How to grow weed easily

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With many countries starting to legalize personal use of marijuana, many people have started growing marijuana in their own home. I have never thought about growing weed myself because I thought you needed to be an expert grower, however I have done a well bit of research online and I have a really easy way to grow weed. Before you get started on my guide, consider whether you want to grow your own weed or buy from a supplier.

Growing weed versus buying weed

Growing weed

Advantages:

  1. Gives you full control over your growing environment to ensure that you have high quality cannabis at your disposal
  2. You can grow weed easy-peasy and it does not require expensive equipment
  3. Growing marijuana is a great, rewarding and fulfilling experience because you are able to watch your seeds grow into well-deserved cannabis plants
  4. You should never run out of the marijuana that you like
  5. You do not need to deal with dealers every time you need weed
  6. You learn a new skill
  7. Gardening is fun and has become quite trendy these days
  8. It’s going to save you quite a bit of cash in the long term.

Disadvantages

  1. Growing weed can result in a strong smell in your house which is not great
  2. If anyone finds out that you are growing a good yield of cannabis, there could be a chance of theft or enquiring questions
  3. You will need an indoor grow room, even if you want to grow weed indoors

Buying weed

Advantages

  1. You get immediate access to marijuana
  2. It’s quick and convenient
  3. If you like a particular strain and have a supplier that you like and trust then the quality of your weed should be guaranteed

Disadvantages

  1. It can be difficult to find a legal dispensary
  2. Buying marijuana can be expensive
  3. You do not know every step that the cannabis growers took to grow their cannabis plants

Growers can obviously make an even income off their marijuana grow, but at the end of the day it comes down to personal preference. My budget is pretty tight and I find it extremely exciting when my plants started to root and flower. The cannabis plants become my little babies and I find it very satisfying when I see them starting to grow and thrive. I also do not have a relationship with any growers and personally don’t know of any growers that grow to sell that are very trustworthy. Either way, once you know how to become a grower yourself, it opens up a potential business for you in the future. However, depending on where in the world you live, this may not even be a business opportunity for you so definitely check out the legal growing requirements in your country before you invest time and money in learning how to become a grower.

How to get started growing marijuana easily

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I have watched quite a few videos and tutorials online, but this is a very simple guide with well-detailed step by step instructions to show you how growing marijuana indoors can be really easy and inexpensive.

Before you read the guide and start growing, first ensure that you know the growing laws in your country to ensure that your cannabis growing is legal. The requirements for growing healthy and strong cannabis plants are pretty straightforward and outlined below:

  1. Plants need sufficient light, this can be from direct sunlight or even from grow lights. Lighting is the most important thing to remember as insufficient lighting will destroy your plants
  2. Fresh air – your grow space needs to ensure sufficient ventilation
  3. A growing medium – try a few and decide which you like best
  4. The right temperature (room temperature is usually best) – high temperatures can kill cannabis plants so make sure to keep the plants in moderate temperatures
  5. Sufficient nutrients – you can buy pre-packaged nutrients which can be added to water
  6. Water with the right pH: 6-7 for soil and 5.5-6.5 for hydro

A guide to get started growing cannabis

Step 1: First choose where you’ll grow weed

Before you start growing weed, you will first need to decide whether you want to grow indoors or outdoors and each place has its own benefits and disadvantages:

Growing marijuana indoors
  • Advantages
  1. The time from planting your seed to harvest is shortest
  2. You have more control over the grow
  • Disadvantages
  1. Your marijuana plants are completely reliable on you for their needs so you have more responsibility over the grow
  2. The grow results in a smaller yield
  3. It’s more expensive to start growing because you have to buy more equipment

If you choose to grow indoors then first just make sure to choose a grow room in your home that has access to water, fresh air and the right temperature. Generally, plants need a warmer environment between 70-85°F (20-30°C) and the room needs to be well lit. However, during the flowering stage, the temperature needs to be abit cooler 65-80°F (18-26°C) so you’ll need to use your grow lights to help you maintain the right temperature for whatever stage of growth your marijuana plants are in at the time. The following indoor rooms in your home can be converted into a grow room for cannabis growing:

  • An unused bedroom in your home
  • A closet
  • A enclosed garage with free space
  • An indoor grow tent
  • An unused bathroom in your home
Growing outdoors
  • Advantages
  1. It produces a larger yield
  2. It’s cheaper to start growing cannabis outdoors
  • Disadvantages
  1. Growing outdoors can take some time, usually up to 7 months
  2. You have less control over the environment due to the weather – heat, moisture and wind etc.
  3. Your marijuana plants are more exposed to things like theft, pests and animals
Growing medical marijuana

Many patients grow weed so that they have a constant supply of the marijuana plant to ease any of their symptoms. Indoor growth is preferred by people suffering from medical conditions because they have full control over the indoor growing conditions and ultimately the strains and quality they require. There are no specific marijuana grow strains that are better for medicinal use, but there are certain conditions that need to be followed to grow weed for medical patients:

