You should keep a cannabis grow journal for numerous reasons. These include because it is easy to use in your garden, safe from online threats, and an effective portable database of the successes of your homegrown.

Introduction

If you're a grower, keeping a cannabis grow journal is incredibly important. The only way to repeat your successes and truly learn a particular cultivar or grow style is to write down daily or weekly results and build off of your progress.

Much like the human body, every cannabis cultivar is unique and requires special attention during its growing term.

Understanding these trends so you can tweak your regime before problems arise is incredibly important when growing homegrown quality buds.

6 Reasons Why You Should Be Keeping A Cannabis Grow Journal

1. A Cannabis Grow Journal Is Easier To Use In The Garden

   There are a lot of great grower apps out there, but the garden isn’t always the best place for tech.
   
   Digital screens are difficult to see under HID lighting (especially if you are wearing protective lenses). And if you're working on your homegrown, you probably have grubby or sticky hands (or gloves).
   
   All this makes it more difficult to engage with a touch screen. But if you wait to enter readings later, you risk forgetting or jumbling certain data points.
   
   Analog tools like pen and paper are a far better bet. They're easy to see under any light, quick to enter your data, and doing it in the moment will allow you to be more observant and granular with your entries.

2. A Cannabis Grow Journal Is A Portable Reference For The Future

   The ability to look back at past grows and see what feeding schedule, environmental conditions, and cultivar trends is very important when attempting to repeat successes.
   
   Having this information documented in a physical cannabis grow journal ensures it is always available and can’t be deleted or inaccessible due to intermittent technology (like cloud drives or computer files).

3. Writing Boosts Memory and Comprehension

   The hand and the brain have a unique relationship. When you write letters and words, you are communicating ideas and causing the mind to re-compose thoughts.
   
   This process will actually improve your memory and understanding of the content that you write.
   
   This is helpful to anyone hoping to better understand and improve their homegrown cannabis operation. Not only are you keeping valuable notes, but you are helping your mind memorize the data.

4. A Cannabis Grow Journal Gives You the Complete Picture

   In addition to the obvious entry points (nutrient recipe, cultivar details, feeding plan), a cannabis grow journal is open-ended and will let you document other important factors such as the subtleties of deficiency problems, short-term anomalies or equipment failures that may affect your results.
   
   Keeping detailed notes on the seemingly normal parts of your grow is very important since these factors can impact the final yield and quality of homegrown cannabis.
   
   Finding a cannabis grow journal that offers a templated approach will help you fill in the gaps you might not know to include.

5. You’re Creating Your Own Database

   The utter variety of seeds and genetics available to growers is astounding. It makes it difficult to compare one cannabis grow to another, even if the same process is followed.
   
   Keeping thorough notes on both environment and cultivar-specific details -- factors like grow speed, leaf colors, and vigor is very important.
   
   This will help you when you grow the same cultivar again. You will be able to get in front of any hurdle before it becomes a problem (like a need for higher concentrations of a particular nute or sensitivity to pH at a certain phase of the grow cycle).

6. Discretion For You and Your Homegrown
   

   Certainly worth mentioning is the need for privacy. Regardless of the legality of where you set up your homegrown cannabis operation, you’ll likely want to keep your records private.
   
   With all of the new tech available to security agencies, hackers, and just about anyone else, storing your data in an app or online (cloud drives) is a slippery slope, and a data breach could happen at any point without your knowledge.
   
   A physical cannabis grow journal is the best way to protect yourself and your intellectual property.
   

The Benefits of a Goldleaf Cannabis Grow Journal

There are plenty of quality blank journals out there. But if you are looking for a more sophisticated solution, consider a journal by Goldleaf.

We make a first-of-its-kind series of cannabis grow journals specially designed for cannabis cultivators that takes a lot of the guesswork out of entering the vital data. It also makes referencing past grows a breeze.

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