There are many different kinds of growers. Some enjoy the slow, long lasting proces that the plants go through and just love the gardening. This has resulted in some awesome bonsai projects, where growers form and train their cannabis plants to create the most amazing structures. Some, however, don’t care so much about the proces, and are more result-oriented. They just want big buds in the shortest time possible. This could be because growing cannabis is still illegal in most countries, or they might grow commercially in countries where growing in cannabis is already legalized. Luckily, growing cannabis quickly is not so difficult! We’ll explain how to grow cannabis faster in this blog.
Table of Contents
It All Starts With Genetics
Some genetics need a longer flowering phase faster than others. Indica-dominant genetics, for example, flower for about 45-60 days on average. Sativa-dominant genetics can flower for 60-90 days! This makes a big difference, considering the total flowering time could differ up to 45 days. Sativa-dominant strains grow taller and bigger buds, but not as dense as most indica-dominant strains. Although sativa-dominant strains grow bigger and taller buds, the yield are usually comparable, since the buds are not that dense. For people who want to grow cannabis faster, strong indica-dominant strains are a good option.
Autoflowers
With a total lifespan of 10-17 weeks, even indica-dominant strains require some patience. If you are a die-hard sativa fan, but still want to grow faster: autoflower strains might be the perfect solution. These plants start flowering when they reach a certain size, and are not dependent on a change of light hours. They usually start pre-flowering after 2-5 weeks of vegetative growth. Some very fast autoflowers can even be harvested within 10 weeks. Beside all this, since autoflowers are not dependent on the change of light hours, growers can keep their lights on a 18/6, 20/4, or even a 22/2 light schedule throughout the complete grow. This has a huge impact on the pace of the grow.
Indoors Or Outdoors?
The ever-lasting debate among growers: is growing indoors is better than outdoors? When growing indoors, you will have much more control on your grow and the different phases a cannabis plant goes trough. You can easily change the lights, temperatures and humidity. With the right knowledge, it is definitely possible to accelerate the growth of your outdoor cannabis plants. Read on to find out more about this!
Changing The Light Schedule Indoors
Photoperiod plants start flowering as soon as the hours of light decline, this tells the plant that summer is ending, which triggers to plant to start flowering. This can easily be done indoors, by changing the light schedule from 18/6, 20/4, or even 22/2 to 12/12. This gives a lot of freedom: you could choose to keep your plants in the vegetative phase for just a few weeks, or for a very long time. This will result in bigger plants with higher yields. The SOG method is a technique that profits from this. With this technique, many individual plants are grown on a relatively small surface. Each individual plant will grow for just a few weeks before initiating the flowering phase. This is one of the popular methods to grow cannabis plants faster. Read more about this method in our blog:
Another option, is to keep the lights on for 24 hours a day during the vegetative phase. This will make your plants grow way faster, as they are forced to constantly keep growing. This means you can initiate the flowering phase sooner. Be aware that a 24/0 light schedule can induce stress. Cannabis plants naturally need sleep, just like all living organisms!
The Right Nutrition Indoors
Cannabis plants require different kinds of nutrition during the different growth phases. During the vegetative phase, it’s import to feed them nutrition with enough nitrogen. Nitrogen induces the production of chlorofyl, which is key to converting energy (light) to sugars, and helps the plants grow faster. Plants need nitrogen during the flowering phase too, but way less than during the vegetative phase. Be sure not to overfeed your plants with nitrogen, this can weaken the stems of your plants and gives the flowers a weird taste. Overall, bad nutrition will slow down the growth of your cannabis plants, good nutrition will help you grow your cannabis faster.
During the flowering phase, cannabis plants mainly need phosphorus and potassium. Phosphorus helps with releasing nutrition for the plant, so the plant can absorb other nutrients efficiently. Potassium helps with many things, such as strong stems, the production of ATP for energy storage, a strong immune system, and sturdy buds. If you want to learn more about nutrition for cannabis plants, check out our blog that discusses this subject thoroughly.
Growing Hydroponic Indoors
Growing hydroponic means that your plants’ roots are not settled in soil, but directly in the water. This makes it possible to feed your plants more precisely, and uses less water. When growing hydroponically correctly, it can help with growing cannabis faster. Growing hydroponic is not as difficult as it might seem, which is why it’s becoming more popular among hobbyists as well. Learn more about hydroponic growing in this blog!
Changing The Light Schedule Outdoors
For those who want to grow photoperiod plants outdoors, it’s a takes a lot of effort to increase the pace of the growth. An option is to put the plants under a light during the night, which is a hassle. Apart from this, it’s not a real outdoor grow anymore.
What might be easier, is to force your plants to start flowering sooner. This can be achieved by covering your plants, or putting them in the dark somehow, before the sun sets. When the plants receive 12 hours of light and 12 hours of darkness, they will start flowering. You’ll have to check when the sun rises and sets, so you can time this trick perfectly and force your plants to start flowering sooner. This will shorten the overal time of the grow, and help you grow your cannabis faster.
Pollinate Your Buds
The cannabis plant forms her buds to produce enough aroma’s, in order to be pollinated by a male cannabis plant. Usually, growers try to avoid this, because the plant will transfer her energy from producing big buds to producing seeds. When you manually pollinate your ladies about a week before harvest, this will accelerate the maturation of the buds. Make sure to harvest your plants before the seeds develop.
Back To Genetics
It turns out that there are many things you can to make sure you can grow your cannabis plants faster. However, the main influence is the genetics you’re growing. With photoperiod, sativa-dominant plant, you’ll need to put in a more of an effort than with photoperiod indica-dominant plants. Autoflower plants remain the quickest of all. For a good results, without too much effort, our Blue Amnesia Autoflower is a good option. This sativa-dominant autoflower strain will finish her growing cycle quickly. Apart from this strain, we have many indica-dominant autoflower strains to choose from, such as: Choco Kush Autoflower, Milkshake Kush Autoflower, and many more!
If you’d rather grow photoperiod plants, Dutch Duchess might be the perfect option for you!
