Introduction: Understanding Growing Weed At Home
Hey Y’all! I am excited to be your guide into the fantastic world of growing weed at home. As the approach to legalization and attitudes around the cannabis plant change for the better, many new people have discovered the vast benefits of growing your stash in the privacy of your own home. No matter how green your thumb is, the experience of cultivating cannabis can be rewarding and fulfilling on many levels.
This guide will cover all the essential elements to successfully grow weed at home, from selecting your first strain and how we care for it in the most delicate seedling stage to the harvest and cure of your precious nugs.
Let’s quickly touch on some basics and considerations that could affect your ability to grow weed at home.
First, we need to understand the legal landscape surrounding your ability to cultivate cannabis at home. Canadian Federal Government allows for four cannabis plants per household; however, provincial governments like Manitoba and Quebec have added additional restrictions preventing non medical consumers growing their own cannabis. The laws and regulations surrounding cannabis cultivation vary greatly from one region of the country to the next. The best advice I can provide for anyone planning to grow is to check and see if there are restrictions to your ability to grow from the Federal, Provincial/State/Territorial, and, finally, Local governments.
Once we have confirmed that we can legally grow cannabis or acquire a medical license allowing you to grow at home, we can begin this enriching journey. Many cannabis consumers will find that cultivating their cannabis is profoundly therapeutic and fosters a rich knowledge of nature and the plant itself. Additionally, home cultivation fosters a sustainable source of high-quality consumer-specific cannabis but also gives you ultimate control over what is in your bud from seed to harvest.
Our crucial first step will help set us up in the right direction. Selecting the best genetic(s) for our growing goals will help us prepare and plan for the rest of the cannabis plant’s growth. The research before will be your best friend, whether therapeutic and relaxing CBD-rich genetics or the super cerebral spacey high are your desired effects. Understanding what each genetic offers therapeutically and the flavor range is just as essential as looking at the “Growers Information” to know how the plant will grow.
As I prepare for a new seed drop, I invite you to embrace the rewarding and wonderful hobby of growing weed at home. From picking out our perfect first strain to nurturing your plants to a bountiful harvest, this guide will help walk you through each step. I am looking forward to watching you build the knowledge and confidence to entirely fall in love with the cultivation of cannabis as I have.
Let’s put the glass or joints down for a few minutes and roll up our sleeves; we’ll get a little dirty growing our weed at home.
Choosing the Right Strain
Selecting the Best Cannabis Strains for Home Cultivation
Researching and picking the best strain for you will be the foundation of your home weed cultivation journey. The number of seeds available in legal and traditional markets makes it easy to acquire, but knowing which seeds are best for you is challenging. Considering a few of the critical factors in selecting your genetics will help you start on the right foot. Remember that finding that hidden gem within the seed still requires patience and experimentation.
Understanding the Grow Style and Desired Conditions:
Similar to any other plant, cannabis has different varieties and genetics that grow optimally in various growing environments. Genetics that hail from the Hindu Kush mountain ranges (running through Afghanistan and into Northern Pakistan) are used to the arid and hot growing conditions with a shorter flowering season when compared to those from an equatorial region. These plants typically grow shorter in height and produce more compact nugs. Comparably, equatorial regions produce a more airy and open bud structure, and the plants can grow over 10 feet tall. These plants also require longer to complete their flowering cycle before we can harvest.
Consider your Growing Environment:
As we research the best genetics to grow out for our desired effect and grow style, the second most significant consideration is what space you are transitioning and committing to growing your cannabis at home. Is it a small 2×2 grow tent in the corner of your apartment or an entire room in your house? Knowing your available space will help you select the best genetic for your home garden. Some cultivars thrive outdoors, whereas others need the controlled and regulated indoor system that some growers achieve with time and practice.
Understanding your Consumption End-goals:
Cannabis provides a vast range of effects and methods of consumption; knowing how you plan to consume and what your desired effects are will help guide your strain selection. Whether it’s a more calming and soothing effect to get you ready for bed or a cerebral uplift to help you attack your tasks for the day, understanding the effects that the plants can produce could help narrow down and select what you plan to grow out. Additionally, some genetics are better for concentrate production and yield a high quantity and quality when compared to others; this is a consideration for concentrate producers and consumers.
Exploring Flavor Profiles:
Cannabis derives its flavour and aroma from compounds that surround us daily, from flower to fruit, coffee and even black peppercorns. Since most of us will be combusting our bounty of home-grown weed, the flavour profile and mouth feel will be critical to an enjoyable experience. This is truly a game of trial and error. The best advice I can give you is to try different strains and flavour profiles until you find what you like. A great rule of thumb is to follow your nose at the start. The genetics you want to grow first are the buds that make your mouth water, and you want to bury your face in the bags and breathe in that stinky goodness.
Seek Recommendations and Guidance:
With countless seeds and genetics on the market for growers and breeders to work with, you will have to seek guidance and feedback from fellow growers. This can be done from your inner circle of friends who have experience growing cannabis or an online resource such as Reddit or Growdiaries.com; both can provide vast information about potential issues and solutions to help you achieve a successful first grow.
