Today learn the universal principles that let you grow better weed than you can buy. 

I love these strains for home growers: Blue Dream (pictured here), Candy Games #38, and Purple Ghost Candy.

1.) Start with Extraordinary Genetics

What to Do: Start with the best seeds you can find. Good seeds germinate consistently and produce the kind of weed you want (density, smell, size, effects, strength, color, smoothless, etc.).

Why: Good seeds grow good weed with your desired effects, even if you make mistakes. Plants works with you instead of against you.

Quick Win: Use one of the following 3 methods to find great genetics for your next cannabis grow.

1. Choose a proven breeder and read the strain description to find what suits you. A good breeder always maintains quality for all their seeds. Some breeders I like lately are Happy Valley Genetics, Seedsman, Seed Supreme, and Ethos (all represented in my current grow journal). 
2. Copy what works – Get the genetics that you see people growing great weed with. For example, if you have friends that grow weed, or interact with growers on social media, take their lead if you like what you see. Find out what they’re growing and get seeds from the same source to copy their results.
3. Enjoy the gamble – The old fashioned method. Grow the seeds you have, or choose a strain that sounds good and go for the adventure! Good seed banks curate their seed selection and have seed germination guarantees, so any of their seeds should produce good weed.

The seeds you pick make a huge difference to results. For example, the following plants were grown together with the same grow medium, nutrients, and care. But look how different they’re turning out! The difference is 100% genetics, not anything I did.

Blue Dream and Candy Games #38 have wildly different genetics! Choose a strain that makes weed you want to grow.

2.) Use a Strong LED Grow Light (Cannabis-Specific)

What to Do: Get a proven cannabis grow light that’s designed for the size of your grow space.

Why: Light = food for plants. More light is better, up to a point. Spectrum (light color) matters too, affecting not only yields, but also density, color, and potency. Older grow lights, most especially “blurple” LEDs, don’t get nearly as good cannabis yields or bud density as newer “quantum board” style LEDs with pinkish or white light.

Modern cannabis LEDs usually produce white or pinkish light.

Quick Win:

1. Choose an LED grow light that’s proven to get great results with weed. The best thing you can do is use a grow light that growers are already using to produce great cannabis harvests. 
2. Good LED companies include… We’ve consistently found these are the most popular grow lights for GrowWeedEasy.com readers: Spider Farmer, Mars Hydro, and HLG. I’ve used multiple models from each of these companies and always had great results with growing weed. Which one to get? Choose the grow light that best fits your grow space and budget requirements. Spider Farmer and Mars Hydro get about equal results. HLG lights tend to be overpowered and cost a lot, and often have to be turned down even in a dialed in setup, but gets some of the best bud density of any LED we’ve tried so far. Even their tiny 65W and 100W LED lights have produced multiple ounces for us.
3. Check out our list of 9 recommended cannabis lights with yield estimates, and see pictures of real cannabis plants we’ve grown with them.

A HLG 65W LED is surprisingly productive in a 2x2x3 grow tent. Not bad for an LED that uses less electricity than my bedroom fan.

Or upgrade to a bigger grow light, like a HLG 350 Diablo (or two).

Or go BIG, like Max did here, with multiple lights including a Spider Farmer G5000.

Often it’s easier to combine multiple smaller grow lights than have one enormous grow light. That way you can adjust them independently and have more control over where light falls.

3.) The Right Nutrients at the Right Time

Whether you grow in soil, coco, or hydro, provide proper nutrients. Either use cannabis-specific nutrients and dole out to plants on a schedule. Or start with a cannabis-specific soil that slowly delivers the right nutrients at the right time (called “just-add-water” super soil). 

What to Do: Make sure plants get the right amount of nutrients at the right time.

Why: Faster greener growth, but more importantly, proper nutrition in the flowering stage greatly increases bud quality, yields, and potency. On the other hand, a plant that is starved of nutrients while buds are forming makes small, airy, non-potent buds. Most crucially, make sure plants have plenty of nutrients for the first 6+ weeks of the flowering stage, until hairs start darkening and curling in. Plants still need nutrients after that, but for the best harvest, it’s especially important to avoid significant nutrient deficiencies during the early flowering stage and initial bud formation.

Quick Win: Use cannabis nutrients and follow an already-tested schedule

1. Easy cheap option – Dyna-Gro Grow + Bloom. Give at 1 tsp/gallon. Give “Grow” for seedlings until first 3 weeks into flowering stage. Then once the flowering stretch is over, give “Bloom” until harvest. These nutrients were initially designed for orchids, but growers have discovered they give surprisingly great results with weed. I was impressed when I tried them in coco.
2. Advanced nutrient system – General Hydroponics Flora trio. My personal favorite nutrients, I find the GH trio provides some of the fastest growth and biggest yields. No need to follow a special schedule. Just follow the amounts listed on the side of the bottle at half-strength, and only raise the amounts if plant seem pale. I’ve had good results in soil, coco, and hydro.
3. Use super soil instead – Use a “just add water” organic soil that’s made for a plant like cannabis. This kind of soil slowly releases nutrients over the course of the grow, so you don’t need to add any extra nutrients. Nature’s Living Soil is a proven super soil concentrate that makes super soil when used with Coco Loco soil. Just remember, super soil can be stinky at first! But the smell settles after the plants make themselves at home in the soil.

General Hydroponics Flora trio are my personal favorite nutrients for growing weed.

Follow the directions on the bottle at half-strength to grow green, happy, and abundant cannabis plants.

4.) Water Plants So They Grow Faster

Water plants regularly with the right amount at a time. It’s important roots don’t dry out, or stay overly wet for too long. Luckily, if you’re following all the other steps here, you can make some watering mistakes and plants still turn out great. Cannabis plants are remarkably able to recover from watering issues as long as you course-correct.

What to Do: Water plants properly. The easiest method is to follow a cannabis-specific watering schedule like the one below. Or follow proven general principles.

Why: Plants grow faster and get fewer deficiencies, especially seedlings, when given the right amount of water. Good watering practices helps plants start growing fast out the gate. 

Seedlings grow super fast if you give the right amount of water!

I use a battery operated water transfer pump to easily water plants.

Quick Win: Basically, give seedlings just a little water at a time, at first, in a small circle around the base, every few days. If you don’t want guesswork, follow the following seedling watering schedule that I use. It’s suitable as long as you’re in a 3 or 5-gallon pot (and works pretty well in most sizes). Never wonder again if you’re over or under-watering your seedlings!

Day 1 – Give 2 cups (500ml) water per plant (at this point, your cannabis seedlings should have their leaves completely open and be in a 3-gallon or 5-gallon pot under the grow light)
Day 3 – Give 2 cups (500ml) water per plant
Day 6 – Give 2 cups (500ml) water per plant
Day 8 – Give 3 cups (750ml) water per plant (every 3 days after this)
Day 11 – Give 3 cups (750ml) water per plant
Day 14 – Give 4 cups (1 liter) water per plant
Day 17 – Give 4 cups (1 liter) water per plant
Day 20 – Give 5 cups (1.25 liter) water per plant
Day 23 – Give 6 cups (1.5 liter) water per plant
Day 26 – Give 6 cups (1.5 liter) water per plant
Day 29 – Give 8 cups or 1/2 gallon (2 liter) water per plant

At first, cannabis seedlings only need a little water in a circle around their base.

After the first 30 days, start watering like this…

(1+ Months) Cannabis Watering Schedule

1. Wait until top inch of soil is dry (for coco, wait until top is mostly dry)
2. Water until you get 10-20% runoff out the bottom
3. Remove runoff (test the pH if needed) and start over

P.S. Learn about auto-watering pot bases so you can water plants less often. I’m loving them lately.

5.) Harvest at the Right Time

Wait to harvest until buds have reached peak potency, size, and bud quality. Harvest earlier (speedier more “up” weed) or later (stronger relaxation effect) to achieve your desired effects. Dry and cure using a proven home method.

What to Do: Harvest buds based on their maturity level. After harvest, dry buds to make them smokable (buds are mostly water on the plant), and then jar them so they “cure”.

Why: Choosing the right harvest time maximizes yields, potency, and effects. Drying and especially curing increases density, appearance, potency, and effects, while enhancing the natural bud smell.

Quick Win: 

1. Follow our free harvest & curing guide on GrowWeedEasy.com
2. Check out our new digital book HARVEST. It’s perfect if you want a step-by-step harvest guide that’s available anywhere without the internet Growers who sign up for our Home Grow Masterclass next week get a free copy of HARVEST. And those who have already purchased HARVEST get a steep discount on the class! Make sure you’re signed up for our newsletter and watch your email for more info coming soon.

Wait until buds have reached maturing before harvesting for best effects…

Harvest time may be my favorite part of growing!

The post Grow Better Weed: The 5 Core Principles appeared first on Grow Weed Easy.

“Fimming” (also known as FIMing) is a cannabis grow technique to increase yields. Discovered by mistake, this unusual plant training technique increases the number and size of cannabis buds. When the fimming is done right, of course. This marijuana fimming tutorial shows you how to fim plants perfectly every time.

Fimming refers to removing the top growth of a young cannabis plant, like this.

The result of successful fimming? 4 branches from one spot.

Fimming can help make more bushy, productive cannabis plants.

What to remember: The ultimate goal of fimming is to create a bushy plant with lots of main branches. This results in many big buds instead of only one.

What is fimming cannabis? Growers pinch off the top of a cannabis plant when it’s a few weeks old. When timed just right, plants naturally grow more top buds once the plant starts flowering. The fimming process causes a plant to naturally grow more wide and bushy as it develops. When growing cannabis indoors, creating a wide, flat plant is key to getting the biggest yields from your setup. Fimming naturally helps create that ideal plant shape for you.

A freshly “fimmed” cannabis plant.

Does fimming increase cannabis yields?

Yes, usually. The results of fimming range from “no effect” to “very effective”, depending on whether it’s done correctly. The bonus of basic fimming is growers can’t really do it wrong. The worst that can happen is no effect. But if you follow this fimming tutorial, your cannabis yields consistently get a yield boost.

Is fimming better than “topping”?

“Topping” is a similar technique to fimming, also to increase cannabis yields. The difference is topping means removing the whole top of the plant. Fimming means pinching off a small amount of growth.

Both methods are effective to make plants grow bushy and produce lots of big buds. Topping consistently splits the main stem into two, but you can accidentally stunt plants if you do it at the wrong time. Fimming is less consistent, resulting in 1-4 stems coming from the same spot, though you should get all four when fimming is done right. If you fim cannabis plants wrong, the result is no effect, and you’ll have the same single main stem as before. You can’t stunt a plant by simply fimming, but if you do it wrong, it doesn’t work and you don’t get any of the benefits.

Learn More: Topping vs FIMing Cannabis Tutorial

Why is it called “Fimming”? Fimming was discovered by mistake, and the name “Fim” reflects that history. The story goes that a cannabis grower tried to cut off the top of the plant, but didn’t do a complete job. But he liked the results better, and named the technique “FIM” for “F*ck I Missed”. Fimming was born.

How to “Fim” a Cannabis Plant

The main idea behind fimming is to “mow” off the top growth of your plant. The goal is to split the main stem into 4 stems with one strategic cut. A plant with 4 main stems is easy to train to grow wide and flat with simple bending. When done right, fimming cannabis can give results somewhat similar to time-intensive manifolding without adding weeks onto your grow time.

Wait until plant has grown 3-5 sets of leaves. At the right time, you’ll noticed all the lower stems are starting to grow into little branches. Yes, it’s not just about the total number of leaves, but also the overall size of the plant. If a plant is still tiny and thin, you should wait even if it’s got plenty of sets of leaves.

Too small to fim – even though this has 3 sets of leaves, the plant is tiny. The lower growth has not started growing away from the stem yet. Wait until plant gets a bit bigger or it may get stunted from fimming.

Beginning of fim window – This plant is just barely big enough to fim. The lower branches are just starting to grow away from the main stem. You might get better results by waiting just a bit longer.

Ideal size to fim – A cannabis plant about this size is the perfect size to fim. It’s got about 4 sets of leaves, and the lower growth is starting to grow away from the main stem into little branches of their own.

End of fimming window – This seedling has 5 full sets of leaves, starting on the 6th. This is about as big a cannabis plant should be when you fim. If your plant is bigger than this (and still in the vegetative stage), you should use the “topping” technique instead of fimming. To top a plant, cut through the main stem right above the 5th set of leaves (check out the full topping tutorial).

Right after fimming your young cannabis plant, it should have a “mowed” top left behind. Look at the above diagram to try to make sure you’re cutting through at the best spot.

