So you want to grow some cannabis? Welcome to Cannabis Growing 101.
It’s not that hard. The first thing you need to do is make sure you have everything you need set up and in place before you start seeds.
Find a way to make two rooms (if you can) that you can use, if you can. They can be as small as a closet, I like 2’x2′ with height of 5-8′ or as large as you want or need. Here is a short video of a room.
You need two rooms: one to keep your mother plants and new seeds growing until it’s time to put them into flowering mode, and the other room is for flowering. You could use a singe room if you want but everything in the room will either be in vegetative state or flowering
Each room needs to be equipped properly.
You’ll need lights. I suggest using 100 watts per square foot of space.
So, a 2′ x 2′ space needs 400 watts. You can use LEDs, which save on electricity, but they need to produce enough lumens (light power) to be effective. They also need to be switchable from the blue to red spectrum’s. I prefer to use HID lights, which are high-pressure sodium (HPS) and metal halide (MH). The HPS is used for flowering, and the MH is used for the vegetative stage. Most modern lights offer the ability to go from 50-100% of the rated power.
Next, each room needs to have the walls lined with some sort of reflective material. This could be as simple as really white paint or mylar. I prefer mylar, as emergency blankets provide an excellent and cheap source of mylar in sheets to staple to walls.
Of course, you might want to put something on the floor that will act to hold water from soaking into the floor. Working in the basement is an excellent alternative. I’ve used pond liner and or the things you put under washing machines for cheap alternatives.
You should think about fans and venting. Cannabis loves CO2, so you need to make sure there is plenty of air exchange in the room. This will also help with heat control.
Grow Tent – Anther alternative is to create or buy a grow tent. I have made one like this from a coupe mylar blankets, 4-10′ sticks of 3/4″ PVC n a few elbow n T’s.
Heat and humidity considerations: Many lights produce a lot of heat, and growing plants produce humid environments. Both of these things can be beneficial in certain amounts, but too much can be a problem. So, you may need to use dehumidifiers and vents to the outside world to control the temperature and humidity in the room. It’s probably also a good idea to get temp and humidity meters.
Fans: You will need one or two small flowering fans to circulate the air in the room. This will help reduce mold, mildew, bugs, and other issues. It also breaks up the micro-climate that is produced by the plants themselves. It also causes the stems to become more rigid which will help hold the heavy buds.
now on to starting your grow.