Pay attention that growing marijuana may be subject to special restrictions and regulation in your country or state. Please contact your attorney to obtain advice before cultivating cannabis.
Disclaimer
Pay attention that growing marijuana may be subject to special restrictions and regulation in your country or state. Please contact your attorney to obtain advice before cultivating cannabis.
First of all, you have to decide whether you are going to grow cannabis indoors or outdoors. It always depends on your preferences and goals, but some parameters should be taken into consideration before you start.
Pay attention to:
- Light - understanding the amount and character of light your weed needs to thrive helps you decide whether you will use sunlight or grow lights for this purpose.
- Air - do you have a well-ventilated place or does your climate allow you to grow cannabis outdoors?
- Temperature - the question above remains open, it depends on your climate.
Also, there are benefits and disadvantages of both ways you have to consider.
Let’s start with indoor growing.
Indoor growing
Your privacy won't be broken
Cheap to start
More control over your plants
Capacity for adjustments
Expensive due to installing lights and an air conditioner
Reliance only on your care
Adverse environmental impact due to use of much electricity
The limited size of your plants
Outdoor growing
Low expenditures (sun and wind will provide the needed resources for your cannabis)
No limitation for size and height of the plants
Good for the environment (again about resources)
Most likely your climate allows you this option, since cannabis is highly adaptable to various conditions
No privacy
Lack of control of environmental circumstances
Bugs, insects, etc.
If you choose indoors:
Choose the place for it, it can be almost anything: your closet, basement, or just spare room.
Since your space is limited, a good piece of advice is to start with just a few cannabis flowers.
Probably the most important part - taking into account lights, fans, ducting, and other stuff you may require to provide for your weed. Choose between LED, HID, or fluorescent lights. To this end, check out the basic requirements for growing cannabis such as temperature, watering, humidity, etc.
Another crucial point is the cleanliness of your room - you’ll have to clean and sanitize the surfaces, so make sure they are proper for this.
Choose a container, what type of container you utilize depends on the environment, the system, and the size of your flowers.
Examine the water in your area, sometimes it may not be proper for cannabis, if it contains a high amount of dissolved minerals or high levels of chlorine, it will affect the beneficial soil microbes.
If you choose outdoors:
It was mentioned above that cannabis plants are adaptable for climate, but extreme weather conditions such as winds, rains, or high (low) temperatures significantly affect the process of growing. To this end, it would be better if you have experience of growing plants outside, so you know your climate and length of the day.
Picking a place, have regard to the fact that it shouldn't be grown right near the street, maybe you would prefer to choose a sun-lighted balcony or rooftop.
Perhaps you should do some research on cultivars of cannabis, since they have different requirements, and find something that suits your climate the most.
Examine your soil and the components of it, if you are going to plant cannabis right in the ground. There is a soil testing service, that can help you with that. If your soil is sandy or heavy-clay, you will probably need to add compost or other decomposed organic matter. The best option would be silty soil, as it is easy to work with and contains a lot of important nutrients.
Additionally, knowledge of your soil will help you understand the amount and type of fertilizer that should be used.
If your ground is not the option, you should pick up some containers. In that case, you will use the nutrients and fertilizers designed especially for indoor-growing. But you do have a great advantage: you can move the containers, subject to the position of the sun during the day or in order to hide it from adverse weather conditions.
During the hot months, you should provide cannabis with water, while rain will do this job at other times. Sometimes your plants require a huge amount of water per day. But make sure that they will not be overwatered. To this end you may improve drainage around your garden.
Last but probably the most important step is protection. It again depends on your climate, so consider the necessity of setting up a greenhouse, windbreak, or plastic sheeting for the purposes of protection. Also, keep your plants healthy and check them regularly for the presence of different insects.