Look at your plant and compare to the diagram above.

Remove this much growth to “fim” a cannabis plant.

Leave this much behind.

When done right, fimming results in 4 stems coming from essentially the same spot on the cannabis plant. However, fimming is not always the most consistent. Instead of 4 tops, if you don’t cut at the right spot you might end up with 1, 2, or 3 tops instead of all 4. If you want total control with perfect symmetry, check out the “topping” technique instead.

It’s normal for the new growth right after fimming to look weird. Remember, you cut off 80% of these leaves before they got a chance to grow out! If you damage a young leaf, it becomes more and more obvious as the leaf grows. However, brand new leaves after these ones should look normal.

A few days later, those mowed leaves from fimming should look a bit funny growing in.

Plants that have been fimmed naturally grow more bushy, which helps maximize yields in the flowering stage.

However, to improve your results, bend over tall branches. Just regularly bend the tallest stems down and away from the center of the plant, and tie them down. This process is known as Low Stress Training, or LST for short.

Keep bending tall stems down, so plant grows wide and flat.

The result? Tons of buds at harvest time!

Advanced Technique: Remove all stems but the top 4 (Serious Fimming)

Some growers take their fimming to the next step. Instead of just splitting the stem into 4 and letting the plant grow naturally, some growers remove all the other stems on the plant. In other words, they remove all steps but the top 4 they want to keep.

A fimmed cannabis stem. All but the top 4 stems were removed off the main “trunk”. Source: Nugbuckets

This makes it so all branches come from essentially the same spot on the cannabis plant.

Another example of a cannabis plant that was fimmed and all other branches removed. Source:Tarzan

However, if you want to go this direction, you may enjoy a more consistent plant training technique known as manifolding.

Learn how to manifold your cannabis plants.

Manifolding – better than fimming for cannabis growers who want symmetry.

Now you know how to fim your cannabis plants, so you get bigger yields at harvest time!

Want to learn about other marijuana plant training techniques to increase yields? Check this out!

Complete Guide to Cannabis Plant Training Techniques

The post “Fimming” Cannabis: The Secret to a Bigger Harvest? appeared first on Grow Weed Easy.

1. Topping
2. Low Stress Training (LST)
3. Supercropping
4. Defoliation (Strategically Removing Leaves)
5. Lollipopping
6. Sea of Green (SoG)
7. Manifolding (aka Main-Lining)
8. Screen of Green (ScrOG)
9. FIMming
10. Monster Cropping

Bonus: Fluxing

Every Cannabis Grower Should Use Plant Training Techniques

As a cannabis grower, your goal is to get your plants to produce a lot of high-quality buds as efficiently as possible. A key tactic to increasing cannabis yields and bud quality is to “train” your cannabis plant when it’s young to grow wide and flat so that it produces a lot of fat top buds in the flowering stage.

The goal of all cannabis plant training techniques is to grow wide flat plants with many big top buds. Fill your grow space with top-shelf weed!

Cannabis Plant Training Benefits

• Bigger yields
• Denser buds
• Increased bud potency (higher THC)*

*In our side-by-side experiments, trained cannabis plants produce buds that have higher THC levels when tested at the lab.

Today’s cannabis plant training tutorial is all about showing you how to use free techniques to get more and better quality buds from your current setup.

Achieve better marijuana bud quality and increase THC levels with these free plant training techniques!

1.) Topping

Topping is the #1 most important, easiest, and most effective cannabis plant training technique. If you must choose only one technique, do this.

“Topping” means cutting off the growing tip (“top”) of the main stem to encourage the growth of two or more secondary stems. A grower typically “tops” the plant when it’s a few weeks old. The purpose of topping is to break the apical dominance of the cannabis plant (reduce the tendency to grow one main trunk) so it naturally grows with many branches. Topping a young cannabis plant helps encourage it to grow wide and bushy with many tops for buds to grow.

Topping means cutting off the top of a cannabis plant when it’s a few weeks old.

The result: plants naturally grow more bushy, even if you don’t do anything else.

Topped cannabis plants naturally grow wider and bushier.

The result is many tops on each marijuana plant, and each of those top stems becomes a main bud.

2.) Low Stress Training (LST)

Low Stress Training (often called “LST”) is a fancy way of saying “bending and tying down branches”. The goal of LST is to get the plant to grow in the shape you want, typically to create a more even and horizontal canopy so the plant produces many buds instead of just one. Training cannabis plants to grow flat and wide also helps deliver more light to more top buds, increasing overall yields and bud quality.

This is another technique, like topping, that can definitely be used by itself to increase yields without doing anything else.

Learn More: Low Stress Training Tutorial

Cannabis plant before low stress training.

A cannabis plant after low stress training. Branches were bent down and away from the middle of the plant, then secured with plant twisty tie.

At harvest, the cannabis plant has many big buds instead of only one. (Here’s the full grow journal)

3.) Supercropping

The main purpose of “supercropping” is to gain total control over the height of unruly cannabis plants by being able to bend even the stiffest of branches without breaking them. I’m not sure how it got its name (perhaps just because it helps make super harvests?) but the supercropping technique involves pinching and bending the stems until they break internally, but not externally. After the stem can be bent, the branches get secured where you want them to stay.

In addition to height control, supercropping causes the plant to form a knuckle at the bend point, which, as a bonus, may increase the flow of nutrients and hormones in some cases. This technique may also potentially increase the potency of buds by slightly stressing the cannabis plant in a “good” way. However, be careful to follow the tutorial to make sure you don’t accidentally break the skin and potentially kill the branch.

Learn More: How to Supercrop Plants to Control Height

Supercropping is a technique to safely bend branches at an extreme angle without “breaking the skin”. This gives you a lot more control over plant height.

4.) Defoliation (Strategically Removing Leaves)

“Defoliation” means removing fan leaves, and should be done in a strategic way to get the best results. The main goal is to remove big fan leaves that block light from reaching the bud sites early in the flowering stage. This helps the plants grow into a better structure, improves airflow, increases light penetration, and overall enhances bud development. However, this technique should be done with caution as over-defoliation can stress or stunt the plant, and works best if you follow our defoliation tutorial.

Learn more: Cannabis Flowering Stage Defoliation Tutorial

Defoliation means removing fan leaves in a strategic way during the early flowering stage. Strategic defoliation for cannabis plants is typically done on a specific schedule after flowering is initiated.

When done properly, strategic defoliation results in bigger, longer buds. In our cannabis defoliation experiment, defoliated plants also produced more THC!

5.) Lollipopping

The “lollipopping” technique involves removing the lower branches and leaves that receive little light and produce small buds. Essentially, you turn the plant into a lollipop with no leaves on the bottom. Removing the bottom leaves and bud sites that will never get light helps the plant focus its energy on the upper buds. As a result of lollipopping, the topmost buds typically grow bigger and denser.

Before and after lollipopping cannabis plants. The left plant was lollipopped, and the right plant has not been lolliopped yet.

This was done right as the grower initiated the flowering stage. Notice how all the leaves have been removed from the bottom of the plant and light now reaches the floor.

Lollipopped cannabis plants produce big buds that go deeper down into the plant. Notice how the bottom branches are bare.

Lollopopped plants tend to produce bigger and better top buds, with fewer small airy lower buds that typically are not that potent anyway.

Learn More: How to Lollipop Your Cannabis Plants

Useful Specialty Techniques

These techniques are useful in many situations, but unlike the tactics listed above (which are useful for every cannabis grower), these techniques may not be the best choice in every situation for every grower’s goals.

6.) Sea of Green (SoG)

“Sea of Green” (also known as “SoG”) is about creating a sea of buds with a bunch of little plants. Many small plants are grown together in close proximity, then forced to start flowering early. Since plants stay small, growing with the Sea of Green technique reduces the vegetative time, allowing for both quicker harvests and more harvests in a year. This technique works best for cannabis strains that have a dominant main cola, and for grow spaces where it is easy to reach all the plants including plants in the middle or back. Although Sea of Green is surprisingly efficient as far as the yields for the time and electricity used, it’s not suitable for growers with legal plant limits, and tends to take more work compared to growing fewer plants.

Learn More: How to Make a “Sea of Green” in Your Cannabis Garden

Grow many small cannabis plants for a “sea of green” and initiate the flowering stage when plants are still tiny (this size).

Each cannabis plant will grow one main bud and fill your space with weed.

7.) Manifolding (aka Main-Lining)

Originally called main-lining, this technique has come to be called “manifolding” because that is more descriptive, and also because “main-lining” has another meaning in the drug world. Manifolding involves topping the main stem multiple times when the plant is still small to create an even number of main colas that grow from a single manifold. This process creates a symmetrical and balanced plant where each main bud receives equal amounts of nutrients and light.

Note: Autoflowering strains cannot be manifolded because their vegetative stage is too short. Learn more about how to train auto-flowering cannabis strains.

The manifolding process is a neat way to learn about training cannabis plants and also ensures an excellent harvest of many big buds. In my opinion, every dedicated cannabis grower should try manifolding a photoperiod plant at least once, even if just for the experience. It’s not necessarily the most scalable or efficient plant training technique, but is definitely one of the most fun!

Manifolding is a training regimen that causes the entire plant to grow from one main “manifold”. Manifolds are fun and interesting to make!

Example of a manifolded cannabis plant at harvest.

8.) Screen of Green (ScrOG)

“Screen of Green” (often abbreviated “ScrOG” – no relation to Sea of Green technique despite the similar names) refers to using a screen or net to support and train the branches to grow flat and wide. The branches are woven through the screen as they grow, creating a flat and uniform canopy that maximizes light exposure and bud production. Creating a screen of green can be useful in some situations, but personally, I believe it’s often less work to use other techniques on this page to create wide flat plant canopies. Once a cannabis plant is woven through the screen, it’s stuck in place unless the screen also moves, which can be inconvenient. Also, if you use wire as part of the screen, it can be difficult to cut all the buds out at harvest.

Learn more: Screen of Green Tutorial

Create a screen (best to use string instead of wire to make it easy to cut away from plants at harvest).

Example of a cannabis plant growing in a screen.

(Less Useful) “Hit or Miss” Techniques

These cannabis training techniques are not consistent and should generally be avoided, or at least considered experimental.

9.) FIMming

“FIM” stands for “F*ck I Missed” 😂 Essentially, this technique is similar to topping, but instead of cutting through the main stem, a small portion of the top of the plant is left behind. FIMing was “discovered” when someone messed up while topping their plant. When done in just the right way, this can result in four or more secondary stems growing from the same node. The downside is it often doesn’t work as intended. While topping consistently splits one stem into two, FIMing can result in 1, 2, 3, or 4 final stems. If you want 4 main stems, it’s better to top the plant twice than FIM it.

FIMing means removing 80% of the top node and hoping it results in 4 main branches (inconsistent and not recommended).

10.) Monster Cropping

The “monster cropping” technique involves taking clones from a flowering plant and reverting them back to the vegetative stage (“re-vegging” the cannabis plant). A re-vegged clone often grows strangely, with multiple branches and bud sites, creating bushy and monster-like plants. Some growers think this can be an easy way to make the plant grow many buds, but in my experience, re-vegged plants grow slowly for a long time compared to seeds or regular clones. Almost any other technique on this page to make plants bushy gets faster and more consistent results.

Learn More: What is “Monster Cropping” a Cannabis Plant?

A “monster cropped” plant. Note: a cannabis grower will likely get better results with almost any other technique on this page.

Bonus: Fluxing

Similar to manifolding except more complicated and with more steps. This gets similar results as manifolding but takes more time so it’s best for growers who enjoy the process of training and experimenting with vegetative cannabis plants. Typically, you’ll get the same results for less effort by manifolding a cannabis plant instead.

Fluxing is essentially a more complex version of manifolding.

Fluxing gives similar results to other techniques on this page that take less time.

Learn More: What is “Fluxing” and How Do You Do It?

Start training your cannabis plants today using the techniques in today’s tutorial!

Grow many buds at the same time…

…and enjoy your bountiful harvest!

The post 10 Most Common Cannabis Training Terms: In Order of Usefulness appeared first on Grow Weed Easy.

If you’re just getting started on your weed-growing journey, it can feel totally overwhelming. Where do you start? There’s so much to know, so what should you focus on first? Get the answers to all your questions in this straightforward tutorial. I’ll show you exactly what needs your attention, so you consistently get the harvest results you seek.

What should a beginner focus on to achieve great results on their first grow? Find out today!

If you read this article and follow the three steps, you’ll produce exceptional weed (and tons of it) even if you make a bunch of mistakes.

