Are you planning to grow cannabis or marijuana indoors? Whether you want to cultivate cannabis for medical, personal or, commercial use, it’s essential to know the necessary techniques and state regulations to grow marijuana. As in states like Illinois, where recreational marijuana has been legalized, users are still required to obtain an Illinois medical cannabis card to grow legally. And so, with the correct information, you can expect generous yields. These include knowing how to germinate, water, fertilize, trim, harvest, dry, and cure your cannabis correctly. Additionally, here are some tips for growing cannabis indoors:
- Practice Proper Watering
Just like all plants, it’s crucial to provide the right water for cannabis plants so they can grow and develop healthily. But watering marijuana isn’t as simple as pouring water on the plant. So, how do you water your marijuana plants properly? What are the important things to keep in mind when watering your plants?
Check out the following tips:
- Dechlorinated Water
If you’re using tap water, let it sit for a few days. In this way, the chlorine from the water will evaporate or dechlorinate. Dechlorinating the water you give to your cannabis plants is vital. The pH level of the water you use to nourish your crop should be within 5.5 and 6.5, which is the recommended range for most cannabis plants.
Fortunately, there are products sold online that can help you acquire the right water for cannabis.
- Consider A Hydroponic System
Hydroponic growing systems are preferred by some cannabis growers because they don’t need soil as a medium. One of the major advantages of using a hydroponic system is the ability of the marijuana plants grown using this method to produce larger yields.
Hydroponic growing systems provide the right levels of nutrients your cannabis plants need. The nutrients and oxygen absorbed by the roots in a hydroponic system help grow cannabis plants faster than soil.
- Know When To Give Fertilizer
There are many benefits of growing marijuana at home, such as being able to have quick access to the strain you prefer for medical or recreational purposes. But growing cannabis plants may leave novice growers asking plenty of questions, such as ‘When is the best time to feed my cannabis plants?’
You can feed nutrients once your marijuana plants have grown 3 to 4 sets of cotyledons or true leaves (tiny leaves that sprout after germination). It takes 3 to 4 weeks from planting germinated cannabis seed to use all its energy. At this point, the plant roots take nutrients from the soil and fertilizer.
- Provide The Right Grow Environment
Indoor cannabis cultivation involves providing your plants the right environment, like a grow tent.
Grow tents enable you to grow cannabis indoors without remodeling or construction. They streamline the weed’s growing process because tents are easy to install. With a grow tent, you can hang artificial lights, fans, air filters, and other equipment to provide the perfect condition for your cannabis plant to thrive, too.
Below are some tips to help you provide the right growing environment:
- Maintain relative humidity: It’s important to know how to increase the relative humidity inside a grow tent. Relative humidity measures the amount of water present in the air to ensure that your cannabis plants grow and stay healthy. Adding evaporated water, adjusting the heat flow, and watering and covering your marijuana plants can help increase the relative humidity in the grow tent.
- Provide lighting cycle: Marijuana plants need a specific number of hours in the daylight and nighttime. Proper lighting correlates to the overall quality and yield of your cannabis plants. During the vegetative stage (when leaves are growing), your plants need at least18 hours of growing light and 6 hours of total darkness (18/6). Some growers want their cannabis plants to grow big so they can keep them under indoor light for 24 hours (24/0).
- Provide proper ventilation: Without proper ventilation, the grow lights in the grow tent will increase the temperature inside. So, it’s important to maintain the proper ventilation in your grow space by installing an exhaust system to draw old, warm air out from the tent while drawing cool, fresh air. You can also install fans in order to have proper air circulation.
Conclusion
Growing marijuana plants indoors takes plenty of patience, hard work, and passion. For one, you need to know the specific requirements of the strain of marijuana you’re planning to grow. It’s also crucial to prepare the supplies, tools, devices, and equipment you need for your cannabis plants. These things can help provide the right conditions for your marijuana plants to grow properly, mature, and provide generous yields.