On This Website, you Will Find the Short Guide to Growing Marijuana Indoors
In recent years, marijuana, cannabis or pot growing has seen a dramatic rise. If properly done, you can expect to produce excellent quality stash. In fact, personally grown marijuana is way better than what you buy from the market
People usually believe that growing pot is a complex, time-consuming and expensive task.
However, growing marijuana indoors is not a complex task at all if only you know how it is done. Marijuana, whether grown indoors or outdoors, has the same growth requirements, that is, water, light, air, nutrients growing medium and of course, heat. Any absence of these will result in immediate death of the plant. Indoor marijuana growing depends a lot upon the proper spectrum and intensity of light, the warmth of the air, carbon dioxide proportion and aridness. Water quantity and the proper level of nutrients in the growing medium also account a lot. Perfectly combined essential elements result in healthier indoor marijuana growth. So, here is a short yet effective guide on how to grow marijuana indoors for beginners.
To grow marijuana indoors, you don’t need to spend much. You may even get started with as low as $100 to grow an ounce of marijuana.
To make the setup for growing pot, you will need a grow tent, fan, grow light and some growing supplies. This would cost you somewhere between $800 and $1500. In this budget, you can grow a few plants of marijuana and yield several ounces or a pound of bud.
So, we can estimate the cost of indoor pot growing to be $1500 max.
RAND, a drug policy research institute, suggests that a 5×5 pot grew area would provide 10.5pounds and this would cost you around $225/pound. This includes $75 for electricity and $150 for other necessary expenditures like creating the watering system, marijuana seeds purchasing or clones, etc.
The highest cost for growing marijuana indoors can be attributed to the electricity consumption because the plants need light to mature and grow. Considering the different rates of electricity in every area, RAND stated that on average, one-third of the entire expenses are caused by electricity usage. So, if you plan to do a 90-day harvest process in a 5×5 growing area then the electricity cost would be around $200.
You can buy indoor marijuana seeds or seedlings (also known as clones) from local medical marijuana dispensaries. Generally, marijuana seeds packet cost range between $6 and $15 and a single packet contains several seeds.
Now let’s estimate the price required to create the watering system. Watering is the fundamental part of marijuana growth process and if you intend to buy a professional system than the cost would be between $500 and $1000. However, you can also employ a DIY approach and stick to the traditional watering style using a spray, which would cost much lesser.
Equipment:
First and foremost, you need to determine what sort of harvesting do you intend to accomplish because there are two options, a soil-based system, and a hydroponic system. The soil-based system is much superior, cheaper and less erratic while hydroponic systems offer higher yields. For beginners, we suggest the soil-based system.
Growing pot indoors require less equipment including seeds, grow tent, grow pots/buckets, light system, a 24-hourly timer to automate grow lights, watering equipment, reflective material, soil, exhaust fans and other hardware to hang or fix the grow lights and fans.
Growing pot requires the use of powerful artificial lights that replicate the impact and effect of the sun. Indoor harvesters need to fix a timer to their grow lights in order to simulate the sun and make running off and on the lights convenient. You can use different sized lights from CFL bulbs to HPS and more specialized grow lights. You may also use fluorescent lights, LEDs, metal halide and all other kinds of lights. The number of lights required depends upon the number of plants you have and the area covered. Do not put too many plants under a single light bulb because it will affect their growth.
Grow pots and buckets are readily available everywhere and do not cost much as you can get a bucket in less than $10.
To benefit fully from your grow lights, you will have to light-up the room like a spaceship and this requires the use of reflective material. You may use tin foil but the problem is that it rips and folds easily. Therefore, we suggest that you put mylar on the walls because it is much less troubling. Buy mylar with a black plastic layer on the back because it will block light.
Exhaust fans are required to pull fresh air inside and push out the warm air out of the room. You need to create a duct to install the exhaust fans.
As far as soil is concerned, we suggest that you buy top-quality, organic soil from your local garden supply store or from the gardening section of any home improvement store.
Setup
Indoor pot growing is easier because you can easily control the environment but the responsibility is higher as well as you need to replicate natural circumstances for plants to grow. You can grow pot just about anywhere indoor such as an extra room, garage, closet or in a grow tent just make sure that you have easy access to fresh air and water.
Grow Tents:
For beginners, grow tents are much easier to work with, as you just need to decide on the size of the tent according to the space you have chosen. Grow tents are very cheap, trouble-free and effective for growing marijuana indoors. Usually, good quality grows tents are light-proof, contain reflective walls and built-in vent heat options as well as electrical points to hang grow lights. The floor is also water-proof to prevent spills so you don’t need to wipe water again and again. Grow tents will help your plants thrive and will minimize the human effort required. So, we suggest that you firstly select the room and then fix the grow tent in your preferred area.
Grow Pots/Buckets:
You can choose the size of the bucket/pot according to the size and capacity of the grow tent. Anything above 15 gallons is preferable. You may also choose from the range of fabric pots, which are relatively a new addition in indoor gardening. Fabric pots are better than plastic pots primarily because oxygen can easily reach the roots and excessive water can get easily drained. Approximately 2 to 5-gallon fabric grow pots would be a better choice.
