The Effect of Lighting on Cannabis Cultivation

Photosynthesis is an important natural process that keeps plants healthy and green. And in a way all living beings on this earth rely on it for survival. The oxygen that we breathe in is majorly produced by photosynthesis. It was after three billion years of photosynthesis that the earth formed an oxygen-rich atmosphere to support all lives’ evolution.

Plants combine carbon dioxide and water in the presence of light drawn from the sun to produce sugar (glucose) and oxygen. Light is therefore indispensible for photosynthesis. Every plant including cannabis is able to utilize light through green chlorophyll that takes in photons of a specific energy level. For example, chlorophyll A and B soak up red and blue light quite well.

Light energy as also the different mineral elements that help in growth of cannabis plant affect the taste and overall quality of the final product. In indoor cultivation, you have to use artificial lighting in controlled quantities to boost up the growth of your plant. This indoor lighting is expensive and therefore it should not go waste. Besides ensuring good utilization of the light you also have to take care for proper plant placement, color spectrum, heat and humidity control because these too make a significant difference to the health of your crop.

You need to give close attention as you set up the lights for your marijuana facility – simply hanging them from a point will not help. It is also important to remember that cannabis plants are not like average indoor plants that we have in our homes. They live out their entire life – from seed to harvest – within one year and must get lot of light for adequate energy. This energy helps them to get big and then produce buds (the cannabis flowers).

It is important to note that increasing brightness with light will not improve the health and quality of cannabis plants if they are already sick because of pests or plague. Consulting an experienced cannabis production advisor will be helpful to find a suitable remedy when this is the case. You will typically need special types of lighting for cannabis production in controlled indoor facilities. Incandescent light bulbs are not suitable for cultivating cannabis.

When it is grown outdoors, the marijuana plant grows in a sunny spot that gets plenty of direct sunlight throughout the day. For better outcome, plants need to get strong sunlight for over 8 hours each day.

Cannabis is a photoperiod plant which implies that darkness is also important for making buds on this plant. It is the amount of uninterrupted darkness that determines when the plant will start flowering. Often, the plants do not start flowering till they get long nights of 12 or more hours. In order to get buds properly, the plants should continue to get over 12 hours of total darkness each day till it is time to harvest them.

The next important point to remember is that the rules of darkness do not apply to auto-flowering strains. The auto flowering plants, called Ruderalis are special species of marijuana that can only grow from seed. They don’t pay attention to photoperiods. Indeed, Ruderalis gets dependably ready to harvest in around 3 months irrespective of the darkness it gets each night. However, due to their short lives, these auto-flowering plants tend to stay small in size.

For cultivators with just a basic knowledge of marijuana farming, it is very difficult to differentiate between auto-flowering and photoperiod plants as the buds are similar. Actually, auto-flowering is a recessive trait and generally does not show up in cannabis seeds unless you specifically breed for it.

Science of marijuana cultivation can be perplexing and to get the best yield in your area, it is good to seek advice from a professional cannabis consulting firm. You can then ensure better returns on your investment in this domain.