Growing cannabis can be fun and rewarding. You must plan your grow and determine the financial cost along with legal and security risks involved before you start. There are Pro’s and Con’s to growing your own cannabis. “Why grow your own cannabis?” – Because it can be fun, challenging, cost effective and rewarding.
Since you are considering growing your own cannabis, we will review the overall process required to grow your own. Once this overview is finished you will be able to make an informed decision.
Consideration #1 (Serious) – LEGALITY
If you are in a state or area where cannabis is legal then not much thought needs to go in to this topic. If it is legal then you can easily incorporate this plant into an existing garden or plan a garden dedicated to cannabis.
If it is not legal to grow where you are located then serious consideration needs to be given to your decision. Possible legal fees, incarceration and stress are big deterrents.
Consideration #2 – COST
Probably the initial reason you considered growing your own is because of cost. Cannabis is expensive to buy. Some may argue that cannabis is cheap in markets and areas where the product is legal but even where this is true, cannabis EVERWHERE costs more to buy than tomatoes and cucumbers.
“1-pound of cannabis costs more to buy than 1-pound of tomatoes – EVERYWHERE” – Unless you grow your own.
The ONLY exception to this rule is If you grow your own cannabis and tomatoes together. Then the cost is the same to grow (almost, because cannabis seeds cost more than tomato seeds) 😊
you also get to choose the strains that interest you. Let us review some major aspects of growing cannabis and figure out if growing your own makes sense.
Legality and Cost are the first 2 considerations you need to review. Once you get past that we can now look at the other factors.
Fun
If you are interested in growing cannabis, then one of the biggest benefits of growing your own is having fun. Growing is like a hobby. You will need to learn many things to grow successfully but the learning and required effort can make the process challenging and engaging.
If you have grown plants or vegetables, then you are familiar with how to grow something 😊 and already know that the experience and process is interesting and rewarding.
Most (if not all) people who grow cannabis will say they enjoy the process of taking care of their plants. Feeding, watering, monitoring, harvesting, drying, curing, and finally consuming.
The whole process can be considered fun as it keeps you engaged and anticipating the result.
Challenging
You are responsible for all facets of growing:
- Picking a Location
- Choosing a Strain to Grow
- Designing \ Planning Your Grow Space
- Feeding and Watering
- Monitoring Plants
- Harvesting
- Drying
- Curing and Preserving Your Final Product
Picking a Location
You can grow indoors or outdoors. Growing indoors requires additional tools and materials like a dedicated space, possibly a grow tent, grow lights and exhaust fan, to name a few.
Growing outdoors requires less specialized equipment. The lighting is provided by the Sun. If you already have a garden, then you and add a few cannabis plants. If you are starting from scratch outside, then you will need some soil and possibly containers to grow in.
Growing outdoors could expose your plants to neighbors or strangers so privacy needs to be considered.
Choosing a Strain to Grow
if you have been buying your own cannabis then you can only buy what is available if you are going to grow your own, then you get to pick the strain you want to grow.
Maybe you already have a strain in mind but after a few minutes of internet searching you will find many options. This is a good topic to consider, growing exactly what you want is a great option.
Whether you grow indoors or outdoors – You need to buy seeds.
Designing \ Planning Your Grow Space
- Some thought and consideration need to go in to designing and creating the area where you will grow. Whether you desire to grow inside or outside some planning is required:
Planning to grow outside:
- How much space do you have available?
- If you plan to grow photoperiod plants, then you will need to dedicate 6 ft X 6 ft of space per plant to be safe
- If you plan to grow autoflower plants, then you will need to dedicate 3 ft X 3 ft of space per plant to be safe
- Will you grow in an existing garden or do you need to purchase containers and soil?
- Does the area you plan to grow in receive adequate amount of sunlight?
- Over 8 hours direct sunlight is optimal
- Up to 6 hours direct sunlight is good
- At least 4 hours direct sunlight is a MINIMUM requirement
- Choose a PH and PPM monitoring device
- Choose Plant food
Planning to grow inside:
- Pick a location that is at least 3 ft X 3 ft and 6 ft tall
- Choose a grow tent that is the desired size if you have no other locations available
- Choose a growing medium such as soil, coco or rockwool
- Choose a container to hold your growing medium and plant
- Choose an appropriate container size 1-gallon, 2-gallon, 5-gallon – etc…
- Choose a grow light that is sized for your grow area
- Choose an exhaust fan
- Choose a carbon filter to reduce the cannabis smell – If smell may become an issue
- Choose an oscillating fan to keep the air moving in the grow room
- Choose timers that control your lights, water pumps (if growing hydroponically) and possibly your exhaust fan
- Choose a PH and PPM monitoring device
Feeding and Watering
- You need to feed your plants either organically or chemically
- Food and nutrients need to be applied every 1 day when feeding hydroponically – less frequent applications need to be applied if you are growing organically
- You need to keep your plants watered and hydrated
Monitoring Plants
Need to check your plants often and review the following:
- Are there unwanted bugs on my plants or in the growing medium
- Are the plants being over fed
- Are the plants being under fed
- Are the plants being over watered
- Are the plants being under watered
- Is the PH or PPM’s of the plants water or growing medium in proper range
- Are the plants ready for harvest
Harvesting
Are the plants ripe and ready to be harvested?
- Plant needs to be checked with a 30x-60x magnifying scope during the last few weeks of the plants life. If the plant is harvested at the incorrect time, potency will be dramatically reduced
- Harvesting is time consuming as it requires manicuring tools to trim and manicure the plants flower
Drying
- After harvesting the plant, it must be dried slowly over the course of 7-14 days
- Need an adequate drying space to either hang the plant upside down or if you cut the plants in to smaller pieces, a drying rack will be required
Curing and preserving your final product
- Once the material has been dried, it must be cured in an airtight container. Curing brings out the flavor and smoke ability of the product. This can take 3-4 weeks. During this time you must maintain proper humidity.
- Once curing is complete the product can be stored long term for future use
Conclusion
This is a high-level overview of what is required to grow cannabis. Money and time need to be invested in this process. You need to purchase seeds and equipment, but you will also spend HOURS taking care of your plants.
At a minimum it will take 4 – 7 months from start to finish for a grow to produce the final product and take over 50 hours of your time planning, researching, and implementing your grow.
If you mess up the first time growing, you may end up with a lesser quality product or have nothing to show for your work and effort!
The good news is that once you figure it out, the investment will eventually pay for itself and the process will become easier and cheaper to repeat.
If this process seems “fun” and “challenging”, you are right! Go for it and grow your own cannabis.
If this process seems like too much work and risk, then maybe hold off for now and come back later 😊
Thank you for taking the time to read this. Please submit feedback below:
MyGrowInfo – Article Comment
MyGrowInfo Article Comment
To Contact MyGrowInfo with Questions or Article Requests click here