Germination & growing

Germination isn't complicated, but it rewards consistency. A seed needs three things to wake up: gentle warmth, steady moisture and a little darkness. Aim for somewhere around 22–25°C, keep the medium damp but never waterlogged, and give the seed quiet — most healthy seeds crack and show a taproot within two to five days. The paper-towel method works, planting straight into a small pot of light, pre-moistened medium works just as well, and we often prefer the latter because it spares the fragile root from being handled.

The mistakes we see most often are overwatering and impatience. A drowned seed suffocates before it can sprout, and a seed dug up to "check on it" rarely recovers. Set your conditions, leave them alone, and trust good genetics to do their part. When the taproot is a centimetre or so long and the seedling has pushed up its first round leaves, you're past the hardest moment of the whole grow.

Vegetative growth is where the plant builds its frame. With plenty of light, room for the roots and clean air moving across the leaves, a young plant will stack nodes and broaden out quickly. This is the time to shape it — a gentle top or a little training spreads the canopy so light reaches more bud sites later. Photoperiod plants stay in veg as long as you keep their light hours long; autoflowers move on by themselves, so give them their best conditions early because their clock won't wait.

Flowering begins when a photoperiod plant gets longer nights, or simply when an autoflower decides it's time. The plant shifts its energy from leaves to flowers, stretches for a week or two, then settles into building resin. Keep the environment steady through this stretch — swings in temperature and humidity cause far more problems than any feeding tweak. Patience here is everything; the last few weeks, when little seems to be happening on the surface, are when terpenes and potency are really developing.

Plants eat differently at different stages, and the commonest grower error is feeding too much, too soon. Seedlings want almost nothing — a good living soil often carries them for weeks. Through veg the plant leans toward nitrogen for leafy growth; in flower it shifts its appetite toward phosphorus and potassium to fuel the buds. Whatever you feed, start at half the recommended strength and watch the plant before you push harder.

Learn to read the leaves rather than the label. Pale lower leaves often mean it's hungry; clawed, dark, glossy leaves usually mean it's been fed too much. Plain water between feeds keeps the root zone from building up excess salts. A calm, slightly under-fed plant almost always finishes better than an overfed one fighting nutrient burn.

Knowing when to cut comes down to the trichomes — the tiny resin glands frosting the flowers. Under a loupe or a cheap pocket microscope they shift from clear, to cloudy-milky, to amber. Mostly cloudy with a scattering of amber is the sweet spot for most growers: a ripe, full effect without tipping into heavy and sedative. Clear trichomes mean it's early; lots of amber means it's leaning mellow. Let the plant tell you, not the calendar.

Harvest is only half the job — curing is what turns good flower into great flower. Hang the plants to dry slowly in a dark, cool space with gentle airflow until the small stems snap rather than bend, usually a week or two. Then trim and jar the buds, opening the jars daily at first to release moisture and let them breathe. Over the following weeks the harshness fades, the chlorophyll mellows and the terpenes you selected for finally come forward. A patient cure is the cheapest upgrade in all of growing.

Want more detail on any of these stages? Our growing guides on the blog go deeper on germination, training, feeding schedules and curing, and the seed guides cover choosing the right genetics for your space in the first place.