Got marijuana plants growing in soil? Most nutrients work, but cannabis plants grow best when your nutrients are designed to grow weed plants in soil.

3 Top Soil Nutrients for Growing Weed

• Fox Farms Nutrient Trio for Soil – professional marijuana soil nutrients, mostly organic ingredients.
• Botanicare PureBlend (Grow & Bloom) – pro nutrients for beginners, one bottle per stage.
• Dyna-Gro Grow & Bloom – cheap & effective, use in soil at 1 tsp/gallon.

The Fox Farm soil nutrients are the most popular nutrients for growing cannabis in soil.

Sirius grew these in good cannabis soil with Fox Farm nutrients and LED grow lights.

Quick Guide: When to Give More Nutrients in Soil

These are signs your cannabis plant in soil needs more nutrients overall. Giving soil nutrients to plants with the following symptoms typically solves the problem within just a few waterings. Other nutrient deficiencies are often actually a pH problem.

Pale, lime green cannabis plants in soil = you need to add more nutrients.

If many lower leaves turn yellow and fall off, especially while buds are forming, it’s a sign the plant is “stealing” nutrients from the bottom of the plant to give to the hard-working leaves at the top.

That means if many lower leaves are turning yellow and falling off on their own, you need to add more nutrients.

Add more nutrients if bottom leaves are turning yellow and falling off.

If the bottom of your pot looks like this, the cannabis plant needs more nutrients.

When the Nutrient Problem is Caused by PH

If you see these different symptoms, the cause is likely a pH problem, not needing more nutrients. See pictures of deficiencies caused by pH.

If you see brown spots, or yellow leaves are “stuck” on the plant, it’s likely actually a pH problem.

Another example of a nutrient deficiency caused by incorrect pH.

You can still get a great harvest even if you have some nutrient problems. But you get the best cannabis yields and bud quality when plants get extra nutrients while buds are forming.

Great nutrients grows healthy plants – see the grow journal.

Keep reading to become an expert at soil nutrients for growing marijuana…

Table of Contents

Do You Need Special Nutrients to Grow Marijuana in Soil?

What Type of Soil Should I Get?

Which Company Makes the Best Soil Nutrients?

Tips for Growing Marijuana in Soil

Do You Even Need Special Nutrients to Grow Marijuana in Soil?

• Cannabis has high nutrient needs, especially in the flowering/budding phase. Without enough nutrients during budding, the plant won’t make buds as big as they could be.
• You can avoid using extra nutrients altogether by growing in well-amended composted soil and transplanting your cannabis into a nice big pot with fresh composted soil right before the switch to the flowering stage, which should be enough to last through the flowering stage. In composted soil, tiny microorganisms slowly bread down the nutrients for your plants, so the nutrients are fed to the plant slowly and regularly.
• A potted cannabis plant in regular (non-composted) potting soil often uses up all the nutrients in the soil before they even make it to the flowering stage. After about 3-4 weeks of growing in an average sized pot, a cannabis grower either needs to repot the plant into new, fresh soil, or supplement with extra nutrients in order to get everything to the plant that it needs.
• There are “natural” ways to provide extra nutrients to your cannabis (for example egg shells, coffee beans, dolomite lime, etc all add minerals and nutrients) but these usually do not break down fast enough or consistently enough to make sure your cannabis doesn’t run into nutrient deficiencies. Another problem with using things like this is that giving your plant too much of one nutrient can actually make it deficient with another nutrient. So it can be difficult to get the right proportions right unless using a soil recipe that’s specialized for cannabis or by adding extra nutrients in the water.
• Want more info? Since it’s just a weed, why can’t I grow cannabis in the regular dirt outside?

Fox Farms Ocean Forest soil (pictured here) is a top soil for growing cannabis. It just works.

How to Get Enough Nutrients to Your Marijuana Plants

To make sure your cannabis plants don’t run into nutrient deficiencies while growing in soil, you need to either…

• Grow with composted soil OR
• Regularly transplant to new. fresh soil OR
• Grow in a really, really big pot with tons of soil OR
• Supplement with specialized marijuana nutrients formulated specifically for growing cannabis in soil (recommended)

Conclusion: Adding soil nutrients to the water tends to get the best cannabis yields, potency, and density.

Fox Farm Nutrient Trio – excellent, mostly organic marijuana nutrients.

What Soil Should I Get to Grow Weed?

What Are the Best Soil Nutrients?

But are they the best marijuana nutrients? Which one is the best?

There are so many nutrient options out there! How can growers figure out which ones are actually the best cannabis nutrients? In fact, what makes a nutrient system good or bad for growing cannabis in the first place? The answer is it’s about the NPK nutrient ratios!

* In a pinch, nutrients for cactus or succulents can be used in the flowering stage until you get better nutrients because they have similar nutrient ratios

These aren’t the only nutrient ratios that will work for growing cannabis, but these ones work well. Adding cannabis nutrients to your grow can help you get the best potency, yields and growth from your plants, especially in the flowering stage when cannabis uses a lot of nutrients to make bud. Cannabis plants have two stages of life and they need the right nutrients at the right time.

Note: Don’t use anything with time-released nutrients (like fertilizer spikes, or Miracle-Gro soil – they deliver too much N in the flowering stage).

Most nutrient bottles have 3 numbers, often called N-P-K, which stands for Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium

(Why “K? The atomic symbol of Potassium is “K” from Neo-Latin kalium)

Marijuana plants need different ratios of these 3 nutrients (as well as several micronutrients) depending on what stage of life they are currently in.

For example, cannabis plants in the vegetative stage need nitrogen to power the growth of leaves. In the flowering/budding stage, cannabis needs less nitrogen and greater levels of phosphorus to assist with proper bud growth.

Because of the varied nutrient needs of the cannabis plant, it’s often easier for many growers to use a professional nutrient system made for a plant like cannabis, instead of trying to mix up their own. With a professional nutrient system, you don’t have to figure out your own changing nutrient ratios, and you don’t have to worry about chemical reactions that occur from combining different types of nutrients incorrectly (which can create fertilizer salts and cause nutrient lock-out).

A professional cannabis nutrient system will save many growers a lot of time, frustration and money. There are many nutrient systems to choose from which have been created by long-time cannabis growers and breeders around the world!

When it comes to finding a nutrient system to use with your cannabis plants, the first question you ask yourself should be: “What is my growing medium?”

Warning: When it comes to growing cannabis, avoid any nutrients which claim to be “extended” or “slow release”! They can cause all types of unexpected problems.

If you’re growing in soil, you will want to get nutrients made for soil.

With all nutrient systems, don’t start at full strength or it might burn your cannabis plants!

Different strains have different preferences, and some plants are very sensitive to nutrient burn.

How Much Soil Nutrients to Give Cannabis?

• Start at half strength – I recommend starting new nutrient systems at half-strength and only raise the nutrient levels as needed.
• Fast-growing plants need more nutrients – If your cannabis plants are growing very fast (inches a day) they likely need full-strength nutrients regardless of the type of grow light.

Other Factors That Affect Nutrient Levels

• Small grow lights require less nutrients for plants to be healthy, on average – Many home growers will never need to raise nutrient levels above half-strength because their plants are under relatively small LED grow lights (100-200W). Plants just aren’t “digesting” enough light to need lots of nutrients.
• Big grow lights often require need full-strength nutrients – On the other hand, cannabis plants are under powerful, bright lights may require full-strength nutrients (or even more in rare cases).
• Individual plants have different needs – Some strains or specific cannabis require more or less nutrients. You sometimes notice you have plants in the same environment, but some plants get “hungry” for nutrients while other plants getting the same conditions are getting enough or even too much.
• Pay attention to plants more than anything! If a plant looks like it needs more nutrients, give it more. If it looks like it needs less, give it less.

Plants turn yellow or lime green all over when they need more nutrients overall.

If leaves are dark green all over, they probably need less nutrients overall.

“Nutrient burn” (dry, brown, possibly curling tips) is another sign of too-high levels of nutrients or supplements. Pay extra close attention if nutrient burn affects all the leaves at once, especially if you see it happen right after raising nutrient levels or adding a new supplement.

Nutrient burn on all the leaves is another signal the nutrient levels are too high.

Plants use light for food (and to power the growth of buds), not nutrients. Just like eating a bunch of multi-vitamins every day will make you sick, giving plants too high levels of nutrients can make them sick, too. With plants, just like humans, you will get the best results by paying attention to nutrient needs on a regular basis. Don’t wait until your whole plant is yellowing to try to figure out the problem!

Some growers try to push their plants to the limit of what they can take, giving stronger and stronger levels of nutrients until plants show signs of nutrient burn, but I don’t believe this is necessary. Sometimes less is more. I believe that as long as your plant is not showing signs of deficiencies (such as growing pale green leaves towards the bottom of the plant), you are generally in the right range.

Many cannabis growers will find that professional nutrients work well at half-strength, and only growers with very bright lights and fast-growing plants will need to raise nutrient levels above that. There are also certain strains that seem to do better at higher nutrient levels than most others.

Here are pictures of cannabis plants with nutrient problems (and solutions).

Please, save yourself the time and frustration – get a nutrient system that’s proven to work for growing cannabis! If cost is a worry…

​An Example of Cheap (But Effective) Cannabis Nutrients: Dyna-Gro Grow & Bloom. Use Dyna-Gro “Grow” bottle in the vegetative stage & Dyna-Gro Bloom bottle in the flowering stage. This cannabis nutrients work great for growing marijuana. You don’t need anything else besides these two bottles of nutrients to grow weed all the way to harvest and this simple cannabis nutrient system is cheap (effective for soil, coco coir and hydro!). If you’re not sure which nutrients to get and you’re on a budget, consider going with Dyna-Gro!

An easy and simple nutrient systems that for beginning cannabis growers in soil is the Fox Farms Nutrient Trio for Soil. These are professional-level nutrients, and one of the the most popular nutrient systems for growing weed in soil.

Fox Farm Nutrient Trio – excellent, mostly organic cannabis nutrients.

The Fox Farms trio works great for growing any cannabis strain, without needing any additional supplements.

Tips for Growing Cannabis in Soil

• Low Levels of Nutrients Given Regularly is Much Better Than Giving a Lot of Nutrients at Once!

The most common mistake made by beginners growing cannabis in soil is they water their plants too often. Overwatering is almost never a case of giving your plants too much water at once. Instead, overwatering cannabis in soil is almost always caused by giving the plant water too often.

Learn how to water seedlings in soil (day-by-day watering schedule).

Never overwater your seedlings again, just use this seedling watering schedule.

How to water adult cannabis plants in soil

1. Wait until the top of your soil feels dry up to your first knuckle (about an inch deep)

2. Add nutrients to your water (if needed), then adjust the pH. Most soil growers only add nutrients every other watering, or even less often, but you will always need to adjust the pH of your water.

3. Start watering your plants and continue to add water until you see at least 20% extra runoff water drain out the bottom of your pot. Go back to step 1.

Use the above directions to water older plants in soil, like these 30-day old plants

Learn more about growing cannabis in soil!

The post Best Soil Nutrients for Growing Marijuana? appeared first on Grow Weed Easy.

This side-by-side grow journal experiment was originally documented on my Instagram profile. I think you’ll find this side-by-side marijuana grow experiment just as intriguing now as I did then. I copied over all the posts so you can enjoy this grow journal as if you were watching in real-time (that’s why each post is worded as if it’s happening now).

What effect does it have on cannabis clones to grow them in coco coir vs super soil? This grow journal’s results were not at all what I expected. From yields to THC levels to terpenes, there were stark differences between the coco and soil grow tents.

Here’s a sneak peek of the two tents just before harvest. Jump straight to harvest day if you want to skip to the end, but I think it was one of my most riveting grows and you’ll enjoy reading each update as it happens.

Read on to see the Coco Coir vs “Just Add Water” Super Soil side-by-side marijuana grow journal…

Coco vs Soil Setup & Supplies (one set for each tent)

Grow Light

• ES300 LED grow light (discontinued) – I would strongly recommend the Mars Hydro TSL2000 300W LED grow light as a replacement. In our tests, it gets similar or better results and actually costs much less.

Grow Space (tent with exhaust fan)

• Grow tent – 2’x4’x6′ grow tent (also listed as 48”x24”x72”)
• 6″ exhaust fan – AC Infinity Cloudline T6 – Exhaust fans are used to remove heat from the grow space and bring in fresh air for the plants. Any 300W LED makes some heat and it’s good to have an exhaust fan so plants get plenty of CO2 in the air. You also need an exhaust fan if you want to stop smells because a carbon filter doesn’t work without a strong exhaust fan. The AC Infinity is quiet but expensive; the Vivosun 6″ 390 CFM exhaust fan is a cheaper alternative that’s both stronger and louder). Learn how to vent heat with an exhaust fan.
• (optional) 6″ carbon filter connected to the exhaust fan with 6″ ducting – Carbon filters are used to stop smells from leaving the grow space. Learn about carbon filters.

Here’s a picture of a grow in this setup. I’m using the same tent, LED panel, grow medium, pots, nutrients, etc. (the carbon filter is above the light.)

Plant Containers

• 5-gallon fabric pots
• 14″ plant saucers (the circumference of the bottom of the fabric pots is 12″ so this is a little bigger to catch any runoff water ).

Grow medium

• Coco coir tent
  • Mother Earth Coco + Perlite Mix
  • Nutrients: General Hydroponics Flora trio + Calimagic
  • I followed the mixing instructions on the sides of the bottles except cut in half
• “Just Add Water” Super Soil Tent
  • Nature’s Living Soil concentrate mixed with soil for the bottom 1/3 of each pot (this holds the majority of nutrients that will be slowly released through the grow)
  • Coco Loco soil – Topped the remaining 2/3 of each pot with Coco Loco soil (a high-quality soil that has a bit of coco, ideal for “Just Add Water” mixes).
  • Read my full review of Nature’s Living Soil with step-by-step instructions on how to use it

Strains

• Power Africa
• Peyote Critical
• Critical Purple Kush

Peyote Critical is the strain that turned purple in this grow journal!

July 5

This is a clone tent with two little autoflowering solo cup plants finishing up in the back. I’m amazed what this HLG 65 LED grow light can support with only 65 watts of light!

These clones are rooted and recently put in solo cups. I’m going to grow them out a little then they get put into their final homes.

August 20

The top plants are in coco coir (Mother Earth Coco Plus Perlite Mix) and bottom plants are clones in Super Soil (Nature’s Living compost as base and filled the rest of the way with Coco Loco soil).

Here are the clones about 3 weeks from being put into the tents (they were already rooted so they’re bigger than seedlings of similar age).

Top is coco coir (purple stakes). Bottom is Super soil (green stakes). I’ll keep them in this order for the whole grow journal to make it easier to follow along.

Second picture was after some training. Plants were spread out and tied down.

So far the plants in the super soil tent are ahead. It took a little longer for plants to adjust to the coco. However, they’re both starting to grow fast and the differences in growth patterns will soon be more obvious.

September 5

The coco tent is on top, super soil tent on bottom. The clones are in 5-gallon fabric pots with the LED grow lights. They went into the tents on August 1 so they’re a little over a month old. So far the super soil plants are bigger!

Coco on top, super soil on bottom

The super soil plants are also darker green, with signs of Nitrogen toxicity (“the claw”) from getting high levels of Nitrogen from the super “hot” soil. N is stored in dark green leaves and can be accessed by the plant later. That is why lower leaves and then the whole plant turns yellow when Nitrogen gets low.

