As you might know, the legalization of medicinal and recreational cannabis in a number of states has allowed many users to get used to buying marijuana from a dispensary. Perhaps more interesting, however, is the chance that legalization has generated for adults and medical practitioners to grow marijuana in their own houses. Although the rules, restrictions, and laws are unique for every state, almost every state with some form of legalized marijuana allows local cultivation to a certain degree. While it is fully legal, some people are not taking advantage of their right to grow marijuana because of the belief that it is too complicated, costly, and time-consuming. Does everyone know how to grow marijuana? Well, in this article, we provided a step-by-step guide that would help aspiring cannabis growers to improve their yields.
Step 1: Select Your Location
How to grow cannabis? First, you have to consider the location. Cannabis could be grown outdoors or indoors. The indoor setting gives absolute control over the growth process, like how much light the plants get. However, indoor cannabis growers have a lot of liability, because marijuana plants depend entirely on the grower for their survival. Optionally, you should cultivate your cannabis plants outdoors. This choice is cheaper since nature would do a large part of the job, like supplying daylight. How to grow cannabis outdoors? Fortunately, outdoor growing sites are not as private as many people would like, and cannabis growers sometimes face the risk of their cannabis plants being trampled by animals or stolen. Before you start growing, you’ll have to think about both the advantages and disadvantages of marijuana cultivation indoors or outdoors. Then choose the alternative that feels right for you.
Step 2: Pick A Grow Light
How to grow marijuana indoors? If you grow cannabis indoors, you’ll have to consider the light source of your cannabis plant. Please be aware that one of the greatest advantages of growing a single plant is that your plant would not require more light. In certain instances, you can put your plant on a window and get enough sunlight to grow. But, if you want to grow your cannabis plant in a more secure place, away from real light, you will have to think about growing lights. In this case, how to grow a small marijuana plant rapidly becomes how to choose the best quality to grow lights. LED lights are suitable for a single vine. LEDs are a common option for growing cannabis and are ideal for producing safe cannabis buds in a single crop. They’re also designed to stop your cannabis plants from getting too much light, which can cause a disease called ‘light burn.’ Another major advantage of LED is its price. The bulbs are cheap and available. They don’t need much room, and the average spectator would never conclude that you’re growing cannabis indoors just by seeing light shine out of your house.
If you choose natural daylight and do not use autoflowers, you will need to guarantee that your plants gain at least 18 hours of daylight during the vegetative stage of development. Unluckily, if you develop during the right period as well as in the right place, it may not be possible without additional lighting. In short, even if you’re developing outdoors, buying in an LED lamp for those gloomy and ‘short’ days is a smart idea.
There’s many, of course, other solutions for marijuana lighting, but they’ll be far more than enough for a single crop. Even so, it’s also a good idea to discuss your choices so that you really can make an educated decision regardless of your needs.
Step 3: Select a Grow Medium
When you think about how to grow weed, the very first thing you need to think about is what you’re going to grow the plant in. Your cannabis plant would need a medium that gives the nutrients needed to create a picture of quality buds. And, just like growing lights, there are a number of alternatives for growing mediums. Each medium would have its own number of needs, like how often you need to water, and in the end, every choice is fairly capable of generating high yielding marijuana plants. The soil is the most prevalent medium to grow. Preferably, you must use well-composted organic soil rich in nutrients for growing marijuana. When you do not begin with soil which has been configured for marijuana cultivation, you will want to make sure that the soil contains perlite so that it drains well.
You can also go soilless and purchase coconut coir, vermiculite, or any other soilless mixes. While these might be more costly unlike soil, they have some advantages, like the reduced likelihood of dealing with soil-borne pests and diseases. The downside, though, is that they don’t contain any nutrients for your cannabis plant, so you will need to measure the right nutrients in the right quantities and at the right time. Hydroponic growth is another alternative. The process grows marijuana plants straight in the water. With this technique, you could also produce a high yield, but there’s a steep learning curve, and it is a bit pricey for a single plant.
Step 4: Select Your Nutrients
Marijuana is easy to grow, but the final outcome can be improved by nutrients. With cannabis, you need to use specific nutrients to support your plant flourish at various stages of its development. These nutrients must be developed for the specific medium that you have chosen to use. Some nutrients would only operate in hydroponic systems, whereas others are intended for soil. You will also need to take into account the pH of the water. If the pH is inaccurate, the nutrients could not be absorbed. The pH must be adequate for the medium you prefer.
