It can be agonizing waiting for your plants to be ready for harvest. However, there are ways that you can go from germination to harvest in as little as eight weeks, and it’s easier than you may think.
You just need to know how cannabis plants work.
Choose the Right Strain
Some strains simply grow more quickly than others. If you want to minimize the time from germination to harvest, choosing the right strain is key. You can push any strain to grow more quickly, but a slow-growing strain will always take longer to mature than one selected for a quick harvest.
There are plenty of strains available with quick harvest times. Whether you want a sativa plant, an indica, or a hybrid, there’s one for you. Doing a bit of research before you grow will make all the difference to increase your yield.
Grow Inside
Outside growing has its benefits, but it’s not great for harvesting cannabis quickly. If you grow outside, you’re at the mercy of the weather and the seasons. Your plants will flower when the light cycle triggers them, instead of when you want them too.
Growing inside, however, allows you to fast-track harvests. You have complete control over the conditions. This means you can prevent pests, feed your plants, and trigger flowering exactly the way you want. There’s no stress about a freak hailstorm ruining your grow, or a cold snap freezing your buds. It’s the simplest way to guarantee a quick harvest.
Try 24 Hour Light During the Vegetative Stage
Plants grow when they’re exposed to light. The more light they receive, the more they grow. If you’re looking to speed up your harvest as much as possible, try giving your plants the maximum amount of light. Just never turn the lights off. Leaving the lights on 24/7 during the vegetative stage will get your plants to grow faster, and that will get you to the flowering stage sooner.
The one downside to 24/7 light is that your cannabis plants won’t have time to rest. If you often face plant pests and problems, a lack of rest will make this worse. However, if you regularly face pests or disease, that’s delaying your grow more than anything. So to say, handle the pests problem, and then try bumping up your light incrementally when your plants are healthy.
Try Hydroponics
For true efficiency, hydroponics is hard to beat. With a hydroponic system you can deliver the exact nutrients you want directly to the roots of your plants. You control the pH, the nutrients, the oxygenation – everything. Experienced growers use hydroponics to shave weeks off the vegetative stage. The trick is managing your nutrients without inducing nutrient burn. This can be done by using specially-made hydroponic fertilizers designed for cannabis.
Watch Out for Pests
No matter how optimal your setup, disease or fungus will slow down your grow. The easiest way to increase your yields is simply keeping your plants healthy. Regularly check every plant for signs of common problems like pH imbalances, nutrient burn, watering problems, or powdery mildew. The sooner you find a problem, the quicker you can fix it (and the easier it’ll be to do so). This’ll keep your harvest from getting delayed.
Fast harvests are the desire of every cannabis grower. To summarize, you can speed up your harvests by keeping a close eye on your plants, choosing the right strain, playing with lighting, and growing indoors.