If you are a novice in the field of cannabis growing, your first impression about this hobby is that it is expensive and complicated. The real thing is: cultivating cannabis is cheap and easy. You only need to gather simple supplies to put up your indoor garden. With the right method, you can harvest high-end buds with exceptional flavor, density, and potency.
Indoor Cannabis Garden: Basic Growing Supplies
For cannabis to thrive, you need these four vital elements:
- Water
- Air
- Nutrients
- Light
Aside from these elements, you also need additional support to successfully grow your cannabis in an indoor garden.
List of Weed Growing Equipment
1. Cannabis Seeds
You can’t grow cannabis without seeds – unless you clone. However, since you are a newbie, seeds are your easiest option. The genetic profile and quality of your seeds greatly affect your harvest. To guarantee that you purchase premium seeds, order from a legitimate seed bank. For indoor growing, indica-dominant strains are easy to cultivate. They flower in a short amount of time and create massive yield compared to sativa-dominant strains.
2. Growing Medium (Soil, Hydroton, others)
Your cannabis plants need an ideal growing medium to support its growth. You can grow your plants in hydroponics or soil, it is a personal preference. But for beginners, it is suggested that you choose soil as your growing medium.
3. Grow Lights
Indoor cannabis growing means you don’t have any access to natural sunlight so you need an alternative. Grow lights are the best substitute. However, most growers are afraid of the hefty electrical cost. Though this is somehow true for certain types of grow lights, top-rate LED light won’t cost you thousands in your electric bill. Just remember that you need to increase your initial investment if you want to purchase an LED light for your grow room.
If you have a limited budget, you can still opt for other cheaper alternatives such as HPS light. You don’t need a higher initial investment to buy this type of grow light however it tends to get costly when it comes to electricity and replacement expenses – you need to change it twice a year, depending on its quality.
4. Nutrients and Supplements
Cannabis plants are living organisms and they also need their fair share of nutrients and supplements to grow successfully. To give the appropriate nutrients and supplements to your plants, you need to consider your growing medium: are you growing hydroponically or with soil? If you are cultivating in organic soil or high-quality soil (which is the recommended type of soil for cannabis plants), you need to start with a small number of nutrients. This will give your plants the chance to adjust to the strength of the nutrients and supplements. You can increase it once it transitions to other stages.
5. Smart Pots
You can place your growing medium and plant your cannabis plant in buckets, pots, and containers. However, smart pots are a popular choice among expert growers. This prevents common mistakes in cannabis growing such as:
- Rotting of roots
- Overwatering
- Bad soil
- No root binding
6. Grow Tent
When growing indoors, you can use a spare room or closet, but nothing beats the convenience and ease offered by using a grow tent. It is highly-suggested for many reasons including:
- Light reflection, which helps plants grow faster and healthier
- Easier to ward off pests
- Lightproof environment, wherein plants are free from stress
- Easy humidity and temperature control
- Isolation, which protects the plants from infections and hides its strong smell
7. Proper Ventilation
To mimic the ideal outdoor environment for your cannabis plants grown indoors, you need a consistent supply of fresh air with CO2. The perfect way to achieve it is by establishing proper ventilation in your grow room or using a 6 inch inline duct fan or an inline exhaust fan. Always remember that increasing temperature can easily damage your plants and proper ventilation keeps it at bay. Below are the key factors of proper ventilation:
- Air movement
- Active air exhaust
- Thermometer
- Passive or active air intake
8. Carbon Filter
Though the aroma of weed is well-loved by everyone, you don’t want your entire house to smell like cannabis since it could cause trouble especially if you are growing indoors. Fortunately, there’s one effective way to remove 95% of cannabis aroma and it comes in the form of an activated carbon filter. Though it is not vital equipment in cultivating cannabis, it works great in eliminating the smell.
9. Optimal Temperature
Each plant needs a proper level of temperature to achieve successful photosynthesis. With cannabis, it’s complicated. This is because strains have a different optimal temperature at which they create the most powerful buds. To set-up an appropriate environment for your strain, you have to maintain the optimal temperature in your grow tent or grow room.
10. pH and PPM Testing Tools
The Cannabis plant does not only need the optimal temperature to thrive, but it is also crucial that you maintain the pH levels (acidity or alkalinity) in your organic soil and nutrient solution (if you are using hydroponic as your growing medium). This is because pH massively impacts the:
- Bacteria in the soil
- Soil structure
- Nutrient availability
- Nutrient leaching
When your pH is at an improper level, your plants will struggle with malnutrition and it is difficult to salvage cannabis crops that suffered from intense cases of malnutrition.
Conclusion
These are all the equipment you need to establish an ideal indoor garden and grow your cannabis seeds. Note that the most important thing you should consider is the quality of your seeds since it will impact the majority of your harvest. You also need to provide proper nutrients, light, ventilation, and temperature to your plants to help them thrive into strong and healthy weed. Always remember that the cannabis harvest doesn’t happen overnight. Be patient and take care of your plants to achieve higher yields.
