What is the Vegetative Stage?

The Vegetative Stage: Its an Important Stage in your Cultivation

When it comes to growing cannabis – patience and tolerance is the key to a successful crop.

The vegetative process can last from 1 week up to 6 months. Plants grown indoors, where you can control the full aspects of life during the vegetative stage generally takes between 4-8 weeks.  After this important stage, the flowering process can begin by a change of lighting hours; the flowering stage will last between 40-90 days. The time of the vegetative process can vary a lot depending on what cannabis strain you have chosen to cultivate.

Auto-flowering seeds needs a shorter vegetative stage then feminized seeds. Auto-flowering seeds do not depend on their environment or hours of lightning, instead they will automatically start the flowering stage after a specific amount of time. Strains that are Indica dominant will not grow very much when the flowering process has started. Therefor they will preferable be kept in the vegetative stage longer in order to produce a larger yield. The sativa dominant plants can sometimes (depending on which strain used) almost triple in size when the flowering stage starts. It requires a shorter vegetative process and produces a similar harvest to the indica dominant strains.

Note: harvest can be very individual among the cannabis plants regardless if it is an indica or sativa dominant plant, the harvest is always depending on what strain that has been cultivated and the environment provided for the plant.

The vegetative process is highly important. This stage will set the structure for your plant and its stem and branches will develop. If the plant is allowed to grow stronger the support will increase the weight it can hold during the next step, the flowering stage. The conditions for the vegetative process will effect the quality of your buds and yield.

 

Maintaining the Marijuana Vegetative Stage

First and foremost: Light

The plants are kept in the vegetative stage by controlling the exposure to darkness. This do not apply to the auto-flowering plants, instead they will begin the flowering stage after a specific amount of time. Usually after 2-3 weeks, they do not depend on hours of lightning to enter the flowering stage.

To continue the vegetative process, you need to limit the hours of exposing the plant to darkness. We recommend somewhere between 18-24 hours of light in this stage. It is good to know what the best choice of hours is for your specific strain, to get the best results possible.

The plant will not enter the flower stage when it is exposed to more light than darkness every day. Sometimes the hours of light exposure needs to be determined by the budget since it can be expensive to keep high-intensity lights turned on 24h a day. The plants needs a consistency of light to darkness in the vegetative stage, therefore it is highly recommended to use a timer when controlling the hours of darkness. The amount of watt in your lamps will determine how much your plant will grow during the vegetative stage,outdoor plants grows large with many hours of direct sunlight. Indoor grown plants will react the same – the more intense lightning, the more it grows and the higher yield it will provide. Blue spectrum bulbs might give your plant a good growth but full-spectrum lights are recommended for the vegetative stage.

High intensity lights generates heat and your plant should never be kept within 40-50 cm from the lamp. keep the grow room between 20-27 degrees celsius during lighting hours (daytime) and the temperature can easily decrease to 15-20 degrees celsius during darkness (night).

Maintain during the Flowering Stage:

It is important to begin these stages in the vegetative phase and maintain them throughout the flowering stage.

• Humidity: The plant needs a high humidity level of 75% in order to develop a healthy growth and every growers favorite – Resin.
• Air: The balance of carbon dioxide and oxygen is important for the plants health and growth during vegetative phase. Use of fans helps the circulation of the air and moves heat away from the plants generated from the lamps.
• pH: pH level between 5.8 and 6.5 should be maintained regardless of growing alternatives (Soil/Hydroponic) is ideal for best growth.
• Water: Rain water is the best to grow cannabis, during the flowering and vegetative stage. Tap water which have been left to stand for a couple of days is also a good alternative.
• Nutrients: If you are using an hydroponic alternative your plants are exposed to highly nutrient water. When you are using soil, the natural nutrients will be very low after 2-3 weeks. therefore it is necessary to add certain nutrients that contains, potassium, phosphorous and nitrogen to your soil.  Note: Over-fertilizing (which might damage the plant) is very common, be careful when you add your nutrients!!

Marijuana Vegetative Stage Tips

• Choose Your Stage change. The plant should be kept in the vegetativ stage until it have grown to a proud plant. It is important to keep in mind that the plant will continue to grow after entering the flowering stage. How much it will grow in this stage depends on the specifics of the strain you are growing.
• Give your plants room to grow. Your plants can be placed close together in order for them to get as much light as possible from the lamp. Be careful not to place them too tight, stopping the side branches from growing properly in the vegetative stage. If your plants grows less side branches due to a small environment it will produce fewer buds.  Tight grown leaves in small areas can lead to mold.
• Gentle with the fertilizer. Let your plants leaves determine when to use extra fertilizer. If the leafs are turning yellow, nutrients may be required. Over fertilizing cannabis plants are very common. Increase the use of nutrients carefully as the plant grows.