Everything You Need to Know About Growing Super Silver Haze

Growing your favorite strain is every stoner’s dream. If that strain is Super Silver Haze, then you are on the right page of the internet. Below are some growing hacks to pursue when you plant Super Silver Haze, a strain praised for its vigorous haze with a succulent indica tinge.  With genetics of roughly 80% sativa and 20% indica, Super Silver Haze made a boom when it emerged from the Dutch seed scene back in the 1990s. The strain, created by Greenhouse Seed Company‒the same company that gave White Widow and Neville’s Haze to the world‒won the High Times Cannabis Cup three times in succession, in 1997, 1998, and 1999.  With relative THC contents of around 18%, this impressive hybrid of Skunk #1, Northern Lights, and Nevile’s Haze‒rejuvenated among the sativa-dominant commercial strains of the day. And unlike other strains whose popularity has fluctuated now and then, interest in Super Silver Haze has remained pretty steady. 

The genetic lineage of Super Silver Haze

Super Silver Haze takes on the genetics of the legendary Haze sativa hybrid, aka Original Haze, which first appeared in Santa Cruz, California, during the 1960s.  The incredible Haze lineage began with the Haze brothers, who initially developed a hybrid of a Mexican landrace sativa and a Colombian landrace. Subsequently, the pair took the best female flowers from the cross of the Mexican and Colombian seeds, crossing them with two other landrace strains—Southern Indian landrace and, lastly, Thai landrace strains.  The first haze weed to win the market in the 1970s was Purple Haze. Although it came with a salty price, stoners loved it.  However, the pure sativa genetics of the early-day Haze made it difficult for indoor growing. This is why breeders began crossing Haze with indica strains to improve its ability to grow inside.  When Neville Schoenmarkers got his hands on pure Haze seeds in the 1990s, he picked female and male plants and began experimenting with new strains at The Seed Bank premises, which he owned. Sensi Seeds Bank, as the seed bank was rebranded later, gained massive popularity for creating an array of potent Haze strains bolstering indica in their genetic makeup. Of all strains, Super Silver Haze stood out. 

What effects Super Silver Haze has?

Super Silver Haze is often described for giving the kind of ‘high’ that no other strain can exactly match. More than half of users report they feel ultimate happiness after smoking Super Silver Haze. The splendid, sticky sativa gives a strong heady ‘high’ punch and is felt elsewhere in the body. But unlike smoking pure haze that will push the user often completely tripping out, with silver haze, your feet are safe on the ground.  Super Silver Haze diminishes stress, increases alertness, and soothes the entire body. Medical uses of Super Silver Haze include relief from daytime fatigue, muscle soreness, chronic back pain, nausea, and a lack of appetite. It also helps with anxiety, depression, and PTSD.

How to grow Super Silver Haze?

Super Silver Haze growers must work patiently for this strain to reach full maturation and enjoy its spicy scent with hints of earthy sweetness.  While the plants give low to moderate yields, and the difficulty of growing is medium to high‒the efforts of growing Super Silver Haze are highly rewarding needless to say.  Super Silver Haze thrives in warm, humid environments between 70 and 80 degrees °F. Grown outside, she flowers during October, and ideally, you get up to 15 ounces of weed per plant.  When she is grown indoors, the flowering time is set between 56-63 days, while most Haze-dominant phenotypes can flower for up to 77 days. Some phenotypes can also be grown in greenhouses.  While Super Silver Haze is best to grow in a hydroponics setup, don’t let this discourage you from growing her in soil or outside. Some phenotypes also succeed in greenhouses.  ScrOG and LST methods of growing should help your Super Silver Haze grow and improve yields. Below is some critical information to support your homegrowing efforts.

Training your Super Silver Haze darlings 

Indoor yield is typically lower than outside growing, but using the Screen of Green (ScrOG) method and low-stress training (LST) may help you boost your Super Silver Haze ounces.  For performing a ScrOG training, growers may use LED lights (smaller ones should do it) or compact fluorescent CFL grows lights. Besides lighting, supply a screen or garden netting.  Make netting holes up to two square inches, be patient, and allow your Super Silver Haze plants to make their way through it. 

Position the screen above your growing medium, which ideally is hydroponics. Around 10 inches should do it. When you see the plants sneak through the net, stimulate each plant to grow outwards across each net hole. The idea is to get a more even canopy so that every flower from the ScrOG setup receives light directly from the lighting setup above the netting. To further promote growth to the flattened-like canopy, remove any growth on the base of the plant.  In this early stage of the growing process, ensure that your grow room is well ventilated as you don’t want mold on your Haze. 

