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Sunlight = good for cannabis. But like all things, too much of a good thing can sometimes be harmful. Too much sunlight can be harmful to your cannabis cultivation, and you didn’t even know it! Understanding the symptoms of when your plant is suffering from too much sunlight and remedies to keep them cool will improve your at-home outdoor cannabis cultivation.

How much sunlight does your cannabis plant need at every stage?

Growing weed outdoors exposes your plant to natural sunlight. Like all plants, it regulates its growth based on how much light it gets. The more sunlight, the better. But not too much to avoid giving it light stress.

Plants vary in the amount of sunlight they need daily depending on the growth cycle (https://www.amsterdamgenetics.com/how-cannabis-grows-the-life-cycle-of-weed/).

Here’s how much sunlight your cannabis plant needs at each stage:

• Germination stage – 18 hours of sunlight
• Seedling stage – 18 hours of sunlight
• Growth/Vegetation stage – 18 hours of sunlight
• Flowering stage – 12 hours of sunlight

The cannabis seeds you decide to grow also play a role in how much sunlight they need. Strains bred in parts of the world with sunny climates can sustain more sunlight. Sativa strains can also endure more sunlight since they are genetically larger plants compared to indica strains.

Signs of Too Much Sunlight

Detecting whether your cannabis plant is getting too much sunlight early is best. It allows time to implement a solution and let your plant recover. What are the signs you should look for? Here are the five tell-tales that are a sign it may be too sunny for your plant:

1. Leaf Discoloration

Most cannabis plants have vibrant green leaves—unless you are growing one of our popular purple strains.

Discolouration of the leaves to a brown colour can result from direct causes like burning. Too much sunlight can cause white spots (bleaching) on the leaves resulting from nutrient deficiency.

2. Curling leaves

Can you use your cannabis leaves like a cup of water? Seeing the edges of the leaves curling up is a sign of cell damage, transpiration, or lack of water.

3. Wilting leaves

Wilting leaves are a sign that you should act fast because they can lead to your plant dying from sunlight. Make a note of drooping leaves. The sunlight dries the plant’s moisture, so it can’t pump enough water to support leaf growth.

4. Dry soil

Your plant isn’t the only thing to look at to determine symptoms of too much sunlight. The soil surrounding your plant also leaves clues (no pun intended).

Touch the soil to see if it’s dry soon after watering it. It means the sun dried up the soil before it reached your plant, and it will be deprived of one of its most essential resources to grow.

What to do if your cannabis plant gets too much sunlight

Now that you know the symptoms of too much sunlight for your cannabis plant, it’s time to learn what to do if you encounter either of them. Getting too much sunlight doesn’t mean the end of your cultivation. Using a few simple fixes, your plant will be well on its way to getting back on its regular grow schedule.

1. Provide shade

If the weather forecaster reports expecting more and hotter sunlight than usual over the next couple of days, you can modify your grow setup to prepare for the rays.

You can give your plants shade with:

• Covering
• Tent
• Use other plants

The shade will help keep your plants cooler and retain more water. However, avoid keeping your plants in the shade for too long, as they still need sunlight at some point during the day to keep growing.

2. Move your plant

Oh, the joys of growing weed in pots. Moving your plants to a more suitable environment and regulating their sunlight intake will be easier. You can move your plants into the shade or consider a new spot where the sunlight isn’t as intense.

Direct sunlight and indirect sunlight have minor differences in how your plant reacts. You can create indirect sunlight with shade cloths or diffuse covers. Also, consider the time of day you expose your plant to the sun. Midday is the most intense, with direct sunlight beaming directly overhead. Take them out of the sun briefly to avoid heat stress.

3. Give more water

Cannabis plants and humans aren’t too different, after all! We both love a glass of refreshing water on a hot day. Your plant works harder when there is too much sunlight to regulate itself and attempt to manage the abundance of energy. Give your plant a much-needed break by keeping it hydrated during the sunniest part of the day. Increasing how frequently and how much you water your plant will keep it moist and avoid dry soil.

Reduce your risk of too much sunlight on cannabis plants

Pick the proper cannabis seeds for growing outdoors. These strains love soaking up as much sun as they can get, so the risk of too much sunlight is lower.