BLOG
Curated knowledge for all things cannabis growing, grower news and helpful tips.
Irrigation Systems for Cannabis
Water is central to hydroponics—which derives from Greek “hydro,” meaning “water,” and “ponos,” meaning…
Calcium, Silicon and Structural Integrity
When it comes to growing strong plants that resist infestations, don’t lodge and are…
Cannabis Plant Maintenance
Like all annuals, cannabis grows in three phases (Figure 1) and many more sub-phases,…
Preventing and Managing Hermaphroditism in Cannabis
Hermaphroditism is when a plant develops both male and female reproductive organs. In cannabis,…
Understanding HVACD Systems
One of the most complex parts of a grow room is the HVACD system.…
Grow-Room Ventilation
Ventilation is the backbone of any indoor cannabis grow operation. It replicates the natural…
The Different Meanings of Organic
When people think of organic agriculture, they often imagine products free of synthetic chemicals…
The One Thing Growers Ignore About Lighting: Darkness
Every commercial cultivator knows how much lighting matters. You obsess over spectrum, intensity, photoperiod…
Cannabis Preservation and Storage
Growers can cultivate a fantastic cannabis crop, brimming with flavorful buds high in cannabinoids.…
Crop Steering with Light: How to Tune Spectrum and PPFD for Flowering Dominance
When the flip to 12/12 happens, the clock starts ticking on your flower room’s…
Hygiene: The Most Neglected Grow-Room “Input”
Commercial growers invest heavily in their grow rooms, sourcing the best mother plants, nutrients,…
From Wake Skates to EuroNASCAR: Mike Wise is Driving a Bigger Story with Emerald Harvest
Mike Wise wasn’t gunning for a EuroNASCAR career. He didn’t grow up dreaming of…
Indica versus Sativa: Making the Best Choice for Your Business
The genus Cannabis is often described as having three species: sativa, indica and ruderalis.…
Double-Pruning for Consistency: How Two Well-Timed Cuts Boost Yield and Cannabinoid Uniformity
There’s a difference between shaping a plant and shaping a result. In commercial cultivation,…
Nutrient Dosing Systems
Fertilizing plants in hydroponics requires fertigation—the process of delivering nutrients through irrigation. Growers can…
Lollipopping vs. Full Defoliation: What Works Best?
There was a time when pruning was more art than science. But under LEDs,…
Plant Density and Its Influence on Cannabis Cultivation
Plant density plays an important role in cannabis cultivation. Deciding how many plants to…
Automated Systems for Grow Rooms
Cannabis requires a specific environment to grow well and yield prolifically. Temperature, humidity and…
Building Your Grow Room
A well-designed grow room is essential for successful cannabis cultivation. To maximize yields and…
Troubleshooting: Identifying and Addressing Issues in the Grow Room
When problems arise in hydroponic cannabis operations, it’s important to act quickly. Unfortunately, diagnosis…
Phenohunting in Cannabis Cultivation: Techniques and Strategies
Growers who start with clones or tissue culture can count on plants with the…
Plant Respiration
All living organisms need food for energy, but to use that energy, they must…
How Plants Feed
Plants produce their own food through photosynthesis, using energy from light to convert water…
Preparing Stock Solution
When feeding cannabis crops in hydroponic systems, growers must first prepare a stock tank…
Flushing in Cannabis Cultivation
Flushing is the practice of halting fertilization before harvest and irrigating plants with plain…
Nutrient and Fertilizer Interactions
Plant fertilization is a sophisticated science that requires understanding both plant needs and the…
Chelation and Chelates
Plants need secondary macronutrients and micronutrients in smaller quantities than primary macronutrients, and yet…
Understanding NPK Sources and Ratios
Nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium—commonly referred to as NPK—are the three essential macronutrients. They’re called…
Cannabis Plant Morphology
Plant morphology refers both to the scientific study of the external physical structure and…
Understanding EC in Hydroponic Systems
Electrical conductivity (EC) measures a solution’s ability to carry an electrical charge. In hydroponics,…
Pruning Techniques for Cannabis Plants
Pruning selectively removes unnecessary foliage, redirecting the plant’s energy into producing larger, denser, higher-quality…
Canopy Lighting in Cannabis Cultivation