Top view

Lots of Nitrogen is fine in the vegetative stage (maybe even good), but high amounts of Nitrogen can suppress bud growth in the second half of the flowering stage. All of these plants will get defoliated at the start of flowering, which removes a lot of Nitrogen from the “system”. Since I’m only giving water to the plants in super soil, those plants are also continually using up nutrients in their soil.

It’s a delicate balance because I also want the nutrients in the soil to last until harvest. That’s why I am not washing any nutrients away with runoff water.

Luckily, in a super soil setup, the plant has a greater ability to “pick and choose” nutrients (just like nature) compared to giving mineral nutrients in the water.

The coco plants are about 11 inches tall and the super soil plants are 12 inches tall. I will probably initiate the flowering stage soon because they’ll about double in size and I’d like them to be 2 feet tall at harvest.

I love how easy it is to care for the super soil plants. Plain water every 3 days and they’re good to go! Whenever I mix up coco nutrient water it makes me appreciate the simplicity of a “just add water” grow!

So far the Nature’s Living Soil tent has been great to use and I feel like the plants growing in it are doing better so far.

September 12

Today I defoliate the cannabis plants as they enter the flowering stage.

These 3 plants were changed to a 12/12 schedule a few days ago to initiate flowering. I can already see the first white hairs/pistils appearing on the future bud sites.

I typically defoliate right at the beginning of the flowering stage and again about 3 weeks later.

Before and After Example

Given what I’m going for, this is a pretty light defoliation. I lollipopped the plants, which means I removed lower growth and small branches that will never make it to the top canopy. I also removed all big fan leaves on long stems, and focused on removing leaves blocking light from reaching future bud sites.

I’ll remove more tomorrow (focusing on removing small lower stems and big leaves) but I’m done for today. I don’t want to stress the plants and defoliating over 2-3 days helps prevent that.

This 2-step defoliation process “hacks” the natural plant processes and forces it to spend more energy on developing buds, and less on vegetative growth. Buds never seem to truly get fat if they’re hidden among a bunch of leaves or located at the bottom of the plant. Buds need to be near the top with direct exposure to light and air to fatten up properly.

Some plants (especially certain sativa strains) don’t really get leafy and defoliation is unnecessary, while other plants get so bushy the leaves are covered in wet spots and you have to defoliate them to prevent the chance of mold! Most plants are somewhere in the middle of this spectrum.

Another bonus to defoliation is it helps keep down the humidity during the crucial flowering stage. High humidity in flowering causes loose buds and can trigger bud rot.

September 15

Defoliation in action!

Several growers asked for more tips on how I defoliate my plants after my last post. These plants started a 12/12 light schedule a week ago and are beginning to make flowers/white hairs (sometimes called pistils).

I typically defoliate right after plants start flowering and again about 3 weeks later. I did these lightly a few days ago and finished up today. I’ll go again in 3 weeks.

Today, I focused on removing small stems that will never reach the top canopy. I removed big fan leaves on long stems and “lollipopped” the plants.

Removed big fan leaves on long stems

“Lollipopped” plant by removing growth on the bottom of the plant that would otherwise be in permanent shadow.

This branch is several inches shorter than all the others, plus is on the front outside edge where it’s touching the tent when I close the door. I don’t think it’ll ever make it to the top of the plant. I decided to remove it.

Here’s that branch after I cut it off

For example, this growing tip on the outside edge will never reach the top canopy so I removed it.

Sorry little buddy

Here’s an example of one plant that’s been defoliated and lollipopped (left) and one that hasn’t been touched yet (right). I hope that helps you see how it looks before and after.

And here’s all three plants in the coco tent before (top) and after defoliation and lollipop (bottom)

Top view

Why do I defoliate? A few reasons.

1.) I’ve found that buds only fatten up when they get access to plenty of light and air. Buds lower on the plant or hidden in shadow never get big or dense. By removing bud sites that will never get light or air, I’m helping the plant focus on the best quality buds. As a result, buds at harvest tend to be bigger, tighter, and more dense. When plants are defoliated properly, they produce fewer but higher quality buds.

2.) Some plants get so leafy that their leaves lay all over each other and cause wet spots. That was happening here. Left unchecked, too-leafy plants are more likely to get powdery mildew.

3.) Leaves constantly release water vapor into the air which raises the humidity. High humidity in the second half of the flowering stage causes buds to grow more loose and can trigger bud rot. It gets humid where I live (over 70% RH outside on some days). I already use a powerful dehumidifier when necessary, but defoliating plants also helps keep the humidity down.

4.) Defoliated plants are way easier to trim after harvest.

Does defoliation increase yields? It’s possible to defoliate too much and stunt your plant, so, to maximize yields, only defoliate plants that are bushy. Some strains don’t need to be defoliated. But with bushy plants, this type of defoliation consistently produces bigger buds of higher bud quality compared to cannabis grown like wild bushes. An upcoming side-by-side grow will test defoliation vs wild. Also check out my grow journal featuring autoflowering plants with some being topped, trained, and defoliated while the others were left alone.

September 17

They have been on 12/12 for 10 days so far. I didn’t notice a major difference between the tents in the vegetative stage. The super soil plants look darker and are a little bigger, but the tents have been mostly comparable.

Top is coco, bottom is super soil.

Today I noticed the first notable difference… The super soil buds are more developed so far. I included pictures of each plant’s buds matched with their clones in the other tent. I can’t tell yet whether the super soil plants are flowering faster or the buds are just getting bigger.

Power Africa (coco on top, super soil on bottom)

Peyote Critical (coco on top, super soil on bottom)

Purple Critical Kush (coco on top, super soil on bottom)

I have to admit I’m really surprised!

This last picture shows the leaves under regular light (coco top, super soil bottom)

For some reason, the coco leaves look much lighter under the LEDs, but as you can see they’re similar in natural lighting. In fact, all the leaves look a bit dark. I can’t do anything about the super soil plants since they’re getting their nutrients from the soil but I will slightly pull back the nutrients on the coco.

September 23 – Day 16 of flowering

Here are the plants when I opened the tent this morning (coco on top, super soil on bottom)

Coco plants (purple labels) – With the coco I’m still using the General Hydroponics Flora trio plus CaliMagic as nutrients, given at 6.2 pH.

Super soil plants (green labels) – Super soil is receiving plain tap water at 6.8 pH. I have high-pH tap water so I’ve been adjusting the pH down using Earth Juice PH Down citric crystals (make sure to shop around because usually it’s way too expensive on Amazon).

I have been surprised every step of this grow.

Initially, the super soil plants were growing faster. Nature’s Living Soil seems to produce faster growth than Kind super soil.

I started 12/12 when the coco plants were 11″ tall and super soil plants were 13″ tall.

The super soil buds developed faster. I couldn’t tell whether they were ahead or the buds were simply bigger. Now the super soil plants have mostly stopped getting taller and are fully in flowering mode. They only grew about an inch over the last week. Buds are developing beautifully.

The coco plants are acting completely different. They are obviously in the midst of a major flowering stretch and are growing almost an inch taller every day. They’ve caught up to the super soil plants in size and don’t seem to be slowing down. Their buds are developing, too, but it’s hard to even see how far the buds go down into the plants because they’re getting wild and bushy.

Here’s the view directly from the side so you can better see the difference in height (coco on top, super soil on bottom)

Since these plants are clones in otherwise identical conditions, it seems like the only factor causing these differences is the grow medium and how they’re getting nutrients (from the soil vs nutrients in the water itself).

The super soil plants are growing in a more orderly way and the buds are ahead developmentally, but will the soon-to-be-larger coco plants overtake them for yields once they’ve stopped stretching?

Here they are (with flash on) to help you see the buds and how they’re forming. This also helps you see how bushy/leafy the coco plants have gotten.

What other differences besides yields and plant growth will we discover after harvest? I’m getting the buds lab-tested for terpenes and cannabinoids so we’ll have as many data points as possible at the end to compare.

Just as a side note, this is my first grow with the V2 version of this LED (V1 was great) and so far the grow is going as smooth as silk.

All the cannabis plants are super happy under the LED grow light.

You can never truly rate a grow light until after harvest but at least in the vegetative stage, I noticed that these plants seem a bit less sensitive to problems compared to other LED grow lights I’ve tried.

LED grow lights like the HLG models (@horticulturelightinggroup) get excellent yields per watt with great bud quality. I highly recommend them. But like nearly all LEDs, I’ve noticed that plants tend to be more sensitive to environmental issues, watering, and pH/nutrient problems in the vegetative stage compared to fluorescent lights or HIDs like MH/LEC/HPS.

Not so with the plants under these LEDs. The plants in both tents are spotlessly green from top to bottom. No sign of stress anywhere.

Now that plants are flowering, I’m excited to see how buds continue to develop. So far the buds look great. I can’t wait to see the results after harvest!

September 28

Just hit 3 weeks of 12/12 today and starting to notice some major differences between each grow medium.

Coco plants appear on top in pictures. Super soil on bottom in pics.

This is what they look like in natural light

Differences in plants: Super soil plants didn’t stretch as much as coco after 12/12 so Super Soil plants are smaller overall. Coco plants still stretching. I noticed the Super Soil plant with the biggest buds (Peyote Critical, left plant in tent pics) appears lighter in color around the biggest buds and is starting to lose a few lower yellow leaves like a Nitrogen deficiency. It’s obviously using more nutrients than the others. I want all the Super Soil plants to have plenty of nutrients so they all got top dressed with a sprinkling of Super Soil concentrate to hopefully bring more nutrients down to the roots when watering.

Differences in bud size: Super Soil plants have bigger/more developed buds. I don’t know whether the buds are ahead in development or just bigger. I’ll be able to tell better once the pistils/hairs start darkening and curling in. If Super Soil buds start turning dark sooner I’ll know it’s just ahead. If they start turning at the same time I’ll know that the buds are just bigger.

Here are pictures of all the buds for comparison (from left to right in each tent).

Power Africa (coco top, super soil bottom)

Peyote Critical (coco top, super soil bottom)

Purple Critical Kush (coco top, super soil bottom)

Differences in bud appearance: Two of the clones (Power Africa and Peyote Critical, picture 1 & 2) have significantly more trichomes on the Super Soil plants. One clone (Critical Purple Kush, picture 3) has a a bit more sparkle in the coco tent.

I wasn’t expecting to see noticeable differences so early. I can’t wait to see what happens next!

October 2

Have you ever seen such long stacked buds under a mid-size LED grow light? This bud structure is more typical of big-bulb HID grow lights like LEC and HPS.

The strain is Critical Purple Kush. No sign of purple yet but the buds are dusted in frost already.

I’m beyond pleased with these LEDs so far. The plants weren’t at all sensitive in the vegetative stage, unlike some other LEDs. They grew green and healthy from head to toe.

I supercropped one branch on this plant, but more for visual symmetry than necessity. It was getting tall in a back corner where it would have been fine except that it marred my beautiful flat canopy.

I’ve noticed plants often seem to produce excellent plant structure under LEDs, with nice thick buds, but usually, buds don’t go as deep into the plant as this one.

My coco plant buds seemed to have stretched significantly more than their clones being grown in “just add water” soil under the same LEDs. I continue to be surprised by how differently the clones are growing when the only difference is grow medium.

October 4

These plants are 4 weeks into the flowering stage (day 28 of 12/12).

Coco tent on top, soil tent on bottom.

In natural light

The differences between the tents is easy to see at this point. The coco plants stretched more and have longer buds, while the soil plants didn’t stretch as much but buds are significantly fatter. Given the different plants structures its hard to guess anything about yields.

The soil plants were looking a bit pale (it’s a lot of hard work making all those fat buds!) with a few lower leaves turning yellow from lack of Nitrogen. They were hungry for more nutrients and must have used up what was in the soil. I top-dressed them with 1 tablespoon each of super soil compost (I had extra Nature’s Living Soil concentrate from when I originally made the soil). The idea was for nutrients would trickle down to the roots with each watering.

After a few days the color is better and no more yellow leaves so it seemed to have done the trick. I’ll probably top dress again before the next watering for another nutrient boost.

It’s adding nutrients to top dress, but still technically “just add water”. What do you think? I think most growers wouldn’t mind sprinkling some compost on the soil in the flowering stage. They’re in 5-gallon pots, and it obviously wasn’t enough soil to last them until harvest. Perhaps next time I’ll put them in 10-gallon pots and see if that has enough nutrients to last until harvest without needing a top dressing.

October 11

Top of each picture is the coco plants, bottom are the soil plants. Week 5 after initiating 12/12.

Here they are in natural light

Next I show each plant with a closeup bud picture from each tent (plants listed in order from left to right in each tent). Since the beginning of flowering, the coco buds have been longer while the soil buds are fatter. That makes it hard to compare them to estimate yields.

Power Africa (coco top, super soil bottom)

Peyote Critical (coco top, super soil bottom)

Critical Purple Kush (coco top, super soil bottom)

A big difference I’ve noticed is the trichome production stays closer to the buds in the soil grow, while the trichomes on the coco plants are spilling everywhere on the plant. The soil buds are trichome-covered but their fan leaves barely have any trichomes at all. With the coco plants, the fan leaves are so sticky it’s kind of annoying.

Based on what I’ve seen so far, I think the coco may be a better choice for a grower looking to do extractions because there are just so many trichomes on the leaves. However, I’m here for the buds! Can’t wait to get results for cannabinoids, terpenes, and yields after harvest.

They’ve been on 12/12 for 5 weeks today, so there’s 5-7 weeks left before harvest. Who knows what will happen next!

October 14

So far, I love these LEDs. They’re easy to use and my plants look great. They’ve been on 12/12 for just over 5 weeks and starting to look chunky!

Here are the coco plants

I’ve also had excellent results with multiple different HLG LED fixtures. Consistently produce potent, high quality buds with great yields per watt. What LEDs should I test next?

I’ve tried just about every other type of grow light over the years. They all have pluses and minuses.

Fluorescents like T5s are perfect for young plants and produce good quality buds, but the plants need to be well trained to get the best density and yields. Even in the best case, I’ve found them to yield about half as much per watt compared to other lights like LEDs, HPS, and LEC/CMH.

MH/HPS are awesome budget lights. MH makes short bushy growth in the vegetative stage, and HPS produces huge yields and dense buds in flowering. MH/HPS fixtures are cheap and produce comparable yields to LEDs per watt. The downside is burning hot bulbs. But with the temperature under control they produce vigorous happy plants. Great in a grow tent with a strong exhaust fan venting hot air out a window. I sometimes still use HPS during winter because I don’t want to add a heater for LEDs. I’ve gotten better yields, density, and bud quality with 150W or 250W HPS than small cheap Chinese blurple LEDs in side-by-side tests. But new LEDs like HLGs, Mars’ and SpiderFarmer perform better in flowering.

LECs/CMH are another HID, and the technology is basically halfway between MH and HPS. They have similar issues with heat and results are heavily dependent on the bulb used. Their blue/4k bulbs get some of the fastest vegetative growth ever, though plants can be a bit stretchy. Used in the flowering stage the 4k bulbs produce more trichomes and terpenes than other lights I’ve tested due to high UV production, with decent yields. The red/3k bulbs in flowering don’t produce quite as much sparkle and terpenes, but get yields as good as HPS or better.

October 17

If you had to pick, would you be Team Coco or Team Soil?

