During the first initial growth period of your cannabis plant, it focuses on building up the structural integrity. This being the stem and roots of your cannabis plant. Your cannabis plant will only then start developing leaves.
These are the early stages of growth and your cannabis plant will require a lot of nitrogen.
The new leaves will begin the start of the photosynthesis process the absorption of sunlight, furthering the cannabis plant’s growth. After your cannabis plants have germinated, consider removing any late-germinating seeds.
This way will ensure that they do not compete with your other cannabis plants for light and nutrients.
Once your cannabis plant has a stable root system and your environment is set up correctly. It’s a matter of just upkeep and ensuring you end up with a good yield.
The cannabis plants will continue to grow and develop if they are given the correct nutrients and supplied with adequate lighting. This will ensure that they develop a strong structure for the flowering phase.
As the cannabis plant develops and matures, it will require additional nutrients, water, and light. The cannabis plant will require more nitrogen. It is important to ensure you provide for all of your cannabis plant’s needs.
The first Cannabis leaves
The leaves of the cannabis plant grow in a series of stages.
Each series will produce a certain number of leaves. Usually, the first series will produce a single leaf. The second series will usually produce three leaves and the third series will usually produce five leaves, and so on.
After about two to three weeks of growing your cannabis plant should have gone through about 5 or 6 different rounds of growth. Your cannabis plant should be producing regular and a steady amount of leaves during each new series of growth.
The branches of your cannabis plant should start developing and expanding outwards.
Feeding the Cannabis seedlings
It is important to ensure your young cannabis seedlings get a lot of nitrogen during the early stages of development. It is important to remember to start adding nitrogen to your plant as soon as the first leaves develop.
Using fertilizers that consist of worm meal, blood meal or bat guano will ensure that your cannabis plants get the correct nutrients.
The other alternatives you can consider using are algae compounds or fish compounds, which you can use as your organic fertilizers. There are many factors that make organic fertilizers a better option for growers one of the major reasons being that is harder to overfeed your cannabis plants with organic fertilizer, and if you do, it will cause significantly less damage than powerful chemical fertilizer.
Once branches begin to develop on your cannabis plant, you can raise the number of nutrients, just remember, everything in moderation.
Overwatering your plant can cause your cannabis plant to grow more in the stem than the buds. This is counterproductive for growers. It is important to allow your cannabis plant's root systems to dry out and the soil to rest between irrigations.
Environmental factors
It is important to optimize your environment at every stage of growth, particularly during the early phases.
There are a few options when it comes to lighting. Once your cannabis plants get past the seedling stage, you can start exposing your cannabis plants to light for a full 24 hours. It is recommended rather simulate your cannabis plants at night. Give your cannabis plants six hours of darkness every 24 hours
Keep the temperature in your grow room between 20 and 25 degrees Celsius.
The roots of your cannabis plant should be slightly cooler, around 18 degrees Celsius. If the roots don’t develop correctly, the rest of the plant will be hindered.
Ensure you monitor the humidity in the room. This will directly affect the efficiency of your plant’s respiration. It is recommended that the humidity in your grow room is between 50% and 70%. Once your plant matures it will become less sensitive to humidity.
Maintaining and ensuring you control these environmental factors, will help optimize your cannabis plant's growth and yield. However, the genetics of the cannabis strain will still play a role in determining how the plant will develop and what sort of yield you’ll get.
The Vegetative Stage
An excellent growth period will be followed by a superior flowering phase. As the grower, it’s your job to ensure your plants get everything they require to develop properly before they switch to flowering.
This means a strong root system, healthy leaves, and a strong and tough stem to cope with the weight of the buds. You need to monitor the light, nutrients and temperature of your grow room during this process.
During the vegetative stage of growth, you need to be careful when watering your cannabis plant. As your cannabis plants grow larger they will require more water to keep up with the development.
Determining the sex
There are two common methods utilized for determining the gender of your cannabis plants. Gender is something you need to be certain of. Mixing a male and a female plant in your grow room can ruin your crop.
The first method used for determining the gender of your cannabis plant is to examine the 5th series of leaves. You should do this right before the cannabis plant is going to flower. Indica’s and hybrids cannabis strains will display their sex between the leaves of the plant right before they flower.
By looking carefully, you should see a tiny white fiber if the cannabis plant is a female. If the cannabis plant is a male, it will have a small ball instead. This is an easy method, however not the most reliable.
Another method is to take a cutting. Once your cannabis plant is in the vegetative stage, you can take cuttings from the plant and then root them in another room. This is called cloning. You need to expose the newly rooted cuttings to 12 hours cycles of light and darkness. The plants should flower within several days. If any of them are male you must remove them from the grow room.
Forced flowering
You need to set all your cannabis plants up neatly and ensure they aren’t fighting over any sources of light.
Once your cannabis plants are fully grown, you will need to start planning the harvest time.
It is very important to keep your cannabis plants well-spaced. This ensures a good healthy yield. Keep an eye on the roots to ensure all the cannabis plants have enough space below the surface.
If the root system of your cannabis plant has grown too large you will need to transplant your cannabis plant. This is the time to do it. The root systems grow rapidly during the vegetative stage of growth. It is important to make sure the plant isn’t suffocating. If the cannabis plant can’t absorb the nutrients it needs, it won’t do well during the flowering phase.
Night and day
By adjusting the light cycles in your grow room you can force your cannabis plants to start flowering, by doing this you are mimicking a seasonal change. You need “shorter” days that have roughly 12 hours of light and this is followed by 12 hours of darkness. The simplest way to manage these changes to the light cycle is to make use of an automatic switch that turns your lights on and off as required and in intervals.
It is important to ensure that you stick to these cycles once you start. One small change in the cycle and your cannabis plant exposure can interrupt the flowering process. If this process is interrupted, your cannabis plant may start growing again. This type of stress is bad for the plants' health and it can result in reduced yield.
