Germination: Between 24-Hours and 2 Weeks
Plants use sexual reproduction in order to carry on the species into the next generation. There are male and female cannabis plants which must reproduce. Sometimes, hermaphrodite plants exist, but these are not something you should concern yourself about right now.
Growers want to use female plants because these are the only ones that produce a massive quantity of trichomes. In case you didn’t know, trichomes are the white crystals packed full of cannabinoids like CBD and THC. Male plants are virtually useless, but they could end up contaminating your crop if you keep them around.
As a result, you should look out for feminized seeds. Seed banks often sell this type, so they shouldn’t be too hard to find. If you use regular seeds, there is a 50/50 chance you will get male or female plants; with feminized seeds, all your plants will be females.
Once you have your feminized seeds, it’s time to germinate them. Each and every seed contains a cannabis plant just waiting to emerge, but it will need some tender love and care in order to do so. Seeds need heat and water in order to sprout; otherwise, they will remain dormant.
There are a few ways to germinate a cannabis seed, but most people use the paper towel method. It’s super easy and won’t take long at all. Here’s what to do:
Soak four paper towels in water and place two of them on a plate. Space out the cannabis seeds on top of the paper towel.
Place the other two paper towels on another plate. Use this plate to cover the other one, so the cannabis seeds are inside.
Keep the room temperature somewhere between 70 and 90˚F, and keep checking to make sure the paper towels are still wet.
Check on your seeds every so often. Eventually, a white taproot will sprout from the seeds. Germination can take anywhere between 24 hours and seven days, so be patient!
When the taproot has emerged, you can transfer the seeds to a growing medium. Depending on the strain, your growing experience, and your budget, you might want to use a different growing medium. Some people prefer a hydroponics setup, but first-time cultivators are likely to prefer soil.
When handling the seed, be extremely careful. Avoid touching the taproot as it is fragile and may break. At first, you can transplant the seed into 2-inch pots of soil.
Congratulations! The seed is ready to start growing.
Seedling 2-3 Weeks
This stage perhaps requires the most care. The plant at this stage is susceptible to disease. You have to be very careful about how much water or fertilizer you give to the seedling. Too much water or fertilizer may hamper growth.
The most important need of the plant at this delicate stage is light. It needs as much light as possible. You can provide the light indoors with best LED grow lights that provide full spectrum and are quite cheap to buy. Ample light and water will allow the plant to develop stronger roots. As a result, you will start to see the characteristic marijuana leaves.
The shape of the leaf and the number of leaflets may vary depending on the kind of marijuana you are growing. At this stage, the leaves usually have just one leaflet. Once the number of leaflets per leaf becomes 5-7, the seedling stage is over. This entire stage can take 2 to 4 weeks.
Vegetative 3-8 Weeks
During the vegetation phase, the stem will grow thicker and taller and will begin to develop new nodes. These nodes will produce yet more leaves and even new branches.
Because it’s growing and producing leaves and branches, your plant will need plenty of fresh warm water along with:
Flowing, dry air
Lots of nitrogen-rich organic nutrients (e.g., liquid fish or seaweed)
As much soil space as possible
All of this together allows your marijuana plant to grow from an eight-inch baby plant into a two- to three-foot tall tree within the span of three to six weeks.
The plant’s growth largely depends on the rate at which its leaves can gather sunlight and transform it into chemical energy (photosynthesis). This fact explains why the vegetative plant will need long hours of summer sunlight (12 to 15 or more in the wild) or 18 hours of fluorescent light per day.
The THC tree will halt its upward growth once it starts receiving less natural outdoor daylight or when the indoor grower reduces the plant from 18 to 12 hours of fluorescent light per day. It’s at this point that the plant enters the pre-flowering phase.
Flowering Stage: 6-8 Weeks (Most Important Stage!)
The last stage of the cannabis life cycle is the most important for growers (and everyone that gets to enjoy the harvest). The flowering stage begins after a period of reduced light exposure. It represents the period when a plant becomes sexually mature and ready to spread its genes. Both female and male plants have a flowering stage, but male cannabis plants usually mature earlier than the female plants, sometimes up to a couple weeks earlier.When the plant reaches the flowering stage, it will begin to produce large quantities of sticky resin on the outsides of the leaves. The resin is centered on the reproductive parts of the plant, also known as “the buds.”
This resin contains the highest percentages of THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) that you will find on the plant. To emphasize its importance, THC is the active ingredient most sought after by smokers and medicinal users.
The specific potency of your plant (the percentage of active ingredient in the resin) will be determined by the amount of time a plant has spent flowering. It also depends on whether or not the plant has been pollinated and fertilized.
By now, you are likely eager to harvest the forming buds, but you’ll want to wait, and it may be a while. The length of the flowering stage can vary depending on what cannabis strain you’re working with and how much control you have over your growing environment.
There are, however, some standards:
Most cannabis strains have a flowering period that falls somewhere between 6-10 weeks, although, given the right strain and the right conditions, this could go on for even longer.
For practical purposes, you can split up the flowering stage into a couple different sections. First is the phase that occurs right after your plant finishes the vegetative stage. During this time, you may notice some bud development. Many growers like to call this the pre-flower stage.
However, most growers start the flowering period with a change in lighting. After changing the light cycle to 12 hours on and 12 hours off, the cannabis development rate increases dramatically, and the internodes become shorter so they can form the construction that will carry the cannabis flowers. An internode is located on the stem. It represents the area between two nodes where leaves will emerge.
During this time, the temperature should remain between 68- 77 degrees, with a humidity between 50% to 70%, a light cycle of 12 hours of orange-red lighting per day and a nitrogen-rich fertilizer as needed. You should start to see bud-like structures just after the pre-flowering phase that probably lasted around two weeks. They will continue to develop, but not as fast as before. You’ll also start to see early flowers.
Harvesting
You’ll know your cannabis plant is ripe for harvest when the hues of the pistils on the cola buds transform from milky white to reddish orange. You’ll also want to use a microscope to check the color of the heads of the trichomes oozing out from the ripe cola buds.
You’ll know that your buds are ready for harvest when the trichome heads turn from clear to milky and opaque to amber. The presence of more amber trichome heads will likely indicate a higher CBD to THC cannabinoid profile ratio in its trichome resin.
If you want to harvest your marijuana plant for its full THC or CBD effects, you DON’T want the trichomes to fall off. If that happens, that means that you let the plant grow too long. The majority of the cannabinoids are now gone, you won’t enjoy the psychoactive or medicinal effects, and you’ll have to start growing a new batch of marijuana.
Instead, many growers suggest harvesting the crop when half the trichomes on the plant are opaque. In theory, this produces the highest level of THC with the lowest level of CBD (which counteracts the euphoric effects of the former).
The little hairs that grow from inside the calyxes or the pistils are another clue that helps you determine when to harvest your cannabis for the specific kind of chemical properties you want it to contain. The color of the pistils changes from bright white to rusty orange or brown at the end of the plant’s flowering phase.
On one end of the spectrum, if you notice a higher ratio of white to red pistols, that means your pot will produce more of a euphoric THC high. On the other end of the spectrum, if you notice a higher ratio of red to white pistols, that means your pot will produce more of a sober, calm CBD stoned feeling.
Squarely in between those two extremes, cannabis crops harvested in the middle of the flowering cycle, when roughly half the trichome heads are opaque and the pistils aren’t yet brown, should produce a more balanced THC-to-CBD blend of cannabinoids.
When you’ve determined that it is indeed time to harvest your bud, you’ll need a good pair of scissors or a sharp pruning tool to cut the trunk from the roots so it can be dried.
Indoorsgrowing 