Before starting to make calculations on the calendar, take this recommendation into account. The most important thing in a marijuana crop is not that your plants grow fast, but that they grow well.
Having a messy crop, with abundant but unproductive foliage and of poor quality is not going to do you anything more than decoration. As we know that this is not what you are looking for, we have prepared a post for you to know in more detail the waiting times to see a marijuana plant grow in conditions. Have a little patience. The good things make you wait!
The wonders of the life cycle
It is not the first time we have commented that this marijuana cultivation is an art. In the field of horticulture, we could define cannabis as a particularly delicate plant that requires very specific care if you really want to obtain optimal results in your harvests.
Of course you have heard of plants that grow wild and without anyone paying the slightest attention to them or of growers They grow their weed just as if they had a geranium. But believe us when we tell you that you can get much more out of your crops when you know well the secrets of their life cycle and what plants experience in each of these phases of their development.
And what is the ‘life cycle’ of a cannabis plant? Well, from a generic point of view, the life cycle of a marijuana plant is the same as that of any other plant. That is, we will find a series of phases that are common in the development of all types of crops. In indoor crops we can manipulate the environmental and temperature conditions for planting practically at any time that seems appropriate, while outdoors this ‘life cycle’ is more restricted: it begins in spring, develops in summer and ends in early autumn.
Three moments that determine what your harvest will be like
Later on we will see how there are many peculiarities that will make the development of each type of marijuana plant different, but you can start making a mental scheme of what you face when you start in the world grower taking into account which are the three main phases of any crop:
- Germination: As a general rule, marijuana seeds germinate in spring (grown outdoors). Different techniques are used to germinate a seed and depending on this choice the process will be more or less fast. There is no exact germination time because it depends a lot on the variety of marijuana for which you have decided in your cultivation, old that is to the seed, if it has been well preserved or if by its nature it is an eminently fertile seed. A seedling may take about 2 to 3 days to appear, but depending on the variety of cannabis we are talking about, the process could last from 5 to 15 days. So if you are a bit impatient and have access to some cuttings you can skip this step as the cloning and rooting time is much shorter.
- Development: the central phase of the growth of a marijuana plant corresponds to its development. It is the moment when cannabis rises vertically, acquires body and takes on a look that is already familiar to us. It is no accident that plants become this bushy. It is what their own nature demands of them in order to develop the fruit in successive stages. Regardless of the particularities of each plant, average development times of between 3 and 4 weeks are established for autoflowering marijuana plants and 6 to 8 weeks in the case of feminized varieties. Outside the times are longer and you have to be very aware of the evolution of the metabolism of the plants because the changes are more abrupt. It is estimated that in about 9 weeks the plant should be ready to enter the next phase.
- Flowering: When the marijuana plant meets the necessary conditions to support the weight of the buds, it is ready to begin its flowering period. If you have an outdoor crop and have germinated in spring, you can harvest your harvest between mid-August and the end of September, depending on whether it is a 50% indica / sativa or pure indica variety. In the case of 100% sativas, it may take between 10 and 14 weeks to complete flowering, as these are varieties from tropical and subtropical origin, so you would not have the option of picking them until mid-December, with the risk that this entails. .If the cultivation is indoors, autoflowering varieties usually have completed their development in about 8 weeks, and between 10 or 12 weeks in the case of feminized ones. Although these data can vary a lot depending on the type of fertilizer, the light and humidity conditions and in general the treatment that your plants have received throughout their growing time.
Each seed is a world
Marijuana seed banks are the best guidance you will find when starting your crops. No one knows the product you are purchasing better than they do, so if you need advice, the first tool you should turn to is the information that accompanies your purchase. However, they are indicative data. Experience tells us that not only is each variety different, but each seed behaves in a different way.
We have already seen that an essential distinction in the growth time of a marijuana plant is whether it is an outdoor or indoor crop since in the former you are at the service of the laws of nature while in the latter you have the possibility of distort weather conditions and therefore accelerate natural processes.
But can we stop fussing and tell you how long it will take to have your cannabis plant ready for harvest? The fact is that you should not create false expectations, but in a very general way we can make some recommendations so that you value the time you have and how patient you are.
In short, in an indoor grow that meets all the requirements of a good cannabis grower, a marijuana plant will have a minimum development of one month (growth) and another two months of flowering period. If you grow from a 100% sativa seed, it has 4 weeks for the maturation of the seed, another 4 for development and about 12 for flowering (that is, approximately 5 months).
Faster version? Grow an indica strain from cutting: between rooting, growth and flowering, just three months.
