1.) Set Up So Watering is Easier
Take a few minutes to think about your watering setup. A little forethought and planning can save you a ton of time and effort later.
Make a spot to mix water and nutrients
Set up a table or specific spot to mix up nutrients, check pH, and otherwise prepare water before giving it to your plants. You want a convenient place to hold your water container, bottles, measuring spoons, etc. Being able to reach everything saves time and effort compared to haphazardly mixing nutrients, especially compared to mixing nutrients on the floor .
Set up a table or other convenient spot to store and mix nutrients
Rich airy potting mix
Start with a good soil or coco mix. This not only helps cannabis grow faster but also helps prevent problems like overwatering or underwatering. Most importantly, never use dirt you find outside to grow your plants. Choose potting mixes that appear rich, dark, and fluffy. If your main goal is to water as infrequently as possible, choose soil over coco coir (on average, coco needs to be watered more often than soil).
Choose a rich-yet-fluffy potting mix so plants are harder to overwater (or underwater)
Choose the right nutrients
Mixing up nutrients can take up a lot of time if you’re using multiple bottles or supplements at the same time. If time is of the essence, choose a “just add water” soil (to avoid nutrients altogether) or get an all-in-one nutrient system that gives everything to your plants in one bottle. I’ve had excellent results using Dyna-Gro Grow and Bloom. It can be used in soil, coco, or hydroponic setups. Cheap and easy yet great yields and the resulting buds are top tier.
Directions for Dyna-Gro
- Use “Grow” bottle in the vegetative stage
- Use “Bloom” bottle in the flowering stage
How much to give to cannabis plants?
- Start at 1/2 tsp per gallon. This keeps most cannabis plants healthy and growing fast.
- Raise amount to 1 tsp per gallon for plants that are heavy feeders. You know a plant needs more nutrients if it’s getting pale or lime green all over, especially if lower leaves are turning yellow and falling off on their own.
- Drop to 1/4 tsp per gallon if you see dark green leaves or nutrient burn (brown leaf tips), which indicates the plant is getting too high levels of nutrients.
Pretty easy, right?
Dyna-Gro Grow & Bloom works great for growing cannabis in any grow medium including soil, coco, or hydroponics. Use just 1 bottle for the vegetative stage and 1 bottle for the flowering stage at about 1/2 tsp per gallon to give your plants all the nutrients they need from seed to harvest.
Regular pots or specialty pots? What size pot?
There are a few different types of plant containers. Your standard hard-sided container needs to be watered the least often. There are specialty containers that let air in from the sides (for example air pots and fabric pots) which can increase growth rates and reduce the chance of overwatering, but dry out much more quickly and need to be watered frequently.
Choose standard hard-side plant pots to water as infrequently as possible
Air pots and fabric pots result in slightly faster growth but need to be watered more often because they dry the potting mix from the sides.
While you’re thinking about how often you want to water, also consider the size of the plant pot. If you want to be able to water your plants just once or twice a week, choose bigger plant pots (5+ gallons each). Big containers need to be watered less frequently than smaller ones.
Hard-sided 5-gallon plant pots (often called “nursery” pots) only need to be watered once or twice a week. You can usually find really cheap ones at a local garden center or plant nursery.
