To many people growing crappy cannabis
I was recently talking with a guy who wanted to grow his own medical marijuana and he was getting advice from someone who apparantly “knew what they were doing” and had been growing for many years. This advice was that the best way to grow good cannabis was to hammer the plants with as much fertilizer as possible during every watering. When I heard this I almost choked on my smoke and totally got angry, you NEVER, NEVER need to give the plants fertilizer EVERY single watering, that is not good.
Crappy Cannabis
WAY to much Fertilizer!
He was convinced that the best way to grow killer buds was to use tons of fertilizer. Now I am wondering if there is lots of people out there who think this same way, and there probably is, inspiring me to write this article about using to much fertilizer and the proper technique for cleaning your cannabis for the final product. Please understand that fertilizer is a good thing when it is used correctly but can be a massive problem when used in excessive amounts, just like anything in life. To much food and you get fat, to much water and you drown, to many drugs and you overdose or get addicted and sick. Well are you really that surprised that marijuana plants are the same? If you give them to much of there nutrient source it will overwhelm them on many levels.
The best marijuana was NOT grown by throwing lots of fertilizer at it, trust me on that. Sure the fertilizer companies will tell you different but experience with killer cannabis says that to much fertilizer will do more harm than good. The reason I can think of were people would want to use to much fertilizer is when you don’t care about a quality finished product and your just going to move it off to someone else. Well the karma of green will not agree with your greedy practice and you will end up with a crappy tasting bud and less weight then you have the potential for.
OK so then what is the best method for watering and feeding my plants?
From my experience the best method for watering and feeding is to use a simple method of water, water, food. That means that you should water your plants at least 2 times before you give them anymore fertilizer. This allows them to actually process the nutrients and put it to use, otherwise you are flooding the plant with to much stuff to process and it will shut down. Once you have enough experience you can usually just look at the plants and the soil and instantly be able to tell if they need watering again, because that is another problem, overwatering.
You never want your plants to become to thirsty and jonesing for fresh water until the very end when you are flushing. Up until then you want to keep them moist and refreshed with no stress so all focus is on producing THC and big juicy buds. You can usually tell when its time to water by looking at the soil. If the top few inches are totally dry and dusty you most likely need to water. However stick your fingers in and feel around a bit, grab a bit of dirt a few inches down and feel it, if it has very little moisture you need to water.
If the top layer of soil is dark and damp you most certainly should NOT water the plants again. Even if it has been a whole day, you might have a drainage problem or maybe gave them to much water the previous time. The plants should be able to drink all the water and dry up the first few inches of soil in a 24-48 hour period. Anything longer and you have a problem such as: To much water, not enough drainage, not enough heat in the room, to much humidity in the room, soil is to compact, and possibly others.
So after you have watered 2 times and the plant is ready for a 3rd watering you should boost it up with fertilizer now. The plant will have used up the previous hit of nutrient and be jonesing for more, this is exactly how you want your plants to behave. This way they use every bit of the expensive fertilizer the way it should be used. If you overfeed your plants they will not be able to use all the fertilizer and still have excess salts the next time you feed them causing buildup and stunted growth.
Not only will it slow the growth it will also affect the final product. To much fertilizer is no fun for smoking. It will cause a harsh acidic flavour to the cannabis and somtimes even cause a burning sensation on the lips. You will also have a very hard time smoking it as the excess fertilizer will make it burn very slow and keep going out. You will also see a massive clump of black ash on the end, this is all the chemicals left in the ashes as they can’t burn away easily.
Keeping it clean...
White Ashes = Clean Cannabis
A good sign of quality cannabis is the colour of the ashes at the end of the doobie. If they are white and easily blown away then you most likely have a nice clean cannabis. However if it is black, clumpy, and sticks to the end of the joint were you have to break it off every time to to re-light the damn thing you can be sure it has not been cleaned properly and is full of fertilizer.
In Conclusion… How to flush your cannabis and make it cleaner.
So what did you learn today? The best way to water and feed your plants is to follow the water, water, feed method. You want to water your plants 2 times before you give them fertilizer. Also you need to watch out for how dry the soil is and not overwater or underwater the plants. It is always better to wait the extra day if they are still showing signs of moisture in the soil, you want them to be just a little bit thirsty but not stressed out.
Also it is important to FLUSH your plants out during the last 2-3 weeks of flowering. Depending on how clean you want the final product to be and how much fertilizer you have been feeding them you will want to start giving them only water for every feeding. If you want it to be very clean I would start this at the last three weeks. If you didn’t use much fertilizer in the first place you can leave it to the last 2 weeks but anything less is not going to be enough time for the plants to fully digest all the salts and rinse away any unused chemicals.
We are already smoking the stuff and we know that inhaling smoke is obviously not good for our lungs. So the least we can do is try and make sure the stuff we are smoking is as clean as possible right? The only reason I can see that people would not care about cleaning there cannabis is if they don’t smoke it themselves and only do it for profit. This kind of greed truly makes me disgusted and I know its out there, either your just uneducated and don’t have the experience yet, or you are blatently growing and distributing crappy cannabis full of chemicals. Its time to smarten up all the cultivators and make sure we have a new level of quality medical marijuana to enjoy.
- By SmokeFace
