Growing cannabis plants requires a lot of time and dedication. On top of understanding the importance of proper watering, lighting, and nutrients, you have to make sure your plants are cultivated at adequate times throughout the year. Without considering this, there’s a good chance your cannabis will be left without everything it needs.
That’s why, today, we’re talking about the best times to grow cannabis. Specifically, we’re taking a look at growing cannabis in the springtime, its efficacy, and why it proves ideal for a lot of cannabis cultivators. Let’s get started.
The Importance of Timing
For the cannabis plant, timing is absolutely everything. Cannabis relies on photoperiodism, which is the plant’s reaction to the length of a dark/light cycle. In order for the plant to move throughout its complicated life cycles, cannabis requires exposure to photoperiods to help them transform.
For example, how your cannabis plants shift from their vegetative stage to the flowering stage relies solely on the dark/light cycle and triggering breaks from the light at ideal times. Without this close attention to timing, there’s a good chance your cannabis plants won’t ever reach the flowering stage, leaving you without any smokable, potent buds. Unfortunately, this can make the difference between super successful cultivations and one that’s a total loss. This is precisely why we stress the importance of timing with your cannabis plants.
Understanding the influence of dark/light timing is just as essential as understanding timing within the seasons. Your cannabis plants will not thrive in every season just because you’ve got a nice dark/light cycle going on. With the seasonal change, you also must factor in temperatures, external lighting, humidity, and weather.
Of course, all of these factors will vary depending on where you live, but many cultivators have found that starting their cannabis grows in the middle of spring brings incredible results. But why? Do cannabis plants really thrive during springtime, as so many farmers insist?
Springtime and Cannabis Plants
Experienced farmers have discovered that Spring Equinox makes for the best starting point for cultivation. Spring Equinox marks the first official day of spring in the US, typically indicating a shift into warmer weather and more extended, sunnier days. Just as many florae begin to awaken during the springtime, the cannabis plant does as well.
With this warmer, lighter change, cultivators have found that this is the best time to start germinating your cannabis seeds. Doing so in mid-March to mid-April allows your roots to get exposed to the season’s temperate weather and warm days, which is exactly what they need to start germinating.
Typically, cultivators choose to leave their seeds germinating all spring long. Again, this time of year’s environmental factors creates the ideal elements for starting that initial growth. While springtime may not be best for actually pruning or even harvesting your plants, it’s the perfect season for getting your future cannabis cultivation strong, healthy, and happy. After all, if you do not have successful germination, all plant growth is affected.
If you’re using Spring Equinox as your day to start germination, that means that your cannabis should be ready to be repotted and move through the seedling stage by the time Summer Solstice hits. Here, your plants will start to show growth, absorbing the even stronger sun and warmer temperatures that summertime brings. Starting your plant growth during the summer may be too harsh for your cannabis plants, with heat creating too high of damaging temperatures. Spring, instead, offers a perfect balance between summer and winter.
Following this pattern, starting your plant growth in the springtime means they should be ready for harvest near the first day of fall. Then, by Winter Solistice, all of your plants should have been dried, cured, pruned, and are just about ready to be enjoyed.
So, simply put, spring marks the perfect time to begin your cannabis cultivation journey. It offers the best atmosphere for your plant’s seeds to grow healthy and robust, thus becoming a potent, tasty cannabis flower.
Understanding Location, Plant Phases
While all of this is incredibly helpful, it’s also crucial to keep in mind your location when growing cannabis. What spring looks like in Arizona is quite different than what it looks like in Alaska, so you need to pay close attention to the environmental factors of where you reside.
Some states will see brighter, warmer weather much earlier in the year than others. If you’re somewhere like AZ, where temperatures are heating up drastically at the end of February and early March, you will likely want to start your growth a bit earlier than the first day of spring. On the flip side, wait just a few weeks until temperatures begin to rise for those of you in colder states.
You don’t have to start exactly on the day of Spring Equinox! Just pay close attention to your area’s weather patterns to determine when would be ideal for beginning seed growth.
As we mentioned above, you must also pay attention to your plant’s phases on top of the actual seasons themselves. There is a chance that your plants will move through certain stages of their life cycle faster than others, all depending on how you grow your plants and where. Always keep a close eye on your plants’ transformation and adjust factors like lighting and temperature to their life cycles, not necessarily to the seasons they’re in. If summer has rolled around and your plants aren’t quite ready for that next phase, that’s okay! Don’t push them. Wait until they’re ready and listen to your cannabis plants.
Mastering Your Perfect Grow
While all of this might sound like a lot of information all at once, it’s something that you can quickly master with just some time and dedication. Practice makes perfect in terms of cannabis cultivation and understanding these external factors like seasons can make a world of difference for your harvest at the end of the year. Of course, every grower is different, and if you’ve found a growing pattern that works for you, stick with it! Whatever helps you master your perfect cultivation is what’s best.
The next time you’re getting prepared to start your cannabis cultivation, take a step back and truly consider the environment around you. Is the weather suitable for plant growth? How about the humidity? Is it sunny enough? Once you’ve got the answers to those questions, the only thing left to do is start growing your perfect cannabis plants.
And if you need any help along the way, Luna Cultivation is here for every step.
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