It’s vital to remember that you are embarking on the long and ever-changing journey of cultivating cannabis at home. There will be plenty of experimentation and learning along the way. Remember not to be afraid to push outside of your comfort zone and try something. After trial and error, you will discover your preferred growing methods and techniques for optimized yield and growth. With a bit of time and patience, you will begin to cultivate your perfected cannabis at home.
Setting Up Your Indoor Grow Space
Designing the Perfect Indoor Cannabis Garden
The key difference between growing your Cannabis plants in your home vs out in nature is the need to create and replicate the optimal growing environment. You are taking the time to preplan and build out your growing space to help prevent issues in the future. As your knowledge and cultivation goals expand, so will your growing space with additional tools and equipment.
Selecting the Best Growing Space:
For Cannabis cultivation, your space will need to be adequate for the plants you aim to grow and have easy access to water, electricity and proper ventilation.
Being mindful of possible problems with privacy, security, and proper temperature control are more prominent factors in some locations than others.
Grow your plants indoors under natural light or invest in a high-quality grow light to simulate sunlight.
Essential Growing Equipment:
Grow Lights:
Investing in a high-quality grow light will significantly improve your vegetative growth and flower-yielding capabilities. With these lights, our goals are to simulate the colour spectrum and the growing power of the sun. LED lights are energy-efficient and have a more comprehensive range of colours than the bulbed Metal Halide(MH) and High-Pressure Sodium(HPS) lights.
Ventilation System:
This is crucial for many reasons. Maintaining a carbon dioxide-rich environment will help optimize the growth of your plants. Having high-quality air movement within the grow space will help you in the perpetual battle against pests and diseases that come with growing cannabis.
Growing Medium and Containers:
Based on the nutrient system and space available for the cannabis plants, you’ll want to select appropriate pots and growing medium for your goals. Depending on your chosen medium, you may need to add some components to allow proper drainage and prevent water-logging and root rot.
Temperature and Humidity Monitor:
This is a crucial tool for keeping your environmental aspects within the optimal ranges. The higher the quality of the monitor, the quicker you’ll be able to make adjustments or solve problems that arise in the garden.
PH and EC Meter:
No matter what nutrient system you plan to utilize, water is the crucial ingredient for the passage of nutrients to plants. Plants can only uptake certain nutrients when available within a specific PH range within the soil. Utilizing these tools can help you identify and prevent possible reasons for nutrient deficiencies or imbalances.
Setting Up Proper Ventilation and Air Circulation
Exhaust Fans:
Installing suitably sized exhaust fans will help remove stale oxygen-rich air from the grow space to maintain a healthy level of CO². As your plants grow, the amount of fresh levels of CO² optimizes your plant’s development and growth. A controller attached to your exhaust fan system will allow you to adjust the airflow and overall environment.
Air Circulation:
Having multiple oscillating fans in your grow space helps keep your plants “dancing” with the air circulation. The goal should be to have your plants in perpetual movement with the airflow within the grow space. Proper airflow is a cannabis grower’s best friend in pest control and preventing illness in your garden. You will want to vary the elevation of the airflow as well so you have air moving throughout the plant’s canopy, under the canopy, and along the top of the growing medium and pots.
Incorporate Intake Fans and Vents:
Depending on your space, you may need to create additional air intake vents to help replace the air lost from the exhaust fan. Individuals aiming to grow in tents will need to be aware of the location of the tent’s intake vents. Be cautious not to block or obstruct these vents, allowing for a consistent resupply of fresh air to your plants. The locations and quality of the vents will vary depending on the brand of the tent or room you are growing in, so you may need to incorporate an intake fan to help with the resupply of air for your cannabis plants.
Managing Light and Light Schedule:
When utilizing any grow light system, you must be cautious of the distance between the lights and the plants. Too much light can burn the plants, similar to a sunburn on a hot sunny day. At the same time, there is too little light, and the plants won’t grow efficiently, which gives you issues. Establishing and maintaining a consistent light schedule throughout the plant’s growth will help mimic natural light and accommodate healthy and vigorous growth.
Remember that the plant’s light demands will change as it grows and goes into the flowering stage. The critical factor in the transition of vegetative growth to flowering growth in regular or feminized genetics is NOT the length of time under the lights but the length of time the plants receive uninterrupted darkness. The hormone phytochrome is the cause of the transition into a flower.
Phytochrome is present in two forms. The active flowering form of the phytochrome hormone (Pr) builds in the plants after being in the darkness for more than two hours. Once the Pr hormone is maintained at a critically high level for several days, the plants will be triggered to begin flowering. The length of darkness the plants require varies from genetic to genetic with some triggering with only 10 hours of darkness where other will need 13 hours or more of dark.
Preplanning and being mindful of all the aspects of your indoor grow space will help you create an optimal environment for a healthy and prosperous first grow. With this space, you will be able to grow and harvest high-quality cannabis indoors all year round. Staying current on the tech, education, and innovative resources for home growers will also help you build and update your space to become the best grow space for your cultivation goals.