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

3 Top Soil Nutrients for Growing Weed

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

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

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

Quick Guide: When to Give More Nutrients in Soil

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

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

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

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

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

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

When the Nutrient Problem is Caused by PH

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

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

Another example of a nutrient deficiency caused by incorrect pH.

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

Great nutrients grows healthy plants – see the grow journal.

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

Table of Contents

Do You Need Special Nutrients to Grow Marijuana in Soil?

What Type of Soil Should I Get?

Which Company Makes the Best Soil Nutrients?

Tips for Growing Marijuana in Soil

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

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

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

How to Get Enough Nutrients to Your Marijuana Plants

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

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

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

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

What Soil Should I Get to Grow Weed?

What Are the Best Soil Nutrients?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How Much Soil Nutrients to Give Cannabis?

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

Other Factors That Affect Nutrient Levels

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tips for Growing Cannabis in Soil

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

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

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

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

How to water adult cannabis plants in soil

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

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

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

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

Learn more about growing cannabis in soil!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Who Made GrowWeedEasy.com?

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

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

The GrowWeedEasy.com Ethos

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

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

Looking for a complete harvest system?

If you want dense, beautiful, great-smelling weed, our new digital book gives you our complete harvest system. Follow the straightforward instructions and massively upgrade your next harvest. A few small changes can make a huge difference to your results.

Get our fool-proof harvest system.

FOR SERIOUS GROWERS ONLY

🌟 $200 Off Special Offer: Enroll today in Home Grow Masterclass!

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

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

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

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

Or take the shortcut and harvest a sea of fat, dense, beautiful buds that smell great. At home!

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

Learn How To Grow Top-Shelf Weed at Home!

Start Your First Class TODAY!

You may be asking yourself these common growing questions:

“How do I grow marijuana indoors?”

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

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

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

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

“Where can I get marijuana seeds?”

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

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

What do good cannabis seeds look like?

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

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

“How much will electricity cost each month?”

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

“How can I increase my marijuana yields?”

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

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

Even More Ways to Increase Cannabis Yields

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

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

“How can I grow weed privately?”

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

“What if my plants get sick?”

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

Growing Medical Marijuana

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

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

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

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

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

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

Start Growing Weed Today!

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

Looking for a growing book?

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

Happy Growing!
Nebula Haze & Sirius Fourside

Get our fool-proof harvest system.

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The post Grow Weed Easy – Learn How to Grow Cannabis Tutorials appeared first on Grow Weed Easy.

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

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

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

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

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

Best Nutrients for Coco

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

Poor Nutrients for Coco

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

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

Optimum NPK Ratios for Coco Cannabis Nutrients

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

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

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

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

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

• Magnesium
• Calcium
• Iron
• Sulfur

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Are some or all of your cannabis leaves turning yellow? Maybe your yellowing leaves also have other symptoms like spots, curling, wilting, brown patches, etc. Marijuana plants may get yellow leaves for several different reasons, which means it can be hard to figure out the true root of the problem!

Today I’ll break down the 10 most common reasons your weed leaves turn yellow, and I’ll show you how to make your plant green again.

10 Most Common Reasons for Yellow Leaves

1. High or Low Root pH
2. Poor Watering Practices
3. Nitrogen Deficiency
4. Light Burn / Light Stress
5. Heat Stress / Cold Shock
6. Magnesium Deficiency
7. Iron Deficiency
8. Not Enough Light (especially seedlings)
9. Bugs or Pests
10. Bud Rot

When Not to Worry (Pictures of Normal Yellow Leaves)

These yellow leaves with green stripes in the margins are caused by high pH at the roots.

10 Causes of Yellow Leaves (From Most to Least Common)

1.) PH is Too High or Low at the Roots

Whether you’re growing cannabis in soil, coco coir or in hydroponics, high or low pH at the roots is the most common reason to see yellowing and other nutrient deficiencies. Cannabis plants have a difficult time absorbing nutrients when the pH is in the wrong range, resulting in nutrient deficiencies even if the nutrients are actually present near the roots.

Symptoms

• Yellow or other oddly colored leaves
• Spots, stripes, or patches
• Burning around the edges of leaves
• In fact, almost any nutrient deficiency can be triggered by incorrect pH

What is the Correct PH?

Growers who don’t make sure their pH stays in the right range will often run into nutrient deficiencies, even if they’re starting with a pure source of water and good soil.

• Soil Optimum: 6-7 pH
• Coco / Hydro Optimum: 5.5-6.5 pH

How to Fix

• Use a kit or PH Pen to test the pH of the water before you give it to your plants, and adjust if necessary by adding an acid or base to your water
• Learn How to Fix Incorrect pH.

These symptoms look like nutrient deficiencies but are actually caused by incorrect pH.

Most water sources contain enough copper (which the plant needs in very small amounts) so copper deficiencies like this one are almost always caused by incorrect root pH.

Zinc deficiencies (pictured below) are the same way. They are almost always caused by incorrect pH.

Another common culprit of yellow leaves from incorrect pH is a potassium deficiency. Cannabis plants love lots of potassium, especially in the flowering stage, but nearly all cannabis-friendly nutrient systems contain plenty of potassium. If you’re adding nutrients to the water, this deficiency is almost always the symptom of a pH problem.

This is also a potassium deficiency, even though it looks a little like nutrient burn (too high levels of nutrients). The main clue is the yellow striping on the leaves, which tends to get worse over time until leaves are mostly yellow. Another clue is the brown tips go in further than typical nutrient burn.

Stripes on the leaves (click for close-up) indicates that this is not a Nitrogen deficiency, even though the symptoms are similar. In this case, the symptoms were caused by the pH being way too high, combined with a bit too much water at a time.

2.) Poor Watering Practices

It’s much more common to over-water than under-water cannabis plants, and the symptoms are very similar. In either case, the solution is to learn how to water your plants exactly the right amount at the right time!

Symptoms of Poor Watering Practices

• Droopiness (it’s normal for plants to droop a little before the lights go out, but you know the drooping is a problem if it’s already happening at the beginning of their “day”).
• Odd problems and symptoms from poor water practices including yellowing and sometimes other deficiencies.
• Droopy leaves – Droopiness is usually caused by either…
  • Overwatering – leaves seem “fat” and swollen with water. Often you’ll have a feeling you may be overwatering your plant, especially if it’s a small plant in a large container.
  • Underwatering – leaves often seem “papery” and thin because they don’t have any water inside them. Chronic underwatering leads to overall yellowing and deficiencies.

How Do Cannabis Growers Get It?

• Young plants are extra sensitive – Overwatering is most common with young plants since they still have small, weak root systems.
• Too much or too little water at a time – You can hurt plants by giving too much or too little water at a time, and you can also cause persistent droopiness by watering too often or too infrequently
• Bad soil with poor drainage can cause the symptoms of overwatering even if you’re watering the plants perfectly!
• Small plants in big containers are easily over-watered.
• Big plants in small containers are easily under-watered.
• Not checking on plants – Growers who spend long periods away from their plants and/or don’t pay attention to their watering needs are much more likely to run into problems with droopiness.

How to Water Your Plants Correctly

• Good grow medium – Start with good soil or coco coir.
• Right size container – Make sure plants are in the right size container for their size.
• Pay attention if you notice drooping.
  • If plants start drooping after you water them, you’re overwatering.
  • If drooping plants perk up after watering, you’re underwatering.
• Learn how to water your plants perfectly every time.

