Taste Volare with high % CBD!
Whether you grow indoors or outdoors, the soil must meet slightly different requirements . The best soil for indoor cultivation is the specific soil for growing cannabis plants .
There are a wide range of high-quality, organic and chemical-free options on the market. Supersoils remain perhaps the best solution for indoor growing, as they offer the right balance of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and many other useful nutrients.
If you grow outdoors, you must instead use soil that already exists in nature . The three main types of soil are sandy, clayey and loamy. The soil is almost always a mixture of these three soils, what changes is the relationship between the quantities. Depending on their proportions, different degrees of quality are obtained. When growing outdoors, the only option is to dig a fairly large hole and use organic supersoil .
As for irrigation, it is essential that the soil has good drainage , to avoid the risk of rotting the roots in case of excessive irrigation.
If you instead choose to use a hydroponic system , you are choosing to use water as the plant's only growing medium. Hydroponic cultivation allows you to keep all the nutritional parameters of the plant under control , to obtain more abundant and usually faster harvests.
The roots are suspended on special grids positioned inside pots or buckets, or they can emerge from the rock wool used for cultivation. Below the roots flows an aqueous solution rich in nutrients which, drop by drop, satisfies all the nutritional needs of the plants, keeping them in top shape. Hydroponic systems offer many advantages, especially to those who want to rigorously control the cultivation parameters.
Cultivation in soil: when to water?
Whether you choose hydroponic or soil cultivation, water remains a fundamental element for the growth and flowering of the plant. There are conflicting opinions on the best time to water a Cannabis plant and how to follow a correct and balanced watering plan.
Some growers argue that the best time to water is in the morning , because water is assimilated more easily in the presence of light. According to others, night watering helps increase soil moisture , creating the perfect habitat for mold and fungi.
Regardless of what time you water, it's important to know some handy tricks to determine how much water your growing plants require .
One of the most common practices for recognizing the best time to water is to dip your thumb into the soil and check its humidity level. This is a safe and valid technique to avoid excess water. It is always better to give less water than to risk giving too much, because the roots of the cannabis plant need oxygen to breathe and excess humidity can damage the plants and cause them to rot.
If you grow in a pot it will be enough to lift it to understand if it is time to water the plant: if the pot is heavy, it means that the earth is still wet; if on the contrary it seems light, it means that the earth is dry and needs water.
How to water the cannabis plant?
Marijuana is a plant that prefers abundant , but not too frequent, watering. An excellent way to water Cannabis plants is to add water to the lower parts of its substrate . In this way it will be possible to control the water needs of the plants more precisely.
An easy way to do this involves placing the pots in a container full of water, so that the water is absorbed and pushed upwards, where the roots will have the task of assimilating it.
Have you ever tasted a top quality with a high CBD content? Eliminate paranoia from THC, relax and take well. Pearl AK-47
The roots of plants absorb water following the principle of osmosis : they constantly seek the balance between the quantity of water contained in the roots and that present in the external substrate.
Once equilibrium is reached, plants stop the absorption process . So, if after 30 minutes your container is still full of water, it means that your Cannabis plant has already satisfied its water needs.
If, however, the plants absorb all the water, then you need to add more and wait a few minutes. In any case it is important to remove excess water from the saucer.
Watering plants from the bottom stimulates the roots to move downwards , seeking water, promoting much healthier growth. Most modern growers water from the top, while more professional growers prefer to water from the bottom.
If in the vegetative phase it is essential to give the plant all the water it needs, in the last weeks of the Cannabis life cycle you must be careful not to overdo it.
Have you ever tried CBD sweets prepared with cannabis grown with the wisdom of the past?
Excessive watering
If the quantity of water is excessive and its supply is too frequent, the plant risks dying because the roots do not receive enough oxygen to survive .
This is why it is very important to follow a balanced irrigation plan: adding water only in situations of water shortage allows the air to circulate freely in the earth and the roots to absorb all the oxygen they need. The root system of plants needs oxygen to start its cellular respiration and if oxygen is lacking for too long the root cells are destined to die , leading to the death of the entire plant.
If the roots are damaged , the plant is no longer able to absorb water and nutrients from the soil, and it dies.
If you've given your cannabis plants too much water you may still have time to fix it! Luckily, excess water is easy to recognize.
In these cases the plant ceases to have a healthy appearance, it almost seems as if it is about to wither. The inexperienced grower is always afraid of not having watered enough, but in this case it is easy to realize the opposite, because the soil will be soaked , given that the plant has stopped absorbing water.
Unfortunately, the only remedy, in addition to waiting for the substrate to dry, is to transfer the plant to another pot containing new, dry soil . If root rot has already established, all damaged areas must be removed before transplanting. Few companies offer solutions for radical problems. In some cases, beneficial fungi or symbiotic bacteria can prevent these problems from arising.
To be a good cannabis grower you need to know a few fundamental rules and respect them carefully.
It is important to know the plant and its behavior and - in case of doubts - to discuss it with other growers or with the staff of your reference grow shop. Today there are many sites and blogs that provide useful advice and it is not difficult to find technical information material, such as books and sector magazines. The Marijuana Outdoor Grower's Guide by T. Oner is a very detailed book, which provides important advice to those approaching the world of growing.
If the article was of interest to you, share it on social media with the rest of the Community, every single share helps us support our blog and keep you 360° informed on the world of Cannabis.
You might also be interested in: