Culture

Marijuana soil requirements

The soil in which you plant your cannabis seeds is obviously going to play a large part in how well your marijuana plants grow and what you’ll eventually harvest. Ideally the best soil would be fluffy when held in your hands, would drain well, and would be rich in nutrients. If you are planting your cannabis seeds in large pots, then this is easier to come by since you can either compost or buy fertilizer that provides a rich fertile base in which to plant.

If you’re planting cannabis seeds in a more natural location, a bit of preparation and testing is required to make the soil more amenable for your grow. Either way marijuana requires a lot of certain nutrients throughout its life in order to produce a high yield. The fewer nutrients, light, or water, the less weed you harvest. The three basic nutrients are nitrogen (N), potassium (P) and phosphorous (K).

Any store-bought fertilizer should show the percentages of each in large numbers on the front of the packaging, and they are always listed in N-P-K order. These nutrients must always be available for your seedlings to grow into strong, healthy, mature marijuana plants. Download my free marijuana grow bible for more tips about growing marijuana.

The challenge to you, the grower, is to balance and maintain these nutrients in the soil throughout the course of the marijuana plant’s life. This may be easier if you are using store-bought fertilizer and planting in pots because the mix may already be PH balanced (pH 7, neither too acidic nor overly alkaline). Even so, the marijuana plants may begin to exhibit deficiencies in one or more of the nutrients because the plants do not use them up evenly. In that case you’ll have to supplement the exhausted nutrients, either through watering or through feeding them directly to the soil.

The plant’s look and feel will be a signal as to which nutrients you may be short on. One of the main drawbacks to planting in pots is that you are responsible for providing all of the nutrients that the marijuana plant needs, since the roots will not be able to seek them out in the existing soil. Also the size of the pot, which in turn regulates how much soil you are growing the plant in, will regulate how tall and strong the plant can grow. The benefit to planting in pots is that you are in control of all the nutrients that the marijuana plant could possibly receive.

If you are planting in a pot there are a few things to keep in mind concerning the container. Cannabis growers have used a wide variety of containers, but a good general rule is, the lighter the better, in case you have to move your plants. Five-gallon (about nineteen liters) plastic buckets, which are the ubiquitous by-product of restaurants, work well as long they haven’t been used to store petroleum or anything toxic or heavily acidic. Clay pots are heavy, needlessly costly, and actually absorb moisture that should be used by your marijuana plants. If you use them, be sure to spray the pot itself with water whenever you water, especially during the hot summer months.

Gardening stores also sell grow bags which are thick enough to hold a good amount of soil, and durable in case you need to move them; however, be extremely careful when moving them since the jostling could damage the roots. This will disrupt the plant’s ability to grow as it must tend to and rebuild its ailing root system. Make sure you have drainage holes in the bottom of your container so that excess water won’t drown your marijuana plants, but they shouldn’t be so big that soil falls out. Another tip is to put a few rocks or something else solid within the soil that will help with drainage, but don’t over- do it.

If you are growing directly in the natural soil it is best to have a basic understanding of what kind of soil you have and what else is growing nearby. There are three main types of soil: clay, sandy, and loamy. A good way to determine what kind of soil you are dealing with is to ask a local gardening store what type of soil is common to the area, or simply grab a handful and show it to them. It will usually be a mixture of one or more of the following types, leaning more toward one or the other.

If you want to start growing, download my free grow guide and order some marijuana seeds. All top quality marijuana seeds are available in my marijuana seed shop. Buy 5, get 5 free. We ship seeds to the US, CA and many other countries. For any growing related question please visit the marijuana support page.

Source: http://www.theweedblog.com