Marijuana Container Planting: A Primer

Container planting is one of the most common methods of growing cannabis. Aside from convenience, container planting allows for better and much more thorough maintenance operations. This method has paved the way for the development of special cannabis plant containers for optimized gardening. Now, growing your own supply of cannabis requires a lot of dedication and hard work. To help you grow healthy mary janes, consider this primer your basic marijuana container planting education.

It’s All in the Roots

If you know a thing or two about growing cannabis, you’re probably aware that healthy roots equate to a healthy marijuana plant. If you’re a weed gardening newbie, you can start learning with that piece of information. In order to keep your cannabis roots healthy and happy, you must make sure they get enough TLC. In this case, TLC constitutes of four different elements:

• Moisture- Dry roots are a sign of poor marijuana health. Mary janes can’t stand neglect, and if you don’t think you can commit to regular tending and watering, maybe marijuana container planting is not the best hobby for you. Aside from neglect, not having the right planting container can also devoid cannabis roots of moisture. Make sure to put your plant in an appropriate container and water it on a regular basis.

• Oxygen- Marijuana plants need oxygen to breathe and grow. If you don’t have a well-ventilated plant container, you may end up with suffocating marijuana roots.
• Nutrients- Nutrients come from the soil you grow your plant on. However, not all potting soils are created equally. Some of these lack the essential nutrients that your cannabis plant needs to thrive and produce buds. In this case, you may want to consider soil amendments to fortify your potting soil, allowing for a much healthier plant and efficient bud production.

• Right pH- Testing your soil’s pH is a prerequisite in gardening. While it is often overlooked by casual gardeners, the pH levels do in fact have a role to play in keeping the roots healthy. With the wrong pH, the growth and production are not at their best– particularly when it comes to nutrient absorption.

Selecting Marijuana Plant Containers

Plant containers play a huge role in growing cannabis. Whether it’s a standard terracotta pot or a more advanced hydroponic system, a good marijuana plant container should provide the most optimal environment for cannabis roots. You also want these containers to have prebored holes or some sort of drainage system for the runoff. Here are some of the most common types of marijuana plant containers that you may want to consider.

• Standard Pot with Saucer- This container is ideal for people who don’t want to complicate things when it comes to weed gardening. Technically, any flower pot with drainage holes at the bottom can be used to grow cannabis. You can purchase plastic ones from most hardware and gardening centers if you have the budget. You can also use classic terracotta pots that soak up excess water and store them for better cooling and ventilation. Standard pots should come with matching saucers for catching water runoff.

• Air Pots- Aside from drainage holes at the bottom, the air pots also have side openings all around to provide maximum ventilation and automated “air-pruning.” With air pots, you’ll have to water your marijuana plants more frequently as these containers can dry out quicker than the standard ones. You also want to get appropriate-sized saucers to catch runoff from the side and bottom runoff exits.
• Fabric Pots- Instead of growing cannabis in a cycle, fabric pots make use of air-pruning technology to ensure healthy roots and plant growth. Cannabis plants grown in fabric pots are impossible to overwater as the moisture gets soaked and stored easily by the fabric. While fabric pots offer a lot in terms of root health and plant growth, these may not be the best option for poor environmental conditions. It’s also important to note that these growing mediums tend to dry quicker than standard pots. Much more frequent watering is essential.
• Hemp Buckets- Hemp buckets share the same principle as hydroponic systems, but as compared to latter, they rely on passive hydroponics and don’t have oxygen pumps. The drainage holes are situated not at the bottom of the bucket but a few centimeters above. The small space at the bottom is used as a nutrient reservoir which reduces the need for watering. With this type of container, you just have to make sure that the nutrients at the bottom of the bucket don’t get putrid.

Conclusion

Marijuana container planting is not the easiest job in the world, but it’s also not the most difficult. Much like some of the planters mentioned above, you have to soak up and store as much information as you can about this method of growing cannabis. You’ll find yourself enjoying this craft in no time!