Legislation on cannabis throughout the world has shifted in many locations. The “Green Rush” is a nickname for the vast amount of money that cannabis-based businesses can generate. There are states throughout the country where growing cannabis is illegal even if recreational marijuana is legal. Other states allow their medical patients to grow their own medicine while in others they do not.
In Florida, medical patients have to get their medicine from a dispensary. In California, a medical patient can grow a certain number of plants depending on how many medical marijuana patients are in the house. Growing your own cannabis can be a great hobby that you can improve at over time. Below are factors that you need to think about before growing your own cannabis.
Can You Afford to Grow It?
There is going to be an investment that is needed to start growing. This can include hydroponic nutrients (see this list from Kalix CPN), grow lights, and grow tents if you are proceeding with an indoor grow. The electricity bill is going to increase if growing indoors but with LED lights the change will be minimal. The seeds can be immensely expensive if you are buying them from a top seed breeder.
This is a huge aspect of growing as a plant with great genetics and is durable can be perfect for a new grower. Look at the savings you will incur due to providing your own cannabis. If your cannabis intake is high, it is financially irresponsible to continue buying from dispensaries. Look at growing cannabis as a fiscally intelligent venture to take on. Improving your grows over time can be a fun activity and valuable knowledge to possess.
How Much Do You Really Need to Grow?
You might be able to have a few crops over the course of the year when growing indoors. After your first few crops, you will have a better idea of the average yield from a specific strain of cannabis. You shouldn’t grow more than you need as storing this can be illegal. Personal use is allowed in certain states but no states allow you to have more than this. With this being said, you would rather grow a little extra than run out leading you to pay ridiculous prices at a dispensary.
People that grow their own cannabis can use the trim from the plants to make edibles. Not all people enjoy smoking cannabis but eating it gives a person a far different feeling. Making edibles will take practice as dosing the edibles can be tough. You do not want to make the edibles too strong or too weak.
Controlling the Smell During Flowering
There is the misconception that your cannabis plants will not smell during flowering outside of your home if grown indoors. Managing the smell needs to be done as a few plants can give off strong smells to neighbors. The last thing that you want is for burglars to smell this then target your home. Unlike other robberies, cannabis-related robberies are almost the perfect crime as cannabis cannot be tracked. These robberies can be violent so it is better to keep your cannabis growing venture to yourself.
Grow tents can be immensely helpful especially if they have ventilation and fans. Fans that take the smell of cannabis out of the air will work wonders even at the peak of the flowering phase. You should still try to mask the smell in any way necessary. A number of growers might have other plants that have strong odors and bloom at the same time as their cannabis.
Hydroponic or Traditional Grow
Choosing between a hydroponic and traditional grow might not even be much of a choice for a seasoned grower. Hydroponic grows have different challenges than traditional grows. The main challenge is setting up the grow as this can be tough for a person that is not handy. A traditional grow can be easy to set up with a tent or outdoors. The quality of hydroponic cannabis is usually higher than outdoor grows but this depends on the grower, cannabis genetics, and environment. Starting out using traditional grows can allow you to gain experience before transitioning to a hydroponic grow.
Rookie cannabis growers can start out with autoflowering seeds until they gain some experience. This will allow the grower to maintain the plants and not have to worry about changing light times. These seeds automatically bloom after a period of time. The autoflowering strains go from seed to full-grown plant in 90 to 100 days.
Do You Have Space?
Growing cannabis can be done in a closet if you want to grow a plant or two. For people in studio apartments, this might not be an option as they would want to keep their growing of cannabis secret. An extra room that can be outfitted with grow lights, ventilation, and has space for large potted plants is ideal.
The garage is a popular place to grow for people that have a bit of land as they do not want the smell of cannabis in the rest of their home. The importance of making sure each plant has enough space to maximize light intake cannot be stressed enough. Grow the best cannabis possible by going for quality over quantity. Indoor grows have to factor in the strain of the plants that you are growing. There are certain strains that have extremely tall plants while others are a bit shorter.
Growing cannabis can be complex depending on the growing method that you are using. Trial and error is the best way to learn by using certain nutrients or brands of soil. You might find a certain strain reacts far better to a certain brand than another. Keeping notes on your plants is essential so you can see if the quality of your plants is increasing. You can use these grow journals to tweak the amount of water or nutrients given. You want to have strong smelling and dense buds which will require you to manage the growing variables efficiently.
