How Do You Grow Cannabis, A Quick Guide To Get Started
How Do You Actually Grow Cannabis? (Beginner's Guide) from CannabisNet on Vimeo.
California, Washington and seven other states have legalized recreational marijuana use, and in most of them, you’re allowed to begin cultivating your own crops. Before you get started, make sure to check the specifics in your state and county, but if you’ve been waiting for the “green light” to set up a growing operation, it’s pretty much here!
Marijuana is a somewhat hearty plant, but there’s a big difference between growing shag and getting the highest-quality product. So, follow our helpful guide to setting up a simple grow house and skip some of the trial-and-error phase.
Why Grow Your Own
You might be thinking there’s no reason to start a grow operation when pot is so easy to come by now. That’s partially true. However, you’ll be saving money in the long run. You’ll also know where your product is coming from, and you can take pride in crafting exactly the cannabis you want to enjoy.
We all know that various strains affect everyone in completely different ways. One of the biggest benefits of growing your own cannabis is being able to choose exactly what you’d like to invest your time, energy and money into, and being able to control exactly how much you want to grow as well.
It may not be perfect the first time you grow your own, but persistence is key. Growing marijuana is one of those projects where you get out of it what you put in; if you keep improving upon your methods and investing time in learning more about the process, you will eventually be able to build up a sustainable and reliable method for yourself.
Before you begin, though, you’ll need to answer one simple question. Do you want to grow your plants indoors or outdoors?
In vs. Out
Like Android vs. iPhone, this is an argument you shouldn’t expect to see go away anytime soon. There have been entire books written on both grow options, but the simplest way to explain the difference is this: To grow indoors, you’ll invest more, but you’ll have much finer control over your product.
For some people, that’s critical. For others, it’s not. If you’re planning to re-sell your product, you’ll probably want to go with a grow house operation so that you can consistently output buds with the THC levels required to be competitive in the resale market.
Grow House Basics
Should you elect to go the indoor route, you need to decide what type of grow house you want to build. Some people favor more portable, tent-style growing facilities. Others prefer to convert an entire room, or build dedicated shelving or cabinets where plants can be housed.
After you’ve set up the basic space, you need to consider a few things. Keep in mind, these essentials hold true for indoor and outdoor grows. You might go about them different ways, but all plants need air, light, water, soil and nutrients.
Moving Air
With an outdoor arrangement, air movement is obviously handled by Mother Nature. When growing indoors, though, you’ll want to use fans to move fresh air into the area, and exhaust stale air.
Place your intake fan low and your exhaust fan high in the room to encourage a pattern of cool-in, hot-out, but don’t pull super cold air right into your grow room because that could shock your plants. The temperature should be consistent — preferably below 85 degrees Fahrenheit with a relative humidity of about 70 percent.
Lighting
Another element outdoor plants get without much work on your part is consistent light. With an indoor setup, you can do some things with lighting to encourage growth that are impossible when growing outdoors.
The spectrum of light plants need to grow healthy is very specific, so do your homework and select the right hue. There are multiple ways to achieve this. Once you have your equipment, you can start to plan out a lighting schedule. During different times in the grow and depending on the strain you have chosen, your plants will require more or less light specific to the time of day.
Some growers prefer to regulate lighting settings using a timer — similar to what you might use to make your Christmas lights less of a hassle — but with more features. With a timer, you can configure a few pre-set programs and switch between them as your plants mature.
Nutrients
This part of your operation takes some work regardless of whether you choose to grow indoors or outdoors. Plants require basic nutrients to grow. However, since you want your plants not to just grow, but also to produce high-THC buds in bulk, you need to feed them properly.
The type of nutrients you use will depend on your growing medium. There are nutrients for plants grown in soil, nutrients for plants grown using hydroponics and so on. The different options available will all display what are called NPK numbers. This is the level of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium present in that nutrient solution.
Feeding your plants nutrients is all about keeping these levels in the proper harmony. That way, the overall pH of their growing medium stays within the optimal range. Too low or too high, and you’ll produce less potent buds, less volume or both.
We mentioned delivery systems briefly. You can get started growing using potting soil and liquid nutrients. Many advanced growers choose to invest in a hydroponic or aeroponic solution — the choice is yours, but some of the more expensive systems give you flexibility not available with more conventional methods.
Trial and Error
Growing marijuana is fun, and you can come away with enjoyable results you can be proud of, but keep in mind that something will probably go wrong the first time. And the next time. And the next time. It’s keeping those mistakes small and mitigating them quickly that makes you a better grower.
Don’t get frustrated. You probably won’t win the Cannabis Cup with your first-ever homegrown weed. That doesn’t mean it’s not a success! But hey, if you’re stressing out over it, we know a good cure for that.
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