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What is your biggest question about growing cannabis?

NebulaHaze

NebulaHaze

Administrator
Hello everyone!

I was just curious... What questions do you all have about growing?

Is there something you've always wanted to know, but could never get a straight answer?

Ask your questions here!

cannabis-vegetative-dwc-white-rhino-7-hours-later-side.jpg
 
Growing our plants has some things in common with flying an airplane. I can go over every fine detail of how to fly the plane. I can tell you exactly what to do when this happens and that happens. I can educate you on every detail of becoming a pilot. That does not mean that you can now fly the plane without crashing. You need experience before you will have a smooth flight form takeoff to landing.

That being said, what does a first time grower need, in order to have the best chance for a seed to harvest successful grow?
 
when people say their lighting schedule is 24/7 do they mean 24/0 or do they mean 24on/7off on an ongoing cycle?

also, the conventional wisdom on a plant being "safely" female has always confused me. since a plant can herm at any time, isn't it the case that a plant is never safely female? i don't mean to be nitpicky but it's something i feel like i've been not understanding from jump.
 
What's a good nutrient schedule?
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Unfortunately it's hard to make a "master" schedule since each plant and environment is different, but as long as you get nutrients made for a plant like cannabis you can basically follow the instructions from the manufacturer!

However, growers often get the best results by giving nutrients at half the recommended dose. This is because nutrient companies give good ratios but overall too high levels for cannabis.

So it's good to use the nutrient company recommendations as a base ratio, and then raise or lower the strength as the plant tells you.

Biggest considerations about nutrient schedules:
  • A suitable cannabis nutrient system has a different schedule for the vegetative and flowering stage. Vegetative nutrients are high in Nitrogen (N) and Flowering nutrients are low in Nitrogen.
  • Your nutrients system should match your growing medium. For example if you're growing in soil you should use soil nutrients, and if you're growing in hydroponics you should use hydroponic nutrients, etc.
  • If you're growing in coco coir, you should use a Cal-Mag supplement, because for some reason plants tend to need more calcium in a coco environment
  • You should also use a Cal-Mag supplement if you're growing with distilled or reverse osmosis water, to make up the calcium and magnesium that would normally be found in tap or spring water
  • If you're growing in hydroponics with your roots in a reservoir, you should be using a good-bacteria root supplement like Hydroguard to protect your roots from root rot
  • If the plant is getting pale all over and especially yellow at the bottom, it means it wants higher levels of nutrients. If the leaf tips are getting brown/burnt or the leaves are turning dark green, it means the plant is getting too high levels of nutrients.
Other than that, I think it's mostly a matter of preference from nutrient company to nutrient company. I've found that as long as you're using suitable cannabis nutrients and keeping your plants green and healthy, your environment during the flowering stage and drying process have a much larger effect on your final bud quality than the specific nutrient company or supplements used! The difference in results between nutrient companies is a lot smaller than the difference between environments!
 
DW2 said:
What is the function of the stipules at the nodules or growth sites?
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I had no idea the answer to this so I actually spent some time researching this today! What I found is that stipules can take many forms on different types of plants, but we don't fully understand them all.

Unfortunately, I couldn't really find a solid answer. The best guess from what I've read is that it may act as protection for the bud site until pre-flowers form.

I found a place on a cannabis plant where there's a pre-flower right next to a spot that doesn't have a pre-flower yet, so you can compare. I guess it's up to interpretation, but I suppose it's possible the stipule is protecting the bud site. The future bud site is definitely less exposed than it would be without the stipule, but I'm not 100% sure I buy that.


It's interesting that stipules tend to cross at several nodes when it's a female plant, but rarely (if ever) cross when it's a male plant. I wonder what that means?

I did learn that in certain species of plants, the "vines" of climbing vines are actually modified stipules, which I thought was kind of neat! But that doesn't really answer the question at all.

I'd love to hear from anyone who can add to that! I plan to continue investigating this new mystery :) When I was researching on Google Scholar it really almost seemed like no one's been investigating this for decades. All the papers I found about the purpose of stipules were from long ago!
 
Would it be more correct to start counting the beginning of the flowering cycle when the first preflowers appear instead of when we flip the light schedule to 12/12?
When growing outdoors how do people know when flowering starts? Preflowers right?
 
