Chances are high that planting weed in your home is illegal in your state. Here are some tips for starting an indoor grow stealthily: so discreetly that even your neighbors will have no idea.
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Indica Strains that You Can Grow Indoors
Currently, only 18 states within the United States allow their residents to grow cannabis in their homes legally. Of the 18 states, 10 require licenses showing that you are a medical practitioner before you can grow any weed. This legalization of use but barring self-grows creates a discrepancy for most users.
The cost of buying marijuana is higher than planting some seeds in your home. The state restrictions on planting marijuana led to people adopting stealth techniques to have their crops in their homes. Here are some tips to start your stealth batch of weed crops.
Which is Better for Indoor Grows: Autoflowering of Photoperiod Feminized Seeds?
Regarding indoor planting, there are several aspects that you need to consider. Strains that do well outdoors may not be suitable for indoor planting. You can look up indoor marijuana seeds on AskGrowers to familiarize yourself with the available varieties. Before scrolling through the site, there are some things you want to know.
It is helpful to gauge whether you want autoflowering or feminized seeds as a first order of business. The two are the most in-demand type of cannabis seeds. Since their introduction, people have foregone regular seeds favoring autoflowering or the feminized kinds.
Autoflowering varieties have their unique attributes, and so do the feminized ones. Farmers report higher yields with feminized seeds. On the other hand, autoflowering varieties are easier to manage. The main distinguishing factor between the two kinds is the light requirements.
With autoflowering seeds, maturity, and flower development come naturally with time. Flowers will mature into buds within the given timeframe, regardless of environmental conditions. Photoperiod feminized seeds grow into demanding plants that cannot develop flowers without light changes. When the flowering period approaches, farmers with indoor grows need to change the light settings. This change promotes flowering. Failure to do the same results in prolonged flowering and maturity periods.
Considering that indoor grow spaces have specific characteristics, you can decide which is easier to grow between autoflowering and feminized seeds. Experienced growers can handle feminized seeds better, even with their challenges. They are not as resistant to pests and diseases as the autoflowering kind. They also require maintenance, such as trimming and pruning. For beginners, it is advisable to start with autoflowering strains.
Conditions Necessary for Indoor Marijuana Grows
Cannabis plants, like any other, have specific environmental requirements for them to grow. Without these conditions, the plants would either not survive or do poorly. Considerably, starting an indoor grow is expensive as some equipment is needed. The following are the main conditions needed for healthy indoor plants.
Light
Sunlight is important to plants because it accelerates photosynthesis and other functions within their structures. Planting your cannabis indoors, especially if you want stealth, means that you have to forego the sun. You can set up grow lights, a series of LED bulbs in its place. These bulbs get set up to maximize the lighting of your plants.
Marijuana plants benefit from a cycle of lighting and dark period. Photoperiod feminized seeds would require 16 hours of light followed by 8 hours of darkness. During the flowering stage, the darkness gets increased to 12 hours to promote the hormonal development of flowers. Autoflowering seeds do not need any changes, and you can maintain 16 hours of light and 8 hours of darkness throughout the crop’s lifespan.
Installing LED grow lights is expensive, as mentioned. There are different lights to cater to everyone’s needs. Finding a setup that will cost you less if your crops are fewer is possible. Those with many crops will need an intricate system of lights that can be costly to set up and maintain.
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Water and Humidity
As you try to keep your marijuana growing private, you must consider water and humidity levels. Seeds need a constant water supply to grow into healthy plants. It is advisable not to overwater or underwater the plants as this will cause them to fail. Also, note that different plant stages have different water requirements. The vegetative stage, for one, requires more water since there will be more leaves releasing the water into the air.
Humidity is another important factor in plant growth. You will need to provide your indoor plants with the right humid levels. Dry humidity stunts the photosynthesis process, which stunts the growth of the crop. The recommended humidity level is between 40-60% RH and any higher or lower can affect the crops. You can set up a hygrometer which will inform you of the humidity levels at any time. Some come with mobile applications that indicate when humidity is going low.
Planting Medium
Though planting mediums are only sometimes necessary, it is something to consider for small-scale indoor farmers. Intricate systems such as hydroponics and aeroponics will cost a fortune, hence the advice to go for pots and buckets. These pots are suitable for a small number of plants to support your cannabis use.
The planting medium provides the plants with the nutrients that they need. They can be soil, peat, or even rice hulls. Farmers add fertilizers and nutrients to these mediums so that they can get absorbed into the plants. It is advisable to check the medium’s PH level and nutrient content before you plant. The recommended PH level is between 5.8 and 6.5. The soil should not be acidic as this will affect the health of the plants.
Warmth and Temperature
Lastly, another crucial element is the temperature of the growing room. Marijuana plants only thrive within a certain range of temperature and warmth. The best range is between 24 and 30 degrees Celsius. Spiking the temperatures higher than 30 degrees or reducing them to below 15 degrees harms the crops. The THC production drops, some even go into shock at lower temperatures.
Like with the hygrometer, you can set up a system that sends your grow space’s temperature readings to your phone. Some applications are advanced to facilitate temperature and humidity changes from your phone.
Tips for Growing Cannabis in Small Spaces
One of the major tips for growing cannabis indoors is to go for Indica strains of Indicia dominant ones. Characteristically, Indica grows into small and sturdy crops that may be tiny but have condensed buds at harvesting. Considering that you will be planting them in small spaces, you want something other than tall varieties.
Sativa variants are known to grow very tall. Some can grow as tall as 200cm with the right conditions. Ideally, this would be catastrophic for small spaces because they can affect the lighting systems. When it comes to the type that is best suitable for growing indoor marijuana, Indica strains are the way to go.
Another useful tip is to use small pots that have very hard sides. The size of the pot controls the size of the roots hence determining the size of the plant. With small roots, the crop will grow into a small plant easily fitting in your indoor spaces. The essence of using hard-sided pots is limiting the amount of oxygen the roots receive.
Other than those two, you can also train your plants. Training involves bending the stamps so that they cannot grow tall. Instead, they will grow short and move in a different direction. Training allows you to determine the height of the plant that you want.
Lastly, if you want a stealthy set of plants, you need to consider planting fewer seeds. Growing many seeds motivates them to grow tall and tower over each other as they compete for light. Growing few crops will provide enough nutrients and environmental conditions to maintain the needed height of the plants.
Ideal Indica Weed Strains to Grow Indoors
As mentioned, Indica seeds are the best at setting up an indoor grow. They are storky and well-packed to provide high yields, even in small spaces. Also, there are many types of Indica strains, including pure ones and hybrid ones. Consider consulting a dispensary attendant or agronomist to select the best.
The following are some of the best Indica strains to set up a stealth indoor grow space.
- Grandaddy Purple
- White Widow
- Northern Lights
- Purple Kush
- Blue Cheese
Conclusion
Setting up an indoor grow space is a nice alternative to planting your cannabis outdoors illegally. Within the confines of your house, you can grow weed without your neighbors knowing, evading the legality o the issue. The setup cost may be high, especially if you want many plants. With fewer plants, you can have strategies that keep them short and easily manageable. Growing your weed is doable with a few tricks and the right strains. You only need to provide the plants with sufficient nutrients, and they will give you high yields.
This article was written by AskGrowers’ Tia Moskalenko. Tia has experience working as a product reviewer, weed enthusiast, and many other roles within the organization. All these experience goes into making her a reliable source of all things cannabis.