Marijuana grow phase is important so you have a big-yielding marijuana bloom phase! © Copyright, Gary Anderson, 2015Marijuana bloom phase gets all the attention from marijuana growers because it’s the payoff phase and because buds are beautiful.
Many cannabis growers neglect marijuana grow phase. They think of it as an inconvenience.
Some growers turn to autoflowering marijuana, which only grows about two weeks in grow phase before it automatically starts flowering.
But for those of us who grow full-size cannabis plants, marijuana grow phase has hidden potential that sets up our plants for a better bloom phase.
Here’s how:
Stoke Your Marijuana Roots. Grow phase is when marijuana roots develop the most.
Give them reverse osmosis water, beneficial microbes, vitamins, and carbohydrates that create faster, denser, healthier roots.
I use Voodoo Juice, B-52 and Bud Candy, and sometimes Roots Excelurator, to create larger, healthier root mass.
Stoking your marijuana roots is especially important when you’re in deep water culture and aeroponics marijuana growing systems.
Give Intense Light Early: Lots of growers baby their young marijuana seedlings or clones too much.
They try to save money and avoid heat by using T-5, CFL, or LED lighting in veg phase.
If you’re going to use T-5, use PowerVeg high-ultraviolet bulbs the first two weeks.
After the first two weeks add metal halide and keep the PowerVeg in the lighting set-up too.
Instead of 18 hours per day of light, try 20-24.
LED, CFL, and T-5 are barely adequate to provide enough light except in small grow chambers, short sea of green clones, or autoflowering, especially when your marijuana grow phase plants are more than 3-4 weeks old.
Metal halide is still the best lighting source for marijuana grow phase.
Blast Them With Wind: As soon as my seedlings have their first set of true leaves (serrated), or as soon as my clones are totally rooted, I put a fan at their height level and blast them with as much wind as they can handle for several hours per day.
Even if they flop over, I keep the wind on them.
I want their main stalks to get super thick. Super thick stalks gives them the ability to support bigger buds.
If they can’t handle the wind, they don’t make the cut. I yank them. Only the strongest survive in my marijuana garden!
Give Them More C02: Adding C02 to the earth’s atmosphere is gonna kill us eventually, but adding it to your grow room atmosphere makes your marijuana plants grow faster and stronger.
Foliar Feed: After cannabis clones have been rooted for at least three weeks and are thriving, or when seedlings have seven or more sets of true leaves, use a foliar spray at 125 parts per million, pH 5.7, B-52 and Rhino Skin.
This foliar spray cocktail increases plant vigor and growth rate, and the potassium silicate in Rhino Skin protects plants from pests and diseases.
Do foliar spraying when lights are off, once or twice per week.
Use a surfactant called Wet Betty that helps deliver nutrients into your cannabis leaves.
Trim: No matter if your marijuana strains grow tall or short, or you have a grow room with 10-foot ceilings or a grow closet with 4-foot ceilings— top your marijuana grow phase plants at least once before you send them to bloom phase.
The most basic way of topping is to cut the growing tip of the main stalk.
When you do this, it creates hormonal and structural changes that make your cannabis plants stockier and rounder, for heavier yields.
Use Premium Nutrients: As with light, some growers think they can cheap out on grow phase fertilizers and hydroponics nutrients.
But your marijuana grow phase plants need high-end nutrition that’s easy to absorb and that has ratios, amounts, and types of nutrient elements specifically designed for marijuana grow phase.
The best you can do for them is use a pH Perfect marijuana grow phase hydroponics base nutrient.
Marijuana grow phase isn’t as fun as bloom phase, but it’s the important foundation that sets your plants up for faster growth and a heavier harvest.
Now you’ve got the strategies to maximize your marijuana grow phase!
