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Cannabis anatomy isn’t too complicated for most growers to understand – you’ve got your roots, stems, leaves and buds. These four cover the major areas of plant anatomy, but what about the finer points of each plant? Do you pay attention to bud density? What coloration are your plant’s leaves? How about internodal spacing?
It takes a magnifying glass and some biochemistry knowledge sometimes to keep up with what your plants are communicating about their health – or lack thereof. In this series on plant cultivation, anatomy and plant sciences we’ll hone in on specific details about cannabis biology and chemistry.
This article will focus on cannabis nodes. What are weed plant nodes? How many nodes on a weed plant is considered average? Why are nodes important? Let’s connect the dots like internodes connect main stems to auxiliary branches in this guide to cannabis nodes.
What Are Weed Nodes?
Have you ever surveyed a major highway junction from above? Whether you’ve had the fortune of riding in a helicopter or just watched traffic cams, highway systems are a lot like cannabis stems, nodes and branches. Imagine for a moment that you superimposed a cannabis plant over a highway running through a major city – one large channel (the main road; main stem) with multiple off-shoots (exit ramps, merge lanes; nodes, auxiliary branches).
In this analogy the cars could be nutrients, water and oxygen traveling up-and-through the network of roads/stems. When you look at the two images side-by-side, it’s easy to see why some growers refer to the network of stems, cannabis nodes and branches as the “highways for nutrients”. The destination for all these “drivers”? The buds, of course!
Weed plant nodes are essentially where new growth stems branch out from the main stem. Plain and simple, nodes are junctions where nutrient uptake and transfer of water/oxygen are diverted from one main channel (main stem) to auxiliary branches. Does this mean that the higher the number of nodes on a weed plant, the more intake it has to maintain to feed all the new growth? Yes and no, but we’ll explain more on this as we progress through the article.
Weed plant nodes can act as indicators for a number of plant characteristics, such as sex, genetics, development and plant health. We’ll discuss why cannabis nodes are important in the next section, but first let’s read between the lines – or in this case, between the stems – to figure out the differences between cannabis nodes and internodes.
Internodes & Internodal Spacing
If a node is the branching of one branch from the stem, then what the heck do we mean by ‘internodes’? You might have heard of internodal spacing, which is what this is referring to. Internodes are simply the space between nodes – and if nodes are the space between stem-and-branches, then internodes are the spaces between the spaces between…
All jokes aside, internodal spacing can indicate certain things about your cannabis plants, such as its genetics, deficiencies, how stable its environment is and more. The majority of growers count the nodes of their weed plants in order to confirm genetics, even though most strains today have been hybridized to the point of making genetic identity moot.
Internodal spacing has traditionally been one of the ways to determine if a plant was indica- or sativa-dominant. Indica cannabis plants are typically shorter & bushier with close-together nodes that form dense, wide-arrays of fan leaves. Indica leaves are more akin to the iconic maple leaf of Canada, whereas its sativa counterpart has more of a tropical, palm-tree looking leaf pattern. Speaking of sativas, these types of genetics exhibit far stretchier internodal spacing – tall stems, wide spaces between nodes with finger-like leaves that offer a lot more airflow between them.
It’s important to note that not all cannabis cultivars can be identified as “X % sativa, Y % indica” because of the proliferation of cannabis hybridization in the last 30 years. That being said, counting nodes, observing the spacing between them – short/tight vs tall/stretched – and understanding the dominant attributes of certain cannabis genetics can help you to figure out what those seeds you bought really turned out to be.
Why Are Nodes Important?
PLANT SEX
No, not the act of your plants cross-pollinating and getting it on – that’s bad! Plant sex strictly refers to identifying the females that you want to keep and grow to flower stage, while also picking out those pesky males and tossing them in the compost heap. To identify female cannabis plants we want to pay close attention to the nodes for the female cannabis reproductive organs: pistils. These hair-like growths develop around the nodes and are usually white or bright in coloration. These node pistils will eventually grow into big, bodacious bud sites, so this is always an exciting sight to see for growers.
