Whether you are a beginner in growing marijuana or already an expert, indoor cannabis growing is always a great option as it can be done all year round due to the ability to control the plant’s environmental conditions. Even though it may be a little more time consuming and high maintenance than growing weed outdoors, it is definitely worth the time. There is nothing better than waking up in the morning, fixing your eyes on your lovely plants inside your room first thing in the morning, and smelling those lovely aromas only we stoners will know.
Benefits Of Indoor Cannabis Growing
Better Trichome Preservation
Even though it may be more time-consuming and a bit more costly, the nugs will have less damage done by elements such as heat, sun or wind. This will lead to a beautiful trichome spectacle on each of your buds. Should you invest in a small portable microscope you will be able to enjoy and look at the beautiful trichomes on your buds.
More Adaptability
The fact that your plants do not depend on the elements for survival, makes you more adaptable as a grower to grow at any time of year as you do not need to wait for Spring to plant etc. It is always recommended to make research your particular strain and see which climate conditions it normally tends to thrive in.
More Control
Having more control over your plant’s growth means you can determine when it should grow, how big they grow and when it should harvest. This means you can grow whenever you want, even through summer or winter which will give you consistent crops each and every time.
Privacy And Security
Whether Growing Marijuana is legalized in your country or not, you always want to keep your operation away from the eyes of any judgemental neighbours and especially any thieves. Growing Weed Indoors may allow you to do just that.
Factors Which May Deter You From Indoor Cannabis Growing
Cost
If you don’t pay enough attention and look out for the most efficient equipment and try to get the best deals. The cost of buying and maintaining the equipment can skyrocket pretty fast. Make sure to follow this guide in order to look out for the most efficient equipment for your own needs. If you are growing 4 plants in a small tent you definitely do not need a 1000W input to grow, this will simply lead to higher costs for the same results. The rule to go by would be 20-40 Watts per square foot.
Do keep in mind that you will be running your grow lights on 18/6 or 20/4 light/darkness schedules for most of your grows.
Danger Of Fire
When growing weed indoors make sure your grow room/grow tent is always properly ventilated, and always choose the grow light with maximum heat efficiency. This is of the utmost importance, there have been cases where simply because not enough attention has been put towards ventilation and making sure the grow room/ grow tent does not overheat where whole houses have caught fire. Making sure to always choose LED lighting in my opinion is one thing which will help prevent such cases. Also, do not overload power sources too much. Make sure to always understand how much your appliances consume and the maximum your power source can take. Make sure to always use energy-efficient appliances too
Equipment Needed For Growing Weed Indoors
Grow light
When you are growing up Indoors, you do not have the sun to your advantage. Plants need a light source to grow towards, here is where grow lights come in. Grow lights are simply the light source replacing the sun in your indoor growing environment. Calculate the area of your growing space in order to understand what type of lighting you will need and how powerful. I would always suggest going for LED lighting rather than HID, this is because they are much more efficient and generate much less heat. They can tend to get quite costly if you do not buy them according to your needs and how big your operation is, however, more affordable solutions are always found nowadays.
Can You Grow Weed Indoors Without Grow Lights?
If the plants receive 6 hours of Direct Sunlight per day, technically, you could grow them next to a window. However, in my personal opinion if you are looking to grow indoors you want to get a grow light, it is simply much more efficient and you can keep it on in the remaining hours outside of those 6 hours of sunlight.
Have A Look At The Below:
Growing Space
When growing Marijuana Indoors, you need a dedicated growing space. You will not be able to stay moving them around. Ideally, this space would be next to a window or an open space in order to be able to vent the air out especially when the flowers start kicking in unless you want your house to smell of weed that is. Even though you can grow in any corner, window, closet or cabinet, you might want to consider buying a grow tent. Even though it is not necessary there is just a certain feel to opening the side of your grow tent to have a look at your babies. Also, the insides are usually covered in fluorescent material resulting in optimal light efficiency.
Keep in mind that cannabis plants can double in size during the flowering stage, make sure your grow tent is big enough for your cannabis plants to fit and also fits enough space for you to work on your cannabis plants.
Also always make sure that your plants have no access to light during their dark periods, this may confuse the plants causing them to produce male flowers or to revert to a previous stage. This is also where grow tents may be really useful
Climate Control
Cannabis requires certain climate conditions in order to thrive. Even though you will be controlling the climate inside your growing space, the climate outside your growing space will also affect the inside. It is always a good idea to keep your growing space next to an open space such as a window or balcony in order to have access to a lot of fresh air from the outside.
