All living creatures on the planet develop differently as they grow.
It is exactly the same when it comes to marijuana cultivation.
Your green beauties will flourish, according to the major cannabis plant growth timeline.
Thus, it is vital to gain a proper understanding of the various stages of development that your green beauties go through.
Many newbie marijuana growers seem to get perplexed with all the terms, regarding cannabis cultivation.
But cheers up, buddies because getting to know your green princesses better is only a matter of time.
At first, the entire process can appear confusing and even a tiny bit frustrating.
However, once you understand the basics, marijuana growing becomes much like learning how to ride a bike or drive a car – gradually but surely you get the heck out of it and you only keep upgrading your skills and feeling more confident.
As a rule of thumbs, one of the groundings in cultivating the herb is to recognize and acknowledge the different stages of development your plants embrace in time.
During each of these stages, your precious emerald ladies will require a different amount of light, as well as nutrients and water.
Moreover, utilizing the various phases of your plants’ growth patterns will help you train and prune your beauties the right way.
And so, the major phases in growing marijuana are 4 – germination, seedlings, vegetation, and flowering.
So let’s dig in and check out everything you need to know on that matter!
Cannabis Plant Growth Timeline Explained Step by Step!
Step #1 – Germination (Duration: 1-2 weeks)
Every marijuana plant has once been an innocent and fragile seed.
But apart from being fragile, cannabis seeds are also very strong tiny beings because they will do everything possible to make that tiny first root pop.
Once you place your seeds on a well-soaked cotton pad or cheesecloth, it can take between 1 and up to 7-8 days until the tap root appears.
Sounds pretty straightforward and effortless to recognize this process, don’t you think?
All you have to do after noticing the tap root has popped out, is to place your green baby into the growing medium.
Mind that for this purpose, you want to use a small container, such as an ordinary coffee plastic cup.
If you place your tiny seed in a large pot, the roots will fail to reach all the essential nutrients.
Nevertheless, it is also important to position the seed with the tap root facing downwards.
Otherwise, you risk making your future green beauty get confused with growing upside down, instead of reaching upwards.
Step #2 – Hello, Seedlings! (Duration: 2-3 weeks)
You can consider your green beauty a seedling once you spot the very first fan leaves grow!
However, the leaves you will notice during the seedlings stage have little to do with the typical shape of marijuana leaves.
Instead of having the notorious 5-7 fingers, the baby fan leaves will start with just a single finger-shaped leaf.
Gradually, as your seedlings develop, those leaves will start growing 2,3,4 and up to 7 fingers until you finally see the notorious shape we have used to think of whenever we picture a marijuana plant.
When your green beauties are just seedlings, you must be on the watch for overwatering.
Seedlings are very delicate beings. Moreover, they are very prone to molds.
Keep an eye on the moisture levels and only water the seedlings to the point of no water overflowing down the container.
Step #3 – Vegetation (Duration: 2 to 8 weeks)
Okay, so now you already notice your emerald princesses have developed the legendary 5-7 fingers shaped leaves, you know the vegetative stage has kicked in!
Vegetation is utterly important because this is the period when your marijuana plants will grow strong stems and multiple large leaves.
There are no buds to nurture yet so all that your cannabis needs during vegetation is to concentrate its power into the leaves, branches, and stems.
Feed your green babies with extra Nitrogen during this phase, as this will help increase the green leafy growth.
Look for nutrient supplements with a double amount of Nitrogen, as opposed to Potassium and Phosphorus, for example, a ratio of 10:5:5 of N-P-K (Nitrogen-Phosphorus-Potassium).
Giving plenty of light (18-24 hours a day) + a sustainable amount of water will help your precious green princesses flourish.
The vegetative stage is the perfect time to top and train your plants, as well.
Stage #4 – Ah, Flowering! (Duration: 6-8 weeks)
Soon as the vegetation is about to end, you will notice the so-called nodes, or the future buds-to-be forming on your green ladies.
Before you switch to the 12-12 darkness-light hours to switch on to flowering, you first want to make sure you recognize the sex of your plants.
If you leave males and females marijuana plants together, males will pollinate the females and this will deprive you of the most important reward – the delicious buds!
Keep in mind that the flowering won’t begin before you switch to 12-12 light-darkness schedule.
However, in the case of outdoor growing, the full light spectrum of the Sun will automatically put your plants into flowering.
Nevertheless, if you are growing autoflowering marijuana strains, your green goddesses won’t need that 12-12 photoperiod.
That’s all thanks to the amazing genetics of Cannabis Ruderalis which is used for creating autoflowering cannabis varieties.
The Bottom Line
We hope you are feeling much more well-prepared on utilizing the cannabis plant growth timeline we revealed above!
After all, once the flowering stage begins, you simply need to keep feeding and monitoring your green goddesses for getting ready to harvest!
Remember that marijuana cultivation is a beautiful and rewarding journey, so don’t forget to have fun and enjoy the ride!
Wish you a happy and fulfilling cannaventure, buddies!