Top picture is coco, bottom is soil

Power Africa. These buds show the greatest difference, especially when it comes to trichome production. The coco buds are absolutely dusted in trichomes (left side is coco, right side is soil)

Peyote Critical. These buds look somewhat different. The sugar leaves next to the coco buds are still totally green while the sugar leaves on the soil buds are starting to look a little purple at the tips. (left side is coco, right side is soil)

Purple Critical Kush. The buds from these clones look almost exactly the same. (left side is coco, right side is soil)

What do you think? In general, the soil buds are fatter but the coco buds are longer (the coco plants stretched more after 12/12 and the stems are all longer overall).

I have to admit I’ve been surprised that the grow medium affects bud development so much on some strains but not others. Even when I’ve grown clones under different grow lights there wasn’t as much of a visual difference between buds as with the Power Africa, especially at only about 6 weeks since 12/12. The plants have only just begun to show their bud “personalities”.

Do you feel like each plant has their own personality when it comes to growth patterns and buds? I know I think of plants that way. When I first started growing I used to actually name each plant.

October 23

Nearly all the leaves on the Peyote Critical plant in the super soil are green on top but purple underneath. Pretty! The sugar leaves around the buds and even the buds themselves are turning purple, too.

What’s interesting is its clone in coco coir isn’t showing any signs of purple yet. The buds on the coco coir clone are a typical green/orange.

Perhaps the properties of the grow medium have an effect on color. It could also be the nutrients (from the soil vs bottled nutrients) and/or pH (pH is close to 7 in soil, but closer to 6 in coco). In any case, the buds are looking good to me!

October 30

Top is coco, bottom is super soil

Here are the bud pictures in order of the plants from left to right.

Power Africa (coco left, super soil right)

Peyote Critical (coco left, super soil right)

Purple Critical Kush (coco left, super soil right) – not much sign of of purple yet

At first the clones looked relatively similar but as we get closer to harvest they look completely different. The grow medium and nutrients are having a huge effect on gene expression in the flowering stage.

Soil buds are more colorful. The coco buds are mostly green with orange hairs while 2 of the 3 soil plants are producing beautiful colors. Bud quality in both tents looks excellent.

The soil plants do look like they’re running out of nutrients in the soil, so some of the color may be the result of nutrient deficiencies. Since this is a “just add water” test I will not add anything. However, if you’re seeing deficiencies like this, I do recommend supplementing soil plants with extra organic nutrients in the flowering stage (low in Nitrogen, high in Phosphorus and Potassium) to ensure nutrients last until harvest. A good example is Roots Organics Uprising Bloom (use this VERY sparingly to avoid burning plants). Or take some of the raw Nature’s Living Soil and make a gentle “tea” and use that to water your plants. If you’re afraid of burning your plants, an excellent ultra-gentle but effective organic bloom booster is Fox Farm Big Bloom. The only downside to Fox Farm Big Bloom is it’s pretty expensive considering you have to use a lot of it at a time.

The coco tent is still winning for trichome coverage while the soil tent is winning for color and smell intensity. It’s hard to estimate yield differences because some clones seem to be doing better in one tent or the other.

I will be reporting yields, smoke reports, and lab results (terpenes and cannabinoids) after harvest. I want you to get as much information as possible on the objective differences between the tents. I’m impatient for harvest time!

November 5

Harvest day!

Here are the coco coir plants at harvest

Coco plant drying

The coco plants were at the beginning of their harvest window (all white trichomes, no clears). I normally would have let them keep growing another week or even two weeks to pack on more weight but the soil plants were done and I harvested them at the same time for the sake of the experiment. It was a tough choice, but in the beginning, I said I would harvest all the plants at the same time and that’s what I’m doing even if it’s not ideal. It’s not a good experiment if you change it as you go along 🙂 If I ever run the experiment again I will harvest the plants when they’re ready instead of at the same time.

Here are the super soil plants at harvest. The Power Africa on the left was really losing color and I was worried the yellowing would start spreading to the buds if I didn’t harvest now.

Super soil plants drying

I do think the soil plants would have faired better if I’d boosted them with nutrients, teas, or another source of PK in early flowering.  However, this experiment specifically tested “just add water” soil so I stuck to the plan and am sharing the results as-is.

Note from Sirius: Defoliation may have played a part in the soil plants’ nutrient problems, too.

The buds will be drying for about 10 days and then buds get lab-tested for cannabinoids and terpenes. The coco plants received only mineral/chemical nutrients, while the soil plants got all their nutrients directly from the grow medium. Since the plants were clones in identical setups, any differences in the buds are likely the result of the grow medium/nutrients. It’ll be interesting to see how the buds were affected!

I’ll also publish the dry weights and smoke reports after buds have been dried and cured for 2 weeks. The soil buds are fatter but the coco plants stretched more and their buds are longer. Just from looking at the drying tents it seems like the coco plants will win for weight overall, but only the scale will tell.

November 18

Finally! Here’s the Coco vs Soil grow journal harvest weigh-in. Over 20 oz for the grow!

Left is the coco harvest and right is the soil harvest.

Coco tent yielded 11.1 oz while the soil tent yielded 9.4 oz, so the coco won for yields but not by a whole lot.

The buds are extremely dense and sticky, with fatter buds in soil but longer buds in coco.

Power Africa in coco weigh-in

Power Africa in super soil weigh-in

Peyote Critical in coco weigh-in

Peyote Critical in super soil weigh-in

Purple Critical Kush in coco weigh-in (I couldn’t fit it all in one bowl so you’ll see it’s 60 g + 59 g for a total of 119 g)

Purple Critical Kush in super soil weigh-in

I thought you might also enjoy this coco vs soil root comparison.

Example of coco roots on left, super soil roots on right

The coco plants were given the Flora trio plus CaliMagic as nutrients. Here’s the coco root ball by itself. The coco root ball weighs less and has a lighter appearance.

The soil plants got all their nutrients directly from the soil. Here’s the soil root ball.  The soil root ball is heavier and has a darker richer color.

Here’s a closeup of the roots near the bottom. I expected to see more differences to be honest.

Next step is to get all the buds tested for cannabinoids and terpenes at a local lab in San Diego.

January 7, 2021

You may have been following my grow journal which pitted clones against each other in coco vs soil. The results are in and I have to admit I’m amazed.

Experiment Details Quick Recap

• Coco: Mother Earth Coco Plus Perlite Mix with Flora trio + CaliMagic as nutrients.
• Soil: Bottom 1/3 of each pot: Nature’s Living Soil Super Soil Concentrate, Top 2/3: Fox Farm Coco Loco soil. All nutrients for these plants came from the soil (no nutrients in the water)

Both sets of plants were in a 2’x4’x6′ grow tent under their own 300W LED grow light.

Results

• Coco won for yields and trichome production
• Soil won for THC percentage and terpenes

Lab report summary

Coco lab reports (PDF)

• Power Africa
• Peyote Critical
• Purple Critical Kush

Super soil lab reports (PDF)

• Power Africa
• Peyote Critical
• Purple Critical Kush

Wow! How cool is that!

Discussion

The soil plants were ready to harvest before the coco plants. As a result, the coco plants were harvested on the early side. The coco tent could have gone on for a few more weeks so chances are their yields and potency would have increased in that time.

However, the super soil plants were at the end of their harvest window, and for the sake of the experiment, I took all the plants down at the same time.

As far as smoke reports, there is no clear winner. Some people prefer the coco buds while others prefer the soil buds. In fact, it seems different for each strain. Honestly, all three of these strains have proven to be really popular regardless of how buds were grown.

I recommend them all (Power Africa, Peyote Critical, and Critical Purple Kush). That being said, Purple Critical Kush has been the fan-favorite so far.

Final Conclusion:

Both grow mediums work great and the real winner is me with all this awesome weed!

Bonus: Check out my full review of Nature’s Living Soil including step-by-step instructions on how to use this soil, a complete watering schedule, and tips I’ve learned over the course of this grow.

The post Super Soil vs Coco Coir – Side-by-Side Cannabis Grow Journal appeared first on Grow Weed Easy.

GrowWeedEasy.com teaches you the secrets of cannabis home grow.

• Start Here: How to grow weed
• Get Seeds: Safe seed sources
• Sick Plants? See the plant doctor
• When to Harvest? Harvest guide

Get cannabis seeds at Seed Supreme or see our full list of our favorite cannabis seed banks.

Growing weed is easy when you know what to do, but most “how to grow marijuana” tutorials leave you feeling like you need a degree in horticulture.

GrowWeedEasy.com only contains useful cannabis grow tips, tactics, and lessons from actual home growers with years of growing experience.

Even a total beginner can consistently produce top-shelf weed by following our step-by-step home grow tutorials. 100% written by humans who care.

Who Made GrowWeedEasy.com?

Grow Weed Easy.com was started in 2010 by home growers Nebula Haze and Sirius Fourside. Together, we built a free online “encyclopedia of cannabis home grow” with 650+ expert home cannabis cultivation tutorials about every aspect of growing weed.

GrowWeedEasy.com is now the biggest and most comprehensive source of free home grow information in the world.  We show you how easy it is to grow your own marijuana at home.

The GrowWeedEasy.com Ethos

Our Goal: You grow as much top-shelf weed as possible, with as little time and effort needed to grow your desired yields and cannabis bud quality.

Whether you’re a total beginner who wants to start growing cannabis indoors for the first time, or an experienced grower who wants to upgrade your skills to Pro level, this website was built for you.

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If you’re reading this right now, you want to grow great cannabis at home.

Cannabis plants isn’t a regular house plant, but learning how to grow isn’t as complicated growers make it seem. We’ve spent the last 16 years breaking down the home grow process so anyone can learn it.

The key to consistent harvest results is simple: follow a proven system developed for home growers.

You could waste an entire grow learning through trial and error…

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Follow our 5-week course and get walked through each part step-by-step. Build by experienced home growers and honed with hundreds of students since 2019, we ensure you achieve great results on your very next harvest.

Learn How To Grow Top-Shelf Weed at Home!

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You may be asking yourself these common growing questions:

“How do I grow marijuana indoors?”

Read this guide on how to grow marijuana indoors. Or check out this article to learn what materials you need to get started growing your own marijuana!

Luckily, it’s really easy to get a cannabis seed to sprout!

“How much money will it cost to get started?”

If you’re considering growing weed, it costs as little as $300 to get started growing or a bit more for a semi-automatic, high-yielding bubbleponics grow system. See examples of yields to expect, electricity use & startup costs for different setups. Read this article to see even more growing styles with different price ranges.

“Where can I get marijuana seeds?”

Check out our How to Buy Marijuana Seeds Online Guide (with delivery to every state of the USA) to safely get your hands on good genetics. Starting with good seeds lets you choose the looks, smell, and effects of your buds!

Learn where it’s safe to buy cannabis seeds online (2026 update).

What do good cannabis seeds look like?

Learn about the best marijuana beginner strains and how to research and find the right strain.

Cannabis buds are generally green, but can also be pink or purple with certain strains.

“How much will electricity cost each month?”

If you’re just growing a few marijuana plants for personal use, it will cost you $20-$100+/month for electricity, depending on what grow lights (electricity) and nutrients you use. On average, I’d say a hobby-size grower might pay about $50/month to grow, but it depends greatly on your setup and local electricity costs! How much will electricity cost each month?

“How can I increase my marijuana yields?”

We have quite a few techniques to choose from or combine! See some of our most popular pages:

• Super Cropping – A simple technique to bigger yields
• Simplest Guide to Growing Short & Bushy Marijuana Plants
• LST (Low Stress Training) – Training your plants can easily double your harvest!
• Or check out our page on the controversial defoliation technique

Even More Ways to Increase Cannabis Yields

1. Increase Light Intensity (plus choose right light for desired yields & possibly add CO2)
2. Manipulate How Plants Grow (a free way to yield more bud indoors)
3. Provide Right Nutrients (low Nitrogen in the flowering stage, and remember sometimes less is more!)
4. Control Growing Environment (let the growing environment work for you)
5. Harvest Plants Properly (most importantly, don’t harvest early!)
6. Lastly, it’s important to remember that the strain has a major effect on yields!

Two small cannabis plants can yield several ounces of premium weed!

“How can I grow weed privately?”

Read guide on growing weed indoors without anyone knowing. But remember the most important factors to stealth growing: “No tell, no smell, no sell.” Never tell anyone, not even your best friend, that you’re growing. Be on top of preventing smells, and never ever sell cannabis. Breaking one of those 3 principles is how 99% of growers get found out!

“What if my plants get sick?”

The most common issue a grower runs into is a pH imbalance. Barring that, your marijuana plants likely either have a nutrient deficiency, heat or light stress, or are being attacked by some sort of marijuana mold, pest or bug. Whether you call it weed, cannabis, sinsemilla, skunk, pot, marijuana, or something else, the plant known as Cannabis Sativa is a hardy weed in the wild and can actually be easy to grow indoors at home when you know what to do.

Growing Medical Marijuana

“Medical marijuana” has become a household name. The body of evidence for medical marijuana in the treatment of cancer and other illnesses is growing every day. And for those who need medical marijuana, growing weed indoors is the perfect way to ensure a safe, regular supply of buds, for cheap.

In fact, when you grow weed indoors for personal use, you often end up with way too much. If you catch the growing bug like I did, and if you start enjoying the process of tending your cannabis garden just for the sake of gardening, you’re going to have to find a way to press, cook, freeze, and concentrate all your extra buds. 🙂

As you probably know, both medical marijuana and recreational cannabis have been decriminalized or legalized in many places around the world and weed is becoming legal in more places every day! Yet there still aren’t many simple indoor “how to grow weed” guides for beginners (even for those who legally grow, such as medical marijuana users and those who live in places where marijuana is legalized for personal use).

If so, I know how you feel. It can be hard to weed out all the bad information on the internet and find well-researched, free tips or instructions on how to grow your own cannabis. That’s why Grow Weed Easy.com aims to be a simple online resource that explains from start to finish what you need to do when growing cannabis so you can learn how to grow cannabis with great yields and potent buds, even if you only have a small grow space like a closet or even a computer case.

We’ve grown cannabis out of closets and have gotten ounces of buds and you can too. Grow Weed Easy.com covers many popular cannabis cultivation topics, including:

• A comparison between different cannabis grow lights including experience-based information about LED grow lights
• A page that teaches you the basics of how to grow weed
• Detailed how-to weed growing tutorials
• How to start growing weed tomorrow  (simplest cannabis growing guide!)
• Grow 4 oz with a 100W LED <– An Easy Way to Start Growing!
• Our famous grow guide that teaches you how to grow weed using bubbleponics (hydro).

Start Growing Weed Today!

Grow Weed Easy is run by a panel of experienced cannabis growers, including the founders Nebula Haze and Sirius Fourside, who originally teamed together to bring you GrowWeedEasy.com. Due to the demand for more marijuana growing information, we’ve also started an inbox magazine all about how to grow weed, with additional tutorials, tips, and tactics sent to you each week. Simply sign up to start getting free expert growing articles delivered to you! All the information available at GrowWeedEasy.com is completely free and we regularly update the site and make new additions.

Looking for a growing book?

If you are interested in doing a bit of reading or would like to know more about the science behind marijuana hydroponics or horticulture, I strongly recommend viewing our page of Marijuana Grow Book Reviews. Read reviews of marijuana grow books. We would love to hear about your experiences with growing cannabis. Whether you are a pro grower already or are just starting your first plant, we have learned so much from our readers both beginners and masters! If you have any suggestions, comments, concerns, or just want to ask some questions about your marijuana grow, please contact us!

