Grow Your Own Cannabis for Less than the Cost of One Dispensary Ounce
You don’t have to be a gardener to grow cannabis, anymore I don’t think you really need to be a gardener to even garden, with the advancements in technology and perfectly mixed fertilizers, it can be remotely done via wifi if you know how to set it up. It’s not my area of interest, but it’s interesting nonetheless!
That being said, I love to garden, but even if you’ve never grown anything, you can grow your own cannabis. It’s only as hard as you want it to be. It can be tremendously simple and it can be overwhelmingly sophisticated. Some people challenge themselves and their plants in ways that are borderline ridiculous and most likely unnecessary (that actually is my area of interest, in the spirit of total honesty)
The most popular, cost-efficient, and definitely the most successful and proven way to start out is to purchase a small grow tent and assemble it with a light and a few essential accessories. Check out the website or in stores for live displays on available tent packages and for other tutorials and consulting on germination when you’re starting off with seeds.
Where to grow
Tents are fairly well climate controlled and are well sealed and highly reflective, which is a huge part of the appeal. In a perfect world, your tent would be in a room or basement that has access to a window for air exchange and in a place that maintains fairly consistent temperatures that don’t freeze at night and swelter during the days, and in an area that isn’t so high traffic that the light cycles can become disrupted. A spare room, a finished and even unfinished basement that maintains a low humidity, and even a garage that is moderately insulated are all fine.
To get more specific about the laws and regulations, there needs to be a lockable door in between the room your tent is in and the rest of your home.
The time of year you choose to start growing can affect the temperatures inside your grow tent but there is no wrong time to start, you just need to be aware of your climate and adjust accordingly. Seeds and young plants prefer higher humidity and higher temperatures in the high 70s – low 80s and so it’s ideal to place them close to the light and if needed, to germinate them in a small domed greenhouse with a heating mat underneath.
The tents themselves click together easily, regardless of brand, and without much instruction necessary beyond the basic instructions that come with it. You’ll want to mount an exhaust fan up high in one of the openings built for it. Not every opening needs a fan, and during later stages in your plant’s lifecycle, these should be cinched up to keep external light out of the tent.
Booster fans can be added to help push air into the tent without the air being so powerful that it damages any foliage. These are inexpensive and lightweight. These are best placed down low if the more powerful exhaust fan is placed up high, and vice versa if the exhaust is placed down low. This allows air to travel through the top, middle, and bottom of the tent which can push healthy airflow through your plants. Eliminating stagnant air in your Grow area can help prevent mold, fungus, mildew, and aggressive pest populations.
Equipping your grow
Some useful and inexpensive items to include in your setup are a timer, some type of plant support, a hygrometer that reads temperature and humidity, a spray bottle for foliar sprays or pesticide treatments, and a clip fan to move air and to strengthen your plant stalks.
Timers allow you to adjust the light cycle of your plant, it can help save on energy costs, but it’s most commonly used to switch the phase of your plants growth from vegetative to the flowering stage.
Hygrometers are something that I would consider an absolutely essential accessory for any room, tent, greenhouse, and in some instances, even your curing jars. You can purchase one for about 20$ that will be able to tell you your 24-hour temp Highs and Lows and an accurate humidity percentage.
Being able to accurately determine your temperature and your humidity is some of the most important feedback you can receive from your growing environment. It allows you to troubleshoot effectively and provide an ideal climate throughout your entire crop. If your room breaches 90°F in the day when you’re not there to alleviate it, you’ll see the stress on your plants, but you can easily mistake the cause. That alone can lead to issues in the tent and stress that could have been avoided or fixed sooner.
The placement of these will impact the readings. If you place it directly underneath the lighting fixture then it will read warmer than the rest of the tent and right in front of the fan may read cooler. There is typically a bag or pocket that comes standard with most tents, those are usually about the height of the tops of your plants and underneath your light. They make great accessory holders and are typically mesh material that allows you to read your unit through the material.
There are things you can add and things you can do without, but these are the basic essentials to get going. Typically it’s common to have multiple tents, one for vegetative plants and one for flowering plants. I’ve seen more people than not with a tent just for drying and curing. The set up outlined in this article is great for the vegetative state, but with a light timer and a full spectrum LED, you can accomplish a Grow from start to finish with these few things. Different plant life cycles, different plant species, and different tent sizes will dictate how big of fans you need, whether not to invest in a dehumidifier, and how imperative it is to have a light-tight tent. Consult your local Grow shop for their best recommendations and never be afraid to ask questions!
Olivia Sobelman has been a cannabis grower for over a decade and was part of a team that won the US Cannabis Cup Awards three times. Sobelman and her husband, Tyler, own and operate Grow Depot Hydroponics Store in Missouri. Fast becoming “The Plant Doctors,” the Sobelmans’ mission to educate and destigmatize cannabis is at the root of their business. Grow depot offers access to free consultations for patients and growers, both in-person and by phone, to diagnose and mend many issues in the garden. Visit Grow Depot for grower tutorials, past articles, and to learn more about the services they offer and their contributions to the cannabis community.
What do you think?