Growing marijuana indoors has become one of the most prevalent ways to cultivate cannabis in recent times. This method of producing weed has numerous benefits for growers, including more control over your plants and a flexible growing schedule.
However, growing indoor cannabis is not like growing a common houseplant. Therefore, you need to acquire the best information on how to grow weed inside before embarking on such a project. Fortunately, growing indoor marijuana is not as daunting as it seemingly looks. This article highlights everything you need to know about how to grow marijuana indoors.
Benefits Of Growing Marijuana Indoors
Before learning how to grow weed indoors, it’s vital to know the advantages of this type of cannabis cultivation. Although growing weed inside can be more resource-intensive than farming outdoors, it allows for more control over every aspect of the growing environment, meaning you can tweak various factors to produce the best weed. Here are other advantages of growing marijuana indoors.
Growing Weed Indoors Provides Adaptability
When growing indoor cannabis, growers need not worry about how the different seasons and the sun’s availability affects their crops. Cultivators can control different aspects of their plant’s environment, enabling them to provide optimum conditions throughout the cannabis plant growing stages. Growers can manage everything from the amount of light and water their plants receive to the nutrients they use.
Growing Indoor Marijuana Results In Better THC Levels
Marijuana plants that are grown outside usually compete for water and nutrients with other crops, making it difficult for them to reach their full potential. However, when you grow indoor weed, you can provide everything your crops need to thrive. Consequently, this results in plants with generally higher trichome count and denser nugs than those grown outside. This is why most tokers prefer getting indoor weed whenever they hit the bong or roll joints. Similarly, indoor cannabis has higher THC levels and is more potent.
Cultivating Weed Indoors Facilitates Faster Harvest Time
Although the harvest time for cannabis varies from one strain to another, growing marijuana indoors takes significantly less time. It often takes nearly nine months for outdoor cannabis to fully mature due to fluctuating natural conditions. However, you can harvest your crops in as little as three months when you grow indoor weed. Hence, you can have nearly four harvests in a year when you cultivate your cannabis indoors.
Setting Up An Indoor Grow Room
Building an indoor grow room for your marijuana can seem like a very complicated endeavor, especially for new growers. However, with the right information, you’ll quickly realize that it’s more straightforward than it appears. Here are some weed growing tips to help you learn how to grow marijuana indoors.
The Tools You Need To Grow Cannabis Indoors
Growing indoor marijuana requires more equipment than cultivating the plant outdoors. These tools help growers manage significant environmental elements that influence the quality of the weed. Here’s a list of what you’ll need to set up an indoor grow room.
Indoor space
While most indoor cannabis cultivators utilize grow tents for cultivating their cannabis, it’s also possible to use a dedicated space like a closet or extra bedroom. Ideally, your planting space should be next to a window since cannabis plants tend to have a powerful and distinct odor. It’s also vital to leave enough room for the growth of your plants since they can double in size during the flowering stage.
Lights
Essentially, marijuana plants have distinct light requirements during the vegetative and flowering stages. Therefore, when growing indoor marijuana, you must facilitate the perfect light conditions for the best results. Different types of light fixtures can have varying effects on your plants.
Many cannabis cultivators consider HID (high-intensity discharge) lights as the industry standard for growing indoor marijuana. Although they cost more than incandescent or fluorescent fixtures, HID lights provide better output, efficiency, and value. Finding the perfect light fixture to grow indoor weed boils down to a grower’s preference and budget.
Planting pots
Planting pots are essential for providing enough room for crops to develop a healthy root system. They come in numerous shapes and sizes, each with its own pros and cons. There are several options to choose from when it comes to growing pots, from homemade pots to standard flower pots and fabric planting pots. For this reason, it’s vital to select one that fits your specific needs and budget.
Intake and extractor fans
Growing indoor cannabis requires a constant supply of fresh air. For this reason, your indoor grow room needs a steady stream of air to move hot air out of the space and bring in cool air. Fortunately, you can quickly achieve this by adding an intake and exhaust fan to your setup.
Using an exhaust fan near the top of the space will help suck out warm air. Similarly, adding an intake fan at the bottom of the opposite end of your grow space brings in cool fresh air from outside.
The aim is to ensure complete air exchange throughout the entire growing area every few minutes. You may also install a carbon filter on your exhaust fan to eliminate the pungent odor of cannabis.
Thermometers and Hygrometers
It’s crucial to maintain favorable conditions when growing indoor cannabis. This means monitoring and managing your grow area’s temperature and humidity. To do this successfully, you’ll require a thermometer to measure the temperature and a hygrometer to determine the humidity of your grow space.
Timer
When learning how to grow weed inside, it’s vital to research and source suitable timers for automating various processes in your grow space. A timer is excellent for providing consistent light during the vegetative and flowering stages of cannabis growth. You can also use a timer to regulate how your fans operate.
Regulating Temperature And Humidity When Growing Cannabis Indoors
Temperature and humidity are significant factors for growing indoor marijuana. Essentially, indoor cannabis plants should stay within a comfortable temperature range of 70-85 degrees Fahrenheit with lights on and 58-70 degrees Fahrenheit when the lights are off. Still, this usually depends on the strain. Indicas generally prefer cool temperatures, while Sativa strains thrive in warmer conditions.
Marijuana plants also require different conditions in various stages of development. During the seeding or cloning phase, cannabis plants need temperatures of 75-85 degrees Fahrenheit and 70% relative humidity.
In the vegetative stage, weed plants need 70-85 degrees Fahrenheit and 40-60% relative humidity. On the other hand, they’ll require temperatures of 65-80 degrees Fahrenheit and 40-50% relative humidity.
Your indoor grow room’s temperature can be controlled by manipulating factors like lights, airflow, air conditioners, and heaters. Similarly, you can manage the humidity by using dehumidifiers and controlling airflow. However, keep in mind that temperature and humidity are closely related, and changing one element affects the other.
Soil And Growing Medium For Indoor Cannabis Plants
When you want to grow indoor weed, you must decide whether to use hydroponics for cannabis or soil. Most growers gravitate towards using soil since it is the most popular medium for cultivating marijuana. Moreover, growing weed without hydroponics is less daunting for beginners.
Any high-quality potting soil would be suitable for growing indoor cannabis as long as it doesn’t contain artificial extended-release fertilizers. Such fertilizers are unfit for growing quality marijuana. On the other hand, if you’re employing hydroponics, all you need is a suitable growing medium to help your plant’s root systems remain intact and provide them with support.
