When to Flower Your Weed Plants

One of the biggest topics of debate in the weed growing community, is exactly when to flower your plants.  I am of the school of thought that your plant will tell you when it's ready to flower.  Some people will always do it after a certain amount of weeks no matter the size of the plant.  Other people will only begin to flower their plant when it reaches a specific height.  I don't believe there is any right or wrong answer, as all of the methods work, but I prefer to listen to the plant.  If your plant isn't ready to flower yet, I suggest you go back and read this guide on how to grow marijuana indoors.

During the plant's growth, I constantly monitor the height of the plant and write it down in a journal.  I do this very every plant, and every grow I do.  This gives me a good data set to refer back to in future grows so I can see what I have done wrong or right, or when a certain milestone is about to happen.

Using this journal around the 6th week of the plant's growth, I take a look back at all of my growth data.  You will see a sharp bell curve form if you were to plot out the data-points.  However, you don't need to go to this length unless you want to.  You can simply monitor the plants grow for a sudden drop in gain per day.  You will know it when you see it, and at that point, you should flower your plants.

As I have said, there is no wrong or right way to decide when to flower your plants.  But I find it is always better to listen to the plant.

How to Provide Nutrients to your Indoor Plants

Adding nutrients to your indoor grown weed can be a surprisingly difficult task.  Not only do you run the risk of burning your plant's roots, but actually mixing the fertilizer with the soil can be a difficult process.  In this post, I will try and sum up what I have read on this indoor grow guide.  Throughout the life cycle of your plant, you will not use one, but three different types of nutrient all with varying chemical properties.

When the plant is approximately at the end of its third week of growth, you will add the first dose of fertilizer.  Growers often begin the nutrient process with Fish Emulsion with a mix of 5-1-1.  The 5-1-1 mix is a very gentle formula of fertilizer, and is safe to use on your plants at this stage.  You will want to follow the directions, but start off with about 1/2 of the recommended dose on the package, then work your way up.

When the plant has matured a bit more and is about six to seven weeks along, you will want to change to Bone Meal fertilizer with a mix ratio of 1-11-0.  This is a little bit harsher of a fertilizer, but is safe to use on the plant after the root structure is firmly established.  You will continue to use this fertilizer until you or the plant decide it is time to being the flowering process.

The final fertilizer you will use, is Bone Meal with a mix of 1-11-1.  While this may seem the same as the 1-11-0 mix, it is not.  The difference in chemical properties is just enough at this stage to make a difference.

There you have it, you don't know everything about weed fertilizer for indoor plants, but you know enough to be dangerous.  Enjoy!

What Size of Light to Use for Growing Weed Indoors

Many people often think that bigger is better when it comes to grow lights.  Most of the people who think this also often end up killing their plants.  Don't get me wrong, there IS a proper application for two 1000 watt high-pressure sodium lights, but there is also an improper application.  The amount of light directly correlates the number of plants you are growing, and the available space in which to grow them.

As a rule of thumb, each plant will need around 50 watts each.  So if you have 6 plants, a 300 watt HPS light will do just fine.  There are exceptions to this rule of course.  If you are only growing one plant, I would not hesitate to use a 100 watt light.  However, this also depends on the type of weed your are growing.  If your particular strain of weed is bushy, rather than tall, you could increase the amount of wattage by 50%.  If it is tall and skinny, I would maintain the 50 watt per plant rule.  The easiest way to have the proper light to area ratio, is to use one of these hydroponic kits for growing weed indoors.

The average weed plant takes up four square feet of floor area.  This is a 2' x 2' square.  So, if you are growing 6 plants, you will need about 24 square feet of floor space.  However, if your room is considerably larger than that, you will lose some lumens, and it would be acceptable to add more light to the plants.  For example, if you need 24 square feet, but your grow space is 100 square feet, you could go up to as much as 100 watts per plant.  On the other side of your spectrum, if your grow area is only exactly as much as you need, you should reduce the amount of lighting to 35 watts per plant.

Believe it or not, the main concern for too much wattage on your grow lights is the heat generated by them, not the light itself.  You not only run the risk of causing heat damage to the plant, but also burning down your house.

Hopefully after reading this guide, you will be able to accurately judge the correct amount of lights for your particular indoor grow operation.

How to Properly Water Your Indoor Weed

Overwatering is without a doubt, the single most common reason people kill their plants.  Some people do not even realize you can water a plant too much, but trust me, you can.  When I first started out growing weed, I killed countless plants by watering them too much.  I honestly couldn't figure out why they were dying.  Then I read how to grow weed indoors, and it all made sense.  So, I am making this guide to ensure that you don't make the same mistake that I have and overwater your plants.

I used to water my plants if I could touch the surface of the dirt, and not feel moisture.  This was my first mistake.  Just because the surface is dry, does not mean that there isn't enough water beneath the soil.  A good method to see when the soil is dry enough for watering, is to stick your finger in the dirt to the middle knuckle of your finger.  If there is no water down this far, then there isn't any at all.

However, just because the soil is dry, does not mean you should water your plant.  It is still possible to harm the plant.  I will usually use the soil dryness as half of the equation for watering, but there is another factor I always consider before watering my plants.  It is important to make your plants as hardy as possible, and another way to do this, is to not water them until they absolutely need it.  More recently, I have started only watering my plants when the leaves start to turn a lighter shade of green, and wilt slightly.  This tells me that the weed plant is "thirsty".  Watering them this way, ensures they are striving for growth, and they will suck up the water right away.

Before you think you've learned it all, there is one more thing to consider.  Root rot is a very dangerous condition that will easily kill a plant.  Root rot happens when moisture collects at the bottom of the planter, due to improper drainage.  When the root system is developed enough, the roots will sit in the moist soil at the bottom, and will not be able to absorb it due to its low nutrient value.  An easy way to avoid this is to put about 1" of mid-sized gravel in the bottom of your planter.  This will keep all of the excess water at the bottom of the pot.

How to Dry and Store Your Indoor Grown Weed

Luckily, one of the easiest parts of growing weed indoors, is drying and storing the final product.  However, some people still don't know how to do it correctly.  You could be getting a good product, but if you aren't drying it correctly, it won't be as good as it could have been.

Typically, when I am ready to harvest a plant, I don't do it all at once.  I will take the plants down in sections, after their 24 dark period prior to harvesting.  It is usually best to split the plant into thirds.  So, the first day I will cut all of the branches off that are closest to the top of the plant.  You can usually visibly see where you should make your first cut.  The buds will be bigger at the top, and then start to decrease in size as you go down the plant.  So use your observational skills, and make a good judgment call on where exactly to make the cut, but it should be somewhere around the top 2/3 of the plant.

When you have taken down the top third of the plant, you will need to trim up your harvested weed.  Trimming weed is fairly simple.  You just take each bud and cut the stem off where the actual weed stops.  Then, take your scissors and cut the bud down length-wise, until you have trimmed off the leaves and are down to the bud.

After your weed is nice and trimmed up, you will want to store it.  Some people claim placing weed in plastic containers and putting it in your freezer is the best way to store weed.  This is definitely the wrong thing to do.

The correct way to store weed, depends on the size of your harvest, and how much you smoke per day.  The only sure-fire way to store your weed without loss of cannaboids, is to vacuum seal the weed.  Typically, I will vacuum seal anything over a half of a pound.  The rest of my harvest, I put in two opposing layers of Ziploc bags, and then into a plastic container.

Now that you have completed the final step of growing weed, enjoy!  If you have missed the first part please visit how to grow weed indoors.