What to Feed Your Cannabis Plants at Every Stage (and Why It Belongs in Your Grow Journal)

Growing cannabis successfully isn’t just about watering and watching — it’s about giving your plants the right nutrients at the right time. Just like people need different diets based on age and activity, cannabis plants require different feeding strategies depending on their growth stage. Keeping track of this in a cannabis grow journal or weed growing app like PLnTrk helps you avoid common mistakes and dial in a grow routine that works.

🌱 Why Feeding Stages Matter

Cannabis goes through several key stages: seedling/clone, vegetative, flowering, and flushing. Each of these stages has unique nutritional needs. By adjusting your nutrient mix and logging those changes in your cannabis grow journal, you give your plants the best chance to grow strong, healthy, and productive.

Stage 1: Seedling or Clone

What’s Happening: Your cannabis plant is establishing its root system and initial leaf growth. This stage is fragile and requires a gentle touch.

Feeding Needs: Less is more. Many growers skip nutrients entirely here or use ¼-strength doses.

Grow Journal Tip: Log your starting medium and when you introduce the first nutrients to track root development patterns across grows.

Stage 2: Vegetative Growth

What’s Happening: Your plant shifts to building structure—stems, branches, and lots of fan leaves.

Feeding Needs: A nitrogen-rich mix helps support foliage development. This is when many growers begin using a "grow" formula.

Grow Journal Tip: In your weed growing app, track weekly nutrient ratios and note how the plant responds. Over time, this will help you build the ideal veg recipe.

Stage 3: Flowering (Budding)

What’s Happening: Bud production begins. Your plant transitions from vegetative growth to reproductive growth.

Feeding Needs: Now it's time for less nitrogen and more phosphorus and potassium. This supports flower development and resin production.

Grow Journal Tip: Track the exact day you flip to flower in your cannabis grow journal and record each nutrient change. This helps fine-tune your flowering phase in future grows.

Final Stage: Flushing & Harvest

What’s Happening: Near the end of flower, many growers begin flushing with plain water to clear out residual nutrients, improving flavor and smoothness.

Feeding Needs: None. Just clean, pH-balanced water.

Grow Journal Tip: Log your flush start date, water volumes, and plant appearance. This will help you determine the best flush period for each strain.

📓 Why Logging Nutrient Schedules Matters

Using a cannabis grow journal or weed growing app helps you track feeding schedules, spot nutrient burn or deficiencies early, and replicate what works. Nutrient changes are one of the most important parts of your grow to log because they directly affect yield and bud quality.

With apps like PLNTRK, you can log each nutrient dose, track growth stage transitions, and attach photos showing how your plants respond. This builds a powerful dataset over time that can turn you into a much more consistent and successful grower.

🌿 Final Thoughts

Feeding your cannabis plants correctly isn’t complicated, but it does require attention. Start light, observe, adjust, and record. With the right nutrients and a reliable cannabis grow journal, you’ll be able to guide your plants from seedling to harvest with confidence.

Try PLNTRK for free — the weed growing app that helps you track nutrients, stages, photos, and more. Grow smarter. Log better. Harvest more.