Everything that you wanted to know about growing and harvesting your own cannabis plants!
The legalization of cannabis has been great for the cannabis industry. Still, it hasn’t made marijuana much cheaper for consumers to buy. Because of this, serious marijuana smokers are turning to grow their own cannabis plants in their home.
In the following cannabis grow guide, we’re going to run through some of the basics of growing, harvesting, and curing your own cannabis at home. If you’ve been thinking about growing your own cannabis, but waiting for the right time, then now’s a great time to get started!
How to Grow Cannabis Plants
Growing cannabis plants at home may appear complicated, but with the great beginner’s grow setups available these days, it’s really much easier than you’d think to grow your own marijuana. For this guide, we’re going to recommend grabbing a complete marijuana beginner setup. There are a few reasons for this:
- Small mistakes equal small costs – If you make a few small mistakes with a beginner cannabis grow setup, it isn’t going to cost you a lot of money. Start with a beginner setup, and once you’re confident you know what you’re doing, you can expand your marijuana grow operation.
- It’s easier to control one or two cannabis plants – To start with, you’re going to find one or two marijuana plants much easier to monitor and control.
- Small setup equals small investment – If you only invest in a small marijuana grow setup and find out that you either don’t like it or don’t have the time to invest in it, your investment is only small. If you fall in love with growing cannabis, then you can always upgrade your kit.
With a good beginner setup, the only thing you’ll need to worry about is choosing your marijuana plants and then following the marijuana growing instructions. You have various cannabis plant choices and strain types, so take your time and choose one that suits your personal preferences.
How to Top Cannabis Plants
Many people confuse topping with pruning but topping your marijuana plant is essential if you want to get maximum yields from your marijuana plant. If you don’t top your cannabis plant, the cannabis plant will put too much effort into growing vertically and not enough into growing you more buds!
Wait until your cannabis plant has grown about 6-7 nodes on the main stalk. The reason is that this will ensure the cannabis plant is strong enough to withstand the shock of topping.
- Cut the main stem above the fifth node.
- Once you have topped your cannabis plant, you’ll want to remove some of the side branches leaving between 2-4 main branches.
- Finally, trim some of the leaves off each side branch.
Your cannabis plant will get more light and expend more energy into growing buds rather than trying to reach the roof. Squat, open marijuana plants receive more light and redirect their energy into growing bigger and more potent, high-quality buds.
How to Harvest Cannabis Plants
Now we’re getting to one of the best parts of growing marijuana, harvest time! In this section, we’ll cover some of the basic steps that you’ll need to follow when it’s time to harvest.
- Start by flushing your cannabis plant with water. Give the marijuana plant regular water for 1-2 days with no fertilizer to flush any excess salts and nutrients from the marijuana plant.
- Once your marijuana plants are flushed, don’t water them for 24-48 hours before harvest time.
- When you harvest, you can choose to hang individual branches or the entire marijuana plant upside from your drying racks.
- During the hanging time, keep air cycling through and ensure that the room is well ventilated. Ventilation will help to ensure that mold doesn’t start growing on your buds or marijuana plants while they’re drying.
Indoor Versus Outdoor Growing
When you grow cannabis indoors, you have a much more predictable climate. However, you also have to pay for your setup, including grow tents, lights, ventilation, watering systems, timers, and much more. It will cost you more to get set up, but the results are much more predictable, and you can quickly learn to control your environment.
If you choose to grow outdoors, you don’t have to pay for any of the setup costs, but you’re going to have to learn to adapt to the environment and weather conditions. Growing indoors can be much faster and give you a regular yield, but outdoors is a natural way to grow cannabis without any artificial lighting.
Clones – Male or Female?
If you’re trying to grow cannabis to get a yield of potent buds, go for female clones, especially if you have a particular strain that you love. Female marijuana plants produce the biggest buds, while male marijuana plants usually produce much smaller buds with seeds inside.
Almost all people looking to grow cannabis plants for the yield, especially when you first get started, will grow from female clones. Clones give you a head start on the growing stage, eliminating the need to grow from seeds.
Cannabis Plants – Conclusion
There you go! A quick and easy guide to growing and harvesting your own cannabis plants. If you have any questions about growing cannabis or would like to learn more about each specific stage of the growing process, please don’t hesitate to contact us directly! If you have any growing tips that you’d like to share, drop a comment below.