These techniques also increase overall marijuana bud quality, looks, and potency, so your homegrown buds look like this!

Today I’ll break down the 3 things you need to get right to become a legendary grower. If you understand these three aspects of growing, you will get good results. Yes, even if you mess up quite a bit!

Growing cannabis doesn’t have to be as complicated as a lot of people make it out to be. Typically, when growing weed feels difficult or frustrating, it’s because you lack the information on what to direct your efforts toward. You just need to know the following three things, and you’ll be able to grow exceptional weed and get the yields you want.

1. Understand the cannabis life cycle
2. Use the right equipment
3. Start with quality genetics

Get ready to transform into a legendary indoor cannabis grower!

1.) Understand the basics of a cannabis plant’s life cycle

A solid understanding of a cannabis plant’s life cycle will make everything a million times easier for you! This cannabis life timeline is a quick overview of the main aspects you should know as a cannabis grower.

Seed Germination – Seeds germinate into seedlings.

Tips:

• use a proven germination method
• keep seeds warm and moist but not soaking

I love modern versions of the classic OG Kush strain. Easy to grow, lovely unique “kush” smell, with excellent bud effects.

Vegetative Stage

Plants grow only leaves and stems at first. Since all growth is vegetative, this is known as the vegetative stage. On average, plants gain half their final size in this stage.

Tips:

• Pay attention to the environment – If it’s comfortable for you, it’s comfortable for your plants. Learn about the optimal cannabis environment. Getting your environment right now makes things easier when buds start forming.
• Watering habits – Learn how to water your plants perfectly, and pay attention if you notice drooping or signs of overwatering.
• Vegetative nutrients – Give all-purpose or “grow” nutrients in the vegetative stage. In soil, wait four weeks before giving nutrients. However, in coco or hydro, give nutrients from the beginning. An example of a extremely simple vegetative nutrient that works great for cannabis plants in any grow medium is Dyna-Gro Grow (give at 1 tsp/gallon). For more advanced growers, Fox Farm nutrient trio (for soil) or General Hydroponics Flora trio (for coco or hydro) offer professional results. Learn about cannabis nutrients.
• Plant training (optional) – Helps increase yields and maximizes the size and density of buds, but plant training is not necessary for success. Skip this if you feel overwhelmed! Learn about plant training.
• Start flowering/budding at the right time – Move on to the next stage when you cannabis plants reach about half the final desired size. They will about double in size after they start budding in the flowering stage, which is their next stage of life. Initiating flowering at this point sets you up so your plants are the perfect size (not too big, not too little) at harvest, so you get max yields but not overgrown plants.

Flowering Stage

Initiate the flowering stage by giving plants a 12/12 light schedule (except auto-flowering strains, which start flowering on their own after 3-4 weeks). Once plants get a 12/12 light schedule, they start growing flowers/buds within 1-3 weeks. Plants can double in size after getting 12/12 on average, though the amount of “stretch” depends greatly on the strain. Once buds form, the time until harvest is determined by the strain.

Tips:

• Initiate a 12/12 light schedule when plants are about half the final desired size. Learn about “12/12” and cannabis light schedules.
• Pay attention to the environment (especially make sure it’s not hot or humid) – Learn about environment effects on bud quality.
• Watering – Watering techniques should be about the same as before, though plants will be drinking more overall. The main thing that changes is the amount of nutrients you provide.
• Nutrients– Switch to flowering or “Bloom” nutrients. Dyna-Gro Bloom (at 1 tsp/gallon) is super simple and effective. If you’ve been using professional nutrients like Fox Farm nutrient trio (for soil) or General Hydroponics Flora trio (for coco or hydro), switch to their included “flowering schedule” which will change up the ratios to give plants what they need while buds form.
• Plant pruning (optional) – These two main techniques increase yields by ensuring all buds get tons of direct light. As a bonus, the top buds on the plants get the biggest, densest, and most potent, so these types of training maximizes bud quality, too, since all your buds will be top buds.
  • The first technique is to keep flowering plants flat like a table as opposed to a Christmas tree shape, which is done by bending tall branches over and tying them down.
  • The second technique is to remove excessive leaves to make sure all buds are exposed to direct light.  Learn about how to prune flowering cannabis plants.
• Problem resolution – Many growers notice leaf symptoms in the second half of the flowering stage because plants are much pickier than in the vegetative stage. This is normal and a common issue for beginner growers. Don’t panic, but don’t ignore problems either. Check the plant doctor for help diagnosing the cause, and then fix the issue before it affects your harvest. Also, here’s some help on controlling height.

Plants are a bit more picky about the environment and nutrients in the late flowering stage, but they’ll reward you if you follow the above tips!

Harvest

Harvest cannabis buds when they’re mature, dry them, then jar them for storage and curing.

Tips:

• Pick the right time to harvest. Here’s what to look for.
• Proper drying is crucial – Drying buds makes a huge difference to final bud quality.
• “Cure” the buds! Store dried buds in jars and burp occasionally. Bud quality improves for weeks.

Harvest cannabis buds when they’re ready!

Time for a quick review!

This infographic shows the whole life cycle with a timeline of what to expect

2.) Get good equipment

Now that you understand the most important aspects of what it takes to grow cannabis, let’s talk about setting up so that nature does most of the work for you. That way you get to focus on enjoying the process and looking at your beautiful, healthy buds forming.

• Environment – Your setup should make it easy to maintain comfortable temperature and humidity for your growing plants (a grow tent with fan pointing out works really well!). You can hang a grow light from inside a closet and use a fan to help blow air around. Just know that you may have more trouble controlling the environment than if you get proper equipment.
• Grow light – For beginners, I recommend a 200-300W LED grow light like the Spider Farmer SF2000 (200W) or Mars Hydro TSL2000 (300W). These LEDs get excellent cannabis growth, yields, and bud quality. If it tends to get cool in the grow room (for example you’re growing in a basement, or during the winter), then a 400W MH/HPS may be a better choice because it’ll help heat up the grow space.
• Grow medium – Examples are rich fluffy potting soils (Coco Loco, Ocean Forest, Roots Organics, etc.), coco/perlite potting mix (Mother Earth Coco plus Perlite mix is what I use, and it’s fantastic), and lastly, water for hydroponic setups. If you’re not sure, you can’t go wrong with simple old soil! Learn more about grow mediums.
• Nutrients – Nutrients are necessary for the best yields unless you’re growing in a super soil setup (which slowly releases organic nutrients over time throughout the plant’s life). Use an all-purpose/grow nutrient formula for the vegetative stage, and flowering/bloom nutrients for the flowering stage. With soil, you should start giving nutrients about 4 weeks after plants have been in the same pot. With coco or hydro, give nutrients from germination or the plants won’t grow (coco and hydro don’t naturally contain nutrients, so the plant only gets what you give in the water).

See examples setups that work well for growing cannabis.

Get a setup that fits your yield goals, space limits, and budget.

3.) Start with good genetics

I highly recommend beginners starting with feminized seeds from a trustworthy breeder. Feminized seeds means 99.9% of seeds will produce female plants, unlike regular seeds, which produce male plants roughly half the time. Since male plants don’t produce buds, starting with feminized seeds means you can feel confident that every seed you germinate will produce buds.

Ideas for genetics:

• Highest THC –  Check the list of American strains and seed banks. I’ve found that American strains tend to have the highest THC levels, though not always.
• Therapeutic use – High CBD, low THC, symptom-specific strains. Use the filters on this feminized seed selector tool to help find what you’re looking for.
• Biggest yields – Choose a high-yielding strain. Here’s a list of high-yielding, feminized strains on Seedsupreme.com. I set the filter on that link so the highest-rated strains appear at the top.
• Easiest to Grow – Stick to established strains that have been stabilized to produce consistent results. Avoid “crosses” (usually with a name like STRAIN x STRAIN). Crosses result in a variety of different types of plants. Crosses are great for breeders looking for the next big strain, but not necessarily the best choice for someone who just wants to grow weed and know what to expect.
• Low time commitment – Autoflowering strains mean fewer steps to get plants to make buds, plus you’ll get to harvest quicker than with other strains.
• Bag seed? I’ve seen growers get good results with bag seed (seeds they find). If that’s all you have, that’s what you have to use. Just know that the results can turn out extremely different from the weed it came from, and you’ll have no idea what to expect as far as growth patterns or how long it will take before it’s ready to harvest. Bag-seed really makes you appreciate breeders. If you can afford even a few cheap seeds, you’ll be a lot more prepared! I highly recommend Seedsupreme strains if you’re looking for something inexpensive but generally dependable.

Learn how to find the right strain.

I recently grew these two Critical Kush plants and was beyond pleased by the yields, ease of growth, and potency! I highly recommend the strain if you’re not sure what to get.

Closeup of a Critical Kush bud (click picture for full-size version). Although the buds look pretty typical, don’t let that fool you. The yields, smoothness, smell, and effects are outstanding.

For auto-flowering strains, Dinafem genetics have never done me wrong!

About the Author Nebula Haze

I’ve grown a lot of excellent weed since I started in 2008! After struggling to get started growing, my goal in life became to help other people grow as much weed as they want, and grow better weed than they can buy. That’s why I co-founded GrowWeedEasy.com in 2010 and have been teaching growers ever since.

If you liked today’s article, sign up for our weekly newsletter and get a new growing article delivered to you every Sunday.

Happy growing!

The post 3 Steps from Beginner to Legendary Grower appeared first on Grow Weed Easy.

Do you have legal plant limits? Cannabis cultivation is legal in many countries and several states in the USA. However, many growers are subject to legal plant limits. That means they can only grow a certain number of plants at a time. For example, California (where I live) allows 21+ adults to grow up to 6 plants. In Canada, adults can legally grow up to 4 plants.

Legal plant limits? No problem! Learn how to grow up to 1 pound (~0.5 kg) of weed with 1-4 plants.

Just follow the step-by-step LST instructions and harvest a bounty of weed!

Legal plant count limits can make it harder to get big yields when growing cannabis, especially if you’re also limited on space, but there are cultivation tricks and tactics to let you harvest huge amounts of bud from small grow spaces with just a few marijuana plants. In fact, it’s possible to produce over a pound (~0.5 kg) of weed from 1-4 plants when you do it right.

Get big cannabis yields with just a few plants!

Pruning techniques like manifolding can force even one small plant to produce huge buds. This plant was less than 2 feet (0.6m) tall at harvest and produced 6.2 oz by itself.

Let marijuana plants get bigger to increase your yields. This is especially effective when combined with pruning (as explained below). These two cannabis plants are about 4 feet (1.2m) tall and produced 18.6 oz (over 1 lb) of weed between them!

This giant mass is actually made of only 4 plants trained to grow flat over a screen.

Multi-pound harvest with just 4 plants!

It’s amazing what you can accomplish with a few plants. Let’s learn how to produce a ton of weed in your marijuana garden with 1-4 plants.

1.) Grow Bigger Plants

You can only yield so much from a small plant. Bigger plants can produce a lot more weed than small plants. Just make sure you don’t let plants get too big or your space quickly gets overgrown. Growing plants to the perfect size for your setup leads to the best harvest.

In this picture: One of these clones got much bigger than the other. Although buds are similar in width, the bigger plant with longer buds produced higher yields overall. Letting a plant get big enough to completely fill your grow space can dramatically improve your final bud weights.

On average, bigger plants produce more weed.

What to do: Wait to initiate the flowering stage until plants are 1/2 the final desired size. In other words:

• Photoperiod Plants: Change to a 12/12 light schedule when plants are half size. Most strains are photoperiod strains. Plants will about double in height on average.
• Auto-flowering Plants: Auto-flowering strains start flowering on their own. Their final size depends on the strain, size of the pot, light levels, and overall care.
• Know Your Strain: Different strains “stretch” a different amount. Strains listed as “tall” strains can triple in size after buds start forming. Check the strain details when buying seeds so you know what to expect.

Cannabis plants don’t immediately stop getting bigger once they start making buds. After entering the budding/flowering stage, most plants about double in size. That means you should start 12/12 when plants are about half the final desired size.

To maximize yields, you want plants that are as big as possible without overgrowing the space. It helps to calculate how tall plants can safely get in your grow space without being too close to your grow light. No matter the height you’re going for, try to create a nice wide plant canopy. Fill the entire space under your grow light with plants.

These two plants reached half the final desired size for this grow tent. At this point, initiate the flowering stage by giving plants a 12/12 light schedule.

A few weeks later, the plants have about doubled in size. This is known as the flowering stretch. Use this knowledge to grow plants that are the right size for your grow space.