Happy Growing!
Nebula Haze & Sirius Fourside

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What Makes Nutrients “Good” or “Bad” for Growing in Coco Coir?

What makes Coco Coir nutrients “good” or “bad?”

In other words, why are some nutrients better than others for growing cannabis in coco coir? What kind of coco nutrients need to be avoided when growing marijuana? Do you need expensive nutrients to get good results, or will cheap nutrients get the job done?

With all the different bottles of marijuana nutrients out there, how do you know which one is best for your coco coir growing setup?

When it comes to choosing nutrients for growing weed in coco coir, there are a few considerations that are really important!

Best Nutrients for Coco

• Nutrients that are specifically made for coco or hydroponics tend to be the easiest to work with
• Coco does well with either mineral nutrients or organic nutrient sources. With mineral (hydro) nutrients the plants tend to grow bigger and faster because the nutrients get delivered to the plant in the most efficient form. It’s often said that organic nutrients result in buds with a more complex smell, but organic-grown plants are a little slower to grow. Both types of nutrients produce very high-quality weed, and any differences in the final product are relatively small and often very hard to pin down. In our growing forum, the side-by-side grow tests with organic vs hydroponic nutrients have given inconclusive results as far as bud quality! The most important thing to pay attention to when growing in coco is good watering practices and paying attention to pH.
• Contains rich sources of micro-nutrients (to make up for what might have been found in the soil)
• Optimum NPK ratios (more info below)

Poor Nutrients for Coco

• Made specifically for soil, especially if you look on the back and don’t see Magnesium, Calcium, Sulfur and other micronutrients on the label. A lot of soil-made nutrient systems will work for cannabis, but they often skip out on micronutrients which would normally be found in soil, but might not be available in coco coir. If you’re using filtered or RO water, it’s even more important to use nutrients designed for hydro or coco since there will be basically zero traces of other nutrients in the water.
• Low in Calcium – Cannabis is prone to Calcium deficiencies when growing in coco coir unless you supplement with extra Calcium and Magnesium (it’s important to always add Calcium and Magnesium at the same time because they rely on each other and too much of one will cause a nutrient problem with the other). Most coco-specific nutrients already have high levels of Calcium, but it’s also really common to add a Cal-Mag supplement to your regimen when growing weed in coco coir to add extra calcium just in case. Any Cal-Mag supplement will work, but it’s always good to get a Cal-Mag supplement from the company who makes your nutrients jf available. Sticking with the same company for all your nutrients helps ensure they will be compatible with each other.

You can learn a lot about nutrients by looking at the label!

Optimum NPK Ratios for Coco Cannabis Nutrients

N-P-K stands for Nitrogen-Phosphorus-Potassium, which are the three most important plant nutrients. These are what the 3 numbers listed on the front of all nutrient bottles stand for (Potassium is represented by “K” because chemists use the symbol K in the periodic table for potassium).

So what are the optimum NPK values for growing cannabis in coco? It depends on the plant’s stage of life (N-P-K are the 3 numbers on the front of nutrient bottles, like this)

In order to get the best results growing cannabis in coco, it’s important to give the right ratio of these crucial nutrients so the plant gets what it needs at the right time. For example, if you give too much Nitrogen in the flowering/budding phase, it actually surpresses bud production and reduces your yields even if the plant is completely healthy! You don’t want that!

The most important thing is high Nitrogen in the vegetative stage, and low Nitrogen in the flowering stage

Cannabis plants grown in soil are not that picky about P & K. As long as there is an abundance of each, the exact ratio isn’t as important as the amount of Nitrogen compared to the others. Additionally, coco nutrients should always include….

• Magnesium
• Calcium
• Iron
• Sulfur

Nice but not necessary micro-nutrients (these are contained in most water sources, but if using RO or very soft water you definitely want to add these nutrients to prevent possible nutrient deficiencies)

• Boron
• Cobalt
• Copper
• Manganese
• Molybdenum
• Zinc

The main difference between NPK ratios for coco and soil are….

• Coco nutrients usually contain more micro-nutrients (in trace amounts), to make up for what the plant would have been able to find in the soil
• Soil nutrients tend to have higher levels of Phosphorus, because microorganisms in the soil (as well as clay “colloidal” particles) can ‘steal’ some of it

When set up right with good nutrients, coco can produce some beefy buds!

Optimum pH of 5.5-6.5 <—- Sooooo important in coco

No matter which nutrient brand you’re using, even with chelated nutrients, cannabis roots are better able to absorb some chemical forms of nutrients than others. This is where pH comes into play. When the pH at the roots is too high or too low, it actually changes the chemical form of the individual nutrient compounds, making it more difficult for your plant to absorb the nutrients it needs.

With coco cannabis nutrients, they’re designed to be most available to your plant when the pH is between 5.5-6.5. If you let the pH get higher or lower than this, you will start getting nutrient deficiencies even if literally everything else is dialed in!

Learn how to adjust your pH to prevent nutrient deficiencies
(It’s easy! It’s kind of like a supplement you add to your reservoir to get better growth)

Stay skeptical of companies that say their nutrients will “automatically” adjust the pH of your water. Although some nutrient systems may be better than others at stabilizing pH, you still need to check the pH regularly if you want to get the best results in coco. Seriously, this is really important!

Depending on your starting water, “PH Perfect” nutrient systems sometimes aren’t able to correct the pH to the right levels, at least not consistently throughout the grow.

This could happen for various reasons. For example your source water likely contains minerals and other “stuff” that will change the pH of your water. If you start with highly purified water instead of tap water, it can actually make pH swings worse because there is no “buffer” in pure water to stabilize pH.

Plus, the amount of nutrients you use changes depending on your plant and its stage of life, and changing the nutrient levels will almost always change the pH, too!

If you check the pH and it’s in the right range, that’s perfect and there’s nothing else you need to do. But don’t skip checking the pH just because the bottle says you don’t have to!

At the very least, make sure pH is the first thing you check if you start seeing nutrient problems!

If you think you have the best coco cannabis nutrients, tell us about your results!

The post Best Coco Coir Nutrients for Cannabis? appeared first on Grow Weed Easy.

What Does “Organic” Mean?

If you’ve ever wondered what people are talking about when they refer to growing “organic” cannabis, what they mean is that everything used to grow the plant was derived from living things. This means that substances such as chemical salts, synthetic fertilizers, and inorganic pesticides are never used as part of the marijuana growing process.

Organic cannabis is grown with soil and nutrients that are derived only from living things.

In nature, cannabis is almost always grown in purely organic conditions, and many growers want to re-create that same natural environment indoors.

However, if you really want to copy nature as closely as possible, you have to do more than just buy organic nutrients and organic soil. Although you will get great results using regular organic soil with organic nutrients, the best taste and smell benefits come from growing cannabis in “living” soil.

“Living” Soil is a Solid Path to the Best Cannabis Bud Taste & Smell

Living soil is overflowing with colonies of beneficial microorganisms and microfauna (including bacteria, fungi, protozoa and nematodes) which create a complex and interwoven soil food web.

These tiny creatures break down nutrients in the soil, making them easier for roots to absorb. In return, the plant excretes substances at the roots which feed the soil colony. This symbiotic relationship is the basis of True Organic Gardening! When these organisms are missing from the soil, it’s more difficult for your plant to get the nutrients it needs.

The organisms which colonize living soil actually “hand-deliver” nutrients directly to your plant roots, just like in nature!

Although cannabis growers don’t yet fully understand exactly why, plants grown in living soil seem to produce buds with a stronger and more complex taste and smell profile than plants grown in regular soil or hydro.

Will Any Organic Soil Work to Strengthen the Smell of Buds?

Living soil is usually organic, but not all organic soil is “living”. Soil generally needs to be composted for a few months so the beneficial microorganisms have time to colonize and start breaking down the nutrients in the soil.

When buying regular potting soil at the store, chances are it hasn’t been recently composted. There’s also the chance it has been baked or otherwise processed to kill any bugs or eggs, which sterilizes the soil but it leaves it without any beneficial microorganisms.

Luckily, you can buy freshly composted soil that has been amended specifically for plants like cannabis (here’s a tutorial using Nature’s Living Soil concentrate plus Coco Loco soil). Composted and amended soil is sometimes referred to as “Super Soil” and generally only needs water for plants to flourish. The microorganisms take care of almost everything else!

This soil may look inert, but at the microscopic level, it is alive with millions of organisms!

Note: Although cannabis-formulated living soil takes care of delivering nutrients for you, it can’t produce nutrients from scratch. If a cannabis plant is left in a container for too long (or is grown in a small container), it may start to use up all the nutrients in the soil. When this happens, growers can supplement their living soil with organic nutrients in some form, including compost “tea” or bottled nutrients. Other growers may simply transplant to a different pot with fresh soil after their plant starts using up what’s in its original container!

As plants get bigger, you may eventually need to either supplement them with extra nutrients or transplant them to fresh soil

When it comes to choosing whether to go with regular organic nutrients vs living soil, here are some of the main considerations:

Living Soil

Pros

• Buds grown in living soil produce the strongest and most complex smells when compared to buds grown in other styles (like hydro)
• Usually no need for extra nutrients
• Similar to how cannabis grows in the wild

Cons

• Soil can be smelly, which might be offensive indoors
• Plants tend to grow a little slower than plants grown with liquid nutrients
• Making your own living soil can be a major hassle (though you can buy it)

Standard Organic Soil with Organic Nutrients

Pros

• Plants tend to grow a little faster in the vegetative stage because of the easily absorbable nature of liquid nutrients (nutrients don’t need to be broken down in the soil by microorganisms)
• Standard soil usually has a neutral smell

Cons

• Buds smell great, but the odor/taste may not be quite as strong as what could be achieved with living soil
• Need to provide nutrients regularly in the water

As you can see, there is no “best” way to grow when it comes to soil. Each type has its own pros and cons!

You can produce an abundance of potent and beautiful buds no matter which type of soil you use!

Will chemical nutrients kill all the beneficial life in the soil?

Yes and no. Although chemical nutrients won’t kill all the organisms in the soil directly, they can outcompete them. As the plant gets nutrients directly from the water, the roots stop producing the various substances that normally feed bacteria and fungi in the soil. The soil food web can start to slowly collapse, as first the bacteria and fungi die off from lack of exudates from the roots, and then the protozoa and nematodes that feed on the fungi/bacteria die off, too. In fact, the over-application of readily available organic nutrients can cause the same problem!

So a single watering with chemical or other liquid nutrients won’t kill your living soil, but regular use can decimate their numbers!

Nematodes may not look like predators, but they actually prey on bacteria and fungi in the soil. If the bacteria and fungi die off, so will the nematodes. Each type of organism is an important part of the living soil ecosystem!

I hope this helped you decide whether to grow with regular or living soil! If you have decided to make the leap, here is a tutorial on how to get the best results with living soil!

How to Grow Organic Cannabis with Living Soil

Ready to start growing?

What You Will Need

• A place to grow (indoors, outdoors, your closet…)
• Grow light (or a spot with direct sunlight outdoors
• Living Soil – get 1 lb of Nature’s Living Soil concentrate for every gallon of Coco Loco soil (here’s a detailed tutorial)
• 5-gallon Smart Pots (or whatever size you desire) – This is a container for your soil. Although regular pots can be used, fabric pots are recommended for faster growth
• Rapid Rooters (optional)
• Solo cups for seedlings (optional)

​What type of water to use?

When growing cannabis with composted super soil, you want to use a clean source of water. You don’t want to use distilled water, as it can mess with the soil ecosystem, but most sources of water should be okay as long as the pH isn’t very high or low. If the pH of the water is far outside the 6-7 range, it can disrupt your soil cycle. So if you have very hard water, or the pH is off, you either need to use a different source of water or just be on the lookout for nutrient deficiencies. If you run into nutrient deficiencies with super soil (and you know that the plant hasn’t used everything up yet) it often means you need to correct the pH when you water. Learn how to pH water for organic soil.

1.) Add Super Soil to your Smart Pot, fill the rest with Coco Loco on top, then put aside

You will need not only your super soil but also Coco Loco (or other coco or regular organic soil) to help your young plants transition into the “hot” (meaning nutrient-abundant) super soil. For each gallon of space in your Smart Pot, add one pound of your “hot” composted Super Soil mix, then fill the rest of your container with the much more gentle Coco Loco.

Fill the bottom with living soil.

Fill the rest of the way with Coco Loco (keep filling past this point, until you only have about a half inch of extra space at the top). Then put your container(s) aside for now.

Instead of Coco Loco, you can also use organic soil or another growing medium of your choice, as long as it’s not too “hot” (amended with lots of nutrients) for young plants.

The Coco Loco is situated at the top of the container so you do not burn young plants or clones with too high levels of nutrients. However, once their roots reach down to the super soil, the plants will be mature enough to use the rich source of nutrients without worrying about nutrient burn.

Even if young plants do get a little nutrient burn, they will soon grow out of it, so don’t stress as long as your plants are growing fast and healthy.

2.) Germinate Your Seeds

Of course, make sure your garden is ready first! You’ve chosen a place to grow, you’ve got your pots and soil, and your grow light is set up, right?

Ok! Time to put your seeds (or clones) into their new homes! But where to get seeds? 

View a list of tested & trusted seed vendors:https://www.growweedeasy.com/seeds

Germinate Your Seeds in a Solo Cup for the Fastest Seedling Growth.

Make sure to transplant seedlings to bigger containers when their leaves reach the edges of the cup.

This is how one grower did it:

I originally germinated in Rapid Rooters then moved the seedlings into solo cups filled with Coco Loco. After the leaves grew past the edges of the cup, I moved them into the pots with super soil

This gives the plant roots more room to spread out, and supplies it with a fresh source of nutrients.

3.) Water your Plants

Now that you have young cannabis plants, your main job is to water your plants as needed and provide plenty of light.

How to water plants in super soil:

• Give just enough water to wet the medium, but try to stop just before you get runoff.
• Wait until the top feels dry to the touch before watering again.
• Unlike some other growing mediums, in super soil your plants will grow best if you avoid getting runoff. The runoff will carry away some of the nutrients in the soil, and since you’re not adding any extra, you want to conserve the nutrients you do have in the soil.

Important Tips

• Make sure roots stay warm and keep them from sitting directly on the ground (such as on concrete in a basement). This is important for the colony of organisms at the roots to thrive, and cannabis also tends to grow better with warm (but not hot) roots.
• Maintain the pH for the best results, especially if you notice any nutrient deficiencies or other problems.

4.) Flowering/Budding Stage

When growing cannabis outdoors, plants will naturally start flowering in the fall. When growing cannabis indoors, you will need to switch your grow lights to a new light schedule in order for your plants to start making buds.

For indoor growers, once your plant is half the final desired height, initiate flowering by putting your lights on a 12/12 schedule so they’re getting 12 hours of light, and 12 hours of uninterrupted darkness every day. At that point, they’ll start making buds, and you’re just waiting until harvest time!

Learn more about light schedules and how to get plants to start making buds.

Now you just wait until harvest!

More resources for growing cannabis:

• Complete Beginner’s Guide
• How to Grow Weed in 10 Steps
• Diagnose Your Sick Plant
• Bugs, Mold & Other Cannabis Pests

Cannabis Life Stages

• Marijuana Growth Timeline
• Germination
• Vegetative Stage
• Flowering Stage
• Harvest

Plant Care Tutorials

• Cloning
• Plant Training
• How Often to Water Plants
• Male vs Female Plants
• The Perfect Environment
• How to Control Smell
• How to Set Up Exhaust

Learn How to Improve…

• Yields
• Bud Quality
• THC Levels
• CBD Levels
• Smell/Taste
• Density
• Bonus: What Determines Yields?

