There are many different ways to grow cannabis plants. Although hydroponics are also a popular way to grow cannabis, this article focuses only on easily achievable strategies for growing cannabis indoors and outdoors.
Growing cannabis is easy to learn the basics of, but difficult to master. However, just by understanding the basics you can easily grow some really nice looking plants!
What supplies do I need to grow weed indoors?
To grow cannabis indoors you first need a grow tent to house the plant in. Because you’ll be growing indoors, you need to provide a light source. That light source can be an ion board, which effectively mimics the sun. Plants that grow indoors might also have weak stems if there is no wind, so you need to provide a source of wind, like a small fan. The fan will also allow air to refresh inside the grow tent so the plant always has fresh CO2 to breathe. It would be most ideal if you could also get a controller to automate the light and fan devices in order to mimic the natural cycle of life outside.
How do I plant cannabis seeds?
You can use any type of pot, though most people recommend a fabric pot with handles for ease of movement. Fill the pot with potting mix and drop a cannabis seed in.
There are two types of seeds you can choose from: regular or autoflower. Regular seeds, also known as photoperiod seeds, will change their growth pattern based on the amount of lighting they get per day, which gives you full control over how large the plants get. Autoflower seeds, also known as ruderalis seeds, will flower on their own after about a month of vegetative growth. You might choose autoflower seeds in order to simplify the grow process, though you do you have less control over the final plant size.
How do cannabis seeds germinate?
You can begin the germination process with just water since seeds don’t need any nutrients to start. When the seedlings appear out of the soil, you’ll first see two round leaves. These leaves have all the nutrients the plant needs to build out its root structure. Once the root structure is in place, about a week into the seedling stage, the plant will then start to focus on its above ground growth. When that begins, you’ll want to provide fertilizer.
How can I help a weed plant grow?
The plant will need nitrogen provided, because that is the most important nutrient that the cannabis seedling needs at this point. This nutrient is required for leaf growth. Almost all basic fertilizers are high in nitrogen, so you should have no problem finding a fertilizer. As the next true leaves start to develop, you’ll see that the shape of the leaves will start to match that of traditional cannabis, albeit with less blades. As more and more leaves develop, the number of blades will increase until they all start to produce five or more.
A regular cannabis plant will stay in the vegetative stage for as long as it gets over 12 hours of lighting a day. During this phase of growth, the plant will continue to get larger in size. To maximize the growth of the plant during this stage, most growers provide 16 to 24 hours of light a day. 24 hours of light is perfectly okay, because cannabis plants don’t need a night cycle during the vegetative stage.
When will an indoor cannabis plant flower?
When the plant is about half the size you’re looking for, change the light cycle to 12 hours of light a day, which will trigger the flowering stage. The flowering stage always starts with a burst of vegetative growth, often resulting in a plant doubling in size. Once this final stretch is over, the plant will spend the next two months developing flowers. To aid with this, you’ll want to switch the fertilizer from one high in nitrogen to one high in phosphorus. Known either as a bloom or flower fertilizer, phosphorus is needed to develop large fruits, bigger flowers, and fatter buds.
What should I watch out for when growing cannabis?
During the flowering stage, if you start to see small, dense seed-like structures develop at the base of leaf stems, then you have grown a male plant. Male plants will not develop any cannabinoids, and if the pollen is allowed to develop and spread, any female plants will have lowered cannabinoid development also. It’s best to dispose of any male plants at the time they’re discovered. You can also avoid this problem altogether by buying a feminized seed. Feminized seeds are cannabis seeds that will definitely grow into female plants.
Another thing to look out for, if you’re concerned about discretion, is the smell. During the growth stage, the plants will also start to develop a unique smell that can spread outside of the grow space. To remove these smells, you can install a carbon filter with your fan, and that will help to alleviate the smells as they leave the tent.
What will the buds look like?
As the flowers start to appear, you’ll see them clustered together to form colas. Over time, these colas will get larger and larger, developing a layer of mushroom-shaped resin on them known as trichomes. The trichomes are where the bulk of the cannabinoids are located.
They’ll start off looking clear, then cloudy, and then finally start to turn amber in colour near the end of harvest. By the time the trichomes have started to turn cloudy in appearance, that plant has peaked in cannabinoid content and can be harvested.
How can I harvest my indoor cannabis?
Harvesting is as easy as cutting down the plant once it’s ready. You can then leave the plant to dry in the grow tent for about a week before it’s ready for long term storage. Trimming can be applied to buds both before or after drying your plants.
Once the buds are in storage, they will slowly cure for the next few months as long as the air inside the storage container is refreshed once a day.
How is growing outdoor cannabis different?
The biggest difference between growing indoors and growing outdoors is the level of control that you have over the environment. Obviously, you can’t control when the sun comes up and how much wind is blowing on a particular day. For this reason, you might want to use autoflowering feminized seeds, because these will allow you to worry the least about the conditions outside. Tend to your plants in much the same way you would inside, fertilizing, watering, etc. And make sure that you keep careful track of the dates at which you notice the markers for different growth stages.
