If you want to crank up your harvest yields and make optimal use of available space and resources, a personal cannabis grow schedule can be very helpful, as you will find out below.

Your Own Annual Cannabis Grow Schedule

When you start to grow your first marijuana seeds, you usually just go with the flow and hope for the best. One harvest a year seems like a fine prospect at that stage. However, once you gain some experience, you will find that working with an annual cannabis grow schedule can dramatically increase your cost-efficiency and harvest turnover. Planning ahead can make your herb gardening life easier, as this blog explains.

The Importance Of Planning Ahead

Cannabis seeds are natural products, and nature has a pretty accurate sense of timing. That makes sense: after all, seeds need the right conditions to germinate, grow, and flower. Out in the wild, these conditions usually occur only once a year as spring passes into summer and the arrival of autumn signals harvest time.

Admittedly, indoor cannabis growing is not a very natural process. We try to simulate natural conditions in grow rooms or tents, using high-tech equipment, knowledge, and timing to mimic optimal growth conditions. Much depends on the space and equipment you have available. Still, having a cannabis grow schedule ready helps you make the best use of whatever means you have at hand.

Planning An Indoor And Outdoor Grow Calendar

Depending on where you live, and on the garden or indoor space you have available, you may want to consider combining indoor and outdoor runs in your cannabis growing schedule. This has the added benefit of potential savings on your electricity bills – sunshine is free after all, which can save you bigtime on light and heat expenses.

You could simply keep running your perpetual harvest indoor schedule while you set up one or two outdoor runs over the spring and summer. That would be a great opportunity to try different genetics in the open air before deciding on a switch indoors.

Another option is to shut down your power-consuming (and therefore costly) in-house operation once the outdoor season starts. If you start up a new batch of seeds in your perpetual harvest setup by the time your backyard crop starts flowering, you can switch back to your indoor cannabis grow schedule when autumn arrives.

The Best Seeds For All Year Growing

Which seeds you choose for your cannabis grow schedule is entirely up to you. You could choose fast-flowering strains to max out on the number of runs you can squeeze into the year. Then again, maybe a slow-growing strain with bigger crop yields will better suit your needs. Don’t forget to consider flavour aspects, resistance to mould, and the type of high or stone associated with your strains.

The best choice is usually a strain that ticks all the boxes you find important. No matter what your taste and individual needs, always order premium quality seeds from a trusted supplier. Working with a year-round cannabis grow schedule is ultimately pointless if you get multiple mouldy harvests, poor germination rates, or a huge stash that just doesn’t give you the full flavour and effects that you seek!

Growing weed is an ongoing process of honing your grower skills and knowledge. If you want to keep improving your harvest yields, staying up to date with the latest insights is critical. In this blog, Amsterdam Genetics Team member Jeroen shares his thoughts on cultivating your grow know-how with the latest cannabis growing tips.

Moving Beyond Bread And Butter Techniques

Q: So, Jeroen, what’s your personal take on using grow tips and advanced cannabis insights to improve your results?

A: Well, first of all, it’s useful to admit that none of us know everything, not even celebrity grower gurus with thousands of followers. Techniques go in and out of fashion, advanced technology will keep advancing; and most importantly, we are working with organic, living matter here. And when I say living matter, I mean both the plant and the gardener tending it.

There are no guaranteed solutions in biology: it’s all gloriously messy, dynamic, and erratic. To me, that’s what makes this hobby so thrilling – even though it can be a major source of frustration as well.

At any rate, the ever-changing nature of weed gardening just proves the importance of staying up to date with the latest cannabis growing tips. You learn as you go, promoting personal growth while you grow your ganja. How neat is that?

Q: But did you get any better at growing weed by applying advanced techniques?

A: For sure. In fact, I probably learn most when I make mistakes and screw up a grow by trying new methods. It all depends on how you define ‘getting better’. I’m sure that getting the hang of cannabis growing tips got me bigger harvests and stronger plants.

Personally, I find new grow techniques most rewarding when they challenge my routines and assumptions. Gaining new perspectives and insights into the hobby that I love is just great – although I’ll admit the feeling gets even better if those insights improve my bud yields in the end…

The Best Cannabis Growing Tips For You

Q: Okay, so let’s have it then: what’s your favourite advanced growing technique?

A: That’s a tough one. Like I said, there is no single trick that will work all the time in any circumstances. Having said that, I tend to prefer techniques that cause minimal stress to my plants (and to myself) for optimal results. They’re usually the more subtle techniques like LST or gentle defoliation, for instance.

