Why a Grower Journal Will Make You a Better Cannabis Cultivator

what is a grower journal

As we’ve established several times in the past – growing cannabis can be very addictive. For the most part, I tell would-be growers to not give too much of a shit about how they grow. As long as you are putting seed in soil and cultivating your own weed – you’re winning at life!

However, this doesn’t mean that you can’t improve your growing technique. After all, every grower started off as a newbie and it was experience that trained their eyes and hands. Yet, cropping out time and time again and not measuring your results, means that you’re leaving a lot to chance.

If you aren’t studying your own technique or jotting down the progress of your plants – it’s time that you incorporate a “Grower’s Journal” into your practice.

What exactly is a Grower’s journal? Spark of a joint, sit back and relax – this article will talk you through what data points you’ll want to focus on when growing weed.

What’s a Grower’s Journal?

A Grower’s Journal is a log book that contains information about each crop you are growing. This includes the strain, dates, ratios of nutrients, soil composition, light cycles, etc. In this log you will measure the process of your plants, write down notes for later and essentially analyze your entire crop cycle from seed to smoke.

You can even jot down “post curing notes” which includes, effect, taste, smell, duration, etc.

The Grower’s Journal can be as complex or as simple as you desire. Perhaps you simply want to track the dates so you can have a rough estimate about when to switch light cycles. Maybe you’re only interested in the rudimentary data like light cycle, nutrients, and strain names – really, it depends on your personal preferences.

In this article, we’ll talk about some major categories that you can consider for your own Journal.

But first…

Why even have a Grow Journal?

As mentioned, having a log of your activities gives you a unique perspective on your progression over time. While we have the ability to analyze ourselves over-time in our head, we typically forget many important details.

With a Grower’s Journal, if there are any developments surrounding your plants, whether it was dealing with pests, switching to different nutrients, lights, etc – you can jot down how it affected the growth and development of your plants.

You can begin to experiment, trying different techniques and ideas on different plants of the same strain to see if you can tweak results.

Having this recorded in a journal means that you have access to valuable foundational research that can help you with future grows.

Perhaps you can shave off a week of growing and still get similar results, or perhaps waiting a specific time when curing maximizes the terpene profile? If you aren’t recording the progress, it becomes very difficult to know whether your actions are making a difference or not.

The Grower’s Journal measures your progress over time, allowing you to modify your technique and maximize results.

Sure, it takes a bit of discipline to keep it up – but as you see your plant go through the developmental cycles and see the corresponding notes – you’ll begin to become addicted to your Grower’s Journal as well.

It really does become a very valuable asset over time.

It can help with breeding new strains

A Grower’s journal will also give you the ability to begin to breed new strains and log their progression. You can see the manifestation of the different traits over generations. This gives you a unique perspective on the genetic expression of cannabis and will help you become more proficient at selecting dominant traits.

With detailed logs, you can always go back to a “check point” within your breeding process and create new sub-species.

However, if you’re not logging the progress, it can be very easy to lose track of the end goal.

Best Way to start a Cannabis Journal

I believe in simplicity. Therefore, if you want to keep an analog journal – you will want to consider topics like;

Strain Name + Genetics
Gear
Method
Nutrients (if used)
Soil Composition
Dates and Time
Feeding Schedule
Light Schedules
Prune days
Etc.

Simply use a notebook and begin to organize these data points. Map it over a calendar and you’re golden!

However, if you want a more digital solution – you can check out Grow Diaries.

Grow Diaries

I didn’t know about this website until I began researching Grow Journals. To my surprise, there’s a robust community of growers with a journal tracking all of their progress. All of the data points I mentioned earlier is included and what’s even better is that there’s a community that can comment on your progress.

Essentially, you can join forces with growers from around the world and share knowledge. What’s even more interesting is that they hold contests and have giveaways.

I’m sure that they use our data to advertise and promote gear and what not, but I think for a marijuana grower being able to gain access to grow gear and tips is worth the exchange.

Grow Diaries did not sponsor this article, I simply found them online and decided to include them in this article. I haven’t used them myself either – I simply skimmed over what they had to offer and thought it was a pretty decent option and was worth the inclusion in this article.

The Sticky Bottomline

Whether you go digital or analogue, having a Grow Journal is important if you’re interested in becoming better at your craft. Growing cannabis is one hell of an experience and once you can begin to see the benefits from tracking your progress, improving your technique – you too will know why it’s every grower’s best kept secret!