You're here because you want to learn how to grow weed. Despite what you may have heard, growing cannabis is actually pretty easy once you have the right information. Anyone with the will to grow, a few extra minutes each day and a space to grow have what it takes to grow their own cannabis .
Cannabis goes by many names; “weed,” “pot,” “marijuana,” “ganja” and more. These all refer to the same thing. Cannabis is a plant that grows almost everywhere in the world. In the wild, cannabis makes flowers in the fall, and the flowers of the female cannabis plant are what most people think of when it comes to the word “cannabis.” The flowers of this plant are harvested, dried and cured to become the buds that can be used to vaporize, smoke, eat (via edibles) for recreational or medical marijuana purposes.
Dried & Cured Flowers of a Female Cannabis Plant
"Sinsemilla" - potent cannabis buds without seeds
Maybe you're like me a few years ago. You like cannabis, or need it for medical reasons, and you’re tired of paying for it. Or perhaps, like me, you couldn’t even find any cannabis to buy most of the time.
For people like us, growing cannabis can be a relaxing pastime that can save you a lot of money, time and frustration.
Why I started growing cannabis
save money & time - compared to buying cannabis, growing is much easier for me
health reasons - I use medical marijuana for epilepsy
greater stealth - never have to pick up cannabis from somewhere else
personal safety - no need to deal with drug dealers to get cannabis
consistent supply - never run out
higher quality cannabis & choice of strains - produce exactly what you want
Before you start growing, it’s important that you understand your local laws. If you live in the USA,
this website may help.
Cannabis is a weed in the wild that adapts to many climates. Cannabis plants can actually be really easy to grow if you have the right information and know what to do. It can seem impossible to get started if it’s your first time growing, but this website will walk you through everything.
Don't you want to see this when you wake up every morning?
How Long Until You’re Smoking Your Buds? 4 months
After you start growing, it usually takes at least 3 months until harvest for most strains (some just a little less, some strains take longer, and it will also take longer if you grow big plants). After harvest, your cannabis buds takes around a week to dry. Lastly, for the best quality, most growers want to cure their bud for 2+ weeks to get a smoother taste and a higher perceived potency. After being cured for 2-4 weeks, buds will feel stronger and be less likely to cause headaches or anxiety.
In total, you’re looking at a 4 month investment for a cannabis harvest.
Growing Timeline
~3+ Months - Seed to Harvest
~1 week - Drying
2+ Weeks - Curing
Total: 4+ Months
Growing Cannabis Basics
Cannabis plants are weeds with simple needs. Your cannabis plants will grow as long as you give them the right amount of the following resources..
In order to thrive and grow, your weed needs…
Light (brightness has a huge effect on yields)
Air (fresh air with a slight breeze is best)
a
Grow Medium (place to grow, soil isn't your only choice)
the right
Temperature (room temperature or a little warmer is perfect during the day, cannot stand freezing at night)
Nutrients (start at half as much as what's recommended on the package)
Water (
maintain pH for best results, soil likes 6 - 7 pH & hydro likes 5.5 - 6.5 pH)
Whether growing marijuana plants indoors or outdoors, you will need to ensure that it gets the proper amount of these six resources. You will be rewarded with big colas!
What’s The Most Common New Grower Mistake? Lack of Research
One of the most common mistakes made by new weed growers is to conduct spur-of-the-moment experiments and hurt or even kill their plants.
You should always at least do a quick google search before you try any new technique.
Why make your plants be the guinea pig of an experiment that someone else has already tried before?
For example, it may seem like a good idea to give your growing cannabis Miracle-Gronutrients because it's easily available/cheap, or plant your seeds in the original Miracle-Gro soil you have laying around the house. Unfortunately the standard Miracle-Gro formula does not contain the right ratio of nutrients for cannabis, especially during the budding stage. Using original Miracle-Gro nutrients during flowering can hurt your plants and reduce your yields.
But how could you possibly know that unless you look it up first?
Suggestion: Harvest Your First Plant Before Trying Any Experiments
You don't want to lose your entire crop to something that has already been tried before and proven not to work, so make sure you do a little research and experiment with caution and moderation.
Another common problem new growers have is the tendency to skip crucial steps like
maintaining a proper pH or getting the
right kind of nutrients. While you can get lucky and succeed at growing weed without taking these steps, you are a lot more likely to end up plants that die or just never produce any buds.
It can actually be really easy to grow marijuana with the right info. It’s like growing any other plant. You follow a proven set of steps, and before you know it, you’ll be harvesting your first buds.
Start by reading this simple cannabis grow guide and you will soon have all the knowledge you need to start producing your own potent buds today!
