A Step-by-Step Guide on How to Grow Weed

Even if you don’t have experience, you can learn how to grow weed with the right guide. In this article, we’ve provided an easy-to-understand guide to help you start growing your own cannabis. Before you put a seedling in the ground, it’s essential to understand how the process works and what factors you need to control to get the best result. Let’s find out how to grow cannabis.

Benefits of Growing Weed at Home

Growing weed at home has many benefits. But why should you invest time, money, and effort in growing marijuana at home when you can buy it from a dispensary? Here are some benefits of growing weed at home: You Know Exactly What's in Your Cannabis When purchasing cannabis from a dispensary, you typically don’t know what has happened to the flower at every step of the growing or distribution process. One of the main reasons why self-cultivation or growing your own weed is beneficial is that you know exactly how your cannabis was grown and processed. For example, you can keep harmful grow additives out of the mix. Growing your own weed can also be a good way to learn about different strains or help you refine your palate. It’s Cost-Effective While growing equipment can be expensive, you can rest assured that you’ll get more than what you put in. This is because a single cannabis plant can produce up to a pound of flower. You don’t need to spend money on premium flower if you grow your own. If you have the space and the means to get started, home growing can save you some cash. You Can Make Your Own Extracts You can turn your home-grown flower into hash, concentrates, weed butter, or tinctures. If you are using cannabis for health benefits, perhaps you want to avoid certain solvents when making extracts. If you grow your own flower to make extracts, you can control what happens at every step of the process. Multiple Harvests Given proper care, your cannabis can bloom several times per year. Also, growing weed at home lets you control how much flower your cannabis plant produces. For example, you can decide how big you want your cannabis plant to be by putting the grow lights closer or farther away. Adaptability Growing your own weed inside eliminates sun and seasonal restrictions. All you need to do is provide a suitable environment for the plant to grow. This includes regulating the amount of nutrients and water the plant receives, as well as controlling the humidity and temperature.

Should I Use Seeds or Cuttings to Grow Weed?

You can grow marijuana from seeds or even create a clone from a cutting. You can buy seeds from a dispensary. Or you can get clones and cuttings from a grower. A clone is a cut branch of a living cannabis plant. Clones have the same genetic makeup as the mother plant. For an in-depth guide to cannabis cloning, check out our article How to Clone Weed. Here are some factors to consider when choosing whether to grow from seeds or cuttings:

• Growing plants from seed produces more vigorous plants compared to growing them from cuttings. Most growers prefer to grow cuttings and let them go to seed to revitalize their genetics.
• It’s easier to tell the strain of a cutting than the strain of a seed.
• You can’t tell whether a seed is for a male or female plant by just looking at the seed. Unless you purchase a feminized seed, you might need to plant several seeds and wait to determine whether it’s male or female.
• Auto-flowering strains are not very receptive to cloning. Auto-flowering strains should be grown from seeds and are typically ready to harvest in 10 weeks. An auto-flowering strain automatically switches from vegetative growth (growth between germination and flowering) to the flowering stage based on age, while a photoperiod strain switches growth stages based on the ratio of light hours to dark hours.

How to Choose Which Strain to Grow

One of the benefits of growing your own cannabis is that you can grow any strain you want. Here are some factors to consider when choosing which marijuana strain you want to grow:

• Effect: The experience you expect after consuming product from the plant.
• Time to harvest
• Potency: Percentages^[1] of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD).
• Plant height: Both indoor and outdoor heights.
• Yield: The weight of bud per plant when grown outdoors, or the weight of bud per square meter of plant when grown indoors.
• Feminized seeds: Seeds from reputable sellers are feminized, but you need to be sure they are.
• Genetic background
• Strain Variety: A representation of the percentages of indica, sativa, and ruderalis types.
• Photoperiod or auto-flowering: Consider growing auto-flowering plants if you’re a beginner.

For more information on cannabis strains and what they actually mean, check out our article Why Jointly Is Better Than A Strain Finder.

How to Grow Marijuana

Once you have determined if you will grow from a seed or a clone, you are ready to get started. If you are growing from a clone, you can skip the next step. If you are growing from a seed, you need to germinate the cannabis seeds and allow them to grow into seedlings before transplanting them.