Tips to grow bigger plants

• Photoperiod strains help you control plant size – The main idea behind this step is to control the length of the vegetative stage so plants get to the optimal size. Auto-flowering strains only spend a few weeks in the vegetative stage, and therefore don’t give you much control over the final size. Learn more about the best strains to grow in Step 4.
• Use bigger pots – Bigger roots can support bigger plants. Plants in a small pot (under 2 gallons) tend to stay small while bigger pots (5-10 gallons) make it easier and faster to produce plants that are 3+ feet (1+ m) tall.
• Consider coco or hydro – Plants grown in hydroponics (and to a lesser extent coco) tend to grow faster than soil plants. If you want to get big plants fast, hydro or coco may be a good way to go. Soil or super soil can still be great choices, but they may add to the total time to harvest.
• Grow plants to 1/2 size before flowering – Initiate the flowering stage when plants are 1/2 the final desired size. This is done by using a timer to put grow lights on a 12/12 light schedule. On average, plants double in size after the switch to 12/12, though strains listed as “tall” or “short” may stretch more or less. Learn more about the flowering stretch.
• Total plant coverage – Completely fill your space before you initiate the flowering stage. Think of sculpting a plant canopy that is wide and flat like a table…

2.) Train Plants to Grow Flat

You just learned about good plant coverage. This step takes that to the next level. In addition to making sure your entire grow area is filled with plants, you increase yields even more by training them to grow wide and flat (like a table) before you initiate the flowering stage.

While plants are in the vegetative stage, bend branches down and tie them in place to maintain as flat and wide a canopy as possible. Try to make plants shaped like a table.

Why do growers train plants to grow flat? The biggest buds grow at the top of a cannabis plant, close to the grow light, Buds that are lower on the plant, or further from the light, tend to stay small. A flat canopy means you get many buds the perfect distance away. This ensures your plant grows tons of buds, and every single bud swells to a big size.

Main Idea: Train plants to grow flat and wide like a table in the vegetative stage.

Tips to grow wide, flat plants.

• Cut off the top of young plants – Cut off the top of young plants in the vegetative stage. Cutting off the top of a plant is often called “topping” in the cannabis growing world. Topping splits any stem into two, and a plant with two tops is easier to spread out to create flat plants than a plant with one main top
  • Beginner tip: Wait until the seedling has grown 6 sets of leaves. Cut off the top through the main stem above the 5th set of leaves (pictures below). Easy and simple, yet won’t stress plants. After being topped, your plant is easier to spread out and naturally grows more bushy and wide.
• Tall stems should also be “topped” – Cut off the ends of any stem that’s growing much faster than the rest. Each new pair of stems grows slower than the original one. Topping is a great tool to curb fast-growing stems in the vegetative stage.
• Spread out – As the plant grows, spread out the stems by bending them down and away from the center of the plant. Don’t forget to tie branches down with something like plant twist tie or they’ll spring right back up the next day!
• Supercrop (if necessary) – Cannabis stems get hard and woody as time goes on. If you find you need to bend a stem that’s already stiff, use the supercropping technique to bend even the toughest stems at any angle. This is a bit advanced because you can accidentally split stems. But don’t worry if you do. Simply tape broken stems back together like a cast and the plant can heal. One of the things I love about cannabis plants is it can recover if you make big mistakes in the vegetative stage.

Here’s an example of training plants to grow wide and flat for more bud sites and bigger yields.

Cut off the top of a young plant right above the 5th set of leaves (“top” the seedling above the 5th node)

When cutting through a stem, be careful not to damage the growing tips at the base of each leaf. These will become your two new stems.

Topping splits the main stem into two. You can see the two new “main stems” on each side of the cut.

Since you waited until the plant had several sets of leaves before cutting a small piece off the top, it will continue growing like nothing happened.

As the plant grows, spread out the branches and cut off the top of any stem that’s getting bigger than the others. You don’t want your plant putting too much energy into any one branch.

The plant was transplanted to a mini grow tent under an HLG 65 4000k LED grow light and given a week to adjust to the new environment.

Training time!

Bend over all the stems down and away from the center until it looks flat from the side

I used plant twist tie to hook on to each branch and tie it down where I wanted. I attached the other end to the fabric pot.

How to attach to the pot? You can use safety pins or binder clips but I think this is easier. Poke holes in the fabric using sharp pointy Fiskars pruning scissors and thread the twist tie through.

Back to training. Here’s a top view. We’re trying to fill the entire tent with this plant.

A few days later the plant has filled in nicely. Repeat the steps until you’ve filled your entire grow space.

Initiate 12/12 when plants have complete coverage at the height you want. Look at all the bud sites on this 1 plant right as it starts flowering

Here’s a side view. At this point, the only thing to do is water the plant and give it nutrients until harvest.

Partway through the flowering stage.

At harvest, this plant was just over 18″ (46 cm) tall, yet yielded several ounces because it was trained to grow wide and flat. Talk about making the most out of one small plant!

The buds started getting heavy, flattening the plant further.

Learn more about growing plants to be wide and flat.

3.) Grow Light is Key to Yields!

If you read step 1 and 2, you understand the value of plant coverage in your grow space. You’ve also learned how to produce plants that are the perfect height and shape to maximize yields.

This step is about your grow light, which is the other most important aspect of your setup when it comes to yields.

Main Idea:  Pick a grow light that maximizes yields for your grow space.

Tips:

• Avoid fluorescent grow lights (CFLs and T5s) – If yields are a key factor for you, choose LEDs, HPS, or CMH/LEC grow lights. These are the most efficient grow lights for yields when it comes to growing cannabis. Fluorescent lights like T5s and CFLs produce excellent bud but get about half the yields per watt.
• Expect 0.5-1 gram per watt – You can use wattage to estimate yields so you pick the right grow light for your goal. With LEDs, HPS, or CMH/LEC, you can typically expect about 0.5-1 gram per watt of actual power draw. So if you’re using a 400W HPS, you could expect to yields 200-400 grams. If an LED grow light uses 300W, you could expect 150-300 grams. You can yield more or less, and some specific grow light models are better than others, but that’s a good rule of thumb for an average grower. Some modern cannabis LED grow lights like HLG or Spider Farmer LEDs can achieve 1-2 grams/watt.
• Proper grow light distance to plants – Each grow light has an optimal distance it should be kept from plants. Too close and plants will burn, too far and yields are reduced. Most grow light models list the recommended light distance in their product details. If you’re not sure, check out our tutorial on light distance.
• Good light coverage – Each grow light has an optimum amount of space it can cover (its recommended “light footprint”). If light doesn’t reach your plants on the edges, those plants will produce poor yields For example, if you have a 2’x3′ (or 0.5mx1m) grow space, get a light that’s made for that size space. Luckily, this is another detail that’s usually listed in the description when you buy a grow light.

Maximize yields with the right grow light for your space

A great LED grow light produces a ton of weed with just a few plants.

Check out examples of yields to expect for 3 popular cannabis grow lights I recommend for indoor growers.

Set and Go – 100W Quantum Board (LED Grow Light)

• Grow space: 2’x2′ grow space
• Heat: Fixture gets hot but will not warm up the room
• Average Yields – 1.5 – 3.5 ounces
• Bud Quality: Potent and pretty with great effects, but buds may be airy
• Recommended model: HLG 100 LED Grow Light
  • 4000k version is best for seedlings, clones, and the vegetative stage
  • 3000k version is best for the flowering stage
  • both work from seed to harvest, but 3000k produces higher yields
• See an example setup with this grow light

If you want to start small, this light lets you hang up .a grow light and start growing decent amounts of high-quality weed in a small space. Flimsy but effective. It barely affects the electricity bill and doesn’t make much heat. Also an excellent choice for seedlings and clones.

HLG 100 should be kept about 10″ away from the tops of plants

3 plants grown with the HLG 100 using the techniques above – 5.5 oz

Great Yields Without Much Heat – 300W Quantum Board (LED Grow Light)

• Grow space: 2’x4′ or 3’x3′ grow space
• Heat: Warms up a room by a few degrees
• Average Yields – 5-10+ ounces
• Bud Quality- Dense, potent, sparkly nugs
• Recommended models: Mars Hydro SP3000 LED (2’x4′ space) or Mars Hydro FC-E3000 (3’x3′ space)
• See an example setup (with detailed yield estimates) for 2’x4′ space or 3’x3′ space.

For this size grow light, I’ve had really great results with Mars Hydro grow lights. They’re easy to use, powerful with big yields in the flowering stage, yet surprisingly gentle on young cannabis plants.

3 plants grown under a 300W LED grow light using the techniques listed above – 11.1 oz

Big Producer – 315W CMH (sometimes called LEC)

• Grow space: 3’x3′ grow space
• Heat: Burning hot bulb raises the temperature of a room by several degrees
• Average Yields: 5-12 ounces (though I’ve yielded over a pound before)
• Recommended Model: Sun System Flower Power 315W LEC/CMH
• Bud Quality – Intense smells and unbelievable trichome production (get the most glitter by using the 4200k Philips or 4100k Eye Hortilux bulb in the flowering stage)
• See an example setup with a 315 CMH.

4 plants grown under a 315 LEC grow light using the above techniques – 12.57 oz

4.) Choose the Right Genetics (plus example strains)

If yields are a consideration, pay close attention to genetics. You can greatly increase yields by choosing a strain that is known to yield more than average.

• Photoperiod strains only – To follow this tutorial, you need to be able to control the length of the vegetative stage. Photoperiod plants give you total control because they won’t start flowering until you initiate a 12/12 light schedule. Most cannabis strains are photoperiod strains, so unless you buy “auto-flowering” seeds, you’re good to go.
• High-yielding – Some strains can yield 2-3x as much as other strains in the exact same grow space and conditions. It’s astounding how big of a difference genetics makes to yields.
• Avoid “short” strains – Short strains tend to yield less because plants are smaller.

Example cannabis strains that are heavy-yielders:

• Kushberry Moonrocks – ultra potent, purple, sparkly buds
• White Widow – high-yield version of the classic strain
• Fruity Pebbles – smells sweet and fruity
• Royal Gorilla – easy to grow, top-shelf buds
• Planet of the Grapes – some of the best yields of any strain I’ve grown.
• Thug Roze R1 – massive yields, tangy ‘Sativa’ smell that’s rare these day, unique effects.
• Dos Si Dos 33 (Barney’s Farm version) – huge yields, excellent buds, easy to grow.
• THC Bomb (MSNL version) – massive yields, excellent buds, developed by a geneticist

A single White Widow cannabis plant produced 12.57 oz of dense buds under 300W.

Many branches produced over an ounce of weed after being dried, and every bud was rock hard.

5.) Advanced Techniques

If you only follow the steps above, you can produce bountiful yields with just a few plants. But some growers want to maximize their yields even more. In that case, this section is for you.

These techniques require a bit more work and know-how, but they can produce incredibly high yielding plants indoors.

• ScrOG (Screen of Green)
• Manifolding or Fluxing

ScrOG (screen of green) means using a screen or netting to train plants to grow flat before flowering.

Manifolding or Fluxing are similar techniques with the goal of creating plants where all the branches meet at one part of a plant (the “manifold”). These techniques require extra time in the vegetative stage, but reward you with huge symmetrical buds. Plus these techniques are super fun!

With manifolding or fluxing, young plants are cut up in the vegetative stage so that all branches come from one main “manifold” on the main stem.

The base of a “manifolded” plant

Fluxing is a different take on manifolding, but follows the same essential principles of splitting the main stem and creating a symmetrical plant structure

When followed step-by-step, these techniques produce outstanding harvests on every plant

A grower named “nugbuckets” designed and popularized the manifolding technique (though he called it “main-lining” at the time) to maximize yields per plant. Here’s one of the manifolded plants from his original tutorial. A huge thank you to nugbuckets for sharing your knowledge with the home growing community!

Now you are armed with the knowledge to produce tons of marijuana even if you have plant limits. It’s time to grow the yields you want!

GrowWeedEasy.com has hundreds and hundreds of pages!

Check out some articles you may not have seen…

• Nebula’s Manifold – Cannabis “Main-Lining”  – Turn your cannabis plants into a lean, mean, organized green producing machine! The technique is pretty keen if you know what I mean.
• How Long Does It Take to Grow Weed Indoors? – When we first started growing, we asked this question so many times only to get generic, non-specific answers. That won’t happen here! We only deal in details!
• Stealth Growing: How to NOT get Caught Growing Weed – Despite the ever-increasing legality of growing your own cannabis, it’s still be best to be on the safe side and remain as stealthy as possible. Even if it’s legal where you are, theives know that the police won’t investigate cannabis plant theft…
• How to Save Money When Growing Weed – When you grow your own weed, you should experience an increase in quality, but it should also cost drastically less than purchasing froma dispensary. If your weed isn’t dirt cheap (yet), let us help you get there!