Overwatering

Chronic overwatering can sometimes cause unusual deficiencies even if the pH is spot on, like this plant grown in muddy soil. The biggest sign that these symptoms are caused by overwatering and not pH (or something else) is that the plant is always droopy.

Another example of a deficiency that’s actually caused by overwatering (notice how this seedling is also droopy)

Chronic Underwatering (Relatively Rare)

Most growers tend to overwater – not underwater – their plants. However, if you’re spending long periods away from your plants or the containers are drying up in less than a day or two, it may mean that your plant needs to be watered more often, or be given more water at a time. It’s also more common to under-water when plants start overgrowing their pots.

It can be difficult to diagnose chronic underwatering because problems may look like nutrient deficiencies. Your main clue is that plants perk up every time after you water.

Learn more about underwatering cannabis plants.

3.) Nitrogen Deficiency

Symptoms

• Pale leaves – Plants tend to be lime green or pale all over, even though the leaves appear healthy without stripes or spots
• Bottom leaves turn yellow – Yellow leaves tend to appear toward the bottom of the plant
• Yellow leaves fall on their own – With a nitrogen deficiency, yellow leaves feel soft and are easily pulled off (in fact they usually fall on their own). If a leaf feels very stiff or is hard to pull out, that means it is not a Nitrogen deficiency and actually something else.

How Do Growers Get It?

• Used up nutrients in soil – Affects plants that have “used up” the nutrients in the soil, which can happen after the plant has been in the same container for several weeks or months.
• Need to increase the amount of nutrients in the water – A nitrogen deficiency can happen in coco or hydro when the grower isn’t providing any extra nutrients (since there is no Nitrogen contained naturally in plain coco or water).

It is very unlikely you have a true Nitrogen deficiency if you’re providing your plants with the recommended amount of cannabis nutrients in the water.

How to Fix

• Give good nutrients – Easily remedied by giving plants a regular base plant nutrient from basically any cannabis-friendly nutrient system
• Transplant to new soil – In soil, growers can transplant their plants to a new container with fresh soil (if they don’t want to add extra nutrients to the water).
• Learn more about Nitrogen deficiencies.

A cannabis plant turns pale or lime green all over (left) when it needs more Nitrogen. A healthy plant appears medium green (right).

This plant is on the verge of a Nitrogen deficiency. This is indicated by its overall pale color, even though all the leaves look healthy without spots or stripes. Cannabis leaves should not be lime green or pale, or the plant tends to grow more slowly!

Here’s a close-up of a Nitrogen-deficient leaf near the bottom of the plant. Nitrogen-deficient leaves are soft and look/feel wilted.

If you have a Nitrogen deficiency, the yellow leaves will start falling off on their own.

Did You Know? Oddly enough, too much Nitrogen can also cause yellow leaves, though the rest of the leaves will be clawed and a deep dark green instead of pale.

Too Much Nitrogen (Nitrogen Toxicity)

4.) Light Burn

Symptoms

• Yellowing appears most on the parts of the plant closest to the light.
• Yellow leaves do not pull out easily, even if the whole leaf is dead
• Light burn often takes a few weeks to develop and is most common once the plant is past the 6th week of the flowering stage (when plants aren’t making many new leaves to replace old ones).

Cannabis light burn usually affects the top leaves closest to the grow light instead of affecting the plant evenly.

How Do Growers Get It?

• Light burn is when your leaves are working too hard for too long, causing them to die early.
• Even if the temperature is in a good range, your plant can still get light burn if the grow light is too close. It’s kind of like how skiers can get sunburned even in freezing temperatures because of all the sunlight reflecting off the snow.
• Light burn is most common with powerful lights like HPS/LED/LEC.
• It’s also common when switching to new bulbs (which are stronger than old bulbs) or when there is no glass between the bulb and your plants.
• Some plants are more sensitive than others, and you may have one plant suffering from light burn while the others are fine. That can make it harder to diagnose the problem since some of your plants are thriving in the same environment!

Light burn symptoms can be different from plant to plant, but they always seem to happen mostly to the parts of the plant that are closest to the light

How to Fix

• The best way to fix light burn is to move your grow lights further away, or bend over the affected plants so they’re further from the light.
• When in doubt, always follow the manufacturer’s recommendations when it comes to how far away to keep your light from your plants! This is especially important for growers who utilize LEDs.
• Learn more about cannabis light burn
• How far away should I keep my grow lights?

5.) Temperature Problems (Heat Stress / Cold Shock) 

• Yellow or burnt leaves near the light
• General yellowing of upper leaves
• Leaves start “turning up” at the edges, or forming “tacos”

How Do Growers Get It?

• If you put your hand where your plants are and hold it there for 30 seconds, is it too hot to be comfortable? If it’s too hot for you it’s likely too hot for your plants.
• Although relatively rare indoors since most growers struggle with heat instead of cold, a temperature under 50°F (10°C) can also cause pale or yellow leaves. Some plants will even die if it hits freezing temperatures! Placing grow containers directly on concrete in a basement can kill them with cold overnight!

How to Fix

• You should be able to pass the “hand test” (hold your hand where your plants are and make sure it’s not too hot). If it’s too hot for you, move the light up and further away from the top of your plants.
• You should correct the temperature if it’s under 60°F at night or above 85°F during the day.
• Make sure there is good air circulation in the grow space, to prevent hot spots.
• Your plants will be more resistant to cold if you keep their roots warm, so make sure to keep your containers off the cold floor (or if outdoors, you might consider covering your plant roots at night!)!
• How do I control temperature?
• More About Heat Stress

This poor plant was decimated by a heat wave – it went through several days of 100°F+ temperatures! Luckily the buds were still great 🙂

Too much heat can cause the edges of leaves to curl upwards and make “tacos”.

Sometimes extended periods of high temperatures cause spots and other odd symptoms in addition to yellowing.

Cold Shock

This plant was exposed to temperatures under 40°F (5°C) at night, causing all the newest growth to turn so pale yellow it almost looked white!

6.) Magnesium Deficiency

Symptoms

• Yellowing in between the veins on leaves, often located lower down on the plant.

How Do Growers Get It?

• A magnesium deficiency is almost always caused by incorrect pH though if you’re using heavily purified or soft water (such as RO – reverse osmosis – water) you may need a Cal-Mag supplement to make sure your plant is getting enough magnesium.

How to Fix

• First, check the pH. It should be in the 6.0-7.0 range for soil growers and 5.5-6.5 for everyone else.
• If a Magnesium deficiency persists, consider getting a CaliMagic supplement that is made for plants (you should always add Magnesium and Calcium at the same time because these two nutrients work together in the cannabis plant).
• Learn more about Magnesium deficiencies

With a magnesium deficiency, the yellowing happens between the veins of the leaves, while the veins stay green.

Sometimes Triggered by Old Age / Natural Senescence / Light Deprivation

• It’s actually normal if you only see these symptoms on a few leaves at the bottom of the plant that are no longer getting any light. The plant eventually “gives up” on old leaves if they spend days or weeks without light, which often happens to the lowest leaves as the plant gets bigger. This may look like a magnesium deficiency.
• If this is the case, the leaves often seem droopy, limp, and tired. These leaves don’t “stick straight out” like normal leaves because the plant isn’t wasting resources by putting energy into them.
• This is most common when using relatively weak grow lights like fluorescent lighting or CFLs, since the light doesn’t easily reach the bottom of the plant.
• Therefore this symptom is only something to worry about if it’s happening on leaves that are still getting light, or if you’re seeing the symptoms on many different leaves instead of just an occasional leaf here and there.