One of the biggest challenges for indoor cannabis growers is replicating the sun’s ability…
Choosing a Hydroponic System
Hydroponics is a soilless growing method where plants receive a water-based nutrient solution,[1] giving…
Optimizing pH in Hydroponics
The acidity or alkalinity of a liquid is measured as pH. A low pH…
Nutrients in Hydroponics
Plants require specific nutrients to survive and develop properly. These are called essential nutrients…
Plant Growth-Promoting Rhizobacteria in Soilless Cultivation
Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) are beneficial bacteria that colonize the root zone, acting as…
Unlocking Humic Substances for Plant Growth
Humic substances are naturally occurring compounds derived from decomposed animal and plant matter through…
Post-Harvest Care: Trimming and Drying
Growing a successful cannabis crop does not end when the buds are ready for…
Bridging Yield Gaps in Cannabis Cultivation
In agriculture, a yield gap refers to the difference between a crop’s maximum yield…
Understanding Phytohormones
Plant hormones, called phytohormones, are chemical compounds that circulate through the plant, signaling and…
Secondary Metabolites of Cannabis
Secondary metabolites are chemical compounds that plants produce to fight against threats, adapt to…
Monitoring Runoff in Recirculating Hydroponic Systems
When cultivating cannabis hydroponically, growers can choose between drain-to-waste and recirculating systems. In drain-to-waste…
Spurring Plant Growth with Triacontanol
Triacontanol (sometimes abbreviated as TRIA) is a natural non-hormonal growth promoter. First discovered in…
Guiding Your Garden Through Crop Steering
Crop steering is a cannabis cultivation technique where careful control over environmental factors guides…
Comparative Analysis of Batch and Inline Methods of Fertigation
Fertigation is the process of delivering nutrients to plants through irrigation. In hydroponic systems,…
Managing VPD for Cannabis
The vapor pressure deficit (VPD) is the difference between the moisture currently in the…
Understanding Vapor Pressure Deficit
In our previous blog post, we talked about the importance of plant transpiration and…
Understanding Plant Transpiration
When plants transpire, they move water from the roots to the shoots and release…
Understanding Calcium-Magnesium Supplementation in Coco Medium
Any comprehensive nutrient line already contains calcium and magnesium, but growers who use coco…
Sources of Carbon Dioxide Supplementation
Supplementing carbon dioxide (CO2) in the grow room is common in indoor cannabis cultivation.…
Carbon Dioxide Supplementation
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is essential for photosynthesis. The amount of CO2 available to plants…
Selecting the Right Water Source
The best water for hydroponics has no contaminants, an EC close to 0 millisiemens…
Irrigation Water Quality in Hydroponics
Water is the lifeblood of agriculture. Not only does water irrigate roots, but it…
Managing Cannabis Pests and Pathogens
Even though cannabis grown indoors is protected from Mother Nature, it remains vulnerable to pests…
Terpenes and Their Benefits
Cannabis strains have a range of fragrance and flavors, from musky and earthy to…
Cannabis Pests and Pathogens
Pests and pathogens threaten cannabis crops. Pests—larger organisms[1] like insects and mites—physically damage plants,…
Types of Growing Media
Choosing the right growing medium for indoor cannabis cultivation is no simple matter. Growers…
Why the Growing Medium Matters
In soilless cultivation like hydroponics or container gardening, growers typically use a growing medium,…
How to Identify Nutrient Toxicities
Providing plants with the right concentrations—not too little, not too much—of all essential nutrients…
How to Identify Nutrient Deficiencies
Nutrient deficiencies prevent plants from reaching their maximum genetic potential in terms of both…
HPS versus LED Lighting
When cultivating cannabis indoors, growers have no shortage of artificial lighting sources to choose…
How Light Affects Cannabinoid Production
Light is the primary energy source for plants. Not only is it necessary for…
Carbohydrate Supplementation
Produced through photosynthesis, carbohydrates are a plant’s primary source of energy, and they play…
How to Maximize Photoperiod
Light is a primary driver of plant growth. For many cannabis genotypes, the photoperiod…
How Amino Acids Promote Plant Growth
Proteins are known as “the building blocks of life”—and amino acids the building blocks…