Light Needs (Cannabis needs more light than most houseplants)
Many cannabis growers like to grow outdoors. Outdoor growers need a accessible, private space that gets 8+ hours of direct sunlight a day for the best results.
Outdoor growers need 8+ hours of direct sunlight a day
Plant in Spring, Harvest in Fall.
Cannabis plants grow very fast in a short amount of time, and need a lot of energy from the light to grow and produce buds. In the wild, a cannabis plant can grow to the size of tree in less than a year, and it uses energy from light to power that growth.
Many new growers who want to grow indoors like the idea of growing their cannabis plant in a sunny window, like a houseplant. Usually the light from a window won’t be enough. While young cannabis plants seem to be able to grow in bright, sunny windows, cannabis plants usually don’t ever produce more than a few wispy hairs during the flowering stage, and may not produce any bud at all. Without any flowers/bud, you’re out of luck.
Indoor growers almost always need grow lights to get buds
Indoors, nearly all growers will need some type of grow light for successful cannabis growth.
Indoor growers usually put their grow lights with a timer to simulate the sun. This makes it easy to turn on and off the lights for each “day” so grow lights are more automated. There are many different sized grow lights, from the CFL light bulbs you already use in your house to bigger, more specialized grow lights that produce pounds of bud at a time.
There are indoor growing options for nearly everyone, even if you're on a budget or only have a small space to work with, whether you want to grow in a bucket or a whole room.
Indoor growers need a private space and grow lights
There are limitless setup options
Two Stages of Life: Vegetative & Flowering
Here’s the cannabis life cycle in the wild...
Seed sprouts in spring
Cannabis grows for a summer
Days start getting shorter
Cannabis starts making flowers or pollen
Pollination
Female plants make seeds
Cannabis dies for winter
Repeat - Everything starts over again for the next generation
Why is this important?
Cannabis plants go from seed to death in just one year, and they have a certain order for their life stages. This is very important for you to understand as a grower.
As far as a grower is concerned….
Young/Vegetative ⇒ Budding/Flowering ⇒ Harvest
A plant will keep growing vegetatively (just stems and leaves) as long as the plant “believes” it is early spring or summer. Outdoors this happens naturally as the seasons change. Indoors, growers put grow lights on a timer to “tell” the plant when to start flowering.
Cannabis Life Stages
Vegetative - stems and leaves
Flowering - making buds / flowers
It seems simple, and it is! Just remember that there are two stages of life for cannabis, first the vegetative stage, and then the flowering stage (which is followed by harvest).
Male & Female Cannabis Plants
Cannabis plants have a gender. Each plant grows into a “male” or “female” plant. Although about half of plants are male or female, only female cannabis plants produce bud. Getting rid of male cannabis plants also prevents pollination (and seeds).
Most growers are only interested in growing female plants so they can harvest the bud.
Female Cannabis Plants Produce Buds
Cannabis plants first show their sex at the end of the vegetative stage or at the beginning of the flowering stage.
Male cannabis plants only produce pollen sacs, no buds, and few male plants produce a significant amount of THC or other cannabinoids.
That's worth repeating. Male weed plants do not produce buds with THC. Most growers throw them away on sight.
Male Cannabis Plants Do Not Produce Bud
There is no way to determine the gender of a plant initially, just by looking at the seeds, or even by looking at young plants.
Both male and female cannabis plants look exactly the same until they start flowering. There used to be myths and tricks on how to tell male from female plants from a young age, but none actually works 100% of the time. To this day, even scientists are not exactly sure what causes some plants to become male, and some plants to become female.
For most growers, you will need to identify the gender of your plants as soon as possible and remove any males promptly, before they contaminate your females.
How to Get Seeds or Clones - Choosing the Right Strain
The two most popular ways to get cannabis seeds or clones is in person or via online seed banks.
If you want to to reduce the uncertainty and make sure you always grow incredible-quality cannabis, you need to start with great genes.
Just like with animals, the way your cannabis plants turn out will have a lot to do with the genetics they started life with. Each cannabis plant is a mixture of the traits from its two parents.
Because genetics have such a huge impact on your results, it is important to know a little bit about the genetics of the plant you're working with.
There are three main strains or types of cannabis:indica, sativa, and hybrid strains (hybrid strains are a mix of indica and sativa).
These types are not set in stone. Nearly all cannabis strains you run into with be some sort of hybrid. Some strains lean more indica, others lean more Sativa. Some are a class of their own. I’ve heard some people consider "Haze" to be a strain type, though it's sometimes considered part of the "Sativa" family.
There is also a very important other type of cannabis; “Ruderalis” or “auto-flowering” strains.
Let me explain...
