August 05, 2020
In the beginning, growing indoor plants can be a daunting task. Amid pH values, fertilization schedules, lumen outputs and soil quality, it’s easy to forget about the basics. Essentially, growing indoor plants isn’t rocket science. It sure is a skill that improves over time, but once you avoid the most common mistakes, your plants are ready to thrive.
Here are the Top 10 Mistakes When Growing And How To Avoid Them:
If you have spent 900 Euros on grow equipment/indoor grow tent kit, don’t cheap out on the seeds. Freebie seeds are great, but they shouldn’t be the cornerstone of your grow. Superior genetics are available now more than ever before, and to save money when going big, you can always take clones.
Don’t use dirt from your garden or any other soils of questionable quality, including old, reused soils from your previous grows. These may contain contaminants such as fungi or pests. Good-quality potting soils from trusted brands don’t come with these risks.
If you really want to reuse your old soil, you need to amend it with fresh nutrients. Before that, you need to make sure that your soil is free of contaminants.
It is imperative you position yourn indoor grow lights not too low or not too high if you want your buds to grow healthy. Not enough light will produce weak plants that cannot support their own height. Keep in mind that the more amount of light, the more your indoor plants will grow. The three main classes of light in cultivating indoor plants are HID (High-Intensity Discharge) grow light, fluorescent grow light, and LED grow lights. Whichever you use, make sure to position your light correctly for your plants not to low. This will cause the plant to overheat forcing the buds to pop out early to sustain damage from heat.
If the water you’re using for your indoor plants garden is too acidic or basic, you can run into some real problems. Ideally, you want to use water that is between a pH of 6.0 to 7.0. This pH level allows your plants to absorb the full range of nutrients it desires. Fall outside of this range and you will start to see nutrient deficiencies because the water is lacking in acidity or is too acidic for that nutrient to become available.
Check the pH level of your water source routinely. You can buy filters to maintain a specific pH level and/or put additives in your water to raise or lower the acidity.
5.OVERWATERING
Too much water is much worse than too little. Soggy soil can rot the roots and kill the plant. Soil should always be slightly moist to the touch. Use well draining soil with perlite and containers with holes in the bottom to ensure proper soil moisture.
Underfeeding and using too many nutrients is a mistake common to beginner indoor plants growers do without them realizing it. Since just starting, growers follow nutrient systems with feeding schedules with way too high nutrient dosages. Although this may sound complicated, it is avoidable for a novice indoor plants grower not to overfeed/underfeed them. Follow the feeding schedule recommended by your nutrient company. However, just use a quarter of the dosage recommended by your nutrient system. In the event that your plants show signs of nutrient deficiency, slowly increase your dosage to ½ half strength or one as needed.
A lot of cultivators out there see flushing their indoor plants as an emergency measure to deal with overfeeding and nutrient lockout; and they would not be wrong, performing a flush to deal with this can sometimes be essential. However, this has led to flushing being seen as something you should never do unless in the above situation.
This is not the case. Performing a flush at the correct time before you harvest your crop can dramatically improve the quality of indoor plants gained as it will cause a detox of excess chemicals in the plant. It is important to read up on flushing your indoor crop, gaining an understanding of how and when to do it.
8.NOT HAVING PROPER VENTILATION
Especially when growing indoors( in your indoor grow tent), not having proper ventilation can lead to a host of maladies, including mould. For small grows, a simple standing fan blowing a mild breeze across your plants can be enough, whereas larger grow operations require sufficient outfitting to ensure air is constantly flowing and doesn’t become stagnant.
Here recommend inline duct fan. An inline fan can bring air in, and send old air out through the intake and exhaust systems.Inline fans are also responsible for managing temperature and humidity levels in the growing space. These fans sit inside ducting in the ventilation system, or in the case of an air cooled reflector, right inside the hood.
If you’re growing outdoors, air circulation shouldn’t be a problem; but then, there are other things to watch out for. For one, you’ll want to protect your plants from thieves. You can do so by planting companion species to hide your crop and mask the smell. You can also select indoor plants strains that naturally remain short and hidden from view. Find out more about stealthy outdoor grows in our blog on how to protect your indoor plants from thieves.
9.OVER-PRUNING
Some pruning is healthy and can induce more vigorous growth, but pruning too much can over-stress and even kill them. The plant is in shock after pruning and pauses vegetative growth for a few days to recover - prolonging the overall growth cycle. For starters, only trim out the lowest branches that will just develop tiny buds anyway. Simple topping isn’t difficult either, but unless you’ve mastered the basics and got a few grows under your belt, better stay away from fimming, lollipopping and other exotic techniques. Never trim during the flowering stage as it can weaken the plant.
Growing indoor plants definitely requires a bit of patience to see it until the end. And no part of the grow will test your patience more than waiting for the right time to harvest your indoor plants.
(If you’re in a hurry, most autoflowering strains are ready to harvest less than 90 days from germination)
Harvesting too early will reduce the effects/potency of your medicine in addition to reducing the overall weight.