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Anyone here into growing cannabis?
Now that it's legal in Canada to grow cannabis, I decided to try my hand at growing a few plants indoors. I started with a simple setup and a couple of seeds in a closet. As I did more research, I slowly started upgrading my equipment and methods. There is so much more to growing good cannabis indoors than I originally thought, and it's become a very interesting hobby for me. There is also a lot of misinformation and pseudoscience out there, which can make it difficult for new growers.
Anyone else into this hobby? What's your setup like? Anyone thinking of getting into it?
I was thinking about starting it up when the weather finally normalizes and it's not winter every other week! Any starting tips?
If you'd rather get started immediately, you might look into something like Space Buckets. Of course they're not just for weed, you can grow literally any plant that way. The missus and I have one going right now and it's doing great, just gotta be mindful not to overwater and (if you're growing weed) check the PH balance of your growth medium every now and again.
Thanks! I think your link is a bit broken, haha.
Whoops! Thanks, fixed it.
I've only grown indoors so far, where you essentially have full control over the environment. I'm thinking of growing a plant or two outdoors once the weather is nice.
From what I've read, autoflowering strains are a good option for outdoors. Most strains will only start flowering (producing buds) once the days get shorter and there is more dark hours. This is how the plant knows its fall and time to start producing buds. You can mimic this indoors by simply switching your light cycle to 12 hours on and 12 hours off. Outdoors, you basically have to wait till fall, and depending where you live it can be quite cold by that time.
With auto-flowering strains, the plants simply switch into flowering on their own regardless of the light. They typically will mature and finish much faster than regular strains, and you won't have to worry about growing into the fall.
With autoflowers, since they start flowering right away, you don't want to be re-potting them because it can stress them, so you'll want to plant them in their final pot from the beginning. I'm thinking of planting mine in pots rather than directly in the ground, so I can move them if I have to. I'm particularly worried about heavy rains or storms damaging them.
The biggest mistake beginners make is over watering their plants. It took me a while to figure out how much watering is enough, and it is very dependent on your growing medium. Some people grow in 'Coco Coir' instead of soil which requires more frequent and heavier watering than soil. I've learned that it's better to underwater than overwater. For one, it's easy to correct underwatering because you simply add more water. If you've overwatered, you basically have to wait for the plants to use up the water. Also plants bounce back from underwatering really fast.
My biggest advice is to do lots of research and take a lot of what you read with a grain of salt. Like I said there is a lot of bad advice and misinformation floating around on forums and such. Also, what works for one person might not work for you because they might be growing in completely different conditions.
I've found that growweedeasy.com is a good general guide for most things.
There was a phenomenal garden setup posted here a while ago by @mat - you might want to check that out!
That's awesome. My other hobby is programming and Raspberry Pi stuff, so I definitely want to do something like that in the future. Right now I have a Pi setup in the closet to monitor temperature and humidity, but I haven't had the time to expand on it.
Give me a yell if you want some pointers on Pi setup or hardware choices.
Although I'd like to stress that for legal reasons in my country, I only have experience of growing tomatoes.
It was too much money and waiting for me. I've killed every plant and herb I've tried growing in my apartment and there is a medical dispensary right down the block from me. Am I paying way more than if I grew? Honestly probably not, because it would take me 200 tries to successfully grow a plant and I still want to smoke in the meantime. Props to anyone who makes it work, I wish I could. But I know my abilities, schedule, and patience make me a better consumer than grower.
The waiting is the hardest part for me. I only have a couple months to go and I'm getting super anxious that I will mess it up somehow in the final stages, or I will get pests or mold. I do enjoy doing the research and tending to my plants each day, but I worry a lot that something bad will happen and all my effort will be for nothing. I think a lot of that will go away when/if I have my first successful grow.
You can definitely grow enough to not ever have to buy any. Lots of people will have multiple grows going on at once, to get a continuous supply. You can grow a huge amount even off just one plant if you know what your doing. Of course, different people grow for different reasons.
Maybe I’m the weird one! I always assumed the reason was to replace dealers or dispensaries. But that could also be because I don’t enjoy gardening very much. Really the answer here is probably “everyone has their own ideas of what they are going to do”. You’re right to point out that I am probably generalizing my reasons to other people. Thanks for making me think!
Just started germination on my seeds! First time ever trying.
I live in the US (Missouri to be precise) where it's still illegal, but come late fall our medical marijuana legalization should be rolled out at which point citizens can grow a certain amount for their own purposes as long as they have a license. Due to a combination of this, me being a learning nerd, and the positive effect marijuana has on my anxiety and depression, I've been studying up pretty hard.
My understanding is that homegrowing weed, much like homebrewing beer (which is something I've also done and spent a lot of time researching), is simple in broad terms. Marijuana's called weed for a reason, after all; it's a fairly resilient plant comparatively and it's not too picky about its circumstances. Beer, likewise, is very much a "boil some sugar, pour in a packet of yeast, let it sit for 2 weeks, then bottle and drink at will" process. They both have a very low bar to entry but a very high skill ceiling, leaving a lot of room for very degrees of "meh" weed and "holy shit" weed.
I read a lot of people saying "it's called weed for a reason", and I think it's a little misleading to a beginner. It makes it sound like its as simple as growing dandelions. But at the same time I do think a lot of growers make it way more complicated than it needs to be. I'm only partway through my first grow, and while it hasn't been super difficult, I've found that its really easy to fuck up.
I looked into it, but it's no easy. Regardless, my medications seem to make me immune to cannabis. I only felt its effects the day I forgot to take them. So I gave up.
Coworker does it. He really enjoys it. Has made some tasty edibles and shared them with the peepz.
You ever had Peeps edibles? Shit'll change your life, homie.
I thoroughly hate peeps. It's one of the few candies, along with candy corn, that I hate.
That's a fair point, actually. They're pretty bland as far as candy goes.