Marijuana has lately been gaining a lot of traction. There are eight states where recreational marijuana is legal. Among the rest of the states, many are considering the prospect of making it legal. Pressure groups and lobbyists are vying to recruit politicians who they believe will legalize cannabis.
In short, marijuana fascinates many minds, its cultivation, sale and distribution is a billion dollars worth industry and experts believe it will grow even bigger if laws are made more flexible.
If you live in any of the 13 states where marijuana consumption is legal, consider growing a plant all by yourself. Other than being financially liberating, it gives you the joy of cultivating your stuff on your own, and on your own backyard.
Growing weed on your own is not hella easy, it’s not hella tough either. If you know the tricks, you can avoid the difficulties. Here are some of the things you need to know:
Weed grows naturally
It’s called weed for a reason. Weed grows everywhere without any need for care or supervision. Marijuana plants may grow on your backyard without you even knowing it. Understanding that makes your job easy as you don’t have to take a shitton of care and spend so much time growing a plant.
Time of flowering
You can nourish the plant for a couple of weeks before it flowers, then collect the buds and smoke, right?
Wrong.
Yes you can do all of the above but plants – not grown systematically – produce immature shoots. Smoking buds like that is a disappointing experience.
You need to know the right time of flowering.
The right harvesting technique is keeping the plant from flowering at the wrong time and taking care of it meanwhile. Marijuana plants bear fruit once a year. The right time of bearing fruit is during the fall when the sunlight is golden and dying.
Special lighting
People who grow marijuana induce artificial flowering. These people are serious harvesters of marijuana. You need to know how they harvest. The crux is lighting. Marijuana plants need to get sufficient lighting. Harvesters grow plants indoor and arrange special lighting.
You need a lamp. The lamp is perhaps the most important part of the harvesting process. Expensive lamps perform better, but relatively less-expensive alternatives are out there too. If you don’t want to buy an expensive lamp, fine. Buy couple of inexpensive lamps because in order to grow a plant you need more than one, preferably many.
You can buy LED or HID bulbs. Both work great.
Here are images of marijuana grown under LED bulb:
Cheap LED lamps are of little use. So, go for expensive ones. You’ll save money in the long run as LED bulbs don’t consume too much electricity.
The HID grow lamps are of HPS and MH variant. The difference between is MH variants are used only to grow plants, not for vegetation while HPS is used for both purposes. There are price differences as well. The bulbs could cost anywhere between $20 and $30. The HID fixtures, however, are a bit expensive.
Here are pictures of marijuana grown under HID bulbs:
The better lighting you use, the higher quality weed you harvest. So, don’t back down thinking the price of the lamp is too expensive. If you are serious about growing marijuana, invest in expensive lamps.
Vegetation phase
Cannabis plants growth is affected by two cycles; the vegetation phase and the flowering phase. During the first phase, the plants get 18+ hours of light and darkness that lasts for 6+ hours. The flowering phase requires less exposure to light and a prolonged period of darkness – 12 hours+ exposure to light and 12 hours darkness.
When weed grows in the open, it gets maximum amount of sunlight during the summer time. As fall emerges, it gets less sunlight and proceeds to the flowering phase. When you are creating an artificial environment, you have to mimic the natural lighting schedule.
The forcing technique
This is called forcing. What forcing does is that it shortens the whole photosynthesis process that ultimately leads to flowering. The forcing technique requires the plant to get light exposure for more than 18 hours and up to 24 hours. Then suddenly lower the light exposure to 12 hours max. The forcing technique copies the natural shift from spring to summer and the flowering process of the marijuana plant begins rapidly.
Light and weed
The general rule of thumb is more light = more weed. How much weed you are producing depends on how much light the plants are getting. The plants absorb energy from the light. Photosynthesis transforms the energy into oxygen and glucose. Glucose is what powers the plant. Hence, more light means more glucose and more glucose means quick development of the plant.
Summing up
We haven’t begun the real discussion yet. This article was only to offer you some context of weed harvesting. I will staff more info in the next article. Until then, goodbye and take care.