Top Mistakes Made When Growing Medical Marijuana
If you've never grown medical marijuana before, you might be surprised at just how much work goes into it. Sometimes you can get lucky with a garden full of budding female plants, but this typically isn't the case. Growing a full, healthy garden with colorful buds takes time, patience, dedication and the knowledge of what marijuana plants need to thrive. Bringing all of these elements together will ensure you have a healthy garden that yields plenty of medical marijuana buds. Here we'll take a look at some of the most common mistakes beginners make when growing medical marijuana and reveal how you can prevent them from occurring in your garden.
One of the most common mistakes beginners make when growing medical marijuana is watering them too much. We all know that plants need water and light to thrive, but too much can have the opposite effect, causing them to slowly die off. So, how are you supposed to know if your plants are getting too much water? The best way to determine this is to gently pat the top layer of soil with your fingers every few days. When it feels arid, dry and doesn't stick to your hands, you know that it's time to add more water. Also, try spraying your plant leaves from underneath so less water will evaporate. The heat generated from the grow lights will cause moisture on the tops of your plants to evaporate faster.
When you first start growing medical marijuana, you'll likely want to spend time pruning, touching and inspecting it. While there's nothing wrong with an occasional inspection to see how they are doing, touching your plants, especially when they are young, can lead to stress and sometimes even disease. The fact is that your hands could be carrying a number of harmful and destructive germs, some of which may transfer to your plants. If you must touch your plants, only do so after you've thoroughly washed them with soap.
Another common mistake people make when growing medical marijuana is not giving their plants the proper air circulation. If you're growing them indoors, which is recommended, you'll need to keep the air circulated through a high-quality HEPA filter. Doing this will help minimize the chance of mites, disease and parasites from taking hold of your garden. Contrary to popular belief, setting up a ventilation system is quite easy through the use of a grow tent.
As you may already know, only female marijuana plants are going to provide buds; therefore, any males you grow will have to be thrown out. Now, you can either roll the dice in hopes that you will get at least some females in your garden, or you can grow feminized seeds that are guaranteed to be female. If you're serious about your indoor garden, you'll want to use feminized seeds simply because there's no risk involved. They tend to cost a bit more money, but just knowing your plants will be female will give you peace of mind that's well worth it.