Indica, Sativa & Hybrids (plus Auto-flowering) Strains
Indica
Indica strains tend to cause more of a body high and tend to grow shorter and bushier.
Sativa
Sativa strains tend to cause more of a cerebral or mental high. Sativas grow larger, have higher light requirements, and take longer to mature than indica plants so a sativa strain of cannabis may need special plant training to be suited for growing indoors. Sativas often have thin, finger-like leaves while indicas have fatter, rounder leaves.
Hybrid
It is often simplest to grow marijuana plants that are a hybrid strain because they have been bred to carry the best traits of both sativa and indica.
Auto-flowering or “Ruderalis” strains
Auto-flowering means these strains will start flowering regardless of its light schedule. These strains are usually a famous strain that has been bred to carry the “auto-flowering” characteristic. When growing with Ruderalis-based cannabis strains such as the Lowryder, you can give the plant up to 18 hours of light a day for the whole grow, and your plant will be ready to harvest in about 3 months. Because of their short lifecycle, Ruderalis cannabis stains generally do not grow taller than 1-2 feet.
If you're researching what strain of cannabis to grow, pay close attention to the light requirements, grow times, etc. to make sure that it is a good match for your grow area.
Seeds
Seeds are a good way for many people to start growing because they can be easily purchased off the internet and delivered discretely almost anywhere in the world.
Viable cannabis seeds are usually hard and dark colored. If you have cannabis seeds which are small and white, they are often immature and won't germinate.
Example of Good Cannabis Seeds
(yes, even the lighter colored one)
Healthy seeds can be stored in your fridge until you're ready to use them, but it is not recommended that you freeze your seeds. Seeds which are kept in a cool, dry place away from light will remain viable for five years or even longer!
Sometimes you will find good seeds in marijuana that you have purchased (these seeds are called "bagseed") which can definitely be used to start growing.
The downside of using seeds that you find in the bud you got from your local weed dealer is that about half of the seeds will end up being male, and only half will end being female. You also don’t know what to expect as far as how the plant will tend to grow.
Still, many growers also start growing cannabis with bagseed that they’ve collected. This is a greatway to get started growing, and many growers have happily made it to harvest with bagseed.
Some growers get very lucky with bagseed, and end up with great results. But sometimes growers end up growing buds that are nothing like the ones the seeds were found in.
Whenever possible, get a trusted strain for best results!
It is actually safe and reliable to buy your marijuana seeds online from a reputable seed source. The biggest problem for USA residents ordering online is the long wait time - nearly all cannabis seed sources are located overseas. I’ve had seeds take a month or longer to make it through customs and arrive to my door. Yet as long as you choose to get guaranteed delivery from your seed source, you know that they will always eventually come, even if it takes twice as long as expected.
Getting seeds online will allow you to purchase feminized (all-female) seeds and will also let you pick the exact strain to match your size and time requirements. This can be helpful when setting up your grow space.
Clones
Clones are an exact copy of another plant. When starting with a clone, you can expect the plant to grow and produce buds in a very similar way to the mother plant it came from. This can be helpful to growers because they know exactly what to expect.
In order to get cannabis clones, you will need to know someone who already has cannabis plants. As far as I know, there’s no way to consistently order cannabis clones online. The only online way to get cannabis plants is by ordering seeds.
You may be able to buy cannabis clones from your local medical marijuana dispensary if you have a recommendation for marijuana from your doctor in a medical state. Unfortunately this option isn’t available for a lot of new growers. One of the great things about starting with seeds is anyone can do it..
Starting with a cannabis clone can save you a couple of weeks to a month compared to starting with seeds because they have a head start on growth.
Using clones instead of regular seeds guarantees the gender of your weed plant because the clones have the exact same genetics as their parent plant including gender.
If you already have female plants, you can clone them to make more plants (copies) without ever having to worry about sexing your plants or creating seeds.
If you're starting out with a clone, you want to treat it gently for the first day or two that you have it. If your clone hasn't established roots yet, then you want to make sure that it stays moist and gets gentle light (like from fluorescent tubes) until it develops some roots.
New cannabis clones like warm, wet conditions. Think springtime.
Before your clones have made roots, they to get water through their leaves right until roots have formed. A humid cloner works great for getting clones to root, or you can mist your plants a few times a day until they start forming roots. Some growers will use a heating pad under their clones to help keep things warm. A little warmer than room temperature 72-77 °F (22-25 °C ) is perfect. Many automatic cloners come with a heat setting.
If your clone has already established its roots, then you can put it in its new home with your grow lights a bit further away than normal.
Only give your clone just a little bit of water at first with either no nutrients or a highly diluted nutrient solution. It's tempting to want to put your lights close to the new baby and give it nutrients because you want to do everything you can to make sure it does okay.
