The vegetative phase is just as import as the other stages in a plants growth. Your “bloom” depends heavy on how you treat your vegetative cycle. This phase take place when the sun is out longer during the summer time (Which is the optimal time for outdoor crops) and shorter in the winter time. These times tell the plant to grow in a vegetative mode and do not create flowers or buds. You will see more green foliage and vertical growth. A blue light spectrum bulb is preferred such as the Hortilux Super Blue or a full Spectrum bulb such as the Ultra Sun bulb by Sun Light Supply.
You can also use fluorescent lights such as a T5 High Output light/fixture that works great for a healthy and electrically cost effective “grow light”. Standard T12 lights are sufficient but lack the intensity of the T5s. If you are trying to vegetate at a faster rate of speed you also have the option of using a HID light which you can use in all wattages (150-1000 watt) available depending on the size and expectations you require. For small environments say 12 plants or so we recommend using a 400 watt HID ballast and metal halide lamp for aggressive growth.
The Hortilux brand is considered one of the best in the industry but a generic bulb is also effective and more intense than a fluorescent solution. If you are trying to get close to a 400 HID in a florescent, you can use an 8 bulb T5 configuration found on our site under fluorescent lights, and this will give you comparable performance with less electricity and heat. Our Commercial Grade” brand by Hydrofarm is a great quality solution with discounted prices and includes the High output bulbs in the package. You can also enhance your “grow” cycle by adding other goodies such as “Spray N Grow” or Dutchmaster foliar sprays for an extra kick. Penetrator mixed with Max Fx grow will definitely increase the vegetative rate of growth.
If you are growing in a hydroponics environment you will definitely need to PH balance your water. Canna actually puts buffers in their nutrients to lower PH levels. We have many Canna customers that don’t add any PH down when using the Canna tap water formulas or PH up with soft water nutrients such as “Aqua”.
Ideally you will need to keep the PH at around 6. PH balancing in the cloning or seedling isn’t that important because you are using purified water. Many people do not PH balance their water for soil either. We recommend that you invest in a nice PH tester like the Oakton brand for best results. You can adjust your PH levels by adding either PH down or PH up for the desired range. PH solutions are primarily composed of phosphoric acid. If you are really serious about growing we definitely suggest you invest in good quality TDS AKA “Total Dissolved Solids” tester.
Again we recommend the Oakton brand for its dependability and accuracy. The TDS tester will tell you how much stuff is in your tap water and will also tell how nutrients you are giving your plants.
Generally speaking we recommend using these PPM guidelines for Grow and Bloom:
High Nitrogen
- Early Grow = 500-800PPM
- Mid Grow = 700-1000PPM
- Late Grow = 800-1100PPM
Lower Nitrogen / Higher Phosphorous and Potassium after flowers appear
- Early Bloom = 1000PPM-1200PPM
- Your plant will experience a major growth spurt during this time and it is important to keep you plant on the grow nutrients for the 1st 2 weeks of your bloom cycle. Your plant needs the extra nitrogen at this time.
- Mid bloom = 1000-1500PPM
- Depending on the nutrient… at 3 weeks into flowering is when you need add a phosphorous potassium booster such as “Kool Bloom” by “General Hydroponics” or even better PK 13/14 by Canna. Generally speaking you only need to feed your plant for week with this.
- Late Bloom = 1200-2500PPM
- Depending on the nutrient. The cleaner the nutrient the less you need! 3 weeks before you harvest your plant you will need another week of phosphorous and potassium enhancement. This will greatly increase your yield.
We also suggest using a filtration system if you can. The Tall Boy filter is incredibly efficient and cleans your water fast and leaves behind the good stuff such as beneficial microbes. You can look at your cities water qualities and determine if you need a filter. If you are running your PPMs above 300 out of the tap you may want to consider a filter. Who know what could be floating around in the water.
Pruning is also a critical part of successfully maturing a plant. Always prune also known as trimming your plant with cleaned scissors. It is important to cut out any diseased or tweak looking leaves.
