In this post we will talk about tips for first time cannabis growers. Every grower has experienced its first time growing cannabis, that's why we are going to explain in the easiest way possible, how to get good yields being a first time cannabis grower.
Cannabis needings
Cannabis plants, as well as many other species, need form a good substrate, good quality water and light. Cannabis is a quick cycle plant, easy to grow, that easily adapts to almost anywhere, that's why it is so easy to get good results even if it's our first time growing.
Substrates for first time Marijuana growing
The substrate is one of the most important aspects for first time growing cannabis. We can buy the most expensive seeds, and recieve a lot of day-light hours, if the substrate where the root grab is not good enough, we'll experience a lot of problems. Nowadays there are many specialized brands that sell substrates for marijuana growing. It is recommended to discard those brands thought for common horticulture, with similar prices, because cannabis is a heavy feeder plant, that needs a certain ph and ec values in substrate for maximum developement. It's not that cannabis is a weak plant, just that need some characteristics for a faster and healthier growth.
If we focus our atention in the different types of substrates we'll find three main groups:
Soft soil: Those substrates containing less nutrients are usually known as soft (or light) mix, and are ususally more spongy than those containin more nutrients. These type of soils are specially thought for plants and seedlings in early stages of growth. If we will proceed with transplants before placing plants into the definitive pot, it is recommended to use these kind of soils, where the root system will adapt faster, so they will start to grow earlier. On the other hand, if we plan to forget about plants the maximum possible, it is better to place the young plants directly into the definitive pot, with a higher pre-fertilization, that assures longer period without needing to feed.
High pre-fertilized soil: Those soils containing more nutrients (commonly known as Allmix or Hardmix) are a great chance for first time growers, because decrease the need of adding nutrients during the early stages of plants (they usually contain nutrients for a month). This is a great option also for outdoor growers where plants will be in the same container for a long time.
Coco: Coco is a soft substrate, inert, but so spongy, with a great water retention capacity. With these characteristics coco is usually a good option for medium-level growers, because it requires more care than soil. due to its need to be fertilized since the first day. Even though, many growers prefer growing in coco because plants develope faster than grown in soil, in addition to offer higher control over plants nutrition (that only eat what we add to the nutrient solution).
Size of the pots
One of the most asked question by first time growers is about the size of the pot to use to get best results. the answer, even being ambiguous, has its explanation:
Growing indoors, the yield of a plant does not depend of the number of plants used, it is based in the amount of light used (250w, 400w, 600w or even 1000w). The way the light is used will mark the amount of fruits per crop. So what we mean is that what is important is not if we use 1 plant or 50 plants, the key is to cover the growing-space lighted with plants, so all the light generated will be used by plants properly. In example: In United States, where there is a limit in number of plants legally grown, growers usually use a plants:light ratio lower than in Spain, where this limit doesn't exist. If, for example, in United States can grow 100 plants, it is not rare to see aplications where there is only one huge plant under a single light, while in gardens in Europe usually use between 12 and 25 plants per sqm.
Said this, it is logic that if we work with less plants per sqm, we should use bigger pots than if we use more plants, where the pot's size will be smaller.
The perfect choice for the number of plants is based in relation between cost of the number of seeds, and the needed days of vegetative stage to cover the lighted space.
Relation Pot size > Number of plants per sqm
1-2 plants: 40 liter pots.
2-4 plants: 20 liter pots.
4-8 plants: 15 liter pots.
12 plants: 11 liter pots.
16 plants: 7 liter pots.
20 plants: 5,5 liter pots.
25 plants: 4 liter pots.
30 plants: 3 liter pots.
Amount of light for indoor growing
The performance of an indoor marijuana garden is mesured in yields per amount of light used. Being popular in-between growers that maximum yield by an HPS light is gram per watt of light used (400w=400g, 600w=600g or 1000w=1000g). Althought these number are subject to interpretation due depend on many factors (like strain characteristics), we can use them as a reference to know if our crop it's been great, good, or low.
Referring to light for an indoor gardem, it is usually compound of three essential elements: Ballast, bulb and reflector.
The ballast works converting the energy into the specific high pressure sodium lamps (or metal halide) need to work. Nowadays there are two main types of ballasts: Magnetics and electronics. The main difference between both is based in the efficiency, and the working temperature of the units (magnetic ballasts heat up much more than electronics, and also offer a lower performance). In addition, electronic ballast have a great feature allowing to dim the output power to adapt the amount of light used to the certain stage (less power during vegetative stage and more along flowering stage).
Bulbs: Bulbs, or high pressure sodium lights, used to grow indoors, are classified depending on the spectrum of light they produce (color of the light). There are HPS lights suitable for flowering stage (with an orange spectrum), and other ones known as mixed spectrum (that add a but of blue light to the spectrum, what makes them useful for vegetative stage and blooming stage). There is another kind of lights called Metal Halide (lamps with more white in the spectrum, specially thought for plants in vegetative stage). Although it's true that we can use a type of light for each stage of the cycle, at SantYerbasi we recommend using mixed spectrum lights, for its versatility and good yields for the whole cycle, and also due to lower budget spent in bulbs for a full cycle.
Reflector: There are many reflectors in market thought for indoor growing. From the cheapest ones up to the expensiver ones, all available reflectors are based in take profit of the maximum amount of light soucerd by lamps, to direct it to plants. Depending in the shape and materials used to manufacture a reflector, we'll get an increased covered area (more lighted area) and an increased intensity (more light projected to canopy of plants), what usually converts in plants with balanced growth, and better yields. Although our recommendation is to use those reflector with high reflectivity, if we are looking for a good ratio quality:price we can choose to use those medium-high quality reflectors, that will highly improve the most simple ones.