However, in the very beginning, less is more for your clone. Your recently-moved clone is more sensitive to heat and light than an established plant, and putting it in a completely new environment can be stressful. It's important to check on your clone frequently during its first 24 hours to make sure there isn't any unforeseen problems such as it tipping over.
Once the clone has started really growing (usually after a couple of days) then you can put your lights closer and start feeding it with full-strength nutrients. At this point you basically treat the clone like a cannabis plant in the vegetative stage (first stage of life).
Electricity Use (For Indoor Growers)
For small-scale growers, the difference in your electric bill might not be that noticeable. For some of the bigger grow lights, the electric bill can grow quite a bit, especially when using AC units. Yet even with the cost of electricity, it’s usually far cheaper for people to grow their own cannabis indoors than to purchase it.
A 600W grow light (one of the larger types of grow lights) uses about the same electricity as a refrigerator.
Each person has different electricity rates depending on where they way to live, but let me give you an idea with my grow setup. I live in an expensive city in California and have a 600W light, carbon filter, AC unit and a powerful fan. All that uses about $100/month in electricity, and can produce
more than a pound of buds at harvest more than twice/year. That’s more than 3 ounces (85 grams) each month for just $100. And I live in a hot area with expensive electricity.
For me, growing indoors saves handfuls of money compared to buying buds, even with the cost of electricity.
For growers who want smaller amounts of cannabis, it’s easy to scale down your growing operation to suite your needs. A
space bucket can cost just $100 to set up, a few bucks of electricity each month, and produce up to an ounce of buds at harvest. For some growers, this is more than enough.
It’s important to understand what you want and get in touch with your growing expectations. This will help you choose the right growing setup.
Outdoors, the starting cost is generally less than indoors - no grow lights or electricity, just soil and sunlight - but the hard part about growing outdoors is finding a good spot that’s private, convenient for you to get to, with easy access to water, and 8+ hours of direct sunlight every day.
Outdoors: Free - $200
Indoors, your cost depends on your setup and what you’re looking for. If you want to harvest an ounce here and then, it may cost very little to get started, even just $100 (check out
space buckets).
For a premium indoor setup with a grow tent, grow light, fan, plus growing supplies, you’re looking at spending $800 - $1500 to grow a few plants. A setup like this can yield several ounces or even a pound of bud at harvest.
Indoors: $100 - $1500+
Here's what you'll be doing in this section to get set up to start growing cannabis.
Growing Indoors vs Outdoors
There are many considerations to take into account when deciding whether to grow your plant indoors or outdoors.
As someone who lives in the suburbs of a city, with many close neighbors and far away from any wilderness, I only grow weed indoors.
Most cannabis growers have an idea about whether they want to grow indoors or outside, but check this list of pros and cons to help if you’re still not sure
Indoors
You have more control over everything in an indoor growing environment, which means that indoor growers can consistently produce dank buds, but you also have more responsibility. If you don't provide everything your plants need, they will die.
What indoor space works best?
You can grow cannabis most anywhere with easy access to water and fresh air...
a spare room
a closet
garage
grow box
grow tent ← Best choice*
extra bathroom
even the inside of a computer case!
Though I recommend a
Space Bucket instead :)
* I believe grow tents are the best grow space for new cannabis growers. You simply need to decide how big a grow tent you should get for your space, and you’ve already given your plant so much that will improve their environment for better growth. Grow tents are cheap, effective, and will save you a lot of trouble. A quality grow tent is light proof, has reflective walls, contains built-in options to vent heat, a place to hang your lights, and waterproof floors for spills (so you never end up with water on your floor). A nice grow tent looks doesn’t always look like a grow tent to someone who doesn’t know what one looks like (I’ve had someone ask me if my grow tent was where I hung my clothes), but it contains many features that will help your cannabis plant thrive while reducing your work. It is often less expensive to get a quality grow tent than to try to make an effective grow space or grow box on your own.
Here's the same grow tent as above, but with cannabis plants inside:
When thinking about where to grow indoors, you should also consider the temperature of your grow space (and remember your temps will likely rise once you have your grow lights running!).
Young growing cannabis plants grow fastest when temps a bit warmer, in the 70-85°F (20-30°C) range.
When plants are a bit older, in the budding/flowering stage, it's best to keep temps slightly cooler, around 65-80°F (18-26°C) to produce buds with the best color, trichome production and smell.
Because temps are so important, it's best to be able to have some amount of control over the temperature of your grow area. When growing indoors, your grow lights will give off heat. The more powerful your lights, generally the more heat they give off.
If you're growing just a few plants in a grow tent or box, usually you can install a fan to pull hot air away from the hot lights and out a window to keep things cool enough.
