Common Mistakes Growing Weed - Using LED Grow Lights
LED grow lights have become a big thing among those people who are fond of doing their gardening activities indoors because of the numerous advantages they provide over their more traditional high Pressure sodium or HPS lights. The traditional light bulbs waste a large portion of the energy they consume into heat, which does not do any good to the plants they are supposed to help grow. On the other hand, the LED or Light Emitting Diode lights are capable of producing light within an extremely narrow band of wavelength, which enables the users to control even the color of the emitted light. This comes in addition to a far greater control over the intensity of the light emitted by these LED grow lights when compared to both their HPS and metal halide cousins.
The LED grow lamps have not only gained in popularity among the indoor horticulturists but also among a very different group of indoor plant growers. The use of LED lights provides the weed growers with every bit of advantage that they could hope from a light source. The LED lights produce light within a very narrow band of wavelength, which helps in enhancing the growth capabilities of the plants while their lack of heat emission proves to be invaluable use to people growing weed plants in extremely constricted spaces such as cupboards. The continued improvement in the quality of the LED grow lights means that it has played a significant role in aiding its users in boosting their production of cannabis. Moreover, the LED lights consume much less electricity compared to the tradition metal halide and sodium lights, which helps in lowering the initial investments required for growing weed. Thus, they prove to be of all round advantage to the people interested in growing weed indoors.
Weed growers ought to remember that a profitable growth requires following certain practices, which ensures maximum productivity.
Distance from light to plant –Usually common but grower should follow manufacturer’s instructions
While growing cannabis, growers need to vary the inter-nodal length by adjusting the height of the LED grow lights. They need to do so to have various distances of the light from the plants at different stages of their life cycle. During the early part of the plant’s life cycle, that is the early vegetative stage, the LED grow light needs to at a distance of approximately 300 mm above the plant. This helps in reducing the inter-nodal lengths possible. However, later on during the life cycle the light should be at a distance of 300 to 600 mm above the plant. Moreover, this must depend on the canopy density of the plant with greater density of leaves making it imperative to place the light closer. On other hand, plants having lower number of leaves can have grow lights at a greater distance and still get light to reach their lower branches.
The light requirements of the plants depend to an extent on their present stage in the life cycle, while growers also need to decide on the light distance to have the inter-nodal length as per their preferences. Growers need to be flexible during the flowering and budding stage because the light requirement can vary. Users must decide upon the distance of the light according to the response of their plants to ensure maximum growth.
Watering Plants Too Much or Too Little Choosing- when using LED Grow lights is different
One of the most common problems faced by cannabis growers starting out LED grow lights is the amount of water they ought to add to the plants. The usual measure of water required for growing a good crop while using the traditional HPS or metal halide lights is not going to work in case of LED lights as well. This is because of the negligible amount, if any at all, of the amount of heat produced, and radiated by these lights to the vicinity. This in turn leads to a considerable decrease in the average evaporation rate, which all plant growers keep in mind while watering their plants. Therefore, it becomes exceedingly easy for the weed growers to overwater their plants during the initial period of switching over to the LED grow lights from the tradition ones. The best practice is to follow the thumb rule, which prescribes the watering of plants every 4 to 7 days depending upon the feeding and evaporation rates. This will help in eliminating chances of overwatering, which can cause havoc with the plants.
Temperature- Maintain temperature
The entire point of opting for the indoors while growing any plant is the high degree of control it provides over the various environmental factors including temperature, humidity, light duration, and intensity. Temperature control is among the cardinal factors required for growing any plant, and maintaining optimum temperature enables growers to expect a bumper crop. The temperature does not work alone and has an extremely close association with the humidity level. Together, these two factors determine the rate of transpiration by plants. The most common mistake that most growers make is to opt for the temperature levels, which would work well while growing weeds using the HPS or metal halide lights.
Most of the weed growers typically prefer to have their room temperature at about 75 degrees Fahrenheit with the relative humidity ranging from 65 to 80 percent. However, this only works with the traditional lights because of the enormous amount of heat radiated by them compensates for lower temperature while higher evaporation rate works well with higher relative humidity. Cannabis growers using LED grow lights ought to have their room temperature around the 80 to 85 degrees mark, with the relative humidity being about 40 to 45 percent. This will help them in creating conditions ideal for enhanced transpiration rate in cannabis, which has dramatic impact on the bud development and plant growth.
Regular supply of the essential nutrients in just the right amount is necessary for ensuring the proper growth of the cannabis plants. The decision to opt for soil based or hydroponic system for growing weed depends entirely on the gardeners. However, they always need to keep in the mind the different rate of requirement of nutrients by the plants while growing them using the LED grow lights. In fact, plants grown using the LED lights usually require as little as 30 percent of the total nutrient requirements of the plants growing under the traditional lights. Thus, growers need to take caution while adding nutrients because excessive nutrient content in the soil can be extremely counterproductive.
