Growing Tips ►
Bad Advice or Partial Truths ?
by Jason Mispagel , contributing writer graphic by Sevector123rf
Jason Mispagel is the co-owner and operator of Year-Round Garden , a grower ’ s supply center serving both home and commercial customers since 2016 . His extensive growing experience in hydroponics and soil dates to the early days of legalization in Colorado , where he served as one of the state ’ s early caregivers . Year-Round Garden . 1225 W 103rd St , Kansas City , MO . 816.216.6917 – FB : yrroundgarden ● IG : @ yrroundgarden
Over the years , I ’ ve heard all types of bad advice about how to grow cannabis — everything from the wildly inaccurate to the totally bizarre . And to be honest , when I first started growing , I took some of this advice . There just weren ’ t many resources available because everything had been underground for so long . It was word of mouth or nothing . Then , as the internet and social media began to take off , it seemed like the spread of bogus horticultural advice might just takeover entirely , especially because those are the platforms many novice growers turn to when they ’ re starting out .
Fortunately , the strides made in the past decade towards decriminalization and legalization have opened the doors for a franker discussion in public forums , including Facebook groups and websites . That ’ s allowed some of the best growers with a deep understanding of the plant to openly share their experiences and help clear up some of the truly ridiculous myths out there . All-in-all , I think the future is bright for these platforms , but we still have a long way to go since there is no shortage of bad information out there .
Rather than focus on bashing or fact-checking good-intentioned people who happen to be giving bad advice , I want to spend some time analyzing “ partial truths .” These are valid recommendations that are frequently made but tend to be oversimplified . They require additional explanation or understanding of the other variables at play to be properly applied in a grow .
Light Leak
Partial truth : If light reaches your plants during the dark portion of your light cycle while flowering , your plants will revert to a vegetative state .
Reality : Photoperiod cannabis plants rely on the total number of consecutive dark hours in a 24-hour period to know when it ’ s time to begin flowering . Interrupting those dark hours can have an impact on flowering , especially if it occurs on a regular basis . For instance , if you ’ re using a grow tent and there ’ s an open door where light from the outside is entering the tent daily during the dark period , it will prevent the plants from flowering or revert them back to a vegetative state if flowering has already begun . On the other hand , if you open the door and let light in during the dark cycle once in the entire 8-10 weeks of flowering , you shouldn ’ t expect to see any change