7.) Iron Deficiency

Symptoms

• Iron deficiencies are unique because the yellowing always affects the newest growth; it does not happen to older leaves that are already green.
• New leaves usually come in completely yellow.
• Unlike most other nutrient deficiencies that cause yellowing, yellow leaves from an iron deficiency will usually turn green, starting from the outside edges and working inwards.

How Do Growers Get It?

• Unless you are using RO or very purified water, an iron deficiency is almost always caused by incorrect pH. This is because cannabis needs very little iron, and most sources of water already contain trace amounts of iron.

How to Fix

• The pH being too high or too low is the most likely cause of this problem. Bring your pH into the correct range and iron deficiencies will just go away.
• If using purified water or water that doesn’t contain much natural iron, you may need a Cal-Mag supplement that includes iron like CaliMagic. You see these three together because Iron, Calcium, and Magnesium work closely together in the plant. You never want to supplement your plant with extra iron without also adding the correct ratio of Calcium and Magnesium at the same time, or it may cause other types of deficiencies.
• Learn more about Iron deficiencies

Iron deficiencies cause the middle and newest leaves to turn yellow, but they will slowly turn green as the plant gets older

8.) Not Enough Light (Seedlings)

When a shell first cracks, the round leaves inside are actually yellow. They only turn green once the plant starts getting enough light.

Note: Adult cannabis plants without enough light won’t grow well either, but they likely won’t have yellow leaves. In fact, adult cannabis plants that are getting relatively low levels of light will actually turn dark green since they aren’t using up nutrients for photosynthesis (the extra unused nutrients get stored in the leaves, causing them to appear darker).

How Do Growers Get It?

You know your seedling needs more light when…

• Seedlings are tall with small leaves
• There is a lot of nodal spacing (stem between each set of leaves). Seedlings look “stretchy”.
• Leaves stay yellow or pale green

How to Fix

• The solution for pale, tall, stretchy seedlings is to add more light!
• Learn more about different grow lights as well as how to upgrade your light system

This seedling is yellow and “stretching” because it needs more light

9.) Bugs or Pests

Many different types of bugs or pests can stress your plants, causing them to develop yellow leaves.

Symptoms

• You can actually see bugs or eggs
• Yellowing leaves, especially when combined with spots or bite marks
• Overall lack of vigor

How Do Growers Get Pests?

• Track them in from outside
• From visiting another grower’s plants
• Getting an infected clone or plant (sometimes there are a few tiny eggs you can’t see!)
• Certain things like overwatering, lack of cleanliness, and poor air circulation make your garden a bigger target and a better home for bugs, making it easier for an infestation to take hold and stick around.

How to Fix

• Unless you 100% trust the grower and their growing practices, never ever visit another grower’s garden or adopt clones from them. It can be incredibly difficult to get rid of bugs that are already specialized at surviving on cannabis plants!
• Avoid going straight from outside to your cannabis plants, especially if you’ve spent time in a garden.
• Make sure there is a screen to stop bugs if your plants are getting fresh air from outside.
• Identify your bugs and get rid of them!

One of the most common pests that can cause yellowing without really any other symptoms is fungus gnats. These tiny winged creatures hang around your wet topsoil, and are most likely to appear if you’re overwatering your plants. Although the adults don’t attack your plants, their larvae feast on the roots, which can eventually cause yellowing, especially on small or weak plants.

A bad fungus gnat infestation can damage or even kill your plant!

Another common pest that may cause overall leaf yellowing is spider mites!

But any time a plant has an infestation, you may notice the leaves start yellowing regardless of the type of bug. You should be very concerned if you also see spots!

Click here to find out which bugs are attacking your cannabis plants!

10.) Bud Rot

If yellow leaves appear overnight on just one or a few of your main buds, inspect the areas closely! Sometimes this is caused by bud rot at the base of the leaves.

Symptoms

• Yellow leaves on select parts of the biggest buds
• Yellowing often appears overnight
• Yellow leaves usually easily fall right out
• At the base of the leaf, you can see white, gray, or brown mold growing on the inside of the cola

How Do Growers Get It?

• Humidity above 60% RH
• Lack of air circulation/breeze
• Cool temperature – bud rot thrives around 60-70°F
• Bushy plant (too many leaves) in a small space like a grow tent
• Outdoors in rainy, cool, or humid weather

How to Fix

• Keep humidity under 50% RH during flowering if possible
• Keep the temperature above 65-70°F at night if possible
• Make sure there’s lots of air circulation around all the colas and through the plant
• Defoliate a very bushy plant, especially if it’s getting close to harvest time
• Learn how to prevent and treat bud rot!

Sometimes Yellow Leaves Are Normal!

Sometimes marijuana leaves turn yellow for totally normal reasons, including…

First Leaves Turn Yellow – Normal

After your plant has grown a few sets of leaves, it’s very normal for the first few sets of leaves to turn yellow and die, especially if they’re not getting light anymore. You will almost always lose the round cotyledons, the single-finger leaves, and the three-finger leaves (the first three sets of leaves).

This vibrant young cannabis plant is healthy and growing over an inch a day

However, if you look closely at the bottom of the plant, you can see the three bottom sets of leaves have turned yellow and are dying. This is normal. The plant does not hold onto these baby leaves for long!

Single-Finger Leaves (plus the tiny round cotyledon leaves)

Three-finger leaves

When just the first 3 sets of leaves turn yellow like the example above (leaves with three fingers or less), it’s not something to worry about as long as the rest of the plant is green, healthy, and growing fast.

You don’t normally see these in pictures because most growers remove them 🙂

The Plant is Ready to Harvest – Normal

Often plants will have a few yellow leaves by harvest time. This is completely normal and nothing to worry about as long as you’ve ruled out bud rot and most leaves seem healthy.

Mutation – Cosmetic (Usually Not Harmful)

Occasionally you may see mutations or natural variation that results in parts of leaves being yellow. The general rule of thumb with any unusual leaf symptom is if the rest of the plant is green, vibrant and healthy, there’s usually nothing to worry about.

See more common cannabis mutations

Don’t See Your Plant Problem Here?

Diagnose Your Sick Plant

Check Out the 7-Step Guide to Fixing 99% of Plant Problems!

Jump to…

7 Step Fix to 99% of Cannabis Growing Problems

Pictures of Cannabis Plant Problems

What does pH have to do with nutrient deficiencies?

10-Step Quick Start Guide to Growing

The post Why Are My Cannabis Leaves Turning Yellow? appeared first on Grow Weed Easy.

When I was first learning about how to grow cannabis, I learned about the importance of pH to prevent nutrient deficiencies. But sometimes your pH is in the recommended range and your marijuana plants leaves are still showing signs of nutrient deficiencies.

What else besides incorrect pH causes nutrient deficiencies in cannabis plants?

Basically, when it comes to cannabis plants, your plant starts experiencing nutrient deficiencies if the pH is too high or too low at the roots. This is because the chemical structure of nutrients actually changes at different pH levels, and some versions are easier for the plant to absorb than others.

