Vegetative Stage

While all plants share similarities in how they grow, marijuana plants have quirks that set them apart. There are a number of steps you can take during the vegetative stages of marijuana growth that will help you later down the road, such as the nutrients you feed your plant and when you do it.

Firstly when acquiring seeds, you want to make sure they are matured, appearing a darker brown with lighter accents and a hard feel. What you do not want is a seed that feels fresh and looks green, which indicates that the seed never reached full maturity.

Once you have your marijuana seeds, make sure you have the space necessary to allow your plants to grow and be healthy.

Marijuana seeds require three things to germinate: water, heat, and air. Because of this, there are many methods you can use to germinate your seeds. The most common and simplest method you probably learnt while growing beans in school.

 The 3 methods are:

Method 1 – Bean Method

Paper towels saturated in water 

For this method you will need:

• Two clean plates

• Paper towels

• Marijuana Seeds

Step 1: Take four sheets of paper towels and soak them with distilled water. The sheets should be soaked but should not have excess water running off.

Step 2: Take two of the paper towels and place them on the plate. Then, place the marijuana seeds a few cm apart from each other and cover them with the remaining two sheets of water-soaked paper towels.

Step 3: To create a dark protected space, take another plate and flip it over to cover the seeds (like a dome).

Step 4: Make sure the area they’re kept in is warm – somewhere between 21-23°C.

After these steps have been completed, it’s time to wait patiently. You can check the paper towels occasionally to make sure they’re still saturated, and if they seem to be losing their moisture, simply add a bit more water to keep the seeds healthy and happy.  Just remember that there should be no excess water running off.

Method 2 – Cowboy Method

Throw a seed in soil, water it and hope it sprouts

Method 3 – Grow like a Pro Method

Start by filling a glass with a PH adjusted water. The optiomum PH range would be 5.5 – 5.8. Place the seed in the glass of PH adjusted water and watch it float. The idea behind this is to give the seed the perfect balance of air and water as 50% of the seed is submerged in water while the rest is exposed to oxygen. Remember to label your glasses if you are germinating more then one variety of seed. Place your glass in a cool dark cupboard. Preferably a cupboard that you open as rarely as possible. Check in on your seeds in 3 - 4  days’ time. 

You know a seed has germinated once the seed splits and a single white sprout appears. This is also known as the “tap root” – and is your sign of a successful germination. It’s important to keep this area sterile at all times, so do not touch the seeds or the tap root as they begin to split.

Once you see the tap root, it’s time to transfer your germinated seed into its growing medium. You can either choose soil, cocoa peat or rockwool as your desired growing medium. Small pots are a good place to start. This enables the seed to get well rooted and established before being transplanted into its final pot size. Fill the pots with growing medium and poke a hole in the middle using a pen or pencil. To transfer the seed, use a pair of tweezers to gently pick it up, then drop the seed in the hole with the tap root facing down and lightly cover it with growing medium.

Next, you’ll need to water the growing medium. Initially we advise that you use a spray bottle. This will allow you to provide just the right amount of moisture without over-saturating the soil. Many growers tend to pour water directly onto the growing medium which tends to unsettle the roots due to them being sensitive at the early stages of germination.

Pay attention to the temperature and the moisture level of the growing medium to keep the marijuana seed happy and healthy, and within a week or so you should see a seedling begin to grow from the soil.

During the initial growth period of the plant, it builds up structural integrity (stem and roots). Only after that has happened does the plant begins to develop leaves. During these early stages of growth, your plant will require a lot of nitrogen.

The first leaves will begin the photosynthesis process, absorbing light and furthering the plant’s growth. After your plants have germinated and begun to stabilize, consider taking out any late-germinating seeds or stunted seedlings. That way these won’t compete with your other plants for light and nutrients.

Once your marijuana plant has a stable root system and the environment is set up right, it should just be a matter of making sure you end up with a good yield. The plant will continue to grow and develop given proper nutrients (Nitrogen, Potassium and Phosphorus) and light, developing a strong structure necessary for the flowering phase.

As the plant continues to develop and mature, it will require additional nutrients, water, light, and higher levels of carbon dioxide in the environment. It will also require more nitrogen. You want to make sure you’re providing for all of the plant’s needs.

In this article, we’ll talk about marijuana seedlings, the vegetative phase, and how to manage leaf development. It’s all about maximizing growth in this vulnerable early phase and making sure you keep your plants healthy and strong right up until you harvest.

The first leaves

The leaves of the cannabis plant grows in tiers. These tiers are known as the internodes or node spacings. Every tier produces a certain amount of leaves. Generally, the first tier produces a single leaf. The second tier will produce three leaves, the third tier will produce five leaves, and so on.

The number of leaves produced in a single series usually caps out at around ten. 

After about two to three weeks of growth, your marijuana plant should have experienced about 5 or 6 different rounds of growth. You should be producing a regular and steady amount of leaves with every new tier that grows. You’ll also notice that the branches are beginning to develop and expand outward.