Outdoors
Growing cannabis outdoors is cheaper to get started outdoors since you probably don't have to get grow lights or create an indoor grow area, though you do have to worry about privacy/stealth, possible pollination, people stealing your plants, bugs, deer and other unexpected outdoor visitors.
If you pick the right strain and live in a good environment, it will likely be cheaper to grow outdoors, since you don't have to provide as much for your plants. The sun and mother nature will do a lot of the work for you.
And when you're growing outdoors, you can produce plants like this...
Of course when you're growing outside, it's not always possible to control the environment perfectly. If it's dry, you will need to water your plants. If it's too rainy, you need to protect your plants from getting overwatered.
When it comes to temperatures, a good rule of thumb about cannabis plants is if it's too hot for you, it's probably too hot for your plants. And just like humans, cannabis plants can die if exposed to freezing temps.
So if you know it's going to be extremely hot or cold where you live, you may need to take extra steps to protect your plants from the elements, like setting up a small greenhouse.
Many new growers instantly think of growing their cannabis in soil.
Soil is the growing medium that most people are familiar with, and one of the most common growing methods, but it’s not the only one.
Common Cannabis Growing Mediums
Soil ← Most Common, Intuitive, Great Flavor in Buds
Inert (Soilless) ← Intuitive, Faster Growth than Soil
Hydroponics ← Fastest Growth, Biggest Yields, Potency
You can successfully grow cannabis plants in soil and other sorts of non-soil (soil-less) mediums, or you could grow your plants directly in water or even in moist air!
Each growing medium that you use will have different care and watering requirements. I will talk about some of the different options to help you choose the growing medium that's right for your grow area and experience level.
The most important thing is to choose a growing medium that makes you excited!
Is it your first cannabis grow?
First Grow, Never Grown a Plant in Your Life
Recommended growing mediums (go with your instinct!)
Soil
Soilless
Hydroponics
If it’s your first cannabis grow, and you’ve never gardened or grown a plant, it’s okay. Maybe you have a “black thumb” and every plant you’ve ever grown has died.
That’s exactly how I was before I started growing. I managed to kill every plant that ever made it into my possession, even though I was trying my best. I somehow even managed to destroy other people’s plants, with accidental over or under-watering. Sometimes it seemed I just looked at a plant the wrong way and it would dry up and dry.
Even if you’ve never grown any plants before (like I hadn’t) you can still grow cannabis successfully. This website will teach you everything you need to know to breeze through your first harvest.
You already have what it takes to grow cannabis as long as you are willing to follow step-by-step instructions, like following a cannabis growing “recipe,”.
Cannabis plants are weeds in the wild. All your plants need is the right conditions, and they will grow and make beautiful flowers you can harvest and dry for your own unlimited supply of bud. .
As a grower, you can give your plants a better environment than they would ever get in the wild, and your plants will reward you with bountiful flowers.
The most important thing is to choose a growing medium that you feel excited about. Don’t be afraid to try the growing medium you really want, even if it seems like it may be too complicated! All growing mediums have their upsides and downsides, but they are all straightforward once you have the information you need to provide a perfect growing environment. Yes, even hydroponics!
First Grow, Already Have Soil or Gardening Experience
Recommended growing mediums (go with your instinct!)
If you’ve grown in soil before, hydroponics may not be something you like unless you’re really interested (in which case, we will guide you). Take a look at a
high-yielding hydroponic grow journal from my fellow grower Sirius to see if hydroponics might interest you.
Generally, most growers who have grown in soil tend to go with soil or soilless. When growing in soil, the cannabis will get nutrients from the soil itself. You may also provide extra nutrients in your water. With coco coir, you always provide the nutrients in the water. Other than that, the two methods are similar to each other. Soil is known for better taste, while soilless (particularly coco coir) is known for faster growth, bigger yields, and great potency.
If You’ve Grown Cannabis Before, Consider Trying Something New!
Already know which cannabis growing medium you want?
Just stick the seed in the soil and go. Choose a great soil for growing cannabis and you’re ready to get started.
If you feel certain that you want to grow in soil, do it! Soil is a great way to grow cannabis and there are many different types of soil growing. For those who want something simple and quick to get started, you can use high-quality potting soil and use specially made
soil nutrients to give your plants exactly what it needs until harvest. You could also
compost your own super soil, which is a relatively advanced way of growing that can be intimidating for new growers who’ve never grown in soil.
Some growers claim growing cannabis in soil produces the best smelling and tasting buds.