How to Germinate Marijuana Seeds

Germination is the first stage of the cannabis growth cycle. When a seed is placed in a moist environment with the proper cues to signal it is time to grow, it will break out of its shell and release a seedling sprout, from which roots will form. Marijuana seeds require a temperature around 70 degrees and a dark environment to germinate. The seeds can be germinated in a starter plug, in a wet paper towel, or soil. Another option is to sow the seed directly into a container of soil or your garden. However, you’ll need to ensure that the soil is light and fluffy to allow the root to grow. Plant the seeds about ½ - inch deep and cover them loosely. Ensure that the environment is moist, which increases the likelihood of germination. You can also use heat mats to raise the temperature if you live in a cooler environment.

How to Transplant Marijuana Plants

Whether the plant is started from a clone or a seed, you need to ensure you don’t damage the root when transplanting it. Place the seedling or clone in the center of a pot and cover the entire root in soil. For root-bound plants, tease the roots apart to enhance outward growth. Pack the roots with soil and other growth media like compost to support their growth. Make sure that the soil is not too tight because it can prevent outward root growth. When choosing soil, ensure that it is made of silt, sand, and clay. The soil should be slightly acidic and should contain adequately drained organic matter. Your local gardening store should be able to help you out. While this guide focuses on growing cannabis in soil, cannabis can also be grown in a solution of water and nutrients (hydroponic). Hydroponic grow operations are more expensive, but can allow for greater yield and more precise control over the grow process.

How to Grow Weed Indoors

Growing weed indoors allows for more autonomy during the growth process and multiple harvests annually. Whether you live in a small house or an apartment, there are a variety of grow tents and tools to accommodate any grow space, no matter how small. You only need to know how to set up an indoor environment that will allow the plant to properly grow. As a result, you can grow a weed plant in any part of your home including your bedroom or closet.

How to Grow a Weed Plant in My Room

To grow a weed plant in your bedroom, you only need to know how to set up an indoor environment. Below we outline how you can set up a successful indoor environment to grow weed plants in your room:

Setting Up an Indoor Grow Room

To grow cannabis inside, you need to set up an optimal environment for your transplanted cannabis plant to thrive. Here are the things to consider before you start growing weed indoors:

Indoor Space:

You’ll need to set aside a space for the plant. The space should be close to a window for proper ventilation. Remember that growing weed, especially at the flowering stage, smells, and you probably don’t want your house to reek of cannabis. You can grow weed in a tent, spare room, cabinet, or closet. The most important thing is to make sure you tailor your plant and equipment to fit your space. People usually grow their weed plants in tents, but this is not always necessary. Light and proper ventilation are necessary for the health of your cannabis plants. When creating an indoor grow space, you will want to purchase ducting, fans, and grow lights.

Indoor Climate:

Cannabis relies on environmental conditions like light intensity, humidity, airflow, and temperature to thrive. You’ll need to monitor and regulate these factors if you want your plant to stay healthy. We will discuss the optimal ranges for humidity and temperature below.

Lights: Light is a major factor when growing weed indoors. The plant needs light in varying amounts during the vegetative and flowering stages. In general, the plant needs up to 18 hours of light during the vegetative stage and 12 hours of light during the flowering stage. The remaining periods should be dark. Metal halide lamps are preferable during vegetative growth, while high pressure sodium lamps are better suited for flowering. Additionally, you will need to ensure that the grow space is light-tight. Light leaks can alter the plant’s growth, thereby producing male flowers rather than female flowers. An example of light leak would be sunlight accessing your plant during the dark period.

Regulating Humidity and Temperature in your Indoor Grow Space

Beyond light, humidity and temperature are the two factors you will need to monitor and control in your indoor grow space if you want your cannabis to have optimal growth. You’ll need to ensure that both humidity and temperature are always within a certain range. Additionally, the temperature should correspond with the light-dark cycle.

