Raised beds are the ultimate way to optimize your culture
Many people don’t have a good soil to grow their plants. When this occurs they have three possibilities. They can dig a hole in the soil and fill it with good substratum. They can use pots or they can build a raised bed, the best choice to promote a perfect root system and, therefore, obtain better plants.
You need to know that roots don’t grow vertically. They grow downwards but almost horizontally. They run almost parallel to the soil. Precisely for this reason, raised beds are an excellent choice to increase the growth of your plants.
To build a raised bed you need wood. Pallets are a very good option because they are either free or inexpensive. In this article we are going to talk about the standard rectangular raised beds that are usually made from untreated and rot-resistant wood. The wood taken from pallets is quite resistant to rot and, anyway, it lasts a lot. Especially if you take your time to varnish it.
Elementary principles of cannabis genetics
Things to consider before hand
Size
This issue is very important for different reasons. Raised beds are generally three to four feet wide by about six to eight feet long. The length is less important. But if you build your bed longer than four feet wide, you will find yourself in troubles to reach every spot of the bed. You need to be able to reach without great difficulties all the space available in your bed.
The height is important too. If you are building the bed on a hard surface, like a hard-packed soil, you want to make sure it’s deep enough for plants to root properly. I recommend at least 10 to 12 inches tall.
I put on the soil a huge layer of cardboard. It is cardboard that I pick from the garbage or any recycling point. It is free and very effective. Why? Because this layer avoids weeds to grow and invade the substratum reserved for your cannabis plants. Little by little this cardboard layer rots. But it takes time and it usually happens when you are about to cut your cannabis plants.
Best place to build them
You must build your raised beds in a sunny place. This is the only condition related to the place.
The quantity of substratum you need to fill your beds
Fill up your bed completely. Think that after watering the soil height will go down. Therefore, fill your bed to the top and press it a bit to make sure once is wet still has substratum enough.
Fill it with good soil and try to add microorganisms to it. Remember that roots thrive towards the sides and not toward the bottom of the soil. Using raised bed the roots will have much more space to grow and since the roots are the mirror of the canopy, you will get a much taller and bigger plants. In other words, your production will be much larger.
Normally a cannabis autoflowering plant is about 1 meter tall. In my raised beds I obtain plants whose height is about 1.7 meters tall. I almost double the size. And it is not only a question of production. The quality is better too. This occurs because a good root system means good quality too.