The post “True” Organic Growing vs Organic Nutrients appeared first on Grow Weed Easy.

Today, learn what kind of soil grows the best marijuana plants. Choosing cannabis-friendly soil produces more weed with less effort. You just need to know what soil to look for. Note: Seeds like Purple Haze, Northern Lights #10, Do-Si-Dos germinate strong in soil.

My favorite cannabis soil is Fox Farm Coco Loco soil, which pairs with Fox Farm soil nutrients.

That’s what I used for this grow journal.

When it comes to growing cannabis in soil, you have 3 main choices to ensure great weed.

1. Buy a proven soil – Use a brand known for great cannabis soil. Two great cannabis soil options are Coco Loco potting mix (a coco-fiber-heavy soil mix makes seedlings less prone to overwatering, but needs nutrients earlier) and Ocean Forest soil (true soil that is”hot” enough you don’t need to add nutrients for several weeks).
2. Use locally available soil – Go to a local gardening store and find “organic potting mix” that looks like the soil on this page. Cannabis soil should be brown, rich, fluffy, and ideally already contains little white rocks called perlite. Make sure to give nutrients after just a few weeks, as cannabis plants quickly use up nutrients in regular soil.
3. Mix your own soil – If you’re looking to make your own soil, here’s an awesome tutorial by Subcool on making cannabis-friendly soil.

Example of perfect cannabis soil (this is Coco Loco) – click for closeup

Note about soil & nutrients: Cannabis plants are exceptionally nutrient-hungry as they enter the flowering stage. Bigger plants often use up nutrients in the soil, and need nutrient supplementation right as buds are forming, unless you grow in a big pot with a lot of soil. Learn about the best cannabis soil nutrients.

Cannabis specifically needs plenty of Phosphorus, Potassium, and micronutrients (a “bloom” nutrient formula) to grow big, dense, potent, and strong-smelling buds.

Give extra “bloom” nutrients as buds form to increase potency, density, and smell.

Examples of great fertilizers (nutrients) for cannabis in soil include the Fox Farm soil trio nutrients or Dyna-Gro Grow + Bloom. Some growers opt to add super soil concentrate to soil directly, instead of regular nutrients.

Weed grown in Coco Loco soil with Fox Farm soil trio nutrients (Candy Games #38 strain).

What should you look for in good cannabis soil?

Weed growers consistently find the best cannabis soil has these characteristics:

• dark and rich
• loose texture
• holds water
• drains well

The following video shows the soil texture you want (this is Coco Loco soil, my personal favorite soil for growing cannabis).

The little white rocks are called perlite, which loosens the soil. Perlite also creates air pockets that help cannabis roots get access to more oxygen. The best cannabis soil nearly always contains some perlite.

Basically you want soil that holds nutrients, air, and water without getting muddy (the goal is wet soil, not dirt batter!).

Bad Cannabis Soil – Examples

Example of BAD cannabis soil (also known as soaking wet “dirt batter”)

Bad cannabis soil doesn’t look fluffy, it often looks muddy, sandy, or like dirt outside.

If you don’t see little white rocks (perlite) the soil is almost always too thick for healthy growth.

This cannabis plant in overly thick soil is struggling. Roots need air!

What Else Should I Know About Cannabis Soil?

But beyond that, what do you look for to ensure you have happy, healthy cannabis plants?

Some growers choose to use an amended “hot” soil that slowly releases nutrients over time. With this type of soil, you typically add water or natural supplements like worm tea from seed to harvest. Other growers prefer a lighter potting mix so they have more control and give nutrients in the water once the plant roots have used up the nutrients in the soil. But which cannabis soil brands can you trust?

A little Mandarin Cookies seedling getting transplanted into good soil.

Some popular soil examples that I’ve used with good results include:

Fox Farm Coco Loco soil

A coco-based soil mix with enough nutrients to last your plants for a few weeks. With Coco Loco, you should start supplementing with extra nutrients once plants are 2-3 weeks old. I personally like Coco Loco the best of any soil mix I’ve used. You can use it by itself and it’s also my favorite base potting mix for a “just add water” super soil grow (more info below).

Seedlings are more resistant in a coco-based soil medium. Cannabis plants in Coco Loco tend to grow happy and healthy while being more resistant to over or under-watering compared to the other soil mixes I’ve tried. It’s great soil for other types of crops too.

Coco Loco Soil Tips:

• Give nutrients after 2-3 weeks – Start giving very small doses of nutrients in the water with something like Fox Farm soil trio once the plants are a few weeks old. This ensures plants grow as fast with green, healthy leaves.

Fox Farm Coco Loco soil – Fast growing seedlings, with nutrients to last a few weeks.

Cannabis seedlings in Coco Loco are less prone to overwatering.

Those 6 autoflowering plants at harvest. Check out the grow journal.

Fox Farm Ocean Forest soil

A “hot” soil mix with lots of nutrients packed inside. You can start seedlings directly in this mix though they may show signs of nutrient burn at first until they get adjusted.

Ocean Forest has enough nutrients to last your plants quite a while, though you likely should still give extra flowering nutrients once your plants start making buds in order to get the best yields, density, and bud quality. Cannabis plants need a surprisingly lot of nutrients in the flowering stage and you don’t want to starve the plants right as buds are forming.

Ocean Forest Soil Tips:

• Give nutrients after 4 weeks – Start giving very small doses of nutrients in the water with something like Fox Farm soil trio once the plants are 3-4 weeks old. This ensures plants grow as fast with green, healthy leaves.

Fox Farm Ocean Forest soil – A “hot” soil mix that can burn seedlings, but provides nutrients for several weeks.

A seedling might get a touch of nutrient burn at first, but quickly grows out of it. (pic by NicoleNoel)

The good thing is a cannabis plant in Ocean Forest soil won’t need extra nutrients for up to 4 weeks.

“Just Add Water” Super Soil

Basically you add concentrated compost to supercharge your soil with extra slow-release organic amendments. Mix the concentrated compost with regular soil and put the concentrated soil at the bottom 1/3 of a pot. Then fill the rest of the way with regular soil.

The roots won’t get burned at first but can “dip into” the nutrients at the bottom of the pot as needed, like a reservoir of nutrients. This lets the plant go through the nutrients slowly over the course of the grow.

As a result, you can give just plain water without nutrients until harvest.

Super Soil Tips:

• Avoid runoff water – Extra water that runs out of the bottom of the pot washes away nutrients. You want to give just enough water for roots to be happy, but not much more. Here’s a proven 30-day seedling watering schedule in a 3-gallon pot or bigger that won’t make runoff.
• Give extra nutrients if needed – Cannabis buds need a lot of nutrients to get big and dense. Even in super soil, plants still might run out of nutrients if they’ve been in the same pot of soil for a while. This is most common with bigger plants in smaller pots with powerful grow lights. If necessary, supplement with extra organic bloom nutrients like organic Dr. Earth Flower Girl right as buds start forming (when nutrient needs are highest). This helps ensure plants get all the crucial minerals needed to make buds.

Cannabis plants grown in super soil.

A local “organic soil potting mix”

If you can’t order special soil online, ask for the best soil at your local gardening store.

You can use almost any organic soil potting mix to grow cannabis. I say “organic” because it ensures there is composted matter and cuts out a lot of potentially problematic ingredients like slow-release chemical nutrients (which often cause nutrient issues in the flowering stage by delivering too much Nitrogen).

Buying Local Soil Tips

• You’re growing “potted herbs” – If cornered about what you’re growing, don’t say tomatoes. That seems a bit suspicious from someone who’s clearly a total beginner at gardening. Say you want to grow herbs in a pot, like basil, cilantro, mint, etc. These herbs need the same type of soil as cannabis.
• Start adding nutrients after 2-3 weeks – Plan to start adding extra nutrients in the water by the time a plant is a few weeks old as the roots will quickly use up everything in regular soil.
• Get soil that looks like the following picture – Try to look for soil with a rich and dark but loose texture. It’s a good sign if you see little white pebbles mixed in (this is perlite, which makes soil drain better). If a soil looks like dirt or mud, it’s no good!

Try to get soil that looks like this.

Make Your Own Soil

If you’re going to be needed a LOT of soil, the cheapest option is often to make your own.

A strain like Candy Bubatz XL is designed for enormous yields outdoors.

Recommended soil nutrients:

• Fox Farm Soil trio (Natural) – These 3 bottles include everything your plants need from seed to harvest. The FF trio has a lot of organic ingredients, and produces superb weed with any high-quality soil.
• Dyna-Gro Grow + Bloom (Cheap) – Inexpensive but effective. Use Grow at 1 tsp/gallon once plants in soil are a few weeks old. After plants start growing buds, switch to Bloom at 1 tsp/gallon. Originally designed for orchids but works surprisingly well for cannabis. Recently rebranded as “Superthrive” instead of Dyna-Gro, but it’s the same nutrients.
• Humboldts Secret Starter Kit (Advanced) – For the “mad scientist” grower who wants to go deep into nutrient science.

Learn about other cannabis-friendly nutrients.

Fox Farm soil trio – Very popular nutrient choice for growing cannabis in soil, with lots of natural ingredients.

Dyna-Gro Grow + Bloom  – Inexpensive but effective. Designed for orchids but works well for cannabis.

Humboldts Secret Starter Kit (Advanced) – For the cannabis grower who wants to dive into nutrient science.

Recently, I started using auto-watering pot bases for growing in soil. They work well with any of the nutrient options listed above. Learn more about auto-watering pot bases.

Cannabis nutrients pair well with auto-watering pot bases.

Plants started growing faster once roots reached the auto-watering bases.

I liked that I could go days without watering.

How to prevent nutrient deficiencies in soil 

As long as you’ve followed the above steps: start with great cannabis soil and give extra nutrients if necessary, your plants should have all the minerals they need.

But you might still see nutrient deficiencies. Why? There is one more step to ensure the nutrients are available to plant roots. You need to control the pH.

• Give soil-friendly nutrients – In many soil setups, you need to provide extra nutrients in the water, especially after buds start forming. Otherwise buds won’t reach their full potential.
• Check your water pH to stop deficiencies – Cannabis roots can’t properly absorb nutrients unless the soil is slightly acidic (6-7 pH). Even when plants have all the nutrients they need, you still need to ensure the right pH to prevent nutrient deficiencies. As long as you ensure your water is between 6 and 7 pH, it prevents nutrient deficiencies. Learn how to check and adjust pH.

See which nutrient deficiencies are caused by incorrect pH. (Picture Guide)

When a plant is “hungry” for more nutrients overall, the leaves start getting pale all over. Especially younger plants.

For older plants, it the first sign of low nutrients is usually the lowest leaves start turning yellow and falling off.

Needs nutrients – Lower leaves turn yellow, then dry up, then fall on their own.

Needs nutrients – Leaves start turning yellow at the bottom first.

Needs nutrients – Lower leaves turn yellow (or brown if they shrivel up) and fall off on their own

Some deficiencies are actually caused by incorrect pH at the roots. Luckily, it’s an easy fix. Learn how to tell the difference and fix it.

If yellow leaves are at the top of the plant, don’t easily pull off, or come with brown spots, it’s often a pH problem or light stress.

Here’s a few more common leaf symptoms caused by a pH problem.

See more pictures of pH-caused nutrient deficiencies.

Tell Me More About Soil for Cannabis: Considerations

• Texture
• Drainage Ability
• Water Retention

Although that list looks vague and complicated at the same time, the marijuana plant requirements you want to meet are actually pretty simple; let me break it down!

These plants were grown in Coco Loco soil with Fox Farm soil nutrients.

Texture, Drainage & Water Retention

It’s easy to get caught up thinking about what nutrients and amendments are in the soil, and those are important, but perhaps the most important aspect of any soil is actually its texture, ability to drain, and overall water “holding” ability.

For a cannabis plant to grow and thrive, it needs a good mix of both water and oxygen at the roots at all times! Too much water and the plant roots can’t get enough oxygen (lack of oxygen at the roots is why plants get droopy from overwatering), but on the flip side, if there’s not enough water retention, the roots can be injured from drying out too quickly,

Good cannabis soil looks like this.

What gets the best results for growing cannabis is a soil mix with a light texture that is good at retaining water…but not too much.

Signs of the Best Cannabis Soil

• Appears dark and rich
• Loose texture
• Drains well (doesn’t make a pool on top of your soil for more than a couple of seconds and doesn’t take forever to drain out the bottom)
• Holds water without getting muddy (you want wet soil, not dirt-batter)

Example of “Good” Cannabis Soil Ingredients 

If you have a local gardening or hydro store, they will have most of these ingredients, and cheaper than online.

• Composted forest humus
• Sandy loam
• Sphagnum peat moss
• Coco coir (sometimes labeled coco fiber)
• Perlite
• Earthworm castings
• Bat guano
• Fish meal
• Crab meal
• Bone meal
• Blood meal
• Azomite
• Pumice
• Kelp
• Dolomite lime
• Greensand
• Mycorrhizae
• Leonardite

Note: You’ll likely never see any soil mix with ALL those ingredients, but I wanted to share examples of common cannabis-friendly ingredients and amendments that often appear on the label of good soil 🙂

If you are the kind of cannabis grower who’s getting deep into soil and amendments, it’s crazy how much knowledge you can get from visiting any local garden shops and ask the workers what works for them. If you’re not sure about the worker being cannabis-friendly, ask for good soil for “potted herbs” like basil or mint.

If you get the soil part right, you have almost everything you need to get to harvest! With the correct texture, drainage and water retention, you’ve got a perfect base. Add good soil cannabis nutrients, especially in the budding phase, and you should get to harvest with great results!

Example of happy marijuana plants in good soil just before harvest.

More About Common Amendments to Alter Texture, Drainage & Water Retention of Soil

Perlite – You should have perlite in your soil

• Perlite is one of the most common soil amendments. It is highly recommended for any soil mix that doesn’t have some already.
• Very light, airy white “rocks” that feel almost like popcorn and add oxygen while increasing overall drainage ability.
• Add perlite to the mix (10-40% of the total volume). Use less perlite if you want better water retention and don’t plan on using a lot of extra nutrients. This is because a lot of extra perlite can cause the nutrients leach out faster from the soil. Add higher levels of perlite if you want to use a lot of added nutrients or supplements without burning your plants (since perlite helps prevent nutrient buildup).

Perlite has a light crunchy texture, almost like giant Pop Rocks.

Perlite looks like little rocks when mixed in the soil

Coco Coir – Cannabis roots love coco coir! (more than peat moss, which is the main alternative)

• Coco coir is made from coconut husks and has some unique properties that make it a good amendment for cannabis soil mixtures.
• Coco improves water retention, but doesn’t make soil heavy.
• Roots tend to develop faster and plants are less likely to suffer from overwatering in coco coir.
• Some growers grow in pure coco, but if you’re adding it to a soil mix as an amendment, you might add 10-30% coco coir.

Where to get coco?

• Pre-Mixed – You can buy soil that is already mixed with coco like Coco Loco. Personally, I’ve found my cannabis plants love this stuff.
• Loose Coco – If you want to amend your current soil with coco coir, you can purchase loose coco coir.
• Coco Bricks – Your other option is to get coco bricks. One downside is they need to be rehydrated with a bucket and some water, but it’s easy (learn how to re-hydrate coco bricks). I like these bricks not only because they are the cheapest option, but also because they’re compact and easy to store.