- If you are growing in an underground, damp basement a dehumidifier is needed or it will be hard to control your growing space. Remember the ideal humidity level for cannabis is as follows for each period of growth Seedlings/clones: 75-85°F; ~70% relative humidity
- Vegetative growth: 70-85°F; 40-60% relative humidity
- Flowering: 65-80°F; 40-50% relative humidity
. This also counts if it does tend to get quite humid in the building you would be growing in.
Plants need fresh air to thrive and carbon dioxide (CO2) is essential to the process of photosynthesis. This means you will need a steady stream of air flowing through your grow room, which will allow you to move hot air out of the space and bring cool air in.
You may want to consider buying an inline fan and an extractor fan in order to facilitate airflow and depending on the size of your operation, small little side fans may also be needed. Technically, an air exchange should be happening in your growing space just about every minute. Make sure to buy the extractor fan just a tad more powerful than the inline fan in order to create that slight negative pressure which will be optimal for plant growth.
If the environment is too cold you need a heater, if it is too hot you need fans and possibly access to Air Condition. If you are trying to lower the temperatures suddenly due to trying to attain certain colours on your buds an AC is recommended though not necessary.
A common trick to avoid hot temperatures would be to have the grow lights on during the evening when the outside temperature is cold. This will help balance the heat created by the grow light itself.
Timers/Automation
The amount of light a plant receives consistently will determine the yields and results. They need a light schedule and ideally, this schedule is to be kept. You do not want to “forget” to turn on your lights or be out of the house when it is time to turn the lights on or off. This is exactly where automated timers come in. You can set them up and basically forget about them as unless the electricity goes out, they will turn on and off every single day at the exact same time.
A thermostat, rather than a timer is more recommended for ACs, dehumidifiers and fans. This is because the devices will simply turn on according to the temperature of the environment rather than according to the time. This will help ensure the environment is kept consistently the same at all times.
For growers who have a little extra money to spend and want full control over their indoor garden, environmental controllers will allow you to automate the process. These devices are essential if you’re away from the garden for a long period of time
Tools To Measure Temperature And Humidity
Thermometer-This measures how hot or cold the air is inside your growing space
Hygrometer– This measures humidity or more specifically water vapour in the air.
Soil
Soil is definitely the most common growing medium. It is definitely a good choice for first-time growers as a medium per se as it is very forgiving. Basically, any high-level growing soil will do as long as it does not contain any artificial fertilizer which is unsuitable for cannabis. Soil does count on a number of bacteria to be present so choosing a super or heavy mix would be ideal. If you want you can use regular soil and simply feed your plants liquid nutrients but it is recommended to start off with soil which is already loaded with nutrients.
Growing Container
The type of pot to use will vary entirely on the size of your operation, the size of your plants and the growing space available to grow.
Inexpensive options include standard plastic pots or cloth bags, while some growers choose to spend more on “smart pots” or “air pots”—containers designed to enhance airflow to the plant’s root zone.
If you are not growing Autoflowring plants it is recommended to start them out in a 1-gallon pot and then transfer them to a 5-gallon pot after that. If your plants get bigger, you may need a 7 or 10-gallon pot.
The following are key when choosing the right pot
Drainage
Oxygen
Nutrients
Space
Caring For Your Indoor Cannabis Plants
Seedlings and clones are like babies, you will want to check on them every day to monitor their growth and a slight disturbance may kill your plants or stunt their growth.
You may want to play with the temperature and humidity a little bit in order to find that sweet spot ideal for your cannabis plants. As your plants get older, it’s ok to check on them every 2-3 days.
Always Check For Pest, Mold Or Nutrient Deficiencies
Check the tops and undersides of leaves for spider mites, and soil for pests and be careful about any discolouration or signs of your plant not being healthy.
Odour Control
As much fun as growing your own weed is, having a house that constantly smells like weed can be a huge inconvenience, if not for you, but for your neighbours. You will not have this problem with plants which are still in the vegetative stage as terpenes have not yet begun to form, however, as plants start to flower you will want to invest in some sort of odour control equipment such as activated carbon filters.
These come in different shapes and sizes and are a great way to get rid of odour in an indoor weed grow. Also known as “carbon scrubbers” for their ability to get contaminants out of the air, these employ activated and highly ionized carbon to attract particulates responsible for carrying odour, such as dust, hair, mould spores, and volatile organic compounds, and trap them in a filter.
Best Cannabis Strains For Indoor Growing (EU)
Best Cannabis Strains For Indoor (US)
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