GETTING STARTED AT HOME

So someone gave you some seeds (or a cutting), now what? Buy a pot, stick it on the windowsill and grow yourself some “dank nugs”? Not quite. To cultivate cannabis worth harvesting there is a fair amount of technical skill and knowledge required. Everywhere you look online people will tell you the best ways to grow it, while others will give you the absolute opposite advice. It can all seem a bit overwhelming for a new grower, which is why we’ve laid out some of the basics here and will be continuing with a series over the next couple months on how you can really get your hands dirty at home and get the results you desire.

First off! Although reddit and other forums can be great, we strongly recommend a good growing book. Some of the world’s best growers have been doing it long before ‘weedprenuers’ and kids growing weed on YouTube for ad money. So go out and pick up a good paperback and kick back in your garden for a while.  Although there are plenty of good ones out there, we currently recommend ‘Indoor Marijuana Horticulture’.

Secondly, in order to grow properly you need an environment. Which is what we like to call an area of your home (or warehouse!) where you can control the light, humidity, heat and wind. The last of these being the least important.

In order to create your environment you’re going to need a variety of pieces of equipment. And although you can get away with a lot less, there are some very key items we would recommend for someone looking to grow bud of equal quality to the professionals.

The environment itself will require containment, you really don’t want the humidity to be destroying your floorboards. This is why we recommend growing in a Grow Tent or having an enclosure built within your home. This will allow you to more easily control everything going on within your grow space.

A light and timer are next. Most of your other houseplants require sunlight to thrive, and cannabis is no different. By using a grow light from a hydroponic store built specifically for plant growth you remove the need for sunlight. A light and timer to tell it when to turn off for ‘night-time’ are essential to a grow.

Next you’ll need a growing medium – whether that be soil, worm castings, peat moss or otherwise. We’ll do a follow-up post about the differences, but you can always ask about which is best for you at your local hydroponic shop.

Nutrients! Next, based on your growing medium, you’ll need nutrients. Just like any other living thing, your plants will require nutrients to thrive. Using a good base nutrient like those from House and Garden will get you on track. Then, based on what you’d like to improve about your plant, or the deficiencies you encounter, you can explore their wide variety of additive fertilizers to counteract them.

And of course, a pot to put them in.

In addition to the basics, there are also a great variety of other products that can be useful to a first time home grower, such as:

A pH checker, odor control (such as can inline fan and charcoal filter), Day/Night temperature controls, CO2 Systems, and more.

Hopefully this has been helpful to you! If it has, please give us a shout on our social media channels, and if there’s anything specific that you’d like us to write about, please let us know!