Coco bricks are compressed, expanding into a soil-like consistency when you add water.

Worm Castings

• Worm castings are a nice term for “worm poop” and cannabis plants love it!
• Improves texture, drainage, and moisture retention
• Add a natural source of nutrients that breaks down slowly
• Usually contains high levels of beneficial micro-organisms due to going through a worm’s digestive system 🙂
• Add up to 30% worm castings in your soil (although it contains nutrients, it’s gentle enough that it’s unlikely to burn your plants even if you add too much)

Worm castings or “vermicompost” is a nice way to say “worm poop”

You can feed worms and make your own, or buy worm castings in a bag!

Now here are a few examples of good and bad cannabis soil so you can see the texture you’re looking for!

Good Cannabis Soil
A light, rich soil mix with great drainage. Although there is a wood chip in this picture, for the most part, the mix is completely composted and broken down. It’s normal to see some wood pieces in composted soil, but you don’t want to have to wait for a lot of wood to break down while your plants are growing. You want all that rich nutrient goodness to be readily available to your plant roots 🙂

This is Fox Farm Ocean Forest soil

Good Cannabis Soil
Rich and light composted soil. Since this soil doesn’t have a lot of perlite, it’s a good choice for a grower who doesn’t want to add a lot of extra nutrients or supplements in the water.

Good Cannabis Soil
This soil has quite a bit of perlite, which is a good choice if you plan to feed heavily with nutrients and supplements since the extra perlite prevents nutrient buildup in the soil.

Good Cannabis Soil
The plant is growing in organic, composted “super soil” which has enough amendments to last your entire grow, so the only thing you do is add water!

Here’s organic “super” soil up close.

Bad Cannabis Soil
This soil is muddy, clumpy and waterlogged. It retains too much moisture, which makes it really easy to overwater your plants.

Bad Cannabis Soil
Cannabis soil should not have a whole lot of big visible wood chips in it. That means the soil hasn’t been fully composted, and all the nutrients and goodness in that wood is mostly unavailable to your plants.

Bad Cannabis Soil
Although this seedling is over a month old, it has stayed tiny. Its growth is stunted by the thick heavy soil that holds way too much water and not enough air. Note how some of the soil looks like one solid object.

Bad Cannabis Soil
Don’t use dirt from outside! It almost never works, especially if it looks like this!

Cannabis seedlings struggle to survive in dry, dusty, pale dirt like this.

Bad Cannabis Soil – Sand!

I’m sure you probably know by now that sand is certainly not the ideal cannabis soil. But I thought you might be interested to see this submission we received from a reader who tried growing a seedling directly in sand!

Recap: Suggested Brands for Cannabis Soil

Here’s a quick recap of my recommended options for great cannabis soil.

Soil makes big, beautiful, fragrant buds when used properly.

Fox Farm – Coco Loco or Ocean Forest Soil

Fox Farm has been around for over 30 years and makes some of the most common types of “cannabis soil” (at least in the US). They have several great soil mixes, including “Happy Frog” which is a light mix with barely any nutrients, typically only for seedlings and clones.

Their Ocean Forest soil mix is “hotter” soil (higher levels of nutrients) that contains ingredients that cannabis plants love, including earthworm castings, bat guano, fish meal and crab meal. The nutrients contained in the soil will provide everything your plant needs for several weeks. Although it might give young seedlings just a touch of nutrient burn at first, they can be started in Ocean Forest soil and will soon be able to use the nutrients and start growing quickly. Some growers might put a little bit of Happy Frog on top of a container of Ocean Forest, just to make it a little more gentle for seedlings the first week or two.

However, my personal favorite cannabis soil is Fox Farm Coco Loco soil. It is a bit lighter on nutrients so it doesn’t burn young plants, yet still gives them plenty of nutrients for a few weeks. I’ve found that cannabis seems to grow a bit faster and are harder to overwater in coco-based soils vs peat-based soil like Ocean Forest.

Fox Farm also offers a soil nutrient trio that are base nutrients (complete nutrition) formulated for plants like cannabis. The soil trio goes great with any of their soils, ensuring plants get the right levels of nutrients for each stage of life.

Coco Loco soil works well with Fox Farm Soil Trio nutrients.

“Super” Soil (Living Soil)

When cannabis growers talk about “super” soil, they’re usually referring to soil that has been amended with slow-releasing organic nutrient sources, and then composted for several months (learn more about super soil).

The composting process creates a “living” soil that is full of microorganisms in the rhizosphere (area around the roots). Properly composted soil has nutrient sources that slowly break down over the course of your plant’s life cycle. It very closely mimics what happens in nature.

Super Soil has a colony of microorganisms living in the soil which form a symbiotic relationship with your plant roots. They deliver nutrients to your plant, and in return they eat the sugars that get secreted by your roots!

The “micro-herd” in the soil delivers nutrients directly to your plants. As long as you’re using decent water, you usually don’t need to worry about pH or other things that can disrupt nutrient absorption in regular soil.

Buy Pre-Made Super Soil Compost + a high quality soil and follow the directions to mix them together. After that, just add water!

Learn more about a “Just Add Water” cannabis soil grow.

However, when growing with Super Soil, it’s a good idea to avoid watering too much at a time, as extra runoff water will drain away some of the nutrients. Try to give just enough water to saturate the soil with very little extra coming out of the bottom. Since you won’t be adding more nutrients through the grow, you want to conserve what’s in the soil!

Nugbuckets is a famous organic soil grower. Check out his plants!

Organic Potting Mix

This is what kind of soil to get if you don’t have any specialized cannabis soil available, but want something that is known to work for growing cannabis.

These cannabis plants grown outdoors in soil by our student Raymond. (Rainbow Kush Auto on either end and two Four-Assed Monkey Autos in the middle)

Generally, anything labeled as an “organic potting mix” will work. This type of mix hasn’t been amended with chemical slow-release nutrients, which is one of the main things you want to avoid with soil for cannabis. I know it sounds like heresy, but even the Miracle-Gro version of “organic potting mix” will work okay, because unlike their original potting mix, it doesn’t contain chemical nutrients (though it still has poor drainage and moisture retention – almost any other type of organic potting mix is better!).

Usually, an organic potting mix does not have enough nutrients to last your plants for more than a few weeks, so it’s a good idea to always supplement with cannabis-friendly nutrients, especially in the flowering stage when your plant is making buds and needs lots of extra Phosphorus and Potassium.

Espoma Organic Potting Mix is found in many stores in the US, and works for growing cannabis!

Example of Espoma organic potting mix

What to Watch Out For With Any Soil Mix At the Store

• Look At and Touch It If You Can! You already have an idea what soil should look and feel like, but here’s a test: If you form the soil into a ball, it should stick together loosely, but it should also easily fall apart again if you squeeze it.
• No “Time Release” Chemical Nutrients in the Soil – These types of soil slowly release nutrients over the course of months, which provides too much Nitrogen in the flowering stage and could possibly impair overall bud growth.
• Soil Should Appear Dark and Rich – Pale, crumbly or sandy soil usually doesn’t have a lot of nutrient content that the plant roots can get to.

• Soil Has Little White Rocks In It (Perlite), if you see white, almost fluffy rocks dispersed through the soil like popcorn, that is usually a good sign because it means this potting mix was intended to have good drainage.
• Soil Isn’t “Heavy” – Cannabis grows best in soil with a light airy texture and great drainage, which may seem almost fluffy when it’s dry.
• Example of “Good” Soil Ingredients – Composted forest humus, sandy loam, sphagnum peat moss, coco coir (sometimes labeled coco fiber), perlite, earthworm castings, bat guano, fish meal, crab meal, bone meal, blood meal, Azomite, pumice, kelp, dolomite lime, mycorrhizae and leonardite. That’s not everything, just examples of cannabis-friendly ingredients you see the most often 🙂
• Examples of “Bad” Soil Ingredients – You don’t want to see wood or bark on the label if it doesn’t say it’s been composted first. Also if you see just the word “fertilizer” in the ingredients that’s often code for slow-release chemical nutrients, which you don’t want.

Summary: Try to get soil that looks like this for cannabis plants.

I hope this soil tutorial helps you find the right soil for your cannabis setup!

Jump to…

Simplest Guide to Growing Ever

What Are the Best Cannabis Nutrients?

How to Grow With “Super” Soil: Just Add Water!

How to Grow Sweet Smelling Buds

Our new digital harvest book ensures everything goes perfectly next harvest, guaranteed!

No! Bad Soil! Don’t do this to your plants.

Not sure what soil is best for cannabis plants? Fox Farm Coco Loco soil with Fox Farm Soil Trio nutrients grows healthy plants with good yields and bud quality.

The post What’s the Best Soil for Growing Cannabis? appeared first on Grow Weed Easy.

Is your cannabis seedling growing upside down? Has the tap root come above the soil?

If your root is growing straight up like in the picture below, it’s not good. This is most common in seedling plugs. The tender white root tip has a good chance of drying out or being exposed to too much light. You may want to do some “plant surgery” to turn this little seedling around to the right direction 🙂

Step 1 is to get a new Rapid Rooter. Since your seed already has a relatively long root, cut the plug open lengthwise so you can gently place the seedling inside in the right position without having to “push” down on the seed.

Now gently extract the seed from its original home with a pair of tweezers making sure to touch only the shell and not the root (the root is the most sensitive part)! Now lay the seedling in the middle of your newly split open Rapid Rooter and gently close the plug around it again.

Most seedling plugs will go back into place easily, and you’ll barely be able to tell it’s been opened 🙂

Since your seedling has already sprouted and has been in placed into the right growing position, it’ll probably pop its head out within just 12-24 hours! Sometimes you see just the leaves, but occasionally you actually see the seedling push the shell above ground.

When this happens the shell usually falls off on its own as the seedling grows!

When Should I NOT Do Surgery?

Sometimes you can see the young taproot of a cannabis seedling but the situation isn’t as dire. If the root is already pointed in the right direction, it’s probably going to be just fine! But if you’re worried, you can cover up the root until the leaves actually make it to the surface.

For example you could tear a tiny piece off the edge of this Rapid Rooter and gently lay it on top. Or if you were in soil you could sprinkle a tiny bit of soil over the seedling. The seedling will push it off as it grows upward.

This case isn’t so bad because the root is already facing down, in the correct direction. Note: This seedling was just watered, but typically the Rapid Rooter should never look this wet. It should be moist but not shiny.

If you leave it alone, the seed will start to rise up, and open to reveal the seedling’s cotyledons (first, round leaves)

The cotyledons unfurl and then the regular cannabis leaves between to grow. Here’s another view of that same seedling from above only a few hours later. Even though it may have looked a bit weird at first, this seedling is completely normal and will grow just fine from now on!

Most of the Time Seedlings Take Care of Themselves!

When you see your seedling looks like this, where the part of the root exposed to the surface already looks green like a stem, you don’t need to do anything.

After cannabis germination, the root tip goes down and stays white. The other side that’s contained in the shell tries to work its way up, and that part of the stem turns green. Sometimes it looks like the root is going upside down because it appears that it’s not strong enough to be able to push the seed up.

As long as the tip of the root stays wet the seedling will be fine! The “root” is the same as what is going to become the stem. If it appears green it means that part of the root is already in “stem” mode and isn’t sensitive to the light.

If you just wait a little everything will have righted itself 🙂 Here’s that seedling 12 hours later…

12 hours after that, the leaves have completely emerged!

If you hadn’t been watching you wouldn’t even have known anything happened!

How to Germinate Cannabis Seeds

Common New Grower Topics

How Much Will Electricity Cost?

What Type of Nutrients Should I Use?

Choosing the Best Grow Light

Stealth Growing: How NOT to Get Caught Growing Weed

Where to Get Seeds

The post Seedling is growing upside down, taproot above the soil! appeared first on Grow Weed Easy.

Table of Contents

1. Choose an Easy Setup
2. Get Gear to Make Things Easier
3. Re-Arrange the Grow Space
4. Grow a Time-Saving Strain
5. Train Plants the Right Way

Are you thinking about growing cannabis for the first time, but are afraid it will take too much time? Or maybe you have been growing for years, but feel like caring for your plants is too time-consuming.

Every single growing style has its pros and its cons. There are ways to grow cannabis that take a lot of time tending the plants, but there are setups that do a lot of the work for you so you don’t spend as much time on them day-to-day.

Even a few small adjustments can make a big difference!

As you go through this article you’ll realize that you can’t do all of these things at once, but this list will give you several ideas on how to shave off time depending on your personal grow style!

In addition to this article, you may also enjoy Sirius Fourside’s guide to saving time during your grow!

1.) Choose a Less Time-Consuming Setup

Your responsibilities as a grower change quite a bit depending on how you set up your garden in the beginning. I’ve included some info (and the pros and cons) for cannabis grow setups that tend to be the least time-intensive for growers.

Grow Outdoors

Growing outdoors is pretty much guaranteed to take less of your time each day than growing indoors. When you’re growing indoors, you take the place of mother nature, which means you have to maintain the perfect environment and tend to your plants regularly. No matter how efficiently you do it, maintaining a growing environment indoors is going to take more time than letting nature do it for you.

When growing outdoors you’ll still get the best yields and results by checking on your plants regularly, but once every week or two can be more than adequate for many outdoor growers. Some outdoor growers will spend weeks between visits to their grow sites.

Grow with Super Soil

“Super soil” is a term sometimes used in the growing cannabis community to describe amended & composted soil. Super soil is formulated to give cannabis roots an environment where you don’t need to worry about pH or nutrients.

In a lot of ways, growing with super soil is what people “expect” growing cannabis in soil to be like. You put your seeds in a pot with the soil, and water your plants when they’re thirsty. Other than that the soil takes care of providing nutrients to the roots.

Why super soil? Cannabis plants have unique nutrient needs and use such high levels of nutrients that you will quickly start seeing nutrient deficiencies when using other growing mediums (like regular potting soil or coco coir) unless you provide nutrients with your water and regularly check the pH (which makes nutrients more available to your plant). Measuring out nutrients and checking the pH can take several minutes every time you mix up your water.

With super soil, instead of adding nutrients to your water, you pack the soil with natural sources of nutrients that slowly break down over the course of your grow, feeding even the voracious nutrient appetite of a cannabis plant. Instead of managing the pH so nutrients are able to be absorbed by your plant, the composting process enlists the help of microorganisms in the soil to do that work for you.

Learn more about growing with super soil

Grow Hydroponically

Super soil and hydroponics are very different from each other. In fact, you could say they’re pretty much on complete opposite sides of the spectrum when it comes to grow styles. Yet they have one thing in common; they are both good at doing a lot of the work on their own so you don’t have to, even if they save time in completely opposite ways…

In hydro, the cannabis roots are grown directly in a reservoir of nutrient water

When growing in a container, even with super soil, your plant roots enjoy wet/dry spells, and do best being watered every few days. (Learn how to water your plants perfectly every time) Each time you water your plants, you ideally need to wait for extra runoff water to come out the bottom, then remove the runoff so your roots aren’t sitting in it. For me, that can end up taking 10 minutes or more if I have a couple of plants (I’ll share some tricks below on how to make that process go faster).

