Marijuana
Cannabis Growing Guide Part 3
A Marijuana Garden At Home
Table of contents
[Overview] [Genetics And The Marijuana Plant] [Germination] [Growth Stage] [Flowering Stage] [Grow Lights] [Male And Female Plants] [Sinsemilla] [Growing With Hydroponics] [Soil Growing Indoors] [Shelf Growing With Soil Indoors] [Soil Growing Indoors And Outdoors] [Growing Outdoors] [Guerrilla Growing] [Harvesting] [Storage] [Security] [Odors] [Pests] [Nutrients] [Foliar Feeding] [pH] [Carbon Dioxide] [Temperature] [Venting] [Transplanting] [Pruning] [Cloning] [Breeding] Growing With Hydroponics
Most growers report that a hydroponic system will grow plants faster than soil, given the same genetics and environmental conditions. This may be due to closer attention and more control of nutrients, and more access to oxygen.
The plants can breath easier, and therefore, take less time to grow. One grower tested sativa plants in soil and using hydroponics. The plants grown in soil matured in 13-14 weeks while the plants grown hydroponically only required 10-11 weeks.
Fast growth allows for earlier maturation and shorter total growing time per crop. With soil, plant growth tends to slow when the plants become root-bound.
Hydroponics provides even, rapid growth with no pauses for transplant shock and eliminates the labor/materials of re-potting if rockwool is used (it is the recommended method of indoor marijuana growing).
Hydroponics is recommended for indoor growing only. You can grow with hydroponics outdoors but you will only be able to grow when temperatures are above freezing (or the nutrient solution will freeze and the plants will die of cold). Evaporation is also a problem outdoors. For detailed information on how to grow hydroponic marijuana, see this article.
Soil Growing Indoors
Indoor growing has many advantages, besides the apparent fact that it is much harder to have your crop found, you can control the ambient conditions just exactly as you want them and get a guaranteed good plant.
Plants grown indoors will not appear the same as their outdoor cousins. They will be smaller and may require you to tie them to a growing post to remain upright.
However, the marijuana from plants grown indoors will be more potent (if you provide optimal conditions) than that of the same strain being grow outdoors. Plants will take longer to grow in soil than they would in a hydroponic garden, but they can be just as potent.
Select a grow area and put tar paper or plastic on the floors to prevent damage from water or other sources. The walls of your growing room should be painted white or covered with aluminum foil to reflect the light.
Containers for houseplants can be used or you can use almost any container that is clean and has never been used to store chemicals or anything else that might be toxic.
The height of the container should be from 12 to 24 inches. Width and depth should both be about 12 inches. 3 and 5 gallon containers do a good job and are easy to find.
You will need enough soil to fill each container to within 4-6 inches of the top. Make sure to provide drainage holes at the bottom of the container if it was not designed for growing plants in. There should be enough holes to allow any excess water to escape and they should be small enough so that no soil is washed away.
Buy sterilized bags of soil form a gardening supply store. Ask a salesperson for soil that was designed for indoor use with fast growing vegetables. You need soil that is fluffy when moist. It shouldn't clump together if you gently squeeze it in your hand.
Organic potting soil is a good choice, if available. If you are already used to gardening, mushroom compost or soilless mixtures might be something to look into. Stay away from anything like clay or sand.
After harvesting, add the soil that was used to grow a crop to your outdoor garden, do not try to use it to grow another crop. See the section about nutrients and marijuana grown in soil so you know how to feed the plants.
Soil pH should be in the 6.0 to 7.0 range. Get a pH meter to measure the soil pH if needed. Most nutrients (fertilizers) cause a pH change in the soil. Adding nutrients to the soil almost always results in a more acidic pH.
As time goes on, the amount of salts produced by the breakdown of nutrients in the soil causes the soil to become increasingly acidic and eventually the concentration of these salts in the soil will stunt the plant and cause browning out of the foliage.
Also, as the plant gets older its roots become less effective in bringing food to the leaves. To avoid the accumulation of these salts in your soil and to ensure that your plant is getting all of the food it needs you can begin leaf feeding your plant at the age of about 1.5 months.
Dissolve the nutrients in water and spray the mixture directly onto the foliage. The leaves absorb the fertilizer into their veins. If you want to continue to put fertilizer into the soil as well as leaf feeding, be sure not to overdose your plants.
