When you begin your growth in a marijuana grow tent, you need to consider more! Cannabis plants, like all living things, go through a series of stages as they grow and mature. If you’re interested in cultivating cannabis, it’s especially important to understand the changes a plant undergoes during its life cycle, as each stage of growth requires different care.
Different stages call for different amounts of light, nutrients, and water. They also help us decide when to prune and train the plants. Determining a plant’s sex and overall health rely on stages of growth as well.
Storing your Cannabis seeds
This is how the life of a Cannabis plant begins. A viable seed looks brown with some stripes, dry and hard to the touch. If it feels weak or it’s white or light green, it’s probably an undeveloped seed and it won’t produce a healthy plant.
Keep your seeds in a dark, cold place, for example, in the fridge inside a plastic bag for better conservation. When the time of germination comes, get your seed out in ambient temperature. You can better your germination chances by putting your seed no more than 12 hours in a glass of water; if it floats it’s probably not viable, although it may germinate anyway. If it sinks, it’s probably because it’s viable and full of life, ready for germination. Don’t let it in the water for much longer, as the seed needs to breathe and it may drown and die.
1. Germination Stage
Everything starts with a seed. Moreover, you’ll make the best start with the best cannabis seeds. Looking at weed seeds, the best quick quality check is a close look at their colour and texture. Healthy cannabis seeds feel hard and dry, with light to dark brown colours. When you buy weed seeds, they are still ‘dormant’, or asleep if you will. Packed inside that hard shell is everything the seeds needs to start growing, except one thing: water. May be a grow tent ventilation is needed for your grow room!
Once you activate your seeds by adding water, they will start to germinate. The protective seed shell bursts open, revealing two growths. One is a tiny root just waiting to dig into the soil; the other is a stem trying to grow upwards. Germination can take anywhere from a few days to two weeks. An easy way to germinate your cannabis seeds is to let them open up on a damp piece of kitchen towel.
Once the root is formed, you can gently put the seed in a flowerpot containing soil. After a few days, the tip of the stem emerges from the ground. After that, two cotyledons or seed lobes appear, ready to catch the first sunlight. From there on, daylight takes over from your weed seed: the plant will now grow by photosynthesis. In the germination stage, your emerging cannabis plant needs 18 hours of sunlight every day.
After this initial stage, your germinated seed turns into a seedling.
2. Seedling Stage (1 to 3 weeks)
At this point, your tiny germinated plant evolves into a seedling over a 2 to 3-week period. The roots start to develop rapidly. They branch outwards underground, after the taproot starts to dig down deeper. The twin cotyledons are now followed by the first two real ‘cannabis leaves’ with their characteristic serrated edges. By now, your seedling should have a fresh, bright green colour. Just like in the previous phase, your plant needs 18 hours of light each day throughout the seedling stage. Be careful not to water seedlings too heavily; the tiny root system doesn’t need much. With its first leaves two leaves catching the light, your seedling is now ready to proceed to the next step in the cannabis life cycle: the growth stage. By the way, a best led grow light is important.
3. Growth Or Vegetative Stage (4 to 6 weeks)
Of all the stages involved in how cannabis grows, this one revolves most heavily around growing larger. Bigger plants need more soil to give their root system enough room. That is why you should transplant your plant to a larger pot at the start of the growth phase. You’ll find a grow guide on repotting outdoor cannabis plants here. Snug in their new pots, you give their leaves and roots full freedom to develop.
This is also the stage for topping your plants if you wish to do so. In topping, you cut away the top end of the stem. This makes more energy available for lateral growth (branching out sideways, that is), allowing your plant to develop a greater number of buds.
Speaking of flower buds: even though the flowering stage follows the current growth stage, you can start to spot the first signs of male or female plants when your plant is about six weeks old. If you’re not working with feminized seeds, you’ll need to remove any male plants ASAP. If you don’t, you’ll get in trouble in the flowering stage, because males will pollinate females, making them produce new seeds instead of bigger flower buds. Read how to spot the differences between male, female, and hermaphrodite cannabis plants here.
Throughout the growth stage, your plant still needs 18 hours of light every day. It will also grow more thirsty as its root system matures. Keep watering copiously, but don’t overdo it. Check the soil moisture level to prevent the onset of fungi and rot. Beyond that, let your plant do the work. Make sure it stays comfortable, with enough-but-not-too-much water and nutrients, and enjoy watching how cannabis grows. Before long, the flowering stage will arrive.
