Grow Stronger, Healthier Cannabis Plants By Doing THIS With Your Roots

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]If your plants aren't reaching their full potential, the problem might actually be below the surface. So, today we're going to break down why building a strong root zone is one of the most important things you can do if you want bigger yields and better quality cannabis. Come on, let's do this. But before we do, this video is sponsored by Real Growers Recharge. If you're overwhelmed by bottles, pH swings, nutrient stress, you got to check out Recharge. Microbes simplify everything.

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[00:00:41]Now, come on, High See. Let's Let's get into the roots. All right, Scotty. You always tell me if you can grow bigger roots, you're going to get bigger fruits. Let's talk about three ways that we can get bigger roots for >> Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. I have a T-shirt that says it. I should have worn it today. But, uh, yeah, come on. I can give you three things pretty quickly that will help you, uh, develop a better root zone. And better roots down below supports a bigger canopy up top. So, let's talk about it.

[00:01:11]>> All right, let's talk about the first one. And this one kind of seems like a no-brainer, but I didn't even get it until you explained it.

[00:01:18]>> Man, you got to give your roots air.

[00:01:21]Yeah, everybody knows to water their plants. These plants are aerobic. So, the microbes are aerobic, the roots are aerobic. They need just as much, uh, air in that root zone as they need water. I didn't think about that because I was always told plants don't breathe [snorts] in oxygen and they breathe through their leaves. So, I didn't even consider air at the root zone.

[00:01:43]>> Yeah, but you're talking that's in the leaves. The root zone is totally different. And that's why they talk about overwatering is the quickest way you can kill your plants cuz you're starving them from oxygen. It's the same thing when you have uh, a really heavy soil, it compacts down. A lot of these organic soils that are loaded with compost and whatnot and humics, they'll compress down and the plants can't breathe. And if you want to kill a plant fast, I mean, just think again of these plants are living, right? Think about if we screw up our water to air ratio, it's going to kill us, right?

[00:02:20]It's the same thing with the plants.

[00:02:21]They need plenty of water, but they need plenty of air and a lot of people kind of kind of miss that. Well, also, especially with organic growing, that dirt or that soil is so compact that it makes it almost impossible for the roots to grow out.

[00:02:37]>> Yeah, I mean, that's why they lighten them up. There's I think they use rice hulls, I think they use pumice for organics. I know we use perlite or lava rock. And the whole idea with that is, or even coco coir, coco coir is one of those things the what reason it's so awesome is because you can saturate it and very soon after it'll still hold a whole bunch of air. So, very cool. I'll also use some perlite. I'm doing experimentation right now with pure coco and then a third perlite in there to lighten it up. So, yeah, lightening up that mix, the more air you can give those roots, then they get a chance to thrive and expand. Especially if you're doing a a little bit of dry backs, if you go from wet to dry, those roots go out and expand. So, definitely something there about a well-aerated soil. Okay, and you mentioned there's more going on in the soil than just the roots.

[00:03:34]>> Yeah. What's the second tip for getting a better root zone, bigger roots?

[00:03:39]>> Come on, you know what I'm going to say, man. Microbes, soil microbes. They're aerobic microbes. They need air to thrive. You know what the anaerobic microbes are? Those are all the pathogens, the roots rot the root rots that will come and destroy your plants.

[00:03:55]So, you want those aerobic microbes. So, yes, we're going to give them air and then I'm going to give you my three favorite and those are mycorrhizae and mycorrhizae expands the root zone. It's this fungus that sends this little tail outside the root zone so that tail can touch more water. It can pull more nutrients in. It can negotiate to get nutrients and if it's a improper pH, it can actually make it work to get those nutrients in. And then once they get in there, it creates these things called arbuscles which are almost like a tree branch inside the roots and it's just more area for the roots to store nutrients. And let's clarify that cuz it's not all mycorrhizae does that.

[00:04:40]>> No, we want vesicular arbuscular mycorrhizae. No, it's called VAM if you look at it, it'll say VAM.

[00:04:47]It is Glomus intraradices is the genus and species of the one. These things there's all sorts of mycorrhizae.