Companion planting is another personal favourite. These low-impact  growing tips are not as invasive as, say, fimming or supercropping. I prefer working with the plant’s natural behaviour, gently nudging it in the direction I want it to move rather than forcing it to do somersaults, so to speak.

Q: So which advanced growing techniques would you advise anyone to try at least once?

A: All of them, to be honest. The grow tips we discuss in the Amsterdam Genetics blogs are all worth a shot. Besides, trying them for yourself is the only way to figure out whether they suit your personal style. As a grower community, we’re all unique individuals with our own style.

It’s similar to picking your perfect strain. Trying different advanced techniques and experiencing the effects for yourself is the best way to find out what works for you.

I would encourage anyone to stay critical in reviewing cannabis growing tips. There are some real gems of wisdom out there, but there’s also a lot of BS and superstition. I know I said you should try all techniques, tips and tricks, but it helps to keep your expectations low.

Many cannabis growing tips and techniques take a few rounds of trial and error to master. Moreover, not all strains are equally suited for experimenting. Use familiar, tough genetics as your guinea pigs to save yourself from disappointment.

The Importance Of An Experimental Mindset

Q: So how can growers keep up with all the latest cannabis growing tips?

A: Well, checking out our Amsterdam Genetics Grow Blogs is of course a fine place to start.  We are constantly improving and expanding the content and scope of our grow tips and blogs on advanced techniques for veteran and rookie indoor and outdoor growers.

We have a considerable grower community base for a source of input, and our own breeders share any tips they may have with our customers and fans.

Beyond that, sharing your experiences with fellow growers helps a lot – especially if you keep us in the loop while your knowledge expands! You can find your peers on community platforms like GrowDiaries, but getting into some private chat groups can work wonders too once you make a few connections.

Q: Any other grow tips you want to share?

A: Dozens, but I’ll spare you the rant. I would say the most important advice I want to share is to be bold and try to feed your experimental mindset. It’s no secret that the best weeds grow at some distance from the beaten track.

Read up on random gardening and botany sources – heck, raid your grandma’s bookshelves for hidden gems of wisdom if you like. Inspiration can come from unexpected angles, you know?

Let me give you a personal example. I recently had the opportunity to join a masterclass on general plant breeding theory, and even though they were not about cannabis, I walked out with some fresh ideas to use in my personal growing approach. The same thing could happen when I visit the local gardening centre, or on a stroll in the woods with my wife and daughter.

In the end, growing weed is not about mastering one killer technique and using it over and over to get perfect harvests on every single run. To me at least, ganja gardening is more about nurturing your personal growth as your cannabis growing techniques evolve. Keep up with the latest trends and discoveries, absorb what you like, and stay away from anything that doesn’t suit you.

Working with nature never gets boring as long as you keep the organic mindset that goes with it. There is real joy to be found in gardening, whether you prefer to cultivate the perfect rose on your front lawn or the finest resin-dripping haze bud in your basement!

Q: Any parting words for your fellow growers?

A: Use. Good. Genetics. Period.

Seriously though: no matter what advanced techniques or grow hacks you want to try, they won’t work on crappy genetics. If you don’t invest in ordering premium cannabis seeds, you’ll never know the full potential of your experiments.

Beyond that, just stay optimistic and roll with the punches. If you work with Mother Nature she’s going to punch you in the face no matter what you do, and ignoring or resisting her will only make things worse. Have a bit of faith in Her and in yourself, and you’re bound to improve with every new grow you complete!

Once you’ve finished your first few grows, you may feel the urge to improve your results. If you want to harvest more weed but you have limited space, this blog has some fast and effective tips to drastically increase cannabis yields and growing efficiency.

Increase Cannabis Yield In Small Spaces

As you gain experience in growing marijuana, you will find that every next run improves slightly from the last. This is perfectly normal: even though the basics of the grow hobby are pretty simple, you have infinite options for finetuning your methods, environmental factors, and other parameters for even bigger harvests.

We like to help you keep your grow process simple. That’s why we’re handing you three tried and tested horticultural hacks to show you how to increase cannabis yield even if you are spatially challenged.

Hack 1: High Yield Plant Training Techniques

There are many ways to direct how your plants grow and flower. Most of these plant training techniques are designed to increase bud volume one way or another. While some of these high yield grow hacks are not suitable for small grow tents or other indoor spaces, some are just perfect for small-space growing.

If you want to learn how to increase cannabis yield indoors, be sure to give these three marijuana training hacks a try, starting with the easiest one in case you’re relatively new to this stuff.

All three hacks are applied during the vegetative stage of the run, before buds start to form in the flowering phase. Keep in mind that if you’re working with fast cannabis seeds, including autoflower strains, you need to time your hacks just right, since you’ll have a narrow window of opportunity to intervene.

