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The environment we live in produces most of the factors that determine the health of cannabis plants.
From the air humidity and quantity to the light and temperature, keeping the environment in a balance for your plants will determine whether or not you have healthy, strong and big yielding plants.
Another factor that you need to consider is stress.
If you are able to provide good stress to your cannabis, you can ensure it has a robust yield. Just make sure that you do not overdo it.
How Stress Affect the Growth of Cannabis Plants, the Good and the Bad
Just as it is in life, cannabis cultivation has two types of stress, the “good” and the “bad”.
When it comes to good stress, the cannabis plants work harder to achieve larger buds, but bad stress is counterproductive to the growth and ultimately kills the plant.
When you take up an indoor growing project, it is crucial to maximize the use of good stress and minimize the introduction of bad stress.
For growers, it takes a lot of work to keep the environment in balance, but the result is often worth the efforts.
You need to pay attention to details like the nutrients, the pH levels, the growing season, and other factors like the use of LED grow lights to optimize the growing environment.
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Bad Stress Could Kill Cannabis
Some stressors are counterproductive to the growth of plants, as they inhibit the ability of plants to absorb the light for the photosynthesis process.
They end up constraining the appropriate amounts of leaf transpiration, increase the susceptibility of cannabis to disease/pest attack, and cause them to develop some kind of genetic abnormalities, which end up destroying the flower crop.
Poor Lighting
Interruptions in light cycles are bad stress for plants. As such, it is important to maintain complete darkness during the light off cycle.
The photoperiod of cannabis plants is largely unaffected by green light (since it is low intensity), making it a better light source to work with during dark cycles.
For the light phase, use LED grow lights that are a high quality and efficiently targeted light source. They help growers to regulate the light in times of low and high-intensity requirements.
If you install night camera’s in the grow space, keep in mind that even a red light indicator on the camera could cause the plants to become hermaphroditic. Rather, search for cameras with green indicator lights.
A Stable Temperature
In the conventional indoor grow space, heat is a more negative stressor to cannabis plants compared to cold.
Usually, indoor cannabis plants aren’t exposed to temperatures below 50°F, making it uncommon for these plants to face cold.
However, when the conditions rise above 88°F, a change in the plant growth patterns starts to accommodate the higher temperatures. The plants end up with a higher rate of transpiration to keep themselves cool.
Ultimately, this leads to altered growth and results in a lanky plant without the flower yield and mass desired.
At such times, LED grow lights can be the best choice for indoor growers as they help to maintain a stable indoor temperature.
Plants absorb the entire wavelength, giving off less heat and reducing the need to install external cooling units like HVAC systems.
Good Stress for a Higher Yield
When it comes to good stress, there is a high variety that you can introduce throughout the grow cycle. Subjecting cannabis plants to good stress results in the robust yield and ensures that they produce bigger buds.
Keep in mind that the best plants are the ones that survive good doses of stress, and thrive on it. To make sure that you have the best yield, it is essential to keep a check on the factors mentioned below.
Ultraviolet Exposure
Ultraviolet (UV) light will stress the plants in a positive way. The UV light causes the plant to react to protect itself by producing more resin.
The resin acts as a natural shield from the UV light, much like using sunblock to protect your skin from the sun.
High quality LED grow lights with ultraviolet diodes result in plants with more resin formation in the form of trichomes. Ultimately, this is what every grower desires.
Artificial Air Circulation
Another common way of stressing cannabis that most people have already implemented is the use of air circulation in the grow room.
Using an oscillating fan can keep young plants moving with the forced air, in effect, this constantly provides a small portion of stress to the stem of the young plants, which helps them to become robust, and thicker sooner than the expected time.
However, if artificial air isn’t used in the grow room, this could slow down the plants from becoming stronger in the long term.
Expose them to Cold Temperatures
It may seem like a bad idea to expose cannabis plants to cold, but when you allow the room to cool down to about 50-60°F at night in the last two weeks of the flower cycle, it actually proves to be a beneficial choice.
A sequence of warm days with lights on and cool nights with lights off towards the end of the flowering cycle helps to mimic a natural growth cycle.
Cooler temperatures also help to boost the metabolic systems of plants, resulting in larger and aesthetically appealing colors of the flowers.
Stimulate a Drought Stress
A common method to boost accelerated rates of growth is drought stress.
If growers apply this in the correct manner, the stimulating drought would cause the plants to react by increasing the growth rate of roots as it prepares to supply shortages and increases the levels of the oxygen available to the root zone.
Using this method, smart growers can push the growth of their plants much harder.
As you can see, applied stress can affect the health of cannabis in many ways. It all depends on the knowledge of the grower to take advantage of the two factors constantly, to maintain a balance.
If used properly, they could help to yield better plants and you can see bigger cannabis in your indoor grow space.