I`m going to be cheeky here as I have 2......1) how to further lower the percentage lost due to moisture evaporation, conversion during drying/ curing....I use the system recommended on this site in one of the tutorials and reckon I `ve got it down to the low 73% ish mark but it does irk to lose 3/4`s of your weight and 2) Is it advantageous to alternate between bacterial and fungal teas when watering organically in soil instead of just one or other depending on where you are in the grow? Thank you :)
 
Thanks Nebula, I know more now than before. I did notice that the stipules wither and dry up as the plant matures. Just thinking out loud, could the stipules be the light sensor for the bud or pre-flower, letting it know when there is available light? I noticed that the little 'late blooming' buds (down lower on the plant) do not seem to show up until some of the canopy is cleared, either by defoliation or by the leaves naturally falling off, allows light in to the location, I don't really know, just wondering??
 
Do You mean as a leftover or un necessary appendage acquired (or made un necessary) during or by the evolution of the plant?
 
drbabe said:
When do you start removing those large Fan leaves during veg? I see some aggressive defoliators (AD's) start very early...but are they doing anything else different....feeding nutes amount, how often?
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Everyone has their own ideas about defoliation! If you ask 10 different growers, you'll get 10 different answers! And you'll probably find at least one person who claims it doesn't work at all!

But I'll share my own personal technique.

I don't remove leaves in veg to the same extent I do in flower. I may manifold my plants, which does involve some defoliating as you build the manifold. Other than that, I focus on getting the shape of the plant correct, and making sure there's multiple main stems under the grow light. Any defoliating I do in the vegetative stage is just to thin out the plant if it starts getting really bushy. One of the main reasons for me is to prevent White Powdery Mold which is common when you have leaves laying on top of each other. I want to make sure there's always airflow through the middle and under the bottom of the plant. In my opinion, if you can't see through the plant at all, and there's no light getting through to the bottom, it's too bushy for proper airflow.

I don't give special nutrients for training. If anything, I'm reacting to the plant. If it's not getting bushy from the nutrients, then you don't need to defoliate. If you're giving good nutrients and a good growing environment, with most strains you'll end up with some bushiness that needs to be removed for optimal growth indoors.

For me, I don't really aggressively defoliate until I'm in the flowering stage. Right before the switch to the flowering stage, I'll usually remove all the leaves and tiny growth tips on the bottom parts of the plant that aren't getting light anymore, if that's necessary (lollipop the plant). I believe this is important to do right before the switch to flowering so the plant is putting all it's effort into the top bud sites instead of the lower bud sites that will never grow into big buds no matter what you do..




I will also strip off most of the biggest fan leaves right before the switch to 12/12, leaving just the top few nodes of each cola untouched, so the plant is almost "all bones". I leaves some few extra leaves at the top of each cola because I believe it helps power the growth of the colas during the flowering stretch so they get as long as possible :)

Immediately before switch to 12/12 - Before & After

Just before the switch to 12/12 - after trim

Just before the switch to 12/12 - after trim

Week 3 after the flip to 12/12 is my last major defoliation. This is what that plant looks like 3 Weeks Later (of not doing anything or taking leaves in that time)



Usually by around week 3 the budlets have formed. At this point I again remove ALL the major fan leaves. After that, I'm done with the majority of defoliation that I do. I only remove leaves after that if they're covering a bud site (and I can't tuck it away) or if the plant starts getting too bushy through the middle and bottom.



7 Weeks later I harvested this :)



So basically, my (personal) defoliation could be summed up like this:

Vegetative Stage
  • Some defoliation while manifolding (If I choose to manifold, I've been experimenting with Sea of Green setups lately, which involves almost no early training!)
  • Defoliation of middle of plant if you can't see light coming through it (if the middle is completely dark it means the plant is too bushy)
Right Before Switch to 12/12
  • Lollipop the plant (remove leaves in the lower part of the plant that will never get light)
  • Thin out the middle if it's bushy
  • Remove ALL major fan leaves
Week 3 after switch to 12/12
  • Do another major stripping of just about all fan leaves.
After that, I remove any huge fan leaves that can't be tucked, but otherwise just wait until harvest :)
 
This is what puzzles me most, is all the nutrient companies have a "basic" nutrient line and then they have all the "extra" stuff they want you to give the plant to make big better buds. You can read in forums that growers think the extra stuff rocks and other say that it sucks. The companies all claim theirs is the best. I have not see a study that say bigger buds are more potent or even healthier. I wonder if it is like when you compare an organic grown apple to a non-organic apple. The Non-organic one is bigger and shiner but the taste and texture (the important things) do not compare to the organic one. Are all the "extra" really better or would the plant be happier without them?
 
I get that part, change of light schedule initiates flowering, but how does an outdoor grower know when that flip happens and how long the wait might be until harvest? Change of light outdoors is a gradual thing unlike indoors.
 
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