General Guidelines for Good Cannabis Soil
No “extended release” or “slow release” nutrients (especially avoid the original Miracle-Gro soil! It will prevent proper budding in the flowering stage)
If you use regular high-quality potting soil that isn’t formulated for a plant like cannabis, you can use specially-made soil nutrients during the grow (especially during the flowering stage) to help make sure your plant gets everything it needs to make buds, without having to worry about getting super special soil
A great soil mix contains ingredients like... coco fiber (i.e. coco coir, coca fiber), perlite, compost, earthworm castings, bat guano, fish meal, crab meal, bone meal, blood meal, kelp meal, peat moss, pumice, composted forest humus, humic acid, sandy loam, soybean meal, alfalfa meal, rock dust, Mycorrhizae fungi, etc
Recommended Soil Brands
Fox Farms*
Roots Organics
-
*About Fox Farms soil for growing cannabis: The Fox Farms company offers several different types of soil that contain different mixes. "Ocean Forest" soil works well by itself for the whole grow, but it may be a bit too strong for young seedlings and cause some light nutrient burn to young plants until they get a little bigger. After they’ve grown bigger, the plants will no longer experience nutrient burn from Ocean Forest. If this is not acceptable, it’s often recommended to mix Ocean Forest with one of the other, lighter soil mixes offered by Fox Farms. A great mix is their Ocean Forest soil mixed with half "Happy Frog" or "Light Warrior" plus about 30% perlite.
Get your nutrients, plant your seed, and start watering! Get the same experience as growing cannabis in soil with nutrients, except experience faster growth and bigger yields.
Soilless growing uses an inert medium like coco coir, perlite, vermiculite, etc to grow cannabis plants.
These growing mediums do not have any nutrients, instead you hand-water the plants just like you would in soil, and provide all the nutrients in the water. One of the downsides is there is less of a “buffer” with soilless growing mediums than with soil, which contains nutrients of its own.
Soilless growing is very much like growing in soil with added nutrients. It provides some of the benefits of both soilless and hydroponic growing. Many growers find soilless growing to be as intuitive as soil since both growing methods seem close to what we naturally observe in nature.
With specially made nutrients, the soilless growing experience can be just like growing in soil, but successful soilless growers will be rewarded with faster growth and bigger yields.
Some Possible Soilless Mediums for Cannabis
* Perlite is occasionally used by itself as a growing medium, but is most often mixed with something else for better drainage and increased oxygen to roots. Perlite usually looks like small white pebbles, but each piece weighs very little. It almost reminds me of popcorn. Perlite is made from a “puffed up” type of volcanic glass and cannot hold onto much water. Many growers mix perlite with their soilless mediums or soil to add air and drainage, and some growers use perlite as a wick for wick systems.
While it can be done, growing cannabis in just perlite is rare. It’s difficult to get perlite to hold enough water, and other growing mediums are much easier to use. But perlite
is often mixed with other mediums or soil for growing cannabis.
Make Your Own Soilless Mix for Cannabis
50-70% Coco Coir - Coco coir, made from the husks of coconuts, is a proven inert medium for growing cannabis. Like growing hydroponically, coco gets faster growth speed and cannabis yields, but coco can be hand-watered with nutrients, just like soil. Coco coir naturally contains a mix of properties that makes roots grow faster and healthier, and the water-holding properties of coco coir help ensure water is always available to thirsty roots. One of the easiest and most popular soilless growing mediums for cannabis.
30-50% Perlite - The perlite adds extra drainage to coco for ease of watering. Perlite creates small spaces of air in the coco coir, which prevents overwatering and gets more oxygen to the roots. Cannabis roots love oxygen, and perlite lets them get it while the coco coir makes sure roots always stay wet.
Here's a Seedling Growing in the Above Coco/Perlite Mix
Sometimes coco coir is already broken up to use ready directly for planting (bagged coco potting mixes include Canna Coco Coir). But most of the time coco coir comes in bricks. All coco coir should be rinsed well before you start your grow (though some packages states the coco has been washed and pH’ed). Brick coco especially needs to be rinsed well to remove extra salt. Bricks are usually much cheaper than the bagged coco coir because each brick is easier and lighter to transport - you add the water at home. Make sure to let a coco coir brick sit in water for at least an hour first - this way you know it’s fully expanded before you start rinsing.
Once you have expanded and thoroughly rinsed your coco coir, it should easily break into a consistency that is a bit like dark rich soil. At this point, mix your coco with perlite; use more perlite in a humid environment, less in a very dry environment. Once your coco and perlite are mixed you’re ready to go!
Coco coir has grown so popular as a growing medium for cannabis that now there are many brands of specialized nutrients for that exact combo.
What Container Should I Use to Hold My Growing Medium?
All containers for growing cannabis need to have drainage holes so water can drain out the bottom
Deeper containers are better than shallow ones - roots tend to grow down and can get rootbound in a shallow or too-small container.
