Cannabis Light Burn: Prevention and Treatment

Cannabis light burns aka light bleaching is an important issue when you have a growing area with lots of marijuana plants. Light works as food to the herbs; however, it may as well be a problem when it becomes overboard. Ponder it like this way; people require food for vigor, but what comes in when you devour too much food? We can have lots of issues starting from obesity to diabetes. 

Comparably, marijuana plants utilize light as food. Nonetheless, when you put a lot of illumination and place them nearly close to the herbs, you are seeking a problem. When you observe your herbs grappling, continue perusing this post to know the prevention and treatment of cannabis light burn.

The Meaning and Symptoms

As mentioned above, cannabis light burn is light bleaching, which is a common problem for indoor cannabis and not to outdoor plants. Plants cultivated outdoors cannot grapple from cannabis light burn due to the reason that the sun is far from the Earth, which can burn them. Also, marijuana has developed for many years and has adapted to the rays of the sun, which is sufficient to not have burnt. However, if you cultivate your cannabis indoors, kindly check the following to know if your plants are grappling from cannabis light burn.

Bleached Sprouts

Bleaching of the flowers is one of the certain signs of cannabis light burn. This event happens if flowers are placed nearly to high-powered bulbs. You might have seen pictures through the Internet of real albino marijuana flowers. This may seem like the wanted growth of unusual genetics, nevertheless, the truth is, most of the time cannabis is solely bleaching. Fortunately, it is difficult to miss your flowers altering to brilliant white. 

Though white shoots can look appealing, mostly they have been presented futile. The heat demeans cannabinoids existent to the resin that grounds the shoots to lose power. The aroma and flavor of these shoots will as well be less than advantageous. The terpenes accountable for these characteristics are extremely vaporous scented hydrocarbons and superfluous heat will as well give grounds to demean them.

Yellow Foliage

Having yellow foliage is another symptom that your herb is under the presence of cannabis light burn. Nonetheless, yellow foliage may as well mean nitrogen deficiency. The distinction is that yellow foliage provided by this nutritional deficiency begins at the bottom of the herb, shows important languish, and will either decrease or highly simple to pull off. Nevertheless, yellowing due to cannabis light burn will happen at the top of the herb and this foliage will be much well-built and difficult to pull off.

The Prevention

As what people commonly say, “Prevention is better than cure.” Consequently, you should endeavor to prevent cannabis light burn compared to endeavoring to cure it. Initially, cannabis light burn varies on the kind of illumination you are utilizing. For example, a Compact Fluorescent Light (CFL) put up 10 inches apart from the herb will not destroy it. Similar puts in an application to fluorescent or T5 bulbs since they are not that strong and do not copy plenty of heat. Nonetheless, High-Intensity Discharge (HID) and Light-Emitting Diode (LED) lights placed 10 inches apart from the herbs can destroy them.

Secondly, decide the wattage of the bulb you are going to utilize. For instance, a 50-watt LED light cannot be very detrimental, however, a 1000-watt LED will have catastrophic upshots when you put it very near to the herbs. HID bulbs are very strong even when the wattage is low. Another issue is that they copy too much warmth, which can be intolerable to the herbs.

With that, please take note that you cannot put up the lights very far either. When the herbs are afar from the light, they will not have sufficient food to develop correctly. You can take into consideration both High-pressure sodium vapor (HPS) and Metal Halide (MH) lights in a similar classification. You may follow the tip below for you to assist.

The table below is for the LED lights.

If in uncertainty, peruse the instructions given by the producer. Now that the light-emitting diodes are obtainable similar to Chip On Board (COB) LEDs, the amount of space between the herbs and lights can be dissimilar. COB LEDs are very vigorous that is why it is advised to better be secure and put the herbs a few inches afar during their vegetative phase to know how they do. When you observe that they are grappling, it is a sign that you need to move the bulbs away. Nonetheless, when you observe that they are expanding greater than expected and become hobble, it is the moment to put the lights near.

When all fail and the herbs do not recover, you may pull off a few lights. Please bear in mind that around 45 to 70 watts per square feet are more sufficient for herbs. Anything more than 70 watts will provide a lot of dangers compared to great ones. When there is no space and you cannot move the light afar, you may train the herbs utilizing a technique called Low-Stress Training (LST). This method does superbly to auto-flowering plants. However, just utilize this method in the vegetative phase. In the end, LST is a method, which stresses the herb, so you do not wish to do anything demanding to the herb if it is an auto-flowering.

The Treatment

If the leaves of your cannabis plants seen burnt but the shoots are fine, you can hold back to crop the shoots especially when they are not bleached. Oftentimes, the foliage changes white, in this situation, the harm is so serious wherein it is too late to save it. A similar situation can be applied to burnt foliage and shoots in the same manner. When they are crispy and crushed in your hands with very little endeavor, it is somehow too late to save them as well. 

On the other hand, when you observe the first few symptoms of the foliage becoming white, you are fortunate. Initially, you can remove the lights afar. Water the herbs to assist them to reinstate all the wetness they have lost. You may as well put cooling fans to lessen the warmth provided by the lights. This is as well the reason why the majority of the cultivators are timid on HID lights. These lights are so strong and it cannot be doubted. Nevertheless, the warmth provided is only too much for the herbs and you will be compelled to utilize strong fans. When it comes to LEDs, the warmth is not too much compared to HIDs and the majority of the latest LEDs have come along with cooling fans fastened to the component, and heat decadence will not cause big trouble.

Also, identify the foliage of the herbs becoming white and remove it off from the herb since they are going to provide stress to the herb. When the herbs are juvenile and still in the vegetative phase, it may assist to trim off the tops. This technique is also called Topping and Firming. With this, it will lessen the space between the lights and the herbs greatly. Furthermore, the tops will develop again. However, you may utilize a mixture of Low-Stress Training and Topping to have an assurance that the herbs are not too near to the lights.

The Final Notion

Having enough knowledge that any alterations to the plant’s cultivating state like reducing and adding the intensity of light or heat will need dissimilar watering as well as nutrient essentials. Having a lot of light can make the plants develop quickly. With that, they will as well need a lot of water and nutrients. Systematic watering in the growing states and having in-depth light and high heat can as well assist in reducing cannabis light burn provided that they are not too much.