Set up
First you'd need to find a good spot where you want to grow your plants. Usually, it'll be an indoor room with water supply and some sort of air conditioning.
The next step is finding a good container and a growing medium. You'd want a deep pot with drainage holes in the bottom. For the growing medium soil would be a good choice due to the nutrients in the soil itself.
Now the most important thing for indoor growing is the lights. You'd want a controllable lights (timer) that also wouldn't overheat and kill the plants.
LED lights are proven to produce buds with increased quality. You need to be careful when using LEDs because if you'll put it too close to the leaves, it'll burn them. Plus you'd need a vent system to be able to control the room's temperature.
The best temperature for growing weed is 20-30°C for young plants and 18-26°C for the matured plants.
Growing
The easiest way to germinate a cannabis seed is to place it directly in a specialized starter cube like a Rapid Rooter. Just keep starter cubes moist (but not soaking) and warm. Seedlings should pop in a few days to a week. Once the seedling has emerged, you can stick the cube directly into your growing medium.
Important to know is that a cannabis plant has a few stages of developing:
- The first stage is the seedling stage.
- Second stage is when your plant begins to grow his first few leaves, it's called the vegetative stage.
♢ Keep the temperature between 20-30°C. ♢The plant won't drink as much water.
♢ Set the light timer to 18 hours on, 24 hours off. - 3rd stage is when your plant begins to bloom and are getting close to harvesting point, it's called the flowering stage.
♢ Keep the temperature between 18-26°C. ♢You'll need to water the plant more often.
♢ Set the light timer to 12 hours on, 12 hours off.
♢ The MOST important thing to do in this stage is to remove the male plants.
Identifying the plant's gender:
○ Male plants start growing balls/pollen sacs with no white hairs/pistils.
○ Female plants start growing wispy white hairs at the tops of branch joints.
You can check if you need to water the plant by sticking your finger in the soil and checking if the soil is wet or not. If the soil is dry an inch from the top - you need to water it. You'd notice that when the plant climbs through the stages it needs more watering.
Adding nutrients and testing the pH level is a must once you entered the flowering stage.
Digital pH Pens offer a precise way to measure the pH of your water. For soil make sure your pH levels are between 6.0-7.0 before adding nutrients otherwise they won't effect the plant. To adjust the pH level simply use a pH up / pH down bottle.
Harvest & Cure
Harvest point:
- Wait until your buds stop growing new, white hairs.
- Harvest when 50-70% of the hairs have darkened for highest THC levels.
- Now simply get a sturdy pair of scissors and cut the plant down.
After you have cut off and trimmed all of your glittery:
- Put them in a tightly-closed quart-sized mason jars in a cool dark place. Fill each jar loosely about 3/4 of the way full.
- Open the jars once a day for several seconds to get fresh air in your jars and release any moisture.
- If your buds feel moist when you check on them, leave the tops of the jars off until the outsides of the buds feel dry to the touch.
- Once your buds have been curing for at least two weeks - you can open the jars once a week instead of everyday.
- After 30 days your buds are ready for use.