First, let’s remove any fear you may have that this is going to be difficult. It is not.
We call it “weed” for a reason—because it grows easily and anywhere, like a weed. That being said, there is one central aspect to growing a pot plant that everyone needs to understand, and that is that cannabis is a flowering plant, meaning that in nature it bears its fruits only once a year, during the fall season when the daylight hours grow shorter.
Growing cannabis can be as complicated as you would like to make it. If you keep it simple, you can get great results without all the stress that comes from over-analysis. Check out these cannabis growing tips for more information about squeezing every last gram out of your grow space.
In our article about the cost of growing an ounce of cannabis,led grow lights, we outlined the minimal supplies you would need to get growing. Take a look through that article to get a feel for what you need to start growing such as soil, nutrients, seeds, and other miscellaneous supplies.
Step 1 – Seed Germination
We will start with the assumption that you have your supplies and are growing in a simple but very effective soil mixture like Fox Farm or BioBizz. The first step is to germinate your seed. You can spend a whole day or more looking up germination methods on YouTube – there are tons of ways to go about it ranging from the simple to the silly.
*I say skip all of those methods and just stick the seed in the soil!*
Place it in the soil about 1/4″ – 1/2″ down and lightly cover it with soil. Be sure the soil is and stays moist, not wet, and is warm…75 degrees F will do it. Then just wait. If you have quality seeds (not from a bag), you should see your new sprout in 3-7 days (depending on the strain).
Step 2 – Vegetative Stage
The vegetative stage is that time in your young plant’s life where it just adds leaves and branches which will be the support structure for the buds that grow later on. The longer you let a plant grow in the vegetative stage, the larger the plant will get and the more numerous the bud sites will be.
How long you let the plant stay in the vegetative stage is really a function of how much space you have to let your plant grow. For a small grow of a single plant, I recommend to let it vegetate for no longer than 30 days. Some growers can get all the yield they want by just vegging the plant for 2-3 weeks, then initiating flowering (see below).
It’s during the vegetative stage that you want to employ some training techniques such as ScrOGing your plant (check out the article). Stress training will allow the plant to fill up the space you have and not have any wasted space or light.
Step 3 – Flowering Stage
Now that you have made it through the veg stage, it is time to flower…but how does a cannabis plant go into flowering? Disregarding auto-flowering strains, cannabis plants begin flowering based on light cycle. The amount of light and dark that the plant receives daily will indicate to the plant whether or not to begin flowering.
To start flowering, cannabis needs 12 hours of darkness. Dark and light cycles are easily controlled when growing cannabis indoors when using artificial lighting and simple timers.
Once your plant has developed enough and reached a point that she can produce enough flowers for a decent harvest, it is time to bring her light cycle to an even 12 hours of light and 12 hours of dark each day. This does not mean that you will no longer need your lamp though. During the 12-hour photoperiod of flowering, the plant will need the strongest light possible to help her produce energy for her fruit.
Your plant will remain in the flowering stage until it is time to harvest – typically 8-10 weeks depending on strain. Knowing how to tell if your plant is ready to harvest can be a bit tricky – I recommend checking out YouTube for some tutorials.
VERY IMPORTANT:
During the dark cycle, it is extremely important that no light enters the plant space.led grow lights, Any light leaks can disrupt the plant’s flowering and cause stress or confuse the plant, forcing her to hermaphrodite (creating seeded flowers) or severely weaken yield and quality.
Choosing Proper Cannabis Lighting
Simply put, choose the size light your purchase based on the size of your grow space and the yield you want to achieve.
We have grow lights that will fit any sized grow space for a single plant – from 1’x1′ to 4’x4′. It all depends on your budget and your desired yield. For example, a single plant could yield you under an ounce; however, a properly trained plant in a 3′-4′ square grow space could yield over a pound.