Exweedia | Home Grown

Home Grown

Frequently Asked Questions

Do my indoor cannabis plants need more than just water?

It is possible to grow a cannabis plant in your home with just some sunlight and water, but like everything else in life the more you put in the more you get out. To have successful and productive plants you will need to feed them. Growing high-quality cannabis flowers requires more fertilizers and/or nutrients than most common plants. From veg to flower you will need to feed your plants at least once a week. There is a wide range of commercially available nutrients for your plants. These nutrients are sold in concentrated liquid or powder form meant to be mixed with water, and generally formulated for either vegetative or flower (“bloom”) growth. This is because cannabis has changing macronutrient requirements during its lifecycle, needing more nitrogen during vegetative growth, and more phosphorus and potassium during bud production. Find a blend of nutrients specifically designed for cannabis. Once you’ve purchased your nutrient products, simply mix them with water as directed by the label and water your plants with this solution. You should always start at half-strength because cannabis plants are easily burned. It’s almost always worse to overfeed your plants than to underfeed them, and over time you will learn to “read” your plants for signs of deficiencies or excesses. I suggest it is IMPORTANT to “flush” your plants before harvesting. Before harvest try to water your plants with straight water for several watering cycles to flush out lingering fertilizers that may be stored in your plants. Always start with good clean soil and make sure your water is good and clean, if not it needs to be filtered. As you gain experience and knowledge, you will alter your grow room, equipment, strains, watering and growing techniques, it is often trial and error to find what works for you, remember, growing marijuana is a passion and a labour of love, so spend a lot of time with your plants, try new things and have fun!

I live in Canada and I want to grow outdoors, when should I plant my clones outside?

A short answer is May, if you can plant tomato plants outside you can plant your cannabis plants. When growing outside make sure you are taking these steps:

1. Choose the right strain, make sure you are choosing a hardy strain for our norther climate try to find one with a longer flowing time.

2. Find a good location. Cannabis plants love the sun, try to find a spot with five to six hours of full sun exposure.

3. Germinate early. Start your clones or seeds indoors and early to make sure the are sturdy and healthy before going outside.

4. Ensure you are using good quality soil.

5. Use Fertilizers. Fish meal, bone meal, and compost are all great options to feed your outdoor cannabis plants

6. Control pests. Try surrounding your cannabis plants with Marigolds, Basil and/or Rosemary. These are natural pest repellants. Introduce beneficial insects like Ladybugs and earthworms for aerating the soil. Use Neem oil this oil is one of the most commonly used pest management products used by organic gardeners. Neem oil is considered safe and is thought to leave no dangerous residue on soil or plants.

With care and dedication, you will be enjoying your harvest in late September or October depending on where in Canada you live.

There are webs and tiny bugs on my plants, what is this and how do I fix it?

These are Spider mites. Spider mites are the most common garden pest to attack cannabis plants. These tiny mites love to make their home on plants living on their nutritious sap. If left uncontrolled, spider mite infestations can have devastating effects on the health of your plants and the size/quality of your harvest. On female spider mite can lay up t 140 eggs per day! Start by washing down your plants with a strong jet of water. Do this early in the morning. If possible, try to bring down the pH of your water to about 3-4. You can do this using vinegar, nitric, phosphoric, or citric acid. Next, opt for a contact pesticide spray like insecticidal soap. These are safe to use on all kinds of consumable plants, including cannabis. When using contact sprays, remember to directly hit the pests and their eggs with the spray (the key word here is contact). Re-apply your spray according to the label instructions until all the mites have been completely removed from your plants. This will usually take multiple applications. Also, remember to switch up the sprays/pesticides you use. Mites are very good at building up immunity if only targeted with one specific spray. If you’re opting for a more holistic solution, you can make up your own insecticidal mite spray using water and garlic (you can even add some hydrogen peroxide to the mix) and ladybugs love to eat spider mites. Prevention is the best cure..

Don’t recycle soil from plants that have been infected in the past.
Submerge all new plants in a non-toxic miticide before introducing them into your garden.
Keep temperatures low and humidity high. Mites struggle to reproduce in these conditions.
Immediately remove and destroy damaged foliage.
Introduce predatory mites or insects into your garden. You can buy these online or at gardening centres.
Keep your grow space clean. Spider mites love dirty, dusty environments, so make sure you clean your grow space regularly. This includes everything from your basic gardening equipment (like pruning shears) to your high end equipment like extractors.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Never use systemic pesticides on cannabis plants. These pesticides enter the vascular system of plants and can be poisonous to both humans and animals. Only ever use pesticides that are safe to use on edibles like fruit and veg.

In the flowing stage should I be cutting off the large fan leaf?

You do not HAVE to prune your plants but in many cases has shown to be helpful in producing a better harvest. Do not cut them off all in one day, cut off a couple here and a couple there as to not shock your plant. Also do not remove all of them as they are used for the much-needed collection of light. When you remove a few you allow for more light to the lower buds of the plant.

What is the best way to dry the harvested marijuana bud?

That is a tough question, because there are as many techniques of drying bud as there are techniques of smoking bud, you need to find what works best for you and your situation. Many people “Hang Dry” to hang dry you will need trim your bud while leaving it on the stocks then in a well ventilated slightly under room temperature room that is about 50% humidity you will suspend these stocks (generally using lengths of twine) and hang to dry them upside-down. Ensure no stocks are touching each other. Many people swear by “curing” after this initial stage of drying the bud will be clipped into sealable containers like mason jars. Curing is a delicate dance of moisture and oxygen. Opening the containers several times each day, but just for a few minutes, lets excess moisture escape and refreshes the oxygen in the vessel, re-drying after sweating if necessary. Reaching the perfect level of curing can take several weeks. As a larger producer back in the day, taking weeks for the perfect smoke was not an option. We never hung our plants; we directly trimmed off the bud then laid the bud out on screens in an optimum room using fans to push heavy airflow and dehumidifiers to control humidity. When the buds felt dry, we would seal them up generally using plastic bins or bags (however I preferred paper bags and cardboard boxes) in order to get he first “sweat” out of the buds. Cannabis plants hang onto their moisture and even when the bud feels dry moisture will be pulled out by sweating them. Once the bud feels moist again, we would lay the bud out on the screens again to dry, once dry to the touch we would repeat the sweat technique until buds were completely dry this drying style would take about 5 to 7 days. Any way you choose to dry you will need to sweat your bud, or you will find your pot too wet to smoke and it will no doubt be moldy within a day or two. You will know your marijuana is properly dried when the stems start to snap instead of bend.

How do I know when to harvest?

There are many factors that go into judging when to harvest, and some plants behave differently when it comes to flowing signs. A good general rule is to wait for the pistils (the white wispy hairs on the buds) to turn brown and curl back towards the bud. It is good to see at least 60% to 70% of the pistils change before harvest. Also, you need to look for the trichomes, these are the “crystals” you see accumulating on the bud and leaves. You want good coverage of the bud and leaves with these crystals before harvesting, when looked at with a magnifying glass good crystal will appear to have a head or mushroom shape. When these two factors combine you can be confident that it is a good time to take down your plants.