Cannabis Substrates

Cannabis plants have an amazing capacity to adapt to different growing mediums, which gives growers significant advantages, as they can be grown in diverse places using different types of substrates. Let's examine the different options for the medium your plants are grown in.

What is the substrate?

A substrate is a surface on which an organism is attached to or grows on. Soil is the typical substrate for growing plants, but as growers gain insights into increasing yields, substrates have evolved over time along with how we grow. 

Mother Nature's Soil

Soil is the typical substrate type for most non-marine plants grown on earth and used for centuries due to its natural convenience and widespread availability.

And while soil is the prevailing substrate, especially in outdoor grows, the cannabis plant is highly adaptive and shows an ability to grow in many types of substrates. Indoor grow operations are becoming an industry standard that provides an opportunity to experiment with different growing mediums to find the best solution for your grow operation. Looking for a wide range of OG strain seeds online like alien og seeds, og kush seeds and white fire og seeds.

Coco Peat

Obtained from coconut husk, coco peat is a 100% organic product that is quickly decomposable. Coconut substrate naturally contains Trichoderma, which prevents the spread of root fungus and encourages healthy plant growth. It's also appropriate for four growing cycles in succession, so there's no need to change substrates during the growth cycle.

Generally, plants grow healthier and faster in coco than in other mediums. Another advantage with coco is that it has superior drainage while also being ultra-absorbent – meaning your plants won't go thirsty – it does require more watering than with soil.

Rockwool

A lightweight hydroponic substrate, Rockwool, is made from forming molten basaltic rock into fine fibers. Once it's transformed into fibers, it's further manipulated and formed into blocks, cubes, growing slabs, and granular products.

Popular for germinating seeds because of their superior moisture retention, rockwool is excellent at keeping seeds or seedlings from drying out, but it doesn't allow them to sit in a saturated environment. Moisture is a determining factor in seed germination, and rockwool provides an excellent substrate for cannabis seeds. Many growers use rockwool for germinating seeds before planting them in soil or other substrates.

Clay Pebbles

Often referred to as hydroton, clay pebbles are a hydroponic substrate made up of small marble or peanut size balls made of clay. Useful in both hydroponic and aquaponic systems, hydrotons are excellent water absorbers, collecting excess water it stores for later use. It prevents roots from being damaged due to excess water, which can cause fungus. Typically clay pebbles are used as a base, supplementing other substrates, and can also be used as a standalone material. One of the benefits of clay pebbles is that they allow for thorough aeration, further preventing root rot.

Perlite

Perlite is a baked volcanic rock that provides an airy substrate with enhanced drainage capacity. Perlite is often mixed with soil to improve its structure as it's smaller than clay pebbles and improves soil aeration. It has a consistent quality, is germ-free, and presents an ideal water/air ratio for plants to thrive. 

After the baking and expanding process, horticultural perlite is separated into four categories based on the size of the particle: super coarse, coarse, medium, and fine grade. Super coarse perlite has a water holding capacity of 19%. And while its ability to hold water is impressive, the downside is that it requires an additional substrate (like soil) to be effective. Its small size and buoyancy cause it to float, and therefore it doesn't anchor plants well on its own.

Benefits of Crop Steering

What is crop steering?

Crop steering manipulates plant growth by modifying environmental factors and irrigation events to encourage coveted crop outcomes. Changing environmental factors and irrigation strategies allows growers to influence growth toward vegetative or generative stages. Different types of fan for grow tent that fits for indoor growing like wall fan and inline fan online.

The vegetative growth stage increases leaf and stem growth, while generative growth is the reproductive phase that develops fruits and flowers. 

Potential benefits of crop steering

The potential for crop steering to increase yields, save labor and nutrient costs, and enhance crop quality are notable reasons to research and implement a crop steering program. There's also the possibility to decrease energy and overall operations costs, but let's examine the most notable potential benefits of crop steering. 

Increased yields - By manipulating plant growth to optimize the development of specific growth phases, you encourage more prominent and robust buds, which, if done correctly, will increase yields.

Cost Savings - Labor costs may decrease by completely automating the process using a crop steering program (CSP). Another advantage in using a CSP is that precise, small dosing of nutrients means your plants only take up the number of nutrients they can process, potentially saving you money in expensive nutrients. 