For example, when the lights are on, the temperature should be between 70- and 85-degrees Fahrenheit; when the lights are off, the temperature should be between 58- and 70-degrees Fahrenheit. Each growth stage requires different temperature and humidity conditions^[3] for optimal growth.

• Seedlings or clones: 75 to 85 degrees and approximately 70% relative humidity
• Vegetative stage: 70 to 85 degrees and approximately 40 to 60% relative humidity
• Flowering stage: 65 to 80 degrees and approximately 40 to 50% relative humidity

If you set up your indoor grow environment properly and monitor these factors, your cannabis plants should thrive. Now let’s learn about growing weed outdoors.

How to Grow Weed Outdoors

Growing weed outdoors is cost-effective because you won’t need to spend money on controlling the environmental conditions. You are relying on the sun for light and your local weather for temperature and humidity. Because you are relying on your climate, you must plant your cannabis in the right season.

If you’re growing from seed, you’ll need to germinate the plant indoors during the early spring. The seeds can sprout in April if you live in a warmer climate or in May for cooler climates. Cannabis generally flowers in the late summer through the fall. As a side note, make sure you check your local laws and regulations before planting cannabis outside. Here are the steps to follow when growing weed outdoors:

Step 1: Determine the Climate and Location The climate is an important factor when you’re growing outdoors. The primary concern is the availability of sunlight. Ensure your climate offers a minimum of five hours of sunshine daily. Additionally, you need to place your plant in a location that allows a minimum of five hours of sunshine daily. Places to consider for an outdoor grow include a personal garden, balcony, roof terrace, a forest, or an open field.

Step 2: Add Fertilizer to the Plant Use organic fertilizer if you’re growing outdoors. You can add it at every stage of the growth cycle. Organic fertilizers include fish meal, blood meal, compost, worm castings, and kelp meal. You can also add it to the soil before planting.

Step 3: Plant Your Cannabis in a Protected Environment While you could just stick your cannabis plant in the ground, you probably want to protect it from inclement weather, pests, and animals. When growing outside, you’ll need to ensure that you select the right container to protect the plant. A large 5-gallon plastic container is perfect to protect your plant from bad weather, pests, and animals.

Step 4: Water the Plant Every plant needs water to grow. One of the benefits of growing weed outdoors is that it exposes the plant to rainwater. However, if you live in a region with minimal rainfall, you’ll need to water the plan manually. Water is important for proper growth, but overwatering can be harmful and stunt growth.

How to Grow Purple Weed

Purple weed is a type of cannabis with deep purple leaves and flowers. The plant starts with green leaves but changes color after exposure to cold temperatures. Purple weed is rich in flavonoids, and this is what determines whether the plant will turn orange or purple. The flavonoids that give the plant its purple color are called anthocyanins, which also give blackberries and other dark fruits their color. In addition to anthocyanins, purple weed also contains terpenes, THC, and other cannabinoids.

The Process of Growing Purple Weed

Now that you know what purple weed is, let’s continue with the process of growing purple cannabis. Here are the key things to keep in mind when growing purple weed:

• Choose the Right Seeds and Strain

To get the purple color at an early stage, you’ll need to choose a seed that contains more anthocyanins. Choosing a seed with more carotenoids will produce a yellow color instead of purple. To end up with cured and dried bud that is purple, you’ll need to select a strain with more colorful parts. Strains with buds, leaves, trichomes, pistils, and calyxes that are brightly colored will be best for growing purple weed.

• Monitor Nutrients

Nutrient deficiencies can encourage the plant to become more purple. The plant can turn purple if there is a deficiency of phosphorous or nitrogen.

• Temperature

You’ll need to keep the plant at just the right temperature to get the purple color. Cold temperature and increased anthocyanin production play key roles in producing purple weed, although cold temperatures also decrease yield. However, short, cooler days and long colder nights will enhance the production of anthocyanins. You can also adjust environmental conditions to better suit anthocyanin production. You could place the plant under a shade during the day or turn down the temperature in its controlled environment. After harvesting, you want to keep the temperature at or below 75°F degrees to preserve the purple color.

Growing your own cannabis can be daunting at first but given Jointly’s Guide to Growing Weed, you have the knowledge to get started!

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