Can I Give Creatine To My Cannabis Plants?

Are you looking for the next soil amendment that will revolutionise your cannabis growing experience? In the search for bigger, better, and stronger weed, there’s no shortage of little tips and tricks at our disposal. But might we be able to put creatine—a bodybuilding supplement—to use in the grow room or garden?

Probably not! Here, we take a brief look at why it’s best to save the creatine for yourself, and your gains, and to keep it away from your marijuana plants.

Will creatine make my cannabis plants stronger?

We all love plants with bulging buds and flexing stems, and we all enjoy finding new and ever-more inventive ways to bulk out our crop. But can gym supplements meant for human consumption give our weed plants the extra edge we’re looking for?

Sadly, while it might be amusing to imagine our cannabis plants bench-pressing their way to greatness, adorned with their own equivalent of bicep veins and protruding striations, the reality is quite different. The key lies in variations in plant and animal biology. In animals, including humans, creatine occurs in organs such as the brain as well as the muscles. Created from amino acids arginine, glycine, and methionine, it helps to produce adenosine triphosphate (ATP), a compound that is vital for energy production and muscular contractions that allow us to move around.

Plants don't have muscles. They also use different energy systems that don’t require creatine. Giving creatine to your plants won’t help them; it could even hinder them. By applying creatine to the growing medium, you run the risk of botching your soil chemistry and interfering with nutrient uptake.

So, no, unfortunately, creatine will not make your plants huge or improve their structural integrity. If you’re looking for a way to optimise structure, simply stick to a strict feeding regimen and use supports such as trellises and stakes.

Will creatine make my cannabis plants look better?

While creatine can enhance muscle size and definition in humans, your cannabis plants won’t suddenly sprout extra leaves or develop thicker stalks. Instead, you'll likely end up with plants that are no different than before, or worse, ones that suffer from unnecessary additives in their growing medium.

Will creatine make my cannabis plants grow faster?

Even the most patient growers have moments of extreme impatience while waiting for their plants to grow. So, if there was some magical way to speed the process up, we’d all love it, right? Might creatine manage this?

Not quite. Creatine helps with muscle energy metabolism in humans, but plants rely on sunlight, water, friendly microbes, and a balanced mix of nutrients to grow. Creatine won't turn your cannabis plants into sprinting champions of the plant world. Instead, you'll want to stick with proven fertilisers and growth enhancers designed specifically for plants. If you’re really impatient, you’ll need to choose seeds that give rise to plants with a naturally fast growing time, such as autoflowering types.

Cannabis and creatine: Harder, better, faster, stronger?

Giving creatine to our plants, especially if it worked, would for sure be funny. But there’s a reason you only see this product in supplement stores and not garden centres. Your plants will thank you for sticking to traditional and proven nutrients and additives that actually give them what they need, and you'll avoid the potential heartbreak of seeing your beloved plants suffer from a misguided experiment. If you’ve never had a crop die on your before, it is a true tragedy.

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But there are plenty of ways to improve cannabis yields and potency other than creatine. From homemade organic compost to lesser-known micronutrients such as silica and biostimulants, there are plenty of options to optimise plant growth and performance. Happy growing, and may your buds be bountiful (without the gym supplements).

Max Sargent

Max has been writing for over a decade, and has come into cannabis and psychedelic journalism in the last few years. Writing for companies such as Zamnesia, Royal Queen Seeds, Cannaconnection, Gorilla Seeds, MushMagic and more, he has experience in a broad spectrum of the industry.

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