Maximum Yield Cannabis USA March/April 2019 | Page 36

1
Light
Cannabis plants love light. When planning a garden opera-
tion, be it be indoor, greenhouse, or outdoor, light is the most
essential variable for success.
For indoor marijuana gardening, the design of a successful
lighting schematic can be a challenge for the inexperienced
grower. To illustrate, different types of lighting, such as high
pressure sodium (HPS), metal halide (MH), light emitting
diode (LED), and fluorescents, all present unique variances
in their applications. For example, an HPS light covers a
different square footage of canopy and utilizes different
levels of wattage than an LED light. One thing rookies need
to be aware of is not positioning their chosen grow lights
either too close or too far from the garden canopy. Hanging
lights too close to foliage can easily burn leaves, while
placing them too far from the canopy will cause plants to
stretch. Overly stretched cannabis plants wreak havoc on
the small confines of indoor grows. A careful study of the
proper use of a chosen grow light can help alleviate most
of these issues. A majority of this information is available
online and on product packaging.
Greenhouse and outdoor cannabis growers should always
position their gardens in areas that maximize sunlight. An
additional two hours of direct sunlight on a garden can have
huge impacts on harvest totals. Of course, the world of legal
cannabis growing is still in its infancy, and it’s important for
cultivators to weigh privacy and security concerns with the
utilization of available sunlight. Still, a common mistake
made by novice greenhouse and outdoor growers is to hide
their gardens under trees and out of the sun. While this is
understandable from a security perspective, planting a garden
in the shade will greatly diminish the size of a harvest.
2
Water
“For novice gardeners,
it is important to
understand that all
cannabis cultivators,
no matter how
advanced, are after
this same goal.”
36
Maximum Yield
Water presents an extremely important yet difficult-to-
master variable in cannabis cultivation practices. As such,
proper watering technique is probably the most problematic
factor for new cannabis growers.
While indoor, greenhouse, and outdoor gardens each have
different environmental constraints that dictate how often
cannabis plants should be watered, basic irrigation rules
apply to all these cultivation practices. Novice gardeners
are notorious for overwatering. While there are countless
reasons as to why this happens, a primary one is simply that
new growers like spending time with their plants. It is well
and good to be excited about cannabis growing, but being
a skilled horticulturist requires patience and attentiveness.
Overwatering causes countless problems with essential plant
functions, from nutrient uptake issues to root rot. Cannabis
plants like their root zones to dry out between watering
sessions. Of course, proper irrigation requires a careful
balancing act as it is harmful to let root zones dry out to the
point that the leaves of the plant wilt. To make things more
complicated, shifts in weather patterns and temperature affect
when one should water. It takes some practice to understand
when the best time to water might be.