Get a container that provides plenty of oxygen to the roots for faster growth
Recommended Containers for Growing Cannabis
Garden pot with drainage holes on the bottom
5 gallon bucket (drill your own drainage holes)
Fabric Pot ("Smart Pot") ← One of the best
Air pot
Fabric Pots are Great Containers for Growing Cannabis
There are popular brands of fabric pots like "Smart Pot," but you can also make your own fabric pot at home. The great thing about these containers is they get more air and oxygen to the roots, which encourages faster growth.
Which Size Pot Should I Use?
When growing cannabis plants in a container, you have to choose the size of your pot.
A general guide is to have about 2 gallons per 12" of height. This isn't perfect, since plants often grow differently, but this is a good rule of thumb.
When in doubt, get a bigger final container size as opposed to a smaller one. Plants that get rootbound from being in a too-small container will grow more slowly and be prone to problems.
It's not good to transfer plants during the flowering/budding stage, so you want to have your cannabis plants in their final container at least 2 weeks before the beginning of flowering/budding.
Final Container for Desired Plant Size - General guide
12" - 2 gallon container
24" - 4 gallon container
36" - 6 gallon container
48" - 8 gallon container
60" - 10 gallon container
Choose your setup, get your nutrients, and germinate your seed! Get ready for incredibly fast growth, great yields, and amazing potency.
If you want to grow hydroponically, don’t worry that it’s too complicated - once you set up the right environment, growing hydroponically is just as straightforward as growing in soil. And you will be rewarded with faster growth, bigger yields, and the amazing potency of hydroponically grown buds. Growers who have trouble with hydroponics are usually victims of being given the wrong information. With proper setup and maintenance information, which is usually simple and easy-to-follow, you’ll be able to happily harvest every plant and reap the rewards of hydroponic gardening.
Benefits of Growing Hydroponic Cannabis
Less Time to Harvest - Shorter vegetative stage gets you to harvest quickly
Yields - Hydro grows consistently get bigger yields than growing cannabis in soil with the same setup
Potency - Many growers claim hydro-grown cannabis buds are more potent than soil-grown ones, and this seems to be true from my experience
One of the more common hydroponic grow setups for growing cannabis is known as a “DWC” or “deep water culture” system.
Here's a diagram showing how DWC works for growing hydroponic cannabis.
In DWC, the roots are located in a nutrient reservoir full of water. Oxygen is provided to the roots by bubbling air through the water with an air pump. There are lots of different variations of the DWC method, including
top-fed DWC.
In all hydroponic methods done right…
More oxygen to the roots produces much faster growth than soil
Providing a lot of oxygen at the roots is more important than lots of water - just make sure roots never actually get dry
Keep nutrient levels on the low side in hydro for fastest cannabis growth
After setup, tending to your plants in hydro is straightforward
Light For Growing Cannabis: Do I Need Indoor Grow Lights?
If growing cannabis outdoors, the sun is generally all the light you need. Outdoor growersl need to make sure that the plants are in a sunny spot where they get plenty of sunlight throughout the whole day (8+ hours of sunlight a day for best results).
When growing outdoors, you will need to consider that nearly all cannabis plants need to be started (or put outside) in the spring and harvested in the fall.
If growing cannabis indoors, you will need to provide your plant with the light it needs to grow.
All Cannabis Grow Lights Need...
Surge Protector - No matter which cannabis grow light you choose, make sure you get a surge protector
Lighting Timer - All indoor grow lights should be put on a lighting timer - these timers will automatically turn your grow lights on and off for you. A mechanical one is shown below, and there are digital lighting timers as well. These are commonly found at hardware stores and have a variety of uses for non-growing purposes.
The most common types of indoor grow lights for cannabis are:
High Intensity Discharge (HID) lights
This class of grow lights includes High Pressure Sodium (HPS) and Metal Halide (MH) grow lights. Considered the "gold standard" for growing weed, these lights are powerful and proven to provide great yields. The bigger models use quite a bit of energy and produce heat that may need to be vented from your grow space, but the lower-wattage models of HID lights are much more manageable for the small indoor grower.
