How to Increase the Potency in Your Home Grown Cannabis

How to Pump Up the Potency in Your Home Grown Pot

increase cannabis potency

While the mainstream media might be going ape-shit over the “potency of marijuana these days”, home growers are always looking for ways to up the game. While strain genetics has a lot to do with the potency of your pot, there are other minor things you could do to ensure that you get the best yield possible.

In the following article we’ll be talking about a few tricks you can do to ensure that you get some quality-potent pot. I have done this with seeds I got from shwaggy bags, and managed to increase the potency of the strain significantly after growing it with a lot of love and attention.

Patience is the first thing

One of the biggest issues I run into with growers is their lack of patience. You can’t rush the plant. There’s a rule of thumb when it comes to growing cannabis that says, “If you think it’s ready for the next phase, wait two more weeks”.

This is absolutely spot on. My first batch of cannabis was weak compared to my third crop. Why, because the first time I grew pot I was eager like a teenager on prom night. All I wanted was to pop the cherry of Mary as soon as I could.

Unfortunately, I was premature in many different steps including, when to harvest, how long to dry, how long to cure and so forth.

Thus, if you’re growing weed and think it’s ready to go to the next stage of the cultivation process, take a week more to ensure that you maximize resin production and cannabinoid development.

Carbon Flushing

Every grower knows that you have to flush the plant prior to drying and curing. However, most growers flush with water alone. They rinse and repeat this until they feel that all of the added nutrients and fertilizers are flushed out.

However, if you’re growing in soil (I haven’t tested this in Hydro), you can take some carbon (charcoal) and circle the stem of the plant right after you flushed it for a few days.

Then, start the drying process in the soil itself with the charcoal there. The carbon will absorb a lot of the minerals and particles in the soil. As a result, the plant goes into survival mode and starts producing more resin to protect itself. More resin production means more THC.

You can let the plant Carbon Flush for about 3 days after you did your initial water flushing. This will get the plant dryer and will also reduce the closet drying phase by a day or so.

Drying

Once the plant is ready to be harvested, cut the stem at the bottom and get rid of all excessive leaves. I personally like to do a wet-trim before I start drying it. Wet-trimming is simply cutting away all of the unwanted stems and leaf you don’t want.

Then, when you dry, make sure that the plant doesn’t get too dry. You need to get rid of the moisture as well by placing a few fans in there. Check in daily to see if there is any mold development or other mishaps that can happen during this stage.

You’ll know that the plant is ready to move onto the next phase when the stems break, but aren’t brittle. They shouldn’t be “bendy” and should have a “Snap” to them, however, they shouldn’t “snap off”. I know it’s a weird way of describing it, but once you’re in that stage you’ll know what I’m talking about.

The MOST Important Aspect – CURING

This is where most growers drop the ball. They don’t cure it long enough. Curing is vital to increasing the potency of your pot. Simply place it in a hermetically sealed jar and store it in a dark place. Every day, maybe once or twice a day, let the jar breathe.

To do this, take some newspaper and simply lay the contents of the jar on the paper for about fifteen minutes. Then, place it back in the jar and continue to do this for two to three weeks. Two weeks is a good time to give it the first toke test.

If it’s not as potent as you’d like, keep it in there for another week.

Once you’re done, you can then smoke your weed knowing that you have optimized the potency of your stash to the best of your abilities.

There are other aspects during the vegetative state like adding in CO2 (dry ice) and using fertilizers at optimal stages, however that’s for another day.

(SEE OUR GUIDE TO CURING AND DRYING CANNABIS, CLICK HERE.)

Enjoy the power of your potency

I have been doing these techniques for years now and they have not disappointed as of yet. I have taken mediocre weed, and turned it into something that is actually very good. Give it a try!