The four basic elements for a successful grow

THE KEY TO A HEALTHY PLANT

There are a few important things to do to make sure your plant grow as it is supposed to. The key to a successful growing will start by first making the environment as clean as possible. Without this you are in danger of getting many flying bugs, worms, mold etc. Make sure you did this before we continue. Here is a list of the basic needs for a cannabis plant to survive and grow properly:

1: air

2: light

3: water

4: nutrients

Without these four you probably end up with a dying plant within a few days or a week already. The leaves of your  plants should have a nice green color and look healthy. Let’s talk about the four basic needs of the plant.

a beautiful pick taken on week 5 of a autoflowering purple Kush 

WATER

Give the plant water every 2 days. Aim to give just enough water for the plant to get dry before the next watering. Beginners often make the mistake of giving too much water. The results are a stund grow and a dying plant in the end. When the plants are still very small and the pots are big (1 liter+), there is no need to have any runoff from the pot, since the roots are too small and don’t have time to dry before the next watering. A recommendation in the first 2 weeks is to give 50/75 ml of water with every watering. If you see that the plant gets dry before the next watering, up the dosage by 25% of your watering. If you are watering and it takes more time then 3 days to get dry, down the dosage by 50% at your next watering. Overwatering in this stage is a lot more difficult to deal with and fix then underwatering. If your pots are small (half liter pot), like it is recommended by most of the growers, you can water till runoff but allways make sure that there is enough air in the room. This will help the pots to get dry within 2 days. There are a few methods to check if your plant needs a watering or not. Here are a couple of them to help you.
The pot feels light when you lift it gently: means it is dry and needs water, a pot that feels heavy when you lift it, means that there is still enough water and it doesn’t need to be watered. One of the most loved methods by growers to check if your plant needs watering, is simply taking a napkin and press it gently on the top of your pot on the soil. If you can see your napkin getting wet, give your plant more time to dry. If the napkin comes back mostly dry, it is time to water again.

 NUTRIENT

Nutrients are the area where many growers get stuck. Especially because there are so much companies and different brands of nutrients. For understanding the basics of nutrients we only need to know these 3 little letters: N-P-K. These 3 letters are all your plant needs at this stage and for older stages as well. At this stage of the plant, the plant mostly needs N. So when looking for nutrients look for 6-0-0 or 4-0-1 or anything that gives you more N then P-K. This will ensure that the roots get the right nutrients to develop. Read carefully the amount of nutrients you are supposed to give with every watering. If the plant gets too much nutrients, it will just stop growing and die. If by mistake you gave one time too much nutrients, nothing happens. With the next watering only give water, this will rebalance the amount of nutrients with the water in the soil of your plant. If your plant gets too much fertilizer for too long, you will see yellow tips (please don’t confuse yellow tips with yellow leave these 2 are completely different), simply give water 3 time the size of your pot. This means that if your pot is 3 liter, give them 9 liter of water. This will ensure to clean all the soil from the last fertilization. One of the best advices when dealing with nutrients, is allways give 50% of what is recommended on the package. This will make sure you don’t get any nutrients burn. It will make your plant allways happy when you feed him. Also remember that all the companies want your money, so they recommend the maximum amount of nutrients which is not allways the best for your plant.

AIR

Cannabis plants love air. When growing indoors you have the ability to controle the air circulation and use it to create the perfect environment for your plants. A good environment will copy the same climate of nature. There are a lot of benefits of air circulation. A plant will grow faster and make bigger buds, prevent mold and pest, make stronger stems and off course you controle the temperature and humidity of the grow room. At the early stage you don’t need any big fan, simply put a normal fan in the grow room (not on the plants) but enough to see the leaves having a little dance from the fan. When growing outdoors you don’t need a fan. Make sure there is enough air circulation in the environment and that it is not too strong.

LIGHT

At early stage every light will be likely oke for your baby plant. At 2 weeks you will need to consider a bigger light. If you allready have a led or MH light, congrats you are ready! If not and you are still thinking which light to purchase, here a little advice: if you are a beginner, don’t put so much energy on it. Buy just a normal MH light. They are great for veg stage. If in any way you are curious, it is recommended to make a mix of led and MH light (DON’T USE HPS FOR VEG STAGE). The plant needs a special spectrum at this stage that is only on MH or led light. On the first 2 to 3 weeks the baby plant doesn’t need so much light. Make sure to give at last 100 watt per meter and make sure the light doesn’t come too close to your plants, it might get burned. Experienced advanced growers say that the most effective way to make your plant grow fast, the best would be to give them 24/0 on/off of light the first 3 days and then change it to 18/4 on/off. In this way you make sure that the plant rests and develops strong roots. They are essential for your plant to be big and yield a lot.