By giving your plants good cannabis nutrients and managing the pH, you’ll be able to prevent most nutrient deficiencies, ensuring your plant grows as fast and healthy as possible.

But what do you do if you’re using good nutrients and the pH is right but you’re still getting nutrient deficiencies?

When it comes down to it, nutrient deficiencies usually start at the roots, whether it’s pH or something else. This looks like a nutrient deficiency, but it’s actually caused by overwatering.

One of the most common reasons to see deficiencies when the pH is correct is the plant is being over or under-watered, which can also be related to the drainage of the grow medium and the container your plant is in. When the plant isn’t getting the right ratio of water and air at the roots, it will tend to start showing deficiencies even if everything else is right. Other issues with roots are also common culprits.

Causes of Most Nutrient Deficiencies

• PH is too high or too low ← Most Important!!! But if you’re on this page you’ve probably already got this covered.
• Not enough nutrients overall (here are recommended cannabis nutrients)
• Over-watering
• Under-watering
• Pot is too big for the size of the plant
• Plants are rootbound (been in the same pot too long)
• Too hot (and rarely too cold)
• Bugs or pest infestation

Note: Basically anything that makes your plant droopy is likely to cause nutrient deficiencies, too.

Although pH and watering practices are probably the most important thing to pay attention to, there’s more than just pH as far as your plant roots are concerned. The “alkalinity” of your water is also important. Alkalinity is related to pH, but it is also its own thing. In a way, alkalinity measures how much “stuff” is in the water that causes the pH to go up. And this also affects nutrient absorption.

If you’re still having trouble after going through the steps above, and your pH is in the right range…

• If you have “hard” water, you should generally aim for a slightly lower pH (aim for around 6.5 pH for soil and 6.0 pH for coco or hydro).
• If you have “soft” water, you should generally aim for a slightly higher pH (aim closer to 7 pH for soil and 6.5 pH for coco or hydro).

I hope that helps some people dial in the correct pH based on their starting water.

Jump to…

Tips to Growing Top-Shelf Buds

How to Measure & Adjust PH

Which Nutrients Should I Use?

7 Steps to Fix 99% of Growing Problems

The post Why are cannabis plants getting nutrient deficiencies when the pH is correct? appeared first on Grow Weed Easy.

While cannabis plants will grow in a lot of conditions, as a farmer, you are looking to optimize the size, weight, density, potency, and overall quality of your buds. In order to do that, you will need to fertilize your cannabis plants in such a way that they can produce at their best.

Yes, you can plant weed seeds in dirt and possibly grow a plant without any fertilizers or special nutrients. But chances are that you don’t happen to live in a place with very rich, fertilized soil that carries just the right blend of nutrients needed by a marijuana plant to thrive.

Cannabis plants that don’t get the right levels they need, especially in the flowering/budding phase, tend to grow small and airy buds. In extremely poor conditions, some cannabis plants may just sprout a few white hairs (pistils), and never actually form any real buds at all.

Because of that, I encourage growers to learn about the type of nutrients and special fertilizers needed by a cannabis plant and at least start with good soil before you get started growing if you’re determined not to use any extra nutrients.

Learn more about cannabis nutrients

And if you are determined to grow organically with no added nutrients, I encourage you to learn about how you can actually grow with “just add water” organic super soil in such a way that you actually don’t ever need to add any extra nutrients at all.

Jump to…

10-Step Quick Start Grow Guide

How Can I Control the Smell of My Plants?

Where can I safely get medical strains?

Advanced cannabis growing techniques

The post Do I need a special type of fertilizer to grow cannabis? appeared first on Grow Weed Easy.

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

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

Start Here – Beginner Grow Guides

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

Cannabis Life Stages

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

Choosing…

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

Common New Grower Topics

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

Problems & Symptoms

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

Plant Training (Indoor Tricks for Bigger Yields)

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

Grow Mediums

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

Nutrients

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

Grow Lights

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

Best LED Grow Light Articles

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

Environment

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

Plant Care Tutorials

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

How to Improve…

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

Buying Seeds

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

Recommended Strains

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

Auto-Flowering Strains

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

Edibles

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

Extracts (No Solvents Used in Any Recipe)

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

And Lots More!

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

Safety & Preparation

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

Just for Fun

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

Submit Pics

• Submit Trophy Pictures of your Plants!
• How to Take Better Plant Pics
• How to Fix Yellow HPS Pics

Want More?

• Complete List of EVERYTHING on GWE  ← Full List (Over 500 articles & growing!)

Thanks for visiting! We hope our website helps you find the growing tutorials you were looking for. We’ve written hundreds of growing marijuana articles and unfortunately we can’t fit them all on this page, so we encourage you to use the search bar on the right side (or top of the page for mobile users) to search for articles you don’t see here.

Happy growing!
Nebula & Sirius

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

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

Smart Pots & Air Pots Make Cannabis Grow Faster!

Smart Pots
(Fabric Pots)

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

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

Quick Review: Regular Containers vs Smart Pots & Air Pots

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

Complete Cannabis Container Breakdown

Regular Pots vs Smart Pots vs Air Pots

Regular Pots for Growing Cannabis

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

• Tried and true method

• Easy to find at any gardening store

• Saucer captures runoff water for easy disposal

• Helps keep growing medium from drying out too fast

• Usually made out of ceramic or plastic

Smart Pots for Growing Cannabis 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Air Pots for Growing Cannabis

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

cannabis root pic by coco coir expert roll_it_large

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

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

A Regular Plant Pot is Tried and True

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

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

Air Pots & Smart Pots Make Cannabis Grow Faster

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jump to…

Learn more about containers for growing cannabis!

How (and when) to transplant a cannabis plant

Learn how to increase your cannabis yields

Discover secrets to improving overall bud quality

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Any grower who wants to cultivate their own high-grade homegrown cannabis has to pass a few milestones before that becomes a possibility. One of those milestones is being able to test the pH (the ‘p’ is always lowercase) of the water you’re giving your plants. If you grow in soil, DWC, aquaponics, coco coir…it doesn’t matter! Cannabis plants want properly pH’d water despite how trivial (or annoying) the task may seem to us humans!

Learn how to adjust the pH of your water

Strips that measure the pH will get the job done, though pH drops are a far better choice. However, today we’re going to talk about another option: the pH pen. We’ll show you how to use them, then the ones we use, and we’ll even go over the types of growers the pH pen is actually good for (spoiler: not everyone needs one!).

Note: Don’t accidentally get a “TDS Pen” if you want a PH Pen! They often look similar but they do not measure the same thing!
This is a pH Pen!
Besides being called ‘pH pens’, they’re also called pH meters or pH testers. They don’t all necessarily look like these ones, but this gives you a general idea. You have a ‘business end’ with an ‘electrode’ on the end that’s replaceable on many models. The electrode looks like a small glass ball on the very end; it can’t stay dry for long! The other end is the part the user holds, and it contains the screen, buttons, and pretty much everything else that makes the pen work.

pH pens do the exact same job as pH strips or drops, but they’re much more precise. Instead of getting a broad pH range from your tester, a mid-level pH pen can give you a measurement down to 2 decimal places with +/- .1 accuracy. In this case, that would mean that you could measure the pH of some water and get a reading of 5.85 and know that at worst the pH is really 5.75 or 5.95. Luckily, when you’re growing cannabis precision at that level isn’t entirely necessary though it’s nice to have if you want it.