The lighting system can be fluorescent, but metal halide (mh) or high pressure sodium (hps) are recommended. Metal halide or high pressure sodium lights provide enough light to grow potent marijuana and should be used by any serious gardener. Make sure you understand lighting and how it affects marijuana plants before setting up your grow room.
If you don't have enough money to buy a metal halide or high pressure sodium light fixture, fluorescent light can be used instead. This is a good introduction to growing, but the results will not be as good.
Figure about one plant per two feet of fluorescent tube. Fluorescent light sources should be an average of 3-6 inches from the top of the plant. They may be mounted on a rack and moved every few days as the plants grow.
Once you have your grow area setup you will want to introduce your seeds or clones. If you have clones you can place them in the growing containers. If you have seeds, you will need to germinate them before they can be placed into the containers.
Set your light timer for 16 hours on and 8 hours off per twenty four hour period. Keep this light pattern for the first two weeks in the containers.
When I grow with mh or hps lighting, I like using a fluorescent light for these first two weeks of seedling growth. A standard 48 inch fluorescent light fixture sometimes used in garages and kitchens can be found at most department stores. You don't need special grow lights for this purpose, 'cool white' bulbs made for standard 48 inch fluorescent light fixture are cheap and will do a fine job.
After about two weeks under the 16 hours on and 8 hours off light schedule the plants should have put down a good root system and grown a few sets of leaves. At this point you should increase light by an hour a day. You can leave the light on from 18-24 hours a day at this point in the plants life (vegetative phase).
If you have mh or hps lights, now is the time to introduce them to your garden. As you increase the light, the plants grow faster but power consumption increases. This power increase doesn't make a lot of difference with low wattage lights, but mh and hps lights require more power. The more power you use, the higher your electric bill will be.
When the plants are about twelve inches tall, cut the light down to 12 hours on and 12 hours off per day. This will cause the plants to flower. After the plants flower, you will have to remove the male plants unless you want to produce seeds. White hairs (pistils) will begin to develop at bud sites of female plants.
If you are growing under mh or hps light it will be about 10-12 weeks (after flowering starts) till harvest time. Total time will be about 12-16 weeks from seed or clone to harvest time. If you are growing under fluorescent light it will take longer before harvest time and the plants will not produce as much marijuana.
If you use a metal halide or high pressure sodium light fixture, a 250 watt light (either mh or hps) is good to grow up to 6 plants at a time (force flowering when they are about eight inches tall). Each plant will yield about 7-14 grams of marijuana every 12-16 weeks.
If you use a metal halide or high pressure sodium light fixture, a 400 watt light (either mh or hps) is good to grow up to 12 plants at a time (force flowering when they are about twelve inches tall). Each plant will yield from about 14-28 grams of marijuana every 12-16 weeks.
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Books Grow Great Marijuana:
An Uncomplicated Guide to
Growing the World's Finest Cannabis
If you find instructions and books about growing hydroponic marijuana overly technical and hard to follow, this book is a very good choice for simple and accurate instructions. It does not cover advanced techniques so if you already know how to grow, this book would be of little value. But if you are a first time grower with no experience, this is the first book to look at.
It will explain the steps involved from start to finish (with text and images). Includes information on where to grow, type of hydroponic system to use, selecting a seed strain, lighting, fans, nutrients, security, clones, vegetative growth, flowering, harvesting, stress, pests, and more. Recommended for beginners only, this will show you everything you need to raise a hydroponic marijuana crop.
Grow Great Marijuana Marijuana Horticulture:
The Indoor/Outdoor Medical Grower's Bible
Over 500 pages with more than 1000 color images. If you were only going to get one book about growing, this book would be the best choice. Describes growing marijuana outdoors and indoors (with hydroponics or soil).
Also provides information that you can refer back to when things go wrong. A very comprehensive reference book for anyone interested in growing marijuana, either indoors or outdoors. Recommended for beginners and more advanced growers.
Marijuana Horticulture The Cannabis Grow Bible:
The Definitive Guide to Growing Marijuana
for Recreational and Medical Use
A very good source of information covering all aspects of growing, from seed selection to harvest, curing and more. Over 300 pages with almost 200 color and black-and-white photographs, charts, and tables. Recommended reference book for indoor and outdoor growers.
A great marijuana growing and breeding guide. Includes chapters on seeds, propagation and germination, growing indoors, growing outdoors, hydroponics, pre-flowering and flowering, predators, pests and plant fungi, breeding, and more.
The Cannabis Grow Bible
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