It’s easy to be intimidated by growing your own cannabis. With so many products to buy and growing practices to learn, where do you even start?
But growing your own cannabis is easier than ever before with this ultimate checklist. This checklist makes it easy for anyone to start and takes the confusion out of cannabis growing.
Whether you want to grow cannabis outdoors or inside, here are all of the helpful hints you need to succeed.
Outdoor Growing Checklist
This checklist is a list of everything you will need to start growing cannabis outdoors. Whether you’re a gardening rookie or an experienced green thumb, this list will prepare you to grow cannabis and ensure that you have everything you need to succeed in your harvest.
Choose Your Space
When choosing your outdoor space, you need to take into consideration climate and space.
Climate is especially important if you want to grow outdoors. Depending on the strain, many cannabis plants require a lot of sunlight. They thrive in warm, tropical conditions and are sensitive to the frost and wind. If your area doesn’t meet these conditions, you may want to consider growing your plants indoors.
When growing cannabis outdoors, you also need to consider space. Cannabis plants can grow quite large, so ensure you have the space to house the crop you wish to grow outdoors. You may want to start with only a few plants if you have limited space.
Marijuana Seeds
With so many options, it can be difficult to decide on a cannabis seed. This choice will come down to your personal preferences and growing restrictions. For example, if your space is limited, you may want to choose smaller cannabis varieties like indicas.
Growing Medium
Soil is the growing medium of choice for outdoor cannabis growers, although other mediums like neutral mediums like rock wool could be used in outdoor pot plants.
Most outdoor growers prefer soil for convenience and the reduced costs that come with it. If you have access to nutrient-filled ground, why not use it?
Nutrients and Supplements
Nutrients help provide your plants with all the essentials they need to flourish and can give your soil a boost.
Nutrients can help you target certain areas of the plant, which is especially useful if you’ve found your outdoor cannabis lacking in specific areas.
Some cannabis nutrient products will increase root development, and others may encourage root development, improve nutrient consumption, or accelerate the flowering process. Simply choose your nutrient additives based on your preferences for your plant.
Indoor Growing Setup
Growing cannabis indoors is a slightly more complicated process than outdoors, requiring extra set up and products to ensure that your plants can grow and thrive.
Choosing Your Space
When choosing your indoor growing space, almost anywhere will do. You can even make a room out of a grow tent or closet.
The most important thing to keep in mind when choosing your indoor space is if your equipment and plants will fit when fully grown. For this reason, choose your space first and purchase your equipment and plants to fit within. Remember, starting small is a good way to learn while also reducing your costs.
Growing Medium
Soil is typically the growing medium of choice for cannabis growers; however, it is not your only option. Neutral mediums such as rock wool or coir can be used instead of soil, although plants grown in these mediums require all the nutrients to be added to feed the plants.
Hydroponics is also a popular medium for growing cannabis. With this medium, the plants are grown in a water matrix that contains a nutrient mix.
Nutrients and Supplements
Look for cannabis nutrients specifically made for cannabis growing, especially if you need to provide all the plant’s nutrients, like with hydroponic growing or neutral mediums.
Cannabis plants especially need nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, so look for these when searching for a nutrient solution.
Grow Lights
Grow lights are essential to growing cannabis indoors because of the lack of natural sunlight. The quality of light you provide your plants is one of the most important factors in the amount of bud you will grow.
Grow lights include:
Fluorescent Lights:
- Upsides: Cheaper to set up, don’t require a cooling system, popular with small growers
- Downsides: Not energy efficient, tend to be large
High-Intensity Discharge Lights:
- Upsides: Energy efficient, produce a lot of light, cheap compared to LEDs
- Downsides: Require ventilation and cooling systems, more expensive than fluorescents
- Upsides: Can be used 24 hours a day, minimal heat output, long lifespan, energy-saving
- Downsides: Expensive, quality can degrade over time, tend to light up a smaller area
Induction Grow Lights:
- Upsides: Longer lasting, more efficient than fluorescents
- Downsides: High price point, limited availability
Container
The container you use to grow your plants will depend on the growing medium you’re using and your plants’ size. Here are a few common options:
- Net pots: Good for hydroponic systems
- Larger pots: Good for indoor soil growing
- Bags: Can enhance the airflow of a soil medium
Whatever your choice, the most important thing is that your plants have drainage. Cannabis plants don’t like to be water-logged.
Ventilation
Plants need air to survive, so you must ensure that your indoor cannabis plant has adequate ventilation.
Exhaust fans are ideal for ensuring that your plants have access to a constant stream of air. The size of the exhaust fan you use will depend on the size of your indoor setup.
Thermometer
It also pays to invest in a thermometer for your indoor cannabis growing. Cannabis plants prefer a temperature range of around 70-85 degrees Fahrenheit. Adjusting your light and fan setup will help you to reach this ideal range.
However, it is essential to keep in mind that cannabis plants can differ, with some plants doing better in warmer temperatures and some doing better in the cold. This is where research and a keen gardening eye will help you figure out how best to alter the temperature.
pH Testing Tools
When a pH gets out of whack, cannabis plants can struggle to absorb crucial nutrients. Cannabis plants prefer a slightly basic pH of 6-7 when in soil and a more neutral pH of 5.5-6.5 when in a hydroponic medium.
Simple pH dipsticks can help you determine the pH of your plant’s medium, ensuring you’re able to keep your plants thriving.
Carbon Filter
Carbon filters are to keep you and your neighbors happy. Carbon filters help absorb the strong smell of cannabis and are especially useful if you have close neighbors. The filters keep odors neutralized and should provide you with a bit more privacy regarding your cannabis growing.
With your privacy ensured and all these hints to keep your plants flourishing, there’s no excuse to not starting growing cannabis like you’ve always wanted.