The post How to Produce a Ton of Weed with Only 1-4 Plants appeared first on Grow Weed Easy.

Growers often ask me for examples of training a cannabis plant for better indoor yields. A plant that’s trained to grow wide and flat in the vegetative stage produces more buds indoors than a natural-grown plant. Especially with smaller grow lights or a short setup.

One popular way to create a flat cannabis canopy is a ScrOG which stands for “Screen of Green”. Basically, it means training plants to grow flat along a screen or net. Grow flat plants like this awesome picture by Scroggo.

Screen of Green (ScrOG) – Plants get trained along a screen or net in the vegetative stage, to make a canopy “table”

This flat plant shape maximizes yields under indoor grow lights by filling the entire grow space with buds. But is there an easier way to achieve the same result?

Although the result is excellent yields, “scrogging” takes a bit of work. In addition to having to make (or buy) the screen and set it up in the grow space, the process of threading plants through the net can be time-consuming. On top of that, once the training process begins, plants can’t be moved independently. With their stems woven through the netting, plants are basically “stuck” on the screen until harvest. This can make it difficult to water plants and/or access the middle.

Today you’ll learn how to make a “scrog” without a net. Get the same results with less effort!

The resulting plant was less than 20″ (50 cm) tall at harvest and look at all those buds!

Today I’ll share an alternative method to achieve similar results. This method of training plants to grow wide and flat gives the same table-like outcome with less work and allows you to still move and access individual cannabis plants as needed. Here goes!

Faux Cannabis “Scrog” Technique

1.) Remove tops as plant grows

I cut off the top of the main stem (also known as “topping” the plant) after about 5 sets of leaves (5th node). This breaks the apical dominance and causes the plant to grow more wide and bushy instead of growing in a Christmas tree shape. There isn’t a perfect or best time to top a plant, though most growers do it above node 3-6. Topping above the 5th works well every time so that’s what I do.

As the plant grows, make sure to cut off the tops of any stems that start getting taller than the others. This simple system (let’s call it the “top any tall stems” training regimen) ensures no stem gets significantly taller than the others while creating multiple branches. This works well with any photoperiod (not auto) cannabis plant, including asymmetrical clones like this one, which aren’t great candidates for more structured techniques like manifolding.

Pay attention as the plant grows. If any stem seems to be getting taller than the others, cut off the top.

Other than that, I didn’t do anything but spread the plant out and let it grow wild.

2.) Bend stems until plant is flat

Wait until the plant has grown several branches so you have something to work with.

This Pineapple Chunk clone was topped multiple times and has been growing wild. Ready for training! (I’m using this setup)

The idea of this step is simply to bend all stems over and away from the middle of the plant. The goal is to eventually fill up the tent with a wide flat canopy before initiating the flowering stage.

Time to force it flat!  Stems were bent over and tied down.

I got a spool of plant twist tie and cut off pieces to hold all the branches down in place

I used Fiskars scissors to poke holes in the fabric pot and threaded through the twist tie. Another option for securing twist tie is a safety pin, but they can rust over time.

I bent over every branch until the plant was essentially flat and spread out

Top view

3 days later the plant has grown into its new shape. It almost fills the tent already!

Quick Setup Summary (in case you’re curious, though this technique works in any setup): HLG 65W (4000k version) LED grow light in a 2’x2’x3′ grow tent (0.6m x 0.6m x 0.9m). Using the Flora trio + CaliMagic as nutrients and supplements. Complete setup list here.

Time to let the plant grow a bit bigger and spread out more.

3.) Flatten plant every 1-2 weeks until it’s the desired width

8 days later the plant looks like this

Top view

I again bent over and secured the tallest branches to be flat

Here is the top view. Notice how much more plant coverage there is in the tent after the plant has been spread out and flattened. The entire tent is going to be a sea of buds at harvest!

Repeat the step of flattening as many times as it takes to fill the grow space.

4.) Initiate flowering with a 12/12 light schedule

Since I’ve achieved the desired coverage, I initiated the flowering stage by putting the grow lights on a 12/12 light schedule immediately after the last picture.

Faux Scrog in action! Here’s what the plant looks like 14 days after it started receiving 12/12.

The emerging buds help you see just how many bud sites have been created!

5.) Wait until harvest

At this point, there’s nothing to do but respond to signs of trouble, water the plant as needed, and wait for harvest.

At harvest, the plant is still less than 20″ (50cm) tall and produced over 3 ounces off a small 65W LED grow light. Not bad!

The post Easy Cannabis Training: How to “Scrog” without a Net! appeared first on Grow Weed Easy.

Cannabis defoliation… have you heard of it?

Defoliation is the process of strategically removing leaves to make cannabis grow in a more desirable way.

This week, I defoliated 3 plants in preparation for the flowering stage

Why do I defoliate? A few reasons.

• Higher-quality buds – Strategic defoliation in the early flowering stage produces fewer but higher-quality buds. Cannabis buds only fatten up when they get access to both light and air, and the biggest buds are usually located at the top of the plant. Lower and hidden buds are often airy wisps at harvest. Removing unnecessary leaves and hidden bud sites helps the plant focus on the best-quality buds at the top. When done properly, buds at harvest tend to be bigger, tighter, and more dense.
• Reduce chances of mold or bud rot – Some plants get so bushy that their leaves lay all over each other and cause wet spots. That was happening here. These plants were super leafy! Left unchecked, too-leafy plants are more likely to get powdery mildew or bud rot.
• Lower humidity – Leaves constantly release water vapor into the air, which raises the humidity. If it’s humid where you live (my outdoor humidity can get over 70% RH at times), removing leaves helps keep the humidity from climbing to unreasonable levels. High humidity in the second half of the flowering stage should be avoided because it can cause loose buds and increase the chance of mold or bud rot.
• Ease of trimming – Plants are way easier to trim after harvest. It doesn’t seem like a huge deal…until it’s time to trim!

Where are buds going to form?

The growing stems that will become the main bud sites look like stars from above. In the growing world, these main stems are often referred to as tops, mains, or colas (“cola” is the Spanish word for tail, and big cannabis buds look a bit like tails). Check out our glossary for other common growing terms.

In this picture, I marked a few main stems with white stars so you know where the biggest buds will grow. Can you spot the rest?

Defoliate at the beginning of the flowering stage…

The 3 featured plants were changed to a 12/12 light schedule a few days before these pictures to initiate the flowering stage. I can already see white hairs/pistils appearing on the future bud sites. A great time to defoliate!

Note: If you see bunches of balls instead of hairs, you’ve got a male plant that will not produce buds.

White hairs (pistils) are the first sign of female buds forming

Before & After – I removed big leaves on long stems to help expose bud sites and increase air circulation through the plant

Ideally, you want a good bud site every few inches at the top of the plant. Try to give each bud a bit of breathing room so they can develop as big as possible, but otherwise create a sea of buds to maximize the grow light.

This stem was never going to reach the top canopy and get direct light. It was also being blocked by a thicker, better-positioned stem. I made the executive decision to remove it so the plant could focus on the best stems.

Good bud sites are located at the top of thicker stems that reach the upper canopy. Even better if connected to the main trunk. This tiny stem touching the edge of the tent was never going to make big buds, but would have stolen energy from the main bud sites.

Goodbye, little stem

I also focused on “lollipopping”, which means removing growth on the bottom of the plant that would otherwise be in permanent shadow. I only do this once at the beginning of the flowering stage.

Left plant was defoliated and lollipopped while the right plant was untouched

Side view – Before vs After

I’m going to leave the plants alone for at least a few weeks (many growers defoliate again about 3 weeks after the first session).

Some plants (especially certain sativa strains) don’t really get leafy and defoliation is unnecessary. Other plants need defoliation because they get so bushy the leaves are covered in wet spots and buds are completely concealed.

It’s possible to stunt a plant if you take too many leaves. Leaves are what take in light and turn it into energy for the plant! There’s no need to defoliate a plant that’s not leafy like this one (except maybe a few leaves from the bottom).

Regardless of the plant, the main idea behind any cannabis plant training or defoliation technique is to expose many main bud sites to direct light and air.

Some defoliators take more or fewer leaves, and many growers take none at all. Cannabis plants are surprisingly flexible. The truth is, a big part of growing is personal preference because nearly all popular methods and defoliation schedules work well.

Let me walk you through an example of another plant that was defoliated so you can see how the plant responds.

This manifolded plant had just started flowering. It was lollipopped and every main stems defoliated. Notice how the main stems are at the top of the plant and exposed to direct light. That’s your main goal.

After that, I continued removing leaves that were lying on each other making wet spots or covering bud sites, but my main focus was giving basic plant care and a great environment

12 weeks later and buds are ready! Here is that plant at harvest

Every bud was fat and dense, with no airy or larfy buds. Easy to trim and great yields, too!

It’s possible to defoliate too much and stunt your plant, which can reduce yields, so be careful not to overdo it! If you want to maximize yields, only defoliate plants that are bushy.

Warning! Don’t defoliate if you are not using added nutrients. One setup that seems to do poorly with defoliation is a “no added nutrients” setup where the plants get all their nutrients from the soil. Each leaf stores nutrients for the plant, which means you’re forever taking those nutrients from the plant when you remove leaves. If you’re not replacing the nutrients in some way (such as with nutrient water or amendments), the plant may run into nutrient deficiencies later in the flowering stage.

Does defoliation increase yields overall?

Strategic defoliation causes plants to make fewer but bigger buds, yet it’s a point of contention in the growing world whether defoliation increases or reduces overall yields. Bud quality may be higher, but I’ve never found a direct test comparing yield weights.

I decided to get to the bottom of this mystery. My next grow will feature a controlled side-by-side experiment to test defoliation vs letting plants grow wild. I can’t wait!

In the meantime, here’s a picture of those plants I defoliated 4 weeks later, with about 4 weeks left to go until harvest. They’ve responded well!

Update: Nebula completed a side-by-side experiment to test defoliation vs. natural growth!
Check out the results here: Nebula’s Cannabis Defoliation Experiment – Side-by-side grow journal

For those who are interested in learning more about this setup:

• 2’x4’x6′ grow tent
• Mother Earth Coco + Perlite potting mix
• 5-gallon fabric pots
• Nutrients & Supplements: Flora trio + CaliMagic (learn more about this nutrient system)
• Check out my favorite LED grow lights for growing weed.

GrowWeedEasy.com has hundreds and hundreds of pages!

Check out some articles you may not have seen…

• Bugs, Mold, and Critters, Oh My! – Learn about common cannabis pests.
• Cool Growing Tools – Ever wonder if there’s some tool to help make things a little easier for growers? See a list of some of my favorite (mostly small and cheap) growing tools 🙂
• Nebula’s Manifold – Cannabis “Main-Lining” – Mainlining was invented by a superb grower named Nugbuckets. Manifolding is Nebula’s take on the technique and it works great!
• Cannabis Defoliation: How to Increase Yields by Removing Leaves – It’s common knowledge to defoliate now, but when we first did this article it caused an extremely famous grower to come after us!
• Super Cropping Marijuana: Simple Secret to Bigger Yields – It’s great for increasing yields, but even better for emergency plant training. Super cropping, what can’t you do?

The post Watch 3 cannabis plants get defoliated – Before & After appeared first on Grow Weed Easy.

A lot of indoor cannabis growers struggle with yields. It’s fantastic to grow your weed, but you must grow enough that you never run out. Otherwise, growing may feel like a waste of time and effort.

Luckily, cannabis yields don’t have to be a mystery. There are specific factors that cause yields to be big or small, and nearly all of them are under your control. The following article contains a comprehensive list of what you can do (both before and after buds start forming) to increase yields.

Learn how to achieve bigger yields in less time with less effort

Table of Contents

Before Buds Start Forming

1. Choose High-Yielding Genetics – Strain choice has a significant effect on yields, so it helps to choose a strain that naturally makes big buds. Learn what to look for, and get a list of recommended strains that produce fat, envy-worthy buds.
2. Grow Correct Number of Plants – Match the number of plants to your space and grow light. Often you’ll get bigger yields/faster harvests with many smaller plants as opposed to a few big ones.
3. Use The Right Plant Containers – Choose the right container type and size for your setup, so plants grow as fast and big as possible.
4. Use Coco or Hydro – Soil-grown plants typically grow slower than plants grown in coco or hydroponics. If you want to maximize the number of harvests each year, you should aim for fast-growing plants.
5. Manipulate How Plants Grow – Plant training in the vegetative stage is an effective and free way to increase yields dramatically.
6. Choose Good Nutrients and Supplements – Get cannabis-specific nutrients, and remember that sometimes less is more.
7. Grow Plants to Most Efficient Size – Too-big plants can cause considerable problems, but plants that are too small don’t have the structure to support big buds. Maximize yields by growing plants to the right size for your space.

