Home Growers Corner
Simple Steps to a Bountiful Harvest
How To Grow Like a Cup Winner
by Gerry Donovan, contributing writer
My July issue article covered the way I prune plants to maximize output and form a very productive canopy with“ No Fimming Required.” This pruning method allows the plant to produce only primary buds and focus the energy it has where you want it— straight to the top buds of the canopy.
If the buds are considered the output of the plant, and we want to maximize their production and quality, we need to maximize several important inputs. Let’ s talk about some of the things to focus on that will turn your average cannabis grow into something of excellence and higher quality. These inputs will help the cannabis to express itself fully and produce buds that are super frosty with trichomes, have highly expressed terpene profiles, and very high yields.
First, I want to stress that I teach others to grow exactly as I grow myself. Second, I’ d like to point out that I keep NO tricks to myself. This year, I was asked, based on my educational videos, to grow a new variety of cannabis for the Americas Autoflower Cannabis Cup 2025. I accepted the challenge! I initially thought I would go super specific, scientific, and particular with this grow, changing methods and parameters and using every grow“ toy” possible to ensure amazing outcomes— then I took several steps back and thought,“ Nope, you are doing this one exactly how you grow every other plant,” and so I did. This cup challenge was an open submission with many well-known growers and companies participating( my entry is the plant in the rear of the photo shown here). I am proud to say that my submission took home top prize, winning 1st Place for overall THC content, as well as 2nd Place for Best Overall New Strain of 2025. By the way, the plant was pruned using my aforementioned pruning method and produced over 400 grams of dry-weight bud.
Let’ s examine how I achieved this feat. There are several main components to the grow that cannot be overlooked. The key factors to consider are light, air movement, and nutrients. These are the inputs to optimize to maximize the plant’ s output.
Light
The best rule of thumb I can give here is: however big your flower tent or room is, get the biggest, most powerful light( s) that will fit! We are trying to mimic the sun here, Folks!
Many companies produce high-quality lights at very reasonable price points. That said, it is very important not to“ cheapout” on your lights.“ White” LED lights are preferred among growers because they include all visible colors, can be used throughout all plant life stages, have low heat output, and low energy consumption. Your local grow shop should offer good lighting, helpful information, and warranty coverage.
Your seedlings, small vegetative, and mother plants are generally okay under high-quality, lower-power lights. Avoid blue / purple( blurple) lights, and if you are using old-school HID lighting, use 600-watt CMH for Veg and a 1000-watt HPS for flower.
Air Movement
Look outside— the leaves on trees and bushes are always moving, even when it doesn’ t seem that windy. There are several reasons why maximizing air movement is important.
First, the back-and-forth movement in the stalk helps it to build strong stems and branches. This is helpful when the plant starts to develop heavy buds. The best way to mimic wind is with oscillating fans. Oscillation is key because windburn on plants is a real thing!
Second, utilizing a ventilation fan helps remove air from the grow tent. This allows for easy temperature and humidity control, as well as fresh air exchange. Fresh air is crucial so the plant can get adequate
CO2( extra CO2 incorporation isn’ t a bad idea, since plants absorb
CO2 much like we breathe oxygen). Implementing a CO2 regimen is simple to do on a small scale these days, using CO2 bags, pads, or bottles placed near your plants. A bonus of ventilation is the ability to mitigate odors by using a carbon filter.
When considering temperature and humidity, you can get all“ sciencey” with it and try to maintain a perfect temperature, strict VPD numbers, and blah, blah, blah. Or you can follow my methods and maintain sweet spot ranges. Nowhere in nature does a plant
22 August 2025