*In a previous post we made a reflectors for growth comparision that we highly recommend to read.
As a result of what's previously explained, looking for a good relationship between quality of the products used, price (understanding that this would be our first growing operation), and final production: A good choice is to use a magnetic ballast (or an electronic one for those with higher budget), with a mixed spectrum HPS lamp, and an adjustable reflector. With these materials (specially if we use a 600w equipment) the yield per crop will be more than enough for almost all smokers.
* A 400w equipment can cover without problems a 1m x 1m surface, while a 600w one can cover 1,20 m x 1,20 m, and a 1000w can cover up to 1,5 m x 1,5 m.
Airflow needed for an indoor garden
When we prepare our cannabis first time indoor growing facility it is so important to think in every single factor needed for plant's survival. An important one is that plants need air to survive, so it is necessary to creat a fresh airflow to renew the air of the space, so an intake and an outake to extract all the heat generated by lamps. That's why it is not recommended to use rooms impossible to connect with outdoor (within a window or something). To do so could make everything much expensiver and tough to work in.
To know the size of the extractor we need, we should calculate the airflow needed to completely renew the air of a grow-room every 2-4 minutes. This margen is calculated due to some factors like type of light used (sodium, LED, or CFL) and to the relation between space used and size of the grow-room (it's not the same to work with a room full of plants, than just using half of the space available).
Air refreshing formula:
Growth volume: 2m (width) x 2m (deep) x 2,25m (height) = 9 m3
Air renewal (per hour): 60 minutes / 2 minutes = 30 times per hour.
Needed airflow of the extractor: 9 m3 x 30 (renewals per hour) = 270 m3/h.
The Can Fan extractors are a great option for grow-room, due they produce less noise than axials, being able to outake more m3/h. A complete air system is composed by: Extractor, tubbing, odor filter (same diameter and m3/h than extractor).
Assembling the air system
Doesn't matter how big the grow-room is, or the extractor used, the hot air always moves naturally to the top, so the outake should be always placed in the top of the grow-room, while the intake should be place in the bottom of the grow-room, so the air flow will naturally move along all the grow-room.
The compounds of an air system could be set up in two different ways (depending on the reflector type used):
Non-cooled reflector: We place the odor filter in horizontal, in the top of the growroom, we assemble the tubbing, and then (on the other side of the tubbing) we assemble the extractor. Once this is done, we will only need to add more tubbing (on the other side of the extractor, until the exit (window).
Diagram example:
Filter > Tube > Extractor > Tube > Window.
Cooled reflector: The system is set up almost the same way as the previous case, just placing in-between the cooled reflector (between the filter and the extractor (leaving about 1meter on each side of the reflector to be able to move up and the the reflector without moving the whole air system.
Diagram example:
Filter > Tube > Reflector > Tube > Extractor > Tube > Window.
* We aim you to read Growing reflectors comparative to choose the reflector that better fits your needings.
* A good tip to set up the tubbings is placing them in the straightest way possible (angles and curves decrease the extractor's performance).
* Together with a good air system, it is also recommended to use fans to move the air inside the grow-room.
Fertilizers for growth
Cannabis is a plant that consumes abondant resources during its cycle. Doesn't matter if you use a soft pre-fertilized soil, or a heavy pre-fertilized soil, sooner or later plants will finish the nutrients content in the substrate, so you'ññ need to add them. Knowing this characteristic, if we want to get the best possible yields, we should use, at least, a growing nutrient and a flowering nootrient. If we talk about essential elements, with these two fertilizers we are covered for the whole cycle, but if we want to improve those results, it is good to use a root stimulator and a bloom booster too. The use of boosters accelerates processes of plants, decreasing the vegetative stage and increasing the flower production.
Nowadays there are many brands of fertilizers that offer products to feed plants, indoors and outdoors. Most common thing is that every brand offers two ranges of nutrients distinguished by its composition origin: Organic or Chemical.
At SantYerbasi we like to recommend using biological products (organics) due to final quality, even though it's true that you can get a top grade quality with chemical fertilizers too (that maybe need a longer flushing period to get rid of nutrients used along the cycle).
Stages of a growth cycle
Growing indoors has three main stages, divided in two photoperiods (hours of light / hours of darkness):
Growing Stage: Once the seeds had been germinated and placed in the pots under a light (18 hours of light / 6 hours of darkness) plants will start its vegetative stage. Along this growing stage plants will develope, to get the needed size before being forced to flower. If the evolution of the plants is normal, it usually takes about 3-4 weeks submited to this photoperiod before changing it (time needed to get a 30-35 cm height depending on the strain).
Flowering stage 1: Once the height of plants is the desired we should change the photoperiod to force the plants to start flowering. This is made using a timmer , and adjusting it so the plants percieve 12 hours of light and 12 hours of darkness. This point is crucial to plant's developement, due to in this period plants will adapt to the new light cycle (this period takes about 10-15 days(, stretching its internodal space (causing to 2x-3x its size compared with the size the day we changed the photoperiod). In this early stage of 12h/12h, the nutrients used should be tha same used along growing stage (so they only need grow fertilizer), even being in flowering photoperiod due plants have not started to flower already.
Flowering stage 2: Once trasncurred the first two weeks (in 100% sativa strains it could take 3-4 weeks), plants have adapted to its new photoperiod and first pistils start to appear, showing the flowering has started. From this point we will reduce the dose of grow nutrient, and start adding bloom fertilizer + the bloom booster.
If plants develope is ok, weeks will pass by and plants will continue stacking its flowers until its shinniest moment: harvest.
* We aim you to read our post about how to prune marijuana in flowering stage to improve the yields of our gardens.
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