How Do You Properly Water Your Cannabis Plants?

How to Properly Water Your Cannabis Plants

how to water cannabis plants

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Growing cannabis is not as “easy” as just throwing some seeds in the ground and letting it grow. Well, technically it is “that easy”, however, if you want to grow some proper cannabis – it takes a bit more than that.

From seed selection, light sources, nutrients, fertilizers and even watering, there are many aspects that need to be mastered to create healthy, strong and high-yielding plants.

Today, we’re going to be taking a closer look at how to properly water your cannabis plants. We’ll talk about pH levels, we’ll talk about frequency, and we’ll talk about talking to your plants. All of the following will show you how to properly care for your plants and how to not over water them.

Let’s talk about pH first!

While the pH of your water and substrate will fluctuate throughout the vegetative and flowering stages of the plant’s life cycle – there will be a general “median” you can adhere to. At times, you might need to increase or lower the pH depending on how your plant responds, however, typically you’ll remain between 5.5 – 6.5 pH.

After some initial research, it appears that at these levels, you’ll be able to maintain flexibility within the development of the plant, increase nutrient uptake and make appropriate changes whenever you see something go amiss.

You’ll have to still experiment to find the “exact pH” for your particular grow, but within these parameters, it would be more than fine.

Root Training

Most people have been watering incorrectly their entire lives. If you want to have lush, beautiful and big buds, you’ll need to understand that you’re training the “root balls” which will create the plant. You’re not “feeding the plant”, rather, you’re creating optimal conditions for the plant to thrive.

This means that there are two things you need to consider;

How to properly create a root ball
How to expand the root to “take up as much space” in the pot as possible.

Firstly, creating the root ball will occur when you’re doing transfers. When you first start sprouting your cannabis, you’ll probably use a starter cap. This will clump the root into the first “ball”.

Once the starter cap has reached its maximum, you’ll probably transfer it into a smaller grow pot. This pot, will only be used to develop the plant a bit more, solidify the roots before it’s transplanted once more into its final pot.

Knowing the cycle of transplants, you’ll know that the starter cap and the “intermediary pot” will be replaced eventually. These two pots, are used to shape the “Root ball”.

What happens is that the cannabis plant will develop more roots, which will eventually take up the “surface area of the pot”. When you transplant it, the “surface area of the previous pot” will make up the “root ball” in the bigger pot.

However, to ensure that the root ball simply doesn’t grow “down” but spreads throughout the rest of the pot – you’ll need to know how to properly water the plant.

How to properly water the plant

When you have the pH ready, and have been working on expanding the roots – let me talk about how to properly water the plant.

Most people think that by “watering the roots”, you’re optimizing growth. However, considering the plant can only sustain as much buds as its roots would allow – ideally you’ll want the roots to be present all over the final pot.

To do this, watering the center or the “roots of your plants” is a bad idea. Rather, in a circular motion, you’ll water the edges of the pot. This will force the water to run down on the edges of the pot as well, and eventually will force the roots to seek out the water. This will expand the surface area of the roots, meaning that there will be more “tools” available for the plant to grow big – lush buds!

Knowing the frequency

Another problem you might be running into is the “frequency” of growing weed. Most people “overwater their plants”. In order to not fall victim to this, you can simply learn to listen to your plants. The cannabis plant likes a “bit of challenge”. This is how it grows, through a bit of adversity.

When you give it too much water, you’re not forcing it to grow or to become more potent. Thus, only water it when it tells you. You can notice when a cannabis plant needs water when the leaves are pointing downwards, with a slight “wilt” to it.

Give it some water then, and watch those leaves perk up within 15-20 minutes. Do it before this point, and you might be over-watering your plant, removing important nutrients from the soil and from the plant itself.

Restraint is probably one of the biggest skills a cannabis grower must develop. The realization that you are merely a caretaker – the cannabis plant is really doing all the work.