PH pens tend to run on (multiple) watch batteries; luckily their batteries are pretty cheap if you look in the right places and they tend to last for a long time. As long as you make sure to turn off the device as soon as you’re done using it, the batteries can last for years.

Additionally, all pH pens need to be calibrated to ensure that they’re taking accurate measurements. For an accurate pH pen, you’ll need two calibration solutions, a storage solution, and a cleaning solution. The number and cost of the solutions tend to scare away some growers, but they can all last for a very long time when used sparingly. That being said, any grower looking into getting a pH pen should be aware that these extra solutions substantially raise the price of starting out with pH pens. If you get a cheaper pen (like my favorite model), the solutions can cost as much as or more than the pen itself!

pH Pen vs. TDS Meter vs. PPM Meter vs. EC Meter
We get questions from growers who aren’t sure what the differences are between a pH pen and the other tester pens available. Here’s a quick run-down of what these pens really are:

• pH Pen – Measures the pH (acidity or alkalinity) of a liquid
• TDS meter – Same thing as a ppm meter. Measures Total Dissolved Solids, or how much stuff is in a liquid. TDS meters measure in ppm (parts per million).
• PPM Meter – A ppm meter is another name for a TDS meter.
• EC meter – Measures Electrical Conductivity of a liquid. EC meters are to TDS/PPM meters what the imperial system is to the metric system; ppm is much more widely used in the cannabis world.

In short: pH pens check how acidic or basic your water is.  TDS/PPM meters check how much stuff is in your water. EC meters also check how much stuff is in water, but is not as frequently used in the growing world.

Who Should Use a pH Pen
A pH pen can be an awesome tool for many growers; I use mine almost exclusively now instead of drops. However, not all types of grows need the kind of precision a pH tester offers. Here are some things to consider before getting a pH pen for your next grow.

Soil grow
For a soil grow, especially if you’re using amended soil, a pH pen probably won’t do you much good as you hopefully have a system of microorganisms already taking care of the job.

If you’re using soil as a medium and feeding nutrients throughout the grow, you might need to check the pH a bit more. Luckily for you, there are meters that check the pH of the soil while sitting in it. This is a pretty convenient way to check the pH of your soil, and many of these devices will simultaneously check your soil for moisture content as well the temperature. That being said, growers report that these are hit or miss.

Coco coir/peat/perlite/vermiculite combos
A pH pen is by no means necessary for growers using this type of medium. In fact, we would suggest that first-time growers using this type of medium hold off on using a pH pen for at least one grow. Using strips or drops the first time around gives more room for variation and is good for learning how plants react. pH pens are good for growers in this medium if they’re trying to fine-tune their grow or root out a pesky problem that might be pH based.

DWC/Top-fed DWC/Any water-based hydroponics
A pH pen is a great tool to have for hydro growers! Again, it’s by no means necessary, but in mediums where the roots are resting in water, knowing an exact pH can be extremely helpful. This is due in part to the fact that water can change pH much quicker than soil or coco coir. A pH pen will allow a hydro grower to check for trends in pH changes so that they can anticipate problems and react before anything bad happens.

How to Use a pH Pen
Alright, so if you’re sitting there and you already have a pH pen, or you want to see how they work…it’s pretty simple! There are three main parts of using a pH tester. Fortunately the first part only needs to be done every once in a while – once every week is more than enough for a working pH pen.

Calibration
Calibrating your pH pen to make sure it stays accurate is by far the most off-putting part of owning a pH tester of any type. If you can get past this small task, you’re set!

To ensure your pH pen is giving accurate readings, you need to have it test something with a known pH. Generally, you’ll test a liquid at 4.01(or 4.0) and 7.01(or 7.0); some will recommend you also test at 10.01, but that step isn’t needed.

If you test a liquid and the reading is off, you’ll need to adjust your pH meter to match the liquid it’s testing. Some pH pens will have to be manually adjusted, such as with a dial you have to turn, or buttons to press. Other testers can automatically calibrate themselves once in the appropriate mode, but you generally will pay noticeably more for this feature.

Manual Calibration

1. First, check the manual that came with your pH pen for specific instructions.
2. Pour some 4.01 testing solution into a clean container. This is so the rest of the 4.01 solution doesn’t get contaminated.
3. Turn on your pH pen and place the electrode into the 4.01 solution you poured out. If the reading is anything than 4.01, turn the appropriate dial (or press the appropriate button) until the screen reads 4.01.
4. Gently clean the electrode with a paper towel and repeat steps 2 and 3 with the 7.01 testing solution.
5. You’re done! Do this again in a week to ensure accurate readings. If it feels stable after many tests, you can calibrate less often. It’s also a good idea to do it sooner if you feel the readings you’re getting don’t seem right. Trust your gut!

Automatic Calibration

1. This will usually take a sequence of button presses, so you’ll want to consult the manual for your pH pen for this.
2. When you do automatic calibration, the pen will have you dip the electrode in 4.01 and 7.01 pH fluids. Make sure to pour each of those fluids into separate clean containers so the rest of the two solutions remain usable.

Measuring pH
This is the easy part where the pH pen finally gets to pull its weight. Just turn on the pen and dip the electrode into the liquid you want to test. Keep in mind that not all pH testers are waterproof, so don’t completely submerge any of them unless it specifically says it’s waterproof.

1. Take the protective cap off your pH pen, and turn it on.
2. Place the electrode into the liquid you want to test and leave it until the reading stays within a .02 range. Some pH meters may never stay still on a single number, but as long as the number isn’t in an upward or downward trend, you can stop measuring.
   1. This process can be sped up by lightly swirling the electrode through the water. You don’t want to move it fast enough to make any splashing at all.
3. Make sure you only feed your plants water in the correct range
   1. Hydro: pH of 5.5 to 6.5
   2. Soil: pH of 6.0 to 7.0

Cleaning and Storage
Once you’re done with your pH pen, there’s one main rule to remember: never put your pH pen away with the electrode dry! Seriously…

Don’t put your pH pen away with the electrode dry. Dryness breaks electrodes!

1. Use a small amount of cleaning solution to rinse off the electrode. If cleaning solution is unavailable, use distilled water instead.
2. Pour a small amount of storage solution into the protective cap for your pH pen. Make sure there enough to cover the electrode when the pen is placed in.
3. Place the pH pen in its protective cap so it stays nice and moist. Don’t forget to turn it off to save the batteries!

That’s pretty much everything you need to confidently handle pH pens, or at least learn if they seem like they’re worth the trouble for you.

If you’re looking to get a pH pen and aren’t sure which one to get, these are the two we use:

Vantakool Digital PH Meter – Dirt cheap but gets the job done. Comes with powder packets that can be used to calibrate the pen.

Apera PH60F – Costs a bit more, but is higher quality, waterproof and comes with everything you need including a battery and calibration fluid.

Atlas calibration solution; you can’t really go wrong with a good company! If your pH pen doesn’t come with calibration fluid, you can buy your own for cheap!

PH pens have electrodes that need to be kept clean and moist. Distilled water can be used for cleaning and storage, but specially made cleaning and storage solution do an even better job and last a long time if used sparingly. If you only plan to get one, get the storage solution, which can also be used to help gently clean the electrodes.

