Growing Weed Indoors for Beginners

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Learning the steps of growing weed indoors for beginners is fun and rewarding, but can also be challenging. The key essentials encompass a certain amount of patience, time, and a bit of money. But hey, we’ll walk you through the growing process step-by-step, from preparation, to seed germination, plant growth, and harvesting, in addition to best practices.

How to Properly Grow Weed Indoors

To learn how to grow the best weed indoors, consider these factors when:

  • Light: Cannabis is a photoperiod plant, meaning the daily amount of light will determine when and if it flowers. Indoors, you can control the lighting schedule by changing your artificial light.
  • Water: Cannabis plants need water – and the right amount thereof.
  • Nutrients: Marijuana plants need nutrients in order to grow into their optimum selves.
  • Temperature and humidity: Be sure to provide an environment with optimal temperature and humidity that will allow your cannabis to thrive. Generally, this is between 55-85°F, with a relative humidity of 50-70%.
  • Wind/airflow: Weed plants need proper airflow, which can be simulated indoors with oscillating fans. With that said, we can move on to all the necessary equipment and supplies that you’ll need to grow weed indoors.
  • Deciding whether you will grow in soil or use a hydroponic setup (Please see more on this in a separate section followingly).

What You’ll Need to Grow Marijuana Indoors

  • Quality cannabis seeds
  • Grow room or tent
  • Carbon filter
  • Grow lights (See below section for more information)
  • Ventilation (Fans)
  • Pots or containers
  • Growing medium (Depending on your setup)
  • Nutrients
  • Thermometer
  • PH meter

How to Choose Your Cannabis Grow Lights

The light source you use in your indoor growing operation is pivotal to your overall success and the quality of your yield. We recommend spending the biggest portion of you budget on a good lighting setup – as it’s totally worth it in the end. Here follows a summary of your indoor lighting choices to grow proper buds with:

  • LED Grow Lights

LED lighting is the number 1 suggested type of lighting for indoor marijuana growers. Highly efficient for indoor growing, LED lights use less energy and emit a low amount of heat. LEDs emit the entire light-spectrum; thus, they can be used for the vegetative and flowering stages of a cannabis plant’s lifecycle.

  • CFL Lights

CFL lights are cheap and ideal to use if you just need a few ounces of bud here and there. CFL’s are great to use for seedling growth and are known as a “low-maintenance” way for you to grow weed indoors. Even as beginner grower, you can safely expect to get 1-3 ounces of dried buds per plant if you just follow the instructions given in this article on growing weed indoors for beginners.

Growing Weed Indoors for Beginners Step by Step

Step 1: Decide on Soil vs. Soilless Growing

Soil offers a high margin of error; however, you need to carefully select the soil you use for growing marijuana indoors. You want to use a high-grade horticultural potting mix, which is light and airy, charged with a bit of nutrients to get you through the first few weeks.

Other mixes are neutral, without any nutrients present, in which case it will need appropriate amounts of fertilizer right from the start. Additives to soil include compost as well as other organic compost nutrients.

Another idea is the automated hydroponic setup system, which may help you experience faster growth and more abundant yields. This is only the case if everything is done correctly – all the time, every time.  A hydroponic system delivers all necessary mineral salt nutrients to plants in water.

If you want to choose hydroponic over traditional soil, there are several advantages. Make you pick from the Ebb and Flow, Flood and drain and DWC systems. Please see more on these methods in the following section.

Step 2: Germination & Planting

You will want to check to make sure your chosen seed is viable before planting it. So you will need to germinate your seed. Start by taking a clear plastic bag with a damp paper towel and fold your seed in the paper towel, close the bag and put it somewhere slightly warm. After a few days, you’ll see a small white tail poking out. This means your seedling is ready for planting.

Step 3: Planting

Get your potting mix on with some good ground soil, mixed with your selection of perlite, vermiculite and compost. Plant your seeds in appropriately sized pots about 1 inch deep with your exposed tail pointing down, then slightly mist the top of the container with clean water and put it somewhere it can get some direct light from a grow light.

Step 4: Develop a Control System and Monitor the Growing Process

The next step is a self-monitoring system to control it all. Assuming you can’t spend the whole day in your growing space, you need a 24-hour timer and an adjustable thermostat. The latter allows you to set your exhaust fan to switch on once temperatures go above a certain point. The result is a stable temperature range and humidity level while saving energy and money.

The 24-hour timer is similarly important to manage. When the marijuana plants are in vegetative growth, you need the light supply on for a maximum of 24 hours per day. Once they reach the flowering stage, they need 12 hours light and 12 hours dark.

Step 5: Show Your Cannabis Plants Some Love, Water & Nutrients

Ensuring your plants get enough nutrients is second only to lighting in terms of importance. Proper nutrient application is among the most critical factors in growing premium-grade cannabis. Whether you’re using an organic soil mix or growing hydroponically, your cannabis needs the following macronutrients:

  • Nitrogen (N)
  • Phosphorous (P)
  • Potassium (K)
  • Calcium (Ca
  • Magnesium (Mg)

The Final Step: Harvesting!

The final step involves harvesting your plants. Once you get used to the process, you’ll find it more enjoyable than tedious.

Growing Weed Indoors with a Hydroponic Setup

You need the following factors in place in order to complete your hydroponic setup:

  • Grow Environment – We recommend a grow tent as opposed to building your own environment from scratch.
  • Grow Light – If you don’t already have a grow light, we recommend getting a 250W, 400W or 600W grow light for your first grow. They are the most consistent type of grow light and get really great results in DWC.
  • Nutrients – I highly recommend getting GH Flora trio, Calimagic (Cal-Mag supplement) and Hydroguard.
  • Seeds – Learn where to get seeds
  • DWC tank – Learn how to build your own (it’s surprisingly hard to find a pre-made tank considering how cheap all the parts are!)

Wrapping Up How to Grow Weed Indoors for Beginners

Congratulations for getting this far! If you haven’t harvested your first batch of home-grown indoor weed yet, we’re sure you’re getting closer to the prize. Just remember to clean your grow room, because cleanliness ensures your product always turns out the best it can be. Happy indoor growing!

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