Growers must also ensure proper aeration of the soil because oxygen not reaching the roots in adequate measure is a recipe for disaster. Moreover, overwatering can lead to the waterlogging of the roots because the LED lights to dry out the soil as quickly as the traditional lights. Growers can use a peat-based medium along with addition of up to 50 percent of perlite to improve its drainage quality. Addition of Cal-Mag to the soil also proves to be highly beneficial for the cannabis plants grown under the LED grow lights. Moreover, even in case of growing cannabis plants hydroponically, it becomes essential to keep the water temperature below 70 degrees Fahrenheit to keep the oxygen dissolved in it. In addition, the use of the LED lights elicitate the addition of lesser amount of nutrients to the reservoirs.
One of the most common reasons behind marijuana plants not growing to an optimum level is because of the too high or too low pH value in the root zone. This can adversely impact the growth and productivity of any plants; it becomes essential to keep an eye out for any fluctuations in this value. However, most growers tend to feel too comfortable about this, despite the fact that the common tap water that most use tends to be slightly alkaline in nature. The optimum pH level for weed is around 6.0 to 7.0 when grown in soil, and 5.5 to 6.5 in hydroponically grown ones. Growers need to watch out constantly for any deviations from this ideal value range in the root zone. The pH monitors tend to be a worthy choice because the root zone of any plant is an extremely dynamic zone witnessing continuous exchange of materials. Addition of excessive amount of nutrients or fertilizers also tends to alter the pH levels and result in stunted growth.
Letting Plants Get Too Big During Vegetative Stage
The cannabis plant completes its entire life cycle within a year, and this includes everything from seedling to the vegetative to the flowering stages. Among this 12-month period, the plant spends a couple of months in the vegetative stage when it goes through a remarkable rate of growth and proliferation. In fact, adequate supply of nutrients and proper growth conditions can result in some of the strains growing at an astonishing rate of up to 6 inches a day. This happens in ideal hydroponic systems while the plants can still manage a growth of 2 to 3 inches a day while growing in soil indoors.
However, the rapid growth entails a huge consumption of energy, and the plant manages that by growing new leaves every day. This leads to the plants growing in size, and then it starts to lose blade after crossing the zenith of the vegetative stage. Growers can boost their production by opting to change the growing conditions to suit the flowering stage a couple of weeks into the vegetative stage. This allows for faster production of buds, which proves to be economically more lucrative to the growers.
Not Paying Attention to Plants in the Critical Second Half of the Flowering Stage
Many growers tend to down their guards during the second half of the flowering stage by deluding themselves with the thought that the hard bit is over. However, the truth is that during this period male pollen sacs can wreak havoc on the productivity of the cannabis plants. Male plants are not of any use to the indoor growers because they pollinate the buds and convert them into seeds. In fact, a large section of growers prefers to have feminized seeds to eliminate any chances of male invasion. However, it is during the second half of flowering stage that some of female plants turn hermaphrodites and grow male parts. This can very easily lead to the pollen sacs overrunning the entire crop, and pollinating the flowers. Growers need to keep their eye out and pinch off any male part that appears. They can even consider removing the entire bud section to stay on the safe side.
A large section of the weed growers often makes the common mistake of harvesting their plants, too early which can ruin their entire effort and investments. The dilemma that most such growers face is to arrive at a thumb rule to decide when to harvest their crop to cash in on the best of their productivity. Harvesting the bus too early certainly leads to non-potent buds, and a considerable loss of productivity. However, waiting for too long makes the buds produce a sleepy effect, which consumers do not prefer. The problem is way more complicated because of the different maturing time associated with different strains of the plant. Thus, any one-rule fits all approach cannot be advisable while deciding the most suitable time to harvest cannabis plants to ensure best quality pods and maximum productivity.
Growers ought to examine the buds closely to determine the right time for their harvest. Indications such as turning of at least 50 to 70 percent of the hairs or pistils into darker shades or curls indicate the maturity of the buds. Moreover, using a microspore can help in observing the trichomes or the mushroom shaped growths on the buds. Growers can start harvesting when these trichomes become milky white with some of them turning amber or yellow, and even starting to lean from the bulk of the bulbs on their top.
Thus, people growing weeds indoors can go suffer from low productivity because of any of these extremely common mistakes. Even though growing cannabis is no rocket science, it still requires a certain level of skill and perseverance to make the most of the effort and investments. Getting rid of these easy-to-avoid, and yet often repeated mistakes can be the distinguishing factor between failure and success.