Enhanced Terpene Production - Using a CSP, you'll be stacking buds towards the end of the cannabis plant growth cycle, and altering lighting can trigger an increase in trichome production of terpenes. By tricking the plant into a moderate stressor, it responds by increasing terpene production to protect it from excess UV light exposure. 

What is a Crop Steering Program (CSP)?

A crop steering program allows you to enter customized, ideal setpoints for your specific genetics, and the program will automatically trigger events to achieve the desired parameters. For irrigation, a sophisticated AI program analyzes your substrate sensors' real-time data and doses your plants accordingly, freeing up your time to take care of everything else.

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Crop Steering Program Features

Controlling environmental conditions and irrigation strategies to steer growth requires sophisticated software created by expert growers and engineers. Let's take a look at the features that make a CSP a worthwhile investment. 

Overnight Failsafe Protection - The program will constantly monitor your substrate and give it an emergency shot if it falls below your target overnight VWC% and will continue to maintain it at that percentage until the lights come on the following day.

Automatic Phase 1 Delay - If you run into an issue involving a temporary decrease in plant transpiration, it will manifest as a slower dry back than usual. Adjust your irrigation timers to accommodate this decrease in VWC % loss to prevent over-saturation. When the lights turn on, the program will automatically count down the additional dry back % you specify and delay your P1 ramp up timers until the set percentage has been satisfied. 

EC Adjustment - Substrates EC is crucial to crop steering successfully but can be challenging without changing the EC of your feeds throughout the day. By using the Crop Steering Program, you can specify your maintenance dry back %. 

What Is A Swisher?

A Swisher is a blunt made from your favorite strain of cannabis and a cleaned-out Swisher Sweets® cigarillo wrapper.

In their original form, Swishers are less like cigars and more like elongated cigarettes (hence the name “cigarillo,” which is Spanish for small cigar). The classic Swisher Sweets cigarillo measures in at around 4.375 inches long by a bit over 0.5 inches in diameter.

If you’re trying to get a sense of the size, pick up an unsharpened pencil and grip half of it in your closed fist. The uncovered part is roughly the length and diameter of the cigarillo you’ll use to learn how to roll a Swisher.

There are other Swisher sizes available, so, really, go with what feels right. As long as you’re using authentic Swisher Sweets to roll your blunt, you’ll be fine.

So you want to learn how to roll a Swisher, eh? Kudos!

Rolling weed into various packages is a skill that all cannaseurs should acquire. You just never know when you’re going to run out of the supplies you need to get your ganja on and have to improvise or MacGyver your way to your next high.

That’s where learning how to roll a Swisher comes into play — it’s just one more option in your marijuana toolbox. The grow shop online always have the best quality grow light and oscillating fan.

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Types of Marijuana-Growing Spaces

It is all about economies of scale, and it’s what’s expected of the yield that drives the plans for a marijuana grow-house. Here are several marijuana grow-house ideas:

1. Marijuana Grow Cupboards

The simplest and most common marijuana grow house is a small cupboard located in the cannabis farmer’s home. Usually, it is in a secondary bedroom that has low traffic and meager cost. Most cabinets are closet-sized and only house several plants. Spaces of two feet by three feet are common, and these normally require one small light and simple hand watering.

The yield from one cupboard can be significant, though. A several-month growing season can raise enough buds to provide a recreational user all they can smoke or a medicinal patient needed for treatment.

2. Marijuana Grow Cabinets

The next step up in marijuana grow house options is a marijuana grow cabinet. This is a larger space with enough room to move about, yet it is still contained within a regular-sized room. Often these cabinets are located in a basement or outbuilding and range in space from three feet by three feet (nine square feet) up to 50 square feet.

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The largest grow cabinets require significant lighting and electrical requirements, which typically maximize the power services to an existing room. Yield from a cabinet can be more than justified as “personal use” within the law but can return a tidy secondary income for a grower.

3. Marijuana Grow Tents

These portable marijuana grow-houses are very popular for their return on investment. They are tents that fold out to a free-standing structure set up in a bedroom, basement, garage, or even a storage shed. Sizes range from 16 square feet up to 64 square feet and can accommodate dozens of plants.

