All marijuana plants have four stages of growth: germination, seedling, vegetative, and flowering. Each growth stage has specific purposes and require specific types of care. During the germination, seedling, and vegetative stages, the plant is creating its root system and focusing on growing strong.
During the flowering stage, both male and female plants will show their sex organs – this is when you separate the males from the females to prevent pollination. This is also when your buds will see their greatest development. But is there a way to speed up the first three stages and get right to the flowering for a fast cannabis harvest?
Flowering Stage
Generally speaking, the flowering stage begins during weeks 8 to 11. This is when light exposure is cut to twelve hours per day and the plants grow their resinous buds. These are the weeks just before harvest when your plants are ready to be dried, cured, and smoked.
If you want to speed up the growth of your marijuana plants, there are several things you can do:
- Grow indoors
- Prune your plants
- Grow Indica strains
- Don’t compromise on nutrients
- Change your light schedule sooner (12 on/12 off)
Each of these steps will help start the flowering stage faster in your marijuana plant crop.
Growing Indoors
While growing outdoors is cheaper and easier, you’re solely reliant on nature to provide the light needed for your plants. Your plants will grow based on how much light they have in a given day. Indoors, you control the light, humidity, and temperature, so you can give your plants the perfect environment for growth and start the flowering stage faster.
Prune your plants
During the flowering stage, you want your plants to focus on creating and growing fat, sticky buds. By removing extra stems, leaves, and dried or damaged parts of the plant, the plant can use all its energy to bringing the perfect bud to harvest at a much faster rate.
Grow Indica strains
Choosing between Indica and Sativa strains is usually about what type of effect the user wants to get from smoking or ingesting the marijuana. However, Indica strains do grow more quickly, have a shorter flowering time, and can produce a much higher yield than Sativa strains. Indica strains are perfect for a fast cannabis harvest.
Don’t Compromise On Nutrients
Each growth stage of marijuana requires a delicate balance of nutrients, but the basic nutrients of potassium, nitrogen, and phosphorous must always be present. During the flowering stage, you’ll want to lower the amount of nitrogen your plants are getting. Nitrogen is primarily used to grow leaves and stems. The potassium and phosphorous are what give you more buds and bigger and fatter buds during the flowering stage. By lowering the nitrogen, the plants have more of the bud growing nutrients to work with.
Change your light schedule sooner (12 on/12 off)
The natural light cycle outdoors determines when your plants go from the vegetative stage to the flowering stage. In nature, marijuana plants start budding when the light cycle is even – 12 hours of light, 12 hours of dark. When you grow indoors, you have control over how much light, heat, and water your plants receive. So, you can set your lighting schedule at 12 hours on, 12 hours off to trigger the budding phase of the flowering stage. This will produce buds faster so you can harvest sooner.
When you’re waiting for your marijuana plants to bud, it can be frustrating at times. Remember, patience is a virtue. And even more importantly, it is absolutely necessary when managing an indoor garden – regardless of what you’re growing. Happy harvests!