Two most common HID bulbs:
Pros of MH/HPS
Most efficient grow light - MH/HPS grow lights produce the best yields of any grow light (when yields are compared to electricity used)
Cheap setup - MH/HPS are one of the less expensive cannabis grow light options, especially considering the yields; HIDs provide a lot of wattage and light for your money. Many MH/HPS kits comes with everything you need to hang the lights and turn them on immediately
Easy and intuitive to use - just hang your lights and start growing; cooling options are often built right on the reflector (for example an air-cooled hood)
Lots of tutorials - MH/HPS grow lights have been used by the majority of indoor cannabis growers for decades, and nearly all HID grow lights are used exactly the same way. As long as you choose a size of HID grow light that fits your space, you don’t have to worry about a lot of difference between using different models
HPS grow lights produce yellow light
Cons of MH/HPS
Heat - Bigger models need a way to exhaust extra heat (many growers vent heat outside with a fan)
Height - Need at least 5 feet (1.5 meters) of height for small MH/HPS setups, and 6 or 7 feet (~ 2 meters) of height for a larger setup
CFLs & Other Fluorescent Grow Lights
CFLs and other fluorescent lighting use a low amount of electricity and work perfectly for growing young cannabis plants or clones. These grow lights are often used during the vegetative stage, which is the first stage of life. Many growers switch to more powerful grow lights in the cannabis flowering stage because because fluorescent lights are usually not bright enough to produce big yields (cannabis needs a lot of light during the flowering stage to make buds).
However, CFLs and fluorescent lights like the T5 can grow cannabis plants from seed to harvest if plants are
trained to grow short and bushy. When used in the flowering stage, these grow lights usually don’t yield as much as other types of grow lights, but they can be a great choice for someone looking to harvest just a few ounces at a time, especially those who don’t have a lot of height to work with!
Two most common fluorescent grow lights for cannabis:
Pros of CFLs & Fluorescent Grow Lights
Cheap setup - CFL and T5 grows can be started on a small budget. Many growers feel they are a great way to “get your feet wet” as far as growing without putting in a big initial investment.
Low height needed - CFLs are sold as individual light bulbs and T5s are sold as several long tubes in a panel, but each needs only a few feet of height for successful growing
Stealth - Some of the best high-stealth options because of low height needed for these grow lights. CFLs can be "plugged in" to almost any space and can be bought at the supermarket, which makes CFLs a great choice for a small stealthy setup like growing in a space bucket. A T5 panel is found at most garden stores and doesn’t even need a light socket, it can be plugged directly into a wall.
Options for low heat, low electricity - Just a few CFLs or a single T5 doesn’t produce much heat or use much electricity
Cons of CFLs & Fluorescent Grow Lights
Low yields - These grow lights tend to pull in very small yields unless you use a lot of them
Heat - Each CFL bulb produces a bit of heat (especially the big bulbs), and growers who use many CFLs or fluorescent tubes will need to exhaust extra heat (usually by venting heat outside with a fan).
Least efficient grow lights - When considering light produced (and yields) for electricity used, CFLs are the least efficient grow lights. T5s are made for gardening and do a bit better, but still not as well as other grow lights.
Daily Maintenance - It can be difficult to position CFLs near plants, and lights need constant adjustment through the grow
I actually started growing indoors with CFLs in coco coir, and they served me well. I believe CFL grow lights are a great choice for a small hobby grower who just wants to harvest a few ounces at a time. They are also a great way to get introduced to growing cannabis without making a big investment or using a lot of space.
LED Grow Lights
LED grow lights are a new type of grow light which claim to produce better quality buds and bigger yields, while using less electricity and producing less heat than other grow lights.
But are all the claims true? Some are, while other claims are misleading. Protect yourself and learn what you need to know about LED grow lights for growing cannabis.
Pros of LEDs
Cutting edge - One of the newest type of cannabis grow lights, LED grow lights are unlike anything else on the market for growing cannabis. In the last few years, prices have come way down and quality has gone up. LED yields are improving every year and there are now many reliable models of LED that have been proven for growing cannabis
Bud Quality - There is some evidence that LED grow lights produce buds with increased potency, smell, and trichome development (compared to other grow lights or even the sun). Some cannabis growers combine LEDs with other types of grow lights to take advantage of the improved bud quality from LEDs
Stealth - Small LED spotlights or panels can be great for stealth growing since they can fit in many sized spaces, plus they almost always have a built-in fan to disperse heat into the grow space (instead of letting the heat beam down directly on the plants)
Options for low heat, low electricity - A small LED panel doesn’t produce much heat or use much electricity
Cannabis is a weed in the wild that adapts to many climates. Cannabis plants can actually be really easy to grow if you have the right information and know what to do. It can seem impossible to get started if it’s your first time growing, but this website will walk you through everything.
Because genetics have such a huge impact on your results, it is important to know a little bit about the genetics of the plant you're working with.
Clones are an exact copy of another plant. When starting with a clone, you can expect the plant to grow and produce buds in a very similar way to the mother plant it came from. This can be helpful to growers because they know exactly what to expect.
Soilless growing uses an inert medium like coco coir, perlite, vermiculite, etc to grow cannabis plants.
