Growing Marijuana Indoors – Tips and Tricks
There’s a reason indoor weed tends to be more potent and flavorful than marijuana grown in outdoor gardens. When growers move their operations indoors, they take complete control over every element of the growing environment.
While it takes some time and experience to grow the perfect indoor bud, even novice growers can wind up with decent crops of high-quality marijuana. Read on to find out about some tips and tricks that will help.
Keep It Simple the First Year
There are tons of tricks for increasing yields when growing marijuana inside. Advanced cultivators often employ challenging high-stress techniques like FIMing, SCROGing, and monster cropping, but they’re best reserved for experienced growers or supplement carbon dioxide to enhance plant growth. Newcomers to indoor growing should stick to the basics and keep it simple the first year instead of attempting to get every technique down at once.
Start With a Soil-Based System
There’s a lot of hype about hydroponic growing, and with good reason. Hydroponically grown plants use up less water, produce larger yields, and experience fewer pest problems. All of that said, it’s best for newcomers to indoor growing to start out with soil-based systems.
Starting an indoor container garden costs next to nothing, and it doesn’t require the kinds of specialized skills associated with hydroponic growing. People who are used to tending plants outdoors will also find that most of their knowledge translates well to indoor container-based gardening, so they often start out with this technique to refine indoor cultivation skills before investing in hydroponic systems.
Invest in Quality Grow Lights
Indoor growers have tons of options when it comes to choosing the right lights. While there’s no need to invest in the most expensive, advanced system out there, providing the plants with the right light spectrum is essential. Look for LED grow lights that are designed to provide plants with all the right wavelengths, and consider spending a little extra money to get a timer that automatically turns the lights on and off to ensure that the plants stay on the right light cycle.
Keep the Grow Area Well-Ventilated
Pot plants love the fresh air, so they’ll grow best and have the fewest mold problems in a well-ventilated area. Don’t stop at placing a floor fan in the grow room. The space will also need a decent ventilation system complete with an exhaust fan and if growers are worried about nosy neighbors, a carbon filter.
Stay on Top of Nutrient Levels
Just like their outdoor counterparts, indoor pot plants need plenty of nutrients to grow and thrive. It’s worth buying specialized nutrient solutions designed for indoor marijuana grows. It’s also worth investing in a pH meter and a TDS meter to make sure the soil and water conditions are within the right range to encourage optimal nutrient uptake.
Low-tech growers sometimes prefer to wait until signs of nutrient deficiencies or excesses pop up to take action, but that’s a mistake. One of the largest benefits of growing indoors is that it gives growers more control over the environment, and carefully monitoring both soil and water conditions can dramatically improve both plant health and yields.
Get Started Now
One of the great things about growing indoor pot is that there’s no need to wait for the change of seasons to start a new crop. Invest in some containers, soil, and high-quality grow lights and purchase seeds now to get some hands-on experience with the basics of indoor growing.
