It\u2019s the end of March, and that means it\u2019s prep time for marijuana home growers.<\/p>\n
While cannabis is similar to plenty of other crops that home gardeners might be used to, given that the same key ingredients are soil and light, the cannabis plant still requires some unique expertise. Ahead of the 2019 planting season, Cannabis Now spoke with two experts to get their take on how home growers should prepare their gardens for a successful marijuana cultivation season.<\/p>\n
The first expert is the legendary Ed Rosenthal.\u00a0Rosenthal<\/a>\u00a0has spent decades educating people on marijuana cultivation, and he said that this year, he will be personally working with mostly older genetics this year. He expects the strains he\u2019ll be working with will be a bit closer to\u00a0landraces<\/a>\u00a0than some of the newer stuff out at the moment.<\/p>\n The second expert is\u00a0Dark Heart Nursery<\/a>\u00a0founder Dan Grace. Grace\u2019s catalog of genetics provides a big chunk of the clones that make their way to California home growers.<\/p>\n Both Grace and Rosenthal said that there are four main things that every cannabis cultivator should consider when setting up their home garden.<\/p>\n \u201cYour garden\u2019s success depends on the quality of your soil. Invest now to feed your soil,\u201d Grace said. \u201cCompost, Guano, worm castings \u2014 these are all great.\u201d He added that you\u2019ll want some nitrogen to get your plants off to a strong start, and some phosphorous and potassium to promote flowering later into the season.<\/p>\n \u201cBut one overlooked element is calcium,\u201d Grace said. \u201cCannabis plants consume as much or more calcium as nitrogen! So bulk up.\u201d He noted that oyster shell meal is a great organic supplement for calcium.<\/p>\n Beyond the compounds in the soil, the soil\u2019s structure also matters. The experts recommend turning your soil over with a shovel while amending it with new nutrients in order to improve structure. With enough time, you can even plant a cover crop like clover, which naturally improves the quality of the soil. When it\u2019s time to plant, you can till in the cover crop\u00a0\u2014 and the decomposing vegetation helps build soil.<\/p>\n Rosenthal said that it is \u201cideal\u201d for home cannabis growers to also have a vegetable garden. He says the similar soil preparation can save you time\u00a0\u2014 and who doesn\u2019t love fresh tomatoes?<\/p>\n Rosenthal next stressed that home growers should make sure that they choose a spot that\u2019s sunny in the fall, which is when the plants will be flowering \u2014 not just in the summer. \u201cYou get long shadows and blockages in the fall because the sun is at an acute angle,\u201d Rosenthal said. He also noted if the grower feels another part of the yard is going to be sunnier in the fall, maybe they should plant the cannabis in movable containers.<\/p>\n \u201cCannabis thrives in the sunlight,\u201d Grace said. \u201cEven partial shade can cause cannabis plants to flower early, especially if they\u2019re planted early in the season.\u201d<\/p>\n Grace also mentioned that if you\u2019re not sure how the sun travels across your garden, try Google Earth\u2019s sun feature. \u201cIt\u2019s a great way to see how sun exposure changes over the course of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n If privacy isn\u2019t a concern and you want to go as massive as possible in your home garden, you need to start the vegetative process inside, Rosenthal said.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople who grow these big plants outdoors, in general, they start them indoors and they\u2019re already three to five feet high when they plant them outside,\u201d Rosenthal said. This saves the plant an extra two months of vegetative growth.<\/p>\n On the opposite end of the spectrum, if privacy is a concern over size, you can just plant a bit later in the season as to not worry about height. Rosenthal says sometime around July 1st should do it.<\/p>\n Grace\u2019s next tip for making life easier this summer is cheap automation.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe all get busy, and a few missed waterings can really hurt your plant health,\u201d Grace said. \u201cInvest in the spring in a simple drip irrigation system on an automatic timer. This will save you when the summer heat comes around.\u201d<\/p>\n Another time-saving idea for keeping a low-maintenance garden is to cover your soil with a layer of 1-ply cardboard and cover with 3 or more inches of mulch, making sure to leave a few inches between the mulch and the plant stems.<\/p>\n \u201cThe sheet-mulch will prevent weeds and retain water,\u201d Grace said. \u201cIf you do this on top of a drip irrigation system, you\u2019ll have a practically care-free garden.\u201d<\/p>\n Grace\u2019s final advice was to have fun.<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t stress out about it too much,\u201d he said. \u201cThink about placing your plants someplace you\u2019ll most enjoy them. If you\u2019re concerned about visitors or the neighbors, hide them in the back. If you want to enjoy the aroma from the porch, put them in the porch.\u201d<\/p>\n For first-time cannabis growers, check out\u00a0our guide on growing an easy and crowd-pleasing strain: Blue Dream<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n TELL US<\/strong>, have you grown cannabis at home?\u00a0<\/p>\n The post Spring Tips: How to Prep Your Home Garden to Grow Cannabis<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the end of March, and that means it\u2019s prep time for marijuana home growers. While cannabis is similar to plenty of other crops that home gardeners might be used to, given that the same key ingredients are soil and light, the cannabis plant still requires some unique expertise. AheadContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50,5,7677,115,3750,9543,570,3433,3521],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34040"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34040"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34041,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34040\/revisions\/34041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}1) Building Healthy Soil<\/h4>\n
2) Selecting the Proper Site<\/h4>\n
3) Thinking About Appropriate Plant Size<\/h4>\n
4) Investing in Simplicity<\/h4>\n
\n
\nRead More: Spring Tips: How to Prep Your Home Garden to Grow Cannabis<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"