Issue #22 -
Sunday, September 16, 2012
Dear Fellow Grower,
In today's issue you'll discover...
- Our guide to help you master the vegetative stage of your marijuana's growth cycle!
- Learn about a discrete vaporizer that's cheap, easy to use, and takes 10 seconds to to start vaping.
- Learn how you can give back to the marijuana growing community
- The answer to a common question - wait...no...this week we're showing off trophy pics from one of our readers!
We hope you enjoy this issue of Grow Weed Easy!
Happy Growing!
Nebula Haze and Sirius Fourside (founders of GrowWeedEasy.com)
"Remember that children, marriages, and gardens
reflect the kind of care they get."
-H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
Growing Marijuana: The Vegetative Stage
By Nebula Haze
Like many flowering plants, there are 2 phases of life for marijuana.
First the plant goes through a phase of vegetative growth, producing mainly stems and leaves.
Next, the plant goes through a flowering phase of growth where they begin to produce the organs needed for sexual reproduction. This is when your plant starts
growing buds, which is what most growers want, but you have to make it through the vegetative stage first!
It's a bit like how many animals are first non-sexual "youngsters" who are focused on growth, then become "adults" in order to sexually reproduce. In fact, before a marijuana plant "hits
puberty," you can't even tell by looking if the plant is going to be a boy or a girl!
 Today, I will cover everything you need to know about the first stage of marijuana growth, including:
- What happens during the Vegetative Stage?
- How long does the Vegetative Stage last?
- Marijuana-Specific Tips and Hints: How to Avoid Common Vegetative Stage Problems
Next week I'll shed light on everything you need to know about the flowering stage.
What happens during the Vegetative Stage?
 Many growers start with seeds. After your marijuana seedling grows the first set of "real" marijuana leaves (the initial set of leaves are smooth, as pictured to left), the plant is pretty much officially in the vegetative stage of
growth.If you started with clones as opposed to seeds, your plant is generally considered in the vegetative stage once new leaves start growing.
During the entire Vegetative Stage, your plant will grow big and tall, but won't produce flowers or buds.
Quick fact: Marijuana is considered an "annual" plant. In the wild, each new marijuana seedling goes through his or her entire life cycle and produces seeds over the course of one year. That means that marijuana plants die naturally when winter comes, to make room for the next year's seedlings.
How long does the vegetative stage last?
 As the gardener, you actually have a lot of control over how long the vegetative stage lasts.
This is because the marijuana plant relies on environmental factors to know when to switch to
flowering.
Environmental factors "tell" a marijuana plant to either stay in the vegetative stage or start flowering, and these factors are easy to control.
The main thing marijuana "pays attention
to" is the length of light and continuous dark periods it receives each day.
This makes sense, if you consider that in the wild, a marijuana plant will need some way to know that winter is coming.
For most strains of marijuana, as the plants "notice" the days are
getting shorter, they will start flowering to make sure seeds get made before winter comes.
When growing marijuana outdoors, you have a bit less control over the length of the vegetative stage, since you can't control the sun and how long it shines each day.
Most outdoor growers choose to plant their seeds or clones in the spring, allowing the plant to naturally go through it's life cycle and start flowering as the days shorten and winter
approaches.
One of the convenient aspects of growing marijuana indoors is that the light and dark periods experienced by your plants are easy to control, because you are the master of when lights go
on and off indoors.
Most indoor growers invest in an electrical timer to turn their lights on and off automatically.
As long as you ensure that your plants get 18-24 hours of light each day, your plants will stay in the vegetative phase of growth, giving you ultimate power over how long the vegetative
stage lasts, and therefore how big your plants get.
In order to "tell" your plant to change over to the flowering stage, you change their light schedule to give them at least 12 hours of uninterrupted darkness each night. For your
marijuana plant shorter days and longer nights is the signal to start flowering.
 A notable exception to these principles are "auto-flowering" marijuana plants, derived from the non-psychoactive Ruderalis strain of cannabis.
Auto-flowering strains always start from seed. These special strains run on an internal clock that tells them when to start flowering. They don't care about light period. For
auto-flowering marijuana plants, you do not have any real control over how long the plant stays in the vegetative stage, it just naturally switches over to flowering after a certain amount of
time.
If you didn't particularly get an "auto" or "auto-flowering" seed from a seed bank, chances are your seeds are the 'regular' kind of marijuana that's controlled by light periods, as
discussed here.
