Disclaimer:
This post is about medical/recreational cannabis.
I recommend you don't use it.
It could be illegal in your country.
Be careful!
Plants look happy and healthy - not much to report.
Nature vs. Nurture
Quite often I've heard or read something along the lines of:
Just let nature do its thing
...and sometimes I even use it myself.
On the surface, it seems like a good way to look at this stuff; The plant is more or less part of nature and nature provides the best conditions for it.
Nature
Taken to the extreme, this would mean (in case of cannabis), that the plants grow as tall as possible and produce as many flowers as possible, then die and spread those seeds/pollen as far as possible.
Nature often takes the scatter-gun approach and just throws a lot of spawn out there. Survival of the fittest and all that...
..and that's good in nature.
Nurture
At some point, I want to harvest. I think that's the difference between nature and gardening:
The garden produces something.
It could just be there for beauty, but generally, you want some form of yield.
This is in most cases not in the best 'interest' of the plant- It's against it's nature.
I want to harvest my spinach before it goes into flower.
I want to harvest my cherries before they fall off the tree.
Cannabis
With this cannabis, I want to harvest the female flower.
I want the cannabinoid content to be high in the flower.
This is absolutely not what the plant 'wants' to do in nature.
In a natural lifecycle, the plant would produce those female flowers to attract male pollen, to be fertilized, to create the next generation.
I want to avoid that.
Balance
Even though I want the plant for something it wouldn't do in nature, I also want to take advantage of the plant's nature...
Creating an artficial environment can also create problems that would not happen in nature.
If I lock up the plant indoors together with a pest, there is no chance for predators to come in and attack the pest. In the wild, there is at least a chance for some problems to take care of themselves...
The job of a gardener is to find a balance between the nature of the plant and the results they want to achieve.
I don't want weeds in my garden (just weed, lol), but I also don't want the garden to be sterile.
I am also lazy. I want to do as little as possible to get the best results.
In essence, I want 'nature to do its thing', but strategically interfere at certain points and manipulate the plant and its growth into a certain direction. With minimal effort.
TL;DR:
Don't come at me with 'nature knows what's best' 😑.
At the same time, I believe: 'nature knows what's best - leave the plant alone'. ☮️
Might refer to this in future posts.