
Poor growing conditions for growing marijuana can significantly diminish the quality of your harvest. Suppose you control the growing environment and can adequately maintain a proper balance of oxygen, carbon dioxide, and humidity in your setup. In that case, you may end up with a less-than-ideal yield. This particularly applies if you use hydro or aeroponic systems, as both rely on a wholly sealed environment to function correctly.
Marijuana becomes legal across the United States
As marijuana becomes legal across the United States, many people are interested in growing their plants at home. But growing your weed isn’t as simple as it appears to be. Your success depends on what you put in the soil and whether or not you can manage mold and mildew before it becomes destructive. An excellent way to grow weeds is to start from seeds and use a hydroponic system instead of planting in the dirt.
Poor growing conditions are the primary cause of problems with marijuana (and with other plants, for that matter). When diagnosing problems, plant pathologists apply the 80/20 rule: 80 percent of the time, plant problems are caused by a poor growing environment, and 20 percent of the time, pests or pathogens cause the problem. They are sometimes explicitly referred to as abiotic disorders to distinguish environmental problems, or disorders, from issues caused by pests and pathogens.
Even when a pest or disease causes a problem, poor growing conditions have often stressed the plant and rendered it susceptible to attack. Improving the growing conditions relieves the stress and helps the marijuana plant gain strength to fight off infection or infestation. Changing the growing conditions also makes the environment inhospitable to pests and diseases and helps prevent them from spreading.
First, put your marijuana plants in the most appropriate growing environment. Make sure they’re growing in healthy media, with the appropriate nutrients, sufficient water and light, and within the best temperature range. If any one of these components is less than optimal, your plants may be stressed—and, as it does with humans, stress makes your plants susceptible to infection.