Cannabis harvesting is a flourishing business now, thanks to growing interest in CBD edibles, tinctures and lotions. States, where marijuana cultivation is legal, has been witnessing an upsurge in cannabis farming, chiefly due to people want to profit off of it.
The laws are often murky, though. For example, California allows personal cultivation of marijuana for non-business purposes. But the law makes it clear that “Not more than six living plants may be planted, cultivated, harvested, dried, or processed within a single private residence, or upon the grounds of that private residence, at one time.”
Then there are legal states that require the plants to be open for public viewing. There are so many laws that growers sometimes find it hard to apply the right harvesting techniques.
In this article, we are going to discuss useful harvesting methods. Keep reading if you are a grower – whether for fun or for business.
Cure cannabis
Cure in this context does mean applying medicine or anything like this. It means removing extra chlorophyll from dried cannabis buds. Wait till the buds dry up and then cure them. What happens if you don’t extract the excess chlorophyll? The bud quality suffers. Also, chlorophyll is bad for lungs and inhibits the aroma and flavor of dried buds.
Clone cannabis
Cloning is the fastest and easiest way to reproduce cannabis plant. For cloning, you first need a branch from the bottom portion of the plant. Then put the branch into the ground somewhere else and it will start growing on its own. Honestly, it’s that simple.
The nitty-gritty of cloning includes adeptly cutting the branch off with a scalpel, maintaining a 45° angle. The angular cut helps the stem receive the required nourishment from a large surface area. To prevent the newly cut stem from drying up, putting it into the water and keep it there for some time.
Check the soil where you have planned to transplant the stem. The soil shouldn’t have too many nutrients. You can get customized soil for cannabis cloning.
Use light efficiently
Growers need to expose plants to light in order to trigger artificial flowering. This we have already discussed in a previous article. Growers normally choose between LED and HID lighting. Because LED is a bit expensive, many invest in HID (high-intensity discharge) lamps. On the plus side, HID lamps are brighter than LED lamps, but on the flip side, HID lamps are less resilient.
Both types of lighting have pros and cons. Check them well in advance before you invest. And whichever lighting type you use, don’t forget to use a reflector. The purpose of using a reflector is to focus on specific areas of the plants – areas you think should get more light.
Understand the duration
How long does it take for a weed plant to grow? If you have this question in mind, here’s the answer. There’s is no standard time as the duration for weed’s complete growth depends on several factors including the nature of the soil, period of light exposure, etc. But auto flower strains normally take 2½ months to grow.
The typical duration between the vegetation and seed period is 1 to 1½ months. After this time, the plant begins flowering. Growth during the flowering cycle can be as little as 45 days and as much as 3 months. Remember, if you are growing a cloned plant, vegetation period can be just 10 days.
Dealing with hermies
Hermies are a headache for growers. The problem with hermies is they produce pollen and pollen disturbs the quality of the bud. The reason hermies show up is pretty fascinating. When female plants are close to completing their cycle, they produce male plants so that the lineage continues. Most growers handle hermies by identifying the male plants and get rid of them, they normally do it manually.
Understanding sexing
This brings us to the next issue that some growers – mostly the amateur ones – face. They don’t understand sexing. Sexing is recognizing male and female plants. The male-female dichotomy appears during the vegetative stage. Female cannabis plants have intrinsic features such as complex branching, matures slower than male plants, a location of the sprout, etc.
A detailed discussion will take time and space. So, it’s saved for some other day. All you need to know is that the more time you spend with plants, the better you get at sexing.
Autoflowering advice are different
More often than not, the auto-flowering advice is different from normal tips to grow marijuana quickly. For example, growers trim the hedges of leaves so that they get better light. This may be useful for non-auto-flowering strains, but since auto-flowering strains grow quite rapidly, trimming the fan leaves can hamper their growth.
And there you go!
The above list is not exclusive, there are other useful tips that can help you grow cannabis plants quickly and more efficiently. The seven tips discussed here are generic ones. You get the picture, but to be an expert in growing strains – both auto-flowering and non-auto-flowering – you need to do a bit of hand on.