After Buds Start Forming

1. Increase Light Intensity – Light is food to your plant, and giving more light will increase yields (to a point).
2. Use Suitable Flowering Lights – For the best yields, you should be using LEDs (best choice for most growers), LEC/CMH, or HPS grow lights while buds are forming. Avoid “blurple” LEDs or fluorescent grow lights.
3. Give Best Light Spectrum While Buds Form – Giving plants more red and far-red light in the flowering stage seems to increase yields compared to using the same grow light in a bluer spectrum. Learn which bulbs/lights work best below.
4. Follow a Recommended Defoliation Schedule  – Remove specific leaves at specific points of bud development to “hack” the plant’s natural processes and cause buds to grow bigger and denser than they otherwise would.
5. Don’t Ignore Problems! Plants get much more picky about nutrient ratios and nutrient strength in the flowering stage, especially as harvest approaches. Make sure you quickly diagnose and fix any nutrient deficiencies, bug infestations, or other visible problems. An unhealthy plant doesn’t have as much energy to put into bud formation.
6. Create an Optimum Bud-Building Environment – Hot or humid air with poor air circulation in the flowering stage causes buds to grow more airy and loose (among other problems). Reflective walls can help you get the most from your lights, and some growers supplement their environment with CO2 to increase yields.
7. Harvest Plants at the Right Time – Especially don’t harvest early.

And Most Importantly…

1. Always Be Growing – If you don’t pause between harvests, your bud coffers will soon be overflowing. Along the same lines, never stop learning!

Grow a lot of buds so you never run out

Bonus: Many of these techniques also increase THC levels, bud density, and overall bud quality.

There are a few ways to think about increasing cannabis yields indoors. Some growers want to maximize the yields for their grow space, and don’t care what it takes to increase yields overall. Other growers are looking at returns from more of an economic perspective, wanting to get the best yields for the electricity/cost, but maybe aren’t as concerned with how much space it takes. Lastly, there are many growers just looking to grow huge impressive buds and don’t care about maximizing anything else. This article is going to talk about all three. No matter what you’re looking for, we’ve got you covered.

Without further delay, it’s time to learn how to increase your yields!

You know a bud is going to get huge if it’s already fat before the white hairs start darkening and curling in!

BONUS: Now that you have tons of weed, what should you do with it?

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 Tinctures
• How to Make Hash Oil (aka Cannabis Extract Oil or RSO)
• Rick Simpson Oil (RSO) – Alternate

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)

The post 15 Ways to Increase Cannabis Yields Indoors appeared first on Grow Weed Easy.

This tutorial is a condensed version of the classic “How to Keep a Bonsai Mum” article written by the legendary Oldtimer1. Although the original article was published in 2000, this bonsai training method recently resurfaced and has become popular for hobbyist cannabis growers without a lot of space. With so many people growing at home these days, this technique is more useful now than ever.

Free Clones Forever! (How do I make clones?) These 8-month-old marijuana bonsai mother plants are based on this tutorial. In addition to the sunny window, a bright lightbulb shines nearby for 14+ hours a day to keep them in the vegetative stage. An easy and fun way to hold onto genetics! ~Nebula Haze

This tutorial will teach you how to turn a cannabis plant into a bonsai mother (giving you access to unlimited free clones!)

But what is a mother plant? A “mother” is a plant you keep alive so you can take clones whenever you want (the clones are the “children” which is where the term “mother” comes from). Learn how to clone cannabis plants in a cup of water (easiest but slow), with seedling plugs (almost as easy but faster), or in an aerocloner (fastest). One common reason growers keep mothers is to save money by producing new cannabis plants for free (or at least basically free). The other is to hold onto good genetics. If you have a plant that grows beautifully and produces good yields of high-quality bud, you may want to save the genetics so you can grow the plant again in a future grow. A clone will grow the same as the mother plant.

Instead of having to pay for each seed from a seed bank, a mother plant can be used to create almost unlimited new clones of itself. In addition to not costing anything, new clones are more predictable than seeds from random crosses. Seeds carry a mix of traits from both parent plants, some of which may be recessive attributes, while each clone consistently grows just like the mother.

Taking clones can save a ton of money versus buying seeds because each new plant is simply cut off the mother and grown into a full plant

Cloning can be a big money saver over buying individual seeds, but frugality isn’t the only reason to keep mother plants. Sometimes it’s about saving great genetics. Certain cannabis plants are so special they beg to be cloned so more people can enjoy them. If you ever identify a particularly great plant, you can actually take clones of it and turn them into mother plants. You can even take clones in the flowering stage if you just can’t let a certain plant go. 

Clones are made by cutting off the ends of branches and planting those pieces so they grow roots. These “cuttings” grow into full plants that are a genetic clone of the mother. When you grow and harvest them, the characteristics will be basically identical to the mother plant.

Why would you want a bonsai mother?

Unlike a commercial grower, most home growers don’t have a lot of grow space to dedicate purely to housing mother plants. Keeping each mother small, like a bonsai tree, lets you maintain a huge selection of genetics in a small grow space without very much electricity. 

The bonsai mother technique has become a staple for indoor growers who want to keep a huge variety of genetics in a small cannabis garden. This version of the tutorial cuts out extra discussion and leaves just the instructions with pictures. This way you can get straight to bonsai-ing. But if you ever have a little extra time for some fun and interesting discussion, I highly recommend reading the original article in its entirety by Oldtimer1.

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to create and maintain many small mother plants in a tiny grow space. Each mother plant can produce hundreds of new clones over time, so you basically gain the power to produce unlimited new plants for free! 

Example of a bonsai plant by Don de Marco

Part 1: How to Create a Bonsai Mother Plant

This tutorial will show you how to create a fully established bonsai mother plant.

This bonsai mother, if well-fed, will be able to produce 10 to 30 good cuttings every 14 days under an HID grow light, or every 20 days under a fluorescent grow light. This means a 4 ft x 2 ft shop light with 18 mother plants could produce an output of over 9500 cuttings a year.

Typical Bonsai Mum

That’s not intensive production, but it allows the connoisseur to keep a good selection of strain varieties in a relatively small space.

1.) Put Chosen Mother in a Square Pot

Let’s start by turning a rooted cutting into a mother plant. This is simple. With every batch of clones, there are always a few that stand out because they generally appear sturdier and better looking overall. Pick one or two of these to make your mother plant. Remember this mother plant will provide you with cuttings 4 to 18 times a year for the next 3 to 15 years, so only the best will do.

Note: I find square pots are much easier to deal with when it comes to root pruning, as you will see later.

Pick a fully rooted through cutting and put it in a 2.5-inch square pot.

2.) Cut the plant short so it only has 3-4 growing tips left

Once you’ve chosen your cutting, trim its top back to leave 3 or 4 side shoots.
Top view

3.) Manipulate the plant into an “open cup” shape (open up the middle as the plant grows)

The little branches you left from before will become the main framework of your mother plant. The goal is to try to get them to form an open cup shape as they grow. The top 2 branches usually grow the fastest unless you take steps to even everything out. The following sequence helps you create a more symmetrical plant.

• “Top” the two tallest branches when they get to about 5 inches long (pinch or snip off the growing tip just above a leaf node).
• Once the remaining branches catch up to the same height as the ones you just topped, top/pinch the growing tips off them as well.
• This process of topping multiple branches will encourage side shoots to form.
• Remove any branches that grow into the central cup shape.

4.) Take first set of clones

After completing the last step, you should have 6 to 8 leading branches coming up. When they reach 4 to 6 inches long, they can be taken as your first set of clones.

• Cut them back to just above the first leaf node of the new growth

Note: Check out Part 3 of this tutorial (below) for more details and pictures of taking clones

After the cuttings have been taken, the mum is only a tiny bit larger than the last time she was cut back but the main branches will be starting to get thicker.

5.) Move mother plant to bigger pot

After you’ve taken the first set of cuttings, it’s time to move up to the next pot size. A 3-inch sq pot is ideal.

6.) You’ve got a bonsai mother!

You should now have 12 to 16 leading shoots, as well as others coming up from lower nodes. In total, there may be 30 potential clones or more. Any really thin ones or any growing into the center, either cut back to one node or remove altogether instead of taking cuttings.

Here are bonsai mothers at different stages

In the picture:

1. The trimmed cutting from above.
2. Has had 2 sets of cuttings taken off and is more than ready to move to a 3-inch pot. As you can see it is a little short of Nitrogen, which is why it’s better to transplant to fresh soil after the first set of cuttings.
3. This mother plant is in a 3-inch pot. 12 cuttings have been taken with 2 left on to show where to cut back to.
4. This is a five-year-old Mum that has just had 32 cuttings taken off and could do with some more small twiggy bits removed. She is in a 1-liter pot and has been since she was 3 months old.

Note how all have an open center; this allows light to both the center and the outside. It will fill in between taking cuttings but if pruned back to this form, makes better and more even growth giving more good cuttings each time.

General Care and Maintenance

The mother plants need just enough nutrients to keep them healthy. Feed nutrients at half-strength twice a month. This keeps them in good general health but doesn’t overfeed them. If you want faster production at any point change to a full-strength feed once or twice. Every 2 to 4 weeks a new batch of cuttings are taken even if they are not needed and just put in the worm bin. You can think of it as being like having to mow the lawn and keeps the mum the same size and form for years. Because so much is taken away they can get short of macronutrients so every month or so give them a foliar spray or light dose of nutrients. Judge this by how the plants are looking not by a timetable.

One of the main things that all growers need to learn is regular close observation to know when they are healthy and notice the first signs of deficiencies appearing.

Part 2: Root Pruning (Renovation and Maintenance)

Bonsai mother plants will need root pruning once or twice a year to stay healthy. The frequency depends on how intensively they are fed and how good your water quality is.

Note: The root pruning method stays the same whether it’s being used for routine maintenance or renovation of a sick plant.

Here we are dealing with a 7-year-old mother plant that hasn’t been root trimmed for nearly a year and was deliberately neglected for the last 10 weeks so you could see the recovery.
First, trim back nearly all the top growth back to the main framework of branches. Leave one or two tiny shoots at the tip of each branch to draw sap and keep the branch alive.

Don’t remove all the shoots and buds because this often causes “die back”. Once that starts the whole plant usually dies within a month or two. But you’re good as long as you leave a few small shoots, even if they’re yellow from lacking Nitrogen. They will soon start to grow and green up as the new roots start forming!

Next, the rootball should have 3/4 of an inch cut off each side and an inch off the bottom.

This reduces the 4.5 x 4.5 x 4.5 inch rootball to 3 x 3 x 3.5 inches high after the loose soil is scraped from the top.

This means that two-thirds of the soil is being replaced. A good full strength organic compost is used when repotting and it only takes a day or two for the roots to really start growing into the new compost.  It is very important to make sure there are no voids or air gaps left when packing the sides, use a pencil or small dibber, fill slowly and firm lightly.

Set the bottom of the rootball on about 3/4 of an inch of compost then pack out the sides and finally cover the top with a 1/4 to 3/8 of an inch. This means the mother is planted 1/4 inch deeper every time root pruning is done about 1/2 an inch a year. In a couple of years from now I will cut down vertically and split the plant in two as the side branch will have a root system of its own. Using this method the roots are constantly being replaced and as well the main trunk replaced slowly. This seems to keep the bonsai mother plants healthy for many years.

The last picture is 12 days under an HPS light after the root and top pruning. It tells its own story! Already there are enough nice leaders to make 10 good cuttings.

The second mother of our selected “ES” line lasted for just over 15 years using this method. I have also kept prized males for breeding (bonsai father plants) in this pot size and some are over 5 years old.

That’s it. You should have all the info you need to make and root cuttings in compost and make and maintain bonsai mother plants. It’s easy, give it a go!

Part 3: How to Take Clones from Bonsai Mother Plants

This section covers my cloning system in detail, along with a brief outline about our mother plants. Every grower can get the same results by imitating this easy organic system.

Mother plants are kept so their roots are restricted using standard bonsai methodology and techniques. It is an excellent method for keeping mother plants long-term and has proved a very reliable system since we developed this method 24 years ago (editor: from the year 2000, so around 1976). The longest I’ve kept a mother like this without having to be replaced is just over 15 years.

