The vegetative stage of Cannabis plant
Welcome everyone to this new article in our “Cannabis Growing Handbook“! Having seen the perfect Cannabis Substrate for Soil, Coco and Hydroponic, we are going to analyze the vegetative stage for the Cannabis plant. Pen and paper at your fingertips, because here we go!
Vegetative stage of Cannabis
The vegetative stage of Cannabis plant is a period of time between germination and flowering. The plants concentrates all its energy in the development of roots, leaves and new branches. They will require particular attention from the grower. Reach this stage with any error or nutritional deficiency would lead to inevitable stress, with a consequent slowdown (or total block) in the vegetative development (which can cause lose several useful days).
At an average rate of a new stage of leaves every three days, you will notice that the cannabis plant will tend to grow much faster than before. If you grow indoors you’ll have to take into account the spaces, planning pruning if you want to prevent overcrowding. In fact, if the grow lights are not moved to a flowering cycle, i.e. 12 hours of light and 12 hours of dark, the plants will continue to grow and occupy any free space: if this is not prevented, the initial enthusiasm of seeing them become big and strong can easily turn into despair!
If you can’t find any visible problem in your plants, you can easily take them in flowering stage. In fact, the vegetative phase of Cannabis is the least delicate stage of development compared to germination and flowering: any mistake made by the grower can quickly be remedied!
Beginning of vegetative stage of Cannabis Plant
The start of the vegetative stage of Cannabis plant begins around the third week of life. More precisely, around the time when the plant will have developed the fourth or fifth stage of leaves. At the height of each new internode (part where the stem meets the leaves) you’ll see new leaves sprout. There are new branches, future carriers of glittering marijuana buds! For us at Annibale, this is the best time to do a little pruning on the plant, prompting it immediately to use its energies on new branches (and not on the single apex). So, at the cost of a few more days of vegetation it will be possible to obtain thus a more abundant final harvest!
In the vegetative phase of Cannabis must be respect the follow parameters:
Temperature: 18 ° – 32 ° celsius
Humidity: 50% – 75%
EC (irrigation water): 1.2 – 1.8
PH (irrigation water): 6.0 – 6.5
Lumen: 4500+
Nourishment (irrigation water): In this phase, the plant will require more Nitrogen than Phosphorus and Potassium, which are also useful in smaller quantities.
Respecting these factors is essential to reach the flowering phase in the shortest possible time and with healthy plants.
End of vegetative phase of Cannabis
When the plants have reached 30-50 cm and have adequately occupied the space used for cultivation, they can finally be brought into bloom. Grow box or grow room, three quarters of the space occupied is the most suitable proportion for S.O.G. growing system. We must therefore be careful that the plants do not grow too much, since in this phase they can safely grow by 5 centimeters a day. Don’t be late to change the cycle of lights!
On the web you can find many readings by authoritative people in the world of Cannabis (such as Jorge Cervantes and others) who advise against inducing Marijuana plants into flowering until they have proven their sex. Indeed, the plant would suffer a stress that could lead, in a very small percentage of cases, to cases of hermaphroditism. However, if the plants don’t show particular signs of stress of another type, we safely recommend changing the lights.
Remember that, starting from the moment of changing the lights, a few days will have to pass before the plant can demonstrate its sex. after about 7-10 days, you should be able to see the famous pre-flowers (primordial flowers of the Cannabis plant) at the height of the main internodes.
Useful tips and techniques in vegetative phase of Cannabis plant
Cut off the first branches since they don’t flower and slow down the development of the upper branches. To be clear, first branches are on top the first single leaves after the cotyledons.
Cannabis plant needs a high nutritional supply of nitrogen, but be careful not to overdo it. Too much nitrogen could be counterproductive, slowing down the development or, in the worst cases, killing the plant. In the event of fertilizer overdose, Replace substrate doing root washing too.
When it comes to the vegetative phase, many growers think that everyday born hundreds of new leaves and branches. Reading something about the techniques of Defoliation, Low Stress Training and Apical Pruning could be useful as well as Interesting!
When vegetating indoors, cannabis plants can go a 24/24 light cycle. This greatly increases the speed of development (against a higher cost of their bills), but does not give the plants room to recover from any trauma or stress suffered. We therefore advise against this light cycle if Apical Pruning was to be applied, or if present any nutritional deficiencies.
And also for this chapter we have examined what is of primary importance in the vegetative stage of Cannabis plant. If you liked the article, keep following us in the next chapters regarding the delicate flowering phases, week after week.
Greetings from Annibale Seedshop Team, see you in next article about Germination Stage of Cannabis Plant!
Davide, CEO Founder & Geneticist