Jump to…

How to pH Cannabis & Stop Deficiencies

PPM: What It Is and How To Track It

7 Steps to Fix 99% of Growing Problems

How Sirius Grows – 600w MH/HPS & Top-Fed DWC

The post The pH Pen Guide! appeared first on Grow Weed Easy.

Table of Contents

What is the Point of Flushing Cannabis Before Harvest?

Is Flushing Important to Bud Quality?

How to Flush Cannabis Before Harvest

Flushing Tips – Don’t Make These Common Mistakes!

This flushing tutorial is part of our “how to harvest cannabis” series:

Flushing > Harvest > Trimming > Drying & Curing​

What is the Point of Flushing Cannabis Plants Before Harvest? (Note: You don’t need to flush)

What if you could significantly enhance the quality of your cannabis buds with one simple change in the final weeks before harvest?

(Our $27 digital book HARVEST is out now!)

Use Up Nutrients Stored in the Buds

Flushing is free and easy technique that may improve the quality, taste, and smoothness of your cannabis buds before harvest. Sounds good, right? Of course it does! The idea is to allow the cannabis plants to use up any extra nutrients contained in the plant. This may help avoid a mineral or chemical taste in the buds after harvest.

But growers must also be careful with flushing cannabis plants before harvest. If you start flushing too early, you can actually hurt your bud quality and reduce your yields. This happens if you starve the plant of valuable nutrients during the crucial final phase of bud development. Today, I’ll fully explain how to use flushing to your advantage so you get the benefits of flushing without any downsides.

What is Flushing?

“Flushing” before harvest means giving your cannabis plants just plain water (with no nutrients) for a little while before you harvest them. During the flush, growers give plain water instead of water with nutrients in it. Depending on your personal cannabis setup and type of nutrients, this flushing process usually goes on for a few days to about 2 weeks.

“Flushing” means watering cannabis plants with plain water (no nutrients).

So how do you get the best results when flushing cannabis plants before harvest? This tutorial will teach you exactly what to do!

Related Tutorial: What about flushing a cannabis plant because it’s sick?

Flushing Cannabis Before Harvest – Quick Summary

Here’s a quick summary of the flushing process for marijuana growers who want quick answers. Continue reading below to get a complete step-by-step cannabis flushing tutorial, plus answers to all your flushing questions.

1.) Wait until harvest window is almost open (how do I know when plants are close to harvest?)

How long should each type of grower flush their plants before harvest?

• Super Soil Growers: Don’t flush (you weren’t using nutrients anyway)
• Soil Growers: Flush 1 week
• Coco Growers Flush: 3-5 days
• DWC/Hydro Growers: Flush for a few days

More info about flushing each grow medium in the full tutorial below.

2.) Water cannabis plants as normal, except with no nutrients or supplements.

You’re going to do everything you normally do when it comes to watering, except without any additional nutrients or supplements. Don’t give more water at a time than normal, because this increases the chances of your plants getting overwatered and showing deficiencies / symptoms caused by overly wet root conditions.

3.) Watch cannabis plants closely for signs of too much yellowing.

During the flush before harvest, your plant can lose its green color very quickly. Although it’s normal to see some amount of yellowing before harvest, it’s important to harvest before the sugar leaves on the buds themselves have turned yellow. Although this doesn’t affect the quality of the buds, it does affect the appearance and buds aren’t as pretty. Additionally, once all the leaves have turned yellow your plant won’t really mature a whole lot more, and buds can start to deteriorate quickly.

4.) Harvest your cannabis plants when buds appear totally “ripe” or mature.

After the flushing period, your plants should appear a lot more pale than they did at the beginning. It’s time to harvest! Learn more about when and how to harvest plants.

That’s pretty much it! Read on to get the complete tutorial with more detailed step-by-step instructions.

Start flushing when cannabis buds already look ready to harvest. Don’t start flushing too early!

The idea behind flushing is to let your cannabis plants “use up” any extra nutrients contained in the plant and buds. This way there is a much lower level of nutrients left over after harvest, and it’s those extra nutrients that can change the smell, taste or (most often) “smoothness” of your buds in a negative way.

So in soil or coco coir, the grower would give the plant just plain water for days or weeks before harvest time. This lets the plant use up the nutrients in the soil/coco, and then – theoretically – start leaching extra nutrients from the buds.

In a hydro or DWC setup, flushing is even easier. The grower simply replaces all the water in their reservoir with plain water, and the plant doesn’t have access to any nutrients available except for what’s already in the plant.

Flushing is Giving Cannabis Plants Only Plain Water For Days or Weeks Before Harvest

Is Flushing Cannabis Before Harvest Important? Evidence doesn’t support that.

There are a million opinions about flushing. When I first started growing cannabis, I always flushed based on the habits I’d learned from other growers. Yet sometimes I’d skip it altogether for one reason or another. This got me thinking. One of the most common reasons growers tell you to flush cannabis plants before harvest is that not doing so affects flavor. After flushing and not flushing, I personally couldn’t tell any difference when it came to smell or flavor of buds.

In fact, I got lots of compliments on the taste and flavor of my buds when I didn’t flush. My unflushed buds didn’t have a “chemical” taste like others had warned of, and I figured the need to flush was basically a growing myth, or something growers should only do if they’ve given their plant too many nutrients.

One time we decided to do a test. We harvested some buds and then started flushing. I harvested the rest of the buds post-flush. It’s not a perfect experiment since the buds were harvested at different times, but flushing didn’t seem to have an effect on enhancing flavor or smell.

It could be that we always keep nutrient levels on the low side throughout the entire second half of the flowering stage, and don’t use any supplements. As long as plants are green and healthy without nutrient deficiencies, I consider that to be the correct amount of nutrients. This is in contrast to some growers who try to “push” plants to their limits by giving as much nutrients and supplements as they can take. Perhaps maintaining lower nutrient levels prevents any type of nutrient buildup (so to speak) in the buds. It’s possible that the flushed buds from our experiment were a little smoother to smoke and we just couldn’t tell. It’s hard to say with certainty.

So does our test prove anything? No. Flushing could still be helpful, and I still do it out of habit, but I wouldn’t worry too much about it if you forget or realize you need to harvest buds today.

2025 Update: Several much more rigorous studies that came to the same conclusion. Flushing doesn’t seem to make a measurable difference to bud quality, potency, terpene content, element content/minerals, or anything else we can think of.

Check out the studies and papers.

• To flush or not to flush
• New Experiment in Flushing
• Cannabis Flushing Research Study
• New Experiments in Flushing: Let Your Cultivation Goals Dictate Your Plans
• Flushing Doesn’t Affect Black Ash vs White Ash
• Flushing roots, myth or reality?

So there is very little evidence to support flushing as a way to increase bud quality.

On the other hand, there doesn’t seem to be any true downside to flushing as long as you don’t start flushing too early. Because of that, if you’re curious, I recommend trying it for yourself to see what you think.

There’s no real downside to flushing before harvest (when you do it right), so I encourage cannabis growers try flushing if they’re curious.

How to Flush Your Cannabis Plants Before Harvest – Complete Tutorial

1.) Wait until plant already looks like it’s at the early end of the harvest window – in other words, wait to start the flush until you could pretty much harvest the buds right now if you wanted

The biggest mistake a cannabis grower can make when flushing plants is flushing plants for too long before harvest. Too much time without nutrients can actually hurt bud quality and lower your final yield because you’re essentially starving the plant of nutrients at a crucial stage of bud development.

