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Marijuana will grow with good soil, water, and light. Taking your plants to the next level might require a bit of added science. Adding marijuana fertilizer can really help your plants grow huge and healthy, adding fertilizer incorrectly however can severely damage your crop. The ultimate goal will be providing enough nutrients to maintain vigorous growth without creating toxic conditions in your soil. A 5 gallon pot of commercial potting soil contains about enough nutrients to feed a plant for a month, after that nutrients must be added to sustain growth. Knowing how marijuana fertilizer works and how to apply it to your plants will go a long way in improving your crop.
NPK Ratio
When a plant is missing any of these elements, it’s growth will slow. After a prolonged time without these nutrients, the leaves may begin to change color and die. By judging the symptoms with a deficiency chart you can narrow down which elements or minerals your plant needs. There are additional mineral nutrients that are contained in marijuana fertilizer besides nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. Commercial fertilizers typically list these micro nutrients on their packaging. Calcium and magnesium are two essential mineral required during the blooming phase.
Mixing Cannabis Fertilizer and When to feed
Commercial marijuana fertilizers are concentrated mixtures of the elemental minerals needed by cannabis plants. Dilute these marijuana fertilizers in clean pH balanced water before applying to your cannabis plants. The two most common forms of marijuana fertilizer are liquid and powder. To mix the powder or liquid fertilizer, first place it in a small amount of warm water and make sure it is completely dissolved before adding it to your water reservoir or watering can. This will ensure that the water and fertilizer mix evenly. and completely dissolved
Another thing to take into consideration is the amount of soil in your pot. The larger amount of soil you have means more marijuana fertilizer will be spread out evenly. This means that your plant will require less frequent feeding than plants in smaller containers. Plants in smaller pots will absorb all nutrients from the soil rather quickly, so more often feeding are required. Adding more fertilizer will not make your plants grow faster. Follow fertilizer instructions and start with diluted mixtures and work your way up to stronger doses. Many fertilizers provide a feeding chart to help schedule your feedings.
How to Identify Fertilizer Levels
You can determine when a plant needs to be fertilized by visual inspection or taking an NPK soil test. If plants are growing deep green healthy leaves, marijuana fertilizers may not be immediately required. It can take up to 2 weeks for plants to show signs of a nutrient deficiency. When plants stop growing and leaves become pale, your plant is in desperate need of fertilizer. There’s no exact time schedule to feed your plants fertilizer. Some might say once every other watering, others once a week. If you have a large container with plenty of soil you may even add a diluted amount of fertilizer every time you water your marijuana plants. Watch your plants closely and observe changes. Through observation you will learn when and how much marijuana fertilizer is needed for your specific grow conditions. Adding commercial time release fertilizers once a month can be convenient. The downside is that you will lose exact control over your nutrient levels.
Over fertilizing is a common problem, the soil becomes toxic with the buildup of nutrients. Indoor plants are much more susceptible to over fertilization because of the smaller volume of soil. The soils ability to drain is also a factor. Leach over fertilized soil with plenty of diluted water solution. By adding 2 gallons of solution for every gallon of soil, you will be washing out the excess nutrients. The plant should start to grow and look better in about a week. Once the plant has new growth and the leaves are looking healthier, you may start your feeding program once again.
This article just skims the surface of the topic of marijuana fertilizer. I will be writing more content to help explain the other nuances about how fertilizer works with your plants. You can learn how to deal with over fertilization, and how to identify different nutrient deficiencies. If you have any questions about this article, or ideas on topic you would like me to cover, please contact me and I will get to work on it. Let me know how your grow is doing and we can grow good weed together!
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Mike Drouin is the co-founder of Reefertilizer. He’s an experienced craft cannabis grower and a writer of many articles regarding the process. Mike lives on Vancouver Island and enjoys cycling and camping and will sometimes combine the two.