  • First of all, you will want the indoor environment to be hygienic to allow the cannabis grow to be free from any germs or mold
  • In order to get continuous access to all the medical marijuana that you want then try doing multiple harvest with one room dedicated to the vegetative stage and one to the flowering stage
  • The process that is followed to grow marijuana, particularly growing weed indoors, is very rewarding and can be a good distraction for patients using medical marijuana
  • Despite their being no one particularly good medical marijuana strain to go for, generally patients enjoy a good amount of CBD in their marijuana because the CBD helps to treat all sorts of medical conditions like Rheumatoid arthritis, inflammation, pain, seizures, depression, PTSD, and skin allergies. Therefore, I would recommend strains with well above 2% CBD or a 1:2 THC to CBD ratio

I am no doctor (rights reserved) so rather check with your doctor and they will know the most suitable way for you to grow weed. Easy-peasy!

Step 2: Select your grow lights

Depending on whether you choose indoor marijuana growing or growing outdoors, you’ll need to check that your plants get sufficient light.

Weed indoors
  1. Normal household lights – Household Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs (CFLs) and LEDs are sufficient to start experiment with growing. They are very cheap, but they do lack the power required to grow the best plants.
  2. Ceramic Metal Halide lights – These lights have a natural color which may help for plant disease inspection and they provide fairly large yields.
  3. LED grow lights – These modern lights produce large yields, however, they are more expensive. Cannabis growers prefer to use these lights because they can be extremely effective, but they do advise checking the instructions to determine the optimal distance between the lights and your plants.
  4. Metal Halide & High-Pressure Sodium – Cannabis growers also like to use a combination of these lights to grow marijuana indoors because they are inexpensive but very powerful. They do require lots of electricity though and may be a bit difficult to access.
Weed Outdoors
  1. Sun – If you choose outdoors to grow, your marijuana plant requires atleast 8 hours of light and direct sunlight between the hours of 10:00 and 16:00 in particular.

Step 3: Choosing your growing medium

Below are the most popular growing mediums for cannabis growing – each have their own growing requirements.

  • Soil – soil can be used for indoors or outdoors, but make sure to add nutrients to your soil. Soil provides the best tasting marijuana
  • Soilless mix – You can purchase different soilless mixes
  • Hydroponics – This is a growing technique for growing cannabis directly in water and it grows quickly and may produce very large yields
  • Aeroponics – This weed is grown directly in air, by spraying the roots of the cannabis plants with misted air or growing in a misted environment
  • Aquaponics – This weed is grown in a fish tank and the fish excretion in the water increases the toxicity levels

Step 3: Choosing your nutrients

Whether you are growing in soil or not, you’ll need to purchase cannabis nutrients to provide your cannabis seeds with a good amount of nutrients that they need to grow strong. You can also make your own composted super soil or purchase it from the shops. Super soil provides all the nutrients that your plant needs to grow and provides a fantastic taste and smell. It’s also completely natural, however it can be expensive to make/buy and can take a bit longer to grow.

If you are purchasing nutrients to use then don’t start with the full strength as this can actually burn your plants. Try starting with half and then if you notice that any of your leaves are starting to turn yellow or falling off then you could start increasing the dosage of nutrients. Obviously, in the last two to four weeks before harvest, your leaves will naturally be a yellow color, so bear this in mind.

Step 4: Root pH

  1. Test the pH levels of your water, unless you are using super soil to grow
  2. Make sure to maintain pH levels of 6.0 – 7.0 if you are growing in soil or 5.5 – 6.5 if using hydroponics to grow marijuana

Step 5: Get marijuana plant seeds or clones

You can grow weed by using seeds or clones, both options have advantages and disadvantages to consider below.

Growing cannabis from seeds

Advantages from growing cannabis from seeds:

  1. Seeds are easy to find, really easy to grow and are reliable
  2. They allow a fresh start because their health has not been affected by a mother clone plant who could have been grown in a poor environment
  3. They provide the opportunity for growers to create their one strain of cannabis by breeding their favorite male with their favorite female

Disadvantages of growing cannabis from seeds:

  1. Some seeds won’t germinate, no matter what you do. Therefore, you will always need to begin with more than you need
  2. They are different to their mother plants and to their siblings so it’s actually impossible to grow a crop with the same traits
  3. It will take longer to grow a cannabis plant using them because it takes at least two weeks before the seed becomes a mature seedling
Growing cannabis from a clone of a cannabis plant

Advantages of cloning to grow cannabis:

  1. Using a clone is a quick way to grow and the clone will take on all the features of the mother plant
  2. Cuttings from a female mother plant will always result in a female plant
  3. A cutting that is rooted is automatically ready to grow so it takes less time for the cannabis plant to start growing
  4. Cloning is virtually free, besides some inexpensive rooting powder and cubes used and I don’t know many people who don’t like getting something for free

Disadvantages of cloning to grow cannabis:

  1. Cuttings need to come from an active vegetative plant so they are more difficult to find and can even be illegal in certain countries
  2. Cuttings are more sensitive and fragile and need a consistent temperature and optimal humidity levels before they will start to develop roots
  3. If the mother plant has any any genetic faults then the clone plant will inherit these traits
BudOfWeedPlant

Step 6: How to germinate your seeds (only applicable to those who seed led weed growth)

There are many easy methods to try out and learn when you are getting started to grow weed.

