Only six percent of American cannabis consumers grow their own cannabis at home. The same survey found that these people do it because it is cheaper, more convenient, and higher quality.
It’s time to join this elite club and start your own cannabis cultivation. It is completely safe to start because it is legal to grow your own cannabis in Virginia.
Keep reading for 15 handy tips on how to grow cannabis that will help you grow plants that are better than anything you can buy from a store.
1. Grow Your Plants Inside
One of the most common cannabis cultivation mistakes is to grow cannabis plants outside. This makes it much harder to control the environment that the plants grow in. Make sure you grow indoors so you have full control over the climate.
2. Use Good Lighting
Now that you have made the correct decision to avoid growing your plants outdoors, you need to know how to cultivate cannabis indoors. Start with setting up your lighting.
For your small setup, take a look at using LEDs because they are cheap, energy-efficient, and emit UV which enhanced the growth of your plants.
3. Impose a Day-Night Cycle
A surefire way of getting your plants to their potential is to impose a strict day and night cycle. 12 hours of light and 12 hours of darkness should do the trick. Try to keep this up for two months.
4. Use Filtered Water
Water often has dissolved solids that stunt the growth of your plants. The chlorine and fluoride used to treat water are very bad news. Use a filtration or reverse osmosis system for the best water quality.
5. Feed Your Plants Well
Do your research into basic elements that you can feed to your plants. Pre-mixed nutrients are often overpriced and low quality. Take care not to buy knockoff nutrients as these are likely to harm your plants.
6. Pot Your Plants in Good Soil
The best soil for cannabis is rich soil that holds moisture and has good drainage. If you select good soil, then the quality of your plants will greatly improve.
7. Be Careful When Reusing Soil
You can reuse soil in cannabis cultivation but it takes care. Make sure to aerate the soil, remove the roots from the previous plant, and mix in fertilizer to restore the nutrients that have been lost.
8. If You Are an Expert, Consider Hydroponics
Cannabis grows faster in a hydroponic setup compared to soil, but it is expensive and difficult to manage.
Hydroponics works by growing the plant in a nutrient solution. It is not simple, however. You will need a reservoir, tray, pump, growing medium, net mesh pots, and more.
Seasoned veterans can turbocharge their growing process with this method, but is not recommended for beginners.
9. Monitor the pH
If you use a hydroponic system, make sure that the pH of the water is between 5.5 and 5.8 to keep your plants healthy. If the pH is out of this range, growth will be impaired and the health of the plants will decline.
10. Use a Ventilation System
Good ventilation will improve the air circulation in your setup, which will help with maintaining a constant temperature. You can use fans to achieve this.
11. Use an Air Conditioning Unit
A ventilation system does not give you precise control over the humidity in the room. You could use a dehumidifier to deal with this, but these devices produce heat. Air conditioning units give you better control over humidity and temperature simultaneously.
12. Zone Your Plants
If you are using multiple air conditioners, separate your plants so they are not reliant on multiple air conditioner units. Therefore if one of the units fails, most of your plants will be completely fine.
13. Think About the Life Cycle
Early in the growth cycle, your plants need lots of nitrogen. Conversely, they need barely any nitrogen at all in the latter stages. If you give them too much nitrogen during the latter stages of their lifecycle you will get plants with an unpleasant metallic flavor.
14. Use a Quality Strain
Choose cannabis with good genetics. Make sure you buy seeds from a reputable seller to ensure a quality product.
15. Do Not Grow More Than Four Plants
The cannabis cultivation laws Virginia has in place dictate that households may grow up to four plants. If you grow more then you are breaking the law.
Cannabis Cultivation Made Simple
With these 15 lessons, you are well on your way to becoming a skilled grower. Cannabis cultivation should be a fun and straightforward process and we are here to help you make that first step.
If you want more tips about things you can do at home, check out our Household & Real Estate section today.