If only a portion of the leaf is bad only cut out the bad area. If you’re lower leaves turn yellow, cut them out. Never prune more than 60% of your leaves off the plant as it may result in shock. Pruning once a week in aggressive grow periods is good and will stimulate more growth.
B vitamin supplements such as SuperThrive are also effective at limiting shock from transplanting and also stimulate growth. Another all purpose must have product is purified seaweed extract. This stuff is loaded with Mother Nature’s best plant nutrients.
There are several places in the world where sea weed beds will actually grow several feet per day. We recommend Liquid Karma from Botanicare to our customers for the best all around seaweed extract based supplement. This supplement is full of amino acids, guanos, seaweed, full NPK, hormones, minerals, vitamins and anything else that could be missing. Liquid Karma’s is meant to address potential macro and micro nutrients deficiencies Plants need macro nutrients to survive and flourish. This is called the NPK ratio, which stands for nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium. In the vegetative phase it is import to use a plant nutrient high in nitrogen. The quality and source of your NPK nutrients will also have an effect on your production as well. You will see greater quality and performance out of a “Canna” nutrient schedule and a say a cheaper nutrient like “Bigfoot”.
Purity plays a big role especially in a hydroponics environment. The cleaner nutrient the better the grow cycle. Canna is a little more expensive but justifies cost with unmatched yields. You also want a nutrient with adequate and high quality grade micro nutrients such as iron, sulfur, calcium and magnesium. Again the purity of these micro nutrients is also essential to high performance growing. A great way to quickly feed your plant micro nutrients is through a foliar feed. A great product for this is “Spray N Grow” which will immediately feed your plant micro nutrients. Great for immediate problems. Signs of micro nutrients can include a “rams horn” effect where the leaves point downwards, brown spots around the edges and middle of the leaves and lack of structure.
Example:
****Important note when using artificial lighting****
Keep your overall foliage around 3 feet. HID ballast and bulbs can effectively penetrate up 3 feet, anything beyond this point could be considered a hindrance to performance. It will take your plant more energy sustaining the lower leaves and less energy on top where it counts.
In other words you want the plant to not get dragged down by trying to keep those little leaves/buds alive; they steal the juice from the top!
Not good… Again we can’t stress enough the need to keep to things trimmed. You will thank us for this valuable tip.
Another key point is to keep the HID light a good 3-4 feet away from newly vegetating plants and gradually increase the distance from the top of the plant and the bottom of reflector. Keep in mind that you want your plants to reach for the light. The typical light cycle during the vegetative phase is 18 hours of light on and 6 hours off. Your plants will need the rest if you are using a wattage light say 200 watts or more.
In some cases people will vegetate a plant for 24 hours a day, a cautionary note heat stress could occur with this method so it is important to keep you wattage down and use a fluorescent if you decide to do this. Do not let your plant get saturated with light which causes heat stress!
As a guideline your leaves should be pointing up. ***Really important!***
Production will be increased following these steps. When you grow indoors you will also need to consider your climate when your lights are on, if you are using anything above a 400 watt set up, you will more than likely need to ventilate your light with a fan and use an air cooled reflector. The hot air moving out will need to be ejected into another room outside the grow area like an attic or crawl space.
Example:
You can see the inline vortex fan sitting on top of a carbon filter sucking air through and out the reflector exhausting the heat. This type up set is needed to effectively control heat.
If your room temperature exceeds 85 degrees your plants are in danger of heat stress and growth disruption. The inline fan also brings in fresh air by taking air in passively from outside the grow area. If your grow room needs more temperature control, you may want to consider adding a second intake fan to the equation for more cooling and greater Co2 levels which is a tremendous benefit to the plant. Air flow is essential for controlling mold and humidity levels.
Humidity levels should range between 20%-60%. You risk having mold issues above the 60% mark. You will find that some strains are more susceptible to mold issues than others.