Sources of Soluble Silicon
Silicon is the second most abundant element on Earth. However, most forms of silicon[1]…
How Silicon Promotes Plant Growth
Although silicon is not considered an essential nutrient—plants can grow without it—it significantly boosts…
How Suboptimal Fertilization Affects Yield
Fertilizer is a crucial component of crop production, but simply adding fertilizer to the…
The Benefits of a 3-Part Nutrient System
When you want to grow top-quality cannabis, the right nutrient system for your grow…
Enzyme-Based Biofilm Cleaners
Biofilms are a common problem in cannabis grow operations. These slimy layers of microbial…
Biofilms in Your Grow Ops
Biofilms are slimy layers of microbial colonies that form where microorganisms grow and reproduce.…
Clogs in Your Grow Room
Clogs in emitters, feeding lines and drains One of the biggest challenges growers face…
Style of Growing: SOG and SCROG
Many indoor growers are challenged by the height limitations of their lighting systems. One…
Equipment for Indoor Growing
Growers need a lot of different equipment to foster the ideal conditions for cultivating…
Photos versus Autos
Photos vs autos: a comparison In the wake of cannabis legalization, growers have more…
Cannabis Life Cycle
In the wild, cannabis goes through three phases during its life cycle: (1) seeds…
Starting with Seeds, Clones or Tissue Culture
Growers can start cannabis cultivation from seeds, clones or tissue culture. Starter plants are…
Maximizing Yield with Emerald Harvest
Whether you’re an experienced grower or just beginning, targeting a maximum yield is always…
Top 3 Most Popular Cannabis Strains
For cannabis growers, what the best strain is; is a lifelong debate. Among the…
Germany Legalizes Recreational Cannabis
By a staggering vote of 407 to 226, German parliamentary members have decided to…
Choosing a Growing Method
Cannabis can be cultivated outdoors, in an open field, or indoors, either within the…
Choosing the Right Strain
The choice of strain, or cultivar,[1] primarily depends on customer preferences. Factors to consider…
What Happened to the Cannabis Industry?
What happened to the cannabis industry? For most of the twentieth century, constrained by…
Premium or Basic?
Basic blends don’t have what it takes A “basic blend” is typically a simple…
Recreational Grower Sets Record Using Emerald Harvest
What I like about growing is that it makes me feel free. …
Silicon: The Truth
Silicon is the second-most abundant element in the Earth’s crust, and it bonds with…
A Little Goes a Long Way
Hydroponic nutrients need to be applied in the right concentrations at the right times…
Build a Better Foundation
The Emerald Harvest nutrient line is a complete feeding program that’s been purity and…
Plants can’t tell the difference: Understanding the pros and cons of organic and inorganic hydroponic fertilizers
Download pdf Inorganic fertilizers have a bad rep. Often called “synthetic,” “chemical” and “artificial,”…
Michigan Home Growers ‘Stick’ to What Works
By Jonathan Katz Shere McKay can rattle off dizzying list of homemade cannabis goods…
Clearing up the confusion about silicates: Case in point—BioNova Silutio
Silicon-based fertilizer supplements are easy-to-use additions to your feeding program that bring numerous benefits…
Inside silicon supplements: Making Sense of What’s inside the Bottle
Silicon packs a powerful punch, increasing crop quality, strength and resilience. Yet the fertilizer…
Emerald Harvest Nutrient Switch Gives Craft Grower a Boost
Los Angeles-area microgrower gains enhanced resin production and increased efficiency from easy-to-use nutrient line.…
Emerald Harvest will always be my 1st Choice
With over 15 years of marijuana production for licensed facilities in the rapidly evolving…
Consistent Quality for Hawaiian Based Retailer
HiBred Seed LLC is a Hawaii based medicinal cannabis souvenir retailer on the island…
Heavy Metals: Time to Face the Music
In agriculture as in music, heavy metal has a bad-boy reputation. And for good…
Moonlight Garden Supply gets results with Emerald Harvest
Emerald Harvest has been a great addition to the store. The products give awesome…
Simplicity Brings Home Grower to Emerald Harvest
Mark Nerheim wanted simplicity. As a home grower with a focus on quality, he…
Superior nutrients, superior plants: How the right nutrients help plants reach their genetic potential
Every seedling carries its potential within its genes. Just as a person might inherit…