Growing marijuana is fun-loving and a challenging task that tests your patience. If you are a newbie and don’t know how to start growing marijuana, then this article helps you from scratch - choosing the pot, seed variety, watering, fertilizing, and harvesting. We’ve also provided the tips and precautions, health benefits, side-effects, most searched questions to guide you in the best possible way.
| Plant Name | Marijuana |
| Scientific Name | Cannabis (Hemp) |
| Family | Cannabaceae |
| First Origin | Asian Countries |
| Plant Height | 5 Feet (Maximum) |
| Soil | Sandy, Clay, Slit, Loam |
| Water | Twice a day |
| Sunlight | 12 Hours |
| Temperature | 70-75F(21-23C) - Day 15-60F (9-15C) - Night |
| Seedling Germination Time | Indoors - 12-36hours Outdoors - 2/3weeks |
| Flowers | Male and Female (Stigma) |
| Pests | Thrips, Spiders, Aphids, Whitefly |
| Diseases | Powdery Mildew, Root Rot |
| Natural Fertilizers | Coffee Grounds, Eggshells, Epsom Salt |
| Harvesting Time | 3-5months |
Here, I’ve discussed the step-by-step guide to grow marijuana plants from its seeds. Have a close look and try growing by yourself at home indoors and outdoors depending on your choice.
Before you start growing, it's important to select the desired location to sow the seeds in a garden space or farm. Also, make sure the seeds receive enough sunlight, humidity, and nutrients from the soil. Because, if you place the seeds where it is exposed to extreme light, the seeds may dry up and damage quickly. So, it’s essential for growers to pick the right spot and gain more productivity.
Next important factor to consider while growing marijuana is the high-yielding seeds. In general stores and online portals, you may come across numerous seed varieties for the price. But, they cannot gain more productivity due to the seeds collected from the damaged plant or uses chemicals that spoil the plant growth. Hence, it is advised to collect seeds from trusted brands, healthy crops.
When it comes to growing, the soil mixture is what you need to look at while planting the seeds. Soil, the topmost layer on earth surface is composed of organic compounds and rock particles.
In general, silt, loam, red, clay, coco coir and sandy soils are preferred to grow the marijuana. And to test the soil type for growing a plant, you should consider the key aspects like pH level - acidic or basic, drainage, nutrients, and texture. Depending on the living conditions, you should know which type of soil is best and accordingly purchase the nutrient-rich fertile soil.
If you’re worried about choosing the soil type, given below is the table that comprises of soil types, pH value, size, etc. to help you analyze and pick the best of available.
| Type of Soil | Sandy Soil | Clay Soil | Silt Soil | Loam Soil |
| pH Value | Low pH | pH | pH | Neutral pH |
| Granular Size | Large | Small | Medium | Medium |
| Pros | Good drainage High oxygen levels | Water retention Mineral supply | Natural fertile Retains water | Drainage Natural fertile Natural fertile High oxygen levels |
| Cons | Dries quickly Nutrients wash away | Poor drainage Heavy soil | Poor drainage | Costly |
As humans, we know the value of water and sunlight that improves the quality of living. Likewise, you should also provide sufficient amounts of water and sunlight to thrive quickly. On average, it is recommended to supply twice a day with a bottle full of water for seeds. As the seed germinates into seedlings and plants, you need to increase (double) the amount of water once in a week to survive in the hot summer days. Apart from that, frequent watering keeps the soil moist, not soggy.
Sunlight keeps the plants healthy all the time. So, you must provide the light between 8-12hours a day to perform the photosynthesis process. If you wish to grow indoors, then place in a window location or balcony where it absorbs maximum light. And you don’t have to move the pot when planted outdoors.
Note: If the seedlings do not get enough water and light, they may become week, dull and may not thrive properly.
It’s crucial for farmers to understand the growing temperatures of the marijuana plant. A slight change in the indoor or outdoor temperatures does not affect plant growth. But, a drastic change does.
As per the recent survey, marijuana grows indoors well when you maintain the moderate temperatures, i.e. between 70-75F(21-23C) during the day and 15-60F (9-15C) at night.
If the temperature drops below the standards, the plants grow slowly, and yields will not be as expected. To add on, heavy rains, winds cause physical damage to plants when kept outdoors. So, it's better to grow them at room indoors with keen observation and care.
| Day | 70-75F (21-23C) |
| Night | 15-60F (9-15C) |
To germinate the seeds, you must offer sunlight, water, nutrients, and fertilizers in the required amounts. Once you’ve done with everything, it is expected to develop seedlings within 12-36hours for outdoors and 2-3weeks when planted indoors. If you find the seedlings, transfer the container to the outdoors or balcony locations to mature and get habituated to outside climatic conditions. Later, you can provide the necessary fertilizers, nutrients, and other resources.
After that, you need to give natural fertilizers like organic compost, fish meal, bone meal, peat moss, perlite, worm castings, rock dust, egg shells, etc., to boost the plant growth. Though these are naturally occurring fertilizers, you should mix with the soil and then add water to it. Because supplying fertilizers directly more than the required may prone to several pests and diseases. Now, let us look at the pets and diseases that diminish the growth.
Pests and diseases are a common problem for all the plants on earth. It occurs mainly due to insects, mosquitoes that feed on plant and also the lack of nutrition, water, light.
Pests like fungus gnats, aphids, mealy bugs, thrips, grasshoppers, whitefly, red spiders, caterpillars and plant diseases like root rot, bud rot, fusarium wilt, Alternaria, Pythium, gray mold, and powdery mildew are the major threat to the plant. To overcome the pests and diseases problem, spray insecticides and pesticides on the leaf, roots, stems, etc.,
At the final stages, check for molds on the buds which appears to be a gray color. If you find a number of buds then prefer the pruning method. Pruning is the process of removing the unwanted or dead stems, leaves, branches, roots, and buds to flower, minimize the risk of damaging the parent plant.
The plant is ready to harvest once it reaches the age of 3-5months or certain height. You can make use of the tools like gloves, farming shoes, clothes, scissors, and cutters to harvest the fruits, seeds or the entire plant. You can say the plant is ready to harvest when you notice big buds in brown color along with the stigma. If you grow outdoors, you can harvest the fruits (in bulk) due to the surrounding climate.
Over the years, researches have shown that marijuana plants help in curing several health problems like chronic pain, stress, anxiety, depression, epilepsy, cancer, and much more. Now, let us discuss some of the possible health benefits,
Further, it can treat several health issues like asthma, OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder), lowers BP, skin rashes, thyroid in women, seizures, hepatitis C virus, nausea, lupus, stroke, bowel diseases.
Bottomline
Start growing Marijuana plant at home to enjoy the health benefits using the extracts of seeds, leaves. Do you grow marijuana at home? Do you know any other way? Or have doubts? Feel free to share your doubts and thoughts with us in the comment section given below.
