More people are growing cannabis for the first time as it becomes legal in more areas of the US. But cannabis is unlike other plants, and inexperienced cultivators may make some understandable but costly mistakes.
If you’re a first-time cannabis grower, make sure you avoid these mistakes that most inexperienced cultivators get wrong.
Overwatering & Overfeeding
One of the most common mistakes a new grower will make is providing excess water and nutrients. While cannabis requires plenty of water and nutrients to grow healthily, there are severe downsides to overwatering and overfeeding.
Overwatering is often worse than underwatering—the excess water drowns the plant, depriving the roots of oxygen and leading to root rot. Additionally, overfeeding with nutrients can lead to an excessive buildup of minerals in the soil and cause a nutrient burn- or lockout. Follow your plants’ recommended watering and feeding instructions, but don’t go overboard!
Insufficient Infrastructure
If you’re growing cannabis indoors, you’ll need equipment and infrastructure to accommodate the plants properly. Some necessary items include the following:
- Reliable HVAC system for temperature control
- Misters for humidity control
- Stable airflow throughout the growing room
- Grow lights
Developing this infrastructure costs time and money but is crucial to healthy and happy cannabis plants. If you don’t invest in infrastructure, your crop could suffer and be incapable of producing profitable yields.
Mistiming the Harvest
Another common error by inexperienced cannabis growers is harvesting at the wrong time—either too early or too late. Timing the harvest of cannabis is more art than science, as this plant can develop on its own time.
In the ultimate guide for harvesting cannabis, you’ll find the most accurate method for timing the harvest is by closely examining the trichomes and their color. If the trichomes are translucent, they’re too young; if they’re dark brown and amber, they’re too old.
We hope our guide has helped teach first-time cannabis growers some of the basic mistakes many new cultivators get wrong. The more crops you grow and harvest, the better you’ll get and the more you’ll learn about the nuances of growing cannabis.