On average….

• Replace pure indicas every 3 years
• Replace hybrids every 4 to 5 years
• Replace pure sativas every 6 to 7 years.

Of course, it depends on the care they are given, and every strain is different. These days most plants are hybrids and you don’t find much “pure” anything, but this can be a helpful guide. Male plants can be kept in the same way and in fact will stand more abuse than mother plants.

My Clone, Mother and Father box

It’s a double deck with two 4ft x 2 ft lights each with 4 x 40w cool white fluorescent lights.

Clone, Mother and Father box

270 rooted cuttings, in plugs ready to go into pots. Close-up of top tray right

One of the big advantages of using bonsai mother plants is that each only needs a maximum of 8 x 8 inches. So a 2 ft x 2 ft x 2 ft high box with a 4-tube fluorescent shop light can hold 9 mothers. We call the plants we keep Mums and Dads; not to be confused with chrysanthemums 🙂

I once read a quote in High Times that said you get genetic degeneration by keeping mother plants long term – this is total rubbish!

Degeneration can certainly occur if a mother plant gets infected with a reversion virus, but the buds produced today from our mother plants is just as potent and good-smelling as when it was first grown out from seed many years ago. In fact, it is better now. We have better lighting and superior growing techniques, allowing the clones to express their potential more fully.

This is our largest mother plant in a 1-liter pot (the largest size used). With all the top growth pictured she is about 13 inches tall and ready to take cuttings. Inset is a cutting being clipped out see below.

I use fine-point scissors for trimming the plants, they are fast and easy to use. Quick enough to do 2 to 3 cuttings a minute. Forget the stories that they bruise the stem and cause rot, it’s rubbish! They do need to be sharp, so buy a new pair and keep them just for this task. As far as hygiene is concerned, providing all your mother plants are free of virus, simply put them through the dishwasher after every session to get rid of the sap build up. This keeps them free and easy to use.

How to prepare the cuttings (refer to picture below)

1. This tip is ready to get prepared for rooting
2. Snip off the side shoot and leaf the node you want to root.
3. Cut just below the node you want to root.
4. Dip the trimmed node in rooting hormone.

How to Insert the Cuttings

1. Use a 3.5-inch square pot to root in
2. Fill with half perlite and half universal compost or rich potting soil
3. The mix is pre-soaked with water dosed with 1 ml of 35% or 2ml per litre of 17.5% H2O2 and 5 ml of Maxicrop Liquid Seaweed
4. Then the cuttings are dibbed into the compost, 9 to 12 per pot
5. The dibbed cuttings are then watered in using a fine rose same mix as above to settle them in.
6. Cover with a plastic bag and put under constant 24-hour lighting
7. Preferably cool-white fluorescent lighting at 20 w per sq foot and a temperature of 75 degrees Fahrenheit.

Inserting cuttings and covering with bag

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“There are a number of reasons for not rooting directly into plug trays.”

Let’s look at what we need from a rooted cutting… We want one that is suited to growing in a confined space i.e. a pot. They are as closely matched as possible. To get good yields from a grow, uniformity is the rule. It is no good having one plant that produces 50 grams when its 2 neighbors only produce 15 grams each. They are identical stock but this is what is often seen in grow after grow. It is much better to try and get all the plants averaging 35 grams well within the capacity of the stock line of a plant that can make 50 grams.

Remember we are talking about growing in soil-based or soilless compost mixes. The root type that the cutting produces is very important, lots of fine feeder roots are the ideal, anchor and tap roots are totally unwanted when growing in a pot. Remember the amount feeder root mass directly effects the potential crop weight

The 3.5-inch pots are 4 inches high; the rooting mix is very open with low nutrient content. This encourages early taproot development. Not all the cuttings will have rooted at the same time, so when they are transferred to the plug trays the root balls are trimmed to the same size and the tap root is removed, this goes a long way towards equalizing the clones. Once they are transferred as below they tend to stay pretty even and grow on rapidly. To show what we are looking for some equalized clones grown on and just put into flower. There are several varieties in this grow and there is not more than an inch or so between plants in each variety. They are placed by variety to make a stadium effect and make maximum use of light.

Around ten days later the cuttings will have rooted through. The rootball is gently broken up, each cutting has its roots trimmed back to equalize the cuttings and make them fit the plug tray! Full-strength peat or coir compost using organic base fertilizers are used for this.

Then they are put back in the Clone/Mother box for about 5/6 more days until thoroughly rooted through, this is very important at all stages of repotting! Fully rooted plants just jump ahead when moved on– we have found that plants moved into bigger pots too early typically produce 25% to 30% less final crop weight!

Moving the rooted cuttings to plug trays.

Cuttings in plug trays a few days later ready to move on to their first pots.

Showing a cutting out of the plug tray, fully rooted out and ready to go.

Cuttings like this can be taken from any plants in the vegetative stage.

That’s it… you are ready to grow!

(by Oldtimer1. Foreward and adaptation by Nebula Haze of GrowWeedEasy.com)

The post How to Create a Bonsai Mother for Unlimited Clones appeared first on Grow Weed Easy.

Ready to harvest more than 1 pound of top-shelf cannabis right from inside your home? Sounds amazing, doesn’t it? Turning that dream into a reality is fully within your grasp, and I’m going to show you exactly how to produce a pound of top-shelf weed indoors. Harvesting a pound (that’s an eye-popping 16 ounces) of your own top-shelf cannabis is about more than just the weight. It’s also about independence from buying, the delight of sharing your crop with others, and the freedom to have so much weed you never run out, with enough left over to make your own goodies like edibles, extracts, and tinctures.

Our first 1-pound indoor cannabis harvest based on this tutorial (600W HPS grow light).

And our first 1-lb harvest after switching to an LED grow light (600W LED grow light).

One key to growing a pound of good weed indoors is you have to give your plants the right growing environment. A large tent sized at 4’x4’x6.5′ (1.2mx1.2mx2m) is a manageable size that provides an ideal place to consistently produce your 1-lb cannabis grow.

Here are some examples of grow lights that would be suitable for this size grow tent:

• Spider Farmer SF4000 LED grow light – (uses 450W) – Yields just under 1 pound
• Mars Hydro FC-E4800 LED grow light (uses 480W) – Yields over 1 pound per harvest
• 600W HPS (Uses 600W) – Yields up to 21 ounces or 1.3 lbs
• HLG Blackbird 600W LED (600W, dimmable) – Yields up to 24 oz or 1.5 lbs. Recommended choice – this LED light was designed specifically to achieve high yields in a 4×4 grow tent.
• 1000W DE HPS (Uses 1000W) – Yields up to 35 oz or 2.2 lbs, VERY hot, you will need cooling.

Example Plants Grown in This Size Tent

Cannabis plants grown in a 4’x4′ grow tent under a 600W HPS.

Six plants under a 600W LED grow light in 4’x4’x6.5′ (these are only on day 38 of flowering).

Two Hydroponic Plants under a 600W HPS in 4’x4’x7′ grow tent – Yielded 23.09 oz at harvest!

Those are just a few examples. Many of you have written in asking for more tutorials about growing large amounts of weed in the home environment. We have heard you loud and clear! Here’s the proven strategy we’re covering in today’s cannabis tutorial that will teach you how to yield 1 lb or more of top-shelf cannabis in a single large grow tent:

Overall Strategy

1.) Start with a high-yielding cannabis strain – Learn how to find the right strain.

2.) Get your supplies – Here’s an example of a complete shopping list for a 4’x4′ grow tent that gets great results with cannabis.

3.) “Top” plants at a young age – Cut off the top of the main stem when seedlings are a few weeks old.

4.) Train plants to grow flat and wide (like a table) in the vegetative stage.

• Simple Way: Either use plant twist tie to hold down branches…
• Using a Net: Invest in a Scrog net and install it to be half the final desired height of your plants. Any time a stem grows above the net, tuck it back underneath until you’ve filled the entire net

5.) Initiate the flowering stage, then…

• Defoliate – Follow a strategic defoliation schedule
• Not too hot, not too humid – Maintain a good environment while buds are forming.
• Keep plants healthy – Avoid bugs and nutrient deficiencies.
• If using a net,  add a second net and arrange buds to fill the entire net as they grow.

6.) Harvest at the right time.

7.) Dry and jar buds properly.

This is just a super basic outline. Check below for more details and step-by-step instructions!

How to Grow 1 Pound of Weed: Step-by-Step Instructions

1.) Start with a high-yielding cannabis strain

Learn how to find the right strain (regardless of what your goals are).

Some strains naturally yield much more than others. Choose high-yielding strains to maximize your harvest weight.

Autoflowering Strains vs Photoperiod Strains: Which is better for cannabis yields?

Although many auto-flowering strains are high-yielding, and produce fast harvests under 3 months, you don’t have as much control over plant growth patterns and size as you do with photoperiod strains. That’s because autoflowering strains start making buds after about 4 weeks, even if your plants aren’t as big as you need them to be yet. Cannabis plants about double in size after they start flowering, and if your autoflowering plants are too small at that point, they’ll stay small until harvest no matter what you do. Especially for beginners, it can be difficult to consistently harvest 1 lb per harvest with auto-flowering strains because even a small problem at the beginning of the grow can stunt your plant size.

On the other hand, photoperiod cannabis plants are much more forgiving if you make mistakes early on. You have all the time in the world to get your plants to the exact right size and shape before you initiate the flowering stage. As long as you set your plants up right before they start flowering, and keep them healthy, you’re pretty much guaranteed a 1+ lb harvest following all these steps, which is why photoperiod strains are recommended if you’re not sure what to pick.

Autoflowering strains 

Pros

• Faster – Ready to harvest in under 3 months. Can’t beat the time to harvest! If speed is most important, then auto-flowering genetics are the way to go.
• No special light schedules – You don’t have to worry about light schedules, light leaks, or anything like that. Just give the plants 18+ hours of direct light a day and that’s all you really need to think about when it comes to light. Check on your plants any time.

Cons

• Early mistakes can dramatically hurt yields – Can’t make mistakes in the seedling stage. Autofloweirng plants start flowering after about a month even if they’ve been sick and are still small. That means early mistakes like overwatering your seedlings will stunt autoflowering plants for life, so only choose autoflowering strains if you’ve got a great handle on taking care of plants for the first 4 weeks of life.
• Less consistent yields – More difficult to always get 1 lb per harvest, due to the shorter life period as well as the fact that it’s easier for plants to end up smaller than you want.
• Fewer strain choices – Autoflowering strains are “boutique” specialty genetics and you typically have fewer options when it comes to autos.

Photoperiod strains <– Recommended for this cannabis high-yield tutorial

Pros

• Early mistakes are forgiven – Even if you make mistakes early on, you have time to let your plants recover and get them the optimum size and shape to guarantee a 1-lb harvest.
• Consistent 1 lb harvests – With photoperiod strains, even a total beginner can produce a pound of weed in their first harvest as long as they just make sure to follow all these instructions.
• Bigger selection – Most strains are photoperiod strains, which means you have a much larger selection to choose from.
• Excellent bud quality – Although you can get some incredible autoflowering strains these days that have bud quality equal to photoperiod strains, on average photoperiod buds not only look and smell nicer, but also have higher THC levels.

Cons

• Takes longer – Average grow time with photoperiod strains is 4-5 months from germination to harvest day. This is about 1-2 months longer than most autoflowering strains.
• Special light schedules – In order to get photoperiod cannabis plants to make buds (start “flowering”), growers give plants 12 hours of complete darkness a day to simulate that winter is coming. This is easy to do in a grow tent by putting your grow lights on a timer. However, the downside is you can’t check on or care for your plants during their 12-hour “lights off” period every day so you don’t accidentally interrupt their beauty sleep.

I recommend growers follow this tutorial with photoperiod strains just to increase the chance you get a full pound or more. However, auto-flowering strains can work if you’re desperate to harvest within 3 months and are willing to make sure to take extra good care of your plants while they’re still young.

Examples of excellent high-yielding photoperiod strains (these are all feminized seeds, which means every plant with be a bud-making female plant)

• Blue Dream by Seed Supreme – Enormous yields every time. A true commercial producer and one of the higher-yielding strains I’ve grown. Buds are sweet-smelling with relaxing yet “social” weed effects that have given in the status of “party favorite”.
• Platinum Cookies by Seed Supreme – Excellent yields and the bud quality is out of this world. The purple-tinted buds tested at 25-27% THC when we grew it and the effects were a crowd favorite. This strain tends to get tall, but responds well to bending and supercropping to keep it short and flat. It has a 12-week flowering stage, which is a few weeks longer than average, but the yield and bud quality are worth 2 extra weeks in my opinion.
• Kushberry Moonrocks by MSNL – Great yields, pretty purple color on buds, averages around 28% THC, only a 10-week flowering stage. Effects are relaxing but POTENT. Definitely a strain meant to be enjoyed at home.