Feeding Seedlings

You’ll want to make sure your young marijuana seedlings get a lot of nitrogen early on in their development, but be careful about giving your plants too much nutrients and water. Overwatering your plant can cause it to grow more in the stem then the buds, which is counterproductive for most growers.

Allow your plants root systems to air out and rest between watering. Remember to start adding plenty of nitrogen to your plant as soon as the first leaves develop.

Environmental factors

The rest of the environment is also something you want to make sure you are optimizing throughout every stage of growth, but particularly during the early phases. You have a couple options when it comes to lighting.

After your plants get past the seedling stage, you can expose your plants to light for a full 24 hours, but it's better to simulate night and give the plants up to six hours of darkness every 24 hours. Making sure you provide the right kind of lighting is crucial!

Keep the air temperature in your grow room somewhere between 23 and 25 degrees Celsius. The roots should be slightly cooler, around 18 - 21 degrees Celcius. Despite this, make sure the soil is warm enough, especially early on. If roots don’t develop properly, the rest of the plant will not either.

Don’t forget to measure the humidity in the room as well. This will affect the efficiency of your plant’s respiration, and also the early health of your plant. You want the humidity in your grow room somewhere between 50% and 70%. When the plant matures, it will be less sensitive to humidity.

Controlling these environmental factors will help optimize your plant. 

Vegetative Stage

A good growth period will be followed by a strong flowering phase. As a grower, it’s your job to give your plants everything they need to develop properly before they flower.

This means healthy leaves, a tough structure to cope with the weight of heavy buds, and a strong root system. Keep an eye on the light, nutrients, carbon dioxide and temperature of your grow room throughout the process.

Watering during vegetative stage is very important!

Especially during the vegetative stage of growth, be careful when irrigating and watering your plant. As the plant grows larger and larger, it will require more water to keep up with the development.

This means it’s easy for the plant to become dehydrated at this point. Watch out for curling or yellowing in the leaves.

Temperature, humidity and nutrients

Once your plants hit the peak of their growth phase, you can expose your plants to light for a full 24 hours, but it's better to simulate night and give the plants up to six hours of darkness every 24 hours You’ll want sodium vapor or metal halide type lamps to make sure you’re providing the right kind of light.

Keep the air temperature in your grow room somewhere between 20 and 22 degrees Celcius. The roots should be kept at a slightly lower temperature, around 18 degrees Celcius. Despite this, make sure the soil is warm enough, especially early on. Remember, your roots need to develop properly for the rest of the plant to.

Don’t forget to measure the humidity in the room as well. This will affect the efficiency of your plant’s respiration, and also the early health of the plant. You want the humidity in your grow room somewhere between 50% and 70%. When the plant matures, it will be less sensitive to humidity.

Keep adding nitrogen, too! You want the electrical conductance to measure somewhere between 1.5 and 2. If you are using soil, make sure to continue adding liquid fertilizers and monitoring the moisture in the soil.

Determining sex

There are two commonly utilized methods of determining gender in Marijuana plants. Gender is definitely something you want to be certain of because mixing male and female plants in your grow room has the potential to ruin your crop.

The first method to determine the gender is to carefully examine the 5th series of leaves on your plant. You’ll want to do this right before the plant should flower. Indicas and hybrids with Indica genetics will display their sex between the leaves of the plant right before they flower.

Determine sex during vegetative stage

If you look very carefully, you should be able to see a tiny white fibers if the plant is female. If the plant is male, it will have a small ball instead of a fibers.

Forced Flowering

After you’ve gone through and made sure that you don’t have any male plants in your grow room, make sure you’re ready for the next stage of growth: flowering. Set all the plants up neatly and double-check to make sure they aren’t fighting over any sources of light.

Keeping your plants well-spaced out is a good way to help ensure a healthy yield. Double-check the roots to make sure all the plants have enough space below the surface is a good as well.

Vegetative stage into flowering stage

If you need to transplant your Marijuana because the root system has grown too large, now is the time to do it. Root systems expand rapidly during the vegetative stage of growth. You need to make sure the plant isn’t suffocating. If it is unable to pull up and absorb the nutrients it requires, it won’t do well during the flowering phase.

Night and Day

You can force your plant to flower by adjusting the light cycles in your grow room, mimicking a change of seasons. You’ll want “shorter” days, with roughly 12 hours of light exposure followed by 12 hours of darkness. The easiest way to manage these changes in the light cycle is to use an automatic switch that turns your lights on and off at the required intervals.

12 hours of light - 12 hours of darkness

Make sure that you stick to these cycles once you start. All it takes is a single exposure to light during one of the cycles of darkness to interrupt your flowering. If the flowering cycle is interrupted, the plant might start growing again.

This sort of stress is bad for the health of the plant, and it can result in reduced yield and unpredictable side-effects. If you do mistakenly expose the plant to light during a cycle of darkness, try to repeat the process again, and this time don’t interrupt it. Don’t be tempted to look in on your plant while it’s “night-time”!

Thanks for reading. Please leave comments or questions below and don't forget to subscribe!

Like our guides? You will love our seeds!