Advanced Tips

Advanced Tips

How Amino Acids Promote Plant Growth
Proteins are known as “the building blocks of life”—and amino acids the building blocks of proteins. Plants synthesize their own aminos naturally, but if crops are stressed, they may not have sufficient energy to manufacture these crucial compounds.[1] In this blog post, we’ll unpack what amino acids are, why they’re important for plant development, and why it’s a good idea to feed cannabis with a fertilizer that contains them. What are amino acids? Amino acids are chemical compounds that include an amine …
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Sources of Soluble Silicon
Silicon is the second most abundant element on Earth. However, most forms of silicon[1] found in nature are unavailable for uptake by plants. To reap the benefits of silicon, growers must use a fertilizer that contains a highly soluble source of silicon. That’s easier said than done. While there is no shortage of silicon in the world, not all silicon compounds are equal. Some may not be very soluble or even high in silicon. Others may have significant downsides, such as …
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How Silicon Promotes Plant Growth
Although silicon is not considered an essential nutrient—plants can grow without it—it significantly boosts plant strength and stress resistance. For cannabis, silicon contributes to development of the terpenes and phenolic compounds that growers prize. Here's why supplementing your feeding program with silicon might be beneficial. Benefits of silicon Silicon improves plant health and growth in several important ways. Physically, this beneficial nutrient help plants form a strong layer of hydrated amorphous silica, or opal, in their cell walls. This silica layer acts as …
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How Suboptimal Fertilization Affects Yield
Fertilizer is a crucial component of crop production, but simply adding fertilizer to the system is no guarantee a crop will get the nutrients it needs. Inadequate nutrient availability, nutrient incompatibility, and subpar nutrient formulations can result in under-fertilized plants, also known as suboptimal fertilization. Without the right nutrients in the right concentrations and ratios, plants cannot achieve optimal yields or maximize crop quality. For cannabis, suboptimal fertilization can also impact cannabinoid profiles and concentrations. Consequences of suboptimal fertilization In one study, researchers …
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Biofilms in Your Grow Ops
Biofilms are slimy layers of microbial colonies that form where microorganisms grow and reproduce. Because microorganisms flourish where water and nutrients are abundant, irrigation systems offer ideal environments for biofilms. When biofilms develop in grow operations, they can create clogs, harbor pathogens and cause oxygen levels in the nutrient solution to drop. Preventing or eliminating biofilms is essential to growing healthy, high-yield crops. How biofilms develop Biofilm begins when free-floating microorganisms in the water supply such as bacteria, fungi, protozoa or algae …
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Clogs in Your Grow Room
Clogs in emitters, feeding lines and drains One of the biggest challenges growers face with irrigation systems is clogs. Clogs can form from physical particles, chemical precipitates or biological growth, and they can occur in an irrigation system’s lines, emitters or drains. Not only do they prevent the irrigation system from functioning properly, but they can also be detrimental to crop health and yield. Figure 1 Consequences of clogs Clogging in is more than a maintenance nuisance. Because clogs reduce the uniformity of water …
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Style of Growing: SOG and SCROG
Many indoor growers are challenged by the height limitations of their lighting systems. One solution is to grow shorter plants and focus on developing the canopy, as the buds in the top portion of the plant tend to contain more cannabinoid content than those on lower branches.[1] There are two growing styles to achieve this: Sea of Green (SOG) and Screen of Green (SCROG).[2] [1] https://doi.org/10.3390/plants11010140 [2] Variously spelled “sea of green” and “screen of green” (uncapitalized), as well as SoG, SCRoG, …
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Equipment for Indoor Growing
Growers need a lot of different equipment to foster the ideal conditions for cultivating high-yield, high-quality cannabis indoors. We’ll walk you through your options, depending on your preferred cultivation method, operational size and budget, starting with the crucial decision of whether to use a grow tent or a grow room. Grow tents versus grow rooms Unless you’re a greenhouse grower, your first decision is whether to use a grow tent or construct a grow room from scratch. A grow tent provides cannabis with …
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Photos versus Autos
Photos vs autos: a comparison In the wake of cannabis legalization, growers have more options than ever when it comes to selecting genetics and strains. An important choice to make is whether to cultivate photoperiod plants (photos) or autoflowering ones (autos). Let’s look at what makes photos and autos unique and the key differences to consider when selecting between these varieties. Photos Photoperiod, also known as photoperiodic or photosensitive, cannabis plants get their name from photoperiodism, the physiological reaction of plants to the recurring cycle …
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Cannabis Life Cycle
In the wild, cannabis goes through three phases during its life cycle: (1) seeds germinate and seedlings sprout from seed; (2) the young plants grow vegetatively, marked by the proliferation of roots, stems and leaves; and (3) the plants mature, budding and flowering or ripening, until they reach sexual maturity, when they drop seed.[1] Understanding the crop life cycle is important for commercial cannabis production. Unless a grower grows an auto-flowering variety, light is the main driver of the “flip” between …
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Starting with Seeds, Clones or Tissue Culture
Growers can start cannabis cultivation from seeds, clones or tissue culture. Starter plants are crucial to successful cannabis cultivation. They are the foundation for high-quality genetics and cannabinoid-profile consistency. But they can also introduce problems out of the gate, particularly pests and diseases. For example, hop latent viroid (HLVd), also known as dudding disease, one of the biggest threats to cannabis production,[1] can easily spread through infected propagation material. Deciding whether to start with seeds, clones or tissue culture depends on a …
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Choosing a Growing Method
Cannabis can be cultivated outdoors, in an open field, or indoors, either within the protection of a greenhouse or in a grow room, a sophisticated indoor controlled growing space that uses artificial light and other inputs. Deciding which growing method to use depends on climatic conditions, available resources and cost. Differences between growing methods The primary difference between outdoor and indoor cannabis cultivation is the level of control growers have. Outdoors, cannabis is grown like most traditional agricultural crops: in soil, often unmulched, …
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