6 Top Tips on Growing Cannabis Indoors
Setting up your first ever indoor grow space can be a very exciting time! If you are converting a spare room, or simply buying a grow tent, then there are a few variables to consider before you begin. In this article we provide 6 top tips for beginners to follow to make your indoor grow room the ultimate garden, including 5 mistakes to avoid.
Top Tip #1: Air Flow and Extraction
The number one priority is that the amount of air being pulled into the room or tent, and exhausted out is sufficient. Once intake, exhaust fans and oscillating are all working, the quality of the air should be extremely fresh and free flowing.
How much CO2 rich air the room can consume will play a big role in the metabolism and photosynthesis of your Cannabis plants. Our top tip here is make sure there is lots of fresh air being drawn in from an outside source and is being constantly recycled for the duration of the plant’s life cycle.
Top Tip #2: Don’t Buy Cheap Lights!
There is nothing worse than buying cheap grow lights that become faulty or provide very little in terms of P.A.R and the correct light spectrum. Now not all cheaper lights are a bad investment, however when it comes to growing Cannabis, HID (high intensity discharge) are most adequate and will produce the most productive plants.
Our top tip here is to avoid cheap L.E.D boards and stick with an industry standard 600w or 1000w HPS. As you get more familiar with the science of lighting and how plants relate, then you can venture out into expensive and well proven L.E.D lights or custom mixed spectrums using M.H and H.P.S for example.
Top Tip #3: Plenty of Fresh Air
It is very important that there are multiple air currents at various levels in the grow room. It is a good idea to have oscillating fans that are fixed to the bottom, middle and top parts of the room. The fans should all be turning at different times from one another to make sure there are as many interchanging air currents as possible.
Our top tip here is to make sure that there is plenty of air blowing around the bottom and tops of the plants. This will ensure that the plants become strong and durable to the wind and will also eliminate stagnant air pockets that insects or pathogens may be attracted to.
Top Tip #4: Install a Hygrometer
If you are not familiar with a hygrometer, then you will need to invest in one, and install it in the grow room. These inexpensive digital devices will work with a sensor, to provide a digital reading of the temperature and humidity levels.
Not only are these devices accurate and consistent, they will also produce a lowest and highest reading, so you can see the difference between day and night time temperatures.Our top tip here is to hang the sensor in the center of the grow room, and to keep it at the same level as the top canopy.
Top Tip #5: Watering Times
Getting into a bad habit of overwatering your Cannabis plants, can inhibit growth and also cause deficiencies or toxicity to occur.. Roots actually search out for air pockets with the intention of filling those spaces and tiny crevices to find nutrients and moisture.
Our top tip here is to let the roots of a seedling or young vegetative plant work, and to expand as far as possible in search of air. Not only will this encourage the most prolific root zone possible, it will also reduce water use, nutrient use and save you time hand watering.
Top Tip #6: Organics Is The Best Way
As tempting as hydroponics may seem and with extremely rewarding harvests, working with organics is the best way to start growing Cannabis. Organic growers can relax as there is a 72 hour buffering period that occurs in the soil food web, meaning organics is far more forgiving than a complex and large scale hydroponic set up.
Our top tip here is to start with organics and the more you learn about growing, then you can try your hand at hydroponics. The entry level systems such as dripper systems are a great way to make the shift, and also a good way to work up to deep water culture, flood and drain and aeroponics.
5 Mistakes To Avoid
There is nothing worse than making mistakes and losing out on a top quality crop. Learning the hard way is never fun and can be an expensive lesson. Below are a list of mistakes to avoid when starting out as an indoor grower.
- Avoid having a poor air flow and low volume of air being recycled per hour from the exhaust fans. Hot air will only attract insects and pathogens, which can be devastating whilst flowers are forming. The best way to counter poor air flow is to use small oscillating fans at various points.
- It is essential to flush Cannabis plants during the final 10-14 days of the flowering period. The reason being is to break down any undissolved salts. Also the plants get an opportunity to use up any internal reserved nutrition. Do not get into the habit of skipping the flush period, thinking the more nutrients then the bigger the buds will be. This will only cause the buds to be very harsh to smoke, struggle to burn and won’t be pleasant to smoke.
- Investing your budget on cheap grow lights, under the naive impression the more lights then the more efficient the grow room. Lighting is based on P.A.R and not lumens, so brightness is irrelevant when growing Cannabis indoors. Do your research and follow the science and technical aspects of each company and their grow light design.
- Filling your space with too many plants, and once flowering starts suffer with severe overcrowding and air flow issues. Make a floor plan before even planting a seed, and calculate to the nearest inch how much space you have for each plant in terms of width and height.
- Do not switch fans and exhaust fans off once the lights go out. It is essential that there is a consistent amount of air passing through the tent, and over the plant during the entire life cycle. Stagnant air around plants combined with high humidity can cause bad mold or mildew problems that will only increase over time.
S
Stoney.Tark
