When a state allows for medicinal or recreational cannabis use, it usually also allows for home cultivation. Though there are a few exceptions, a general rule is that if you can go to a pharmacy, you can cultivate your own marijuana at home.
However, before you plough your backyard in preparation for your brand-new pot garden, there are a few things you should know about cannabis cultivation.
Marijuana grows quickly and most strains don’t require much attention, but if you go into cultivation unprepared, the quality of the flower you end up harvesting can disappoint you.
To begin, you will need to brush up on some key terms and over at seed supreme the following are the essential words to know.
Table of Contents
Flowering On Its Own
Many plants use light and dark cycles to recognise the seasons and flower in time with other members of their genus.
Thankfully, retailers like Zamnesia offer auto-flower cannabis varieties, which flower after a set period of time regardless of lighting schedule.
Beginners should generally choose auto-flowering strains because they flower faster and are easier to maintain. However, auto-flowering has drawbacks, such as lower yields and potency.
Cloning
Seeds can and do cultivate cannabis, but seeds can be unpredictable. You want a clone if you want an exact copy of a strain that will grow almost identically to that strain and produce nearly identical yield and potency.
A clone is a plant that has been propagated from a cutting. Clones have some drawbacks, such as the risk of passing on diseases or pests from the mother plant.
But they are usually easier and faster to grow at home than seeds. You could inquire about clones for home cultivation at a nearby Fort Collins dispensary.
Feminization
Cannabis plants reproduce sexually, which means there are “male” and “female” plants that share genetic material in order to grow seeds.
Male cannabis plants, unfortunately, do not produce potent buds worth harvesting, so most breeders and home cultivators are less interested in having them around.
Feminization is the method of producing all-female seeds so that farmers don’t have to waste time and energy growing a plant that isn’t useful.
Hydroponics vs. Aeroponics: What’s the Difference?
Most novice cannabis growers will plant their crop in soil within a container, but more experienced cannabis breeders will use more sophisticated cultivation techniques. There are some of them:
- Aeroponics is a method of growing cannabis plants in which the roots are exposed to the air and are sprayed with water and nutrient solution on a daily basis.
- Hydroponics is a method of growing cannabis plants in which the roots are exposed to nutrient-rich water.
Neither of these methods of rising is especially novel or groundbreaking, and they can be very costly.
However, some growers have noted advantages to these systems, so if you want to dabble in a more advanced growing technique after mastering the basics, you can look into how they function.
Anatomy of Plants
While you don’t need a botany degree to grow cannabis at home, you should be familiar with a few main words regarding plant anatomy, such as these:
- The outer leaves that surround flowers are known as the calyx.
- Chlorophyll is the green pigment in plants that enables light to pass through and energy to be synthesised.
- A cannabis bud that has gone to seed is known as Consemilla.
- The first pair of leaves that emerge after a flower germinates and starts to produce seeds are called cotyledons.
- Fan leaves, a common symbol of cannabis, are big leaves that absorb light.
- Necrotic tissues are plant parts that have died.
- The node is the point where the leaf connects to the stem.
Final Thought
Cannabis production at home is a mix of art and science, and you won’t have much success unless you’re really into it.
Joining a cultivation group online or speaking with experienced budtenders at your local dispensary or grow op will help you learn more cultivation words.
