Grow Guide
An excellent grow guide for marijuana, from germination to smoking
Amsterdam Seeds
Cannabis strains, Marijuana Seeds, Cannabis seeds, Cannabis information, Cannabis Grow guide
The cannabis buds
2: Your cannabis buds, make ‘em pretty!
Once you have cut down the plant, take it somewhere to work. Working on a flat surface will allow you to easily collect the material you remove. This material is low in THC, but THC is still present and it can be used to make hash oil.
Trimming the buds is a relatively simple process, but make sure to take your time. Essentially all that you need to do is cut the branches holding the buds from the plant and removing all the leaves. Take your time and use a pair of scissors with small blades so that you have full control. You will get the hang of this with some practice.
When you are done trimming the buds, they should look like the image below. These trimmings are not smokable yet, they still need to be dried and cured, but if you’re excited to get smoking (as I’m sure you will be), you can take a small about and use one of the quick drying techniques to smoke it today. Only quick dry a small amount, as quick-dried marijuana smoke will be harsh and less potent.
Almost done, ready to smoke marijuana?
1: Almost ready to smoke your own Ganja
Finally, your product will soon be ready.
By now you are probably quite excited to start smoking your buds. To achieve the best marijuana possible, timing is the key. Knowing when to stop nutrients and when to harvest is an important skill to master. The first couple times you grow, you will most likely not get it perfect, but through trial and error you will eventually figure it out.
To achieve the best tasting marijuana, you will want to stop all nutrients about two weeks before harvest. This allows the nutrients stored in the plant to be used up in the growth process and not in your buds. If you don’t stop nutrients, you will have poor taste and difficult-to-light marijuana. A good rule of thumb is to stop nutrients the moment you begin seeing any of the trichomes turning an amber color, but if you have knowledge of your particular strain, you can follow whatever guidelines are provided with the strain.
Trichomes are the small resin glands found on your buds. The trichomes are quite small, so you will need a pocket-microscope to see them well. The pictures above show the progression of the trichomes from a clear color, to a milky translucent color, to slightly amber. Not all trichomes will mature at the same time, but you will want to harvest when most of the trichomes have become the milky color. Amber trichomes are fine, but high concentrations of amber trichomes will tend to get you stoned, while high concentrations of milky trichomes will get you high. A good ratio is ideal.
Once you feel your marijuana has matured to an optimal point, it is time to harvest. You have two options, harvest the branches one at a time or harvest the whole plant at once. I recommend harvesting the plant all at once as a beginner. It will be easier for you. Simply cut the plant at the base using scissors of garden shears.
This might be a particularly difficult time for you as well. No doubt your plants and you have become very close over the past couple months. Say a prayer and thank the plant before cutting it down and immediately move to trimming and manicuring.
Flowering of your cannabis plants
5: Payoff!
The flowering stage is by far the most exciting of all stages of growth. You will finally start to notice marijuana buds forming. The sweet smell of fresh marijuana will begin penetrating the air, and you will have some seriously nice looking plants. All your hard work is about to pay off, but don’t get too excited. Let your plants keep growing until their peak. Harvesting too soon can seriously reduce your potential yield. Be patient, and you can expect a great harvest.
As soon as you notice the plants showing sign of their sex, you will want to remove the males. If both sexes are allowed to grow to maturity, the males will pollenate the females and your weed will not be sinsemilla. To learn about determining the sex of your plants, see sexing plants.
The biggest change from the vegetative stage is the lighting. We want to increase the amount of red-spectrum lighting and we want more light in general. Attempt to maintain 3,000 lumens per square foot of growing space. If you were growing with fluorescents, you can keep any tubes out there. A lot of people like to use fluorescent tubes to provide side lighting for your tall plants. This is a good idea. You will want to replace most of your 6,500K CFL’s with 2,700K CFL’s. The 2,700K spectrum is usually called soft white.
You might also want to think about High Pressure Sodium bulbs. They sell standard socket HPS bulbs at hardware stores for about $20. It’s more expensive than other lighting, but you can produce a much greater light output. They also produce more heat, so keep them farther away from your plants, a foot or so should suffice. Direct contact is perfect fine with fluorescents, but proximity to HPS lighting will burn your plants.
The lights need to also be on for less time. The perfect flowering light cycle is 12 hours on, 12 hours off. Keep the same dawn time you used for the vegetative stage to reduce stress on the plants. This lighting cycle will let the plants know Fall has come, and for the Cannabis plant, Fall is the season of love.
Keep your watering the same. If you were using nutrients for vegetation (nitrogen-rich), stop them as the plants will need more phosphorous than nitrogen at this stage. Grow supply stores sell great nutrients for flowering. Almost anything with the word bloom in the name will work, but ask the sales staff for advice if you’re uncertain. Nutrients will usually be mixed in with the water at watering. Just like before, only water the plants when the top of the dirt has become dry and crusty. The plants are still very suceptible to over-watering.
Remember only to do any gardening while the lights are on. Lights on in the middle of their night-time periods is not good for the plants. The care you have to provide here is much the same as with the vegetative stage. Control any insects and keep your plants happy. Pay attention to their needs. You might want to trim some of the larger leaves to allow light to penetrate to the lower levels, but this is not absolutely necessary.
When you start to notice a snowy haze forming on your buds, it’s time to consider harvesting your marijuana. Below are several pics of healthy marijuana plants during the flowering stage.