In fact, pH levels and nutrients can be complicated, and there’s a real problem when you just want to grow a single cannabis plant. Not only are they intended to make growing a single cannabis plant easy and simple, and they also provide all the best medium and nutrients for your plants so you wouldn’t have to spend a lot of time on this stage.
Step 5: Pick Your Strain
Now is the moment to use what you have learned about Sativas, Indicas, hybrids, and auto-flowering marijuana plants. You’re going to need it to decide what you want to grow. As for having actual plants are concerned, you can either begin with small starter plants or seeds. You can buy starter plants from a breeder or a dispensary near you. If you know a cannabis grower who has the kind of plants you want, see if you really can get clones from a certain individual.
Step 6: Germinate Your Seeds
This process is only applicable if you’re growing out of the seed. There are a lot of ways to germinate a seed, but a ready-designed seed germination kit seems to be the best option. You only have to moisturize the medium, insert the cannabis seeds, and water as necessary to use it. Once your cannabis seed has sprouted, you could place the entire medium in your pot for convenient transplantation.
Step 7: The Vegetative Stage
Once your cannabis seedlings have developed a couple of leaves, they have finally begun the vegetative phase. That’s the time when marijuana plants have the unique purpose of growing stronger and larger in preparation for the next phase of flowering. Cannabis plants need a lot of light during the vegetative stage. You’re going to have to give them about 18 hours of light throughout that phase. And also, make sure that the temp in your growing room is a little warmer than for the temperature in the room. This means between 68°F-86°F.
Step 8: The Flowering Stage
Once the flowers begin to form, you enter the flowering phase. Subsequently, all these little flowers would also generate buds – which you could eventually use. This critical stage in the life of your marijuana plants would last until you harvest your mature buds. Your cannabis plants are going to get bushy and big. You might want to ‘train’ your plants by trimming or twisting the leaves so there would be a flat canopy on the highest part. This enables light to penetrate all parts of plants at optimum yields. If you have not purchased feminized cannabis seeds or are uncertain of the sex of your cannabis plant, you will need to verify that it is female. How could you know that? Easy. Just look at the intersection of the branches and see if you see wispy white threads coming out of the buds. If these wisps are visible, the cannabis plant is female. If they’re not present, then what’s growing is a pollen bag, and the plant is male. Male cannabis plants are not producing potent cannabis.
Based on what you’re growing, you might have to change the lighting schedule. You would need to raise the amount of darkness your plant gets to 12 hours a day. That ensures 12 hours of darkness and 12 hours of light every day. This is an utter must for regular marijuana seeds. Autoflowering cannabis doesn’t depend on changing the length of the daylight hours to begin flowering, so this phase isn’t needed for these seeds. You would need to adjust the temperature for all kinds of cannabis. The flowering phase requires cooler temperatures, so maintain it at around 64°F-78°F. If you’ve used any nutrients, you will want to offer them a little additional water to wash those nutrients out of your plant’s system. This helps with aroma, taste, and potency when it is time to enjoy marijuana. The most significant thing you need to remember about this phase is to observe your plants. Marijuana plants at the flowering phase are quite delicate to the conditions under which they’re growing. Look for signs of trouble, like brown leaf surfaces. This could be a problem with lighting, nutrients, and watering.
Step 9: Harvest Your Marijuana
You would know that the buds have matured in the pigment of the pistils. You must see wispy white hair growing out from the buds. These wisps would also gradually change color before they become amber at the highest point of maturity. Harvest buds once around 40% of the pistils are darkened. Wait till 50 to 70% of those hairs are darkened if you really want buds with such high THC levels. If you really want buds that would make you relax, wait until over 80% of your hair is dark before you harvest. At this point, an important part of THC in buds will have been modified to CBN (cannabinoid).
How long does it take to grow weed?
How long does it take to grow weed? Based on how to grow weed, this could take anywhere between 2 months to 6 months or more to grow a cannabis plant from a seedling to a moment where the plant is ready to harvest. Some techniques, like hydroponically growing indoors, give you the versatility to have a harvested plant with as little as 2 to 3 months. Growing cannabis outdoors usually takes longer than growing cannabis indoors and is much more reliant on when you plant your cannabis seeds and how long your growing season lasts.