These fabric grow tents are completely lightproof for a controlled environment and are blacked-out on the exterior yet highly reflective on the inside. They allow the grower to integrate automated watering and filtered ventilation systems at an affordable price.

Multiple marijuana grow-tents are often used in multiple units that house crops at various stages of development. Still, they are limited in size due to structural support and have a limited lifespan. Moving the tents take a toll, as does continual washing to maintain a healthy mold and pest-free interior.

4. Full-Room Marijuana Grow Houses

Full rooms of 100 square feet or more are beyond the hobbyist’s reach. These rooms are also attached to a significant monetary outlay and a great amount of time consumption required to run them.

Basements or cellars are good choices for full-room grow houses, as the underground temperature from the earth is cooler and more stable than an above-ground room, especially an attic. Full rooms can accommodate dozens of plants and can be divided to allow zoning for different plant cycles.

Full-room grow houses also require more electrical and ventilation supply than can be provided without significant alterations to an existing structure. This is why many marijuana growers turn to specially designed, freestanding steel structures. A serious grower upgrading from a small operation and expanding into the increasingly lucrative commercial marijuana market is wise to spend the time and the funds to develop a dedicated and trouble-free grow house.

Properly designed full-room marijuana grow houses are built with the proper components that include the correct insulation, ventilation, lighting, automated controls, and a safe and secure environment.

Weather Proof On Roofs

Roofs are the most significant part of the buildings and are exposed to different climates. Roof proofing is one technique that acts as the barrier to various environmental changes and significantly increases the roof’s longevity. As there are different roof types like pitched, sloped, and flat, each needs special attention and proofing to last longer. The flat roofs need some expensive and heavier water proofing to prevent leakages for roofs than the sloped and pitched ones. The materials used for damping should also be explicitly chosen that meet thermal insulation and water proofing requirements. Jacob Engineers are one of the best engineering consultants in Chennai who promise to provide leak proof roofs.. 

One of the significant problems we consider for roof leakage is water stagnation. Hence, in this post, look out for some water proofing methods to make the roof resistant to environmental conditions.

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Finishing:

The foremost damp proofing method is the finishing. So, most of the flat roofs in this modern age include reinforced cement concrete or RCC, except these roofs should be water-proofed by the proofing method. In many constructions, the finishing for the roof surface is made at last while laying the cement concrete. So, the finished water proofing method includes 1:4 motor proportions of the water proofing materials. There will be one part of cement with four parts of sand in volume. 

Similarly, it is one of the basic requirements in flat roofs to have adequate slopes for the stagnant water to flow out. The slope should be designed so that water should drain off quickly and have a high velocity with respect to gravity. So, it is ideal to have a slope of 1 in 100 or more steeper depending on the type of proofing method effectively.

Laying concrete and flooring:

The RCC slab is left rough and layered with concrete in this method. The concrete used for the RCC slabs are brickbats lime concrete in the ratio 1:2:4 or brickbats cement concrete in the ratio 1:8:14. The engineers use materials like tiles, Indian patent stone, and terrazzo for flooring the concrete. The parapet wall and roof junction are provided with a convex joint, and the concrete is laid around with 10 cm thickness. 

Similarly, adequate openings should be provided on the roof for the water to get drained off quickly. Factors to consider when choosing the right size of openings,

• Size and number of openings depend on the region’s rainfall.

• The spacing between the rainwater outlets should not be more than 6m. 

• The average size of the rainwater pipes should be at least 10 cm in diameter per 30 sq.m.

Jute cloths and asphalt:

In this type of water proofing method, the first layer is filled with hot mastic asphalt on the roof surface, and a layer of jute cloth is spread over it. Then again, a layer of asphalt is placed, and the jute cloths are sandwiched between the two layers. Lead sheets are inserted at the roof and parapet wall junction. 

Thus, these are the waterproofing for the roof to withstand extreme weather conditions. Jacob Engineers the outstanding structural design companies in Chennai that provides quality and structural designs for structures for longer. We even provide training on structural design engineering for the budding engineers for their future endeavours.