How to Grow Plants Indoors: A Beginners Guide — 2021

Once you get all the stages of growth, you’ll hardly find yourself buying cannabis plants ever again. Growing cannabis indoors needs a lot of effort, unlike growing outdoors, which only requires the sun, water, and Mother Nature.

This is because when growing indoors you basically are mother nature, when growing in marijuana grow tents, for example, you will have to control and adjust the growing conditions so your plant thrive and you get the best results possible. The growing conditions include light, temperature, humidity, substrate, and nutrients so it’s essential that you are able to control these elements so you don’t get an overwhelming harvest or end up killing your plants.

To do this properly it’s essential you read a bit or gather knowledge online so you don’t end up wasting time and money because it can be too much for the firs timers.

How to Grow Cannabis Indoors？

Grow Light
Since your plants are, well, plants they’re going to need light. If you choose to grow outdoors, you’ll want to check the growing schedule below to figure out when to plant based on local seasonal daylight hours. For indoors growers, full spectrum LED grow lights are expensive but efficient. A cheaper but less energy-conscious choice are fluorescent bulbs, but really it’s up to you. Opting for light timers will make your life easier, and they’re usually pretty cheap.

Potting Your Pot
Some growers suggest starting with a hydroponic setup, but I personally think that’s pretty complicated for a newbie. Any potting soil that doesn’t have artificial fertilizers like Miracle-Gro will do the trick. Extra points if you go for an organic medium with nutrient dense add-ins like compost or worm castings.

Humidity, Baby
Your little plant babies are going to need more than dirt and light. Make sure that the plants have ventilation that circulates in fresh air constantly. Picking up a humidity and temp combo gauge online is affordable and will also help make sure that the plants aren’t going to mold or dry out. Shoot for 70 to 78 Fahrenheit and 45–55% humidity.

Choosing Your High
You’ve probably heard of the two strains of marijuana, called indica and sativa. Sativa is known for its cerebral and uplifting effects and tends to be a taller, skinnier plant. Indica, popular for pain relief, relaxes the body and grows lower and wider. If you’re worried about headspace (either literally for your plants, or figuratively for yourself) then an Indica plant is probably the way to go.

The Seeds You Need
Finding seeds online has become easier and safer than ever, which is great news for you. Once you know which strain you’re growing, find a seed bank online and check the stats for each plants height, ease of growing, and effects.

Feeding Time
Once you’ve got seeds, you’ll want to go back to the potting soil that I mentioned earlier and check to make sure you’ve got the basic nutrients to feed your plants. Getting enough nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium are key. Make sure that calcium, magnesium, iron, and copper are all there too, but don’t go overboard. If you’re concerned about nutrient levels, it’s pretty easy to find soil testing kits at gardening stores and online.

Germination
Germination lasts 5–10 days. This is the time that your seed is just hanging out and waiting for the right conditions to sprout. Give the little fella 18 hours of light a day, and within no time it’ll be on to the next stage. When planting, make sure your seeds are hard and brown. Green or soft seeds probably won’t sprout.

Seedling
Once your seed sprouts its first leaf, it enters the seedling stage. This is when the plant is most vulnerable. Reduce the risk of introducing a dangerous mold to the plant by keeping the environment clean and trying to avoid overwatering. This stage ends when the first full fan of five to seven leaves opens up, usually in 2 to 3 weeks. Keep up that 18 hour light cycle.

Vegetative
After growing its first full fan of leaves, that little dude is going to grow like gangbusters. Some growers call this stage, “the big stretch” because of how quickly the plant grows. This is the ideal time to repot the plant, increase the water, and introduce nutrients if you need to. This is also the time to introduce plant training, such as a trellis, which will help your buds in the next stage. Your 18 hour light cycle continues through the vegetative state, which happens from 3 to 16 weeks.

Flowering
Unlike the other stages, when the plant flowers depend on you. To encourage your plant to flower, switch over to a 12 hour light cycle sometime between 8 and 11 weeks. A few weeks into the flowering stage, you need to separate any male plants from the females so the female buds don’t become pollinated (and go to seed.) According to Leafly male plants will have little knobby organs where the leaves meet the stem of the plant, and females will have hairy pre-flowers. The end of the flowering stage is harvest time.

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Pros

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Cons

Small kit size

The Pros/Cons of Growing the Plant
There are many great things that growing your own cannabis plants can bring about, but there are also some drawbacks.

Pros
One of the best things about growing your own plants is that you have complete control over the growth process. You can trim them to a certain height, make them have a certain flavor — basically every aspect of growing the plants. You can also choose what type of soil and nutrients you use in the plants to help them grow better. You can add more magnesium or nitrogen depending on your preferences.

The other great thing about growing your own plants is that they’ll be much fresher. You can have quick access to your own plants and trim them when you want. You won’t have to buy plants that are a little old. By growing your own plants, you can have fresh plants available for you at all times.

Cons
While growing your own plants is great, you’ll have to take a few things into consideration. One is that cannabis plants smell. This isn’t a light smell. Cannabis plants can have a very strong and heavy smell which can be overpowering. This can especially be a problem if you live in small space because it ends up filling the entire room with its smell. Because of this, it’s usually ideal to grow your plants in a grow tent or just to have a special area set aside for growing in your living space. Be sure to have proper ventilation as well running to help keep the air circulation flowing well so it can eliminate the smell.

The other things you’ll have to keep in mind is that it can be expensive to grow these plants. You’ll have to invest in lights, nutrients, soil, and accessories in addition to seeds. Lights can be one of the most expensive aspects of cannabis growing because they need to be running constantly in order for your plants to grow. Be aware that your electric bill might spike a little if you start growing these plants. However, many grow lights come with energy-efficient options to help make the cost not too bad.

Nutrients and soil are also something you’ll be greatly investing in. As your plants grow you’ll need to transplant them to different containers, all which need to be filled with soil. Nutrients also need to be constantly added to the soil to help with the growth of your plants so they have strong and healthy stems and leaves.

CONCLUSION
In the end, cannabis cultivation can become complicated quickly and takes time to master. Because of this, experts say it’s best to keep it simple and start small, and to do your research into plant biology and your state’s cannabis cultivation policies. Plus, being prepared to make mistakes essential to success. Low Budget Grow Tent Complete Kit can be a great choice.