2.) Get your big-yield supplies

Here’s an example of a complete shopping list for a 4’x4′ grow tent that gets great results with cannabis using the HLG Blackbird 600W LED.

Here are other examples of grow lights that would be suitable for this size grow tent, using otherwise the same setup as above:

• Spider Farmer SF4000 LED grow light – (uses 450W) – Yields just under 1 pound
• Mars Hydro FC-E4800 LED grow light (uses 480W) – Yields over 1 pound per harvest
• 600W HPS (Uses 600W) – Yields up to 21 ounces or 1.3 lbs
• HLG Blackbird 600W LED (600W, dimmable) – Yields up to 24 oz or 1.5 lbs. Recommended choice – this LED light was designed specifically to achieve high yields in a 4×4 grow tent.
• 1000W DE HPS (Uses 1000W) – Yields up to 35 oz or 2.2 lbs, VERY hot, you will need cooling.

Any of these grow lights will grow thriving cannabis plants in a 4’x4′ grow tent.

Other hints for getting the highest yields in your setup:

• Grow with coco (or hydro) – Coco and hydro tend to produce better yields than growing in soil on average. The grow medium that tends to produce the lowest yields is super soil (“just add water” soil). However, yields aren’t the only important thing when it comes to growing, and you can achieve 1 pound in this setup even with super soil if you make sure to maximize everything else.
• Use synthetic nutrients – Along the same line, cannabis plants tend to produce the highest yields when using synthetic or mineral-based nutrients. Adding organic nutrients can definitely increase yields vs not using any nutrients, but they are not as easily available to the plant as man-made nutrients. Some great cannabis nutrient systems are mostly organic with just a few key synthetic ingredients to get the best of both worlds, like Fox Farm trio for hydro. But fully synthetic nutrients like General Hydroponics Flora trio get the best yields of any nutrient system we’ve tried in side-by-side grow experiments so far. If yields are your #1 goal, I highly recommend the GH Flora trio – just follow the instructions on the side of the bottle at half strength, maintain a pH of 5.5-6.5 pH at the roots, and you don’t have to worry about nutrients.
• Don’t ignore heat – Young plants don’t mind the heat, but if it’s regularly above 85°F/30°C in the grow space while buds are forming, it will harm your yields by making buds grow more loose and airy.  Heat also greatly increases the chance of getting bud rot or mold in your buds. Luckily, a good exhaust fan venting air out of the tent goes a long way, which is why I included in a powerful exhaust fan in the recommended 4×4 setup. However, if the whole room is warming up above that temperature, adding more fans won’t help. At that point, you should vent the hot air directly out a window or install an AC. At that point, you won’t need to worry about heat and can focus on other things.
• React quickly to plant problems – If you notice a nutrient deficiency, see signs of bugs, or catch sight of any other unexpected plant symptoms, pay attention! Check our free plant doctor tool and correct the cause of the problem as soon as possible. Most problems can be dealt with easily at first, but they get harder and harder to fix the longer they go on without intervention.

Once you’ve got your garden set up, start your seeds and lets start growing!

• How to germinate your seeds directly in the grow medium, as pictured below (here’s a germination tutorial for hydro).
• How to water cannabis plants.

Plant your marijuana seeds and keep them warm during germination.

The result? Cannabis seedlings pop up a few days later.

3.) “Top” plants at a young age

Wait until the seedling has about 6 sets of leaves, then cut off the top of the main stem.

Wait until your plants have grow about 6 sets of leaves (6 “nodes”).

Cut off the top of the plant through the main stem. You want to remove the top node completely.

After topping 4 plants, I had 4 little tops. Cutting off such a small amount of plant doesn’t seem like it would make a huge difference to your yields, but this is one of the most important steps to take as a grower indoors to maximize yields. As a result of this simple act, the plant will stop growing with only one main stem, and instead naturally grow more bushy and wide with multiple stems. These bushy cannabis plants will be covered in buds instead of only having one main bud, giving you the “sea of buds” you often see in pictures.

These 4 plants were just topped.

These are the 4 tops from the 4 plants. Such a small amount removed, but it will dramatically change the future growth of your plants.

Now that their tops have been cut off, these plants will never grow the same again. After being topped, they naturally grow bushier with multiple bud sites instead of growing with just one big bud. As a result, you increase the amount of yield you can produce per plant.

Learn more about topping cannabis plants.

4.) Train plants to grow flat and wide (like a table) in the vegetative stage.

Method 1: Bend down branches and use plant twist tie to hold them in place.

• When any branch gets taller than the others, bend it down and away from the center of the plant.
• Tie the stem directly to the plant container using plant twisty tie to hold it in place.
• You’re done when they’re all the same height and about 1.5′ tall from the top of the plant container. At that point, move to the next step.

Full tutorial on how to use plant twist tie plus bending to grow plants wide and flat like a table.

The goal of any training when growing indoors is to force your plants to grow flat and wide like a table. This ensures all the parts of the plant are about the same distance from the grow light. This shape will dramatically increase your yields once buds start forming because it allows your plants to use “every last drop” of light to make buds.

Method 2: Use a “Screen” (get trellis netting and train plants to grow under the net)

Invest in a 4×4′ Scrog trellis net (get two because you may want a second one later) and install it to be half the final desired height of your plants. In a 4’x4′ grow tent, a good final height for your plants is about 3′ tall. So install the scrog net about 1.5′ feet above the tops of your plant containers. Any time a stem grows above the net, tuck it back underneath until you’ve filled the entire net.

Keep tucking branches under the net as plants grow.

Continue until the whole net is “filled” with a canopy of living plants. This net just has a few spots left before it’s completely filled and ready for the next step.

5.) Initiate the flowering stage, then…

In order to get plants to make buds (start “flowering”) you need to give plants 12 hours of complete darkness a day. This is typically done by putting your grow lights on a timer set on a 12/12 light schedule.  Since your plants are in a grow tent, when the grow lights are off, your plants are in complete darkness so they can enjoy their “beauty sleep”.

Note: Don’t check on your plants during their 12-hour “night” period because exposing them to light at night even a few times can disrupt budding and revert plants back to the vegetative stage. Keep plants totally in the dark when the grow lights are off.

Defoliate – Follow a strategic defoliation schedule.

It doesn’t seem like defoliation (removing leaves) should improve cannabis yields, but this is a “hack” that has proven to be remarkably effective. Not only does strategic defoliation increase your yields (when done properly), it also increases the overall bud quality including the THC percentage and density of your buds. We confirmed this at the lab in our defoliation side-by-side experiment with clones. There are many great defoliation schedules, but here’s one that works well to increase yields and is followed by many commercial growers.

Example of a great defoliation schedule (most common defoliation schedule for commercial cannabis growers)

First Defoliation: 3 weeks after 12/12

Remove all the big fan leaves from the plant about 3 weeks after initiating the 12/12 light schedule.

• If a leaf is the size of your hand or bigger, remove it.
• If the stem is at least 1″ long, remove it.
• Make sure to leave at least a few fan leaves on each main stem

Second Defoliation: Do this 4 weeks after the first defoliation

• Repeat the same process
• Focus on making sure all bud sites get direct exposure to the light and aren’t covered by leaves
• After this, don’t remove leaves unless the plant is getting overly leafy, causing leaves to lay on each other and create wet spots
• It’s okay to tuck leaves to expose buds

After defoliation, you should be able to see light from the grow light hitting the floor (if the floor is in shadow then remove more leaves).

Read the full defoliation tutorial.

Other flowering stage tips

• Not too hot, not too humid – Maintain a good environment while buds are forming.
• Keep plants healthy – Avoid bugs and nutrient deficiencies.

Leaves should appear green and healthy for most of the flowering stage. It’s normal for leaves to start turning yellow or looking rough the last 1-2 weeks before harvest, but before that, it’s a sign of a problem. If you notice discolored leaves, don’t ignore it. Do something! Your yields will thank you.

If using a net…

• Once you initiate the flowering stage, stop tucking your stems under the first net.
• Let the stems grow above the net. Each stem is going to develop into a main bud (sometimes called a “cola”).
• Are the colas getting too close ot the light or starting to fall over?
  • If the stems are wavy and falling over, or if some stems are growing taller than others, install a second net about 1 foot above the first one.
  • This is not 100% necessary, but can be helpful if your stems stretch a lot after initiating 12/12 (a second net helps you arrange buds to make sure they fill the entire grow tent).
  • Use the grid to stabilize your colas where you want them.
  • If a stem is getting too close to the grow light, tuck it under that second net.
  • Try to ensure your buds are all about the same height as each other and the same distance from the light.

Regardless of the exact method of training, the goal is to get all your buds about the same distance from the grow light. This maximizes yields.

6.) Harvest at the right time.

Harvest at the right time. Here’s a quick guide.

Not Ready

Baby buds (budlets) look like a ball of white hairs. These buds have many weeks to go!

If your buds are all white hairs, they’re just getting started. Expect much more fattening from here.

Watch out for pollen sacs!

If you started with feminized seeds from a trustworthy breeder, you should never see pollen sacs. But just in case, if you see pollen sacs instead of white hairs, it means your plant is growing male flowers and should be removed from the grow space immediately. Why toss male plants? Male flowers don’t contain much THC and their pollen causes nearby buds to grow seeds.

Immediately remove any plant that grows pollen sacs instead of white hairs. Learn more about male plants.

Still Not Ready

As the marijuana plant buds get closer to harvest, they thicken, and those white pistils start to darken and curl up. You’ll notice your buds are slowly getting thicker and denser. However, if you still have a lot of straight white pistils, like this bud, it means you still have a few weeks to go.

Ready to Harvest!

You’re in the ready-to-harvest window for cannabis when most of the hairs have darkened and curled in.

A bud is ready to harvest when most of the hairs darken and curl in.

Check out tons more pictures of ready-to-harvest buds from different strains!

Learn how to use a magnifier to look at buds for even more precision.

7.) Dry and jar buds properly.

Buds aren’t smokable directly off the plant because they’re mostly full of water. You need to dry and cure buds if you want to get bud quality like what you’re used to buying.

The simplest way to dry buds is to cut off the branches and hang each branch upside down until the buds are dry. Best done in a cool space.

Learn how to dry buds and cure them perfectly.

Time to enjoy the fruits of your labor!

Conclusion: Summary of Key Steps for 1 Pound Yields in a 4×4′ Grow Tent

Growing over a pound of cannabis in a 4’x4’ grow tent is an achievable goal for any home grower (even a beginner) when following my strategic plan.

Here’s a recap of the key steps covered in this guide:

• Start with high-yielding strains – Choose stable, fast-growing strains that are known for their heavy yields.
• Get the right equipment – Invest in a quality grow light, tent, fans, etc. sized for your space. If you get good equipment, especially a good grow light, your equipment will do most of the work for you.
• Top young plants – Cut the main stem early to promote bushy, wide growth.
• Train plants to grow flat like a table – Use bending and tying down (or a trellis / scrog net) to “train” plants and create a wide even canopy that fills the entire grow space. Do this before you initiate the flowering stage.
• Initiate flowering at the right time – Switch to 12/12 when plants are 1/2 the final desired size.
• Strategic defoliation – Remove large leaves to “hack” the plant’s natural plant processes and force it to grow in a way that produces bigger, denser, and more potent buds. Best when done on a specific schedule. For example, a common schedule is to defoliate heavily at the beginning of the flowering stage, and then defoliate again 3 weeks later.
• Control environment – Avoid excessive heat or humidity, and give plants lots of airflow. Luckily, if you started with good equipment and set up your grow space properly, you won’t have to worry about the environment.
• Stay vigilant – Catch issues early and take corrective steps. Don’t ignore problems!
• Harvest at peak maturity – Harvest buds at the right time.
• Dry and cure buds – Dry buds in a good environment, then jar and cure them for a few weeks. This is crucial to achieve professional quality bud!

Follow these steps carefully throughout the grow and you can expect to harvest over a pound of dense, high-quality buds from a 4’x4’ grow tent setup! With some experience under your belt, yields of 1.5 pounds or greater become possible!

You might enjoy the following cannabis growing tutorials…

15 ways to improve cannabis yields

How to increase bud density

How to increase THC of buds (make buds more potent!)

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