Male plant parts show themselves in node sites as well, but in the form of – you guessed it – ball-like growths. These bulbous reproductive organs are sometimes referred to as “the small ball” that can look like bunches of grapes, tiny spade-like growths or other bulky shapes. These are a lot more obvious to the naked eye than the female pistils, and they signify horror for many growers at the thought of losing crops to pollination. Unless you’re breeding plants and know exactly what you’re doing, immediately remove plants exhibiting the male “balls” and sterilize the area – if you catch it early enough, you can avoid any risks of pollination in your grow room.
But wait, there’s more! There are plants that can develop both male and female parts, known as hermaphroditic cannabis. This can be brought on by a variety of factors: stress, nutrient deficiency, faulty genetics, etc. If you notice both pistils and small-balls in your plant’s nodes, it’s best to remove this plant as well because it can pollinate itself and potentially cause a chain-reaction of crop loss.
LIFECYCLE
Cannabis nodes can indicate what stage of development that your plants are in. Early-stages of pistils signify that the flowering stages aren’t far behind, while fully-developed and flourishing pistils will help growers to know when to kick into flowering with light schedule changes.
ENVIRONMENT
If environmental conditions aren’t ideal, then weed plant nodes can start to stretch out and cause abnormal internodal spacing. Environmental stressors like poor lighting, temperature fluctuations or sharp changes in humidity levels can lead to a condition called etiolation – whereby plants over stretch themselves in attempts to reach light sources or to respond to imbalanced temperature/humidity/airflow conditions. When cannabis nodes etiolate it puts strain on the nodes as well as the rest of the plant.
Some growers can control etiolation in their plants and actually incorporate this into their growing routines leading to flowering – by shifting light sources gradually away, they force their plants to grow tall and strong. This is an advanced kind of plant training/manipulation, so it’s best avoided unless you’re a true greenthumb.
CLONES
Nodes on a weed plant that are lower on the canopy – aka the most mature branches on the plant – often make for the best clones or cuttings. The more established a node/branch system, the more likely you’ll be to successfully transplant it. When searching for which cannabis nodes to cut your clone from, try to pick the strongest/healthiest connection – keep in mind you’re damaging the plant, so you need to choose a node on your weed that can recover from the cut, and a branch that is healthy enough to establish itself its own root system.
Be In The Nodes With Your Weed Plant’s Nodes
There are a number of reasons why some growers count their weed plant’s nodes, while many others don’t pay much attention to internodal spacing beyond the identity of the plant’s sex. Cannabis nodes are an often overlooked part of the overall plant’s anatomy, and with this guide to cannabis nodes we hope you found some new insights into their importance to growing a successful crop of buds.
Stay tuned for more growing tips, tricks, strategies, new technologies and everything you need to know for growing some dank dro. Thanks, as always, from the entire Haute Health crew for your readership, and may the weed be with you!
FAQ’s
What are nodes in cannabis?
Nodes are the connective parts of cannabis plants where new growth stems offshoot from already established stems. Sometimes referred to as “Y nodes” or “off-shoots” in other cultivation circles, nodes typically start as early-stage leaf-nodes, stretching into elongated stems and establishing into full fan-leaves and buds.
How many nodes should a cannabis cutting have?
Cannabis cuttings, or clones, typically have at least two nodes on them – you might not want to take a cutting of a single node because this clone might be at risk of not being established enough to survive the transplant shock. The weed plant node count doesn’t have a limit for cuttings, therefore the more nodes on a weed plant the better – 6+ is awesome!
Why is it called a node?
Cannabis nodes are referred to as nodes because they are the connection points whereby old growth and new plant growth intersects. Weed plant nodes can differ in number & spacing, but every cannabis plant will develop nodes as it reaches maturity, towards light sources.
