How to Grow Marijuana Guide
Mar 1st 2023
Marijuana is not difficult to grow. After all, one of its most popular names is weed.
But if you want to grow healthy plants that produce the tastiest buds, a little extra care will pay you back many times over. These growing tips from DripWorks.com can help you attain greater success. Our indoor and outdoor marijuana growing guide can help you grow the healthiest, most potent plants possible. Read on to learn how to grow a marijuana plant — or multiple cannabis plants — the right way.
- Pick Your Site
If you will be growing marijuana outdoors, a south-facing grow site getting abundant sunshine is the ultimate choice. It helps if your site has good drainage, but it's not crucial. You can and will probably want to add plenty of new organic soil to max out the starter clones or seeds you'll be using. You should also have the ability to get water to this area, because regular watering will be crucial to your plants' health.
- Select the Best Seeds or Clones
This is no place to cheap out. Buy the best genetics you can from a reputable supplier. Decide whether you want a mellow Sativa, a heady Indica, a short-season Ruderalis or a medicinal-quality pot high in CBDs.
- Discriminate Based on Sex
Female plants produce the smokable bud, so obtain feminized seeds. The goal when growing ganja is to harvest an entire crop of sinsemilla. Just one male (pollen-producing) plant can pollinate your entire patch. Always be on the lookout for the possibility that one of your female plants has turned into a hermaphrodite. Sometimes to ensure procreation, one part of the female plant has put out a (male) branch of pollen producing balls that can open when you have your back turned. The pollen dispersed can pollinate many buds or even entire sections of your garden making the crop seedy and undesirable.
- Get Your Plants Off to a Good Start
If you are wondering about how to grow marijuana from seed, a few tricks and tips can help ensure the best results. When you are starting from seeds, begin by soaking them overnight to encourage them to sprout. You can do this by putting the seeds in a damp paper towel or a glass of tepid water. Some growers will germinate the seeds about a 1/4-inch deep in a pot at least six inches deep.
If you have a greenhouse or a protected high tunnel for germination, that's perfect. The goal is to establish a strong tap root for stability and to allow many fine feeder roots to begin forming to absorb the nutrients in the soil. You will want to mix powdered microbes into the soil. This is an amazing natural additive that can have a dramatic beneficial effect. These good microbes attach to the plants' roots and enhance seedling growth. They also boost the plants' efficiency by helping them absorb water and nutrients better. This is a simple and very worthwhile step to take. It is well worth the small additional expense.
- Selecting Your Soil
A well-balanced and properly amended soil grows healthy plants. The best ganja thrives with an aged compost with all the essential nutrients (NPK). You should also use bone meal, kelp, blood meal and some coco coir for easy root penetration. These will also increase the soil's capacity to hold oxygen and its water-retention ability. As previously mentioned, adding powdered or water-soluble mycorrhizal fungi (aka microbes) will help make all of the nutrients in the soil more available to the roots of the plants. Regular feedings through a drip system that uses a fertilizer injector will pump the cannabis plant to its fullest.
- Water: Drip or Spray Irrigation
Cannabis loves a slow delivery of water throughout its growth cycle. When it comes to even distribution of water, long product life and near-zero maintenance, a cannabis drip system is best.
If you are going to be top-dressing your plants with fertilizer, you will need sprayers. Generally, you'll want to water your plants every couple of days. If you have an outdoor grow, you should adjust your watering schedule according to the weather. Drooping or yellowing leaves are an indicator of a plant needing water. But be careful not to overwater. Too much of a good thing can suffocate and rot the roots.
- Fertilization
To maximize your yield, regular fertilization through a fertilizer injector is the way to go. You simply connect these injectors to your drip-system tubing. Then, the system automatically fertilizes your plants every time it runs. You can install fertilizer injectors near your faucet or valves or downline nearer to the crop.
For large organic or professional grows needing the proper NPK ratio, the MixRite Injector is best. It's simple to install, operate and clean. The water flowing through it provides power, meaning you don't have to hassle with wires, batteries or electricity. For smaller gardens, the economical EZ Flo injector with adjustable dilution rates is sufficient. You'll want to use a 10-10-5 mixture during the vegetative stage and a 5-25-5 fertilizer during the flowering stage.
- Best Products
Here is a list of the products most often used to deliver water:
1/2" Emitter Tubing is a flexible tubing with emitters factory installed.
Aqua Traxx Drip Tape is thin wall tubing that has to be run in straight lines.
1/4" Soaker Dripline is a versatile product with factory-installed emitters.
Down-Spray Sprinkler has a circular 24" spray for fast top-dressing situations.
1/8" Spot Spitters are for use in Smart Pot containers; or use three or four with big plants.
You are probably eager to obtain a smokable product and may be wondering: how long does it take to grow marijuana? That varies, of course. It will depend on whether you are growing grass indoors or outdoors, weather conditions if growing outdoors, the TLC you give your crop and many other factors.
Generally, you can expect your pot plants to be ready for harvest in four or five months. Under ideal conditions if you start with the ruderalis variety, your cannabis may be ready in as little as eight weeks. In poor conditions, harvest time could be many more months away. Whether you are growing your plants for personal pleasure or as a cash crop, however, rest assured that these tips will help you grow the most wickedly wonderful weed you can.
DripWorks.com is a great resource for cannabis irrigation information, how-to videos showing products in use and garden planners. On these pages you will also discover an extensive product line and a chat room.
In addition, a staff of knowledgeable and experienced irrigation experts is on hand to answer your questions. To help you get the most out of your specific situation call 1-800-522-3747.