Balance the water and nutrient intake 

Overwatering and overfeeding cannabis plants are two of the most common mistakes when it comes to homegrowing. For Super Silver Haze, one of the golden rules is that there should be enough time between watering and feeding so that the plants' roots can take in enough oxygen.  You know that you’ve overwatered your SSH plants when leaves suddenly start to either yellow or fall from the plant. Any excess water principally affects the leaves.  Logically, your next steps should be to water your plants less often, but you also must make drainage checks to ensure that excess water flows out of the plant containers.  A simple method to check if your haze plants need some water is to dip into the soil with your finger, about an inch or so, and if it’s dry, that’s a sign the plant would use some water. If the soil feels moist on the touch, wait for a few days and make another check. You shouldn’t be over-enthusiastic with using nutrients for your haze plants, either. Unlike indicas that typically require more nutrients to grow, your Super Silver Haze is a sativa-dominant strain, hence it requires less feeding.  While Super Silver Haze does need reasonably high levels of nitrogen during the vegetative stage, the dosing should still be balanced. Overnurturing may lead to nutrient burn.  Signs of nutrient burn include atypical colors on the branches, stalks, and leaves. The tip of the leaves may also start to bend, curl up, and yellow. If you notice any of these symptoms on your plants, proceed to cut out any affected parts. Calyxes may also curl, so you may want to take them back to the branch. Flush out your growing medium with pH balanced water (6.0 and 6.5 if using soil, or 5.5 and 6.0 if you use hydroponics).  To avoid nutrient burn, gradually add the nutrient mix to your plants. Start with little, see how it goes, and then increase the dosage by a little more. 

Temperature and humidity

As mentioned earlier, Super Silver Haze thrives in warm, humid climates where the temperatures range approximately between 70 and 80 degrees °F.  An imbalanced temperature in your grow room may lead to various issues, including the ability of your plants to consume water and nutrients as they should. In turn, this may slow down the growing process of the plants. You want to avoid any possibility of sudden drops in room temperatures to prevent this from happening.  Aim for a daytime temperature of around 75-77°F when your plants are freshly seeded. The nighttime temperatures can fall to 70°F at this stage.  During the vegetative stage, increase both daytime temperature to around 80-82°F and keep within the range of 68-75°F at night.  When you notice that your plants begin to flower, reduce the temperature range slightly, to around 72°F, and then to about 68°F on average when it’s the late flowering period.  It may be trickier to control room humidity than room temperatures, especially if you are a first-time grower of Super Silver Haze.  The first thing to keep in mind is that you don’t want the air in your grow room to be too dry as this will force the leaves of the plants to shut down pores so they could retain moisture. Dry air basically overworks the plants’ leaves. So, setting up relatively high humidity for your Super Silver Haze during the early and vegetative stage is critical.  Retain relative humidity between 65-80% when your plants sprout as seedlings. In the vegetative stage, slightly lower down to between 60-70%. Setting such humidity values for your Super Silver Haze younglings will avoid dry air and create a friendly environment for the plants to thrive.  As the SSH plants move into the early flowering stage, decrease the humidity levels to around 45%, and in the late flowering stage, lower further to about 35%.  A dehumidifier or exhaust fan vent on a high velocity, which will enforce hot air out of the grow room, can help you decrease room humidity once your Super Silver Haze flowers. You can additionally increase the supply of cool air into the grow room and water the plant at the beginning of their lighting period. 

Lighten up your Super Silver Haze

Appropriate lighting, especially as your plants enter the vegetative stage, would be one of the critical factors to bolster your haze plants' yields. Lights should govern how your plant develops. Fail to give your Super Silver Haze sufficient light, its stems will unnecessarily elongate, losing vitality and strength in their attempt to reach out closer to the light sources. Give it sufficient light, it will remain vigorous and bump up the buds. If you use LED lights (say 5W), keep them about 18 inches away from the plants. For less powerful LED lights, 12 inches distance should do it. If you use fluorescent CFL lights, these are weaker, and you can keep them closer to the plants.  If you fear that a closer distance between your plants and lighting may cause heat stress, install an exhaust or cooling system. This will also facilitate a healthier photosynthesis process for your Super Silver Hazes.  As you notice that your plants are on the verge of taking more heat, increase CO2 levels in your grow room (you can use CO2 generators like CO2 tanks) so that your plants can take in more heat. But carefully observe the process. Too little CO2 may threaten growth, while too much CO2 may waste unnecessary energy and even harm the plants. You should use a CO2 generator only when the lights are on. In case you don’t ventilate the grow room, a boost of CO2 may further help you mask the ‘pot’ smell of your plants. 

Hydroponics vs. soil 

You can do it both ways. However, when you use a hydroponic setting for Super Silver Haze cultivation, you can anticipate early harvest than with using soils.  For hydroponics, you can use standard rockwool, which you want to soak in a solution with a pH of 5.5 to 6.0 for up to 12 hours. The best thing about rockwool is that it boosts moisture retention and supports the free flow of oxygen almost flawlessly. However, using coconut fiber may work even better. The plant-stimulating hormones found in coconut fiber or coco coir make plants healthier and resilient. With hydroponics, you must add all the needed nutrients yourself. Attain the pH within the range mentioned above.  If you are growing in soil, you want to use soil that is dark and rich, has a loose texture, performs drainage flawlessly, and holds water without becoming muddy. Attain a neutral pH range when you work with soils. Add organic solutions such as fish meal, worm castings, and kelp to the soils, or you can even prepare liquid compost solution from these and other provisions to apply directly to the soil.  Among growers, loam soil composed of mostly sand silt and a small amount of clay is the golden standard for cultivating Super Silver Haze.  If you are a novice grower, it’s recommended that you start homegrowing with soils. You can supply a good quality loam soil with a mix of different nutrients from a grow shop and follow the instructions described above. Happy growing!