What Is Crop Steering

Crop steering isn’t just a buzzword - it’s a strategic way to control the life cycle of weed plants. It involves guiding crops through their growth stages, focusing on either vegetative growth (where the plant grows leaves and stems) or generative growth (where the plant focuses on flower and bud production). A minor change in the rules of the following factors can influence the plant’s physical and chemical growth response, giving you opportunities to steer plant growth vegetatively or generatively.

• Light

• Humidity

• Temperature

• Nutrients

• CO2

• Irrigation

How Does Crop Steering Work

Crop steering is a complex interaction you play with plant biology. It leverages the plant’s natural responses to its growing conditions, based on the understanding of how plants interpret their surroundings and distribute resources accordingly, to push the plant toward the desired development.

For example, higher temperatures and abundant phosphorus can stimulate root development during the vegetative phase, while cooler temperatures and calcium-rich conditions can promote stronger flower formation. Growers take advantage of these environmental cues, such as adjusting light intensity and nutrient balance, to guide plants into the desired growth phase, ensuring that the plant's energy is directed toward the most beneficial outcome for its current stage of development.

In addition to manual environmental control, modern technology also plays a big role in crop steering, with sensors and automated systems adjusting environmental conditions in real-time. By constantly monitoring factors like CO2 levels, light exposure, and nutrient content, these systems ensure plants receive precisely what they need at each stage, optimizing both growth and yield.

Vegetative Steering vs Generative Steering

Before jumping to specific crop steering techniques, you have to know the difference between the vegetative stage and the flowering stage.

Vegetative growth is the stage where the plant focuses on developing its root system, stem, and leaves. During this phase, the plant requires more water, nutrients, and light to support its rapid growth. To promote vegetative growth, growers can use a crop steering chart to adjust environmental conditions. For instance, maintaining a lower VPD (vapor pressure deficit) and higher humidity levels can encourage robust vegetative growth.

Generative growth is the stage where the plant shifts its focus to producing flowers and seeds. During this phase, the plant requires less water and nutrients but more light and CO2 to support flower development. To promote generative crop steering, growers can employ techniques such as reducing irrigation frequency, increasing light intensity, and maintaining a higher VPD. These adjustments help the plant allocate more energy toward flower production, resulting in higher-quality yields.

Balancing Vegetative and Generative Growth

Mastering crop steering means finding the perfect balance between vegetative and generative growth. Too much vegetative growth can lead to overly large plants with fewer fruits, while too much generative growth can result in weak plants that can’t support large yields. How to implement a balanced crop steering? Check out the following crop steering tricks!

Crop Steering in Environmental Control

Environmental control plays a crucial role in crop steering journey by influencing key factors such as light, temperature, humidity, and VPD to guide plants through vegetative and generative growth stages. Manipulating these factors helps growers optimize plant health and productivity. Here's a breakdown of the primary environmental factors used in crop steering:

• Light: Adjusting the light cycle is essential, especially for photoperiodic plants like most cannabis strains. Switching to a 12-hour light cycle with 12 hours of darkness encourages flowering, while extended light exposure promotes vegetative growth. Fortunately, Spider Farmer is about to launch smart LED grow lights soon to let you freely adjust light schedules on the phone.

• Temperature: Maintaining higher ambient temperatures encourages vegetative growth by keeping plants more active in developing roots, stems, and leaves. Conversely, lowering temperatures mimics seasonal changes, steering plants toward the generative phase.

• Day-Night Temperature Difference: Altering the difference between day and night temperatures can control plant stretching. Large differences result in more spaced-out growth (inter-nodal spacing), while smaller differences produce a more compact plant structure.

• Speed of Temperature Change: The rate at which the temperature shifts between day and night is also important. A slower transition can promote generative growth, while faster changes help maintain vegetative activity.

• Pipe Temperature (if used): In greenhouse setups, controlling the temperature of pipes used for heating can further fine-tune the plant’s growth phase, especially during the generative stage.

• Humidity: Higher humidity levels are favorable for vegetative growth as they reduce plant stress and support faster development. On the contrary, lower humidity during the generative phase signals the plant to focus on reproduction and fruiting. Here's a recommended grow room temp and humidity chart for cannabis cultivation.