Therefore, the answer to how long should you keep your plants in the vegetative stage will vary with how big you want your final plants to be.
If you are trying to keep your plants smaller, you will keep them in the vegetative stage for a shorter amount of time. If you want a bigger final plant, you will need to invest more time
letting the plant gain size in the vegetative stage before switching to flowering.
The time spent in the vegetative stage (which you control) determines the final height and size of the plant.
When growing marijuana indoors, a good rule of thumb is to change your plant over to the flowering stage once it reaches half the final height you desire. This
is especially crucial when you're a new grower or growing an unknown strain.
That bears repeating.
Change your vegetative plants to the flowering stage when they've reached half the final desired height.
As I mentioned before, you tell a marijuana plant to start flowering by changing your light schedule to give them 12 hours of darkness a day.
Depending on the strain and growing conditions, it's not uncommon for marijuana plants to double in height after they've first switched over to the flowering stage.
Some people will turn their plants over to flowering when they're barely more than a seedling while others will wait until the plant is much larger.
It all depends on how big you want your final plant to be.
Learn about the various growth control methods you can use to control exactly how your plant grows during the vegetative stage, so you're perfectly prepped to get huge yields from the
flowering stage: http://growweedeasy.com/marijuana-growth-control-vegetative-stage
Next, what do growers need to look out for during the Vegetative stage?
Marijuana-Specific Tips and Hints: Vegetative Stage
How to Avoid Common Problems
The Vegetative Stage is the most forgiving stage your marijuana's life; plants bounce back quickly from problems.
Your vegetating plants should be showing rapid healthy growth. If not, make sure you fix things now or your plants may become a disaster during the less-forgiving Flowering Stage.
Just the Right Amount of Light
If your marijuana plants seem green and relatively healthy, but just seems to be growing slowly, chances are you need to increase the intensity of the light.
Another sign of light starvation is if you notice that your plants are growing taller at a much faster rate than they are growing branches and leaves. If you see your plant is
'stretching' upwards, the solution is to increase the light intensity.
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Happy marijuana seedlings stay short
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Tall marijuana seedlings need more light |
3 Ways to Increase Intensity of Light
 Move lights closer (watch plants closely at first)- Add more grow lights
- Upgrade to stronger lights
*For seedlings I recommend getting a few CFLs (twisty bulbs, as pictured to right). They can be kept as close as 2-4" away from plants, as long as it's not too hot (place your hand where your seedlings are
for 30 seconds to check, if it feels hot to you, it'll be too hot for your seedlings).
Root Health Is Crucial For Healthy Growth
Root health is incredibly important if you want to get fast healthy growth. Your watering schedule is crucial and
an incorrect watering schedule can kill your plants.
Drooping is the most common symptom of over-watering or under-watering.
When your once-healthy plants are drooping no matter what you do with your watering schedule, and you're giving them enough light, it's often a sign these plants have root problems. Root problems often
come with a "rotten odor" near the roots
In addition to droopiness, root problems may also rear their ugly head with malformed, discolored or wrinkled leaves.
I've found that many "unexplainable" marijuana issues are often the result of root problems.
Root problems:
 
How to Water Marijuana Correctly
- Marijuana loves well-draining soil or potting mix, hates mud. Add something like perlite to your mix if your growing medium needs better
drainage.
- Every time you water your plants, keep adding more water until about 20% extra runoff water comes out the bottom.
- Don't water plants again until the top inch (to the first knuckle of your index finger) of growing medium is dry.
If you're growing marijuana directly in water, other measures are needed to make sure your plant's roots stay healthy. For example, the water must be oxygenated to give roots the oxygen they need.
Nutrients and pH of the Roots
With all nutrient systems that you're trying out for the first time, I highly suggest starting at half the recommended nutrient levels when growing weed.
If you're not sure which nutrient system to get, Dyna-Gro is a simple marijuana-friendly nutrient system that works great for growing marijuana when used at half strength.
No matter what nutrients you're using, never increase the concentration of nutrient unless you see signs of nutrient deficiencies and have already ruled out pH problems.
(Wait... what about pH? Learn what you need to know here:
http://growweedeasy.com/how-do-i-check-the-pH-of-my-water)
With nutrients, I've found over and over that I get the best marijuana yields when I lean towards the side of "too little" instead of "too much" nutrients. Often, what appears to be
nutrient deficiencies end up being pH problems.