Growing Medium:
Since this is a beginner guide to how to grow pot indoors, therefore, we have chosen to inform you about the easiest of all growing mediums around, which is soil. It contains essential nutrients due to which you may not need to add fertilizers for at least initial three weeks of your plant’s life cycle and error-margin is close to none. In this regard, it is important to gain information about the care and watering requirements of soil-based planting. The soil has natural buffering ability to maintain pH balance and also is least tenacious.
Pot Seeds:
You will require pot seeds, which can be bought online or from your local store. The most interesting part of the process is choosing between the marijuana seeds or clones. You can opt for auto-flowering marijuana seed strains, which are perfect for indoor marijuana growing as it doesn’t need lighting to be changed from 24 to 12 hours. Then there are feminized seeds, which are your best bet if you cannot find clones. These seeds are chemically treated and grow to be females. These also are the excellent option for indoor growing.
Preparation and Growing Process:
Firstly, to understand how to grow marijuana indoors, you need to get acquainted with the growing process. There are two stages of the life cycle of pot; the vegetative and flowering stages. From the stage of planting seeds to a young growing pot, the phase will be called vegetative, where the plant require slightly warmer temperature such as in the range of 70-85°F (20-30°C).
The flowering stage commences when the young pot plants start making buds. At this stage, the plant needs cooler temperature, such as in the range of 65-80°F (18-26°C). This is important because the colder environment is important for their perfect color, smell and trichome generation. You must remember that a 10degree difference must be maintained between day and night time temperatures to obtain optimal results, especially during the flowering stage.
Caring for indoor marijuana seeds:
Once you have sown the seeds into the soil, all that now the plant requires is a warm environment to germinate. Take your grow pot and fill it with soil, now gently sow the seeds by placing them in the soil and pressing a bit into the soil. Plant your seeds at least 0.5-1 inch OR 1.3 cm – 2.5 cm deep in your growing medium.
In case you are using pot clones, treat it very gently for the initial two days because they generally get a bit drooped and you need to ensure that they stay healthy and happy. Keep it moist and provide gentle light from fluorescent tubes to help them develop roots.
It must be noted that clones receive water through their leaves till the time they form roots but if it isn’t so then you need to mist them few times every day. Keep the temperature warmer at 72-77 °F (22-25 °C) and do not give them full light for 24 hours because it slows down rooting process. You may start with 16 hours light and 8 hours darkness schedule
Once sowed, you can place the grow pot(s) into the grow tent. Keep the lighting system at a 50 to 60cm distance from the plants and raise the distance as the plants grow.
Lighting:
You need to provide 18 hours of full light and 6 hours of darkness to your marijuana plants so that they grow healthily. Maintain this schedule for the first two weeks or when the plants grow 25cm tall.
You need to alter the lighting schedule to 12 hours of light and darkness each when the plants reach flowering stage. The length of the plant during flowering stage varies according to its phenotype but it may take at least 50 to 60 days to reach the stage.
Ventilation:
Ventilation is very important in both stages of the marijuana plant life. The exhaust fan should be turned on when you turn on the light but when it is the dark phase, you must connect it every 15 minutes per hour. In the final stages of flowering, you can increase this period to 15 minutes per half hour. Keep the fans running continuously when the humidity levels reach 90% but during moderate temperatures, there is no need to do so.
Temperature:
Now for the temperature; the grow tent’s temperature must not exceed 31°C and must not be below 17ºC. The ideal temperature would be something between 20 and 28ºC. Also, don’t let humidity exceed 75% or be below 20% while the ideal proportion would be between 40 and 60%.
Within a few days, you will see sprouts emerging and roots appearing; in soil, their taproots start growing downwards rapidly and seedling sprout quickly too. Due to being in the soil, then immediately adjust to the environment and since you don’t need to move them anywhere else, so their growth rate remained undeterred.
Beginning of the Vegetative Stage:
When you see new leaves forming and the plants getting taller, then this is the official commencement of the vegetative stage. During this period, the plant focuses on getting stronger and taller and just stems and leaves are formed. Buds will form in the flowering stage.
During this stage provide your plants 18 hours of light per day and 6 hours of darkness to let the plant assume that it is summer time, we suggest that you put your grow lights on a timer.
This is the most undemanding stage of indoor pot growing as they grow rapidly and all you need to do is maintain light and water the plants.
Water the plants when you feel that the top layer of your growing medium is a bit dry. At this stage, you need to ensure fresh air circulation as well because the plants need CO2 to grow.
Starting of Flowering Stage:
When the female plant starts to produce buds and flowers and the male plant grows pollen sacs then this means the flowering stage has started. This happens because the gender of your plants is revealed during this stage.
You can control the flowering stage by modifying the light every day. If you provide 12 hours light and 12 hours darkness then the flowering stage will continue until harvest.
Watering Marijuana Plants:
After transplanting, you need to provide abundant water, at least, 1.2ltr per plant. After few days, 150ml would be enough. We recommend that you use a sprayer to water your cannabis.
When the flowering period starts, increase water level to 250ml per plant but in the final two weeks, do not give them more than 150ml per plant every day. In this regard, notice the top layer of soil if it feels moist then you can postpone watering till the next day.
Now just follow the described rules, be patience and enjoy!