With a hydroponic setup your plant roots live in a water reservoir so you never have to worry about runoff water, and because a water reservoir can hold a lot of water at once it means you can go long periods of time without having to water your plants. There have been times in my life where I only tended to my hydro plants on the weekends (which I don’t recommend, but life happens!), which would be tough to do with a container-grown plant.

With hydro, a large reservoir can hold enough water to last for days, or even weeks in the early stages of a plants life. Some days, all that’s needed is just a quick visual check-in if anything at all!

Additionally, if you make up big batches of water each time, you can often go a long time between having to mix batches. That way when your reservoir water does get low you can simply fill it up again with your “reserve” nutrient water. I’ll talk about this a little bit more below, but the type of non-organic nutrients that are used for hydroponics can be pre-mixed with water for several weeks without any problems. This lets you focus on caring for your plants and training them instead of worrying about mixing up new water all the time.

As a bonus, plants grow faster hydroponically than any other grow style, which means you spend less time waiting for harvest time!

Learn how to grow hydroponically

Get Nutrients That Let You Mix Water Ahead of Time

When you need nutrient water for your cannabis plants, it can take several minutes to make up a new batch every time you water.

Instead, as mentioned earlier you can make a lot at once and only use it as needed.

But how long can you store pre-mixed nutrient water?

• Nearly all nutrients can last at least 1 week after being mixed with water without any negative effects on your plants

• For nutrients comprised solely of inorganic ingredients, your pre-mixed nutrient water can last for 2-3+ weeks without a problem even if the nutrient water is just sitting in the container.

How do you know which is which? Look at the label of your nutrients where it says “Derived from”

All the ingredients in the above picture are inorganic minerals and “chemical salts.” They all have “molecular” sounding names. When it comes to hydroponic nutrients, you will almost always see these types of ingredients specifically because they will not cause reactions or problems even when sitting in water for long periods of time.

But it’s not just hydro! Lots of soil and coco coir nutrients also use the same sources of nutrients because these specially derived mineral sources don’t need to be broken down and are available to your plant immediately.

As long as you don’t see any organic ingredients on the label, you know your nutrient water can be premixed for 2-3+ weeks. If you do spot organic ingredients on the label (like “seaweed extract” in this next example) then you probably shouldn’t let your nutrient water sit as long because organic material tends to start up biological processes. Ultimately this could cause things to grow in your water, possibly altering the nutrient content or even introducing some nasty microorganisms to your plant roots.

If you see any organic ingredients listed, like “seaweed extract,” don’t let your mixed nutrient water sit for longer than a week.

Learn more about different types of cannabis nutrients

Note: No matter what nutrients you’re using, make sure any pre-mixed nutrient water gets stored in a cool, dark place!

2.) Get the Right Gear

When you choose the right gear it can help you save minutes here and there, which really starts to add up!

Get a Bigger Plant Container So You Water Less Often

One way to get away with watering your plants less often is to grow them in a bigger container. This is because your growing medium can hold more water at a time, so it takes longer for your plant to drink it all before needing to be watered again.

Some things to keep in mind: When growing in big containers, you’ll get the fastest growth by starting your plants in smaller ones first, then transplanting them to bigger ones as they grow. But that also takes time. It’s much easier to start your seeds directly in big containers from the beginning so you can skip transplanting altogether. The one downside to that is seedlings tend to start a little slower at first in big pots (why?), but once your plant gets going they grow just as fast as any other container-grown plant and you’ll still get the benefit of watering less often.

Read the full article about plant containers

Avoid Smart Pots & Air Pots

If your goal is to water less often, avoid using a fabric pot (Smart Pot) or a container with holes on the sides (air pot). Although cannabis plants tend to grow faster in these types of containers, the pots dry out much more quickly since the soil is getting air from the sides. This means you end up needing to water them much more often than a similar-sized “traditional” plant container.

Learn more about Smart Pots & Air Pots vs Regular Pots

Get the Right LED Grow Lights

For most home growers, the best choice is LED grow lights to grow weed. LEDs grow great weed, are electrically efficient, and cheap to get started with.

If saving time is your main goal, get a simple, proven setup. That way you don’t have to think about the lights.

This 2’x4′ footprint makes it easy for you to reach all the plants, and fits in a corner of a bedroom.

This 300W LED grow light kit on Amazon grows about 8-14 oz of buds on average.

Learn more about different LED grow lights

Don’t DIY Everything

Although doing things yourself can save you a lot of money, having to make your own tools for the job almost always ends up taking more time. It’s like if you decided to use a rock to drive nails into wood instead of a hammer. You wouldn’t have to invest money in a hammer, but using a rock is going to take you a heck of a lot longer and not do as good a job!

One simple example when it comes to growing marijuana is using plant ties, which are a tool specifically made for bending and securing stems for plant training. Plant twisty ties unwind from a spool and an attached cutter lets you easily cut each tie to the perfect length in seconds. They are made to be strong enough to hook onto your plants and secure stems where you want, but not strong enough to accidentally hurt them.

Save time by using specially made plant twisty tie to secure your stems, not some random item around the house like wire or pipe cleaners!

If you wanted to save some money, you could skip getting plant ties altogether and just find something from around the house to secure your stems, like pipe cleaners. They both accomplish the same thing in the end, but with pipe cleaners you would likely have to tie several of them together each time you need to secure a stem. An extra minute here and there starts to add up after a while!

In addition to the time savings, DIY stuff often doesn’t last as long or work as well as tools made for the job. For example plant twisty ties are made of smooth plastic that is unaffected by water, while pipe cleaners are “hairy” and can easily start molding or running into other problems from being exposed to moist conditions. Unexpected malfunctions with DIY stuff can cause problems that take time away from your busy life!

Other handy tools specifically made for growing purposes include plant yo-yos (for holding up falling plants), a convenient grow tent (easier than building a grow space from scratch), and rope ratchets (adjust lights up and down with a few clicks). Each of these grow room accessories are cheap but can shave off a few minutes when you’re tending to your plants!

More growing tools you might not know about

3.) Optimize the Grow Space

Some of these ideas are little things and may only take a few minutes to set up, but can end up saving you so much time and frustration during your grow!

Make Sure You Have an Easy Way to Get Water

When it’s hard to get water, not only are you less likely to make up your water on time, it ends up taking more of your time.

• Learn how to get water from a too-small sink. If your grow space is near a sink, but you can’t fit your water container under the faucet, you can install an easy-release adapter that lets you easily “snap” a hose onto your sink. In my house, the only suitable place to fill up water is a little ways from my grow space, but with this adapter, I can use the bathroom sink on the same floor so I never have to lug water up a flight of stairs.

• Get a good-sized water container to mix up nutrient water. If you’re making up several 1-gallon containers of water at a time, consider getting a bigger container so you can make more at once.

• Don’t try to carry too much water at once. This doesn’t necessarily save time, but will save a lot of effort. If you can’t use a hose to get water directly to your grow space, try to think about how much water you’re expecting yourself to carry on a regular basis. I used to use a single 5-gallon jug to make up water for my plants because I wanted to make a lot of water at a time. The problem was that  I had a hard time carrying a jug with 5 gallons of water in it. I switched to using two 3-gallon jugs because they’re easier to carry/handle than a single 5-gallon jug and that works a lot better for me!

Make It Easy to Dispose of Water

When watering cannabis plants grown in containers, you want to give your plants enough water every time to get 20% extra runoff water out of the bottom. Making sure to water your plants thoroughly each time means you have to water less often, and cannabis plants grow faster when they get wet/dry cycles.

But in order to prevent soggy roots and plant drooping, you also want to make sure to remove that runoff water right away so your plants aren’t sitting in it. Sometimes that’s easier said than done!

If you’re growing with containers and each one has its own saucer, you have to physically pick up the plants every time you want to empty the saucers of runoff water. If you only have one smaller plant it’s not really a big deal, but the more plants you’re growing at a time and the bigger your plants get, the bigger of a pain this is.

You don’t want to have to empty each saucer one at a time after you water your plants

One solution is to put all your plants on a tray that will catch water, and put something small like a block of wood under the tray opposite you to make an incline. This makes it so all the runoff water drains to the front of the tray.

These trays are on a slight incline so runoff water immediately pools to the front

At this point, you can take something like a wet vac (I like this bucket vacuum attachment which hooks onto any 5-gallon bucket to make an ultra-cheap wet vacuum) to quickly suck up all the runoff water without having to move the plants at all.

Easy Access to Plants

This may seem simple but when it comes to making sure you pay enough attention to your plants without having to spend a lot of time on them, it’s super important to make sure you can easily access your plants. Every extra obstacle between you and your plants is going to cost a little extra time. So whenever possible try to make sure you have a clear path to the grow space, and that you have an easy-to-open grow tent, closet, or grow box.

The main idea is to make it so when you decide to check on the plants it only takes a second. That being said, don’t make your grow area easy to access for other people!

Make Sure the Tools in Your Grow Space Are Easy to Reach

You might not realize you’ve been wasting time going across the room every time you need to get your nutrients or a pH pen. When possible, you want every tool you use (measuring spoons, nutrients, pH testers, eye protection, grow journal, camera, etc) to be within arm’s reach so you don’t have to get up or move while tending your plants.

Taking a little time on a lazy afternoon to really think this one through and set things up right will save you a surprising amount of time and effort in the long run!

4.) Choose the Right Strain

Each strain grows and produces a little differently. Some strains may be better than others for your purposes!

Choose a Hardy Strain

Many strains have been specifically bred to be able to handle a wide range of conditions. These “easy to grow” strains can handle heat, cold, high humidity, and watering problems better than other strains. When you start with a known hardy strain, you can provide less-than-ideal conditions and care, but still get really great results. I’m not recommending you don’t care for your plants properly, but a hardy strain will let you get away with more without suffering as many consequences!

If you’re looking for suggestions, one highly recommended strain for first-time growers is Northern Light. It’s an award-winning strain that is easy to grow, potent, stays short, quick to harvest, and mold-resistant. It’s the first strain I ever grew and those plants went through a lot but still made it to harvest!

I Put This Northern Light Plant Through a Lot But It Stayed Healthy!

That’s one popular example, but there are tons of strains that are great for this purpose. When researching strains, the breeder will usually mention in the strain description if a plant is particularly hardy.

Learn more about researching to find the right strain. Also here are a few hand-picked heat-resistant strains and mold-resistant strains to help get you started.

Consider Growing an Auto-Flowering Strain

With auto-flowering plants, there is simply less for the grower to do. There’s little to no plant training (which can take quite a bit of time, more info on that below). There’s no light schedule to worry about and your buds will be ready to harvest in about 3 months without needing any special environmental conditions.

Another nice bonus is you have the ability to access your plants 24 hours a day (as opposed to flowering photoperiod plants that need 12 hours of complete darkness every day in order to make buds). This makes it so you can check on plants when it’s convenient instead of waiting for the lights to come on!

The one downside to auto-flowering plants is they can become stunted if they run into major problems during the first 3-4 weeks of life. So if you do go with an auto-flowering strain, you definitely want to try to make sure you keep a close eye on your plant until the first month is over. You may not have to do any extra work, but you still should be on the lookout for possible problems. If possible, choose an auto-flowering strain that is known to be hardy!

Learn more about auto-flowering vs photoperiod (“regular”) strains

5.) Plant Training

Growers train their plants because it’s a free way to dramatically increase yields indoors, sometimes up to 40% or even more compared to untrained plants. But although training increases yields, it does take time.

In my opinion, the best way to train your plant to get increased yields without wasting a lot of time is by using a technique known as manifolding.

Note: Manifolding adds extra time onto the length of your grow, but will minimize the amount of time and effort spent training your plants (while still ensuring exceptional results).

Example of a “Manifolded” Cannabis Plant With a Wide, Flat Shape & Many Colas

Why Manifolding?

All types of indoor cannabis plant training have the same goal – to create a wide and flat plant, with an even canopy like a table. This helps the plant get the most possible amount of light from the grow light. But there are many ways to accomplish this table-top shape, from simply bending stems (Low-Stress Training) to using screens (ScrOG).

Manifolding is one way to accomplish the table shape, and there are a couple of reasons I think it’s the best way to train your plants without needing a lot of time:

1. There’s less guesswork on your part compared to many other training techniques. You just follow the instructions exactly and it’s very clear without you having to think about anything.

2. It only takes two sessions to make your manifold, which takes just a few snips of the scissors.

3. After that, you’re pretty much done. As the plant grows, your only job is to arrange colas to make sure they all stay exposed to the light and none of them gets taller than the others.

Read the full manifolding tutorial

Note: Manifolding can only be done with photoperiod plants, not auto-flowering strains (why not?).

Or don’t train at all…

You might consider just skipping training altogether because you can still get great yields with untrained plants if you do it right.

Some growers use a technique called SoG (Sea of Green) to get the biggest yields without doing any training. Basically, the idea is to just grow a few or many untrained plants, and get them to make buds right away so you get a “sea” of plants with one main bud each. This can be a good choice for both photoperiod and auto-flowering strains, and in addition to taking no time training, harvest time comes quick!

SoG in action – This technique uses many small plants to create that flat shape with many colas, but without any training at all

One last tip…

Research before you start growing!

You can just put a cannabis seed in regular potting mix and deal with problems as you go along, and honestly, that’s how a lot of people start growing, including me! But doing it that way definitely ends up taking more time (and often money) because you end up running into problems or realizing along the way that you need to change up your setup.

I know this may be easier said than done, but if your goal is to grow cannabis without needing to spend much time each day caring for your plants each day, the best thing you can do is take the time to research before you even get your seeds!

Here’s a list of research topics to help you get started!

Jump to…

Growing Cannabis with Super Soil

How to Use Coco Coir as a Growing Medium

Top-Fed DWC (Bubbleponics) Tutorial

How do I produce top-shelf buds every time?​​​​​​​

The post 5 Time-Savers for Busy Cannabis Growers appeared first on Grow Weed Easy.

In addition to the search bar, this link guide helps you navigate through the Grow Weed Easy website. Learn about growing topics you won’t find anywhere else! This is a shortened list of all our cannabis growing tutorials, as the website has over 500 articles and tutorials!

Full List of EVERYTHING on GWE  ← Over 500 Articles & Growing Tutorials!

Start Here – Beginner Grow Guides

• Complete Beginner’s Guide
• How do I start growing my own weed indoors? (get help choosing your setup)
• How to Grow Weed in 10 Steps
• Simplest Cannabis Grow Guide Ever!
• How Long Does It Take to Grow Weed? (Marijuana Growth Timeline)
• 3 Steps from Beginner to Legendary Grower
• Complete New Grower’s Shopping List

Cannabis Life Stages

• Germination
• Vegetative Stage (Getting Bigger)
• Flowering Stage (Making Buds)
• Harvest

Choosing…

• Best Type of Nutrients
• Choosing the Best Grow Light
• Soil vs Hydro
• How Many Plants Should I Grow?
• What Part of the House Should I Grow In?
• What Setup Should I Get?
• Best Strains for Beginners
• Where to Get Seeds (including the U.S.)

