Growing cannabis in your own garden is a bit more complicated than growing other plants. While cannabis thrives in the wild where there’s a good circulation of fresh air, it can be tricky to achieve the perfect environment right in your home.
You might be wondering – what does it take to achieve the healthiest growth and best yields for indoor cannabis? Follow these tips:
Let there be light!
Just like most plants, light is essential to the growth and survival of your cannabis. It’s one of the major factors that will determine your yield. When there’s little source of light, expect poor and unhealthy yield. However, you should also take note that while your cannabis plant needs light, it should be in an environment that is not too bright. If you’re growing cannabis in your garden or backyard, you will have less problems achieving the amount of light your plant needs to grow healthy. But if you’re growing cannabis indoors, you will need to install artificial lighting.
For the vegetative stage, your cannabis needs 18-24 hours of light a day. During the flowering to harvest stage, give them 12 hours light and 12 hours dark each day.
Using an incandescent bulb may barely suffice. Instead, consider making use of powerful grow lights like HPS, LECs and LED lights that help your plant grow as optimally as possible, especially during the flowering stage. Expect to produce the biggest and most dense buds!
Maintain the right temperature
When it comes to temperature, what is comfortable for you is also what works best for your cannabis. Thus, if you are feeling cold, so is your cannabis. If you’re feeling too warm, so does it. If you are comfortable with the temperature inside your home, your cannabis plant is perfectly fine.
For growing cannabis in indoor environments, the ideal temperature should be around 70 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit during the vegetative stage. For the flowering stage, you want to keep it between 62- and 80-degrees Fahrenheit. After that, be sure to store your cannabis in proper packaging to ensure a fresh appearance.
If your situating your cannabis in a secluded room or area, an easy way to monitor the temperature is by using a thermometer. Your primary concern is the roots of the plant. The fact that warm air rises and cool air sinks is to your advantage. But still, some rooms build up sufficient heat. If that’s the case with your indoor cannabis garden, you may need to install a fan specifically focused on the root system. A soil thermometer is also a wise investment.
Cannabis loves fresh air with a gentle breeze
Cannabis thrives pretty well in the wild where there’s fresh air. When growing cannabis indoors, you should also pay attention to maintaining good air flow. It shouldn’t be too hard though. All you need is to ensure that there’s proper ventilation. And you can achieve this through the following steps:
- Install an exhaust fan. If you’re growing cannabis in a separate room inside your house, make sure to install an exhaust system to keep the warm, contaminated air out. Or, you can simply open the windows. But an exhaust fan is more advantageous, especially during bad weather conditions.
- Installing fans help you create a steady supply of fresh air along with a breeze.
- Controlling humidity is also essential in growing cannabis to protect your plant against rotting, as well as from mold and mildew. It is also necessary to avoid the surge of pests, particularly fungus and spider mites. More importantly, the right level of humidity helps your cannabis grow faster and achieve more resin production. Using dehumidifiers is the best way to lessen humidity. They work by removing excess moisture in the air.
Feed them right
Of course, your cannabis needs food too. This crop loves water so much so you have to give it a steady supply of water. If you’re growing cannabis in your garden, adding a layer of mulch once the plant grows knee-high will help retain moisture in the soil. Also, unless your soil is healthy, you may need to add fertilizer too.
Consider applying high-nitrogen fertilizer every three weeks, until mid-summer. Water your crop when the soil feels dry. If you’re growing them indoors, particularly in coco coir, water it every 1-2 days and adjust the amount of water you give accordingly. An old-fashioned watering can will get the job done.
Give them enough space
The size of your indoor garden depends mainly on how much cannabis you wish to acquire and how much space you have available. Take note that your cannabis plant will grow double or triple in size during the flowering stage. Thus, you need to make sure you are allocating sufficient space so they can breathe properly and grow to their fullest.
Growing cannabis is not that difficult, but certain conditions should be met in order to increase your chances of harvesting high-quality crop.