Paper Towel Method – This a simple and easy way to learn how to grow marijuana

You will need the following to get started:

  • Cannabis seeds
  • 2 plates
  • Paper towels
  • Water
  • A place to plant sprouted seeds

A guide to transform your small seedlings into green goddesses:

  1. Moisten the paper towel with abit of water and place on top of a plate
  2. Place the seed on the paper towel and fold the towel over to cover the seed
  3. Cover the plate with another plate to trap in the moisture
  4. Give your seeds roughly 4-7 days to sprout
  5. Place them with the root facing downwards into a small hole in your growing medium and gently cover them with your growing medium
  6. Your seedling should grow small seedling leaves and you should give the plant sufficient light from the grow lights
  7. The seedling should enter the vegetative state with two large leaves
  8. The plant will start to stretch towards the light

Another way to learn is to use a starter cube – A very easy and effective guide to learn how to yield good, healthy plants

Simply purchase a starter cube and first place the seed directly into the cube. Ensure that the cube remains warm and moist and the seeds should start to emerge. A seedling heat mat can help promote the germination process. After roughly a week, the seeds will be ready to be placed directly into the growing medium.

Step 7: Marijuana growing phase

  • Plants are in the vegetative state when they have formed normal sized leaves. In this stage, they should get 18 hours of light a day atleast if you want them to grow weed plants that are strong and healthy
  • Growing cannabis indoors, you will learn that your plants still need direct light so best ensure that they get direct light from 10:00 until 16:00
  • Continue to check that your plants are getting sufficient water at the right pH so that they have the best chance of survival

Step 8: Flowering stage

The flowering stage is when your plants start growing buds and it’s in this flowering stage that you will determine the gender of your plants. Every seed grower knows, and you will learn as you grow weed for the first time, that every male plant will need to be discarded so the best scenario will be all female yields.

  • If you are growing indoors then you will need to make sure that your plants get 12 hours of light and 12 hours of darkness in order to produce flowers
  • If you’re growing outdoors then your plants will naturally get less light as winter starts to settle in
  • After about 2 weeks of the 12/12 light schedule, your plants will start to show whether they are female or male plants. Females are the only plants that produce buds so they are the only ones that we will keep from the harvest for smoking marijuana. How to check whether your plants are male or female:

Females:

Female plants grow small white hairs at their branch joints and calyxes which eventually form the buds which you can smoke.

Males:

Male plants do not grow any of these small white hairs but rather grow small pollen sacks which don’t form buds that you can actually smoke. The male plants also impact the female plants and actually result in the females producing less buds so an experienced grower would recommend that it is best to remove every male plant to ensure that the females have the right conditions to thrive

  • Now that you only have female plants, lower the heat to 65-80°F (18-26°C) to produce the best smelling and tasting buds
  • Ensure that your plants get sufficient nutrients and lighting at this stage

Step 9: Harvest the weed

  1. Your weed is ready to harvest when your buds have a strong cannabis odor and are no longer growing white hairs. Just less than half of the existing hairs should darken in color and begin to curl
  2. If you’re wanting an exhilarating high then begin to harvest when 50-70% of the hairs have darkened. This is when the THC levels are at their highest
  3. If you’re smoking weed for more of a relaxing, calming and anti-anxiety effect then rather harvest when 80-90% of the hairs have darkened as some of the THC would have converted into CBN

Step 10: Dry the weed

Now that you have grown your marijuana and you have large, full buds then you will need to cut off the buds and place them upside down in a cool, dark room that has lots of fresh air so that they can dry out sufficiently. Ensure that you give the buds enough time to dry out properly because you do not want a crop that is full of mold.

Step 11: Cure the weed

  1. Place the buds in a jar in a cool, dark room. Ensure that there is space at the top of the jar
  2. Open the jar once a day to allow some fresh air into the jar and to remove excess moisture. Repeat this daily for roughly 14 days
  3. Mold can grow if the buds get too moist so leave the jar lid off for abit if the buds are not feeling dry to the touch
  4. After that, open the jar once a week instead, until the weed has been cured for a month or so

And that is basically it, you now know how to grow weed easy-peasy and with care. You’re on your way to becoming an expert. After reading this article, you should have realized that it’s pretty simple and easy to grow in your own home. You’re going to want to show off the great, new skill that you have learnt and help guide your friends to grow weed in no time.

If you have any questions, then please feel free to comment on this article and I should be able to provide further assistance. Please also let me know if you have a topic in mind or any other questions in particular that you really want me to address in a future article.

Now go on and enjoy every well deserved smoke of weed. Easy does it!

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