Low Stress Training – Easy Mode

Low stress training (LST) simply means gently bending the stems of your plant back down to the soil and then tying them down. As the stems naturally attempt to grow back up towards the light, you spread the plant’s structure laterally.

This leaves more room for individual bud formation and optimises light distribution. As a result, you will get bigger, higher quality flowers at the end of the run.

For detailed instructions on the low stress training technique, check out this dedicated LST blog.

Screen of Green – Medium Level

Screen of green (SCROG) is a more advanced technique that also works by distributing stems and foliage evenly across the available space. The difference with LST is that in this case, you use a ‘trellis’ framework, usually consisting of a ‘screen’ wire grid instead of bending the stems.

Well-spread leaves allow optimal airflow and light distribution to make the most of your available space, lighting, and ventilation, which is ideal in small tents.

This blog contains detailed instructions on applying the SCROG method in your own grow room, tent, or semi-outdoor greenhouse.

Topping/ Fimming – Pro Level

Learning how to increase cannabis yield is a gradual process. Once you’ve mastered the basics, you can start experimenting with more advanced high-stress grow techniques.

Topping and fimming are two similar ways to improve bud numbers per individual plant rather than increasing bud size. Both come with a bit of risk, however, so proceed with caution if you want to give them a go. It’s best to pick strains with high stress tolerance for these next-level bud-boosting hacks.

In topping, you wait until your vegging plant is mature enough to handle a bit of stress. When the time is right, you cut off the growth tip nodes at the top end of the stems.

Homicidal as this may sound, topping actually induces a stress response forcing your plant to grow two new nodes where the original tip used to be. That means topping could get you twice the number of buds on the same plant – if it survives the assault, that is.

Check out a detailed guide on topping to increase cannabis yield here.

Fimming is even more brutal than topping. Here, you slice the growth tip terminal nodes in half rather than removing them entirely.

This causes even more stress to the plant, which could trigger it to grow back two, three, or even four new apex nodes instead. It’s not hard to see how this can result in even better harvest results, although the risk of watching your darling succumb to the stress involved is considerably higher, too.

We have a special guide on fimming cannabis plants waiting if you’re ready to give it a shot.

Hack 2: Plant Planning = Bud Boosting

Another way to achieve high yield growing in limited space is to perfect your plant planning. If you make a habit of planning ahead, you can eliminate inefficient use of time and space from your projects. Here are some quick tips to get you on the right track to big bud results all year long!

If you can get a second grow tent operational somehow, even just a small one, you can try the perpetual harvest approach. While your first batch is switching from growth to flowering in one tent, you let your second run veg out in the next one.

If you make sure you have a propagator where your third batch of seeds germinates into the seedling stage to follow suit, all you need is a place to dry the bud from your first batch while you keep the cycle going. That means you’ll always have a fresh harvest ready while your next one is already underway!

Remember that perpetual harvesting works best if you use the same seeds for each consecutive batch. Using strains with different flowering and veg rates will get your schedule out of sync, which ruins the efficiency of this approach.

Going for rapid growth strains seems an obvious choice to speed things up even further. Still, faster growing doesn’t necessarily mean bigger bud yields, as you will read below.

On top of the perpetual harvest philosophy, planning ahead for year-round growing efficiency offers some distinct advantages too.

Hack 3: Working With High Yield Seeds

Always remember that no trick or hack will do much good as long as you are working with sub-par genetics. Learning how to increase cannabis yield begins and ends with finding the right genetic material. Only purchase your cannabis seeds from trusted, experienced, high quality suppliers, or your bud volume will never reach its full potential.

Once you’ve found a reliable source of premium seeds, make sure you pick the strains that suit your personal preferences. You don’t want to end up with a truckload of weed with a taste or a high you don’t like.

Once you’ve made a selection, read the product specifications provided by the vendor. You have a few important characteristics to keep in mind if you want high yields in small spaces.

Fast Genetics

Fast-growing strains seem an attractive option as your first thought might be they get you fast harvests too. And yes, growing seeds with short flowering time can enable high yield growing if you play your cards right.  Do keep in mind, however, that fast growth doesn’t necessarily mean fast flowering – or big buds for that matter.

Generally speaking, indica strains grow and flower faster than sativas. Today’s sativa hybrids can be speedy ladies too, however, so try to look past this somewhat obsolete distinction.

On the other hand, sativa flowers tend to have a more open bud structure, so the same number and size of compact indica flowers could increase cannabis yield compared to a huge sativa with more buds.

Indica plants have a tendency to keep a smaller stature than sativas, making them more suited for small-space indoor grows. All things considered, then, indica-leaning hybrids are probably your best bet.

