Get the Most from Cannabis Bloom Phase!

Managing cannabis bloom phase creates gardens like this.

Growing cannabis is the best way to ensure you have fresh, clean cannabis at an affordable price. Successful cannabis growers understand that cannabis plants have two major life phases: Grow phase and bloom phase.

Grow phase starts at seed germination (or when a cannabis clone has enough roots to be self-sufficient). Grow phase ends when the plant enters bloom phase. Outdoor cannabis bloom phase begins when daytime hours decrease to a point that triggers the plant’s genetics so flower production begins. Indoors, cannabis bloom phase starts when growers set their lights to be on 12 hours and off 12 hours every 24-hour period.

Mastering Cannabis’s Four Bloom Sub-Phases:

Cannabis bloom phase has four distinct sub-phases: pre-flowering, early flowering, peak flowering, and late flowering. Each of the four requires a specific mix of nutrients and supplements.

Michael Straumietis, founder of hydroponics nutrients company Advanced Nutrients, employs plant scientists who provide you a targeted program of cannabis-tested hydroponics bloom nutrients to optimize each bloom sub-phase.

“We’re the first and only hydroponics nutrients company to look at marijuana nutrition in an open-minded, scientific way,” he explains. “Before Advanced Nutrients provided marijuana-specific fertilizers, growers were stuck with inferior base nutrients and bloom boosters. They lost harvest weight, potency, and crop health.”

This bud was fed properly so it’s bigger than a Coke bottle and has several more weeks to grow even bigger!

Straumietis and his scientists discovered that generic bloom boosters have incorrect amounts, types, and ratios of phosphorus and potassium so growers lose bud size, weight, and resin content. In contrast, Straumietis offers bloom phase supplements tailored for each flowering sub-phase.

In pre-flowering and early flowering, for example, growers use Bud Ignitor, a formula that helps plants create more budding sites, with accelerated bud development. Peak bloom is the next sub-phase. It starts in week two to four of bloom phase (depending on the cannabis strain you’re growing), and ends 2-3 weeks before harvest. Peak bloom is the main period when resin glands form, cannabinoids and terpenoids are created, and buds add girth and weight. This is when you use Big Bud bloom booster.

“Most bloom boosters only have phosphorus and potassium. Big Bud goes way beyond that. It’s the only peak bloom booster with 20 L-amino acids that increase root mass, bud formation, plant vigor and health, and production of cannabinoids and terpenoids,” he says.

Big Bud contains optimized types, ratios, and amounts of phosphorus and potassium to prevent phosphorus toxicity common with other bloom boosters. It also contains sulfur—a substance cannabis plants want a lot of during bloom phase.

Growers use Straumietis’s hydroponics base nutrients that provide all major, secondary, and micronutrients needed for basic plant growth while automatically balancing pH for maximum nutrients absorption. They also use Big Bud and other supplements that augment the base nutrients.

“Most feed programs are defective in how they stack supplements on top of their base nutrients,” Straumietis explains. “Their products don’t work together properly. Growers end up with sick plants and lose out on the large, potent yields they deserve.”

Straumietis says the main thing to remember is that cannabis bloom phase has four sub-phases that you target with specific supplements such as Bug Ignitor and Big Bud. Look for future CULTURE articles that also help you get bigger, more potent harvests from your cannabis garden.