This is why I always start nutrients at half strength when growing with new nutrient or a new strain, and only move up when I see deficiencies and have ruled out pH as the culprit.
Don't be fooled by pH problems! This plat looks like she has a deficiency (lime green leaves) but you can also see the beginning of nutrient burn on the tips of the leaves. When you see nutrient burn, that means she's actually
getting too much nutrients.
So which is it? Too much or too little nutrients?
The real problem is the pH. After correcting the pH for this little plant and lowering the total nutrient levels, she started growing fast and strong.
Watch Your Humidity
Maintain higher humidity in the vegetative stage, especially when
plants are young seedlings or clones, to help your plant live a
stress-free, healthy life.
Extra dry (especially when combined with hot) conditions can cause plants in the vegetative stage to seem extra finicky. When it's too dry, your plants will generally have more problems and need more care. In fact,
in dry areas, marijuana growers often think you they nutrient problems, yet just raising the humidity in the grow room to the 40-70% range clears the problems right up.
You can increase humidity of your grow room with a humidifier.
After you've mastered the basics of growing, this is something to consider. I've found that you can get marijuana plants to grow faster and healthier during the vegetative stage by
maintaining 40-70% humidity.
However, higher humidity levels can be bad for plants that are growing buds, as we'll discuss more fully in next week's report on the flowering stage!
So stay tuned next week, and learn everything you need to know to master the Flowering Stage!
About the Author: Nebula Haze
In response to the need for more tutorials aimed at new growers, Nebula co-founded GrowWeedEasy.com in 2008 with fellow grower Sirius Fourside.
Since
then, Nebula has published dozens of growing articles in print and
online, stars in several online video lessons, and continues to dedicate
herself to serving the needs of the medical marijuana growing
community.
"My
mission is to show other medical marijuana patients how easy and fun it
can be to grow pounds of killer weed out of your closet."
Join Nebula Haze on Twitter
Join GrowWeedEasy.com on Facebook
Check It Out!
I first bought a Magic Flight Launch Box in May 2010, and 2 years later I still use my MFLB almost daily.
Read my original 2010 review for the MFLB on Amazon here: http://growweedeasy.com/MFLB-review
The Magic Flight Launch Box is one of the most portable and discreet electronic vaporizers available.
Why I love my MFLB
- Totally discrete, does not look like a smoking device
- Vapor does not really smell like marijuana
- Small enough to fit inside the palm of your hand or inside a pocket
- Instead of using butane or flame, this handheld unit runs off rechargeable AA batteries
- Start vaporizing within 10 seconds
- Lifetime Warranty
Just do yourself a favor and get yourself extra batteries! If you're anything like me, you'll end up using this baby a lot!
Though many different batteries can work with the MFLB, I recommend getting spare batteries from the MFLB people for best results: http://growweedeasy.com/MFLB-batteries
We Need Your Help!
Ever wondered how you could help overgrow the world?
Interested in getting exposure while showing off your growing skills
and helping other growers around the world produce bigger, more
potent buds?
Do you have experiences, pictures, or lessons learned that you believe will be helpful for other growers?
If so, we want to hear from you!
Nebula
Haze and Sirius Fourside, founders of GrowWeedEasy.com, have dedicated
their lives to building the most comprehensive, easy-to-follow marijuana
growing resource in the world.
We
know that the best way to get medicine into the hands of those in
needs is to provide people with information that makes it easy for
anyone to grow it themselves....
From a fellow grower who frequents GrowWeedEasy.com:
"Hello Nebula Haze,
...what you and your partner Sirius Fourside are doing for the community is simply amazing and it is great to have joined up with such knowledgeable and willing individuals like yourselves. For that I honor and envy you a million times over. And your weekly newsletter/mailing is outstanding and always a good read. I look forward to it every Sunday. Thank you so much and keep up the great work..."
WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you soooo much!
Nebula
Your Questions Answered
This week: Our Readers Trophy Pics!
Check out some awesome pics of cannabis grown by one of our readers! You rock. We love seeing pics from people we've helped grow their own buds!
Want to show off your beautiful trophy pics?
Submit your marijuana pictures here: http://growweedeasy.com/submit-trophy-pics
Anyone who sends us pictures is kept completely anonymous!
We thoroughly inspect pictures to ensure your privacy remains safe.
Remember, sharing is caring!
Forward this email to a friend in need!
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Any decision to grow marijuana should only be made after consulting with an experienced lawyer or other legal adviser. Although
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