Most seed distributors and breeders will state estimated harvest volumes for the seeds they sell. These usually give you a good idea of what to expect in terms of bud turnover, although they are ultimately just estimates of course. Much depends on your grow environment, gardening experience, and the amount of love and devotion you invest in your plants.

Using Autoflower Seeds To Increase Cannabis Yield

Autoflower cannabis seeds, especially indica autos, are another interesting option for getting high yields pronto. These special seeds contain ruderalis genetics that allow the plants to grow and flower rapidly, while also making them independent of (day) light cycles.

Modern autoflowers like our Dynamighty or Milkshake Kush are also pretty tough when it comes to handling stress, but we would recommend non-autoflowers if you plan to use stressful techniques to increase cannabis yield. In addition, the speed you gain with autos is usually offset by their slightly lower harvest volumes and cannabinoid content, making them a bit of a double-edged sword depending on your personal preferences.

Figuring Out How To Increase Cannabis Yield Your Way

As you can see, there are many ways to increase cannabis yield if you know your way around basic growing techniques. There are always new hacks and tricks to try once you’ve mastered the above. Raking in a big harvest is the main grow objective of many hobbyists, so new methods keep popping up all the time.

We haven’t even discussed how to increase cannabis yield by upgrading your equipment, for example. Investing in better lighting, ventilation, nutrition, or expanding your grow space can make a big difference, too.

Still, these easy hacks to increase cannabis yield should see you on your way to next-level indoor cannabis growing. At any rate, there’s always room for personal growth when it comes to ganja gardening, with something new to learn for even the most seasoned veterans.

Always remember that learning how to increase cannabis yield begins with finding the finest genetics you can get your hands on – and you’ve definitely come to the right place for that!

If you’ve been growing your own weed for some time, you may find that planning your next run just doesn’t feel as thrilling as it used to do. Don’t worry that your precious hobby is losing your charm, though, because we are here to help. Check out these advanced cannabis growing techniques and pick the next challenge to keep things interesting and level up your indoor grower mastery!

Next Level Growing Techniques

As an experienced indoor gardener, you will have grasped the basics of growing cannabis by now. You will know how to handle the essential stages of germination, growth, and flowering after multiple runs. In all likelihood, you will have collected the knowledge and equipment necessary to raise your crops from seed to harvest without major problems.

That’s great news in terms of predictable outcomes, but on the other hand, your growing experience could lead to complacency, boredom, and the rising urge to try something new.

Well, don’t worry about losing your cannabis affection over a lack of horticultural challenges. We have a whole range of advanced cannabis growing techniques just waiting for you to give them a try!

Why Use Enhanced Grower Methods?

Most home grow veterans turn to new methods to improve their harvest results, either in terms of bud quality, total harvest quantity, or both. Some try to speed up the overall growth cycle for more annual harvests. Others just want to squeeze as many plants as possible into a cramped grow tent or broom closet. Alternatively, however, you could use certain advanced techniques for aesthetic purposes, raising beautiful plants with extraordinary shapes, sizes, or colours.

Many of the techniques discussed below focus on optimizing harvest volume in various ways. Some were invented by weed growing gurus, but most have been applied to other crops by generations of regular gardeners. Applying these advanced cannabis growing techniques to your own favourite weed strains can do much more than save you from ‘grower fatigue’, though. They will help you hone your green skills ever further, as the quality and amount of top notch bud you manage to rake in keeps rising to ever-new highs!

Basic Stuff

The advanced cannabis growing techniques discussed below are relatively straightforward. They all come with risks, however: there’s always a risk of harm involved in tinkering with living organisms. That means you will have to learn by trial and error, but don’t worry too much: the benefits tend to outweigh the risks, especially once you get some practice under your green belt.

Most of these next-level weed growing techniques are applied during the vegetative phase of the plant’s life cycle, before flowering sets in. This is the stage when the potential for growth is at its height, while the stems are still pliable and the plant has maximum capacity to cope with stress and damage. Many interventions either involve bending stems and branches to make more light and fresh air available, or cutting key parts of the plant to trigger regrowth of multiple buds.

Low Stress Training

Low Stress Training, or LST, is  one of the easiest growing techniques out there. This approach aims to spread out the branches of the plant by bending them downward and then tying them in place. Since plants are programmed to grow toward the light, they will recover by ‘bouncing’ back up.

Low Stress Training results in a wider, lower plant structure that can be very handy in confined spaces. The main benefit, though, is allowing more air and light to reach the leaves and flowers, promoting growth of bigger, more potent buds with minimal risks involved.