[00:04:54]There's thousands of different species of them or I guess yeah, I guess it would be species. And the ones you're looking for is endomycorrhizae. That endo means inside. It's making those arbuscles inside. You can get that ectomycorrhizae. You can go get a mycorrhizae product that has 12 different versions of it. The only one you're looking for that's going to form association with cannabis is Glomus intraradices. All right, that's one soil microbe. You promised us three. Come on, let's do it, man. Bacillus. So, the the mycorrhizae lives inside the root.

[00:05:30]Bacillus lives on the root and this creates that biofilm again that protects the plant. It's got these anti-pathogen qualities to it that's able to create enzymes that destroy pathogens. It also holds the nutrient at the root zone. It can make those organic acids or bicarbonates to negotiate that pH and it gets it solubilize that nutrient and then gets it into the root zone. So, it's a huge facilitator of pulling nutrient from the soil into the root zone. It's huge. Okay, so we've got endomycorrhizae.

[00:06:08]We've got bacillus. What was the third one that you got for us?

[00:06:12]>> so we got endomycorrhizae living inside the plant root. We've got bacillus that are living on the root side and now on the other side on the soil side, we've got trichoderma. And trichoderma is one of these that physically can go and melt pathogens. It you makes these enzymes.

[00:06:31]It actually makes that it triggers that ISR we talk about that induced systemic response. It's just another benefit that you get from it.

[00:06:41]But it protects those roots and it also makes nutrient available. It's able to solubilize nutrient, turn plant available, and get that nutrient eventually through the other systems into the plant. And trichoderma, I've heard scary things about it like it likes to eat stuff. And you said that might actually be a benefit at the root zone. Yeah, because it's pulling out all this dead matter. You've pulled your you know, when you have roots that come out of an old plant or not even an old plant, a plant you just harvested that was healthy. There's still dead root material there. You imagine if you were able to take that, it's able to break down like cellulose, which is one of lignin. Those are like really hard things to break down and the trichoderma can do it and it's a big benefit, definitely. Okay, and you mentioned ISR.

[00:07:29]It has ISR. Can you What's that mean?

[00:07:31]The induced systemic response, which is the plant thinks it's getting attacked and then it basically goes on guard and makes itself a little beefs itself up a little bit more. They talk about that maybe giving a little bit more quality to the to the end result to the plant. So, uh definitely something to play with and uh trichoderma does a really good job of it. Uh bacillus does a really good job of it. And what do we talk there? Is that chitosan that we talk about adding for ISR? Turns out bacillus makes that chitosan. It actually makes the the enzyme that comes from chitosan. So, you get that ISR from bacillus and then you even get it reinforced from the trichoderma. So, a lot of benefit to it.

[00:08:18]So, these these microbes trick the plant into thinking that it's being attacked and then that triggers the plant into Yeah. Beating itself up.

[00:08:27]>> Yeah. ISR is internally and yeah, SAR is externally. Okay. And the last tip that you have for us today on building a bigger root zone. This one's kind of counterintuitive. You threw me off with it. I don't know. Is it really? Um you build the canopy. So, you top the canopy multiple times. So, you branch out the plant. Because uh if you just grow one apex, just one apical meristem, uh the roots don't need to expand out to feed that. They're going to grow enough to to feed that one apex, that one bud. When you cut that off, you encourage branching, right? We talk about getting rid of the auxins and the cyto kinins take over. It encourages that branching and then all that branching, all that new foliage needs water, right? So, as soon as it's going to grow, it sends a signal down to the roots, make more roots to feed me. So, the more tops and the the bigger canopy you get, uh the more it signals down to your roots that your roots have to grow to mimic it.

[00:09:31]Yeah, the thing that threw me off is we're trying to get bigger roots so that we can have a bigger canopy.

[00:09:38]And the way to get bigger roots is to start by inducing a bigger canopy.

[00:09:42]>> Yeah, absolutely. It's pretty intuitive, right? It's not that crazy to think that if you grow a giant plant above, it's going to signal giant roots down below.

[00:09:52]Hey, but those are just my three best tips on growing a bigger root zone for stronger plants. Come on, but what about you? What's one great tip you've got for building a super strong root zone? Let me know in the comments. And come on, if you dug this video, hit the like button.

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