Like every other plant, the growth of cannabis consists of a series of stages in its life cycle. At every step, the growing cannabis demands some special attention that includes different levels and amounts of water, light, and nutrients. Growing a cannabis plant can take between four to eight months, depending on where you grow them.
An indoor growth room possesses the ability to flower for just a few weeks. This usually refers to auto-flowering cannabis seeds, as they are easy to grow indoors and don’t need natural light. Your plant’s quality is determined by your knowledge of the growth stages of cannabis and your plant’s life cycle. The cannabis life cycle is straightforward to understand, even as shown below;
Timeline of Cannabis Growth
- Germination (1-7 days)
- Seedlings (2-3 weeks)
- Vegetative Stage (2-8 weeks)
- Pre-Flowering (1-2 weeks)
- Flowering (6-8 weeks)
As soon as the seed is sown to the ground, germination begins. The rate of the seed’s germination is mainly dependent on the kind of conditions the seeds are exposed to. Like any other seed, adequate water availability will speed up the sprouting of the seeds. Some variety like Sensi seeds is unique from other plant seeds as it has a simple life cycle from the germination stage to a mature bud. Thus, you need to regularly water the seeds for them to germinate at a faster rate. Additionally, the texture and color of the seed determine its quality and primarily its germination time or period. In that case, you need to understand that a healthy seed needs to be hard and dry.
It needs to bear a dark-brown color. For your information, it has been recommended that the green or white seeds have a high propensity to fail germination. So, always avoid them. The high-quality cannabis seeds usually take approximately five to ten days to sprout.
The Seedling Stage
The Stage of seedling growth usually is very fragile. Therefore, plants need to receive approximately eighteen to twenty-four hours of moist soil, sunlight, and mild humidity for rapid growth. Because the seedling contains a small root system, be careful not to get it drowned because of overwatering. As soon as a plant turns into a seedling, it cannabis leaves that look more traditional. The leaf of a marijuana plant consists of between three to thirteen fingers.
The leaves from a sprout will appear with only a rigged finger. Marijuana leaves develop more fingers with new growth. A mature cannabis plant typically possesses between five to seven fingers a leaf. However, the leaves can reach even up to thirteen. The fingered leaves also grow up to four inches above the cotyledon leaves with synonymous serrated edges. At the opposite sides of the stem, this set of leaves grows typically in pairs. To know whether cannabis seedlings are healthy, check if they are thick and short as vegetation. Additionally, their leaves also need to appear vibrant green.
The Vegetative Stage
The vegetative stage is usually a stage that is considered the period when the cannabis plants begin to mature. At this stage, the stems turn sturdier while the leaves become full. Additionally, the growth rate hastens and gives the plant a bushy appearance. For better results, transfer the plant to a position or place where it will gain full size, plus change your watering style. In that case, you should pour the water at a far distance from the stalk to protect the roots from getting exposed. This Stage usually takes close to three to sixteen weeks and needs close to eighteen hours of sunlight.
For a plant to enter this Stage, it could take between 7-and 14 days. Once it enters the pre-flowing Stage, you can determine its sex by looking at the pre-flower you find at the nodes. It then gets easier to know the type of sex of the plant when it gets deeper into the vegetation. How do you tell if your plant is male or female? For a female one, two pistils grow on the buds, but for its male counterpart, some tiny gree sacs full of pollen will be witnessed on the areas of the node.
As soon as the male’s sacs intersex or the bursting of the intersex plant takes place, the pollen fertilizes the nearby females’ cola, thus ruining their trichomes’ psychoactive potential. That serves the reason for the need for the intersex plants and the male ones to be removed before they flower.
The Flowering Stage
During the Stage of flowering, the buds begin forming on the plant. At this stage, the plant’s sex starts manifesting. As soon as there is an identification of the male parts, they can then be separated for they not to germinate with the female ones.
The buds’ formation is ordinarily prevalent in the sixth and seventh cycles. Always strive not to prune the branches and leaves two weeks before the plant begins producing flower buds. You should water the plant less and expose the plant to less light at this Stage. Additionally, the plant needs to receive less than twelve hours of sunlight during the day. Less light exposure will allow cannabinoids in the plant to increase.
The cannabis plant takes quite a short time to germinate. It is also good to recognise the importance of taking caution during the watering process. That is because the seedlings are generally feeble and delicate. To recap, the cannabis plant life cycle process involves the following; Germination, seedling stage, the vegetative stage, the pre-flowering Stage, the flowering stage, and the harvesting stage.