Are you planning to grow marijuana in your backyard but you’re unsure about the harvest? That is usually the first and foremost concern that any marijuana cultivator has, especially for their first harvest. While we all understand that growing cannabis isn’t hard and is very similar to growing any other plant, a healthy and beneficial harvest is a completely different thing.
Factors Impacting the Marijuana Growth in Your Garden
There are several factors that impact the growth of marijuana in your garden. These factors include soil, nutrients and light.
The truth is, growing good-quality weed on the first try is not a common sight. You’re prone to making mistakes and learning from them as you go on cultivating more. However, to ensure that your first try isn’t a complete and utter failure, you can follow some basic guidelines while growing your weed. Before planting your seeds in the backyard, you should learn everything about what a cannabis plant needs and how you can ensure the best quality of the harvest.
But, before you begin, there are a few legal factors that you must know-
- Ensure that your state allows you to grow your own cannabis. If you are not a registered medical marijuana patient, you need to apply for medical marijuana evaluations in Norman to legally grow cannabis. 420 Doctors Oklahoma can help you begin the application process online.
- Make sure to stay within the legal limit set by your state. If you are using medical marijuana and need to grow more than the legal limit, you can consult your physician about the same.
- Learn about the restrictions related to cannabis cultivation such as the growing area, height of plants, etc.
Keeping these in mind, let’s dive into the three main factors that are sure to affect your harvest and learn how you can mold them to your advantage.
Growing Soil
Before growing cannabis, one needs to check a few traits of the soil to ensure a healthy plant.
Ensure Optimal pH Level
While looking for potting soil, the first thing you need to check is the pH level of the soil. The marijuana plant needs an approximate pH of 7 for optimal growth. Only a proper acid-basic balanced soil can provide growers a good start. That’s because the pH of the plant determines how soluble all the macro and micronutrients are in the soil. A slight change in the pH can cause toxicity of certain nutrients and deficiency of the others.
Maintain a Balance
You need to be very vigilant to ensure the roots of the marijuana plant get the necessary nutrients. Overcrowding the soil with every nutrient you can find will not fasten the growth but hamper it.
Only a properly balanced soil can offer stability for the roots to grow in a healthy way. And, when a well-balanced soil is combined with some nutrients, the overall development of the soil improves. It will preserve the natural expression of the cannabis plant without any extra feeding. If you do not take properly balanced soil, it’s more susceptible to nutrient deficiencies. Only a balanced soil can control the strength of the plant, so getting a strain with full potential takes care of its pH level.
Ensure Proper Water Drainage
Also while considering the soil, you need to check whether the soil drains water well. It’s hard to take in oxygen when there is too much water and when the soil is too loose. In both cases, the plants can’t take the water. That is why it’s suggested to get a potting mix with perlite to avoid any drainage issues. Even for other plants and vegetables that you wish to grow in your garden, taking care of the pH level of the soil will help in getting a fresh batch of greenness in some time.
Also Read: How to Grow Marijuana at Home in Oklahoma?
Nutrients
To produce big and dense buds, one needs to add an appropriate amount of nutrients to the soil. Fewer nutrients make your cannabis plant susceptible to pests, molds, and diseases. And, more quantity disturbs the pH level of the soil and prevents roots from absorbing the nutrients.
You need to supply your plant with essential minerals such as calcium, manganese, zinc, copper, and iron. Supplying these micronutrients will make your cannabis plants’ survival easy. White Widow Autoflower and Jack Herer are the cannabis strains that are least likely to suffer from any nutrient problems. If you’re finding it difficult to grow, ensure these nutrients are supplied to avoid any problems.
Light
Light is a major factor that will determine whether your harvest is a success or a failure. Insufficient light has detrimental effects on the growth of the plant. When the plant doesn’t receive light for some days, the leaves of the plant will reduce significantly. On the other hand, if there is too much sunlight, the leaves weaken or burn out due to excessive exposure. The direct sun provides optimal exposure. But you need to monitor it regularly to check their growth.
Some even directly relate light exposure to harvest. So, the more, the merrier. However, all growers must remember that while light exposure is important, marijuana plants need their dark hours too. Maintaining the balance is key here. Incorrect light leads to growth deficiencies in the plant, so you need to be very cautious about every factor to provide sustainable growing conditions. Even incorrect use of sunlight can lead to physical burn, curling leaves, and other issues.
If you are not growing cannabis outdoors, there are various lighting technologies that replicate the sunlight for good indoor cannabis growth. These grow lights provide appropriate artificial light which can also be adjusted based on the light spectrum.
Final Thoughts
If you are looking to have your own medical cannabis garden at home, these factors should be your primary considerations. If followed properly and after careful research, these growing tactics will help you in increasing yields and healthy buds. Be sure to catch up on these parameters from a young age to produce minimal stress on the plant and get a good end product to use in joints, edibles, and other consumption methods.