Learn how to apply LST to your grow in this separate blog.

Screen Of Green

Screen Of Green, commonly abbreviated as ScrOG, uses the time-honoured technique of trellising to produce an even foliage canopy. This is done using a frame, or screen, consisting of wire mesh or similar materials. The resulting grid spreads out the stems of the plant evenly, ensuring that all branches receive enough light to produce full buds.

ScrOGging your plants is one of the most basic, non-invasive growing techniques out there. We suggest trying this one out as one of your first levelling-up exercises: you’ll discover just how to go about your first ScrOG run in this blog.

Sea Of Green

Sea of Green, or SOG, is a bit more risky than ScrOGging, but still less stress-provoking than most advanced cannabis growing techniques. Sea Of Green is all about making the most out of the space you have available by making a very early switch from the vegetative to the flowering stage. Obviously, this is an indoor growing technique, since it requires making an early ‘flip’, switching your lighting intervals to a 12/12 schedule before the actual growth stage concludes.

This will arrest plant growth, resulting in smaller specimens that usually produce only one worthwhile main cola to harvest. Counterproductive as this may sound, you have a good chance of ending up with more quality flower to harvest per square metre of floor surface.

If you would like to apply Sea Of Green to your next grow, read this blog for detailed SOG instructions.

High Risk, High Reward: Advanced Cannabis Growing Techniques

The following selection of advanced cannabis growing techniques is more risky in terms of potential stress and damage caused. However, they rewards involved tend to be bigger as well. If you are really looking to step up your game, and don’t mind a small chance of killing your darlings before you get the hang of them, feel free to try these out for even better results.

Topping

Topping is a commonly used advanced cannabis growing technique based on cutting out the top sections of a plant’s main stems. We know that sounds like a bad idea, but hear us out: what if we told you that for every terminal node you prune away, two new ones will appear as if by magic?

That’s right: a cannabis plant will respond to your decapitation efforts by growing producing two new growths instead, hydra-style. It’s easy to see how more growth tips gets you more potential buds on a single plant. Even though these colas are likely to grow less bulky than their non-topped counterparts, their sheer volume still tends to outweigh the yield of an au naturel plant.

We’ll show you just how to top your crop in this comprehensive guide.

Fimming

Fimming is a more extreme variation of the topping method discussed above. Whereas topping is applied to specific locations just underneath a plant’s terminal nodes or growth tips, fimming uses what you could call brute force to slash the tip itself in half. That explains the name: FIM is short for “F#ck, I missed!”

Fimming is a prime example of a high stress training technique. Understandably, it causes considerable shock and awe to your plant; and consequently, it will trigger an even more drastic stress response in turn. Whereas topping can double your amount of buds, FIM, if done right, can multiply the number of colas fourfold or even more.

Check out this detailed blog for full instructions on fimming.

Mainlining

Mainlining, also known as the manifold technique, actually combines topping and LST elements into a unified, high stress training approach. Here, the trick boils down to topping your plant to multiply the number of branches developing on each stem, and then using LST to spread out the new growth for optimal light and air availability.

Mainlining can be highly effective in improving the amount of harvestable weed per plant. Its drawbacks are the considerable levels of stress it can cause, as well as the restrictive influence of limited horizontal grow surfaces like modest-sized tents.

Find out all about mainlining in this technical explainer.

Supercropping

We will readily admit that there’s not much subtlety to the supercropping method, but it can still work wonders if you get it right. In supercropping, you purposely hurt and even maim your plant to stress it out. The main objective here is equal distribution of light, which is especially useful if your grow multiple plants with some specimens growing taller than others.

By gently crushing the tallest stems between your fingers, you will bend them back down to the ground and stop them from blocking out the light for the canopy layer below. Next, you support the bruised branches with sheathed wire to allow them to grow back up in a wider pattern. This creates a level playing field for your entire grow, resulting in more fat buds to harvest if you don’t take it too far.

Be sure to read all the details of supercropping here before you give it a go.

Best Strains For Advanced Cannabis Growing Techniques

Obviously, these growing techniques are intended for experienced growers only, so don’t go experimenting with them on your very first run. In addition, the best results are usually obtained by using tough genetics able to recover from any stress you cause them.

We suggest trying your advanced cannabis growing techniques on premium genetics only, such as the great selection of quality strains you’ll find in our online store. Our toughest and most forgiving plants are your best starting point, so we would suggest trying the following strains:

AK Choco Kush feminized

If you are interested in further inspiration to take your indoor grows to the next level, be sure to check all our suggestions for experienced indoor growers here. Remember that there is always a new way to make your cannabis hobby that much more interesting – until then, good luck improving your game!