Indoor Growing Without Lamps: Is it Possible?

Liz Filmer
01 Oct 2024

When people think of growing cannabis indoors, they often imagine a packed grow room with decent lighting, fans and all the trimmings. But it is possible to grow without all that.


 One option is to put the pots near a window with good sunlight, called "window farming." But asking whether cannabis can thrive without light is like asking whether a person can live without oxygen.

Growing cannabis can be as resourceful as anything else. You can always improvise if you want to keep the whole operation under the radar or if you don't have the space or resources to set up a fully functional grow room.

So you can certainly grow cannabis indoors without artificial lighting, but the plants still need direct access to natural light for at least six hours a day. This means that the plant's best chance of success is to place it in a location that has as much access to sunlight as possible.

After all, cannabis is a light-sensitive plant; light is one of the three most important resources, along with water and carbon dioxide, for it to carry out its natural processes such as photosynthesis. So without light, cannabis - like many other plants - will not thrive.

How do you grow cannabis indoors without artificial lighting?

So it's best if the plants get as much sunlight as possible. One option is to simply place the plants on a windowsill and watch how they develop in that particular spot.

It's important to note that cannabis still doesn't grow ideally in this environment. If the conditions aren't ideal, the plants won't grow as much as they could and thus won't produce the maximum amount of yield that could be expected for the particular strain. However, there are a few things that can help increase yield.

Grow in Summer

Window growing is a good practice for those who aren't serious about growing weed all the time, or who just want to test out if it's right for them. If you're relying entirely on daylight, you'll benefit from growing in the summer when there are more hours of sunshine. Plants need as much sun as possible, and the fall and winter months aren't ideal for this.

The window you can use is between April and August. Unfortunately, if you start germinating and planting before the end of April or after August, the chances of your growth attempt failing increase.

Remember that cannabis plants need at least 14 hours of light per day during the vegetative phase, of which around 5-6 hours should be direct light. Anything less than that can result in stunted growth.

Choose a suitable strain.

The beauty of having so many different cannabis strains is the flexibility that growers have to use them depending on the growing conditions. Choosing the right cannabis strain for indoor cultivation without lights can make a big difference in the result.

For example, one option is to choose auto-flowering, as they are not photoperiodic and do not depend on the change ofseasons. Autoflowering cannabis is day-neutral, meaning it does not need a specific light-dark cycle to grow. It automatically switches from vegetative to flowering according to the schedule. Autoflower seeds grow into relatively small plants compared to feminized seeds, so they can fit in a place like a windowsill. A tall-growing sativa would not fit there.

If you live in a very warm area, you can still try a photoperiod sativa. It might work there in the summer. On the other hand, if it is colder, you can try indices. A photoperiod sativa also usually requires more effort to grow into a stable plant in such conditions than an autoflower.

Find a good spot

Don't just put the plant in any window, but start growing in the window that gets the most sun. The bigger the window, the better, as this means more light for the plant. Also, you should turn the pots over occasionally so that each side of the plant gets direct access to the light.

For best results, choose windows that face south, southwest, or southeast. This will maximize the amount of sunlight. 

This article was originally published on Soft Secrets Germany Website  https://softsecrets.com/de/artikel/indoor-anbau-ohne-lampen

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Liz Filmer