Growing White Widow Cannabis [The Grower’s Guide]

The White Widow strain is one of the most popular in the world for both recreational and medicinal users. As a result, it isn’t cheap. In California, for example, you can expect to pay over $300 an ounce. In this guide, we outline how to grow White Widow with information on flowering time, expected yield, and a whole lot more.

Overview of the White Widow Strain

White Widow is an indica-dominant (60%) hybrid with a THC content ranging from 18% to 25%. You can learn more when you look at the full profile of the strain on wayofleaf.com. Green House Seeds produced it in the early 1990s. Soon, White Widow became the toast of the Amsterdam coffee-house scene.

The potency of the White Widow head high is impressive. As is the fact it keeps you baked for several hours at a time. It is a cross of a South American sativa and a South Indian indica.

You can identify this strain by looking at its resinous buds. This is one of the main reasons why White Widow is so powerful.

Once you use this strain, expect a rapid cerebral high, followed by a feeling of euphoria. It is a fantastic social strain because it gives you energy and ensures you remain aware of your surroundings. Also, it never lets you succumb to couch lock. It gets the name White Widow from the fact that it looks as if the strain was dipped in sugar. White Widow offers a strong, sweet, and spicy scent coupled with an earthy pine taste.

Patients typically use White Widow as a medicinal strain for conditions such as ADD/ADHD and PTSD. However, you can also use it if you suffer from stress because it is the perfect wind-down smoke.

White Widow – Early Stages

When growing White Widow, please be aware that you can do it indoors or outdoors. If you are a home grower, you should start small and use five feminized White Widow seeds. The moist paper towel technique is probably the best way to germinate the seeds.

Next, place them in small pots and use a high-quality soil mix to ensure the roots proliferate. Good options include soil mixes containing natural ingredients such as bat guano. Place a thin layer of plastic between the soil and pot to make it easy to transplant when the plant gets bigger.

According to Green House Seeds, White Widow is best grown using the Screen of Green (SCROG) method. This low-stress training method involves using a screen to make a canopy. Rather than tying the plant down, wait for it to grow through the mesh. After the branches come through, tuck them back into the screen. By the flowering stage, you will have a garden capable of producing a lot of colas.

Most cannabis tips regarding White Widow suggest that it works best in a hydroponic setup. This involves using a material such as Rockwool as a growing medium instead of soil. However, White Widow thrives just as well when you use soil. After a couple of weeks, your plants should enter the vegetative stage.

Using the Right Lighting Schedule

Typically, White Widow remains in the vegetative stage for up to eight weeks. During this time, we recommend exposing it to a minimum of 18 hours of light a day. Once the plants outgrow their original containers, switch them to larger pots. By doing so, you ensure they develop a robust root system along with a thicker stem. Ideally, you will make sure the light focuses low on the plant, but avoid burning the tips!

Once you have reached the eight-week mark or feel that your plant is ready, switch to a 12-hour light cycle. To force your crop to flower, you must expose it to 12 hours of continuous darkness each day. At this stage, you can implement the SCROG method. It is imperative that you evenly distribute the light. Otherwise, you won’t achieve maximum yields.

Flowering Time for White Widow

White Widow’s flowering time lasts 7-9 weeks when grown indoors. If you are an outdoor grower, it is ready for harvest by the end of October. Use the Pistil Method to check whether it is harvesting time.

Make sure that at least 70% of the pistils have turned amber before harvesting.

What Kind of Yield Can I Expect?

Most experts classify White Widow’s yield as moderate to low. If you grow indoors, you could yield up to 18 ounces per square meter. Outdoor growers regularly benefit from a slightly larger yield at 21 ounces per square meter. Other growers suggest that you will receive up to 180 grams of weed (just over six ounces) per plant when you grow indoors.

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Ideal Growing Conditions for White Widow

You need to know that White Widow is one of the hardest marijuana strains to grow, especially outdoors. Generally speaking, most marijuana strains thrive in temperatures of 70-80 degrees Fahrenheit. However, White Widow is capable of absorbing more light at even higher temperatures. We’ve heard reports of growers exposing their plants to temperatures of up to 90 degrees.

Make sure the temperature stays above 70 degrees during the day and above 60 degrees at night. Your White Widow plants are mildly shocked at 55 degrees. They could die if repeatedly exposed to temperatures below 50 degrees. As for humidity, keep it at 70% during germination and drop into the mid to upper-60’s during the vegetative stage. Once it reaches the flowering stage, reduce it by up to 5% weekly until it is in the 30-40% range.

You can go as high as 95 degrees if you include carbon dioxide enrichment of 1500 ppm. You must also vent regularly to ensure humidity remains at a lower level. White Widow evolved in an era where natural carbon dioxide levels were several times higher than they are today. When you boost the CO2 concentration, you significantly increase the plant’s ability to manufacture the sugars it needs to grow.

Feeding White Widow

All growers know that nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) are the mainstays of the garden. When purchasing plant food, you’ll probably notice three numbers on the front. These represent the N-P-K content of the food in percentage form. For example, a 20-15-15 formula consists of 20% N, 15% P, and 15% K.

Make sure your plant receives more Nitrogen in the vegetative stage but reduce it in flowering. At that stage, plants need more Phosphorus and Potassium to help boost their THC content. Other essential nutrients include Sulfur, Magnesium, and Calcium. You must also add trace amounts of Manganese, Zinc, Copper, Boron, Iron, and Molybdenum.

Your growing medium must have good drainage. If you usually water your plants once a week, for example, you can decrease it to every 3–5 days if your soil has good drainage. A good tip is to add perlite or lava rock to the medium, as this helps with drainage. Finally, please make sure that you stop feeding nutrients to your White Widow plants around two weeks before harvesting. Otherwise, your precious strain will taste like plant food!

For the record, White Widow performs well at a slightly higher pH than other strains.

While most strains do best at a pH of 6.0, you can bump it as high as 6.5. If you are using a hydroponics setup, lower the pH by 0.5 or so. A pH meter is an excellent investment. You can pick one up for a few bucks. It helps you check if your plants’ soil is becoming too acidic or alkaline.

White Widow Pests

Pests are an issue with White Widow, whether you grow it indoors or outdoors. Aphids, mites, fungi, caterpillars, and whiteflies are the worst offenders. They can cause significant damage to your crop. If you bring in White Widow plants from outside, make sure you use pyrethrum on every leaf before storing them in your growing room.

White Widow is susceptible to bud rot or fungus when its flowers are half developed. Your plants are at the highest risk in a room with a temperature between 60 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit and a high humidity level. This is one of the reasons why you should reduce humidity levels by the flowering stage.

There are a host of safe fungicides on the market that won’t expose your White Widow plants to nasty chemicals. Alternatively, you can try a homemade solution. We find that a combination of chili pepper powder and tobacco juice works wonders for handling mites. You can even mix soap and dish detergent to remove spiders. Typically, this solution breaks down into non-toxic elements within a week.

Final Thoughts on How to Grow White Widow Marijuana Strain

Hopefully, this guide to growing White Widow will prove useful whether you grow it indoors or outside. When you optimize its growing conditions, its final THC content of around 25% provides you with a potent, pleasant high.