Common New Grower Topics

• How Much Will Electricity Cost?
• Stealth Growing: How NOT to Get Caught Growing Weed
• What Equipment Do I Need?
• Germinate Your Seeds
• 7 Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me When I First Started Growing Weed
• How to Save Money When Growing Weed
• How to Store Weed Properly (so it never loses smell or potency!)
• Ask Questions & Get Answers From Real Growers! (In Our Free Growing Community)
• Cannabis Grower’s Glossary

Problems & Symptoms

• Cannabis Problems Guide
  • How to Help Yellow Seedlings
  • How to Fix Yellow Cannabis Leaves
  • How to Fix Curling and Clawing Cannabis Leaves
  • What Causes Dry or Crispy Leaves?
  • What Causes Brown Spots on Cannabis Leaves?
  • What Causes Bananas (“Nanners”) on Cannabis Buds?
  • Is This Nutrient Burn on My Marijuana Plant?
  • What causes red stems in cannabis plants?
• Diagnose Your Sick Plant
• Bugs & Other Cannabis Pests
• How to Prevent Nutrient Deficiencies
  • Which Nutrient Deficiencies are Caused by pH? (picture guide)
  • How to Stop Flowering Stage Nutrient Deficiencies
• 7 Reasons Why Cannabis Plants Grow Slow
• 5-Step Remedy That Fixes 99% of Grow Problems
• All-Natural Pesticides – Safe Up to Harvest!

Plant Training (Indoor Tricks for Bigger Yields)

• Simplest Plant Training Guide Ever!
• How to Control Height of Indoor Cannabis Plants
• Complete Plant Training Guide
• Breakdown of Techniques​
  • Low Stress Training (LST) Tutorial
  • Topping vs FIMing Tutorial
  • LBH’s Famous ScrOG Tutorial
  • Supercropping: Magic Technique to Control Cannabis Plant Height
  • Sea of Green (SoG) Tutorial
  • 12-12 from Seed – Flowering Plants Early
  • Nebula’s Manifold Tutorial
  • How to Manifold Clones
  • Nebula’s Bud-Based Defoliation Tutorial
  • Alternate Defoliation Tutorial ​
  • What is Re-Vegging / Monstercropping?
• How Can I Train an Auto-Flowering Plant?
• 7 Unfortunate Plant Training Mistakes

Grow Mediums

• What’s the Best Growing Medium?
• Soil vs Coco vs Hydro
• Basic Soil Guide
• Organic Soil Compost Guide (Super Soil) – Just Add Water!
• Coco Coir Guide
  • Coco Coir: The Most Flexible Cannabis Grow Medium
• Hydro/DWC/Bubbleponics Guide
• “True” Organic Growing vs Just Using Organic Nutrients
• Can You Use Miracle-Gro?

Nutrients

• Which Nutrients Are Best For Growing Cannabis?
• Soil Nutrients
• Coco Coir Nutrients
• Hydroponic Nutrients

Grow Lights

• 5 Best LED Grow Lights 2025 (Yields, Speed, & Bud Quality)
• Compare Types of Cannabis Grow Lights
  • Fluorescents (T5s) – Good for Seedlings Only (not powerful enough to produce potent buds or big yields)
  • CFLs (Spiral Bulbs) – Not Recommended (LEDs are much better)
  • LED Grow Lights – Recommended for Most Home Growers
  • MH/HPS Grow Lights – Good Alternative to LEDs, But Run Much Hotter
  • CMH / LEC Grow Lights – Good Alternative to LEDs, But Run Much Hotter
  • Plasma / Magnetic Induction Grow Lights – Not Recommended (poor cannabis growth)
• How Does Light Spectrum Affect Marijuana Plants?
• How Far Away Do I Keep My Grow Lights?
• You Can Actually Give Plants Too Much Light?!
• Grow Light Upgrade Guide: Yields & Potency Explained
• Cannabis Grow Lights: What’s the Best Size?

Best LED Grow Light Articles

• 5 Best LED Grow Lights 2025 (Yields, Speed, & Bud Quality)
• LED Grow Lights: Too Much or Not Enough Light?
• LED Grow Journal: Mars Hydro TSL-2000W vs Spider Farmer SF-2000
• LEC vs LED Grow Lights: Side-by-Side Cannabis Grow Journal
• Nebula’s Auto-Flowering Grow Journal (Topping vs Natural) – cannabis plants are grown under LED grow lights

Environment

• Create the Perfect Growing Environment
  • Temperature Tutorial
  • 5 Secrets to Heat Control
  • Control Humidity for Better Buds
  • How to Use Reflective Walls to Increase Yields Indoors
  • How to Make Plants Grow Faster with CO2
• Where’s the Best Place in the House to Grow Your Plants?
• How to Control Odors
• How to Set Up an Exhaust
• How to Set Up a Grow Tent for Better Yields (and Stealth)

Plant Care Tutorials

• Cloning
  • How to clone weed in a cup of water (easy!)
  • How to make cannabis clones with an aero cloner
• Intro to Plant Training for Bigger Yields Indoors
• How Often to Water Plants
  • The Easiest Way to Water Plants & Remove Runoff
• How (and When) to Transplant Cannabis
• Male vs Female Plants
• When to Harvest?
• Drying & Curing

How to Improve…

• Yields
• Bud Quality
  • 7 Environment Effects on Bud Quality
  • The Secret to Excellent Bud Quality
• THC Levels
• CBD Levels
• Smell/Taste
• Density
• Bud Color (How to Grow Pink or Purple Buds)
• Glitter (Make Buds Sparkle with More Trichomes)
• Bonus: What Determines Yields?

Buying Seeds

• Where to Get Seeds
• How to Find the Right Strain
• What are “Feminized” Seeds?
• Which Breeders to Trust?
• Photoperiod vs Auto-Flowering Cannabis Strains
• Bag Seed vs Hype Seed: Is it worth it to buy cannabis seeds?

Recommended Strains

• Best Autoflowering Cannabis Strains for Yields & Potency
• List of Sugar-Dusted Strains (Heavy Trichome Genetics)
• 10 Cold-Resistant Cannabis Strains
• 14 Heat-Resistant Cannabis Strains
• Which cannabis strains stay short? (Best strains for small spaces)

Auto-Flowering Strains

• Nebula’s Guide to Cannabis Auto-Flowering Strains (Photoperiod vs Auto-Flowering)
• Should I “Top” or Train an Auto-Flowering Plant?
• What’s the best light schedule for auto-flowering strains?
• Nebula’s Auto-Flowering Grow Journal (Topping vs Natural)

Edibles

• Decarboxylation: How to Decarb Your Weed (crucial step for just about every edible recipe)
• Best Weed Butter Recipe
  • How to Make Great Brownies with Weed Butter
• Canna Caps
• How to Make Cannabis Gummies (Weed Gummy Bears)
• How to Make Cannabis Tinctures
• How to Make Hash Oil (aka Cannabis Extract Oil, Rick Simpson Oil, or RSO)

Extracts (No Solvents Used in Any Recipe)

• Solventless Extraction Showdown – Bubble Hash vs. Dry-Ice Hash!
• Dry Ice Hash (Made with Dry Ice)
• How to Make Bubble Hash (Made with Ice Water)
• How To Make Your Own Homemade Rosin (dabs)

And Lots More!

• How Long Does it Take to Grow Weed?
• Vegetative vs Flowering Stage (Long Days vs Long Nights)
• Germination & Seedling Mistakes
• Simple Guide to Plant Training
• What’s the Best Pot / Container?
• Perpetual Harvest
• What Determines Yields?
• 5 Time-Savers for Busy Growers
• Breeding Techniques
• 7 Gift Ideas for Cannabis Growers
• Grow Journals
• How long can I store nutrient water?
• What is High-Frequency Fertigation?
• Where is it legal to grow weed in the USA?
• See EVERYTHING on the Site!

Safety & Preparation

• Fire Protection in the Grow Room
• Electrical Safety Tips & Tricks
• Prepare Yourself for Growing Emergencies
• Stealth Growing Indoors: How to NOT get Caught Growing Weed

Just for Fun

• Weird or What? Cannabis Mutations & More!
• Creatures on Cannabis (Cute Photo Gallery)
• 10 Gift Ideas for Cannabis Growers

Submit Pics

• Submit Trophy Pictures of your Plants!
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Happy growing!
Nebula & Sirius

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The post Link Guide to Growing Cannabis Tutorials appeared first on Grow Weed Easy.

Have you seen fabric pots (also known as “Smart Pots”) or plastic pots with holes in the sides (“Air Pots”)? You may see these in a local gardening store or online in cannabis growing pictures. Are you wondering if smart pots and air pots are good for growing marijuana?

Smart pots and air pots provide extra oxygen to the roots, which is a good thing. In fact, the act of increasing oxygen levels at the roots is a big part of what makes hydro so effective at increasing cannabis growth rates (hydro systems constantly pump air into the water so it’s ultra-oxygenated). Smart pots and air pots capture some of that power. Essentially, growing cannabis in smart pots or air pots gives you some of the advantages of growing hydro while allowing you to still hand-water your plants in soil or coco coir.

Smart Pots & Air Pots Make Cannabis Grow Faster!

Smart Pots
(Fabric Pots)

Air Pots
(plastic containers with holes on the sides like Swiss cheese)

However, there’s no one size fits all when it comes to growing weed. All types of containers have their strengths and weaknesses for growing weed, which I’ll outline for you quickly:

Quick Review: Regular Containers vs Smart Pots & Air Pots

• Cannabis plants grow faster in smart pots or air pots (especially in the vegetative stage), in part because plant roots get plenty of access to oxygen
• Cannabis plants in smart pots or air pots can’t really become root-bound, which is when roots wrap around the edges of the container and “choke” the plant. In a smart pot or air pot, it’s very difficult for the plant to get rootbound since it’s always receiving air from the sides which “air prunes” away any roots trying to wrap around the edges.
• Cannabis plants are protected from becoming overwatered in air pots or smart pots. The air from the side helps make sure your plant always has plenty of oxygen so your plants don’t get “wet feet.”
• However, in air pots or smart pots, plants need to be watered about twice as often as regular containers since the grow medium is constantly drying out from the sides.

Complete Cannabis Container Breakdown

Regular Pots vs Smart Pots vs Air Pots

Regular Pots for Growing Cannabis

This is a container with a hole at the bottom for drainage, plus a saucer to catch the water.

• Tried and true method

• Easy to find at any gardening store

• Saucer captures runoff water for easy disposal

• Helps keep growing medium from drying out too fast

• Usually made out of ceramic or plastic

Smart Pots for Growing Cannabis 

• A smart pot is a plant container that has been made completely out of a stiff fabric

• The shape is usually wider/more squat than a regular container, so it may be possible to grow plants in a slightly shorter space, especially compared to an air pot which is tall/thin. However, they take up more width than any of the other containers, so you may be able to fit less containers in a particular space.

• Indoors, you need an extra large saucer or a tray to capture runoff water since smart pots don’t come with a saucer or tray and they seep out water from the sides. So in addition to the container taking up extra room, so will the saucer.

• The wide base of a smart pot makes them well suited to growing really large plants, which is why smart pots come in huge sizes in addition to standard plant container sizes. Even giant plants won’t tip over in a smart pot. Many outdoor cannabis growers plant their cannabis in big (600+ gallon) smart pots since they help outdoor plants grow faster than just putting them straight in the ground.

• More oxygen is delivered to the roots than a regular pot

• Smart pots help prevent your cannabis from becoming root-bound and needing to be transplanted to a new container. This is accomplished by “air-pruning” roots from the sides, which stops your roots from wrapping around the edges of your container and “choking” your plant.

• Smart pots make it difficult to over-water your plants, but that also means you will end up watering more often

• Because smart pots dry out faster than regular cannabis containers, you should get double the size as you normally would, and it’s recommended your final size should be at least a 5-gallon container (anything smaller than that dries out in just a day or two!). So if you would normally get a 2-gallon container for your plants, you’d want to get at least a 5-gallon smart pot to make sure you’re not having to water your plants all the time.

If you’re going to go big, go with smart pots – your plants won’t by tippy

Air Pots for Growing Cannabis

• An air pot is a plastic container with holes on the sides

• The shape is taller and thinner than a regular container, so it may be possible to put more plants in a smaller space as long as you have the height

• The narrow base means plants tend to be less stable on the ground in an air pot, especially if they’re tall, which means large plants can be easy to tip over.

• Although water seeps out the sides when watering, air pots are tall and thin so you can use a regular sized saucer for each container (if it’s a 5-gallon container, you can use a regular 5-gallon saucer).

• More oxygen is delivered to the roots than a regular pot, though about the same as a smart pot

• Air pots help prevent plants from becoming root-bound and needing to be transplanted. This is accomplished by “air-pruning” roots from the sides, which prevents your roots from wrapping around the edges of your container and “choking” your plant.

• Air pots make it more difficult to over-water your cannabis plants, but that also means you will end up watering more often

• Because air pots dry out faster than regular cannabis containers, you should get double the size as you normally would, and it’s recommended your final size should be at least a 5-gallon container (anything smaller than that dries out in just a day or two!). So if you would normally get a 2-gallon container for your plants, you’d want to get at least a 5-gallon air pot to make sure you’re not having to water your plants all the time.

The Blue Velvet cannabis plant on the left reacted beautifully to growing in an air pot! On the right is what your cannabis roots look like after growing up in an air pot – all of the roots are reaching to get oxygen from the sides, and absolutely no signs of wrapping like with a rootbound plant!

cannabis root pic by coco coir expert roll_it_large

Which one is the best for growing cannabis? Is it Smart Pots, Air Pots, or regular plant pots?

The truth is these containers are each good in different ways. Some are better suited to some grow setups than others. So let me share my personal opinion…

A Regular Plant Pot is Tried and True

As a general rule a regular plant pot tends to take slightly less maintenance than the others because the growing medium dries out more slowly. Since you can use smaller pots for the same effect, you may be able to fit more plants in a small space.

At the same time, it’s a lot easier to overwater your plant in a regular pot, and you may find your plants quickly become rootbound if you keep them in a too-small container. When a plant is suffering nutrient deficiencies and droopiness from being rootbound, there’s not much you can do to fix it besides transplanting the plant to a bigger container and that can be tough, especially if your plant is already in the flowering stage. I like that you never have to worry about plants becoming rootbound with smart pots or air pots.

Air Pots & Smart Pots Make Cannabis Grow Faster

I’ve tried them both and air pots and smart pots both work amazingly well at increasing cannabis plant growth. A few years ago I even did a side-by-side grow with a regular pot for comparison. From my experience, I don’t think either air pots or smart pots are inherently better than the other. They are both very effective at increasing the vegetative growth rates of your cannabis plants, and they work by doing essentially the same thing – bringing in air from the sides.

As far as I can tell, the major differences between the two is mostly physical. Air pots are taller/thinner and made of plastic, while smart pots are wider/shorter and are made of fabric.

If you’re trying to stuff a bunch of plants in a small space, you might want an air pot since they’re thinner, however plants become tippy if they get tall.

If you have a shorter space, you may opt for a smart pot to save a few extra inches of height, and a smart pot is less tippy so it’s more suited to growing outdoors, or any time you’re growing a big plant.

Personally, I like smart pots better, but mostly just because I prefer fabric over plastic. (Check out my last grow journal using smart pots)

Full disclosure: I currently have switched to hydro (you just can’t beat those cannabis yields!) but if I was going to do another hand-watered cannabis grow, I would never use a regular pot again! At least for me, the increased cannabis growth from a smart pot or air pot makes it worth a little extra watering! It’s like capturing a little bit of that hydro power, while keeping the hand-watered experience.

Jump to…

Learn more about containers for growing cannabis!

How (and when) to transplant a cannabis plant

Learn how to increase your cannabis yields

Discover secrets to improving overall bud quality

The post Smart Pots vs Air Pots vs Regular Pots appeared first on Grow Weed Easy.