The Biggest Flushing Mistake is Starting Too Early

Restricting nutrients too early starves a cannabis plant of nutrients while buds are still forming. This reduces bud quality and yield.

That means you shouldn’t start flushing until the buds are already in the harvest window. At the beginning of the harvest window, your buds should already look just about the way you want them to at harvest. When are my plants ready to harvest? This harvest window lasts for several weeks because marijuana buds don’t get “overripe” easily. That means you have plenty of time to harvest your buds even two weeks later after they’ve reached the beginning of the harvest window.

At this point it would be like harvesting fruit a little early; they won’t be at full potential, but they’ll still be pretty good, so it’s a great time to start the flush now so you harvest at the optimum time. On the flip side, if you start flushing when your buds “seem” a week away, instead of already being in the harvest window, chances are you will be starting the flush too early and end up with “under ripe” buds (and smaller yields).

Why avoid flushing buds early? Plants start dying if they run out of nutrients, and you don’t want that to happen while buds are still forming. You also don’t want to put yourself in a situation where you have to harvest buds too early. Harvesting too early not only hurts yields but also bud effects. You can read the full explanation here, but basically, buds harvested on the early side tend to be more “racing” or possibly have a paranoia-inducing effect. Waiting until the right time to harvest means bigger buds, higher THC levels, and overall intensified psychoactive properties of your buds. Waiting even longer and harvesting past “peak ripeness” results in buds that are still potent and psychoactive, but the extra time in the flowering stage also starts to add a more relaxed, “couchlock” effect as some of the THC degrades to CBN. For some growers, this may even be preferred.

At the earliest part of the harvest window, at least 40-50% of the white hairs have darkened and curled in. If you look at buds under a magnifier, you’ll see that the mushroom-like trichomes (which were once clear) are at least half cloudy.

Learn how to tell exactly when the marijuana harvest window has started (with pics!)

A little extra info on harvest time: Cloudy trichomes indicate the highest levels of THC. When half of the trichomes are cloudy it signals the very beginning of the harvest window (the earliest it’s ever recommended to harvest buds). For the most part, a cannabis plant won’t reach the very beginning of its harvest window until 6-8 weeks into the flowering stage, and that’s still several weeks earlier than many strains. 

Although buds can be harvested at this point, they will continue to develop and increase THC levels over the next few weeks as more trichomes turn cloudy. Your yields will also increase significantly! If you’re looking for a more relaxed effect, I recommend starting the flush when just about all the trichomes have already turned cloudy.

Harvesting on time gives more potent results and bigger yields than harvesting early, so it’s imperative to avoid flushing too early! 

The harvest window lasts for a few weeks and with this method, your buds will still be ready to harvest at the end of the flush, without the chance of having started too early.

2.) Provide only plain pH’ed water to plant until harvest (from a few days to a week)

You’re going to do everything you normally do when it comes to watering, except without any additional nutrients or supplements. Don’t give more water at a time than normal, because this increases the chances of your plants getting overwatered and showing deficiencies/symptoms caused by that problem.

Soil Growers Flush 1 week – Soil growers using nutrients should flush the longest, about 1 weeks. This is because there is still some amount of nutrients left in the soil. For super soil growers who haven’t used any nutrients from seed to harvest, you don’t have to worry about flushing because you’ve been giving plain water from the beginning. Your microorganisms in the soil have fed nutrients directly to your plants as needed, and it’s very unlikely you have any type of nutrient build-up.

Coco Growers Flush 3-5 days – Coco coir does not hold onto a lot of extra nutrients and just a watering or two with plain water will wash most nutrients away. Therefore growers utilizing coco coir should only flush their plants for 3-5 days, depending on how fast the plant is turning yellow.

DWC/Hydro Growers Flush for a few days – When a hydro/DWC grower changes their reservoir to plain water, their plants literally have access to almost zero nutrients immediately. Because of that, a hydro grower should usually only flush their plant for a few days before harvest to prevent early yellowing.

Exceptions to the “No Supplements” rule:

• Beneficial root bacteria – Hydroponic growers should continue using products with beneficial root bacteria like Hydroguard right up until harvest. These products do not contain any nutrients but will protect your plants from root rot.
• Continue to manage the pH of your water as normal – PH Up and Down products don’t contain added nutrients. If the pH is too high or too low, it makes certain types of salts and aluminum more available to your plant roots. You don’t want your plant absorbing that stuff up right when you’re trying to flush the buds.
• “Clearing” or “Salt Leaching” Solutions (below) – These supplements have been specifically designed to help remove extra nutrients during the flush.

Even during the flush, it’s still important to manage your pH. Many growers agree that a few days to a week is a good amount of time to flush. Plants in soilless mediums like coco or hydro can’t be flushed as long as plants in soil because they will run out of nutrients too quickly. For hydro you may only be able to flush for a few days. Flushing too long or starting too early increases the chances of reducing yields and running into unpleasant-looking nutrient deficiencies.

“Clearing” or “Salt Leaching” Solutions

These products are formulated to help remove extra minerals or salts when flushing the plant, which may reduce the chance that these leftover minerals or salts end up altering the smell or flavor of your buds.

They’re meant to be used if you’ve been giving your plants extra nutrients in their water. They aren’t necessary when the plant has been getting all its nutrients from the soil.

• FloraKleen (by General Hydroponics)
• Clearex (by Botanicare)

3.) Watch out for early yellowing

During the flush before harvest, it’s important to keep a close eye on your plants. Your plant can turn yellow almost overnight in certain situations.

Although it’s normal to see some amount of yellowing before harvest, it’s important to harvest before the sugar leaves on the buds have turned yellow.

Try to harvest before the green sugar leaves (small single-finger leaves directly attached to buds) start turning yellow. In the following cases, many of the fan leaves have turned yellow during the flush, but the small leaves on the buds themselves still appear green. They are at the perfect time to harvest!

You can see the sugar leaves are mostly still green, but many of the fan leaves are pale and turning yellow. That is what you’re looking for.

This auto-flowering plant is ready to harvest, too! If you wait any longer the yellowing will spread to the buds.

If the leaves of your plant have turned completely another color like red or purple, that is also a sign the end is near (not talking about when the buds themselves turn pink or purple, as that’s caused by a different genetic trait and doesn’t have anything to do with the leaves). Even for plants where leaves changing colors is normal, it usually only happens when harvest time is coming soon. Kind of like maple trees turning colors in the autumn.

Try to harvest your buds before the sugar leaves and/or the buds themselves actually start turning yellow, or buds appear burnt.

Although discolored sugar leaves don’t affect the quality/potency of the buds, it does affect the appearance (your buds won’t be as pretty). Additionally, once all the leaves are yellow your buds won’t really mature a whole lot more, and buds can quickly further deteriorate in health and lose potency.

That being said, even if buds don’t look picture perfect, they will still be good to smoke, and some growers prefer the more “couchlock” style effects of buds that have been allowed to mature on the longer side. Learn more about how harvesting at different times changes the potency/effects.

If you let the flush go this long, where buds are getting crispy and brown without any sign of green, it means the actual potency of your bud is starting to degrade. This bud needs to be harvested immediately so you don’t lose further potency.

