How to Choose the Right Strains to Grow at Home – It's Not All About Potency

picking a strain for home

Is potency an important metric when choosing a strain to grow at home? Some growers will say yes, but if you’re cultivating at home, it may not be the most important metric by a longshot.

This is because if you’ve gone through the trouble of growing your own weed, you’ll know that there are multiple factors that need to be considered to finding the “right strain for you”.

I’m not saying you don’t want potent weed, all I’m saying is that you might want to consider other factors in strain selection – especially if you’re looking for volume.

In today’s article, we’ll be taking a closer look at some “other” things you may want to consider when choosing your next strain to grow at home.

Yield

If you’re growing for personal consumption, you’ll want to contemplate yield. Depending on your set up, you may find that you’re not growing as much weed as you thought you would.

Of course, there are tips and tricks to increase yield, but genetics also play a significant role. Perhaps, the more potent strain might not be the strain that naturally produces more. Thus, you’ll want to take a look at genetic factors that impact yield.

You’ll want to find a strain that does pack a punch, but also produces a heavier load. The reason yield is important is because many home cultivators don’t have the lights or space to grow large amounts of cannabis.

In these instances, you’re better off with choosing an indica dominant hybrid that typically tend to produce thicker nugs at greater quantities.

Yield is also directly dependent on what you feed your plants, light cycles, lumens, and a myriad of other factors. Yet genetically speaking, if you have a short bushy cannabis plant that produces more buds per square foot in order to maximize yield.

There’s a big advantage being able to get an extra ounce or two from your plant when harvesting.

Aroma

Depending on whether you can grow without facing any legal repercussions or not, the aroma of a plant is just as important. You don’t want to have a plant that stinks up the block, especially if you’re trying to grow “low key”.

Some plants simply “stink more” than others. Having a strain that has a low smell profile during the flowering stage can be a great benefit

I once grew a plant that – when I entered into the curing phase – stank up my entire house. This was about an ounce and a half of weed I’m talking about. Needless to say, the next time I grew that strain, I was forced to think of different ways to cure it – in order to not alert my neighbors of my activities.

Lest they come knocking for some rocking bud!

Speed of Maturity

When you grow your own weed you quickly realize that speed is of the essence. We don’t typically harvest as much as we’d like, and while it’s important to look at “yield” – you should also look at how fast the crop can be harvested.

If you can get an entire harvest cycle in any given year, you’re generating more cannabis per square foot. If you’re cultivating for your own consumption, you’ll want to have a system where you can be cycling off plants every month or two.

It takes a while to get to this pace, but with the right genetics – typically autoflowers – you can cycle off plants as you see fit.

Some growers like to simply make clones, and while this is definitely a solid practice – I find that smoking the same strains over and over again detracts from the cannabis experience.

Height

Some plants are just larger than others. If you’re doing a home grow in the comfort of a closet or a small grow tent, you’ll want to look for stubbier plants.

These are typically your indica dominant strains. With the right training, you can both check the “yield” box with indica dominants, and the height factor is greatly measured.

Ease of growth

If this is your first rodeo, you’ll want to get an “easy strain”.

I have worked with some strains that are simply more difficult to master than other. In most cases, you’ll be able to find “ease of cultivation” on seedbank websites. If you’re on the fence about the ease of growth, simply reach out to the seed suppliers and they will be able to tell you which ones are a bit easier to get started with.

Once more, Autoflower seeds are typically the easiest ones to grow, but genetics is also an important factor.

Okay – now potency!

Another way to “stretch” your weed is to get more potent weed. If you need fewer tokes to achieve the same level of euphoria, then potency matters!

Also, if you have a medical condition where potency plays an important role in treating your ailments – then this section might even have a higher priority on this list.

Potency does matter. You’ll smoke less plant matter, you’ll be able to achieve the same level of “highness” with less – meaning that your stash will last you longer. Curing with humidity packs helps and keeping your stash moisture-free is a good idea.

If you dry vape these strains, you’ll be able to stretch your 1-3 ounces per plant to a whole new level.

Other Cannabinoids

Some strains will simply provide you a greater yield of a particular cannabinoid. Other strains naturally have other minor cannabinoids at greater volumes.

While it’s still not as simple as just ordering a strain with high levels of CBD and other minor cannabinoids, some strains do have higher prevalence’s of these phytocannabinoids.

The Sticky Bottom Line

Growing weed is awesome! However, when you’re using potency as your only metric for strain selection, you’re missing out on the nuances of cannabis itself.