Growing pot indoors may seem intimidating, but with these easy to
follow steps anyone can produce some high quality bud.
Making
an attempt at indoor pot growing can be a great option for a number of reasons:
you can grow all year long, you can keep your horticultural activities a bit
more discreet, and you can have full control over your plant’s growing
environment.
But before you start filling plastic pots with dirt and dropping
cannabis seeds into them, there are a few basic steps you need to have in mind.
This guide will walk you through the step-by-step process for
growing a single cannabis plant indoors.
Once you’ve mastered these steps and have successfully grown
your first plant you can start branching out and trying to grow multiple plants
at a time.
Step 1: Select Your Seeds
You
won’t get a good crop if you don’t start with the right kind of seed. Whether
you go with an indica strain, a sativa strain, or a hybrid
strain, be sure you get feminized seeds.
Female cannabis plants produce buds, male ones don’t.
There are plenty of
reputable seed dealers online, so spend some time on Google looking for one who
can sell you just what you’re looking for
Step 2: Get a Container
There
are really a number of containers you could use to grow your cannabis
plant, but we suggest starting out with a fabric growing pot. These
containers allow plenty of oxygen to reach the roots.
Step 3: Add Potting Soil
For your first grow attempt, the simplest thing to do is to fill
your container with a commercially made potting soil. These soils usually
contain a mix of nutrients and other stuff designed to keep the soil light and
airy.
When you fill your container, don’t pack it down. You want your
soil to stay fluffy so the roots of your plant don’t have any trouble growing
or getting nutrients.
Step 4: Plant the Seed
Gently plant your cannabis seed 1/2 – 1 inch into the soil.
Cover it with a light layer of soil, and gently water it.
During the sprouting phase, don’t let the soil dry out, but be
careful you don’t overwater it and drown the sprouting seed. All you want to do
is keep the soil moist.
Step 5: Give It Light
Once the
seed has sprouted and its first baby leaves have appeared, it’s time to kick
things into gear by giving it light.
Cannabis plants need a lot of light, so be sure you get this
part right. If you’re already committed to becoming a hardcore grower you’ll
probably want to invest in a more expensive LED full spectrum grow light.
During
the growing phase, be sure to give your plant 18 hours of light a day.
Step 6: Feed Your Plant
As your plant begins to grow, be sure you keep it well watered,
but not over watered. After watering, wait until the top inch of soil dries out
before watering it again.
Use
plant food throughout the growing phase to give your young plant the nutrients it needs.
Step 7: Initiate Flowering Cycle
In the wild, cannabis begins to flower as the long days of
summer give way to the shorter days of fall. When growing indoors you need to
make your plant think this is what’s happening by beginning to reduce the
amount light it receives.
Scale it back to somewhere around 12 hours of light per day.
Your plant should soon start flowering.
Step 8: Harvest Flowers
As your plant begins to flower, you
need to keep an eye on the trichomes.
Those are the weird, little hair-like things that look like they’ve got tiny
crystals attached to them.
When the trichomes are all milky looking, and there aren’t
anymore clear ones, it’s time to harvest.
Carefully cut the buds off
at the stem, making
sure you don’t damage the actual buds.
Step 9: Dry Your Bud
To dry your freshly harvested bud, tie strings to the stems and
hang them upside down in a well-ventilated room. As soon as the smaller
stems become dry enough that you can easily snap them in half, it’s time
to move onto the curing phase.
Step 10: Cure Your Bud
To cure your buds, carefully remove them from the larger stems.
Now place them into glass mason jars, screw on the lid, and put them somewhere
dark.
Check on them once or twice a day, and if it’s ever getting too
moist, unscrew the lid and let the bud air out a bit. Check the bud until it’s
got that perfect balance of sticky-icky and dry.
At that point, you’re ready to light up and enjoy the fruits of
your labor!
After
you’ve mastered growing a single plant indoors, you can start experimenting
with more advanced
techniques to maximize
your yields and increase bud potency.
Now is the time to explore, experiment, and perfect your
approach to cannabis cultivation.
