Author: Samantha White

Advanced Tips

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, pruning involves a bit of chemistry management to achieve your desired ends. The humble act of cutting a plant twice, just a few days apart, can mean the difference between a harvest that passes testing—and one that gets remediated.Let’s talk about double pruning.What is it?Double pruning is exactly what it sounds like: two intentional cuts during early vegetative growth. The first comes about 10–12 days post-transplant, after …
Growing Tips

Nutrient Dosing Systems
Fertilizing plants in hydroponics requires fertigation—the process of delivering nutrients through irrigation. Growers can either add nutrients to their hydroponic systems manually or use an automatic dosing system to regulate how much is added to the water.Nutrient dosing systems work with almost every type of hydroponic system and suit a range of cannabis operations, from hobby grows to large-scale grow-ops. In this blog post, we’ll cover the benefits of these automatic systems, how they work and best practices for using …
Growing Tips

Lollipopping vs. Full Defoliation: What Works Best?
There was a time when pruning was more art than science. But under LEDs, with today’s tight margins and lab-driven metrics, the equation has changed.  Now, we need to ask: what’s actually worth the labor? Let’s compare two strategies: lollipopping and defoliation. What the data saysIn a recent study, four sets of Chem 4 plants were compared:Control (no pruning)Lollipopped onlyDefoliated at day 21 Both lollipopped and defoliatedYield? Not much difference with lollipopping alone. But when you combined branch removal and day-21 defoliation, total cannabinoids …
Advanced Tips

Automated Systems for Grow Rooms
Cannabis requires a specific environment to grow well and yield prolifically. Temperature, humidity and moisture are just a few of the environmental parameters growers must manage to keep plants thriving.An automated grow-room system—also known as a greenhouse environmental control system—helps maintain optimal conditions. Much like a home thermostat triggers the air conditioning when temperatures rise above the setpoint, these systems use sensors to monitor grow-room conditions and activate equipment to restore them to ideal levels. They also offer the added …
Growing Tips

Building Your Grow Room
A well-designed grow room is essential for successful cannabis cultivation. To maximize yields and bud quality, cannabis needs a specific growing environment—one that indoor growers can foster with the right materials and supplies. In this blog post, we’ll walk through the aspects of a grow room that growers should consider. Determining size and layout The cultivation area should be large enough to accommodate the desired number of plants while allowing adequate room for airflow, irrigation systems and maintenance. Your growing style plays …
Growing Tips

Troubleshooting: Identifying and Addressing Issues in the Grow Room
When problems arise in hydroponic cannabis operations, it’s important to act quickly. Unfortunately, diagnosis isn’t always straightforward. For example, wilting can result from either drought or overwatering, or chlorosis may stem from iron deficiency or excess phosphorus. Identifying the source requires a systematic process of elimination.In this blog post, we’ll cover six common areas where problems often occur, along with preventive measures growers can take to keep their operations running smoothly.Issue 1: EnvironmentCannabis is highly sensitive to its environment, and …
Growing Science

Phenohunting in Cannabis Cultivation: Techniques and Strategies
Growers who start with clones or tissue culture can count on plants with the same qualities and characteristics as the mother plant, or donor. However, growers starting from seed aren’t guaranteed a replica. That’s because cannabis exhibits phenotypic variation.[1] A phenotype refers to an organism’s observable traits, such as yield, structure or aroma.[2] The term derives from the Greek phaino, meaning “to appear.”[3] Phenotypes can vary widely based on environmental conditions,[4] so even if two growers plant the same seeds, they …
Growing Science

Plant Respiration
All living organisms need food for energy, but to use that energy, they must first release it through respiration. In plants, food is created through photosynthesis, which uses captured light energy to convert carbon dioxide and water into complex molecules like glucose and starch. These compounds are stored in plants, but the energy is not immediately available. Respiration allows plants to tap into that stored energy to power growth and other biological processes. In this blog post, we’ll explain how respiration works, …
Growing Science

How Plants Feed
Plants produce their own food through photosynthesis, using energy from light to convert water and carbon dioxide into oxygen and carbohydrates.[1] Understanding the factors involved in photosynthesis and how they interact is essential for ensuring plants photosynthesize effectively, resulting in healthy, high-yielding crops. In this blog post, we’ll explore the science behind photosynthesis, including the critical role played by nutrients, and discuss how growers can support this vital process.The photosynthesis equationPhotosynthesis is a light-driven process. Plants capture light energy and use …
Advanced Tips

Preparing Stock Solution
When feeding cannabis crops in hydroponic systems, growers must first prepare a stock tank solution—either using a complete fertilizer line from a reputable manufacturer or by mixing and matching fertilizers themselves. With a complete fertilizer line, creating a stock solution is straightforward: simply follow the manufacturer’s instructions. But for those who prefer to mix their own fertilizers, the process is more complex. Growers must understand the nutrient concentrations in each fertilizer, how much they want to feed and the dilution …
Advanced Tips

Flushing in Cannabis Cultivation
Flushing is the practice of halting fertilization before harvest and irrigating plants with plain water instead. The goal is to remove excess salts from the growing medium and the plant.[1] Growers typically flush for two reasons: First, nutrient deprivation is believed to trigger secondary metabolite production as a stress response, indirectly increasing the quality (i.e., color, fragrance, flavor and potency) of the end product. Second, reducing the plant’s nutrient content may degrade chlorophyll, which some believe contributes to the harshness or …
Advanced Tips

Nutrient and Fertilizer Interactions
Plant fertilization is a sophisticated science that requires understanding both plant needs and the interactions between nutrients and the fertilizer salts used to supply them. Certain nutrient combinations can interfere with uptake, while improper fertilizer combinations may lead to precipitation or other reactions that make nutrients unavailable for absorption.If you’re using pre-mixed fertilizers from a reputable brand, these incompatibilities aren’t a concern, as such products are formulated in a balanced way to ensure chemical compatibility. However, if you prefer to …
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