4.) Enjoy your smooth and potent buds!

Woo hoo! You’ve been working so hard, and now you are almost at the end of your journey!

Learn how to harvest and cure your buds

You’ve done everything you could to ensure the smoothest buds, so now it’s time to enjoy the fruits of your labor!

Flushing Tips – Don’t Make These Common Mistakes!

• Flushing Too Early
• Not Maintaining pH During Flush
• Flush Too Long
• Who Doesn’t Need to Flush

Flushing Too Early

The biggest problem with flushing, especially for new growers, is to start the flush too early. New growers commonly think their plant is just a week or two from harvest, when truthfully it’s 4 weeks or more away from the optimal harvest time. Breeders often understate the length of the flowering stage for strains, giving the timeline for the absolute earliest harvest, so it’s generally a good idea to add an extra two weeks (minimum) to their recommended time for a more realistic estimate of the optimum time to harvest.

When you flush a cannabis plant too early, you’re stunting its growth because buds aren’t getting enough nutrients to develop properly. Without being given the right amount of nutrients during the most crucial parts of the flowering stage, the potency, quality, and weight of your buds can also be lower.

Problems with Flushing Too Early

• Stunting – Growth is stunted during the most important parts of the flowering stage, and yields are reduced.

• Low THC – Potency may be lower because buds didn’t have the nutrients needed to develop THC properly, and if buds are also harvested early it reduces the potency even further.

• Buds get yellow or brown – The appearance of buds can be affected, as a plant left too long without nutrients starts developing nutrient deficiencies that can spread to the sugar leaves on your buds, causing unsightly yellow leaves. Although this doesn’t negatively affect how the bud smokes, taking care of your sugar leaves until harvest is very important to get the best-looking buds (this is also another reason why it’s important to avoid too much nutrient burn)

Flushing too early or too long can hurt the looks of your buds because it can cause the sugar leaves start turning yellow.

All the nutrients were used up in the plant, including the ones in the sugar leaves, causing unsightly yellowing on the buds/sugar leaves that are almost impossible to trim off.

Allowing this to happen gives you buds covered with little yellow parts where the base of the leaves were before they got trimmed.

Example – After the bud was trimmed and dried, there are still yellow spots from the base of each sugar leaf that turned yellow, making buds look lower quality than they are.

This example shows a normal bud where sugar leaves remained green at harvest. No yellow spots.

The bud which didn’t have yellowing has an overall higher quality appearance – more evidence that it’s so important to time your flush right.

I’ve seen so many growers finish a 2-week flush, and realize their plant still has several weeks to go after the flush is over. Do they continue flushing, do they start using nutrients again, or do they just harvest the plant early? It’s hard to say which way is best in a situation like that.

So when it comes to flushing, I personally believe in waiting to flush until the harvest window has already opened. What that means is I won’t start flushing until the buds can already be harvested now, since I know they won’t mature much more during the flush..

Once the buds have hit the harvest window (trichomes are at least half-clear, half cloudy – learn more about trichomes and when to harvest), they still usually have several weeks before the plant reaches the end of the harvest window. I personally like to harvest plants a little on the later side, because THC levels are higher, buds are bigger, and effects tend to be more relaxing and not “racing”. So starting the flush after the harvest window started allows me to time my harvest perfectly.

You won’t be able to flush too early if you follow this principle. If your plant still looks like it’s a few weeks away from harvest, wait! You never know how the plant is going to mature, and you can’t be sure that harvest time is close, until the harvest window has actually opened.

Not pH’ing Your Water During Flush

Another common problem growers have is they stop maintaining pH when they start the flush. Even during the flush it’s important to maintain pH at the roots to make sure your plant can properly use the nutrients available. It can help prevent yellowing and spots on the leaves during the flush; when the pH is too high or too low at the plant roots, it makes certain nutrients unavailable to the plant and increases the chance of seeing nutrient deficiencies. The plant also tends to absorb more aluminum and salts out of the water when the pH isn’t in the correct range.

Maintaining pH throughout the flush will help prevent deficiencies and unwanted salt absorption, while still allowing your plant to use up its extra reserves of nutrients in the buds!

Learn how to manage your pH.

How Long To Flush?

It’s generally recommended to flush plants for a few days to a week. I think this is a pretty good standard to go by. Unless you’re growing in amended super soil, flushing for longer than a week without nutrients is likely to stunt growth of the buds, which we don’t want in the flowering stage.

Many growers agree that a few days to a week is a good amount of time to flush

Soil Growers Flush 1 weeks – Soil growers should flush the longest, about a week. This is because there is still some amount of nutrients left in the soil. For super soil growers who haven’t used any nutrients from seed to harvest, you don’t have to worry about flushing because you’ve been giving plain water from the beginning. Your microorganisms in the soil have fed nutrients directly to your plants as needed, and it’s very unlikely you have any type of nutrient build-up.

Coco Growers Flush 3-5 days  – Coco coir does not hold onto a lot of extra nutrients and just a watering or two with plain water will wash most nutrients away. Therefore growers utilizing coco coir should only flush their plants from 3-5 days, depending on how fast the plant is turning yellow.

DWC/Hydro Growers Flush for a few days – When a hydro/DWC grower changes their reservoir to plain water, their plants literally have access to almost zero nutrients immediately. Because of that, a hydro grower should usually only flush their plant for a few days before harvest to prevent early yellowing.

Who Doesn’t Need to Flush?

I believe a flush is a generally good idea for cannabis growers using liquid or powder nutrients.

As I’ve said, the exception to flushing would be soil growers where the plants are getting their nutrients primarily from the soil instead of getting it directly in their water. When growers provide nutrients in the water (with liquid or powder nutrients) they’re giving nutrients in the most accessible form possible, and the plant uptakes those nutrients immediately, whether it needs them or not.

This is the type of situation where you want to leach out extra nutrients that the plant may have absorbed into the plant matter.

You only need to flush if you’ve been using powder or liquid nutrients. If you’ve been growing in straight soil without nutrients then flushing isn’t necessary.

Directions: Dyna-Gro Foliage-Pro and Bloom may be the easiest cannabis nutrients. Just give 1 tsp/gallon of Foliage Pro in the vegetative stage, and 1 tsp/gallon of Bloom in the flowering stage. Can be used with any grow medium.

Note: Dyna-Gro was recently purchased by a company called “Superthrive”. That means you may receive bottles of either Foliage Pro or Bloom that say Superthrive, or they may say Dyna-Gro. Either way, the nutrients are exactly the same and used the same.

In a composted soil environment, the nutrients are being broken down at the roots gradually in the soil, making it difficult for a cannabis plant to take in more than it needs.

Plus it makes sense that growers who have only been providing water to their plants the whole grow don’t have any need to flush – what would they do different anyway?

Conclusion

There are no truly definitive answers when it comes to flushing. No one has done the type of vigorous controlled experiments it would take to be able to say with authority the exact best way and time to flush, what the exact effects will be, or if it’s even worth it in the first place.

But in my experiments, flushing for at least a few days up to a week before harvest seems to make for smooth buds without any downsides.

Jump to…​

When Do I Harvest My Marijuana?

How To Get To Harvest As Fast As Possible

How To Buy Marijuana Seeds Online

The Perpetual Harvest

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