4. Flowering Stage (7 to 9 weeks)
Although differences between strains are huge, after about two to four months, cannabis plants enter the flowering stage. At this point, female plants start to develop their calyxes or flower buds. The white ‘hairs’ on the buds are pistils, revealing your plant as feminine. These flower buds will soon be full of glistening trichomes. Trichomes are the tiny glands containing the resin that carries the most cannabinoids like THC and CBD. They also carry the terpenes that give your plant its unique scent, taste, and subtle effects. This is the fruit of your labour; the result you’ve been investing all your time and effort in.
If your plants are growing outside, this stage is initiated by the shortening of the days after the summer solstice has passed. At this stage, the cannabis plants only require 12 hours of light each day. As noted above, autoflowers don’t care about light; they’ll start flowering when they feel they’re ready. In the flowering stage, your weed plant needs plenty of water, as well as an ample supply of nutrients. Many growers add extra nutrition in the flowering phase. Be careful not to give too much, because that will ‘burn’ your leaves and harm your grow.
If you’re not using feminized seeds, you need to remove all male plants at the onset of the flowering stage. If you don’t, males will fertilize your female plants and cause them to produce seeds instead of the big fat buds you’re after. As mentioned, you can see the early signs around six weeks into the plant’s life cycle, but the onset of flowering is your last chance to remove any males or hermaphrodites before they ruin your females.
During flowering, watch out for fungi or pests harassing your plants. Rainy weather is something to watch out for in outdoor grows. For indoor growers, ventilation is key in preventing fungi and other unwelcome guests, as is a clean growing environment. It would be a shame if your harvest was to fail this close to the finish line.
Harvesting
Harvesting is not really part of the life cycle, but it is a crucial point in the life cycle of your marijuana plants. When you harvest determines the taste, smell, effects, and strength of your marijuana.
The best way to decide when to harvest is by looking at the pistils. The pistils are the little white hairs on the buds that slowly turn brown/red when your weed ripens. You can find more information about harvesting in our Harvesting Guide!
Pruning
After cutting down the plants, it’s time to prune them. This process ensures you will have rounded and smokable bud. You can perform wet or dry pruning. The general consensus is that the former method is easier. When the plants are dry, the leaves curl in on themselves, and it’s harder to perform the task at hand.
Invest in some delicate scissors – not the same ones you used to cut the plants down. It’s also a good idea to grab a chair because you could be here a while! Wet pruning will also require gardening gloves because the plants will be sticky.
Pick the fan leaves off the buds, and then trim off the sugar leaves. You can use these leaves for edibles, or you can throw them away. It’s also a good idea to collect the resin which accumulates on your gloves to use for dabs – it’s pretty potent stuff!
Once pruned, your buds are ready to be dried and cured. And then your work is complete!
Breeding And Cloning To Continue The Cannabis Life-Cycle
As we touched on above, new, viable pot seeds (able to be planted and produce a new plant) will grow in the colas of the female plants in the two to 16 weeks after they have been pollinated by a nearby male plant.
The pistils on the seedpods may change colors before the pods burst and the new seeds are scattered to the soil below. But this isn’t the only way to get ahold of pot seeds in order to continue the strain.
You can avoid having to germinate new unidentified male seeds and continue the cannabis life cycle of your most successful plants through a process known as sensimilla cloning.
You can grow new, genetically identical versions of your favorite strains year after year by cutting a branch of four or more inches from your best plant and planting it in rooting solution.
This process will stimulate the cut branch into growing a new root that you can then replant. If you do this after every growing season, you will always have new material with which to start your next year’s harvest. By the way, if you are a beginner, ECO Farm marijuana grow kit can help you.
Summing Up The Lifecycle Of The Cannabis Plant
Soak your pot seeds in water or a paper towel to sprout the taproot that will fasten into your soil and germinate into seedlings.
Keep checking the plant’s nodes during the vegetative phase to ensure that you don’t have any unwanted male plants among your crop.
If you do find male plants, be sure to separate them from the female plants. The cannabis plant will continue to vegetate until it begins to receive less light from natural or artificial sources. This will trigger its flowering phase.
Pay attention to the colors of the thin hairs or pistols and the color of the heads of the trichomes in order to determine the right moment to cut and harvest your plant.
Hang the wet weed buds up in a cool, dark, dry space with low humidity for approximately a week.
Before you can enjoy your glorious new buds, you’ll need to cure them in glass mason jars for 1 to 3 weeks while ensuring to open them once per day.
If you’re interested in growing a future set of buds, you can continue the marijuana growth cycle by allowing a male plant to pollinate a female into growing seeds with which you can experiment with, or you can cut a branch from your favorite plant and place it in rooting solution to clone it season after season!