The importance of proper soil moisture in cannabis cultivation is often overlooked, but it can have a big impact on the health and yield of your plants. When the soil doesn’t properly retain and drain water, nutrient deficiencies, root rot and fungus can easily occur.
The right balance of humidity, temperature and light is necessary to produce the best harvest possible. Luckily, there are a few simple things that cultivators can do to ensure their environment is in alignment with their plants’ needs.
Moisture
Soil moisture and humidity are key aspects to cannabis cultivation, as it can have a large impact on plant health and overall production. Proper soil moisture will allow plants to grow stronger and more resilient, which will lead to higher quality cannabis products.
There are several factors that can affect the level of soil moisture, including depth and type of soil. For example, clay soil is characterized by high pH levels and fine granules that help hold water in the soil. It is also rich in nutrients and minerals, making it a perfect choice for cannabis growth.
If the soil moisture is too low, it will cause a problem with root activity and uptake of essential nutrients, which will limit growth. The ideal moisture range for cannabis is 50%-80%.
Moisture and humidity can be measured using a moisture analyzer or a water activity meter, which will measure the amount of vapor pressure in a sample. This measurement will give growers a better understanding of the level of moisture in their cannabis crop, which is important for both quality and safety purposes.
Ultimately, the best way to control moisture is by irrigating your plants based on their specific needs. This can be a time-consuming process, but it will ensure that the optimal conditions are met and that plants have access to the right amount of water.
The goal of this technique is to match the ideal environmental conditions of your grow room – temperature, relative humidity, CO2 and other important factors – with the optimal moisture level for your plants. The result is that plants are able to ingest the proper amounts of water and nutrients on their own terms, which can reduce stress, improve plant health, decrease operating costs and yield higher-quality, safer product.
If you want to learn more about how to control moisture in your cannabis grow room, check out our new Smart Humidity Special Report. It’s packed with research and insights from cultivators and experts on this topic, and includes tips, advice and other resources. Whether you’re just starting out or a veteran, this resource will give you a clear understanding of how to control moisture in your cannabis grow room.
Humidity
The importance of proper soil moisture in cannabis cultivation is a vital part of maintaining the ideal environment for plant growth and development. Without this level of moisture control, molds and diseases can flourish, causing costly damage to crops as well as degrading their quality.
The key is to control both temperature and humidity, as each plays a vital role in cannabis growth. Temperature affects how quickly plants grow, while humidity affects how much water and nutrients they take up through their leaves.
High temperatures promote photosynthesis (plants turning light energy into plant fuel), while low temperatures slow down their growth and can cause stress. Humidity, on the other hand, helps plants absorb more water through their leaves, reducing the need for water from their roots, which are often exposed to low air humidity.
In addition to controlling temperature and humidity, growers must also keep an eye on RZT, or root zone temperature. This is a critical nutrient-uptake factor in cannabis and should be carefully monitored by master growers.
When plants have to work extra hard to absorb essential water and nutrients through their leaves, they can also suffer from nutrient deficiencies that could lead to poor growth and reduced yields. As a result, monitoring and controlling RZT is key to ensuring optimal nutrient uptake and the best possible harvests.
As a general rule, seedlings and clones enjoy high levels of humidity as they begin to take root, which will gradually decrease over time as the plant grows and becomes more established. It is important to keep humidity at 40-50% during this phase, and any higher would be damaging for the new growth.
Aside from the impact on cannabis growth, proper moisture control is also vital for preventing plant molds and diseases during drying and curing. By establishing a controlled environment with humidity-controlled grow rooms and dehumidifiers, cultivators can maximize their plants’ production while preserving the ideal moisture levels throughout the drying and curing process.
Using a dehumidifier or humidifier is one of the most effective methods for controlling soil moisture, and can help maintain the proper humidity levels in your grow room and tent while you’re growing cannabis. These devices can also provide additional benefits, such as lowering air temperatures and allowing more oxygen to enter the room and tent.
Temperature
There are a lot of factors to consider when growing cannabis, but soil temperature and humidity are two very important elements that must be controlled. This is especially true during the vegetative and flowering stages, as both will influence the overall quality of your buds.
The ideal root zone temperature for cannabis plants is between 68degF and 78degF. This will ensure that the roots are able to absorb the nutrients you’re providing them in order to grow and develop properly.
Temperature is important because it affects the synthesis, content, and activity of substances within the root system. These substances are critical to the growth and development of your cannabis crop, as well as its ability to resist stress and disease.
Plants need a stable temperature for photosynthesis to occur, and it’s also essential for the plant to absorb enough water. If the soil temperature drops, water can’t be absorbed and your cannabis plants will start to wilt.
This can be very dangerous for your crops, so it’s important to keep the temperatures in your grow room as constant and steady as possible. Using good heat exhaust from the top of your growroom and cooling, fresh air intake at the bottom of your garden can help to maintain this steady environment for your cannabis plants.
It’s also essential to keep the humidity in your growroom at a consistent level. While humidity levels can vary from room to room, a general range of 55-65% relative humidity is ideal for healthy cannabis plants.
In general, a soil’s hydrostatic pressure should be between 120-150 mbar in the vegetative stage and 150-180 mbar during flower. If the soil isn’t at this level, it can cause a plant to “drown,” or die, because it’s unable to breathe and accept the oxygen it needs for respiration.
Lastly, proper temperature and humidity control can help you to prevent bud rot and mold. These diseases can quickly ruin the quality of your cannabis if they’re allowed to set in.
The best way to control your cannabis’ temperature and humidity is to have the right equipment for the job. This can include a thermostat that will allow you to adjust the temperature and humidity as needed. It’s also a good idea to invest in a fan that will keep the air at the appropriate level for optimal plant health and yield.
Light
The importance of proper soil moisture in cannabis cultivation cannot be understated. Without adequate moisture, a cannabis plant’s root system can be compromised and its nutrient intake restricted. This is a condition known as nutrient lockout and can lead to shortened flowering cycles, decreased yields, and poor quality harvests.
Soil moisture is measured by using a soil moisture meter. This enables growers to assess whether or not their plants’ roots have reached optimum hydrostatic pressure, which is often considered to be 50% saturation of air pockets in the soil. In general, growers prefer hydrostatic pressures of 120-150 mbar in the vegetative stage and 150-180 mbar in flower depending on strain.
It’s important to understand that when the water level in the substrate reaches a critical point, the roots can no longer access oxygen to respire. This causes the photosynthesis process to be slowed down and eventually stops, which leads to plant death.
Fortunately, growers can avoid this problem by taking care to collect water runoff before it is dumped back into the nutrient reservoirs. This practice can be implemented in both pots and the ground, but it is especially useful when growing in fertile soil.
Cultivators should also ensure that the pH levels of the soil remain consistent throughout the growth cycle. This can be done by measuring the pH level after every feed. This can help growers identify if they need to modify their nutes doses or add new ones to keep the pH within a healthy range.
Finally, cultivators need to monitor light uniformity as well as PAR intensity and daily light integral (DLI) as they work to establish a stable growing environment. While PAR intensity is an instantaneous metric, DLI measures the cumulative amount of light absorbed by a canopy over time and provides an accumulative measurement metric that can be used to adjust light intensity as a plant grows.
A plant’s light cycle is regulated naturally with the seasons and the amount of daylight received. However, growers can control these natural day lengths through artificial lighting in a commercial grow facility. This can be done by increasing the number of hours of light a cannabis plant is exposed to during the vegetative and flowering stages of its life cycle.
